THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 NOTES 
 
 THE EPISCOPAL POLITY 
 
 HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED Br LEVEY, KOBSON, AND FRANKLYN, 
 Great New street, Fetter Lane.
 
 NOTES 
 
 EPISCOPAL POLITY 
 
 HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH : 
 
 WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF 
 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS. 
 
 THOMAS WILLIAM MARSHALL, B.A. 
 
 CURATE OF SWALLOWCLIFFE AND ANSTY, 
 IN THE DIOCESE OF SALISBURY. 
 
 AN EFENOT 2T XPI2TIANO2, EIHSKOIinN MH ONTfiN ; 
 
 S. ATHANAS. Ad Dracontium Epist. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JAMES BURNS, 17 PORTMAN STREET, 
 
 I'ORTMAN SQUARE. 
 
 M.DCCC.XLIV. 
 
 73-
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 THE appearance of another work, however insignificant, 
 upon a subject so fully exhausted as the Government of 
 the Church, may seem to require some explanation. The 
 learned and distinguished persons who, in past times, have 
 gone over this ground, were not accustomed, as is well 
 known, to leave much behind them for gleaners. Some 
 variety of arrangement, or a different selection of evidence 
 from the same originals which they so diligently explored, 
 this is the sum of what can now be done by those who 
 have come after them. Had it been intended, therefore, 
 merely to repeat what they have already so well said, the 
 present attempt would have savoured of superfluity, and 
 might have deserved only censure. 
 
 There is, however, one argument, from the use of 
 which the earlier writers on Church-polity were either 
 wholly precluded, or which they could employ only at a 
 disadvantage, but which, in consequence of certain recent 
 events to be noticed in these pages, becomes, in the hands 
 of their successors, a weapon of untried but admirable 
 efficacy. The Anglican divines of the 16th and 17th cen- 
 turies might refer as they did in enforcing allegiance 
 to the Successors of the Apostles, to the history of earlier 
 times, and point to the uniform progress from schism to 
 
 20G6352
 
 VI ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 heresy which that history records. So far they occupied 
 the same position with ourselves. But when they went 
 on to predict a like declension for the principles against 
 which their own writings were directed, and to warn men, 
 from the analogies of the past, that innovation in discipline 
 would infallibly lead to corruption in doctrine, it is ob- 
 vious that their adversaries would be no way embarrassed 
 in dealing with a prophecy whose force depended almost 
 entirely upon its fulfilment. That fulfilment, once so little 
 dreaded, it has been reserved to us to witness ; and the 
 development of the modern religious systems, though even 
 now imperfect, is at length so far complete as to enable us 
 to determine with accuracy their true character. 
 
 The present condition of the various Protestant com- 
 munities of Christendom, of which the original organisa- 
 tion was a human device, and therefore defective, is per- 
 haps the most extraordinary and appalling subject of con- 
 templation to the thoughtful mind, which our own or any 
 other age of the Church supplies. To call attention to 
 this actual condition is the main object with which these 
 pages have been written ; and as this portion of their con- 
 tents is, from the nature of the case, almost entirely novel, 
 it may perhaps be relied upon as an adequate apology for 
 their appearance. 
 
 The course of argument pursued, which it may be con- 
 venient to state here, is as follows : 
 
 I. The a priori objection to the truth of the Catholic 
 System of Polity founded on the indeterminateness of the 
 Sacred Records, and the antecedent probabilities in its 
 favour derived from Prophecy and prescription, are briefly 
 discussed.
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. Vll 
 
 II. The positive evidence of Holy Scripture in recog- 
 nition of the Episcopate is next adduced ; and 
 
 III. The testimony of Antiquity as well that which 
 has been supplied by the enemies as by the servants of the 
 Church including the first four ages of Christianity, is 
 then cited. 
 
 IV. The adversary is next referred to the witness of 
 his own masters and teachers, who, even in the first setting 
 up of their new schemes, acknowledged openly the divine 
 origin of that primitive government which they loudly 
 declared their reluctance to subvert, and for the restoration 
 of which they professed, in the most animated terms, their 
 sincere and unfeigned desire. The catalogue of witnesses 
 of this class might have been considerably enlarged ; but it 
 will be found to be sufficiently ample. The remarkable 
 admissions of Knox and his confederates, together with 
 many others, have been, for the sake of brevity, wholly 
 omitted ; though it has been justly said, that " the views 
 entertained by the Scottish reformer on the subject of 
 Episcopal superintendence views which he frequently 
 and emphatically avowed might be studied with advan- 
 tage in modern times." 1 But it was necessary to prescribe 
 a limit in adducing confessions which are themselves almost 
 unlimited. 
 
 V. The final argument is that which is supplied by 
 the actual history of those religious bodies which have 
 been severed from the Apostolical Succession, and which 
 were originally founded either upon the deliberate rejec- 
 
 1 See Dr. Michael Russell's History of the Church in Scotland, eh. vi. 
 vol. i. p. 240 ; and Bramhall's Fair Warning of Scottish Discipline, ch. i. 
 Works, vol. ii. j>. 494.
 
 Vlll ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 tion of the divine office of the Episcopate, or the supposed 
 sufficiency of other modes of ecclesiastical discipline for 
 preserving in its integrity " the faith once delivered to 
 the saints." 
 
 And although hitherto many have been able to resist 
 the combined testimony of Prophecy, Scripture, and An- 
 tiquity, and even to justify their adherence to the modern 
 systems in spite of the explicit confessions of the very men 
 by whom they were first framed; we may perhaps hope, 
 that the present aspect of those systems, and their uniform 
 development without so much as a single exception 
 into nurseries of heresy and unbelief, may constrain some 
 few at least to reconsider their hazardous position, and to 
 relinquish, while yet they may, the unhappy inventions, 
 upon which let it be reverently said the Almighty 
 seems at length, by abandoning them to utter decay, to 
 have pronounced judgment before our eyes.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION . 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 SKCT. 
 
 1. Case of St James . . 28 
 
 2. Case of St. Timothy . . . . . . .46 
 
 3. Case of St. Titus 56 
 
 4. Case of the Asian Angels 66 
 
 5. Notice of Objections 96 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 1. Nature of this Evidence 115 
 
 2. St. Clement of Rome 121 
 
 3. St. Ignatius of Antioch . 141 
 
 4. St. Justin Martyr 160 
 
 5. Pope Pius I 163 
 
 6. Hegesippus 166 
 
 7. Polycrates 168 
 
 8. St. Irenaeus 171 
 
 9. St. Clement of Alexandria 180 
 
 10. Tertullian 183 
 
 11. The Apostolical Canons ; Arians, Donatists, Manichaeans, 
 
 &c. &c 203 
 
 12. St. Cyprian . . ..'.'; . . .221 
 
 13. St. Jerome 230 
 
 14. St. Augustine 236 
 
 15. St. Ambrose, St. Basil, St. Chrysostom, St. Athanasius . 243 
 
 16. Summary 246
 
 X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 A OMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 SECT. PAGE 
 
 1. On the General Question 255 
 
 2. Calvin, J. Sturmius 303 
 
 3. Beza, Fare], Rivet, N. Vedelius, P. Viret, Zuingle . . 317 
 
 4. Melancthon, Luther, Confess. Augustan .... 323 
 
 5. Bucer, Gualter, Peter Martyr, Jerome Zanchy, Seckendorff 328 
 
 6. Dr. Peter Du Moulin 331 
 
 7. H. Grotius, J. Casaubon 336 
 
 8. Blondel, Salmasius 339 
 
 9. Bochart, Amyraut, Drelincourt, Langlet, Daille, Turretin, 
 
 University of Geneva; Baxter, Calamy, Stephen Mar- 
 shal, Cartwright, Dr. Cornelius Burges, Henderson, 
 
 Lord Pembroke, John Hales, Sir Edward Deering . 344 
 
 10. Summary 356 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 1. Nature of this Argument . . . . . . 368 
 
 2. Development in Germany 380 
 
 3. Switzerland 404 
 
 4. France 420 
 
 5. England; Channel- Islands 434 
 
 6. Scotland 454 
 
 7. Ireland 469 
 
 8. Holland, Belgium, Hungary, the Vaudois . . . 472 
 
 9. Sweden and Denmark 479 
 
 10. Prussia 481 
 
 11. Russia 483 
 
 12. Texas 485 
 
 13. United States of America 486 
 
 14. General Summary 516
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I. AN attempt has been made, during the last three 
 centuries, to introduce a theory of the Holy Church 
 Catholic, with which our fathers do not seem to 
 have been acquainted. Separating what had been 
 religiously held to be one and indissoluble, men 
 have ventured to speak of the Divine Institution as 
 divided into two parts, external and internal. To 
 the latter has been assigned all which they were 
 willing to regard as of the essence of the Church 
 all which was confessed to be in its nature immu- 
 table; while the former was supposed to include 
 only those elements of it which they chose to re- 
 gard as its accidents and these were denned to be 
 variable, subject to change and modification. It 
 was to this division that they referred nearly all 
 points of Discipline and Government. 
 
 From this view it followed to speak of " the 
 Church," and "the Polity of the Church," not only 
 as separable ideas, but as, in fact, wholly distinct 
 from each otberl The judgment of other times, in 
 which the Church both her doctrines and her 
 discipline, the "Mysteries" and the "Stewards of 
 
 B
 
 2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the Mysteries," the Gospel, the Priesthood, and 
 the Sacraments was taken to be, not many parts 
 without unity or coherence, but one altogether; 
 this was now rejected. And whereas in those days 
 the new definition here noticed would have been 
 thought to involve some such extravagance as if 
 one should distinguish between a man and his body, 
 or speak of a flame apart from that of which it is 
 composed, or the like ; it was now represented as 
 the only true and accurate philosophy ; and men 
 did not fear to say of the unspeakable gift of God, 
 " So much is from heaven, and must be used ; so 
 much of earth, and may be put away." And it was 
 in the spirit of this wisdom that they did go on to 
 put away, some more, some less, of that Holy Dis- 
 cipline, which, though received from "the begin- 
 ning" as divine, and consecrated by the reverent 
 acceptance of all Saints, they had resolved to ex- 
 clude, as forming no part of that system which was 
 embraced in their theory of the Church. 
 
 With this new notion of the constitution of the 
 Church were developed, almost as a matter of 
 course, new notions of the Bible. The earlier and 
 catholic sentiment, to which these began now to 
 be opposed, had been founded upon a consideration 
 of the structure itself of the Inspired Volume, the 
 history of the Sacred Canon, and the analogy of 
 the Divine Dispensations ; and perhaps, yet further, 
 upon the direct authority of Apostolical Tradition. 
 The teaching so derived did not allow the first
 
 INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 Christians to regard the written word of God as 
 an exception to the other modes of revelation by 
 which He had vouchsafed to manifest to His crea- 
 tures the treasures of His goodness, wisdom, and 
 power. They perceived that it expressly required 
 for its due comprehension certain conditions in 
 those to whom it was addressed, and that these 
 were such as would be fulfilled only in few j 1 that 
 its own pages contained a warning lest men should 
 "wrest" it "to their destruction;" 2 and that it re- 
 ferred, consistently with this warning, to a witness 
 external to itself. 3 They were forbidden, therefore, 
 to suppose that it would always, or even com- 
 monly, supply the interpretation of its own sacred 
 mysteries that it would contain at once a doc- 
 trine and the interpretation of the doctrine. There 
 were evidently no antecedent grounds for such a 
 supposition. The Church was more ancient than 
 the Bible ; 4 and when that new and priceless gift, 
 complete and sealed in the fulness of perfection, 
 was added to her already richly endowed children, 
 
 1 S. John vii. 17 ; from which it is plain that doing God's will 
 in order to knowing His doctrine, is to be regarded as a first prin- 
 ciple of Christian morals. See this admitted even by Ernesti, 
 Elements of Biblical Criticism, part ii. ch. i. ; M. Stuart's trans- 
 lation. 
 
 2 2 Pet. Hi. 16. 3 e. g. 1 Tim. iii. 15. 
 
 4 " Prius fuit Ecclesia Dei quam allata esset prophetia : id est, 
 prius quam Spiritu Sancto inspirati locuti essent sancti Dei ho- 
 mines." Turrian. De Ecclesia, lib. i. cap. i. " If the Apostles had 
 never written at all, we must have followed Tradition ; unless God 
 had ' provided for us some better thing.' " Bp. Taylor, Dissuasive 
 from Popery, Work?, vol. x. p. 130.
 
 4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 so far was her authority as "keeper and witness" 
 of the precious deposit from being impaired, that 
 the same decree which so greatly enlarged the one, 
 confirmed for ever the office of the other, as " the 
 pillar and ground of the Truth." 1 
 
 To obscure this office was the earliest attempt 
 of the teachers referred to. And as any recogni- 
 tion of the prime verity, that Holy Scripture bore 
 one certain definite meaning, 2 and that this had 
 been fixed wherever it had been uniformly held by 
 the Church, would have been fatal to the new sys- 
 tem which they desired to establish ; it was neces- 
 sary, in the first place, to recede from this belief, 
 and to frame such a theory of the Bible as should 
 harmonise with that which they had already adopted 
 ' with respect to the Church. This must be such as, 
 while it permitted the rejection of all former inter- 
 pretations, would give license for the construction 
 of new ones ; and in constituting the living sole 
 judges of the truth, should not suffer the dead to 
 be even witnesses. But this was no difficulty. It 
 was decided at once, by men professing zeal for 
 the Divine honour, and belief in the Divine pro- 
 mises, that the faith of all past ages might be a 
 mistake. The Bible was now, for the first time, 
 declared to be not only a message addressing itself 
 to the mind of each individual believer, but such 
 
 1 SrvXo? *at eSpaicapa TTJS d\r)deias. 1 Tim. iii. 15. 
 
 7 " Nullum enim verbum Dei," says even a Calvinistic writer, 
 " nullum ipsius mysterium potest esse absque suo vero sensu." N. 
 Vedelius, De Arcanis Arminianismi, lib. ii. cap. x. p. 245.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 as it was both a right and a duty to interpret for 
 himself. 1 And as the inability of the mass of men 
 to solve its difficulties was beyond dispute, it was 
 represented as containing none. 
 
 That these opinions are in every case held con- 
 sciously, with deliberation, and as portions of a 
 definite system of theology, this of course it is not 
 intended to assert ; nor is it proposed to do more 
 in this place than barely to notice their existence. 
 To consider them in detail, or to examine into the 
 various tenets which we see, for the most part, to 
 be held concurrently with them, is altogether fo- 
 reign to our present purpose. There is, however, 
 one notion, the last alluded to in the foregoing 
 remarks, to which, as entering into combination 
 with nearly all the rest, and forming one of the 
 most prominent features of the religious system to 
 which they belong, it seems quite necessary, in as 
 few words as may be, to refer ; and this the rather 
 because it affects fundamentally the whole subject 
 to be considered in these pages. 
 
 The notion in question is that which relates to 
 the interpretation of Divine Scripture, and which 
 takes for granted, as a sort of first principle of reli- 
 gious truth, that whatever God designs His crea- 
 tures to believe or perform, He has plainly taught 
 and declared. Its advocates accustom themselves 
 to assume, that since the obedience of man is to 
 
 1 " Unusquisque fidelis sibi est interpres." Limborch. Thcoloy. 
 Christian, lib. i. cap. ii. \ 0.
 
 6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 be exact and without reserve, the Revelation of 
 God can be in no degree obscure. It is even 
 argued, that so much is implied in the very notion 
 of a Divine Revelation. If God has vouchsafed to 
 deliver to us a message, He must have intended, it 
 is said, that we should understand it. That He 
 speaks at all, is proof enough that He would have 
 us hear His words ; and hear them, not as the con- 
 fused cry of distant voices, which can only perplex 
 the ear, but so as to catch every sound, and dis- 
 criminate between every tone. In a word, that it 
 must still be with us as it was with our first pa- 
 rents, when they "heard the voice of the Lord 
 God;" we must not only be aware that He is 
 speaking, but hear so distinctly as to be able, like 
 them, to reply to His every question. 
 
 It is the ready and obvious inference from this 
 notion viz. that whatsoever is not clearly taught 
 in God's word, so much we may safely neglect 1 
 which we are now about to notice ; because it is 
 upon this foundation chiefly that the common sort 
 of men have been taught to build their objection 
 to the Catholic System, that if it had been Divine, 
 it had surely been more plainly taught? And as 
 
 1 " Those things which are not plain, are not necessary; those 
 things we cannot comprehend, are no further necessary than is re- 
 vealed. And when men go about to explain and make them clear 
 to the world, they go about a work they need not." Bp. Hoadley, 
 quoted by Leslie. 
 
 2 " Ubi per clara et manifesta nequaquam intelligunt ea quse 
 Orthodoxi pro claris habent, ideo, quod per bonam ac necessariam 
 consequentiam e Scriptura eliciuntur, etsi errantes et luBretici ea
 
 INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 this cannot be denied to be a just inference, if the 
 assumed hypothesis be true, and is yet, in effect, 
 wholly subversive of our " most holy Faith," some 
 observations shall be offered here, in order to shew 
 that that hypothesis is, as might be expected, false 
 and erroneous; that it does not follow that, be- 
 cause God has spoken, He must needs have spoken 
 as we imagine He ought to do ; nor that there is 
 any other distinctness in His awful language than 
 such as His own words assert " He that hath ears 
 to hear, let him hear." 1 
 
 clara esse non videant." Vedelius, lib. i. cap. vi. p. 41 ; where 
 he proceeds to enumerate the doctrines of the Holy Trinity, the 
 Divinity of our Lord, &c. as amongst those rejected on this prin- 
 ciple. 
 
 1 TOUTO eerrt Soy/wi iraXaiov re Kai irdyiov, <TKOTOS fivai arroKpvfpfjv avrov, 
 irpb T>V 6(f)dd\p.S>v finerfpcov Kf\vp.evov' Kai ra TroXXa prj Kadopdcrdai TTJS 
 avrov 8ioiKT]<reo)S, TrXqv 5<rov tv dp.v8pois alvlyfuuri Kai <pavrd(Tpa<nv' e?re 
 
 TOV TV(pOV rjflUtV <TV(TTf\XoVTOS, "lV flbStfJifV TO p.T)8eV OVTfS ITpOS T^V d\T)Olvf)V 
 
 (rotpiav Kai irpdmiv' dXXa irpos avrov veva>fi.fv povov, Kai ^jrw/ifi/ del rals 
 fKfWev avya'is fvatrrpaTTTfadai, tire 8ia T^S dva>pa\ias. . . . K.T.X. S. Greg. 
 Nazianz. Orat. xvii. torn. i. p. 2G8 (Paris. 1630). And what is 
 here said of His dispensations, another writes of the Lord Himself : 
 E7T6/i<^>&; yap ou pot/ov Iva yvtaadjj, aXX' Iva Kai \d0rj. Origen. Contra 
 Celsum, lib. ii. p. 101 (ed. Spencer). This refers to His Personal 
 manifestation : His presence under the veil of Scripture is no other- 
 wise described. " Absconsus vero in Scripturi? thesaurus Christus, 
 quoniam per typos et parabolas significabatur." S. Irenseus, lib. v. 
 cap. xliii. " Parabolis et propositionibus sumptis, coelestis veritas 
 intimatur, sicut Ipse in 70 Psalmo testatur," &c. Cassiodor. De 
 Divinis Lectionibus, lib. i. cap. xvi. And this character of Scrip- 
 ture-teaching is accounted for by another, saying, " Multa enim 
 propter cxercendas rationales mentes figurate atque obscure posita." 
 Aug. De Unit. Eccles. cap. v. : and again, " Obscuritates divinarum 
 Scripturarum, quas exercitationis nostrce causa Deus esse voluit." 
 Ep. lix. Ad Paulinum, torn. ii. p. 117. They all admit, or rather 
 teach, that Holy Scripture is obscure, and then give reasons why it 
 is so.
 
 8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It might, indeed, have seemed a sufficient an- 
 swer, without going further, to the objection which 
 rejects the Catholic Discipline as too obscurely 
 delivered, that in point of fact it was seen plainly 
 enough in Holy Scripture to be received without 
 doubt or misgiving by all Christians for the first 
 fifteen ages, and then only discovered to be ob- 
 scure when men had set up a new system in its 
 place ; that it was never judged to want sufficient 
 evidence until it had been resolved that no evi- 
 dence should be accounted sufficient. Or it might 
 have sufficed to inquire how such an argument 
 could be urged by such assailants ; or with what 
 reason men who had rejected one system of go- 
 vernment on the very ground that on such points 
 Scripture was obscure, could enforce another upon 
 the opposite ground that it was in Scripture ex- 
 pressly set forth. 1 This reflection would seem to 
 shew, at first sight, that the objection could nei- 
 ther be real nor honest. But without taking fur- 
 ther advantage of it than to recommend it to the 
 attention of those whom it may concern, it shall be 
 
 1 " It was a favourite opinion with all the enthusiasts of that 
 age (the 17th), that the Scriptures contained a complete system 
 not only of spiritual instruction, but of civil wisdom and polity." 
 Robertson, History of America, book x., Works, vol. ix. p. 311. 
 And, as Bishop Sanderson observes, " no form of government ever 
 yet was used or challenged, but hath claimed to a jus divinum as 
 well as Episcopacy." Episcopacy not prejudicial to Royal Power, 
 part ii. 13. " The Presbyterians take it for granted," says Monro, 
 " that their way is the only true religion ; that it is plainly re- 
 vealed," &c. Quoted by Lawsou, History of the Scottish Episcopal 
 Church, p. 75.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 attempted now to meet the objection upon other 
 and higher grounds. 
 
 (1.) With this object, let it be considered, in 
 the first place, how many high and sacred truths 
 there are, which are so far from being "clearly 
 taught," as men speak, in Holy Scripture, that it is 
 only by comparison and inference we are able to 
 gather them thence. " Our belief in the Trinity," 
 says one of the wisest of our race, " the co-eternity 
 of the Son of God with His Father, the proceeding 
 of the Spirit from the Father and the Son, the 
 duty of baptising infants, these, with such other 
 principal points, the necessity whereof is by none 
 denied, are notwithstanding in Scripture nowhere to 
 be found by express literal mention, only deduced 
 they are out of Scripture by collection." 1 And 
 these are but a few instances out of many. 3 One 
 such, however, will suffice to shew that if we are 
 
 1 Hooker, E. P. book i. ch. xiv. vol. i. p. 336 (ed. Keble). 
 
 2 '* The words Person, or Trinity, or Trinity in Unity, are not 
 there ; 6p.oov<rios, or consubstantial, as the Arians objected, are not 
 there to be found ; nor is QfavQpamos in all the Greek Testaments ; 
 or is it any where expressly, or in terms therein taught, that Jesus 
 Christ is very God and very Man in one and the same Person. 
 The like is to be said of the Deity of the Holy Ghost, Who, as the 
 Unitarians object, is not once expressly called God in all the Scrip- 
 tures of the New Testament. The same may be said of the doctrine 
 of satisfaction, which is there, though not under that name ; and 
 also of infant-baptism ; the religious observation of the first day of 
 the week, by Christians called the Lord's day ; and of the Polity or 
 Government of the Church by Bishops superior to and distinct from 
 Presbyters, which yet was the form of government in all churches 
 and ages for almost 1600 years after the time of the Apostles, though
 
 10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to accept no teaching but such as lies on the sur- 
 face, as it were, of the written word, we have re- 
 ceived too much. We must in that case, if it may 
 be said, review our Creeds. If we may reject what 
 is obscure, the Church has believed much that is 
 needless ; if we may despise " dark sayings," the 
 Spirit has spoken in vain. And this is our first 
 answer to the objection it would not only destroy 
 the Discipline, but make void the Faith of the 
 Church. 1 
 
 (2.) But further ; the objection under notice is 
 fatal not only to the Catholic, but to any system 
 
 it is not in express words mentioned or described in Holy Scripture." 
 Hickes, Christian Priesthood Asserted, ch. i. 3. And this argu- 
 ment was used almost from the first. T<5 TVTTW rot) oravpov, says 
 St. Basil, TOVS fls TO ovofia rov Kvpiov fjp.S>v 'l^erov XptoroO r/XiriKoras 
 KaraaTjfJuiivea-dai, ris 6 8id ypdp.p,a.Tos 8i8das ', TO Trpbs draroAets TfTpd(f>- 
 601 Kara TT/V irpovfvxTiv, TTOIOV T)(MS eSi'8oe ypdp.ua ; ra rijs (TTiK\T)<rfa>s 
 pf/paTa firi rrf dva8eiei rov aprov TTJS ev^apiorias KCU TOV iroi-rjpiov TTJS 
 cv\oyias, TIS T>V dyitov eyypd(p<as rjfuv Kard^eXonrev ; S. Basil. De 
 Spiritu Sancto, cap. xxvii. torn. ii. p. 351. Cf. Tertullian. De 
 Corona, pp. 121, 2 ; and Aug. De Baptismo, lib. ii. cap. vii. and 
 lib. iv. cap. vi. 
 
 1 " Praeterea si Scriptures tarn apertse sunt, qualiter erravit 
 Arius, Macedonius, Nestorius ? prsecipue cum hi omnes ex Scrip- 
 tura perperam intellecta sui erroris occasionem sumpserunt ? Quod 
 si in Scripturarum intelligentsia isti erraverunt, indeque hsereses sus- 
 citaverunt, qui fit ut vulgus indoctum non etiam erret?" Then, 
 changing his position, and admitting, for the sake of argument, that 
 even great Saints as Cyprian, Austin, or Ambrose have erred in 
 their interpretation of Scripture, this writer asks, " Si ergo isti 
 doctissimi viri, post diuturnam in sacris literis exercitationem, post 
 longam meditationem, post orationem ferventem atque prolixam, de- 
 cepti sunt illo teste, qualiter eis Scripturas dicet esse clarissimas in 
 quibus tot talesque viri post longam attentamque earum inspec- 
 tionem decepti sunt ? " Alfons. De Castro Adv. Hceres. lib. i. cap. 
 xiii. ; De causis externis unde hcereses oriuntur.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 1 1 
 
 whatever. For, to borrow the reasoning of a mo- 
 dern writer, "if nothing is to be esteemed of any 
 moment, but counted as a mere trifle and nicety 
 among Christians, which is not expressly required 
 in the Scriptures; then it is a trifle and nicety, 
 whether we believe the Scripture to be a standing 
 rule of faith in all ages, whether we use the Sacra- 
 ments in all ages, whether we have any clergy at 
 all, whether we observe the Lord's day, whether 
 we baptise our children, or whether we go to pub- 
 lic worship ; for none of these things are expressly 
 required in so many words in Scripture. May I 
 reject," asks the same acute reasoner, "may I 
 reject the uninterrupted succession, because it is 
 not mentioned in Scripture ? and may I not as 
 well reject all the Gospels ? Produce your autho- 
 rity, mention your texts of Scripture, where Christ 
 has hung the salvation of men upon their believing 
 that St. Matthew or St. John wrote such a book 
 seventeen hundred years ago." The Bible, it 
 seems, if we act upon this objection, must be given 
 up ; and next, of course, the Sacraments. For 
 where, as the same writer continues, "shall we 
 find it in Scripture that the Sacraments are to 
 be continued in every age of the Church ?" And 
 when these are gone, the Clergy must follow next. 
 " If no government or order of the Clergy is to be 
 held necessary, because no such necessity is as- 
 serted in Scripture, it is certain that this concludes 
 as strong against government and the order itself
 
 12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 as against any particular order. For if it be plain 
 that there need be no Episcopal clergy, because it 
 is not said there shall always be Episcopal clergy, 
 it is undeniably plain that there need be no order 
 of the clergy, since it is nowhere said that there 
 shall be an order of the clergy." l 
 
 (3.) The arguments employed thus far are 
 founded on the consequences of the supposed ob- 
 jection, which we already perceive to be fatal to 
 many of the primary articles of our religion : let 
 it be observed next, with whom we must assimi- 
 late ourselves, if we will urge it. And first, see 
 how nearly akin this clamour for plain directions 
 of Scripture is to the reasonings of the heathen 
 about our Lord's resurrection : " He did not 
 shew Himself plainly enough," they said, " nor in 
 the right way!" 2 "How long dost thou make 
 us to doubt ?" said the Jews ; " if thou be the 
 Christ, tell us plainly " z The Sadducees too, in 
 their controversy with the Pharisees, were wont to 
 
 1 Law's Second Letter to Bp. Hoadley, Postscript, p. 133 (1835). 
 " Some, indeed, there are that will not be satisfied with this. They 
 tell us, that it is not sufficient that a thing be not forbidden, but 
 
 that it must be commanded But if this opinion be true, I 
 
 must confess that then it is unlawful to hold communion, not only 
 with ours, but with any Church that is or ever was in the world ; " 
 because no class of religionists whatever can shew any such express 
 authority for all which they believe or practise. See Bp. Grove's 
 Persuasive to Communion, p. 14 (1681). 
 
 2 'E^p^f, ewrfp ovra>s fK<pT)vai 6tiav 8vvap.iv fjdtXfv, avrois rots firr)- 
 pfcuracrt. xal rip KaradiKacravTi Kai o\a>s ira.(nv otp&ijvai. Vide Origen. 
 Contra Celsum, lib. ii. p. 101, where Origen assigns the reason of 
 our Lord's reserve. 
 
 3 S. John x. 24.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 say, that " unless they could bring clear texts, 
 that should affirm totidem verbis what they denied, 
 they would not yield." 1 
 
 Again, what is this demand this insisting upon 
 plain Scripture teaching but that of the worst 
 and boldest heretics ; as the Pneumatomachi, 
 whose challenge it was to " shew the Scripture 
 which makes mention of the Holy Ghost" Whom 
 these blasphemers feared not to call " the unwrit- 
 ten God;" 2 or the Eunomians, and others, who 
 could say, " There is no Scripture -proof that 
 Christ is God." 3 And then these unhappy men 
 
 1 Vide Bp. Sanderson, Sermon ii. (Fulford's edition.) 
 
 2 Hod(v T) fj.lv firficrayfis tvov Qtbv KOI aypafyov ; Vid. S. Greg. Naz. 
 Orat. xxxvii. De Spiritu Sancto, torn. i. p. 593 : and again, Tiy 
 irpo<TfKvvT)crf T< TrveupLari ; . . . . Trot) yfypaTrrai ; Ibid. p. 599. S. 
 Gregory replies by " collecting" to use Hooker's phrase the 
 doctrine out of Scripture ; Ibid. p. 609. Cassiodorus uses his very 
 word ; " His beneficiis larga pietate collatis, addita est nobis sanctae 
 Trinitatis adorabilis et veneranda cognitio." De Divinis Lection- 
 lib, i. cap. xvi. S. Basil uses the same method, De Spiritu Sancto, 
 cap. x. torn. ii. p. 313, and cap. xxi. pp. 339, 40 ; which last chap- 
 ter is occupied with the collection of such proofs. And S. Hilary, 
 when about to refute Arius, says, " Maxime properamus ex prophe- 
 ticis atque evangelicis prceconiis vesaniam eorum ignorantiamque 
 confundere." De Trinitate, lib. i. p. 11. And, in a word, St. Aus- 
 tin, who notices the same argument of the Arian *' Da, inquis, 
 testimonia, ubi adoratur Spiritus Sanctus" Contra Maximin. 
 Arian. Episc. lib. iii. cap. iii. torn. vi. p. 301 says, that "all 
 who wrote before him on the doctrine of the Trinity " drew their 
 arguments from Scripture. De Trinitate, lib. i. cap. iv. torn. iii. 
 p. 87. Scripture is seemingly obscure, yet, the Church interpreting, 
 sufficient. Cf. S. Athanas. Contra Arianos, Orat. i. torn. i. p. 287, 
 and Orat. ii. p. 360, where this truth is stated. 
 
 3 Vide S. Greg. Naz. Orat. xxxv. torn. i. p. 574. This, too, was 
 the language of the Apostate ; " Nolo, inquit, verba quae non scripta 
 sunt dici." Vid. S. Hilarii Contra Constantium Augustum, p. 329 ;
 
 14" INTRODUCTION. 
 
 would quote such passages as the following to 
 prove, as they hoped, the inferiority of the Son : 
 "My God and your God;" that He could " do 
 nothing of Himself;" " My Father is greater than 
 I;" that He " slept," " awoke," " ate," " drank," 
 was "weary," "wept." 1 His own words, "I and 
 My Father are One," they willingly forgat, neither 
 were suffered to know the Divine Mystery of 
 "perfect God and perfect Man;" 2 and it was 
 with such arguments as these that heretics im- 
 pugned the divinity of Christ. They are evi- 
 dently just such as schismatics employ against His 
 Church. And how shall we marvel if some have 
 learned that the Church is not in the Bible, 3 when 
 
 and S. Cyril. Alex. Contra Julianum, lib. x. torn. vi. p. 327 (ed. 
 Auberti). " Ubinam, quaeso, est scriptum, Christum praecepisse, ut 
 unusquisque inquirat, et norit, qucenam sit vera Ecclesia?" Faust. 
 Socin. Tractat. de Eccles. p. 9 (Racov. 1611). The argument, there- 
 fore, is as applicable in the one case as in the other, and has been 
 used in either as occasion required. " Cur autem (ita porrexit 
 Vogelius), in iota Scriptura non datur exemplum adorationis et cre- 
 dendi in Sp. S. ?" Zeltner. Hist. Crypto - Socinianismi Altorfini, 
 cap. iii. 51, p. 644 ; Schroder answers, " You may find it in the 
 Apostles' Creed ;" &c. 
 
 1 The Arian takes one of these expressions, and reasons upon it 
 thus : " He said, he could do nothing but what he saw the Father do ; 
 and I had rather believe him speaking of himself, than what the 
 Apostles may say for him." Vide S. Athanas. Contra Arium Disput. 
 in Niceno Condi, torn. i. p. 114. The same blasphemer, still resting 
 his argument upon Scripture) asks, Elotat etVti/ at ypa^at at ipdo-Kovvai 
 dtSiov TOV vlov ; Ibid. p. 118. 
 
 2 Trfv TOV /j.v(rn)piov 8vvap,iv KOT ovbeva rpoirov owtfis* S. Cyril. 
 Alex. Adv. Nestor, lib. v. torn. vi. p. 126. 
 
 3 " In Scripturis didicimus Christum, in Scripturis didicimus 
 Ecclesiam : si Christum ipsum tenetis, ipsam Ecclesiam quare non 
 tenetis?" Aug. Ep. clxvi. torn. ii. p. 290.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 others have discovered that the Holy Trinity is not 
 there either ? Is it strange that some should make 
 a mock of the Bride, while others dishonour the 
 Bridegroom ? or that the same objection should 
 prove the Church to be human which shews that 
 Christ is not divine ? 
 
 Enough has been said, perhaps, by way of 
 illustrating the true nature of the principle in dis- 
 pute. On one side are the Church and her best 
 servants, as might be very fully shewn, rejecting 
 it ; * on the other, misbelievers of every shade de- 
 fending it ; and between these two classes it is not 
 difficult to make our choice. Other considerations 
 might be offered in refutation of the shallow and 
 irreligious assumption which has been noticed ; but 
 there is no space for them here. Running counter 
 to the analogy of God's dispensations, whether in 
 His works or the revelation of His will, and casting 
 doubt upon all holy truths which are not delivered 
 
 1 Thus the great Christian philosopher. " We cannot argue," 
 Bp. Butler says, " that this cannot be the sense or intent of such a 
 passage, for, if it had, it would have been expressed more plainly, or 
 have been represented under a more apt figure or hieroglyphic ; yet 
 we may justly argue thus with respect to common books. And the 
 reason of this difference is very evident ; that in Scripture we are 
 not competent judges, as we are in common books, how plainly it 
 were to ftave been expected what is tlie true sense should be expressed, 
 or under how apt an image figured. The only question is, what 
 appearance there is that this is the sense ? and scarce at all how 
 much more determinately or accurately it might have been expressed 
 or figured?" Analogy, part ii. ch. iii. ; with which compare the 
 remarkable saying of St. Justin Martyr, quoted by Grabe, Spicikg. 
 torn. ii. p. 178.
 
 16 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 with such evidence as it approves, there are few, 
 perhaps, of all the heresies which have distracted 
 the Church from the beginning, which were not 
 founded upon, or at least in some degree connected 
 with, this very notion. It was necessary to speak 
 of it here, because it presents itself as an obstacle 
 in the very outset of the path through which the 
 subject of these pages will lead us ; because it takes 
 for granted that the Government of the Church, 
 being obscurely, or not expressly, taught, is of no 
 importance. One remark only shall be added with 
 reference to that characteristic of Holy Writ to 
 which this wilful and disobedient spirit refuses to 
 submit itself. 
 
 It seems to be forgotten, then, that the writ- 
 ings of the New Testament were addressed to men 
 who had been instructed "by word" long before 
 they were taught by writing; who already pos- 
 sessed a testimony which we have not, the testi- 
 mony of their eyes and ears ; who had heard Apos- 
 tles preach and seen Apostles rule ; and whose 
 minds the later instruction "with ink and pen" did 
 but " stir up by way of remembrance " of that oral 
 teaching, those " words spoken before" of which it 
 was an express object of the written admonition to 
 make them " mindful" 1 A hint which, in the naked 
 letter, and with no expositor from without, conveys 
 but little meaning to us, would speak plainly enough 
 to them ; an allusion which is too obscure for our 
 
 1 2 Thess. ii. 15, with 2 Pet. iii. 2 and 2 John 12.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 perceptions, would flash like the sunbeam upon 
 their eyes : we must expect difficulties ; they are 
 our portion. 1 And so much, in brief, upon the 
 notion adverted to. If the Discipline of the Church 
 is unimportant because the Bible speaks obscurely 
 of it, her Doctrines are unimportant also. If Epis- 
 copacy may be denied because it is not forced upon 
 us, must not Christianity be rejected with it? 2 
 
 II. If it be admitted, then, that the " difficulties 
 of Scripture," as they have been called, may possi- 
 bly constitute one portion of our trial, that it need 
 not be so easy to find out God's will for ourselves, 
 
 1 As the wisest of our Fathers confessed, " In sanctis Scripturis 
 multo nesciam plnra quarn scio." Aug. Ep. cxix. Januario, torn. ii. 
 p. 220. And again : " Sancta Scriptura . . . omnibus accessibilis, 
 quamvis paucissimis penetrabilis." Ep. iii. ad Volusianum, p. 7. "ATrep 
 Trait; oXi'yot, says another, and he supposed to have leaned too confi- 
 dently to his own wisdom, ^crKTj/cacrt (ruvievai, ol Trdvra rov /3ioi/ eavrcov 
 dvadfvrfs, Kara rrfV 'Iqtroi) eVroXjji/, TW epevvav ras ypafpds' Kal /iiiXAoi/, 
 T&V <piXo<ro(p77(raWci>i> 'EXXjjfwi' irepl rivos vop,i^ofjLevr]s eVtorij/i^s, dvd- 
 Xrj'fyiv KfKp.r}KOTfs TTfpl TTJV ffTa(riv TOV /SovXTj/xaroy T>I> Ifpcav ypa/x/iarcoi/. 
 Origen. Contra Celsum, lib. vi. p. 300. 
 
 8 " And here we cannot but take notice with what furious, in- 
 considerate, malicious purposes some have pursued Episcopacy ; 
 and rather than have it stand, they'll fall themselves, deny what is 
 otherwise their great delight, the divine right of presbytery, and 
 take away all Church-power for ever with it. And, indeed, the 
 principles these men go upon are such, when to throw down Epis- 
 copacy, that they strike at once our whole Christianity with the same 
 blow ; . and there cannot be, under their guiding and conduct, 
 any such thing as either truth or heresie ; the one to be convincingly 
 vindicated, or the other solidly confuted ; as might be easily made 
 appear." Simon Lowth On Church Power, ch. iii. 11. On the 
 true character and tendency of their principles, see the description of 
 the views of Hoadley and his party by Jablonski, Institut. Hint. 
 Christian, secul. xviii. 2. torn. i. p. 342.
 
 18 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 nor quite safe to reject any doctrine because it is 
 not, as we think, "plainly" taught in His word, 
 the way will be so far cleared for the considera- 
 tions upon which we are presently to enter. 1 We 
 shall not venture to turn petulantly from the sub- 
 ject of Church-Government, on the plea that it is 
 little noticed in Scripture, or only obscurely re- 
 
 1 There is, indeed, another objection, which gets rid of the whole 
 subject of Church-Polity by regarding it as a " little matter," and 
 intrinsically insignificant ; but to so vain and presumptuous a notion 
 a formal reply seems quite unnecessary. It is curious, however, that 
 it was noticed, by implication, and censured, by a writer so early as 
 Clemens Alexandrinus ; vid. Stromat. lib. i. p. 278. St. Basil's 
 saying is very striking : To rat, nal TO ov, ot>XXa/3ai 8vo' aXX' o/ia>? TO 
 Kparurrov r<ov dyadmv f) dXrjdeia, KOI 6 eo~xo-Tos opos rf/s irovTjpias TO 
 Tfrfvo'os, TOIS p-iKpois TOVTOIS pfjp.a(ri TroXXaKis fp-Trepif^fTai. And pre- 
 sently he adds, Ei yap (K TOV vopov lS>ra ev ij p.ia Kfpaia ov TrapeXevo-fTai, 
 irSts av Tjp.lv do~(pa\es vrrep/Baivfiv Kal TO. o-p.iKpoTa.Ta ; De Spiritu Sancto, 
 cap. i. torn. ii. pp. 292, 3. So St. Chrysostom ; . . . 'AXXa /cat avrb 
 fiev ovv TOVTO fcm TWV Trdvratv atriov rotv K.O.K>V, TO p.r) KOI virep TO>V 
 p.iKpS)v rovTOiv ayavaKTfiv' Sta TOVTO TO. p.fiova r>v apapTrifjidTGvv eVf to^X- 
 6(v, OTI TO. fXdrrova rfjs TrpocrrjKovcrijs ov Tvyxdvfi 8iop6d>o-f<os. In Epist. 
 ad Gal. torn. iii. p. 717. " Qui modica despicit," says St. Anselm, 
 quoting Scripture, " paulatim decidit. Non debetis considerare quuin 
 parva sit res quam contra prohibitionem facitis, sed quantum malum 
 sit inobedientia, quam pro parva re incurritis. Sola enim obedientia 
 potuit hominem in paradise retinere, unde per inobedientiam ejectus 
 est." Epist. Exhort, inter Opp. (Nuremberg. 1491). But St. Austin 
 touches the root of the matter : " Non afferamus stateras dolosas," 
 says he, " ubi appendamus quod volumus, et quomodo volumus, 
 pro arbitrio nostro, dicentes, hoc grave, /we leve est : sed afFeramus 
 divinam stateram de Scripturis sanctis tanquam de thesauris Domi- 
 nicis, et in ilia quid sit gravius appendamus, imo non appendamus, 
 sed a Domino appensa potius recognoscamus." De Baptismo, lib. ii. 
 cap. vi. torn. vii. p. 40. To which may be added the remarkable 
 saying of a modern philosopher: " Quant a la distinction des points 
 fondamentaux et non fondamentaux, M. Pelisson a raison encore de 
 dire, que la moindre erreur dans la Foi, accompagnee de rebellion, 
 peut priver du salut." Leibnitz, De la Tolerance des Religions, p. 96.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 ferred to ; for, even if this were true, we have seen 
 that sacred doctrines, which we dare not reject, 
 are no otherwise revealed to us therein. And if 
 such reasoning avail in one case, it will in another : 
 if it defend schism, it will justify heresy ; if it be 
 good for the separatist, it is good for the Socinian. 1 
 
 We might proceed, then, at once with our sub- 
 ject; but since so much space has been given to 
 the supposed a priori objection of the adversary, 
 we must also, for our part, claim the benefit of 
 certain antecedent probabilities, which deserve to 
 be taken into account. 
 
 (1.) And first, we need not fear to express too 
 confidently our conviction, that God, who regu- 
 lated, with mysterious jealousy, every minute par- 
 ticular of worship for His people Israel and that 
 expressly with reference to & future service would 
 scarcely leave us Christians to find out a worship 
 for ourselves. 2 The knowledge of what He cer- 
 tainly did for "our fathers," to whom He was no 
 otherwise revealed than as "a jealous God," would 
 suggest far other thoughts. It would be natural 
 
 1 Vide F. Socin. Tractat. de Eccles. pp. 8, 9 : So that the Ca- 
 tholic Faith is maintained against the Socinian by a course of reason- 
 ing precisely analogous to that by which the Primitive Discipline is 
 defended against the Presbyterian. See Edwards' Preservative against 
 Socinianism, part iv. pp. 150 et seq. 
 
 * " Nor is it likely that God, who appointed several orders and 
 a Prelacy in the government of His Church among the Jewish 
 Priests, should abhor or forbid them among Christian Ministers, 
 who have as much of t/te principles of schism, and division OK other 
 men." EIKO>I> BucnAtKij, p. 144.
 
 XV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to suspect that He would not leave us to frame 
 laws for ourselves, who forbade them to devise 
 even ceremonies ; and that if, "for our admonition" 
 He smote Uzzah in death who did but touch the 
 Ark, and the men of Bethshemesh " because they 
 had looked into it," 1 He would scarcely suffer us to 
 build up or pull down, each according to his own 
 fancy, the Church of which it was only a type. 2 
 This supposition seems utterly extravagant and 
 improbable, and may be dismissed at once. 3 But 
 further : 
 
 1 Vide Spelman, De non Temerandis Eeclesiis, cap. xiv. 
 
 2 " Dies me deficiet si crania Arcae sacramenta cum Ecclesia 
 componens edisseram." S. Hieron. Adv. Luciferianos, cap. viii. 
 torn. ii. p. 202. Cf. Firmilian. ad S. Cyprian, ap. Routh. Opusc. 
 Ecclesiast. torn. i. p. 232. 
 
 3 " Et sane nulla ratio permittit, ut distinctior fuerit hierarchia 
 in Testamento Veteri quam in Novo, cum illud umbrae, istud imagini 
 comparetur ab Apostolo." Bellarmin. De Clericis, lib. i. cap. xiv. ; 
 Disput. torn. ii. p. 327. " Tota Judsese terra," St. Jerome says, 
 " tribuumque descriptio, futurse Ecclesiae in coelis typus est." Adv. 
 Jovinian. lib. ii. cap. xviii. " Nihil allegorizari potest," says St. 
 Irenaeus, lib. v. cap. xxxv. Hdvra eVceiwz, writes another, TVTTOS Tjp.e- 
 Ttpos. S. Greg. Nyssen. De Baptismo, torn. ii. p. 218. "... Nihil 
 legalium institutionum, nihil propheticarum resedit figurarum, quod 
 non totum in Christi sacramenta transient. Nobiscum est signacu- 
 lum circumcisionis, sanctificatio chrismatum, consecratio sacerdotum ; 
 nobiscum," &c. S. Lconis Mag. Serm. Ixii. torn. i. p. 279 : cf. 
 Serm. Ixviii. pp. 295, 6. " In the New Testament," says our own 
 Dodwell, " the hypothesis that Christianity is nothing but a mys- 
 tical Judaism is so confessed, as that reasonings are allowed from 
 Jewish precedents to shew what ought to be under Christianity, and 
 that most of the reasonings in the N. T. for introducing things 
 proper to the Christian religion are indeed of that kind." One 
 Altar, chap. ix. p. 231. Cf. Mede, Sermon on the Reverence of 
 God's House, Works, b. ii. p. 342, where instances of this way of 
 reasoning are collected from the Apostolic epistles. See also, on the 
 Typical character of the earlier Dispensation, Davison On Prophecy,
 
 INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 (2.) This System the Jewish has been, in 
 its main features, superseded; yet not, let it be 
 carefully observed, without manifold prophecies of 
 Holy Scripture speaking wonderfully of some such 
 System by which it should be followed. This new 
 System is often symbolised under the form of " a 
 Woman," and that Woman is said to be " the 
 Bride" 1 of Christ. " Kings" and "queens" are to 
 "bow down" before her, even "at the soles of her 
 feet ;" " no weapon that is formed against her shall 
 prosper ;" she shall be " fair as the moon, clear as 
 the sun, terrible as an army with banners." She is 
 figured as "the City of the Lord," which "God 
 will establish for ever ;" we must " tell the towers 
 thereof, mark well her bulwarks, and consider her 
 palaces," not for ourselves only, but that we " may 
 tell it to the generation following ;" and she is so 
 far like the first Church as to be also called "a 
 garden enclosed, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed" 
 
 p. 134. Even the adversaries use this argument freely, when it 
 happens to them to do so conveniently. " Albeit such a number of 
 Elders may be chosen in certaine congregations, that one part of 
 them may relieve another for a reasonable space, as was among the 
 Levites under the law in serving of the Temple," The Second Book 
 of (Scottish) Discipline, ch. vi. And the " reformed" divines of 
 Leyden, in their celebrated " Censure" in support of the Synod of 
 Dort, complain that the Remonstrants, in their chapter on the 
 Orders of the Ministry, " do not allege a single testimony from 
 the Old Testament, quasi utriusque inter se hie nullam avdXoyiav, 
 proportionem, et convenientiam videantur agnoscere." Censur. in 
 cap. xxi. 208. 
 
 1 Isaiah liv. 5. " Sponsus et sponsa, vel vir et uxor, Christus 
 et Ecclesia dicuntur." Aug. Contra Faust, lib. xxii. cap. xl. torn, 
 vi. p. 171.
 
 22 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 All these, with other words great and marvel- 
 lous, are spoken of her before the coming of her 
 Lord in the flesh. Afterwards new names are 
 given her, and new honour. To her consecrated 
 servants is now given power to bind and power to 
 loose sins ; l they are " the glory of Christ ;" " am- 
 bassadors for Christ;" sent by Him "even so" as 
 He by the Father ; and they are to be summoned 
 to their high office by an ordinance which He had 
 long since appointed "called of God, as was 
 Aaron," the Jewish High Priest, Whosoever shall 
 now "neglect to hear" her voice whose servants 
 they are, shall be counted, by Christ's command, 
 and that both "in heaven" and "on earth," 2 "as 
 an heathen man and a publican" She is now openly 
 styled " the Body of Christ ;" 3 she is of Him made 
 "the pillar and ground of the Truth;" 4 nay, she is 
 " the fulness of Him that filleth all in all," 5 the 
 very mirror in which the heavenly hosts are bid to 
 discern "the manifold wisdom of God." 6 
 
 (3.) Here, then, beyond all controversy, is some 
 great and divine System, having the properties of 
 vast dominion, exclusive honours and privileges, and 
 eternal endurance. Akin, in some respects at least, 
 to the Institution which it supersedes ; joined to 
 
 1 S. John xx. 23. 2 S. Matthew xviii. 17, 18. 
 
 3 Ephes. i. 23, and iv. 12. 4 1 Tim. iii. 15. 
 
 5 Ephes. i. 23. 
 
 6 Ephes. iii. 10. For an account of the attributes of the Church, 
 as set forth both in the Old and New Testament, see Leslie's Case of 
 the Regale and Pontificate, 19.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 23 
 
 Christ as a bride to her lawful husband; and 
 counted to be the very marvel of marvels before 
 the Angels of God. We need not attempt accu- 
 rately to combine and explain all this. Enough 
 that somewhere upon the earth, if there be truth in 
 the Sacred Scriptures, this wonderful System is 
 still to be seen; not dimly and darkly, like the 
 faint outline of a distant shore, but a mighty fa- 
 bric, with bulwarks, and towers, and palaces, kings 
 serving in its courts, and queens worshipping in its 
 streets ; a sight fearful and beautiful to look upon, 
 " fair as the moon, clear as the sun, terrible as 
 an army with banners." So much being manifest, 
 and acknowledged on all hands, let us see how 
 stands the case. 
 
 (4.) We have, at this time, actually before our 
 eyes, such a vast and uniform System ; co-exten- 
 sive with the limits of universal Christendom ; as- 
 cribed by Saints and Martyrs to the institution of 
 Christ or His Apostles ; never assailed by the voice 
 of the disputer for fifteen consecutive ages; not 
 denied by any to be traceable to within forty years 
 of St. John's death -, 1 proved to have been then 
 existing in every known Church in the world ; 
 without even a pretended record, of any subse- 
 quent date, professing to give account of its origin ; 
 believed by the friends and companions of the 
 Apostles, and their disciples, to be that System 
 which the Prophets foretold ; and received without 
 
 1 See Chup. II. 4.
 
 24 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 question, by all men, in all times and places, as an 
 integral part of Christianity. 
 
 (5.) We have, moreover, the sure word of God 
 that His Church, whatever it be, is built upon a 
 Rock, so that the gates of hell shall not prevail 
 against it; and we have His immutable promise 
 that "the Spirit of Truth" should come, almost 
 from the very hour in which He left her to herself, 
 to "guide" her "into all truth" 1 
 
 (6.) Put this together. Some mighty System 
 was foreordained to succeed one which had, confes- 
 sedly, existed as its type : they were so far like to 
 each other, that Apostles spoke of one being the 
 "shadow" of the other; the adherents of the for- 
 mer were invited to enter the latter as being iden- 
 tical with it ; its individual members were promised 
 a positive conviction of the truth in proportion to 
 their holiness ; its collective body to be infallibly 
 guided by the Holy Ghost ; and from the lifetime 
 of St. John there has existed a Body, for fifteen un- 
 broken ages without even a pretended rival, which 
 professed in the Name of Christ, and was believed 
 by all His servants, to be that Divine System. 
 
 (7.) And we are now asked by the adversary 
 to believe that a System opposed to this, founded 
 upon the supposition that it was a human device, 
 a supplanting of some purer form which Apostles 
 had set up, by men whom Apostles had known and 
 loved ; a stifling of the true Church in its infancy 
 
 1 S. John xvi. 13.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 25 
 
 by men whose blood was shed in its defence, and 
 a rebellion against the will of Christ by men who 
 gave up all for His Name's sake; that a System 
 which assumes that the unfaltering tradition of all 
 ages was a cheat, and the unanimous testimony of 
 all people a lie; 1 that God's holy promise was 
 broken, and the " Spirit of Truth" not sent ; that 
 Prophecy was unfulfilled, Martyrs mocked, and 
 Saints deceived; we are to believe that a System, 
 the day and hour of whose birth we know, which 
 was protested against from its first erection by 
 almost the whole world, excused as a necessary 
 evil by its own framers, and never set up in any 
 land but by rebellion and bloodshed ; 2 which has 
 fluctuated from the first in incessant variations, 
 and having changed its form and fashion times un- 
 numbered, is now, in every quarter of the globe, 
 fading into universal apostacy; 3 we are bid to 
 think that such a System was the true divine one, 
 
 1 " O magnum crimen omnium gentium quas in semine Abrahse 
 benedicendas promisit Deus!" Aug. Festo, Epist. clxvii. torn. ii. 
 p. 291. 
 
 2 " It is particularly remarkable of presbytery that it never came 
 yet into any country upon the face of the earth but by rebellion : 
 that mark lies upon it." Leslie, Rehearsals, no. 161. " Begotten 
 in rebellion," says Heylyn, " born in sedition, and nursed up by 
 faction." History of the Presbyterians, p. 9. One of its features, 
 as a system cemented by blood, was described by the Martyr King. 
 " I must shew you, sirs," said he, on the scaffold, just before his 
 death, " I must shew you both how you are out of the way, and I 
 will put you in the way. First, you are out of the way ; for cer- 
 tainly all the way you ever had yet, as I could find by any thing, is 
 in the way of conquest ." Rushworth, Historical Collections, vol. vii. 
 p. 1429. 
 
 3 See Chap. V.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the original scheme of our Saviour and His first 
 Apostles. 
 
 There is such a presumption against the proba- 
 bility of this as, one may say, no evidence could 
 surmount ; and it seems almost to savour of blas- 
 phemy to assert it as even remotely possible. And 
 at least, if we must go on to weigh the claims of 
 this new rival, we shall look, upon the very prin- 
 ciples of its supporters, for the plainest and most 
 convincing testimony. It will be enough for our 
 cause that Holy Scripture should not expressly 
 repudiate our System; we need no positive proof 
 of God's word in its favour, because its very exist- 
 ence in our own and its history in past times, being 
 the fulfilment of many prophecies, is irrefragable 
 Scripture proof. The adversary, on the contrary, 
 must not only confirm his scheme by distinct en- 
 forcement of Holy Writ, but account for the stupen- 
 dous phenomenon before our eyes. We might even 
 expect, upon his principles, some positive announce- 
 ment in the sacred volume that a false System 
 should, without question of friend or foe, usurp for 
 long ages the place of the true Church of God, and 
 claim its just titles. We have but to shew that the 
 Bible recognises, or does not in terms exclude us ; 
 they, that it plainly asserts their views, and as plain- 
 ly denies ours. It is ours to prove that Prophecy 
 has been fulfilled ; theirs, to deny it r 1 ours, to shew 
 
 1 " Vestrum enim est haec ostendere, nam nobis sufficit ad causam 
 nostram quod compleri prophetiam et Scripturas sanctas per orbem 
 terrarum videmus." Aug. Honorato, Epist. clxi. torn. ii. p. 277.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 27 
 
 that the Everlasting Church has never failed from 
 the days of " our father Abraham ;" theirs, that 
 for the first fifteen ages of the Gospel, it was sup- 
 planted by a scheme of man : our faith is, that 
 God has maintained His promises ; their assertion, 
 that He has broken them : we believe that the 
 "Spirit of Truth" did come; they, that He did 
 not: we, that He guided the Church "into all 
 truth ;" they, that truth was discovered the other 
 day. Lastly, if we be deceived, all who ever lived 
 were in the same error ; if the Church Catholic be 
 not the appointed Ark of God, the One and Indi- 
 visible Body of Christ, then has His Church never 
 existed, the declarations of the Bible are nugatory, 
 the promises of God unmeaning, and the faith of 
 man a dream. If, therefore, any weight is to be 
 attached to a priori arguments, it will be admitted 
 that the adversary occupies a very unfavourable 
 position. 
 
 Our case, then that we may state it again 
 resting only upon the argument from Prophecy, 
 and antecedently to the consideration of evidence 
 of any kind, is this: (1.) A great Ecclesiastical 
 System, the Jewish, has existed and passed away. 
 (2.) A corresponding Institution was, however, 
 fore-ordained to succeed it. (3.) Such a kindred 
 System, giving manifold tokens of Divine origin, 
 has actually existed for many ages, and (4.) was 
 always believed to be the System. These points 
 are admitted. It follows, then, that we are not
 
 %0 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 about to search the Scriptures which is to be 
 our next step in order to find whether they con- 
 tain any Ecclesiastical System, and what ; our ob- 
 ject is more definite. It is to discover whether 
 that System which is before our eyes, and to which 
 reference has been made, is recognised in their 
 pages. Ours is not the lot of exiles, or wanderers 
 in search of a country ; we dwell at home, blessed 
 be God ! and have a goodly heritage ; we have 
 only to prove our claim to what we already pos- 
 sess. We have but to shew that our holy fore- 
 fathers were not all in error, nor the Church 
 marred by her best, and wisest, and eldest-born 
 children ; that God was graciously pleased to keep 
 the promise which He vouchsafed to make ; and 
 that they were, in fulfilment of that promise, guided 
 into all truth. 1 And at this point we turn to the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 1 Which if we doubt or deny, " necesse est," says Vincentius, in 
 one of the most striking passages of his treatise, " ut fides beatorum 
 Patrum, aut tota, aut certe magna ex parte, violetur : necesse est, 
 ut omnes omnium aetatum fideles, omnes sancti, omnes casti, conti- 
 nentes, virgines, omnes Clerici, Levitae et Sacerdotes, tanta Con- 
 fessorum millia, tanti Martyrum exercitus, tanta urbium, tanta 
 populorum celebritas et multitude, tot Insulae, Provincia?, Eeges, 
 Gentes, Regna, Nationes, totus postremo jam pene terrarum orbis 
 per Catholicam fidem Christo Capiti incorporatus, tanto seculorum 
 tractu ignorasse, errasse, blasphemasse, nescisse quid crederet, pro- 
 nuncietur." Vincent. Lerinens. Commonit. 24.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 CASE OF ST. JAMES. 
 
 I. IF we refer to the first chapter of St. Paul's 
 Epistle to the Galatians, we find that Apostle 
 making mention of his first visit to Jerusalem. 
 Having said that he " went up to Jerusalem to see 
 Peter," he immediately adds, " but other of the 
 Apostles saw I none, save James, the Lord's bro- 
 ther" It is to this expression that I wish, in the 
 first place, to call attention. 
 
 That this St. James was not one of the Twelve 
 Apostles is commonly asserted by the authorities, 
 both ancient and modern. 1 And so much seems 
 probable, both from the distinct enumeration of 
 
 1 See them quoted by Hammond, Dissert, iv. De Episcopai. 
 cap. iii. 2 ; and Weisman, Histor. Eccksiast. torn. i. pp. 52, 53. 
 Salmasius affirms confidently that St. James was not one of the 
 Twelve : " Certum est," he says, " non fuisse unum ex duodecim." 
 Walo-Messalin. De Episcopis et Presbyteris, p. 20 ; and again p. 47. 
 Not, however, that our reasonings depend upon this, one way or the 
 other; for, as Thorndike observes, " Whosoever this James of Jeru- 
 salem was, we h'nd the Church of Jerusalem under his charge almost 
 as soon as there was a Church there." Primitive Government of 
 Churches, chap. ii. The point is considered at length by St. Jerome, 
 In Ejiist. ad Gal. cap. i. torn. vi. p. 125.
 
 30 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 them, and from the mention made of him by St. 
 Paul in his first Epistle to the Corinthians. Speak- 
 ing, in the fifteenth chapter, of the various appear- 
 ances of our Lord after His resurrection, he shews 
 how He manifested Himself first to Cephas, then 
 to the Twelve, then to the five hundred brethren, 
 then to James, then to all the Apostles. So that 
 here St. James is reckoned distinctly from the 
 Twelve, and they from the rest of the Apostles. 
 There were others, then, to whom that title, what- 
 ever it implied, belonged, besides the Twelve. It 
 becomes, therefore, an interesting question, under 
 what signification this sacred name was applied to 
 St. James. But without limiting our inquiry to 
 this object, some particulars shall be added with 
 reference to that holy person, which, in confirming 
 the general argument, may serve to explain this 
 also. 
 
 In the first place, we find his name mentioned, 
 in the second chapter of the Epistle to the Gala- 
 tians which passage refers to an exercise of au- 
 thority before that of St. Peter, who yet was the 
 " chief of the Apostles." This relative position of 
 their names we are sure was not accidental, and 
 therefore not without meaning. Further ; he pre- 
 sided at that assembly recorded in the fifteenth 
 chapter of the Acts, at which were present St. 
 Peter and St. Paul, as well as other eminent dis- 
 ciples. They had met together to consider a very 
 grave matter ; namely, whether the law of Moses
 
 CASE OF SAINT JAMES. 31 
 
 should be imposed upon the Gentiles who were 
 converted to Christianity. And we read that, 
 te when there had been much disputing, Peter rose 
 up," and delivered his opinion. Now we might 
 well suppose that his opinion would have been de- 
 cisive, and yet we find it otherwise; for he was 
 followed in the debate by St. James, who did not 
 merely express an opinion, as others had done, 
 but, having summed up what had been said by St. 
 Peter, gave in his own name final judgment, say- 
 ing, " therefore I give sentence" 1 
 
 Now, how came it to pass that, in an assembly 
 where were met together St. Peter and St. Paul, 
 Barnabas, Silas, and others of like rank, James, 
 who was not one of the Twelve, should speak with 
 this authority, and venture to pronounce judgment, 
 when they only gave advice? The narrative, it 
 must be confessed, is altogether singular and un- 
 expected. There is evidently something unex- 
 plained in the story itself; and we are naturally 
 led to search for other passages which may throw 
 
 1 Acts xv. 19 : 8td yw Kpivv. "The decretory sentence was given 
 by St. James, and not by Peter ; Kpivo> eyo>, saith St. James, I judge ; 
 that is, saith Chrysostom, per fov<rias Ae'yw TOVTO, 1 with authority 
 say this : and this determination of the question was made by James, 
 saith Chrysostom, futivos yap r\v TTJV ap^v ry/cfxeipioyieVos 1 , because he 
 had the government (viz. of the Church of Jerusalem) committed to 
 him." Whitby, in loc. St. Chrysostom elsewhere says, " He was 
 Bishop of the Church in Jerusalem, therefore he speaks last." 
 Homil. xxxiii. in Act. Apost. y quoted by Lardner, History of the 
 Writers oftlie N. T. chap. xvi. Utrpos drjuiryopd, says Hesychius, 
 oXX' 'lo/cw/Sos vo(jM0(Tf'i. Photii Biblioth. num. 275.
 
 0% SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 light upon it. With this object, let us go on to 
 observe the issue of this remarkable council. 1 
 
 It was determined, then, at the suggestion of 
 St. James, to send letters from Jerusalem, expres- 
 sive of the opinion entertained upon the matter in 
 dispute, and conveying instruction and command- 
 ment to the Churches. Now these letters of man- 
 date were sent by the hands of certain presbyters 
 of the Church at Jerusalem ; and we find St. Paul 
 saying of these very messengers, that they came, 
 not, as we might perhaps have anticipated, " from 
 Jerusalem," nor " from the assembly " at which 
 were present St. Peter and the rest, nor yet " from 
 the Elders," but "from James" 2 
 
 Again ; if we refer to the twenty-first chapter 
 of the Acts, we read thus : " And when we were 
 come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly, 
 and the day following Paul went in with us unto 
 James." Now, why " unto James ?" why not ra- 
 ther " to the Elders" of the Church ? Already 
 we have seen St. Paul affirming of certain priestly 
 persons who went from Jerusalem, that they went 
 "from James;" and St. Luke writing of others 
 who had gone to Jerusalem, that they came "to 
 James" This is surely very remarkable : let us 
 
 1 Compare the accounts given of it by P. Benedict, xiv. De 
 Synod. Dicecesan. lib. i. cap. i. 5 ; and F. Buddeus, De Statu 
 Eccles. Christ, sub Apost. Prafat., who agree in regarding it as a 
 very critical event in the history of the Apostolic Church. 
 
 2 Gal. ii. 12.
 
 CASE OF SAINT JAMES. 33 
 
 hear one more witness the "chief of the Apos- 
 tles" himself. 
 
 An Angel had said to St. Peter, 1 as he slept at 
 midnight "between two soldiers, bound with two 
 chains, . . . Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals ; 
 and so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy 
 garment about thee, and follow me. And he went 
 out and followed him." The heavenly guide led 
 on, and they passed through " the first and second 
 ward, the iron gate that leadeth unto the city 
 opening to them of his own accord. They passed 
 on through one street," and the Angel departed. 
 St. Peter, having " considered the thing, came to 
 the house of Mary the mother of John, where were 
 many gathered together, praying." Being admit- 
 ted, after long delay, to the presence of the " asto- 
 nished" company, he tells them "how the Lord 
 had brought him out of prison." He turns to 
 venture once more this time without a visible 
 guide through the dark and silent city; but 
 before he goes, he leaves with them, even at 
 that solemn hour, one brief charge; it is this 
 " Go, shew these things unto James, and to the 
 brethren." 2 
 
 1 Acts xii. 8. 
 
 2 Acts xii. 17. And all which is implied in these passages seems 
 to be confirmed by the inscription of his own Epistle. For " why 
 does St. James direct his Epistle ' To the Twelve Tribes scattered 
 abroad,' but only because he looked upon all those Christians who 
 had been converted from Judaism, yet still thought it their duty to 
 come to Jerusalem to worship, to be under his care as the Bishop of 
 that place, to which they yearly resorted from the several countries 
 
 D
 
 34 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 In the absence of any further notices than are 
 supplied in the Sacred Record, it is plain that all 
 this must be unintelligible to us. There may have 
 been, and no doubt there were, good reasons why 
 St. James should preside in an assembly of Apos- 
 tles ; why the emissaries of that assembly should 
 be said to be sent from him ; why Christians visit- 
 ing Jerusalem should go to him ; and why, even at 
 midnight, and under the influence of a supernatu- 
 ral vision, St. Peter should not forget to mention 
 his name and recognise his authority. I say, there 
 must have been sufficient reasons for all this ; but 
 they do not appear on the face of the Inspired 
 History. Whatever they were, we at least are not 
 informed. Now it should be observed that this 
 ignorance is confined to ourselves. To those who 
 lived twenty-five years after the time referred to, 
 there was no difficulty in these allusions ; they 
 knew perfectly well what they meant. St. Peter's 
 midnight release from prison by the Angel, and 
 his remarkable mention of St. James, occurred 
 about the year 41 ; and in the year 66 another 
 Apostle, writing an Epistle to the Church Catholic, 
 begins thus: " Jude the servant of Jesus Christ, 
 and brother of James" At that time, therefore, 
 James had been filling a station so eminent and 
 was so universally known, that his name not only 
 needed no explanation itself, but served, so to 
 
 through which they were dispersed?" Brett, Church Government, 
 ch. iv. p. 56.
 
 CASE OF SAINT JAMES. 35 
 
 speak, as the passport for another. St. Jude evi- 
 dently took it for granted that every body knew 
 who "James" was. 1 
 
 Now a man searching the Scriptures with an 
 honest desire to find out his Lord's will in respect 
 of the Government of His Church, would probably 
 be much influenced by all this. Perhaps if he 
 should couple with it the unbroken tradition, the 
 unvarying faith and practice of that Church, in 
 every place and every age to a meek and candid 
 mind it might suffice to prove the institution of 
 Episcopacy. It would not fail to be considered by 
 a person of such a temper, that many high doc- 
 trines and solemn observances e.g. the Baptism 
 of Infants, and keeping holy the first day of the 
 week depend solely upon inferences which are 
 gathered from passages less numerous, and perhaps 
 
 1 It is important to consider this, because it renders it highly 
 improbable that the early Christians could have been mistaken as to 
 the office which he filled. The fame of his personal dignity endured 
 so long, that men boasted in after years that they had succeeded to 
 " the See of St. James." And even when Jerusalem was trodden 
 down by the idolater, and her very name and title changed, 
 "JElienses Praesules se Jacobi Apostoli sedem occupare jactabant." 
 Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, torn. iii. p. 109. " He was a man of 
 such sanctity and reputation with the people," says St. Jerome, " ut 
 fimbriam vestimenti ejus certatim cuperent attingere." Ad Gal. 
 cap. i. : and the same Father notices elsewhere (Adv. Jovinian. 
 lib. i. cap. xxiv. torn. ii. p. 157), that even Josephus attributed the 
 destruction of Jerusalem to the judgment of God upon his murder- 
 ers. St. Anastasius Sinai ta also remarks (De S. Synaxi) that the 
 Jewish writers take pains to record his last words. Was it possible 
 that the next generation could be in any doubt whether he was 
 Bishop of Jerusalem or not? Cf. Origen. Contra Celxutn, lib. i. 
 p. 35.
 
 36 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 less emphatic than these, and which are confirmed 
 similarly by the interpretation of the Primitive 
 Church. We are proposing to search for the Di- 
 vine will from the best evidence which we can have 
 of it, possessing no antecedent knowledge how far 
 it may be expressed clearly or otherwise. If that 
 evidence be such as to make it only probable that 
 the Episcopal form of Church-government was the 
 form instituted by the Apostles, all who " love the 
 Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity" will humbly and 
 thankfully embrace it. 1 So that, if no further indi- 
 cation of God's will in this matter had been vouch- 
 safed to us than is conveyed in these scattered sen- 
 tences, it could not have been either prudent or 
 dutiful to act upon our own will. We should be 
 conscious of inconsistency in doing so ; and this, 
 in the exercise of religious duty, would be a grave 
 offence. But, in point of fact, God has not left us 
 without further testimony, which we may now pro- 
 ceed thankfully to examine. 
 
 What we have seen thus far in the Divine 
 Scriptures may amount only to bare probability, 
 yet it is weighty enough to suggest two important 
 considerations. For, first, it plainly refuses to 
 
 1 " For to us," as Bishop Butler observes, "probability is the 
 very guide of life. If, then, in questions of difficulty, . . . the result 
 of examination be, that there appears, on the whole, any the lowest 
 presumption on one side, and none on the other, or a greater pre- 
 sumption on one side, though in the lowest degree greater ; this 
 determines the question even in matters of speculation, and in mat- 
 ters of practice will lay us under an absolute and formal obligation." 
 Analogy, Introd.
 
 CASE OF SAINT JAMES. 37 
 
 sanction, and is inexplicable upon, any of the mo- 
 dern theories of ecclesiastical discipline ; whereas, 
 secondly, it not only does not contravene, but 
 tends in a remarkable way to confirm the ancient 
 polity. So much seems undeniable ; and it is of 
 no inconsiderable force. But if a man be not 
 quite convinced, he might be supposed to say to 
 himself at this point of our argument, " St. Paul 
 desired the Churches to ( hold the traditions which 
 they had been taught by word as well as by his 
 epistles ;' and seems to intimate that they must do 
 so, if they hoped to ' stand fast.' 1 Those tradi- 
 tions, whatever they were, we must be bound to 
 hold as well as they, unless Christians have dif- 
 ferent obligations at different ages. And perhaps 
 they might include some notice of this very point, 
 and explain, which the Bible does not, 2 the true 
 meaning of these allusions to St. James. At any 
 rate it must be lawful to covet the knowledge of 
 truths, whether great or small, which an Apostle 
 commanded our forefathers to hold. 3 Without 
 that knowledge these passages of Holy Scripture, 
 
 1 2 Thess. ii. 16. " Unde patet, quod multa in Ecclesia non 
 scripta sunt ab Apostolis docta, et ideo servanda." S. Thomas 
 Aquinas, in loc. 
 
 2 " Quod totum provisum divinitus esse non dubito, ad edoman- 
 dam labore superbiam, et intellectum a fastidio renovandum, cui 
 facile investigata plerunque vilescunt." Aug. De Doctrina Chris- 
 tiana, lib. ii. cap. vi. 
 
 3 Why should we not be able to make the same boast as our 
 Fathers 1 Hoiov, flire /lot, T>V OTrocrrdXiKiav tWoA/xarwi* 77 piKpbv fj fJitya 
 irpos >'ip.a>i> ov TfTripTjTai ] S. Cyrill. Alex. Contra Julian, lib. x. 
 torn. vi. p. 327.
 
 38 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 not to mention others, must remain for ever un- 
 explained, which can hardly be the will of God. 
 And it will be no mark of disrespect for His 
 word, to search for aids towards its better under- 
 standing. Would, then, that some who lived at 
 the time of the Apostles, or knew from others 
 what they taught, had left some writings by which 
 I might find how to decide for myself in this 
 matter!" 
 
 This sort of language, I say, would be very 
 likely to be used by an earnest and humble- 
 minded person resolved, if possible, to obey " a 
 jealous God" in all things. And to such a man 
 we should have to give the glad intelligence, that 
 it has pleased God to preserve to our times the 
 writings of men who lived with the Apostles, and 
 were taught by them or their disciples, and who 
 not only knew but practised too all those " tra- 
 ditions," the observance of which St. Paul so 
 emphatically enjoins. To those writings, the re- 
 pository of Apostolical Tradition, we will now 
 accompany our supposed inquirer. Others may 
 fear to listen to such teaching, lest they hear 
 truths which they have purposed not to receive, 
 and shrink from words which might put to shame 
 the fancies they are resolved not to abandon. 
 With such persons we have no sympathy. We 
 have formed no notions of our own, which we are 
 determined to maintain at all hazards. We are 
 looking for Truth ; and why should we be afraid
 
 CASE OF SAINT JAMES. 39 
 
 to find what we profess to be searching for? 1 We 
 know that St. Timothy was to teach in his gene- 
 ration what St. Paul had taught before him, and 
 that he was to appoint others who should perpe- 
 tuate that teaching. 3 We will receive it, therefore, 
 most gladly, most thankfully ; both because we 
 have an hearty desire to profit by it, and because 
 to reject it would be all one with rejecting St. 
 Paul's commandment that is, God's word. And 
 when the adversary, compelled by his unhappy 
 position to fear and shun these early teachers, 
 would rebuke us, as though, in listening to them, 
 we preferred the witness of men to the witness of 
 God, we impute such words to the necessity of his 
 case, and so pass them by. It is because we love 
 and honour God's word that we will not endure 
 his private and arbitrary interpretation of it ; and 
 for this very cause we ask help from our holy 
 Fathers, and refer to them for all which they can 
 tell us; not for their opinions, valuable as these 
 must be, but for their testimony ; not for what they 
 thought would be right, but what they knew the 
 Apostles had said to be so. And this we are now 
 about to do in the case before us. 
 
 The first witness cited shall be the Apostolic 
 
 1 Like that insincere inquirer spoken of by St. Cyril, .... 
 8(8io>s p.r) apa rl rS>v (Is opQorrjra fj aXr]6fiav, r) TrefppovrjKws fj \eya>v, 
 aXw. Adv. Nestor, lib. v. p. 126. Ef <o/3fio-#e TTJV Kpla-tv, says 
 St. Athanasius, ri dnr]VTa.Tf ; & yap f/ p,f) c\6(iv, rj cXduvras pr) (frtv- 
 ytiv. Adsolit. vitam agenles Epist. torn. i. p. 819. 
 
 7 2 Tim. ii. 2.
 
 40 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 Papias. Acquainted with many who had looked 
 upon the Incarnate Saviour, familiar with the 
 friends of Apostles, and the disciple, as it seems, 
 of St. John himself, this ancient Father was likely 
 to know more of St. James than we can do at 
 the distance of almost eighteen centuries. His 
 lightest word will outweigh all the wild asser- 
 tions of men who speak only from conjecture and 
 their own rude fancies. One sentence is all which 
 we need to quote from him in this place. He is 
 enumerating the various persons mentioned in the 
 Holy Gospels under the name of Mary. Having 
 spoken first of the Blessed Virgin, he notices next 
 the wife of Cleophas or Alpheus, and describes her 
 thus : " who was the mother of James, the Bishop 
 and Apostle" 1 We can hardly be surprised at the 
 intelligence conveyed in this expression, nor deny 
 that it accords exactly with what we read in the 
 Acts and Epistles. 
 
 Let Ignatius, more ancient still, also the ho- 
 noured friend of Apostles, speak next. Having 
 occasion to make mention of the proto-martyr, St. 
 Stephen, he calls him " the Deacon of James"* 
 Now let us hear Hegesippus, who wrote only fifty- 
 eight years after the death of the Apostle John. 
 He is the earliest ecclesiastical historian of whom 
 we have any account, and composed a work in five 
 
 1 " Maria Cleophae sive Alphei uxor, quse fuit mater Jacob! 
 Episcopi et Apostoli." Papiae Fragment, ap. Grabii Spicileg. torn. 
 ii. p. 34. 
 
 2 Epist. ad Trail., quoted by Hammond, Dissert, ii. cap. ii. 3.
 
 CASE OF SAINT JAMES. 41 
 
 books, a very small portion of which has been pre- 
 served to our times, though it is referred to by an 
 author of the third century. 1 Speaking, in his his- 
 tory, of the death of St. James, he says, " James, 
 the Lord's brother, who was surnamed of all men the 
 Just, undertook, together with the Apostles, the go- 
 vernment of the Church at Jerusalem"* Here we 
 have the testimony of an historian, writing upon 
 facts of which he was intimately cognisant. Sy- 
 meon, the brother of James, and his successor in 
 the see of Jerusalem, died in possession of that 
 dignity several years after the death of St. John, 
 and therefore after the birth of Hegesippus. And 
 this circumstance alone renders it plainly impos- 
 sible that Hegesippus could either have been de- 
 ceived himself, or have succeeded, even upon the 
 injurious supposition that he might have attempted 
 it, in deceiving others. 
 
 About thirty years later lived St. Clement of 
 Alexandria, who was known to have oeen in- 
 structed by "the most primitive Elders," 3 and was 
 perhaps the most eminent Christian of his age. 
 He has these words in reference to our subject : 
 "Peter, and James, and John, after the Resurrec- 
 
 1 Vide Hieron. CataL Script., and Euseb. Hist. Ecc. iv. 22. 
 
 2 AtaSe'^erat 8e TT;I/ KK\rja-iav p,fra T>V aTrooroXwi' 6 d8fA<^>oj TOV 
 K.vpiov 'laxa>/3oy, 6 ovopatrfols wro iravrw Aucmos. Hegesip. De Morte 
 S. Jacobi, ap. Routh. Reliq. Sac. torn. i. p. 192. I have given 
 Lardner's rendering ; but vide Petavii De Eccledast. Hierarch. lib. 
 i. cap. ix. 11, 12. 
 
 3 Euseb. H. E. vi. 14.
 
 42 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 tion of the Saviour, although they were honoured of 
 the Lord, did not contend for the dignity themselves, 
 but made James, the Just, Bishop of Jerusalem." * 
 
 Hear next St. Jerome, one distinguished even 
 among Saints ; himself, like Clement, only a Pres- 
 byter ; and who thus writes : " Immediately after 
 the Passion of the Lord, James was ordained by the 
 Apostles Bishop of Jerusalem"* 
 
 Turn now to the testimony of St. Cyril. He 
 was himself Bishop of Jerusalem A.D. 349 ; and in 
 a public discourse, delivered in the holy city itself, 
 spoke as follows : " The care of these matters has 
 not fallen upon me alone, but upon the Apostles, and 
 upon James, who was Bishop of this Church:" and 
 elsewhere he calls him, "James, thejirst Bishop of 
 this Diocese"* 
 
 We have heard now witnesses from Europe, 
 Asia, and Africa : it seems superfluous to add any 
 thing to their testimony. That which is derived 
 from the historians is of course founded upon their 
 
 1 TLfrpov <pr)arl Kal 'laKw/Soj/ /cat 'Ia>dvvT)v /wra TTJV dvaXijij/iv TOV 
 pos, cas av KOI VTTO TOV Kvpiov TrpOTeTiprjfj.evovs, pf) e7ri8iKae<r$eu $6{-T)s, 
 dXXa 'laKa)/3oj/, TOV AIKCUOI/, eTrio~Koirov T>V 'lepo(roXv/ia>i> eXeV&u. Clem. 
 Hypotyp. lib. vi., quoted by Bingham, Antiq. Ecc. torn. i. p. 62. ed. 
 Grischov. 
 
 * " Post passionem Domini statim ab Apostolis Hierosolymorum 
 Episcopus ordinatus." Hieron. Catal. Script., and vide Adv. Jovi- 
 nian. lib. i. cap. xxiv. Cf. Aug. Contra Literas PetUiani, lib. ii. 
 cap. li. 
 
 3 Hep! yap Toirrav OVK e/tot povov, dXX' ^877 Kal TO'IS aTrooroXoty, Kal 
 ' ltiKu>,J<t), r<5 TavTTjs TTJS fKK\T](r{as fTricTKOTrm, enrouS^ ye'-yoj/e. S. Cyrill. 
 Catech. iv. fireiTa a>(p6r) TW eavTuv pev dSeX^xa 'laKo>/3w, eVto-KOTrw 8e 
 Trparrcp TTJS napoiKias TOirrrjf. Catech, xiv.
 
 CASE OF SAINT JAMES. 43 
 
 words. Thus Photius and he had the use of do- 
 cuments long since perished tells us that "James 
 received the sacred unction and the government of 
 Jerusalem at the Lord's hand." 1 And Nicephorus 
 says, "James was first appointed by the Saviour 
 Christ to the Church at Jerusalem." 1 * And lastly, 
 that we may bring these proofs to an end, Euse- 
 bius, an earlier historian, has recorded, not only 
 that" James first received the Bishopric of the Church 
 of Jerusalem" but that the very throne in which 
 the blessed Prelate sat had been preserved to his 
 day, and was then openly exhibited to all the 
 faithful as a sacred relic of the Apostolic age. 3 
 
 The fact being thus testified by witnesses so 
 various and so competent and many more might 
 be adduced 4 little seems to be needed in the way 
 
 6 TrpSrros dp^ifpeotv, Kal Secnron/o; 
 Kal TTJV ffpoptiav 'lepoo-oXv/iwi* \a\ibv, TrpoeorijKet . . . K.T.\. Photii 
 Epist. cxvii. Theodorio Monacho, p. 158. ed. Montacut. 
 
 * TTJV 'lepocro\vfj.(i>v fKK^rjcriav 'laKa>/3os Trp&ros Trapa rot) Swnjpos 
 Xptoroi) fyKfxfipurrai. Niceph. Hist. lib. ii. cap. xxxviii. ap. Morin. 
 De Sac. Ordinat. par. iii. p. 38. 
 
 3 If. E. vii. 19 : while another writer has even preserved the 
 memorial of an article of his episcopal attire ; see St. Epiphan. 
 Hares. 78. 
 
 4 For, as Archbishop Whitgift observes, " the same thing do all 
 ecclesiastical histories and wryters that make any mention of this 
 matter affirme of him." Defense of Answere to the Admonition, 
 p. 384. " It is not to be doubted," says another, " but that James 
 his being Bishop of Jerusalem was a thing as notorious, and as cer- 
 tainly knowne among Christians in those times, as there is no doubt 
 made among us now, that Dr. Cranmer was Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury in King Henry the Eighth's time." Bishop Downame, Def. 
 of Serm. book iv. ch. iii. Even the adversaries admit what they 
 cannot successfully deny. " Cum magno consensu veteres tradunt,
 
 44 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 of comment. The recognition in Holy Scripture of 
 the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy is all, as has been said, 
 which our case requires; and there is evidently 
 much more than a bare recognition here. The ex- 
 pressions in the Bible which, to say the least, in- 
 dicate that St. James was head of the Church at 
 Jerusalem ; and the testimony of holy men, who 
 positively affirm, some of them from a personal 
 knowledge of the fact, that he was actually or- 
 dained Bishop of that See by the Apostles ; these 
 are in exact accordance with each other. And 
 even if men should venture to reject both, they 
 have still to encounter a new proof, more inflexible 
 than either ; namely, that which is supplied by the 
 succession of Bishops continued downwards from 
 St. James himself, and certified to us upon evi- 
 dence as conclusive as that which we possess of 
 any historical fact whatsoever. 1 It is unnecessary, 
 then, to say more here of the case of St. James. 
 We profess to be searching after truth; it will 
 
 eo tempore Jacobum quenadain ut Episcopum Ecclesige Hierosoly- 
 mitanse praefuisse." Buddeus, De Statu Eccles. Christ, sub Apost. 
 cap. iv. 3. 
 
 1 The first fifteen Bishops of Jerusalem appear to have been 
 without exception Jews. In the year 135 the Church at vElia was 
 composed entirely of Gentiles ; and then Mark, the first Gentile 
 Bishop, was elected. Since that time the line has continued un- 
 broken, and is traced by Le Quien through 124 Bishops down to 
 Milatheus, A.D. 1733 ; De Patriarchatu Hierosolymitano, Oriens 
 Ckristianus, torn. iii. p. 10(3. St. Epiphanius (Hares. 66, torn. i. 
 pp. 636, 7) gives the catalogue of the Bishops of Jerusalem, toge- 
 ther with that of the Emperors, down to Hymenaeus, the 37th, in 
 the time of Aurelian. Eusebius continues it to Macarius, the 39th.
 
 CASE OF SAINT JAMES. 45 
 
 surely be an evil wilfulness to reject it when 
 found. 1 
 
 1 This the adversaries do not venture to do openly. " From the 
 Acts and St. Paul's Epistles," says one of the most learned among 
 them, " we can perceive that after our Lord's ascension he (St. James) 
 was of note among the Apostles. Soon after St. Stephen's death, in 
 the year 36, or thereabouts, he seems to have been appointed Presi- 
 dent or Superintendent (!) in the Church of Jerusalem, where, and 
 in Judea, he resided the remaining part of his life. Accordingly he 
 presided at the Council of Jerusalem." Lardner, Hist, of Writers 
 of N. T. ch. xvii. This notion of the holy Apostle being turned into 
 a congregational " superintendent," is characteristic of the sect to 
 which Lardner belonged. But they are not all so disingenuous. 
 The famous Peter Du Moulin honestly confessed to Bishop An- 
 drewes, that he believed St. James to have been Bishop of Jeru- 
 salem ; " Aerium damnavi ; ipsum Jacobum dixi fuisse Episcopum 
 lerosolymitanum ; a quo longa serie deducta est Episcoporum ejus- 
 dem urbis successio." Petri Molinaei Epist. 3 aa , ap. Andrewes, 
 Opwcul. p. 184 (1629). " Luke describes James," says Martin 
 Bucer, " as Prelate of the whole Church, and of all the Presbyters ;" 
 and he truly adds, " Talis ordinatio in aliis quoque TLcclesiis perpetuo 
 observata est, quantum ex omnibus historiis ecclesiasticis cognoscere 
 possumus ; etiam apud Patres antiquissimos, ut Tertullianum, Cy- 
 prianum, IrenaBum," &c. De Animarum Cura, Opp. p. 280, ed. 
 Basil. 1577. Calvin, as might be expected, is less candid, and tries 
 to get rid of the case, though he elsewhere contradicts himself, by 
 saying, " I deny not that he was Prefect of the Church of Jerusa- 
 lem." In Prafat. ad Jacobi Epist. His successor, John Diodati, 
 more openly calls him by his right name, " Bishop of Jerusalem ;" 
 Argument, in Ep. S. Jacobi. Basnage styles him, " Hierosolymi- 
 tanse Ecclesiae Presses ;" Exercitat. Histor. Critic. Ann. 44. p. 506. 
 Even Salmasius confesses that he " presided with superior authority 
 over the assembly of Presbyters ; coetui Presbyterorum . . . cum 
 auctoritate majore prseesset." De Episc. et Presb. cap. i. p. 46. 
 Francis Buddeus frankly concedes, " Hunc ipsum Jacobum Epis- 
 copurn quoque fuisse Hierosolymitanum." De Stat. Ecc. cap. iv. 3. 
 p. 230 ; and see Benzelii Dissert, torn. i. p. 545, and the note. 
 (Helmstad.) Many others might be added, whose unwilling admis- 
 sions are for the most part of that kind noticed by the learned Jesuit 
 Petavius ; " Episcopum fuisse Jacobum partim perfracte negat Sal- 
 masius, partirn titubanter ac timide fatetur, neque constat sibi." De 
 Ecc. Hierarck. torn. iv. lib. i. cap. viii. 1.
 
 4<6 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 CASE OF SAINT TIMOTHY. 
 
 II. The next case to which I would direct at- 
 tention is that of St. Timothy. That a certain 
 jurisdiction was assigned to him also, we know; 
 and we would ascertain its nature and extent. 
 With this object let us refer, as before, to the sure 
 guidance of Holy Writ. 
 
 (1.) And first, he was ordained to his office, 
 whatever that may have been, by St. Paul himself. 
 " Stir up the gift of God," that Apostle says, " which 
 is in thee by the putting on of my hands" l Also 
 this " Laying on of hands" which, in our days, is 
 seen to share the fate of other high truths, was 
 from the beginning included amongst the funda- 
 mental "principles" of the Doctrine of Christ. In 
 a statement of certain essential Catholic verities 
 
 1 2 Tim. i. 6 ; and whereas St. Paul speaks elsewhere (1 Tim. iv. 
 14) of " the laying on of the hands of the presbytery ;" even Calvin 
 acknowledges without reserve, that the expression refers not to pres- 
 byters at all, but to the order to which Timothy was then appointed. 
 " Quod in altera epistola de iinpositione manuum presbyterii dicitur, 
 non ita accipio quasi Paulus de seniorum collegia loquatur ; sed hoc 
 nomine ordinationem ipsam intelligo : quasi diceret, Fac ut gratia 
 quam per manuum impositionem recepisti, quum te Presbyterum 
 crearem, non sit irrita." Calvin. Institut. lib. iv. cap. iii. 16. And 
 this opinion of Calvin's Grotius applauds and embraces, saying, " ut 
 irpea-fivrepiov qfficii sit nomen non ccetus admodum probabiliter sentit 
 magnus ille Calvinus." Ordin. Holland, et Westfrisice Piet, p. 98. 
 " Presbyterium est ordo," says a very different writer, " qui ma- 
 nuum impositione confertur ad conficienda et dispensanda Sacra- 
 menta," &c. Pet. De Marca, De Concord. Sac. et Imp. lib. ii. cap. 
 xiii. torn. i. p. 280.
 
 CASE OF SAINT TIMOTHY. 47 
 
 which constitute what St. Paul calls " the founda- 
 tion" of Christian Doctrine, this occupies a place. 
 "Repentance," "Faith," "Baptism," "Resurrec- 
 tion," and " Eternal Judgment" these are the 
 doctrines with which the "Laying on of hands" is 
 classed by the Holy Spirit. 1 And it is of this 
 "Laying on of hands" that some men, in our days, 
 fear not to speak lightly. 
 
 (2.) " The gift" which St. Timothy had re- 
 ceived was imparted by such an imposition ; and 
 the sacred hands which touched his head, in order 
 to its communication, were those of an Apostle. 
 " Stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the 
 laying on of my hands." And now what authority 
 had been committed to him ? The following par- 
 ticulars seem to have been included in it. 
 
 (3.) First, he was to " charge some that they 
 teach no other doctrine" 2 but that which he had 
 received. Observe, not only the people, but their 
 pastors, their " teachers" were under his authority ; 
 these also he was to admonish, which surely it were 
 idle to do, if he possessed not the power to restrain 
 them. St. Paul would hardly bid him assume a 
 supremacy where all were of equal rank, or assert 
 a superiority which none were to recognise. He 
 possessed, therefore, the powers which he was in- 
 structed to use ; and both priest and people knew 
 that he possessed them. 3 
 
 1 Heb. vi. 1, 2. 2 1 Tim. i. 3. 
 
 3 If Timothy were only a Presbyter equal to the rest, " those
 
 48 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 Again, he was to "command" 1 with little effi- 
 cacy, we must suppose, unless he could compel 
 obedience. He was to " teach ;" and not only so, 
 but to empower others to do the like : " The same 
 commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to 
 teach others also." 2 They could not teach, there- 
 fore, till he gave them license, nor teach any thing 
 but what he bade them, nor at all unless they were 
 " faithful men," of which he was the only judge. 
 Their qualifications, their orders, and their preach- 
 ing, had, so to speak, no existence but in relation 
 to him. Again, he was to "receive accusations" 
 even against "Elders" and that in solemn state, 
 " before two or three witnesses"* at least. And this 
 was a weighty office ; for we may not think that 
 he held the judge's seat without his power. Any 
 how it is plain that he did not; for he was not 
 
 Teachers were as good as he ; what, then, had he to do to charge 
 Teachers ? or what would those Teachers care for his charge ? How 
 equally apt would they be to charge him to keep within his own com- 
 pass, and to meddle with his own matters ! It is only for superiors 
 to charge, and inferiors to obey." Bp. Hall, Episcopacy by Divine 
 Right, 5, p. 193. " How vaine and frivolous," says Bishop Bil- 
 son, " were all those protestations made by St. Paul, if Timothy and 
 Titus had only voyces amongst the- rest, and nothing to do but as the 
 rest ! how farre was the Apostle overseene to adjure them, and not 
 the whole Presbyterie, to keep his prescriptions inviolable, if the 
 Elders might every houre countermand them and over-rule them by 
 number of voyces !" Perpetual Government of the Church, chap. v. 
 Ti et^e TTpay/jLa, asks St. Epiphanius, fTrivKOTrov Trpeir/Surepw fj,ri (iri- 
 TT\f]TTfiv, fl fir) rfv vrrtp TOV Trpfo-ftirrfpov f)(a>v TTJV f^ovcriav ', and he 
 adds, " there is no admonition given to Presbyters not to rebuke 
 Bishops." Hceres. 75, torn. i. p. 910. 
 
 1 1 Tim. iv. 11. 2 2 Tim. ii. 2. 
 
 3 1 Tim. v. 19.
 
 CASE OF SAINT TIMOTHY. 49 
 
 only to " receive accusations," but also, if it became 
 necessary, to pronounce judgment : he was to " re- 
 buke" 1 and that publicly, "before all" to the intent 
 " that others also might fear f which they would 
 scarcely do but in the apprehension of punishment. 
 Men are not wont to care much for the rebuke of 
 their equals. 
 
 Moreover, he was to confer upon others the 
 sacred "gift" after that specific form in which it 
 had been conveyed to himself; he was to admi- 
 nister, not lightly nor inconsiderately, the same 
 sacramental rite whence he had derived his own 
 prerogative. "Lay hands suddenly on no man" 2 
 was the great Apostle's injunction; and solemnly 
 does he charge his immediate successor, "before 
 God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect 
 Angels," that in the exercise of his Office he should 
 shew " TZO preference of one above another" nor " do 
 any thing by partiality"* The Apostle, then, who 
 could not be mistaken, judged that he had some- 
 thing to give worth having, or how should any one 
 gain by his preference, or lose by his partiality ? 
 Also, he might, if he chose, dispense his gifts to 
 this man or that, to the unfaithful instead of the 
 "faithful." It were a crime in him, but he had 
 power to do it ; else why was this warning needed ? 
 
 Lastly, as being now to be left alone, he was to 
 look well to himself henceforward, and, as his great 
 
 1 1 Tim. v. 20. ! II). v. -J2. 
 
 3 Ib. v. 21.
 
 50 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 predecessor had done, to "keep that good thing 
 committed to him." " Let no man despise thy 
 youth," was St. Paul's word to him. " Make full 
 proof of thy ministry," he added ; "for I am now 
 ready to be offered, and the time of my departure 
 is at hand." He was now to take up the Office 
 which St. Paul was about to lay down : it behoved 
 him to discharge it well, and carefully to hand it 
 on to the generation following; for all which had 
 been enjoined upon him was not delivered for his 
 own sake only, but to be kept, so the blessed 
 Apostle spake, whole and inviolate "until the ap- 
 pearing of our Lord Jesus Christ" 1 
 
 I have examined sufficiently the Epistles to 
 Timothy, wishing only to notice, as in the former 
 case, expressions which indicate that he possessed 
 authority of a peculiar and eminent kind. This is 
 all which the course of my argument requires. 
 Other passages might have been quoted from these 
 Epistles in confirmation of those already adduced ; 
 but these are enough for the present purpose 
 they are enough, our position being such as it is. 
 For since Prophecy has distinctly marked out a 
 certain Ecclesiastical System, which should be 
 coeval with the first preaching of the Gospel of 
 Christ, and History has recorded the existence of a 
 corresponding System from that very epoch down 
 to the age in which we ourselves live ; then, if that 
 
 1 1 Tim. vi. 14.
 
 CASE OF SAINT TIMOTHY. 51 
 
 which these Scripture-notices of the New Testa- 
 ment seem, however obscurely, to recognise, be not 
 the very System in which both we and our fathers 
 have lived, we must suppose one of two things ; 
 either that those numerous passages which speak 
 of a Church and its Discipline have no definite sig- 
 nification whatever, which were to dishonour the 
 Blessed Spirit by Whom they were delivered; or, 
 that though they do point to an Institution then 
 established by the Apostles, and thenceforward to 
 increase and prosper throughout all time, that In- 
 stitution was presently defaced and destroyed; 
 either that those passages do not, though they 
 seem to do so, contemplate any Church at all, or 
 else that the Church of the New Testament had 
 no existence for fifteen ages ; for, during all that 
 period, there was, confessedly, but that one alone 
 of which we are members. If, therefore, in other 
 words, such passages as those above cited do not 
 refer to, and so sanction, that which we call " the 
 Church," they can refer to nothing ; for there has 
 been no other Church till yesterday which even 
 professed to answer to them; and if they do, 
 they would suffice for the present argument, even 
 though they were much fewer and less emphatic 
 than they are ; which is what I began by saying. 
 And now if, after what we have seen, we should 
 find that St. Timothy was indeed Bishop of Ephe-r 
 sus, we can hardly refuse to believe it on account 
 of any counter evidence from Scripture. That evi-
 
 52 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 dence is all in one direction. It tells us plainly 
 enough that he possessed certain great gifts and 
 powers, a signal kind of authority, committed to 
 him by the laying on of an Apostle's hands. It 
 tells us that he was empowered by the Holy Ghost 
 to restrain, to rebuke, and to censure not only the 
 Lord's flock, but also the Pastors of that flock, the 
 Presbyters or Elders who either had been by other 
 Apostles or should be by himself ordained ; and it 
 teaches that, in the exercise of his high Office as 
 a spiritual Judge, he was amenable to no human 
 authority, nor responsible before any tribunal but 
 that of Christ Himself. To his rule both Priest 
 and people were subject ; but he was made subject 
 to no man. 
 
 Such are the intimations to be gathered from 
 Holy Scripture with respect to the Office which 
 St. Timothy held in the Church. That they do 
 harmonise very exactly with the belief and prac- 
 tice of that Church in all ages, will not be denied. 
 It is an agreement which every true believer would 
 confidently expect ; for the faithful are taught that 
 the Bible and the Church, being the creation of 
 the same Lord, can never contradict each other; 
 that would be, if it may be said, as if He should 
 contradict Himself. The Church teaches that St. 
 Timothy was a Bishop; the Bible, as we have 
 seen, confirms her teaching: it remains that we 
 hear lastly the additional testimony of those an- 
 cient witnesses, who were able to speak on this
 
 CASE OF SAINT TIMOTHY. 53 
 
 matter with a confidence and assurance, by which 
 we may well be thankful to the divine goodness 
 that we are permitted to profit. 
 
 It will not be necessary to make many refer- 
 ences in this case, because it is similar to the last, 
 and may be proved by testimony as abundant. I 
 begin with two most ancient records of the mar- 
 tyrdom of St. Timothy ; of which one was written 
 by Polycrates, himself Bishop of Ephesus but a 
 few years later, and born only thirty-seven years 
 after St. John wrote his Epistle to the Angel of 
 that Church; 1 and the other by a writer whose 
 name has not survived, but who affirms, as ex- 
 pressly as the former, the Episcopal character of 
 St. Timothy. His words are these : " The Apostle 
 Timothy was ordained, by the illustrious Paul, Bi- 
 shop of the metropolitan city of the Ephesians, and 
 there enthroned '" 2 These are plain words, and very 
 much to the point. They accord with St. Paul's 
 own expressions in the Epistles to Timothy, and 
 serve to explain what we read there about his 
 " receiving accusations against Elders," " rebuking 
 publicly that others also might, fear," and so on. 
 And if any refuse to receive such evidence, we can 
 only say with a great writer of our communion, 
 
 1 Vide Usserii Opuscula. 
 
 8 C O a7T(5oToAof Tifiodfos vrrb TOV fjifyaXov IlavXou /cat ^ftporowlrtu 
 rStv > E</>e<ri'a>j' /^rpoTroAfwy fTrivKoiros KCU fv6povi(Tai. Martyrium Ti- 
 mothei Apostoli, ap. Photii Biblioth. num. 254. Accordingly the 
 Pseudo-Areopagite addresses him as Pontifex, or High Priest. Dio- 
 nysii Areopag. DC Ccelest. Hierarch. cap. ix. p. 3. ed. Corderii.
 
 54- SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 " He that will not give faith upon current testimo- 
 nies, and uncontradicted by Antiquity, is a mad- 
 man, and may as well disbelieve every thing which 
 he hath not seen himself." 1 The man who is cast- 
 ing about for an apology for having already de- 
 serted the Church of Christ may reject it, because 
 it condemns himself; but we are concerned rather 
 with those whose profession it is, that they seek, 
 not their own, but their Lord's will. 
 
 Let us hear now the famous ecclesiastical his- 
 torian. He tells us that " Timothy is related in 
 history to have first received the Bishopric of the 
 Diocese of Ephesus, as Titus also did of the Churches 
 of Crete" 2 St. Jerome says, " Timothy was ordained 
 Bishop of the Ephesians by the blessed Paul." 3 And 
 this is confirmed by the voices of all who have 
 any claim to be heard in such a matter. Only 
 one more witness shall be cited, because he spoke 
 under peculiar circumstances, and his evidence is 
 such as can hardly be gainsayed. 
 
 At the Council of Chalcedon, held A.D. 451, 
 
 1 Bishop Jeremy Taylor. " Si enim ea quae non vidimus, hoc est, 
 in prtesentia non sensimus vel mente vel corpore, neque de Scripturis 
 sanctis vel legendo vel audiendo didicimus, nulla omnino credidisse- 
 mus, unde sciremus esse civitates ubi nunquam fuiinus ; vel a Romulo 
 conditam Romam ; vel, ut de propinquioribus loquar, Constantino- 
 polim a Constantino ? Uncle postremo sciremus quinam parentes nos 
 procreavissent, quibus patribus, avis, majoribus, geniti essemus ? " 
 Aug. Epist. cxii. Paulina, torn. ii. p. 200. 
 
 2 Tip.66fos ye [MJV TTJS lv 'E^eVw TrapoiKias toropeirai irparros rffv 
 fni<rKOTr>)v eiA^f i/at, ws KI Tiros rS>v tir\ KpijT^y eKK\r)(ria>v. H. E. iii. 4. 
 
 3 " Timotheus Ephesiorum Episcopus ordiuatus a beato Paulo." 
 Catal. Script. Eccles.
 
 CASE OF SAINT TIMOTHY. 55 
 
 there were present a multitude of Bishops. Among 
 these was Leontius, Bishop of Magnesia in Asia ; 
 and it is to his words that I am going to refer. 
 They occur in the course of an address which he 
 made to the Fathers assembled in that holy Coun- 
 cil; and being obviously incidental, are the more 
 valuable for our purpose. It was being discussed, 
 with whom lay the right of electing and consecrat- 
 ing a Bishop of Ephesus, upon the deposition of 
 the Prelate of the day ; whether with that present 
 Council, or with the Synod of the province of 
 Asia. The latter view was maintained by Leon- 
 tius, who appealed, as if to a recognised fact which 
 could not be disputed, to the ancient and uniform 
 custom. It was for Ephesus itself that he claimed 
 the privilege in question, and it was thus that he 
 enforced the claim : "From the holy Timothy" said 
 he, before all that grave assembly, " to the present 
 time, there have been twenty-seven Bishops, all of 
 whom were ordained in Ephesus" 1 
 
 Here we may conclude the present case. I 
 forbear to quote further the ancient writers who, 
 with one voice, speak of St. Timothy as exercising 
 the authority of Bishop of Ephesus. If the above 
 
 1 'ATTO TOV ayiov TipoMov p.fXP l wv (i<ocri tirra (iricrKOTroi eyevovro, 
 irdiTts (v 'E<eV6> e^eipoToi^^o-aj/. Concil. Chalcedon. Actio Unde- 
 cima, ap. Labbei et Cossart. Concil. Max. torn. iv. p. 700. " Cer- 
 tainly none can imagine," says Bishop Morton upon these words, 
 " but that even shame itself would have restrained Leontius from 
 making such a public declaration in the hearing of above 600 Fa- 
 thers, if the matter itself had been liable to any contradiction." 
 Episcopacy Asserted Apostolical, chap. iv. 20.
 
 56 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 do not prove the point, no amount of evidence will 
 suffice to do so. And surely it does add something 
 to the force of all this testimony, that until these 
 last days no man ever doubted it; that all the 
 servants of God, for many successive ages, would 
 as little have thought of denying that Timothy was 
 Bishop of Ephesus, as that the Epistles addressed 
 to him were written by St. Paul both facts having 
 been delivered to them upon exactly the same testi- 
 mony} 
 
 CASE OF SAINT TITUS. 
 
 III. Consider next the case of Titus. He too 
 was ordained by St. Paul ; and why ? Hear the 
 Apostle himself, who can best tell us. " For this 
 cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set 
 in order the things that are wanting, and ordain 
 elders in every city, as I had appointed thee." 2 Now 
 
 1 " That Timothy was a Bishop, and Bishop of Ephesus, the 
 metropolis or chief city of Asia, is so fully attested by all antiquity, 
 that he must be either very ignorant or very shameless that shall deny 
 it, especially there being besides very plain evidence of the episcopal 
 power and authority wherewith he was invested in this very Epistle 
 of St. Paul written to him." Bp. Bull, Sermon xiii. Works, vol. i. 
 p. 328. Certainly, " if to model Churches, to prescribe Rules, to 
 confer holy Orders, to command, examine, judge, and reprehend 
 offenders openly (even Presbyters themselves), I say, if these are 
 parts of Episcopal power, then was Timothy a Bishop indeed : and 
 I should be loth to see half that charter given to a single Presbyter 
 which is here given to Timothy by this great Apostle." Felling, 
 Antiquity of Episcopacy, p. 39. 
 
 2 Tit. i. 5. " By this passage our Presbyterian brethren are, not 
 without reason, put to great straits. The shifts to which they are
 
 CASE OF SAINT TITUS. 57 
 
 " there were presbyters at Ephesus besides Timo- 
 thy, and in Crete besides Titus ; and yet Paul left 
 the one at Ephesus to impose hands, and the other 
 in Crete to ordain presbyters in every city. If 
 without them the presbyters in either place might 
 have done it, superfluous was both Paul's charge 
 they should do it, and directions how they should 
 do it. But his committing that power and care to 
 them proveth, in the judgment of the Ancient Fa- 
 driven may be conceived when (one of their most famous teachers) 
 resorts to the disingenuous device of explaining it of the interposition 
 of Titus, i.e. with the congregation, which, he adds, would have 
 great weight with them ! " Bloomfield, Annot. vol. viii. p. 346. 
 " Delegatus Apostoli vicarius fuit," says another of them ; " et ejus 
 po testate et vice omnia regit." J. H. Boehmer. Dissert. Juris Ec- 
 clesiast. Antiq. Diss. vii. p. 403. But " each hath an interpretation ;" 
 and it would be tedious to notice more of them. It is, however, 
 observable how far the disciples have got beyond their master. With 
 Calvin this one passage was proof enough of the imparity of minis- 
 ters. " Discimus ex hoc loco," says he, " non fuisse tune aequalita- 
 tem inter Ecclesiae ministros, quin unus prceesset auctoritate et con- 
 silio." In loc. : and again, Institut. lib. iv. cap. iv. 2. He and his 
 successors laughed to scorn the notion of ministerial parity. " Absit 
 a nobis," says Beza, " ut ul him ara^iav invehamus in Ecclesiam Dei, 
 quae sane invehatur necesse est, si omnia Ecclesise munera inter se 
 paria et sequalia faciamus." De Ecclesia, cap. v., Tractat. Theoloy. 
 torn. i. p. 33 (ed. 1582). So Salmasius still more emphatically ; 
 " Nunquam Ecclesia sine primatu fuit. . . . Nullum sane dari potest 
 corpus, ordo, vel ccetus, sive civilis, sive ecclesiasticus, qui sane pri- 
 matu fuerit, out qui etiam possit sine primatu subsistere." Ad Mil- 
 tonum Respons. cap. iii. p. 347. So Martin Bucer, Explicat. de Vi et 
 Usu S. Minist. p. 565 ; and De Ordinal. Legit. Minist. Ecc. p. 259. 
 These men, who, in the language of the great Bramhall, "juggled 
 themselves into as absolute a papacy as ever was within the walls of 
 Rome" Fair Warning of Scottish Discipline, ch. viii. p. 506 cer- 
 tainly were of the same mind with the subtle Greek, 
 
 Owe dyaOov Tro\vKoipavir]' ds Koipuvos ftrro), 
 
 Efj fruriXtvs. 11. il. 204.
 
 00 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 thers, that the presbyters without them could not 
 do it." 1 This seems unanswerable; for if the pres- 
 byters who were in Crete before the appointment 
 of Titus had power to ordain others, why was he 
 sent for this special purpose "for this cause" as 
 the Apostle says ? 
 
 In truth this one Scripture, even if there were 
 no other such, is enough, as has often been re- 
 marked, to discredit all the inventions of modern 
 times. 2 The whole course of history agrees ex- 
 actly with it. From "the beginning" we find Bi- 
 shops so ordaining ; here St. Paul bids them to do 
 it ; and never for fifteen ages did any question it, 
 till they who had ventured to cast off God's Disci- 
 pline, and set up their own, were obliged to do so, 
 that they might defend their own profaneness. So 
 that we might safely rest our cause upon this one 
 text, if need were, and challenge the adversary to 
 
 1 Bilson, Church Government, book xii. p. 225. " La subordi- 
 nation dans la conduite et dans la hierarchie de 1'Eglise," says Ques- 
 nel upon the same text, " et la diversite de degres des pasteurs, se 
 trouvent etablies des le terns des Apotres par 1'ordre de Jesus-Christ, 
 qui les a instruits de vive voix." 
 
 2 Of which it has been well said, that before their advocates can 
 excuse them, " they must first put the Epistles to Timothy and Titus 
 out. of the Bible." Thorndike, Primitive Government of Churches, 
 ch. xii. And this, as Clement of Alexandria notices, some ancient 
 heretics actually did ; Stromat. lib. ii. p. 383. Marcion, too, rejected 
 them, as Tertullian informs us ; Adv. Marcion. lib. v. cap. xxi. 
 p. 615. Aerius was content to put his own interpretation on them ; 
 S. Epiphan. Hceres. Ixxv. pp. 908-10 ; and it is worthy of notice, 
 that his very words have been commonly used both by Presbyterians 
 and Socinians. Vide Crellii Annot. ad Tit. i. apud Biblioth. Fratr. 
 Polon.
 
 CASE OF SAINT TITUS. 59 
 
 impugn it. " For," as it has been said, " unlesse 
 they be able to shew, that in the first two hundred 
 yeares the Presbyters either had de jure the power 
 to ordaine, or that de facto they did use to ordaine, 
 which they will never be able to shew, the worst 
 of these testimonies for the Bishops is of more 
 worth than all that they shall be able to say against 
 them. Let them produce, if they can, any one 
 sentence, out of Councils, Histories, or Fathers, 
 proving that Presbyters without a Bishop had right 
 to ordaine, and I will yield to them." 1 Meanwhile, 
 until they perform this impossibility, we must have 
 leave to think that the Sacred Scriptures mean 
 what they seem to mean, and that all those holy 
 men of God who believed Titus to be a Bishop, 
 and that St. Paul made him so, were not mistaken 
 in their belief. 
 
 It would be easy to accumulate passages from 
 Scripture asserting for Titus, as for the others, that 
 eminent power which none but Bishops have ever 
 exercised. Thus, he was to " exhort" and to " re- 
 buke with all authority"* Again; "A man that is 
 an heretic, after the first and second admonition, 
 reject"* So that to his Office belonged the power 
 of Ordination, Admonition, and Excommunication; 
 and " each of these and the like Apostolical injunc- 
 tions do fully express an Episcopal function and 
 authority over Presbyters, and the whole Churches 
 
 1 Downaniu, Defence of Sermon, book iii. ch. iv. p. 00. 
 
 2 Tit. ii. 10. 3 Tit. iii. 10.
 
 60 
 
 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 under them." 1 Moreover, these injunctions were 
 addressed to him personally : I left thee ; I ap- 
 pointed thee ; do thou rebuke with all authority; 
 do thou reject heretics. Which observation might 
 have been made with respect to St. Timothy also. 
 " This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy ;" 
 " these things write I unto thee ;" " that thou might- 
 est charge some;" "against an Elder receive not 
 thou an accusation," c. ; we only hear of Elders 
 as being subject to the authority of St. Timothy, 
 and they never complained of being in subjection. 2 
 And certainly " receiving accusations against a man, 
 examining witnesses in the case, and rebuking or 
 censuring according to the demerit, is jurisdiction 
 and superiority, or I know not what is. Were 
 these presbyters, then, equal to Timothy their Bi- 
 shop ? was Bishop and presbyter, then, the same 
 thing? had every presbyter the same authority 
 over Timothy that Timothy had over him ? That 
 would have made a wild sort of government." 3 
 And yet we are asked to believe that it was thus 
 ordained by the Apostle ; or, if we like not this, 
 to suppose that Timothy and Titus were indeed 
 what the Universal Church believed them to have 
 
 1 Bp. Morton, Episcopacy Apostolical, ch. iv. 5. 
 
 * " The Bishops (then) pretended to no more than presbyters 
 were willing to yield them ; and presbyters claimed no more than 
 Bishops were ready to allow them. Their contentions lay chiefly 
 with those that were without ; these intestine feuds and broils being 
 reserved for our unhappy days." Bp. Burnet, Observations on the 
 Second Canon, p. 57. 
 
 3 Leslie, Rehearsals, no. 281.
 
 CASE OF SAINT TITUS. 61 
 
 been ; but that, in spite of St. Paul's express words 
 to the contrary, they were to have no successors in 
 their Office, which was to cease with themselves, 
 and then all be reduced to parity of rank and 
 power ! 1 And this we are invited to accept for 
 truth, in opposition to our own natural senses, the 
 plain words of Holy Scripture, and the unanimous 
 faith of all ages, places, and people. Such reason- 
 ings seem to be sufficiently answered by those 
 words of one of our Fathers : " Did you pleade 
 before the poorest Jurie that is for earthly trifles, 
 they woulde not credite your worde without some 
 witnesse; and in matters of religion, that touch 
 the peace and safetie of the whole Church of 
 Christ, do you looke your voluntarie should be 
 received without all authoritie or testimonie to 
 warrant it ? If your follie be such as to expect 
 so much at other men's hands, their simplicitie is 
 not such as to yield it. Indeed, to my conceiving, 
 the summe of your answer is very like the forme 
 of your discipline, neither of them hath any 
 proofe, possibilitie, nor coherencie." 2 
 
 The case needs no further pressing, being so 
 like the others. A few passages shall be added in 
 order to prove, what it is not very reasonable in 
 
 1 " Me quod attinet, libens agnoscam, Ecclesiis ab Apostolis 
 Episcopos, qui Presbyteris gradu aliquo essent superiores, adeoque 
 collegii Presbyterorum praesides, fuisse praepositos." Limborch. 
 Theolog. Christian, lib. viii. cap. iv. 7: only, Limborch adds, 
 though the Apostles thus instituted Episcopacy, they did not mean 
 that it should never be changed ! 
 
 9 Bilson, chap. xiii. p. 270.
 
 02 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 this age of the world that we should be called on 
 to prove, that we have in St. Titus another in- 
 stance of that Office which the whole Church, 
 without contradiction of friend or enemy, believed 
 for so many centuries to be of Divine appointment. 
 
 We have seen Eusebius saying, that the Epis- 
 copal government of the Cretan Churches by Titus 
 was an historical fact ; and it appears that he was 
 not only Bishop, but Archbishop of that province. 1 
 For we learn, upon the same good authority, that, 
 as early as the reign of M. Aurelius, A.D. 161, 
 that is, let it be observed, little more than half a 
 century after the death of St. John, Philip was 
 Bishop of Gortyna, and Pinytus Bishop of Gnossus, 
 Dioceses of Crete!* And St. John Chrysostom re- 
 cords expressly of Titus, that " the whole island, 
 and the charge of its Bishops, was committed to 
 him." 3 
 
 One cannot marvel that the adversaries profess 
 
 1 " I told you before, that although this name Archbishop is not 
 expressed in Scripture, yet is the office and function, as it is evidently 
 to be seen in the examples of Timothy and Titus, yea and in the 
 Apostles themselves ; . . . and therefore M. Bucer, writing upon 
 Ephes. iv. sayth thus : ' Miletum Presbyteros Ecclesise Ephesinae 
 convocat ; tamen quia unus inter eos prceerat aliis, et prirnam Ec- 
 clesiae curam habebat, in eo proprie residebat nomen Episcopi.'" 
 Whitgift, Defense of Answere to the Admonition, p. 313. " Ecce 
 Metropolitan! institutiouem ! " says De Marca, De Concord. Sac. et 
 Imp. lib. vi. cap. i. 
 
 2 Euseb. H. E. iv. 23 ; and vide Hieron. Catal. Script. Eccles. 
 " Primaria olim insulse Cretae civitas Gnossus fuit, sed cujus potentise 
 infinitis fortunae casibus extincta demum fuit, et ad Gortynam- trans- 
 lata." Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, torn. ii. p. 266. 
 
 3 AVT<5 TT]V VTjCTOV 0\OK\T)pOV fTTeTpf^ffV . . . TO(TOVTO>V 
 
 Homil. i. in Tit. i. torn. iv. p. 381.
 
 CASE OF SAINT TITUS. 63 
 
 so great scorn of human testimony ; it is their wis- 
 dom to do so, for it is all against themselves. But 
 then, if they would be consistent, they should reject 
 that same testimony in settling the Canon of Scrip- 
 ture. For if the Primitive Fathers knew what 
 Scriptures the Apostles wrote, they knew also what 
 Government the Apostles framed ; if they could 
 arrange the Bible, 1 they may very well define the 
 
 1 It may be well to explain what is meant by this expression : 
 
 (1.) An Epistle was written by St. Clement, the " fellow-la- 
 bourer" of St. Paul, to the Church at Corinth. After an interval of 
 more than 100 years, we find (Euseb. H. E. iii. 16 and iv. 23, and 
 Hieron. Catal. Script.) that it continued to be read on Sunday in the 
 Churches. And the letter which was thus honourably used by the 
 primitive Christians was written before some portions of the Canoni- 
 cal Scriptures were even composed, and long before they were col- 
 lected together. How is it, then, that this Epistle of St. Clement 
 does not form part of the New Testament ? If the public reading in 
 the congregation gave canonical authority to the books so read, the 
 SJiepherd of Hernias, the Acts of the Martyrs, and many other writ- 
 ings formerly read in the Churches, would at this day be canonical 
 (vide Wetstenii Not. in Epist. Africani ad Oria. p. 160) ; but they 
 are not : why is this ? Whatever, then, procured for any Writing 
 admission into the Sacred Canon, it is evident that the mere reading 
 in the Churches was not enough to do so. 
 
 (2.) Again ; St. Barnabas was, or was supposed to be, the author 
 of an Epistle, which was entitled, so late as the time of Origen, "the 
 Catholic Epistle of Barnabas" vide Orig. Contra Celsum, lib. i. 
 p. 49; and Clem. Alex. Stromat. lib. ii. p. 373; yet this Epistle 
 too is excluded from the Canon. It follows, therefore, yet further, 
 that neither the authority of an Apostle's name, nor yet the title of 
 ' Catholic,' sufficed to this end. 
 
 (3.) Again ; the Saints differed for a long time amongst them- 
 selves as to which were the Canonical Books. Thus St. Irenaeus (iv. 
 20) quotes the Shepherd of Hermas in that sacred character, and 
 Clement of Alexandria (Pearson. Vindic. Ignat. pars i. cap. iv. p. 39) 
 does the same ; yet Tertullian, as Beaven notices in his Account of 
 St. Trenceus, p. 126, " affirms that the Italian Churches had in ex- 
 press councils declared his book apocryphal." Similar contrarieties
 
 64- SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 Church. If their evidence on the one point be 
 worth little, how much is it worth on the other ? 
 
 of opinion existed with respect to the Revelation of St. John, and the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, which were accepted by some, and rejected 
 by others ; vide S. Hieron. Epist. ciii. Paulino, torn. iii. p. 340 ; 
 and so fluctuating, if the expression may be used, was the Canon of 
 Scripture, that, as late even as the time of St. Austin, we find rules 
 laid down by that distinguished Saint for determining it. (Aug. De 
 Doctrina Christiana, lib. ii. cap. viii. torn. iii. p. 11 ; who elsewhere 
 applies these rules to the false scriptures of the Manicheans ; Contra 
 Faustum, lib. xxii. cap. Ixxix. torn. vi. p. 181.) This difference of 
 opinion amongst the great lights of the Primitive Church carries us 
 one step further, it shews that it was not upon their internal evi- 
 dence alone that a place was assigned to these Scriptures ; for if it 
 had been, how could the Saints differ about them ? 
 
 (4.) Once more. Besides the Scriptures which the Fathers found 
 in their hands, new ones were perpetually springing up, with whose 
 claims they were at first perplexed. It was a common thing for 
 heretics to give the name of a prophet or apostle to some apocryphal 
 writing, and then to insist upon its reception. (J. A. Fabricius, In 
 S. Philastr. cap. Ixxxviii. p. 166.) Writings attributed to Apostles, 
 the Blessed Virgin, and even to our Lord Himself (Ittigius, Dissert. 
 I 1 "" de Pseudepigraphis), abounded ; and, as Agrippa Castor relates 
 of Basilides, some even ventured to speak and write, in their own 
 name, as inspired prophets. Now the history of these and similar 
 writings furnishes one additional fact, the last which I shall notice in 
 this place ; it shews, that whatever authority may have prevailed 
 to extend the Canon, it was the Voice of the Church which excluded 
 from it. 
 
 Now let us see what follows from all this in relation to the struc- 
 ture of the Sacred Canon. The evidence adduced is of two kinds, 
 positive and negative. From the first it appears, that the Scriptures 
 which were rejected from it were rejected by the Church ; and from 
 the second, that it was neither ( 1 ) the public reading in the Churches, 
 nor (2) the authority of an Apostle's name, nor (3) the internal evi- 
 dence of the writings themselves, which gave them a place in it : 
 then it only remains to ask, What was it which did so ? or, in other 
 words, upon what evidence was any given writing received by the 
 Church as plenarily inspired ? This question, it seems, cannot be 
 answered without affirming the truth above stated, that the Bible 
 is given to us on the testimony of the Primitive Church. And if the 
 Rule of Faith, why not the Rule of Discipline too ?
 
 CASE OF SAINT TITUS. 65 
 
 If they have deceived us, or themselves, about 
 Episcopacy, are we quite sure they were right 
 about Inspiration ? If they have commended to 
 us & false Government, how do we know that they 
 have handed down to us true Scriptures ? To those 
 who know of no guides earlier than the sixteenth 
 century, and acknowledge no law save their own 
 wild fancies, this is a serious question. But it is 
 our happiness to have no fears on either point. 
 This is the privilege of the Catholic Christian ; to 
 whom only is the promise given, that "he shall 
 dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil." 
 But to return. 
 
 It seems unnecessary to say more here of Titus, 
 or to heap up proofs for his Office; as that St. 
 Jerome calls him " Bishop of Crete ;"* St. Ambrose 
 says, "the Apostle consecrated Titus Bishop;" 2 
 Theodoret, that he was " the Bishop of the Cre- 
 tans ;" 3 and so the whole band of witnesses. No 
 man ever ventured to deny, till within these last 
 three hundred years, that he was all this; nor 
 despised his sacred office till pride and worse 
 ambition moved some to "take it to themselves." 
 And it seems answer good enough for such, that 
 to use the glowing words of a Prelate of our 
 own Church " this course if you disdaine or 
 dislike, you condemne the whole Church of Christ 
 
 1 "Titus Episcopus Cretse a divo Paulo ordinatus est." Catal. 
 Script. Ecc. The Saint adds, " Ibidem et dormivit, et sepultus est, 
 nenipe in Greta." 
 
 1 Prtsfat. in Epist. ad Titum. 3 In 1 Tim. iii. 
 
 F
 
 DO SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 from the first encreasing and spreading thereof 
 on the face of the earth to this present age ; and 
 preferre your owne wisdome if it be worthie 
 that name, and not rather to be accounted selfe- 
 love and singularitie before all the Martyrs, 
 Confessors, Fathers, Princes, and Bishops that 
 have lived, governed, and deceased in the Church 
 of God since the Apostles' deaths. How well the 
 heighth of your conceites can endure to blemish 
 and reproach so many religious and famous lights 
 of Christendom, I knowe not ; for my part, I 
 wish the Church of God in our dayes may have 
 the grace for pietie and prudencie to follow their 
 steppes, and not to make the world beleeve that 
 all the servaunts of Christ before our times fa- 
 voured and furthered the pride of Antichrist, till 
 in the endes of the world, when the faith and love 
 of most men are quenched and decaied, we came 
 to restore the Church to that perfection of disci- 
 pline which the Apostles never mentioned, the 
 auncient Fathers and Councils never remembered, 
 the universall Church of Christ before us never 
 conceived nor imagined." 1 
 
 CASE OF THE ANGELS OF THE ASIAN CHURCHES. 
 
 IV. I proceed to consider one other case out 
 of the same Divine Oracles to which our appeal 
 has been hitherto confined. It is to "the vision 
 
 1 Bilson, ch. xvi. p. 394.
 
 CASE OF THE ANGELS OF THE ASIAN CHURCHES. 67 
 
 and charge of the blessed Apostle St. John, in his 
 Revelation," that we are about to refer. The sub- 
 ject is a solemn one, and needs to be approached 
 with a cautious and lowly mind : if men will rush 
 upon it in a careless, disputatious mood, we cannot 
 help it, nor do more than speak a warning both to 
 ourselves and others. 
 
 " Blessed is he that readeth," says the " Dis- 
 ciple whom Jesus loved," " and they that hear 
 the words of this prophecy, and keep those things 
 which are written therein" 1 In humble hope to 
 share this promised blessing, let us listen now to 
 his message. 
 
 "John to the seven Churches which are in Asia: 
 ... I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and 
 heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, 
 saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the 
 last : and, What thou seest, write in a book, and 
 send it unto the seven Churches which are in Asia ; 
 unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Perga- 
 mos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto 
 Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. And I turned 
 to see the voice that spake with me. And being 
 turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks ; and in the 
 midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the 
 Son of Man . . . and He had in His right hand 
 seven stars . . . and when I saw Him I fell at His 
 feet as dead." The explanation of this great vision 
 was vouchsafed by Him who alone could give it. 
 
 1 Apoc. i. 3.
 
 68 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 " The seven stars are the Angels of the seven 
 Churches : and the seven candlesticks which thou 
 sawest are the seven Churches" 1 Now what these 
 Churches were, we know, for they are all enume- 
 rated; but who were the Angels? This is the 
 question which we are to consider. 
 
 (1.) In the first place, then, the "Angels" were 
 not " the Churches." This is evident, for they are 
 all along distinguished as "seven stars" while the 
 Churches are as plainly said to be " seven candle- 
 sticks:" "the seven candlesticks which thou saw- 
 est are the seven Churches" The "seven stars," 
 which the Lord "had in His right hand," were 
 something else. It was, therefore, to " the Angel of 
 the Church of Ephesus," and not to " the Church 
 of Ephesus," that St. John was to write. The An- 
 gels, that is, were not the Churches. 2 
 
 1 Chap. i. St. Augustine thinks the number seven symbolical. 
 " Septem autem Ecclesias quas vocat vocabulis suis, non ideo dicit, 
 quia illae solse sunt Ecclesiae ; sed quod dicit uni, omnibus hoc dicit. 
 Denique sive in Asia, sive in toto orbe, septem Ecclesias omnes esse, 
 et unam esse Catholicam." Homil. i. in Apocal. torn. ix. p. 352 : and 
 vide Epist. cxix. Januario, De Ritibus Ecclesice, torn. ii. p. 215 ; and 
 Epist. clxi. p. 276, where he says the number 7 represents Univer- 
 sality. See also Clem. Alex. Stromat. lib. vi. p. 685. 
 
 a The attempt to prove this may appear superfluous ; yet some of 
 the modern teachers, coerced by the necessities of their theory, have 
 denied it ; as Brightman, In Apoc. p. 19 ; and Salmasius, with refer- 
 ence to whose interpretation Bishop Morton observes, " He must 
 first turn stars into candlesticks before he can make Angels to signify 
 the Churches ;" and of whose notion he adds, that it would require 
 the words to run thus : " Write to the Church of the Church of 
 Ephesus." Episcopacy Apostolical, ch. iv. 9. " Vah ! quid non 
 facit stadium partium !" says Durell ; " quo mortales non abducit ! 
 Angelus sunt Angeli !" De Jure Divino Episcopal, cap. xxx. p. 377.
 
 CASE OF THE ANGELS OF THE ASIAN CHURCHES. 69 
 
 (2.) But, secondly, neither were they any col- 
 lective body whatever. " I know thy works," is the 
 message to the Angel of the Church of Ephesus, 
 "and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou 
 canst not bear them that are evil," &c. Were they 
 all "patient" in Ephesus ? or all " laborious ?" had 
 none fainted ? did all abhor evil ? Or, on the other 
 hand, had all " left their first love ?" This, we 
 know, is not meant ; and, besides, the Angel is 
 commended for having " tried them which say they 
 are Apostles, and are not." 1 Shall we think that 
 they were all to be trying one another? Or to 
 whom, amongst them all, was this inquisitorial 
 function committed? 
 
 Again : in the Church of Smyrna, were all 
 " poor," or all " rich ?" And mark the plain dis- 
 tinction between the person addressed as the Angel 
 of that Church, and some others apparently under 
 his charge : to these it is said, " Behold, the devil 
 shall cast some of you into prison ;" and then, the 
 
 But these eccentric interpretations began early : vide Aug. De Doc- 
 trina Christiana, lib. iii. cap. xxx. ; who mentions that the Donatist 
 Ticonius taught this very notion " ut ipsos Angelos intelligamus 
 Ecclesias." Cf. St. Epiphan. Hares. 51. 32, 33. 
 
 1 Apoc. ii. 9. These words refer, St. Austin says, to the Rulers 
 of the Church ; Epist. clxii. Contra Donat. Pertinac. torn. ii. p. 281 : 
 and a very different writer confesses them to have no other applica- 
 tion. " Vagabantur eniru tune in Asiaticis Ecclesiis impostores, 
 Ebion, Cerinthus, et alii, pro Apostolis Christi se venditantes, . . . 
 de quibus Paulus Ephesinos Presbyteros prsemonuerat. Erat igitur 
 Episcoporum, pro puritate fidei tuenda se lupis fortiter opponere, 
 quod non segniter Ephesinum fecisse Christus testatur." D. Pareus 
 In Apoc. p. 67.
 
 70 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 singular verb being now used instead of the plural, 
 to the Angel it is added, " Be thou faithful unto 
 death, and I will give thee a crown of life." ] We 
 shall see presently who he was, and that he was 
 " faithful unto death." 
 
 Again : observe the message to the Angel of 
 the Church in Pergamos. It was his own praise 
 that he had kept the faith : " thou holdest fast my 
 name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those 
 days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr." But 
 there were some in Pergamos who had fallen into 
 heresy, holding the doctrine of Balaam and of the 
 Nicolaitanes ; 2 and for this the Angel is severely 
 threatened. Why so, unless, like Timothy and 
 Titus, he had been charged with authority to co- 
 erce and restrain them ? If all the teachers in that 
 Church were independent, or had equal power, 
 how could he help their teaching false doctrine ? 
 And why should our Blessed Saviour rebuke him 
 for the faults of men over whom he could exercise 
 no control ? 
 
 1 To the first it is said, eere ffkfyw and then follow the words, 
 yivov TTUTTOS axpi davdrov, ii. 10. 
 
 2 See the paraphrase of Ribera, Comment, in Apoc. cap. ii. Upon 
 this passage Bishop Lucy remarks thus : " Here again see the neces- 
 sity of Ecclesiastical Story to expound this Scripture. What, can 
 any man tell, is the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which God hates, 
 and so we ought to hate, but by Ecclesiastical Story ?" Treatise of 
 the Nature of a Minister, chap. vii. p. 120 (1670). And this used 
 once to be admitted by all. " Diligenter legendum nobis est ac me- 
 ditandum Dei verbum," says Beza, " et veteres ex Patrum scriptis 
 cognoscendcR hcereses." Epist. xliv. Are they good witnesses against 
 the corruptions of the Truth, and yet not for the Truth itself?
 
 CASE OF THE ANGELS OF THE ASIAN CHURCHES. 71 
 
 Once more : the Angel of the Church in Thya- 
 tira is to be admonished thus : " I know thy works, 
 and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience. 
 . . . Notwithstanding, I have a few things against 
 thee, because" now let his offence be observed 
 " because thou sufferest, on 1$,$, that woman Jezebel, 
 which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to 
 seduce my servants." Now, unless this Angel pos- 
 sessed Episcopal power, what possible signification 
 can attach to these words ? " For if he had wanted 
 such a power, he would have been unjustly con- 
 demned for the wickedness and subtle artifices of 
 this pernicious Jezebel, since he was no otherwise 
 partaker of her wickedness than merely in suffering 
 it. ... For why should he be censured for this 
 matter, unless he had power to cast such persons 
 out of the Church ? It would be unreasonable for 
 him to bear the blame of other men's faults, if he 
 had no power to correct them." 1 It seems almost 
 a waste of words to go about to prove so plain a 
 matter. I will only add, in conclusion, that in the 
 
 1 Brett, Church Government, ch. iv. p. 67. This is a warning, 
 says a great Saint, to those Rulers of the Church, " qui luxuriosis et 
 fornicantibus, et aliud quodlibet malum agentibus, severitatera dis- 
 ciplinse ecclesiastics non imponunt." Aug. HomiL ii. p. 354. So a 
 divine of our own : " I hope the Governors of the Church, in whose 
 hands the censures are, will not be angry with me if I put them in 
 remembrance that God's controversy with most of the seven Churches 
 was for want of discipline ; for suffering the doctrines of Balaam, and 
 the Nicolaitanes, and other pretended false Christians, to go uneen- 
 sured, and the woman Jezebel to seduce His servants; and for being 
 slack and lukewarm in discipline, which is the life and soul of every 
 Church." Hickes, TJiree Treatises, Epistle to the Reader.
 
 72 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 Syriac version, the Alexandrian, and several other 
 manuscript copies, there is no room for the argu- 
 ment at all ; for by the addition of the pronoun <rov, 
 thy, which those copies contain, the passage reads 
 thus, " because thou sufFerest thy wife Jezebel," &c. 
 and it is actually so cited in one of his letters by 
 the Martyr St. Cyprian. 1 Of course, if this reading 
 be the true one, and there is authority for it, - 
 there is no longer a question whether the " Angels" 
 spoken of were individuals ; unless, indeed, we think 
 there was no more distinction of wives in those days 
 than some will allow of offices. 
 
 But we need not rely upon this to prove what 
 was never even doubted, till it became necessary 
 to the success of the modern religion that it should 
 be not only doubted but denied. It is not by such 
 arguments that we need to confirm the clear war- 
 rant of Holy Writ. For who, it may be asked, 
 would ever have denied these " Angels" to be in- 
 dividuals, and that of eminent power and name, 
 unless his own schemes had required it, and the 
 pride of a human theory had armed him with 
 courage to fight against ancient truth ? And is 
 this the spirit in which to read safely this most 
 awful and mysterious Revelation ? or to share their 
 blessing who shall "keep those things which are 
 written therein ?" Consider one moment the cha- 
 
 1 Vide Potter's Church Government, chap. iv. Works, vol. ii. p. 
 133. (Oxon. 1753.) St. Cyprian quotes the passage thus : " Habeo 
 (inquit) adversus te multa, quod uxorem tuam Jezabel, quae se dicit 
 propheten, sinis," &c. Epist. lii. Ad Antonianum.
 
 CASE OF THE ANGELS OF THE ASIAN CHURCHES. 73 
 
 racter of this portion of Holy Scripture. It is 
 designed to teach us something ; also its teaching, 
 whatever it be, is practical. Seven times it is said, 
 " He that hath ears to hear, let him hear ;" thene 
 is a promise for them who " keep it," and woe is 
 threatened to the disobedient. And now, how does 
 it teach ? Under symbols of Candlesticks and 
 Stars ! Is all this so plain and simple that each 
 may safely judge for himself, when the issues of 
 that judgment are more than life or death ? And 
 is not the very form of this teaching a solemn 
 warning to us all how we venture to judge at all ? 
 Can there be any other true interpretation of it 
 than theirs who first heard it ? And shall we not 
 fear to wrest and criticise those words of our Maker, 
 which when St. John heard, he " fell at His feet 
 as dead?" 1 
 
 On the whole, is it not plain that the " Angels 
 of the Churches" were persons such as St. James, 
 St. Timothy, and St. Titus, charged, like them, 
 with the Apostolical Office, and singly responsible 
 for its execution ? We have seen those holy Bi- 
 
 1 Tot a7roKaXv/x/ij>a rai 'ladvvr) ris OVK &v dvayvovs KaraTrXayfuj rf/v 
 (niKpir^fiv T>V diropprjruv p-vo-nypiov, KOI T& p.rj VOOVVTI TO. y(ypap.p.tva 
 fp(paivop,(i><ov ; Origen. Philocal. cap. i. " Apocalypsis Joannis tot 
 habet sacramenla quot verba." S. Hieron. Epist. ciii. Paulino, torn. 
 iii. p. 340 : and in the same words St. Peter Damian, Serm. ii. De 
 Excell. B. Joan, Evangel. And even one of a less reverent school 
 could say, " Obscura quidem ilia (prophetia), quod nemo negat, et 
 luminis indiga." Vitringa, In Apoc. Prcefat. Here are reasons 
 enough, then, for the cautious handling of a Book, of which these 
 are true descriptions.
 
 74 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 shops invested with certain powers, and admonished 
 duly to use them ; we see these " Angels," as they 
 are called by the Head of the Church, praised for 
 the discharge of the same functions, or rebuked for 
 the neglect of them ; and, in either case, without 
 an allusion to clergy or people, except as being 
 subject to them. St. Timothy and St. Titus were 
 appointed by St. Paul to ordain, to rebuke, and, if 
 necessary, to excommunicate elders ; and so " the 
 Apocalyptic Angels are commended for all the 
 good, and charged with all the blame, of their re- 
 spective jurisdictions ; which could not have been 
 if they had been controllable by a majority of suf- 
 frages of their several Presbyteries." l 
 
 And now can we judge that saying of good 
 Bishop Hall too bold : " Upon these clear passages 
 of St. Paul and St. John, meeting with the grounds 
 laid by our Blessed Saviour, I am, for my part, so 
 confident of the Divine Institution of the majority 
 of Bishops above Presbyters, that I dare boldly 
 say, there are weighty points of faith which have 
 not so strong evidence in Holy Scripture." 2 Some 
 
 1 Dodvvell, On the Soul, Praemonit. 9. Cf. Barrow, De Regi- 
 mine Episcopali, Works, vol. viii. p. 42. 
 
 2 Episcopacy by Divine Right, \ 7. And with the same confi- 
 dence speaks Hooker : " A thousand five hundred years and upward 
 the Church of Christ hath now continued under the sacred regiment 
 of Bishops. Neither for so long hath Christianity been ever planted 
 in aay kingdom throughout the world but with this kind of govern- 
 ment alone ; which to have been ordained of God, I am for mine own 
 part even as resolutely persuaded, as that any other kind of Govern- 
 ment in the world is of God." E. P. book vii. vol. iii. p. 173.
 
 CASE OF THE ANGELS OF THE ASIAN CHURCHES. 75 
 
 such points have been noticed above ; and it can- 
 not be denied, that at least the proof in this case 
 is more abundant than that which can be offered, 
 out of Scripture, for many a truth received by 
 universal Christendom. But the goodness of 
 God has provided, in this case too, yet further 
 testimony for all who are willing to use it : to 
 that additional testimony we will now refer. But 
 first let another briefly recapitulate the forego- 
 ing arguments, as applied to one only of the 
 seven Angels, whose particular case we will then 
 pursue. 
 
 " Wee reade in the Revelation of S. John," 
 says a learned divine, " of the Angel of the Church 
 of Ephesus, to whom r the Spirit of God directeth 
 letters from heaven, as to the Pastour of that 
 Church. It is not to be doubted but that there 
 were many Presbyters, that is, ministers of the 
 Word and Sacraments, in so large a Church as 
 that of Ephesus was ; nay, wee reade expressly in 
 the Acts that there were many in that Church that 
 fed the flock of Christ, and consequently were ad- 
 mitted into some part of pastoral 1 office and em- 
 ployment: yet was there one among the rest to 
 whom onely the Lord did write from heaven, to 
 whom an eminent power was given, who was 
 trusted with the government of that Church and 
 people in more speciall sort than any of the rest, 
 and therefore challenged by name by Almighty 
 God for the things there found to bee amisse ; the
 
 76 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 rest being passed over in silence." 1 Now, the 
 eminence of this person so addressed by Almighty 
 God being thus manifest, it seems natural to inquire 
 next what name he bore. 
 
 In the inspired document itself this is not ex- 
 pressed; an omission which has been accounted 
 for, even by one who had not the happiness to be 
 a Catholic, upon the religious and reasonable sup- 
 position, that " Christ noted not the names, that 
 His message might seem to be addressed not so 
 much to their Persons as to their Order." 2 That 
 message appears to have been written about four 
 years before the close of the first century ; a period 
 with respect to which we possess but scanty infor- 
 mation in existing records. Still they may supply 
 hints at least towards an approximation to the ob- 
 ject of our search ; and as in such a matter no evi- 
 dence can be insignificant, nor any knowledge tri- 
 vial, we will use thankfully what has been provided 
 for us, whether it be greater or less. 
 
 The fast Bishop of Ephesus, as we have already 
 seen, was St. Timothy ; whose martyrdom is nar- 
 rated by Polycrates, himself the eighth Bishop of 
 that See, of which he was able to say, in a letter 
 
 1 Field, Of the Church, book v. p. 498. " Is it possible," asks 
 the wise Hooker, " that in every of these Churches, even in Ephesus 
 itself, where many such ministers were long before, there was but 
 one such when John directed his speech to the Angel of that Church ? 
 If there were many, surely St. John, in naming but one only of them 
 an Angel, did behold in that one somewhat above the rest." Ubi 
 supra, p. 190. 
 
 * Pareus, p. 63.
 
 CASE OF THE ANGELS OF THE ASIAN CHURCHES. 77 
 
 to his brother Apostle of Rome, " Seven of my kins- 
 men have been Bishops, and I am the eighth." 1 A 
 competent witness truly; but we shall hear him 
 again. Another whom we have heard, occupied 
 the twenty-seventh place in the same succession ; 
 and in his day the world knew enough at least of 
 his predecessors to be assured that they were " all 
 ordained in Ephesus." 2 But we are not unable to 
 distinguish other links in this chain of Episcopal 
 Fathers. 
 
 There are still extant certain letters of the 
 Martyr Ignatius, the friend of St. Peter and St. 
 John, and Bishop of Antioch in Syria at the very 
 time that the latter Apostle wrote his Revelation. 
 One of these letters, written only eleven or twelve 
 years after that divine Book, 3 is addressed " To the 
 Church which is in Ephesus of Asia." In it, then, 
 we may expect to find some allusion to the Bishop 
 of that Church ; nor shall we be disappointed. The 
 Martyr was then on his road to death, and had 
 been met, in that his last journey, by one of whom 
 
 1 'ETJTCI [lev qcrav crvyyevfls p.ov firiancoiroi, ey<a 8e oySoos. S. Poly- 
 crat. Epist. ad Victor. Rom&que Urb. Ecc. ap. Routh. jRel. Sac. 
 torn. i. p. 371. On the meaning of these words, vide Dodwell, One 
 Altar, ch. ix. 5. p. 243. 
 
 2 Vide page 55. 
 
 3 " The Revelation exhibited unto St. John upon the Lord's Day, 
 is, by Irenseus (in his fifth book), referred unto the empire of Domi- 
 tian ; or, as S. Hierome, in his catalogue, more particularly doth 
 expresse it, to the fourth yeare of his reigne, which .... was but 
 eleven or twelve yeares before the time when Ignatius did write his 
 Epistles." Usher, Of the Sabbath, and Observation of the Lord's 
 Day, Tracts, p. 93 (1057).
 
 78 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 he thus speaks to the Christians at Ephesus : " How 
 many ye be that be called by the name of God, I 
 have heard from Onesimus, whose love is beyond 
 all words, your Bishop according to the flesh ; whom 
 I beseech you, by Jesus Christ, to love, and that 
 ye would be all like unto him. And blessed be 
 He who has granted unto you, who are so worthy 
 of him, to enjoy such a Bishop." 1 
 
 Now, that this Onesimus was the very Angel 
 of the Church in Ephesus to whom St. John de- 
 livered the message of the Almighty, cannot be 
 positively affirmed. From any thing which has 
 appeared thus far, we learn no more than that he 
 ruled that Church at some period between the 
 Episcopate of Polycrates and of St. Timothy ; and 
 that, at all events, about ten years after St. John 
 wrote the Revelation, he was "granted by Jesus 
 Christ," as the Martyr speaks, to be Bishop of the 
 Metropolis of Asia. This one fact is of course 
 proof enough, if it were the only one preserved to 
 us, that Bishops were, by Divine appointment, the 
 Successors of Apostles. But it remains to be added, 
 in relation to the particular inquiry at this point, 
 that according to ancient documents this Onesimus 
 who was stoned to death at Rome, 2 and after- 
 
 1 TTJV jrd\v7T\T)piav vfiS>v ev ovofutn Geov d.TTfi\rj(pa ev'Ovrjo-ifia, TM ev 
 ayatrrf aSiT/yjjrw, \>IJM>V 8e > <rapKi eVterKOTrw' ov fv^ofj.ai Kara 'irjcrovv 
 Xpicrrbv vfias dyairav, KOI Travras vp.as atrw tv o/^otoTJjTi flvat. 'EvXoyrjTos 
 yap 6 xapicrdfifvos vp.lv diois ovcri TOIOVTOV (irivKOTrov KeKTrjtrdai. S. 
 Ignat. Ad Ephes. 2. 
 
 2 " Vinctus Romam perductus, ac pro fide Christi lapidatus,
 
 CASE OF THE ANGELS OF THE ASIAN CHURCHES. 79 
 
 wards carried to Ephesus to be buried was the 
 servant of that Philemon 1 to whom St. Paul wrote 
 an Epistle about the year 64, or nearly fifty years 
 before the date at which we find him to have been 
 Bishop. He must therefore, if he were that very 
 Onesimus, have followed very closely upon Timo- 
 thy, if indeed he was not his immediate successor, 
 as some writers assert. And this is all which it 
 seems necessary to say about him. St. Timothy 
 is by some supposed to have been martyred before 
 the banishment of St. John, that is, before he 
 wrote the Revelation ; and if so, could not have 
 been addressed by him as the Angel of the Church 
 in Ephesus. How far it is probable that Onesimus 
 was that person, let each, after due examination, 
 judge for himself. Thus much, I think, will now be 
 granted, that whoever it was, it was an individual. 2 
 
 Another person to whom the Divine message 
 was sent, was " the Angel of the Church in Smyrna ;" 
 
 prirao ibidem sepultus fuit ; inde ad locum ubi Episcopus fuerat 
 ordinatus corpus ejus delatum est." Martyrolagium Romanum, p. 
 81. (Antverp. 1613.) Cf. Usuard. Martyrolog. 16 Feb. 
 
 1 " Porro hunc Onesimum Ephesiorum Episcopum, eundem esse 
 cum eo de quo agit Paulus apud Philemonem, tarn Graecorum Me- 
 nologium quam Latinorum Martyrologium fidem faciunt." Baronii 
 Annal. A.c. 60. 
 
 2 See Tillemont, Memoires pour servir d VHistoire Eccttsiastique, 
 torn. ii. I* 16 partie, p. 267. The Angels are admitted to have been 
 individuals even by the Presbyterians in the Isle of Wight confer- 
 ences, by Beza, Cartwright, Reynolds, Blondel, and others. See 
 Abr. Woodhead, Brief Account of Ancient Church Government, ch. i. 
 p. 48.
 
 80 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 and now we are no longer beset with doubt or en- 
 compassed by difficulty. We are able to prove, 
 upon evidence which none have ventured to dis- 
 pute, that the first Bishop of Smyrna was appointed 
 by the Apostles themselves, and held his Office in 
 their lifetime, and for very many years afterwards, 
 namely, until his death, by martyrdom, in the mid- 
 dle of the second century. And that he was the 
 person referred to in the Apocalypse as " the Angel 
 of the Church in Smyrna," seems so clear, that the 
 less wilful amongst the adversaries have not at- 
 tempted to deny it. 1 Let us hear a few witnesses 
 in the case. 
 
 1 " Testatur Irenaeus, quod et Eusebius refert, Polycarpum in ea 
 quae est Smyrnis Ecclesia constitutum fuisse Episcopum. Constat 
 vero, Apostolos omnes praeter B. Joannem ante Domitianuin vita 
 decessisse. Ergo sub Domitiano ante Apocalypsin revelatam Poly- 
 carpum fuisse Smyrnae Episcopum, probabile est." Pareus, p. 97. 
 
 Again ; 
 
 " Principle indicatur, cui destinetur epistola ccelestis, Angelo 
 Smyrnensis Ecclesiae, id est pastori. Testantur autem historise An- 
 gelum sive Pastorem ilium Smyrnensis Ecclesice Polycarpum fuisse, 
 ordinatum ab ipsis Apostolis, ab ipso inquam Joanne, Episcopum, ac 
 vixisse in ministerio hujus Ecclesise annos 86 ... unde claret, ilium 
 factum esse Episcopum Smyrnensem anno Domini circiter 84, ideo- 
 que ante editam Apocalypsin, quae 97 anno conscribitur, plures annos 
 ministraverat Ecclesiae." Bullinger, Concio nona in Apocal. cap. ii. 
 p. 28. 
 
 " Polycarpus Ecclesiae Smyrnaeorum Angelus sive Episcopus ab 
 ipso Jesu magnopere commendatur, Apoc. ii. 8. Nomen quidem 
 non exprimitur, alius tamen esse non potest quam Polycarpus." G. 
 Calixtus, De Auctor. Antiq. Eccles. 27, pp. 77, 8. 
 
 It is admitted somewhat strangely by the Genevan Professor Ve- 
 delius, who, in his commentary upon the Epistle of St. Ignatius to 
 St. Poly carp, rejects, after Scultetus, the words " obey your Bishop," 
 on the ground that " Ignatius could not have forgotten that he was 
 writing to a Bishop." The criticism is weak, but that does not affect
 
 CASE OF THE ANGELS OF THE ASIAN CHURCHES. 81 
 
 And first, we have actually a letter of St. Ig- 
 natius addressed to St. Polycarp, as the Bishop of 
 Smyrna, in his own day. But lest we should seem 
 to lack testimony, others shall tell us who this holy 
 man was. " Polycarp," says Irenaeus, himself a 
 Bishop and Martyr, " was not only made a dis- 
 ciple by the Apostles, and conversant with many 
 who had seen Christ, but was appointed by the 
 Apostles over Asia, as Bishop of the Church which 
 is in Smyrna ; WHOM ALSO I MYSELF SAW in my early 
 youth, for he lingered long, and was very aged, and 
 having accomplished a glorious martyrdom departed 
 this life." 1 The same blessed witness could we 
 have a better ? speaks elsewhere of " those who 
 have received the throne of Polycarp down to this 
 day." 2 Tertullian, who was born in the age next 
 to the Apostolic, informs us, that the Smyrnaeans 
 boasted in his time that they could " trace their 
 succession through Polycarp to the Apostle John, 
 by whom he was appointed the first Bishop of their 
 Church." 3 But it seems needless to cite more, 
 
 the value of the admission. App. Notarum Criticarum, p. 138. The 
 history of St. Polycarp would suffice to demonstrate the divine origin 
 of Episcopacy, if every other ecclesiastical record were withdrawn 
 from us. 
 
 1 HoXvKapTros ov fiovov VTTO drrooroXeoi' fiadTjTtvddS) KOI (rvvacrrpa- 
 <f)ds TroXXotf rois TOV XpicTTOv dipaKa(Tiv, aXXa KOI two aTrooroXwi/ ara- 
 (rradfls (Is TTJV 'A.<riav tv TJJ tv 2/zvpi>/ fKK\r)o~ia eVi'crKOTros, ov KOI r)fj.(ls 
 ((apuKa/jifv (v rfj irparn) rjp.S)V ij\iKta, eVri TroXv yap Trap(fj.fiv, teal TTO.W 
 yr/paXf'oy, fv86(i>s Kal (TTXpavtffTaTa fjuipT-vprja-as, ({-rjXde TOV /3i'ou. S. 
 Iren. iii. 3. 
 
 9 Ol /w'xP 1 "V" 8i8ey/ij'oi TOV Ilo\VKapirov Opovov. Ibid. 
 
 3 De Prescript. Hceret. cap. xxxii. 
 
 G
 
 82 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 when even the very Jews and heathen will witness 
 for us. So well was the " Angel of the Church in 
 Smyrna" known in his own day, that it was the 
 shout of the savage crowd, as Christ's venerable 
 martyr stood before the Roman tribunal, " Poly- 
 carp to the lions ! This is the Master of Asia, the 
 Father of the Christians." 1 They were right in 
 giving him this title ; for St. Jerome says, " he was 
 the Head of all Asia;" 2 his own flock, whose ac- 
 count of his death it has pleased God to preserve 
 to our times, call him " Bishop of the Catholic 
 Church in Smyrna;" 3 Polycrates, who was thirty- 
 eight years old at the time of his death, and could 
 not be mistaken either, styles him, " Polycarp, 
 Bishop of Smyrna, and Martyr ;" 4 and lastly, the 
 Saint himself commences a letter, the only relic of 
 his writings which has survived to our age, " Poly- 
 carp, and the presbyters who are with him, to the 
 Church of God which is at Philippi." 5 Thus has 
 
 1 Ovros l<mv 6 TTJS 'Acn'as SiSatrKaAos, 6 Trarrip T>V XpicrTia.i>>v. Vide 
 Euseb. H. E. iv. 15. 
 
 2 " Polycarpus, Joannis Apostoli discipulus, et ab eo Smyrnse 
 Episcopus ordinatus, totius Asise princeps fuit." S. Hieron. Catal. 
 Script. Eccles. : upon which vide Natalis Alexandri Dissert, Ecc. \. 
 p. 64. (Paris. 1679.) Pliny calls Smyrna " primum Asise lumen ;" 
 and in the Arundel Marbles the Smyrnseans are styled irparoi TTJS 
 'Avias. This may explain the phrase, " caput totius Asise." Vide 
 Is. Vossii Epist. ii. Contra Blondellum. 
 
 3 AtSatTKaAos aTrooroAiKos KOI 7rpo(pT)TtKos, yevopevos firicrKoiTos TJJS ev 
 2(j.vpvrj KadoXiKrjs fKK^Tja-ias. Vide Euseb. H. E. ubi supra. 
 
 4 HoXvKapTTos 6 fv 'Sfivpvrj KOI firi<TK.oTros Kai fidprus. S. Polycratis 
 Epist. ad Victor. 
 
 4 HoXvKapTTOs Kal ol <rvv aura Trpta-fivrepoi rfj fKK\rjcriq TOV Qtov rfj 
 irapoiKova-r) &i\iinrovs. Epist. ad Philipp.
 
 CASE OF THE ANGELS OF THE ASIAN CHURCHES. 83 
 
 it seemed good to God praised be His Name ! 
 to provide for us all kinds of witnesses ; from the 
 Bishops whose high office only marked them out 
 as the first victims, to the fierce rabble who shouted 
 round their graves. How long shall they bear wit- 
 ness in vain V 
 
 It seems unnecessary to pursue our inquiry 
 beyond the two instances already considered, or to 
 shew that the other Asian Churches, no less than 
 Smyrna and Ephesus, were ruled from the first by 
 individuals. 2 Enough has been said ; for of course 
 one case such as that of Polycarp proves all the 
 rest. But an important reflection remains to be 
 offered upon what has been already advanced. 
 
 The adversaries admit that the Churches were 
 governed by Bishops within a very few years 
 the most extravagant say, within forty years 3 of 
 
 1 It would be natural to infer, the evidence being so varied and 
 abundant, that to reject Episcopacy is a characteristic of unbelief; 
 and we might expect beforehand, that in the case of those who do re- 
 ject itj there would be a tendency to positive infidelity. It will appear 
 in the progress of these pages that the expectation is a just one ; that 
 the rejection has begun in schism, and ended in apostacy ; that the 
 Bishop has first been mocked, and then Christ who appointed him ; 
 and that not only in the case of individuals, but of whole commu- 
 nities. 
 
 2 With respect to whom similar admissions have been made to 
 those already cited. " Fuit Antipas," says the learned Francis 
 Junius, " Angelus sive Minister Christi in Ecclesia Pergamensium, 
 ut scribunt Andreas, Aretas, et alii." Not. in Apocal. cap. ii. 
 
 3 From a great mass of such admissions I select the follow- 
 ing : 
 
 " Insequalitatem esse vetustissimam, ac Vietnam Apostolorum tern-
 
 84- SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 St. John's death. At that time, it is confessed, the 
 Three Orders of the Priesthood were universally 
 acknowledged. They might, indeed, with just as 
 much reason, have fixed upon any other imaginary 
 epoch ; but we may be content here to take the 
 admission as they make it. In the year 140, then, 
 the Bishops throughout the world were in undis- 
 puted possession of their authority over presbyters 
 and deacons. 
 
 Now at this time, and many years after, St. 
 
 poribus, ultro nos fateamur." Chamier, Panstrat. CathoL lib. x. 
 cap. vi. torn. ii. p. 353. 
 
 " Brevi post discessum Apostolorum, aut forte sub eorum extrema, 
 contigit/' &c. Jablonski Institut. Hist. Christian, secul. i. cap.ii. 8. 
 
 " Statim post tempora Apostolorum, aut etiam eorum tempore." 
 Pet. Molinaei Epist. iii., ap. Andrewes, Opuscul. p. 179. 
 
 " Equidem max post Apostolorum discessum Prcesides etiam in 
 Ecclesiis Christianorum apparuerunt." J. H. Boelimer, Dissert, vii. 
 6. De consessu ordinis ecclesiustici, p. 398. 
 
 " Episcopi solius erat ordinare, quod Presbyteris negabatur. 
 Hoc ipsum tamen non ex dispositione Dominica, sed Apostolica, et 
 consuetudine ita fuit in Ecclesiam introductum." Pfaffii Hist. Ecc. 
 secul. ii. ^ 7. 
 
 " Etenim discrimen illud valde mature ipsorum Apostolorum tem- 
 poribus in Ecclesiam irrepsit." Vedelii Exercitat. 3. in S. Ignatii ad 
 Philadelph. cap. xiv. p. 138. (Genevae, 1623.) 
 
 " Nam ut apud Patres Hieronymo vetustiores clara habemus tes- 
 timonia, in praecipuis Ecclesiis omnibus a temporibus Apostolorum ita 
 observatum est, ut Presbyteris omnibus quidem officium Episcopale 
 fuerit impositum ; interim tamen semper, etiam Apostolorum tempori- 
 bus, unus a Presbyteris electus atque ordinatus est in officii hujus 
 ducem et quasi antistitem ; qui effiteris omnibus praeivit, et curam 
 animarum ministeriumque Episcopale praecipue et summo in gradu 
 gessit atque administravit." M. Bucer, De Anim. Cura, p. 280. 
 
 " Nullum illustrius momentum occurrit in quod insignis ilia 
 mutatio commode conferri posse videatur quarn ann. Christi 135." 
 Blondel, Apolog. pro sententia Hieron, Prafat. 
 
 " Interim Episcopale regimen essa antiquissimum, et paulo post
 
 CASE OF THE ANGELS OF THE ASIAN CHURCHES. 85 
 
 Poly carp was still alive. In the year 158 we find 
 him at Rome, 1 in friendly communications with its 
 Bishop Anicetus, ministering at the same altar, and 
 joining with him in the most solemn act of our 
 religion, the administration of the Holy Eucha- 
 rist. 2 But this Anicetus was, confessedly, such a 
 Bishop as our Fathers of the present day, ruling 
 presbyters and deacons with a power which he 
 claimed to exercise, and was admitted to possess, 
 as a lawful successor of the Apostles. What, then, 
 
 Apostolos per universam Ecclesiam magno cum fructu obtinuisse, est 
 mihi compertissiraum." Sam. Bochart, Epist. ad Morleium, p. 7. 
 (Paris. 1650.) 
 
 Lastly, even Gibbon ever anxious, like the rest of his class, to 
 depress " Prelacy " as low as possible does not venture to say more 
 than that " the Episcopal form of government appears to have been 
 introduced before the end of the first century." Decline and Fall, 
 chap. xv. vol. i. p. 489. 
 
 Such are a few of the concessions hardly and most reluctantly 
 extorted, with the exception of the last instance, from some of the 
 leading Presbyterian divines ; of whom five acknowledge the supe- 
 riority of Bishops over Presbyters to have been established in the 
 very lifetime of the Apostles, and the other four assert that it took 
 place "immediately after their deaths!" Truly there is little cause 
 for apprehension as to the issue of such a controversy as this arma 
 dabunt ipsi ; we need no other advocates of our cause tlian the ad- 
 versaries themselves ; and to their writings we may refer for its suf- 
 ficient defence. 
 
 1 Baronius, Annal. ann. 157, places this visit a year earlier, 
 and so the venerable author of the Annot. in Condi. Lugdun. ap. 
 Rel. Sac. torn. i. p. 414. Pagi, however, with Valesius, follows the 
 Chronicon Alexandrinum in fixing upon 158; Crit. Histor. Chro- 
 nolog. in Baron, torn. i. p. 160 : and the Centuriators of Magdeburg 
 do the same ; Hist. Ecclesiast. cent. ii. cap. x. p. 175. 
 
 2 Vide Euseb. H. E. v. 24. The right conceded by Anicetus to St. 
 Polycarp was, according to the Martyrologist, " in publico omnium 
 fidelium conventu suo loco pontificalia munia obeundi." Ruinart, 
 Act. Martyr, sincer. et select, p. 29.
 
 86 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 was Polycarp? He too is called, by those who 
 lived with him, a " Bishop ;" his own flock, as has 
 been noticed, style him " Bishop of the Catholic 
 Church in Smyrna;" St. Irenaeus, who saw and 
 heard him, says, " He was appointed by the Apos- 
 tles over Asia, as Bishop of the Church which is in 
 Smyrna." I ask then, Was he such a Bishop as 
 Anicetus and his brethren, who at that time occu- 
 pied the episcopal chairs throughout Christendom ? 
 If he was, then the Apostles, who are not denied 
 to have ordained him, appointed such Bishops, and 
 our argument is ended. If he was not, in what 
 respect did he differ from them ? If the " Angel 
 of the Church in Smyrna" was indeed a " Prelate" 
 then our venerable Hooker said truly of the Order 
 of Bishops, " It is of God, the Holy Ghost was the 
 Author of it :" if, as some in this latter end of the 
 world have been taught to say, he was a mere pres- 
 byter, then I ask again, How came that man of 
 God to endure in others the shameless usurpation 
 of authority which God gave them not ? How could 
 he, the friend and companion of Apostles, kneel at 
 the same altar with one who had dared according 
 to our modern sectaries " to erect a throne where 
 Christ had made all level ;" to snatch from his bro- 
 ther presbyters the powers which God had bidden 
 them to use, and not only impiously to subvert the 
 Government which his Master had ordained, but 
 with incredible boldness to set up a scheme of his 
 own, and call it by his Master's Name? Either
 
 CASE OF THE ANGELS OF THE ASIAN CHURCHES. 87 
 
 Anicetus was an usurper and a tyrant, and Poly- 
 carp though he " took sweet counsel" with him 
 knew it ; or else Polycarp was himself a Bishop. 1 
 
 One objection has been urged against all this, 
 with a brief notice of which we may conclude this 
 section. The more sagacious amongst the adver- 
 saries have not ventured to deny the individual 
 pre-eminence of the respective " Angels" addressed 
 in the Revelation of St. John ; they seem to have 
 judged that the evidence could not be resisted. 2 
 
 1 And this reasoning may of course be applied in almost innu- 
 merable cases. I will add only one. St. Symeon, the brother and 
 successor of St. James, lived to a great age, dying early in the second 
 century. It is beyond controversy that he was, in some sense, Bishop 
 of Jerusalem. Was his office, then, in any respect different to that 
 which had been held by his brother, the Apostle, who was also called 
 by the same title of Bishop ? If so, in what did the difference of their 
 functions consist, and who was the author of the change ? Was it 
 St. Symeon himself? This is evidently impossible, when we con- 
 sider who and what that blessed person was. Was it effected after- 
 wards by his own immediate successor ? or the next again to him ? 
 or the next? If any change was made, who made it? Which, in 
 short, of all the Bishops of Jerusalem, first assumed to be a Bishop 
 in such a sense as his predecessors, including St. James, had not 
 been ? It is evident that you cannot fix upon the criminal, nor sepa- 
 rate one from the other they were all impostors, or none ; you can- 
 not shew any distinction between them. If, therefore, men will con- 
 demn Bishops as usurpers, let them be bold, and rebuke St. James, 
 and all the Apostles, who first held their office. 
 
 8 " In the Church of Ephesus," says Reynolds, " though it had 
 sundry Elders and Pastors to guide it, yet amongst these sundry was 
 there one chief, whom our Saviour calleth the Angel of the Church, 
 and writeth that to him which by him the rest should know. And 
 this is he whom afterward in the Primitive Church the Fathers called 
 Bishop." Conference with Hart, 3. " Ce furent ces Presidens, 
 qui retinrent dans la suite le titrc d'Eveque, a 1'exclusion des Pretres." 
 Beausobre et Lenfant, Preface sur la }'" Epitre a Timothee, tome
 
 88 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 But this forced concession they have attempted to 
 qualify, after a mode which has been fitly described 
 as " more worthy of pity than confutation." And 
 indeed it seems to be commonly true of them all, 
 that no reasoning will appear, to an honest and re- 
 verential mind, more fatal to their cause than their 
 own plea in its defence : but of this hereafter. Let 
 their usual arguments be judged of by that which 
 they allege in this case, and let it be noticed in the 
 words of Bishop Hall. 
 
 " So clear," says he, "is this truth" the autho- 
 rity and responsibility of the "Angels" "that the 
 opposites have been forced to yield the priority 
 here intimated ; but a priority of order only, not 
 of power ; a priority of presidency for the time, 
 not personal. Beza yields him rov Trgosffrura,, as he 
 acknowledges Justin Martyr A.D. 139 to call 
 him ' President of the Presbytery ;' but hints that 
 
 ii. p. 362. Cf. Thes. Salmur. pars ii. p. 327 ; where the "Angel" is 
 confessed to have been " Primus ordine, honore, et dignitate." And 
 indeed, the pre-eminence here asserted has been admitted by all the 
 distinguished writers of this party; and that Calvin himself always 
 insisted upon the necessity of a presiding ruler in every Church, 
 needs not to be proved, because, as is well known, he did not confine 
 his theory to verbal statements only, though these were sufficiently 
 animated. " I should be sorry," says an anonymous writer, at a 
 critical period of English history, " to see any Bishop in this land 
 have such authority over other Ministers as he had at Geneva, or 
 John Knox in Scotland." Vide A modest Advertisement on the Go- 
 vernment oftlie Church (1641). " Episcoporum Simise," is the ex- 
 pressive title applied to these men by Turrhn ; and a very little 
 acquaintance with their history will shew how convenient, and even 
 necessary, it was for them to admit that the "Angels" were indi- 
 vidual Rulers of superior power and authority.
 
 CASE OF THE ANGELS OF THE ASIAN CHURCHES. 89 
 
 his office was perhaps not perpetual ! 1 Wherein 
 I bless myself, to see how prejudice can blind the 
 eyes of the wise and learned ; for what author, in 
 the whole world, ever mentioned such a fashion of 
 ambulatory government in the Church ? 2 And do 
 
 1 In Phil. i. Elsewhere he says, " To> dyyeXa, id est, Trpoetrrwrt, 
 quern nimirum oportuit inprimis de his rebus admoneri, ac per eum 
 caeteras Collegas, totamque adeo Ecclesiam." In Apoc. ii. " Cum 
 precandi et docendi officium in Ecclesia," says another, " praecipue 
 incubuerit ro> Trpama r<av irpf<rf3vTfp<ov, Primo Presbyterorum, quern 
 aetas recentior Episcopum vocavit, facile patior Prcesides Presbyter- 
 orum Ecclesise Christianas hie potissimum a Domino notari; quae 
 eadem quoque Bezae fuit sententia." Vitringa, In Apoc. p. 34. It 
 is really painful to see such a man as Vitringa constrained, by the 
 necessity of a false position, to such half-confessions as these. It 
 would have been fatal to admit at once the whole truth, that these 
 " Angels" were Bishops, so they must be styled " Prime-Presby- 
 ters !" Bishop Downame, quoting the above opinion of Beza, adds, 
 " And as he professeth the presidentship in every Church to be a 
 divine ordinance and immutable, so he acknowledgeth those Bishops 
 alone for divine who had this presidentship but for a short time, and 
 by course ! " Defence of Sermon, book i. ch. ii. We may leave this 
 extravagance to be rebuked by his own friends : " Episcopatus 
 vocem sumpsi," says Grotius, " eo significatu ut irpoaTaa-iav indicet 
 non temporariam sed perpetuam." Vir. Erudit. Epist. Ep. ccxciii. 
 p. 487. (ed. Limborch.) " Primatus ille non fuit vel annuus vel men- 
 struus aut hebdomadarius, ac per vices," says another of them, " ut 
 modo hie, modo ille primus esset, sed perpetuus, sive, ut loquuntur, 
 advitam." Thes. Salmur. pars ii. p. 322. So the "reformed" doc- 
 tors of Leyden : " Episcopatus nihil aliud est quam perpetuata aut 
 perpetua proBsidentia." Censur. in Remonstrantes Synodo de Dort, 
 p. 277. (Lugdun. Batav. 1626.) So Beausobre, ubi supra: " On ne 
 voit pas dans S. Paul que ce chef (du Presbytere) fut pris tour a 
 tour de tous les Pasteurs . . . . et les terns qui succedent immediate- 
 ment a ceux des Apotres ne permettent pas de le croire" as he then 
 proceeds to prove at length. 
 
 * Archbishop Bramhall challenges the new teachers " to name 
 but one Church, or so much as one poor Village, throughout the 
 whole world, from the days of the Apostles till the year of Christ 
 1500, that ever was governed without a Bishop (I except the Ace-
 
 90 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 not our histories testify, that Polycarpus, the Angel 
 of Smyrna, died Bishop there ? that Onesimus, 
 by Ignatius's testimony, so continued Bishop of 
 Ephesus? James at Jerusalem? And if those 
 errors, taxed by the Holy Ghost, were but for the 
 time of a shifting Presidency, why should any one 
 of the momentary guides of the Church be charged 
 so home with all the abuses of their jurisdiction ? 
 How easy had it been for him to shift the fault, as 
 he did the chair ! for how could it concern him 
 more than the next man ? Surely this conceit is 
 more worthy of pity than confutation." 1 And yet 
 it is a fair specimen of the reasonings with which 
 some men in these last days would defend the re- 
 vival of a " branded heresy." Without a solitary 
 instance in the history of the universal Church, 
 without one clear witness amongst the successive 
 generations of her children, without an example 
 throughout all time, save only of one unhappy and 
 self-condemned heretic, they fear not to supply 
 the lack of all, and to cover their own disobedience 
 with a profane guess ! Which " how palpable an 
 
 phali, or such disordered persons as had no government at all) ; or 
 to name but one Lay-Elder, or one ambulatory Bishop that governed 
 by turn or course in the primitive times, in the whole Catholic Church, 
 before the year 1536, when Calvin came to Geneva. We find the 
 proper and particular names of Apostles, Evangelists, Bishops, Pres- 
 byters, and Deacons, in the Scriptures, in Councils, in Ecclesiastical 
 Histories, in the Fathers ; if he and all his friends be not able out of 
 all these authorities to name one particular Lay-Elder or ambulatory 
 Bishop, the reason must be, because there never was such a creature 
 in rerum natura." The Serpent Salve, Works, vol. ii. p. 595. 
 1 Episcopacy by Divine Right, part ii. 7. p. 201.
 
 CASE OF THE ANGELS OF THE ASIAN CHURCHES. 91 
 
 untruth it is, is no hard matter," as Bishop Bilson 
 has observed, " for meane scholers to discerne. 
 The first Bishop of Alexandria after Mark the 
 Apostle was Anianus, made the eighth yeere of 
 Nero's reigne ; and he continued two and twentie 
 yeeres before Abilius succeeded him. Abilius sate 
 thirteene yeeres, and dying left [the place to Cerdo. 
 These three succeeded one another, St. John yet 
 living; neither had Alexandria any moe than two 
 Bishops in thirty-Jive yeeres after the death of Mark. 
 
 " Evodius, made Bishop of Antioch five and 
 twentie yeeres before the death of Peter and Paul, 
 survived them one yeere ; and after him succeeded 
 Ignatius, who outlived St. John, and died in the 
 eleventh yeere of Trajan, leaving the place to He- 
 ron, after he had kept it fourtie yeeres ; so that in 
 sixty -six yeeres the Church of Antioch had but two 
 Bishops. 
 
 " At Rome, whiles St. John lived, there were 
 but three Bishops, Linus, Anacletus, and Clemens, 
 which thus continued two and thirtie yeeres" 1 And 
 these, as the learned Prelate goes on to prove, are 
 but a few out of innumerable instances; so that he 
 might well say of the adversary's assertion, " I 
 
 1 Epistle to the Reader. He says elsewhere of Beza's strange 
 invention " If you talke of ' going round by course,' it is the order 
 of good fellows at a feast ; it was never the order of governing in the 
 Church of Christ." Ch. xiii. p. 288. And another shrewdly remarks, 
 " If we think of an ambulatory Government, at the next turn we 
 must expect an ambulatory Creed ;" and Geneva, as we shall see 
 hereafter, has proved the truth of the saying. Shaw, No Reforma- 
 tion of the Established Reformation, Preface.
 
 92 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 knowe not whether I should thinke it proceeded 
 of too much ignorance, or too little conscience." 1 
 However, it is an assertion which has been much 
 relied on, and it seemed right to refer to it. We 
 have seen how much it is worth, and can but won- 
 der greatly, first, that any should be bold enough 
 thus to sport with holy things, and then that others 
 should be weak enough to be led by them ; and 
 not only to accept ashes for bread, man's inventions 
 for the Ordinance of Christ, but even in their deep- 
 est degradation to fancy themselves gainers withal. 
 
 The case, then, that we may bring it to an end, 
 seems to be as follows. The Divine messages in 
 the Revelation are addressed to certain Rulers of 
 the Churches, under the title of " Angels." These 
 Angels are challenged by God as the responsible 
 Governors of their respective Churches ; strict ac- 
 count of the condition of those Churches is de- 
 manded at their hands ; to have " tried" and con- 
 victed pseudo-apostles is made the praise of one 
 Angel, to have "suffered" false Teachers the re- 
 proach of another ; their Office seems to have been 
 Apostolical, the Primitive Christians believed that 
 it was so ; their very title is used interchangeably 
 with that of Apostle by St. John himself; 2 the 
 friends of Apostles, as Ignatius, write to them 
 
 1 " Si ignoras, disce ; si nosti, erubesce. Ignorantia tibi ascribi 
 non potest ; restat ergo ut noveris." S. Optat. Adv. Parmenian. 
 lib. ii. p. 48. 
 
 2 Rev. xxi. 12.
 
 CASE OF THE ANGELS OF THE ASIAN CHURCHES. 93 
 
 their immediate successors, as Irenaeus, write of 
 them ; at the very date of the Revelation we find 
 single rulers in their chairs, and trace the succes- 
 sion of others in the same thrones; they hold 
 their office for life twenty, thirty, forty, fifty 
 years and are followed by others who do the 
 same ; the catalogues in each Church are preserved 
 from the beginning; and whilst some boast that 
 their first Bishop was the friend of St. John, others 
 tell of his speech and mien, record his words and 
 "the manner of his life;" 1 lastly, in accordance 
 with this combined testimony, the holy Fathers 
 believed and taught that these Angels were Bishops 
 in the Church of Christ, and for fifteen ages no 
 man had any other thought of them. 2 
 
 1 Vide S. Irenaei Epist. ad Florinum. 
 
 * St. Austin, in refuting the notion that they were celestial Angels, 
 which he does by pointing out that these had not " left their first 
 love," adds, " Divina voce laudatur sub Angeli nomine prcepositus 
 ecclesiee," &c. Contra Donatist. Pertinac. Epist. clxii. torn. ii. p. 
 281 : and his friend Paulinus, in addressing him as follows, seems to 
 be alluding to the same truth ; " O Lucerna digne supra Candela- 
 brum Ecclesiae posita, quse late Catholicis urbibus de septiformi lychno 
 pastum oleo laetitise lumen effundens," &c. Paulinus Augustino, 
 Epist. xxxi. He uses the same image again to Alypius, Epist. xxxv., 
 and septiformis is also repeated. Cf. Contra Ep. Parmen. lib. ii. 
 cap. x. torn. vii. p. 10. 
 
 St. Epiphanius, speaking of the heresy of the Nicolaitanes, ob- 
 serves, that its condemnation may be read in the Revelation of St. 
 John, off ypd<f>a>v p.ia ru>i> tWA^c-ieoy etc Trpoavnrov Kupt'ov, TOUTCOTI r<3 
 eViov>7ra> rep eVceure KaravraQfvri . . . <f)r)<riv, K.T.A. Hceres, XXV. 3. 
 which is a very express testimony to the mind of the Church in his 
 day. Cf. Timothei Presbyt. Constantinop. Orat. i. in Nicolaitas, ap. 
 J. Meursii Var. Div. Lib. torn. viii. p. 742. 
 
 St. Isidore says, " Sacerdos Domini Omnipotentis Angelus est." 
 Citat. a Corderio, Annot. in S. Dionys. p. 137. 
 
 St. Hilary confirms it in a singular manner: he is warning the
 
 94 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 And yet all this, and much more besides, is to 
 go for nothing ; and we are now to think that the 
 Scriptures have been misunderstood from the be- 
 ginning, and they who were most likely to know 
 
 Church against an heretical Bishop, and he says, " Absistite itaque 
 ab Auxentio, Satance Angela, hoste Christi," &c. S. Hilar. Pic*av. 
 Adv. Arian. p. 351 ; with which compare S. Basil. Epist. cxci. Ni- 
 copolitanis Presbyteris. torn. iii. p. 207. 
 
 St. Dionysius, or whoever wrote in his name, gives similar tes- 
 timony. At' f)v alriav, says he, 6 *a$' fffias iepapxrjs ayyeXos Kvpiov 
 TravTOKparopos vrrb T>V Xoyitav wvd/iaoTaf S. Dionys. Areop. De Ccelest. 
 Hierarch. cap. xii. p. 135 ; where that the Bishop is called " Angel" 
 is assumed as unquestionable, he only supposes an inquiry into the 
 suitableness of the title. 
 
 St. Ambrose too, in his comment upon 1 Cor. xi. 10, where 
 women are admonished to be "covered" in Church, " because of the 
 angels" observes, " He calls the Bisftops Angels, as we see in the 
 Revelation of St. John." " Potestatem velamen significavit ; Ange- 
 los Episcopos dicit, sicut docetur in Apocalypsi Joannis." Pseudo- 
 Ambros. torn. ii. p. 147. 
 
 St. Jerome on the same place gives the same teaching. " Item 
 hoc loco Angelas Eccleslis prcesidentes dicit, sicut ut Malachias pro- 
 pheta testatur sacerdotem angelum esse, dicens," &c. S. Hieron. In 
 1 Cor. xi., Opp. torn. viii. p. 215. The same reference to the prophet 
 is made by St. Gregory the Great, Exposit. Moral, lib. v. cap. xxviii. 
 " Propter Angelos, id est, Sacerdotes." Gemma Animce, De Antigua 
 Situ Missee, cap. cxlvi. 
 
 But perhaps the most interesting and conclusive evidence, inas- 
 much as it also involves the admissions of certain ancient heretics, on 
 this subject, is that of St. Optatus. This Father tells the Donatists, 
 that they can pretend to no communion with the successors of St. 
 Peter, and if they could, they had none with the Asian Angels : " Ex- 
 cludat septem Angelos," he says, " qui sunt apud socios nostros in 
 Asia, ad quorum Ecclesias scribit Apostolus Joannes. Cum quibus 
 Ecclesiis nullum communionis probamini habere consortium. Unde 
 vobis Angelum, qui apud vos possit fontem movere, aut inter caeteras 
 dotes Ecclesise numerari ? Extra septem Ecclesias quicquid foris est, 
 alienum est. Aut si inde habetis aliquem unum, per unum commu- 
 nicatis et caeteris Angelis, et per Angelos memoratis Ecclesiis, et per 
 ipsas Ecclesias nobis." Adv. Parmen. lib. ii. p. 50; and again, "Jo- 
 annis socii esse noluistis." p. 56.
 
 \ 
 
 CASE OF THE ANGELS OF THE ASIAN CHURCHES. 95 
 
 God's will were most deceived about it ; that men 
 who lived with the Apostles did not know their 
 minds, and that the Apostles took no pains to cor- 
 rect them ; that the "Spirit of Truth " abandoned 
 the whole Church to error, though sent to "guide 
 her into all truth ;" and " a jealous God" suffered 
 His own Institution to be destroyed by the very 
 men who supposed that they were dying in its de- 
 fence. And to all this, evil as it is, we are bid to 
 hearken as to the words of sober truth, because in 
 the sixteenth age of the Gospel there was found a 
 man who had courage enough to cast away God's 
 Discipline, and to set up his own, which lasted 
 about two hundred years, and then passed into 
 apostacy. 1 
 
 V. It is not my intention to offer here any fur- 
 ther evidence from Holy Scripture. 2 Enough, I 
 
 1 Of the present condition of Calvin's ecclesiastical republic some 
 account is given in Chap. V. So disastrous has been the working of 
 his invention, that a Genevan preacher, living in the very house and 
 chamber of that distinguished " reformer," confessed to an English 
 Clergyman in the year 1836, " The whole edifice of Calvin's Church 
 is now fallen into utter ruin, both in doctrine and discipline, and can 
 never be repaired." " Illustrations of the Latitudinarian develop- 
 ment of the original Calvinistic community at Geneva," from the 
 Journal of the Rev. W. Palmer, p. 49. 
 
 9 Though it may be truly said, that if all the Scripture evidence 
 here adduced should be omitted, there would still remain enough to 
 prove our case. There is, indeed, a vast store of such evidence, and 
 that both practical and mystical, to which no reference has been 
 made. To the former class belong all such prophetical sayings as 
 are commented upon by St. Clement, Ad Cor. 42 ; by St. Austin, 
 In Psal. xliv., Enarrat. torn. viii. p. 109; by St. Jerome on the
 
 96 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 think, has been produced to satisfy all who are in 
 a condition to receive it ; all, that is, who are not 
 disabled, by moral or religious disqualifications, 
 from apprehending it. With respect to such per- 
 sons, it must be considered, that no testimony can 
 amount to what is called proof, otherwise than 
 relatively. And since Divine Truths are for the 
 most part proposed to us whether from some se- 
 same Scripture, Opp. torn. vii. p. 57 ; or again by Origen, In Cantic. 
 i. 17, ap. Hieron. In Cantic. Canticor. Honril. iii. torn. viii. p. 152. 
 To the latter may be referred those more profound and awful expo- 
 sitions, which are too solemn for controversy cogitanda potius quam 
 dicenda such as the following : Taimjs apxy 7 y lepapxias, says the 
 Areopagite, r/ irrjyfi rrjs fays, f/ ov<ria TTJS dyadorijTos, f) fiia T>V ovrav 
 alria Tpias. De Ecclesiast. Hierarch. cap. i. p. 199. Cf. Clem. Alex. 
 Stromat. lib. vi. p. 667 ; and Tertull. De Oratione, p. 149. The 
 mystical expositions of holy men in relation to the Church men 
 who saw in every thing, with Heaven-taught piety, types or emblems 
 of the Most Blessed Trinity "Trinitatem quandam in omni re," as 
 Austin speaks are, as all must admit, too high and sacred to be ex- 
 posed to the handling of uncatholic tempers. That they regarded the 
 threefold order of the Ministry as a type of the Holy Trinity is to the 
 faithful a solemn thought, but how dreadful to the adversary ! upon 
 whom, indeed, there were little wisdom in urging it ; " Sed com- 
 pellimur," as St. Hilary complains, " compellimur ab hsereticorum 
 ac blasphemantium vitiis, illicita agere, ardua scandere, ineffabilia 
 eloqui, inconcessa prsesumere." De Trinitate, lib. ii. The following 
 passages, as characteristic of the Scripture expositions both of the 
 primitive and mediaeval ages, may be suitably added. " Unxit te 
 Deus, Deus tuus, oleo laetitiee prae consortibus tuis," is applied by 
 one to the anointing of Bishops at their consecration. B. Ivonis 
 Carnotensis, De Rebus Ecclesiasticis, ap. Hittorp. torn. i. p. 782. 
 " Baptismum ignis," says another, speaking of a deep saying of 
 Holy Scripture, " accipimus per impositionem manus Episcoporum ." 
 Amalarii De Ecc. Offic. lib. i. cap. xxvii. " Per ignem debemus 
 intelligere Spiritum Sanctum quern die Pentecostes super Apostolos 
 misit, et quotidie per Baptismum et per impositionem manuum 
 Episcoporum mittit." Remigii Altissiodor. In Joel. cap. ii. And 
 these may suffice as examples of this mode of reference to Holy 
 Scripture upon the subject under consideration.
 
 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 97 
 
 cret necessity, or for the purposes of moral disci- 
 pline with only a certain degree of evidence, and 
 no more ; then to such as require, in the case of 
 this or that truth, a further amount of testimony 
 than God has chosen to vouchsafe, such particular 
 truth is incapable of proof, and must continue so 
 in spite of all which can be said in its behalf. 1 The 
 many clear passages which have been accumulated 
 above, agreeing as they do both with the declara- 
 tions of prophecy and the facts of history, both 
 with the promises of God and their actual fulfil- 
 ment in the Church, will, it is presumed, be ac- 
 cepted by most persons as effectual proof; whilst 
 by some others they would be rejected, even if they 
 were much plainer and more numerous than they 
 are. 2 It is enough, therefore, for the present pur- 
 pose, to have collected these. 
 
 But in bringing this Chapter to an end, it may 
 be well to notice the argument from Scripture 
 for they have, strictly speaking, but one argument 
 which the adversaries are accustomed to oppose 
 to these portions of Holy Writ, and to that uni- 
 form interpretation of them which has been com- 
 mended to us by the consent of all past ages. It 
 will be found to be exactly such as others, rea- 
 soning upon the same principles, venture to urge 
 against Articles of Faith, as the doctrine of the 
 
 1 Vide Bishop Butler's Charge, A.D. 1751, Works, p. 241. 
 
 a " I endeavour to shew the unreasonableness of Atheism upon 
 this account, because it requires more evidence for things than they 
 are capable of." Tillotson, Rule of Faith, Preface. 
 
 H
 
 98 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 Most Holy Trinity, or the Divinity of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 The argument is usually stated in some such 
 terms as the following : " St. Paul, in his Epistles, 
 recognises but two Orders of the Ministry, Bishops 
 and Deacons. Those whom in one passage he 
 calls Elders or Presbyters, are denominated in 
 another Bishops. These are, according to his use, 
 and that of the New Testament generally, con- 
 vertible terms ; they plainly indicate the same Of- 
 fice. They were not distinguished by the Apos- 
 tles, and therefore cannot be distinguished by us ; 
 only two Orders of Ministers were enumerated 
 then, and there cannot be three now." This, I 
 believe, is the sum of the argument. 1 
 
 Now it is observable, at first sight, how exactly 
 this reasoning coincides with that of the Arian or 
 Socinian. " The Bible declares, again and again, 
 that there is only one God ; therefore there cannot 
 be a Trinity. It no where speaks of God the Holy 
 Ghost ; therefore He is not a Person in the God- 
 head. Christ says, ' My Father is greater than I ;' 
 therefore Christ did not assume to be equal with 
 God." This philosophy of the Socinian is so closely 
 allied to that of the Lutheran or Calvinist, that it 
 explains the awful fact of their rapid amalgama- 
 tion into one body, and accounts for the transition 
 which is now going on, all over the world, from 
 the one class to the other from the despisers of 
 
 1 See it stated at length by Hooker, E. P. b. vii. ch. xi.
 
 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 99 
 
 Primitive Discipline to the corrupters of Catholic 
 Doctrine. But without noticing further in this 
 place a connexion which it is proposed to trace in 
 a future chapter, the objection itself shall be consi- 
 dered under some of the different forms in which 
 it has been proposed. 
 
 (1.) And first, it must be said, not by way of 
 argument, but in all simplicity, that if it were ever 
 so true, it would not impair, nay, it would not 
 touch, the cause which it is brought to discredit. 
 For suppose it were so, that the Apostles make 
 mention of only two Orders of Clergy, presbyters 
 and deacons, as ordained by their authority what 
 were they, the Ordain ers, themselves ? Did they 
 not constitute a third Order? And has not the 
 Church always taught that the Rulers now spe- 
 cially styled Bishops succeed them? They, and 
 others appointed by them for that purpose, or- 
 dained, admonished, and censured the Presbyters 
 and Deacons in the several Churches of their 
 charge ; and it was to the authority of these single 
 Rulers that Timothy and Titus, Clement and 
 Epaphroditus, Ignatius and Polycarp, and the rest 
 in turn down to our own day, succeeded. With 
 what object, then, does the adversary assert that 
 the Apostles speak of only two Orders of the Priest- 
 hood as subject to their rule ? He must shew, if 
 he would prove his case, that the Apostles were of 
 the same Order with the clergy whom they ordained 
 and governed.
 
 100 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 (2.) But then it is said : " However this may 
 be, we find no such definition in the Bible of 
 the Episcopal Office and Order as is here im- 
 plied. Where do we see even the name Bishop 
 to be used in its present signification? where, 
 for instance, is St. James called Bishop of Jeru- 
 salem r 
 
 The impotence of this second objection may be 
 estimated by the fact, that it has been scornfully 
 rejected by the very teachers who urge it, when 
 used by others against themselves. 1 An illustration 
 of its true character may readily be found. Thus : 
 we are told that " the disciples were called Chris- 
 tians first in Antioch," and that probably more than 
 ten years after our Lord's Resurrection. Were they 
 not Christians, then, before the name was assumed ? 
 If they were, then why are St. James and the rest 
 to be denied their Episcopal character because the 
 title was not yet applied? If those Rulers were 
 not Bishops because they were not called so, then 
 the first disciples were not Christians, for they were 
 not called so either. Every one sees how absurd 
 this way of reasoning is in the latter case : why 
 
 1 " Ista vero putida objectio, voces illas in Scripturis non inveniri, 
 quoties objecta, audita, repulsa, damnata est omnium bonorum et doc- 
 torum judicio." Theod. Bezse Epist. Ixxxi. Bishop Pearson says 
 (On the Creed, Art. ix. Notes, vol. ii. p. 460) : " It was the ordinary 
 objection of the schismatical Novatians, that the very name of Catho- 
 lics was never used by the Apostles ; and the answer to it by the 
 Catholics was by way of concession, ' Sed sub Apostolis, inquies, 
 nemo Catholicus vocabatur. Esto, sic merit ; vel illud indulge,' " &c. 
 Pacian. Ad Sympronian. Ep. i.
 
 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 101 
 
 should it be thought wise and prudent in the 
 former ? 
 
 (3.) Again : " How was the Office of Bishop 
 distinct," it is asked, " from that of Presbyter, 
 when the same individuals are called, by the same 
 Apostle, both Bishops and Presbyters ?" This is 
 another form of the objection ; specious, indeed, in 
 sound, but, as Hooker has said, " a lame and im- 
 potent kind of reasoning" 1 with which to convict 
 all past ages of error. For let it be granted that 
 the title of Bishop is not confined in the New 
 Testament to that Order to which it was after- 
 wards restrained, 2 what then? Our question is 
 about things, not names; we are looking for an 
 Order of spiritual Governors higher than Presby- 
 ters, and possessing authority over them ; and will 
 any man deny that such an Order is to be seen in 
 the New Testament ? How idle is it, then, to con- 
 tend for a phrase, 3 and how perilous an argument 
 
 1 E. P. book vii. vol. iii. p. 179. Cf. Whitgift, Def. of A. to A. 
 p. 534. 
 
 a Which, however, they cannot prove. Hammond says, " The 
 word Bishop in the Scripture is never used for a Presbyter in our 
 modern notion of the word, but constantly for the one single Go- 
 vernor in a Church or city." Vindication of his Dissertations, 7. 
 p. 40. " Where you find a Bishop and Presbyter in Scripture to be 
 one and the same which I deny to be always so it is in the Apos- 
 tles' times. Now I think to prove the order of Bishops succeeded that 
 of the Apostles, and that the name was chiefly altered in reverence to 
 those that were immediately chosen by our Saviour." King Charles' 
 Answer to Henderson, quoted by Stillingfleet, Unreasonableness of 
 Separation, part iii. 13, p. 271. Cf. Jackson, Dissertation on Epis- 
 copacy, p. 39. 
 
 3 " Si mim de verbis inter nos controversia est, facile contemne-
 
 102 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 in their lips who may be called upon to defend the 
 fabulous vocabulary of the conventicle. 1 What 
 rashness is this, to reject an Office recognised in the 
 Word of God, and ever maintained in the Church, 
 because supposing it to be so men have since 
 denoted it by a particular title. As if to speak 
 of Baptism as a " Sacrament" were to annul its 
 efficacy, because that word is not applied to it in 
 Scripture ; or when Adam " gave names" to the 
 creatures around him, he must have changed the 
 constitution which they had from God. But let us 
 examine more closely an argument, upon the suc- 
 cess of which the whole fabric of the modern dis- 
 cipline depends. 2 
 
 tur, dummodo rent ipsam quam concepisti mente videamus." Aug. 
 De Ordine, lib. ii. cap. ii. " Nihil obstant verba, cum sententia con- 
 gruat veritati." Lactantius, De Vera Sapientia, lib. iv. p. 332. 
 
 1 " These imperative men mightily forget their own principles ; 
 for they create new Senators, Vestry Elders, without any command- 
 ment of the word ; they command whatsoever their own heads affect, 
 without any commandment of the word ; to wit," &c. Bishop 
 White, Letter to Archbishop Laud, prefixed to his Treatise on the 
 Sabbath. Ha\iv crv irodev fx ets T ^ s "^ y aKpoTroAeis ; asks Nazianzen ; 
 and he warns the adversary that he must fall by his own principles 
 of reasoning. Oral, xxxvii. torn. i. p. 606. But this is the fate of 
 all sectaries ; like Saul, they fall upon their own sword. " Jam ne 
 vides, frater Parmeniane, jam ne sentis, jam ne intelligis, te argu- 
 mentis tuts contra te militasse?" S. Optat. Adv. Parmen. lib. ii. 
 p. 51. 
 
 * " This is Salmasius his standing juggle, to make every passage in 
 which either of these two words bishop or presbyter occurs a demon- 
 stration of the identity of Office ; ... if we bar him and his fellows 
 but this one childish sophism, they must in this controversy be dumb 
 for ever. It is the whole force of all that they have written upon it ; 
 all their books are nothing more than this one thing repeated so 
 many thousand times over." Archdeacon Parker's Government of the 
 Church, p. 24.
 
 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 103 
 
 There is no order above Presbyters, these new 
 teachers say, " because some Presbyters are called 
 Bishops." If this rule of interpretation be a sound 
 one, it will bear a general application. Now, in 
 the New Testament our Blessed Lord is called 
 a Deacon, huxovov ^iro^g : l " Shall we argue, 
 therefore, that Christ is no more than of the order 
 of Deacon in the Church ? Such and no better are 
 the arguments from the etymology of the words, 
 that Bishops are no more than Presbyters." 2 
 
 Again : the Apostles are called in one place 
 Deacons of the New Testament, hazovovs xuivrjg ;a- 
 drjxqs', 3 elsewhere St. Peter and St. John call them- 
 selves Presbyters, or Elders. 11 The same persons, 
 then, in those days, were called both Presbyters 
 and Deacons ; therefore, by this rule, Presbyter 
 and Deacon is the same thing ; and, by the same 
 method of induction, Bishop and Presbyter have 
 been proved to be the same : therefore, Bishop, 
 Presbyter, and Deacon, are all equal to one an- 
 other, and there is no distinction of ministers 
 whatever. And it is to an objection which leads 
 to such a result, that we are required to furnish 
 
 1 Rom. xv. 8. 
 
 1 Leslie, ReJiearsah, no. 252. 3 2 Cor. iii. 6. 
 
 4 1 Pet. v. 1 ; 2 and 3 John. Bishop Andrewes has observed, 
 that the Apostles are called Priests or Seniors, 1 Pet. v. 1 ; Deacons 
 or Ministers, 1 Cor. iii. 5 ; Teachers or Doctors, 1 Tim. ii. 7 ; Bishops 
 or Overseers, Acts i. 20 ; Prophets, Acts xiii. 1, and Rev. xxii. 9 ; 
 Evangelists, 1 Cor. ix. 16 ; and, besides all these, Disciples. It is 
 surely, then, mere trifling to reason as some do upon the Names used 
 in the New Testament.
 
 104 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 a serious reply. 1 Such a reply, however, shall 
 now be offered. 
 
 Of course, if this confusion of terms strikes us 
 as worthy of remark, it must have been noticed by 
 those who lived before us. The old Fathers were 
 apt to be very observant in such matters, and we 
 shall find that this has not escaped them. The 
 chief passage upon which the new expounders 
 seem to rely is in the first chapter to the Philip- 
 pians, where St. Paul salutes "the saints which 
 are at Philippi, with the Bishops and Deacons :" 
 here, they say, 2 is plain proof that the Apostle 
 knew only of two Orders. This is the comment 
 
 1 " They may as well prove," says Leslie, " that Christ was but 
 a deacon, because He is so called Rom. xv. 8, SIUKOVOS, which we 
 rightly translate minister ; and bishop signifies an overseer, and pres- 
 byter an ancient man welder man; whence our term of alderman. 
 And this is as good a foundation to prove that the Apostles were 
 aldermen in the city-acceptation of the word, or that our alder- 
 men are all bishops and apostles, as to prove that presbyters and 
 bishops are all one, from the childish jingle of the words. It would 
 be the same thing if we should undertake to confront all antiquity, 
 and prove against all the histories, that the Emperors of Rome 
 were no more than generals of armies, and that every Roman 
 general was Emperor of Rome, because he could find the word Im- 
 perator sometimes applied to the general of an army. Or, as if 
 a commonwealth-man should get up and say, that our former kings 
 were no more than our dukes are now, because the style of grace, 
 which is now given to dukes, was then given to kings. And sup- 
 pose that any one were put under the penance of answering such 
 ridiculous arguments, what method would he take, but to shew that 
 the emperors of Rome, and former kings of England, had generals of 
 armies and dukes under them, and exercised authority over them 1" 
 On the Qualifications necessary to administer the Sacraments, Works, 
 vol. vii. pp. 105, 6. (ed. Oxou.) 
 
 2 Vide J. Pomeran, e. g., Annot. in Epist, ad Phil.
 
 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 105 
 
 of these last days : now let us hear what a more 
 primitive age thought of the same passage. 1 
 
 St. John Chrysostom observes upon it as fol- 
 lows : " ' With the bishops and deacons/ What 
 does this signify ? were there many bishops in 
 one city ? By no means ; but he gives this name 
 to the presbyters; for at that period they shared 
 the same name, and even the Bishop was called a 
 deacon." 2 And this commentary of the Saint is 
 no " private interpretation," but the catholic sen- 
 timent. " By bishops in this place we understand 
 presbyters" says St. Jerome ; " for there could not 
 be many bishops in one city." 3 " The first pres- 
 
 1 The interpretation of St. Ambrose, however, would supersede 
 the supposed difficulty altogether. " St. Paul is speaking," he says, 
 " of certain bishops and deacons who were at that time in his com- 
 pany, and not of those at Philippi." But it must be admitted that 
 Bellarmine rejects this, as " nimis dura expositio ;" De Clericis, lib. i. 
 cap. xiv. Still, even if we decline to receive this comment of the 
 Saint, his words are very instructive, and afford a striking testimony 
 to the mind of the Church in his day. " If," says he, "the Apostle 
 had been addressing the bishops and deacons of Philippi, he would 
 have addressed them personally ; he would have written, not to two 
 or three, but to the bishop of the place, as he did to Timothy and 
 Titus, loci ipsius Episcopo scribeudum erat, non duobus vel tribus, 
 sicut et ad Titum et Timotheum." In Phil, i., Opp. torn. ii. p. 251. 
 
 2 2w {Tricricfaois Kal SIOKOVOIS' Ti TOVTO ; fjnas TroXfco? TroXXol rt- 
 (TKOTrot r]<rav ; ov8ap.S>s' dXXa TOVS irpcfrftvTepovs ovr<as eVcaXea-e' TOTC yap 
 Tt<as (Koivatvovv rois ovop-airi, Kal SiaKovos 6 eVuncoTrof eXt'yero. S. 
 Chrysost. Homil, i. in Phil. i. torn. iv. pp. 5, 6; where he continues 
 the subject with further illustrations of the promiscuous manner in 
 which these different titles were applied to the three Orders. 
 
 3 " Hie episcopos presbyteros intelligimus ; non enim in una urbe 
 plures episcopi esse potuissent ; sed etiam hoc in Apostolorum Acti- 
 bus habetur." S. Hieron. In Epist. ad Phil. cap. i. torn. viii. p. 258. 
 " Nulla ars absque magistro digcitur," says the same Father else- 
 where ; and then he notices how even the lower animals have com-
 
 106 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 byters were called bishops," writes St. Ambrose, 
 " before Churches were appointed in all places." 1 
 " He calls the presbyters bishops," says GEcume- 
 nius ; " for up to that time the names were common." 2 
 " They were not yet distinguished"* says Theophy- 
 lact. " He styles the presbyters bishops," Theo- 
 doret says ; " for at that time they used either 
 name." 4 The same thing says the Greek scholiast ; 
 
 monly their single leader ; bees elect a kind of sovereign, and cranes 
 follow one in a regular order ; there is one emperor, and one judge in 
 a province ; Rome could not bear two rulers, but the one slew the 
 other ; Esau and Jacob fought in the womb of Rebecca ; and so, he 
 adds, " Singuli ecclesiarum Episcopi, singuli archipresbyteri, singuli 
 archidiaconi, et omnis ordo ecclesiasticus suis rectoribus nititur." Ad 
 Rusticum Monachum, Epist. iv. How tirmly this truth was held by 
 the ancient Church is emphatically shewn in a remarkable passage of 
 the ecclesiastical historian. Liberius, Bishop of Rome, had been ba- 
 nished, and his see unlawfully occupied by Felix. On the return of 
 the former, it was proposed by the Emperor, that the two should rule 
 the Roman Church conjointly. Whereupon, says the historian, the 
 people, shocked at so strange a proposal, exclaimed with one voice, 
 "ONE GOD, ONE CHRIST, ONE BISHOP" ~Els 0e6r, fls Xpurrbs, 
 (Is (Tria-KOTros. Theodorit. Ecclesiast, Histor. lib. ii. cap. xvii. p. 96. 
 And Sozomen, speaking of the early death of this Felix, does not 
 hesitate to ascribe it to the special Providence of God, who thus 
 interfered to save the chair of St. Peter from the dishonour of being 
 occupied by two Bishops at once. H. E. lib. iv. cap. xv. p. 558. 
 
 1 In Ephes. iv. torn. ii. p. 241. 
 
 2 'ETTUTKOTTOVS TOVS TrpftrjSvrfpovs KoAei, TOTS yap ert ficoivatvovv rols 
 wofjuuri. fficumen. In Phil. i. torn. ii. p. 65. 
 
 3 Ot/Tro) yap rf<Tav 8taK.fKpip.eva TO. ovofjuira, aXXa *ai ol CTTUTKOTTOI Sta- 
 KOVOI Kai TrptcrfivTfpoi eVeaXoiWo. Theophylact. In loc, p. 577. " Sub 
 Episcoporum nomine presbyteros amplexus est." Raban. Maur. 
 De Institut. Clericor. cap. vi. " In principio, licet ordines fuerint 
 distincti, non tamen nomina ordinum ; unde hie comprehendit pres- 
 byteros cum episcopis." S. Thomas Aquinas, In Phil. i. 
 
 4 In loc. torn. iii. p. 323. Cf. Pseudo-Alcuin. Lib. de Divin. 
 Offic., in cap. de Tonsura Clericorum ; et Georg. Pachym. in S. 
 Dioriys. De Ccelest. Hierarch. cap. i. Paraphr.
 
 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 107 
 
 and so, in a word, all the holy witnesses who were 
 best able to speak in such a matter. But perhaps 
 they were all leagued to suppress the truth ? It 
 were a thought more injurious to the Master whom 
 they served than to themselves ; but if it were so, 
 there is yet another testimony, which shall be cited 
 in the last place. There is actually a Version of 
 the Sacred Scriptures, and not the least valuable 
 or authentic of the copies which the Divine bounty 
 has preserved to us, in which the whole matter 
 seems to be cleared up. In the Syriac translation 
 of the Holy Records, as the most learned Bishop 
 Beveridge has noticed, the words avv iTiaxoiroig 
 xai ^inxovoig, here in dispute, are actually rendered 
 " with the presbyters and deacons ;" and " in almost 
 all places of the New Testament where the word \-xi- 
 GXOKOS, or bishop, occurs, it is translated by presbyter 
 in the Syriac Version" 1 
 
 It would be natural to exult in the fulness of 
 our proofs, but that to triumph in such a victory, 
 or against such an adversary, would be unseemly. 
 Rather let us, with humble thankfulness, rejoice in 
 our own inheritance, and using wisely the privi- 
 leges which belong to us as children of the Holy 
 Catholic Church, seek with all gentleness and 
 charity to win others to our own blessed lot. So 
 shall we best use the injunction of the Apostle, 
 and "save others" even against their own will 
 "pulling them out of thejire." 
 
 1 Cited by Collier, Ecclesiastical History, book vii. p. 617.
 
 108 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 Our supposed difficulty, then, turns out to be 
 no difficulty at all. The second order of Priests 
 were indeed at first, and in some places, called 
 " bishops," as being in some sense " overseers ;" 
 but the Rulers of the Churches, the Angels them- 
 selves, were called not only bishops but Apostles, 
 for they filled the Apostolic Office. We under- 
 stand, therefore, why St. Paul speaks of other 
 Apostles besides the Twelve, which he does in the 
 first Epistle to the Corinthians; why he calls St. 
 James, though not of the Twelve, an " Apostle" 
 who, as we have seen, was Bishop of Jerusalem ; 
 why he applies the same title to Epaphroditus, 
 which he does in this same Epistle to the Philip- 
 pians, saying, " I supposed it necessary to send to 
 you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in 
 labour, and fellow-soldier, but your Apostle, vpuv 
 & uiroffToXov'," 1 and since he was not with his 
 Church at this time, no wonder that St. Paul does 
 not salute the Angel of Philippi by name, but only 
 " the bishops (or presbyters) and deacons." " He 
 calls the blessed Epaphroditus their Apostle," says 
 Theodoret; "plainly therefore does he shew that 
 he had been entrusted with the Office of Bishop, 
 
 1 Calvin translates these words " Apostolum vestrum," and ad- 
 mits, in commenting upon the subsequent verses, that Epaphro- 
 ditus was the Pastor of the Philippians : so Grotius, In Epist. ad 
 Phil. cap. i. And Tillemont observes well, that St. Paul could not 
 have styled Epaphroditus " Apostle " as being the first instru- 
 ment in delivering the Gospel to the Philippians, because he had 
 performed that office himself. Memoires, &c. tome i. 2 de partie, 
 p. 856.
 
 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 109 
 
 since he bears the title of Apostle ; M1 so little doubt 
 had the Early Church that the one implied the 
 other! And the same Theodoret tells us that 
 Epaphroditus was Bishop of Philippi. 
 
 Nor had our Fathers any other thought of 
 Bishops but as Successors in the very Office and 
 Order of Apostles. And therefore St. Jerome on 
 that saying of St. Paul, " Other Apostles saw I 
 none save James the Lord's brother," observes 
 thus : " For by degrees, as time went on, OTHERS 
 WERE ORDAINED APOSTLES by those whom the Lord 
 had chosen, as that passage to the Philippians proves, 
 saying, ' I supposed it necessary to send to you Epa- 
 phroditus your Apostle.' " 2 " The Bishops are called 
 Apostles," says Pacian, " as Paul declareth in speak- 
 ing of Epaphroditus." 3 And why they ceased to 
 
 1 ... Saf^coy TOLWV tfti8a{-ev } a>s TTJV fmcrKOTriKrjV oiKovofi,iav avros 
 tirfiri(rrevTo, f^<av dnooToXov Trpocnyyopiav. ubi supra. 
 
 3 " Paulatim, tempore praecedente, et alii ab his quos Dominus 
 elegerat ordinati sunt Apostoli ; sicut ille ad Philippenses sermo 
 declarat," &c. ; and then he observes that "St. Paul is speaking of 
 such persons when he says, ' Whether our brethren be inquired of, 
 they are the Apostles an-ooroXoi of the Churches, and the glory 
 of Christ' (2 Cor. viii. 23) ; and that Silas and Judas are both styled 
 Apostles by the Apostles." S. Hieron. In Gal. i. 19. torn. vi. p. 
 125. And St. Hilary, on the 2d chapter of Philippians, says, " He 
 (Epaphroditus) was their Apostle eorum Apostolus and made so 
 by the Apostle." So Clement of Alexandria calls his namesake 
 " the Apostle Clement," Stromat. lib. iv. p. 516 ; and St. Austin, 
 speaking of his own high office, says, " Ego minimus non solum 
 omnium Apostolorum, sed omnium Episcoporum." De Actis cum 
 Felice Manichceo, lib. i. cap. vi. torn. vi. p. 207 ; and innumerable 
 instances of the same way of speaking might be adduced. Cf. S. 
 Athanas. Ad Dracontium, torn. i. p. 956 ; who certainly was quite 
 sure that Apostle and Bishop were the same thing. 
 
 3 Pacian. Epist. i. ap. Biblioth. Patrum, torn. iii. p. 431.
 
 1 10 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 be so styled is not concealed from us. An ancient 
 Father, who gives the same interpretation of St. 
 Paul's words with the rest of his brethren, having 
 remarked that, at first, the terms presbyter and 
 bishop were applied to the same person, the name 
 Apostle being given to those who were afterwards 
 called Bishops, proceeds thus : " But in the course 
 of time, they confined the title of Apostle to those 
 who were truly so (i. e. the Twelve), and the ap- 
 pellation of Bishops they assigned to the persons 
 formerly styled Apostles. Thus (or in this sense) 
 Epaphroditus was the Apostle of the Philippians, 
 thus Titus and Timothy were Apostles respectively 
 of the Cretans and Asiatics." 1 So that whilst, in 
 the Apostolic age, presbyters were sometimes called 
 bishops, it was only because that highest Order of 
 Church Governors to which this title was after- 
 wards reserved were hitherto called " Apostles." 
 And with this agrees the teaching of all God's 
 servants. " The Bishops," says St. Ambrose, " are 
 Apostles;" 2 and St. Cyprian, "the Lord appointed 
 Apostles, that is, Bishops;" 3 and St. Jerome, "Bi- 
 shops occupy the place of Apostles;" 4 and Pacian, 
 "the Bishops are entitled Apostles;" 5 and Ter- 
 tullian, " were first ordained by the Apostles ;" 6 
 
 1 Cited by Bloomfield, Annot. in 1 Tim. iii. vol. viii. p. 227. 
 
 2 " Apostoli Episcopi sunt." torn. ii. p. 241. 
 
 3 " Apostolos, id est, Episcopos, Dominus elegit." Ep. Ixv. Ad 
 Rogatianum. 
 
 4 " Apostolorum locum Episcopi tenent." Ep. liv. Ad Marcellam. . 
 * " Episcopi Apostoli nominantur." ubi supra. 
 
 6 De Prescript. Heeret., and Adv. Marcion. lib. iv. cap. v.
 
 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. Ill 
 
 and St. Irenaetis, " are traced in all Churches from 
 the Apostles;" 1 and St. Austin, "are instead of 
 Apostles;" 2 and, in one word, all the Saints and 
 all Martyrs, all Churches and all times, declare the 
 same truth, that Bishops are the Apostles of the 
 Most High ; or that, in the words of Hooker, " the 
 first Bishops in the Church of Christ were His blessed 
 Apostles" 3 
 
 1 Lib. iii. cap. Hi. 
 
 8 In Psal. xliv. torn. viii. p. 169 ; and St. Hilary of Poictiers, 
 " O diguos successores Petri atque Pauli," Contra Arianos, p. 442 ; 
 and Amalarius, " Imitatio Episcoporum Apostolorum chorus est," 
 De Ecc. Off. lib. ii. cap. xii. ; and so a host more, of whose unvary- 
 ing testimony, confirmed as it is by the equally plain witness of Holy 
 Scripture, we may confidently say, " Traditio nihil aliud est quain 
 Scripturae ipsius explicatio et interpretatio ;" Cassand. De Officio 
 Pii Viri, p. 782. 
 
 3 E. P. book vii. vol. iii. p. 183. A truth to which the divines 
 of our own Church have constantly witnessed. " If there can be 
 any better evidence under heaven," says Bishop Hall, "for any 
 matter of fact, let Episcopacy be for ever abandoned out of God's 
 Church." Humble Remonstrance, &c. Works, vol. x. p. 280 (Oxon. 
 1837). 
 
 And Bishop Andrewes : " Our Church doth hold, there is a 
 distinction between Bishop and Priest, and that de jure divino." 
 Answer to Cardinal Perron, Opuscul. 
 
 And Bishop Bilson : " Of this (the Apostolical Succession) there 
 is so perfect record, in all the stories and Fathers of the Church, that 
 I much muse with what face men that have any taste of learning can 
 denie the vocation of Bishops came from the Apostles ; for that they 
 succeeded the Apostles and Evangelists in their Churches and chaires 
 may inevitably be proved, if any Christian persons or Churches de- 
 serve to be credited." The Perpetual Government of Christ's Church, 
 chap. xiii. p. 247. 
 
 And Bishop Bancroft : " Unlesse I could prove my Ordination 
 lawfull out of the Scriptures, I would not be a Bishop four houres 
 longer." Vide Fuller, Church History of Britain, book x. cent. 17: 
 
 And Bishop Beveridge: "The continued and uninterrupted Suc- 
 cession, which is the great glory of our Church, and that which you
 
 112 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 To conclude : the ecclesiastical order was, 
 it should seem, at first as follows: (1) Apostles; 
 (2) Presbyters ; (3) Deacons ; the title of Bishop 
 being applied sometimes to one order, sometimes 
 to another. But when, after the Twelve were re- 
 can never sufficiently thank God for." Sermons on the Church, 
 serm. ii. p. 58 (1837). 
 
 And Bishop Sanderson : " The Bishops (are) the lawful succes- 
 sors of the Apostles, and inheritors of their power." On Episco- 
 pacy, part iii. 11. 
 
 And Archbishop Bramhall: "The line of Apostolical Succession 
 is the very nerves and sinews of ecclesiastical unity and communion, 
 both with the present Church, and with the Catholic Symbolical 
 Church of all successive ages." Just Vindication of the Church of 
 England, p. 29. 
 
 And Bishop Taylor : " Episcopacy relies not upon the authority 
 of Fathers and Councils, but upon Scripture, upon the institution 
 of Christ, or the institution of His Apostles, upon an universal tra- 
 dition and an universal practice, not upon the words and opinions 
 of the doctors ; and it hath as great a testimony as Scripture itself 
 hath." Works, vol. vii. Dedication, p. xviii. ed. Heber. 
 
 And Hooker : " Wherefore let us not fear to be herein bold and 
 peremptory, that if any thing in the Church's government, surely 
 the first institution of Bishops was from heaven, was even of God, 
 the HoJy Ghost was the author of it." E. P. book vii. vol. iii. 
 p. 205. 
 
 Lastly, so our two Martyrs, to whom it was given to seal their 
 faith with their blood. " This I will say, and abide by it, that the 
 calling of Bishops is jure divino, by divine right." Laud, On Church 
 Ritual, p. 347 (1840). And his Royal Master : " It is well known I 
 have endeavoured to satisfy myself in what the chief patrons for 
 other ways can say against this, or for theirs ; and I find they have, 
 as far less of Scripture grounds and of reason, so for examples and 
 practice of the Church, or testimonies of histories, they are wholly 
 destitute ; wherein the whole stream runs so for Episcopacy, that 
 there is not the least rivulet for any other." EIK&V Bao-iAtK^, p. 145. 
 Of which two testimonies we may surely say, with an ancient Father, 
 " Intelligere debuerant aliquid in ea re esse rationis, quae, non sine 
 causa, usque ad mortem defendatur." Lactant. De Justitia, lib. v. 
 p. 456.
 
 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 113 
 
 moved to the Church in Heaven, the name " Apos- 
 tle" seemed too sacred to be applied in its first 
 latitude, that is, to all the supreme Governors, 
 it ceased to be so used, and the office which it had 
 indicated was henceforward denoted by a title not 
 hitherto restricted to that purpose ; the order being 
 now, (1) Bishops; (2) Presbyters; (3) Deacons. 
 " It clearly appeareth, therefore," says Hooker, 
 " that Churches Apostolic did know but three de- 
 grees in the power of ecclesiastical order ; at the 
 first, Apostles, presbyters, and deacons ; afterwards, 
 instead of Apostles, Bishops." He adds : " Heaps 
 of allegations in a case so . evident and plain are 
 needless. I may therefore safely conclude, that 
 there are at this day in the Church of England no 
 other than the same degrees of ecclesiastical order, 
 namely, Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, which had 
 their beginning from Christ and His blessed Apos- 
 tles themselves." 
 
 This conclusion we shall see further cause to 
 adopt in the progress of these pages : meanwhile, 
 to use the emphatic language of the same wise and 
 holy man, " High time it is to give over the obsti- 
 nate defence of this most miserable forsaken cause ; 
 in the favour whereof neither God, nor amongst 
 so many wise and virtuous men as Antiquity hath 
 brought forth, any one can be found to have hitherto 
 directly spoken. Irksome confusion must of neces- 
 sity be the end whereunto all such vain and un- 
 grounded confidence doth bring, as hath nothing to
 
 114 SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE. 
 
 bear it out but only an excessive measure of bold 
 and peremptory words, holpen by the start of a 
 little time, before they came to be examined. In 
 the writings of the Ancient Fathers there is not any 
 thing with more serious asseveration inculcated, than 
 that it is God which maketh bishops, that their au- 
 thority hath divine allowance, that the bishop is the 
 priest of God, that he is judge in Christ's stead, that 
 according to God's own law the whole Christian fra- 
 ternity standeth bound to obey him. Of this there 
 was not in the Christian world of old any doubt or 
 controversy made, it was a thing universally every 
 where agreed upon. What should move men to 
 judge that now so unlawful and naught, which was 
 then so reverently esteemed? Surely no other 
 cause but this : men were in those times meek, 
 lowly, tractable, willing to live in dutiful awe and 
 subjection unto the pastors of their souls ; now we 
 imagine ourselves so able every man to teach and 
 direct all others, that none of us can brook it to 
 have superiors ; and for a mask to hide our pride, 
 we pretend falsely the law of Christ, as if we did 
 seek the execution of His will, when, in truth, we 
 look for the mere satisfaction of our own against 
 His." 1 
 
 1 Ibid, book vii. vol. iii. pp. 323, 4.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 I. IF the Sacred Records had supplied no such 
 evidence as has now been adduced in other words, 
 if there had been no recognition whatever in Holy 
 Scripture of that ecclesiastical system which, from 
 the beginning, all ages and almost all men have 
 believed to be divine, even in that case, no pro- 
 gress would have been made towards proving it 
 human. The truth of that system is not, as the 
 adversary desires to represent it, a distinct, inde- 
 pendent proposition, subject to the ordinary methods 
 of proof, and to be tested by the amount of positive 
 evidence which can be exhibited in its behalf; very 
 far otherwise. It cannot even be approached at all 
 as a separate question. It is indissolubly connected 
 with the integrity of the Gospel Revelation, closely 
 linked with the free promises of the Gospel Cove- 
 nant. A beautiful scheme in itself, it is but a small 
 portion of one incalculably more vast and extended ; 
 and it is impossible, so delicate are the relations be- 
 tween them, that the one should be seriously affected 
 without a proportionate derangement of the other. 
 It is important to notice the connexion here spoken
 
 116 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 of, which a few illustrations will serve to explain 
 more clearly. 
 
 It is asserted by some that the Episcopal Office, 
 as now exercised, was not instituted by Christ or 
 His Apostles ; that it was, in fact, an invention of 
 men, and a corruption of the true divine discipline. 
 And it is supposed by those who advocate this 
 theory, that it is directed merely against one par- 
 ticular view of ecclesiastical polity, which may be 
 considered upon its own merits, and be accepted or 
 denied without reference to any other truth or doc- 
 trine whatsoever. How erroneous this notion is 
 we easily perceive when we come to examine the 
 theory in question, which, far from being opposed 
 only to one certain form or mode of Church dis- 
 cipline, will be found to involve moreover a series 
 of the most amazing consequences, such as, among 
 others, the following : 
 
 First, inasmuch as the supposed corruption or 
 alteration of the Divine discipline which this theory 
 assumes, was effected, as it takes for granted, close 
 upon the days of the Apostles, and therefore with 
 the connivance of vast numbers of their disciples, 
 we must be prepared to believe that our Saviour's 
 Ordinance was set aside by His earliest and most 
 favoured followers, and that men who had seen it 
 administered by Apostles, and had embraced it 
 themselves at the peril of their lives, had yet 
 boldness to conceive and leisure to accomplish its 
 total subversion. Next, we must think, that this
 
 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 117 
 
 act of hypothetical wickedness was consummated 
 in every part of the world at once without consul- 
 tation, and yet every where without variation ; the 
 Bishops seizing upon an office which only marked 
 them out as the first victims for death, while the 
 Presbyters abandoned one for which no recom- 
 pense was even offered, which no power could 
 have wrested from them, and to which they had 
 been exalted by Christ Himself; the Bishops, in 
 other words, being cruel and crafty, only to court 
 sufferings which they might have avoided ; l and 
 the Presbyters feeble and base, only to throw away 
 honours which they might have preserved. 2 And 
 
 1 And yet "who will imagine," as Bishop Taylor eloquently 
 writes, " that Bishops should at the first, in the calenture of their 
 infant devotion, in the new spring of Christianity, in the times of 
 persecution, in all the public disadvantages of state and fortune, 
 when they anchored only upon the shore of a holy conscience, that 
 then they should have thoughts ambitious, encroaching, of usurpa- 
 tion and advantages, of purpose to divest their brethren of an autho- 
 rity entrusted them by Christ ; and then, too, when all the advan- 
 tages of their honour did only set them upon a hill, to feel a stronger 
 blast of persecution ?" Episcopacy Asserted, p. 181. That the fury 
 of the persecutors was commonly directed in the first place against 
 the Bishops, a slight acquaintance with ecclesiastical history will 
 prove ; and there would be obvious reasons for such a policy. See 
 the statement of Eusebius quoted by Barrow, vol. i. p. 350 ; and 
 compare Caspar. Sagittar. De Martyrum Cruciatibus in Primitiva 
 Eccksia, cap. iii. 11. p. 69 ; and Pauli Orosii Adv. Paganos Histor. 
 lib. vii. cap. 27. 
 
 2 Which is an equally extravagant supposition ; for if the low 
 state of mind which is implied in the desire of pre-eminence was so 
 common with the primitive Presbyters, how is it that they who were 
 unsuccessful were so patient under their disappointment? " Consi- 
 der what mutinies, what animosities, what oppositions within, what 
 scandals without, must have followed, if any had been excluded 
 from rights possessed before. And how could they have prevailed
 
 118 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 yet further, we must suppose, not only that this 
 change was effected throughout a world without 
 concert and without resistance, in every land at 
 the same moment, every where a new invention 
 and yet every where the same, all Churches, 
 without exception, departing from the Apostles' 
 order, and all, without consultation or the possi- 
 bility of it, 1 setting up precisely the same substi- 
 tute, but, more wonderful still, that of this pro- 
 digious movement, this wondrous device conceived 
 in the womb of every Church at the same hour, 
 and begotten throughout every land in the same 
 
 that had encroached, when they had no power to force their sub- 
 jects, but the conviction of their subjects' consciences concerning 
 their own right ? and wherewithal the right itself, whatever it was, 
 must have been so notorious? How could all the different inde- 
 pendent churches have been so unanimous in owning this claim, if it 
 had indeed been an encroachment? It is not probable they would all 
 have yielded their rights willingly ; much less is it probable that they 
 could have been forced by the practices of single persons to part with 
 them unwillingly, when there was no other force that could be offered 
 to them but pure considerations of conscience, granted on the merits 
 of the course itself." Dodwell, On the Soul, 59. p. 297. And, be- 
 sides, it has even been made a reproach to Christianity by scoffers, 
 that the early Christians did contend so vehemently about what they 
 call small matters. " Church history," we have been told, " is chiefly 
 a relation of Churchmen's wrangles ;" and one author has "denomi- 
 nated every century from some eminent quarrel which arose among 
 the Clergy !" Sam. Johnson's Growth of Deism in England, p. 21. 
 Of course this is profane jesting ; but if it were ever so true, it would 
 only supply an argument in our favour; for if they quarrelled so 
 sharply about the least matters, how came they all to agree to this 
 sudden and wonderful change without either consultation before or 
 complaint afterwards ? 
 
 1 Vide Mosheim, De Rebus ante Constantinum, secul. i. 48. 
 p. 155, who says, that no Councils could have been called together 
 at that time for any purpose, and therefore not for this.
 
 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 119 
 
 form, no history that the world ever saw gives any 
 account, no man that ever lived makes any men- 
 tion ! Not only were the laws of universal Chris- 
 tendom subverted, but never Christian knew or 
 heard of the change ! It will follow, moreover, 
 from the same premise, that our Saviour Christ 
 suffered His own design to be thwarted from the 
 first by the folly or treachery of man ; that He re- 
 signed His whole Church to a delusion so mysterious 
 and overwhelming, that they who destroyed His 
 Discipline were unconscious of their own act, and 
 they who submitted to the change did not know 
 that any change had been made. It will appear 
 that He did not " guide" His followers " into all 
 truth," though He had freely promised to do so ; 
 nor save His Church from shame and contempt, 
 though He died to exalt her to honour. And 
 lastly, that the ignorance and folly of His servants 
 was exactly proportioned to their zeal and self- 
 denial, His Saints most blindly mistaking His will, 
 and His Martyrs most resolutely opposing it ! Such 
 are a few of the startling results which accompany 
 the hypothesis, that Episcopacy is a corruption of 
 the Discipline of Christ. 
 
 Let it be repeated, therefore, that the truth of 
 the Ecclesiastical System cannot be considered at 
 all as a separate question. The fulfilment of Pro- 
 phecy 1 and the very existence of the Church, the 
 
 1 "Quoniam Ecclesiam Dei quse Catholica dicitur, sicut de ilia 
 prophetatum est, per orbem terrarum diffusam videmus, arbitramur
 
 120 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 promises of God and our own interest in them 
 almost all that is sacred or precious, enter into and 
 are inseparable from it. If it could be proved to 
 want evidence, Christianity itself would be under- 
 mined ; for the Revelation which was utterly mis- 
 conceived in so principal a point during fifteen 
 ages, could have been no Revelation at all. 1 So 
 that, as was observed, if the Sacred Records had 
 been as scanty as they are copious in their testi- 
 mony in this matter, even then our confidence in 
 the faith of our Fathers would have continued un- 
 impaired. We should have felt that the negative 
 argument from the silence of Scripture could not 
 countervail the positive testimony supplied by its 
 own promises, and the interpretation put upon 
 those promises by all ages and people. And thus 
 there would still have remained an appeal to other 
 
 nos non debere dubitare de tarn evidentissima completions sanctce pro- 
 phetice." Aug. Honorato, Ep. clxi. torn. ii. p. 276. 
 
 1 Ta yap vvv Trap* fKfivatv Kaivoropavfifva, role fj.fv TTiorevcratrtj' diri- 
 aTiav ep,Troifl. S. Athanas. De Synod. Arim. et Seleuc. torn. i. p. 875. 
 And this argument, from tbe general consent of mankind, has been 
 much used even by tbe moderns : Calvin proves the Canon of Scrip- 
 ture by it ; Institut. lib. i. cap. viii. 12 ; and his associates employed 
 it constantly against those who went a little further than themselves. 
 Nor can we over-estimate its importance when we consider that by 
 its force alone, or at least chiefly, the heathen was constrained to ac- 
 cept, so far as he held it, the true doctrine of the nature of the soul. 
 This interesting fact is thus stated by Cicero : " Quod si omnium 
 consensus naturce vox est, omnesque, qui ubique sunt, consentiunt 
 esse aliquid, quod ad eos pertineat, qui e vita cesserint ; nobis quoque 
 
 idem existimandum est ; Sed ut Deos esse natura opinamur, 
 
 qualesque sint ratione cognoscimus ; sic permanere animos arbitra- 
 mur consensu nationum omnium; qua in sede maneant, qualesque 
 sint, ratione discendum est." Qucest. Tusctdan. i. 15, 16.
 
 ST. CLEMENT OF ROME. 121 
 
 sources of information equally provided by God 
 those, namely, from which we have received Holy 
 Scripture itself; to which I proceed therefore, in 
 the next place, to refer. And the first witness 
 cited from these additional informants shall be ST. 
 CLEMENT OF ROME. 
 
 II. There are many reasons why we should 
 begin with the evidence of this eminent person. 
 Living amongst Apostles, and " fellow -labourer" 
 with them, as St. Paul himself has recorded -, 1 hav- 
 ing, moreover, the testimony of the Spirit that 
 " his name was in the Book of Life," it is needless 
 to insist upon his qualifications as a witness upon 
 the subject of these pages. He could not be de- 
 ceived, because he lived with the Apostles them- 
 selves ; and he could not deceive, because he was 
 already elected to eternal life. And if it be said, 
 that " it is dangerous to listen to an uninspired 
 teacher," it may be replied, first, that there is no 
 thought of putting his words on a level with Holy 
 Scripture, which may quiet all uneasiness on that 
 head ; and, secondly, that the primitive Christians 
 were content to receive his instruction, which may 
 very well keep us from despising it. It is a subtle 
 scheme of the enemy which would steal away our 
 treasures by persuading us to think them worthless, 
 and tempt us to put out the light in our hands 
 
 1 Phil. iv. 3. KAij/j>roy <a\ rav \oiirS>v avvepymv f*ov, >v TO. o
 
 122 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 by hinting that it may dazzle our eyes. But why 
 should we suffer him to pluck from us our riches, 
 on the mocking plea that we are better without 
 them? 1 St. Clement is the foremost of those 
 " Catholic Fathers and Ancient Bishops," to whom 
 the Church to which we belong refers her children 
 for instruction. 2 We thankfully accept her guid- 
 ance, and will listen to him without fear or doubt. 
 
 We are told by one who was born only a few 
 years after St. John's death, that Clement was the 
 third Bishop of Rome. 3 Upon the same authority 
 we learn, that his Epistle was addressed to the 
 Church at Corinth on account of " no small sedi- 
 tion" 1 which had broken out amongst its members. 
 It was to compose this that his exhortation was 
 written; and as the design of the letter in which 
 it is contained was thus limited, we must not ex- 
 pect that it should take a wide scope, nor afford 
 us much information ; though it seems to furnish 
 some which is very important in itself, as well 
 
 1 " Since we have an advantage over and above Scripture evi- 
 dence, from the concurring sentiments of antiquity, we think it very 
 proper to take that in also ; and we shall not easily suffer it to be 
 wrested from us." Waterland, Defence of Query XXIX. vol. i. pt. 
 ii. p. 326. Or, as it has been more forcibly said, " Truth alone is 
 consistent with itself; we are willing to take either the test of Anti- 
 quity or of Scripture." Newman, On Romanism, 6fc. Lect. i. p. 47. 
 
 2 In one of the Canons published together with the 39 Articles, 
 A.D. 1571. See Bp. Cosins on the Canon of Scripture, ad n'nem. 
 
 3 St. Irenseus, lib. iii. cap. iii. 
 
 4 cmurecDs owe oXiyrjs, Id. ap. Euseb. H. E. v. 6. For the date 
 of this Epistle, vide Grabe, Spidleg. torn. i. p. 255, who fixes it be- 
 fore the year 70, Bp. Pearson in 68, and Dodwell between 63-65.
 
 ST. CLEMENT OF ROME. 123 
 
 as quite conclusive on the subject under consi- 
 deration. 
 
 St. Clement begins by expressing his regret 
 that he had not sooner given heed " to that wicked 
 and detestable sedition, altogether unbecoming the 
 elect of God, which a few hasty and self-willed per- 
 sons had excited" 1 Observe, he does not charge 
 them, any more than St. Paul did, with holding 
 corrupt doctrine, but with some breach of disci- 
 pline : they were " hasty and self-willed," and the 
 authors of a " wicked and detestable sedition." 
 
 He proceeds to remind them of a former state 
 of innocence. " Ye did all things," says he, " with- 
 out respect of persons, and walked according to the 
 laws of God; being subject to your rulers, and yield- 
 ing due honour to the presbyters ;" 2 where there is 
 a distinct enumeration of the Ruler and the Pres- 
 bytery the one receiving submission and obedience, 
 the other respect and honour; and the reference 
 is to spiritual governors. He adds, " Ye were all 
 of you humble-minded, not boasting of any thing, de- 
 siring rather to be subject than to govern " 3 Their 
 
 1 Tijy re dX\orpias KOI (VTJS rois fK\fKTois TOV Geov /juapiis Kal dvo<riov 
 ora<r o>s, rp> oXt'ya irpocrarrra TrpoTrerJ; /cat avdddij inrapKovra . . . ej-fKava-av. 
 Ad Cor. cap. i. Mr. Chevallier's translation has been mainly fol- 
 lowed. 
 
 a 'ATrpocrwTroXijTTTws -yap irdvra oroieirf, KOI rots vop-ois TOV Qtov (iro- 
 pfvrd(j v7TOTa<T(r6fJievoi rolt i)yovp.tvots v/u.eoi', Kal Tip.fjv Tr/v Ka0T)Kov<rav 
 drrofffiovrts TOIS Trap' vfuv irpfvftvTfpois. Ibid. " Where the Rulers," 
 says Bp. Beveridge, " are manifestly distinguished from the Pres- 
 byters." Codex Canonum, p. 312. 
 
 3 Cap. ii.
 
 124 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 offence, therefore, was impatience of government ; 
 for he is contrasting their present state of insubor- 
 dination with their former state of obedience, when, 
 as he puts them in mind, " all sedition and all schism 
 was an abomination unto you." 1 
 
 Having referred, incidentally, to the recent 
 martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul, and com- 
 mended the loveliness of a meek and lowly mind, 
 he gives this practical admonition, " It is therefore 
 just and holy, men and brethren, that we should be- 
 come obedient unto God, rather than follow those 
 who, through pride and sedition, have made them- 
 selves the leaders of a detestable emulation" 2 
 
 St. Clement continues his exhortation by quot- 
 ing the whole of the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, 
 and part of the twenty-second Psalm. The Co- 
 rinthians are next reminded of certain eminent 
 examples of obedience exhibited in the Old Testa- 
 ment history. It is then suggested to them, that 
 even the order and harmony of creation are, as it 
 were, lively homilies, by which men are taught 
 that concord and submission are well pleasing to 
 God their Maker; and his application of all this 
 is, " Let us honour those who are set over us." s 
 
 1 n<ra ordcris KOI TTOV (r^ur/ia f38e\VKrov vfj.1v. Ibid. 
 
 2 ALKOIOV ovv Kal 5(Tiov, avSpes d8(\(pol, VTTIJKOOVS fjpMS fia)0i.ov yeve- 
 <r6ai T<5 Q, TI Tois fv a\aovfiq /cat aKaraoTatria p,v(rapov fqAov dp\r]yois 
 eaKO\ovdfiv. cap. xiv. 
 
 3 Toil? TTpoyyovfifvovs r]p.S>v at8eo-$w/*ev, cap. xxi. : he continues, roiis 
 irpfo-pvrepovs rjp,S>v Tip.r)ara>fjifv, making the same distinction as before 
 between the Ruler and the Presbyter. The analogy between the 
 order of the visible creation and that of the Catholic Church is noticed
 
 ST. CLEMENT OF ROME. 125 
 
 The necessity of obedience, so perseveringly 
 enforced by this Apostolic person, is still further 
 instanced by the willing submission which is paid 
 to earthly governors ; amongst whom, St. Clement 
 observes, " all are not captains of the host, all are 
 not commanders of a thousand, nor of an hundred, 
 nor of fifty, nor the like ;" 1 where, if the subject of 
 Jiis Epistle be considered, he must seem to imply, 
 that there is a like gradation of spiritual offices. 
 " Foolish and unwise men" he goes on to say, " who 
 have neither prudence nor learning, may mock and 
 deride us, willing to set up themselves in their own 
 conceits;" 2 which language does not seem less ap- 
 plicable to our own times than that which has 
 gone before : but I pass on now to other and, for 
 our present purpose, more important passages. 
 
 Thus far, it will be observed, the earnest ad- 
 monitions of this Epistle are all addressed, on the 
 one hand, to the enforcing submission and loyal 
 obedience to constituted authority, and, on the 
 other, to the reproof of a " detestable emulation" in 
 
 with his usual eloquence by S. Gregory Nazianzen ; Tdgis ovv, he says, 
 TO irav <ruvf<rn}<ra.To, TOIS <rvvf\(i KOI TO. firovpdvia KOI ra (Triyeia, TOIS 
 (v vorjTois, Taf-if tv alo~0r)Tols, rdis tv dyytXois, rdis (V aorpois (cat 
 Kivrja-fi KOI fjL(y0(i KOL (r^fcrfi 177 TTpos nAXj;Xa KOI Aa/^TrpoTTjrt .... rdis 
 KO.V Tois (KK\T)(Tiais, TO fjifv (ivai TI noip-viov, TO Se Troip-fvas 8id>picrf' KOI TO 
 l*iv apxfiv, TO 8e apxtcrdai. Orat. xxvi. torn. i. pp. 447-9. 
 
 1 Cap. xxxvii. 
 
 2 Cap. xxxix. " Multi enim sunt qui simulantes fidem non sub- 
 diti sunt fidei, sibique fidem ipsi potius constituunt, quam accipiunt, 
 sensu humanse inanitatis inflati, dum quae volunt sapiunt, et nolunt 
 sapere qua? vera sunt ; cum sapientise hsec veritas sit, ea interdum 
 sapere quso nolis." S. Hilarii De Trinitate, lib. viii. p. 159.
 
 126 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 things spiritual. 1 St. Clement proceeds now to 
 illustrate his doctrine by the example of the Apos- 
 tles themselves, whose friend and companion he 
 had been. 
 
 He speaks of their manifold labours in preach- 
 ing the Gospel of Christ, and it is while on this 
 subject that he is led to make the statement 
 contained in the following well-known passage : 
 " Preaching thus," he says, " through countries 
 and cities, they appointed the first fruits (of their 
 conversions) to be bishops and ministers over such 
 as should afterwards believe, having first proved 
 them by the Spirit. Nor was this any new thing, 
 seeing that long before it was written concerning 
 bishops and deacons. For thus saith the Scripture 
 in a certain place, / will appoint their overseers 
 (bishops) in righteousness, and their ministers (dea- 
 cons) in faith" 2 
 
 This interpretation of the evangelical Prophet, 
 and the application of his words to the Christian 
 
 1 " In the present age, in which no bounds seem to be set to 
 claims of liberty of conscience, it is deserving of the most serious 
 consideration among Christians, that the chief topic insisted on by 
 the two Apostolical Fathers, Clement and Ignatius, is Church Union ; 
 and the grand object of their writing is to persuade men from sepa- 
 rating for slight pretences from their lawful Pastors." Collinson's 
 Hampton Lectures, p. 45. 
 
 2 Kara ^copa? ovv /cat TroXfts KTjpv<T(rovTes, Kadia-ravov ras OTrapxas 
 airra>v, SoKifMa-avrfs r& Trvevpan, (Is fTTUTKotrovs KOI Staicovovs T>V /zeA- 
 Aoircoi' iriarrevfiv. Kai TOVTO ou Kaivats, f< yap 8fj TTO\\>I> xpovatv eye- 
 ypairro irep\ ITTUTKOTV^V KOL SiaKov&V OVTCOS yap TTOV Ae-yet 17 ypacprj, Ka- 
 Ta<mj<T6> TOVS eVtcrKOTrovj avrav ev SiKaiocrvvr}, Kal TOVS BIUKOVOVS avr>v 
 tv TriWet. cap. xlii.
 
 ST. CLEMENT OF ROME. 127 
 
 Priesthood, while it accounts for the emotions of 
 awe, wonder, and thankfulness with which that 
 portion of Christ's Institution has ever been re- 
 garded by the faithful, is a moving admonition in- 
 deed to those who have been persuaded, in late 
 years, to "resist" this "Ordinance of God." And 
 we cannot be surprised that a recognition of the 
 Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, such as is here derived 
 from the Prophet by this Apostolical man, should 
 have proved a stumbling-block to such persons, 
 nor that their utmost labour should have been ex- 
 erted in removing it out of their way. What me- 
 thod they have employed to turn aside the edge 
 which was too keen to be grasped with naked 
 hands, shall now be noticed. It is humiliating to 
 watch the efforts of a perverse and ill-advised in- 
 genuity ; but to this our present task compels us, 
 and a miserable instance is the one under conside- 
 ration. "St. Clement speaks here" it is thus 
 that the modern teachers defend themselves "of 
 bishops and deacons as appointed by the Apostles : 
 it follows then, from this testimony, that he knew 
 of only two orders of ministers; for if he had 
 known of three, he would have enumerated them :" 
 this is their answer. 1 Now we shall see pre- 
 
 1 " Sure the enemies of Episcopacy," says Dr. Gauden, " are 
 hardly driven to find testimonies against it, when they are forced to 
 wrest them out of such writers as were themselves Bishops ! " Ec- 
 clesia; AnglicancB Suspiria, book iv. ch. xix. p. 554. The learned 
 historian Weisman candidly rebukes his brethren for asserting that 
 St. Clement confounded the two orders ; confessing, at the same time,
 
 128 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 sently that he does enumerate three orders, and so 
 supply in his own words the omission charged upon 
 him; but his evidence would have been conclu- 
 sive, even if it had stopped here, and that for many 
 reasons. 
 
 For it is admitted, upon this express declara- 
 tion of one who could not be mistaken, that the 
 Apostles did certainly ordain Bishops and Deacons, 
 it is only the rank and character of these offi- 
 cers which is in dispute; and again, whether at 
 that time there were three orders of Ministers in 
 the Church, which the adversary, having reduced 
 them to two, or none, is compelled to deny. 
 
 Now it will probably be allowed that these 
 "bishops" mentioned by St. Clement were either 
 governing Prelates, such as rule the Churches in 
 our own day, or else co-ordinate presbyters ; either 
 what Catholic Antiquity believed them to be, or 
 such as modern sects affirm ; we need not con- 
 cern ourselves with any other supposition. Let us 
 take the latter hypothesis first ; and then, if these 
 bishops of whom the Saint speaks were only pres- 
 byters, and so no more than two orders are here 
 spoken of as appointed by the Apostles, we must 
 ask as before, What were the Apostles themselves 
 who ordained and governed them ? to which order 
 did they belong ? were they presbyters or deacons ? 
 
 that it is undeniable, " from the unanimous declaration of the an- 
 cients, that Clement himself was Bishop of Rome." Hist. Ecclesiast. 
 torn. i. p. 76.
 
 ST. CLEMENT OF ROME. 129 
 
 Neither one nor the other, being, as almost every 
 page of the New Testament history shews, distinct 
 from and higher than either ; and therefore, even 
 on this supposition, there were three orders in the 
 Church in St. Clement's day, namely, Apostles, 
 Presbyters, and Deacons. 
 
 If, however, they were, as is most certain, sin- 
 gle Rulers, such as St. James, Epaphroditus, and 
 others, and so themselves Apostles, then it remains 
 to inquire why the second order is omitted in St. 
 Clement's enumeration, for we have in this case 
 but two, viz. Bishops or Apostles, and Deacons. 
 To this question several answers shall now be 
 made. 1 
 
 1 This may indeed seem needless, because, since he had men- 
 tioned the third order, of presbyters, twice already, his enumeration 
 was complete. But suppose that the Apostles did appoint at first, in 
 some places, only Bishops and Deacons, this would be far enough 
 from proving that they never appointed the whole three orders : for, 
 as Epiphanius has observed, their ecclesiastical arrangements could 
 only, from the nature of the case, be perfected gradually. " The 
 Apostles were not able," he says, " to arrange all things definitively 
 at first." And therefore " where in any place no one (of the new 
 converts) was found worthy to be entrusted with the Episcopate, that 
 place remained without a Bishop ; but where, from the populousness 
 of the place, or other causes, a Bishop was necessary, there the ap- 
 pointment was made." And so this Father continues, referring, by 
 way of analogy, to the slender beginnings of the Jewish economy, 
 when Moses went forth with only a rod. Hceres. Ixxv. torn. i. 
 pp. 90S, 9. And with this agrees the comment of Jerome upon that 
 saying of St. Paul, " For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou 
 shouldest set in order the things that are wanting ;" " Qua3 desunt 
 recto tenore corrige," says St. Jerome, " et tune deinum presbyte- 
 ros poteris ordinare, cum omnes in ecclesia fuerint recti." Ad Tit. i. 
 torn. viii. p. 286. And at least the adversary cannot impeach this 
 reasoning ; for, not to mention other instances, John Daille replies to 
 
 K
 
 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 (1.) And first, St. Clement is here writing, not 
 in controversy, but in exhortation ; and he is ad- 
 dressing men who knew what the gradations of the 
 Christian Priesthood were as well as he did, for 
 they saw them before their eyes. There would 
 have been a kind of absurdity in his aiming at ac- 
 curate statements or arguing with them upon such 
 a subject, as great as if a modern divine should 
 trouble himself to prove that the English Church 
 confesses three orders of Ministers, or the Prayer- 
 book contains three Creeds, such things are not 
 proved, but taken for granted. 
 
 (2.) And this we see actually done both in the 
 word of God and the teaching of the Church. 
 How many passages are there in the Epistles, and 
 generally throughout the New Testament, in which, 
 as has been already observed, imperfect, and at 
 first sight contradictory, statements are found ; 
 some in which the Eternal Father alone is spoken 
 of as Supreme, others in which two Persons of the 
 Holy Trinity are glorified, the Third sometimes 
 the Son, and sometimes the Holy Ghost being 
 
 the fact, that " there were no lay-elders in the times of the Apostles," 
 with this argument : " True, but then there were no parishes, and 
 presbyters and deacons would suffice in that early state of the 
 Church." Thes. Salmur. De Vario Eccles. Christian. Regimine, 
 38. pars iii. p. 356. And this I find unexpectedly confirmed, 
 though for his own purposes, by one of the modern German critics. 
 " Omnino vero notanduin est, ecclesise primaevae conditoresywwefrz- 
 menta tantumjecisse hujus societatis, ad altiorem indies perfectionis 
 gradum evehenda, prout temporum, locorum, et singulorum ccetuum 
 rationes pestulaverint." Wegscheider, Prolegom, pars iii. cap. v. 
 182. p. 525.
 
 ST. CLEMENT OF ROME. 131 
 
 omitted. And again, how do the inspired writers 
 vary, or rather seem to vary, in their account 
 of Church-Officers, now giving one description of 
 them and presently a new one, and omitting in 
 one place to notice at all an order the appoint- 
 ment of which had been expressly recorded in 
 another. Yet all these passages, which, taken by 
 themselves, as heretics are used to do, appear de- 
 fective, speak the same voice when arranged and 
 combined. 
 
 And so the Church of England, which, in two 
 several places of her Liturgy, has described the 
 whole body of the Priesthood under the two classes 
 of " Bishops and Curates" teaches, in a third, that 
 "from the Apostles' time there have been these 
 three orders, viz. Bishops, Priests, and Deacons." 
 And this is all the contradiction which we shall 
 observe in St. Clement. 
 
 (3.) Again ; that these apparently defective 
 statements are consistent with the most emphatic 
 acknowledgment of the Catholic System, appears 
 from this, that the same omission here noticed in 
 St. Clement is found in other writers, whose recep- 
 tion of the three orders is quite notorious. I will 
 mention a few instances. 
 
 Clement of Alexandria in two places speaks of 
 the Clergy as if they consisted only of Presbyters 
 and Deacons, for in the passages referred to he 
 limits his notice to those two orders ; yet it was 
 after using such language that he could presently
 
 132 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 make that striking observation so often quoted, 
 <* / imagine that the Ecclesiastical gradations (or 
 promotions) of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, are 
 imitations of the Angelic glory." 1 It was quite pos- 
 sible, then, to speak of the two orders, and yet to 
 have deep and awful notions of the three. 
 
 Tertullian, the earliest of the Latin Fathers, 
 writing almost at the same date, supplies another 
 but a different instance : he too speaks only of two 
 orders ; but it is the presbyters whom he omits in 
 his enumeration. " What if a bishop" he says in 
 a certain place, " or a deacon, or a widow, or a 
 virgin, or a doctor, or even a martyr, should err 
 from the faith," 2 &c. ; where he omits to speak of 
 that very order of the Priesthood to which he 
 himself belonged. 
 
 St. Jerome does the like in many places, and 
 very remarkably in his comments upon the Sacred 
 Scriptures. Thus in the forty-fifth Psalm he sup- 
 poses David to predict that God would give to His 
 Church Bishops in the place of Apostles, after the 
 removal of the latter ; and that they should be, as 
 the Psalmist speaks, "princes in all the earth :" here 
 he interprets the word of God as speaking of one 
 only of the three orders, omitting Presbyters and 
 
 ei Kal al evravQa Kara ri)v fKK\rja-iav TrpoKOTral, fTTKTKOTrtov, irpecr- 
 iciKovow, p,Lfj,T][j.aTa olfuii dyyeAiKJj? Sogys. Stromat. lib. vi. 
 p. 667 ; cf. lib. vii. p. 700. 
 
 2 " Quid ergo si episcopus, si diaconus, si vidua, si virgo, si doc- 
 tor, si etiam martyr lapsus a regula fuerit, ideo hseresis veritatem 
 videbantur obtinere 1" De Prescript. Hceret. cap. iii.
 
 ST. CLEMENT OF ROME. 133 
 
 Deacons. 1 Again, he gives the same interpretation 
 to the words of the Prophet Isaiah, which has al- 
 ready been quoted from St. Clement. 2 In another 
 place he takes up and carries on the exposition of 
 Origen upon the mysterious Song of Solomon ; in 
 which scripture he finds not only the two orders 
 of Bishops and Presbyters described, but also a 
 distinction made between their offices. Here, then, 
 he omits that is, he supposes the Holy Spirit to 
 omit only the third order, namely, Deacons. 3 
 Elsewhere he even takes the pains to account for 
 St. Paul's passing abruptly, in his Epistle to Ti- 
 mothy, from the duties of a Bishop to those of a 
 Deacon, saying, that the Apostle " included pres- 
 
 1 " Pro Patribus tuis nati sunt, &c. Fuerint, 6 Ecclesia, Apostoli 
 patres tui, quia ipsi te genuerunt. Nunc autem, quia illi recesserunt 
 a mundo, habes pro his Episcopos fitios, qui a te creati sunt. Sunt 
 enim et hi patres tui, quia ab ipsis regeris. [Constitues eos principes, 
 &c.] Constituit Christus sanctos suos super omnes populos. In no- 
 mine enim Dei dilatatum est evangelium in omnibus finibus mundi ; 
 in quibus principes Ecclesiae, id est, Episcopi, constituti sunt." In 
 Psal. xlv. torn. vii. p. 57. 
 
 3 Quoting, like St. Clement, the version of the Septuagint. 
 " Ponam, inquit, principes tuos in pace et episcopos tuos in justitia. 
 Pro quo in Hebraico scriptum est, Ponam visitationem tuam pacem, 
 et praepositos tuos in justitiam. In quo scripturae sanctse adrniranda 
 majestas, quod principes futures ecclesice episcopos nominavit ; quo- 
 rum oinnis visitatio in pace est, et vocabulurn dignitatis in justitia," 
 &c. Comment, in Esai. cap. Ix. torn. iv. pp. 202, 3. 
 
 3 In Cantic. Canticorum, Hornil. iii. torn. viii. p. 152. It is 
 curious that this divine book, which is so perplexing to the adver- 
 sary, because it can hardly be ' wrested' to bear any other than a 
 catholic interpretation, has been rejected by sectaries of our own day 
 as well as of earlier ages. Vide Leontii Byzantiui Contra Nestor, et 
 Eutych. lib. ii. cap. xvi.
 
 134 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 byters under the name of bishops;" 1 and again, 
 after noticing what he prescribes to bishops, he 
 adds, " No less carefulness did he manifest in the 
 third order;" 2 yet he had said nothing of that 
 order which intervened. 
 
 Similar instances occur in the writings of St. 
 Augustine. He too supposes the Psalmist of Israel 
 to be making mention in the forty-fifth Psalm of 
 the Bishops who should hereafter be appointed in 
 Christ's Church ; 3 and an awful reflection it should 
 be to the adversary, that the Old Testament was 
 so interpreted by such men. The venerable Bede 
 speaks, after Augustine, of St. Paul ordaining 
 " presbyters and deacons," 4 omitting the first or- 
 der; and the pseudo-Augustine perhaps Ticho- 
 nius of " bishops and presbyters only," 5 omit- 
 ting the third. And many other instances might 
 be added; 6 but these are quite enough to shew 
 
 1 " Quaeritur cur de presbyteris nullam fecerit raentionem, sed 
 eos in episcoporum nomine comprehenderit ; quia secundus imo pene 
 est unus gradus, sicut ad Philippenses episcopis ac diaconis scribit, 
 cum una civitas plures Episcopos lidbere non possit." In 1 ad Tit. 
 cap. iii. torn. viii. p. 277. So St. Ambrose ; " Nam in Episcopo 
 omnes ordines sunt, quia primus sacerdos est, hoc est princeps est 
 sacerdotum." In Ephes. iv. torn. ii. p. 241. 
 
 y Ad Heliodor. Epist. i. torn. i. p. 2. 
 
 3 Enarrat. torn. viii. p. 169. Cf. In Evangel. Joannis Expos. 
 tract, i. torn. ix. p. 3 ; where his comment is of the same solemn yet 
 practical character. 
 
 4 Ad Tit. cap. i. fol. 300. ed. Paris. 1522. 
 
 & In Apocalypsin, Homil. ii. torn. ix. p. 356. 
 
 6 All illustrating a distinction, which appears to have been quite 
 common with the ancients, between the Sacerdotal and the Minis- 
 terial office ; the former including Bishops and Presbyters, as being
 
 ST. CLEMENT OF ROME. 135 
 
 that St. Clement need not have been ignorant of 
 the three orders, even if he had spoken only of 
 two. 
 
 (4.) Once more : another and an independent 
 class of witnesses remains to be heard. This 
 Epistle of St. Clement used to be read publicly, 
 as I have noticed elsewhere, in the Churches, and 
 that as late as the fourth century. 1 But, according 
 to the adversary, it testifies against the Christian 
 Hierarchy : observe, then, what follows from the 
 fact just mentioned. Thus much we conclude 
 from it, that if this Epistle be evidence, as they 
 wish to think, against the Church System, then 
 either those ancient Christians in whose ears it 
 was so often read did not perceive this, or else 
 they were content to listen to words which con- 
 victed themselves of having departed from the 
 primitive discipline; that is, they were not only 
 wicked enough to have changed the discipline of 
 Christ, but so foolish as to keep up a perpetual 
 memorial of the change! It is too much which 
 our brethren ask of us, when they bid us think all 
 our forefathers not only faithless but fatuous too. 
 And if the first four ages regarded this writing as 
 
 equally Priests ; the latter Deacons. St. Cyprian (quoted by Parker, 
 Government of the Church, 3.) frequently makes this distinction. 
 Cf. Estii Comment, lib. iv. p. 2. 25. for a somewhat different ex- 
 ample. 
 
 1 " Scripsit ex persona Romanae Ecclesiae ad ecclesiam Corinthi- 
 orum valde utilem Epistolam, quse et in nonnuljis publice legitur." 
 S. Hieron. Catal. Script. Eccles.
 
 136 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 a witness to Catholic truth, we must be allowed, 
 for our part, to think it so still. 1 
 
 (5.) It follows from what has been said, that 
 this passage of St. Clement, upon which we have 
 been so long engaged, needs no addition to render 
 it a complete and decisive testimony to the Apos- 
 tolical institution of the three Orders of the Mi- 
 nistry. And now, in conclusion, even if it did need 
 such addition, St. Clement himself has supplied it. 
 Let us refer again to his Epistle, that we may learn 
 in what manner he has done this. 
 
 In the chapter, then, which follows, he goes on 
 to say, that it was no wonder the Apostles made 
 the appointments above mentioned, when it is con- 
 sidered what Moses did in the like case ; by whom, 
 as he remarks, the Levitical Priesthood was insti- 
 tuted, " that there might be no division ;" 2 and then 
 he continues thus " So likewise our Apostles knew 
 by our Lord Jesus Christ that contentions should 
 arise on account of (or for the dignity of 3 ) the over- 
 seership (episcopate). And therefore, having a per- 
 fect foreknowledge of this, they appointed persons, as 
 
 1 Aft yap f]p,as Kara CTKOTJW rS>v ay'iatv KOI TU>V irarepcav iro\iTevfo-6m, 
 (cat TOVTOVS /ii/xeio-^ai. S. Athanas. Ad Dracontium, torn. i. p. 955. 
 
 2 "iva fir/ aKaraaracria yew/rat ev r<5 'icrparjX. cap. xliii. 
 
 3 ""Ovo/ua significat di'/ia." Hammond, Dissert, v. cap. vi. 8. 
 St. Austin seems to have had the same anticipation if it be lawful 
 to speak of it in such a connexion and, in providing his own suc- 
 cessor, thus expressed^! : " Scio post obitus episcoporum, per am- 
 bitiosos aut contentions solere Ecclesias perturbari ; et quod ssepe 
 expertus sum et dolui, debeo quantum ad me attinet ne contingat 
 huic prospicere civitati." Epist. ex. torn. ii. p. 195.
 
 ST. CLEMENT OF ROME. 137 
 
 we have before said, and then gave a prescribed order 
 in what manner, when they should die, other chosen 
 and approved men should succeed in their minis- 
 try" 1 
 
 There is only one conclusion from these very 
 important words which I shall stay to notice here : 
 it is this, that the Christian Priesthood is referred 
 to the Jewish as, in some sort, its type ; and that 
 by one who could not but know well the mind of 
 the Apostles on this solemn matter. The Jewish 
 Priesthood, he says, was appointed " that there 
 might be no division ;" and the Christian Priesthood 
 for precisely the same reason. But on this point 
 hear him again. " We ought to take heed" so the 
 Saint speaks in a previous passage " that we do 
 all things in order, whatsoever our Lord hath com- 
 manded us to do. That we perform our offerings 
 and services to God at their appointed seasons ; for 
 these He hath commanded to be done not rashly nor 
 disorderly, but at certain determinate times and 
 hours" 2 If the Head of the Church did indeed 
 
 1 Kat ot aTrdoToXot f]pS>v tyvaxrav fita TOV Kvpiov f]p.S)V 'lt](rov Xpi- 
 OTOV, ort fpis IWai tnl TOV ovoparos TTJS tm.<TK.om]s. Ata raimjv ovv TTJV 
 aiTiav TrpoyvaxTiv (i\r)<p6T(s TfXeiW, KUT((rrr]crav TOVS Trpofipr^p-fvovs, Kal 
 fj.(Tav fmvofjLTjv 8(8a>Kacriv, oiruis tav Koip.T)d>(nv, fitaS/^aH/rai ertpoi 8e- 
 f)nKLfj.uirp.(V(>L liv&pts TT/V \fiTovpyiav aiirtav, cap. xliv. 
 
 2 Hdvra T(i(i iroiclv o(j)(i\op.fv, otra 6 AecrrroTT/s eTriTeXeij/ fKiXtvcrtv 
 KOTO. Kaipovs rfTayfitvovs' rds re irpocrcpopas Kal \ftrovpyias fmrf\f / i(rdai, 
 KOI OVK (iKr) r) araKTuts cKthtvcrfv yivfcrtiai, aXX' upurpevotg Kaipols Kal 
 a>pais. cap. xl. " By the one, jrpocrfpopa, we must understand the 
 species of fruits of the earth and meats which the people offered, out 
 of which the Eucharist being celebrated, the rest was spent iu the 
 Agapa, or feast of love, to which the words of the Apostle are to be
 
 138 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 so appoint, and St. Clement would know through 
 His Apostles, shall we suppose that He left modes 
 of administration to chance, or caprice of men ? 
 Let us hear St. Clement further : " He hath Him- 
 self ordained by His supreme will both where and by 
 what persons they are to be performed, that all 
 things being piously done unto all well-pleasing, they 
 may be acceptable unto His will. They, therefore, 
 who make their oblations at the appointed seasons are 
 accepted and happy ; for they sin not, inasmuch as 
 they obey the commandments of the Lord." And then 
 follow immediately these remarkable words : " For 
 to the Chief-Priest his peculiar offices are given, and 
 to the Priests their own place is appointed, and to the 
 Levites appertain their proper ministries. And the 
 layman is confined within the bounds of what is com- 
 manded to laymen." 1 
 
 We shall estimate duly this passage only by 
 connecting it with the other teaching of this Apos- 
 tolical witness. He has told us, then, that the 
 Apostles prescribed, with a special reference to the 
 Episcopate, or overseership, an order of succession 
 in the Ministry ; again, that they appointed Bishops 
 and Deacons ; and further, that the Christians of 
 Corinth "were subject to their chief -rulers, and 
 
 referred ; by the other, \eirovpyia, the Eucharist, for celebration where- 
 of he is so earnest with them to keep due order in their assemblies." 
 Thorndike, Primitive Government of Churches, chap. vi. 
 
 1 .... Tw yap apxiepei tSi'at Xeirovpyiat 8f8ofifi>ai cl&lv, KCH rois 
 ifpfv<riv *8ios 6 TOITOS TrpoareVa/crai, KOI Xevmuy tSi'ai 8iaKoviai nr&CUTOi' 
 6 XaiKor avdponros rois Xaucotff irpo(rrdy^acriv Sedercu. ubi supra.
 
 ST. CLEMENT OF ROME. 139 
 
 gave due honour to their presbyters;" and lastly, 
 that we ought all to " venerate the one" still 
 making the same distinction between these two 
 officers "and to reverence the other." St. Cle- 
 ment, that is, speaks of the following Ecclesiastical 
 Orders, Bishops, or Chief-rulers ; Presbyters (dis- 
 tinguished from the Rulers) ; and Deacons. And 
 now, in exhorting the Corinthians to the due cele- 
 bration of the Holy Eucharist, and the suppression 
 of schisms, the two prominent subjects of his 
 letter, no more suitable admonition for these 
 Christians occurs to him than this, that, by God's 
 own appointment, obedience was due in their se- 
 veral stations to the " High Priest, Priests, and 
 Levites" l 
 
 1 And this, as is well known, was a way of speaking quite com- 
 mon with the primitive writers, whose familiar use of the phraseo- 
 logy of the Jewish Synagogue is seen in such passages as the follow- 
 ing. St. Jerome says very plainly, " What Aaron and his sons and 
 the Levites were in the Temple, the same are the Bishop, the Priests, 
 and the Deacons, in the Church." Epist. Ixxxv. Ad Evagrium, torn, 
 ii. p. 311 ; and he repeats it, Ad Nepotianum, Epist. ii. torn. i. p. 5. 
 Tertullian styles the Bishop " High Priest ;" De Baptismo, cap. 
 xvii. p. 263. St. Cyprian expressly traces the analogy between the 
 ancient Levites and the corresponding order in the Church of Christ ; 
 Epist. Ixvi. p. 114; and, as Hooker has observed, " deemed it no 
 wresting of Scripture to challenge as much for Christian Bishops as 
 was given to the High Priest among the Jews, and to urge the law of 
 Moses as being most effectual to prove it." E. P. book vii. vol. iii. 
 p. 211. Vide S. Cyprian. Epist. Ixv. p. 113. St. Leo the Great, even 
 when contrasting the elder with the later Dispensation, says, " Nunc 
 etenim et ordo clarior Levitarum, et dignitas amplior Seniorum, et 
 sacratior eat unctio Sacerdotum." Serm. Ivii. De Passione Domini, 
 torn. i. p. 265; cf. Epist. ad Anastasium Thessalon. p. 441. 'O 8 
 TOIOVTOS, says Synesius, re AeutTrjs eorij', ei re irpta-fivrfpos, ei rt eVt- 
 trap f)p.iv . . . K.T.\. Adv. Andronicum, Epist. Ivii. p. 197.
 
 140 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 That the Saint was in these words referring 
 to an ecclesiastical constitution among themselves, 
 with which the kindred hierarchy of the Jewish 
 Church might be appositely paralleled, will now 
 be obvious to all, save only those whose condition 
 does not suffer them to profit by his testimony. 
 For ourselves, we may well be thankful to the 
 good Providence of God, which has preserved, 
 through so many ages, this conspicuous proof of 
 the primitive structure and order of His Church, 
 and of our own communion with it. 1 And as we 
 hear St. Clement reminding the Corinthians how 
 
 ed. Petavii. "Ad Subdiaconum pertinet," says St. Isidore, "cali- 
 cem et patenam ad altare Christ! deferre, et Levitis tradere." Ep. 
 S. Isidor. apud Burchard. Decret. lib. iii. cap. 1. " Eja vos," St. 
 Bernard writes, " qui Levitali ordine praefulgetis, cantate," &c. De 
 Sancto Stephana, p. 1677. " Ad Levitas etiam atque Presbyteros," 
 Salvian says, " et quod his feralius multo est, etiain ad Episcopos," 
 &c. Epist. ix. Ad Salonium, p. 213. And so customary was this 
 language, that even Poets, in their sacred hymns, have been accus- 
 tomed to use it. Thus Prudentius, in the fourth century, 
 " Hie primus e septem viris, 
 
 Qui stant ad aram proximi, 
 
 Levita sublimis gradu, 
 
 Et cseteris praestantior ;" &c. 
 
 lie pi 2rf(f)dv<ov, Hymn ii. p. 106, and 
 
 Hymn vi. p. 185. Paris. 1687. 
 
 Cf. Hugon. a S. Victor. De Mysteriis Ecclesice, cap. v. ap. Hittorp. 
 torn. i. p. 1345 ; and Raban. Maur. De Institut. Clericorum, lib. i. 
 cap. vii. De Diaconis. The Canons of the great Councils abound 
 with similar language. Vide Beveregii Cod. Can. De Episcopis, 
 p. 312 ; and Pandect. Can. torn. ii. in Can. Apost. ii. 
 
 1 " Illustre antiquissimse disciplines monumentum," as it is deno- 
 minated by the venerable President of Magdalen ; Bel. Sac. torn. ii. 
 p. 378: or, in the words of Bramhall, "as authentic a testimony as 
 can be produced after the Holy Scripture." Discourse of tJie Sab- 
 bath, p. 920.
 
 ST. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH. 141 
 
 sharply St. Paul had rebuked their "parties and 
 divisions," and adding such further censure as this : 
 " It is shameful, beloved, it is exceedingly shameful, 
 and unworthy of your Christian profession, to hear 
 that the most firm and ancient Church of the Co- 
 rinthians should by one or two persons be led into a 
 sedition against its priests ; nl surely we shall desire, 
 in reviewing God's mercies upon our own "most 
 ancient Church," to "take heed," as the same Cle- 
 ment solemnly exhorts, " that His many blessings 
 be not turned to our condemnation at last." 2 
 
 III. We will consider next the evidence of one 
 who was, like St. Clement, the friend and com- 
 panion of Apostles, like him a chosen witness of 
 the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, and who 
 exercised, as did he, the office of a Bishop by 
 Apostolical ordination. " By them," says St. John 
 Chrysostom, with whose words the Church con- 
 cludes her morning and evening devotions, "by 
 them was he ordained to this office, and the hands 
 of the blessed Apostles touched his sacred head." 3 
 It is " the blessed IGNATIUS," as he is styled by Poly- 
 
 a, dyairrjrol, KCU Ata*/ at'cr^pa, KO.I dvdgia Ttjs fv Xpiorw dyoyy^s, 
 dxovfcrdai, rrjv /Se/SaiGJTan/i' *cat dp\aiav Kopivdicw fKK\r](riai>, <V ev J] 8vo 
 TrpocrwTra, <TTacrid(u> irpbs TOVS irpffr^vrfpovs. cap. xlvii. Grabc notices 
 with commendation the remark of Dodwell, that dp^aia should be 
 rendered by primordialis rather than antiqua. Spicilcg. torn. i. 
 p. 256. 
 
 2 Cap. xxi. 
 
 3 S. Chrysost. In S. Ignat. Encom. p. 500.
 
 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 carp, 1 the disciple of St. John, whom we are now 
 to hear. 
 
 Widely separated by sea and land from him to 
 whom we have just been listening Ignatius, Bi- 
 shop of Antioch ; Clement, Bishop of Rome they 
 were separated, as we shall see presently, in no 
 other respect. Ordained Bishop of Antioch in Syria 
 about A.D. 70, Ignatius occupied that see for a 
 period of about thirty-seven years, with a fame and 
 dignity to which all subsequent ages have wit- 
 nessed. 2 It is of the closing scenes only of his life 
 that any account can be given here, and such an 
 account will serve to explain the composition of 
 certain letters written by the Martyr, which are 
 next to be produced. 
 
 " Ecclesiastical history," says a learned modern 
 writer, " has scarcely preserved a more interesting 
 and affecting narrative than that of the journey of 
 Ignatius from Antioch to Rome. In tracing the 
 procession of the martyr to his final triumph, we 
 forget that we are reading of a prisoner who was 
 dragged to his death in chains. He was commit- 
 ted to a guard of ten soldiers, who appear to have 
 treated him with severity ; 3 and after taking ship 
 at Seleucia, they landed for a time at Smyrna. He 
 
 1 Epist. ad PMlipp. 9. 
 
 * S. Chrysostom says of him, Trpoecm; TT)S Trap' f/fiiv eVc/cX^o-ias yev- 
 vaias, KOI pera Toa-avrrjs aKpijSet'a?, fjifff Says 6 Xptoroy /SovXerat. ubi 
 supra. 
 
 3 See his Epistle to the Romans, 5.
 
 ST. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH. 143 
 
 had here the gratification of meeting with Poly- 
 carp, who was Bishop of that see, and who, like 
 himself, had enjoyed a personal acquaintance with 
 St. John. His arrival also excited a sensation 
 through the whole of Asia Minor. Onesimus 
 Bishop of Ephesus, Polybius Bishop of Tralles, 
 and Demas Bishop of Magnesia, came from their 
 respective cities, with a deputation of their clergy, 
 to visit the venerable martyr; and one particular 
 must not be omitted, which is of the greatest inte- 
 rest in the history of this period, that these persons 
 came to Ignatius, in the hopes that he would com- 
 municate to them some spiritual gift. Ignatius took 
 the opportunity of writing from Smyrna to the 
 Churches over which these Bishops presided ; and 
 his Epistles to the Ephesians, Trallians, and Mag- 
 nesians, are still extant. Hearing also of some 
 Ephesians who were going to Rome, and who were 
 likely to arrive there more expeditiously than him- 
 self, he addressed a letter to the Church in that 
 city. His principal object in writing was to pre- 
 vent any attempt which the Roman Christians 
 might have made to procure a reprieve from the 
 death which was awaiting him. He expresses him- 
 self not only willing, but anxious, to meet the wild 
 beasts in the amphitheatre ; and there never per- 
 haps was a more perfect pattern of resignation than 
 that which we find in this letter. 
 
 " From Smyrna he proceeded to Troas, where 
 he was met as before by some of the neighbouring
 
 144 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 i 
 
 Bishops ; and the Bishop of Philadelphia became 
 the bearer of a letter which he wrote to the Chris- 
 tians in that city. He also wrote from the same 
 place to the Church of Smyrna ; and the personal 
 regard which he had for Polycarp, the Bishop of 
 that see, will explain why he also wrote to him, 
 and made it his dying request that he would attend 
 to the Church of Antioch. These seven Epistles, 
 which were written by Ignatius from Smyrna and 
 Troas, are still extant, and have been published 
 several times. Next to the writings of the Apos- 
 tles, they are perhaps the most interesting docu- 
 ments which the Church possesses. They are the 
 writings of a man who was contemporary with the 
 Apostles, and who had certainly received more 
 than the ordinary influence of the Holy Spirit." 1 
 
 And now, without further preface, let us hear a 
 few sentences of this Saint and Martyr. His testi- 
 mony on the subject of these pages will appear 
 explicit enough to convince all save those whom 
 his judgment will be found to exclude from the 
 Communion of Saints. Thus, then, wrote Igna- 
 tius, in the progress of his last journey on earth, 
 while he was yet some way from Rome, where that 
 journey was to end. 
 
 "Avoid divisions, as the beginning of evils. Fol- 
 low the Bishop, all of you, even as Jesus Christ the 
 Father ; and the body of Presbyters as the Apostles. 
 
 1 Burton's Lectures on tlie Ecclesiastical History of the first three 
 Centuries, vol. ii. pp. 26-28.
 
 ST. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH. 145 
 
 Respect the Deacons, as the commandment of God" l 
 It is thus that he addresses men in whose ears the 
 words of St. Peter and St. Paul were still echoing. 
 And he continues as follows : " Let that >be esteemed 
 as sure Eucharist which is either under the Bishop, 
 or those to whom he may commit it" 2 None, says 
 he, who had been dwelling with the Apostles whilst 
 they "continued daily in breaking of bread," but 
 the Bishop only, can give authority to administer 
 the sacred Eucharist. Could he be mistaken, who 
 had received that heavenly food at the Apostles' 
 hands ? 3 
 
 " Where the Bishop is," here he is again ad- 
 dressing the Smyrnaeans, "there let the body of 
 Believers be; even as where Christ Jesus is, there is 
 the Catholic Church.'" 1 The faithful must cleave, 
 
 1 Tovs pfpicrfMvs (pfvytrf, os ap^v KO.K>V. Havre? ra> eVricrKOTro OKO- 
 \ovdfiTf, o>s 'lr)(Tovs XpioTos T< Ilarpi' *cal ra> Trpt&ftvTfpiu, us TOIS ajro- 
 OToXoiy' TOVS Se SICLKOVOVS evrpfTTtcrdf, a>$ 0eou eVroAjp. Ad Smyrn. 8. 
 The translation used in vol. i. of the Tracts for the Times has been 
 employed here. 
 
 2 ''EKtivT) (Iffluiu ev^apicrri'a rjyficrdo), fj vrrb rbv eVt'cTKOTroj' ovcra, f) 
 tai avr&s firirptyr}. Ibid. 
 
 3 And this is a matter pertaining to each man's salvation ; nor do 
 the Saints hesitate to speak of it with the charitable plainness which 
 so awful a subject demands. To /IVOTCKOJ/ Trorrjpiov, says the blessed 
 Athanasius, . . . Trapa p.6vois rots vop.ip.u>s TrpofcrrSxriv evpivKfrai . . . 
 TOVTO IJ.QVOV earl rav rrfs Ka6o\iKT)s fKK\r)(rias Trpofcrrwrtai/' p.6vov yap 
 i>fj.u>v fart TTpoTrLvtiv TO alfjia TOV Xptoroi)' TO>V 8e aX\a>v ) ovo'evos. Ad- 
 ministered without their authority, it is, says he, " sacrilege, and a 
 profane mockery of the Blood of Christ." Ad Imperat. Constant. 
 ApoL torn. i. pp. 731, 2. Cf. S. Cyprian. De Unitate Eccksice ; and 
 S. Cyril. Alex. Adv. Anthropomorjridtas, lib. i. torn. vi. p. 380 ; 
 who refers to Exodus xii., as affording a suitable admonition to 
 Christians. 
 
 4 "OTTOV aj/ (j>ni>!i 6 (nicrnoiros, fKti TO TrXrjdos ?trra), fao-nep OTTOV &v rj 
 
 T.
 
 146 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 he says, to the Bishop, as the Church is wedded 
 to Christ : this is his parting advice to those whom 
 he loved ; and he adds, " He that doeth any thing 
 (in the Church) apart from the Bishop, worshippeth 
 the devil" 1 
 
 And let it be observed here, that this is not the 
 testimony of Ignatius alone, which is conveyed in 
 these words, but that of Polycarp too, also a disci- 
 ple of St. John, and Martyr. For consider : he is 
 writing to the Church at Smyrna, over which Po- 
 lycarp presided, who well knew the mind of the 
 Apostles, and to whose flock he dared not, if he 
 would, represent that for truth which they would 
 know to be error. " The Epistles of Ignatius, 
 which he wrote unto us" that is, one to himself, 
 and one to his flock "we have sent to you ac- 
 cording to your desire," says Polycarp himself, 
 when writing to the Philippians, " which are added 
 to this Epistle : from which ye may be greatly pro- 
 fited, for they treat of faith and patience, and of all 
 things which pertain to edification in the Lord." 2 
 
 Xpioror 'Ij/erovy, eVcet fj KadoXiKr] (KK\T)<ria. Ibid. So St. Jerome, argu- 
 ing against the Luciferians, who refused to allow a Bishop place of 
 repentance, though they received laymen, says that this was impos- 
 sible and inconsistent, for they must stand or fall together : u Nos 
 nobis adversa non facimus ; aut Episcopum cum populo recipimus, 
 quern facit Christianum ; aut si Episcopum non recipimus, scimus 
 etiam nobis populum rejiciendum." Adv. Luciferian. cap. ii. torn, 
 ii. p. 197. So another : " Si Episcopus, Princeps Ecclesiae, a fide ad 
 hseresim mutatur, tota plebs ei subjecta commaculatur" and must 
 join in his repentance. Gemma Animce, cap. clxx. 
 
 1 'O \d6pa eiruTKoirov rl irpdcro-wv, TW 8ia/3oA<M \arpevfi. 9. 
 
 8 S. Polycarp. Epist. ad Philipp. 13.
 
 ST. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH. 147 
 
 Such was Polycarp's judgment of the Epistles of 
 Ignatius; from which, with this strong confirma- 
 tion, a few more extracts shall now be made. 1 
 
 To the Trallians, whose Bishop, Polybius, had 
 gone to meet him, he writes thus : " Guard against 
 such men (heretics) ; and guarded ye will be, if ye 
 are not puffed up, nor separated from Jesus Christ 
 our God, and from the. Bishop, and from the regu- 
 lations of the Apostles. He that is within the altar 
 is pure : that is, he who does ought apart from 
 Bishop, and Presbytery, and Deacon, he is not clean 
 in conscience. Not that I know ought of this 
 kind in you; but for the love I bear you, I put 
 you on your guard, foreseeing the snares of the 
 devil"* 
 
 Again, to the Magnesians he says : " Your duty 
 likewise is, not to make free with the youthfulness 
 
 1 This Epistle of St. Polycarp was still read publicly in some 
 parts of Asia in the time of St. Jerome (Catal. Script. JEccles.) ; and 
 it has been truly said, that " this single Epistle is as full a testimony 
 for Episcopal supremacy as all those of Ignatius, in that it particu- 
 larly recommends them to the Church of Philippi, and therefore it 
 both proves and approves that Ecclesiastical Order which is every- 
 where there described." Parker, Church Government, 7. p. 93. 
 The genuineness of the Epistle itself has never been questioned, even 
 by those who usually adopt this way of silencing an unfavourable 
 witness. Vide Pearson, Vindic. Ignat. pars i. cap. v. p. 65. 
 
 2 &v\a.TTr6f ovv roly TOIOVTOIS' TOVTO 8f ttrrai vp.lv p.f) (pvcriovp-tvois, 
 Kai ovcriv o^wpioTotr Qtov 'tycrot) Xptorot), Kal rot) firicrKOTrov, Kal ru>v 
 ftiaraypMTWv T>V a;ro(rroA6>. 'O eVroy ^vtrtacrn/piou &v, Kadapos f'ortV 
 TOVT (o~rlv, 6 x&>ply eVio-KOTrou *ai Trpfo-ftwepiov Kal 8iaKovov irpu<r(T(av rl, 
 ovros ov Kadapos eorl rfj (rvi/ftS^erft. OVK rei eyvcav TOIOVTOV n tv iip.iv, 
 aXAa 7rpo0uXacro - (u v/i<if oi/rar p.ov dyaTrrjTOVs, irpoopwv TUS evedpas TOV 
 
 . Ad Trail. 7, 8.
 
 148 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 of your Bishop, but, according to the power of God 
 the Father, to concede to him all homage; as I 
 am aware the holy Presbyters do." 1 These Presby- 
 ters then did, in that most primitive age, obey their 
 Bishop, as set over them by Divine authority; for 
 he would hardly tell them to their faces that they 
 did, if they did not. 
 
 To the Philadelphians he said, with a reference 
 probably to the false teachers of his day : " All 
 that are of God and Jesus Christ, these are with 
 the Bishop .... Be not deceived, my brethren : 
 whosoever followeth one that maketh a schism, he in- 
 heriteth not the kingdom of God ; whosoever walk- 
 eth by another man's opinion, he consenteth not 
 to the passion of Christ." 2 And once more for 
 we must now search elsewhere for the judgment of 
 the Primitive Church "I cried out while I was 
 among you," was his last admonition to the same 
 Church, " I spake with a loud voice, Give heed to 
 the Bishop, to the Presbytery, and the Deacons. 
 Now some suspected that I spake things as know- 
 ing beforehand that among them was a spirit of 
 division. But He is my witness for whom I am in 
 
 1 Km vp.1v 8e TrpeVei fif/ <rvyxpa(r6ai rfj ff\iKia TOV eVTKO7rou, dXXa 
 Kara 8vvafj.iv Qfov Harpbs iracrav (vrpOTrr/v avrtS mrovf^fiv, na6a>s tyvwv 
 KOI TOVS ayiovs trpfo-^VTfpovs. Ad Magnes. \ 3. 
 
 2 "Otrot -yap Gfou tl<r\v Km 'lr)crov Xptorov, OVTOI fitra TOV e 
 flcr'tv . . . Mij Tr\ava(r6e } a8e\<f>oi p.ov' ft TIS fv aXXorpia yva>p.rj 
 
 OVTOS ra> Trddfi ov a~vyKaTariGfrai. Ad Philadelph. \ 3. " Extra evan- 
 gelica promissa est," St. Hilary says, " quisquis extra fidem eorum 
 est, et impiae intelligently crimine spem simplicem perdidit." De 
 Trinitate, lib. viii. p. 163.
 
 ST. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH. 
 
 bonds, that I knew it not from any living man; but 
 the SPIRIT proclaimed, saying, Apart from the Bi- 
 shop do nothing: keep your body as the temple of 
 God; love unity; avoid divisions; be ye followers 
 of Jesus Christ, even as He is a follower of His Fa- 
 ther"* To such words nothing can or ought to be 
 added ; unless indeed it be his own saying, " The 
 Lord forgiveth all when they repent, if in repent- 
 ance they turn to godly unity and the counsel of the 
 Bishop." 2 
 
 It appears needless to offer, as in the former 
 case, any summary of the testimony just produced. 
 There is no one, we may suppose, who will refuse 
 to confess that, if we have here the very words of 
 Ignatius, the Order of Bishops was appointed by 
 Him for whose Name Ignatius died. There is, 
 however, one particular in the character of his evi- 
 dence to which, before we quit it, I would again 
 point attention. It is not to the circumstance that 
 the letters of this great Martyr were written in 
 
 1 ''EKpavyao'a fjwav )v } tXaXovv p,(yd\rj (pavy' Tw eVto-KdVw Trpocr- 
 Tf i * a ' T< ? 7rpe<r/3vTepi'a>, Kal diaKovois. Oi 8e irrecraiTts (pro vrro- 
 fj,( } a>s TrpoeiSora TOP /ifpioyioV Tivttv, \eytiv ravra' pdprvs 8e 
 (v a) fttdtpai, OTI a7ro crapKos avdpamivr]? OVK tyvatv. To 8f IlvfCfia 
 tya>v rd8(' Xwpty TOV eVtcrKOTrov p.r)8fv Troiflrf' rr\v <rdpKa 
 a)i/ a>s vaov Qtov TrjpflTf' TTJV fvwcrtv dyairarf' TOVS p.(pi<Tfj.ovs (pfvytTt' 
 Hip.r)Ta\ yivr6f 'Irjaov Xpitrroii, w? /cat avrbs TOV Tlarpos avrov. Ibid. \ 7. 
 This passage has drawn from a modern writer, whose failing cer- 
 tainly was not on the side of credulity, the remarkable confession, 
 that " it is not improbable that Ignatius had been favoured with 
 some Revelations." Jortin, Remarks on Ecclesiastical History , vol.i. 
 p. 224. 
 
 * Ilacrii' ovv fj.(ravoov(riv dfpid 6 Kvptoy, e'ai> p,(Tavor](r<i>(nv (Is eVorrjTa 
 0fov, Kal <rvv(8piov TOV (TrurKorrov. 8.
 
 150 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 chains, and on the eve of a cruel death a solemn 
 hour, and apt to inspire solemn counsel nor 
 even to the rare gifts and high sanctity of their 
 author, though it would be natural to allude to 
 these, that I wish to refer. The observation to be 
 made relates to others rather than to himself. 
 
 It was remarked just now, that the judgment 
 of Ignatius is, in fact, that of Polycarp ; because it 
 would be an absurdity too great for any but scep- 
 tics to maintain, that one about to die for his faith 
 would urge extravagant error upon those who had 
 received truth from the same source as himself. I 
 say, Ignatius, the friend of St. Peter, would never 
 have written to Polycarp, the disciple of St. John, 
 " My soul be security for those who submit to their 
 Bishop, Presbyters, and Deacons," unless they had 
 both believed these three orders to be of divine 
 appointment. We have here, therefore, as was 
 said, the testimony of St. Polycarp conveyed in the 
 words of St. Ignatius. And the same applies to 
 all the Bishops and Clergy who came to " visit 
 the venerable Martyr," as well as to the various 
 Churches to which he addressed his letters. The 
 witnesses are thus indefinitely increased, and they 
 are all and this is why I notice it witnesses 
 for us. 
 
 That the question of Church-Government, then, 
 is settled by the Epistles of Ignatius, is what may 
 be called a truism. To the maintainers of the new 
 discipline this was very evident; and so, rather
 
 ST. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH. 151 
 
 than resign that human polity, the first introduc- 
 tion of which even its founder, as we shall see 
 hereafter, thought it necessary to excuse with many 
 apologies, they caught at the only remaining de- 
 vice, and denied that these Epistles were genuine. 
 
 Now it is plain, from what has been advanced 
 already, that we could very well afford to give up 
 the evidence of this Saint. When all the witnesses 
 from the Apostles downwards, and all ecclesiastical 
 records from the hour of the Church's foundation, 
 deliver the same unvarying testimony, we could 
 spare even more than the scanty writings of which 
 he was the author. But we are not so thankless 
 as to resign even the least of our sacred treasures, 
 much less this precious legacy of one of the ear- 
 liest of the Martyrs of the Most High. For that 
 St. Ignatius wrote the letters attributed to him 
 happens to have been so profusely attested, that, 
 as a distinguished divine has said, " they who 
 question it might as well have questioned several 
 books of the New Testament itself, which notwith- 
 standing they receive on lesser evidence." 1 
 
 The remarkable history of these Epistles, and 
 the providential discovery, 2 by two different per- 
 sons, of two several manuscripts, in two different 
 countries, written in two separate languages, and 
 
 1 Dodwell, Separation proved schismatical, chap. xxiv. 8. p. 515. 
 
 2 " Reserved, no doubt," says Bishop Hall, " by a special Pro- 
 vidence, for the conviction of the schisms of these last times." Mo- 
 dest Offer, &c. ]). 431.
 
 152 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 yet accurately according with each other and with 
 the citations from Ignatius found in the writers of 
 the first five centuries, 1 these interesting points I 
 shall not stay to notice here in detail. They may 
 be found at length elsewhere. 2 Nor shall I quote 
 the words of the profound and good men who have 
 written, more or less copiously, on this subject. It 
 is not, as we shall see, necessary to do so. 3 The 
 adversaries have gained probably all which they 
 proposed, by the sort of suspicion with which their 
 bold expedient has invested the writings of Igna- 
 tius ; but their attempt has shared the fate which 
 usually befalls such venturesome policy, it has 
 failed ; and they themselves shall now tell us that 
 the Epistles of Ignatius are genuine. 
 
 The number of writers who may thus be cited 
 on this point as witnesses against themselves is so 
 
 1 The English copies were published at Oxford in 1644, and the 
 edition of Voss in 1646. " Majoris quippe operis res est," says that 
 learned man in reply to Blondel, " scriptum ab omni (state ante- 
 acta agnitum falsitatis convincere, quam sibi forsitan persuaserit vir 
 doctissimus cum illud institueret." Is. Vossii Epist., Ad Andream 
 Rivetum. 
 
 3 It is scarcely necessary to refer to the celebrated Vindicioe 
 Ignatiance of Bishop Pearson ; a treatise beyond all praise, and 
 which, I believe, no one has hitherto even attempted to answer. 
 
 3 The opinion of Bishop Hall may be found in his Prim, and 
 Apost. Trad. vol. vi. p. 246, and Def. Fid. Nicen. vol. v. p. 57. ed. 
 Oxon. : and that of Bp. Beveridge, who says, " no fact in all anti- 
 quity is more incontestably proved than the genuineness of these 
 Epistles," in his Codex Canonum, p. 311. See also Grabe, Spitileg. 
 torn. ii. p. 5 ; Hammond, Dissert, ii. cap. i. '2, who observes that 
 " it was necessary to Blondel and other ' presbyterian ' writers to put 
 Ignatius out of the way." Cf. Mede, Of the Name Altar, book ii. 
 Works, p. 388.
 
 ST. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH. 153 
 
 large, that it even admits of classification into dis- 
 tinct ranks. There are (1) those who candidly 
 and truthfully avow the hidden motive of their 
 friends in rejecting these Epistles ; (2) those who 
 indignantly disclaim all sympathy with such un- 
 scrupulous assailants; and again (3), those who, 
 keenly discerning that these primitive writings 
 cannot be successfully impugned, accept with as- 
 sumed alacrity, and then boldly claim them for 
 their own. We will hear a few of each class in 
 this order ; and persons who are not familiar with 
 the tactics of the school to which they belong will 
 feel, perhaps, considerable surprise at the very 
 curious illustration which their words will afford 
 of a well-known fact, that, however skilfully any 
 scheme which is based upon untruth may be de- 
 vised, it will commonly be deranged by the timi- 
 dity or incoherence of the very agents to whom 
 its execution has been assigned. 
 
 (1.) "The Epistles of Ignatius," says one of 
 the most eminent and profoundly learned of the 
 Lutheran divines, with an unaccountable but highly 
 honourable frankness, " would never have been 
 called in question, had they not contained what 
 the advocates of Episcopacy knew how to turn to 
 the advantage of their cause." 1 This is, to say the 
 
 1 Mosheim, De Rebus Christian, ante Constant., quoted by Hors- 
 ley, Reply to Priestley, letter v. p. 33. It may be observed that 
 Priestley and his confederates have always been as anxious as the 
 'presbyterians' to get rid of St. Ignatius, and for the same reason,
 
 154 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 least, a remarkable admission ; and it might even 
 seem to be conclusive, but that we are very sure 
 those theologians who despise Ignatius will feel as 
 little difficulty in giving up Mosheim. Let us hear 
 another, scarcely less distinguished for learning 
 than he. 
 
 The Epistle of Polycarp, in which, as we have 
 seen, the writings of Ignatius are so highly com- 
 mended, is being reviewed by one of their most 
 erudite authors : he speaks of it as follows : " In 
 this Epistle, Bishops are not distinguished from 
 Presbyters ; therefore even some amongst the Pres- 
 byterians receive the Epistle of Polycarp as genu- 
 ine/' 1 How accurately did these acute men esti- 
 mate the critical canons of their brethren ! It was 
 not historical evidence, nor weight of authority, 
 nor any other consideration whatsoever, which 
 could induce them to accept an author whose tes- 
 timony would spoil their inventions; but, on the 
 other hand, let them find one who was either silent, 
 or could be forced to witness for them, and then 
 not all the voices of all past ages shall persuade 
 them to resign him; though these concur in pro- 
 nouncing him unworthy of credit, or his teaching 
 
 viz. that his witness is clear and distinct against their tenets. Their 
 warfare, too, against him seems to have been marked with the same 
 want of truth and honesty. Thus Priestley repeats the common ob- 
 jections, and does not even notice Pearson's answer. Vide Kett's 
 Hampton Lectures, note p. 22 ; and the late Bishop Burgess's Tracts 
 on t/ie Divinity of Christ, p. 412. 
 
 1 T. Ittigius, De Hares. 2. cap. x. p. 187.
 
 ST. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH. 155 
 
 be the very opposite to that which they infer from 
 his words. 1 
 
 (2.) We may hear next a few of those writers 
 of the same party whose honesty, in this matter at 
 least, has been too strong for their prejudices ; and 
 first, the celebrated Theodore Beza. 
 
 He is arguing in a certain place against a blas- 
 phemer. Private opinions are for the moment laid 
 aside ; and forgetting, in his just indignation, that 
 he was the advocate of the Presbyterians, he ex- 
 claims, " Not only has this man misinterpreted the 
 sacred word of God, but he has ventured, with a 
 strange kind of impudence, to wrest the authority 
 even of the Council of Nice (though he rejects the 
 Athanasian Creed), as well as that of more ancient 
 writers, to wit, Ignatius, Tertullian, Irenaeus, and 
 Lactantius." 8 It is thus that men who have bound 
 themselves to support a theory, or to play an 
 assumed part, will always trip at some time or 
 
 1 Thus Calvin was not ashamed to quote Anacletus (Institut. 
 cap. viii.) in support of his own theories, though Cardinal Cusa, De 
 Concord. Cathol. lib. iii. cap. ii., expressly gives him up ; as does 
 Chamier, De CEcum. Pontif. lib. x. cap. xiv. p. 352 ; and Whitgift, 
 Def. of A. to A,, p. 327, who resigns him as " unworthy of defense." 
 Again, happening to want authorities against Servetus, he quotes as 
 genuine a work of St. Justin Martyr, which, as Scrivener observes, 
 Apolog, pro Pair. Eccles. cap. viii., " he himself must have known 
 to be spurious:" and many such instances might be mentioned. 
 Well, therefore, and moderately, does Whitgift say to Cartwright, 
 " I pray you give me that libertie in recyting Authors that you take 
 to yourselfe, and that no man refuseth when they serve to his pur- 
 pose." p. 319. 
 
 * In Vita I. Calvini: and again, in arguing against Selneccer, 
 he accepts and uses the testimony of this Saint. Ad Sclnec, Respons.
 
 156 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 other. Beza's predecessor, Calvin, had indeed 
 once spoken of " the trifles of Ignatius ;" but ob- 
 serve how his friends apologise for their impetuous 
 master. " He could not by this expression mean," 
 says Rivetus, " the very writings of Ignatius, but 
 only the spurious interpolations and additions to 
 them ;" l for if he did, says another Genevan Pro- 
 fessor, " Scultetus has proved that of the twelve 
 Epistles attributed to Ignatius seven are undoubt- 
 edly genuine ;" 2 and Vedelius, who confesses many 
 of the strongest passages which his writings con- 
 tain on the subject of the Bishop's pre-eminence to 
 be genuine, and even shews the propriety of some 
 of them, adds, that, besides these famous divines 
 of Geneva, Jerome Zanchy, Casaubon, Pareus, 
 Junius, and a host of others, both Calvinists and 
 Lutherans, confessed the authority of this Saint. 
 Of such admissions it would be tedious as well as 
 superfluous to set down more ; and we may con- 
 clude with the strong words of F. Buddeus, who 
 has candidly avowed his own conviction, that " at 
 this time no man skilled in such questions will 
 easily be found who esteems these Epistles as 
 spurious, or as otherwise than genuine :" 3 and the 
 same writer elsewhere admits the superiority of 
 Bishops over Presbyters to be so clearly proved by 
 
 1 Apud Vedelii Apolog. pro Ignat. cap. iv. 
 
 2 Ibid. Vedelius himself quotes him in other works ; vide De 
 Arcanis Arminianismi, cap. vii. pp. 61, 62. 
 
 3 In Binghami Antiq. Ecc. Pnefat. p. 11. ed. Grischov,
 
 ST. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH. 157 
 
 them, " that it is impossible to be denied or even 
 called in question by any man." 1 
 
 (3.) And now, lastly, for those who, admitting 
 them to be genuine, affect to claim them as wit- 
 nesses in their own favour. Such is Bcehmer, who 
 is not afraid to quote Ignatius in order to prove 
 " that there was not in his time so great a distinc- 
 tion between Bishops and Presbyters!" 3 Such, 
 
 1 De Statu Eccles. sub Apost. cap. vi. 5. p. 738. Sandius, De 
 Veteribus Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis, p. 38, refers to many other 
 writers as Gerhard, Eckhard, Calovius, &c. who quote St. Igna- 
 tius ; to whom the following may be added. Pet. Martyr, Defens. 
 Doctrin. Vet. dc Euchar. pars i. p. 442 ; pars iv. p. 723 (ed. 1559). 
 Chamier, De Descensu ad Inferos, lib. v. cap. ix. 2, 3 ; in Corp. 
 Controvers. torn. ii. p. 166 (ed. 1626) ; and De CEcum. Pontif. lib. x. 
 cap. vi. 16. J. Wigand, Arianorum Refutat. lib. ii. p. 80. Alex. 
 Alesius, De Trinitate, 8. p. 104. The Socinian (with Boehmer, 
 Chamier, and others,) tried to wrest Ignatius ; vide Valentin. Gentil. 
 Histor. a Benedicto Aretio, cap. xii. p. 31, Genev. 1567. See also 
 Pannonii In Trinitatem, lib. i. p. 3 ; Hoornbeeck, Apolog.pro Eccles. 
 Christian. Hodierna non Apostatica, p. 1 ; Jablonski Institut. Hist. 
 Christian, secul. ii. cap. ii. ; Censur. in Remonstr. in cap. xxi. p. 
 275, where the Leyden divines, anxious to reject Patriarchs and 
 Metropolitans, observe that " Ignatius knew only three orders ;" 
 Pet. Molinaei Epist. iii. p. 180 ; Weisman, Histor. Ecclesiast. sec. ii. 
 torn. i. p. 104, who says, " the genuineness of these Epistles (the 7) 
 is so certain and so firmly demonstrated, that nothing but empty 
 and trifling cavils, and frivolous conjectures unworthy an author of 
 any merit, can hereafter be alleged against them." Isaac Casaubon 
 uses the same language, Exercitat. xvi. in Epist. S. Ignat. p. 669 ; 
 and, in a word, the epistles in question have been quoted, with 
 various objects, by nearly all the continental divines of any name or 
 repute. 
 
 a Justi Henringii Boehmeri Observ. Select, obs. v. ; upon which 
 see the Animadv. xxxv. of C. Fimian. The Puritans sometimes 
 quoted this Saint against Episcopacy ; see The Petition of the Pre- 
 lates briefly examined, p. 10 (1641) ; and compare Thes. Salmur. De 
 Episcopi et Presbyteri Discrimine, pars ii. pp. 323, 4.
 
 158 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 again, was the notorious Cartwright and his school, 
 who, as Bishop Pearson says, " as often as any ob- 
 jection was urged against them out of these writ- 
 ings to which they could offer no reply, denied 
 their genuineness ; but whenever they thought 
 they could use any passage to prop up the newly 
 invented presbyterian discipline, they used his au- 
 thority freely and frequently:" 1 and one of them 
 even argues, that because the presbyterian scheme 
 of " Lay-Elders" is not condemned by Ignatius, it 
 must have been favoured by him ! 2 Such are the 
 Church's adversaries ; and they are not mentioned 
 here as if the words of such persons deserved the 
 notice of Catholic Christians, but only with the 
 charitable design of shewing some of our brethren 
 whom they have chosen for their teachers and 
 masters. 
 
 And now we may conclude. It was necessary 
 to rescue Ignatius from what some one has called 
 his "second martyrdom ;" and we may perhaps ex- 
 pect to hear no more of the spuriousness of his 
 Epistles. 3 The sum is this. It has been delivered 
 
 1 Pearson, Vindic. Ignat. Procem. cap. iii. 
 
 2 See Downame, Defence of Sermon, book i. ch. xi. p. 231. 
 
 3 A single example of the treatment which these celebrated 
 Epistles have received from gome of the modern divines may be 
 useful in this place. Dr. Miller, one of the most eminent Presby- 
 terian controversialists in the United States, writing, in the year 
 1807, a book styled Letters on the Ministry, speaks thus of the 
 writings of St. Ignatius : " That even the shorter Epistles of Igna- 
 tius are unworthy of confidence as the genuine works of the father 
 whose name they bear, is the opinion of some of the ablest and best
 
 ST. IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH. 159 
 
 to us upon the authority of Ignatius and Polycarp 
 friends and disciples of the Apostles of Christ 
 as well as upon the testimony of large bodies of 
 the Christians of Asia, contemporaries of those 
 holy Martyrs, that Bishops were appointed by 
 our Lord Jesus Christ to rule over His clergy and 
 people, and that no man can have communion with 
 Him but through them : and all which can be said 
 against this, and the concurrent testimony of all 
 Saints during fifteen ages, is, that some few men 
 in these last days think otherwise. 
 
 judges of the Protestant world." Here he was arguing against the 
 Church. 
 
 In 1821 he published his Letters on Unitarianism, and now St. 
 Ignatius might be useful to him. " The author is aware," says he, 
 on this occasion, " that the authenticity of the Epistles of Ignatius 
 has been called in question. It is sufficient for his purpose to say, 
 that the great body of learned men consider the smaller Epistles of 
 Ignatius as in the main the real works of the writer whose name 
 they bear." 
 
 Again, in 1832, he publishes an Essay on the Office of Lay-Elder. 
 Here he is again attacking the Church, and therefore it is necessary 
 this time " for his purpose" to say, " Intelligent readers are no 
 doubt aware that the genuineness of the Epistles of Ignatius has 
 been called in question by a great majority of the Protestant divines, 
 and is not only really but deeply questionable." 
 
 But once more : in a tract on Presbyterianism, written, as it 
 seems, three or four years later, " sensible without doubt," says the 
 writer who exposes him, " that the testimony of Ignatius to a matter 
 of fact cannot now be effectually questioned, he exhibits his utmost 
 ingenuity in striving to make him a witness for Presbyterianism ! " 
 This curious story is taken from Dr. George Weller's Letter in reply 
 to a publication oftJie Rev. Samuel Miller, D.D. p. 22 (1836) ; and 
 this versatile critic upon St. Ignatius is described as quite one of the 
 leading Presbyterian teachers. " But these," as Bp. Bilson said long 
 ago to a writer of this class, " be the brambles and briars of your 
 discipline, which force you to say and unsay with a breath." Per- 
 petual Government of the Church, chap. xiii. p. 288.
 
 160 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 IV. Our next authority is ST. JUSTIN MARTYR. 
 Of his qualifications as a witness to catholic truth 
 he seems to have been himself conscious when he 
 says, "I speak no novelties; but, having been a 
 disciple of the Apostles, I deliver such things as I 
 received from them." 1 It is not, however, so much 
 for the sake of the testimony contained in his own 
 writings, that a few words shall now be quoted 
 from them, as because we shall be able to trace a 
 close connexion between this primitive writer and 
 others of a later date, who are presently to be 
 heard ; and because it is very important to notice, 
 that all the witnesses from the first are, as it were, 
 linked together : they are all true or all false ; which 
 is just the fact we are most anxious to keep promi- 
 nently in view in the present controversy. 3 
 
 St. Justin is describing, with the religious re- 
 serve always practised in communications with the 
 heathen, 3 the method of one portion of Christian 
 worship ; and in his description he comes to a part 
 of the Service of which he speaks thus : " Bread 
 is then brought, and a cup of mixed wine and 
 water, to the President of the brethren ;" 4 this, 
 
 1 Ad Diognetum, Epist. Opp. p. 501. Paris. 1636. 
 
 8 EC Be KOT avrovs dtro TTJS vvv VTrareias dp%f)v "7 IfUms ?X fl > T>1 K l *]~ 
 (Tovcriv ol irpfvftvTfpoi nai ol p.aK<ipioi fidprvpes ; S. Athanas. De Synod. 
 Arim. et Seleuc. torn. i. p. 872. 
 
 3 Ov xp*l y<*p TO. /iuorijpta dfjLvrjrois rpayw&eti'. Id. Ad Imperat. 
 Constant. Apol. p. 731. Or, as Optatus expresses it, " Paganus non 
 potest nosse Christiana secreta." De Schismat. Donat. lib. v. 
 
 4 "ETTfira 7Tpo<r(pfpfTai T<B Trpotcrrwrt ratv dbc\(p>v apros, Kal 
 v8a.Tos KOI KpdfMTos. Apol. ii. p. 97.
 
 ST. JUSTIN MARTYR. 161 
 
 and one or two statements by which it is followed, 
 is all which shall be noticed here. He proceeds, 
 then, to say, that these elements are " sent to 
 those not present by the Deacons f l and presently 
 he adds, that the oblations which are made are 
 consigned to the charge of this President ; " and 
 he ministers them to the orphans and widows, and 
 to those who, through sickness or any other cause, 
 are in necessity, and to such as are in bonds, and 
 to strangers, and supplies the wants of all who are 
 in any kind of need whatsoever." 2 
 
 Now, we are not required to prove that the 
 person thus described was, in some sense, a ruler of 
 the presbyters and deacons ; because so much the 
 adversaries admit. The word "President" vgo- 
 tffrug here used by St. Justin, is that which was 
 applied from the first to the highest order of the 
 clergy ; and Beza and others contend that this was 
 their " Proto-presbyter," or " ambulatory" bishop, 
 who ruled for a while, 3 and then gave way to one 
 of his brethren, who, in his turn, was succeeded by 
 another, and so on : an assertion which has already 
 
 1 Ibid. p. 98. a p. 99. 
 
 3 And to whom the vast powers which their own masters, as 
 Calvin, Beza, and others, were suffered to exercise, compelled them 
 to assign a superiority of jurisdiction, in order to make their own 
 practice fqnare with the ancient order. Thus they say of this ima- 
 ginary Proto-presbyter, " Singularem habuit ac praecipuum supra 
 Presbyteros auctoritatem atque potestatem, ejusque munus dis- 
 tinctum fuit a Presbyterali munere atque ordine." TJies. Salmur. 
 pars ii. De Episc. et Prcsb. Discrimine, p. 322 ; that is to say, they 
 were Bishops, only such Bishops as Calvin, and not as Austin or 
 Cyprian, Becket or Anselm, Andrewes or Wilson. 
 
 M
 
 162 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 been noticed, and to which no further answer need 
 be made, unless every wild notion with which men 
 choose to amuse themselves must be deemed to 
 deserve one. 1 It may be added, however, that the 
 office here ascribed to the " President" was as 
 we learn from the Apostolical Canons, as well as 
 the Canons of divers Councils, and the writings of 
 individual Fathers discharged from the most re- 
 mote antiquity exclusively by Bishops. 2 Who pre- 
 tends that any mere presbyter was ever charged 
 with the sole control of ecclesiastical charities ? 
 On the whole, this is a striking confirmation, so 
 far as it goes, of what has been heard already ; and 
 it harmonises, as we shall see, with what is yet to 
 follow. One point only remains to be observed. 
 St. Justin tells the heathen, who seem to have 
 confounded as some have done in much later 
 times heretics with Catholics, that he was the 
 author of a work against the various heretical sects 
 of that age. 3 It appears that he also wrote an 
 " Interpretation of the Apocalypse ;" and he seems 
 
 1 "You have provided a President," said Bishop Bilson to these 
 men, " to execute your owne pleasures ; now let God have one 
 amongst you to execute His." Chap. xiv. p. 294. 
 
 * So that it seems to have been a sort of proverb, " Gloria Epis- 
 copi est, pauperum inopise providere." S. Hieron. Ad Nepotian. 
 Epist. ii. torn. i. p. 5 ; and St. Basil says, that the Bishop's office, 
 as Almoner of the Poor, is concluded from the fact that oblations 
 were laid (Acts v.) at the Apostles' feet. Epist. cccxcii. Ad Amphi- 
 lochium, torn. iii. p. 400. It would be endless to refer to the canons 
 of various Councils in which this office is defined. Vide Thomassin. 
 Vet. et Nov. Discip. pars i. lib. i. cap. li. 
 
 3 Kara ira<r>v r>v yeyfinj^evcav aipta-eutv. Apol. ii. p. 70.
 
 ST. JUSTIN MARTYR. 163 
 
 to have written at some length against the heretic 
 Marcion. 1 In these works it may be taken for 
 granted that his view of Church-government would 
 be quite plainly expressed ; and his view was that 
 of the Apostles. Now Tertullian, who wrote about 
 sixty years later, and whom we are hereafter to 
 hear, refers to these works of St. Justin. He says 
 that his own arguments were derived from them ; 
 and that it was his fixed purpose, in every thing 
 relating to matters of faith, to follow Justin, and 
 others as St. Irenaeus who had written on the 
 same subjects. 2 But the works of Justin were ex- 
 tant at the date of his writing, and therefore acces- 
 sible to heretics as well as to himself. Could Ter- 
 tullian's statements, then, have differed from those 
 of St. Justin ? Could he contradict St. Justin, and 
 yet persuade his subtle adversaries that he was 
 following his teaching ? But Tertullian speaks of 
 Bishops as the supreme rulers of the Church by 
 Apostolical ordination. St. Justin, therefore, whose 
 sentiments he only repeated, becomes, and would 
 be so if every page of his writings had disappeared, 
 a witness on our behalf. 
 
 V. A contemporary of St. Justin, Pius, Bishop 
 
 1 Vide Euseb. H. E. lib. iv. cap. xviii. 
 
 2 " Nee undique dicemur ipsi nobis finxisse materias, quas tot 
 jam viri sanctitate et praestantia insignes, nee solum nostri anteces- 
 sores, sed ipsorum haeresiarchum contemporales, instructissirnis volu- 
 minibus et prodiderunt et retuderunt ; ut Justinus Philosophus et 
 Martyr, ut Miltiades Ecclesiarurn sophista, ut Irenaeus . . . quos in 
 nrnni operc fidei, quemadmodum in isto, optaveiim asscqui." Ter- 
 t ii Hi. i n. Adv. Valentinianos, cap. v. p. 291.
 
 164 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 of Rome, may be heard next. He was the ninth 
 in that succession, and appears to have addressed 
 a letter, about A.D. 142, to his brother Apostle 
 Justus, Bishop of Vienne. It contains the follow- 
 ing words : " Thou hast been appointed to fill the 
 place of Verus, and invested with the Colobium l 
 (or Episcopal robe). See that thou fulfil the mi- 
 nistry which thou hast received in the Lord. Let 
 the Presbyters and Deacons reverence you, not as a 
 superior, but as the servant of Christ." 2 Here, as 
 Bishop Beveridge has remarked on the passage, 3 
 we have an enumeration of the Bishop, Presbyters, 
 and Deacons of a certain Church, and their rela- 
 tions ; namely, the two last being in subjection to 
 the first, and that only forty-two years after the 
 death of St. John. 4 Nor is this all. Verus, who 
 
 1 " Colobium fuit Episcoporum vestis propria." Du Cange. Cf. 
 Macer. Hiero- Lexicon, in voc. The learned Meursius describes an- 
 other habit, the dwoa-ToXiiuov, as " habitus Apostolicus, id est, Pon- 
 tificalis, sive Episcopalis." Glossar. Grceco-Barbar. Opp. torn. iv. 
 p. 199. Polycrates makes mention, in very remarkable terms 
 vide Bel. Sac. torn. i. p. 369, and Annot. p. 381 of a pontifical 
 ornament worn by St. John the Apostle ; who, says he, " lay in the 
 Lord's bosom, was a Priest, and wore the Petalum" (or ' plate of 
 pure gold,' Exod. xxviii. 36); and Epiphanius reports, Hceres. 78, 
 that St. James, the Bishop of Jerusalem, wore the same Petalum. 
 It is defined by Du Cange as " Lamina aurea in capite Summi Pon- 
 tificis ;" and vide Euseb. H. E. iii. 31, and iv. 24. 
 
 2 " Tu vero apud senatoriam urbein Viennensem, ejus (Veri) loco 
 a fratribus constitutus, et colobio Episcoporum vestitus. Vide ut 
 ministerium quod accepisti in Domino impleas ; . . . Presbyteri et 
 Diaconi non ut majorem, sed ut ministrum Christi te observent." 
 Pii Epist. iv.Justo Viennensi, ap. Severin. Binii Condi. Gen. torn. i. 
 p. 85. 
 
 3 Pandect. Can. torn. ii. in Can. Apost. ii. 
 
 4 Yet these words are quoted by Blondel to prove, that " though
 
 POPE PIUS. 165 
 
 is here spoken of as the predecessor of Justus, and 
 who was the first Bishop of Vienne, was a disciple 
 of the Apostles ;* and Pius was so far from being 
 the first in his own city who had filled the office 
 to which Justus was now elevated, that he could 
 trace his succession through no fewer than eight 
 predecessors to St. Peter and St. Paul. So true 
 it is, that they who would drag the Bishops from 
 their chairs, must begin if such words may be 
 used by pulling the Apostles from their thrones. 2 
 
 be commands the respect of Presbyters and Deacons to their Bishop, 
 yet it is not as to their superior by divine right, but their equal !" 
 " What dealing is here with Antiquity," says Archdeacon Parker, 
 who notices it, " that one good Bishop cannot admonish another to 
 exercise his power with modesty and humility, but these men must 
 presently strip him of it !" Government of the Church, \ 8. p. 96. 
 Salmasius quotes the passage with the same comment ; Contra Pe- 
 tavium, cap. iv. p. 275. 
 
 1 Vide Tillemont, Memoires, &c. tome iii. part i. p. 453. 
 
 a There are other proofs of about the same date with this, pos- 
 sessing oue of its remarkable features, I mean, its allusion to a 
 present existing system. Such is that very early record of Dionysius, 
 Bishop of Corinth, who was martyred in the reign of M. Aurelius. 
 He is described by the historian as admonishing Pinytus, Bishop of 
 Gnossus, " not to lay the heavy yoke of chastity upon the necks of 
 the brethren as an essential p.fj fiapv <popriov (TrdvayMs TO Trept ayveias 
 rois dbf\(j>ols emrtdevai but to have respect to their infirmities." 
 A pud Euseb. H. E. iv. 23 ; upon which it is obvious to ask, What 
 had tins Bishop to do with ' imposing a yoke' at all ? or how came 
 the brethren to submit to what he imposed ? The Epistle in which 
 the admonition occurs is addressed to the whole Church ; would he, 
 then, speak to them in deprecation of an exercise of episcopal power, 
 unless they confessed themselves to be subject to it ? or tell them of 
 an imaginary authority which had no real existence ? In another 
 Epistle to the lloman Christians recommending a certain method 
 of charitable collection, he says, " This method your blessed Bishop 
 Soter observed :" here again notice, that reference is made to 9. fact, 
 of the truth of which there could be no question made.
 
 166 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 VI. HEGESIPPUS, who wrote between twenty 
 and thirty years later, and is the most ancient of 
 all uninspired ecclesiastical historians, tells us, that 
 after St. James, the first Bishop of Jerusalem, was 
 martyred, Symeon, his brother, was appointed by 
 unanimous consent to fill his place, as being a 
 kinsman of the Lord. He adds, that that Church 
 retained its virgin purity, and was corrupted by no 
 vain doctrines, till the time of one Thebuthis, who, 
 being unable to procure his own election to the 
 Bishopric, began to introduce certain novel tenets. 
 After this man arose other schismatical teachers, 
 who, as Hegesippus reports, "rent asunder with 
 their adulterous doctrines the Unity of the Church." 1 
 It is curious that the first schism in this the 
 mother of all Churches should have had such an 
 origin; and we shall see, in the sequel of these 
 pages, that certain adversaries of the Bishops in 
 later ages have been so far like this miserable The- 
 buthis, as to have despised their Sacred Office only 
 after they had been themselves rejected from it. 
 
 The same primitive writer refers elsewhere to 
 that letter of St. Clement which has been so largely 
 cited above ; and it is pleasant to learn upon such 
 testimony that it was not ineffectual; for he re- 
 lates, that "the Church of Corinth (to which it 
 was addressed) continued in the right faith, until 
 the time of Primus, who was Bishop of that place ;" 
 with whom, he says, he enjoyed familiar intercourse 
 
 1 Euseb. H. E. iv. 22.
 
 HEGESIPPUS. 167 
 
 when on his voyage to Rome, and with whose flock 
 he sojourned no little time. Arrived at Rome, 
 he took up his abode with Anicetus its Bishop. 
 "After the death of Anicetus," these are again 
 his words, " Soter succeeded, whom in the next 
 place Eleutherus followed ; and in every Episcopal 
 Succession, and in every city, the same doctrines 
 were held which were delivered by the Law and 
 the Prophets, and the Lord Himself." 1 
 
 It will be observed that these holy witnesses 
 are unlike the modern teachers, as in almost every 
 other respect, so in this, that they speak, not 
 from conjecture, but from their own personal know- 
 ledge and assurance. It is what they had heard 
 and seen, and not what they fancied, that they re- 
 port. Their testimony, too, is offered not from 
 one or two places, but from every part of the 
 world. Already we have found Bishops, upon the 
 infallible evidence of men who lived and conversed 
 with them, at Jerusalem and Ephesus, at Antioch 
 and Smyrna, at Corinth and Philippi, at Rome, at 
 Vienne ; in Syria, in Greece, in Italy, in Gaul ; 
 and this at so early a date that we seem to be 
 standing the while in the very foot-prints of the 
 Apostles, and listening to their very accents. Fresh 
 witnesses are springing up on every side, to guide 
 us along the same track ; and others, as we shall 
 
 1 llnfiu 'AvucfjTov 8ia8/^erat Swnjp, ped' ov 'E\(vdepos' tv (Kaari) fie 
 KOI ii> Ka.<rn) TroXei ovra>s (\fi) a>s 6 vop.os Krjpvrrfi KOI ol npo- 
 KOI 6 Kvpios . Ibid.
 
 168 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 see, ready at every moment to take their places. 
 Meanwhile, it is a solemn inquiry in which we are 
 engaged. This is no question of natural philo- 
 sophy or human policy which we are debating 
 agitur de vita et salute a mistake in this science 
 may be fatal. And therefore it is that we seek 
 from the adversary something more solid than 
 guesses, something more convincing than asser- 
 tions ; we will not be put off with words ; we deal 
 \vit\i facts ; and we warn all men who take part in 
 this strife to ask for facts in return. 1 
 
 VII. POLYCRATES will next instruct us. He 
 was, as we have seen above, the eighth Bishop of 
 Ephesus ; and appears to have addressed a synodi- 
 cal letter when in the sixty-fifth year of his age to 
 Victor, the successor of Eleutherus, and thirteenth 
 Bishop of Rome. The subject of this letter was 
 
 1 " Let not the reader be carried away with vaine shewes, neither 
 let him believe that their pretended discipline was instituted by the 
 Apostles, untill they be able to shew, as they never will be, that it 
 was sometime and somewliere practised within three hundred yeares 
 say a thousand foure hundred, if you will after the Apostles. 
 1. We prove that the Apostles had the right of ordaining ; that 
 this right was from them derived to their substitutes, as to Timothy 
 in Ephesus, and Titus in Crete, to Mark at Alexandria, to Poly- 
 carpus at Smyrna, to Evodius at Antioch, to Linus at Rome, &c. 
 &c. 2. To their successors, as to Simon the sonne of Cleophas, the 
 successor of St. James at Jerusalem, &c. 3. That from these sub- 
 stitutes and first successors of the Apostles the same was derived to 
 their successors, which, without all doubt, were the Bishops of the 
 several Churches. 4. And hereunto we adde the general consent 
 of the Fathers and Councils, many of them affirming and confirm- 
 ing, not one I say, not one denying the superioritie of Bishops
 
 POLYCRATES. 169 
 
 the much-controverted point of the observance of 
 Easter, with respect to which the tradition of the 
 Asiatic Churches had always varied from that which 
 prevailed throughout the western Patriarchate. 1 
 Polycrates is defending his own custom against the 
 remonstrances of Victor, and with this object is led 
 to refer to some of the great authorities by whom 
 it had been maintained. Those whom he enume- 
 rates are, " St. John, the Priest of the Lord, who 
 died in Ephesus ; Polycarp, Bishop and Martyr, 
 who sleeps in Smyrna ; Thraseus of Eumenia, 
 also Bishop and Martyr, who reposes in the same 
 Smyrna; Sagaris, Bishop and Martyr, who sleeps 
 in Laodicea ; the blessed Papirius, and the eunuch 
 Melito, who lieth in Sardis, expecting the coming 
 of the Lord." 2 These all, he says, observed the 
 Paschal Festival on the fourteenth day, according 
 to the evangelical tradition, as well as he himself 
 
 in ordaining ; the perpetual practice of all true Christian Churches, 
 and not one approved instance to be given to the contrary ; . . . . 
 But because he shall not carry the matter without proofes, this I 
 will offer him, That if he can bring any one pregnant testimonie or 
 example out of the Scriptures, any approved authoritie or example 
 out of the ancient Fathers, Councils, or Histories of the Church, 
 proving that the Presbyters had by and of themselves an ordinarie 
 power or right to ordaine Ministers I meane Presbyters and Dea- 
 cons I will promise to subscribe to his assertion. But if he cannot 
 do this, as I know he cannot, then let him for shame give place to 
 the truth." Downaine, Defence of Sermon, book iii. ch. iv. pp. 94, 5, 
 and book iv. ch. i. p. 36. 
 
 1 For an account of the Paschal controversy, and of the Councils 
 held upon the subject at Rome, in Palestine, Pontus, &c. vide Euseb. 
 H. E. v. 23, 24. 
 
 2 Rel. Sac. torn. i. p. 370.
 
 170 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 and his kinsmen ; " for," he adds, in words already 
 quoted, " seven of my kinsmen have been Bishops, 
 and I am the eighth." 1 And all this he further 
 confirms by informing Victor, that the numerous 
 Bishops, whom he had summoned at his request, 
 were unanimous in their adoption of the same 
 custom. 
 
 Now the nature of the office which was held 
 by this Victor, as well as that of Polycrates him- 
 self, is beyond all cavil or dispute. The former, 
 indeed, was so far like some of his successors in 
 the See of Rome, that he did not hesitate to wind 
 up the Paschal controversy by threatening to cut 
 off all the Asiatic Churches from communion with 
 his own ; for which he was rebuked by St. Irenasus, 
 Bishop of Lyons. At another time he justly ex- 
 communicated, by his own authority, one Theo- 
 dotus, who, to save his life during a persecution, 
 had denied the faith. And these circumstances 
 are not mentioned here in depreciation of Victor, 
 who, as a prelate of our own Church admits, " was 
 a godly Bishop and Martyr," 2 but merely in evi- 
 dence of the vast power which was asserted by the 
 Rulers of the Church so early as the age of Poly- 
 crates. This particular Bishop was indeed blamed, 
 
 1 " In all likelihood he means that they were his predecessors 
 in the same See, and accordingly he mentions only some of them 
 with whom he had conversed, though he was sixty-five years old at 
 the writing of the Epistle." Dodwell, One Altar, chap. ix. 5. 
 p. 243. 
 
 9 Whitgift, Defense of Answer e, p. 510.
 
 ST. IREN^EUS. 171 
 
 but, observe, not for assuming such power, but for 
 the wrong use of it ; the power itself was conceded 
 to him, or rather was very remarkably sanctioned 
 and confirmed, by the very criticisms of those holy 
 men who censured its rash exercise. And our 
 question at this point is, did it differ in any degree 
 from that which had been claimed and used by his 
 predecessors? Does Irenaeus say so in his letter 
 to Victor ? Does Polycrates say so ? And when 
 the latter refers to his seven " kinsmen" as he calls 
 them, who had been Bishops before him, does he 
 hint that there had been any change in the Epis- 
 copal functions since they occupied their thrones ? 
 No ; what they had been in their day, the Saint 
 himself, in his turn, had now become ; and it was 
 to " St. John " himself, to the " Bishops " and 
 " Martyrs" who were asleep in Ephesus, in Smyrna, 
 or in Laodicea, and to the Prelates of his own 
 jurisdiction then present with him, 1 that he was 
 willing to appeal, as " knowing" to use his own 
 words " that he did not belie his grey hairs, but 
 had ever ruled his life by the precepts of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ." 
 
 VIII. ST. IREN^US, who was first a presbyter 
 of the Church at Lyons, under the venerable Po- 
 thinus, and subsequently, on the martyrdom of 
 
 1 Polycrates, as Bishop of Ephesus, was a Metropolitan ; accord- 
 ingly Eusebius says of him, TO>I> rt T^S 'A.<rias iirum&irav . . . 
 H. E. v. 24.
 
 172 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 Pothinus, 1 raised to the Bishopric of that See, 2 will 
 now confirm the testimony of his brethren. When 
 it is considered that he was acquainted with Papias, 
 with Aristion, and others who possessed the same 
 opportunities of knowing the mind of the Apostles, 
 it will be admitted that he is a competent witness. 
 But the following passage from a letter written by 
 the Martyr to Florinus, a friend of his youth, will 
 sufficiently attest his claim to be heard, and form 
 the most suitable introduction to the extracts which 
 are next to be offered. 
 
 " I saw you" these are his words " when I 
 was yet a youth, in the lower Asia with Polycarp. 
 I can call to mind what then took place more 
 accurately than more recent events ; for impres- 
 sions made upon the youthful memory grow up 
 and associate themselves with the very frame and 
 texture of the mind. Well, therefore, could I de- 
 scribe the very place in which the blessed Polycarp 
 sat and taught ; his going out and coming in ; the 
 whole tenour of his life ; his personal appearance ; 
 the discourses which he made to the people. How 
 would he speak of the conversations which he had held 
 with John, and with others who had seen the Lord. 
 
 1 It was Pothinus who, being asked by the Roman officer on his 
 trial, who was the God of the Christians, replied, " If thou wert 
 worthy, thou shouldest know" e'aj/ j/y agios, 71/0)077, a noble answer 
 truly to one who possessed the power, which he presently used, of 
 putting him to death. And this is the class of witnesses against 
 whom the modern teachers are arrayed. 
 
 2 Vide S. Hieron. Catal. Script. Eccles. ; Aug. Contra Julianum 
 Pelagianum, lib. i. cap. iii. 7 ; and Euseb. //. E. v. 5.
 
 ST. IREN^EUS. 173 
 
 How did he make mention of their words, and of 
 whatsoever he had heard from them respecting the 
 Lord ; both concerning His miracles and His doc- 
 trine, which Polycarp received from those who had 
 themselves seen the Word of Life" 1 
 
 We can with difficulty get ourselves even to 
 compare such a witness as this with the voluble 
 teachers of modern times ; nor is it necessary to 
 do so. 2 Let the wise and sober choose between the 
 testimony of this reverend Saint and Martyr, and 
 the fables of men who would substitute for the 
 Scriptures their own traditions, and for the Church 
 themselves. The great work of Irenaeus against 
 the Valentinian and other heretics of his day, from 
 
 1 EiSov yap or, Trais &v ert, eV 77; Kara) 'Acriq irapa TO> 
 
 K.T.X. Epist. ad Florinum, ap. Euseb. H. E. v. 20 ; and Frag. 
 Deperdit. Tract, ap. Irenaei Opera, p. 464. 
 
 2 A late commentator upon the writings of this Saint has col- 
 lected some of his remarkable expressions, which may prepare us to 
 receive attentively whatever he may have written. They are such 
 as the following : " I have heard from an elder who had heard from 
 those who had seen and been instructed by the Apostles ;" " Where- 
 fore the elders, who are disciples of the Apostles, say," &c. ; " As 
 the elders, who saw John, the Lord's disciple, remember that they 
 heard of him ;" " And all the elders who associated with John, the 
 Lord's disciple, testify that John taught them this ; for he remained 
 with them down to the time of Trajan," &c. Beaven's Account of 
 St. IrencEus, p. 153. With which compare Waterland's Judgment 
 of t fie Primitive Church, Works, vol. v. pp. 213, 14 ; who remarks, 
 with the view of shewing " how considerable a person he was," that 
 " the charismata, the miraculous gifts, were common in his days, 
 and he himself a witness of them in many instances.'' Accordingly, 
 as Waterland observes, " he lays it down as a rule and a maxim, 
 that truth then went along with the Church, because the Spirit of 
 truth rested upon it ; which is the argument St. Paul himself uses 
 to the like purpose."
 
 174 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 which the following passages are taken, was written 
 about seventy years after the death of St. John. 1 
 It appeals throughout to the Apostolic teaching 
 preserved by tradition, and challenges the adver- 
 saries to compare their tenets with it. " It is 
 open to all men in every Church," Irenaeus says, 
 " who desire to look upon truth, to behold the 
 tradition of the Apostles, manifestly set forth in 
 every part of the world ;" to behold it, that is, with 
 the eyes of the body : men could see the truth then 
 acted out before them ; for, says he, " we are able 
 to enumerate those who were appointed by the Apos- 
 tles Bishops in the Churches, and their successors 
 even down to ourselves, who never taught, nor 
 knew of, such things as are madly dreamed by 
 these men." 2 
 
 It was, then, to the Episcopal or Apostolical 
 Succession that St. Irenaeus, the disciple of Poly- 
 carp, confidently referred the heretic for a refuta- 
 tion of his error ; and when such persons, with the 
 characteristic subtlety of their kind, replied, that 
 the Apostles had communicated to " the perfect" 
 certain peculiar mysteries apart from and beyond 
 their ordinary teaching, the man of God rejoined, 
 
 1 "Inter annum Christ! 170 et 174," according to Grabe (ed. 
 Oxon. 1702), Prolegom. 2. Dodwell refers it to an earlier date. 
 
 2 " Traditionem itaque Apostolorum in toto mundo manifestatam, 
 in omni ecclesia adest perspicere omnibus qui vera velint videre ; et 
 habemus annumerare eos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in 
 Ecclesiis, et successores eorum usque ad nos, qui nihil tale docu- 
 erunt, neque cognoverunt, quale ab his deliratur." Adv. Hares. 
 lib. iii. cap. iii.
 
 ST. IREN^IUS. 175 
 
 " If this had been so, then specially and chiefly 
 would they have delivered them to those to whom 
 they committed the very Churches themselves. For 
 it was their wish that they should be eminently 
 perfect and irreproachable in all things, whom also 
 they left to be their own successors, handing on to 
 them their own office of government, from whose 
 wise and prudent conduct vast benefit would re- 
 sult, but, should they err, the most disastrous ca- 
 lamities." 1 St. Irenaeus certainly had an exalted 
 notion of the Episcopal office and order ; and we 
 have reason to be thankful that we can lie down 
 and rise up again without any misgiving in our 
 hearts, as we meditate upon such words of such a 
 witness. He proceeds to say, that since it would 
 be tedious to reckon up " the successions in all the 
 Churches" it will suffice to " confound the dark- 
 ened and vain-glorious teachers of error, by" what 
 method shall we suppose this Apostolical man sug- 
 gests? " by reckoning up the chain of Bishops in 
 the single Church of Rome, which Church, by 
 means of that succession, was in possession of the 
 tradition received from the Apostles, and the faith 
 once delivered to the saints." 2 
 
 1 " Etenim si recondite mysteria scissent Apostoli, quse seorsim 
 et latenter ab reliquis perfectos docebant, his vel maxime traderent 
 ea quibus etiam ipsas Ecclesias committebant. Valde enim perfectos 
 et irreprehensibiles in omnibus eos volebant esse, quos et successores 
 relinquebant, suum ipsorum locum magisterii tradentes ; quibus 
 emendate agentibus fieret magna utilitas, lapsis autein summa ca- 
 lamitas." Ibid. 
 
 2 " Sed quoniam valde longum est, in hoc tali volumine omnium
 
 176 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 " The blessed Apostles, then," he proceeds, 
 " founding and building up that Church, com- 
 mitted to Linus the episcopal administration. Of 
 this Linus, Paul, in his Epistles to Timothy, makes 
 mention. To him Anacletus succeeded ; after 
 whom, in the third place from the Apostles, Cle- 
 ment received the Bishopric. To Clement suc- 
 ceeded Evaristus, and to Evaristus Alexander ; and 
 next Sixtus was appointed, the sixth from the 
 Apostles ; after whom Telesphorus, next Hyginus, 
 then Pius; after him Anicetus, and, Soter having 
 succeeded to Anicetus, now, in the twelfth place 
 from the Apostles, Eleutherus holds the Bishopric. 
 By this order and succession that tradition and 
 that promulgation of the truth which the Church 
 derives from the Apostles has come down to our 
 times" l 
 
 Ecclesiarum enumerare successiones, maximae, et antiquissimae, et 
 omnibus cognitae, a gloriosissimis duobus Apostolis Petro et Paulo 
 Romae fuudatae et constitutes Ecclesiae, earn quam habet ab Apos- 
 tolis traditionem et annunciatam hominibus fidem, per successiones 
 Episcoporum pervenientem usque ad nos, indicantes, confundimus 
 omnes eos, qui quoquo modo vel per sui (sibi?) placentiam malam, 
 vel vanam gloriam, vel per caecitatem et malam sententiam, praeter- 
 quam oportet colligunt." Ibid. 
 
 1 " Fundantes igitur et instruentes beati Apostoli Ecclesiam, 
 Lino Episcopatum adrainistrandae Ecclesiae tradiderunt. Hujus Lini 
 Paulus in his quse sunt ad Tirnotheum epistolis meminit. Succedit 
 autem ei Anacletus ; post eum tertio loco ab Apostolis Episcopatnm 
 sortitur Clemens . . . Hinc autem dementi succedit Evaristus, et 
 Evaristo Alexander, ac deinceps sextus ab Apostolis constitutus est 
 Sixtus, et ab hoc Telesphorus . . . ac deinceps Hyginus, post Piu?, 
 post quern Anicetus. Cum autem successisset Aniceto Soter, nunc 
 duodecimo loco Episcopatum ab Apostolis habet Eleutherus. Hac 
 ordinatione et successions ea quae est ab Apostolis in Ecclesia tra-
 
 ST. IREN^EUS. 177 
 
 Such is the test and measure of sound faith 
 proposed by this primitive bishop and martyr : not 
 what each man's undisciplined reason may gather 
 for himself that is a notion of yesterday but 
 what has been safely handed down, and securely 
 guarded, by the successors of the Apostles, the 
 Bishops of the Church of Christ. 
 
 It may be superfluous, and even tedious, to 
 add more from this writer ; yet because of the 
 greatness of his name and authority, one or two 
 passages shall be very briefly noticed, in which, 
 as we may be confidently assured, the mind of the 
 Apostles is declared. He teaches, then, in another 
 place, that the Sacred Scriptures have been pre- 
 served free from corruption, suffering " neither 
 loss nor addition," and duly, and safely, and holily 
 expounded, by means of "the successions of Bi- 
 shops to whom, in each several place, the Apostles 
 delivered the Church." 1 
 
 Again, meek and just as he was, he fears not 
 to say, that "all they who come not together to 
 the Church, partake not of the Holy Spirit, but, by 
 their perverse imaginations and most evil courses, 
 defraud themselves of life ; for where the Church 
 is, there is the Spirit of God;" 2 and what he 
 
 ditio et veritatis prseconiatio pervenit usque ad nos. Et est plenis- 
 sima hsec ostensio, unam et eandem vivificatricem fidem esse, quae 
 in Ecclesia ab Apostolis usque nunc sit conservata, et tradita in 
 veritate." Ibid. 
 
 1 Lib. iv. cap. Ixiii. : the whole passage deserves the most care- 
 ful consideration. 
 
 2 " Spiritus non sunt participes omnes qui non concurrunt ad 
 
 N
 
 178 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 meant by "the Church" has been already very 
 plainly shewn. 
 
 It was his answer to the heretical teachers, 
 " These are far more recent than the Bishops to 
 whom the Apostles delivered the Churches;" 1 and 
 the fact that his arguments from the Episcopal 
 successions were addressed to heretics, shews that 
 this was one of the Church's weapons against the 
 enemies of her Lord from the very first. 
 
 Elsewhere he declares, that "All who sever 
 themselves from this succession have fallen away 
 from tJie truth ; and those heretics who offer upon 
 the altar of God strange fire that is, novel doc- 
 trines are consumed, like Nadab and Abihu, by 
 the fires of heaven. Whilst they who lift up 
 themselves against the truth, and encourage others 
 against the Church of God, abide in hell, devoured 
 
 Ecclesiam, sed semetipsos fraudant a vita, per sententiam malam et 
 operationem pessimam. Ubi enim Ecclesia, ibi est Spiritus Dei." 
 lib. iii. cap. Ix. " Ipse est Spiritus Dei," says Augustine, " quern 
 non possunt habere hseretici, et quicunque se ab Ecclesia prcecidunt." 
 In Epist. Joannis, Tractat. vi. torn. ix. p. 254 ; and he repeats the 
 same sentiment with yet greater severity of language, De Symbolo, 
 Ad Catechumenos, lib. iv. cap. xiii. p. 310. 'Ei/ rainy yap, says 
 St. Athanasius, speaking of " the Faith preserved by the Fathers," 
 f) fKKXr)(ria Te0e/ieAt'amu, nal 6 Tavrrjs CKirarrtav, ovr at> eaj t OVT av 
 \eyovro Xpumav6s. Ad Serapionem, torn. i. p. 202. " Christiani 
 esse desierunt," is the strong saying of another witness, " qui 
 Christi nomine amisso, humana et externa vocabula induerunt. Sola 
 igitur Catholica Ecclesia est, quae verum cultum retinet. Hie est 
 fons veritatis ; hoc est domicilium fidei ; hoc templum Dei : quo 
 si quis non intraverit, vel a quo si quis exiverit, a spe vitse ac salutis 
 seternae alienus est." Lactantius, De Vera Sapientia, lib. iv. p. 408. 
 1 " Omnes enim ii valde posteriores sunt quam Episcopi, quibus 
 Apostoli tradiderunt Ecclesias." lib. v. cap. xx.
 
 ST. IREN^US. 179 
 
 by the yawning of the earth, like the company of 
 Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. They, too, who di- 
 vide and separate the Unity of the Church receive 
 from God the punishment which was inflicted upon 
 Jeroboam." 1 
 
 Lastly, this famous martyr says, " It is where 
 the gifts of the Lord are deposited that we must 
 set ourselves to learn the truth ;" and where is 
 that place ? " Amongst those," he adds, " with 
 whom is that Succession of the Church which pro- 
 ceeds from the Apostles." 2 
 
 1 " Omnes autem (qui absistunt a principal! successions) hi de- 
 ciderunt a veritate. Et hseretici quidem alienum ignem afferentes 
 ad altare Dei, id est alienas doctrinas, a ccelesti igne comburentur, 
 quemadmodum Nadab et Abiud. Qui vero exsurgunt contra veri- 
 tatem, et alteros adhortantur adversus Ecclesiam Dei, remanent 
 apud inferos, voragine terrse absorpti, quemadmodum qui circa 
 Chore, Dathan, et Abiron. Qui autem scindunt et separant uni- 
 tatem Ecclesiae, eandem quam Hieroboam poenam percipiunt a 
 Deo." lib. iv. cap. xliii. 
 
 8 " Ubi igitur charismata Domini posita sunt, ibi discere oportet 
 veritatem, apud quos est ea qua? est ab Apostolis Ecclesise successio." 
 lib. iv. cap. xlv. And he every where teaches that these " gifts of 
 the Lord" are only to be found in connexion with the Episcopal 
 succession. It is with relation to this point, that one who has paid 
 great attention to the writings of this Apostolical bishop and martyr 
 observes as follows : " According to Irenaeus, the different classes of 
 sectaries would be regarded as having neither spiritual life nor the 
 Holy Spirit, except so far as they might be supposed to be in com- 
 munion with the body governed by elders or bishops descended from 
 the Apostles. If in any way or to any degree they can be supposed 
 to be in communion with them, to that extent they would be thought 
 to have the Holy Ghost, and to be in the way of life, but no further. 
 I am not now discussing whether he was right or wrong ; I am 
 merely pointing out the contrariety between his views of the Church 
 and those which appear to be most popular at present. I doubt 
 if most Protestants would not pronounce his doctrine to be gross 
 bigotry." Beaven's Account of St. Irenceus, pp. 79, 80.
 
 180 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 Such is the teaching of one who was content, 
 like so many of his brethren, to suffer the sharp 
 agonies of torture, and at length the stroke of 
 martyrdom, in testimony of the faith which he 
 professed. And we may ask, in conclusion, if this 
 man, with all his privileges, his exalted faith, and 
 unflinching obedience, could miss the truth, what 
 likelihood is there that we should find it ? If to 
 him, the friend and disciple of men who could not 
 but know the mind of Christ, 1 God's gracious pro- 
 mise was broken, why do we yet dream that it will 
 be fulfilled to us ? And when, in the decay of the 
 world, men arise, who, to make room for their own 
 inventions, would wipe out from the history of the 
 Church the first fifteen ages of her trials and her 
 victories, as if they were ages only of darkness and 
 error, how is it that we bear even to listen to them, 
 or tolerate and applaud in religion the incoherent 
 extravagances which in the affairs of the world 
 we should instinctively detect and condemn ? 
 
 IX. ST. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA is the next 
 
 1 This expression may appear strong : I only repeat it after Arch- 
 bishop Cranmer, who said of the martyr himself and that in con- 
 troversy with a Romanist " he could not be deceived, for he was 
 the disciple of Polycarpus," &c. Answer to Gardiner, 2d book 
 against Transubstantiation, p. 317 (1551). So another, happening 
 just then to want his testimony, observes, that " he had received 
 truth from Polycarp, as Polycarp from St. John ;" adding that " his 
 judgment cannot be called in question rashly, or without the most 
 weighty reasons." F. Buddei De Stut. Eccles. cap. v. 4, pp. 393 
 and 416. Melancthon speaks still more respectfully of him ; Epist. 
 Ad G. Bucholtzer, p. 433.
 
 ST. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. 181 
 
 of our holy witnesses. Educated in the famous 
 schools of Alexandria under Pantaenus, who ap- 
 pears to have been himself instructed by contem- 
 poraries of the Apostles, Clement succeeded, about 
 A.D. 188, to the distinguished office which Pantae- 
 nus then vacated, and which he had filled ever 
 since the death of St. Mark, the first Bishop of 
 that city. 1 He was a writer in the paschal contro- 
 versy ; and it is worthy of observation, inasmuch 
 as it cannot but affect importantly his character as 
 a witness, that he accounts for the composition of 
 the work which he wrote upon that subject, by 
 saying that he had been compelled by his friends 
 to commit to writing the traditions which he had 
 received orally from the primitive elders. A few 
 words only shall be quoted from him. 
 
 In one place he speaks of " the innumerable 
 precepts of Holy Scripture which pertain to Bi- 
 shops, Priests, and Deacons." 2 In another, as has 
 been noticed above, he supposes the three orders 
 of the sacred ministry to be ordained types of the 
 celestial hierarchy. What a deep conviction must 
 he have cherished of the divine institution of that 
 
 1 St. Jerome says of Pantaenus, " Hujus raulti quidem in sanctam 
 scripturam extant commentarii, sed magis viva voce ecclesiis pro- 
 fuit." Catal. Script. Eccles. Of this viva-voce instruction Clement 
 was a hearer. KAijpjs p.tv yap, says one, speaking of him, rots ayiots 
 aTrooToXots eirofjifvos Travraxf)- S. Cyril. Contra Julian, lib. vi. torn, 
 vi. p. 205. 
 
 2 Mvpiai 8e 5<rai inro&rJKai els TrpoVooTra eVXeKra diarftvovcrai tyyt- 
 ypd(f)tTai Tais /3i'/3Xtots TOIS ayiats' al fjttv TrpecrflvTfpots, at 8f enter K.OTTO is, 
 at 8e 8iaKovots. Pcedagog. lib. iii. cap. xii. p. 2G4. Paris. 1041.
 
 182 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 threefold order ; and how intimately must the same 
 persuasion have leavened all Christians of that pri- 
 mitive age, when it was thus calmly and thought- 
 fully enunciated from the professor's chair in the 
 most distinguished school of religion of those days! 
 Elsewhere he speaks of the humility of St. 
 Peter, St. James, and St. John, who, "highly 
 favoured as they were by the Lord, resigned to 
 another the episcopal government of Jerusalem." 
 And again, he records of St. John, that " after the 
 death of the emperor, he came from the island of 
 Patmos to Ephesus, and went about the neigh- 
 bouring countries appointing Bishops, and selecting 
 for the clergy such persons as were signified by the 
 Holy Ghost." 1 May we not unhesitatingly affirm 
 that, if they were the only relics of the primitive 
 times preserved to us by the providence of God, 
 these writings of St. Clement would have sufficed 
 to prove that Bishops were of His appointing ? 
 
 ij yap TOV rvpdvvov Tf\VTr)<ravTos diro rrjs Tldrfiov TTJS I>T)<TOV 
 p.(Trj\6fv fls T^v"'E(pfcrov ) dirfjfi TrapaKaXovfjLfvos Kal eVrt TO. TrX^crtd^wpa 
 ra>v 0va>v, oirov fjiev eTTUTKoirovs KaraoT^crcoi/ , OTTOV fie oXas fKKh.T)(rias 
 , OTTOV 8e K\rjpu> eva ye riva K^paxrutv Ttov VTTO Hvevparos (rrjfjiai- 
 Quis Dives salvetur, ap. Euseb. H. E. iii. 23. The same 
 deeply interesting statement is made by the very ancient author of 
 the martyrdom of Timothy referred to above ; who reports, that 
 " having returned to the metropolis of Ephesus, in conjunction with 
 seven other bishops he ruled over that city." Ap. Photii Siblioth. 
 num. 254. And the circumstance of the blessed Apostle being per- 
 suaded by the Bishops of Asia, or of the province of Ephesus, to 
 compose his Gospel, is repeated by many other writers. Vide 
 Hieron. Catal. Script., and Victorin. Petav. In Apocal. ap. Grabii 
 Spicileg. torn. ii. p. 45.
 
 TERTULLIAN. 183 
 
 X. TERTULLIAN, who was born about A.D. 160, 
 and whose famous "Apology for the Christians" 
 was written between the years 198 and 205, bears 
 no less emphatic testimony to the same great truth. 
 It will be remembered that he professed to found 
 his statements upon the authority of St. Justin 
 Martyr; 1 but seeing that his father might have 
 conversed with Apostles, he might very well have 
 claimed to be heard as a witness in his own name 
 only. Before, however, we listen to him in this 
 character, let us hear him for a moment as a con- 
 troversialist. He is handling in a certain place the 
 familiar argument that Catholic teaching is true, 
 because it is Catholic ; that what has been believed 
 always, every where, and by all, can only be re- 
 jected upon the impious supposition, that God has 
 made no revelation at all. We shall find a new 
 point in this reasoning as managed by his acute 
 mind. "Grant that all have erred," he says; 
 "grant even an Apostle has been so mistaken as 
 to impart his message only to a few; grant that 
 the Holy Spirit has not vouchsafed to lead any 
 Church into the truth, though for this cause sent by 
 Christ, and for this cause asked of the Father, that 
 He might be a teacher of the truth ; grant that the 
 steward of God, the vicegerent of Christ, has neg- 
 lected his office, suffering the Churches meanwhile 
 to understand and to believe otherwise than He 
 Himself declared by the Apostles ;" all this, shock- 
 
 1 See Section IV.
 
 184 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 ing as it is, he supposes to be granted in the argu- 
 ment, since the new opinions can only upon this 
 monstrous hypothesis be justified but what then ? 
 granted that all Churches, in all ages to make 
 his argument our own have thus erred ; " is it 
 likely," he asks, "that so many and so large Churches 
 should have run by mistake into one belief?" 1 
 
 Let this argument be applied to our immediate 
 subject. Grant (what the introduction of a new 
 discipline pre-supposes) that the ancient regimen 
 was needless or corrupt ; grant that Bishops are 
 no divine order, their office human, and their au- 
 thority usurped what then? Why, we must be- 
 lieve that, in every Church throughout the world, 
 and that within forty years of the Apostles' times, 
 men dared to set up a new government of their 
 own devising ; that in every Church there was one 
 presbyter arrogant enough to assume power, which 
 all the others were weak enough to allow him ; 
 and this not only at Rome, but in Jerusalem, at 
 Antioch, Ephesus, Smyrna, Corinth, Philippi, Vi- 
 erine, Lyons, Carthage, Alexandria ; in Europe, in 
 Asia, in Africa; in a word, wherever the Gospel 
 of Christ had reached; and we must not doubt, 
 that a revolution which we perceive to have been 
 morally impossible even in a single province, was 
 accomplished with precisely the same results, 
 by the agency of the same means, and under the 
 
 1 "... Ecquid verisimile est, ut tot ac tantse in unam fidem 
 erraverint?" De Prcescriptione Hcereticorum, cap. xxviii.
 
 TERTULLIAN. 185 
 
 same mysterious secrecy and silence, in every land 
 throughout Christendom ! 1 
 
 Tertullian continues thus : " Different courses 
 have different issues ; the teaching of the Churches 
 must then (supposing it human) have varied in its 
 form ; but what we find the same throughout a 
 multitude is not a mistake, but a Tradition. Let a 
 man then be bold, and say, that they erred who 
 Jtrst delivered it ! Truth," he continues, in righte- 
 ous mockery, " awaited her release by some Mar- 
 cionites and Valentinians !" or, as we may say, was 
 
 1 It seems, indeed, to be the common lot of those who reject 
 truth, to accept some monstrous and incredible fable in its stead ; 
 and here we have an instance of it. For, as it has been acutely 
 observed, " the ages in which Primitive Episcopacy is pretended to 
 have been transformed into Diocesan abounded with learning and 
 writers, and a great many of their books have been preserved, but 
 not the least hint of this fundamental alteration of Church-Govern- 
 ment ! What ! so just an offence given by the Church, and no sec- 
 tary, no schismatic, to reproach her? Those who were so minute 
 and trifling in their cavils, could they overlook so obvious a topic as 
 this of Diocesan innovation? Nay, these very sects, where their 
 numbers made them capable, lived themselves under the Diocesan 
 way ! If, then, in times of so much division, contention, and dis- 
 pute, such a change as this could be introduced without any oppo- 
 sition, and all parties of different opinions and interests conformed 
 to it ; for my part I cannot see how it can be denied that it was done 
 by miracle. For what greater miracle can we well imagine, than 
 that so many sorts of Christians, divided by principles and mutual 
 aversions, should conspire to receive this pretended alteration of 
 Episcopacy ? So that those who deny it to be Primitive, must 
 allow it a higher title, since Miracle carries with it much greater 
 authority than Prescription." Maurice's Defence of Diocesan Epis- 
 copacy, p. 4. Saravia makes the same observation ; " Miraculum 
 certe maximum esset, in hac una re potuisse consentire, et simul 
 tanto consensu et tarn universal! traditionem Apostolici regiminis 
 inutare." De Divers. Grad. Minist. Evany, cap. xxi.
 
 186 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 first revealed to some Presbyterians and Socinians : 
 " meanwhile the Gospel was preached amiss ; so 
 many thousands were baptised amiss ; so many mi- 
 racles, so many spiritual gifts wrought amiss; so 
 many priesthoods, so many ministries discharged 
 amiss ; finally, so many martyrdoms (the common 
 lot of bishops) crowned amiss." 1 
 
 Having noticed that all heretics affect to ap- 
 peal to Holy Scripture, and observed that a false 
 interpretation vitiates truth as much as a false text, 2 
 Tertullian goes on to propose a method by which 
 opposite and conflicting senses may be tested. 
 " See," he says, " whether either of them can be 
 traced back to the times of the Apostles ;" and " if 
 there be any heresies claiming Apostolical anti- 
 quity," then comes the test "let them give ac- 
 count of the fast beginning of their Churches ; let 
 tJiem unfold the line of their Bishops, so running 
 down by successions from the beginning, that their 
 
 1 " Nullis inter multos eventus unus est exitus ; variasse debue- 
 rant ordine doctrinae ecclesiarum : cseterum quod apud multos unum 
 invenitur, non est erratum sed traditum. Audeat ergo aliquis dicere 
 illos errasse, qui tradiderunt. Aliquos Marcionitas et Valentinianos 
 liberanda veritas expectabat : interea perperam evangelizabatur, 
 perperam credebatur, tot millia millium perperam tincta, tot opera 
 fidei perperam administrata, tot virtutes, tot charismata perperam 
 operata, tot sacerdotia, tot ministeria perperam functa ; tot denique 
 martyria perperam coronata." cap. xxviii. xxix. 
 
 2 So Clement of Alexandria, admitting that heretics make their 
 appeal to Scripture, says, YeSj but how? exXryo^evot ra dp.(f)i^o\<os 
 elpqufva, fls ras I8ias perdyova-i bo^as, and, as he adds, " forcing the 
 naked word to convey the meaning which they are resolved it shall 
 bear." Stromat. lib. vii. pp. 757, 8.
 
 TERTULLIAN. 187 
 
 Jirst Bishop may have had for his authority and pre- 
 decessor some one of the Apostles, or such Apostolic 
 men as continued to hold with the Apostles." This 
 is the way, it seems, that Christian teachers rea- 
 soned in the time of one who was born only sixty 
 years after St. John died. Apostolical truth, they 
 thought, must be tested by the Apostolical Succes- 
 sion. " For in this manner," he goes on, " the 
 Apostolical Churches deduce their lines; as the 
 Church of the Smyrnaeans produces Polycarp, ap- 
 pointed by John ; as that of the Romans, Clement, 
 in like manner ordained by Peter; and as the 
 others, in like manner, point to those who were ap- 
 pointed as Bishops by the Apostles, to deliver down 
 for them the Apostolic seed." 1 
 
 Now every one will observe here and it is 
 very important to do so that Tertullian is not 
 proving that this appeal to the Apostolical or Epis- 
 copal Succession was customary with the primitive 
 Christians, but reasoning from it as an admitted 
 fact, and that in a controversial writing, when a 
 
 1 " Cseterum si quae audent intersere se setati apostolicae, ut ideo 
 videantur ab Apostolis traditae, quia sub Apostolis fuerunt, possu- 
 mus dicere ; Edant ergo origines Ecclesiarum suarum ; evolvant 
 ordinem Episcoporum suorum, ita per successiones ab initio decur- 
 rentem, ut primus ille episcopus aliquem ex Apostolis vel apostolicis 
 viris, qui tamen cum Apostolis perseveraverit, babuit auctorem et 
 antecessorem. Hoc enim modo Ecclesise apostolicae census suos 
 deferunt: sicut Smyrnseorum Ecclesia Polycarpum ab Joanne con- 
 locatum refert; sicut Romanorum, Clementem a Petro ordinatum 
 itidem ; perinde utique et cffiterae exhibent quos ab Apostolis in 
 episcopatum constitutes, apostolici seminis traduces habeant." cap. 
 xxxii.
 
 188 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 false or inaccurate premise would have been fatal 
 as well as foolish. And the early heretics were so 
 far from denying the effectiveness of this famous 
 weapon as wielded by our fathers in the Church, 
 that they even attempted to learn its use, and em- 
 ploy it in their own defence. They, too, learned 
 to boast of a scheme of doctrine derived by succes- 
 sion. 1 And when the Catholic doctors and bishops 
 
 1 Thus St. Jerome introduces the Luciferians as consenting to 
 the appeal to universal consent ; Adv. Luciferian. cap. iv. torn. ii. 
 p. 198. The Arian, too, professed to found his faith on Episcopal 
 consent, evidently borrowing the Catholic doctrine. " Si fidem 
 meam postules," said Maximin, in reply to St. Austin, " ego illam 
 teneo fidem quae Arimini a trecentis et triginta Episcopis, non solum 
 exposita, sed etiam subscriptionibus firmata est." Aug. Contra 
 Maximin. lib. i. torn. vi. p. 284. So the Marcionites ; 'E orou 
 MapKicw fTf\fim)(rav, TOCTOVTWJ/ enuTKOTrav, p.SX\ov 8e ^/tvSfincrKOTraiv, 
 Trap' vp.lv 8ia8oxal yeyovatri, K.T.\. Orig. Dial. Contra Marcionistas, 
 1. So Ptolemseus, a heretic of the 2d century, affected to derive 
 his opinions from the " Apostolical tradition preserved by succes- 
 sion," rrjs aTTO(TTO\i:Kf)s 7rapa.86crf<0s, fjv etc StaSo^s /cat Tjp,fis TrapeiAij- 
 (papev. Ap. Epiphanii Hasres. xxxiii. p. 222. And so universal was 
 this readiness on the part of heretics to adopt the Catholic way of 
 reasoning, that, as the Poet says, 
 
 " Even Arius and Pelagius durst provoke 
 To what the centuries preceding spoke." 
 
 Dryden, Religio Laid, vol. x. p. 47. 
 
 There is a curious passage in the Stromata of Clemens Alexandrinus, 
 lib. vii. p. 764, which shews (1) that the early heretics affected to 
 trace their traditions, by a succession of their own teachers, to the 
 Apostles ; and (2) that the true succession was thought a valid 
 refutation of them. He instances the followers of Basilides, who 
 " boasted " that they reached St. Peter through certain persons who 
 professed to have been acquainted with Theodades, a friend of St. 
 Paul. Evidently these men saw that the Episcopal Succession, which 
 could not be denied, must be met by a counter-succession, if it was 
 to be met at all. And how were they answered? " This will not 
 serve you," said Clement to others, who pretended that they fol-
 
 TERTULLIAN. 189 
 
 turned against them the sharp edge of this sword 
 of truth, it was not as an unfair or unlawful wea- 
 pon that they shrank from it, but because the 
 feeble imitations which they had framed to resist it 
 were unequal to the encounter. The blasphemer 
 of old did not deny the Apostolical Succession ; he 
 confessed it ; he tried to meet it ; and he was over- 
 come by it. 
 
 It might be useful to speak more at length of 
 this holy doctrine, which in the primitive Church 
 found such reverent acceptance. But as it would 
 carry us beyond our limits to illustrate fully the 
 mode in which it was urged by all her great teach- 
 ers, one only shall be cited by way of example, and 
 his words confirmed by such other references as 
 may suffice in this place. St. Austin, who has 
 been commonly described, by such as were qualified 
 to speak of him, as one of the most gifted of his 
 race, 1 and who lived in times when the growth of 
 heresy gave ample scope to the exercise of his vast 
 powers, is the writer whom it is natural to choose 
 with this object. A rapid and superficial survey 
 of his controversial works is all which can be at- 
 tempted here ; yet such a glance will prove, I 
 think, that the doctrine in question was, in the 
 
 lowed some private teaching of St. Matthew ; " for as the teaching 
 of all the Apostles was one, so is the tradition one also :" fxt'a yap ^ 
 iravrvv yeyovf ra>v dirooroXwv axrirfp 8t8a<TKaA/a, ovreos 8e Kal f) irapd- 
 doo-is. Ibid. p. 765. 
 
 1 Vide Prosper. De Vita Contempt, lib. iii., and Epist. ad Au- 
 gustin.
 
 190 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 judgment and practice of the early Church, nothing 
 less than fundamental. 
 
 1. St. Austin speaks, then, of men being "se- 
 vered from the root of Christian Communion, which, 
 through the chairs of the Apostles, and the succes- 
 sions of the Bishops, is, by an orderly course of 
 propagation, diffused throughout the world." 1 
 
 2. He tells the Donatists that the Canon of 
 Scripture has been "preserved by the order and 
 succession of ecclesiastical use." 2 
 
 1 " Videte certe multos praecisos a radice Christianas societatis, 
 quae per sedes Apostolorum, et successiones Episcoporum, certa per 
 orbem propagations diffunditur." Epist. xlii., Ad Madaurenses, 
 torn. ii. p. 57. Paris. 1586. 
 
 9 "... tot linguarum literis, et ordine et successione celebra- 
 tionis ecclesiasticae custoditur." Contra Donat. et Rogat. Ep. xlviii. 
 p. 70; the very argument which Calvin, when he had nothing to 
 lose by it, urges with much point and emphasis. " Porro quam 
 plurimum," he says, " nos movere debeat tolls convenientia tarn 
 diversorum animorum, et rebus omnibus alioqui. inter se dissidentium, 
 quando earn non nisi coelesti numine conciliatam apparet," &c. 
 Institut. i. 8, 12. Surely this is as forcible reasoning in defence of 
 the primitive Discipline as the primitive Doctrine ? as good against 
 Calvin as against Servetus ? Let a man read the arguments of the 
 Polish Socinians, and they will be found to coincide exactly with 
 those of the Presbyterians, and therefore to demand the same re- 
 ply. " In the primitive Apostolic age," says Wissowatius, Narrat. 
 Compend., " the Church was pure and incorrupt, till the accession 
 of the philosophers, and chiefly the Platonists, brought in those 
 errors which are now maintained." This dark night nox ista 
 atra he says, during which the Catholic Religion was maintained 
 throughout the world, at length was illuminated by the dawn of a 
 brilliant day. This dawn is represented by " Luther, Zuingle, and 
 Calvin," whose bright coming u deinceps solis reducis clariores radii 
 eequebantur;" and these " brighter rays" are of course the Socinian 
 doctors. Christianity was corrupted, therefore, according to the 
 teaching of these heretics, exactly as primitive Episcopacy was ac- 
 cording to that of the Presbyterians. Is it not obvious, then, that
 
 TERTULLIAN. 191 
 
 3. He enumerates, one by one, the Bishops of 
 Rome through thirty-eight successions that is, 
 from St. Peter down to Anastasius, who occupied 
 that see at the date of his writing in order to 
 prove that Catholics were founded upon that Rock 
 of which Christ spake to St. Peter : here again he 
 is refuting the Donatist. * 
 
 4. He tells a Manichaean, that "the succession 
 of Bishops from St. Peter down to his own day, in 
 an unbroken line," was argument enough to make 
 and keep him a Catholic. 2 
 
 5. Against the heretic Faustus he says : " The 
 authority of our (sacred) Books, confirmed by the 
 consent of so many nations, by the successions of 
 Apostles, Bishops, and Councils, is opposed to 
 you." 3 
 
 6. " If I refer to St. Matthew," he says to the 
 same person, " you will tell me, that that nar- 
 
 each heresy must be disproved by the same evidence ? And has not 
 each as Calvin, in another matter, argues after Augustine the 
 " consent of the whole world" against it ? 
 
 1 De Donatist. Dissidio, Ep. clxv. pp. 286, 7. The uncertain 
 author against Marcion had long before traced the same succession 
 through eleven places to Anicetus ; 
 
 **... Pio suscepit Anicetus ordine sortem, 
 Sub quo Marcion hie veniens, nova Pontica pestis," &c. 
 
 Pseudo-Tertull. inter Opp. p. 803. ed. Rigaltii. 
 
 2 " . . . ab ipsa sede Petri Apostoli usque ad praesentem episco- 
 patum successio sacerdotum," &c. Contra Epistolam Manicficei, cap. 
 iv. torn. vi. p. 46 ; cf. De Utilitate Credendi, cap. xvii. p. 45. 
 
 3 " Nostrorum porro librorum auctoritas, tot gentium consen- 
 sione, per successioues Apostolorum, Episcoporum, Conciliorumque 
 roborata, vobis adversa est." Contra Faustum Manichoeum, lib. xiii. 
 cap. v. p. 118.
 
 192 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 rative, which the universal Church, continued all 
 along by a certain succession from the chairs of the 
 Apostles down to the existing Bishops, proclaims to 
 be his," &c. ; and again, (7) " which is recommended 
 by the most evident successions from the times of the 
 Apostles to our own ;" and again, (8) " If you desire 
 to follow that authority of the Scriptures which is 
 esteemed before all, follow that which has come 
 down guarded, sanctioned, and explained through- 
 out the universe, from the times of the presence 
 of Christ Himself even to our own, by the agency 
 of the Apostles, and the manifest successions of the 
 Bishops from their chairs"* 
 
 9. He examines and rejects spurious Scriptures 
 by the same test which recognises the genuine. 
 "If they had been truly theirs," he says of the 
 apocryphal scriptures attributed to St. Andrew and 
 St. John, "then would they have been acknow- 
 ledged by that Church which, through the most un- 
 failing successions of the Bishops, abides constant to 
 
 our own and to ages yet to come." 2 
 
 10. Against Petilian he says : Granted that all 
 
 1 "... continue dices illara narrationem non esse Matthsei, 
 quam Matthaei esse dicit universa Ecclesia, ab apostolicis sedibus 
 usque ad praesentes Episcopos certa successione perducta." Ibid. 
 lib. xxviii. cap. ii. p. 193 ; cf. lib. xxxii. cap. xix. p. 202, and lib. 
 xxxiii. cap. vi. pp. 204, 5. 
 
 2 " Quse si illorura essent, recepta essent ab Ecclesia, quse ab 
 illorum (Apostolorum) temporibus per Episcoporum successiones 
 certissimas, usque ad nostra et deinceps temporaperseverat." Contra 
 Adv. Leg. et Propfiet. lib. i. cap. xx. p. 251 ; and PsaL contra 
 Partem Donati, torn. vii. p. 5.
 
 TERTULLIAN. 
 
 men now were unworthy to be followed, still 
 " what has the chair of the Roman Church, in 
 which Peter once sat and now Anastasius, done 
 to you? or that of the Church of Jerusalem, 
 which James formerly occupied and at this time 
 John 1 with whom we are by catholic unity bound 
 together; but ye," 1 &c. 
 
 11. Lastly to give but a single instance of 
 his expositions of Holy Scripture the same Suc- 
 cession was, in his judgment, nothing less than the 
 fulfilment of Prophecy, and a manifest token of the 
 Divine Presence. 2 
 
 Now, it is plain enough from these citations 
 
 1 "... Cathedra tibi quid fecit Ecclesise Romanae, in qua Petrus 
 sedit, et in qua hodie Anastasius sedet ; vel Ecclesiae Hierosolymi- 
 tiinu', in qua Jacobus sedit, et in qua hodie Joannes sedet ; quibus 
 nos in catholica unitate connectimur, et a quibus vos nef'ario furore 
 separastis?" Contra Literas Petiliani, lib. ii. cap. li. torn. vii. 
 p. 108. 
 
 3 In Psal. xliv. Enarrat. t. viii. p. 169. " Non ad Aaron," says 
 he upon another Scripture, " quia jam summus sacerdos erat, sed ad 
 Eleazarum voluit loqui Deus, qui ei succedere debebat. Hoc ergo 
 modo voluit per Eleazarum Deus non sacerdotium quod jam erat in 
 Aaron, sed successionis sacerdotalis progeniem commendare." Qucest. 
 super Num. xxx. torn. iv. p. 105 ; cf. Tractat. i. torn. ix. p. 3. This, 
 too, may be confirmed by express declarations of religionists not in 
 communion with the Catholic Church. " Hunc ordinem Sacerdotii 
 figurarunt Sacerdotes et Levitae, et Ithamar, et Eleazar, et Phinees 
 Sacerdos, et Zacharias. Habitavit Excelsus super montem Sinai, et 
 descendit manus ejus in Mosem, et Moses posuit earn super Aaron, et 
 deducta est usque ad Joannem. Joannes dedit earn Domino nostro, 
 Dominus noster dedit earn Apostolis, et illi per creaturas omnibus 
 ordinibus Sacerdotii. Hunc Sacerdotii gradum constituerunt nobis 
 sancti Apostoli, et hodie in medio Ecclesiae per manus Patris nostri 
 perficitur." Vide Syrorum Maronitarum Ordinal., ap. Morini De 
 Sac. Ordin. pars ii. p. 337.
 
 194 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 without going further that it was not mere pri- 
 vate opinions, nor " secondary" doctrines, but the 
 essential verities of the Catholic Religion which 
 this famous doctor was accustomed to defend by 
 an appeal to the Apostolical Succession. And it is 
 plain, moreover, that his argument was, in his own 
 day, admitted to be a good one admitted to be 
 so, that is, by the adversaries themselves; for of 
 course it is unnecessary to say that the Church 
 deemed it so. And in order to appreciate ade- 
 quately the importance of this fact, we need not 
 claim for St. Austin the great gifts, either moral or 
 intellectual, which the Church in all ages has al- 
 lowed him ; we have only to suppose him a man 
 of common sense, 1 and then to observe, that in one 
 single work against Faustus one of the most 
 subtle, as it appears, of all his adversaries he uses 
 this argument from the Apostolical Succession no 
 
 1 " If any man allow not the pillars of the Church in their times 
 the credit of discreet men, to have reason for what they report, yet 
 must he allow Irenseus and Tertullian to be men of common sense, 
 when they allege the succession of Bishops in the Churches of that 
 time wherein that of Rome is always one for an evidence of the 
 faith which had been preserved in them ever since the Apostles ; the 
 force of the reason lying in that which Calvin hath exceeding well 
 observed, that it was a thing known and received at the time, that 
 de facto the faith which the Churches professed came by succession 
 from the Apostles, "from which succession the heretics were fain to 
 separate, and make congregations apart, wherein to profess the 
 belief which themselves had devised. Be all the world judges now, 
 whether a man in his right senses would appeal to the succession of 
 Bishops, if it had been a thing questionable whether any such were 
 or not." Thorndike, Primitive Government of Churches, chap. v. 
 ad finem.
 
 TERTULLIAN. 195 
 
 fewer than eight times. 1 Because it is manifest, 
 from one such instance, that the succession of Bi- 
 shops from the Apostles downwards was a matter 
 of fact too notorious for cavil or dispute : I say, 
 this is manifest, for this one reason, that if it could 
 have been denied, the heretics, against whom it 
 was so triumphantly objected, would not have ad- 
 mitted it. 
 
 And equally certain it is, that, on this suppo- 
 sition, the great teachers of antiquity would not 
 have ventured to use it. How constantly, and 
 with what solemn earnestness they did so, it would 
 be instructive to shew; but this would require a 
 separate volume, and a few brief references only 
 must be added here. We have seen the fact, that 
 the Apostles contemplated and made provision for 
 such a " Succession," asserted by their " fellow- 
 labourer" Clement. We have seen it urged in 
 defence of holy truths by the martyr Irenaeus, by 
 Tertullian, and others. It is used by Optatus, 
 who recites the catalogue of the Bishops of Rome 
 from St. Peter down to Siricius, the thirty-seventh, 
 whom he calls " his own contemporary ;" and who 
 applies it according to the suggestion of Tertullian, 
 saying to his adversary, " If you profess to claim 
 the title of a Church, give account of the origin of 
 your chair" 2 
 
 1 And I think more than fifty times in different parts of his works. 
 5 " Vestrae cathedrae vos origincm reddite, qui vobis vultis sanc- 
 tam ecclesiam vindicate." Adv. Parmenian. lib. ii. p. 48.
 
 196 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 Epiphanius, again, enumerates pointedly the 
 succession in the same see ; adding, that his accu- 
 rateness in mentioning every name need not sur- 
 prise any one, since this succession was the test of 
 truth. And his argument is, that all these holy 
 bishops were deceived, if Manichaeus were right, 
 that is, the Episcopal Succession convicted him of 
 error. 1 
 
 St. Cyril of Alexandria, replying to the charge 
 of the Apostate Julian, that the orthodox had 
 corrupted the faith, refers him to the same Suc- 
 cession, as an ample confutation of his error. 2 
 
 The great Athanasius says, " We prove that 
 this belief has come down to us from father to 
 father ;" and then he asks, " Which of our fathers 
 will you appeal to ?" 3 
 
 ' Kai /ij) TLS 6avfM(Tf), OTI fKacrra ovrats aKpiflfas 8irj\0ofj.ev' 8ia yap 
 TOVTCOV act TO o-atpes 8eiKtn>Tcu. Hares, xxvii. torn. i. p. 107 : cf. Heeres. 
 xlii. p. 302 : Heeres. Iv. p. 471 ; Heeres. Ixvi. pp. 636, 7 ; in each of 
 which places the same holy succession is referred to. The argument 
 is thus proposed by another : 'ApKfl ds cur6$eiiv TOV r)p,tT(pov \6yov 
 TO e%eiv TTarpoQfv rjKovo-av irpbs fj/Jias TTJV TrapaSocrtv, oiov TWO. K\fjpov 81 
 aKoXovSias fK TG>V airo(TT6\a>v 8ia T>V ffpft-rjs ayia>v TrapaTTtp-tpdevra. S. 
 Greg. Nyssen. Contra Eunomium, lib. iii. torn. ii. p. 554. ed. Paris. 
 1638. " Ordinati enim ab his sumus," says Hilary, by a strong 
 figure, " et eoruai sumus successores." Contra Arianos, p. 395. 
 
 2 Contra Julianum, lib. x. torn. vi. p. 327. 
 
 3 Syn. Nicen. contra Arian. Decret. torn. i. p. 277. His use of 
 this argument in defence of the most solemn doctrines as the In- 
 carnation is almost as frequent as St. Austin's. Vide Syn. Nicen. 
 Decret. p. 251 ; Ad Serapionem, p. 207 ; De Sentent. Dionysii contra 
 Arianos, p. 550 ; Ad Epictetum Episc. p. 582 ; and in the same letter 
 very emphatically at p. 584 ; and De Incarnatione Verbi Dei, p. 594 ; 
 and De Incarnatione Christi, pp. 614, 15, 16; and Ad Imperat. Con- 
 stant. Apol. p. 753 : and these are but a few examples out of many.
 
 TERTULLIAN. 197 
 
 St. Cyprian connects the same Succession with 
 the solemn doctrines of Christian unity and the 
 vicarious remission of sins. 1 
 
 St. Jerome declares that it may be traced 
 throughout the Christian world, and speaks of 
 " Stephen, who was the twenty -sixth Bishop of 
 Rome from the blessed Peter." 2 St. Basil, that "to 
 be severed from that Succession, is to be cut off' 
 from the one channel of grace." 3 St. John Chry- 
 sostom, that it is not only essential to be united to 
 
 S. Gregory Nazianzen says of S. Athanasius himself, that he was 
 raised to the throne of Mark eVi TOV Mdpnov 6povov dvayerai not 
 by force and violence, but after the apostolical and spiritual mode 
 aTTooroAiKcos re teal irvevpaTiKas and this, he adds, is the true succes- 
 sion ; and whosoever is thus elected, d\t)dfiav e^et StaSox^s- Orat. xxi. 
 torn. i. p. 377. 
 
 1 Epist. xlii. Ad Cornelium, p. 57. " Potestas ergo peccatorum 
 remittendorum," writes one who knew his sentiments well, " Apos- 
 tolis data est et Ecclesiis quas illi a Christo missi constituerunt, et 
 episcopis qui eis ordinatione vicaria successerunt." Firmiliani Ad 
 Cyprian. Epist. Ixxv. p. 148. It is needless to give examples in this 
 case, when they may be found at almost every other page. 
 
 3 Ad Evagrium, Epist. Ixxxv. torn. ii. p. 311. ed. Antverp. 1579. 
 Cf. Ad Heliodor. Epist. i. torn. i. p. 2 ; Adv. Luciferian. cap. viii. 
 p. 203 ; where he says, having referred to the succession of Bishops 
 at Rome, " Quid facimus? ita et nobis majores nostri, et illis sui 
 tradidere majores." Elsewhere he speaks of the Apostles' Creed as 
 received by such a tradition ; Ad Pammachium, Adv. Error. Joan. 
 Hierosol. cap. ix. torn. ii. p. 219. 
 
 3 Epist. Ad Amphilochium, torn. iii. p. 21. ed. Paris. 1038. Cf. 
 Epist. ccccxii. p. 433, where he speaks of a Deacon who had assumed 
 the style of a Patriarch, OVK tic TWOS aKo\ov6ias diKaias KOL tiHrtfidas 
 fir\ TOVTO (\6a>v, and this he seems to think it enough to say against 
 him. The Bishops he calls rovs Trapa rov Qeov rerayfjievovs tnurKo- 
 irovs, Ep. ad Cldlonem, p. 5. Oeo^iXcororot (Tria-Konoi is a common 
 phrase with him, e.g. Epist. cxciv. p. 211 ; and he speaks of their 
 ordination being Kara /SouXqo-u/ 0ov, Epist. ccxcii. p. 282. The Ca- 
 tholic doctrine of the Episcopal succession is referred to throughout
 
 198 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 that one body in which it is to be found, but that 
 not to occupy one's allotted place in that body is 
 to forfeit the Spirit. 1 
 
 And, lastly, Vincent of Lerins asserts, as a 
 truth which may not be denied, that it has been 
 the great safeguard and preservative of religion. 2 
 
 his great work De Spiritu Sancto ; and it is very observable that, 
 severe and uncompromising as he was, yet the Saint who could speak 
 so sternly in defence of this essential truth was more meek than most 
 men, and had humbled himself, as the Canonist remarks, els fo-xdrrjv 
 TaircivaxTiv : Balsamon. In Can. i. Ad Amphiloch. So that one who 
 knew him well commends as a rare conjunction in him TO ev irpav-rrfTi 
 O-VVTOVOV' Trpaypa as he goes on to observe OVK eV TroAAoIs fvpurKo- 
 p.fvov, ovde TroXXa fx ov Ta ^apabfiypara. S. Greg. Naz. Oral. vii. Ad 
 Patrem, torn. i. pp. 144, 5. 
 
 1 ... &o~re oi>x ev>o~6ai TW o-d>p.an Set povov, dXXa KOI rbv oiKfiov 
 TOTTOV firexeiv, o>s lav VTTfpftfjs, oi/x evaxrai, ov8e 8fXT) TO irvfvpa. Homil. 
 xi. In Ephes. torn. iii. p. 821. The succession, of which we are here 
 speaking, he very solemnly declares to have been ordained by the 
 Holy Ghost : 'H yap lepaxrvvr) reXerrat pev eVt TTJS yrjs, rdiv 8e rov- 
 pavtatv e^fi TaypAratv, KOI /naXa ye etKorcos' ov yap av avOpamos, OVK ayye- 
 Xoj, OVK ap^ayyeXoy, OVK aXX?; TIS KTKTTTJ 8vvap.is, dXX' avrbs 6 irapaK\rjTOS 
 ravnjv Sierd^ero TTJV a.Ko\ov6iav } Kal en pevovras ev crapKt TTJV ratv dyye\a>v 
 fTTfurf (pavrd&o-dai StaKoviav. De Sacerdotio, lib. iii. torn. vi. p. 15. 
 It is obvious to compare with this the well-known parallel passage 
 of Clemens Alexandrinus quoted above; see also Stromat. lib. vii. 
 p. 757 ; and lib. i. pp. 274, 5, where the doctrine of the Apostolical 
 succession is very plainly enunciated. 
 
 2 " Omnes luce clarius videant, beatorum Apostolorum beata 
 Successio quanta vi, quanto studio, quanta contentione defenderit 
 susceptse semel religionis integritatem." Commonitor. cap. vi. And 
 so well was the office of the successive generations of Bishops in 
 relation to the maintenance of truth understood in the early ages, 
 that St. Hilary could even use, without reproach, the phrase "Epis- 
 copalis doctrina ;" Ad Constantium, p. 339. So that, in a word, the 
 succession was, so to speak, the common test of all doctrine ; and it 
 was enough to condemn any dogma that it could be described as 
 irapa TO Kara Trapd8oo~iv Kal Kara 8ia8o)(f)V avuiOev TTJS eKK\j)(rias edos 
 8^6fv irpo<prfrfvovra. Alexandri Epist. ad Originem, ap. Reliq. Sacr. 
 torn. ii. p. 75.
 
 TERTULLIAN. 199 
 
 Such being the judgment of the ancients, it is 
 needless to shew how this truth has been main- 
 tained in later ages. Yet there are amongst mo- 
 derns two persons the one esteemed by all men 
 as a profound philosopher, the other a theologian 
 scarcely equalled in acuteness whose remarkable 
 words it may be permitted, in conclusion, to notice. 
 " That there is a holy succession in the prophets 
 of the New Testament and fathers of the Church, 
 from the time of the Apostles and disciples which 
 saw our Saviour in the flesh, unto the consumma- 
 tion of the work of the ministry," said Lord Bacon, 
 " I do believe." 1 And that this Succession was 
 " the most undeniable and demonstrative proof for 
 the truth of" Christianity, and " such as plainly to 
 distinguish it from all foolish legends and impostures 
 whatsoever" was the opinion of the celebrated Les- 
 lie, and so expressed by him in his famous Method 
 with the Deists. 
 
 And yet this Succession, " prescribed," as St. 
 Clement relates, by the Apostles, and hallowed, as 
 the Scriptures shew, by the Lord Himself; the 
 touchstone of error, and safeguard of truth ; the 
 shield of the faithful, and the terror of heretics ; 
 
 1 Confession of Faith; Works, vol. ii. p. 488. The same eminent 
 person once said though his words are not of course quoted as of 
 any importance in themselves "This I say, and think ex animo, 
 that the discipline of the Church of England by Bishops is the 
 nearest to Apostolical truth." Advice to Sir Geo. Villiers, vol. iii. 
 p. 435 : and Lord Burghley seems to have been enabled to make 
 the same confession ; Strype, Annals of the Reformation, vol. i. pt. i. 
 p. 119.
 
 200 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 which was used from the first against the enemies 
 of Christ the Arian, the Donatist, and the Mani- 
 chsean, the apostate, the infidel, and the deist and 
 was effectual to confound them all ; which is proved 
 as an historical fact by a complication of testimony 
 amounting to demonstration, and assumed or acted 
 upon as a first principle in all our affairs, both 
 public and private, social, judicial, and political; 
 which is accounted by all Saints as one of the in- 
 fallible proofs of the truth of our religion, confi- 
 dently asserted as such in all ages, and confessed 
 even by heresiarchs, ancient as well as modern, to 
 be beyond their skill either to deny or gainsay, 1 
 
 1 With Calvin this " succession" was a thing of such moment, 
 that he sought, by the plea of hard necessity, to excuse the want of 
 it ; and could say, " Optandum esset, ut valeret continua successio, 
 ut functio ipsa quasi per manus traderetur." Epist. cxc. Regi 
 Polonice, p. 351. ed. Bezse. Beza makes the same admission, only 
 with far more emphasis ; expressly commending the use which the 
 holy Fathers made of this succession against the enemies of the 
 Church. " Nonnulli tertiam notam addunt," said he, in reply to 
 the Cardinal of Lorraine ; " nempe, successionem ordinariam a tern- 
 pore Apostolorum. Ad quod respondemus, hujusmodi successionem 
 maxime esse cestimandam, dummodo recte consideretur et applicetur :" 
 and what was his notion of this right application? " quemadmodum 
 ea contra hcereticos scepe sunt usi Patres, sicut apud Tertullianum, 
 Irenaeum, et Augustinum est, contra Manichseos et Donatistas." 
 Vide Comment. De Statu Relig. sub Carolo TV. lib. iii. p. 143. 
 " Certainly that succession," said another distinguished Protestant, 
 " is a goodly ornament, if with the succession of persons there may 
 be a succession of doctrine and conformity of virtue." P. Du Mou- 
 lin's Answer to Cardinal Perron, book i. ch. xxxii. p. 85. Even 
 Salmasius could speak of the " Christianorum doctrina ab ipsis 
 Apostolis tradita, et per manus a Patribus Ecclesice accepta." Ad 
 Miltonum Respons. cap. ii. p. 209. Cf. Claude, Defense de la Re- 
 formation, 4 partie, ch. ii. p. 330 ; and J. Casaubon, Epist. ad Card. 
 Perron, Ep. cccxvi. p. 380.
 
 TERTULLIAN. 201 
 
 this holy and comforting doctrine of our faith, how 
 is it esteemed among us now? We have lived to 
 hear men grave men, at least by profession ; 
 learned men, if we may judge from their office 
 jest upon this Succession as a dream, or scoff at it 
 as a fiction of priestcraft. Alas ! it is an evil ser- 
 vice which such men are willing to perform, a 
 miserable bondage which they are content to en- 
 dure, while they serve a master who leaves them 
 only liberty enough to mock in his name, and bids 
 them speak against holy things, while he makes his 
 own sport of them behind their backs. But it is 
 time that we return to the evidence of Tertullian. 
 
 One more passage we will hear, in which the 
 truth is said by this primitive witness to be main- 
 tained and defended by " that regiment of bishops 
 which," as Hooker declares on his own and our 
 behalf, " we hold a thing most lawful, divine, and 
 holy in the Church of Christ." 1 
 
 " Come now" it is Tertullian who speaks 
 " you that wish to turn this restlessness to profit in 
 the search after salvation ; run over the Apostolic 
 Churches, in which the very chairs of the Apostles 
 still hold place of honour, in which the very let- 
 ters they wrote are recited, echoing the voice and 
 imaging the person of each of them. Is Achaia 
 nearest to you ? you have Corinth. If you are not 
 far from Macedonia, you have Philippi, you have 
 the Thessalonians. If you can reach Asia, you 
 
 1 E. P. book vii. vol. iii. p. 180.
 
 202 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 have Ephesus. But if you are in the neighbour- 
 hood of Italy, you have Rome. Let us see what 
 this Church has learned, what she has taught;" 1 
 and then he goes on to recite the articles of her 
 creed. This, then, I repeat, was the primitive way 
 of reasoning ; this the momentous efficacy of the 
 Apostolical Succession with the first servants of 
 Christ and immediate followers of His Apostles. 
 And we have no reason to suppose that what 
 was received as true in the second century may be 
 lawfully denied because it happened to be spoken 
 against in the sixteenth. 
 
 And here I shall close the evidence of Tertul- 
 lian ; not because it is exhausted, but because it 
 seems needless to add more. Why should we care 
 to know that this Father said, " The High-Priest, 
 who is the Bishop, possesses the right of conferring 
 Baptism, and after him the Presbyters and Dea- 
 cons; but not without the authority of the Bishop:"* 
 
 1 " Age jam qui voles curiositatem melius exercere in negotio 
 salutis tuae ; percurre ecclesias apostolicas, apud quas ipsse adhuc 
 cathedrae Apostolorum suis locis prsesident ; apud quas ipsae authen- 
 ticae literae eorum recitantur, sonantes vocem et reprsesentantes 
 faciem uniuscujusque. Proxima est tibi Achaia? habes Corinthum. 
 Si non longe es a Macedonia, habes Philippos, habes Thessaloni- 
 censes. Si potes in Asiam tendere, habes Ephesum. Si autem Italise 
 adjaces, habes Romam ; . . . . videainus quid didicerit, quid docu- 
 erit." Ibid. cap. xxxvi. The translation of Tertullian employed thus 
 far is that in the " Tracts for the Times," Records of the Church, 
 No. 18. 
 
 2 " Dandi quidem habet jus summus Sacerdos, qui est Episcopus, 
 dehinc Presbyteri et Diaconi ; non tamen sive Episcopi auctoritate, 
 propter ecclesise honorem ; quo salvo, salva pax est." De Baptismo, 
 cap. xvii. p. 26*3.
 
 APOSTOLICAL CANONS. 203 
 
 or that he told the heretic Marcion, who rejected 
 the Revelation of St. John, that his error was ex- 
 posed by the fact, that " if the order of Bishops 
 were traced to its origin, it will terminate in John 
 as its author?" 1 We have already advanced more 
 than sixty years, in the chain of witnesses, beyond 
 the period at which even the most unscrupulous of 
 the modern teachers confess the Bishop's supreme 
 authority to have been admitted all over the world. 
 We are no longer refuting them it is not neces- 
 sary; they are willing to perform that task for 
 themselves. For our own comfort, however, and 
 edification, a few additional witnesses may yet be 
 heard. 
 
 XI. And this, perhaps, will be the most appro- 
 priate place of reference to that ancient collection 
 of ecclesiastical rules, entitled the " Apostolical Ca- 
 nons." Like other monuments of primitive disci- 
 pline, they have been assailed by those whose novel 
 opinions could not bear the dangerous contrast 
 with antiquity. 2 It may, however, be enough to 
 say here, that while the judgment of Bellarmine 
 who assigned the composition of these canons to 
 
 1 " Habemus et Joannis alumnas ecclesias. Nam etsi Apoca- 
 lypsin ejus Marcion respuit, ordo tamen Episcoporum ad originem 
 recensus, in Joannem stabit auctorem." Adv. Marcionem, lib. iv. 
 cap. v. p. 605. 
 
 4 Blondel, in his usual bold off-hand way, refers them to about 
 the year 280 ; Apolog. pro Sentent. Hieron. \ 3. p. 157.
 
 204 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 Clement, or to the Apostles themselves has been 
 rejected even by writers of his own Church, 1 they 
 are almost universally admitted to have been re- 
 ceived in the second and third centuries, and to 
 represent truly the discipline of the Church in those 
 days. 2 
 
 The use, indeed, which I intend to make of 
 them in this place does not require any accurate 
 determination of their date. For if it can be 
 proved, which is all that I design in quoting them, 
 that their authority, or at least that of the rules 
 which they enunciate, was admitted and acted upon 
 
 1 Bellarmin. De Verbo Dei, lib. i. cap. xx. ; cited by Bp. Cosins, 
 History of the Canon of Scripture. Cf. Pet. De Marca, De Concord. 
 Sac. et Imp. lib. iii. cap. ii. torn. ii. p. 16. 
 
 2 Mosheim says, " They contain a view of Church-government 
 and discipline received among the Greek and Oriental Christians 
 in the second and third centuries." Ecc. Hist. vol. i. ch. ii. 19. 
 Jablonski, that " they faithfully represent the form, discipline, and 
 rites of the Primitive Church." Institut. Hist. Christian, secul. i. 
 cap. iv. 2. Cf. Pfaffii Histor. Ecclesiast. secul. i. cap. i. Beveridge 
 shews that they seem to have been admitted by St. Athanasius, Cod. 
 Canonum, lib. i. cap. iii. 2 ; but Dupin thinks there is an earlier 
 allusion to them in one of St. Cyprian's epistles ; see his 2d Disser- 
 tation, p. 99 ; to which may be added the saying of St. Basil, Epist. 
 cccxxi. torn. iii. p. 314. Albaspinaeus supposes them to have been 
 compiled by some of those " apostolic men" spoken of by Tertul- 
 lian, and then, in process of time, improperly referred to the Apos- 
 tles themselves ; Albaspinaei De Vet. Eccles. Bit. Observat. lib. i. 
 obs. 13. Van Espen shews that they were received by the early 
 Councils amongst the other authoritative canons of the Church ; 
 Juris Ecclesiast. Univ. torn. ii. ; De Can. Apost. pars iii. cap. iii. 
 Estius leaves their date uncertain ; Comment, lib. iv. p. 2. 26. 
 Walafridus Strabo refers them in general terms " primis tempori- 
 bus ;" De Rebus Ecclesiasticis, cap. xviii.
 
 APOSTOLICAL CANONS. 205 
 
 by various classes even of heretics from the very 
 earliest age so that some even attempted to in- 
 terpolate them, 1 in order to plead them in their 
 own behalf, it will not be a question of much 
 moment whether they were formally defined a few 
 years earlier or later. And that the first of these 
 famous canons, to which our attention will be con- 
 fined, was so esteemed, by the enemies as well as 
 the servants of the Church, is what I am now to 
 shew. 
 
 The words of the canon are these : " Let a Bi- 
 shop be ordained by two or three Bishops." 2 It will 
 be important, in the first place, to observe pre- 
 cisely what this canon decrees. Does it prescribe 
 that the office and order of Bishops shall be esta- 
 blished ? Far from it it resolves merely the mode 
 of appointment. It does not say, " Let there be 
 Bishops ;" it would have been as wise to say, " Let 
 there be sacraments," or " Let there be Scriptures :" 
 it only says, " Let Bishops be ordained after such 
 a form." It takes for granted the order, and en- 
 joins the fashion of its perpetuation. As if it should 
 be decreed now, " Let churches be built on such a 
 plan," or " Let the altar be constructed after such 
 
 1 Vide Pet. De Marca, ubi supra. 
 
 2 'ETrtcrKOTroy xiporov(i(rd(i> imo frrifTKoirtov 8vo r) rpiS>v. " Quare 
 prohibitum sit uni hoc facere, Innocentius Papa monstrat in Decre- 
 talibus, cap. ix. ; ne unus Episcopum ordinare praesumat, ne furtim 
 beneficium praestitum videatur." Pseudo-Alcuin. De Divinis Offi- 
 ciis, in cap. " qualiter episcopus ordinetur in Ecc. Rom." Pope 
 Gregory also assigns a reason for it ; vide Bedae Histor. Ecc. lib. i. 
 cap. xxvii. ; and Amalarii De Ecc. Off. lib. ii. cap. i.
 
 206 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 a model ;" the church and the altar being, in their 
 original appointment, divine. 1 
 
 At what period the ministration of three Bi- 
 shops was first required in order to the valid ordi- 
 nation of one of their own order, we are not able 
 certainly to determine. It has been suggested that 
 the consecration of St. James of Jerusalem, by St. 
 Peter, St. James, and St. John, is to be regarded 
 as the earliest instance. However this may be, the 
 custom referred to in the first Apostolical Canon 
 seems to have prevailed from the most remote an- 
 tiquity; and this, as I have said, beyond, as well 
 as within, the fold of the Church Catholic. And 
 it is not so much for the sake of proving this, im- 
 
 1 " Councils do all presuppose Bishops," says Hooker ; " nor can 
 there any Council be named so ancient, either general, or as much 
 as provincial, sithence the Apostles' own times, but we can shew that 
 Bishops had their authority before it and not from it." E. P. book 
 vii. vol. iii. p. 191. Which fact has of course supplied Catholics with 
 the irresistible argument, that " if Bishops had been superior to 
 Presbyters by human right only, some period would have been 
 assignable, later than the Apostolic age, in which the new institution 
 was established." Bellarmin. De Clericis, lib. i. cap. xiv. How 
 very different in this respect is the modern claim of the Bishop of 
 Rome. In all the voluminous writings of the first three centuries 
 there is not found a single argument in favour of Episcopacy ; its 
 origin is everywhere silently assumed. And when, at length, Epi- 
 phanius and Augustine speak of the new heresy of ' presbyterianism,' 
 as introduced by Aerius, accustomed as they were to deal with the 
 manifold forms of error, they content themselves with barely noticing 
 this, as being too extravagant and absurd to need refutation. But 
 when the papal supremacy began to be urged, how carefully and 
 elaborately is it defended, how ostentatiously put forth e.g. even 
 by so good a man as Leo the Great as if men could not venture 
 to leave it to itself, but were conscious that it stood upon another 
 foundation than Episcopacy.
 
 APOSTOLICAL CANONS. 207 
 
 portant as the fact is, that the following evidence 
 is now offered, as with the view of establishing a 
 far wider and more extensive proposition, which is 
 based upon it. That proposition is this : that even 
 if the testimony of catholic antiquity upon the sub- 
 ject of these pages were supposed to be withdrawn, 
 there would still be reserved to us an host of com- 
 petent and independent witnesses ; and those wit- 
 nesses would be the turbulent and implacable ene- 
 mies of the primitive Church, who, while they spent 
 their lives in blaspheming her doctrines, were so 
 far from venturing to impugn her discipline, that 
 they confessed almost without exception either 
 by their silence, as in the case of the heathen, or 
 by openly imitating and adopting it, as in that of 
 the heretical sects that it was that very disci- 
 pline which was framed by the Apostles at the first 
 foundation of the Church. This, then, using the 
 Apostolical Canons only as a suitable text, I shall 
 now attempt to prove. And with a view to such a 
 measure of clearness as may be consistent with our 
 narrow limits, these new witnesses shall be spoken 
 of under four classes, including all the most bitter 
 and watchful enemies of the Church the Hea- 
 then, the Jew, the Apostate, and the Heretic. I 
 am to shew that the first Apostolical Canon was 
 tacitly acknowledged even by these. 
 
 That the two first were accustomed to scrutinise 
 with jealousy the ecclesiastical movements of the 
 early Christians, it is scarcely necessary to prove. So
 
 208 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 much might, perhaps, have been taken for granted ; 
 and at all events is sufficiently certain from the 
 " Acts of the Apostles," the " Apologies" of the most 
 primitive Fathers, the rescripts of heathen Empe- 
 rors, and the writings of historians, both pagan and 
 Christian. I will cite only two authors in evidence. 
 
 The first is St. Justin Martyr; who, anxious, 
 as it seems, to justify " the sect of the Nazarenes" 
 to a keen-eyed bystander of the Jews, is solicitous 
 to inform him "that there were some who went 
 indeed by the name of Christians, but who, in 
 truth, were profane and impious sectaries;" 1 in 
 which remarkable saying the motive of the Saint is 
 too obvious to need comment. 
 
 In another place he thinks it necessary to apolo- 
 gise to the heathen for the same unworthy heretics, 
 with a particular reference to the followers of Mar- 
 cion, 2 who, of course, were only known to them as 
 professing Christians. Why take any pains about 
 the matter at all, unless the heathen watched them ? 3 
 
 1 .... \eyofjifvovs pev 'X.picmavovs, ovras 8e aQtovs Kal dcre/3eis 
 atpeo-ia>Tas. Dial, cum Tryphone Judceo, Opp. p. 306. 
 
 2 Apol. ii. p. 70. 
 
 3 The following extract from the historian shews that they not 
 only watched them, but that their scrutiny even led to the adoption 
 of portions of their ecclesiastical system. " The Emperor (Maximin) 
 was devoted to the worship of the gods, to the study of magic, and 
 to the belief of oracles. The prophets or philosophers, whom he 
 revered as the favourites of heaven, were frequently raised to the 
 government of provinces, and admitted into his most secret councils. 
 They easily convinced him that the Christians had been indebted for 
 their victories to their regular discipline, and that the weakness of 
 polytheism had principally flowed from a want of union and sub- 
 ordination among the ministers of religion. A system of govern-
 
 APOSTOLICAL CANONS. 209 
 
 Not less explicit is the testimony of St. Atha- 
 nasius, who, speaking of Arian violence and simony, 
 complains that it not only " violated the ecclesias- 
 tical canons, but compelled the heathen to blas- 
 pheme, and to suspect that their appointments were 
 regulated, not by the divine law, but by purchase 
 and patronage ;' 51 which is so much to the point, 
 as to render further citations superfluous. This, 
 then, proves the scrutiny, a scrutiny, let it be ob- 
 served, which embraced the discipline of the Chris- 
 tians, and their observance of the canon law. 
 
 Next, as to the sort of arguments used both by 
 Jews and heathen : with these also we are not un- 
 
 ment was therefore instituted, which was evidently copied from the 
 policy of the Church. In all the great cities of the empire the 
 temples were repaired and beautified by the order of Maximin ; and 
 the officiating priests of the various deities were subjected to the 
 authority of a superior pontiff, destined to oppose the Bishop, and to 
 promote the cause of paganism. These pontiffs acknowledged, in 
 their turn, the supreme jurisdiction of the metropolitans or high- 
 priests of the province, who acted as the immediate vicegerents of 
 the emperor himself. A white robe was the ensign of their dignity ; 
 and these new prelates were carefully selected from the most noble 
 and opulent families." Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. xvi. vol. i. 
 p. 681. 
 
 1 TOUTO yap TOVS ptv (KK\T)(ria<mKovs Kavovas TrapaAvoret' ra fie edm? 
 f3\a(r(pT)p.(lv dvayKafct, Kai vrrovotlv on pr) /caret Qtiov dtcrfwv, dXX' e 
 tp.7Topias KOI irpoaracrias at KaracrTaa-fis yiyvovrcu. Ad Orthodoxos 
 Epist. torn. i. p. 945. We could hardly doubt, indeed, that they 
 would be acute observers, who were so skilful, or at least so zealous, 
 in defending themselves and their own errors. Vide Zosimi Histor. 
 Nov. lib. iv. 59, pp. 495, 6. ed. Jenae, 1729 : where the senate is 
 described as rejecting the arguments of Theodosius, and complaining 
 of the decay of their own worship, owing to the spread of Chris- 
 tianity ; and again, 33, the false and angry account which he gives 
 of Theodosius.
 
 210 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 acquainted. The Epistles of St. Paul contain re- 
 plies to the first ; and the elaborate apologies of 
 Tertullian, Origen, Minucius Felix, Lactantius, and 
 others, have preserved specimens of the last. From 
 these we learn that the reasonings of these men 
 were usually subtle, and directed which it is very 
 important to notice against details as well as 
 against the System as a whole. Every objection 
 which wilful misapprehension, malignant cunning, 
 and implacable hatred, could suggest, appears to 
 have been freely used. 1 They were unscrupulous, 
 for truth was not their object ; restlessly eager to 
 detect errors, for these would prove their own de- 
 fence ; and no way impeded in finding them, for 
 they had abundant opportunity. Yet these skilful, 
 unwearied, and unrelenting enemies were never 
 able to detect, what is asserted by certain moderns, 
 that the whole Christian sect had, in the grand mat- 
 ter of discipline and government, departed from the 
 laws of their Founder and first teachers! In all 
 their writings which remain, and in all the diffuse 
 replies of the great Christian advocates, there is 
 not so much as a hint, not one transient allusion, 
 to a change so vast in its character, and so palpa- 
 ble to all beholders. I do not know upon what 
 
 1 And when they could do nothing else, nor make any impression 
 upon the united and immovable phalanx of the Christian host, they 
 cried out in fury using words which modern sectaries have uncon- 
 sciously borrowed " Eruenda haec et execranda consensio!" Minu- 
 cius Felix, cap. ix. p. 90. ed. Gronov.
 
 APOSTOLICAL CANONS. 
 
 principles of evidence it can be denied, that this 
 fact is conclusive against the possibility of its oc- 
 currence. 
 
 But the argument is by no means exhausted. 
 Neither Jew nor heathen, we see, witnesses against 
 us : let us try next the case of the Apostate. Here 
 was one who had been trained, so to speak, in the 
 very camp of the Christians, knew all their whole 
 system, offensive and defensive, and had been fa- 
 miliar from infancy with every weapon of their 
 armory. Here was a fatal witness indeed against 
 any secret wrong, any politic invention, if only he 
 had been minded to reveal it. And that he was 
 so, and zealous to make his own advantage of it, is 
 not difficult to prove. 
 
 The Emperor Julian, so infamously notorious 
 as the apostate, was one of the most crafty and 
 deadly enemies of the Holy Church in any age of 
 her history. Both his will and his power to do 
 her injury were many ways manifested during his 
 guilty career. And, as if to lift him to a higher 
 eminence above his fellows in wickedness, it was 
 by him that the monstrous scheme was first de- 
 vised, which, by blending together all shades of 
 belief, and crushing into one shapeless mass every 
 conflicting sect of believers, was intended to pave 
 the way for the ruin of Christianity, and the re- 
 building the tottering edifice of Paganism. To 
 all the common arts of the enemy, which he 
 freely used, Julian added this master-stroke of
 
 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 fiendish ingenuity ; ' yet even this man will witness 
 for us. 
 
 " Ye have been so ill fated," said he tauntingly 
 to our forefathers, " as not even to have continued 
 in the precepts delivered to you by the Apostles ;" 2 
 and then he goes on, in words too shocking to be 
 repeated, to malign the orthodox faith in the Son 
 of God. " Ye have not kept the Apostles' doc- 
 trine," said this man to the Christians ; it was the 
 saying of a blasphemer, but it becomes in the issue 
 only a testimony against later enemies of the same 
 everlasting Church. For consider : if this Julian 
 could charge them with having swerved from the 
 
 1 After stating that Julian caused the heathen temples to be re- 
 opened, and the heathen worship renewed, the historian proceeds 
 thus : " Utque dispositionum roboraret effectum, dissidentes Chris- 
 tianorum Antistites cum plebe discissa in palatium intromissos mone- 
 bat, ut civilibus discordiis consopitis quisque, nullo vetante, religioni 
 su8B serviret intrepidus. Quod agebat ideo obstinate, ut dissensiones 
 augente licentia, non timeret unanimantem posted plebem." Ammian. 
 Marcellin. lib. xxii. cap. v. p. 301. ed. Valesii. Valesius refers, in 
 his note on the passage, to the saying of St. Austin on this policy of 
 Julian : " Eo modo putans Christianum nomen posse perire de terris, 
 si unitati Ecclesise, de qua lapsus fuerat, invideret, et sacrilegas 
 dissensiones liberas esse permitteret." Epist. clxvi. And yet this 
 scheme of universal toleration, thus plotted by the apostate for the 
 overthrow of Christianity, is regarded by some amongst ourselves as 
 the very perfection of Christian liberality. 
 
 9 Ovro) tie tcrre Sutrrv^eis 1 , Sxrre ov8f rois vno TO>V aTrooToXeov v^-'iv 
 jrapa8e8ofjivois ffj.fiffj,evr)KaTf. Vide Cyril. Alex. Contra Julianum, lib. 
 x. torn. vi. p. 327. Observe, too, that even this man could appeal 
 to the Scriptures,, and to the Apostles themselves ; and could say, 
 rov y lr)(Tovv ovrf Uav\os eYoA/irjerej/ flntlv Geoi/, ovre Mar&uos, ovre 
 A.OVKUS, ovrf MdpKos. " Christum confitetur," says Hilary, " ut ne- 
 get ; unitatem procured, nepax sit ; haereses comprimit, ne Christiani 
 sint ; sacerdotes honorat, ne Episcopi sint ; Ecclesiae tecta struit, ut 
 h'dem destruat." Contra Constantium Augustum, p. 324.
 
 APOSTOLICAL CANONS. 213 
 
 Apostles' doctrine, did he not know, who had been 
 baptised and dwelt among them, that they had de- 
 parted also from the Apostles' discipline? and was 
 he so forbearing as not to taunt them with this 
 also ? If he had known of any such change, how 
 would he not have rung it in their ears with bitter 
 and malicious scoffing ; and if he, that subtle and 
 cruel enemy, had never heard of it, where did our 
 moderns discover it ? If this apostate had no sus- 
 picion of any purer and ancienter discipline from 
 which Christians had fallen away, where do these 
 find any trace of it ? Perhaps it is too much to 
 expect that they should ever answer this question. 
 
 We have still another class of witnesses, differ- 
 ing from the above in this respect, that whereas 
 their testimony was negative only, that now to be 
 produced is both positive and negative. It is the 
 "motley troop" of heretics who are to furnish their 
 unwilling testimony ; alike in this at least, that 
 they are all compelled, by a law which they cannot 
 resist, to pay homage to the Church against which 
 they vainly rebel. 1 We must, however, be brief in 
 our enumeration of them. 
 
 We find, then, that all the larger sects the 
 Manicha?ans, Macedonians, Arians, and Donatists 
 as well as many others of less note and scantier 
 numbers, were so far from pretending to alter the 
 external form of the Church, that they all lived 
 
 1 " Uterque hostis Ecclesiae res Ecclesite agit." S. Hilar. Pictav. 
 De Trinitate, lib. vii. p. 134.
 
 214 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 under the rule of pseudo-bishops. Profane as these 
 separatists were, they still affected to have their 
 Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. 1 And why, but 
 that those sacred orders were then counted in all 
 the world as a part of Christianity ; so that while 
 they were able to deceive some by a novel doc- 
 trine, they would have gained only derision if they 
 had invited their allegiance to a new constitution ? 
 The discipline appointed by Apostles was infallibly 
 known to all men ; it was before their eyes; a they 
 or their fathers had lived with Apostles, and knew 
 too well what orders Christ had appointed in His 
 Church for any new scheme to have even a chance 
 of success. To innovate in such a matter was then 
 impossible. The very heretics themselves dreamed 
 not of such unprofitable folly ; not because of the 
 sin they cared little for that but because they 
 would have gained nothing by it : a ' presbyterian' 
 or an ' independent' in those days would have been 
 taken either for a heathen or a jester ; and his jest 
 would have been pointless, as being altogether too 
 clumsy and extravagant. And so the heretics, as 
 
 1 See the eloquent description of their inconstant ordinations in 
 Tertullian, De Prescript. Hceret. cap. xli. X$ey i(p6o~v\oi, says 
 Nazianzen, in his account of their doings, KOI trfip.epov lepels' x@* s " 
 ay'uav f, Kal fj-vcrraytayol o-fjfJLfpov' TraXatoi rr/v Kaniav, Kal er^eStoi rf/v 
 fvcrtpfiav. Orat. xxi. p. 378. 
 
 2 For the primitive doctors taught, as Cassiodorus says, " non 
 tarn suis linguis, quam vestris potius oculis." Institut. Divin. Lec- 
 tion. Prsefat. ; and that saying of Jerome can hardly be disputed, 
 " Multo plus intelligitur, quod oculis videtur, quam quod aure per- 
 cipitur." Epist. ad Fabiolam, torn. vi. p. 366.
 
 APOSTOLICAL CANONS. 215 
 
 we shall see yet further, were as careful to obey 
 the first apostolical canon " a bishop shall be or- 
 dained by two or three bishops," as the Catholics 
 themselves. And thus even these men, aliens and 
 outcasts as they were, become witnesses against 
 the error of our own deceived brethren. A few 
 particular instances shall be added by way of ex- 
 emplification ; and first, of the Arians. 
 
 That they retained the three orders, and made 
 much of the Episcopal Succession, is well known ; 
 and it can only be supposed that they appropriated 
 these portions of the Catholic system, because it 
 never entered their heads to question them, or be- 
 cause it would have been hopeless to do so. What 
 other account of the matter can we give ? Their 
 animus was shewn plainly enough ; especially when 
 they came, as they did in progress of time, to charge 
 the Nicene Fathers with having changed the faith ; * 
 yet not a hint of their having changed the disci- 
 pline of the Church. What an advantage to their 
 cause, if they could have invited the people to 
 return to a more primitive form ! what a weapon 
 against their enemies the Catholics ! And yet 
 these misbelievers, who would have turned the 
 earth upside down if they might have overwhelmed 
 the Church in its ruins, never hit upon this obvi- 
 
 1 Vide S. Athanas. Ad Africanos Episcopos, Epist. torn. i. p. 937; 
 and his description of Arian tyranny, Ad solit. vitam agentes, p. 855. 
 On the co-operation of the Jews with the Arians and other heretics 
 in their warfare against the Church, vide Filesaci Opp. Select, torn. i. 
 p. 189; and Basnage, Histoire de VEylisc, livre xiii. chap. ii.
 
 216 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 ous idea of an elder and purer that is, an Apos- 
 tolical discipline. 
 
 Nor is this all. It would have been a strong 
 fact if they had only tacitly adopted the Church- 
 polity ; but they did more ; they even contended, 
 after their evil fashion, for its integrity. It was a 
 favourite complaint of theirs against the Catholic 
 party, that these had broken the ecclesiastical 
 canons. Thus Philostorgius, himself a member of 
 the Eunomian sect of Arians, using the popular 
 calumny against the great Athanasius, says, that 
 he was "unlawfully" 1 consecrated Bishop. What 
 did it matter that his ordination was uncanonical, 
 unless Philostorgius, who asserted it, judged the 
 canons to be binding ? On the other hand, Atha- 
 nasius himself, replying to the charge, 2 boldly and 
 earnestly retorts it upon his adversaries, and ex- 
 claims, " Not such as these were the appointments 
 of St. Paul ; it was not these which the Fathers 
 delivered to us ; this indeed is a new form, and this 
 a novel institution." 3 Here were two great parties 
 
 1 Philostorg. Hist. Eccles. lib. ii. cap. ii. 
 
 2 Ad Imperat. Constant, Apol. torn. i. p. 726. 
 
 3 Oi>x ovrtas al Hav\ov 8iard(is, oi>x ovrus ol Ttarepes 7rapa8f8a>Ka- 
 <riv, oXXos TVTTOS tcrriv euros, Kal Kaivbv TO e7rrrij8eti/ia. Ibid. p. 753. 
 Cf. p. 693 ; and Ad solit. vitam agentes, pp. 817, 844, 852. As an 
 illustration of the animus of the Arian party, which is obviously of 
 some importance in this argument, see the story told by Theodoret, 
 Ecclesiast. Histor. lib. ii. cap. xii. p. 86. The Arians had desired 
 the Emperor to set apart a church for those in Alexandria who did 
 not communicate with Athanasius. Athanasius proposed in return, 
 that, by the same rule, the persecuted Catholics at Antioch, where 
 the Arians prevailed most, should be allowed a church for their
 
 APOSTOLICAL CANONS. 217 
 
 vehemently debating this very question of eccle- 
 siastical discipline, and each professing to be jealous 
 for its due observance. What shameless and in- 
 credible trifling, if they had known that, after all, 
 that discipline was itself only a corruption of the 
 primitive government.' And if neither the one 
 nor the other, neither the Church nor her enemies, 
 had ever conceived such an idea, how comes it 
 now, in the end of the world, to find acceptance ? 
 
 The same unconscious testimony to the origin 
 of the threefold Ministry of the Church is yielded, 
 in a very remarkable way, by the Manichseans, 
 Macedonians, 1 Luciferians, Montanists, and other 
 heretics ; but most conspicuously and decisively 
 
 use. Tbe Arians thereupon requested that neither petition should be 
 granted ; preferring to lose their own suit at Alexandria, rather than 
 that the orthodox should gain theirs at Antioch. On the state of the 
 Church at this latter place, vide S. Basil. Epist, ad Athanasium, 
 torn. iii. p. 76. 
 
 1 For the Macedonians, vide Socratis Hist. Ecclesiast. lib. iii. 
 cap. x. p. 182. The testimony of the Manichaeans to the primitive 
 discipline is most convincingly, though tacitly, set forth in the con- 
 ference between Archelaus, Bishop of Mesopotamia, and the heresi- 
 arch Manes, in the year 278. " Appellati sumus ex Salvatoris de- 
 siderio Christiani," says Archelaus, " sicut universus orbis terrarum 
 testimonium perhibet, atque Apostoli edocent ; sed et optimus archi- 
 tectus ejus, fundamentum nostrum, id est Ecclesise, Paulus posuit, et 
 legem tradidit, ordinatis Ministris, et Presbyteris, et Episcopis in ea; 
 describens per loca singula quomodo et qualiter oporteat Ministros 
 Dei, quales et qualiter fieri Presbyteros, qualesque esse debeant qui 
 Episcopatum desiderant ; quae omnia bene nobis et recte disposita, 
 usque in hodiernum statum suum custodiunt, et permanet apud nos 
 regula disciplinse." Archelai et Manetis Disput., ap. Reliq. Sacr. 
 torn. iv. p. 266. It is impossible to exaggerate the value and im- 
 portance of this interesting passage, which Dr. llouth calls " locus 
 notandus de Hierarchisc Ecclesisp. ordine ab Apostolis institute."
 
 218 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 by those early sects whose objections against the 
 Church were taken on the modern puritan ground : 
 even these never thought of amending the Church 
 discipline, but only how they might best imitate 
 it. 1 The Donatists, the largest and most powerful 
 sect of ancient ' puritans/ and whose enmity 
 against Catholics was of the same violent character 2 
 as that which has marked their disciples in later 
 times, are a curious instance indeed in this point ; 
 and it would seem, from some observations of 
 Optatus, who wrote against them, that they even 
 paid some peculiar reverence to their bishops, 
 " swearing by them" and exalting their persons in 
 an unseemly manner. 3 The ' puritan ' followers of 
 Audius, who left the Church in disgust at some 
 
 1 And as some of them imitated the whole external system, so 
 did others affect to copy even the ritual observances. Thus Mr. 
 Beaven notices, that they " imitated the form of invocation in the 
 Holy Communion ;" quoting St. Irenaeus, who refers to the Gnos- 
 tic Marcus, eKreivaiv rbv Xo-yov TTJS eVi/cAiyo-ews. Account of St. Irenaeus, 
 p. 200. 
 
 2 Augustine says that " the ravages of the barbarians were milder 
 than the outrages of the Donatist Clergy." Epist. cxxii. Ad Vic- 
 torianum, torn. ii. p. 240. And the description of their doings so 
 like are these men in all ages might serve very often for a history 
 of the presbyterians and others of our own country in the days of 
 the commonwealth. " Ut omnia sacrosancta vestri Episcopi viola- 
 rent," says Optatus, " jussi sunt Eucharistiam canibus fundi .... 
 Ampullam quoque chrismatis per fenestram, ut frangerent, jactave- 
 runt." Adv. Parmenian. lib. ii. p. 55. ed. Albaspinsei. 
 
 3 Adv. Pai-menian. lib. ii. p. 58 and p. 56. He notices that they 
 petitioned Julian for favour and countenance, and adds, as well he 
 might, " Rubescite, si ullus est pudor." St. Austin, too, notices 
 how they complimented the Apostate, and consented to receive their 
 churches from him. Contra Lit. Petiliani, lib. ii. cap. xcii. torn. vii. 
 p. 117.
 
 APOSTOLICAL CANONS. 
 
 errors of conduct and discipline, perpetuated their 
 schism by appointing bishops. 1 The followers of 
 Theodotus (Coriarius) excommunicated by Pope 
 Victor, " persuaded one Anatolius to become their 
 bishop." 2 The fanatical disciples of one Quintilla, 
 a sect of women, in order that they might annihilate 
 the distinction of the sexes, ug pyfrlv btatptgaot, 
 " elected bishops, presbyters, and the other orders 
 of the clergy ! saying, that ' in Christ Jesus there 
 is neither male nor female.' " 3 And lastly, for we 
 must hasten to a conclusion, the Novatians, who, 
 if any, might have been expected to have chosen 
 new ways for themselves, still adhered to the same 
 form of Church-polity, and that under circumstances 
 so extraordinary as to require a separate notice. 
 
 Novatian, the founder of this sect, had begun 
 by opposing himself to the teaching of the Church 
 on a question of penitential discipline ; taking 
 umbrage, as is usual with such persons, at the 
 merciful gentleness which was shewn to those who 
 had lapsed under persecution. This was only his 
 first step in disobedience, and at length he went so 
 far as to set himself up as a rival to Cornelius, the 
 then lawful bishop of Rome. The next act of this 
 haughty ' puritan ' is a very curious chapter in the 
 history of spiritual pride. Procuring, from a re- 
 mote part of the country, three bishops, who are 
 
 1 Vide S. Epiphan. Hceres. Ixx. torn. i. p. 827. 
 
 2 Vide Timothei Constantinop. De Theodoto Coriario, ap. J. 
 Meursii Vir. Div. Lib. Opp. torn. viii. p. 733. 
 
 3 S. Epiphan. Hceres. xlix. pp. 418, 19.
 
 220 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 described as very simple men av6guKov<; 
 K(U ow'kovGruTovi; and causing them to be intoxi- 
 cated, he compelled them by force to impose their 
 hands upon him, in order to his consecration as a 
 bishop. 1 Now, without dwelling tediously upon 
 this revolting story, let us ask only, what are we 
 to conclude from it? What but that Novatian 
 took all this trouble to obtain canonical ordination 
 from three bishops, because he had no hope of 
 procuring followers without it ? and again, that the 
 modern theory of lay, or ' presbyterian,' ordination 
 for the revival of which, supposing it to have 
 slumbered, that had been so favourable a crisis 
 had not even entered his thoughts! Surely this 
 one act of an adversary of the Church in that early 
 age is enough to condemn all the inventions of her 
 new enemies in this. 2 
 
 And here I shall close this branch of evidence ; 
 
 1 Euseb. H. E. vi. 43. " This champion of the Gospel did not 
 know," said Cornelius, " that there ought to be one Bishop in the 
 Catholic Church." Epist. ad Fabian. ; and yet at this time there 
 were in the single church of Rome 46 presbyters, 7 deacons, as 
 many subdeacons, 42 acolytes, exorcists, readers, widows, and, lastly, 
 more than 1500 poor. On the size and extent of the primitive dio- 
 ceses, which heretical ingenuity has laboured to misrepresent, it is 
 enough to refer to Maurice's Defence of Diocesan Episcopacy ; in 
 which this subject is considered in such a satisfactory and conclusive 
 manner as to leave no room for further controversy. 
 
 2 And proofs of the same character abound in the early annals of 
 schism. I will add only another. One Sabbatius appears to have 
 made a new sect in the Novatian camp, affecting to be indignant 
 that unworthy persons should still be admitted to communion. His 
 friends, shrewdly suspecting his object, and resolved, perhaps, that 
 he should not get before them, make him swear that he will never
 
 ST. CYPRIAN. 221 
 
 from which it appears, that, so far as respects the 
 subject of these pages, the practice of those who 
 " went out " from the Church is an undesigned 
 confirmation of her own holy teaching. If I could 
 have thought of any severer tests by which to assay 
 that teaching, I would have applied them. 
 
 XII. There still remain to be heard not a few 
 of the most distinguished doctors of catholic anti- 
 quity. Of these, the first in order of time is one 
 who has been styled " the light of all the saints, 
 bishops, and martyrs, the most blessed CYPRIAN." L 
 
 become a bishop ; he does so, and afterwards breaks his oath, and 
 becomes the founder of a new sect. Yet this acute " reformer," 
 whose very boast it was to revert to a purer discipline, had never 
 heard of the presbyterian scheme ! Vide Socratis Hist. Ecclesiast. 
 lib. v. cap. xxi. p. 281. Vide also Muratori, Antiq. Med. JEvi, 
 Dissert. Ix. cap. xvi. torn. v. p. 139; and, for later instances, J. Can- 
 tacuzeni Histor. lib. iv. cap. v. torn. iii. p. 759. ed. Gretser. 
 
 1 " Quis ille tarn demens est, qui illud sanctorum omnium, et 
 episcoporum, et martyrum lumen, beatissimum Cyprianum, cum 
 caeteris collegis suis, in seternum dubitet regnaturum esse cum 
 Christo?" Vincent Lerins. Commonitor. cap. vi. "Quid? parva 
 nobis de apostolicis viris, parva primis sacerdotibus, parva de bea- 
 tissimo Cypriano martyre atque doctore currit auctoritas? An vo- 
 lumus docere doctorem?" Pacian. Epist. i. Ad Sympronianum. 
 And it is thus that they all speak of him. " He was one," says 
 Augustine, "cujus laudem consequi non valeo, cujus multis literis 
 scripta mea non comparo, cujus ingenium diligo, cujus ore dilector, 
 cujus caritatem miror, cujus martyrium veneror." Contra Cres- 
 conium, lib. ii. cap. xxxii. Even heretics used to quote his writings 
 " tanquam firmamenta canonical auctoritatis." Aug. ubi supra, torn, 
 vii. p. 177. St. Jerome, giving instructions to a certain person as 
 to what might profitably be read, and having said, " let all apo- 
 cryphal books be eschewed," presently adds, " let the works of 
 Cyrian be ever in your hand." Ad Lcetam, Epist. vii. torn. i. p. 19. 
 ClfPrudent. irtpl <rrt(f)dv<t>v, Hymn. xiii. p. 298.
 
 222 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 Born about the close of the second century, St. 
 Cyprian was consecrated Bishop of Carthage A.D. 
 248, and martyred A.D. 258. His lot was cast in 
 troublous times, when to be a Christian was not 
 so safe and easy as now. In his day they who 
 believed in the Cross bore it too ; and men not 
 only trusted in its strength, as we profess to do, 
 but felt its weight. And this gives force to their 
 testimony. They were something more than mere 
 talkers ; and when we hearken to their words, we 
 feel that we are in very truth listening to men to 
 whom it was given in their day to be the Lord's 
 chosen witnesses. 
 
 It cannot be, then, but that we hear this illus- 
 trious martyr with respect, as one " highly favoured" 
 of God ; with affection, as hoping one day to see 
 him face to face ; with something of awe, consider- 
 ing his present lot ; and with serious hearts, lest he 
 should be found to repudiate that fellowship which 
 we would fain enjoy with him and all saints. If to 
 reject the witness of one whom God has appointed 
 to speak in His Name be in any case perilous, it is 
 hardly possible to exaggerate the danger of reject- 
 ing it in this. 
 
 We may begin by referring to his letter of con- 
 gratulation written to some who had witnessed for 
 the Name of Christ in a recent persecution. He 
 rejoices in contemplating the probable effect of 
 their fortitude upon his whole flock, but claims for 
 himself a peculiar interest in it. " For while," he
 
 ST. CYPRIAN. 
 
 says, " it is meet that the whole brotherhood exult 
 in this, yet greater is the Bishops share in the 
 common joy. For the glory of a Church is the 
 glory of him who rules it." 1 
 
 During the persecution here alluded to some 
 had fallen away, and by their weakness in the 
 time of trial had earned the title of " the Lapsed." 
 Their offence was scarcely accomplished when they 
 sought to wipe it out by repentance, and a return 
 to the Church which they had dishonoured. This 
 return was permitted only upon certain conditions ; 
 and without exacting these, and even before the 
 persecution was over, moreover, without any 
 sanction from the Bishop, some of the presby- 
 ters of the Church in Carthage had disobediently 
 and presumptuously admitted these lapsed persons 
 to communion. Their absent Bishop, zealous for 
 the true peace and welfare of these penitents, and 
 indignant at the "rash and impetuous conduct" 
 which was soon developed into open schism, wrote 
 as follows to his clergy at Carthage : " I have long 
 refrained myself, but it becomes me no longer to 
 keep silence. For what danger have we not cause 
 to apprehend from the anger of the Lord, when 
 certain presbyters, unmindful both of the Gospel and 
 of their own station, regarding neither the future 
 
 1 " Nam cum gaudere in hoc omnes fratres oporteat, turn in 
 gaudio communi major est Episcopi portio. Ecclesia? enim gloria 
 Prsepositi gloria est." Epist. vi. Ad Rogatianum, p. 11. ed. Baluzii. 
 Paris. 1726.
 
 224 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 judgment of the Lord nor the Bishop now set over 
 them, have ventured, in disdain of their Ruler, and 
 with a boldness never attempted under any of our pre- 
 decessors, to assume to themselves unlimited power T' 1 
 The holy Martyr adds, that to have admitted the 
 lapsed to communion "without due penance per- 
 formed, confession made, and the customary im- 
 position of hands by the Bishop and clergy," was 
 to put them in the condition of those who were 
 "guilty of the Lord's Body and Blood." 2 His re- 
 monstrance, therefore, was in the true spirit of 
 divine charity ; and it is important to notice this, 
 lest we should think he was merely vindicating the 
 dignity of his own office. 3 He then postpones his 
 final decision "till the Lord should bring him to 
 them again ;" and concludes thus : " Meanwhile, 
 should certain rash, impetuous, and self-confident 
 persons among you, who regard not man nor fear 
 
 1 " Diu patientiam meam tenui, .... sed tacere ultra non 
 oportet. Quod enira non periculum metuere debemus de offensa 
 Domini, quando aliqui de presbyteris, nee evangelii nee loci sui 
 memores, sed neque futurum Domini judicium neque nunc sibi prae- 
 positum episcopum cogitantes, quod nunquam omnino sub anteces- 
 soribus factum est, cum contumelia et contemptu praepositi totum 
 sibi vindicent 1" JEpist. ix. Ad Clerum, p. 18. 
 
 8 Ibid. pp. 18, 19. 
 
 3 Which the whole tone of this very letter sufficiently contradicts. 
 We find him too elsewhere even pleading for those who had fallen, 
 and defending their claim to absolution. Epist. lii. Ad Antonianum ; 
 where observe the gentle and charitable distinction which he draws 
 between the libellatici and the sacrificati, p. 70 ; and again the tone 
 of meekness and moderation in the Epist. ad Cornelium, pp. 87, 88. 
 But it cannot be necessary to enlarge upon that which has been 
 noticed as his peculiar and eminent grace.
 
 ST. CYPRIAN. 
 
 God, knowingly persevere yet further in the same 
 conduct, / shall resort to those admonitions which 
 the Lord commands me to employ? * 
 
 The divine authority of the Bishop is here so 
 energetically asserted, that what is yet to follow 
 will appear superfluous. Using the same tone in 
 his next letter, " to the Confessors," he speaks of 
 these presumptuous presbyters as men " who have 
 no respect either to the fear of God or the honour 
 of the Bishop ;"* and again, writing "to the people," 
 he condemns the same persons as " neither mindful 
 of the Gospel, nor conceding to the Bishop the honour 
 of his priesthood and chair" 3 
 
 Let us see next whether this assumption of 
 authority was recognised by others. " Although," 
 says Caldonius, writing to St. Cyprian, " they (the 
 lapsed) have in a body sued for peace, professing, 
 We have recovered the faith which we had lost, by 
 the performance of penance and public confession 
 of Christ ; although they seem to me to merit the 
 gift of peace, nevertheless I have remitted them to 
 your judgment, lest I should seem rashly to presume 
 
 1 " Interim teraerarii et incauti et tumidi quidam inter vos, qui 
 hominem non cogitant, vel Deura timeant, scientes quoniam si ultra 
 in iisdem perseveraverint, utar ea admonitione qua me uti Dominus 
 jubet." p. 19. With which compare his calm but uncompromising 
 severity at a later stage of the same miserable proceedings ; Epist. 
 Iv. Ad Cornelium, p. 89 ; and see 2 Cor. x. 8. 
 
 2 " Qui nee timorem Dei, nee Episcopi honorem cogitantes," &c. 
 Epist. x. p. 20. 
 
 3 " Nee evangelii memores, nee Episcopo honorem sacerdotii sui 
 et cathedrae reservantes." Epist. xi. Ad Plcbem, p. 21.
 
 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 in ought" 1 And again, the "Confessors" of his 
 flock they who had nobly despised danger in 
 their Lord's Name after thanking him most lov- 
 ingly for the letters which they had received from 
 him, as " their chiefest solace" during their afflic- 
 tions, and praying "that the Lord would render 
 to him the due reward of his charity," and profess- 
 ing that all their own zeal was to be attributed 
 " to his teaching and exhortation," proceed to ex- 
 press, in the most fervent and touching language, 
 their grateful acknowledgments to God, who had 
 given to them " so illustrious a Bishop." 2 " We 
 desire," so they conclude, " most blessed and most 
 honoured father (or pope), that thou mayest ever 
 fare well in the Lord and be mindful of us." 3 It is 
 
 1 " Cum ergo universi pacem peterent, dicentes, Recuperavimus 
 fidem quam amiseramus, poenitentiam agentes, et Christum publice 
 sumus confessi ; quamvis mihi videantur debere pacem accipere, 
 tamen ad consilium vestrum eos dimisi, ne videar aliquid temere 
 prsesumere." Epist. xviii. p. 27. This deferential submission to 
 the bishop's authority, in this case offered by a suffragan to his me- 
 tropolitan, is thus recognised as a duty by two of the most distin- 
 guished presbyters of the Church Catholic. St. Jerome is speaking 
 of the errors of a certain bishop, and suddenly adds, " Nee hoc dico, 
 quod de Episcoporum sententiis judicem, aut eorum cuipiam statuta 
 rescindi; sed quod unusquisque suo periculo faciat quod sibi videtur." 
 S. Hieron. Apolog. Adv. Ruffinum, cap. v. torn. ii. p. 256. And St. 
 Bernard, being challenged to dispute with a false teacher, tells Pope 
 Innocent, " Dicebam sufficere scripta ejus ad accusandum eum, nee 
 mea referre, sed Episcoporum, quorum esset ministerii de dogmatibus 
 
 judicare." Epist. clxxxix. Opp. p. 1547. ed. Paris. 1632. 
 
 2 Epist. xxvii. p. 36; with which compare the character given 
 of him by S. Gregory Nazianzen, as Troipfvav 6 Kparioro's KOI SOKI- 
 pMtraTos. Orat. xviii. torn. i. p. 281. 
 
 * Perhaps the most remarkable testimony of the Cyprianic age 
 to the divine origin of Episcopacy is that which is supplied by the
 
 ST. CYPRIAN. 227 
 
 pleasing as well as instructive to observe how dear 
 this famous Bishop was to his own flock, for whom, 
 having yielded up all things, in due time he laid 
 down even his life. 1 
 
 The Martyr wrote also to the lapsed, of whom 
 mention has been made. His letter begins thus : 
 " Our Lord, whose precepts and injunctions it is 
 our duty to observe, founding in the Gospel the 
 honour of the Bishop and the structure of His 
 Church, says to Peter, ' I say unto thee, thou art 
 Peter, and upon this Rock I will build My Church, 
 and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 
 
 famous letter of the Roman clergy, addressed to the Bishop of Car- 
 thage himself. Having lost their own bishop, Fabian, in the perse- 
 cution then raging, they write to St. Cyprian, lamenting their defec- 
 tive condition, professing themselves at a loss how to direct the 
 affairs of their Church, and confessing in the most emphatic language 
 the truth of the doctrine, Ecclesia in Episcopo. Had these Christians 
 ever heard of any such discipline, what an opportunity was this for 
 vindicating presbyterian claims ! Their Bishop dead, persecution 
 raging, none to restrain or condemn them in whatever they put their 
 hands to, how easy had it been to exercise authority if they wished 
 to assume it, how natural if they thought they possessed it ! Their 
 Church seriously embarrassed for want of some authoritative counsel, 
 if they had judged presbyterian government to be lawful, they were 
 bound to have recourse to it ; if they deemed Episcopacy less than 
 divine, they might justly supersede it. And what did they do? 
 They confessed themselves unable to conduct the discipline of their 
 Church, " until a Bishop should be provided for them by God ;" and 
 write for advice, in the interim, to a famous Prelate in Africa ! Vide 
 Epist. xxxi. Cleri Romani ad Cyprianum, pp. 44, 45. 
 
 1 " Confessores ad martyrium ipse perduxit, et ne minor esset 
 praedicationibus suis, ipse quoque martyrii corona, Domino prae- 
 stante, decoratus est." Cassiodor. lib. i. cap. 19. De S. Cypriano. 
 On St. Cyprian's tone of mind at the prospect of his passion, see 
 Epist. Ixxxiii. p. 100.
 
 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 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 whatsoever 
 thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.' 
 From thence the ordination of Bishops and the or- 
 der of the Church flows down through the course 
 of generations and successions; so that the Church 
 is founded upon Bishops, and by the same Rulers her 
 every act is controlled. Thus was it established by 
 the divine law." 1 
 
 And this may suffice ; for surely no words could 
 speak more emphatically the mind of St. Cyprian. 
 Again and again throughout his writings the same 
 sentiments are expressed ; 2 not timidly or uncer- 
 tainly, as is the habit of those who introduce new 
 opinions, but with a holy boldness, and a perpetual 
 reference on the one hand to " the Gospel," and 
 on the other to " the customs of antiquity." To 
 oppose the Bishop was, in the judgment of this 
 Martyr and his contemporaries, to rebel against 
 God ; and to separate from him, was to be cut off 
 
 1 " Dominus noster, cujus praecepta et monita observare debe- 
 mus, Episcopi honorem et ecclesise suse rationem disponens in evan- 
 
 gelio, loquitur, et dicit Petro, ' Ego tibi dico,' &c Inde per 
 
 teraporum et successionum vices Episcoporum ordinatio et ecclesia3 
 ratio decurrit, ut ecclesia super episcopos constituatur, et ornnis actus 
 ecclesiae per eosdem prsepositos gubernetur. Cum hoc itaque divina 
 lege fundatum sit," &c. Epist. xxvii. Lapsis, pp. 37, 38. 
 
 2 Vide Epist. xxxviii. Ad Caldonium, p. 51 ; Epist. xl. Ad Ple- 
 bem, p. 63 ; Epist. xlii. Ad Cornelium, p. 57 ; Ep. xlix. Ad eundem, 
 p. 64 ; Ep. lii. Ad Antonianum, pp. 68, 73 ; Ep. Ixv. Ad Rogati- 
 anum, p. 112; Ep. Ixix. Ad Pupianum, p. 123; &c.
 
 ST. CYPRIAN. 229 
 
 from salvation. 1 Nor does he even take into ac- 
 count the accidents of circumstance, or prejudice, 
 or education ; he speaks of separation in the ab- 
 stract ; and he says of all separatists, that " not 
 even if they were killed for confessing the Name 
 of Christ could they be saved : their sin is inexpi- 
 able, and can be purged by no suffering." 2 " They 
 cannot dwell with God, who have refused to be of 
 one mind in God's Church ; though they be given 
 over to be burnt in flame and fire, or yield their 
 
 lives a prey to wild beasts, theirs will not be the 
 
 .- 
 
 crown of faith, but the penalty of unfaithfulness ; 
 not the glorious issue of dutiful valour, but the 
 death of despair. A man of such sort may indeed 
 be killed; crowned he cannot be." 3 
 
 And it should be observed, that in using this 
 awful language St. Cyprian had in his mind a cer- 
 tain definite sin. He was contemplating the case 
 
 1 " Scire debes Episcopum in Ecclesia esse et Ecclesiara in Epis- 
 copo, et si quis cum Episcopo non sit, in Ecclesia non esse." Ep. Ixix. 
 Ad Pupianum. 
 
 z " Tales etiam si occisi in confessione nominis fuerint, macula 
 ista nee sanguine abluitur. Inexpiabilis et gravis culpa discordiae, 
 nee passione purgatur. Esse martyr non potest qui in ecclesia non 
 est." De Unitate Ecclesioe, pp. 198, 199; in which treatise the same 
 sentiment is several times repeated. 
 
 3 " Cum Deo manere non possunt qui esse in Ecclesia Dei un- 
 animes noluerunt. Ardeant licet flammis et ignibus traditi, vel ob- 
 jecti bestiis animas suas ponant, non erit ilia fidei corona, sed poena 
 perfidiae, nee religiosae virtutis exitus gloriosus, sed desperationis 
 introitus. Occidi talis potest, coronari non potest." Ibid. p. 199. 
 And again, " si extra ecclesiam fuerit occisus, ad ecclesiae non potest 
 pneinia pervenire." p. 201.
 
 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 of separatists who, like the " carnal" Christians of 
 Corinth, were still orthodox in the faith. Their 
 error was simply that they had despised the autho- 
 rity of their lawful Bishop ; it was " in the gain- 
 saying of Core," as he admonishes them, 1 that they 
 were " perishing." Yet even these men were so 
 far from denying the office of the Bishop, that they 
 added sin to sin in order to procure one who might 
 seem to have been lawfully appointed ! What St. 
 ! Cyprian, and the other primitive Saints and Mar- 
 Ityrs, would have said of our separatists, we need 
 \not stay to inquire. 
 
 XIII. ST. JEROME uses the same language with 
 those who have been already heard. A few pas- 
 sages only need be quoted from his writings ; for, 
 like the rest of his brethren, he has spoken so em- 
 phatically, that in a single sentence he often de- 
 clares all which could be asserted in many volumes. 
 The following is an instance. 
 
 A brother Presbyter had sought his advice how 
 
 1 It is to be noticed, that St. Cyprian, as well as the other great 
 teachers of the first ages, always compares the act of separation 
 among professing Christians with the sin of Korah, Uzzah, and 
 others, whose punishment is recorded " for our example" in the 
 Old Testament. Thus Gregory Nazianzen asks a certain sectary, Tt' 
 <pf]s, u> TTOI Aa$ai> KOI AjSeipaw, Kai orpaTT/ye acrtafypovwrTt ; 6 Kara Mtou- 
 areas ToA/i7j<ras, K.T.\. Orat. xxx. torn. i. p. 495. So St. Chrysostom, 
 OVK icrre TI ireTrovdcunv Trepi Kope *al AaOav KOI 'A/Setpaw ; Horn. xi. in 
 Ephes. Cf. Aug. Contra Donat. et Rogat. Ep. xlviii. torn. ii. p. 73. 
 And such language, it must be admitted, agrees exactly with that of 
 the Apostle, St. Jude, verses 11 and 19.
 
 ST. JEROME. 231 
 
 he should rule his life : in St. Jerome's reply we 
 find these striking words ; " Abide in subjection to 
 your Bishop, and regard him as the father of your 
 soul:" and he confirms this charge by saying, 
 " What Aaron and his sons were, the same we must 
 acknowledge the Bishop and his Presbyters to be." 1 
 
 Elsewhere, in the well-known passage already 
 quoted, he says : " That we may understand the 
 apostolical traditions gathered out of the Old Tes- 
 tament, what Aaron, and his sons, and the Levites 
 were in the Temple, the same let the Bishops, Pres- 
 byters, and Deacons claim to be in the Church;" 2 
 a saying which might indeed supersede any further 
 citations, because to have uttered it without a pro- 
 found conviction of the divine origin of the three 
 orders would have been very gross profaneness, not 
 to say blasphemy. 
 
 His notion of the Bishop's exalted rank was in 
 accordance with this account of their position in 
 the divine scheme. " It is lawful," he says, " to 
 the people to weep ; to the King it is not becom- 
 ing to do so. As with the King, so with the Bishop ; 
 or rather, still less to the Bishop than to the King, 
 since the one rules over willing, the other unwilling 
 
 1 " Esto subjectus Pontifici tuo, et quasi animse parentem suscipe. 
 Quod Aaron et filios ejus, hoc Episcopum et presbyteros esse noveri- 
 mus." Ad Nepotian. Epist. ii. torn. i. p. 5. So St. Austin, also 
 writing to a Presbyter : " Episcopo tuo in hac re noli resistere, et 
 quod facit ipse, sine ullo scrupulo vel disceptatione sectare." Epist. 
 Ixxxvi. Casulano, torn. ii. p. 149. 
 
 2 Evagrio, Epist. Ixxxv. torn. ii. p. 311.
 
 232 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 subjects." 1 A kind of language which we do not 
 hear in our day. 
 
 With this compare his recognition of the Bi- 
 shop's power. He speaks thus of one who had set 
 himself against certain catholic usages : " I marvel 
 that the holy Bishop, in whose diocese he is said 
 to be a presbyter, should yield to his madness, and 
 not rather break with his apostolic rod, with a rod 
 of iron, this unprofitable vessel, and deliver him up 
 to the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may 
 be saved." 2 
 
 No wonder that a saint who could speak thus 
 should say, " With us Bishops occupy the place of 
 the Apostles;" 3 for how otherwise could his lan- 
 guage be justified ? No wonder that he should add, 
 " Whosoever is baptised but by the hands of the 
 Bishop, receives not the. Holy Spirit, which, in 
 valid Baptism, we believe to be imparted. The 
 integrity of the Church hangs upon the dignity of 
 the Chief Priest ; to whom, if men do not concede 
 a certain peculiar and eminent authority, there will 
 spritig up in the Church as many schisms as priests. 
 Hence it comes, that without the chrism and com- 
 
 1 "... licet lacrymare plebi, regi honeste non licet. Ut regi sic 
 episcopo, immo minus episcopo quam regi ; ille enim nolentibus 
 praeest, hie volentibus." Epitaph. Nepotian. cap. vii. p. 11. 
 
 2 " Miror sanctum episcopum, in cujus parochia esse presbyter 
 dicitur, acquiescere furori ejus, et non virga apostolica, virgaque 
 terrea, confringere vas inutile, et tradere in interitum carnis, ut spi- 
 ritus salvus fiat." Adv. Vigilant, ad Riparium, Ep. liii. pp. 188, 9. 
 
 3 " Apud nos Apostolorum locum Episcopi tenent." Ad Mar- 
 ceUam, Adv. Montanum, Ep. liv. p. 193.
 
 ST. JEROME. 233 
 
 mandment of the Bishop, neither presbyter nor dea- 
 con has the power to baptise" 1 
 
 And his reverence for the successor of the 
 Apostles was not a matter of words only. Writing, 
 with a just indignation, against the errors of a cer- 
 tain Bishop, he still feels constrained to say, " We 
 are not so puffed up in our hearts as not to know 
 what is due to the Priests of Christ ; for he who 
 receives them, does not so much receive them as 
 Him whose Bishops they are ; but let them be con- 
 tent with their honour ; let them know themselves 
 to be fathers, not lords." 2 
 
 And as he witnesses against the error of modern 
 sectaries, so does he against the more ancient and 
 venerable corruption of others. " Wheresoever a 
 Bishop may be," he says, " whether at Rome, or at 
 Eugubium, or at Constantinople, or at Rhegium, 
 
 1 " .... in ecclesia baptizatus, nisi per manus Episcopi, nou 
 accipiat Spiritum Sanctum, quern nos asserimus in vero baptisraate 
 tribui . . . Ecclesiae salus in Summi Sacerdotis dignitate pendet, cui 
 si non exors quaedam, et ab hominibus eminens detur potestas, tot 
 in ecclesiis efficientur schisraata, quot sacerdotes. Inde venit ut sine 
 chrismate, et Episcopi jussione, neque presbyter, neque diaconis jus 
 habeant baptizandi." Adv. Luciferian. cap. iv. torn. ii. p. 199. Cf. 
 Tertullian. De Baptismo, cap. xvii. p. 263. 
 
 8 " Non sumus tarn inflati cordis ut ignoremus quid debeatur 
 Sacerdotibus Christi ; qui enim eos recipit, non tain eos recipit quam 
 Ilium cujus Episcopi sunt; sed contend sint honore suo, patres se 
 sciant ease, non dominos." Ad Theophilum, Adv. Errores Joan. 
 Hierosol. torn. ii. p. 227. Elsewhere he says that he was restrained 
 from venting his indignation at this unworthy Bishop by that word 
 of St. Paul, " I wist not, brethren, that it was t/ie High Priest ; for 
 it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people." 
 Ad Pammachium, cap. iv. p. 215.
 
 234 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 or at Alexandria, or at Tanis, he is, both in respect 
 of merit and of his Priesthood, one and the same. 
 Neither the power of wealth, nor the low estate of 
 poverty, render a Bishop either more or less dis- 
 tinguished. They are all the successors of the Apos- 
 tles." 1 
 
 In all his innumerable comments he shews the 
 distinction of Bishops and Presbyters to be set 
 forth both in the Old and New Testaments; and 
 the manner in which he derives the order and au- 
 thority of the former from the Psalms and the Pro- 
 phets is one of the most solemn and peculiar fea- 
 
 1 " Ubicunque fuerit Episcopus, sive Romae, sive Eugubii, sive 
 Constantinopoli, sive Rhegii, sive Alexandria, sive Tanis; ejusdem 
 meriti, ejusdem est et sacerdotii. Potentia divitiarum, et pauper- 
 tatis humilitas, vel sublimiorem vel inferiorem Episcopum non facit. 
 Cseterum omnes Apostolorum successores sunt." Evagrio, Epist. 
 Ixxxv. p. 311. St. Cyprian asserts in a well-known passage Ad 
 Antonian. Epist. Hi. p. 72 the same perfect completeness of the 
 Episcopate in each of its separate portions ; and his language is 
 justly regarded as favouring the Anglican doctrine on that subject. 
 It must be observed, however, that the condition expressed in the 
 important words, " Manente concordiae vinculo et perseverante catho- 
 licce ecclesia individuo Sacramento," is declared by him to be essential 
 to this completeness. Would that we might even yet see that con- 
 dition fulfilled ! Meanwhile both St. Cyprian and St. Jerome would 
 seem to defend us in our lonely and isolated lot, so far as this, that 
 neither of them appears to have even so much as heard of the pecu- 
 liar claims of the Bishop of Rome. Thus we find St. Jerome reply- 
 ing to an argument urged upon him from the practice of the Church 
 at Rome, in these words : " Why do you tell me of the custom of one 
 city ?" " Quid mihi prefers unius urbis consuetudinem ? quid pau- 
 citatem, de qua ortum est supercilium in leges Ecclesiae, vindicas ? 
 Omne quod rarum est plus appetitur." ubi supra. Is it possible that 
 this saint could have spoken in such a way, if the later notions of the 
 court of Rome had been known in his day, or he had received 
 them?
 
 ST. JEROME. 
 
 tures of his writings. Yet this Saint has been 
 quoted against Episcopacy ! 
 
 It is difficult to speak with due calmness of the 
 treatment which St. Jerome has received at the 
 hands of the Church's adversaries ; and I shall not 
 do more here than mention it as an instance of the 
 humiliating tyranny of error. 1 It is not necessary 
 to dwell upon so painful a subject, as it has exer- 
 
 1 In one of his writings an epistle to Evagrius St. Jerome is 
 censuring with much vehemence the presumption of the Deacons of 
 Rome, who, by reason of their limited number, had affected to rank 
 themselves above the Presbyters of the same Church. Anxious to 
 raise to its greatest eminence the dignity of the latter, St. Jerome 
 compares them with the highest order of all, and exclaims, " What 
 can the Bishop do which the Presbyter cannot, except ordain?" 
 And this is one of the passages which certain moderns have been 
 accustomed to quote from this Father against Episcopacy. So that 
 when St. Jerome emphatically says that Presbyters cannot ordain, 
 he must be understood to assert as distinctly that they can. (Vide 
 J. Morisani, De Protopapis, cap. v. pp. G2 and 75 ; who enumerates 
 various canons of councils in which the presumption of the Deacons 
 was reproved.) Upon another place often quoted out of the same 
 Father by presbyterians, see Cornelius a Lapide, In Epist. ad Phil. 
 cap. i. ; who very justly observes that it is, in fact, directly opposed 
 to their error. One thing is plain, that these men would gladly 
 quote the Fathers if they could be made to speak for them. For, as 
 Bishop Downame notices, " If any of these, as, namely, Jerome, 
 shall but seeme to favor any of their assertions, though in their 
 sense he contradict himself, and gainsay all others, both Councils 
 and Fathers, against such a testimonie no exception, either of 
 minoritie of age or singularitie of opinion, will be admitted, but 
 that authoritie must overweigh all that himself and others say to the 
 contrarie. It is a world to see how Jerome in this case is magnified 
 and preferred before 4 all antiquitie. ' Who can better tell than 
 Jerome?' ' Who better acquainted with the history of the Church 
 than Jerome ?' &c. But when most pregnant and plain testimonies 
 are produced out of Jerome, proving the superioritie of Bishops, 
 agreeable with all antiquitie, then Jerome is ' a youngling and under 
 age !'" Dcf. of Scrrn . book iii. ch. ii. p. 35.
 
 236 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 cised some of the greatest divines of modern times. 
 With what incredulous amazement, we may sup- 
 pose, would a simple-minded inquirer, ignorant of 
 sectarian bitterness and fraud, hear the statement, 
 that the author of the passages above quoted was 
 a witness against the divine institution of Bishops I 1 
 
 XIV. ST. AUGUSTINE has been cited already in 
 these pages ; and so far as respects the identity of 
 the episcopal with the apostolical office, it is need- 
 less, perhaps, to add any thing from him. 2 It may, 
 
 1 A little acquaintance, however, with these persons would go far 
 to diminish his surprise. The following illustration, for instance, of 
 their policy would tend not a little that way. We have read above 
 the saying of St. Jerome, that " the Bishops, Priests, and Deacons 
 of the Christian Church correspond to the High Priest, Priests, and 
 Levites of the Jewish Synagogue." It is curious to see how three of 
 the most learned and distinguished of the adversaries handle this 
 passage, so fatal to the inventions of Geneva. The writers alluded 
 to are Blondel, Salmasius (or Walo), and Louis Capelle. " Of these 
 three," says the revered Hammond, " the last was soon discovered 
 to have dealt most prudently, setting down the other testimonies out 
 of Jerome, but wholly omitting this. The other two, having not 
 been so wary, made use of another dexterity, set down the words, 
 but deferred their observations on them till some fitter season. Blon- 
 del put it off to his sixth section ; whereas, upon examination, he hath 
 but three in bis whole book, and so is certainly never likely to speak 
 of it, nor can be justly believed to have in earnest designed any such 
 thing. The other, Walo, saith, ' he expects more and better notes 
 on it from Salmasius (i. e. from himself) in another book,' viz. De 
 Ecclesiastico Ordine ; and after a great volume come out of that 
 subject eight or nine years after, he yet never takes this place, nor 
 his own promise, into consideration." Hammond's Vindication of 
 his Dissertations, ch. iii. 6, pp. 173, 4. 
 
 2 One passage only shall be added. " Nemo ignorat," says he, 
 " Episcopos Salvatorem ecclesiis instituisse. Ipse enim priusquain 
 in coelos ascenderet, irnponens manum Apostolis, ordinavit eos Epis- 
 copos" Nov. Test. Qucest. xiv.
 
 ST. AUGUSTINE. 237 
 
 however, be useful to set down a few passages in 
 which the judgment of this famous bishop and con- 
 fessor is expressed on the doctrine of spiritual com- 
 munion with Christ only through His Church. 
 
 " The Catholic Church alone," says he, " is the 
 Body of Christ. Out of this Body the Holy Spirit 
 gives life to no man" 1 It must be confessed that, 
 at least, his language is not more peremptory and 
 severe than that of the Scriptures ; for, as he him- 
 self observes, " That word of Christ, ' If a man 
 hear not the Church, let him be unto thee as an 
 heathen man and a publican,' is more grievous than 
 if he were smitten with the sword, or consumed by 
 flames, or cast to wild beasts." 2 
 
 Again he says : " If you receive Baptism, see 
 that it be within the Church, lest that which you 
 receive become unprofitable. Without the Church, 
 Baptism tends only to destruction ; within it, it is 
 the first step towards salvation." 3 
 
 " Whosoever shall be found without the Church, 
 will be cut off from the number of sons. He will 
 not have God for his Father, who refused to have 
 
 1 " Ecclesia Catholica sola corpus est Christ! .... extra hoc 
 corpus neminem vivificat Spiritus Sanctus." Epist. 1. De moderate 
 coercend. Haeret. torn. ii. p. 88. 
 
 * " Illud enim quod ait, ' Si nee ecclesiam audierit,' &c. gravius 
 est quam si gladio feriretur, si flammis absumeretur, si feris sub- 
 jiceretur." Contra Adversar. Leg. et Prophet, lib. i. cap. xvii. 
 torn. vi. p. 250. 
 
 3 " Si baptismum habes, esto in columba, ne non tibi prosit quod 
 babes. Foris enim habebas baptismum ad perniciem ; intus si habu- 
 eris, incipit prodesse ad salutem." In Evang. Joannis Expos. Tract. 
 vi. torn. ix. p. 23.
 
 238 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 the Church for his Mother." 1 To separate from 
 the Church, he says, " is to deny that Christ came 
 in the flesh ; because it is to scatter that which 
 He gathered together in one. This is to be Anti- 
 christ >" 2 
 
 " Whosoever shall be separated from this Ca- 
 tholic Church, however unblameably he may deem 
 himself to live, for this one crime, that he is sepa- 
 rated from the Unity of Christ, shall not see life, 
 but the wrath of God abideth upon him" 3 Here, 
 
 1 " Si quis absque ea (Ecclesia) inventus fuerit, alienus erit a 
 numero filiorum. Nee habebit Deum patrem, qui Ecclesiam nolu- 
 erit habere matrem." De Symbolo, Ad Catechumenos, lib. iv. cap. 
 xiii. torn. ix. p. 310. Observe that this doctrine was then intro- 
 duced into the catechetical instructions. 
 
 3 " Quomodo non negas Christum in carne venisse, qui disrumpis 
 Ecclesiam quam Ille congregavit ? Contra Christum ergo venis, An- 
 tichristus es. Intus sis, foris sis, Antichristus es. Sed quando intus 
 es, lates ; quando foris es, manifestaris. Solvis Jesum, et negas Eum 
 in carne venisse ; non es ex Deo." In Epist. Joannis, Tract, vi. torn, 
 ix. pp. 254, 5. In like manner St. Cyril of Jerusalem expresses his 
 fears lest the divisions of the Churches TO. o-xi'oyiara TO>V etcKXya-icov 
 in his day should prove a token of the coming Antichrist ; Catech. 
 xv. p. 167. So St. Basil : TO. vvv yivo^ieva Trpotp.ia ttrrl rfjs dcrobov 
 TTJS TOV dimxp'urrov. Epist. cccxxvi. torn. iii. p. 321. So Nazianzen, 
 torn. i. p. 218. Even a Jew could refer to the history of Cain and 
 Abel as a divine warning against schism, and an example of the 
 heinousness of spiritual division. So deeply impressed have men 
 always been, until these last days, with the magnitude of this crime. 
 Vide Phil. Jud. Quod det. potion insid. soleat, Opp. p. 161, ed. 
 Paris. 1640. 
 
 3 " Quisquis ergo ab hac Catholica Ecclesia fuerit separatus? 
 quantumlibet laudabiliter se vivere existimet, hoc solo scelere, quod a 
 Christi unitate disjuuctus est, non habebit vitam, sed ira Dei manet 
 super eum." Ad Donatistas, Ep. clii. torn. ii. p. 265. Elsewhere 
 he says, " sacrilegium schismatis omnia scelera supergraditur." 
 Contra Epist. Parmeniani, lib. i. cap. iv. torn. vii. p. 7. With 
 these sayings compare the 10th and llth Canons of the English
 
 ST. AUGUSTINE. 239 
 
 too, he refers to the Sacred Scriptures, as he ever 
 does, and his remarks are very solemn. " You 
 think," said he to the Donatists, " that schism is an 
 inconsiderable offence. Well, let us not judge in 
 such matters for ourselves, but take counsel from 
 the Holy Scriptures. Select certain crimes of the 
 gravest character, and see how God punished them. 
 Then compare the judgments which He passed on 
 schismatics ; and thus you will know how to make 
 a true estimate of the heinousness of either in His 
 sight." It will not be denied that this was prudent 
 advice. He then chooses for the required exam- 
 ples the sins of idolatry, which provoked the heavy 
 wrath of God, and the sacrilegious burning of the 
 sacred books recorded by Jeremiah ; and he con- 
 cludes thus : " The idolatry was avenged by the 
 sword, the burning of the book by slaughter and 
 captivity ; but schism was punished by the opening 
 of the earth, and the burying alive of its authors, 
 they who were consenting to it being consumed by 
 the fires of heaven ! Who now will doubt that that 
 was the deepest crime which drew upon it the most 
 grievous chastisement ?" 1 At least, we must confess 
 
 Church, wherein all who separate from her communion, on what 
 plea soever, are adjudged " to be excommunicated, and not restored 
 until they repent, and publicly revoke their wicked errors." 
 
 1 Cf. Contra Donatist. Pertinac. Ep. clxii. p. 281, with Epist. 
 clxxii. p. 295, and De Baptismo, lib. i. cap. viii. Optatus uses 
 exactly the same way of reasoning. He compares the sins of murder 
 and idolatry with that of schism, and observes, " that Cain lived, 
 the Ninevites were pardoned ; but schismatics were cut off by a new 
 and strange death." Adv. Pannenian. p. 43.
 
 240 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 that the startling anathemas of the meek Saints of 
 old are as nothing to the mysterious jealousy of the 
 Almighty Himself; and we shall then only venture 
 to despise their sayings when we are prepared to 
 scorn and defy His judgments. Certainly the acts 
 of God and the words of His servants are, if it may 
 be said, in exact accordance with each other. 
 
 The writings of St. Augustine will be found to 
 abound with passages similar to those already 
 quoted. Nor was it after a hasty or random way, 
 but with the calm, severe, undeviating consistency 
 of a matured saint, that this eminent person was. 
 accustomed to teach or rather to witness to the 
 ancient truth that communion with the One Ca- 
 tholic Church is necessary to salvation. 1 It is im- 
 portant, too, to observe, in the same proportion in 
 which it is important to know his judgment at all, 
 that this was mainly enforced by him against cer- 
 tain separatists, who not only did not condemn 
 any of the Catholic tenets, but who appear to have 
 openly professed their cordial reception of the 
 whole body of Church-doctrines. 8 This, I say, it 
 
 1 A truth never questioned till of late years. Thus Ridley could 
 say of the " Holy Catholic Church" of the Creed, " This is the 
 Mother of us all ; and by God's grace I will live and die the child 
 of this Church. Forth of this, I grant, there is no salvation." Con- 
 ference with Latimer, Answer to 5th Object, p. 123. 
 
 2 " Confessi sunt enim contra Ecclesiam Catholicam, quae toto 
 terrarum orbe diffunditur, nihil se habere quod dicerent." Aug. 
 Contra Donat. Epist. clii. torn. ii. p. 265. Cf. J. A. Fabricius In 
 S. Philastr. cap. Ixxxii. p. 157, where it is expressly said of them, 
 " sicut Rcclesia Catholica credebant."
 
 ST. AUGUSTINE. 241 
 
 is important to notice, as shewing the exceeding 
 practicalness of St. Austin's testimony in relation 
 to the unhappy controversies of our own day. It 
 is plain that the charitable anathemas of this Saint, 
 as of all the holy brethren, would find an applica- 
 tion among ourselves; and it is also plain upon 
 whose heads they would fall. 1 
 
 The last passage which I will quote here affords 
 a striking illustration of this. St. Cyprian, it will 
 be remembered, had said, that " if a separatist 
 should even lay down his life for the Name of 
 Christ, he would die unblest." It seems to have 
 been with an allusion to some such saying, that 
 St. Austin spoke as follows of a class of sectaries, 
 who, as respects their doctrinal teaching, were 
 avowedly orthodox. "I do not assert," said he, 
 " that if a Donatist should profess to have suffered 
 any injuries in the cause of his party, or to have 
 endured temporal losses, it would profit him no- 
 thing ; I say more. I say, that if he should suffer 
 without the pale of the Church, it will be as the 
 
 1 Bishop Bull notices, that our modern sectaries " must upon the 
 same account have been separatists and schismatics if they had lived 
 in any other settled Church of Christ since the days of the Apostles." 
 Sermon xiii. vol. i. p. 340. " The same principles they insist on for 
 justifying their present contempt of the Ecclesiastical government, 
 and their present separation, would have obliged them to separate if 
 they had lived in those times, or would have excused and justified 
 those who did then separate." Dodwell, One Altar, chap. xiii. 4. 
 ]>. 375. Or, as it has been said in fewer words, " The reasons for 
 separation are such as will justify the greatest schismatics that ever 
 were in the Christian Church." Stillingfleet, Unreasonabkncss of 
 Separation, part ii. 26. 
 
 R
 
 242 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 enemy of Christ; and if one of Christ's enemies 
 should say to him, being without the Church, ' Offer 
 sacrifice to our idols, worship our gods,' and he, 
 through refusing to worship, should be slain by the 
 enemy of Christ, his blood he may pour out, a crown 
 he cannot receive." 1 
 
 There is one way of meeting these fearful state- 
 ments of Augustine and all Saints ; and it is, at least 
 for the time present, an effectual one. I mean, by 
 referring them either to levity and intemperance, 
 or to an utter and uniform misconception of divine 
 truth. There is, however, so much implied in such 
 a notion, that few only amongst the disciples of the 
 modern schools have hitherto ventured to propound 
 it ; whilst the rest, by the sort of convulsive eager- 
 ness with which, from time to time, they have 
 claimed communion with the holy Fathers of the 
 Church, have betrayed their reluctance to maintain 
 a proposition which, though essential to the defence 
 
 1 " Ego non dico, si aliquas injurias quasi jactet se passum esse 
 pro parte Donati, aut aliqua damna terrena, nihil ei prodest. Ego 
 plus dico ; si patiatur foris . . . et dicat ei foras ab ecclesia Christi 
 iuimicus Christi, Pone thus idolis, adora deos meos, et non adorans 
 occidatur ab inimico Christi, sanguinem fundere potest, coronam 
 accipere non potest.'' Concio de Gestis cum Emerito, torn. vii. p. 
 249. And severe as such a sentiment may appear, in contrast with 
 our lax notions, it was in earlier ages the common belief. " Etiam 
 si passus est aliquid Novatianus," says Pacian, " non tamen .etiam 
 occisus. Etiam si occisus, non tamen coronatus. Quidni ? Extra 
 Ecclesiae pacem, extra concordiam, extra earn matrem cujus portio 
 debet esse, qui martyr est ? Audi Apostolum ; Et si habuero," &c. 
 Epist. ii. apud Bibliothec. Patrum, torn. iii. p. 425. They all, it will 
 be observed, found this doctrine upon the express warrant of God's 
 word.
 
 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 243 
 
 of their errors, is perceived to be injurious to the 
 Divine honour, and, when pressed to its legitimate 
 conclusions, nothing less than positive blasphemy. 
 For ourselves, we are more than ever solicitous, 
 in a licentious age, to follow on in the path, and 
 search out the footprints, now almost erased, of 
 the old Saints ; and we think it a work of Christian 
 charity to invite others to do the like. 
 
 XV. The evidence which it was proposed to 
 collect in this chapter might here be closed. Much 
 which deserved a place in it has, for the sake of 
 brevity, been omitted; and much still remains. 
 So authentic, indeed, and varied, is the testimony 
 which it has pleased God to provide for us, in re- 
 lation to the primitive order and structure of His 
 Church, that, as has been truly said, " no fact in 
 all history admits of more copious and infallible 
 demonstration." You can scarcely open a page of 
 any ecclesiastical record, or the writings of any 
 ecclesiastical person of the first four centuries, 
 without meeting some incontrovertible proof of the 
 succession of Bishops from Apostles, and the iden- 
 tity of their Office. So that, as might have been 
 expected, many ages passed away before any man 
 could be found so much as to question it. Under 
 what circumstances this extraordinary attempt was 
 first made will be presently considered. Mean- 
 while, there are still four of the greatest ornaments 
 of our race conspicuous even amongst the wisest
 
 244 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 and holiest of the servants of God, the glory of 
 their own age, and the bright examples of every 
 other whose evidence it is impossible wholly to 
 omit. A single sentence, however, from each of 
 them is all which shall be set down here. 
 
 " Who confers," asks St. Ambrose, in a certain 
 place, " the Episcopal grace God or man ? With- 
 out doubt you will reply, God. Yet still God gives 
 it by the instrumentality of man. Man lays on the 
 hand, but God bestows the grace. The Priest in 
 supplication imposes his hand, God in His might 
 pours out the blessing. The Bishop admits to the 
 Order, and God annexes the excellency" * 
 
 St. Basil the Great tKiGKOKuv TVKO$ explain- 
 ing, in one of his writings, how the originators of 
 schism may themselves have received spiritual gifts 
 by a lawful ordination, goes on to say, " but they 
 who are severed (from the Succession) become lay- 
 men; nor do they retain the power either of bap- 
 tising or of laying on of hands, being no longer 
 able to communicate to others that grace of the 
 Holy Spirit, from which they themselves have 
 
 1 " Quis dat, frater, Episcopalem gratiam ? Deus, an homo ? 
 Respondes sine dubio, Deus. Sed tamen per hominem dat Deus. 
 Homo imponit manum, Deus largitur gratiam. Sacerdos imponit 
 supplicem dexteram, et Deus benedicit potenti dextera. Episcopus 
 initiat ordinem, et Deus tribuit dignitatem." De Dignitate Sacer- 
 dotali, cap. v. citat. a Petavio, De Ecclesiast. Hierarch. lib. i. cap. 
 iii. 5. In the same work, cap. ii., St. Ambrose says, " Honor et 
 sub limit as Episcopalis nullis poterit comparationibus adaequari;" 
 and elsewhere, " Omnis Episcopus Presbyter, non tamen omnis Pres- 
 byter Episcopits." In 1 Tim. iii.
 
 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 245 
 
 fallen away i" 1 where he refers to separation from 
 the one true Bishop; the idea of repudiating Bi- 
 shops altogether, he does not even contemplate. 
 
 "Nothing/' says St. John Chrysostom, "so 
 provokes the indignation of God as the division of 
 the Church ; and although we may have wrought 
 ten thousand righteous acts, yet shall we receive, 
 if we cut in sunder the fulness of the Church, no 
 less chastisement than theirs who mangled His Body" 2 
 And he presently quotes as his own sentiment the 
 saying of St. Cyprian, that " not even martyrdom 
 can wash out the sin of schism." 
 
 Lastly, the blessed Athanasius, writing to one 
 who had fled from the duties of the episcopal office 
 for fear of persecution, says, " How wouldest thou 
 have become a Christian, if there had been no Bi- 
 shops?"* And then he proceeds to assert, in the 
 
 Ot Se OTTOppayevres, \atKol ytVOfltVOl, oun TOV 
 ti/ ei^oi/ TTJV fovcriav, ovKfTi 8vva.fj.fvoi X<*P lv 
 ayiov Mpotg irapfxfiv, qs avrol eWeTTTOHcao-t. Epist. ad Amphilochium, 
 torn. iii. p. 21. 
 
 2 Ov8fv ovT<t>s fKK\T)criav 8vvf)<T(Tai. diaipflv, a>s <pi\apxici' ov8fv ovrat 
 irapof-vvfi TOV Qfbv, a>s TTJV (KK\r)criav ftiaipf&fjvai' KUV p-vpia wp.tv fpyacrd- 
 fj.fi>m xaXa, TWV TO crania avrou 8iaTfj.6vro)v OVK fharrova ddwopeit 8iKT)t> ol 
 TO irhrjpapM. KaraTffj.vovr(s TO eKK^rja-iaariKov. Horn. xi. in Eplies. torn. 
 iii. p. 822. So St. Bernard, speaking of the holy Angels, says, 
 " Nihil aeque ofFendit et ad indignationem provocat eos, qupmodo 
 dissensiones et scandala, si forte inveniantur in nobis :" and he sup- 
 poses them to confer with one another thus ; " Nos de regno unitatis 
 et pacis sumus, et homines istos in eandem unitatem et pacem spe- 
 rabamus esse ventures. Nunc autem qua ratione nobis cohoBreant, 
 qui dissident a seipsis?" In Festo S. Michaelis, serm. i. Opp. 
 p. 279. 
 
 3 Ad Dracontium, torn. i. p. 955; in which epistle the divine 
 origin of Episcopacy is declared with the most earnest iteration.
 
 246 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 uniform language of the primitive saints, from the 
 martyrs Ignatius and Irenaeus down to Basil and 
 Ambrose, that the Church is in such sort built 
 upon the Bishops that is, the Apostles of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ that the one cannot even be 
 contemplated as distinct from the other ; a Church 
 without Bishops being, in the judgment of these 
 ancients, not "defective" or "imperfect" merely, 
 but, as they speak, " no Church at all" 1 
 
 XVI. We have now received the evidence of 
 the first four centuries of Christianity; and here 
 our inquiry may terminate. The few words which 
 have been cited from each of the holy witnesses, 
 imperfectly and inadequately as they exhibit the 
 peculiar features of that rare and unearthly wisdom 
 which it would be a high privilege to examine with 
 scrupulous minuteness, are yet more than sufficient 
 
 Iloi) 8e eorai 6 ifpcvs, says another, ei far] dpxitpfvs avrbv xfipoToirf)<rei ; 
 Georg. Pachymeris in Pseudo-Dionys. De Ecr.lesiast. Hierarch, cap. 
 v. p. 323 : and thus they all speak. " Non obscurum est," says the 
 Canonist, " Patribus persuasum fuisse, plenitudinem Sacerdotii in 
 Episcopis residere ; qui portionem illius in Presbyteros aliosque in- 
 feriores ministros, prout necessitas aut utilitas Ecclesise requirere 
 videntur, ita dift'undunt, seu potius iis communicant, uti tamen ipsi 
 plenitudinem ejus in se retineant." Van Espen, De Can. Ancyran. 
 torn. ii. part ii. 8. 
 
 1 " For if Bishops only have received a Divine power from Christ 
 and His Apostles to ordain Priests, he that hath not the Divine power 
 of Ordination can no more ordain a Priest than a man without the 
 Divine power of Creation can create a Star; both are impossible 
 in nature." The True State of the Primitive Church, p. 47 (1675). 
 " Potestas ecclesiastica de necessitate fundatur in dono supernatu- 
 rali." Gerson, De Potest. Ecclesiast. Opp, torn. i. p. 111.
 
 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 247 
 
 for our immediate purpose. That purpose was, 
 primarily, the collection of testimony upon a cer- 
 tain matter of fact, with regard to which they who 
 offer it were beyond even the possibility of miscon- 
 ception or error ; and secondarily, the illustration 
 of a characteristic tone and temper in which that 
 fact was uniformly urged by the Saints and Martyrs 
 of the primitive Church. That twofold purpose 
 has now been attained ; and we have seen that all 
 the Catholic witnesses are accordant not only in 
 the matter of their allegations, but also in the spirit 
 with which they are delivered ; not only in declar- 
 ing the fact that Bishops are the successors of the 
 Apostles, but also in asserting the doctrine, that 
 communion with them is, by the immutable law of 
 God, a condition of salvation. And this their judg- 
 ment has been religiously maintained by the whole 
 company of the faithful, unquestioned and undis- 
 puted, even by the enemies of the Church, during 
 fifteen successive ages. 
 
 Unspeakably great, then, is the disadvantage of 
 their cause, who can only prove themselves right 
 by convincing the Saints of error ; who throw scorn 
 upon the discipline in which their fathers lived, and 
 mock the Church for which they rejoiced to die ; 
 whose strife is not with us their fellow-men, but 
 with the elect of God in every nation and in every 
 age ; whose defence is nought, till they have shewn 
 that all whose warfare is done have lived and died 
 in error ; who are condemned out of their own
 
 248 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 mouth, unless they prove that " the noble army of 
 Martyrs" battled for a lie, and " the Holy Church 
 throughout all the world" believed it. 
 
 And even this is but a small part of the com- 
 plicated heresies and irreligious opinions which the 
 modern sectary is driven by his unhappy position 
 to maintain. He must not only, by the profession 
 of his own wild and incoherent inventions, cast 
 reproach upon all who have ever called upon the 
 Name of Christ before him, and assume that to 
 have been palpable error which was counted by all 
 saints to be saving truth ; he must not only put 
 aside, as, at best, an unreal and visionary polity, 
 the universal Church of God during its first and 
 purest ages ; but is further compelled, if he would 
 not stand self-condemned, to deny the fulfilment 
 of the gracious promises of God, as well as the 
 prophecies of His Holy Spirit. He must defend 
 Christianity with the reasonings of a Jew, and 
 " contend for the faith'' with the arguments of a 
 heathen. He must begin by rejecting at least one 
 article of the Apostles' Creed, and make his boast 
 that he has no share in " the Communion of Saints;" 
 and when he has proved that the sacred Scriptures 
 are no true revelation, that all the dead were de- 
 ceivers, and nearly all the living deceived; when 
 universal Christendom shall be convinced of error, 
 and we be left only to share with our fathers an 
 inheritance of shame and sorrow ; then at length 
 shall a new faith be proposed to us in the place of
 
 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 249 
 
 the old, and a new creed set before us, of which 
 the articles shall be such as these : " That the 
 'Author of peace and Lover of concord' hath 
 yielded up His Church to 'confusion' from the 
 very hour in which He suffered to exalt her ; that 
 the Jew, whom He cast out, had a worship and 
 priesthood of His own appointing, but Christians, 
 whom He hath called ' brethren,' shall have nei- 
 ther, or find both for themselves ; that prophets 
 have seen visions which come not to pass, and 
 apostles delivered warnings which had no mean- 
 ing; that saints have believed that system to be 
 divine which was not only human, but needless 
 and corrupt ; and martyrs declared that to be vital 
 truth which is disowned by the Master in whose 
 Name they died ; that it is idle to ' mark well the 
 bulwarks of Zion,' for they have no strength, or to 
 ' consider her palaces,' which have no beauty ; that 
 peace is not to be ensued, division not to be ab- 
 horred ; that concord is not lovely, nor schism 
 hateful ; obedience no merit, and rebellion no 
 offence." 
 
 That the persons in question would formally 
 enunciate these essential principles of their " new 
 gospel" is not, of course, asserted; though some 
 few have ventured to do even this. It seems, on 
 the contrary, to be true, that, with certain rare 
 exceptions, they have always shrunk from avowing 
 openly the shocking assumptions upon which their 
 theology is based. The conscience is not often so
 
 250 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 effectually seared, but that, at times, like the pa- 
 tient beast of the desert, it will start aside from the 
 burden laid upon it. And thus men, whose daily 
 attitude is a sort of haughty defiance of the whole 
 body of the Saints, and a disdainful repudiation of 
 the faith of all past ages, will yet strive to hide the 
 nakedness of which they affect to boast, claim kin- 
 dred with the ancient servants of God, 1 and even 
 profess to be descended from that noble ancestry 
 whose tradition they utterly reject, whose customs 
 they have changed, and whose creed they have 
 trodden under foot. 
 
 The existence of this instinctive sympathy has 
 been curiously evidenced by the sort of language 
 usually employed by the chief men among the 
 modern religionists, when speaking of the holy Fa- 
 thers of blessed memory. So far from asserting in 
 words the opposition, or vindicating the estrange- 
 ment, which in act they manifest without even a 
 shew of reserve, they seem to contend with each 
 other in the use of a reverent and respectful phrase- 
 ology towards the sacred dead. And so solicit- 
 ous are they to conceal their alienation from that 
 sainted company, that many of them have not 
 
 1 " On ne peut nier que Calvin n'eut du respect pour les Peres, 
 puis qu'il les alleguoit souvent pour les temoins de sa doctrine." 
 Basnage, Histoire de I'JEglise, livr. xxv. p. 1492. " Luther niesme, 
 qui est asseurement celui, de tous cez revoltez centre 1'Eglise, qui fait 
 le moins d'estat de 1'autorite des Peres, qu'il traite assez souvent 
 d'une inaniere tres indigne, se glorifie neanmoins de 1'avoir entiere- 
 ment de son coste." Maimbourg, tome i. livre i. ann. 1524.
 
 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 251 
 
 scrupled even to modify, with a dangerous cour- 
 tesy, the reproachful language which others would 
 employ against the living representatives of the 
 ancient Catholic Church. It is not as enemies 
 that they would accost us now. They content 
 themselves with saying, that we who imitate the 
 primitive Christians are right, only they claim to 
 be right too " we are both right," they say. They 
 have some misgiving, it seems, in openly reviling 
 men whom, if ever they see heaven, they are likely 
 to meet again ; and therefore they put their hands 
 on their mouths. But this will not serve them. 
 They must give or take reproach, and either reject 
 the Saints, or be cast out by them. 1 And for this 
 reason : because the questions in dispute between them 
 were never held, on either side, to be included within 
 the compass of things indifferent ; because they were 
 at no time embraced passively, as mere matters of 
 opinion, but declared from the first to be DE FIDE, 
 and delivered by all Saints, in all ages, as a part of 
 divine necessary truth. 2 
 
 1 Ei ra (K(iva>v KaXwf irpdyfMTa, ra rj^trepa KOKUS' ft 8e TO. f)ftfT(pa 
 xd\>s, ra (Ktivw KUKCOS. S. Chrysost. Horn. xi. in Ephes. torn. Hi. 
 p. 822. " Neque enim possunt laudare nos," says another, " qui 
 recedunt a nobis." S. Cyprian. Ep. lii. Ad Antonian. " Si nostra 
 communio," says Augustine, " est ecclesia Christi, non est ecclesia 
 Christi vestra communio. Una est enim, quaecunque ilia sit, de qua 
 dictum est, Una est columba mea, &c. Nee possunt ecclesice tot esse 
 quot Kchismata." De Baptismo, Contra Donatistas, lib. i. cap. ii. 
 torn. vii. p. 36. 
 
 2 " Calvinism, such as it existed in the 16th century, amidst all 
 its errors had two truths. Though its Articles of Faith were erro-
 
 252 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 In proof of this I need only refer to the cita- 
 tions given above. There is no escaping from the 
 downright positiveness of such statements. They 
 are not capable of two interpretations. The theo- 
 logy of Athanasius and Chrysostom, of Basil and 
 Ambrose, Augustine and Jerome, Cyprian and Ire- 
 naeus, is not of the chameleon-hue of modern doc- 
 trine. It is, on the points at issue, essentially 
 dogmatic. It may be devoutly received, or boldly 
 rejected ; it cannot be perverted. The theory of 
 these lukewarm men will not hold. 
 
 Thus Cyprian, saint and martyr, would say to 
 these also, " Ye set Bishops at nought, ye desert 
 the Priests of God, ye dare to build another altar, 
 to offer another prayer with unlicensed words, to 
 profane by false sacrifices the truth of the Lord's 
 sacrifice" And Ignatius, saint and martyr too, 
 would tell them, "he who does any thing with- 
 out the Bishop's sanction, worshippeth the devil." 
 And Clement, another saint and martyr, " fellow- 
 labourer" of Apostles, whose name was in the book 
 of life, would advise them "rather to transport 
 themselves to the furthest corner of the world, 
 than to create a schism in the flock of Christ" 
 What will they answer? That they care not 
 what these men thought ? Yes, it is as I said : 
 
 neous, yet it asserted that a true faith was necessary to salvation ; 
 and though its discipline was a human invention, yet it asserted that 
 Church-authority was from God." Froude's Remains, part ii. vol. i. 
 p. 394.
 
 EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 253 
 
 they have nothing to do with " the Communion of 
 Saints" 
 
 And it has been shewn that they have as little 
 sanction for their inventions, if they carry the ap- 
 peal to the Holy Scriptures. This, indeed, would 
 follow from the other. For, it might be naturally 
 asked, if the faith and practice of all Christians 
 from the days of St. John were wrong, how could 
 the Bible be right ? If truth was never discovered 
 till now, in what sense can it claim to be truth at 
 all? or what security shall the living feel in its 
 possession, if it has escaped all the search of the 
 dead ? These are questions of deep moment to the 
 adversary. And even if he should make up his 
 mind to despise at once the declarations of Pro- 
 phecy, the evidence of the Apostles, and the testi- 
 mony of all Saints ; if he should venture to reject 
 the combined authority of Scripture and Antiquity, 
 and to cast away with his own hand the blessings 
 which no man could have taken from him, then at 
 length he must be referred to the judgment of his 
 own masters and teachers ; and from them he may 
 learn, that that human scheme which he is resolved 
 to maintain at such fearful hazard, they would have 
 rejoiced to resign ; that what he deems a privilege, 
 they counted a misfortune ; and that he has miser- 
 ably forsaken the true Ark of God, to search for 
 an habitation without roof or walls, which proved 
 a feeble shelter to them when they could find no 
 other, and which, having scarcely survived the ruin
 
 254) EVIDENCE OF ANTIQUITY. 
 
 of its first framers, has long since been shattered 
 into a thousand fragments. That this is his real 
 position, the adversaries themselves being judges, 
 we shall see in the next chapter.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 I. THE position occupied by the Calvinistic and 
 Lutheran communities of the present age differs in 
 many respects from that which was taken up by 
 their predecessors in the sixteenth century. They 
 are not the same even in their formal professions. 
 And so far from recognising the one at first sight 
 as identical with the other, or acknowledging the 
 later as legitimate representatives of the earlier 
 Protestants, it is only when we come to observe 
 that certain symbols and watchwords, with which 
 we are familiar, are common to both, that we are 
 able to trace any points of the similitude which is 
 by some so warmly asserted. 
 
 It seems probable that much of the prevailing 
 misapprehension on this subject is owing to an ex- 
 tremely imperfect acquaintance with the very prin- 
 ciples and sentiments with which such indiscriminate 
 sympathy is expressed ; and in a measure, perhaps, 
 to the extraordinary vagueness and contradictori- 
 ness of the writings in which they are contained. 
 The theology of Calvin and Luther, of Zuingle and
 
 256 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 Melancthon, was not, it must be confessed, remark- 
 able for stability ; and their statements were as fluc- 
 tuating as their creeds. In their own day they used 
 to be claimed by the most conflicting religionists ; l 
 and they are still appealed to by many, who, what- 
 ever their differences may be, seem to agree instinc- 
 tively in seeking their countenance and support. It 
 is, however, in their supposed character as the re- 
 formers of a false and corrupt discipline, and the 
 revivers of an earlier and apostolical polity, that 
 they are most commonly applauded by the various 
 separatists of our own day. And it is in this cha- 
 racter only that I intend to speak of them. 
 
 The opinion of the separatists in question 
 those of the present age is founded, so far as it 
 is heretical, upon three assumptions : (1) that the 
 government of Christ's Church was originally ad- 
 ministered by the common counsel of co-ordinate 
 presbyters, between whom there existed an abso- 
 lute parity ; (2) that this government was changed 
 a few years after its institution, by ecclesiastical 
 consent, and arbitrarily transferred to an order of 
 men who were thenceforth styled Bishops ; and 
 (3) that at the time of thefkeformationjhese two facts 
 
 1 As their adversaries did not fail to remind them. " How," 
 asked Cardinal Farnese, " are your desires to be complied with, 
 when you cannot even agree among yourselves what they are ? If 
 we concede to Luther, what shall be said to Zuingle ? And if to the 
 latter, what to the former, from whom he differs as much as from 
 us?" Sleidan. De Temporibus CaroliV. Imperat, Comment, lib. xiii. 
 ann. 1540. p. 215. ed. Argentor. 1557.
 
 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 257 
 
 were distinctly asserted by those who were leaders in 
 that movement, the government by Bishops uniformly 
 condemned as an usurpation, and the supposed pri- 
 mitive form consistently vindicated and restored. It 
 is notorious that all these points are assumed as 
 undoubtedly true by the teachers of the modern 
 schools ; and it is as certain that they are all com- 
 pletely and extravagantly false. 
 
 The first two assumptions have been already 
 proved to be so. The third, however, is some- 
 times supposed to rest upon better grounds. It 
 will be the business of the present chapter to shew 
 that it is no less erroneous than the others; that 
 the persons who are commonly called " reformers" 
 did not venture to repudiate the authority of Bi- 
 shops ; l that they constantly professed their desire 
 to continue in subjection to them ; that they ac- 
 tually did so in many remarkable instances ; that 
 they justified their final separation only on the 
 plea of invincible necessity ; that their original 
 quarrel was solely about matters of doctrine ; and 
 that the idea of searching the Scriptures for any 
 other than the catholic system of discipline was al- 
 together an after- thought. In a word, that the tes- 
 timony of these professed adversaries of the One 
 Catholic Church is not less emphatically opposed 
 so far as it relates to the subject of these pages 
 
 1 " Deceived greatly they are," says Hooker, " who think that 
 all they whose names are cited amongst the favourers of this (the 
 puritan) cause, are on any such verdict agreed." Preface, ch. iv. 
 p. 200. 
 
 S
 
 258 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 to the wild and confident novelties of our own 
 times, than that combined teaching of Scripture 
 and Antiquity which has been already so largely 
 cited. 
 
 The most obvious method of proving this state- 
 ment would be of course to allege specific admis- 
 sions from the formal " Confessions" of the great 
 Continental sects, as well as the individual writings 
 of their most distinguished divines; and this shall 
 presently be done. But it seems extremely im- 
 portant, in order to a due appreciation of the evi- 
 dence which will be adduced under this head, to 
 notice one or two characteristic features by which 
 the writings in question are marked. No one, I 
 think, who is at all versed in them, can have failed 
 to observe the apologetic tone with which they are 
 commonly pervaded. Now this tone, of which 
 some illustrations shall be given, was not the indi- 
 cation only, but the undisguised confession of a 
 certain consciousness of imperfection and error. 
 It was not as an accurate resemblance of the pri- 
 mitive type that these teachers presumed at first 
 to speak of their new system. It was only as the 
 best which they could, in their circumstances, con- 
 trive ; and again, as at least something better than 
 that from which they had separated. Protestantism 
 was asserted to be pure and true, in comparison 
 with Romanism. 
 
 Consistently with this theory, we find the vo- 
 cation of the first "reformers" almost uniformly
 
 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 259 
 
 defended as extraordinary, the irregularity of their 
 ministrations excused on the plea of necessity, and 
 all defects of their condition laid to the charge of 
 their enemies. The supposed apostasy of Rome 
 was assumed as an ample justification of measures 
 which were not even pretended to be lawful in 
 themselves. 
 
 Several passages shall now be quoted in proof 
 of this. And with a view to avoid the awkward- 
 ness and confusion of a mere collection of extracts, 
 these shall be so arranged as to illustrate in the 
 following order the statements made above: (1) 
 First it shall be shewn, that the reformers, unlike 
 their modern disciples, did not hesitate freely to 
 acknowledge that their condition was a defective 
 one ; (2) that they admitted the value of the or- 
 dinary vocation in the Church by reiterated apo- 
 logies for that which was extraordinary in .them- 
 selves ; (3) that they professed to justify their acts, 
 not as inherently lawful, but as simply "necessary" 
 by reason of the enormous corruptions and inflex- 
 ible tyranny of Rome ; and (4) that Romanists 
 themselves have made concessions, which, while 
 they tend to excuse the separatists of that age, and 
 to give plausibility to their line of defence, are an 
 additional condemnation of the sectaries who pro- 
 fess to succeed them in this, but who neither vin- 
 dicate themselves with their reasonings, nor have 
 any such concessions to plead. It is obvious, that 
 when these statements shall have been proved, the
 
 260 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 two classes in question will be already widely se- 
 parated from each other, even in respect of those 
 first principles which are usually thought to be 
 common to them both. And when this has been 
 accomplished, we may then adduce with better 
 effect the evidence of that further and special dis- 
 tinction which it is the main object of this chapter 
 to trace. 
 
 (1.) The confessions of the Master himself, by 
 whom the new theology was chiefly framed, are so 
 various and unreserved, that it may suffice in this 
 place to set down a few only by way of example. 
 One, indeed, such as the following, might very well 
 have been allowed to stand by itself. " That the 
 discipline which the ancient Church used is wanting 
 to us," said Calvin, in reply to the reproaches of 
 Cardinal Sadolet, " we ourselves do not deny" 1 Our 
 brethren now would tell us that this honest con- 
 fession was a mistake, and that their discipline is 
 that "which the ancient Church used;" or, at 
 
 1 " Disciplinam, qualem habuit vetus Ecclesia, nobis deesse, 
 neque nos diffitemur." And the words which follow this admission 
 are no less remarkable. " Sed cujus erit aequitatis, nos eversse dis- 
 ciplinae ab iis accusari, qui et earn soli penitus sustulerunt, et cum 
 postliminio reducere conaremur, nobis hactenus obstiterunt ? " To 
 understand which, it must be remembered that Calvin charged them 
 with having violated the ecclesiastical canons of the primitive Church ; 
 Ad Cardinal. Sadolet. Responsio. John Sturmius uses the same way 
 of reasoning. Describing minutely the ancient and primitive sys- 
 tem, he adds, "Hsec olim Pontificum disciplina; hanc nobis, Sadolete, 
 restituite, si Pontificum auctoritatem esse vultis. Neque enim quen- 
 quam nostrorum hominum esse credo, qui Pontifices rejiciat, modo 
 Pontificalis disciplina possit recuperari." Card. Sadoleto Respons.
 
 THEIR CONDITION DEFECTIVE. 261 
 
 all events, that they have no mind to submit to 
 any other. 
 
 " / know," said the same teacher elsewhere, 
 " how many things might be required as lacking in 
 us. And truly, if God should presently summon us 
 to a reckoning, our defence would be a difficult one." ' 
 This candour and humility in such a man as Calvin 
 is not less remarkable than the absence of those 
 qualities in his scholars. 
 
 In another place, describing to the King of Po- 
 land, in whose dominion the reformed doctrine was 
 then beginning to spread, the " extraordinary" vo- 
 cation which he and his contemporaries conceived 
 themselves to have received, and having exhorted 
 him to sanction an " extraordinary" method of dis- 
 cipline in his territories, he proceeds thus : " But 
 this would be a temporary office, for so long as 
 matters should continue disordered and unsettled, 
 not a reformation of the Church, but a certain pre- 
 paration only. And when things should be matured, 
 then, by the king's authority and the counsels of 
 the state, a more proper order for the creating of 
 Pastors might for the future be appointed." 2 And 
 
 1 " Scio quara multa desiderari a nobis possint. Et certe, si hodie 
 nos Deus vocaret ad calculum, difficilis esset excusatio." De Re- 
 formanda Ecclesia. Peter Viret makes the same confession. "Multa 
 adhuc apud nos merito desiderari possunt ad plenarn absolutamque 
 Ecclesiaj et Christiana? discipline restitutionem.'' In Sacr. et Eccles. 
 Minixt. Prsefat. 
 
 8 " Esset autem hoc ternporale munus, quantisper res incom- 
 
 positffi manerent ac suspensae. Neque enim fieri potest, &c 
 
 Denique, non rcfbrmatio esset Ecclesiae, sed quacdam solum prsepa-
 
 262 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 with these, as we shall hear Calvin again, we may 
 pass on to another. 1 
 
 Melancthon appears to have delivered quite as 
 plainly the same sentiments. " It is a greater scan- 
 dal," said he, " to forsake Churches for any thing 
 short of the most weighty causes, than merely to 
 give our adversaries the opportunity of censuring 
 our moderation. Judge whether of the two is the 
 evil-doer, the obstinate and inflexible man, who, 
 that he may preserve the reputation of constancy, 
 would rather desert a Church than change a vest- 
 ment; or he who, more patient in subjection, would 
 endure even offensive burdens, that he might be 
 profitable to the Church. For it often happens 
 that these very inexorable and immoderate men 
 neglect, nay hinder the Gospel, and meanwhile 
 make an uproar about little matters." Melancthon 
 seems to have appreciated these " reformers ;" and 
 he freely admits that there were many of them in 
 
 ratio. Rebus autem maturis, regia auctoritate et suffragiis ordinum 
 constitui posset in posterum certior ratio de Pastoribus creandis." 
 Epist. cxc. Sereniss. Hegi Polonice, pp. 351, 2. ed. Bezse, 1597. 
 
 1 One passage only shall be added. " Primum cum ministri," says 
 the same reformer, " certa quadam inter se disciplina opus habeant, 
 non hoc quserendum est qualiter sine legibus vivamus, sed ineunda 
 potius ceconomiae et ordinis ratio, quae apta sit ad nos in officio reti- 
 nendos, et ad aedificationem serviat. Nunquam autem sic comparatse 
 erunt res hominum, ut aliquid perfectum reperiatur . . . Jam vero in 
 hac nostra infirmitate fieri nequit, quin aliqua in nobis desiderentur." 
 Here surely are abundant admissions. There is no pretence of going 
 back to the " old paths," but some new way is to be " sought for," 
 which may be " suitable" for present need; yet still, as being a 
 "human" device, it must not be expected that it should be "per- 
 fect." Calvini Epist. Iv. Neocomensibus, p. 120.
 
 THEIR CONDITION DEFECTIVE. 263 
 
 his day, " even rulers and elders" as well as " many 
 teachers, who gave too much license to their own 
 private notions : but we should all," he adds, and 
 this is my reason for quoting him, " submit the 
 more humbly to subjection for this very reason, 
 that we have all abused the plea of liberty "* 
 
 " Some, however," he continues, " object that 
 saying of Paul, ' If I build again the things which 
 I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.' Paul 
 did not commit any errors in destroying" was Me- 
 lancthon's noble reply. " But in this our infirmity, 
 when first the ancient religious rites were abolished, 
 there was a vast incongruity of teachers, and of 
 opinions, and of circumstances. We confess that we 
 are men, and that we may have both said and done 
 things rashly and unadvisedly "* 
 
 Again, he could make earnestly the confession 
 which we for the most part forget to make : " many 
 
 ' " . . . ac servitutem eo modestius feramus, quia prsetextu liber- 
 tatis nos abusi sumus omnes." Vide Consilium Ph. Melancthonis, 
 Ad Marchiacas Ecclesias, pp. 45-47 ; cf. Epist. ad T. Matthiam, 
 p. 251 ; and Ad G. Buclwltzer, p. 283. See also the strong state- 
 ment of Bullinger, quoted by Strype, Life of Grindal, p. 112. 
 
 2 " Objiciunt autem aliqui dictum Pauli, ' Si quae destruxi, ea 
 restituo, praevaricator fio.' Non erravit Paulus in destruendo. At 
 in hac nostra infirmitate, cum primum veteres ritus aboliti sunt, 
 magna fuit et docentium et opinionum et locorum dissimilitudo . . . 
 Fateamur nos homines ess, et potuisse qusedam temere et incircum- 
 specte dicere et facere." Consil. p. 47. In like manner, all that 
 Daille ventures to say in behalf of "lay-elders" is, " that though 
 it may certainly seem a new thing, and different to the order esta- 
 blished by the Apostles, yet, if it be narrowly considered, it will not 
 be found so widely different from their form of government." Vide 
 Thes. Salmur. part ii. p. 353. ed. Salmurii, 1641.
 
 264 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 are the sins of the Church, and for these is it chas- 
 tised ;' n and he speaks of still seeing, amid the com- 
 mon ruin for so he did not hesitate to describe it 
 "some vestiges of the Church, which, while they 
 are providentially preserved, shew that even we are 
 not cast off by God." 8 This, it will be admitted, 
 is not the language of our moderns, nor any thing 
 like it. Yet it is but an imperfect representation of 
 the submissive and self-reproaching tenor of Me- 
 lancthon's common discourse. 
 
 " Think not," said another of these teachers 
 the learned Theodore Beza "that we are so ar- 
 rogant as to desire to abolish that which is eternal, 
 namely, the Church of our God. Think not that 
 we search after arguments by which we would de- 
 press you to this our wretched and vile condition 
 in which, however, we cordially acquiesce. Do we 
 imagine ourselves wiser than so many Greek and 
 Latin doctors ? Are we so self-conceited as to 
 suppose that we have first discovered truth ? or so 
 inflated as to condemn the whole world of error ? 
 Far, far be that from us." 3 
 
 1 Epist. ad Myconium, p. 317. 
 
 9 Amico cuidam, p. 330. Elsewhere he passionately laments " the 
 subversion of the apostolic discipline ;" Domino Gallo, p. 68. Claude 
 too, like Melancthon, could bear to speak of the imperfections of his 
 own communion. " Les uns," he says, contrasting Romanists with 
 Lutherans, " nous paroissent comme un corps couvert d'un grand 
 nombre de playes, qui toutes ensembles arretent les fonctions de la 
 vie ; et les autres comme un corps qui n'en a qu'une ou deux, qui 
 n'empechent pas qu'il ne vive et qu'il n'agisse." Defense de la He- 
 formation, ch. vii. p. 170. 
 
 3 " Ne existimate nos ita arrogantes esse ut velimus abolere
 
 THEIR CONDITION DEFECTIVE. 265 
 
 Again : having assured Bishop Grindal that, 
 both in respect of doctrine and discipline, he was 
 ready to submit to the word of God, he adds, 
 " Nevertheless, that we are as yet widely removed 
 from that which ought now to have been consti- 
 tuted, we do willingly confess." 1 
 
 The above writers may be regarded as repre- 
 senting the German and Swiss communities : the 
 French Protestants may be heard next. " No 
 wonder," says the son of the celebrated Dr. Peter 
 Du Moulin, " that the common people, that see 
 no Bishops but such as are foul heretics, and their 
 persecutors" (it was thus they spoke of the Ro- 
 man Catholic Prelates) "can hardly conceive of 
 a Bishop under another notion. But the gene- 
 rous and illuminate souls make no difficulty to 
 acknowledge openly the scantiness of their Church- 
 government, and that their bed is shorter than that 
 they can stretch themselves in it, and their covering 
 narrower than that they can wrap themselves in it. 
 But as short and narrow as it is, they must keep it 
 by an invincible necessity." 2 
 
 quod sempiternum est, nempe Ecclesiam Dei nostri. Ne putate nos 
 rationes quaerere," &c. Vide Comment, de Statu Religionis sub 
 Carolo IX. lib. iii. pp. 122 and 127. 
 
 1 " Quamvis ab eo quod jam constitutum oportuit, nos multum 
 adhuc abesse, ultro fateamur." Epist. viii. Ad Grindallum, Episc. 
 Londinens. 
 
 * Dr. Peter Du Monlin's Novelty of Popery ; Preface, by his 
 son the translator, who says, " The condition of the French Pro- 
 testant Church, living under the cross ever since the Reformation, 
 is an interregnum as for the ecclesiastical power. Whereof, if they
 
 266 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 Hugo Grotius, speaking in the name of another 
 section of Protestants those of the Low Countries 
 after warmly professing his belief that the Angli- 
 can Church had arranged itself according to the 
 primitive model, and in exact conformity with the 
 most ancient customs, adds : " from which, that 
 we in France and the Netherlands have departed, 
 it is not possible for us to deny" 1 
 
 have neither the right order, nor the full exercise, all that defect is 
 the vice of the times, not of the persons, which ought no more to be 
 blamed for it than a workman that is manacled for doing a piece of 
 work as well as he can, not as well as it should be." Ibid. John 
 Hales says the same thing : " The French Church being sub cruce 
 cannot well set up Episcopal jurisdiction." Golden Remains, p. 446. 
 ed. 1688. So Archbishop Bramhall, who spent some time with them : 
 " I know there are many learned persons among them who do pas- 
 sionately affect Episcopacy ; some of whom have acknowledged to 
 myself, that their Church would never be rightly settled until it was 
 new moulded." Just Vindication of the Church of England, Works, 
 vol. i. p. 164. One of their own members earnestly protests, " ce 
 seroit une cruelle sentence de priver du benefice de PEvangile et de 
 1'union avec Christ toutes les Eglises qui vivent sous la croix, et 
 qui ne peuventjouir du benefice de 1'ordre episcopal." Histoire des 
 nouveaux Presbyteriens Anglois et Ecossois. par M. F., Membre des 
 Eglises Reformees de France, chap. xiii. 
 
 1 " .... a quibus in Gallia et Belgio recessum negare non pos- 
 sumus." Vir. Erudit. Epist. no. 257. ed. Limborch. So the Re- 
 monstrants from the Synod of Dort, being censured for speaking 
 disrespectfully of the Genevan polity, reply, in a work which used 
 to be attributed to Grotius himself, " We did not mean that this 
 government which the reformed Churches have adopted is unlawful 
 and to be condemned, only that it is not the Apostolical form." 
 Remonstrantium Apolog. Contra Censuram, Exam. cap. xxi. p. 231. 
 The Confession of Faith of the French communities makes a similar 
 admission ; for, speaking in the 7th canon of Elders and Deacons, it 
 says, " The office of Elders and Deacons, as it is now in use amongst 
 us, is not perpetual." Quick's History of the Reformed Churches in 
 France, vol. i. p. 28. It is hard indeed, amid the rapid and unceas-
 
 THEIR VOCATION EXTRAORDINARY. 267 
 
 And this, which might be indefinitely increased, 
 may suffice in proof of the first assertion, " that the 
 reformers did not hesitate to acknowledge freely 
 that their condition was a defective one." 
 
 (2.) It is to be shewn, in the next place, that 
 they also recognised the ordinary and lawful voca- 
 tion, by choosing to represent their own calling as 
 altogether extraordinary. On this point, too, Calvin 
 and his confederates will appear to be widely sepa- 
 rated from their successors in the present age, who, 
 as is well known, do not scruple to assert, without 
 any hesitation, the claims which their forefathers 
 were so reluctant to urge. 
 
 " This office," said Calvin, " which God com- 
 mitted to us when He made use of our labours in 
 the forming of Churches, was altogether extraor- 
 dinary" 1 In which one sentence we have a full 
 
 ing changes which these religious bodies underwent, to know at any 
 given time what they did profess. These men, for instance, like all 
 the rest, went on by degrees. The earlier Gallic Synods, as those 
 of Paris, A.D. 1559, and Poictiers, A.D. 1560, decreed the observance 
 of certain forms on pain of severe censures. By the year 1694, at 
 the Synod of Montauban, they had advanced a little further, and 
 resolved, " that there is no need of an express and particular form of 
 prayer at the ordination of Ministers," having sometime before 
 decreed the same even of the order of the Holy Communion ! Quick, 
 Catalogue of French National Synods, p. 161. But this was only 
 the beginning of their mutations ; what they came to at last, we 
 shall see hereafter, aXX' ovSe TOVTOIS tviptivav, as S. Athanasius says 
 of some of their predecessors; De Synodis Arim. et Seleuc. torn. i. 
 p. 906. 
 
 1 " Atque omnino extraordinarium fuit hoc munus, quod Domi- 
 nus nobis injunxit, dum opera nostra ad colligendas Ecclesias usus
 
 268 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 surrender of the whole question in dispute. And 
 the admission is repeated by most of his brethren. 
 
 " Who are lawful Pastors ?" said Beza, in con- 
 ference with some of the Catholic party. " They 
 who are lawfully called. It remains, then, to de- 
 termine what is a lawful vocation. Now we assert, 
 that there is one kind of vocation which is ordi- 
 nary, and another which is extraordinary." 1 And 
 then, being desired by the learned Despence " to 
 refer to a single example like his own during fifteen 
 centuries," he professed openly, that God's dealings 
 at that time by the hands of teachers like himself 
 was " a certain extraordinary and unusual dispen- 
 sation." 2 The instances of "extraordinary" voca- 
 tion which he cites are those of the calling of 
 Moses and the Prophets ; which, he says, is suffi- 
 cient proof that there may be such a departure 
 from the ordinary method. So that he, in com- 
 mon with Calvin and the whole school of inven- 
 tors, did not even pretend that their preachers 
 
 est." Calvini Epist. cxc. Sereniss. Regi Poloniae, p. 351. " Calvin 
 himself," says Scrivener, " being created a Pastor without any law- 
 ful authority, was reduced to such deplorable straits, as to endeavour 
 to fortify his own and his followers' mission with the plea of an ' ex- 
 traordinary calling.' In these times, said he, God stirs up extra- 
 ordinary Pastors and Prophets." Apolog. pro Patribus Ecclesice, 
 contra Dallceum, Praefat. Cf. Bayle, art. Calvin. 
 
 ' " Dicimus unam esse ordinariae vocationis formam, et aliam 
 vocationem extraordinariam." Comment, de Statu Relig. sub Carolo 
 IX. lib. iii. p. 145. 
 
 2 " Inusitata quaedam et singularis ratio." Ibid. p. 158. So far 
 were they, at tirst, from using the language now commonly employed 
 by their disciples.
 
 THEIR VOCATION EXTRAORDINARY. 269 
 
 were called by the ordinary divine appointment; 
 but would have it believed, that it was just pos- 
 sible they were called after the fashion of Moses 
 and the Prophets! 
 
 But Beza sometimes forgot to maintain this 
 high character, and was content to pass for a 
 common man. In one of his writings he uses the 
 figure of a house on fire, and reasons from it thus : 
 " Just as, at such a time, one thing alone is thought 
 of, and every one runs to put out the flames, nor 
 is it much heeded either who the assistants may 
 be, or whence they come; so, and much more at 
 this moment, when all Christendom is on fire with 
 intestine divisions, I judge that he is not to be 
 censured who lends his aid in these difficulties of 
 the Christian world, even though he go beyond his 
 calling." 1 So that, after all, these pseudo-successors 
 of the prophets are nothing more, by their own 
 confession, than a sort of ecclesiastical firemen. 3 
 
 1 De Pace Ecclesioe, ap. Scrivener. Act. in Schismaticos Angli- 
 canos, p. 42. 
 
 3 They seem to have resolved, however, with more prudence than 
 consistency, to keep even this inferior office in their own hands. 
 Thus we find Beza admonishing a less distinguished " reformer"- 
 who was inclined to act upon this theory, and set up on his own 
 account as a healer of the Church's troubles that he had fallen into 
 a mistake. He tells him that this was all very well when the faith 
 was in peril through popery, but it is quite out of order now, when 
 a " regular" ministry was established. " If there had been such an 
 order," he informs his ambitious friend, " when Luther and Zuingle 
 first began to teach, they would never, unless by command of the 
 Church, have opened their mouths ; nusquam, nisi ab Ecclesia jussi, 
 os in Ecclesia aperuissent ;" and tfiey, he adds, possessed moreover 
 the ordinary vocation. Bezae Epist. v. Alamanno Lugdunensis Ec- 
 clesice turbatori.
 
 270 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 The celebrated M. Claude, in his " Defence 
 of the Reformation," uses similar reasoning. He 
 quotes, out of Theodoret, 1 the answer given by a 
 monk to the emperor Valens, to whom he excused 
 himself for going beyond his office in opposing the 
 Arian heresy, by saying, that " even a girl, if her 
 father's house were on fire, would be justified in 
 running for water to put it out." And then, far 
 from attempting to defend the mission of his friends 
 as an ordinary one, he maintains expressly, that the 
 obligation which compelled them to witness against 
 Romish corruptions constituted their vocation to 
 witness for the truth. 2 
 
 He was obliged, as their advocate, to say some- 
 thing, and perhaps this was the best he could say. 
 His own convictions, however, were too strong to 
 be controlled ; and he concludes his argument by 
 endeavouring to prove that, after all, many of them 
 had the lawful ordination. " Is it not true," he 
 asks, " that the majority of those who laboured in 
 this reformation were ecclesiastics, whom the duties 
 of their office obliged more especially" (every sen- 
 tence is an admission) " to purify religion ? Every 
 one knows that Luther and Zuingle were not only 
 priests, but also ordinary preachers, the one at 
 Wittemberg, the other at Zurich, and that the 
 former was a professor of theology. And the 
 world is not ignorant that they who joined them- 
 
 1 Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. xxiv. 
 
 2 Defense de la Reformation, 2 de partie, chap. iii. pp. 111-122.
 
 THEIR VOCATION EXTRAORDINARY. 271 
 
 selves to them to promote this design, were also in 
 public offices in the Church, as, the whole Uni- 
 versity of Wittemberg, a great number of priests 
 and of other ecclesiastics, with bishops and arch- 
 bishops in Germany, in Sweden, and in Denmark, 
 some even in France, and the whole body of the 
 bishops in England." 1 And he concludes the chap- 
 ter by saying, that their vocation was " ordinary," 
 in respect of the obligation upon all men, both lay 
 and clerical, to preserve the faith from destruction ; 
 and " extraordinary," in regard of the " extreme 
 and urgent necessity which compelled them to act 
 as they did : " a 1'egard," to use his own words, 
 " de la necessite extreme et indispensable qu'ils 
 ont eue de faire ce qu'ils ont fait." 2 
 
 Now, if he or his friends had thought as our 
 moderns do, why take all this needless trouble ? 
 Why not say boldly at once, " we had the true 
 apostolical ordination, and we wanted no other ?" 
 But it is evident that they did feel their want most 
 acutely ; and it was not till their first righteous 
 emotions of doubt and distress had passed away, 
 that they found courage to teach new doctrines 
 and contradict themselves. 3 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 123, 4. * Ibid. p. 125. 
 
 * " Till at length," as Hooker observes, " the discipline which 
 was at the first so weak, that without the staff of their approbation, 
 who were not subject unto it themselves, it had not brought others 
 under subjection, began now to challenge universal obedience, and 
 to enter into open conflict with those very churches which in des- 
 perate extremity had been relievers of it." E. P. Preface, p. 173. 
 And even Robertson gives a similar account of the progress of the
 
 272 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 Moses Amyraut adopts the same line of de- 
 fence. " Suppose," he says, " some Christian in a 
 private station should find himself alone amongst 
 barbarians, whom he might convert to the know- 
 ledge of Jesus Christ ; we are of opinion that he 
 would be sufficiently authorised, by the necessity of 
 the case, to exercise the pastoral office. The con- 
 sent of those whom he should convert being super- 
 added, we should account his vocation complete 
 and authentic." 1 He adds, that if afterwards he 
 should be able to be confirmed in his charge, by 
 communicating with some regular church, it would 
 be very profitable ; 2 but if this could not be, then 
 " the law of charity, which compels every man to 
 save his neighbour from the peril of destruction," 
 would be a sufficient call. And even then as if 
 not quite satisfied himself with that opinion which 
 he proposed to others he says, that if" the ordi- 
 
 new opinions in our own country. Having remarked that " the 
 first Puritans did not entertain any scruples with respect to the law- 
 fulness of Episcopal government, and seem to have been very unwill- 
 ing to withdraw from communion with the Church," he shews how 
 bitter and violent feelings gradually took possession of them, until, 
 " by degrees, ideas of ecclesiastical policy altogether repugnant to 
 those of the established church gained footing in the nation. The 
 more sober and learned Puritans inclined to that form which is 
 known by the name of Presbyterian." He goes on to say that 
 others " reprobated" parts of this system " as inconsistent with 
 Christian liberty," and to describe the gradual decline from one 
 folly and extravagance to another. History of America, book x. 
 Works, vol. ix. pp. 305, 6. 
 
 1 " . . . . Nous tiendrions sa vocation pour parfaite et pour au- 
 thentique." Moyse Amyraut, Apologia, p. 277. ed. Saumur, 1647. 
 
 8 " Asseurement cela serviroit a 1'edification commune." Ibid.
 
 THEIR VOCATION EXTRAORDINARY. 273 
 
 
 
 nary ministers" choose to undertake the work, " we 
 must always yield to that order of things which has 
 been already legitimately established" 1 He goes on 
 with more of the same kind ; and is as good a wit- 
 ness for us as if we had put the words into his 
 mouth. 
 
 Prince George of Anhalt says, that he once sent 
 his chamberlain to the Bishop of Brandenberg, " to 
 request ordination at his hands ;" 2 and that the bishop, 
 who leaned to the reformed doctrines, " would have 
 performed that office for him, as he had with great 
 good will promised to do, if God had not taken 
 him away. And then," the Prince adds, " there 
 was no other bishop in these parts who would con- 
 sent to do this." 3 They must, therefore, ordain 
 themselves, or go without ministers. And they 
 chose the former course. 4 
 
 1 p. 279. Claude makes the same remarkable admission. " II 
 est vray neanmoins que ce n'est, ni ne doit estre, la pratique com- 
 mune, et que cela n'a lieu que dans des cas d'absoliie necessite." 
 Defense, 4 eme partie, chap. iv. p. 366. Cf. Viret, De Minist. Verbi 
 Dei et Sacrament, lib. v. cap. xxiii. 
 
 * " Per sacellanum meum D. Jacobum Styrium, ad ordinandum 
 me rogavi." Citat. ap. Durell. Vindic. Eccles. Anglican, cap. vii. 
 p. 52. 
 
 3 Others seem to have been more fortunate. " Both the Prince 
 of Turenne (a Protestant) and the Due de la Force had their chap- 
 Jains ordained by a Bishop." And then the writer, Lewis Du Mou- 
 lin, adds, " let that stand as an undoubted truth, that Episcopacy 
 is of Apostolic institution, and therefore of Divine right. It is 
 acknowledged even by them t/tat want it." Novelty of Popery, Pre- 
 face. 
 
 4 " They ordain ministers without Bishops, because they have no 
 Bishops." L. Du Moulin, ubi supra. And so, in their own " Con- 
 fession of Faith," they excuse themselves by saying, " the state of 
 
 T
 
 274- ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 Labesse, a French minister, defending a thesis 
 before the learned Lewis Capelle, at one of the 
 conferences of Saumur, supposes the case of all 
 the bishops and presbyters of a province, or of 
 some particular church, being either taken away 
 or scattered ; and then he asks, whether the people 
 ought to be left to perish, or some extraordinary 
 remedy used to meet the case ? whether the 
 failure of the apostolical succession might not in 
 such a crisis be disregarded? He then emphati- 
 cally denies that all the " reformers " wanted the 
 due vocation why? unless he judged its loss 
 worthy of regret ? and proceeds thus : " many 
 things are lawful, and are commended and ap- 
 proved, in great convulsions, whether of the civil 
 or ecclesiastical body, which otherwise, in a peace- 
 ful, tranquil, and well-ordered state of things, would 
 not be lawful, nor might be lawfully attempted" 1 
 
 the Church being interrupted, God hath raised up some persons 
 in an extraordinary manner." Art. xxxi. Quick's History, vol. i. 
 p. 13. 
 
 1 Vide Thes. Salmur. pars ii. De Ministrorum Evangelicorum 
 Vocations, pp. 283, 286, 292. No opinion has been expressed upon 
 the kind of defence here alleged by these persons, nor is it necessary 
 to offer one. The tendency of their principles is now a matter of 
 history. The limitations under which they were first proposed, how- 
 ever sagaciously contrived, were not very likely to be accepted by 
 men who had no concern in framing them. And this the event 
 almost immediately proved. The countless sects which were gene- 
 rated in the rank soils from which Calvinism and Lutheranism Lad 
 already sprung, were willing enough to accept their example, but 
 only so far as it might serve to extenuate their own more extrava- 
 gant lawlessness. " Proclivis est enim malorum semulatio," says St. 
 Jerome ; " et quorum virtutes assequi nequeas, cito imitaris vitia."
 
 THEIR VOCATION EXTRAORDINARY. 275 
 
 Referring to what he calls with too much truth, 
 as we shall see " the horrible corruptions" of 
 Rome, he asks, who would not justify the power 
 assumed by his friends, " although it be beyond and 
 contrary to the received order ?" 
 
 One example more. " We do not deny," say 
 the advocates of the Synod of Dort, " that in the 
 first institution of the Church, when there is no 
 order, or during its restoration, when that order has 
 fallen into ruin, some new method, which shall take 
 the place of the ordinary vocation, may be at- 
 tempted ; but this will be out of order ; and that 
 which is extraordinary, whether wholly or in part, 
 cannot in any degree prejudice that which is ordi- 
 nary" 1 
 
 And now, if our second proposition be not yet 
 proved, it cannot at least be for lack of evidence. 
 It is plain enough, surely, what these divines, who 
 did not even pretend to claim the ordinary calling 
 
 And when the Anabaptists appealed to Luther, "not doubting," as 
 the historian says, " that he who had first preached ' the liberty of 
 the Gospel' would pronounce in their favour," Maimbourg, ann. 
 1526 they bad certainly some reason to be astonished at a reply 
 which seemed to involve the formal renunciation of one of the first 
 principles of his "reformation." "Let the Senate ask this man," 
 said he, when giving advice about the pretensions of Muncer, " who 
 called him ; and if he shall answer, God ; let them charge him. to prove 
 his calling by some manifest sign" which, added Luther, if he can- 
 not do, let him be repudiated as an impostor. Sleidan, lib. v. ann. 
 1525. This surely was an unkind judgment upon his own friends 
 and associates : but they who teach novelties cannot venture to be 
 consistent. 
 
 1 Censur. in Remonstrant. Synodo dc Dort. in cap. xxi. pp. 
 274, 5.
 
 276 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 in their own case, would have said of the " voca- 
 tion" of certain persons amongst ourselves. 1 
 
 (3.) Our third assertion that the acts of the 
 
 1 Or if there be still any doubt, we may judge by what they 
 actually have said. 
 
 We find Calvin, for instance, rebuking the English sectaries at 
 Fraucfbrt, and asking indignantly, " what cause for quarrelling they 
 could have, unless it was that they were ashamed to yield to their 
 betters." Epist. cc. p. 377. And again, advising the Protector 
 Somerset to make short work with " the seditious" fanatics in Eng- 
 land, and " to coerce them with the sword of justice." Epist, Ixxxvii. 
 Protectori Anglice, p. 181. 
 
 Beza not only condemned the "ordinations" of the same secta- 
 ries, but protested that " the idea of their exercising the ministry 
 against the will of the King and the Bishops was monstrous;" with 
 much more to the same effect. Epist. xii. Ad quosdam Anglicanos. 
 Cf. Epist. xxiii. Ad Grindallum. 
 
 Gualter and Bullinger pointedly " disowned the Puritans" of 
 England, defending the Church against them, and calling them 
 "schismatics." See Strype's Life of Parker, vol. ii. p. 112; and 
 Histoire des Nouveaux Presbyteriens, chap. xv. p. 137. Grotius 
 defined them to be "certain obstinate fellows, who think nothing 
 right but what they do themselves." Ordin. Holland, et Wcst- 
 frisicB Pietas, pp. 65 and 113. John Diodati wrote from Geneva, in 
 the name of that community, and in reply to the Presbyterians of 
 the Westminster Assembly, rejecting their offers of friendship, and 
 sternly condemning their principles ; or, as one has briefly described 
 it, " Diodati wrote firm for Episcopal government from Geneva, and 
 accused the Presbyterians of schism.' 1 Life of Bishop Hacket, p. 25, 
 ed. 1675. Diodati's letter, which contains enthusiastic commenda- 
 tions of the Anglican Church, is entitled Responsum ad Conventum 
 Ecclesiasticum Londini congregatum, 1647. Another Genevan Pro- 
 fessor, the learned Turretin, repeats the charge of " schism." His- 
 tor. Ecclesiast. Compend. secul. xvi. p. 384, Genevae, 1736. Lewis 
 Capelle, who was represented to Cardinal Barberini by Morin as 
 a very champion of Protestantism Morini Epist. Ixxxii. p. 431 
 speaks with open contempt of their doings, especially of their "so- 
 called Directory," and of their rejection of Bishops: apud Durell. 
 Ad Apologistce Prafat. Respons. Bochart, De PAngle, Amyraut, 
 Vincent, Heraut, and many others, " wrote publicly," to use the
 
 THEIR PLEA OF NECESSITY. 277 
 
 " reformers" were nevertheless defended as neces- 
 sary, by reason of the intolerable corruptions and 
 tyranny of Rome has been already partly proved, 
 and will no doubt be very readily admitted. Yet 
 
 strong words of a writer already quoted, " against these men, to 
 testify the horror in which the Reformed Churches of France held 
 their sentiments and their actions." Histoire des nouveaux Presby- 
 teriens, chap. xii. Of. Regii Sanguinis Clamor ad Coelum, cap. vii. 
 p. 118, ed. Hagae, 1652. Even the violent Salmasius derided these 
 people, openly ridiculed their affectation of sanctity, and declared 
 that "the French and Swiss Protestants regarded the state of Eng- 
 land under their rule as Antichristian, and worse than the papistical 
 religion itself," which was the severest reproach such a man could 
 speak ; Ad Miltonum Bespons. cap. i. pp. 43 and 101, cap. iii. 
 p. 326. And lastly, the 'Remonstrants' from the Synod of Dort 
 protest against being thought "so presumptuous as to reject the 
 Anglican polity, or so schismatical as to justify the Puritan." Apol. 
 contra Censuram, p. 233. So much for the sympathy of the foreign 
 communities with English Presbyterians. Next for the Indepen- 
 dents. 
 
 Diodati calls the title assumed by these sectaries " teterrimum 
 nomen ;" ubi supra. Even Blondel says they were "a scandal to 
 the Protestant name ;" Apoloa. Prsefat. p. 71. Morell, the leader 
 of the Independents, was excommunicated by Calvin, Beza, and the 
 whole of the. Genevan doctors; Durell, cap. xxxi. p. 414. The en- 
 tire sect was similarly condemned by the French communion with 
 terms of extreme indignation, in the 3d Synod of Charenton ; quoted 
 by Bingham, The French Church's Apology for the Church of 
 England, Works, vol. viii. book i. ch. i. And even the Lutheran 
 Stockmann puts the Brownists in his catalogue of " heretics :" vide 
 Pauli Stockmanni Lexicon Hceresium, p. 856. So that whereas 
 Milton, in his Defensio Populi, endeavoured to identify the prin- 
 ciples of foreign Protestants with those of his own party, Bishop 
 Horsley does not hesitate to say, " a grosser falsehood never fell 
 from the unprincipled pen of a party writer ;" Appendix to his Ser- 
 mon before the House of Lords, quoted in Todd's Life of Milton, 
 p. 129. And it is a very significant fact, that when the Presbyterian 
 Assembly of Westminster sent letters to seventeen foreign communi- 
 ties, the replies which they actually received for by some of these 
 bodies no answer was vouchsafed were almost all carefully hushed 
 up : vide Hist, des nouveaux Presb. ch. xiii. p 112.
 
 278 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 there is no circumstance, perhaps, in their whole 
 history which serves more effectually to distinguish 
 them from the separatists of our own age than the 
 fact of their having so strenuously urged this simple 
 and obvious plea ; and for this reason some further 
 illustrations shall now be added, of the use which 
 they were accustomed to make of it. I will quote 
 first some additional remarks of the eloquent M. 
 Claude. 
 
 After professing an earnest desire for the re- 
 storation of Catholic Unity, and lamenting the sub- 
 tleties with which the Court of Rome was still com- 
 bating the almost universal prayer for ecclesiastical 
 reform, 1 he says : " But what could be expected 
 from a body which had almost entirely abandoned 
 the care of religion and the salvation of souls, which 
 was absorbed in intrigues and secular pursuits, and 
 which studiously kept the people in ignorance of 
 the mysteries of the Gospel ? Our fathers were 
 persuaded that Christianity was tending to utter 
 decay, and, moreover, they had no longer any hope 
 of remedy, neither from Rome nor from the Prelates ; 
 for the Court of Rome, with all its partisans, had 
 firmly pronounced against the Reformation, assert- 
 ing that the Church of Rome could not err ; and as 
 to the Prelates, they had all a servile attachment 
 to the will of the Popes." 2 There was nothing, 
 therefore, to hope from either quarter. But what 
 
 1 Defense de la Reformation, Epitre. 
 
 2 2 de partie, ch. i. p. 90, and ch. iii. pp. Ill, 12.
 
 THEIR PLEA OF NECESSITY. 279 
 
 if there had been ? "I confess," says Claude, 
 " that if the Court of Rome and its Clergy would 
 have joined with good faith in the work of the 
 Reformation, our fathers ought to have received it 
 at their hands." 1 Now it was uniformly maintained 
 by these divines, as we shall see, that that " work " 
 was gloriously consummated in England, and the 
 Prelates of that Church were lauded by them as 
 the ornaments of Christendom. Let it be con- 
 sidered, then, what sort of sympathy they would 
 have professed with men who are schismatics from 
 that very Church which they so warmly com- 
 mended ; whereas they themselves would not have 
 separated even from Rome, if a reformation had 
 been granted them. 
 
 Again ; having protested that it was " neither 
 upon questions of discipline, nor upon scholastic 
 questions, nor upon personal interests," that their 
 separation had been founded, he adds, " the articles 
 which separate us are such as, in our judgment, 
 affect the very substance of the Faith." And then 
 that there may be no room for doubt as regards 
 the point upon which he is here cited, after enu- 
 merating certain matters of belief, in which is in- 
 cluded " the superiority of bishops over presbyters 
 by divine right"- he says expressly, " these could 
 not have sufficed to produce a rupture of unity." 2 
 
 1 Chap. iv. p. 122 ; and Peter Viret, much to the same effect, 
 De Minist. Verb. Dei et Sacrament, lib. viii. cap. iii. 
 * 3 me partie, chap. i. p. 210.
 
 280 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 Lastly, when engaged in the formal defence 
 of the final act of separation, the precedent upon 
 which he professes to rely for justification is this, 
 that the Catholics of the fourth century thought it 
 their duty to separate from the Arians! 1 "And 
 if," he adds, " it should be replied, that that move- 
 ment was sanctioned by many Bishops, we may say 
 the very same thing of the party of the Reforma- 
 tion, in which it is well known that there was a 
 great number of pious and learned Prelates" 2 For 
 ourselves we have no wish, as we have certainly 
 no need, to appeal to M. Claude, or to any of his 
 school ; what others will answer to him, who have 
 been accustomed to claim his alliance, is their 
 concern. 
 
 Melancthon may be heard next. " That I may 
 avow my own opinion," said he, " I wish that I 
 were able, not indeed to confirm the tyranny, but 
 to restore the government of the Bishops ; for I 
 see what sort of a Church we are likely to have, if 
 the Ecclesiastical Polity be dissolved. I see that 
 there will be hereafter a far more intolerable ty- 
 ranny than there ever was before." 3 He then refers 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 218-222. And the comparison, whatever we may 
 now think of it, was in those days considered a just one. Coelius 
 confidently applies it ; Hceret. Papat. p. 161, ed. Basilese : and 
 PfefHnger defends the application of Gal. i. 8, and kindred passages 
 of Holy Scripture, to the Roman Church ; Disput. de Grad. Minist. 
 Art. xxxi. Cf. Melancth. Script, in Convent. Schmakaldens., and 
 Calvin, Institut. lib. iv. cap. ii. 9. 
 
 2 p. 122. 
 
 3 It is scarcely necessary to say that Melancthon's prediction has
 
 THEIR PLEA OF NECESSITY. 281 
 
 to the judgment of certain distinguished and influ- 
 ential Protestants as coinciding with his own, and 
 adds, " how, indeed, can we lawfully violate the 
 government of the Church, if the Bishops grant 
 to us what it is just that they should concede ? }>1 
 Now Melancthon declared that the English Bishops 
 had done this ; and judged that, " if there were 
 more such Bishops, there would be no difficulty in 
 maintaining unity, nor in preserving the Church." 2 
 Our brethren, however, are of another mind. 
 
 " That we have not received the imposition of 
 hands," was Beza's answer to the Catholics, " nor 
 were appointed by those whom ye style the ordi- 
 nary pastors, ought not to appear at all wonderful, 
 
 been fulfilled in every country where the Genevan discipline has 
 been set up. And so well was this characteristic of the presbyterians 
 understood by their kinsfolk in schism, that we find Brown, the 
 inventor of ' Independentism,' saying, " As for the Episcopal govern- 
 ment, though he did not approve of it, yet that being well settled by 
 a long continuance, he did not think it was rashly and of a sudden 
 to be abolished ; and that this was a burthen so much the more 
 easily to be borne, by how much men's necks had been long accus- 
 tomed to it; but to be lorded over by Classes and Elders was not 
 only a new but an intolerable yoke." Quoted by Dr. Nicholls, De- 
 fence of the Church of England, p. 35. And when, in their turn, the 
 Independents got the upper hand, then the Presbyterians complained, 
 that "whereas formerly this nation was called the Pope's and Pre- 
 lates' asses, we may now justly be called the Independents' mules." 
 Bastwick's Utter Routing of Independents and Sectaries, Epistle to 
 the reader. 
 
 l ,Hist. Confess. August, ap. Durell. Cf. Art. xx. of that Con- 
 fession. 
 
 2 "... quales si haberet Ecclesia aliquanto plures, non difficulter 
 et concordia orbis terrarum constitui, et servari Ecclesia posset." 
 Episcopo Cantuariensi, p. 193. Cf. Epist. ad Campegium Cardinalem, 
 p. 147.
 
 282 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 seeing that in so great disorder of all things in the 
 Roman Church, we were unwilling to receive im- 
 position of hands from them, whose vices, supersti- 
 tion, and false doctrine we condemned, and who 
 were the open enemies of the truth." 1 But this 
 same Beza said of the English Church, " As to 
 what concerns your faith and doctrine, received by 
 public consent and confirmed by royal authority, I 
 suppose there is no man that thinks rightly of these 
 matters but will embrace it as true and certain." 2 
 And further, " he inveighs against those, as f im- 
 pudent slanderers,' who should report him to have 
 detracted any thing from the dignity of Episcopacy 
 in this Church." 3 
 
 J. Brentius, a leading man amongst the same 
 persons, referring to the decree of Theodosius, 
 that " men should embrace that religion which 
 was taught by the Apostles, and confessed by holy 
 Bishops" says, " this was wise, for the Bishops 
 alluded to Pope Damasus and Peter of Alexan- 
 dria were holy men; but we now speak of Pon- 
 tiffs and Bishops who teach and profess an impious 
 religion. Let them give us men like Damasus and 
 Peter, who follow the true and pure doctrine of 
 the Apostle Peter, and they shall find us not only 
 hearers, but fellow-workers too." 4 And that if the 
 
 1 Vide Comment, de Statu Relig. sub Carolo IX. lib. iii. p. 157. 
 
 2 Epist. viii. cited by Bingham, vol. viii. bk. ii. ch. i. 
 
 3 See Morton's Episcopacy asserted Apostolical, ch. i. 1 . 
 
 4 J. Brentii De Officio Principum, Prolegom. p. 77, ed, Franco- 
 furt. 1556.
 
 THEIR PLEA OF NECESSITY. 283 
 
 Roman Bishops had been such men, this contro- 
 versy about discipline would never even have been 
 raised, is plain enough from the next words of 
 Brentius. " The Theodosian law," he says, " com- 
 mends that Apostolic discipline which the Apostle 
 Peter delivered, and which Damasus and Peter of 
 Alexandria followed ;"* but Damasus and Peter, 
 who administered what Brentius truly calls this 
 "apostolic discipline," were both of them Arch- 
 bishops. 
 
 " If they wish to be acknowledged for Bishops," 
 said Calvin, " let them discharge their office by 
 feeding the people. If they would retain the power 
 of institution and ordination, let them restore that 
 just and grave scrutiny of doctrine and manners 
 which has now for many ages ceased to be prac- 
 tised among them." 2 And if they had done this, 
 as the English Bishops did, Calvin would have 
 " acknowledged " them, or else he must have stood 
 convicted out of his own mouth. 
 
 Again : at a conference appointed by the Em- 
 peror, at which Bucer, Melancthon, and John 
 Pisterius assisted, the question of Episcopacy was 
 
 1 Ibid. p. 80. And in accordance with this, their Apologist, in 
 reply to the question, " If they allow the state of Bishop, why then 
 did they banish their Catholic Bishops?" says, " they banished the 
 Popish Bishops, not because they were Bishops, but because they 
 were Popish." The notion of rejecting Bishops altogether, he says, 
 they utterly repudiated. See Francis Mason's Ordinations of the 
 Ministers of the Reformed Churches beyond the seas maintained 
 against the Romanists. Cf. Davenant. De Pace Ecclesiastica, p. 8. 
 
 3 De Reformanda Ecclesia.
 
 284 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 one of the six subjects upon which they came to 
 full accord with the Catholics; it was on others, 
 as the true doctrine of the Eucharist, that they 
 differed. 1 The whole controversy, from first to 
 last, turned not upon discipline, but upon doctrine. 
 
 " The Bishops," says another document, which 
 was vehemently approved by Calvin, Luther, Me- 
 lancthon, and all the heads of their party, " may 
 easily retain the submission due to them, if they 
 would not compel us to keep traditions which can- 
 not with a good conscience be observed" 2 
 
 " I wish," said another eminent person, in very 
 similar language, "that as they bear the names 
 and titles, so they would in very deed shew them- 
 selves to be Bishops of the Church. How will- 
 ingly, if they would faithfully rule the Churches, 
 and with what joyfulness of heart, should we (in 
 that case) consent to acknowledge them as Bi- 
 shops, to reverence them, to comply with their 
 authority, to recognise their rightful jurisdiction 
 and ordination, and without any reluctance to 
 make use of it." 3 
 
 The Bishops being, however, such as they were, 
 
 1 Vide Maimbourg, Histoire du Luther anisme, arm. 1541. 
 
 2 Confess. Augustan, cap. De Potestate Ecclesice. Seckendorff 
 quotes Luther's approval of this Confession, as a token of his will- 
 ingness to submit to the Bishops ; and says, that it was only " when 
 he despaired" of procuring their sanction of his opinions, that he 
 "asserted the right of choosing ministers without them." Histor. 
 LutJieranismi, torn. ii. p. 156 ; and see torn. i. p. 115, for some strong 
 language on the same point. 
 
 3 Georg. Princ. Anhalt. De Ordinal. Prsefat.
 
 THEIR PLEA OF NECESSITY. 285 
 
 or as they were conceived to be, " unless we sepa- 
 rate ourselves," said Bucer, "from such false and 
 impious rulers of the Church, whose whole life is 
 defiled with the most infamous crimes, 1 we should 
 transgress the commandment of the Lord. So 
 judged and wrote with great severity that blessed 
 martyr and bishop, Cyprian ; and in this all the 
 holy Fathers agree with him, as well in the decrees 
 of the Councils as in their own private writings." 2 
 But what said Bucer of our spiritual Rulers ? " We 
 shall diligently supplicate the Lord," was his decla- 
 ration to one of their number, "that your happy 
 lot, in rejoicing in true Bishops, He may both daily 
 confirm in your own realm, and also extend it in 
 common to other kingdoms ." 3 
 
 1 Although we must make great allowance for the intemperate 
 exaggerations of these writers, yet it is rather the coarseness and 
 virulence of their language than the truth of their statements against 
 which exception is to be taken. We are, however, only con- 
 cerned here to shew that they did make these statements in their 
 own defence. That the corruptions of the Roman Church at the 
 period of the Reformation were unspeakably great, it is not, indeed, 
 difficult to prove ; but this fact, whether it justified the first Pro- 
 testants or not, serves only the more to condemn our modern sec- 
 taries, because they do not even pretend to such a defence of their 
 separation. On the way in which it used to be urged, see Brentii 
 Prolegom. p. 75 ; Calvini Institut. lib. iv. cap. ii. 10 ; Viret. De 
 Minist. Verbi Dei et Sacrament, lib. viii. cap. iii. ; Zuinglii De Vera 
 et Falsa Rcligione, p. 303 ; Bucan. Institut. Theolog. De Ministerio, 
 loc. 48 ; CEcolampadii Epist. Gasjmr. Hedioni, p. 13 ; Apolog. 
 Confess. Duels Wirlenlerg. De Ordine, p. 648 ; Chemnitz. Exam. 
 Decret. Condi. Trident, cap. viii. torn. iii. ; De Ccel. Sacerdot. 
 cap. ii. 
 
 3 De Animarum Cura, Prgefat. p. 162. 
 
 3 In Sacra Evangelia Prafat. ; and see his Gratulatio ad Eccle- 
 siam Anrjlue.
 
 286 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 " Our churches," writes another distinguished 
 Protestant teacher, " did not embrace the presby- 
 terian discipline from dislike of Episcopacy, or be- 
 cause it seemed to us to be opposed to the Gospel, 
 or to be less profitable to the Church, or less suit- 
 able to the condition of the Lord's true fold" all 
 these modern heresies he rejects "but because 
 they were compelled by necessity. If the Bishops 
 would have sanctioned the Reformation, that their 
 order would have been preserved in the govern- 
 ment of the Church, I hold for certain." 1 And 
 then he gives the best possible reason for his 
 opinion, by shewing that when the Bishops did 
 consent to that movement, they were gladly re- 
 ceived as their rulers by the Protestant party. 
 
 And here not for lack of witnesses, but of 
 leisure to hear them we must conclude. 2 And 
 
 1 Drelincourt, Letter to Srevint, quoted by Durell, cap. xxxiv. 
 pp. 517, 18. So Luther, as a modern writer notices, " urged Me- 
 lancthon to restore Episcopacy in every place where the Bishop 
 granted the free use of the Protestant doctrine." Bampton Lecture 
 for 1832, Sermon ii. p. 85, note. " And generally," says Bramhall, 
 " all Reformed Churches were desirous to have retained Episcopacy, 
 if the Bishops that then were would have joined with them in the 
 Reformation. This is evident for the German Churches, by the Au- 
 gustan Confession and Apology, that Bishops might easily retain 
 their places if they would ; they protest they are not guilty of the 
 diminution of Episcopal authority," &c. The Serpent Salve, p. 604. 
 
 2 Because it would be endless even to refer to the unnumbered 
 admissions on this point. There is a remarkable passage in the 
 writings of Chemnitz which may be consulted Harmon. Evang. 
 cap. clxxiii. pp. 836, 7. ed. Gerhard ; the whole chapter pointing at 
 Romish corruptions. Arminius, too, professes to grieve at the schism, 
 and, like all the rest, to justify it by the " idolatry" of Popery, and 
 the "tyranny" of the Pope; Arminii Disput. Theolog. thesis xxii.
 
 THEIR PLEA OF NECESSITY. 287 
 
 the only comment upon their evidence shall be in 
 the words of one of their own friends. " They 
 who read with attention," says Le Clerc, " the 
 histories of that century (the sixteenth) are fully 
 satisfied that this latter form of government (the 
 presbyterian) was introduced for this reason only 
 because the Bishops would not allow to them, who 
 contended that the doctrine and manners of Chris- 
 tians stood in need of necessary amendment, that 
 those things should be reformed which they com- 
 plained were corrupted. Otherwise, if the Bishops 
 every where, at that time, had been willing to do, 
 of their own accord, what was not long after done 
 in England, that government had prevailed even to 
 this day amongst all those who separated from the 
 
 13, 14, 15. pp. 213-15. See also Expos. Exact. Synod. Witebergce, 
 De Ministris Ecclesiae, where it is professed on the part of all the 
 divines of that city and neighbourhood, that " all Bishops who teach 
 the word of God, and suffer it to be taught, ought to ordain, and to 
 receive the submission and obedience of all the other Ministers of the 
 churches." The same thing was declared in the name of the whole 
 Protestant party at the Ratisbon Conference, in the year 1541 ; and 
 the language then employed in recognising the Episcopal pre-emi- 
 nence is so emphatic, that it would abundantly suffice for the pur- 
 pose of this argument to refer to that one example alone: vide 
 Goldast. Constitut. Imperial, torn. ii. p. 204, ed. Francofurt. 1673. 
 Seckendorff gives it as the general sentiment of the Protestant theo- 
 logians, that the Bishops must retain their office, if they would dis- 
 charge it purely ; Histor. Lutheranismi, torn. i. p. 176. Cf. Sleidari. 
 lib. xiii. ann. 1540. p. 213. And see the Professio Fidei Fratrum 
 Waldensium, De Sacerdotii Ordine ; and the Con/ess. Fratr. JBohe- 
 morum, apud F. Spanhemii Epitom. Isagog. ad Hist. Eccles. torn. ii. 
 p. 827: but, in truth, they never dreamed of rejecting Episcopacy, 
 until it became a question, whether the Bishops should eject them, 
 or they preserve their own power by casting out the Bishops.
 
 288 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 Romish Church; and the numberless calamities 
 which happened, when all things were disturbed 
 and confounded, had then been prevented." 1 
 
 These earlier separatists, then, did not even 
 pretend to use the reasonings of our moderns, nor 
 to assert any other ground of justification but that 
 of invincible necessity. " We do embrace all faith- 
 ful Bishops with all reverence," was their own re- 
 peated declaration ; "neither do we, as some falsely 
 object against us, propose our example to any other 
 Church to be followed." 2 And so well was this 
 understood, both by Romanists 3 and Anglicans, 
 
 1 On the Choice of an Opinion amongst the different Sects of 
 Christians, book i. 11 ; appended to Dr. Clarke's translation of 
 Grotius, De Veritate, &c. p. 318. 
 
 2 Bezae Respons. ad Sarav. De Divers. Grad. Minist. cap. xxi. 
 To which may be annexed, as a final testimony, the well-known 
 confession of the Protestant divines at the Synod of Dort ; who, 
 when Bishop Carleton frankly told them, that the want of Episco- 
 pacy was the source of all their evils and divisions, made the fol- 
 lowing reply : " That they had a great honour for the good order 
 and discipline in the Church of England, and heartily wished they 
 could establish themselves upon this model; but since they had no 
 prospect of such a happiness, and since the civil government had 
 made their desires impracticable, they hoped God would be merciful 
 to them." Vide Collier's Ecclesiastical History, part ii. book viii. 
 p. 718. The author of the Remonstrant " Apology" says, that John 
 Polyander, Thysius, and Walseus all men of note at that time 
 were present, and joined in making this confession to Bishop Carle- 
 ton ; Apolog. contra Censuram, p. 233. 
 
 3 Vide Maimbourg, ann. 1530 ; Spondani Annal. Ecclesiast. ann. 
 1530 ; Bossuet, Histoire des Variations des Eglises Protestantes, 
 Pref. p. 31 ; and Gregory De Valentia, who says, " all the Pro- 
 testants but the Anabaptists acknowledge three orders tres saltern 
 of ministers;" and then he describes their notions of them; 
 Comment. Theolog. Disp. ix. De Sac. Ord. torn. iv. p. 1645, ed. 
 Lugdun. 1603. De Mezeray, too, seems to have been so little sus-
 
 THEIR PLEA OF NECESSITY. 289 
 
 that we find intelligent and well-informed persons 
 expressing their astonishment at the rise of the 
 new opinions. " I have often wondered," says Sir 
 Henry Yelverton, " how it comes to pass that the 
 sacred order of Bishops should in this island meet 
 with so many unreasonable adversaries, when in 
 all the reformed churches beyond the seas we are 
 counted the only happy nation who enjoy the purity 
 of doctrine with the primitive government." 1 And 
 Hadrian Saravia, who, by his familiar acquaint- 
 ance with the continental divines, and his long 
 residence amongst them, was still better qualified 
 to speak on this subject, professes himself quite 
 taken by surprise, when Beza first ventured to 
 defend on principle that Genevan polity which, as 
 he observes, " was avowedly contrived only as a 
 temporary makeshift." 2 But enough, surely, has 
 
 picious of their desire to reject all Bishops, that, speaking of the 
 affair of the Archbishop of Cologne, he says, it concerned the repu- 
 tation of the Protestant party to maintain him in his archbishopric ; 
 ann. 1583. p. 7ti6. And lastly, when it was proposed at the Council 
 of Trent, that the divine origin of Episcopacy should be formally 
 asserted, it was answered by one of the Cardinal Legates, that it was 
 unnecessary to do so, as that point was not amongst those which 
 were disputed by the Lutherans. Vide Ruchat, Histoire de la Re- 
 formation de la Suisse, tome vi. p. 627 ; and Father Paul's History, 
 lib. vi. ch. xi. 
 
 1 See his Preface to Bp. Morton's Episcopacy asserted Apos- 
 tolical. 
 
 2 De Divers. Grad. Minist., Lectori. Saravia remarks, cap. vii., 
 that he had always suspected " this device of mere necessity would 
 in time be put forward as the true primitive discipline ;" and so he, 
 in common with Grabe and others, forsook his uncongenial asso- 
 ciates, and sought refuge in the bosom of the Anglican Church. 
 
 U
 
 290 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 now been said to shew, that in this respect, as in 
 others already noticed, the separatists of our age 
 are almost as far removed from those of the six- 
 teenth century as they from the Catholic Church. 
 
 (4.) It remains to be shewn, in the last place, 
 that the line of defence adopted by the first leaders 
 of the Calvinistic and Lutheran sects, and illustrated 
 in the foregoing citations, has received the only 
 sanction of which it was capable, in the copious 
 and humiliating confessions of the most devoted 
 adherents to the chair of Rome. 
 
 And keenly painful as it must be to Catholic 
 sympathies to dwell, even for a moment, on such 
 a subject, it would be an additional grief to be sup- 
 posed to do so in that temper of unreasoning hos- 
 tility which has so long prevailed amongst us. If 
 the errors which we have been taught to discern 
 in the Roman Church be such as the widest charity 
 cannot conceal or deny ; 1 if her degenerate sons 
 have, as we suppose, dishonoured the holy Fathers 
 of blessed memory, profaned by irreverent defini- 
 tions the " tremendous mysteries" of our religion, 
 
 1 " We do not (however) maintain that the Roman Church itself 
 is fallen to ruin and desolation ; we grant it a true metaphysical 
 being, though not a true moral being; we hope their errors are 
 rather in superstructures than in fundamentals ; we do not say that 
 the plants of saving truth, which are common to you and us, are 
 plucked up by the roots in the Roman Church, but we say that they 
 are overgrown with weeds, and in danger to be choked." Bramhall, 
 Answer to De la Milittire, vol. i. p. 30.
 
 THEIR PLEA OF JUSTIFICATION. 291 
 
 and in their zeal to expose "the fair beauty" of 
 the Spouse of Christ, torn away the veil which 
 screened her comeliness from common eyes; if 
 they have substituted a particular Church of the 
 day for the Church Catholic of all ages, and the 
 decrees of individual Popes for " the faith once 
 delivered to the saints;" if they have multiplied 
 devices " to slay the souls that should not die, and 
 to save the souls alive that should not live," we 
 at least in all this have no cause for rejoicing. Our 
 own position, as a lonely and isolated people, 1 is 
 without parallel or precedent in the history of the 
 Church of Christ. We have reason enough our- 
 selves, if we did but know it, to be putting on the 
 vestments of mourning. 2 And if we are ever again 
 to be at one with our brethren, whom no estrange- 
 ment can separate from our affections, it must be 
 by mutual confession and mutual repentance, by 
 laying aside, like our fathers of old, 3 the instru- 
 
 1 Mdi/oj idi, was the expressive rebuke once addressed to men 
 with whom we have nothing in common but our unwilling separa- 
 tion from the rest of Christendom. Vide S. Cyril. Alex. Adv. Nestor. 
 lib. ii. torn. vi. p. 60. " Non enim separatio facit schisma," says 
 Cassander, " sed causa ;" and we comfort ourselves with the assur- 
 ance, " aliud esse statum, aliud crimen schismatis." Thorndike, De 
 Rat. ac Jurefiniend. Controv. p. 372. 
 
 2 " Lugent cuncta, tu Icetus es ; non miror plane, non miror, tibi 
 evenisse mala quse consecuta sunt." Salvian. De Gubernat. Dei, lib. 
 vi. p. 144. " Noli ergo," was the admonition of another, " in com- 
 paratione multitudinis gentium catholicarum de vestra paucitate glo- 
 riari ;" Aug. Contra Cresconium, lib. iv. cap. liii. When shall we 
 learn to confess, that separation from the whole Christian world, even 
 though it be our duty to abide in it, is not a matter of rejoicing? 
 
 3 Psalm cxxxvii.
 
 292 
 
 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 ments of mirth, and desiring, like them, in the 
 day of their penance, to " prefer Jerusalem" above 
 every joy, and for her sake to resign the vain and 
 carnal fancies which have beguiled us of our true 
 riches, and darkened for a while the glories of our 
 inheritance. 
 
 In citing the following passages, then, it is 
 designed chiefly to explain and account for the 
 reasonings which, as we have seen above, were 
 so confidently urged by the " reformed" teachers. 
 And this, surely, is a sufficient object. Because it 
 is evident, that the very admissions which tend, in 
 whatever degree, to their justification, do but aug- 
 ment, in exactly the same proportion, the wilful- 
 ness of later sectaries. The concessions which 
 serve to palliate the reluctant sins of the first Pro- 
 testants are only an additional condemnation of 
 their more lawless descendants, who " run" eagerly 
 into "the same excess of riot," but who in this 
 country at least have no such concessions to 
 plead. 
 
 The proximate cause of the great schism of the 
 sixteenth century, the fons et origo mali, was the 
 famous decree of Leo X. about Indulgences, in the 
 year 1517, and the mode in which that decree was 
 carried into effect by the officials of the Roman 
 Obedience. That the remonstrances of Luther on 
 this matter were, in the outset, just and wise, has 
 been generally admitted by Romanists themselves.
 
 THEIR PLEA OF JUSTIFICATION. 293 
 
 " Martin Luther," says one of their distinguished 
 annalists, " taking occasion from no small abuses, 
 which, in the promulgation of these Indulgences, 
 and the collection of money-payments, were accus- 
 tomed through avarice and imprudence to be com- 
 mitted, began to inveigh against them. And from 
 these sparks burst forth the flames, which, either 
 by the revocation of the money-exactions, which 
 were in no degree diminished, but, on the contrary, 
 augmented by these events, or by a moderate 
 sprinkling of water, might have been extinguished. 
 And this the celebrated Cardinal Sadolet acknow- 
 ledged and lamented ; saying, that much was done 
 in this cause by the Catholic party which was ill- 
 suited to such a crisis, neither was recourse had to 
 any of the prudent remedies which were necessary in 
 so great an evil" Spondon adds his own confir- 
 mation of the Cardinal's sentiments, and frankly 
 admits that "the vast corruption of the manners of 
 the clergy was Luther's chief auxiliary r ." 1 
 
 A similar account of the same event is given 
 
 by the historiographer of France. " The questors 
 
 -who were appointed to sell the Indulgences 
 
 furnished Luther," says De Mezeray, " with but 
 
 too much matter. For they made traffic and mer- 
 
 1 Spondan. Annal. Ecclesiast. ann. 1517. torn. ii. pp. 327, 8 : 
 " Patrocinante ei maxime grandi morum Cleri corruptione," are the 
 words used by Spondon. Elsewhere he describes the same body as 
 " Clerus corruptissimus," ann. 1524 : and again he speaks of " the 
 Bishops nd Clergy, who, by their profligate living, indolent sloth, 
 or gross ignorance, were the occasion of this catastrophe ;" ann. 
 1525, p. 375 : and these heavy charges he repeats again and again.
 
 294 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 chandise of those sacred treasures of the Church, 
 they kept their courts or shops in taverns, and 
 consumed great part of what they gained or col- 
 lected in debauches. And it was certainly known 
 besides, that the Pope intended to apply consider- 
 able sums to his own proper use." 1 This is an evil 
 picture ; but that which follows is far worse. " And 
 truly," continues the same writer, " the extreme 
 ignorance of the clergy, many of them scarce able 
 to read, the scandalous lives of the pastors, most 
 of them concubinaries, drunkards, and usurers, and 
 their total negligence, gave him a fair advantage to 
 persuade the people that the religion they taught 
 was corrupt, since their lives and examples were 
 so bad." 2 It was not indeed wonderful, that the 
 
 1 " A suscitargli nuovamente in Germania aveva dato occasione 
 1'autorita della Sedia Apostolica, usata troppo licenziosamente da 
 Leone, il quale seguitando nelle grazie, che sopra le cose spirituali, e 
 benefiziali concede la Corte, il consiglio di Lorenzo Pucci Cardinale 
 di Santi Quattro, aveva sparso per tutto il mondo, senza distinzione 
 di tempi, e di luoghi, indulgenze amplissime non solo per poter gio- 
 vare con esse a quegli, che ancora sono nella vita presente, ma con 
 f'aculta di potere, oltre a questo, liberare le anime dei defunti dalle 
 pene del Purgatorio. Le quali cose non avendo in se ne verisimili- 
 tudine, ne autorita alcuna, aveva concitato in molti luoghi indegna- 
 zione, e scandalo assai. Ma non si astenne da molte cose di pessimo 
 esempio, e che dannate ragionevolmente da lui, erano molestissime 
 a tutti." Guicciardini, Istorie d' Italia, lib. xiii. 
 
 2 De Mezeray, History of France, ann. 1517, pp. 562, 3, ed. 
 Bulteel. The same writer, referring to the well-known confessions 
 of Marillac Archbishop of Vienne, Montluc Bishop of Valence, and 
 others, says, that " in France the Bishopricks, the Abbeys, and Col- 
 legiate Churches, were often in the hands of military officers ;" and 
 that these words used to be heard in their mouths, ' My Bishoprick,' 
 ' my Abbey,' ' my Canons/ &c. p. 960. Cf. Hallam, Europe during 
 the Middle Ages, ch. vii. vol. ii. p. 248; and Histoire des demiers 
 Troubles de France, livre iv. p. 162 (ed. 1604).
 
 THEIR PLEA OF JUSTIFICATION. 295 
 
 people, not accustomed to discriminate between 
 the office and the individuals who thus defiled it, 
 should have made the reflection for themselves, 
 which is here made for them by another. 
 
 Again : the corruption which was so deep and 
 extensive, appears also to have been of long stand- 
 ing. It was the complaint of the ambassador Du 
 Ferrier, on the part of France, in the year 1563, 
 that "there are more than one hundred and fifty 
 years past since the most Christian kings have de- 
 manded of the popes a reformation of the ecclesi- 
 astical discipline." 1 And the reformation said to 
 have been so long desired, had been admitted to 
 be necessary by Pope Alexander IV. so far back 
 as the year 1 259 ; that pontiff having rebuked at 
 that time the " fcedissima scandala" of the Church, 
 and bidden the rulers not to suffer the inferior 
 clergy " to become examples to the people of public 
 iniquity."* And things had obviously been getting 
 worse and worse since that period, until at length 
 
 1 Father Paul's History of the Council of Trent, book viii. p. 
 721, Brent's translation ; and see the proofs in De Thou, quoted by 
 Claude, Defense, partie ii. ch. i. p. 95. Dr. White quotes " their 
 own friends, as testifying that their Church had been for many ages 
 notoriously defiled with the enormitie of vices ;" Answer to a Jesuit, 
 pp. Ill, 112: and Tillotson refers to Genebrard, Chronic, lib. iv., 
 who says, " that for almost 150 years together, about 50 Popes did 
 utterly degenerate from the virtue of their ancestors ;" Rule of 
 Faith, part iii. 7. p. 718, Works, ed. 1699 : and the Archbishop 
 produces many similar testimonies, from Roman Catholic writers, 
 from the 10th to the 16th century inclusive. 
 
 3 " Publici sceleris exemplum in populos transfundere." Vide 
 Raynaldi Annal. Eccles. ann. 1259.
 
 296 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 another pope was constrained to make from his 
 chair the miserable confession : " I know for how 
 many years past there has been much to be ab- 
 horred in the holy see, abuses in spiritual things, 
 excesses even in things lawful, and, in fine, all 
 things perverted to evil : nor is it wonderful that 
 sickness in the head should have extended to the 
 limbs, and been communicated from the supreme 
 pontiffs to the other inferior prelates." And so 
 Adrian goes on to promise that he would give his 
 zealous co-operation " nos omnem operam adhi- 
 bituros" towards effecting the required reforma- 
 tion. 1 It is painful to know that this good resolve 
 was thwarted; the prelates and the Roman court 
 generally having taken great disgust at a pontiff 
 with such unusual views ; and his successor, Cle- 
 ment VII., being of a very different character. 2 
 
 The admissions of Pope Adrian are, however, 
 the more important, because, as a modern his- 
 torian observes, in somewhat disrespectful terms, 
 " no pope was ever more bigoted or inflexible with 
 regard to points of doctrine than Adrian," to 
 which, this writer adds, " he adhered with the zeal 
 of a theologian, and with the tenaciousness of a 
 disputant." And yet even such a ruler did not 
 hesitate to " acknowledge, in the most explicit 
 
 1 Citat. ap. Seckendorff, torn. i. pp. 254, 5. 
 
 * Vide Onuphrius, De Vita Pontif. Hadriani VI. p. 355. There 
 is a very gracious letter of Adrian's to Zuingle in the Life of the 
 latter by Oswald Myconius.
 
 THEIR PLEA OF JUSTIFICATION. 297 
 
 terms, the corruptions of the Roman court to be 
 the source from which had flowed most of the evils 
 which the Church now felt or dreaded." 1 
 
 Nor was he alone in his honest but humiliating 
 confession. " How shall we pretend," was a ques- 
 tion addressed to Pope Paul III. by men no less 
 eminent than the Cardinals Contarini, Caraffa, 
 Sadolet, and Reginald Pole, " how shall we pre- 
 tend to heal in other men the faults which are 
 conspicuous amongst ourselves far beyond all 
 others?" 8 
 
 " I do not deny," said another, after offering an 
 apology for the Roman Church, " that that same 
 Church is far gone from her ancient beauty and 
 splendour, deformed by many disorders and ble- 
 mishes, and at times miserably oppressed by the 
 tyranny of her rulers." 3 
 
 " There is at this day," said Cardinal Otho, 
 " a vast number of pastors in the Church who are 
 
 1 Robertson's History of Charles V. book iii. vol. ii. pp. 244, 5. 
 
 2 Citat. ap. Sleidan. lib. xii. ann. 1537, p. 193. Spondon men- 
 tions the appointment of the same persons, with others, as a com- 
 mission to reform " the depraved manners of the clergy." Ann. 1537, 
 p. 446. 
 
 3 " Quamvis non inficior, eandem illam Ecclesiam a prisco suo 
 illo decore et splendore non parum diversam, multisque morbis et 
 vitiis deformatam, nonnunquam et gubernatorum tyrannide misera- 
 biliter pressam." Cassander, De Officio Pii Viri, p. 786, ed. Paris. 
 1616. So Onuphrius speaks of the " Apostolicse Sedis decus ptene 
 obscuratum ;" In Vita Pontif. Marcelli II. : and generally, of the 
 Church, at the epoch of the reformation, as " fcedis abusibus cor- 
 rupta." The same testimony, for earlier periods, may be seen even 
 in Platina, Vitce Pontificum.
 
 298 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 ' workers of iniquity ;' men who attain to the Epis- 
 copate rather by the favour of princes than their 
 own merits; such as the prophet spoke of when 
 he said," 1 &c. 
 
 So much on the evils which produced the "re- 
 formation :" the progress of that movement is ac- 
 counted for, even by a Jesuit, on this ground, 
 " that the ecclesiastics, who were for the most part 
 greatly corrupted, and the monks, who were weary 
 of their profession, heard with extreme satisfaction 
 the preaching of that doctrine of liberty, by which 
 their passions were so agreeably flattered." 2 An 
 
 1 See his Preface to Peter De Soto, De Institut. Sacerdot. Epist. 
 The reader who wishes to see more on this melancholy subject may 
 consult the Fasciculus Serum Expetend. et Fugiend. Orthuin. Grat. 
 edited by E. Brown, particularly the following documents : Juliani 
 Cardinal. Ad Eugenium TV, Epist. torn. i. p. 59 ; the account of the 
 general corruption by the University of Paris, pp. 68-71 ; Adrian's 
 letter to the German Princes, p. 345 ; Pet. De Alliaco, Cardinal. 
 Camarecens. De Reformatione Ecclesice, pp. 407-16 ; the strong 
 statements of John Picus Mirandula, addressed to Leo X. De Mori- 
 bus Reformandis, pp. 418, 19; Matt. De Cracovia, De Squaloribus 
 Romance Ecclesice, torn. ii. p. 585 ; Lindani Ruremundensis Episcopi 
 De Perditissimis Cleri Moribus, p. 667 ; Geo. Wicelii Elench. Abu- 
 suum, p. 745; the very titles of which compositions sufficiently 
 indicate the nature of their contents, and the worst enemies of the 
 Roman Church never gave a more dismal picture of her condition 
 than is set forth in these lamentations of her own servants. See also 
 Andrew Fricius, De Ecclesia, lib. iv. cap. v. p. 241 ; and the Con- 
 stitution of Pope Julius II. of the year 1505, referred to by De 
 Mezeray, p. 945 ; and again, for the complaints of the civil authori- 
 ties, see Goldast. Constitut. Imperial, torn. ii. p. 183 and p. 325; 
 and Formul. Reform, ed. Lovanii, 1548. 
 
 2 Maimbourg, ann. 1520. A similar statement is made by Flori- 
 mond De Remond, L'Anti-Papesse, ch. xvii. p. 134 ; and see Alfons. 
 De Castro, Adv. Hceres. lib. i. cap. xii.
 
 THEIR PLEA OF JUSTIFICATION. 299 
 
 account of the matter which this writer does not 
 seem to have understood was at least as disgrace- 
 ful to the communion which they left, as conclu- 
 sive against that which they joined. 
 
 At length, however, for we must hasten to 
 an end, the council was summoned which was to 
 deal with these mighty evils. The very summon- 
 ing of such an assembly was of course, in itself, a 
 large concession ; but it led to others which were 
 more precise and specific. The congregated fathers 
 were first exhorted, by the legates of the holy see, 
 " to address themselves to a serious reformation of 
 manners," in order to " take away from the here- 
 tics the pretext which they assigned for their re- 
 volt." 1 The persons so styled did therefore assert 
 that pretext, and justly ; or why should these be 
 admonished to remove it? And the whole ques- 
 tion so far as the argument of these pages is 
 concerned was finally settled, when the president 
 himself, sitting in that council, did not scruple to 
 condemn, as "the very source and origin of the 
 new heresies, those disorders and corruptions which 
 had then so long prevailed." 2 
 
 With these few citations, as being amply suffi- 
 
 1 Maimbourg, ann. 1545. 
 
 * " Quae jam diu depravata atque corrupta, harum ipsarum 
 hseresium, magna ex parte, causa origoque extitit." Orat. Prcesid. 
 Condi. Trident, sess. xi. ; ct'. sess. xxv. Decret. de Indulgent., where 
 the admission is repeated. The same thing is said by Cardinal 
 Campeggio, Constit. ad removendos Abusus ; and by the Cardinals, 
 Bishops, and others, at the conference of Poissy : De Mezeray, ann. 
 1561, p. 676.
 
 300 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 cient for the present purpose, 1 this distasteful part 
 of our subject might be closed. There is, however, 
 one writer, esteemed, I believe, amongst the most 
 zealous and accomplished advocates of Rome in 
 modern times, to whose remarkable language on 
 this delicate point I wish to refer. Having, in many 
 places of his useful and admirable writings, admit- 
 ted without reserve the grievous and widely spread 
 corruptions of the period to which reference has 
 been made, M. Moehler appears to have summed 
 up, as it were, his reflections in the following af- 
 fecting and deeply interesting passage, with which 
 these remarks shall be concluded. 
 
 "It cannot be denied," he says, "that priests 
 and bishops and popes, trampling under foot the 
 most sacred duties, suffered too often the heavenly 
 fire to be extinguished ; that many even quenched, 
 by their disorders, the yet smoking brand. Catho- 
 
 1 Which is not to produce all that could be collected of this kind 
 from such a task one might well shrink but only so much as 
 would serve to distinguish, in an important particular, between the 
 present race of Calvinists and Lutherans, and the first founders of 
 those sects. I will add only one more confession, from the pen of a 
 living writer ; who, describing the reaction of Catholicism in the latter 
 part of the 16th century, says, " Many rallied round the standard 
 of that primitive Church, which, with its accustomed prudence and 
 calm, had already entered on several great measures of reform, which 
 a certain relaxation of ecclesiastical discipline and the exigency of 
 the times required ;" Dublin Review, vol. x. p. 455 : a statement 
 (and this is my reason for quoting it) which obviously concedes 
 much more than the writer intended. For how could an evil so 
 slight as to be adequately described by the ambiguous phrase, " a 
 certain relaxation of discipline," demand for its cure " several great 
 measures of reform ?"
 
 THEIR PLEA OF JUSTIFICATION. 301 
 
 lies have nothing to fear from such confessions, 
 and they never have shrunk from making them. 1 
 How, indeed, is it possible to question the profound 
 decay of the ministry, when the very existence of 
 Protestantism is an irrefragable proof of it ? No ! 
 never would such extravagances have seen the 
 light, still less would they have been able to gain 
 popularity, if the teachers of the people had been 
 faithful to their calling. Learn, then, O Protest- 
 ants, to measure the vastness of the abuses with 
 which you reproach us, by the enormity of your 
 
 1 This we may admit ; but there are errors of another sort, against 
 the faith of the ancient Church, which they cannot so easily excuse. 
 Was it well, for instance, to use the very arguments of Aerius, as 
 many of the Italian Bishops were taught to do at the Council of 
 Trent, and, in order to elevate the Bishop of Rome, to refer the 
 office of all other Bishops to a merely human institution? Were 
 these unfaithful teachers in a position to speak very severely of Pro- 
 testant follies? Vide Spondan. ann. 1562, pp. 628, 9; Leo Allatius, 
 De Ecc. Occid. et Orient, perpet. Consens. lib. i. cap. iv. 14, who 
 tries to derive the whole order from the Pope ; or Barbosa, De 
 Epise. Offic. par. i. tit. i. cap. i. 32, 33, who even attempts to limit 
 the succession to the same Patriarch. And so well was it under- 
 stood that the Roman Court had taken this heresy under its protec- 
 tion, that one could even dare to say of that once glorious see, 
 " Vescovado di ragion divina, opinions aborrita a Roma!" Istoria 
 del Concilia Tridentino, di Pietro Soave, lib. ii. p. 406 ; who relates 
 elsewhere lib. vii. p. 622 the shameless arguments of the Jesuit 
 Lainez on the same subject. Or, again, what shall be said of that 
 body of which Lainez was the head, who, in France at least, were 
 often the open enemies of the bishops, and were allowed to boast, 
 " se sine Episcoporum approbatione ac benedictione conscendere pul- 
 
 pita, conciones habere, suscipere prenitentes, &c Quomodo 
 
 subsunt Epi.copis?" Hospinian, De Doctrina Jesuitarum, p. 249. 
 Archbishop Bramhall had surely some reason to say, " Episcopal 
 rights and papal claims are inconsistent." Vindication of Grotius, 
 ch. iv. p. 619.
 
 302 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 own errors. This is the ground upon which the 
 two Churches will one day meet and become united. 
 In the consciousness of our common sins, we ought 
 to exclaim, both the one and the other, ' We have 
 all failed, the Church alone could not err ; we have 
 all sinned, the Church alone is pure from every 
 blemish. As for her, she remains for ever without 
 spot." 1 
 
 The evidence which has now been offered upon 
 each of the four points proposed for considera- 
 tion might have been indefinitely extended. It is, 
 however, sufficiently plain from what has been 
 already said, that the sectaries of our age and 
 nation have wandered very far indeed from the 
 principles which their first masters and teachers 
 thought it necessary to profess. This, of course, 
 was to be expected. But it remains still to be 
 shewn, that, as in the general grounds of their 
 separation with which alone we have been hi- 
 therto concerned the modern religionists have 
 almost nothing in common with the contempora- 
 ries of Calvin and Luther, except their violence 
 
 1 La Symbolique, tome ii. pp. 33, 34. Cf. tome i. p. 361, where 
 he admits that the Protestants were " engages dans Perreur^ar de 
 nombreux et de deplorables abus, specialement par 1'indifference et la 
 tiedeur des Catholiques." All this should at least teach the advo- 
 cates of Rome a little more gentleness of tone, -when they undertake 
 to rebuke those whose present condition has been mainly caused by 
 the very errors and corruptions, which they are willing enough to 
 confess, but not willing to amend. Has Rome alone a dispensation 
 to sin without repentance ?
 
 CALVIN. 303 
 
 and self-will ; so, in the particular question of the 
 submission due to the Bishops of the Church, as 
 governors appointed by the ordinance of God, they 
 are no less at variance with them than with the 
 whole body of the saints during the first fifteen 
 ages of Christianity. 1 On this point, too, Calvin 
 shall be first heard. 
 
 II. And in searching for the judgment of this 
 " reformer," it seems right to refer in the outset to 
 some part of his writings in which the subject of 
 Church-polity is formally considered. It is in such 
 a place that we may expect to find his mature and 
 deliberate sentiment. And it would be unfair, per- 
 haps, to take advantage of concessions made at 
 other times, until we had first tried him by this 
 test. Let it be applied at once. It was, then, 
 whilst discussing minutely and elaborately the con- 
 stitution of the Christian Priesthood, when we may 
 suppose him to have been especially on his guard, 
 that Calvin wrote as follows. 
 
 " It will be profitable in these questions to 
 
 1 " Non a nobis longius, et ab Apostolica Catholica Christ! Ec- 
 clesia, quam a doctissimis fratrifrus suis, sat scio, a magno Isaaco 
 Casaubono, et optimo sene Petro Molinaeo, abeuntes." Hammond, 
 Dissert. Quatuor, Prsefat. The learned Durell, who had travelled 
 in foreign countries, and taken great pains to investigate this very 
 matter, says, of his own knowledge, " that the Puritans differ in 
 their notions of ecclesiastical polity from all the reformed commu- 
 nions, whose members teach and affirm, uno ore, that the faithful 
 are bound to be in subjection to the Bishops of the reformed Church." 
 Vindic. Eccles. Anglican. Praef.
 
 304 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 review the form of the Ancient Church, which will 
 exhibit to our glance a kind of representation (or 
 image) of the divine institution. For although the 
 bishops of those times promulgated divers canons, 
 in which they may appear to set forth more than 
 is expressed in the sacred Scriptures, yet with such 
 needfulness did they arrange their whole system ac- 
 cording to that one prescript form contained in the 
 word of God, that you may easily perceive that they 
 held in this particular almost nothing which varies 
 from that word" 1 This is indeed a full and unre- 
 served admission, nor does it want the confirma- 
 tion which is supplied by the reiteration of similar 
 statements. 
 
 Thus far we see only that Calvin defended in 
 general terms the conciliar decrees of the primitive 
 bishops, and their whole system of Church-disci- 
 pline, as harmonising with the records of Holy 
 Scripture. The next passage will shew more ex- 
 actly what form of polity he had in his mind when 
 he pronounced this opinion. He describes it, in 
 his own words, as follows : 
 
 " That every province had among their bishops 
 an archbishop, and that patriarchs were appointed 
 by the Council of Nice who should be in order and 
 dignity above the archbishops : this was done for 
 the preservation of discipline. It must, however, 
 be observed, with reference to this point, that the 
 usage was of rare occurrence. For this cause, 
 
 1 Citat. ap. Hadrian. Sarav. ad Bezae Satan. Episcopal, p. 87.
 
 CALVIN. 305 
 
 therefore, especially were those degrees appointed, 
 that if any thing should happen in any particular 
 church, which could not be safely resolved by a 
 few, reference should be made to a provincial 
 synod. If the importance or difficulty of the case 
 required yet further consultation, then the patri- 
 archs were added to the synodal congress, from 
 which there was no appeal but to a general council. 
 This order of government some have termed hier- 
 archy an improper name, in my judgment, and 
 certainly not to be found in the Scriptures ; . . . . 
 but if, omitting the phrase, we shall consider the 
 thing itself, we shall Jind that those ancient bishops 
 sought to frame no other mode of church-government 
 than that which God hath prescribed in His Word" l 
 We have only to add, that the English 'hierarchy' 
 received no less energetic commendation from the 
 same person ; 2 and Calvin becomes a fatal witness 
 indeed, as against his own inventions on the one 
 hand, so against the more licentious novelties of 
 his disciples on the other. 
 
 But his admissions do not stop here. It is not 
 only as in no degree contrariant to the word of 
 God that he eulogises the discipline of the early 
 Church he goes further, and affirms openly that 
 
 1 " Verum si rem, omisso vocabulo, intuemur, reperiemus veteres 
 Episcopos non aliam regendae Ecclesise tbrmam voluisse fingere ab 
 ea quam Deus verbo suo prsescripsit." Institut. lib. iv. cap. iv. 4. 
 
 8 Even Daille confesses that " Calvin honoured all Bishops that 
 were not subjects of the Pope, . . . such as were the Prelates of Eng- 
 kind." Quoted by Bingham, ubi supra, ch. iv. vol. viii. pp. 211, 12. 
 
 X
 
 306 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 Episcopacy was of divine institution. " The Epis- 
 copate itself," said he, referring to the uncanonical 
 customs and uncatholic traditions of modern Rome, 
 " had its appointment from God. The office of a 
 bishop was instituted by the authority and defined 
 by the ordinance of God." 1 And there can be no 
 question made as to the nature of the office which 
 he here contemplates, because he is addressing 
 himself in this very passage to one of his former 
 friends, who had lately been consecrated a bishop 
 of the Roman communion. And how disingenuous 
 and unreal would such language have been, if he 
 were covertly alluding to some new theory of the 
 Episcopate, with which that prelate must have 
 been utterly unacquainted ! It is plain that he 
 could not make such a statement to a bishop, un- 
 less he meant it of his office. This, I suppose, 
 would have been quite certain, even if he had 
 said no more ; but he fully explains and limits his 
 own meaning when he adds, in the next sentence, 
 " Thou hast been appointed a bishop ; with thee is 
 present the authority of the Apostle Paul." And 
 he adds, " Either do the work of a bishop, or re- 
 sign your Episcopal chair." Again, in his letter to 
 the King of Poland, which has been already cited, 
 as he recommends to the sanction of that prince a 
 new and "extraordinary" ministry, on the avowed 
 
 1 " Episcopatus ipse a Deo profectus est. Episcopi mutms Dei 
 auctoritate constitutum est et legibus definitum." Veteri Amico nunc 
 Prcesuli, Epist.
 
 CALVIN. 307 
 
 understanding that it should be regarded as a 
 "merely temporary" institution, and should give 
 way, on the accomplishment of certain definite ob- 
 jects, to a " more proper order" so he consistently 
 describes to the same monarch the office of the 
 archbishops and patriarchs of the primitive Church, 
 and the ends for which those officers would serve 
 in his kingdom. 
 
 Again, being consulted as to what must be done 
 if any of the Roman bishops should join the party 
 of the reformation, he says not a word about rob- 
 bing him of his sacred dignity, which, as he knew, 
 the holy councils, for which he professed so great 
 reverence, had declared to be "sacrilege;" 1 but 
 simply enjoins that such bishop "must purge all 
 the churches belonging to his bishopric from all 
 errors and from the worship of idols, whilst he 
 himself, by his example, should point out the way 
 to all the clergy of his diocese" (he was, therefore, 
 to retain his office and authority), " and persuade 
 them to receive the reformed doctrine." 2 And ac- 
 cordingly, in the famous conflict between the arch- 
 bishop of Cologne and the canons of that church, 
 Calvin took part warmly and vehemently, as was 
 his wont, with that prelate, and, in common with 
 the whole Protestant party, would have kept him 
 
 1 'ETTICTKOTTOJ' tls TrpT$vr(pov f$ad[j.oi> <ppfiv ItpotrvXia (<TTI. Condi. 
 Chalcedon. can. xxix. 
 
 3 Ct'. Kpist. cclxxii. Episcopo Wladlslaviensi, p. 499 ; and his in- 
 vocation to all the Catholic Bishops, Prcefat. in edit. Gallic. Nov. 
 Test. p. 142.
 
 308 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 in his office, if the power of Rome had not proved 
 too strong for them. 1 
 
 Nor was this the only instance in which he 
 attempted to vindicate the authority of the Epis- 
 copate from the usurpations of Rome. We have 
 heard his admiration of the ancient episcopal de- 
 crees ; he was accustomed, as we shall now see, to 
 appeal to them in the same controversy. " Shew 
 us," was his challenge to Cardinal Sadolet, "if there 
 
 1 Maimbourg relates, after his manner, that when the Archbishop 
 Gebhard desired to marry the Countess Agnes of Mansfeld, it was 
 represented to him by his friends the Counts of Solms and Nieuver, 
 that " to accomplish his desires he had only to turn Lutheran, after 
 the example of the Bishops of Germany, Sweden, and Denmark ; 
 to whom it had been permitted to marry, and yet to retain their 
 bishoprics;" livre vi. ann. 1581. I notice this to shew, that men in 
 those days were so far from supposing that the reformed party re- 
 jected Episcopacy on principle, that they even joined that party, in 
 some cases, lest they should lose their bishoprics. Other Prelates did 
 so, no doubt, from purer motives, and in every case were continued 
 in their offices, until, not the Protestants, but the Romanists turned 
 them out. A remarkable instance, among many others, is that of 
 Bishop Michael Sidonius ; and again, that of John Antony Caraccioli, 
 Bishop of Troyes, who, as De Thou relates, continued to govern his 
 diocese till the King forcibly ejected him. The same writer adds, 
 " that this example of Caraccioli was looked upon by the adverse 
 party to be a matter of such dangerous consequence, that they 
 laboured with all their might to ruin him, and never ceased till 
 they had prevailed with the King to force him to quit his station." 
 Quoted by Bingham, ubi supra, Du Moulin, who notices other in- 
 stances, adds, " the Archbishop of Vienne and the Bishop of Orleans 
 were once about to have done as much, and would have found the 
 like obedience from the Protestant party, but the great stream of 
 the state proved too strong for them." And he goes on to shew, 
 from examples, that " nothing had been more eagerly opposed by 
 the Pope and his creatures than that the Protestants should have 
 Bishops." So that when " some of their prime men," seeing the 
 evil consequences of presbytery, applied to Cardinal Richelieu to
 
 CALVIN. 309 
 
 be any traces amongst you of that holy and just 
 discipline which the ancient bishops administered in 
 the Church. Have ye not treated all their appoint- 
 ments with contempt ? Have ye not trodden under 
 foot all the canons?" 1 And then, that we may 
 know to what canons he alluded, he asks, " Where 
 are those ancient canons, with which, as with bands, 
 the bishops and presbyters used to be restrained in 
 their office ? After what manner are bishops elected 
 amongst you?" 2 And he goes on to assert, what 
 
 permit the appointment of Bishops, " pretending that it would bring 
 them nearer to the Roman Church, he flatly denied to give way to 
 it, and told them, ' if you had that Order, you would look too like a 
 Church.'" Novelty of Popery, Pref. A similar answer was given 
 by Cardinal Barberini ; see Stillingfleet, Unreasonableness of Sepa- 
 ration, Preface, p. 9. 
 
 1 Ad Cardinalem Sadoletum Responsio. Men might well despair 
 of procuring a return to ancient customs, when a Pope had said, 
 " Cavendum est, ne obtentu renovandi pristinos Ecclesise canones, 
 quidquam in Synodo statuatur, quod contrarium sit posteris legi- 
 bus ! " P. Benedict. XIV. De Synod. Dicecesan. lib. xi. cap. iv. 4. 
 While, on the other hand, Cardinal Cusa quotes the saying of Pope 
 Zozimus ; " contra statuta Patrum aliquid condere vel mutare, nee 
 hujusmodi sedis potest auctoritas." De Concordant. Cathol. lib. ii. 
 cap. xx. : between these two authorities there would be some per- 
 plexity in coming to a decision. 
 
 * Ubi supra. John Sturmius even appeals to the judgment of 
 the Cardinal himself " conscientiam tuam appello" whether the 
 Canons were not utterly despised by the Romish party, and prays 
 that a reformation may be conceded according to them." " Reddite 
 Pontifice?," he says, " concedite Episcopos, date diaconos, permittite 
 metropolitanos, revocate patriarchas, instauretur vetus disciplina, cor- 
 rigatur doctrina, nos manus libenter dabimus, etiam cervices si sit 
 opus," &c. Surely there is not much in common between this 
 Genevan doctor and our modern 'presbyterians?' Yet Sturmius 
 was in such honour with his own party, that they employed him 
 as a legate in France and elsewhere. Sleidan, lib. xviii. ann. 1546. 
 p. 322.
 
 310 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 they could not themselves gainsay, that they had 
 long since reduced those canons to a dead letter. 
 
 And the same charge he proposes, in another 
 place, as a sufficient answer to their claims to the 
 true succession ; of which, far from denying its 
 intrinsic value, he says, " I would in truth that 
 this possession of which they boast, they had pre- 
 served by their own merit." 1 And as he thus dis- 
 owned whether justly or not, is no part of our 
 present inquiry the force of their appeal to the 
 unbroken succession, so he replied to their claim 
 of alliance with the primitive Fathers in a similar 
 way. "As if," said he, "the holy Fathers, when 
 they lauded the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the 
 spiritual rule, as it was derived to them by succession 
 from the Apostles, dreamed of such a chaos of ruin 
 and desolation !" 3 Again and again he calls upon 
 them to examine themselves by their canons, as he 
 knew, unhappily, their own wisest rulers feared to 
 do. " It is against these modern inventions that 
 we contend, not against those holy and edifying con- 
 stitutions of the Church which tend either to the 
 preservation of discipline, or purity, or peace ;" 3 
 and those venerable constitutions he had declared 
 to be "the canons of the primitive bishops." The 
 bishops themselves, as distinct from the pope, he 
 
 1 " Utinam vero quam jactant possessionem, suo merito retinuis- 
 sent." De Reformanda Ecclesia. 
 
 2 Institut. lib. iv. cap. v. 13. 
 
 3 Institut. lib. iv. cap. x. 1.
 
 CALVIN. 311 
 
 did not, then, to use his own word, " dream" of 
 rejecting : how could he, when his very challenge 
 was, that their rightful jurisdiction should be re- 
 stored to them, and he had himself subscribed the 
 Augustan Confession, which professed the most 
 earnest solicitude for the preservation of their 
 order? His whole argument, whatever may be 
 thought of its cogency, is a plea for the restoration 
 of that pure and primitive government which was 
 then so miserably corrupted. It is you, he pro- 
 tests, who have fallen away from the customs of 
 the primitive bishops. You are enemies of Christ, 
 you have defiled even your blessings, you have 
 changed the ancient and holy order. The Fathers 
 never countenanced, nor would they tolerate, this 
 shameless usurpation of one bishop over all the 
 rest. And then he sums up all, and declares his 
 own judgment, in the well-known passage : " Let 
 them give us such an Hierarchy, in which the Bi- 
 shops may so bear rule, that they refuse not to 
 submit to Christ, and to depend upon Him as their 
 only Head" (referring to the assumed headship of 
 the Bishop of Rome) ; " let them be so united 
 together in a brotherly concord, as that His truth 
 shall be their only bond of union ; then, indeed, if 
 there shall be any who will not reverence them and 
 pay them the most exact obedience, there is no ana- 
 thema but I confess them worthy of it" 1 
 
 1 De Reformanda Ecclesia. And " this is the more remarkable," 
 as Bishop Morton observes, " because the tractate wherein those
 
 312 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 Conclusive as these various passages must be 
 confessed to be, so far as respects the purpose for 
 which they are here cited, there is one circum- 
 stance in the history of Calvin which adds tenfold 
 weight to the impression which they are calculated 
 to produce. And to this circumstance some refer- 
 ence shall now, in the last place, be made. 
 
 It was not, we shall find, only in the outset of 
 his career when his concessions might be referred 
 to the lingering prejudices of habit and education, 
 or he might seem to be too much occupied in the 
 work of pulling down to have leisure for the more 
 arduous task of building up again that Calvin 
 offered this fatal testimony against his own errors. 
 Even in that case, it would have been effectual 
 
 words are, is written professedly concerning the reformation of 
 churches." Some have tried to weaken their force, by supposing 
 that the writer spoke here under the influence of some unusual and 
 transient feeling : " but Calvin," as a very acute judge has re- 
 marked, " was no enthusiast ;" Archbishop Lawrence, Tracts, vol. ii. 
 p. 8. Others, again, have used a different method, and cut it out 
 of his writings ! " That most perspicuous passage of Calvin, wherein 
 he declareth, ' they deserve to be anathematised who reject Episco- 
 pacy where it may be retained' which is really to pronounce an 
 anathema on all our English sectaries is quite purged out in the 
 two later editions of Beza and Gelasius !" Shaw's No Reformation 
 of the established Reformation, p. 172 ; and again, " What was 
 to be found in the Argentorate edition of Bucer is left out in the 
 Genevan, as Grotius informs us." Ibid. The same author quotes 
 other like cases of the Puritans in England ; and it seems to have 
 been a favourite policy with these religionists in every country. 
 Gerard Voss tells Grotius that Calvin himself cut out of Bucer's 
 works what displeased him, and published at Geneva a "castrated" 
 edition ; Vir. Erudit. Epistolce, no. 571. p. 818. A Polish Socinian 
 complains, that one of the editors of Calvin's letters did the same
 
 CALVIN. 313 
 
 to confound both himself and his more audacious 
 scholars. But it was after his work was done, so 
 far as he prevailed to accomplish it, and his ambi- 
 tion sated to the full; after his own new system 
 had been firmly established, and he had ascended 
 the throne of that empire which he prudently per- 
 mitted his followers to call a republic, but in which 
 he ruled alone with more than regal or pontifical 
 sway; it was after he had tasted the sweets of 
 almost unlimited power, that he was compelled 
 once more, either by the secret sting of conscience, 
 or the impulse of that Power which " taketh the 
 wise in their own craftiness," to bear fresh witness 
 to the truth which by bold acts he had ventured to 
 contemn. The circumstances of his application to 
 
 by them ; Lubieniecii Hist. Reformat. Polonica, lib. ii. cap. ii. 
 p. 44. Moehler refers to passages of Melancthon's writings similarly 
 omitted ; La Symbolique, tome i. pp. 25, 26. Bramhall says that 
 " Blondel, in his needless apology for St. Hierome, made a very 
 necessary apology for himself, and sent it to Mr. Rivet to be added 
 as an appendix to his book in the impression of it, by whose neglect 
 it was omitted." Vindication of Grotius, ch. iv. p. 621. " Monsieur 
 Amyrald/' says another, " declared himself a friend to Episcopacy 
 in a select tractate sent hither, which one of that party (the puritan) 
 borrowed, and would never restore, and so it could not be printed." 
 Life of BisJwp Hacket, p. 25. See Nelson's Life of Bisliop Bull, 
 p. 217, for another example of this ingenuity. Wesley's application 
 of Numbers xvi. to those of his preachers who should presume to 
 exercise the functions of the sacred ministry has been prudently 
 omitted, in like manner, by recent editors of his works. And it 
 appears that formerly sectaries used even to intercept writings likely 
 to be disadvantageous to their cause. A person writing from Ger- 
 many, A.D. 1534, to Ridley and another, complains that this was a 
 common trick. See the letter prefixed to the Antwerp edition of 
 S. Isidore, DC Ecc. Off. (1534). Such a warfare, it may be pre- 
 sumed, would hardly prosper in the long-run.
 
 314 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 the English Church for the restoration of the di- 
 vine office of the Episcopate are related by one 
 who, as is well known, was deeply imbued with his 
 own principles. Archbishop Abbott was no enemy 
 to Calvin j 1 and it is in his words that the following 
 account is given. 
 
 " Perusing some papers," he says, " of our 
 predecessor Matthew Parker, we find that John 
 Calvin, and others of the Protestant Churches of 
 Germany and elsewhere, would have had Episcopacy 
 if permitted, but could not upon several accounts ; 
 partly, fearing the other princes of the Roman 
 Catholic faith would have joined with the Emperor 
 and the rest of the Popish Bishops, to have de- 
 pressed the same ; partly, being newly reformed, 
 and not settled, they had not sufficient wealth to 
 support Episcopacy, by reason of their daily per- 
 secutions. 2 Another, and a main cause was, they 
 
 1 " Abbott considered Christian religion no otherwise than as it 
 abhorred and reviled popery, and valued those most who did that 
 most furiously .... and having himself made very little progress in 
 the ancient and solid study of divinity, he adhered only to the doc- 
 trine of Calvin." Clarendon's History, vol. i. p. 157. Benzelius 
 calls him " magnus ille presbyterance sectce fautor et indulgentis- 
 simus patronus." Dissert. Historico-Theolog. de J. Durceo, p. 18. 
 ed. Helmstad. 
 
 2 Another reason which they assigned in their own behalf de- 
 serves notice. Gerard Brandt reports that the magistrates of Ant- 
 werp were especially averse to the creation of the new Bishops in 
 the Netherlands by Pope Pius IV., because " the infallible fruit of 
 it (the presence of a Bishop) would be the Inquisition." History 
 of the Reformation in the Low Countries, book v. vol. i. p. 134, 
 English edit. Cf. Famian Strada De Bella Belgico, lib. ii. ; Davila 
 Delle Guerre Civili di Francia, lib. ii. p. 61. The two were not
 
 CALVIN. 315 
 
 would not have any popish hands laid over their 
 clergy. And whereas John Calvin had sent a letter 
 in King Edward VI.' s reign, to have conferred with 
 the clergy of England about some things to this effect, 
 two Bishops, viz. Gardiner and Bonner, intercepted 
 the same, whereby Mr. Calvin's offerture perished ; 
 and he received an answer, as if it had been from 
 the reformed divines of those times, wherein they 
 checked him and slighted his proposals ! From 
 which time John Calvin and the Church of Eng- 
 land were at variance on several points, which 
 otherwise, through God's mercy, had been quali- 
 fied, if those papers of his proposals had been dis- 
 covered unto the Queen's Majesty during John 
 Calvin's life. But being not discovered until or 
 about the sixth year of her Majesty's reign, her 
 Majesty much lamented they were not found 
 sooner; which she expressed before her Council 
 at the same time, in the presence of her great 
 friends, Sir Henry Sidney and Sir William Cecil." 1 
 
 unusually connected together; so that De Meteren, speaking of 
 such appointments of new Bishops, notices as the popular objection, 
 " qu'on ne devoit pas en un tel temps introduire . . . quelques Eves- 
 ques, et quelque changement, beaucoup moins quelque nouvelle In- 
 quisition, si odieuse au peupk." Histoire des Pays Bos, livre ii. 
 ibl. 32. And this is confirmed by Cardinal Bentivoglio in his His- 
 tory of Flanders, p. ii. ch. i. p. 68. No wonder, then, that the 
 people were afraid of Bishops. 
 
 1 Vide Strype, Life of Parker, vol. i. p. 140. The same diligent 
 compiler has recorded how the foreign Protestants " took such great 
 joy and satisfaction in this good king (Edward VI.) and his esta- 
 blishment of religion, that the heads of them, Bullinger, Calvin, and 
 others, in a letter to him, offered to make him their defender, and to 
 have Bishops in their churches, as there were in England, with the
 
 316 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 With this curious and interesting narrative our 
 reference to the testimony of Calvin may very ap- 
 propriately be concluded. How far these passages 
 in his life may have availed towards his own justi- 
 fication, it is beyond the province of his fellow-men 
 to judge. One thing is certain, that when they 
 who have not feared to defend and perpetuate, 
 upon wholly new grounds, 1 that human system 
 
 tender of their advice to assist and unite together." And then 
 Strype describes the arts by which the Romanists strove to prevent 
 this union, and to bring Episcopacy into discredit. Life of Cranmer, 
 vol. i. pp. 296, 7. 
 
 1 Compare, for instance, the language of the Scotch presbyterians 
 with that which has been quoted in this chapter. " This cursed Pa- 
 pistrie" is the phrase applied to Episcopacy in the First Booke of 
 Scottish Discipline. " Archbishops and Bishops," they say, " are 
 unlawful!, unnatural, false, and bastardlie governors of the church, 
 and the ordinances of the devil." Presbyterian sayings, quoted 
 by Bancroft, Dangerous Positions, chap. xii. Ames declares of the 
 English puritans, " they hold that inequality of churches and church- 
 officers in ecclesiastical jurisdiction and authority was that princi- 
 pally advanced Antichrist unto his throne." Ames' English Puritans, 
 ch. ii. 9. Dr. Owen calls Episcopacy, " a mere antichristian en- 
 croachment on God's inheritance." Thanksgiving Sermon, Oct. 1651. 
 And this vast difference of opinion between the British and conti- 
 nental Protestants seems to have been noted with good effect in the 
 very beginning of this controversy : see The Aberdeen Demands about 
 the Covenant, with Answers and Replies, 13th Demand, p. 32, ed. 
 1638. Dr. Racket, in his famous speech before the long Parlia- 
 ment, told them, that the foreign Protestants were all accustomed to 
 acknowledge the superior felicity of the English Church, and to envy 
 it : and Dr. Steward, with the same plainness, reminded the Par- 
 liamentary Commissioners, of whom Henderson was one, at the 
 treaty of Uxbridge, 1644, that " the most learned men of the foreign 
 churches had lamented that their reformation was not so perfect as 
 it ought to be, for want of Episcopacy." Clarendon, book viii. vol. v. 
 pp. 52 and 55. ed. Oxon. Could they have made such statements in 
 the very presence of their adversaries, if there had been any possi- 
 bility of denying them ?
 
 BEZA. 317 
 
 which he first devised, but afterwards desired to 
 abandon, shall have followed him to his present 
 abode, they, at least, will have no such justification 
 to plead. 1 
 
 III. Theodore Beza, Calvin's successor at Ge- 
 neva, may be heard next ; and as so much space 
 has been allotted to the founder himself of the new 
 discipline, the confessions of his disciples must be 
 set down in as few words as possible. 
 
 To have wrested Beza from the adversaries 
 would indeed have been an easy task, even if his 
 admissions had been much more wary than we 
 shall find them to have been. Take, for instance, 
 the two following passages. He is speaking in 
 the first of the holy oecumenic Council of Nicaea, 
 of which he declares, " No man was ever yet found 
 to have opposed himself to this Council, whom God 
 did not by some tremendous judgment destroy"* In 
 
 1 It is easy, however, to foresee that our brethren will resign 
 their great Master as soon as he is found to witness against them. 
 Indeed some of them appear to have done so already. " When I 
 quoted the admission of Calvin about the Episcopate," says an 
 English clergyman who visited Geneva in the year 1835, u they 
 said at once, ' We go much further now than Calvin did, and do not 
 call him or any other our Master.'" Vide Palmer's Illustrations of 
 the Latitudinarian development of the original Calvinistic community, 
 p. 45. Observe, too, how like these men are in all ages : " Ego non 
 a Manichseo didici," said the Manicha?an Felix, when referred to his 
 Master's words, " sed a Christo didici ! " Aug. De Actis cum Felice, 
 lib. ii. cap. xx. torn. vi. p. 216. 
 
 * " Nicenum Concilium sacrosanctum, . . . . cui nemo adhuc in- 
 ventus est qui sese opponeret, quern Deus horrendo judicio non per- 
 diderit." Epist. Ivi. The 8th canon of this Council decrees, ti/u ^17 
 (V TJI TroAei 8vo (T
 
 318 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 the second, his subject includes the Councils of 
 Ephesus and Chalcedon ; and of these again he 
 professes, that " from the departure of the Apostles 
 themselves the sun never looked upon any assem- 
 bly more holy or more majestic." 1 Now, in each 
 of these holy Councils of the primitive Church the 
 authority and pre-eminence of the Bishops of Christ, 
 and the allegiance due to them by the other orders 
 of the clergy, is asserted in language such as in these 
 days we hardly venture even to repeat. 2 Beza, there- 
 
 1 " Amplissimus ille Nicenae, Ephesinae, Chalcedonensis Synodi 
 consessus, quo nihil unquam sanctius, nihil augustius ab Apostolo- 
 rum excessu sol unquam aspexit." Epist. Ixxxi. Elsewhere, writing 
 against an Arian, he says, that even to question whether the Fathers 
 of Nicsea, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, held the true knowledge of God, 
 is to be unworthy a place in the Church ; Libell. de Valentin. Gentil. 
 Praefat. p. 19. Cf. De Eccksia, cap. v. Martin Bucer says of these 
 early Fathers, that " Christ lived, taught, and wrote in them in eis 
 vixit, docuit, et scripsit ;" In Sacra Evang. Praefat. ; and see his 
 Apolog. de Ccena Domini, Opp. p. 670: as also Cranmer, Works, 
 vol. ii. p. 14. ed. Oxon. 1833. The Synod of Paris in 1559 says, 
 on behalf of the French Reformed Churches, Art. vi., " We allow 
 of that which those four ancient Councils have determined ; and 
 we detest all sects and heresies condemned by those holy ancient 
 doctors, St. Athanasius, St. Hilary, St. Cyril, and St. Ambrose." 
 Quick'g Synodicon, vol. i. p. 7 : and part of the confession required 
 of the students at the academy of Geneva, previous to its apostasy, 
 was, " I abhor all the heresies which have been condemned by the 
 first Council of Nice, the first of Ephesus, and that of Chalcedon." 
 Vide Ruchat, Histoire de la Reformation de la Suisse, torn. vii. 
 p. 291. With such confessions, the refutation of ' presbyterianism ' 
 is not a very difficult task. 
 
 2 See, for instance, the 6th canon of Constantinople 70 years 
 earlier than Chalcedon which ranks separation from the Bishop 
 with the most heinous heresies ; the 29th of Chalcedon, as has been 
 noticed, makes it " sacrilege" to degrade a Bishop to the rank of a 
 presbyter ; and see can. iv. and can. viii. The historian says of 
 the Nicene Canons, "Imperator decretum Episcopale complectitur ;"
 
 BEZA. 319 
 
 fore, in speaking against Episcopacy, has displayed 
 a hardihood and levity which it is painful to con- 
 template. But it must be confessed that, in spite 
 of much heretical argumentation and the strangest 
 inconsistency, he never seems to have quite for- 
 gotten that he had written such words as the 
 above. 
 
 Thus it will be observed, I think, that in all his 
 writings he has not once ventured to defame the 
 discipline of the Church, without the addition of 
 some qualification restricting his censures to Ro- 
 mish corruptions. " In all which I have written 
 against the Romish Hierarchy," he says himself, in 
 a letter of May 1591, quoted by Durell, " I have 
 not even alluded to the Polity of the Anglican Church, 
 which to impugn, or even to notice, was at no time 
 in my thoughts." l How far this assertion may have 
 
 Sulpicius Severus, Hist. Sac. lib. ii. p. 138 : and see the remarks of 
 John of Salisbury upon the conduct of the Emperor during the ses- 
 sion of that Council ; De Nugis Curialium, lib. iv. cap. iii. 
 
 1 Vindic. Eccles. Anglican, cap. xxxiv. p. 529. " If we some- 
 times speak against the authority of Bishops," says Du Moulin, 
 " we condemn not Episcopal order in itself, but speak only of the 
 corruption which the Church of Rome has introduced into it." 
 Buckler of Faith, p. 345, quoted by Bingham, vol. viii. p. 204. 
 The same thing is said by Andreas, Hyperaspist. in Prolegom. J. 
 Brentii, p. 61 ; by Lubbert, De Papa, lib. vi. cap. i. p. 483 ; by 
 Whittaker against Bellarmine, as Bramhall notices, Serpent Salve, 
 p. 597 ; and even by some of the promoters of the Scotch Covenant, 
 though of course they could not have been sincere in saying so : 
 see Gauden's Analysis of the Scottish Covenant (1060), who adds, 
 that "the most learned and godly Presbyterians" of his time were 
 favourable to " that ancient, noble, and venerable fabric of Episco- 
 pacy ;" pp. 21, 22. See also the collection entitled Confessions and
 
 320 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 been strictly true, is perhaps no concern of ours. 
 If he chose to separate our branch of the Catholic 
 Church from others, and to concede to us the per- 
 fection which he denied to them, it was open to 
 him to do so. And though we shall willingly ac- 
 knowledge that his testimony in our favour is worth 
 nothing, yet it must be admitted to fall heavily upon 
 our enemies : it may do us no good, but it does them 
 serious harm ; they are cast, to use the world's lan- 
 guage, by a jury of their own choosing. 
 
 The distinction between primitive and papal 
 Episcopacy, so commonly noticed by the first Pro- 
 testants, finds a frequent place in Beza's writings. 
 The latter he characterised as a corrupt and tyran- 
 nical system ; but he adds, " We do not accuse all 
 Archbishops and Bishops of the present day of this 
 tyranny. What arrogance would such a charge 
 imply ! Nay rather, if they follow the example of 
 those holy Bishops (of former times), and seek to 
 restore the house of God, now miserably decayed, 
 by the rule of His word, what hinders us to ac- 
 knowledge them as faithful pastors of the Christian 
 Church, to obey, and to honour them with all re- 
 verence ? We do not, as some most falsely and 
 most impudently object to us, propose our own 
 peculiar example to be followed by other Churches, 
 
 Proofes of Protestant Divines of Reformed Churches, p. 9. How 
 well did Tertullian describe such ' reformers' as these : " timet dam- 
 nare, quod daranat ; timet odisse, quod non amat ; factum sinit, 
 quod fieri non sinit!" Adv. Marcionem, lib. i. cap. xxvii. p. 450.
 
 BEZA. 321 
 
 like those rash men who think nothing right of j 
 which they are not themselves the authors." 1 
 
 . 
 
 Again : " If your English Church be supported 
 by the authority of Bishops and Archbishops and 
 it has possessed many of that order, who were not 
 only illustrious martyrs of God, but also most emi- 
 nent pastors and doctors, let it enjoy that singular 
 benefit of God, which I trust He may preserve to it 
 for ever." 2 
 
 Again : " If there be any which, however, you 
 will not easily induce me to believe who reject the 
 whole order of Episcopacy, God forbid that any 
 man in his senses should assent to their mad- 
 ness." 3 
 
 And once more for if words mean any thing, 
 the strength of such vehement professions cannot 
 be augmented by repetition : " We exhort, and 
 most humbly beseech with tears, our right good 
 brethren of the English Churches, and most re- 
 spected in the Lord, that all bitterness of mind 
 
 1 Triplex Episcopatus, cap. xxi. p. 207 (eel. 1610). 
 
 8 "... f'ruatur ista singular! Dei beneficentia, quae utinam sit illi 
 perpetua." De Divers. Grad. Minist. contra Saraviam, cap. xviii. 
 
 3 " Si qui sunt autem (quod sane mihi non facile persuaseris) qui 
 omnem Episcoporum ordinem rejiciant, absit ut quisquam satis sanse 
 mentis furoribus illorum assentiatur." De Divers. Grad. Minist. 
 cap. i. In another passage, which Bramhall takes the pains to no- 
 tice Serpent Salve, p. 604 Beza defends himself from " the impu- 
 dent arrogance" of speaking disrespectfully of the English Bishops : 
 and this sort of language, which was quite common with him, was 
 the more remarkable in a person of his temper, who, as Heylyn 
 says, " drove on so furiously, like Jehu in the Holy Scriptures, as if 
 no kings or princes were to stand before him." History of the Prcs- 
 In/teriaiui, p. 37. 
 
 Y
 
 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 being laid aside (which we fear this evil hath greatly 
 increased on both sides), the truth of doctrine itself 
 remaining safe, and conscience safe, men patiently 
 bear with one another, heartily obey the Queen's 
 Majesty, and all their Bishops; and lastly, con- 
 stantly resist Satan, who seeketh all occasions of 
 tumults and infinite calamities," 1 &c. 
 
 Such are a few of Beza's sayings which may 
 be most suitably cited in this place. It would be 
 tedious to add to them. It appears, moreover, that 
 he, as well as Calvin, repented in after-life of the 
 support which he had once given to a system of 
 human invention. " At Geneva," says Downame, 
 " while Calvin lived he was the perpetuall Presi- 
 dent of their ecclesiasticall Senate, differing rather 
 in name than authoritie from a Bishop. And Beza 
 likewise for the space of ten yeares had the like 
 authoritie, till Danaeus coming thither, that course 
 was altered. Since which times Beza, finding some 
 inconveniences which he knew not how to redresse, 
 hath sometimes signified his desire to some whom 
 I know, wishing with all his heart, that, with the 
 reformation of religion, the Episcopall government in 
 that Church had been retayned" 2 
 
 1 Epist. xii. quoted by Strype, Life of Archbishop Grindal, Ap- 
 pendix, p. 515. 
 
 2 Defence of Sermon, book iv. ch. vii. p. 166. Dr. Brett re- 
 marks Church Government, ch. v. p. 123 upon this extraordinary 
 circumstance in the position of our English sectaries, that even " by 
 the sentence of Calvin and Beza, whom they pretend to be followers 
 of, they are anathematised and counted as madmen ;" and this judg- 
 ment has been confirmed by most of the famous divines of Geneva.
 
 MELANCTHON. 323 
 
 IV. Melancthon's desire to retain Episcopacy, 
 and the efforts which he made with that object, 
 were so notorious in his own day, that it would 
 be enough to refer to the writings of his contem- 
 poraries in proof of a fact of which they make fre- 
 quent mention. 1 He himself even complained to 
 Luther, that he was on this very account " hated" 
 by all the lovers of novelty; and his biographer 
 Camerarius, who commends his zeal for the preser- 
 vation of the ancient ecclesiastical polity, and " his 
 endeavours to restore the authority of the Bishops 
 
 Farel, Rivet, Vedelius, and Viret, may be instanced. " Before Cal- 
 vin," says Bramhall, " Farellus offered the Bishop of Geneva terms 
 to retain his bishopric, if he would give way to the Reformation ;" 
 (and see on this point Bancroft, Dangerous Positions, chap. ii.). Of 
 Rivet the same Prelate says, "he himself did entreat a noble Earl 
 yet living to procure him a dignity or prebend in England, as his 
 brothers Moulin and Vossius had. The Earl answered, that he could 
 not hold any such place in England without subscribing to Episco- 
 pacy, and the doctrine and discipline of the English Church. And 
 he replied, that he was most ready to subscribe to them both with his 
 hand and heart." Vindication ofGrotius, ch. iv. p. 621. For the sen- 
 timent of Vedelius, see Exercitat. iii. in Epist. S. Ignat. ad Phila- 
 delph. cap. xiv. p. 138 ; and for that of Viret, De Minist. Verbi Dei 
 ct Sacram. lib. viii. cap. iii. Bramhall adduces similar testimony 
 so great was their inconsistency from Zuingle and ten other Swiss 
 divines. Ruchat says that Zuingle made a formal application to the 
 Bishop of Constance, " afin que ce Prelat, prenant a coeur une affaire 
 
 de si grande importance on put prevenir heureusement les 
 
 troubles, et faire que tout se passdt en bon ordre;" tome i. livre i. 7. 
 p. 101 : and see Moreri's Dictionnaire Historigue, in voc. Geneve. 
 
 ' Prateolus even makes him the founder of a new sect, to which 
 he gives the title of " Semi-Lutherani ;" Elench. Hceret. omn. Cf. 
 Spondon. ann. 1530. p. 404; and Basnage, liv. xxv. ch. v. Of his 
 expressed desire to retain Episcopacy another says, " Ad haec nihil 
 aliud concessiuaus adversariis, prseter ea, qua: Lutherus ccnsuit essc 
 reddenda, re bene ac diligenter deliberata ante conventum." Casau- 
 boniana, p. 23. ed. Wolf.
 
 324 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 if they would permit the use of sound doctrine, not- 
 withstanding he was violently opposed by many," 
 adds, " that Luther not only stood by him in this 
 matter, but also put him upon it." 1 
 
 It cannot, however, need many words to prove 
 that the author and defender of the Augustan Con- 
 fession 2 was a sorrowful and reluctant advocate of 
 ' presbyterianism.' Repudiating, as that famous 
 
 1 Quoted by Brett, ch. v. p. 121. It will be observed that no 
 separate place has been assigned to the testimony of Luther ; and 
 this may seem to require explanation. Enough has been said else- 
 where to shew that he might have been included in this catalogue ; 
 but it seemed better to resign him altogether, and for this reason. 
 The contradictions which mark the writings of almost all the foreign 
 Protestants are in those of Luther so extraordinary, that I believe 
 he has uttered few sentiments which he does not himself somewhere 
 undertake to refute. His temper, too, was so unbridled, that most 
 of his words may be supposed to have been spoken almost at random. 
 " I wish," said his fellow-reformer Calvin referring to what he 
 calls the "atrocious invectives which he scattered all round him" 
 " that -Luther would be more careful to bridle this intemperance 
 with which he every where rages ; I wish he would bestow more 
 pains in detecting his own vices." Calvini Epist. Ivii. Ad Bullin- 
 gerum. His friend Erasmus makes a similar complaint ; Epist. ad 
 Ph. Melancthon. p. 469. Claude apologises for the same ferocity ; 
 Defense, partie ii. ch. v. p. 136: and others were accustomed to 
 speak of it in still stronger language. If, then, his greatest ad- 
 mirers, even when praising him, speak of him thus, what have we 
 to do with him ? 
 
 2 In which it is expressly affirmed, that the Bishops might retain 
 the obedience of the Protestant party, if they would. " Non petunt 
 Ecclesise, ut Episcopi honoris suijactura sarciant concordiam, .... 
 tantum petunt, ut injusta onera remittant, quse nova sunt, etprceter 
 consuetudinem Ecclesice Catholicce recepta . . . Nunc non id agitur, 
 ut dominatio eripiatur Episcopis, sed hoc unum petitur, ut patiantur 
 Evangelium pure doceri." Art. xxi. With which compare the strong 
 statement of one of Melancthon's noble patrons : Marchionis Bran- 
 deburgensis Electoris Ad Sigismund. Itegem Polonice Epist., inter 
 Epist. Melancthonis, p. 520.
 
 MELANCTHON. 325 
 
 document does, the doctrine of disobedience to the 
 ecclesiastical Rulers, and professing, on the part of 
 all who subscribed it, the most unfeigned desire both 
 to submit to the existing Bishops, and to preserve 
 in perpetuity the sacred order to which they be- 
 longed, it has been commonly regarded as a suffi- 
 cient token of the deep-rooted unwillingness with 
 which Melancthon co-operated with those violent 
 men amongst whom it was his unhappy lot to 
 dwell. 1 His emphatic avowal of willingness to 
 submit to the jurisdiction of the Bishops, provided 
 they would suffer the Gospel to be freely preached, 
 has been already quoted; 2 and the remarkable pas- 
 sage in which it occurs is a fair illustration of his 
 tone and temper. He seems, unlike most of his 
 brethren, to have regarded the question in its true 
 light, viz. as a matter of conscience. " With what 
 conscience" he asked, " can we violate the Ecclesi- 
 astical polity, if the Bishops will make concessions 
 to us ?" In those days, when the extravagance of 
 a man's creed was only limited by the power of his 
 imagination, and the Holy Scriptures were searched, 
 not for what they actually taught, but for what they 
 could be made to teach, 3 this way of reasoning was 
 
 1 He says of himself, " Puer etiam in templis singular! voluptate 
 ritus omnes observavi ; et natura mea alienissima est ab ilia Cyclo- 
 pica vita, quae ignorat ordinem actionum, et odit ritus communes 
 velut carcerem." Epist. Hi. Cf. Epist. ad Leonardum, pp. 187, 392, 
 where he speaks with great severity and earnestness of the " pre- 
 sumption" and " fanaticism" which were so common in his days. 
 
 2 See page 281. 
 
 3 " His quse volumus, rationem conquirimus, et his qua studemus, 
 doctrinam coaptamus." S. Hilarii De Trinitate, lib. x. p. 234.
 
 326 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 as uncommon as it was just and reverent. The 
 following extracts seem to indicate the influence of 
 this peculiarly religious temper : 
 
 " It is my desire," said he, " that the form of 
 Church-polity should be preserved. Perhaps I am 
 of a servile disposition be it so ; nevertheless it is 
 my sincere judgment that humility becomes pure 
 minds, and that the gradations of Ecclesiastical rule 
 ought not to be done away." 1 
 
 Again : " I would that it might be believed 
 both of myself and many others, that, peace being 
 restored, we desire that the authority of the Bi- 
 shops should continue unimpaired, and judge that 
 this authority would be most advantageous to the 
 Church" And upon this he adds an appeal to 
 "Episcopal clemency" on behalf of "those who 
 refuse not to obey," confirming his professions by 
 the declaration, that there were then many mon- 
 strous opinions ready to start forth whenever an 
 occasion should offer ; and that if no counsels were 
 entertained for the speedy and effectual suppression 
 of divisions, new heresies would arise, which would 
 render the unity of the Church in after-times an 
 impossibility." " These evils (he continues) might 
 in times of tranquillity be guarded against, espe- 
 cially if the authority of the Bishops should prevail, 
 and they should undertake the charge of ecclesias- 
 
 1 " Politiam Ecclesiasticam conservari opto. Fortassis sum in- 
 genio servili ; sed tamen vere modestiam esse convenientem bonis 
 mentibus, gradus gubernationis non labefactari, existimo." Epist, 
 p. 51.
 
 MELANCTHON. 327 
 
 tical affairs. But if we shall obtain peace, I pro- 
 mise, in my own name, and in that of many others, 
 that we will employ all our diligence in enforcing 
 the doctrine of Christ." 1 
 
 To Cardinal Campeggio, after premising the 
 anxiety of his friends to concede to the Bishops 
 their full authority, he thus explains the motive for 
 such obedience : " If even then there should still 
 be, in one or other particular, some slight defect of 
 uniformity, nevertheless, inasmuch as the Churches 
 would be in subjection to the same Bishops, no signs 
 of discord would be seen, especially when an agree- 
 ment should be come to in matters of doctrine. 
 The Bishops, too, might heal by their authority 
 most of the prevailing disorders, when they should 
 again possess the obedience of the ministers :" 2 that 
 is, " Let the corrupted doctrines be amended, and 
 there will be no question made of submission to 
 lawful rulers." 
 
 Once more. To a Prelate of that Church in 
 which, by the good providence of God, our own 
 lot has been cast, he writes as follows : " Often do 
 I congratulate your Britain upon the possession of 
 such a Bishop ; of whom, if the Church had but a 
 few more such, there would be no difficulty in pre- 
 
 1 Episcopo Augustano, pp. 58, 69. 
 
 * " Ita enim si levis dissimilitude esset in una atque altera re, 
 tamen quia iisdem Episcopis parerent Ecclesise, nulla videri dis- 
 cordia posset, prspsertim cum de dogmatibus conveniret. Et Epis- 
 copi auctoritate sua pleraque incommoda tempore sanare possent, 
 cum jam iterum haberent obedientes pastores." Epist. ad Cam- 
 pegium Cardinalem, p. 147.
 
 328 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 serving its integrity, and in confirming the unity of 
 the whole world." 1 
 
 Such is the testimony of another " reformer" 
 against the wilful lawlessness of modern sectaries. 
 And if, in spite of many signal merits, Melancthon 
 did not wholly escape the influence of the times in 
 which he lived, it should be remembered that few 
 men have ever been more unhappy in their associ- 
 ates. It is impossible, however, to detract so much 
 from his authority, but that it will still be effectual 
 to condemn the guilt and folly of those who revile 
 the sacred order which he strove so vainly to re- 
 store, and forsake the Church in which he would 
 have rejoiced to live. 
 
 V. Martin Bucer, who has been regarded even 
 by some amongst ourselves as a high authority, 
 speaks on this subject in the same orthodox tone. 
 "Immediately, in the very beginning," he says, 
 " these perpetual orders of Ministers were ap- 
 pointed by the Holy Ghost, Bishops, Presbyters, 
 and Deacons." 2 
 
 Again : " In all the principal Churches from 
 the times of the Apostles, it was so ordered, that a 
 
 1 " Reverendissime Prsesul, . . . ssepe gratulor Britannise vestrae 
 talem Episcopum ; quales si haberet Ecclesia aliquanto plures, noil 
 difficulter et concordia orbis terrarum constitui, et servari Ecclesia 
 posset." Episcopo Cantuariensi, p. 193. 
 
 8 " Itaque hi ordines ministrorum in Ecclesiis perpetui, et a 
 Spiritu Sancto statim initio constituti sunt, Episcoporum, Presby- 
 terorum, Diaconorum." Explicat. de Vi el Usu S. Minist. Opp. 
 p. 565. Cf. De Ordinat. Legit. Minist. Ecc. p. 259.
 
 MARTIN BUCER. PETER MARTYR. 329 
 
 certain kind of overseership was committed to all 
 the Presbyters. Nevertheless, even in the Apos- 
 tles' days, one of the Presbyters was always chosen 
 and ordained to be a governor and a prelate in the 
 discharge of this office. He presided over all the 
 others, and specially, and in the most exalted rank, 
 was entrusted with the cure of souls, and adminis- 
 tered the episcopal office." 1 
 
 Again : in his most careful work, the Kingdom 
 of Christ f he says, " It is proper that an oath should 
 be taken of the Presbyters and Deacons, that, with 
 all fidelity, and the utmost respect, they will, in 
 executing their office in the Churches, obey their 
 Bishop." 2 
 
 Consistently with this view of the Episcopal or 
 Apostolic discipline, Bucer congratulated the An- 
 glican Church, as we have seen above, upon its 
 singular felicity in possessing true and lawful Bi- 
 shops, and expressed his earnest desire, that " the 
 goodness of God might extend to other kingdoms 
 the same privilege." 3 
 
 Peter Martyr, who was also elevated to a dis- 
 tinguished office in one of our own Universities, is, 
 like all the rest, a witness against the strange error 
 of ' presbyterianism.' Describing, with great satis- 
 faction, in one of his letters to Beza, the defection 
 of the Bishop of Troyes from the Roman commu- 
 
 1 De Animarum Cura, p. 280. 
 
 2 De Reijno Christi, lib. ii. cap. xii. p. 70. 
 
 3 See p. 285 ; cf. Gualter. Homil. in 1 Episi, ad Cor. Praefat.
 
 330 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 nion, and the willing obedience rendered to him by 
 the reformed presbyters in his diocese the Bishop 
 having refused to govern them until they had first 
 deliberated and agreed to obey him Martyr tells 
 his brother reformer, that " he was received by all 
 unanimously, and acknowledged as a true Bishop" 
 He then speaks of "the great advantage which 
 would accrue to the Church from his authority" 
 so far was he from assenting to the extravagances 
 of later times and adds, "God be praised, who 
 ruleth and ordereth after such a manner the king- 
 dom of His Son." 1 
 
 In another place he even seems anxious to 
 claim for the foreign religious bodies a participa- 
 tion in the blessings of that Apostolic discipline, 
 which, on the plea of necessity, they had so un- 
 happily subverted. " There is not a diocese or 
 state amongst us," he says, "in which one is not 
 chosen out of many pastors, eminent for his learn- 
 ing and experience, whom the churches style ' Su- 
 perintendent.' This person summons together all 
 the rest, admonishes, and rules them, according to 
 the word of God." 2 
 
 And what this officer was, who is here called 
 by so new and barbarous a title, we are informed 
 
 1 Apud Durell, cap. xxxiv. p. 517. 
 
 2 " Nulla est enim apud nos dicecesis, aut civitas, ubi non a 
 multis pastoribus deligatur quispiara, doctrina et experientia excel- 
 lens, quern Ecclesiae Superintendentem vocant. Hie caeteros omnes 
 congregat, monet, regit juxta verbum Dei." Defens. Doctr. Vet. de 
 Eucharist, pars i. p. 208 (ed. 1559).
 
 JEROME ZANCHY. 331 
 
 by another Protestant divine of great repute, who 
 succeeded Martyr himself at Strasburg, when the 
 latter came over to England. The learned Jerome 
 Zanchy thus speaks of him : " As for the thing itself, 
 there are not wanting in the Protestant Churches 
 Bishops and Archbishops, whom changing a good 
 Greek word into a bad Latin one they call ' Su- 
 perintendents' and 'General Superintendents.'" 1 
 It seems, therefore, from their own declarations, 
 that they were only imitating, in their uncouth 
 way, that holy order of the primitive Church which 
 our moderns affect to despise, but from which the 
 first Protestants, if we may believe their own so- 
 lemn assertions, 2 would never have departed, if they 
 could have shared that happy lot which they so 
 much envied in the English Church. 
 
 VI. The testimony of the celebrated Dr. Peter 
 Du Moulin, which shall be cited next, deserves a 
 
 1 In Confess. Fidei. Mason, in his defence of their ordinations, 
 says, " how can they disallow the pre-eminence of Bishops, seeing 
 their Superintendents are nothing but Bishops ? For when the name 
 Bishop was grown odious, by reason of abuses in the Popish Pre- 
 lates, they, retaining the dignity itself, changed the word Bishop 
 into Superintendent, which is equivalent in signification." 
 
 2 As, for instance, the profession of the whole Protestant body in 
 the year 1530. " Quantum in nobis fuit, auctoritatem et jurisdic- 
 tionem Episcoporum hactenus fultire et stabilire conati sumus." 
 And again ; " Opera etiam dabitur, ne Episcoporum auctoritati ac 
 honori aliquid detraheretur seu derogetur." And once more ; " Epis- 
 coporum jurisdictio, ad res spirituales spectans, nequaquam oppugne- 
 tur." Vide Seckendorff. Hist. Lutheran, t. i. 179. If the Bishops 
 had granted a reformation and no one denies that it was needed 
 would the ' presby terian ' scheme have ever been invented?
 
 332 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 separate notice. Learned beyond most of his con- 
 temporaries, and called to fill successively the theo- 
 logical chair in the Protestant schools of Paris and 
 Sedan, he seems to have been in many respects 
 one of the most conspicuous divines of his age. 
 At the synod of Dort, though he was not person- 
 ally present, his written judgment on the five Ar- 
 ticles of the Remonstrants was read by Diodati 
 before the whole assembly. 1 And so great was his 
 reputation, that we are informed, on the authority 
 of his son, that the Bishop of Poictiers, the Presi- 
 dent of Bourdeaux, and others, " were instruments 
 of the Court of Rome and the popish Clergy, to 
 tempt him from time to time, with great prefer- 
 ments, to forsake the Protestant cause." The same 
 writer adds, " that he was the object of the public 
 hatred of the Romanists." 2 
 
 If ever, therefore, there was an advocate who 
 might be trusted to speak in behalf of the cause to 
 which he was attached, and the party of which he 
 was so distinguished an ornament, Du Moulin is 
 surely such a person. Private interests could not 
 sway the judgment of a man who had rejected the 
 most splendid offers of the Roman Court, and his 
 own writings will shew that he was as little influ- 
 enced by personal resentments. To these, as the 
 safest expositors of his real opinions, we will at 
 
 1 Vide Act. Synod. Dordrecht, sess. 143. p. 334. 
 
 2 Novelty of Popery, Preface. " Petrus Molinaeus Calvinistarum 
 hodie signifer ;" Albaspinseus, In S. Optat. Milevit. obs. iv.
 
 PETER DU MOULIN. 333 
 
 once refer ; and first to his famous correspondence 
 with our great and good Bishop Andrewes. 
 
 Du Moulin had been reproached, it seems, for 
 the use of certain objectionable phraseology in 
 speaking of the government of the Church. To 
 this serious charge he offers to the Bishop the fol- 
 lowing reply : " That the Episcopal order and au- 
 thority was rather of ecclesiastical than of divine 
 institution, I confess myself to have said. But 
 besides that I spoke otherwise than I believed, do 
 you yourself judge whether it was possible for a 
 prudent and discreet man, being himself a French- 
 man, and living under the polity of the French 
 Church, to speak in any other way, unless he were 
 ready to incur the condemnation of our Synods, and 
 to be forced, under the penalty of rejection from his 
 office, to recant his words" 1 It is quite unneces- 
 
 1 Petri Molinsei Epist. i. Saravia tells a story of Peter Vil- 
 lerius, who happened at a certain clerical meeting to drop some 
 expressions of regret at the suppression of the Episcopal order, and 
 who was greeted thereupon with angry reproaches for his ' ambi- 
 tion;' and he adds, " what could I do? / was afraid to defend 
 him, although I was of the same opinion, lest I should incur a 
 similar charge myself." De Divers. Minist. Grad. Lectori. The 
 truth seems to be, that in the reformed communities the boasted 
 " right of private judgment" was prudently permitted only to a 
 few; the leaders in the different 'churches' kept it all to them- 
 selves. " In France," says the learned Maurice, " while the re- 
 formed Religion stood there, if any departed from the established 
 order of those churches, they were excommunicated ; and if they 
 should attempt to set up separate congregations, they would have 
 been accounted no churches .... Nor is it otherwise in Holland or 
 Germany, or wherever the reformed Religion is received ; they un- 
 church all who, upon such frivolous pretences as our dissenters use 
 against us, would leave their communion." Defence of Diocesan 
 Episcopacy, p. 451.
 
 334 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 sary, and would be painful, to offer any comment 
 upon such a confession. 1 One observation, how- 
 ever, may be made. We have seen above, upon 
 various testimony, that the most eminent of the 
 foreign Protestants disowned, on its first institu- 
 tion, the human system under which they reluct- 
 antly lived. From this remarkable saying of Du 
 Moulin's it appears, further, that many others, who 
 endured the same bondage at a later period, would 
 have disowned it too, if they had dared. 
 
 Again : Bishop Andrewes had referred Du Mou- 
 lin to the uniform witness of antiquity, in proof of 
 the divine institution of Episcopacy. "I do not 
 contest the matter," was his answer; "for so in- 
 deed the ancients declare." 2 And then, admitting 
 that this was a truth which could not be gainsayed, 
 he adds as before, that he could not openly assert 
 it, nor act upon his own principles, lest he should 
 be forced to condemn the Church to which he 
 belonged. 
 
 Elsewhere he desires the Bishop to remember 
 how, in one of his writings, he had "honourably 
 mentioned the Bishops of England. I have there 
 derived the Episcopal dignity," he continues, " from 
 the very earliest origin of the Church. I have pro- 
 nounced condemnation upon Aerius. I have con- 
 fessed that James himself was Bishop of Jerusalem, 
 
 1 Unless we may apply the defence which Lactantius offers for 
 Cicero's false philosophy : " Verura haec non est Ciceronis culpa, 
 sed sectce." 
 
 2 " Non pugno ; sic enim loquuntur veteres." Epist. iii. p. 180.
 
 PETER DU MOULIN. 335 
 
 from whom, in a long series, the succession of Bi- 
 shops in the same city is deduced. One thing only 
 I have left undone I have not pronounced my own 
 Church to be heretical"^ This, perhaps, it was too 
 much to expect him to do, and his verbal testimony 
 against it was sufficiently conclusive, without the 
 overt act of separation. He sums up all by pro- 
 fessing his anxious wish that his venerable corre- 
 spondent might know "how ardently desirous he 
 was of unity, and that all the Reformed Churches, 
 which were united by the same faith, should be 
 also bound together by the bonds of the same Eccle- 
 siastical government."* 
 
 It only remains to be added, in justice to a man 
 who possessed the esteem of the wise and holy 
 Hammond, that Dr. Du Moulin did not always 
 keep back, from those amongst whom he laboured, 
 the avowal of his real sentiments. In one of the 
 Acts of the University of Sedan, he proposed and 
 publicly defended the following thesis : " We affirm 
 that the Bishops of England, after their conversion 
 and abjuration of popery, were faithful servants of 
 God, and that they ought not to forsake the office or 
 title of Bishop"* And his son has reported that 
 " he was a known friend, not only to the doctrine, 
 but also to the discipline of the Church of Eng- 
 land, which he hath commended in many places of 
 his published works, and even in his private anno- 
 tations to his Bible, which I keep by me." 4 
 
 1 Ibid. p. 184. 2 p. 185. 
 
 3 Vide Thes. Sedanens. torn. i. p. 884. * Ubi supra.
 
 33G ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 VII. Of Hugo Grotius, whose judgment we will 
 now hear, it is altogether needless to say any thing 
 by way of introduction. The language in which 
 this great man spoke of the miserable ecclesiastical 
 system under which he was compelled to live, and 
 which he had once admired, is something more 
 than disrespectful. The arguments of the * presby- 
 terians' among whom his lot was cast, he does not 
 even notice ; contenting himself with the declara- 
 tion, that " they were so absurd and repugnant to 
 Holy Scripture as to be unworthy of confutation." 1 
 The divine origin of the Episcopal office and order 
 he regarded as an unquestionable fact, demonstra- 
 ble from the Scriptures and the teaching and prac- 
 tice of the primitive saints. 2 And it was his serious 
 admonition to the foreign Protestants, to employ 
 their utmost diligence in reviving those holy ordi- 
 nances of the Apostolic Church, the observance 
 of which they had so rashly and unadvisedly neg- 
 lected. 3 
 
 His admiration of the English Church has been 
 noticed elsewhere. Dr. Hammond did not think 
 his praises unworthy of an acknowledgment, and 
 has remarked upon " the signal value and kindness 
 
 1 Discuss, de Primatu Papce. 
 
 * De Imper. Summ. Potest. circa Sacra, cap. xi. 5. 
 
 3 And we find them angrily answering his rebukes for having 
 cast out their Bishops. Vide Sibrand. Lubbert. Resp. ad Pietatem 
 H. Grotii, Praefat. In one place Grotius says very plainly, " Pro- 
 testantes vere monendos censeo . . . ut Canones Apostolicos, et alios 
 aevi proximi, in usum revocent, turn in rebus aliis, turn maxime 
 circa electiones Episcoporum ac Presbyterorum." Annot. ad Cassand. 
 Consult, p. 50. ed. Amsterdam, 1642.
 
 HUGO GROTIUS. 337 
 
 which, in his lifetime, he constantly professed to 
 pay to this Church and nation ; expressing his 
 opinion, that ' of all Churches in the world, it was 
 the most careful observer and transcriber of Primi- 
 tive Antiquity,' and more than intimating his desire 
 to end his days in the bosom and communion of 
 our Mother." 1 On this point, for more reasons 
 than one, some further evidence shall be offered. 
 
 Le Clerc, in the appendix to his edition of a 
 work of Grotius before referred to, quotes, amongst 
 other papers, a letter of Francis Cholmondely, 
 which contains the following account of that emi- 
 nent statesman and divine : " That which you de- 
 sire to know of me concerning Hugo Grotius, who 
 was one of the greatest men that ever any age pro- 
 duced, is this. It happened that I came to Paris a 
 little after the transaction of that matter. Being 
 very well acquainted with Dr. Crowder, he often 
 told me with assurance, that it was the last advice 
 this great man gave to his wife (as he thought it 
 was his duty), that he declared he died in the com- 
 munion of the Church of England, in which Church 
 he wished her to live." 2 And this advice, as Chol- 
 mondely proceeds to relate, his wife acted upon ; 
 and Sir Spencer Compton, son of Lord Northamp- 
 ton, " told him (Cholmondely) that he was present 
 when Grotius' widow professed this, and received 
 
 1 Defence of Grotius, continuation, p. 29. 
 
 3 Letter of F. Cholmondely to A. Forrester, apud Le Clerc, 
 pp. 350-2. 
 
 Z
 
 338 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 the Sacrament." Archbishop Bramhall at whose 
 hands Grotius had recommended some of the fo- 
 reign divines to receive ordination for the office of 
 a Bishop, " that they might afterwards be qualified 
 to ordain other Pastors" confirms this account of 
 his own personal knowledge. 1 
 
 " Both myself," says that great Prelate, " and 
 many others, have seen his wife, in obedience to 
 her husband's commands, which she declared pub- 
 licly to the world, to repair often to our Prayers 
 and Sacraments, and to bring at least one of his 
 grandchildren to Sir Richard Brown's house, then 
 resident for the king in Paris, to be baptised into 
 the faith and communion of the Church of Eng- 
 land, and be made a member thereof, as it was 
 accordingly." 2 And yet a great authority of the 
 Roman Catholic Communion in this age and coun- 
 try moved, as it seems, by the natural desire to 
 procure for the novelties of his Church the sanction 
 of so deeply learned a writer has ventured to 
 assert, that, if he had not been prevented by an 
 untimely death, Grotius intended to have embraced 
 the Romish faith. 3 To persons of this class, as 
 well as to the other sectaries in this kingdom 
 against whose errors Grotius is as valuable a wit- 
 ness as any mere modern can be it seems enough 
 
 1 And Pierce gives the statement of the Lutheran minister who 
 attended his death-bed. New Discoverer, p. 26. 
 a Vindication of Grotius, ch. ii. p. 612. 
 3 Vide Dublin Review, vol. x.
 
 DAVID BLONDEL. 339 
 
 to reply with the venerable Bramhall, " If any man 
 think that he knoweth Grotius his mind better by 
 conjectural consequences than he did himself, or 
 that he would dissemble with his wife and children 
 upon his death-bed, he may enjoy his own opinion 
 to himself, but he will find few to join with him." 1 
 
 VIII. Of foreign Protestants two more only 
 shall be quoted ; and these, that we may conclude 
 with an extreme case, both strenuous advocates of 
 ' presbyterianism.' The names of David Blondel 
 and Salmasius the most zealous, unscrupulous, and 
 certainly the most learned of all the defenders of 
 the Genevan platform are identified with the cause 
 with which they were so prominently connected. 
 Yet even these men ol ait ff-fciffpurizoi, 2 as they 
 were are witnesses against the error which they 
 were hired to maintain, and were constrained, like 
 Balaam of old, to resign the wages which were 
 proffered to them, and to pronounce a blessing 
 where they were bid only to curse. 
 
 Whether Blondel's original intention was to 
 write, as there is reason for supposing, not against 
 but in favour of Episcopacy, is not perhaps worth 
 
 1 Casaubon's admiration of the Anglican Church was quite as 
 enthusiastic as that of Grotius. See the valuable remarks in the 
 dedication of his Exercitat. de Rebus Sacris (Genevre, 1555) ; and 
 in his letters to Heinsius, pp. 84 and 108, and to Grotius, p. 266, 
 ed. Hagae, 1638. 
 
 9 The term applied by St. Athanasius to the Moletians Apolog. 
 torn. i. p. 739 who were first Puritans and then Arians, as our 
 modern sectaries now sink into Socinianism.
 
 340 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 debating. 1 He did, at all events, at the call of the 
 English ' presbyterians/ compose the work which 
 bears his name. Of its general contents there is 
 no need to speak here. 2 It is enough to say, that 
 that work, written under such auspices, and with 
 such an object, concluded, when it first came from 
 Blondel's hands, with these notable words : " By 
 all that we have said to assert the rights of the 
 presbytery, we do not intend to invalidate the an- 
 cient and Apostolical constitution of Episcopal pre- 
 eminence. But we believe that wheresoever it is 
 established conformably to the ancient Canons, it 
 must be carefully preserved ; and wheresoever, by 
 some heat of contention, or otherwise, it has been 
 put down or violated, it ought to be reverently re- 
 stored" 3 
 
 What a cause is this, which is compelled to 
 confront even its own champions, and to sustain 
 itself by pulling down to-day the very supports by 
 
 1 Of his laborious readings Sir H. Yelverton says, " if fame be 
 true, collected at first to be the materials of a discourse he intended 
 for Episcopacy." Prefatory Epistle, p. 15. 
 
 2 Though it is worth noticing, that, as Bishop Lloyd observes, 
 " in that laborious collection of Blondel's, which was made for the 
 service of our Presbyterians, he, with all his vast reading, could not 
 find one undoubted example of a church of their way in ancient 
 times, but only that of the Scots. And yet for this case he very well 
 knew that he had no author for it who lived within a thousand years 
 of the time he asserts." Bp. Lloyd's (St. Asaph) Church Govern- 
 ment, Preface, p. 5. Vide Natalis Alexandri Dissert. Ecclesiast. i. 
 p. 156, who learnedly exposes Blondel's fable ; and Bramhall, Just 
 Vindication of the Church of England, ch. ix. pp. 134, 5. 
 
 3 Quoted by Bishop Skinner, of Aberdeen, in his Primitive Truth 
 and Order Vindicated, pp. 332, 3.
 
 SALMASIUS. 34*1 
 
 which yesterday it was kept from falling ! Blondel 
 had ventured to praise what he had been hired to 
 condemn, and his sentence must be reversed. " I 
 pray thee, curse me this people," was the vehement 
 entreaty of his employers, and, as he himself con- 
 fessed, it prevailed. The Paris agents of the As- 
 sembly of Westminster, with urgent and repeated 
 expostulations, besought him not to mar, by his 
 last words, the wholesome doctrine of his previous 
 statements ; and the passage which commended 
 Episcopacy as an "Apostolical constitution" was 
 cancelled ! 
 
 The case of Salmasius is, perhaps, still more 
 remarkable. Impetuous and self-confident even to 
 a proverb, 1 the boast of his party, and the very 
 Atlas of ' presbyterianism,' after consuming a whole 
 life in controversies, into which his acrid humours 
 infused an intensity of bitterness unknown even in 
 that age of strife, it would be strange indeed if such 
 a man had ever stooped to make concessions. The 
 error which he had once maintained was sufficiently 
 depressed without this. It was not from such a 
 hand that its partisans looked for further indigni- 
 ties. But the full measure of their humiliation was 
 still lacking ; their first masters had left them, one 
 after another, to shift for themselves, and the ca- 
 talogue of deserters would have been incomplete 
 
 1 " A Senate of Fathers moves him not a hair ; a right Monothe- 
 lite, he opposeth his own will against them all !" Sir H. Spelman's 
 Apology.
 
 342 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 without the famous name of Claude De Saumaise. 1 
 It is from his final reply to Milton, the last work 
 of his life, that the following passages are taken. 
 
 In a former rejoinder he had severely con- 
 demned the English Parliament for casting out the 
 Bishops, even saying, that " the Bishops were ne- 
 cessary, and ought wholly to have been preserved, 
 lest a thousand pestilent sects and heresies should 
 be hatched in England." For this Milton had 
 charged him, as might be expected, with shameful 
 vacillation. His answer is strikingly characteristic. 
 
 " When I condemned the order of Bishops," he 
 said, " I did it because, by means of its various 
 steps and gradations, Episcopal ambition had at- 
 tained to that climax of tyranny which the Bishop 
 of Rome now usurps. And I then wrote in my 
 own person. When I defended the order, I wrote 
 in the king's person, and how could I write against 
 his mind ?" 2 This position, however, he seems to 
 have found uneasy, and so he goes on to give other 
 reasons for speaking so respectfully of Episcopacy : 
 
 1 " M. De Saumaise, etant meme jeune, passoit pour le plus 
 grand homme de toute 1'Europe, selon Scaliger et Casaubon." 
 Chevrceana, ou Pensees cFHistoire, de Critique, &c. tome i. p. 129. 
 
 2 Ad Joannem Miltonum Resp. p. 41, opus posthumum, ed. Ph. 
 Chaunce, 1660. This language is an illustration of the proverb, 
 " extremes meet." " Et quoi, mon pere ! dites-moi en conscience, 
 etes-vous dans ce sentiment-la ? Non, vraiment, me dit le pere. 
 Vous parlez done, continuai-je, centre votre conscience ? Point du 
 tout, dit-il. Je ne parlois pas, en cela, selon ma conscience, mais 
 selon celle de Ponce et du P. Bauny." Pascal, Lettres Provinciates, 
 num. 5.
 
 SALMASIUS. 343 
 
 " experience," he says, had taught him to change 
 his mind. " For from the abolition of Episcopacy 
 there followed horrible confusion and disorder of 
 religion ; innumerable sects, which till then, as if 
 condemned to hell, had lurked in darkness, rushing 
 on a sudden from every side into the light by the 
 door now opened, the fear of the Bishops, by whom 
 they were formerly kept in check, being removed. 
 More than one hundred and fifty monstrous and 
 unheard-of sects are at this hour raging in Eng- 
 land. Never could this have been, if the Churches 
 had continued under the government of the Bishops 
 by whom they were formerly ruled. Wherefore, 
 then, might not Salmasius, taught by such expe- 
 rience, change his opinion ? Who is there that 
 knows not the ' Retractations' of Augustine ?"* 
 
 With this example of the Saint having, as it 
 seems, eased his conscience, Salmasius now casts 
 away all reserve, and becomes the eloquent apolo- 
 gist of the Bishops. " All that he could do," says 
 he of the martyr Charles, "to preserve the Bishops, 
 he did. Would to God that he had preserved 
 them ! Then, indeed, most justly would he have 
 been styled the Protector of religion. Then so 
 many hydras of impious and impure religions would 
 not now be overrunning and laying waste England. 
 For in what single particular were the Bishops ene- 
 mies of religion ? Or did they ever maintain any 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 42, 43.
 
 344 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 doctrine contrary to the truth ? You dare not 
 say so." 1 
 
 Once more. He is again mocked by Milton 
 for his change of sentiment, and he now plainly 
 tells him, " Salmasius did not write against every 
 kind of ecclesiastical primacy, but only against that 
 which was tyrannical, and resembled monarchical 
 sovereignty. The Church never was without a 
 primacy. That which Salmasius could not endure 
 was, that the Pope of Rome, under the name of a 
 primacy in the Church, should arrogate a lordship 
 over all kings and princes. This was the primacy 
 against which he wrote"* 
 
 How far Salmasius could make such statements 
 salvdjide, is not, as was said in the case of Beza, 
 our concern. He did make them ; and if they do 
 seem to be utterly inconsistent with his former 
 opinions, we must remember that they were written 
 at a time when " the lofty looks of man are hum- 
 bled, and the haughtiness of man bowed down ;" 
 when men are coming to their last hour, they 
 instinctively speak the truth. Would that some 
 among us might learn to anticipate the day when 
 they will be fain to imitate the "retractations" of 
 Salmasius ! 
 
 IX. We have now heard the most distinguished 
 
 1 Ibid. p. 117. Edwards, though a presbyterian, makes the same 
 comparison in favour of the Bishops. Gangrcena, p. 143. 
 
 2 chap. iii. pp. 346, 7.
 
 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 345 
 
 foreign advocates of the Genevan system. From 
 Calvin himself, who, in an evil hour of extreme ne- 
 cessity, invented it, to the pious men who groaned 
 under it in secret sorrow during the seventeenth 
 century, there is an unbroken continuity of evi- 
 dence. Each in his day protests, with more or 
 less earnestness, how humiliating was his con- 
 dition ; and each, with a fervency of language 
 which seems to reproach her own children, ce- 
 lebrates God's bountiful mercies to the Church 
 of England. 1 " Surely there is no enchantment 
 
 1 The learned Samuel Bochart says, that he had often received 
 the Holy Communion at the hands of English Bishops, and that all 
 the French pastors would have thought it a privilege to do the same ; 
 Epist. ad Morleium, p. 13. Amyraut makes a similar profession ; 
 Irenic. p. 351. Durell quotes many others, of whom a few shall be 
 mentioned. Drelincourt, speaking of France, says, " in this king- 
 dom, as in other countries in which there is not a Bishop who is not 
 in communion with the Bishop of Rome, and a zealous maintainer 
 of popish errors, the very name of a Bishop has become hateful. 
 But it ought not to be so in England, where Bishops have abounded 
 who were eminent examples both of rare piety and orthodox doc- 
 trine, as well as distinguished instruments in the reformation of the 
 Church." Durell, pp. 520, 21. Maximilian Langlet, who was 
 President, together with Daille, of many provincial synods, and 
 appointed Professor of Theology by the National Synod of France, 
 wrote as follows to Dr. Brevint : " My heart was tilled with joy 
 when the news was brought to me of the restoration of your Liturgy 
 and ancient Discipline. It is impossible not to augur well of that 
 Discipline under which the English Church has been for so many 
 years so largely blessed. It matters little what is said by those 
 haters of the Church's peace who go about murmuring every where 
 that the French Churches are inimical to the order of Bishops, as if it 
 were repugnant to the kingdom of Christ, and a relic of Antichrist. 
 Far be from us so senseless and unadvised a notion, which neither 
 Daille, nor Amyraut, nor Bochart, nor any other of my colleagues 
 at Rouen, ever countenanced." Ibid. Daille himself, when charged
 
 346 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 against Jacob, neither is there any divination 
 against Israel." The very aliens are constrained 
 to honour the Mother in whose bosom they were 
 not nurtured ; and when her own sons forget their 
 duty and their happiness, then, according to the 
 word of promise, " the sons of strangers build up 
 the walls of Zion." 
 
 But it is not only from the dwellers in other 
 countries that this tribute of homage has been re- 
 ceived. Not even those disobedient men who in 
 our own land deliberately withstood God's teach- 
 ing by His Church, and having " forsaken the 
 fountain of living waters, hewed them out cisterns, 
 
 by a Jesuit with this very crime that he was a despiser of Bishops 
 answered, '"' So far am I from despising Bishops, as you reproach 
 me, that, on the contrary, I am vehemently indignant as often as I 
 revolve in my mind the injury which the Pope has done them, in 
 depressing them so far below the rank which they enjoyed in the 
 primitive Church .... It is plain that Calvin himself reverenced 
 those Bishops who, after throwing oft' the yoke of the Roman Pon- 
 tiff, taught the pure doctrine of the Apostles such as were the 
 Anglican Prelates." pp. 521, 22. " The learned Mr. Turretin, Pro- 
 fessor of Church-history at Geneva, asserts that Episcopacy is of 
 Apostolical institution." Vide An Apology for the Foreign Pro- 
 testant Churches, &c. p. 5 (ed. 1717). Lastly, the Ministers and 
 University of Geneva, as late as the year 1706, in a letter addressed 
 to the University of Oxford, and dated the 25th of September, 
 " complain of their being misrepresented, as if they were enemies 
 to the constitution of the Church of England and her liturgy, of 
 both which they profess a great esteem, and blame those who, being 
 disaffected to the discipline and liturgy of our Church, make use of 
 the name of Geneva as favouring their pretences." They go on to 
 commend, like all the rest, the " faith" and "ceremonies" of this 
 Church, and say of themselves, that " they have such rites as the 
 government of a commonwealth and necessity do require." Quoted 
 by Leslie, Rehearsals, no. 182.
 
 BAXTER. 347 
 
 broken cisterns, that could hold no water," not 
 even these were able to withstand that power of 
 God, by which His enemies are compelled to ac- 
 knowledge with their own lips those eternal veri- 
 ties which they have vainly laboured to subvert. 
 With a few examples of the more remarkable con- 
 fessions extorted from such men, this chapter shall 
 be concluded. 
 
 The name of Richard Baxter is, I suppose, 
 generally associated with disrespect for the holy 
 order of the Catholic Church, and resistance to 
 her authority. 1 Even if he had not openly de- 
 famed her ordinances by hard speeches, yet the 
 whole course of his life would have made it impos- 
 sible to free him from this reproach. Yet Baxter, 
 like all the rest, is a witness against himself. For, 
 first, he confessed that " the reception of Bishops 
 in all the churches was so early and so general, 
 that he \vasfree to admit them" 2 And again, he 
 even assured Lord Clarendon, " that his chief 
 reason for refusing the Episcopate when it was 
 offered to him, Calamy, and Reynolds, and ac- 
 cepted by the latter, was the hope that he should 
 more effectually advance the cause of peace, by 
 retaining a station where his arguments in favour 
 of Episcopacy could be liable to none of those 
 
 1 "The bitterest adversary of truth, reviling the Fathers of the 
 Church, and the Church herself, more than any Presbyterian 1 ever 
 met with." Pierce 's New Discoverer, Advertisement. 
 
 * Life, Calamy 's Abridgment, &c. chap. vii. vol. i. p. 112. ed. 
 1713.
 
 348 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 suspicions, to which they must be exposed were he 
 himself exalted into the office for which he became 
 the advocate." 1 In this case, as in others noticed 
 above, it is no part of our office to be reconciling 
 the jarring testimony of words and deeds. If there 
 was, as will not be denied, a conflict between these, 
 it does not concern us to explain it : of this the 
 witnesses themselves are gone long since to give 
 account. 2 All that we need to observe is, the pue- 
 rile inconstancy, the marvellous and as it seems 
 judicial fatuity, which forced from the adver- 
 saries such confessions. If both the Church and 
 the Scriptures had been silent upon their error, 
 these strange men have been forward to pronounce 
 sentence upon it themselves. 3 
 
 1 Quoted by Short, History of the Church of England, vol. ii. 
 p. 233. Tillotson, whose prejudices were all in favour of presby- 
 terianism, says, that when King Charles II. offered a bishopric to 
 Calamy, then an old man, he " deliberated about it some consider- 
 able time, professing to see the great inconvenience of presbyterian 
 parity." Vide Lawson's History of the Scottish Episcopal Church, 
 p. 3. 
 
 8 Grotius speaks very scornfully of such men, who talked of 
 " reverencing the Bishops," and yet disobeyed them ; and asks of one 
 of them, " quid dixit, quod non diceret T&V Kadapwv Kadap^raros 1 they 
 pretend to honour Bishops too, and I doubt not, if they could make 
 any advantage of them, they would be ready enough to use their 
 assistance." Ordin. Hollandice et Westfrisice Pietas, p. 118. 
 
 3 For other confessions of Baxter, see Stillingfleet, Unreasonable- 
 ness of Separation, part ii. 27. " The Presbyterian dignities," says 
 one who appears to have known them, " were offended because they 
 could not obtain the chiefest dignities of the Church. Mr. Stephen 
 Marshal, a principal Presbyterian, and ringleader of the impious 
 Smectymnuans, did once petition the King for a Deanery, and at 
 another time for a Bishopric ! Which because he could not obtain 
 as the King told him. at Holdenby, where he attended upon the
 
 CARTWRIGHT. 349 
 
 The next instance is an extreme one. The 
 history of Cartwright, the learned antagonist of 
 Hooker and Archbishop Whitgift, is familiar, at 
 least in its outline, to most of us. Sir Henry 
 Yelverton, in his Preface to Bishop Morton, thus 
 describes the origin of the unhappy proceedings 
 in which this famous sectary was a chief agent : 
 " The reason of Cartwright's first discontent was, 
 that in the exercises that were done before Queen 
 Elizabeth at Cambridge, Dr. Thomas Preston got 
 all the applause, and a pension from the Queen, 
 when he, who was the better scholar, was not 
 taken notice of. This begat in him great discon- 
 tent and anger ; first, at the Queen's supremacy in 
 ecclesiasticals ; and afterwards, at all the orders of 
 the Church." Something of this kind, it is to be 
 feared, is the history of all the self-pleasers who, in 
 these late times, have fallen into Cartwright's sin. 
 Some private interest or personal resentment, some- 
 thing to be either gained or avenged, such is in 
 every age and place the motive of schism. Men 
 who have never learned to rule their own spirits, 
 or to bridle their own tongues, undertake to go- 
 vern the holy Church of Christ; and while their 
 own heady passions are gathering strength day by 
 day, propose themselves as competent reformers of 
 those divine ordinances, in the use of which their 
 
 Commissioners therefore he would overthrow all." Vide An Apo- 
 logy for the Bishops to sit and vote in Parliament, p. 44 (1660). Cf. 
 Foulis' History of the wicked Plots and Conspiracies of our pretended 
 Saints, book iii. ch. i.
 
 350 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 wiser forefathers, meekly accepting and adoring 
 the goodness of God, attained unto life and sal- 
 vation. Cartwright was doubtless a learned man ; 
 but other qualifications for the office of a reformer 
 he had none. With him ancients and moderns were 
 equally insignificant. The authority of Clement, 
 Anacletus, Anicetus, Epiphanius, Ambrose, and 
 Sozomen, being urged against him, he calls it 
 " the moving and summoning of hell ;" others were 
 " rogues," and " counterfeit," " ignorant," " over- 
 mastered of their affections." Even the continental 
 reformers, Luther, Bullinger, Bucer, and others, 
 were but poor sort of people when they differed 
 from him and his brother separatists. 1 Of such a 
 spirit was the most eminent " non-conformist" to 
 use the world's soft phrase in an age which was 
 not barren of such pernicious fruits. And it is 
 against such "raging waves" that we are com- 
 pelled, for our sins, to be still erecting bulwarks 
 from the writings and examples of the old Saints. 
 
 But it is not for the sake of recording the ex- 
 travagances of these men, that their names are 
 mentioned here. We are only concerned with their 
 recantations; and Cartwright's is not less instruc- 
 tive than others already noticed. 
 
 During his life he seems to have been more 
 than once visited with compunction at his own 
 doings; and at such seasons of half-repentance 
 
 1 Vide Strype's Life ofW/dtgift, vol. i. p. 106; and Whitgift's 
 Defense of 'the Answere to the Admonition, p. 403.
 
 CARTWRIGHT. 351 
 
 " professed and protested" to Archbishop Whitgift 
 who is said to have been at these times " very 
 courteous unto his old antagonist" that he would 
 " take no other courses but to draw all men to the 
 unity of the Church :" nevertheless, continuing his 
 schismatical proceedings at Warwick, he was com- 
 mitted to the Fleet prison. At length this famous 
 adversary of the Church came to his end ; of which, 
 on the authority of " a sober person present at his 
 death," the following account has been preserved. 
 " When he came to die, which he did at Warwick, 
 at the hospital of which Robert Dudley Earl of 
 Leicester" the great patron of " non-conformists" 
 " had made him master, he did seriously lament 
 the unnecessary troubles he had caused in the 
 Church, by the schism he had been the great fo- 
 menter of; and wished he was to begin his life 
 again, that he might testify to the world the dislike 
 he had of his former ways. And in this opinion he 
 died." 1 
 
 Lord Clarendon has noted, in his history, more 
 than one remarkable instance of the same kind. a 
 The ' presbyterian' Henderson was a chosen agent 
 
 1 Sir H. Yelverton's Epistle, p. 45 ; and Life of Whitgift, vol. ii. 
 p. 27. 
 
 3 And many others might be mentioned. Dr. Cornelius Surges, 
 a preacher notorious beyond most of his confederates, as having 
 sacrilegiously possessed himself of the revenues of the see of Bath 
 and Wells, fell at length into poverty and misery, and, as was much 
 noted at the time, was devoured by " a cancer in his body, answer- 
 ing to the cancer of his schism." One who knew him says, " Dr. 
 Burges died a very penitent man, frequenting with great zeal and
 
 352 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 of the Long Parliament to confer about matters of 
 religion with King Charles the Martyr. It was 
 from him that his Majesty received the proposal, 
 by which peace was offered to him on condition 
 that he should resign the ancient faith, and con- 
 sent to favour the new religion, of which Hender- 
 son was an eminent professor. The task imposed 
 upon this teacher of novelties seems to have been 
 performed with zeal and fidelity. " But the King," 
 says Clarendon, " was too conscientious to buy his 
 peace at so profane and sacrilegious a price as was 
 demanded ; and he was so much too hard for Mr. 
 Henderson in the argumentation, as appeared by 
 the papers shortly after communicated to the world, 
 that the old man himself was so far convinced 
 and converted, that he had a very deep sense of 
 
 devotion the divine service of the Church of England till his death, 
 which happened about two years ago." See Dr. Isaac Basire, On 
 Sacrilege, Preface to 2d edition, 1668. It was usual at that time to 
 notice the extraordinary judgments which overtook many of the 
 Puritans. Thus a person writing in 1644 to a minister of one of the 
 French protestant communities, calls his attention to many " infal- 
 lible testimonies of a divine vengeance ;" and having mentioned 
 Hampden, who died in the very field in which he first trained the 
 militia against his king, and Lord Brooke, who was shot while 
 storming the house of God, says, " I might adde to the list of such 
 examples that horrible disease of Pym. At the same time that his 
 conscience was gnawed with the vermine of ambition, affecting a 
 tyrannicke power, God gave him lice for food, and made him perish 
 by such a kind of death as once He did those monstrous tyrants 
 Herod and Philip the Second." See A Letter concerning the pre- 
 sent Troubles in England, p. 15, English translation. A like judg- 
 ment is said to have befallen the heretic Nestorius, who died from 
 his tongue being gnawed by worms. Vide Evagrii Ecclesiast. Histor. 
 lib. i. cap. vii.
 
 JOHN HALES. 353 
 
 the mischief he had himself been the author of, or 
 too much contributed to, and lamented it to his 
 nearest friends and confidents ; and died of grief 
 and heart-broken, within a very short time after he 
 departed from his Majesty." 1 
 
 The case of the celebrated Hales deserves a 
 place in this catalogue. Of his approximation to 
 the error of the sectaries, his own writings afford 
 sufficient demonstration. It is, however, unjust 
 that any man should be judged by writings which 
 he has himself desired to recant. " I am by genius 
 open and uncautelous," was his own general apology 
 to Archbishop Laud; 2 and of the particular errors 
 of his dangerous " Tract on Schism," still much in 
 vogue with those who are willing to imitate every 
 thing but the virtues of this great man, he said ex- 
 pressly, " I could heartily wish, for in the case I am, 
 I have nothing but good wishes to help me, that 
 they into whose hands that paper is unluckily fallen, 
 would favour me so much as to sponge them out." 3 
 
 Having mentioned Laud, it will not be out of 
 
 ' Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 31. Dr. 
 Short says that Henderson's whole argument with the King went no 
 further than, " it is not settled in Scripture." History of the Church 
 of England, vol. ii. p. 153. Clarendon mentions elsewhere the case 
 of Lord Pembroke, who had co-operated so zealously in the evil 
 deeds of that day, but afterwards confessed how heartily he and his 
 friends repented of what they had done, and how powerless they 
 were to stem the torrent which had begun to flow. History of the 
 Rebellion, book viii. vol. v. p. 72. 
 Hales' Tracts, p. 217, ed. 1721. 
 
 3 Ibid. Yet this very tract is referred to in our days, just as if 
 the retractation had never been written. 
 
 A A
 
 354 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 place to notice the account given by Hales himself 
 to Dr. Heylin of his interview with that Prelate, in 
 which, by the force of reasoning and argument, 
 or rather, by the good providence of God, he was 
 so happily reclaimed from his low and sectarian 
 views. He relates, in recording a conference which 
 lasted the whole day, " that he found the Arch- 
 bishop to be as well versed in books as business ; 
 that he had been ferretted by him from one hole 
 to another, till there was none left to afford him 
 any further shelter. That to this end he had ob- 
 tained leave to call himself his grace's chaplain, 
 that naming him in his public prayers for his lord 
 and patron, the greater notice might be taken of the 
 alteration." 1 
 
 With one more example, and that a notable 
 one, these admissions of adversaries shall be ended. 
 The person whose words are to be quoted was not 
 only, as Dr. Brett observes, " a professed enemy 
 to the established Church of England," but also 
 the author of the Act commonly entitled the Root 
 and Branch Bill, or " Act for the utter abolishing 
 and taking away of all Archbishops and Bishops, 
 their Chancellors and Commissaries, Deans, Deans 
 and Chapters, Archdeacons, Prebendaries, Canons, 
 and all their under officers." 2 That such a man 
 should ever have discerned his error, was not much 
 
 1 Heylyn's Cyprianus Anglicanus, part ii. book iv. p. 362. See 
 also Hales' Letter to Laud, p. 227. 
 
 2 See his passionate speech against the Bishops, in Rushworth's 
 Historical Collections, part iii. vol. i. p. 55.
 
 SIR EDWARD DEERING. 355 
 
 to be expected ; that he should confess and forsake 
 it, was indeed wonderful. Yet in the same place 
 in which Sir Edward Deering had advocated so 
 monstrous a proposition, he lived to make the fol- 
 lowing confession : " They who deny that ever 
 any such Bishops, that is, Bishops presiding over 
 Presbyters, were in the best and purest times, I 
 entreat some one of them, if any such be here, to 
 stand up and shew me, teach me, how I may prove 
 that ever there was an Alexander of Macedon, or 
 a Julius Caesar, or a William the Conqueror, in the 
 world. For, sir, to me as plain it is that Bishops 
 president have been the constant, permanent, and 
 perpetual Governors of the Church of God in all 
 ages. And this being matter of fact, I do hope that 
 historical proof will be sufficient adequate proof in 
 that which, in its fact, is matter of history. But 
 proofs herein are so manifold and clear, that I 
 borrow the free and true assertion of a worthy and 
 learned gentleman : ' It may be thought want of 
 will, rather than want of light, which makes men 
 deny the antiquity of Bishops in the primitive times.' 
 Therefore, answer not me ; but answer Ignatius, 
 answer Clemens, Tertullian, Irenseus nay, an- 
 swer the whole undisputed concurrence of the 
 Asian, the European, and the African Churches, 
 all ages, all places, all persons ; answer, I say, all 
 these, or do as I do, submit to the sufficient evidence 
 of a truth. nl 
 
 1 Quoted by Dr. Brett, Church Government, chap. v. p. 83 ; who
 
 356 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 X. It only remains now to sum up the fore- 
 going evidence. And surely of all the errors which, 
 from the foundation of the Church to the present 
 hour, have possessed the minds of professing Chris- 
 tians, there was never any, at least in the particular 
 feature under notice, like to this of which we are 
 here speaking. That it should have lingered on 
 through nearly three centuries, in spite of these 
 protests of its own leading advocates, is among the 
 chief marvels of modern history. Without one 
 clear text of Scripture in its behalf, 1 or a solitary 
 example in any Church throughout all ages, 2 its 
 
 adds, " Surely nothing but a most demonstrative truth could have 
 extorted such a speech from a declared enemy to all the Bishops in 
 England, and a professed foe to the Hierarchy." 
 
 1 " Sentences out of the word of God ye allege divers ; but so 
 that when the same are discussed, thus it always in a manner falleth 
 out, that what things by virtue thereof ye urge upon us as altogether 
 necessary, are found to be thence collected only by poor and mar- 
 vellous slight conjectures. I need not give instance in any one 
 sentence so alleged, for that I think the instance in any alleged 
 otherwise a thing not easy to be given." Hooker, E. P. Preface, 
 p. 193. 
 
 2 " A very strange thing sure it were, that such a discipline as 
 ye speak of should be taught by Christ and His Apostles in the word 
 of God, and no Church ever have found it out nor received it till 
 this present time : contrariwise, the government against which ye 
 bend yourselves be observed every where throughout all generations 
 and ages of the Christian world, no Church ever perceiving the word 
 of God to be against it. We require you to find out but one Church 
 upon the face of the whole earth that hath been ordered by your 
 discipline, or hath not been ordered by ours, that is to say, by epis- 
 copal regiment, sithence the time that the blessed Apostles were here 
 conversant." Ibid. Our brethren would do better to answer this 
 challenge, than to content themselves with repeating, one after an- 
 other, the puerilities which have been so often refuted. But we are 
 sure it will receive no reply from them, any more than it did from
 
 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 357 
 
 first maintainers were willing, as we have seen, 
 that it should appear in its true character, content 
 to excuse it only as a necessary evil, and to plead 
 as its sole but sufficient apology the unparalleled 
 disorders which gave it birth. 1 Abandoned since 
 that time by the very men who invented it, and 
 shuffled as far as possible out of sight by its un- 
 willing advocates in later times, like some infir- 
 mity of which they could not rid themselves, but 
 which they were ashamed to acknowledge, the 
 present existence of what is called ' presbyterian- 
 
 their predecessors in an earlier age ; to whom St. Austin was used 
 to say, " Auferantur chartse humanse, sonent voces divinse. Ede 
 mihi nun HI Scriptures vocem pro parte Donati ; audi innumerabiles 
 pro orbe terrarum." De Pastoribus, cap. xiii. torn. ix. p. 281. 
 
 1 The argument which Melancthon allowed himself to use, when 
 it had become necessary that the unordained preachers should either 
 defend their vocation upon some new ground, or confess themselves 
 to be only laymen, was this : " The power of the keys and of 
 ordination must reside in the whole Church. If, therefore, the 
 Bishops become enemies of the Church, or withhold ordination, 
 Ecclesice retinent jus suum" De Potestate Episcoporum. Danger- 
 ous and mistaken as such a notion is, it would not, even if it were 
 true, help our brethren ; because their Bishops Melancthon com- 
 mended as the Church's best servants, and they do not withhold the 
 imposition of hands. The language of the Magdeburg Confession 
 agrees with the above. " Retinet Ecclesia administrationem in ne- 
 cessitate, sicubi ministrorum copia fieri in partibus necessariis non 
 potest." Cap. vi. De Ecclesia et Ministris ejus. Every one sees 
 that the theory of this article was suggested by the case to which it 
 was intended to apply. Still it is fatal to our sectaries, who can of 
 course pretend to no such " necessity." These men too, we may 
 suppose, would not have used such an argument unless they had 
 some esteem for that which, as they themselves protest, they were 
 forced to resign. They did not resign it willingly, or why should 
 they plead "necessity?" Why not, like our separatists, affect to 
 rejoice in being rid of it ?
 
 358 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 ism' is one of the most humiliating facts which 
 these latter days offer to our contemplation. Ori- 
 ginating in rebellion, and established by violence, 
 in every land where it has hitherto been set up, 1 
 it was to be expected that this device of human 
 ingenuity should still be upheld by the profane and 
 disobedient. But that it should number amongst 
 its willing captives the gentle and the good, that it 
 should usurp the affections of many to whose vir- 
 tues we bear willing testimony, and by whose pure 
 examples we would gladly profit, this indeed is 
 a thought to awaken sorrowful indignation. And 
 whither will our brethren, who are not ashamed to 
 renew these discarded follies, and to feed upon the 
 husks which others have flung aside, whither will 
 
 1 England, Scotland, Holland, Germany, France, Sweden, Den- 
 mark, Poland, and Switzerland, have all the same tale to tell of the 
 origin of this form of discipline. Its history in the first five coun- 
 tries here named is sufficiently notorious. In Sweden and Denmark 
 it was by a decree of the civil power that Episcopacy was abolished, 
 after the Catholics had been subdued by force of arms. In Poland 
 the opposition to the Bishops seems to have been originated by the 
 nobility, who hated them for their efforts to maintain discipline, and 
 especially for their punishment of those who violated their vows of 
 chastity. Vide Regenvolscii Histor. Ecclesiast. Slavonic. Provinc. 
 lib. ii. p. 209. In Geneva itself, the Bishop, M. Pierre de la 
 Baume, who was also, as Prelate of that city, a temporal prince, 
 was forcibly expelled, and an army raised in opposition to his au- 
 thority as the supreme civil governor. Whether they could have 
 procured a reformation without this violence, is another matter ; any 
 how it is a significant fact, that the presbyterian ' reformation' was 
 also, in every place, a revolution. On the complex character of the 
 Bishop of Geneva, which is a point of some importance in this con- 
 troversy, see the anonymous Histoire de France, tome ii. livre v. 
 p. 424.
 
 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 359 
 
 they turn for sympathy in their lot of needless and 
 voluntary penury ? Not to those Holy Oracles 
 of which almost every page is an admonition upon 
 their error; not to that long line of saints and 
 martyrs whose reproaches we are loath, for the 
 love we bear them, even to repeat; not to the 
 example of those few moderns who submitted to 
 the same lot only because they could not escape 
 from it, and who, almost without exception some 
 at one period of life, some at another confessed 
 and repented their error ; from none of these can 
 they gather comfort. To whom, then, will they 
 go? 1 On every side they find a waste and a soli- 
 tude. In the common forefathers of the flock of 
 Christ they see only that sainted company by 
 whom their inventions have been branded as sa- 
 crilege, and themselves as aliens and rebels, and 
 against whom, in turn, every act of their religious 
 life is a proclamation of contempt and defiance. 
 And when they turn to their own masters and 
 teachers, from whom at least they might expect 
 sympathy, they too refuse to accept their unwel- 
 come alliance, and bid them coldly shift for them- 
 selves. 
 
 It is to the illustration of this last circumstance, 
 peculiar, I believe, to the strange error under con- 
 sideration, for what heresy but this was ever con- 
 demned by its own author ? that the present chap- 
 
 1 TtVo>j/ ovv (lo-i K\r)pov6p,oi KOI StaSo^oi; S. Athanas. Ad Africanos 
 Episc. Epist. torn. i. p. 937.
 
 360 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 ter has been devoted. Of the later sections several 
 might, without prejudice to the argument, have 
 been omitted, because it was upon the confessions 
 of the first ' Presbyterians' only that it was founded. 
 If they chose to witness against their own scheme, 
 even at its first setting up, it was of less moment 
 that their disciples did so after them. Yet this 
 later testimony is not without its value; and for 
 this reason : 
 
 As long as the vocation of unordained persons 
 was defended as " extraordinary," and Calvin and 
 Beza claimed to represent, not the lawful and or- 
 dinary pastor, but the old prophets of the Jewish 
 Church, the Genevan or any other form of polity 
 might be maintained even by men professing, as 
 they did, the utmost reverence for antiquity with- 
 out any great embarrassment. Example and pre- 
 cedent were no stumbling-blocks in their case, even 
 though they admitted their authority in that of 
 others; because the obligation of these was as- 
 sumed to be suspended, so far as they were con- 
 cerned, by the very claim which they asserted to 
 an immediate and supernatural calling. It was 
 not, therefore, an absolute surrender of their cause 
 when they admitted, as they did so freely, the pre- 
 eminence of Bishops. The independent ministry 
 of the old Prophets did not imply any antagonism 
 to the established ecclesiastical order ; the two were 
 perfectly consistent, and they were admitted to be 
 so. Only the one was framed for continuance,
 
 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 361 
 
 " an ordinance for ever ;" the other was designed 
 merely for a temporary object. And here the 
 Calvinistic system, in spite, or rather because of 
 its bold pretences, failed. The day arrived when 
 it was necessary that the first " reformers" should 
 devolve upon others the office which they had 
 themselves ventured to exercise. But it was not 
 to be expected that men should concede to this 
 new race of teachers the rank of " Prophets." 
 They must be content to take a lower station. 
 And now the difficulties, which the audacity of 
 Calvin's theology had eluded for the moment, be- 
 gan to be felt. It was no disadvantage in his own 
 case, or that of his contemporaries, that they had 
 lauded the ancient hierarchy, because they pro- 
 fessed to act, not against, but independently of it ; 
 but what ground were their successors to take ? 
 They could not lay claim to the ordinary vocation, 
 without abandoning their first pretence, and con- 
 victing themselves of imposture. Yet the alterna- 
 tive was, to resign their station ; and this they had 
 no mind to do. Authority and power, which they 
 acquired under the sanction of imperious necessity, 
 was of too pleasant a savour to be easily resigned ; 
 they had possessed themselves of it on one plea, 
 and they must frame a new one in order to retain 
 it. If the Bishops at this critical moment would 
 have consented to confer ordination, all might have 
 been well ; but they would not, and it became ne- 
 cessary to proclaim thenceforward that the Church
 
 362 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 could do without them. The fatal admissions of 
 Calvin and Luther, of Melancthon and Beza, must 
 be blotted out; and from that time the new doc- 
 trine of ' Presbyterianism' was added to the thou- 
 sand errors to which a too-violent reaction from 
 the intolerable abuses of a corrupt Church had 
 already given birth. 
 
 It is in the writings of the first generation of 
 " reformers" that the statements are found by 
 which the truth of this history of the rise and pro- 
 gress of ' Presbyterianism' is proved ; and to their 
 writings it would have sufficed to appeal. But, as 
 I have said, the confessions of its later advocates 
 if they can be styled advocates who claimed for 
 it little more than charitable forbearance are not 
 without value. The distinction to be noticed be- 
 tween their admissions and those of their prede- 
 cessors is this, that whereas the bold pretensions of 
 the latter were not immediately compromised by 
 their professed admiration of the primitive disci- 
 pline, it was impossible for others, who affected no 
 immediate or extraordinary calling, to repeat the 
 same admissions without pronouncing with the 
 same breath their own condemnation. Yet they 
 did repeat them they did acknowledge Episco- 
 pacy to be of Apostolical institution ; and accord- 
 ingly they were compelled to ask that they might 
 not be reproached with their own words, nor forced 
 to accept the conclusions to which their own pre- 
 mises led. " One thing only I have left undone,"
 
 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 363 
 
 said the learned Du Moulin, after frankly conced- 
 ing every thing, " I have not pronounced my own 
 Church to be heretical." Permission to be silent 
 on that point was the sum of his desires ; and not 
 to be put to open shame was the humble request 
 of the most accomplished and distinguished f Pres- 
 byterian' of his age ! 
 
 Such is the extraordinary error which men, no 
 way debarred from informing themselves of the 
 history of the Church, are still found to maintain. 
 That it should have survived so long in any com- 
 munity whatever, is surprising ; but that it should 
 seek to pass for truth, and even assume an attitude 
 of complacent superiority, amongst a people who 
 were regarded by its own authors as greatly bles- 
 sed, because they retained those very ordinances 
 with which this new religion ventures to dispense 
 this, indeed, even when we have made the largest 
 allowance for the tyranny of self-love, and preju- 
 dice, and passion, is both a perplexing and humili- 
 ating fact. " If there shall be any who will not 
 reverence true Bishops," said Calvin, " there is no 
 anathema but I confess them worthy of it." And 
 " if there be any, which you will not easily per- 
 suade me to believe," adds his disciple Beza, " who 
 reject the whole order of Episcopacy, God forbid 
 that any man in his senses should assent to their 
 madness." Yet there are some amongst ourselves 
 who have not feared to avow openly the silly pro- 
 faneness which even these men affected to regard
 
 364 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 as "incredible," and to lift up their heel against 
 the Church which they thought it necessary to 
 commend as the purest and happiest in Christen- 
 dom. 1 
 
 One remark in conclusion. It is plain that, 
 whatever else may be taken for granted by those 
 who occupy so new and strange a position in rela- 
 tion to the Church of God, this must be included 
 amongst their necessary postulates that they are, 
 beyond all other men, in any age or place, the ob- 
 jects of His special favour and guidance. Painful 
 as such a tenet must be to humble minds, they 
 cannot shrink from asserting it. It is assumed in 
 every article of their new faith, of which the sub- 
 stance is, in a few words, as follows. That after 
 suffering, during fifteen centuries, the suppression 
 of His own original Institution, and the erection in 
 
 1 " Here then let us consider and beware of the fatal progress of 
 error ! Calvin, and the reformers with him, set up presbyterian 
 government, as they pretended, by necessity, but still kept up and 
 professed the highest regard to the episcopal character and authority : 
 but those who pretend to follow their example have utterly abdicated 
 the whole order of episcopacy, as antichristian and an insupportable 
 grievance, while at the same time they would seem to pay the 
 greatest reverence to these reformers, and much more to the first 
 and purest ages of Christianity, whose fathers and councils spoke all 
 the high things before quoted in behalf of Episcopacy, far beyond the 
 language of our later apologists for that hierarchy, or what durst 
 now be repeated, except from such unquestionable authority. In 
 this they imitate the hardness of the Jews, who built the sepulchres 
 of those prophets whom their fathers slew, while at the same time 
 they adhered to and outdid the wickedness of their fathers in perse- 
 cuting the successors of those prophets." Leslie, On the Qualifica- 
 tions necessary to administer the Sacraments, Works, vol. vii. p. 182. 
 ed. Oxon.
 
 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 365 
 
 its stead of a mere human system, God was pleased, 
 at length, to vindicate His appointment from this 
 corruption which had overlaid it. His saints and 
 martyrs He had indeed permitted, during so many 
 ages, to live and die in error ; even allowing them 
 to condemn with dreadful censures that which was 
 all the while, though they knew it not, the true 
 form of His Church, and to laud with extravagant 
 praises that which was only, though they knew not 
 this either, a departure from it. At length the 
 generation arose to which, on this hypothesis, the 
 new revelation was vouchsafed. The pure ordi- 
 nances and the holy order of the Apostolic Church 
 were again restored, and the blessings which had 
 been withheld, in spite of manifold promises, from 
 the men of every other age, were granted to their 
 more favoured successors in this. 
 
 It was, indeed, somewhat strange that they 
 who were distinguished by these peculiar favours 
 should have been themselves unconscious of their 
 own privilege ; and that, in entering upon their 
 new state, they should ignorantly speak of it as 
 one which they embraced only from hard " neces- 
 sity," and which they hoped shortly to exchange 
 for a better. It was an unthankful perverseness, 
 that they persisted still in commending the corrupt 
 ecclesiastical polity, and in eagerly desiring that it 
 might be retained. But if they did not know their 
 own happiness, no doubt they ought to have done 
 so ; and our brethren who judge that all former
 
 366 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 
 
 Christians were so miserably deceived, need not 
 hesitate to add these few to the number. But this 
 by the way. 
 
 Whether men were at first aware of it or not, 
 we are bid, at all events, to understand, that the 
 setting up of the 'presbyterian' form of govern- 
 ment in the sixteenth century was, in fact, the 
 revival of the apostolical polity, and therefore an 
 inestimable blessing. Now it is not too much to 
 expect, that this wonderful dispensation should 
 have been attended with some corresponding bene- 
 fits to mankind and to the cause of religion. It is 
 not unreasonable to suppose, that so distinguishing 
 and unparalleled a mercy as, by hypothesis, this 
 must have been, should have been accompanied by 
 a revival of holiness, and a zealous maintenance of 
 that pure faith with which holiness is inseparably 
 connected. Our brethren, we may suppose, will 
 admit this, unless they are content to be regarded 
 of the whole world as mere triflers. And now, 
 what have the facts been ? This shall be our next 
 and final inquiry. 
 
 And since the adversary rejects as insufficient 
 the clear evidence of Holy Scripture, the uniform 
 and unvaried testimony of Antiquity, and even the 
 witness of those moderns whom he has chosen for 
 his proper masters and teachers, it remains only to 
 refer him, in the last place, to the development of 
 his own principles; to use a test from which he 
 would not be thought to shrink, and to shew that,
 
 ADMISSIONS OF ADVERSARIES. 367 
 
 in every land throughout the world, and under 
 every modification of external circumstances under 
 which this boasted revival of the primitive polity 
 has been set up, it has declined with greater or less 
 rapidity, but by an unfailing law of retrogression, to 
 one or other form of unbelief or apostasy ; and is at 
 this moment in close alliance, in every quarter of 
 the globe, with the God-denying heresy of Socinus. 
 We do not expect that ordinary considerations of 
 prudence or duty will prevail with those who have 
 been once entangled in the snares of error; but 
 this is a fact which, when it shall be proved, even 
 they may be unwilling to despise.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 I. THE criterion by which we are about, in the 
 last place, to try the religious systems of modern 
 days, is one from which, as I have said, the adver- 
 saries themselves would not willingly be supposed 
 to shrink. The least suspicion of reluctance on 
 their part to encounter a test at once so fair and so 
 searching, would be an evil omen for their cause. 
 And it must be confessed that they have not re- 
 fused, in times past, so long as the ordeal was com- 
 paratively a safe one, to be judged by the visible 
 tendencies and historical developments of the prin- 
 ciples which they have been accustomed to pro- 
 fess. 1 It is to these developments, as they are ex- 
 hibited throughout the world at the present hour, 
 that we are now going to refer. 
 
 Nor have we any reason to suppose thaft the 
 judgment founded upon them will be regarded as 
 fanciful or unjust. It is indeed to visible results 
 
 1 Witness the replies made by Basnage and others, in the name 
 of the Protestant party, to Bossuet's celebrated Histoire des Varia- 
 tions des Eglises Protestantes.
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 369 
 
 that religious no less than political empiricism has 
 ever been eager to point attention. To these it 
 still professes to appeal ; and studiously to cast a 
 veil over them, and to insist, in this particular case 
 alone, upon confining controversy within the limits 
 of abstract or speculative reasonings, would be a 
 departure from their usual method too significant 
 to be ventured upon by the religionists with whom 
 we have to do. It would, moreover, be fatally in- 
 consistent with the claim to a special illumination, 
 and the hypothesis of a new revelation, which, as I 
 have noticed above, their whole case requires and 
 presupposes. 1 
 
 It might even be said, that the argument, upon 
 which it is here proposed to enter, is only borrowed 
 from the forefathers for they have an ancestry, 
 though it be of yesterday of the present race of 
 sectaries. It was often in the mouth of their pre- 
 decessors of the Caroline era. " The tree is known 
 by the fruit" said the f presbyterian' Edwards, quot- 
 ing Scripture against men who had ventured to im- 
 prove upon the example which he and his party had 
 set them : " a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit ; 
 and so we may judge of the ' Independent* way by 
 these^fruits. . . . We may by this catalogue of here- 
 sies" (which the ' Independent' doctrine had gene- 
 rated) " see the truth of that spoken of by many 
 divines, both fathers and modern writers, that schism 
 makes way to heresy, and separation from the Church 
 
 1 See Hooker, Preface, ch. iii. p. 180. 
 R B
 
 370 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 to separation from the Head." 1 An edifying remark, 
 on many accounts, and one which we need not he- 
 sitate to adopt even from such a source. 
 
 " The hand of God is gone out against you," 
 was the confident reproach of Baxter using pre- 
 cisely the same argument against those who se- 
 parated from the " conventicles of vanity" 3 within 
 which he would have restrained them. " You see," 
 said he, with the full assurance of his class, " you do 
 but prepare yourselves for a further progress. Seek- 
 ers, Ranters, Quakers, and too many professed in- 
 fidels, do spring up from among you." 3 
 
 This reasoning, then, I repeat, is not new; it 
 was familiar, not very long since, to the enemies of 
 the Church, and why should it not be employed in 
 her defence ? It was once used by them in their 
 struggles against each other : let us see what it may 
 effect in our behalf against them all. 4 
 
 1 Gangrcena, chap. v. p. 125. Sir R. L'Estrange has collected 
 many such observations in his Dissenters' Sayings against Toleration. 
 
 2 Aug. Contra Ep. Parmen. lib. iii. cap. v. 
 
 3 " Parties will arise in the separated churches," he adds, " and 
 separate themselves from them, till they are dissolved." See No 
 Protestant, but the Dissenters' Plot, p. 185, ed. 1682. " We can- 
 not," says another, " but sadly look upon and lament over the wo- 
 full effects of the separation. How hath God born witnesse against 
 it in our sight, as heretofore in Germany ! Into what errors, heresies, 
 blasphemies, &c. have thousands run ! We call these, and might 
 name many particulars under these, effects of the separation ; we 
 think they are more than consequences." Fowler's Dcemonium Meri- 
 dianum, p. 178 (1655): and this was addressed to Cromwell himself. 
 
 4 " Presbyteriall government," said Edwards, " as soon as an 
 error doth but peep out will find it, and take it single before it grows 
 into a body, and crush it in the egg before it comes to be a flying
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 371 
 
 Now there are, in fact, two distinct methods in 
 which an inquiry into the development of religious 
 systems of human origin may be conducted, and 
 the oneness of schism and heresy demonstrated. 
 The first is, by the use of a priori arguments only, 
 by tracing what a modern writer calls the " phi- 
 losophical connexion" between the two, and the 
 identity of their primary principles ; and this has 
 often been done with great power and effect, 
 though not perhaps with the accuracy and mi- 
 nuteness which the subject deserves. The other 
 is simpler, and takes the reverse order; pointing, 
 wherever it can, to the actual history of separation, 
 marking its gradual declension to misbelief, its rapid 
 and silent but uniform progress from innovation in 
 Discipline to corruption in Doctrine. This latter 
 method deals with facts rather than principles, and 
 is perhaps the more practical of the two ; and as 
 it may be pursued with more facility, as well as 
 with far greater effectiveness, it is the one to which 
 I intend here mainly to confine myself. 
 
 The history of the Church, to which we must 
 refer for these facts, presents to us, at different 
 epochs, three remarkable heresies, which appear, 
 each in its respective era, to have either wholly 
 absorbed into themselves, or at least to have power- 
 serpent :" and then he instances as follows ; " Where have we ever 
 heard of or found in the church of Scotland, France, &c. such things 
 as in the Independent churches?" p. 177. We are going to take him, 
 therefore, at his word, and try ' presbytery' by his own test.
 
 372 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 fully affected and modified, the various minor sects 
 which were contemporaneous with them. Of these 
 the earliest, which arose in the time of the Apostles 
 and prevailed throughout the following age, was 
 Gnosticism ; it was succeeded, at a somewhat later 
 period, by Arianism ; and now, in our own day, 
 Socinianism maintains a kindred relation to, and 
 exerts a similar influence over, the ever-shifting 
 and fluctuating communities which occupy with 
 respect to the Church the position of the ancient 
 separatists. 
 
 (1.) Of the first of these it would be inaccurate 
 to speak as affording an instance of the operation 
 of that uniform law of declension from schism to 
 heresy, which we are about to trace; because it 
 was not originated, like the others, by separation 
 from the one Catholic Church. 1 I shall pass over 
 it, therefore, altogether; remarking only that, at 
 least in two particulars, its history exhibits the in- 
 variable features of subsequent ecclesiastical schisms, 
 namely, the practice of all headstrong and licen- 
 tious disobedience under the plea of spiritual liberty, 2 
 and the gradual progress from bad to worse. Hate- 
 ful as it was even in its outset, this system seems 
 
 to have assumed by degrees, as it received the ac- 
 
 ^ 
 
 1 Bishop Bull, however, was of opinion that the Arians were 
 derived from the Gnostics. Def. Fid. Nic. vol. v. p. 100. 
 
 8 " TipSrrov autem ^ei/Soj, sive fundamentum, tarn absurdis dog- 
 matibus substructum, fuisse contendit praetextum libertatis creden- 
 tibus per Christum acquisitae." F. Buddei De Statu JEccles. Christ, 
 sub Apost. cap. v. 3. p. 598.
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 373 
 
 cession of sect after sect, Carpocratians, Menan- 
 drians, Basilidians, Marcionites, Valentinians, and 
 others, an aspect of yet more fearful and un- 
 mingled evil. 1 In this respect we shall see here- 
 after an exact parallelism between its course and 
 that of the modern sects. 
 
 (2.) The history of Arianism supplies more 
 precise and remarkable instances of the same 
 downward progress. The full extent of the fatal 
 influence which this heresy exerted over various 
 bodies of early separatists, it would be very difficult 
 to trace ; and the attempt to estimate it accurately 
 would carry us if indeed it could be accomplished 
 at all far beyond our proposed limits. Enough, 
 however, of its mischievous course may be noticed, 
 and that in very few words, to shew that insepar- 
 able connexion between schism and heresy, which 
 was asserted even in the earlier ages of Christian- 
 ity, and which later and fuller developments have 
 finally confirmed and demonstrated. 
 
 The progress of the famous Meletian schism 
 is the one to which, as illustrating this connexion, 
 I shall first refer. Its history is, briefly, as follows. 
 Peter, the Bishop of Alexandria, had been com- 
 pelled, during the persecution of Maximinus, to 
 avoid death by flight. His patriarchate being thus 
 deprived of its chief ruler, as well as of other bi- 
 shops, to whom the storm proved yet more fatal 
 
 1 Grabe remarks particularly of Valentinus, " eum non omnes 
 ab initio errores simul protulisse." Spicileg. torn. ii. p. 48.
 
 374 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 than to himself, became exposed to manifold evils. 
 Meletius, Bishop of Lycopolis in Lower Egypt, 
 taking advantage of the absence of Peter and the 
 other prelates, assumed to himself the exercise of 
 authority over the vacant dioceses. The remon- 
 strances and expostulations of the absent and im- 
 prisoned bishops produced no effect ; and upon the 
 death of those who were confined in that city, his 
 ambition carried him to Alexandria, the chief of 
 the now deserted sees. Having corrupted some of 
 the presbyters who had been left there by Peter, 
 he became the head of a powerful party. His own 
 safety during the persecution he is said to have 
 purchased by consenting publicly to offer sacrifice 
 before the heathen magistrate. After the lapse of 
 some years Peter returned, and Meletius was de- 
 posed : from that time the Meletian schism was 
 fully organised. It is only necessary to add, that 
 the Meletians affected, like the puritans in later 
 times, to charge their separation upon the corrupt 
 and lax state of the Church ; and that, like them 
 also, they were treated, so long as there was any 
 hope of their repentance, with the utmost gentle- 
 ness and forbearance. 1 
 
 Thus far we have only the story of every ordi- 
 nary schism. First, lust of power and authority ; 
 then, treachery and fraud to obtain them ; and, in 
 the end, open violence and rebellion, justified by 
 
 1 Vide Socratis Hist. Ecc. lib. i. cap. vi. ; and S. Philastrii De 
 Hceresibus, cap. xc. p. 173.
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 375 
 
 some specious plea, or glossed over by some abused 
 text of Scripture. It is the progress and final 
 termination of this schism which deserves special 
 notice ; and that because of its exact agreement 
 with the history of later sects. The Meletians, 
 finding it difficult to contend single-handed, formed 
 a political alliance with the Arians. Having been 
 formerly at variance, they were now, as St. Atha- 
 nasius observes, 1 like Pilot and Herod, made friends 
 together. Counting the integrity of the faith 
 which they still professed to hold of less moment 
 than the indulgence of their malice and revenge, 
 they banded together, like their successors in our 
 own day, in common warfare against the Church ; 
 from unwilling allies they became fast friends ; and 
 were finally swallowed up in the vortex of that 
 heresy against which they had once zealously con- 
 tended. 8 
 
 The case of Aerius, the first ' presbyterian,' is 
 different in no respect from that of the Meletians. 
 Having failed to procure for himself a bishopric 
 which he coveted, he began to teach, in the bitter- 
 ness of baffled ambition, that there was no distinc- 
 tion between a bishop and a presbyter, asserting 
 
 1 Orat. i. Contra Arianos, torn. i. p. 304, and Apolog. p. 731. 
 Sozomen says they joined themselves to the Arians, <BS ei8ov TO irXfidos 
 (iroptvov rots Itpfvcri TTJS KadfiXov eVcKArjcrtas that is, from envy. Hist. 
 Ecc, lib. ii. cap. xxi. p. 471. 
 
 2 On this curious and instructive development of schism, see 
 S. Joannis Damasceni De Ifceres. p. 242, ed. Coloniae, 1546; Aug. 
 Hares, xlviii. ; and Epiphan. Hceres. Ixviii. torn. i. pp. 605 and 721.
 
 376 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 that both were of equal rank and power. The 
 origin of his opinion was so notorious, and its no- 
 velty so extravagant, in those days, that the holy 
 Fathers who notice it speak of him rather as an 
 "insane" person than as one to whose petulant 
 folly it was necessary to offer any serious reply. 1 
 He fell into many heresies, and at length became 
 an Arian. 2 
 
 Another instance, marking still more strongly 
 the true nature of schism, its instability, and essen- 
 tial oneness with heresy, is that of the Donatists. 
 The trifling circumstances in which the separation 
 of this famous sect from the Church originated, 
 and the principles upon which it was so perversely 
 justified, have rendered their case so very similar 
 to that of modern sectaries, that some of these 
 latter have felt constrained openly to avow their 
 sympathy with them. At the outset of their ca- 
 reer the Donatists held, as St. Austin admits, the 
 orthodox faith. 3 " The doctrines which they main- 
 tained at the time of their separation," to use the 
 words of a modern writer, "were those of the 
 
 1 *Hi/ 8e avrov 6 Adyoy pavio)8T]s /ioAAoj/, rjnep Karacrrda'fats a 
 Epiphan. Hares. Ixxv. p. 906. 
 
 3 Aug. Hares, liii. ; Epiphan. Hceres. Ixxv. p. 905. Fuller no- 
 tices a like case in later times, book iv. cent. 14; and in our own 
 days such examples have abounded. " Dr. Priestley was once, as 
 he himself informs us, a Calvinist, and that of the straitest sect. 
 Afterwards he became a high Arian, next a low Arian, and then a 
 Socinian." Andrew Fuller's Calvinistic and Socinian Systems com- 
 pared, letter xv. p. 81. . 
 
 3 Emerito, De Schismate Donatist. Ep. clxiv. torn. ii. p. 285.
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 377 
 
 Catholic Church. Whatever difference of opinion 
 they professed afterwards, .... this arose in the 
 course of the dispute" 1 The final results of the 
 schism, in the case of the founder of it himself, are 
 exposed by Augustine, who says, " We possess the 
 writings of Donatus, from which it appears, that 
 he did not maintain the catholic doctrine of the 
 Trinity ; but although he confessed a unity of sub- 
 stance, he made the Son to be inferior to the Fa- 
 ther, and the Holy Spirit inferior to the Son." 2 
 
 Such, in ancient times, have been the uniform 
 accompaniments of schism. And if these develop- 
 ments were, as the Fathers appear to have consi- 
 dered them, indications of a general law, they ought 
 to attend the revival of similar principles in every 
 age. 3 If schism be so closely connected with he- 
 
 1 Vide Nott's Hampton Lectures, sermon vi. note, p. 347. " The 
 Donatists of old did not at first dissent in matters of faith from the 
 Catholic Church, but their schism did soon produce heresie, as an 
 ulcer or wound being inflamed doth soon beget a fever." Norris's 
 Discourse concerning the pretended Religious Assembling in private 
 Conventicles, argument iii. p. 104. 
 
 * " Extant scripta ejus (Donati), ubi apparet eum etiam non 
 catholicam de Trinitate habuisse sententiam, sed quamvis ejusdem 
 substantive, minorem tamen Patre Filium, et minorem Filio putasse 
 Spiritum Sanctum." Hceres. Ixix. This Father mentions that the 
 sect soon split into various parties, of which he gives some account, 
 Contra Cresconiurn, lib. iv. cap. Ix. and elsewhere. 
 
 3 " Nullum schisma non sibi aliquam confingit haeresim, ut recte 
 ab ecclesia recessisse videatur." S. Hieron. In cap. iii. Epist. ad 
 Titum. Indeed, perseverance in schism was regarded as tantamount 
 to heresy. " If schism be permanent and lasting, it comes at length 
 to be styled heresy, according to the Canon-law ; because a schis- 
 matic, by persisting in his schism (say the Canonists), supposes and 
 believes that he has made this departure from the Church upon a
 
 378 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 resy in its primary principles, that the one is only 
 the first step to the other, their identity must 
 admit of being traced in our own days as well as in 
 those which have gone before. In claiming the 
 advantage, then, of earlier experience and more 
 ancient reasonings upon this subject, we must be 
 content to abide by them still. We do not refuse 
 to do so. And if, among all the various sects 
 which the last three centuries have produced, a 
 single exception to the operation of that uniform 
 law of which I have spoken can be pointed out, 
 let all the different cases in which I am now about 
 to prove it go for nothing. 
 
 The course which I propose to take in thus 
 testing the principles upon which the modern re- 
 ligious systems have been framed is at least a sim- 
 ple and intelligible one. It is, to compare, one 
 after another, the present aspect of all the principal 
 communities in which those systems have been 
 received with their condition at an earlier period of 
 their history ; and to examine, so far as I have the 
 means, the tenets of their existing theology, with 
 the doctrines professed and maintained by their 
 first founders. And this, with only one additional 
 remark, I now proceed to do. I have said, in the 
 
 right and solid foundation of faith, and is therefore by that law 
 deemed a heretick." Ayliffe's Parergon, p. 480. " Heeretici cen- 
 sentur qui ab Ecclesiae Catholicse Sacerdotibus dissentiunt, et illicite 
 coeunt." Gothofred. Cod. Theodos. xvi. tit. v. De H&reticis, torn, 
 vi. p. 167.
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 379 
 
 preceding chapter, that we should have been enti- 
 tled to anticipate, regard being had to the peculiar 
 assumptions upon which their case rests, not merely 
 that they would be able to maintain an equality, in 
 respect both of faith and practice, with that an- 
 cient Communion from which they had severed 
 themselves, but that they would exhibit such a 
 marked superiority, such a vigilant guardianship of 
 the restored primitive faith, and such a conspicuous 
 example of renovated primitive practice, as should 
 consist with the lofty claims upon which their sepa- 
 ration was based. If they had only contended in a 
 decent rivalry with the Church which they had so 
 lightly esteemed, and whose laws they had so dis- 
 dainfully subverted, I think we might fairly have 
 denied that the justice of those high claims had 
 been established. Professing to restore to the 
 world the possession of truths which had been 
 obscured during fifteen ages, and to "reform," 
 after the full integrity of the Apostolic pattern, a 
 Church which had been corrupted during the like 
 period, men had a right to expect from them, as 
 the issue of such magnificent promises, something 
 more than an imitation, however successful, of that 
 exploded institution which they had been taught 
 to despise. But if, failing even to appropriate to 
 themselves this low degree of merit, it shall be 
 found that the religious bodies in question have 
 long since abandoned not only the " faith once 
 delivered to the saints," but even that peculiar
 
 380 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 modification of it which their own teachers so con- 
 fidently proposed as its substance and counterpart ; 
 if it shall appear that they have fallen, one after 
 another, into a condition of such deplorable confu- 
 sion, and a profession of such undisguised apostasy, 
 as makes the defects and corruptions of the Catho- 
 lic Church, putting them at the worst, harmless 
 and insignificant ; in that case, I believe, we shall 
 be justified in regarding them as detected impos- 
 tors, and their pretended reformation of the ever- 
 lasting Church of God as not merely a total failure, 
 and deprived of every token of the divine sanction 
 which the semblance of prosperity is commonly 
 supposed to imply, but as clearly visited by His 
 awful judgments beyond the examples of His ordi- 
 nary dealings with human folly and presumption. 
 What has actually been their progress, and what is 
 their real condition throughout the various coun- 
 tries of the world, I am now to shew. I shall 
 begin with Germany, both because it was thence 
 that the new modes of faith and discipline first 
 issued, and because its present state has already 
 excited so much attention, that I shall be able, 
 in describing it, to confine myself entirely to the 
 statements and representations of others. 
 
 II. When the new theories of religious belief, 
 whose disastrous issue is to be the subject of our 
 present inquiry, were first promulgated by the 
 German reformers, it is admitted that the holy
 
 IN GERMANY. 381 
 
 doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the 
 Atonement, were maintained, without doubt or 
 question, throughout the whole world. This fact 
 cannot be too emphatically declared. 1 In spite of 
 the manifold corruptions of the Church of Rome 
 and these, perhaps, it is not easy to exaggerate 
 the fundamental verities of the Christian faith had 
 been hitherto preserved unimpaired. That there 
 was a tendency then, as now, in some of the popu- 
 lar novelties of that Church, to obscure the office 
 of the One Mediator, need not be denied; but 
 even these originated, in many instances, in a pro- 
 fessed reverence for His Person. If the Blessed 
 Virgin, for example, was approached in language 
 of unseemly and fanatical fervour, or even of idola- 
 trous worship, it was still as " the Mother of God ;" 
 and even the honour paid to the Saints, which was 
 too often of the same character, was studiously 
 vindicated as not only consistent with, but, in some 
 sense, correlative to, that greater honour which, in 
 theory at least, was reserved only for "the King 
 of Saints." The thrones which certain late teach- 
 ers of that Church, in despite both of Scripture 
 and Antiquity, had presumptuously assigned to 
 created beings, were still supposed to be in sub- 
 
 1 "The ancient controversies on the Trinity had long subsided ; 
 if any remained whose creed was not unlike that of the Arians, we 
 must seek for them among the Waldenses, or other persecuted sects. 
 But even this is obscure ; and Erasmus, when accused of Arianism, 
 might reply with apparent truth, that no heresy was more extinct." 
 Hallam's Introduction to the Literature of Europe, &c. chap. v. vol. 
 i. p. 507.
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 ordination to that more glorious throne which had 
 been occupied from all eternity by the Son of God. 
 To doubt whether He was " God of God, Light of 
 Light, Very God of Very God," One from ever- 
 lasting and to everlasting with the Father, or even 
 to tolerate any speculation whatsoever on the awful 
 truth this was an impiety too revolting to the 
 catholic mind to be endured by the rulers of the 
 Church in any period of her existence. To such 
 blasphemies the Church of Rome never did and, 
 as we are most firmly assured, never would have 
 consented to hearken. 1 At the time of the Re- 
 formation they had been for ages unknown and 
 unheard of. 2 
 
 Hardly, however, had the opinions and senti- 
 ments which accompanied and marred that move- 
 ment begun to prevail, when the execrable impie- 
 ties which had so long slumbered again revived. 
 The fact of their simultaneous growth is beyond 
 dispute ; and it elicited, at the very outset, both 
 from those who espoused the doctrines of the Re- 
 formation and those who opposed them, exclama- 
 tions of sorrow and dismay. " It is most certain," 
 
 1 " Est-ce lorsqu'on ne croit rien," was the fine saying attributed 
 to one of her clergy, " qu'on doit exaggerer les dangers de tout 
 croire ? " Quoted by Chiniac, De la Tolerance et du Fanatisme en 
 matiere de Religion, p. 61, Paris, 1803. 
 
 2 Having observed that " it does not appear that the churches in 
 communion with the papal see are ever likely to become an infidel 
 body," Mr. Gladstone notices, with his usual earnestness and elo- 
 quence, the very different course of those Calvinistic bodies which 
 have become rationalistic, and " utterly lost the doctrine of grace." 
 See his Church Principles in their Result, pp. 184, 5.
 
 IN GERMANY. 383 
 
 says one who adhered to the latter party, " that 
 from the moment that Luther and Calvin published 
 their opinions, it was predicted to them, that in 
 overthrowing the foundation upon which the faith 
 of mankind reposed, the ancient decisions of the 
 Church would find no better acceptance with men 
 than those of a later period." 1 " The Socinian dis- 
 putations," says the same writer, " had already 
 commenced in the time of Melancthon ; but he 
 clearly discerned, from his own observation of the 
 character of the movement, that they would one 
 day be pushed to a far greater extent. ' Good 
 God/ said he, ' what a tragedy will posterity wit- 
 ness, if men should come hereafter to debate again 
 the questions, whether the Word or the Holy 
 Spirit be a Person !' " " I cannot weep enough, 5 ' 
 was another lament of the same reformer, " over 
 the infelicity of the Reformation, and its inconsist- 
 ency with itself. The people will never again sub- 
 mit to a constraint which the desire of liberty has 
 led them to throw off. Our partisans are contend- 
 ing, not for the Gospel, but for power. The eccle- 
 siastical discipline is annihilated. Men are doubting 
 about the most fundamental truths. The evil is be- 
 yond cure." 3 " You see yourselves," said Luther 
 
 1 Bossuet, Histoire des Variations des Eglises Protestantes, vi*' 
 avertissement, tome iv. pp. 510, oil. 
 
 3 Ibid. p. 152. 
 
 3 Quoted by Starck, Theodul's Gastmahl, p. 240, ed. Kentzinger. 
 " Vides quo tendat petulantia multorum," says Melancthon in an- 
 other place, Thomce Matthia Epist. p. 252 ; cf. p. 270. His let- 
 ters are full of such complaints.
 
 384 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 to some of his contemporaries, " what confusion 
 Satan stirs up in the Church : there are almost as 
 many opinions prevailing as there are individual 
 teachers." 1 And at a later period, after the benefit 
 of some experience, another was led to make the 
 remarkable confession, " I will not dissemble that 
 the wide difference between our own faith and that 
 of the ancient Church gives me deep concern. For, 
 not to speak of other articles, Luther has departed 
 from the ancients in the matter of the Sacraments ; 
 Zuingle has gone beyond Luther ; Calvin has aban- 
 doned both the one and the other ; and the later 
 writers have abandoned Calvin. If we proceed after 
 this fashion, what will the end of all this be P" 2 To 
 this question the lapse of further time, and the 
 possession of more ample experience, have enabled 
 us to furnish a reply ; 3 and we are about to do so. 
 
 1 " Videtis ipsi quantas in Ecclesia turbas excitet Sathan ; tot 
 scilicet opinionibus fere regnantibus, quot sunt ministrorum capita." 
 M. Lutheri Epist. Ministris in Northuslo, inter Epist. Ph. Melancth. 
 p. 289. " Experientia tandem didicisti," said his adversaries, " quid 
 monstri monstrosa ista contrarietas in Germania produxit." Coch- 
 Iseus Contra Lutherum, cap. xviii. " Inter vos non solum per pro- 
 vincias, sed per civitates ejusdem provincise, iintno per domos et 
 familias ejusdem civitatis, de fide contendatis et discrepetis." Tur- 
 rian. De Ecclesia, lib. i. cap. iv. When men talk of the unity which 
 results from consenting to appeal to the Scriptures as a common 
 standard, apart from the compulsory influence of systems and creeds, 
 it seems enough to refer them to this period of history. As a scheme 
 for the promotion of unity, of any sort or kind, the German Reform- 
 ation is perhaps the most signal failure on record. 
 
 2 Casauboni Epist. 670. Ad J. Witembogard., quoted by Remy 
 Ceillier, Apologie des Peres de I'Eglise, centre Barbeyrac, Dissert. 
 Prttiminaire. 
 
 3 " For first, Luther, forsaking the aultar of Chryste's Church,
 
 IN GERMANY. 385 
 
 Meanwhile, let it be observed, that two very im- 
 portant facts have been already brought forward, 
 namely, that the Arian heresy had no existence 
 at the time of the German reformation, and that 
 its revival was exactly synchronous with the origin 
 of that celebrated movement. 1 
 
 Attended from the first by these fearful signs, 
 which, as we have seen, alarmed both himself and 
 others, the preaching of Luther had attracted no- 
 tice during little more than four years, when an- 
 other phenomenon arose, which arrested immedi- 
 ately the attentive observation of'both the conflict- 
 ing parties. Within so brief an interval of time 
 there was exhibited to the world the strange spec- 
 tacle of a distinct and ulterior reformation, based 
 upon Luther's own principles, embodying the main 
 articles of his teaching, appealing unhesitatingly to 
 
 framed himself another aultar. But Carolostadius, Zuinglius, and 
 CEcolampadius, not liking either the aultar of the Church or of 
 Luther, framed to themselves after their phantasie another aultar. 
 The Anabaptists framed themselves another aultar after their devise. 
 The Swenckfeldians, misliking all that was done before them, framed 
 after their conceit a newe aultar altogether spirituall. The Calvin- 
 istes, thinking to passe them all, have invented another manner of 
 aultar, even altogether after the manner of the Arians' aultar, or not 
 much unlike, as "Richerus, Calvine's preacher, hath in France plainly 
 declared." Heskyn's Parliament of Chryste, book iii. chap. Ix. 
 p. 399. 
 
 1 Even Turretin, the Genevan professor whose words involve 
 an important admission only says, that the 16th century produced 
 more Photinianism and Sabellianism than Arianism ; Histor. Eccles. 
 Compend. secul. xvi. p. 389, Genevse, 1736. The existence of various 
 forms of heresy, even from the very beginning of the movement, is 
 evident enough, if only from the vain efforts of Luther, Calvin, and 
 others, to oppose and destroy them. 
 
 C C
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 the same Scriptures, and differing from the religious 
 scheme which it professed to complete and amend, 
 only by removing to a greater distance the boun- 
 daries which Luther had set up as its natural and 
 unalterable limits. It was in the year 1521 that 
 the Anabaptists whose origin must of course be 
 referred to a still earlier period began in many 
 different places to divide with Luther the attention 
 of the people. 1 And it is beyond dispute that, even 
 at that date, many of their leaders who had, with 
 scarcely an exception, already passed through and 
 abandoned Lutheranism were deeply infected with 
 the Arian and other impieties. 8 
 
 1 Vide Hottinger, Histoire des Suisses a Vepoque de la Reforma- 
 tion, traduite par Vulliemin, tome ii. p. 31. Sir Simonds D'Ewes, 
 who was yet a great admirer of Luther, says, that he " had scarce 
 planted the Gospel in Germany, in the yeare 1517, but within the 
 space of some five yeeres after, Melchior Hofman, Thomas Muncer, 
 Bernard Rothman, and other Anabaptists, planted there also, as 
 may be strongly collected, divers Pelagian blasphemies." Their 
 progress was very rapid ; and D'Ewes says, " their numbers are at 
 this day so increased, as they constitute or make a considerable 
 party in divers parts of Christendome." The Primitive Practice for 
 preserving Truth, ix. xviii. 
 
 8 Amongst other leading Anabaptists, Hetzer, Campanus, and 
 Claudius, are mentioned as Arians ; Encyclopedic Methodigue, art. 
 Sociniens. Servetus himself, as Calvin notices, Defens. ii. De Sa- 
 crament., was first an Anabaptist. See other instances in Ruchat, 
 Histoire, &c. tome v. p. 401. Houbmeyer was put to death as an 
 Anabaptist, at Vienne, in 1527 ; Hottinger, tome ii. p. 38. Zeltner 
 says, " Commixtos certe cum his (Anabaptistis) Socini in Batavis 
 asseclas vixisse, et adhuc istic delitescere, nemo ignorat." Histor. 
 Crypto- Socinianismi Altorfini, cap. ii. 6. p. 171, note. It was 
 common with those who embraced the doctrines of Calvin and 
 Luther to speak of them as so united. Vide F. Junii Prof at. In 
 Sac. Parallel. Loc. Opp. p. 1371. The same language was used by 
 the Socinians themselves : " A Reformatis ad Unitarios Christianos
 
 IN GERMANY. 387 
 
 Of the progress and subsequent state of these 
 sectaries, whose apostasy became so general as to 
 be indicated by the proverbial saying, " an Ana- 
 baptist is an unlearned Socinian, and a Socinian a 
 learned Anabaptist," 1 it is not my purpose to speak. 
 It is the original connexion 2 of this heresy with 
 Lutheranism, and their mutual relation a relation 
 which appears to have been not less intimate than 
 that of parent and child 3 which it is important to 
 notice ; because it is the identity of their source, 
 and the sameness of their elementary principles, 
 which will best explain what we are shortly to de- 
 
 transierat ;" Vita Lubienecii. " Antea Calvinianus, Unitariorum sen- 
 tentiam amplexus est ;" Wissowat. Narrat. Compend. p. 214. And 
 one who had passed through every grade declared, " nullum se nosse 
 Arianum factum qui non an tea Calvinista fuerit ;" vide Hartmanni 
 Condi. Illustr. Exercitat. xxxii. torn. iii. p. 560. 
 
 1 Zeltner, ubi supra. 
 
 3 On which see Pluquet, De VOrigine des Anabaptistes, Diction- 
 naire des Heresies, tome ii. pp. 60 et seq. 
 
 3 A writer of the present day, who makes it a sort of boast to 
 be " impartial," does not hesitate to connect Lutheranism with the 
 heresies by which it was so speedily followed. " A more immediate 
 effect of overthrowing the ancient system," Mr. Hallam says, " was 
 the growth of fanaticism, to which, in its worst shape, the anti- 
 nomian extravagancy of Luther yielded too great encouragement." 
 Introduction to the Literature of Europe, ch. vi. vol. i. p. 485 : and 
 again, he speaks of Anabaptism particularly, as " generated in great 
 measure by the Lutheran tenet of assurance ;" p. 502. And when it 
 was urged by the Arminians of Holland, in their sufferings, " that 
 the liberty of the country in matters of religion should be no more 
 straitened unto them than unto the Lutherans and Anabaptists, who 
 have their meetings and preachings by public permission," it was 
 answered on the part of the state, "The Lutherans and Anabaptists 
 are no innovators, but began and continued with the beginning 
 and increase of the state." See Sir Dudley Carleton's Letters, 
 p. 372.
 
 388 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 scribe, namely, the present aspect of Lutheranism 
 itself. 
 
 That the appearance of unity between the 
 Lutherans and Anabaptists did not, however, last 
 long, is most true. Irritated and confounded by 
 so premature a development of his own principles, 
 Luther keenly discerned that it would be safer to 
 have such men for enemies than friends ; and, with- 
 out a moment's pause, he turned the whole force 
 of his powerful mind against these new " refor- 
 mers." 1 The writings which were published in 
 quick succession by himself and his able allies, in 
 condemnation of their tenets, are almost as nume- 
 rous as those which were provoked by the corrup- 
 tions of the Church. But it is these very writings 
 which afford the most convincing proof of the fact 
 which Luther was so anxious to disguise, and de- 
 monstrate the intimacy of the relationship which 
 they were intended to disclaim. No one can have 
 read them, or indeed any of the numerous writings 
 which were directed by the reformers against the 
 various misbelievers of their age, without noticing 
 this very significant circumstance, that their au- 
 thors appear to have abandoned altogether, for the 
 
 1 They were even put to death in numerous instances, and that 
 with the consent of Melancthon, the mildest of the " reformers," to 
 whom they were evidently an odious source of embarrassment. The 
 Lutherans had said to the Catholics, " You have renounced the 
 Scriptures, to hear the Church ;" and the Anabaptists said to them 
 in turn, " You have rejected the Holy Spirit, to amuse yourselves 
 with the Scriptures." Moehler, La Symbolique, 59. tome ii. 
 p. 195.
 
 IN GERMANY. 389 
 
 time, their usual course of reasoning, and to have 
 adopted without reserve precisely that which was 
 uniformly employed against themselves by the 
 Catholic writers. Of their peculiar and habitual 
 mode of argumentation, their confident appeals 
 to Holy Scripture, their haughty defiance of the 
 Church, their contempt for catholic tradition, of 
 this we no longer find any trace. And the fact is 
 so singular, and leads so directly to certain import- 
 ant conclusions, that it ought not to be overlooked 
 in the present inquiry. 
 
 When Luther and Melancthon challenged the 
 Anabaptists to prove a ' lawful vocation' to the 
 ministry which they had usurped, and exalted or- 
 dination as a ' sacrament,' and spoke fluently of 
 the decisions of the ancient Church ; when Calvin 
 appealed angrily to 'councils' and 'synods,' 1 and 
 Beza inveighed against " the despisers of ancient 
 canons," or admonished his new adversaries " either 
 to convict the whole ancient Church of error, or to 
 relinquish their own opinions ;" 2 in a word, when 
 
 1 And even went so far as to say, " Impositionem mamium in 
 veris legitimisque ordinationibus sacramentum esse, concede." In- 
 stitut. lib. iv. cap. xix. 31. 
 
 2 Resp. ad Nicol. Selneccer. p. 98 (Genevae, 1572). Elsewhere 
 he appeals against the rising Socinians to " all the blameless Bishops 
 inculpates throughout the whole world;" Epist. xviii. Domino 
 Scadcovio : and again to " the perpetual consent of the Catholic 
 Church!" Libell. de Valentin. Gentil Prafat. p. 16. So (Ecolam- 
 padius tells the Anabaptists, that they " put a wholly new sense 
 upon the Scriptures, contrary to that of all the ancient Doctors ;" 
 Chauffepie, Supplement to Bayle, art. CEcolampade. So Peter Viret, 
 in a passage of which the inconsistency is really ludicrous, " Si
 
 390 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 they employed against others the very arguments 
 which they had affected to make light of when 
 urged against themselves, they did not merely 
 become personally ridiculous, 1 and as individual 
 teachers unworthy of the least respect or attention, 
 but they pronounced judgment at the same time 
 
 itaque nobiscum facit totius veteris Ecclesice consuetude atque con- 
 sensio, quanta haec nostra causa plausibilior haberi debet, Catabap- 
 tistarum calumniis toti veteri Ecclesiae adversantibus ;" De Minist. 
 et Sacrament, lib. xiii. cap. iii. p. 144. So Chemnitz : " Amamus 
 enim et veneramur veteris et purioris Ecclesise testimonia, cujus 
 consensu et adjuvamur et confirmamur ;" Exam. Decret. Condi. 
 Trident, torn. i. p. 191. And Chamier: " Sed hallucinates Patres, 
 nemo ei crediturus est sanse mentis ;" De CEcum. Pontif. lib. ix. 
 cap. iv. 8. And Hoornbeeck : " Eja, quam egregia ex tuo sensu 
 nobis Ecclesia Christiana depingitur ! Quam ea nulla fere unquam 
 fuit, haec si vera sint ! Quot animarum myriades deceptae!" &c. 
 Apolog. pro Eccles. Christian. &c. p. 20. This is exactly what we 
 say; and how will a ( presbyterian ' answer the argument? Bucer, 
 again, uses the same language, In Sacra Evangel. Prsefat. And 
 Du Moulin, Answer to Cardinal Perron, book i. ch. xlvi. p. 120 
 (1664). Melancthon professes the same judgment in innumerable 
 places : and Philippe de Mornay says, " Nous admettons serieuse- 
 ment ei reveremment les ecrits des Saints Peres ;" Pref. a Messieurs 
 de VEglise Bomaine, p. 7. Cf. Act. Convent. Thoruniens. sess. iii. 
 p. 70 (Warsaw, 1646). Jerome Zanchy writes, " A communi Patrum 
 consensu nulla cogente necessitate dissentire mihi religio est j" apud 
 Scrivener. Apolog. pro Pair. Eccles. cap. viii. p. 53. And see Cal- 
 vini Institut. Praefat., and lib. iv. cap. v. 10. Ridley, who is often 
 quoted by men who have very little in common with him, says, 
 " cum orthodoxis Patribus sic loquor et sentio ;" Protestatio Ridleii, 
 apud Randolph. Enchirid. Theolog. torn. i. p. 63 : and even Jewel 
 professes, " Nos cum antiquissimis Patribus affirmamus;" Juelli 
 Apolog. p. 106, ed. 1838. Lastly, Chillingworth himself declares it 
 to be " a mere calumny that Protestants condemn all kinds of tra- 
 ditions, who subscribe very willingly to that of Vincentius Lerin- 
 ensis ;" Answer to some Passages in Rushworth' s Dialogues, p. 53. 
 
 1 " Et quidein cum Calvini de paedobaptismo adversus Ana- 
 baptistas librum lego, ridere soleo, videreque mihi videor hominem
 
 IN GERMANY. 391 
 
 upon their own general principles, and saved the 
 world the trouble of proving that they were them- 
 selves included in the very same condemnation 
 which they were so forward to pronounce upon 
 others. In assuming for a special purpose the 
 attitude and borrowing the sentiments of catholic 
 teachers, they reluctantly confessed, that the wea- 
 pons which they had been accustomed hitherto to 
 use might be good indeed for the purpose of attack, 
 but were utterly powerless to defend, that upon 
 their principles truth might be successfully opposed, 
 but could not for one hour be maintained. Luther- 
 anism, they thus acknowledged, might lead men to 
 the error of the Anabaptists, but it had no power 
 to bring them back again ; and for this reason, 
 that men might continue Anabaptists, or any thing 
 else, without doing violence to any of its funda- 
 mental principles. And therefore, when they de- 
 sired to recall those who had strayed from their 
 ranks, or to silence their blasphemies, they clearly 
 understood, as we see from the course which they 
 adopted, that it was only in proportion as they 
 departed from their own principles, and consented 
 to act upon those of others, that they could hope 
 
 haereticum, dum suit, non Ecclesice armis, adversus illos haereticos 
 pugnare vult, turpiter in pugna succuinbentem." Maldonat. Com- 
 ment, in cap. xxviii. S. Matt. torn. i. p. 692. On Calvin's difficulty 
 in answering Socinian and other heretics, see the Bibliothbque Uni- 
 verselle, tome xxiv. p. 22 ; and Pluquet, Dictionnaire, tome ii. p. 580. 
 A remarkable instance of the same embarrassment on the part of the 
 Lutherans may be seen in Vedelius, De Arcanis Arminianismi, lib. i. 
 cap. vi. p. 42.
 
 392 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 to effect their object. Their mode of arguing with 
 heretics, I say, shewed this ; they must cease, for 
 the time, to be Lutherans, i. e. Lutheranism could 
 not oppose heresy. We might have expected, then, 
 from a consideration of the facts thus presented to 
 us in the early history of the German reformation, 
 that the system then devised was not destined to 
 preserve long its original form. It was evident 
 from the first that Lutheranism had no power to 
 maintain its own existence as a positive institution. 
 Running water, or shifting sand, were its truest 
 types. Heresy was not so much a state to which 
 it tended, as one of the aspects under which it 
 appeared from its birth. Socinianism was the other 
 side of Lutheranism. 1 
 
 And if this be a true account of it even from its 
 origin ; if Luther and his friends, in spite of their 
 own unquestionable abhorrence of the impious 
 errors which arose in their day, were unable to 
 restrain them ; if they could be defended by their 
 own scholars, and in spite of their own protests, as 
 legitimate and even necessary conclusions from the 
 elementary theological maxims upon which their 
 own teaching had been based ; if wherever Luther- 
 anism made a way for itself, it was found to have 
 levelled a path for heresies without number, and 
 
 1 " L'histoire des Sociniens fera connoitre que ceux-ci qui ont 
 quitte PEglise Catholique pour embrasser le Socinianisme, ont passe 
 presque tous par le Lutheranisme, le Calvinisme, et 1'Anabatisme." 
 Histoire du Socinianisme, Avertissement, p. 4, Paris, 1723. Cf. Hart- 
 manni Condi. Illustr. Pericop. xvi. Exercitat. xxxii. torn. Hi. p. 556.
 
 IN GERMANY. 393 
 
 all its efforts to withhold such evil attendants from 
 following in its steps were vain and fruitless; if, 
 on the other hand, that more ancient Institution, 
 against whose unhappy corruptions it so justly pro- 
 tested, was even then, and ever had been, free from 
 these more fearful evils, and able, by some secret 
 virtue, and almost without an effort, to repel them, 
 then have we no reason to feel surprise, either 
 that that Institution still remains exactly what it 
 was three centuries ago, or that Lutheranism has 
 arrived, after manifold changes, at that awful state 
 of apostasy which was predicted from the first, and 
 which we are now, at length, about to describe. 
 
 The principal works on the state of Protestant- 
 ism in Germany, which have appeared in the Eng- 
 lish language, are those of the late lamented Mr. 
 Rose, and Professor Moses Stuart, of Andover in 
 the United States. I shall refer chiefly, in the few 
 extracts which my limits will allow, to those wri- 
 ters. By way of preface, however, to their more 
 minute and detailed statements, and in order to 
 convey in a single sentence an idea of that appall- 
 ing development of German Lutheranism which 
 Professor Stuart justly describes as containing " a 
 most affecting and awful lesson," I will first quote 
 a few words from another author, who is perhaps 
 the best living authority on this subject, and who 
 tells us, that " even in 1825, a theologian, in re- 
 counting the professors who could any how be
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 considered orthodox, i. e. those who in any way 
 contended for the doctrines of the gospel or its very 
 truth, counted, in all Protestant Germany, seven- 
 teen I" 1 Such has been the accomplishment of the 
 mournful presages of those who favoured, and the 
 confident predictions of those who condemned, the 
 beginnings of the German Reformation. 
 
 The well-known work of Mr. Hugh James Rose 2 
 opens as follows : " The theology of the Protestant 
 Churches of Germany presented a very singular 
 spectacle during the last half of the preceding cen- 
 tury and the commencement of the present. A 
 very large majority of the divines of these Churches 
 rejected, in a word, all belief in the divine origin of 
 Christianity, and anxiously endeavoured to instil 
 into others the opinions which they had embraced 
 themselves. They had possession of far the greater 
 number of divinity-professorships in the many uni- 
 versities of Germany ; and they had almost exclu- 
 sively the direction of the literary and religious 
 journals, a class of publications of more influence 
 and importance in Germany than among ourselves. 
 By the unsparing use of the means thus afforded 
 them, and by an infinite quantity of writings, 3 
 
 1 See A Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, by Dr. Pusey, 
 p. 123. 
 
 * The State of Protestantism in Germany. It is the second 
 edition which is referred to here. 
 
 3 " Germany has produced," says Professor Stuart, " in half a 
 century, more works on criticism and sacred literature than the 
 world contains besides." Letters to Dr. Clianning, letter v. p. 143.
 
 IN GERMANY. 395 
 
 addressed to men of all classes and all ages, they 
 succeeded in spreading their views over the surface 
 of society. How deep the disease went among the 
 lower orders it is not easy to ascertain. But it 
 appears that, after a time, a spirit of almost entire 
 indifference to religion manifested itself among all 
 classes. The churches were thinly attended, the 
 sabbath little honoured, the Bible much neglected. 1 
 These melancholy phenomena appear to me to 
 deserve and demand the attention of every Chris- 
 tian community ; and I am convinced that, in this 
 country, it is very little known how far the evil 
 extended." 2 
 
 1 Even the Rationalist Bretschneider quoted by Mr. Rose, 
 p. 197 admits " that this indifference is spread among all classes; 
 that the Bible used to be found in every house ; that very many 
 made it a law to read a chapter every day, or at least every Sunday ; 
 that it must have been a very poor family where a Bible was not 
 part of the marriage-portion ; but that now very many do not pos- 
 sess one, or let it lie neglected in a corner ;" and more to the same 
 effect. HufFcll, another Rationalist, says, " In most towns the me- 
 chanics are busy with their trade on Sunday mornings, as by degrees 
 people have forgotten entirely all care of the celebration of Sunday. 
 The afternoon is given to amusements, and so there is no time left 
 for the Church. One hears fathers and mothers of families urge 
 their families to go to Church ; but they themselves, who ought to 
 set the example, prefer reading the last newspaper to attending the 
 sermon, or pretend to have other business." Rose, Additional Notes, 
 p. xlv. 
 
 2 " It is clear that there is a philosophy in Europe, which may 
 soon visit ourselves, which has already in some departments begun 
 to visit us, a philosophy which regards God and nature in a light 
 utterly irreconcilable with Christianity, which rejects all notion of 
 a Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, above and beyond ourselves, 
 which discards all faith in the unseen, all hope of an individual 
 immortality of being, to which the Idea is God, and humanity at
 
 396 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 So much on the general character of the apos- 
 tasy, of which Mr. Rose says, in other words, " My 
 allegation against the German Protestant Divines 
 is, that the peculiar and positive doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity had lost all value in their eyes, and that 
 they sought to depress Christianity itself to the 
 level of a human invention, and its doctrines, at 
 best, to a repetition of the doctrines of natural 
 religion." 1 Such being their design, it is obvious 
 to inquire next into their treatment and use of 
 Holy Scripture. Of this a few examples shall be 
 given ; and first, of their estimation of the Sacred 
 Volume. " For myself," says Rcehr, after describ- 
 ing the general sentiments of the Rationalists, " I 
 also regard the Scriptures in the same light as any 
 other book. I recognise in them no authority, 
 except so far as they are in accordance with my 
 own individual convictions. I do not regard them 
 as the rule of my faith, but only as supplying me 
 with a proof that, in ancient times, there were wise 
 men who thought as I do." 2 And this man was 
 not, as we might have supposed, some outcast or 
 excommunicate person, but a " Superintendent- 
 large is the Christ, while the records of faith are ' dreamy visions' 
 and legends, the only reality admitted in any system of tradi- 
 tional religion being the identity of our own highest reason with 
 the Essence that is all-pervading and indestructible." Mill On the 
 Pantheistic TJteory, Preface, p. 12. 
 
 1 State of Protestantism, &c. p. 93. 
 
 2 Lettres sur le Rationalisme, p. 15, quoted by Moahler, La Sym- 
 bolique, tome ii. p. 2.
 
 IN GERMANY. 397 
 
 General ;" i. e., one of the highest ecclesiastical 
 rulers in Protestant Germany ! 
 
 " Schleiermacher, professor at Berlin," says 
 Mcehler, " maintains that the Scripture undergoes 
 a change in its signification every fifteen years. 
 Let us give an example. In 1820, the Scripture, 
 agreeing with Schleiermacher, taught the divinity 
 of Jesus Christ; but in 1835, it seemed good to 
 our doctor to reject this truth, and so at the pre- 
 sent time Scripture teaches that Jesus Christ is not 
 God." Mcehler then refers to his own words. 1 
 
 Some instances of their mode of interpreting 
 and explaining Scripture shall be given next. Ac- 
 cording to Eichhorn, the account of the creation 
 and fall of man is merely a poetical, philosophical 
 speculation of some ingenious person on the origin 
 of the world and of evil. The offering up of Isaac 
 by Abraham was " a horrible crime, which the God- 
 head could not have required. Abraham dreamed 
 that he must offer up Isaac, and, according to the 
 superstition of the times, regarded it as a divine 
 admonition. He prepared to execute the mandate 
 which his dream had conveyed to him. A lucky 
 accident probably the rustling of a ram who was 
 entangled in the bushes hindered it; and this, 
 according to ancient idiom, was also the voice of 
 the divinity." 2 
 
 The prophecies of the Old Testament are, ac- 
 
 1 La Symbolique, 42. tome ii. p. 80. 
 * Vide Stuart, fetter v. p. 144.
 
 398 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 cording to the same writer, and Kiindl, whose 
 commentary is much used in this country, "pa- 
 triotic wishes, expressed with all the fire and elo- 
 quence of poetry, for the future prosperity and a 
 future deliverer of the Jewish nation." 1 
 
 In like manner, C. F. Ammon, professor of 
 theology at Erlangen (these are the instructors of 
 the youth of Germany !), says of the miracle of 
 Christ's walking on the water, that "to walk on 
 the sea, is not to stand on the waves as on the 
 solid ground, as Jerome dreams, but to walk through 
 the waves so far as the shoals reached, and then to 
 swim"! So of the miracle of the loaves and fishes, 
 St. Matthew xiv. 15 : " Jesus probably distributed 
 some loaves and fishes which he had to those who 
 were around him ; and thus excited by his exam- 
 ple others among the multitude, who had provi- 
 sions, to distribute them in like manner." 2 
 
 Scherer, a ' clergyman* in Hesse Darmstadt, 
 " calls all the predictions respecting the person of 
 the Messiah nonsense ; accuses the prophets of 
 being cunning deceivers ; and says that the belief 
 of those prophets brought and has preserved incre- 
 dulity on the earth." 3 Wegscheider says that St. 
 Paul " was much inclined to visions and ecstacies." 
 Heinrichs, in explaining the death of Ananias, sug- 
 gests that he was stabbed by St. Peter, " which," 
 says he, " does not at all disagree with the vehe- 
 
 1 Stuart, ubi supra. Cf. Rose, Additional Notes, pp. xlii. xliii. 
 3 Stuart, p. 146. 3 Rose, p. 151.
 
 IN GERMANY. 
 
 ment and easily exasperated temper of Peter." 
 Examples without number of these revolting blas- 
 phemies the 'commentaries,' not of a few repro- 
 bate spirits, such as may be found in any land, but 
 of the Professors of Theology in the Lutheran and 
 Calvinistic schools of Germany 1 might be added, 
 and many more may be seen in the authors whom 
 I have quoted; but we may spare ourselves the 
 shame and grief of referring to them. 3 
 
 It is well, however, to notice that, like the 
 ancient heretics, these men have fallen by degrees. 
 " In the course of the discussions which these prin- 
 ciples have excited in Germany," says Stuart, " the 
 question about Christ's divinity has been entirely for- 
 gotten. When the contest first began, this point, 
 among others, was warmly contested. But the 
 fundamental questions, whether the Scriptures are 
 divinely inspired, and whether the doctrine of ac- 
 commodation can be used in all its latitude in inter- 
 preting them, soon took the place of this." 3 
 
 It is true, as the same writer observes, that 
 "the best part of the German critics" have aban- 
 doned the evil principles of interpretation of which 
 some examples have been given. Rationalism has 
 
 1 " Very few of the distinguished Rationalists have been lay- 
 men." Rose, Letter to the Bishop of London, in reply to a work 
 on the causes of Rationalism in Germany, p. 86, note. 
 
 2 The late Mr. Conybeare describes the system of biblical criti- 
 cism of which these are specimens, as having " very widely, it might 
 be said almost universally, obtained in the protestant churches of 
 continental Europe." Bampton Lectures, Lecture i. p. 8. 
 
 3 Stuart, p. 146.
 
 400 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 not been able to maintain its ground. " All that 
 was holy, and healthful, and true," as Mr. Rose 
 eloquently writes, " has turned away from the Ra- 
 tionalists, and has demanded, with a voice which 
 admitted of no truce and no parley, that bread 
 which came down from heaven, and that living 
 water 'of which whosoever drinketh shall never 
 thirst again.' The very weakness of humanity has 
 been too strong for the advocates of Natural Reli- 
 gion, in all the pride of philosophy, and learning, 
 and station, and strength. Their outcry has been 
 silenced by the still small voice which came from 
 the chamber of disease, the house of mourning, and 
 the bed of death. ' Miserable comforters were 
 they all' in the day of suffering and sorrow ; and 
 the support which they could not give, the sick 
 and the sorrowful sought elsewhere. They have 
 used their utmost efforts to convince the world 
 that Christianity is a human invention, and they 
 have failed." 1 
 
 ' They have failed' indeed, as such teachers 
 ever must do, 2 and have been compelled to take up 
 
 1 Advertisement to the second edition, pp. ix. x. 
 
 8 But though Rationalism has given way in some degree, the 
 prospect is almost or quite as bad as ever the reaction, where it 
 has begun, being only in the direction of fanaticism. " Une nou- 
 velle erreur," says M. Merle D'Aubigne, " a pris naissance parmi 
 les debris de 1'ancienne. C'est cette erreur que nous avons appelee 
 Idealisme" which he then describes as coming between Orthodoxy 
 and Rationalism. IS Idealisme en Allemagne. For instances of the 
 Mystic, in contradiction to the Rationalistic exegesis, see the remarks 
 on the Christus im Alien Testament of J. A. Kanne, in the Melanges 
 de Religion, tome i. p. 160. On this new development of error, and
 
 IN GERMANY. 401 
 
 a different position ; but, " in the mean time, they 
 have not returned to the principles of their Lu- 
 theran Symbol. Very far from it. While many 
 of them allow that John, and Peter, and Paul, did 
 believe and teach the doctrine of Christ's divinity 
 and of the atonement, they hold themselves under 
 no obligation to receive them. De Wette, who has 
 recently published a System of Theology, and is 
 Professor of the same at the University of Berlin, 
 maintains that the Pentateuch was composed about 
 the time of the captivity ; that the Jewish ritual 
 was of gradual formation, accessions being made to 
 it by superstition ; and that the book of Chroni- 
 cles, which is filled with scraps and inconsistencies, 
 was foisted into the canon by some of the priest- 
 hood, who wished to exalt their own order. His 
 Beitrage, which contained these sentiments, was 
 published before the death of Griesbach, and came 
 out recommended by him ; who says, ' If you object 
 to the young literary adventurer (De Wette), that 
 he has endeavoured to bring Judaism into disre- 
 pute, my answer is, this is no more than Paul him- 
 self has laboured to do.' Pref. to Beitrage. This 
 from an Editor of the New Testament ! In his 
 book De Morte Christi expiatoria (on the atone- 
 
 the successive alternations of infidelity and fanaticism which this 
 country appears likely still to exhibit, Moahler observes, "Telle est 
 la triste destinee du siecle ; on verra les esprits malades, exaltes, se 
 repaitre de chimeres et d'illusions ; et si bientot la foi de PEglise ne 
 reprend son empire, le fanatisme de plus funeste viendra s'asseoir a 
 la place de 1'incroyance detronee." tome ii. p. 354. 
 
 D D
 
 402 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 ment of Christ), he represents Christ as disap- 
 pointed that the Jews would not hearken to him 
 as a moral teacher simply, which was the first cha- 
 racter he assumed. Christ then assumed the cha- 
 racter of a prophet, and asserted his divine mission, 
 in order that the Jews might be induced to listen 
 to him. Finding that they would not do this," &c. 
 the rest it is impossible to repeat. " Yet De 
 Wette holds a most exalted rank in Germany. I 
 doubt whether Germany can boast of an Oriental 
 scholar or a literary man who has more admirers 
 than De Wette. What shall we say now of De 
 Wette ? That he is not a Christian ? He would 
 look with astonishment on any man who should 
 think of such an accusation, and would tax him 
 with a great degree of illiberality and superstition." 1 
 With one more example, bringing the descrip- 
 tion of Lutheranism down r to the present hour, we 
 may conclude. The name of Neander, one of the 
 most distinguished of all the German theologians, 
 is almost as well known in this country as in his 
 own. He is supposed to be one of those eminent 
 divines whom the King of Prussia designed, by the 
 help of the English Church, to have raised to the 
 Episcopal office. It is well to know the character 
 of the persons with whom the rulers of that Church 
 were solicited to form alliance. The most recent 
 writer upon the new development of German Ra- 
 tionalism tells us, that "the Nicene and Athana- 
 
 1 Stuart, p. 147 ; and see Conybeare, Lecture i. p. 24, note.
 
 IN GERMANY. 403 
 
 sian Creeds are by Neander fairly set aside." 1 The 
 decisions of his own ' church' he estimates at the 
 same rate. " Of the Augsburg Confession he only 
 admits what he considers to be the essential points ;" 
 and these appear to be, justification by faith, and 
 the depravity of human nature ! " This superces- 
 sion," Dr. Wolff says, " of Lutheran doctrines in 
 a Lutheran University, by one of its most distin- 
 guished members and professors, will rather startle 
 the English reader, and open his eyes to the con- 
 vulsed and distracted state of religious opinions in 
 Germany." 2 Having then quoted language from 
 the writings of Neander quite as monstrous and 
 offensive as any that has been already cited, 3 this 
 author adds, " What more, or what worse, could 
 have proceeded from the pen of Dr. Strauss, or 
 Professor Paulus, or the veriest infidels that can be 
 named among the German Professors of the last 
 half century?" Yet this is an existing form of 
 German Protestantism, as professed at the present 
 
 1 Wolff, Mystic Rationalism in Germany, p. 10, ed. 1842. 
 
 3 Ibid. Such a " supercession," however, is no new thing. The 
 very men who composed the symbolical writings of the reformed 
 party set the first example of despising them. " An nos Zuinglii," 
 says Beza, " an Calvini, an cujusquam hominis auctoritate niti con- 
 suevimus ? Num ipsam nostrum confessionem, ac non potius unicum 
 ex quo desumpta est Domini verbum proferimus?" Duci Saxonise, 
 PrcB/at. In Resp. ad N. Selneccer. 
 
 3 The pool at Bethesda was, according to Neander, a reservoir of 
 mineral water. The transfiguration was " a dream." St. Matthew's 
 account, chap, xiv., is incorrect, because it is contradictory to Herod's 
 character ! " He may justly be suspected of heterodoxy," Dr. Wolff 
 says, " even with regard to the divinity of Christ." Mystic Ra- 
 tionalism, p. 34.
 
 404 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 day by one of its most popular and admired ad- 
 vocates ! This is the latest aspect of religion in 
 a country which produced, in 1530, the boasted 
 Confession of Augsburg; and, in 1825, numbered 
 amongst the whole body of its Professors just 
 seventeen who were not utterly apostate ! ] 
 
 III. Switzerland is the next country to which, 
 in pursuing the present inquiry, it seems natural to 
 turn our attention. It was here that the system 
 first devised in Germany found its earliest counter- 
 part. The movement in the two countries was, 
 indeed, almost simultaneous ; and, at least in one 
 important particular, which I am especially anxious 
 
 1 The view taken by Lutherans themselves of the present aspect 
 of their communion is thus stated by Mr. Rose. " Counsellor Becken- 
 dorf says, ' There is no church among his party, but merely parties ; 
 the old church is in ruins.' Boll says, ' The dissolution of the Pro- 
 testant church is certain.' The Hallische Literatur Zeitung, ' that 
 there is no Protestant church, but only now Protestant churches ;' 
 and so Dr. Planck. Professor Lehmann, ' one sees Protestantism, 
 but no Protestant church.' Superintendent General Schlegel, ' the 
 greatest part of the Evangelical churches may be asked, if they can 
 make any pretence, to the name of a Christian church.' " See also 
 Clarisse, Encyclopedia Theologicce Epitome, Praefat. p. xiv. for a 
 description of the German youth ; and 55. p. 226. for his account 
 of the Rationalistic philosophy. Cf. Wegscheider, Institut. Theolog. 
 Prolegom. cap. i. 12; and, for a much earlier statement of its real 
 character, Weismann, secul. 17. torn. ii. p. 1117. Such are the con- 
 fessions of the varying parties themselves ; and we find an adversary, 
 though under the disguise of a friend, reminding them of their true 
 condition in the following words : " La decadence de votre societe 
 religieuse augmente de jour en jour, et Ton peut meme dire que, 
 consideree comme corps ecclesiastique, elle a cess6 d'exister ; ce n'est 
 plus qu'une agregation d'hommes ayant des opinions diverses, et 
 meme diametralement opposees, sans ordre, sans harmonie, et sans 
 liaison." Starck, Theodul's Gastmahl, p. 264.
 
 IN SWITZERLAND. 405 
 
 to notice, was marked from the outset with the 
 same character. In Switzerland, as in Germany, 
 the leaders of the Reformation were warned that 
 their principles must lead to infidelity ; and in both 
 cases the prediction has been amply and fearfully 
 accomplished. 
 
 Of the warning, and the grounds of it, there is 
 no space to say much here. It was at the close of 
 the year 1536, so far as I have been able to dis- 
 cover, that the Swiss reformers were first publicly 
 charged with Arianism. Caroli, joint pastor with 
 Viret of the city of Lausanne, was the author of 
 the charge; in which many of the ministers of 
 Geneva, as well as of other cantons, were impli- 
 cated. True or false, there was something signifi- 
 cant in the very nature of the impeachment it 
 was a startling novelty in those days, however 
 common it may have become since. A synod, 
 summoned by general request, was held at Berne ; 
 and Calvin, Viret, and Farel vehemently defended 
 themselves from the imputation, which, there can 
 be no doubt, was in the main untrue. 1 That it was 
 
 1 That is, as far as they themselves were concerned. Prateolus 
 reports, however, that Calesius, a colleague of Calvin, declared in 
 the synod of Berne, " that Christ was not distinguished from the 
 Father ;" and that although others at the very time censured his 
 blasphemy, neither the theologians of Berne nor of Geneva noticed 
 it. Elench. Hceret. omn. lib. xviii. hseres. 24. p. 489. Calvin him- 
 self was more than suspected, and is said to have been " accused by 
 almost all the Lutherans of the Arian heresy." Vide Pierce's New 
 Discoverer, Advertisement, p. 19. The Lutheran Stockmann con- 
 firms this statement expressly ; Lexicon Hceresium, p. 223. At the 
 Synod of Lausanne Calvin said, that " he neither believed nor dis-
 
 406 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 not, however, altogether vexatious and unfounded, 
 is plain even from the defence which it provoked. 
 Being challenged by Caroli to sign the three Creeds, 
 Calvin refused to do so ; and the only motive which 
 
 believed the Athanasian Creed." Prateolus, ubi supra. Fowler 
 admits that " this never-enough accursed doctrine of a typicall 
 Christ did spread like a gangrene in Calvin's time ;" Dcemonium 
 Meridianum, p. 45 ; and at least he was abetting the more open 
 heretics by his dangerous and profane language. Both Luther and 
 Calvin rejected the word 'Trinity' the former as "a human in- 
 vention," the latter as also " savouring of barbarity ;" and their 
 remarks are greedily quoted by Socinians of the present day vide 
 Monthly Repository, vol. xxi. p. 622 as formerly by their prede- 
 cessors ; vide Eniedin. In S. Trinitatem, pp. 138, 9. I shall not, 
 however, in a note, enter upon the serious question here glanced at. 
 Thus much may be said, that they constantly charged each other 
 with the worst heresies, and there are good reasons for supposing 
 that the charge was more often true than false. With respect to 
 Calvin himself, Maldonat has collected a vast number of his sayings, 
 which savour almost of infidelity ; see his Comment, in S. Matt, 
 cap. vi. torn. i. p. 147 and p. 170 ; in cap. ix. p. 210; in cap. xiv. 
 p. 301, p. 307, and p. 310; in cap. xix. p. 395 a specimen of Lu- 
 ther's notions ibid. p. 397, p. 400, and p. 401 ; in cap. xxi. p. 444, 
 is a saying of Calvin's exactly such as the Socinian Jacob Abbott 
 uses when speaking of God the Son as though He were merely 
 man ; in cap. xxvii. p. 646, where Calvin is quoted as referring our 
 Lord's exclamation on the cross to " despair" a sentiment, as Mal- 
 donat justly says, almost too shocking to be repeated, even for the 
 sake of admonition : and there is a host of such evil comments noticed 
 by the same writer, in his remarks upon the other Gospels. See also 
 Petavius, De Trinitate, lib. iii. cap. iv. 7, who shews that the ex- 
 positions of Calvin led to the most dreadful blasphemies : and Feu- 
 ardent, Theomach. Calvinist. lib. ix., De Sanctis Ccelestibus, who 
 gives instances of the astonishing manner in which the same " re- 
 former" allowed himself to speak of the saints of the Old Testament. 
 Beza, too, was charged, by Andreas and others, with the most 
 deadly heresies; and he replies as these men usually did by 
 retorting the accusation upon them. Vide Beza? Ad Acta CoUoquil 
 Montisbelgardensis Besp. Prsef. p. 11 ; and Cornelius a Lapide In 
 Epist. ad Heb. cap. v. Upon the whole, it seems impossible to 
 doubt, after due consideration of the facts which the history of that
 
 IN SWITZERLAND. 407 
 
 he assigned for so strange a refusal was, that it 
 was tyrannical to force a man to avow his faith in 
 terms prescribed by another. But it is certain that 
 a mere negative did not express his real feelings. 
 To have refused to assent to those holy symbols 
 would have been a bad sign in one who was on his 
 trial for heresy ; but he was not content with this. 
 The Athanasian Creed was treated with open dis- 
 respect, and the sacred phrases, " God of God, 
 Light of Light, Very God of Very God," were pro- 
 nounced by this reformer to be " vain repetitions." l 
 The character of his accuser, and even the nature 
 of the imputed crime, are not, then, to be consi- 
 dered the objects of our attention in this case it 
 is only the words of the accused which it is import- 
 ant to notice. Surely it needed no great sagacity 
 to predict what the end of all this must be ! 
 
 The various steps by which that end has been 
 reached, we need not minutely examine; enough 
 that it is in accordance with this beginning. The 
 tide of blasphemy which begun to flow in the very 
 lifetime of Calvin, which he vainly strove to with- 
 
 period supplies to us, that when these persons, who best knew each 
 other's real sentiments, bandied about from one to another the ac- 
 cusations of blasphemy and misbelief, they had some reason for what 
 they said. 
 
 1 Vide Ruchat, Histoire de to Reformation en Suisse, 2 de partie, 
 livre i. tome v. p. 30. Kromayer shews, Loc. Anti-Syncretist. p. 262, 
 that the language of professed unbelievers on the subject of the Creeds 
 is precisely such as Calvin's ; and modern Socinians assert, that " his 
 zeal for the doctrine of the Trinity, which he but half believed, may 
 be suspected to have been but a pretence." Monthly Repository, 
 vol. i. p. 526.
 
 408 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 stand even to shedding of blood, and which swept 
 away, one after another, all the barriers by which 
 it was attempted to stay its progress, has swelled 
 into a torrent, and flows on now unresisted, in a 
 broad and deep channel, through the heart of the 
 land. For a long period its course was hidden; 
 during a whole century the principles of evil which 
 have at length obtained the mastery in the Swiss 
 communities were professed in secret. 1 In vain did 
 pious and good men, who knew not the Church 
 to be the appointed Ark of truth, contend for the 
 integrity of the faith. A curse was upon the hu- 
 man system to which they had given their unre- 
 quited affections a curse which not even their 
 virtues could avert. The land in which it had 
 been set up was doomed, and "though Noah, 
 Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but 
 their own souls by their righteousness." 
 
 The infidelity long cherished and now openly 
 proclaimed in the Swiss cantons appears to have 
 been developed at two distinct periods, first, about 
 the middle of the last century, and again at the 
 beginning of the present. The witnesses to the 
 former development are, besides the parties imme- 
 diately concerned, men who were themselves pro- 
 fessed infidels, as Voltaire, Rousseau, and D'Alem- 
 bert, who had sought Geneva as a congenial soil. 
 
 1 " Le protestantisme genevois, apres avoir clandestinement pen- 
 dant un siecle professe le socinianisme, a leve le masque." Histoire 
 des Sectes Religieuses, par M. Gregoire, Obs. prelim, p. 4.
 
 IN SWITZERLAND. 409 
 
 The later movement is also attested by persons of 
 whose hostility to Catholic principles no doubt can 
 be entertained. The testimony, therefore, in both 
 cases, is as unsuspicious as we shall find it to be 
 complete and fatal. 
 
 The earliest intimation which was given to the 
 world of the actual state of religion in Geneva was 
 contained in an article by D'Alembert, in the fa- 
 mous Encyclopedic des Sciences. The description 
 there presented rests on the authority of Voltaire, 
 who at this time had been a three years' resident 
 at Geneva. " It is not," says the article, " a slight 
 proof of the progress of human reason, that it has 
 been published at Geneva, with the public appro- 
 bation, that Calvin was as savage in temper as he 
 was subtle in wit. The murder of Servetus (put 
 to death by Calvin as a Socinian) is now regarded 
 as execrable." 1 
 
 The article proceeds to speak of the theological 
 sentiments in vogue there. " To sum up all in one 
 word," says the author, " a large number of the 
 Pastors of Geneva have no other religion than mere 
 Socinianism, rejecting all those things to which the 
 term mysteries is applied, and maintaining that the 
 first principle of a true religion is, to propose no- 
 thing as a matter of faith which clashes with reason. 2 
 
 ' Encyclopedic, art. Genbve. 
 
 2 Which is no less their doctrine at the present time. " Plus 
 votre raison sera forte, mieux vous coraprendrez et saurez faire com- 
 prendre 1'esprit de la revelation." This was pronounced at the Con- 
 secration au Saint Mystere de M. Arnaud Saintes, Geneve, 1828 ;
 
 410 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 Religion is there almost reduced to the adoration 
 of the one God. Respect for Jesus Christ, and for 
 the Scriptures, is perhaps the only thing which 
 distinguishes from pure Deism the Christianity of 
 Geneva." 
 
 Having, in another place, said that they no 
 longer hold the same opinions even with respect 
 to points elsewhere regarded as the fundamental 
 truths of religion, and added, that " many believe 
 not in the divinity of Christ, of which Calvin, their 
 leader, was so zealous a defender," D'Alembert 
 exclaims, in the triumph of his unbelieving heart, 
 " O Bossuet, where art thou ? Eighty years have 
 passed away since you predicted that the principles 
 of the Protestants would lead them to Socinianism : 
 what gratitude do you not owe to the author of an 
 article which has attested to all Europe the truth 
 of your prophecy I" 1 
 
 It is true that the full extent of the terrible 
 charge made against these Genevan pastors was 
 denied; 2 but so confident were their accusers, 
 
 and does not seem to differ very much from the sentiment of the 
 more plain-spoken heathen, 
 
 " Quare Relligio pedibus subjecta vicissim 
 Obteritur, nos excequat victoria coelo." Lucretius, i. 86. 
 
 1 CEuvres de D'Alembert, tome v. pp. 272, 283, ed. Paris, 1805. 
 " On abolit une religion ridicule," was the sentiment of the class of 
 men represented by Frederick II. of Prussia, " et 1'on en introduit 
 une plus extravagante." Correspondance avec D'Alembert, tome i. 
 p. 136. 
 
 a Grosley, author of Observations sur Vltalie, says that " there 
 were still some old ministers who were attached to the ancient 
 forms, but that they were little esteemed." D'Alembert, p. 308.
 
 IN SWITZERLAND. 411 
 
 who indeed knew them too well to be deceived, 
 that they were content, in justification of the accu- 
 sation which they had brought, to refer them to 
 the judgment of all their brother Protestants. And 
 even this it was unnecessary to do, since the pas- 
 tors themselves admit, in their defence, all the pri- 
 mary principles of Sociniariism, and do not shrink 
 from using its familiar language even while they 
 deny that they have adopted its creed. But it is 
 time to speak now of that later development, which 
 differs from that which we have thus far considered 
 in one respect, namely, that its real character is no 
 longer concealed or denied even by those who have 
 been the agents in bringing it about. 
 
 The immediate cause of the shocking disclo- 
 sures with regard to the religious state of Geneva, 
 which created a few years back such a powerful 
 sensation on the neighbouring continent, was the 
 publication at that place, in 1816, of a pamphlet 
 which was entitled, " Considerations upon the 
 Divinity of Jesus Christ," 1 and addressed to the 
 students of the theological schools of Geneva. In 
 this pamphlet, the Venerable Company of Pastors 
 the ecclesiastical senate of that city were plainly 
 charged with denying the divinity of our Lord. The 
 charge was not even noticed ; the College content- 
 ing itself, under these critical circumstances, with 
 
 1 Considerations sur la Divinit6 du J^sus- Christ, adresstes d 
 MM. les Etudians de I'Auditoire dc Thtolagie de VEglise de Genkve, 
 par Henri Louis Empaytaz.
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 requiring all young ministers, and candidates for 
 the ministry, to maintain a total silence within the 
 canton of Geneva upon (1) the manner in which 
 the divine nature is united to the person of Jesus 
 Christ ; and (2) upon original sin ! 
 
 It was of course impossible that the dispute 
 should terminate thus. The few who still retained 
 some reverence for the ancient faith began to com- 
 plain yet more earnestly ; and at length the Vener- 
 able Company of Pastors was compelled to speak 
 out. Their ' Defence' exhibits a very curious and 
 instructive development of Calvinistic Protestant- 
 ism. " In order to maintain the principle of Pro- 
 testantism," they say, " it was absolutely necessary 
 that the Venerable Company should renounce those 
 opinions, the abandonment of which is objected to 
 them as a crime. The right of examination is the 
 foundation of the Protestant religion, and is the 
 only element of fixedness which belongs to it." 
 They go on to say, that to reject the doctrine of 
 the Trinity, as incomprehensible, is necessary on 
 their principles ! and that the orthodox ought to 
 go to Rome ! * 
 
 There was now no longer any hope of conceal- 
 ing their real sentiments, nor was any attempt 
 made to do so : from that time they spoke and 
 acted without reserve. M. Cesar Malan, the fore- 
 most of their opponents, was suspended from the 
 
 1 Defense de la Venerable Compagnie des Pasteurs de Genbve, d 
 Voccasion d'un bcrit intitule, "Veritable Histoire des Momiers."
 
 IN SWITZERLAND. 413 
 
 exercise of his office. On* his protesting that he 
 could henceforth " only belong to the Church of 
 Geneva as it existed in the 16th century," he was 
 asked, " if the Company of Pastors chose to re- 
 ceive a Confession of Faith in the 16th century, 
 why should not the same Company modify or re- 
 ject it in the 18th?" 1 and we do not hear what 
 was his reply. He was at length removed alto- 
 gether from his office ; and the reason assigned 
 was, that " he made use of the Bible in the religious 
 instruction of his class." The subsequent conduct 
 of the Venerable Company and their subordinates 
 was not inconsistent with this beginning. The 
 Abbe de la Mennais reports, on the authority of 
 an eye-witness, that the rabble of Geneva, insti- 
 gated or taught by the Venerable Company of 
 Pastors, raised in the streets the horrible cry, 
 A bas Jesus-Christ!* The orthodox began to be 
 openly ridiculed, and even the most astounding 
 ribaldry poured out upon them by journals in the 
 influence of the Venerable Company.* Nor was 
 Geneva unrivalled in this pre-eminence of infamy. 
 The " orthodox ministers" of the Canton de 
 Vaud having addressed a letter to the members 
 of the Council of State, declaring their resolution 
 to separate themselves from the established com- 
 
 1 Melanges de Religion, tome iii. p. 94. 
 
 3 Histoire Veritable des Momiers de Geneve, CEuvres de M. de la 
 Mennais, tome viii. pp. 392-4. 
 
 3 Feuille d'Avis de Genbve, k 7 Octobre, 1818, quoted in the 
 Memorial Catholique, tome i. p. 117.
 
 414 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 munity, as had been done in Geneva, because of 
 the infidelity of that body, they were in despite 
 of the 'fundamental principle of Protestantism' 
 committed to prison. 1 
 
 By the Council of Lausanne the same class of 
 remonstrants were condemned as a " new sect," 
 and jested upon as hypocrites and methodists. 2 
 The course of argument which was adopted by the 
 framers of this decree deserves also special notice : 
 they are indignant chiefly at the circumstance that 
 these men should presume to separate from " the 
 national church" and " the religion of the state" 
 the very arguments which had excited the scorn of 
 their founders. This history of the development 
 of ' Presbyterianism' in the very city of its famous 
 author, and the ' metropolis of Protestantism/ is 
 sufficiently important to justify some further de- 
 tails. The following appear worthy of notice. 
 
 It was in 1788 that is, just thirty years after 
 the reply of the Genevan Pastors to the article of 
 D'Alembert that the Catechism of Calvin, hitherto 
 the most approved class-book, was withdrawn? 
 
 1 Melanges de Religion, tome ix. p. 342. Upon this exhibition 
 of * toleration' a Catholic writer observes, " Elle permet qu'on at- 
 taque la Trinite, qu'on nie 1'Incarnation, que Ton conteste Peternite 
 des peines ; la tolerance le veut ainsi : mais professer la divinite 
 de Jesus-Christ, c'est une licence qui ne doit pas rester impunie 
 dans la metropole du protestantisme ! " L'Ami de la Religion, t. xix. 
 p. 164. 
 
 2 Manorial Catholique, tome i. p. 117. 
 
 3 L'Ami de la Religion, tome xix. p. 161. " The Catechism 
 of Calvin has been changed for one on the Socinian system, which 
 is now generally taught. M. Vernet's System of Theology, which
 
 IN SWITZERLAND. 415 
 
 In 1807 a Liturgy, expurgated upon Socinian 
 principles, was substituted for that formerly in use. 1 
 
 Again : the profession of faith in the divinity 
 of our Lord was once used by all the reformed 
 communities of France, adopted from them by the 
 Pastors of Geneva, and printed together with the 
 Bible, being affixed to the Gospels, the Psalms, 
 and the Liturgy. It is found in the Bibles of 1605 
 and 1723; but it is suppressed in the edition of 
 1805. It is in the Genevan edition of the Psalms 
 of 1713 ; it has disappeared in the edition of 1780. 
 It was joined to the New Testament of 1570 ; it 
 is not to be found in that of 1802. 2 The transla- 
 tion of the Bible published at Geneva in 1805, 
 which occupied ninety years, has altered many of 
 the passages relating to our Lord's divinity. Thus, 
 instead of Verbum erat apud Deum, they put, La 
 parole etait avec Dieu ; and the other instances 
 are often much worse than this. 3 
 
 affirms that our blessed Lord was a mere man, is the standard work 
 of divinity used in the university. It will be remembered that it 
 was at Geneva that M. Vernet was Professor of Divinity ; and not 
 long since his successor in the chair proclaimed to his scholars, ex 
 cathedra, ' Faites de Jesus-Christ tout ce que vous voulez ; mais 
 ne Ten faites pas Dieu.'" See A Sketch of the Religious Discussions 
 which have lately taken place at Geneva, pp. 4, 5. 
 
 ' Chronique Religieuse, tome iii. p. 599. 
 
 * L'Ami de la Religion, tome xi. p. 357. M. Sismondi says, 
 that " the Church of Geneva suppressed, as early as the year 1705, 
 the practice of compelling the members of her clergy to sign the 
 same confession of faith." Review of the Progress of Religious 
 Opinions during the 19th Century, p. 62, English edit. 
 
 3 But this is not a new device. The learned Dean of West- 
 minster observes, that " in Campbell's Dissertations some circum-
 
 416 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 Such are some of the startling facts which 
 the history of Protestantism in Switzerland pre- 
 sents to us. 1 It may be well to notice, in con- 
 clusion, the remarks which its present condition 
 has elicited from persons of various and opposite 
 sentiments. 
 
 " They have been careful," says one, " to re- 
 move from their church every thing which might 
 disturb a Socinian peace : their translations of the 
 Bible, Liturgy, and Catechisms, have been system- 
 atically reduced to the level of that view of Chris- 
 tianity ; they have formally prohibited the promul- 
 gation of those articles of belief which it rejects ; 
 they have indefinitely suspended a minister for 
 faithfully preaching the doctrines of all orthodox 
 churches ; and, lastly, they have now deposed the 
 same individual from his office in the University, 
 
 stances are mentioned which bear hard upon Beza's integrity as a 
 translator ;" and he adds, " I fear there is too much justice in 
 them." Dean Turton On the Text of the Bible, p. 109, note, 2d 
 edition. Cf. Feuardent. Theomach. Calvinist. lib. xiv. cap. 1. 
 
 1 " You have entirely abandoned the principles of your Church 
 at the Reformation," says a very zealous Protestant, addressing the 
 Venerable Company, " and your complaint now is of the revival of 
 Calvinism, the very doctrine which was then taught ! . . . The doc- 
 trine which you preach is not the Gospel of the grace of God, but, 
 on the contrary, subversive of it : in a word, you have become 
 Arians." Haldane's Letter to M. J. J. Cheneviere, pp. 3, 4. And 
 their morals appear to be almost as bad as their religion : see the 
 statement of M. Raoul Rochette, in his Lettres sur la Sume ; and 
 the remarks of an English dissenter, Dr. J. Pye Smith, quoted in 
 the Monthly Repository, vol. xx. p. 331. Nor does their political 
 condition appear to be much better : see the Tableau Historique et 
 Politigue de la dernttre Revolution de Geneve, p. 38, ed. Geneve, 
 1782.
 
 IN SWITZERLAND. 417 
 
 because he made use of the Bible in the religious 
 instruction of his class." 1 
 
 " The Church of Geneva," writes another, 
 whose sympathies are wholly Calvinistic, " which 
 shone with such effulgence to the limits of Europe, 
 while illumined by a Calvin and a Beza, is now in 
 a state of degradation lower and viler than that 
 deadly thraldom which in former times roused the 
 righteous indignation and called forth the manly 
 energies of her elder, her nobler sons." 3 
 
 A Socinian preacher thus describes the state of 
 religion in Geneva in 1827 : " In their opinions 
 they are not altogether what we are ; but they are 
 not many degrees removed from us. I asked one 
 of them what, in general, were the sentiments of 
 his church respecting the person of Christ. He 
 replied, ' You will find among us a few, Trini- 
 tarians, and many Arians.' 3 .... The candidates 
 for holy orders, he told me, are only required to 
 profess their belief in the Bible, not in any parti- 
 cular creed." 4 This unhappy man goes on to dis- 
 
 1 Documents relative to the Deposition of the Rev. C. Malan 
 from his Office in the College of Geneva, Preface, p. xi. (1829.) 
 9 Sermons of Cesar Malan, Translator's preface, pp. 5, 6. 
 
 3 " At the present time the twenty-seven pastors of the esta- 
 blished church of the canton (of Geneva) are understood, with two 
 or three exceptions, to hold to Unitarian opinions." Encyclopedia 
 Americana, vol. xiv. Appendix, p. 599. " Le corps des pasteurs de 
 cette ville," says one of their own number to a protestant teacher 
 at Montauban, " ne sera bieritot plus qu'une agregation philoso- 
 phique et une societe litteraire." L'Ami de la Rel'ujion, tome xiii. 
 p. 229. 
 
 4 Vide Monthly Repository, vol. i. pp. 641-tt. 
 
 E E
 
 418 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 tinguish " the reformed clergy of Geneva" with his 
 praise of their impious sentiments. 
 
 Lastly, the feelings excited by these events in 
 the minds of Catholics are such as the following : 
 " The Venerable Company of Pastors" says De la 
 Mennais, " faithful to that principle of protestant- 
 ism which recognises no other rule of faith than 
 reason, or the Scriptures interpreted by reason, has 
 been compelled to abandon by degrees the profes- 
 sion of a fixed faith, and to deny all the funda- 
 mental doctrines of Christianity, original sin, and 
 consequently the redemption, the necessity of grace, 
 eternal punishments, and, at length, the divinity of 
 Jesus Christ. We say that it denies these doctrines ; 
 for to prohibit the promulgation of them is surely 
 to deny them very emphatically. And from this it 
 appears, that the centre of the Calvinistic reforma- 
 tion has become the centre of deism, and that there 
 no longer exists in the Protestant Rome, I do not 
 say any Christian faith, but any faith whatsoever ; 
 since a minister who has powerful confederates in 
 the Company has publicly avowed his desire 1 that 
 every creed should be renounced even that of the 
 Apostles, which begins with the words, / believe in 
 God." 2 
 
 1 The minister referred to is M. J. Heyer, and his publication is 
 entitled Coup-d'ceil sur les Confessions de Foi, Geneve, 1818. Cf. 
 De I'Usage des Confessions de Foi dans les Communions Reformees, 
 par Etienne Chastel, 1823 ; and Considerations sur V Unite de la Foi, 
 par J. Martin, 1822. 
 
 2 Histoire Veritable des Momiers de Geneve, p. 391.
 
 IN SWITZERLAND. 419 
 
 Once more. " It is long," says another, " since 
 D'Alembert exulted in the apostacy of the Vener- 
 able Company of Geneva, which believed no longer 
 in the divinity of Jesus Christ. At that time, how- 
 ever, a decent exterior was still preserved ; and 
 all the world was not in the secret. Times have 
 changed; and, thanks to the lights of the age, 
 Geneva has deemed that men's minds are suffi- 
 ciently prepared * to receive a doctrine which might 
 justify the haughty inscription on her arms, Post 
 tenebras lux. This light is evangelical deism. The 
 Company of Pastors has proclaimed it ; and the 
 
 1 M. de Fernex, one of the pastors of Geneva, on the 14th Jan. 
 1819, actually pronounced the following discourse in the consistory : 
 " Geneve jouissait depuis pres d'un siecle du calme religieux; elle 
 pouvoit hardiment soumettre sa croyance a 1'examen de sa raison, 
 separer les verites fondamentales, incontestablement enseignees dans 
 1'Evangile, de celles qui . . . . ne sont pas d'une egale importance ; 
 elle pouvait, en s'attachant fortement aux unes, suspendre son juge- 
 ment sur les autres, attendre que de nouvelles lumieres lui permissent 
 de prononcer avec plus de maturite. Mais cette heureuse privilege 
 elle le possedoit comme at, I'insu des autres Eglises ; contente de jouir 
 de la paix, ella n'aspirait point a paraitre avoir secoue un joug 
 auquel, partout ailleurs, on etait encore trop asservi pour qu' elle put 
 esperer de faire gouter ses principes. Cependant on 1'accuse de 
 s'ecarter de la doctrine reue, de mettre moins d'importance a cer- 
 tains dogmes . . . On la presse de repondre, elle hesite ; elle craint 
 d'engager des querelles ; oninsiste; et quoique decidee a demeurer 
 fidele au silence que les circonstances et 1'autorite des chefs de 1'etat 
 lui imposaient, elle laisse en quelque sorte echapper son secret, qui, 
 revele a certaines epoques, cut revolte les esprits, et a d'autres n'eut 
 fait aucune sensation." Quoted by M. A. Bost, in his Geneve reli- 
 f/ieuse en Mars 1819, pp. 12 et seqq., Geneve, 1819. This extraor- 
 dinary document is in itself proof enough of these two instructive 
 facts, that Calvin's ecclesiastical community is now a mere com- 
 pany of philosophical atheists, and that it has become so in secret 
 and by degrees.
 
 420 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 great reformer Calvin is now nothing but a mi ser- 
 able Momier, whom they jeer and persecute in the 
 persons of his true disciples, the Momiers of Geneva 
 and Lausanne. This Calvin caused S ervetus to be 
 burned, who taught three centuries too soon that 
 which is now taught by the Venerable Company. 
 But such are the capricious variations of the re- 
 formed doctrine, that in the very place in which 
 the funeral pile was lighted for Servetus, he is 
 henceforth to be exalted as a martyr to the true 
 faith!" 1 
 
 IV. We have traced thus far the development 
 of Protestantism 8 in those countries only in which 
 it may be said to have first originated ; and if the 
 principles of that celebrated movement may be 
 fairly judged of by the results to which, in both 
 countries, they have led, then certainly the present 
 condition of the disciples of Luther and Melanc- 
 
 1 Memorial Catholique, tome i. p. 116. 
 
 8 It may be right to offer some explanation of the use which has 
 been made of this word throughout these pages. To have rejected 
 it lightly or inconsiderately, without regard to the prejudices of the 
 many excellent persons amongst us who would still retain it, were 
 no sign of wisdom. But the reasons for laying it aside are, indeed, 
 so weighty, the term is now so seriously objectionable, both as being 
 the symbol, for the most part, of undisguised heresy, and a needless 
 cause of offence to Catholics in other lands, as well as in itself 
 savouring strongly of the humana vocabula of mere modern sects, 
 that we may well be anxious to be rid of it without further delay. 
 Nor does the rejection of this now almost unchristian phrase need 
 any apology in the case of a member of the English Church, because 
 that Church has ever discountenanced its use, and, on more than 
 one occasion, emphatically refused to employ it ; the members of the
 
 IN FRANCE. 421 
 
 thon, of Calvin and Zuingle, and the aspect of 
 the communities of which they were the founders, 
 leave us no room for doubt or hesitation as to the 
 judgment which we should pronounce upon them. 
 Without, however, anticipating the remarks which 
 it may be right to defer until we have examined the 
 history of those principles in many other lands, we 
 may proceed at present with our inquiry ; and the 
 next country which claims our attention is France. 
 It was in 1555 that " the first avowed French 
 Church, on the principles of the Reformation, was 
 established at Paris." This position had only been 
 attained by the French Protestants after many 
 years of anxious struggle and severe sufferings. 
 At length the day of repose and tranquillity had 
 arrived ; and we are told by those who have 
 studied this branch of history minutely, that " day 
 by day the Reformation embedded itself more 
 
 lower house of Coiivocation even protesting against it, " on the 
 avowed principle that they disowned all communion with foreign 
 (protestant) churches." See Cardwell's Conferences, ch. ix. p. 424 ; 
 and Palmer's Ecclesiastical History, ch. xxi. I know it may be said, 
 that our own most revered divines have not scrupled to use the 
 phrase in question ; but this argument appears to me disingenuous, 
 for the developments of ' protestantism ' which we are now con- 
 templating, were not, of course, included in their notion of it ; and 
 when they spoke of * protestants' and 'protestantism,' they had 
 something else in their minds than those repulsive forms of error 
 and blasphemy which are now designated by those terms. Perhaps 
 it may even be questioned whether many of those venerable persons, 
 if their voices could be heard amongst us at this day, would not say 
 of some whom they were used to commend, as St. Jerome did in 
 the like case, " Decepit nos bona de mails existimatio ;" Adv. Luci- 
 ferian. cap. vii. torn. ii. p. 201.
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 firmly in France, and secretly or openly a very 
 large proportion of the population embraced its 
 doctrines." 1 By the end of the 16th century, so 
 great had been their progress, that " there were 
 seven hundred and sixty parish-churches belonging 
 to the Protestants of France, all in good order ;" 
 and so far from the. members of these churches 
 being confined, as is usual when new religious 
 opinions are received, to the lower orders of men 
 only, it appears that, about the year 1600, no fewer 
 than " four thousand of the nobility of France be- 
 longed to that confession." 2 
 
 But it seems that neither the power of the 
 noble nor the affections of the people, neither the 
 learning and virtues of one class nor the fiery zeal 
 of another, could long preserve a communion which 
 had ventured to change the Polity of the Apostles, 
 from the curse which, in every age, has attached 
 to those who have divorced that union between 
 the Faith and the Discipline of the Church which 
 the law of God has made inseparable. 3 Another 
 
 1 Smedley's History of the Reformed Religion in France, chap. ii. 
 vol. i. p. 62. 
 
 2 Vide Ranke's History of the Popes, book vii. chap. i. 7. vol. 
 ii. p. 439, English edition. See also Soulier, Statistique des Eglises 
 Reformfas de France, Introd. 
 
 3 " It is remarkable that" the denial of the great essential articles 
 of the creed, the incarnation, the ascension, and other doctrines con- 
 nected with the Divinity of our Lord, and the rejection of episcopal 
 government, " have always been closely linked together; fromAerius 
 to Socinus, the same persons who were zealous in propagating false 
 views of the Episcopacy of the Church have also been remarkable 
 for erroneous opinions in regard to our Lord's Person and Divinity."
 
 IN FRANCE. 
 
 century had not passed away, before the awful 
 tokens of this curse began to be manifested. It 
 is enough, in a mere sketch like the present, to 
 refer for proof of this to the controversy between 
 the famous Bossuet and the protestant champion 
 Jurieu. The latter, in very wantonness as it seems, 
 had accused certain French Catholics of Socinian- 
 ism. Bossuet replies by a simple denial of the 
 statement, and adds these words : " It is true in- 
 deed that there are certain churches in France 
 which have been accused, and with good reason, 
 of a leaning towards Socinianism . . . but then these 
 are the reformed Calvinistic churches, a circum- 
 stance which ought not to surprise us. It is said 
 that the greater number of their ministers follow 
 rather the opinions of Arminius and the Remon- 
 strants his disciples, than those of Calvin or of 
 JSeza, and that there are those amongst them who 
 embrace Socinianism ; which has occasioned a great 
 sensation in the Consistories." 1 Up to this period, 
 then, there still remained in the governing bodies, 
 even upon the testimony of Bossuet, the will at 
 
 Todd's Discourses on the Prophecies relating to Antichrist, p. 294. 
 The author of the work entitled No Protestant, but the Dissenters' 
 Plot (1682), takes notice accordingly, that "the original of congre- 
 gational episcopacy is by some ascribed to Socinus himself, who, 
 knowing that the Synods of the reformed churches in Poland, &c. 
 .... thought on this model of Independent Churches which Mr. 
 Baxter and the Dissenters contend for." p. 118. 
 
 1 Histoire des Variations des Eglises Protestantes, part i. chap, 
 xxxvi. p. 176. Bossuet was able, too, to quote Jurieu's own words, 
 that " the Trinity of Persons was not from all eternity." 1" Aver- 
 tissement, p. 10; and see tome iv. p. 38.
 
 424 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 least to struggle with this heresy ; but they had 
 broken down " the hedge of discipline" with which 
 " God's enclosure" was ever surrounded ; they had 
 cast away the divinely-appointed safeguard of truth; 
 and to such a struggle there could be but one issue. 
 What it has been, we are now to hear. 
 
 So complete has been the downfal of the Pro- 
 testant religion in France, so universal the apostacy 
 of its professors, that there are at this moment 
 certain societies, of recent organisation, which owe 
 their origin to the laudable desire of redeeming 
 from their present condition the descendants of 
 Calvin and Beza in that country ! Connected with 
 these societies the Societ&s Evangeliques of Geneva 
 and France by unity of sentiment and purpose, is 
 the " Foreign-Aid Society" of our own country. It 
 is from the quarterly publication of that society, 
 for December 1841, that the following account of 
 French Protestantism is extracted : 
 
 " The consistorial churches," which are pro- 
 tected and maintained by government, " were re- 
 organised without a creed, and, in most cases, with- 
 out any formulary whatever, so that there were no 
 means of ascertaining what the faith was which 
 was couched under the general name of Protest- 
 antism ; but as inquiries were made by individuals 
 interested in the purity of the reformed religion, 
 it was gradually discovered that the great body of 
 the salaried pasteurs was infected with the neolo- 
 gism of Germany and the infidelity of the age of
 
 IN FRANCE. 425 
 
 Louis XV. : it was hardly possible to find twenty 
 pasteurs who confessed the doctrine of the Trinity and 
 the Atonement. At this time the established (that 
 is, the state-paid) Protestantism of France is for 
 the most part Socinianism ; and therefore it is not 
 to be wondered at that the orthodox minority 
 should feel anxious either to reform the majority 
 or to recede from it. If they seek to reform by 
 insisting upon the introduction of their ancient 
 creeds and formularies, the Socinian majority tax 
 them with intolerance, call them Methodists, Cal- 
 vinists, and Exclusists. If they recede (as in some 
 few instances they have done), they call them Se- 
 paratists and Dissenters. Such, however, has been 
 the progress of orthodox doctrines, that within the 
 last ten years the Trinitarians have received an 
 acquisition of more than 100 pasteurs, making in 
 all an estimated number of 150 out of the 404 who 
 faithfully preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified, 
 and whose lives adorn the doctrine of God their 
 Saviour." The foregoing account has reference 
 only to the ministers of the ' reformed' religion : 
 " the Lutheran pasteurs," it is added, " with a few 
 exceptions, are neologists or Socinians." 
 
 It may appear superfluous to add any thing to 
 such a statement, coming as it does from persons 
 who would probably be far enough from assigning 
 what we consider the true cause of these miserable 
 results of Protestantism. Before, however, I pro- 
 ceed, as in the former cases, to give some illustra-
 
 426 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 tions from their own writings of the theology of 
 modern French Protestants, it may be well to con- 
 firm what has been already said by the striking and 
 eloquent account of another writer, who seems to 
 have examined in person the system which he de- 
 scribes. He speaks of " the general character of 
 French Protestantism" in the year 1836 in the fol- 
 lowing terms : " The character which the reformed 
 Church has acquired in France is altogether pecu- 
 liar, peculiar, not from its rejection of evangelical 
 doctrines, but from its indifference to all doctrines. 
 Christianity must appear to the great majority of 
 French Protestants to have in it nothing positive 
 or defined at all. A certain laxness of opinion, and 
 a considerable abatement of fervour, may charac- 
 terise, perhaps, all long-established churches. With 
 us, for instance, the early enthusiasm and zeal of 
 the Reformation has subsided into a concentrated 
 feeling of respect and reverence for the Christian 
 religion, which, even where there is nothing more, 
 has a powerful and beneficent influence. But this 
 state of feeling does not describe the reformed 
 population of France. Their sentiments are much 
 more negative. As the effect of their long pro- 
 scription, 1 they have brought their vagabond habit 
 
 1 Such is the explanation of their present condition suggested by 
 this writer ; but we must look much deeper for the true causes of it. 
 It is well known that during the period of the revolution the French 
 protestants were protected rather than depressed ; see Gregoire's 
 Histoire des Sectes Religieuses, Obs. prelim, p. 5. Rabaut, presi- 
 dent of the national assembly, speaks of " the signal protection
 
 IN FRANCE. 427 
 
 of neutrality among all opinions into religious wor- 
 ship. This gives to it an appearance singularly re- 
 volting. There is in it neither conviction, nor that 
 venerating and hallowing attachment to a creed 
 which is its best substitute. On entering a French 
 temple, one experiences the same sensation as on 
 entering a Jewish synagogue. Its services appear 
 like a wretched effort, not to serve, but to keep up 
 the memory of an abolished religion. They would 
 indeed resemble a funeral requiem over defunct 
 Protestantism, if they had the solemnity and de- 
 cency of so touching a ceremony. The only symp- 
 
 granted to the reformed and protestant churches by the great 
 Napoleon ;" Cobbin's Historical View of the Reformed Church of 
 France, p. 105 : and I find certain English Socinians rejoicing, in 
 the year 1808, at the favour which was then shewn to those com- 
 munities by the same person ; Monthly Repository, vol. iii. p. 160. 
 And no wonder that the French protestants experienced such partial 
 treatment, when we consider what sort of men they proved them- 
 selves at that season. " I am sorry to say," observes Mr. Burke, 
 " that they (the French protestants) have behaved shockingly since 
 the very beginning of this rebellion, and have been uniformly con- 
 cerned in its worst and most atrocious acts. Their clergy are just 
 the same atheists with those of the ' constitutional' catholics, but 
 still more wicked and daring." Remarks on the Policy of the Allies, 
 Works, vol. vii. p. 177, ed. 1808. Contrast with this the conduct 
 of the catholic clergy at the same period, of whom 135 Bishops, and 
 many thousands of Priests, preferred exile or death to a denial or 
 suppression of the truth ; only four prelates being found to apostatise. 
 De la Mennais, Reflexions sur VEtat de VEglise en France, tome vi. 
 p. 65. The truth is, that men being driven to give some account 
 of the present state of protestantism in France, as elsewhere, have 
 gladly pointed to the Revolution as its cause: thus the writer in 
 Rees' Encyclopedia, art. Geneva. Whereas even M. De Sismondi 
 expressly denies with regard to Switzerland, Holland, and Ger- 
 many that the number of infidels in the protestant bodies was 
 increased by that event.
 
 428 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 torn of religious feeling I have seen among the 
 old French Protestants is one which, taken by it- 
 self, shews that superstition, or an inclination to 
 trust in external rites, is the last relic of devotional 
 sentiment that remains among them. They have 
 a most indecent eagerness to receive the sacra- 
 ment. Droves of persons utterly ignorant and 
 careless of religion crowd to this ceremony. 1 .... 
 I was told by an old pastor, that fifteen years ago 
 he could not count six ministers of the established 
 worship who preached the gospel. He thinks that 
 at present, out of the six hundred belonging to the 
 national temple, there may be two hundred who, 
 with more or less effect and sincerity, uphold 
 Christian principles. At the former epoch he as- 
 sured me that the preaching of Socrates instead 
 of Christ was almost universal! 2 Actually, in the 
 
 1 Of the profane administration of the sacrament at Geneva to 
 any body whatever, see the account in the Memorial Catholique, 
 tome viii. p. 151. 
 
 2 Mr. Haldane says of the students at Geneva, " had they been 
 trained in the schools of Socrates or Plato, they could scarcely 
 have been more ignorant of the doctrines of the Gospel." Letter to 
 M. J. J. Chenevi&re, p. 21 ; cf. Chronique Religieuse, tome ii. pp. 
 470, 71. We cannot be surprised, indeed, at the similarity of deve- 
 lopment in the two countries, as well because the point of departure 
 of all the protestant bodies was of course the same, and so could not 
 but lead to the same results, as from the particular connexion which 
 always subsisted between the protestant schools of France and 
 Switzerland. See the Annales de la Religion, tome xv. p. 290. The 
 sympathy between them is still unbroken, and it embraces also their 
 brethren in Germany. Thus M. Cellerier recommends the study of 
 the German theology to the French protestants ; Religion et Chris- 
 tianisme, tome i. p. 163, Des Th&ologiens Allemands: and in the 
 controversy between the Socinians and the more orthodox of Geneva,
 
 IN FRANCE. 429 
 
 great majority of pulpits, an insipid dilution of 
 the truisms of moral philosophy takes the place of 
 Christianity. Still, a progress has been made, and 
 is making. It must spread, however, much wider 
 before the French Reformed Church can be other 
 than a very melancholy and disheartening object of 
 contemplation." 1 
 
 Such being the actual status of this community, 
 a few examples may be added of the mode in which 
 its present members are accustomed to defend their 
 adherence to it, and to propose the principles of 
 their religious belief; because these will serve to 
 shew what is, perhaps, of more importance in 
 this inquiry than even the facts themselves that 
 these men, widely as they differ in some respects 
 from those celebrated reformers, have arrived at 
 their present advanced position in the course of 
 blasphemy and unbelief, simply by following on in 
 the broad and beaten path which Luther and Me- 
 lancthon, Calvin and Beza, had opened to them. 
 
 Now it is frequently admitted by the French 
 Protestant writers, without the least reserve, that 
 Socinianism was the direct and necessary consequence 
 of their Reformation ; and this fearful condemnation 
 
 the French divines so to call them sided, for the most part, with 
 Heyer and Cheneviere, abusing Malan, Haldane, and Calvin. See 
 Religion et Christianisme, tome iv. p. 159 ; and De Sismondi, ubi 
 suj/ra, p. 60. Perhaps there is no more melancholy feature in the 
 whole affair, than that the very few who strove for the truth, and 
 witnessed against the blasphemies of the rest, did so upon principles 
 which must inevitably lead to them again. 
 
 1 Blackivood's Magazine, April 1830, pp. 470, 71.
 
 430 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 of that movement they pronounce as if it were no 
 condemnation at all. " The freedom of inquiry" 
 say their ablest advocates, " could not but inevitably 
 produce these results. 1 This liberty occasions indeed 
 certain disorders and evils, which do not appear 
 consistent with the holiness, the wisdom, and the 
 goodness of God. But in order to restrain these, 
 you must suppress at the same time all which ele- 
 vates man, his communion with the Creator, and 
 the honour of the earthly creation you must an- 
 nihilate the moral world." 2 
 
 " Far from blushing," says another writer, " at 
 the variations which their religious creed has under- 
 gone, Protestants do not hesitate openly to acknow- 
 ledge them ; and in an age such as ours, when the 
 processes of investigating and discovering truth are 
 now familiar, they expect to derive glory from 
 them!" 3 Plancke even says, in reply to the charge 
 
 1 " C'est beaucoup," says De la Mennais, "que d'avoir obtenu 
 un pareil aveu, d'ou il resulte que le protestantisme n'est point une 
 religion, mais 1'amas incoherent de toutes les pensees qui peuvent 
 monter dans 1'esprit de 1'homme." (Euvres, tome viii. p. 399. 
 
 2 See the reply to the Abbe Gregoire's History in the Melanges 
 de Religion, tome ii. 
 
 3 Melanges de Religion, tome i. p. 84: and M. Coquerel says, 
 " la diversite des sectes qui partagent le protestantisme forme son 
 plus beau litre de gloire." See L'Ami de la Religion, tome xxii. 
 p. 208. Our Fathers used to think, and they had the Scriptures on 
 their side for this opinion at least, that such divisions portended the 
 coming Antichrist : <o/3 /xe, says S. Cyril, TO. (r^wr/wo-a ra>v CKK\JJ- 
 
 Catech. xv. p. 167. We have surely at least as much 
 need to remind ourselves of that most awful event, the coming of 
 Antichrist ; and to take heed, lest, by countenancing heresy and 
 division, we be found at last to have accelerated the evil day.
 
 IN FRANCE. 431 
 
 which is here made a subject of congratulation, 
 that the first Reformers, if they could come amongst 
 their successors, would be ashamed to find it other- 
 wise ! l and he connects this, as he is explained by 
 M. Goepp, a French pastor, with the " fundamental 
 principle" of Protestantism in a very curious way. 
 " The right," he observes, " which Luther exercised 
 of purifying the doctrines of his day, and rendering 
 them more conformable to the letter and true sense 
 of the Gospel, this right all his successors possess 
 in an equal degree." Upon which his French an- 
 notator consistently remarks, " It follows that Pro- 
 testants cannot consider themselves as limited by 
 the authority of Luther's sayings, nor those of the 
 other reformers, nor even by that of their symboli- 
 cal writings, and that their theology both can and 
 ought to be tending towards perfection"! 2 And to 
 the objections of Bossuet and others, that this is 
 the very principle of Socinianism, he only answers 
 by saying, " that does not prove it bad in itself." 
 
 M. Coquerel, the able editor of the Revue Pro- 
 testante, 3 says, " The great error which so many 
 persons commit arises from their desire to make 
 men of one mind upon a crowd of subjects and sys- 
 
 1 "They boast of it," says Mr. Rose, speaking of the Germans, 
 " as their very highest privilege, and the very essence of a Protestant 
 Church, that its opinions should constantly change." 
 
 * Archives du Christianisme, tome i. pp. 330, 331. 
 
 3 This journal has, I believe, since become avowedly a sup- 
 porter of the Socinian tenets. See the Monthly Repository, vol. iii. 
 p. 780.
 
 4-32 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 terns, of which not even the name is mentioned in 
 the Gospel, such as" and then he actually in- 
 stances ' original sin,' ' expiation,' ' free will,' ' incar- 
 nation,' ' consubstantiality,' and others, which he 
 calls "merely human words." 1 "It is absolutely 
 necessary," he says, " to reduce Revelation to what 
 it is, and no more." The Socinians he openly 
 defends, 2 maintaining that their admission of " the 
 divine mission of a Saviour" comes to the same 
 thing as if they attributed to Him a personal di- 
 vinity ; and he adds, speaking in behalf of all who 
 bear the name of Protestants, -" Unity reigns among 
 us upon the capital doctrine of the nature of Christ. 
 Our sects, indeed, understand his divinity in differ- 
 ent ways, they make it reside in different modes ; 
 but they have a right to do so, seeing that it is a 
 mystery." He adds, further, that 'confessions of 
 faith,' ' decrees,' ' councils,' ' doctrinary synods/ are 
 the real causes of disunion and sources of evil, 
 "because they seek to define that which is mys- 
 terious"! And so he proposes to unite all sects 
 whatsoever in what he calls a " fundamental Chris- 
 tianity ;" and what sort of a creed that is, we learn 
 from one of his confederates, who says, " Original 
 sin, the doctrine of grace, predestination, the Lord's 
 Supper, the nature of Jesus Christ and His union 
 with God these are obscure subjects, upon which 
 
 1 Lettre de M. diaries Coquerel a M. O'JSgger, sur une Profes- 
 sion generate de toute VEglise Protestantc, Paris, 1827, p. 20, note. 
 
 2 pp. 27, 39, and 42.
 
 IN FRANCE. 433 
 
 it is possible to hold many different opinions, not 
 one of which shall be chargeable with absurdity." 
 
 M. Coquerel concludes his apology for Protest- 
 antism with these words : " The opinions of which 
 I have given a summary are those of Huss, of 
 Knox, of Luther, of Melancthon, of all the reform- 
 ers. They do not hinder us from fraternising with 
 Newton, the honour of our race, although he was 
 a decided Unitarian or Socinian i" 1 it is only, he 
 says, such as Pascal who are excluded from com- 
 munion with Protestants as to that man, "he 
 had no real faith, his faith having been imposed 
 upon him by authority"* 
 
 I will conclude these extracts, which it would 
 be inconvenient to extend, with a remarkable say- 
 ing of another very eminent champion of French 
 Protestantism. After quoting with admiration a 
 Genevan writer, who had gone so far as to say, 
 " We only refuse to recognise as Christians those 
 who themselves refuse to take that title," and who 
 was willing to- include even the faith of Romanists 
 within the comprehensive limits of "fundamental 
 Christianity," M. De Sismondi pronounces the fol- 
 lowing sentence upon himself and his co-religion- 
 ists : " Thus it is no longer the reproach of heresy 
 
 1 It is scarcely necessary to say that this statement is false. See 
 M. Biot. 
 
 2 Cf. Lettre a M. Charles Coquerel, par M. Arnaud Saintes ; 
 Paris, 1827. " Quod intelligimus," says St. Augustine, on the other 
 hand, " debemus rationi ; quod credimus, auctoritati ; quod opi- 
 namur, errori." De Utilitate Credcndi, cap. xi. toni. vi. p. 42. 
 
 F F
 
 434 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 or idolatry" (the rash charges of the original re- 
 formers !) " that one division of Christians repeats 
 against the other it is not even an accusation of 
 error ; for the Protestant Church admits that she her- 
 self may be mistaken: she claims only that liberty of 
 thought which the Catholic Church renounces." 1 
 With these words, as containing the most ample 
 though unconscious confession of the true character 
 of Protestantism, we may terminate our inquiry 
 into the development of the reformed doctrines in 
 France. 
 
 V. And if we had determined to sum up at 
 this point the historical notices which it is still 
 proposed to pursue much more extensively, the 
 conclusions intended to be founded upon them 
 could hardly have been rejected as arbitrary or 
 inconsequent. The most enthusiastic disciples of 
 the modern schools of religion, however unsuspect- 
 ing their attachment to a certain system of teach- 
 ing may hitherto have been, cannot be supposed 
 capable of regarding with apathy or indifference, 
 much less of deliberately dismissing as insignificant, 
 facts so arresting and so appalling as these. Nor 
 will the results which they obtrude upon our at- 
 tention appear less startling to such persons, be- 
 cause, so far as they are concerned, such conse- 
 quences must have been altogether unexpected. 
 
 1 Progress of Religious Opinions during the Nineteenth Century, 
 p. 79.
 
 IN ENGLAND. 435 
 
 By others they were foreseen and predicted from 
 the first, but by them every warning of these pos- 
 sible developments has been laughed to scorn ; and 
 now the melancholy truth, which they have been 
 so unwilling to believe, has come abroad at last, 
 and cannot be hid. They have themselves cried 
 aloud for a sign from God, and here it is ! 
 
 Nor is it in one or two countries only that it 
 has seemed good to Him to justify His own Insti- 
 tution, and, by abandoning the haughty devices of 
 man to a swift and shameful decay, to admonish 
 His people of the allegiance due to His appointed 
 Ordinance ; in every place the same solemn 
 lesson is set before us, in every land the progress 
 has been the same, resistance to the Church has 
 developed into rebellion against God, and schism 
 has terminated, by an unfailing course, in apostacy 
 and unbelief. 
 
 The history of the new religions in England 
 to which country, in pursuance of our subject, we 
 will now refer admits of being considered under 
 three aspects, which, at three distinct periods, they 
 happen to have assumed. (1) The first is that 
 which they presented when as yet only struggling 
 for existence ; (2) the next, when triumphant, for 
 a brief season, over the ancient faith ; (3) the last, 
 the humbler form under which, enjoying the most 
 ample toleration, they still survive amongst us. 
 It is obvious that this diversity of external cir-
 
 436 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 cumstance, which did not belong to either of the 
 examples previously noticed, constitutes a severe 
 trial of the rigid test which we have bound our- 
 selves to apply, without exception, to every pos- 
 sible modification of the modern systems. That 
 test will be found, however, to succeed, in this 
 case as in the others, in faithfully detecting their 
 real character. 
 
 Now, it must be observed, with reference to 
 the first period of the history of which some few 
 particulars are here to be mentioned, that, even 
 when lurking in secret, the unhappy errors, which 
 have since spread so extensively in this coun- 
 try, appear to have been fully developed in many 
 minds, and their open promulgation only reserved 
 for a more favourable opportunity than could be 
 found under that system of watchful discipline 
 which the Church had hitherto maintained. Thus 
 we are told by one writer, that he had met with 
 works published between 1550 and 1640^ "full of 
 as bold and impious railing^^expressions against 
 the lawful power of the Crown and the order 
 of Bishops as ever were uttered during the re- 
 bellion, or the whole subsequent tyranny of that 
 fanatic anarchy:" 1 and what is this but to say, 
 
 1 Swift, The Presbyterian's Plea of Merit, Works, vol. viii. 
 p. 393, ed. 1824. Sir W. Raleigh told the House of Commons in 
 1593, " that there were then near 20,000 Brownists in England." 
 Quoted by Sir Peter Pett, Happy Future State of England, p. 280. 
 Yet, while the Church stood, they were kept under : see Felling's 
 Good Old Way, p. 105 ; and Dr. Is. Basire On Sacrilege, p. 231 .
 
 IN ENGLAND. 437 
 
 that for ninety years the latent principles of re- 
 bellion were counteracted, and the poison of he- 
 retical doctrine neutralised, by the virtue of that 
 divine Institution to which, by the appointment of 
 God, the chastisement of error and the conser- 
 vation of sound doctrine had been committed ? 1 
 During all that period it is plain that the Church 
 had answered this grand purpose of her being ; and 
 we shall find this striking fact so clearly demon- 
 strated in the next interval of the history upon 
 which we are engaged the season, namely, of the 
 temporary triumph of her adversaries that we 
 may proceed to consider at once the evidence 
 upon which it rests. Had the office of the Church 
 in restraining error during the century preceding 
 the great rebellion been asserted only by her own 
 members, it might perhaps have been fairly ques- 
 tioned by her enemies; but when we find, as we 
 are now to do, that they are themselves the wit- 
 nesses to this important truth that, so long as 
 her authority was recognised, heresy and lawless- 
 
 1 " So long as the Bishops were not molested in their function," 
 says one who was apparently a member of another Communion, 
 " the kingdome was not disquieted with any schismes or disorders 
 in the Church. There durst not a sectarie shew his head, till those 
 Christian guides were overborne with violence, and all superioritie 
 among Pastors decryed ;" and then he shews what followed in one 
 short year after their removal. See A Letter concerning the present 
 Troubles in England, pp. 37, 38, English translation. I have quoted 
 above, see page 343, the very remarkable admissions of Salmasius 
 upon this subject ; and I find Weismann also admitting that the 
 state of England under the Protectorate fully justified the arguments 
 of the Episcopal divines : secul. xvii. torn. ii. p. 1100.
 
 4-38 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 ness were every where restrained, and that their 
 dominion is to be dated from, the very moment of 
 her downfal we shall have advanced another step 
 towards proving the argument of these pages, and 
 found additional reason for believing, from the ad- 
 missions of their own advocates, that the modern 
 systems of religion had never strength to contend 
 with, much less to overcome, the powers and prin- 
 ciples of evil which the Church had so easily over- 
 mastered, became, in fact, they have always failed 
 to do so. 1 
 
 During the course of a whole century the un- 
 christian doctrines which, from various parts of 
 Europe, had found their way into England, 2 al- 
 though greedily received by no inconsiderable por- 
 tion of the people, were yet unable, as has been 
 already observed, to subvert the foundations of 
 holy truth. At length, in the days of King Charles 
 the Martyr, the sacred barriers which had stood so 
 long unharmed, and against which all the floods of 
 
 1 " No form of Government was ever so absolute as to keep out 
 all abuses. Errors in religion are not presently to be imputed to 
 the government of the Church ; Arius, Pelagius, &c. were no Bi- 
 shops. But, on the other side, if Bishops had not been, God knows 
 what Churches, what Religion, what Sacraments, what Christ, we 
 should have had at this day. And we may easily conjecture by that 
 inundation of sects, which hath almost quite overwhelmed our poor 
 Church on a sudden, since the authority of Bishops was suspended. 
 The present condition of England doth plead more powerfully for 
 Bishops than all that have writ for Episcopacy since the reformation 
 of our Church." Bramhall, The Serpent Salve, p. 605. 
 
 8 Sir Dudley Carleton says, " Most of the puritan books sent 
 over of late days into England " were written by Brownists at Ley- 
 den ; Letters, p. 379.
 
 IN ENGLAND. 439 
 
 error had vainly raged, were in an evil hour re- 
 moved. The Church, by the mysterious judg- 
 ments of God, was first taken captive, and then 
 compelled to flee away as a fugitive, her rivals 
 were left alone. 
 
 (2.) The second period of their history was now 
 arrived, the period of their triumph. The plea 
 upon which their rebellion was justified was of 
 course the old one of a " reformation." The doc- 
 trine and discipline of the Catholic and Apostolic 
 Church was declared to be false and corrupt, and 
 the new religion of ' Presbyterianism ' set up in its 
 place. And now was the proper season for the 
 manifestation of its real character. If it was in- 
 deed that very system of the Apostles which its 
 champions represented it to be, the days were 
 come in which to prove it so ; and all men might 
 now expect to behold, under its beneficent influ- 
 ence, such a severe and abiding purity both of 
 doctrine and manners as the world had not wit- 
 nessed for at least fifteen ages. What, then, are 
 the facts to apply the test which no error can 
 long baffle or elude connected with this period 
 of its history, this season of its strength and 
 power ? This is what we are next to inquire. 
 
 And unless the evidence had been so complete 
 as it is, we might have regarded the statements 
 which have reached us as to the condition of 
 England under the short reign of the Presbyte- 
 rians as absolutely incredible. Within four years,
 
 440 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 upon the confession of some of their chief men, 
 after the destruction of the Church, the whole 
 land was overflowed, from one end to the other, 
 with a deluge of heresy. More than one hundred 
 blasphemous errors are enumerated by their own 
 writers, " all of them," as they speak, " vented and 
 broached within these four years last past" * " Every 
 day," says the writer here quoted, himself a zealous 
 Presbyterian and fluent railer at the persecuted 
 Bishops, " things grow worse and worse, and you 
 can hardly conceive and imagine them so bad as 
 they are ; no kind of blasphemy, heresy, disorder, 
 and confusion, but either is found among us, or 
 coming in upon us ; for we, instead of a refor- 
 mation, are grown from one extreme to another, 
 fallen from Scylla to Charybdis, from popish in- 
 novations, superstitions, and prelatical tyranny, to 
 damnable heresies, horrid blasphemies, libertinism, 
 and fearful anarchy; our evils are not removed 
 and cured, but only changed ; one disease and 
 devil hath left us, and another as bad is come in 
 the room ; yea, this last extremity into which we 
 are fallen is far more high, violent, and dangerous, 
 in many respects" 2 
 
 As a general description of the state of the 
 times, this account, from a witness so well quali- 
 fied, might seem sufficient ; but he enters presently 
 
 1 Edwards' Gangrcena, p. 1 ; and see Ross's View of all Religions, 
 14, p. 422, ed. 1673. 
 
 2 Epistle dedicatory to the Parliament.
 
 IN ENGLAND. 441 
 
 into particulars. " Within these four last years in 
 England," he says, " there have been blasphemies 
 uttered of the Scriptures, the Trinity, each Person 
 of the Trinity, both of the Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost, of God's eternal election, of the Virgin 
 Mary, the Apostles and holy penmen of Scripture, 
 of Baptism, Prayer, the Ministry of the Word, and 
 the Ministers of all the Reformed Churches, of the 
 Government of the Church, and of the Christian 
 Magistrates :" l and then he gives various instances 
 of these crimes. 
 
 Such were the attendants upon Presbyterianism 
 even in its day of unlimited power, when, if ever, 
 it ought to have been able to restrain them ; such 
 were the consequences which ensued immediately 
 upon the casting out of the Bishops of the Church. 2 
 This witness does not, indeed, say that the one 
 was a necessary result of the other, nor could he 
 be expected to do so ; but he does, unintentionally 
 of course, say something very like it. " We have 
 over-passed," he confesses, " in these last four 
 years, the deeds of the Prelates, and justified the 
 Bishops, in whose times never so many nor so great 
 errors were heard of, much less such blasphemies or 
 confusions ; we have worse things among us than ever 
 
 1 Gangrcena, p. 37. 
 
 * And this result has often been predicted as the operation of a 
 general law. " The Christian religion," says Harrington, " was 
 first planted by Bishops, hath been preserved and continued with 
 Bishops, and will fall and decay without Bishops." Nugce Antiques, 
 vol. ii. p. 10.
 
 442 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 were in all the Bishops' days, more corrupt doctrines 
 and unheard-of practices :" * and then he refers to 
 the horrible tenets and opinions which were then 
 so common. Nor does he apparently suspect that 
 they were, after all, only another form of his own 
 principles of pride and rebellion, and that these 
 wretched people had just as much right, to say the 
 least, to abuse him and his novelties, as he to blas- 
 pheme the Bishops of God's Church. 2 
 
 As this writer was a person of note in his own 
 
 1 Page 143. Sir Peter Pett quotes the confession of Crauford, 
 an eminent presbyterian preacher, that " in eighty years there did 
 not arise so many horrid opinions and blasphemous heresies under 
 Episcopacy, a government decried as antichristian, as have risen in 
 these few years since we have been without a government." Future 
 State of England, p. 240. Another zealous presbyterian, and reviler 
 of the Bishops, says, "The corruptions of our days exceed those of 
 the Bishops as far as the waters of the ocean exceed those of the 
 Rhine." Hornii Hist. Ecclesiast. et Politic, p. 333, ed. Roterod. 
 See also Goodwin On the Divine Authority of the Scriptures, To the 
 Reader (1648) ; Case's Morning Exercise, Preface (1655) ; and the 
 Jus Divinum Ministerii Evangelici, Preface by the Provincial As- 
 sembly of London, 1654. 
 
 2 " You have put down the Common Prayer," was his own say- 
 ing to the revolutionary Parliament, " and there are many among 
 us have put down the Scriptures ; you have cast out the Bishops 
 and their officers, and we have many that cast down to the ground 
 all ministers in all the reformed Churches." So Baxter: " We had 
 taken down the superfluous honour of Bishops as antichristian, upon 
 which the devil set them to cry down also as antichristian, tythes, 
 maintenance, priests, and ministers." And why not ? They were 
 only employing the very arguments with which he and his party 
 had already attacked many other ordinances of God ; and, as Bram- 
 hall remarks, " there is not a text which they wrest against Episco- 
 pacy, but the Independents may, with as much colour of reason and 
 truth, urge it against their presbyteries." Fair Warning of Scottish 
 Discipline, ch. viii. vol. ii. p. 506.
 
 IN ENGLAND. 443 
 
 day, and has been much quoted since, a few more 
 of his remarkable sayings may be added. In one 
 place he observes, " that persons who would not 
 be endured nor suffered in other countries and 
 churches, but were cast out and banished for 
 their errors, heresies, and turbulency, do here in 
 England vent and spread their opinions, gather 
 churches," &c. ; and that " England has become 
 the common shore and sink to receive the filth of 
 heresies and errors from all places." And as if he 
 had not already sufficiently exposed the guilt of 
 his own party, he even adds, that their very " vic- 
 tories and successes turned to the increasing and 
 growth of errors ; every taking of a town or city is 
 a further spreading over this kingdom the gangrene 
 of heresy and error ; where these errors were never 
 known nor heard of before, upon our taking of towns 
 and cities they come to light; every enlarging of 
 our quarters is an enlargement of sectarism and a 
 multiplying of schisms." 1 Such is the testimony 
 as to the working of Presbyterianism which is sup- 
 plied by its own advocates. 
 
 Thus far, however, we have heard only an in- 
 dividual teacher of that sect ; we may now refer to 
 the collective evidence of one of the most influ- 
 ential and important of its subdivisions. " The 
 Ministers within the Province of London," at the 
 same period, in their Testimony to the truth of 
 Jesus Christ, thus speak of the results of the pres- 
 
 1 p. 149.
 
 444- DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 byterian ' reformation.' They declare to the world 
 " that instead of true piety and power of godli- 
 ness, they (the ejectors of the Bishops) had opened 
 the very floodgates to all impiety and profaneness ; 
 and that after they had removed the prelatical 
 yoke from their shoulders by their covenanted en- 
 deavours, there was a rueful, deplorable, and de- 
 formed face of the affairs of religion, swarming 
 with noisome errors, heresies, and blasphemies, 
 instead of faith and truth ; torn in pieces with 
 destructive schisms, separations, divisions, and sub- 
 divisions, instead of unity and uniformity. That 
 instead of a reformation, they might say with sighs 
 what their enemies said with scorn, they had a 
 deformation in religion ; instead of extirpation of 
 heresie, schism, profaneness, &c., they had an im- 
 pudent and general inundation of all those evils." 1 
 
 This is sufficiently circumstantial ; but, as the 
 evidence is abundant, something more may be 
 added. The notorious Owen thus speaks of the 
 same awful period in the history of our country. 
 " This I am compelled to say, that unlesse the 
 
 1 Upon which Pierce, in his controversy with Baxter, asks, " Can 
 you possibly have more, sir, against the change in the Church than 
 is here publickly attested by them that made it ? There were no 
 such things in the Bishops' times ; nay, none such could be. God's 
 enclosure was then so mounded with a hedge of Discipline and 
 Order, and even the hedge was so fenced with a double wall of Law 
 and Canon, that either no unclean beasts could enter in, or, if they 
 
 did, they were soon cast out and impounded You now profess 
 
 you are all for Bishops ; but when you had them, you would have 
 none." Pierce's New Discoverer, pp. 145, 6.
 
 IN ENGLAND. 445 
 
 Lord in His infinite mercy lay an awe upon the 
 hearts of men, to keep them in some captivity to 
 the simplicity and mystery of the Gospel, who now 
 strive every day to exceed one another in novel 
 opinions and philosophical apprehensions of the 
 things of God, I cannot but fear that this soule- 
 destroying abomination (he is speaking of Socinian- 
 ism) will one day break in as a flood upon us." And 
 again ; " Doe not look upon these things as things 
 afar off, wherein you are little concerned ; the evil 
 is at the doore ; there is not a Citty, a Towne, 
 scarce a Village, in England, wherein some of this 
 poyson is not poured forth" l 
 
 It is this last -mentioned phenomenon the 
 sudden appearance of the Socinian heresy in every 
 part of England, within a few years of the aboli- 
 tion of Episcopacy which, in connexion with our 
 present subject, deserves special attention. The 
 almost unparalleled crimes which marked the as- 
 cendency of Presbyterianism, though a sufficient 
 and significant token of its real nature, and there- 
 fore not to be overlooked in this argument, are 
 still not in the immediate direction of our inquiry. 
 
 1 Owen's Vindicice Evangelicce, or Socinianisme examined, Pre- 
 face, pp. 45 and 09. Even Fowler calls it " this hour of apostasie ;" 
 Dcemonium Meridianum, Dedication. And see The Attestation of 
 the Ministers of the County of Norfolk and City of Norwich, in 
 vindication of the ancient Truths of Jesus Christ, and prosecution 
 of the Solemn Covenant, against the spreading errors and prodigi- 
 ous blasphemies that are scattered abroad in these licentious dayes. 
 (1648.)
 
 446 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 That system may exist, and has existed, without 
 such disgraceful accompaniments. What we are 
 rather concerned to prove is, the fact implied in 
 the above citation, viz., that it has never existed 
 without generating that peculiar form of heresy of 
 which Owen speaks in such emphatic language. 
 This has been already proved as respects those 
 countries in which it first originated ; and the pre- 
 sent chapter will not be concluded without extend- 
 ing the proof to other lands throughout the whole 
 world. Meanwhile, to return to the development 
 of the modern systems in England. 
 
 The fact of the strange and silent growth of 
 Socinianism under the circumstances shewn above 
 did not fail to attract the notice of Catholic writers ; 
 and the observations which they made upon it are 
 too instructive to be omitted here. " It hath bin," 
 says Dr. Edwards, in his excellent Preservative 
 against Socinianism, " as the occasion of trouble 
 to all good men, so likewise matter of wonder and 
 enquiry to all considering men, to find the nation 
 pestered with such numbers of Socinian books, 
 which have swarm'd all upon a suddain, 1 and have 
 been industriously dispersed through all parts of 
 the kingdom, whereby many weak and unstable 
 souls have been beguiled, and their minds cor- 
 rupted from the simplicity which is in Christ. 
 
 1 It was just while the famous schism of the Remonstrants was 
 raging, that Socinian publications began to swarm in Holland. Vide 
 Cloppenburg, De Orig. et Progress. Socinianismi, p. 27.
 
 IN ENGLAND. 447 
 
 " Who they are, who have bin the secret abet- 
 tors and promoters of these antichristian doctrines, 
 as it is variously discoursed, so I shall not curiously 
 enquire ; least by roaving and uncertain conjec- 
 tures, the innocent may be mistaken for the crimi- 
 nals. Only this, I think, is so evident, that it may 
 be taken for granted, that since there have bin 
 no considerable numbers of men formerly that we 
 know of, who have openly and avowedly professed 
 the impious tenets of Socin, they must have lain 
 lurking under some other outward name and pro- 
 fession, watching the first and most convenient 
 opportunity to divulge their opinions, which, for 
 some just and weighty reasons no doubt, they 
 thought fit for some time to stifle and conceal. I 
 think there are scarce any among us so foolish as 
 to imagine that, like Cadmus his offspring (though, 
 without doubt, the old serpent hath had no small 
 hand in this affair), these men should spring out of 
 the ground. It is therefore beyond all doubt that 
 they have lain hid and disguised under the denomina- 
 tion of some other sect or party and prof ession, 1 . . . 
 
 " But whatsoever the causes have bin of this 
 suddaine appearance of Socinianisme, 2 or whoever 
 were the authors that have secretly and in masque- 
 
 1 We shall find hereafter that this is just the account which the 
 Socinians give of their own position, at the present time, in relation 
 to the various protestant sects of America. 
 
 1 See Lathbury's History of the English Episcopacy, chap. xxii. 
 p. 252; and Russell's History of Modern Europe, vol. v. pp. 436, 
 437.
 
 448 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 rade abetted and encouraged it much of which 
 lies yet in the dark the pernicious effects of it 
 have been and are at this day too visible. The 
 minds of men, as we said before, throughout the 
 nation being strangely corrupted ; infidelity and 
 scepticism universally prevailing." He then de- 
 scribes the various aspects in which this prevailing 
 apostacy was exhibited, noticing particularly those 
 who still " professed to believe the Bible," and even 
 to hold " all the great mysteries of our faith con- 
 tained there ;" and concludes by saying, " all which 
 are the effects of Socinianisme, and which seem 
 to have diffused themselves among all orders and 
 ranks of men among us, beyond the example of 
 former times." 
 
 Enough, perhaps, has now been said from which 
 to form something like an adequate notion of the 
 horrors of those evil days which ensued upon the 
 downfal of the Reformed Catholic Church in this 
 land, and the erection of a human system in its 
 place. 1 To those who desire a more minute and 
 
 1 See further A Vindication of the Presbyteriall Government and 
 Ministry, by the Provincial Assembly, 1649 ; Judge Jenkins' ac- 
 count of the presbyterian acts and opinions, in his Scourge for the 
 Directorie and the revolting Synod; and Nicholls' Defence of the 
 Church of England, Introd. p. 63. For the general character of the 
 preaching of those days, see Hickes' Three Treatises, Modest Plea, 
 ch. vii. p. 54 ; Bp. Hurd, Sermon i. Works, vol. vi. p. 16, London, 
 1811; Bp. Sanderson, Sermon ii. p. 129; Bp. Taylor, book xv. 
 Preface, pp. 4, 5. " Alas, my Lords," said Bishop Hall, " I beseech 
 you to consider what it is, that there should be in London, and the 
 suburbs and the liberties, no fewer than fourscore congregations of 
 several sectaries, as I have been credibly informed, instructed by
 
 IN ENGLAND. 449 
 
 accurate description of them which, of course, 
 cannot even be attempted here the sources of 
 information are open. Certainly what has been 
 said may at least suffice to sustain the argument 
 of these pages ; and to do more is beyond the 
 purpose for which they are written. Further de- 
 tails are easy to be procured ; but in this place 
 they are not necessary. And indeed, as Doctor 
 Nicholls has observed, " it would be infinite to 
 relate the names, the opinions, the madnesses, the 
 blasphemies of the sects and heresies of this time, 
 by which the poor Church was torn in pieces ; so 
 that the name of Christianity, where these raged, 
 was almost lost. Oh, what a 'purity' was now 
 restored to the Church ! This was the gospel light 
 which was so earnestly desired ! These were the 
 godly and the edifying ministers that were so much 
 called for, and to whose care so many of the com- 
 mon people would be entrusting their souls, when 
 their lawful Pastors were thrown out of their liv- 
 ings ! But I appeal to the annals of all ages of the 
 Church, and to the judgment of all wise and good 
 men, if any opinions so impious, so abominable, so 
 
 guides fit for them coblers, taylors, felt-makers, and such-like 
 trash which all are taught to spit in the face of their mother the 
 Church of England, and defy and revile her government." Speech 
 in the House of Lords, in his Remains. Edwards states that there 
 were eleven different religions in one parish in London ; and men- 
 tions a family consisting of four persons, every one of whom pro- 
 fessed a distinct form of belief. Gangrcena, part ii. ; which contains 
 a great number of instances of the progress of individuals from 
 schism to heresy. 
 
 G G
 
 450 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 accursed as these, were ever brought into the Chris- 
 tian world." 1 Great plagues had indeed wasted the 
 Church in former days, and many a scheme had 
 been devised for her destruction ; but it was re- 
 served for this new extravagance of ' Presbyterian- 
 ism' to engender, even while professing to oppose 
 them, evils so enormous and so deadly, as perhaps 
 no church and no land has ever witnessed, save the 
 Church of England in the 17th century. 
 
 Presbyterianism was not, however, destined to 
 maintain long the position which by treachery and 
 rebellion it had obtained. 2 The principles which it 
 had been necessary to propagate so widely before 
 its triumph could be achieved, were soon found 
 to be progressive. Nor was it likely that the fierce 
 men, whom it had stirred up to do its work, would 
 consent to stay their hands just when that work 
 was accomplished. They had been taught to kill 
 and gather spoil in the name of religion, and they 
 had no mind to do these things only for the benefit 
 of others ; the fight which their arms had won was 
 
 - 1 Defence of the Church of England, p. 70. 
 
 2 "After all this, the peremptory reign of Presbytery, which cost 
 this church arid nation so deare, was not long lived, nor could be 
 well established, though at first it looked so big, and grasped in the 
 sudden even at three kingdoms. For before it was warm in its 
 nest, or well seated in its throne, we see Independency got hold of 
 one end of its sceptre, or quarter-staffe rather, threatning, in the 
 right of Christ Jesus, and in the behalf of all Christian common 
 people, to wrest it quite out of the hands of Presbytery, either by 
 legerdemaine or maine force, unlesse it might go at least halfe with 
 it in the spoiles of Episcopacy." Gauden's Ecclesice Anglicanoe Sus- 
 piria, book iv. chap. iii. p. 445.
 
 IN ENGLAND. 451 
 
 over, and they were not the men to forego their 
 share in the booty. The contest with their former 
 masters was a short one ; and Presbyterianism, al- 
 ready worn out, 1 gave way to Independentism. 
 
 (3.) We enter now upon the third period of 
 its history. After a course of crime which, even 
 at this distance, it is painful to contemplate, the 
 Presbyterians, deprived of the honours which they 
 had purchased at such fearful cost, were content 
 to ask, as the only remedy for the now intolerable 
 evils of the country, for " Episcopal Government 
 and a toleration !" 2 The lawful governors of the 
 Church restored once more, the impious and pro- 
 fane slunk back to their hiding-places, conscious 
 that their day was over. And now Presbyterian- 
 
 1 " "Tis true at present the herd or flock of Presbytery is not so 
 numerous and strong as they were twenty years ago, by the dwin- 
 dling of a great part of their gang into other conventicles of separa- 
 tion ; some of them being since turned Anabaptists, others Inde- 
 pendents, some Quakers, others Fifth-monarchy men ; and others 
 run themselves into such grosse absurdities, that there is scarce an 
 heresie in Prateolus, but some branches of this disciplinarian tree 
 doth embrace and shelter." Foulis' History of the wicked Plots and 
 Conspiracies of our pretended Saints, book iii. ch. ii. p. 172 (1674). 
 
 2 Gangrcena, p. 54. So another reports, that the sectaries, worn 
 out with the tyranny of their self-elected guides, would exclaim, 
 " Episcopos et tolerationem sibi satisfacturam ! " Hornii Hist. Ec- 
 clesiast. et Politic, p. 325. " The Presbyterians," says one of the 
 baffled rebels, " finding the tyde to be against them, agreed with the 
 Bishops in many particulars, desiring only to be dispensed with in 
 wearing the surplice, reading some parts of the Liturgy, and using 
 some ceremonies ; on which condition they promised to subject them- 
 selves to the Bishops, as Superintendents of the Church, if some 
 ministers might be joyned with them in the act of ordination "- 
 which they very well knew the Church had always required and 
 appointed. See Ludlow's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 57.
 
 452 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 ism, willingly accepting the toleration which it had 
 vehemently denied to all other sects, 1 took up a 
 new position, and appeared in another character. 
 Henceforth it promised to be peaceable and sub- 
 missive. Authority and power it had confessed it- 
 self unable either to use or preserve, even when it 
 had the best chance of doing so. It still remained, 
 however, to see how it would behave itself under 
 its altered circumstances ; and we come now, in 
 the last place, to inquire into the history of its 
 development in times of peace and quietness, when 
 there was nothing to influence its course either in 
 this direction or that, save its own natural and in- 
 herent properties. 
 
 And although the consideration of its earlier 
 history may have prepared us for some such results 
 as those which the Calvinistic and Lutheran com- 
 munities had already exhibited, and has served to 
 confirm the uniform connexion between schism 
 
 1 Even Mr. Hallam speaks of " the remorseless and indiscrimi- 
 nate bigotry of Presbyterianism." Dean Swift refers to "many 
 hundred quotations" from Presbyterian writers " against allowing 
 any liberty of conscience," their objection being, " that allowing 
 such a liberty would be to establish iniquity by law." The Presby- 
 terian's Plea of Merit, vol. viii. pp. 408, 9. Edwards, whom I have 
 so often cited, told the Parliament, that " a toleration was the grand 
 design of the devil, and the most compendious, ready, and sure way 
 to destroy all religion." And so warmly, whilst their power lasted, 
 did they maintain this view, that Cromwell himself, at the dissolu- 
 tion of the Parliament in 1654, observed to them, " Is it ingenuous 
 to ask liberty, and not to give it? What greater hypocrisie than for 
 those who were oppressed by the Bishops to become the greatest 
 oppressors themselves so soon as the yoke was removed ?" Quoted 
 in The Second Part of the History of Separation, p. 94.
 
 IN ENGLAND. 453 
 
 and heresy which their progress had so fully de- 
 monstrated, yet we could hardly, perhaps, have 
 anticipated the startling fact, that of all the Pres- 
 byterian congregations established in England dur- 
 ing and subsequent to the times of the rebellion, 
 there are few, if any, at the present day which have 
 not lapsed into the Socinian apostacy ! l Such has 
 been the rise, the progress, and the termination of 
 this unhappy sect. 2 
 
 1 " The English body of the three denominations, as it is called, 
 is composed of the Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists. Of 
 that portion of the latter class called General Baptists, a majority 
 are acknowledged Unitarians . . . The Presbyterian churches through- 
 out England are understood to be, with scarcely an exception, occu- 
 pied by congregations of this sort. Their number was reckoned ten 
 years ago at more than two hundred." Unit, in Ang. Fid. Hist. 
 Stat. prcesent. brev. Expos, apud Encycloped. American, vol. xii. 
 App. p. 599. Sir Richard Philips says, " Most of the English Pres- 
 byterians, and many Independents, have joined the Unitarians ; " 
 and he adds, that " in England and Wales there are 1663 Inde- 
 pendent congregations, and 258 Presbyterian, and that one third of 
 them are Unitarian. It is also greatly to be feared that a large pro- 
 portion of the Quakers are sinking into Deism :" the writer who 
 quotes this is himself a Wesleyan Methodist ; see Ten Letters on the 
 Church and Church Establishments, by an Anglo-Canadian, Letter 
 vi. pp. 43, 44. The progress throughout the Channel Islands ap- 
 pears, from information communicated to me, to have been very 
 similar. The only definite fact, however, in illustration of this pro- 
 gress, which I am able to state, is in relation to Guernsey, of the 
 Socinians of which place it is said, by a very competent authority, 
 "before they adopted the sentiments they now hold, they formed 
 a part of the society of Methodists." Monthly Repository, vol. iv. 
 p. 134. 
 
 8 To enter into the details of its history is manifestly beyond the 
 scope of the present work, the general fact being the only proper 
 object of our inquiry ; yet such details would be highly instructive, 
 especially as considered in relation to that remarkable law of declen- 
 sion which we are here noticing. A few may be mentioned. The
 
 454 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 VI. Scotland has for some time past appeared 
 to present an exception to the rule which we are 
 here tracing. The members of the establishment 
 in that country have not, like their co-religionists 
 
 Dissenter quoted above, who appears as the advocate of establish- 
 ments solely from his own observations of the downward progress of 
 schism, says, " If I mistake not, at this very hour the pulpit of even 
 the devoted and orthodox Matthew Henry is tilled by a Socinian 
 teacher." The fact is, or was, as he supposes : Henry's meeting- 
 house at Chester is thus described by another dissenting writer: 
 " Built for the celebrated Mr. Matthew Henry and his congrega- 
 tion, about the year 1700. In this chapel a copy of Mr. Henry's 
 Exposition of the Bible had been placed on desks for general perusal, 
 probably ever since its first publication. A gentleman who visited 
 the chapel some years ago, observed that one of the volumes of the 
 New Testament was missing, and that several leaves were torn out 
 of another ; while the New Unitarian Version was in the pulpit and 
 in several of the pews." The Manchester Socinian Controversy, 
 p. 122, London, 1825. The meeting-house built at Knutsford for 
 Henry's " biographer, Mr. Tong," is also Socinian : p. 123. So of 
 that built at Nantwich for Mr. Samuel Lawrence, " his bosom 
 friend :" p. 124. So of the one built by Coward, " the friend of 
 Watts and Doddridge." So of those built by Doddridge himself. 
 These are surely significant facts. Of Doddridge the Dean of West- 
 minster says, " Although he was himself a believer in the Trinity 
 and the Atonement, he never seems to have considered Arian or 
 Socinian sentiments as any bar to the admission of individuals to his 
 house and lecture-room. In fact many young men holding senti- 
 ments of that kind were his pupils." Dean Turton On the Text of 
 the Bible, p. 8. See also the Dean's Review of the principal Dis- 
 senting Colleges in England during the last Century. The instinctive 
 sympathy with heresy which has always been a characteristic of 
 sectarians, might be copiously illustrated. Thus of Baxter, who in 
 the course of his life professed a greater variety of religious opinions 
 than could easily be numbered, it has been noticed, that in his writ- 
 ings on church-government, in which the Bishops are plentifully 
 reviled, " he hath assembled all the Arian and heretical authors that 
 he could hear of, such as Philostorgius, Sandius, &c., and out of 
 them quotes only the worst things, omitting what is left on record 
 concerning the learning, piety, courage, patience, charity, and con-
 
 IN SCOTLAND. 455 
 
 in Geneva, repudiated Christianity ; they still pro- 
 fess to adhere to their original formularies; and 
 they give no countenance, as a body, to the open 
 avowal of Socinianism. The law, therefore, which 
 
 descension of those Fathers and Martyrs . . . Contrariwise, speaking 
 of their adversaries, whether Arians, Nestorians, Donatists, Nova- 
 tians, &c., he commends them as good and well-meaning men, mis- 
 taken only in the manner of expressing themselves, applauding them 
 for their holy and strict lives, without any notice of their damnable 
 errors, though they denied the Lord that bought them." The Second 
 Part of the History of Separation, p. 23; and see p. 113, where 
 Baxter openly defends the Arians, and condemns St. Athanasius. 
 So, to give a later instance, Wesley, in his improved Liturgy, 
 " mutilated above 60 of the Psalms, discarded 34 others, and newly 
 rendered many of the remainder. Of the Psalms which he has dis- 
 carded, six at least are admitted to be eminently prophetic of our 
 Saviour of His incarnation, His sufferings, and His ascension; 
 whilst the reason assigned for their expurgation is, their being 
 ' improper for the mouth of a Christian congregation !' But this is 
 not all, . . . the two Creeds, the Nicene and Athanasian, are totally 
 
 discarded The general character of the rejected Articles and 
 
 Psalms will pretty clearly establish what has been alleged as to the 
 nature of the opinions which Mr. Wesley and his followers maintain, 
 or, at least, of the doctrines which they reject. The 18th Article, 
 which pronounces, that ' eternal salvation is to be obtained only by 
 the name of Christ;' and the 15th, which asserts, ' that Christ alone 
 was without sin,' are two of those which the founder of Methodism 
 has declared to be unfit objects of a Christian's belief. Thus it ap- 
 pears that the Socinian is not the only sectary that would degrade 
 the dignity of Christ." Magee On tJie Atonement, vol. i. pp. 159, 
 160. Both Adam Clarke and Wesley preached in Socinian ' high 
 places ;' but the former, considering that, as he said, he " could not 
 preach their doctrine, and was afraid to preach his own," got so far 
 as to say, " I do not like this business, and have nearly made up my 
 mind to have done with it." Vide British Magazine, no. 127, p. 660. 
 These various circumstances are such as can scarcely fail to produce 
 some effect upon humble and serious minds ; and they might be con- 
 firmed almost without limit. I will add only a single example of 
 the actual progress which they are intended to illustrate. It is 
 taken from a paper transmitted to me from Warminster, in the
 
 456 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 has been represented as of universal application, 
 seems in this case to fail. 
 
 Now, it must be acknowledged at once that 
 Presbyterianism in Scotland has not hitherto, by 
 God's mercy, assumed the form into which in so 
 many other lands it has been developed. Let this 
 be freely and thankfully admitted. That its pre- 
 sent state, however, is really such as to constitute 
 an exception to the cases already or hereafter to 
 be considered, this is far indeed from being true, 
 as it will not be difficult to shew. 
 
 county of Wilts, entitled ' Memorandum relating to the Old Meet- 
 ing, called of late years the Unitarian Chapel,' and supplies the 
 dates at which the various developments in this particular com- 
 munity occurred : 
 
 In the year 1687, a Presbyterian congregation occupied the meeting- 
 house in question. 
 
 ,, 1703, a new meeting-house was built, which was called 
 
 the ' House of Service.' This seems already to in- 
 dicate some change. 
 
 1719, Mr. Bates, the ' minister,' was openly charged with 
 
 Arianism, and a secession of several members took 
 place. This new body still exists, its present repre- 
 sentatives occupying the ' Independent Chapel' In 
 the course of 32 years, therefore, Presbyterianism had 
 generated Arianism and Independentism. 
 
 1800, Mr. Theophilus Browne, " a very clever man," had 
 
 become the preacher ; and 
 
 ,, 1804, the meeting was called, at the suggestion of this 
 
 " very clever man," ' JEdicula Monotheistica !' 
 
 1826, one Waterhouse preached there ; and at the present 
 
 time it is openly styled " the Unitarian Chapel." 
 
 Being in possession of other examples, forwarded to me from dif- 
 ferent parts of the country, I am able to say that this is the usual 
 character of the progress, so far as England is concerned, from 
 schism to heresy, from dissent to blasphemy.
 
 IN SCOTLAND. 457 
 
 And in truth, if the test which we have used so 
 successfully thus far had failed for the first time in 
 this instance, we should have had peculiar reason 
 for surprise. It might even have been anticipated, 
 from a comparison of its early history, that the re- 
 ligious system now established in Scotland would 
 have betrayed sooner than any with which it owned 
 a common origin its real character. The extraor- 
 dinary means by which in neighbouring kingdoms 
 the kindred systems were first erected, were con- 
 fessedly exceeded and overpassed in this. " The 
 reformation in Scotland," observes King James, 
 and he knew what he was saying, " was far more 
 disorderly than in England, Denmark, &c. ; whilst 
 the mayne affaires there were unduly carried by 
 popular tumults, and by some fiery-spirited minis- 
 ters, which having gotten the guiding of the multi- 
 tude, and finding the relish of government sweet, 
 did fancie to themselves a democratic forme of po- 
 licy, wherein they were likely to be tribuni plebis." 1 
 And during the whole of what may be called the 
 first period of its history from the time of Knox, 
 namely, to the revolution of 1688 it certainly did 
 
 1 See A Discourse concerning Puritans, p. 15 (1641). And the 
 most ' liberal ' writers agree in this account. " The nobility of Scot- 
 land," says a modern historian, " invited by the example of Eng- 
 land, had cast a wishful eye on the ecclesiastical revenues ; hoping, 
 if a change in religion should take place, to enrich themselves with 
 the plunder of the Church." Russell's History of Modern Europe, 
 vol. ii. p. 277. Cf. Russell's History of the Church in Scotland, 
 ch. iv.
 
 458 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 not lose the impress which was thus stamped upon 
 it from the first. 1 
 
 Its course subsequently to that era has been 
 lately traced with much accuracy, and deserves a 
 more minute consideration. The popular notions 
 with respect to it appear likely to be completely 
 revolutionised by the researches of the writer re- 
 ferred to. Far from being embraced, as has been 
 commonly supposed, by an unanimous and enthu- 
 siastic people, Presbyterianism was in fact most 
 unpopular in Scotland, upheld for a long time only 
 by the zeal of " the trading and inferior sort," and 
 its establishment the result, so far as any thing 
 can be, of the merest accident. It was not until he 
 had solicited, and failed to obtain, from the rulers 
 of the Church in that country the support which 
 he needed, that King William reluctantly concurred 
 
 1 " Such a church," says Dr. Hickes of it, " I think altogether 
 as unworthy of the name of a church, as a band of rebels in any 
 country, who had overthrown the civil constitution of it, .would be 
 of the name of a kingdom, state, or republick ; because such a pre- 
 tended church is not only a variation from the Catholick Apostolick 
 Church, but a sworn destructive confederacy against it, even the 
 abomination of desolation in the house or kingdom of God, of which 
 their Pastors are not Ministers, but by principle most malicious 
 enemies ; not Pastors, but wolves of the flock ; to many of both 
 which, notwithstanding, I trust that God, who can make dispensa- 
 tions and allowances for the greatest ignorances, mistakes, and pre- 
 judices of His frail creatures, which men cannot make, will shew 
 mercy in the great day, according to the prayer of our Lord upon 
 the cross, 'Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.'" 
 Hickes, Three Treatises, Preface, p. cc. : and see BramhalFs Fair 
 Warning of Scottish Discipline, ch. xiii. vol. ii. p. 514.
 
 IN SCOTLAND. 459 
 
 in the establishment of Presbyterianism ; and " if 
 the Scottish prelates and clergy," says Mr. Lawson, 
 " had followed the example of the Church of Eng- 
 land, and recognised William as the sovereign, the 
 Episcopal Church would have been at this moment 
 established in Scotland." 1 Here was another cir- 
 cumstance, then, from which we might have anti- 
 cipated for the new religion in Scotland at least 
 an equally disastrous issue as in any other land 
 in which it had been set up. For here it was not 
 only, as in the other cases, a human system sup- 
 planting the divine, but the change being made in 
 spite of the indifference or opposition of the better 
 portion of the people. 
 
 And there is accordingly quite enough, as 
 might have been predicted from these facts, 2 in 
 the present religious condition of Scotland, to 
 shew that the evil principles, the full triumph of 
 which, from the operation of certain causes, has 
 been hitherto impeded in that country, are even 
 now tending towards their natural development. 
 
 1 See Lawson's History of the Scottish Episcopal Church, p. 46 ; 
 Burnett, History of his own Times, vol. iv. p. 41, note f ; and Rus- 
 sell's History of the Church in Scotland, ch. xiv. vol. ii. p. 244. 
 
 * A writer who had been himself a presbyterian, says, " Many 
 times in my younger yeares have I heard famous and auncient 
 fathers of our church, who had seene the first beginnings thereof, 
 affirme that our church could not consist unlesse Episcopall go- 
 verneinent was restored againe : this they spake when there was no 
 appearance of it, and when Episcopall governement was in greatest 
 disdaine ; and at that time being unacquainted with church-disci- 
 pline, I thought strange to heare it." See The Bishop of Galloway 
 his Defence against the Paralogie of Mr. D. Hume, p. 1 40.
 
 460 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 In an earlier period it had been declared, by one 
 of her own sons, to be true of Scotland, as of 
 England, that " so long as the Episcopall govern- 
 ment stood in vigour, there was nothing but comely 
 order in the Church ; fathers honoured as fathers, 
 ministers agreeing in pleasant unitie, without any 
 schisme among them ; singular peace betweene the 
 king his majestic and the Church, they going to- 
 gether like Moses and Aaron to doe the worke of 
 God, without grudging, anger, or division ; then 
 the Gospell flourished, and no professed papist was 
 in the land ; but with decay of the one ensued a la- 
 mentable change of the other, which cannot be men- 
 tioned without grief e" * And the contrast here so 
 pathetically recorded is far more striking at the 
 present hour. 
 
 " It is much to be feared," says the excellent 
 Bishop Skinner, " that in many parts of the king- 
 dom the seeds of irreligion and licentiousness have 
 been so plentifully disseminated, that unless their 
 growth be checked by a returning sense of duty, or 
 some powerful interposition of Providence, before 
 they come to full maturity, inevitable ruin must be 
 the consequence. Already do the presages of such 
 fatal consequences begin to exhibit themselves. In 
 some of the most populous districts of Scotland, 
 where the middling and lower ranks of the people 
 were, some years ago, exemplary in the discharge 
 
 1 Ibid. pp. 133, 134.
 
 IN SCOTLAND. 461 
 
 of their religious duties, not occasional neglect only, 
 but a constant derision, and an avowed contempt of 
 these duties, have now taken place. The rites and 
 ordinances of the Gospel are exposed to every species 
 of scorn and ridicule. Children are wilfully with- 
 held from the ' laver of regeneration ;' and men 
 and women ' count the blood of the covenant 
 wherewith they are sanctified an unholy thing,' in 
 pure despite of the Spirit of grace." 1 
 
 It is a consolation to know, in connexion with 
 these miserable facts, which represent a state of 
 things so similar to that already described in Ger- 
 many and Switzerland, that the Apostolic Church 
 of Scotland has not failed, in spite of feebleness and 
 oppression, to speak its appointed word of warning 
 and protest. After noticing a certain theological 
 teaching, and its unhappy effects, the writer just 
 quoted adds, "In the midst of all this confusion, 
 this melancholy departure from Primitive Truth 
 and Order, we of the Episcopal Communion have 
 the credit and comfort of reflecting, that nothing 
 has been said or done on our part to promote or 
 encourage such wild deviation from the paths of 
 true religion, the ways of unity, peace, and love, 
 which our blessed Redeemer marked out for all 
 His faithful followers." 2 While, on the other hand, 
 
 I Bishop Skinner (of Aberdeen), Primitive Truth and Order vin- 
 dicated, Introduction, pp. 12, 13. 
 
 II " In Scotland no member of the Church has fallen off to 
 Romanism or any of the heresies which have distracted it ; in Edin-
 
 462 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 " Such as I have now described it," he says, revert- 
 ing to the general condition of the people, " is evi- 
 dently the situation of the land in which we live, 
 with respect to the religious character of a great 
 majority of its inhabitants ; very much resembling 
 the state of things in the Jewish Church at the 
 time of our Saviour's first coming in the flesh, when 
 the true religion was either totally set aside by the 
 infidelity of the Sadducees, or sadly corrupted by 
 the vile hypocrisy of self-conceited Pharisees." 1 
 
 To those who are familiar with the professions 
 and the external character of the earlier presbyte- 
 rians, and who have been accustomed, as most of 
 us have, to regard Scotland as a land in which the 
 ordinances of religion, mutilated and earth-stained 
 as they were, were honoured with at least outward 
 reverence, the present state of that country must 
 be a significant and impressive fact. 2 Profaneness 
 
 burgh alone, the Romanists boast of 100 converts from Presby- 
 terianism yearly." Dr. Pusey's Letter to the Bishop of Oxford, 
 p. 221, note 2; 4th edition. 
 
 1 Ubi supra, p. 18. 
 
 2 And one admitted even by the parties who are most interested 
 to conceal it. In a sermon on " The necessity of a Revival of Re- 
 ligion," by Mr. James Burns, a presbyterian preacher of Brechin, 
 that writer says, " It may be proper and useful to shew .... what 
 need there is of a revival of religion among us. And in general 
 it may be observed, that there is such an appearance of indifference 
 or deadness in spiritual concerns, that the need of a revival is very 
 evident. The marks of this indifference or deadness are too plain 
 and numerous to be mistaken by any ;" and then he goes on to 
 specify some of them ; as, amongst others, " the neglect of the wor- 
 ship of God in families, which indeed is, alas ! very common among 
 us," and, as he adds, " is a striking proof of the need of a revival."
 
 IN SCOTLAND. 463 
 
 with regard to holy places and things was, indeed, 
 always one of the characteristics of the religious 
 system there established ; but it seems latterward 
 to have reached a climax. Desecration of churches 
 and of sacred days is now carried to an extent 
 which is almost incredible even to those who, like 
 ourselves, are not altogether unacquainted with 
 some of its forms. Even their own advocates are 
 constrained to bear witness against this evil. Thus 
 one of their more eminent preachers, speaking some- 
 what tenderly of the extreme irreverence of their 
 so-called "reformers," who taught the people to 
 enter God's holy house with their hats on, and the 
 like, says, there is no need of any such suggestions 
 now, because " there is little risk of there being 
 generated too deep or hallowed a feeling for the 
 house of prayer. The whole current runs in an 
 opposite direction." The same writer " earnestly 
 entreats" these professing Christians " to enter the 
 Sanctuary with at least the respect with which they 
 would enter a private house" it seems they need 
 the admonition ; and, after more of the same kind, 
 
 See The Scottish Christian Herald, vol. ii. p. 728. We are told, 
 indeed, by another, that " in one region of Scotland we have the 
 great happiness of exhibiting a spiritual work, in the Revival form, 
 steadily going forward at the present hour, which ought to stimulate 
 the prayers, &c." History of Revivals of Religion, Preface, p. 2. 
 The narrator seems jealous of the American doings in this way, of 
 which we shall have to speak presently, and the effects of which in 
 that distracted country will not diminish our apprehensions as to the 
 results of the same " spiritual work" said to be " steadily going for- 
 ward" in Scotland.
 
 464 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 adds, as softly as might be, " many admit and de- 
 plore the practice of too many Scottish Christians 
 in this matter." 1 And as in their external demean- 
 our, so in their esoteric principles, are these men 
 in strict agreement with the worst and most wilful 
 of their predecessors. " It is a very melancholy 
 fact," says the presbyterian already quoted, " that 
 too many of the Church" (establishment) "people 
 of Scotland direct their minds to the days preced- 
 ing and during the Covenant for the true character 
 and sentiments of their church." Nor are the 
 tokens of this sympathy with the bold and unscru- 
 pulous men of that evil age concealed from us. 
 " It is curious," observes Mr. Lawson, " that in 
 many parts of Scotland the people to this day have 
 a very great objection to hear the Lord's Prayer 
 said, or the Scriptures read, in public, alleging that 
 they can do so at home themselves ! We need not 
 be surprised," he adds, "at this folly, to say the 
 least, on the part of an illiterate peasantry, when 
 we find a Presbyterian minister of great repute 2 
 gravely maintaining that the Lord's Prayer is a 
 Jewish and not a Christian Prayer, and cannot 
 with propriety be introduced into Christian wor- 
 ship"! 3 This piece of criticism serves again to 
 remind us of the modern German divines. 
 
 1 Cumming's Preface to John Knox's Liturgy, pp. 6, 12, 13. 
 
 2 He refers to Sermons by Andrew Thompson, D.D., Minister of 
 St. George's Church, Edinburgh. 
 
 3 Lawson, p. 51. Both the use of the Lord's Prayer, and the
 
 IN SCOTLAND. 465 
 
 Further illustrations of this coincidence of 
 thought and language might be added; but we 
 have only space here for one other fact in relation 
 to the working of the Genevan system in Scotland ; 
 it is this, that whereas in other countries the 
 separated and schismatical bodies are altogether 
 diverse, both in doctrine and discipline, from the 
 Church with which they refuse to dwell, in Scot- 
 land they are as much 'presbyterians' after their 
 separation as they were before. And it is an ex- 
 traordinary fact, that although the large majority 
 of the people are still presbyterians, "the Esta- 
 blishment cannot claim much more than one third 
 of the population as belonging or attached to its 
 communion, while the great mass of the Presbyte- 
 rian Dissenters, who have emanated from its own 
 bosom, are now its avowed and determined ene- 
 mies. There is not a country in Europe which 
 
 public reading of the Scriptures, incredible as it appears, were 
 strongly protested against by the first presbyterians. See Lawson, 
 chap. vi. p. 96. An earlier writer tells us, that " no sooner had the 
 Presbyterians excluded the Bishops, and their Directory the Liturgy, 
 but the Lord's Prayer is also exploded as a thing of no use either for 
 matter or form ; for the men of that age thougiit it not spiritual 
 enough for such overgrown Christians as they were, but adapted only 
 to the nonage of the first disciples. Nor was it sufficient to disuse it, 
 but they poured out all the contempt they could upon it, both from 
 
 their pulpits and in the press And this antichristian practice 
 
 prevailed so far, that the people generally refused to teach it to their 
 children ; some gave God thanks that they hud forgotten it ; and if 
 anv sober clergyman did conclude his own prayer with it, a great 
 part of his auditory would presently depart out of church, as if it 
 were impossible for them to be edified by such a preacher as had no 
 better gift of prayer." T/ie Second Part of the History of Separa- 
 tion, p. 34. 
 
 H H
 
 466 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 abounds more with sectaries and dissenters from 
 the Establishment of its own alleged choice than 
 Scotland." 1 
 
 It is not to Scotland, then, that we shall be 
 referred any longer for an example of the feli- 
 citous working of Calvin's ecclesiastical scheme. 2 
 Already there are symptoms, too plain to be over- 
 looked, of the results to which that scheme is 
 surely tending. "Already do the presages," as 
 Bishop Skinner speaks, " begin to exhibit them- 
 selves." And if it be said, that Socinianism is still 
 discouraged, 3 we cannot forget, thankful as we are 
 
 1 Lawson, pp. 315, 316. " Arnot mentions, in the year 1779, 
 that ' in Scotland there are few towns, whether of importance or 
 insignificant, whether populous or otherwise, where there are not 
 congregations of sectaries.' If this writer had witnessed the state of 
 Scotland at the present day, his observations could not have been 
 more accurate." Ibid. And the remarkable circumstance in all this 
 is, that " the country is filled with numerous and powerful sects, of 
 their own polity and principles, who are their deadliest opponents." 
 Id. pp. 169, 170. 
 
 2 At the very first setting up of presbyterianism in Scotland, we 
 are told of " the revolt of many leading Presbyters to Independency ; 
 their supplanting and defaming each other ; the emulations and con- 
 tests among themselves, as that between Melvill and Buchanan at 
 the first planting of presbytery in Scotland, which was so great, that 
 the one set up a presbytery at St. Andrews, the other at Coupar, in 
 opposition to each other !" See No Protestant but the Dissenters' 
 Plot, p. 159. 
 
 3 There is, however, a nucleus to which future accretions of error 
 may hereafter be attached. " In Scotland there are Unitarian Cha- 
 pels in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and other principal places. Among the 
 leading periodical publications devoted to the cause in Great Britain 
 is the Christian Pioneer in Glasgow. There is a Scottisli Unitarian 
 Association lately formed. . . . The principal supply of Ministers is 
 from Manchester College, at York ; others come from the Scotch 
 Universities, and from that of Dublin." Encyclopedia Americana, 
 vol. xii, App. p. 599.
 
 IN SCOTLAND. 467 
 
 to acknowledge the fact, that this was the case at 
 Geneva too, and that for a whole century after its 
 poison had begun to work in secret. 1 As late as 
 the year 1632, men convicted of heresy were put 
 to death in that city for their error; 2 nay, in 1696, 
 we find its rulers taking severe notice of even the 
 tendencies to Socinianism 3 which they were able to 
 detect; yet within a few years Socinianism was 
 almost the only form of religion at Geneva ! And 
 how serious does this reflection become, when we 
 turn our attention to the actual state of Scotland 
 at this very hour. 4 That country has no longer 
 even the semblance of unity and strength which 
 Geneva, in spite of internal disease, so long boasted. 
 The Establishment, weakened already by innumer- 
 able schisms, is now at last divided against itself, 
 and fallen asunder into two parts. And that nei- 
 ther of these portions has yet arrived at its ultimate 
 
 1 Gregoire, Histoire des Sectes Peligieuses, p. 4. And this is true 
 of others also. " II est constant que la plupart des Arminiens sont 
 devenus Sociniens sans faire ouvertement profession de eette heresie." 
 Encyclopedic Methodique, Theologie, tome iii. p. 514. 
 
 2 Vide Spon, Histoire de Geneve, tome ii. p. 231. 
 
 3 Fragment Biographiques et Historiques sur Geneve, extraits des 
 Registres Originaux du Conseil d'Etat de la Republique de Geneve, 
 p. 213 (Geneve, 1815). 
 
 4 " It may be doubted whether many of the laity of that country, 
 and especially whether the leading schools of education, have not 
 been all along gradually verging towards something like Genevan 
 profaneness. A little time will probably shew : certainly there are 
 symptoms in Scotland at this moment, which would make an ortho- 
 dox Englishman more than ever unwilling to part with that outwork 
 of Apostolic Faith, which England, under circumstances in many 
 respects peculiarly untoward, has hitherto found in the Apostolical 
 Commission of her Clergy." Tracts for the Times, no. 57.
 
 468 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 condition, we need not attempt to prove, because 
 the members of both are themselves eager to assert 
 it. Each declares vehemently of the other, that it 
 cannot long maintain its present existence ; one 
 has already fallen from its original position, and 
 consented to fraternise openly with all the hetero- 
 geneous forms of schism, adopting, and even sur- 
 passing in some cases, its most lawless and extra- 
 vagant phraseology ; and therefore, when we pro- 
 fess our belief that we have still to see the final 
 development of Scottish Presbyterianism, we are, 
 in fact, only repeating the language and echoing 
 the predictions of its own most zealous advo- 
 cates. 1 
 
 1 No attempt has been made here to trace the gradual declension 
 of doctrine which took place in Scotland during the 18th century, 
 not for want of materials, but because such an attempt would carry 
 us far beyond the proposed limits of this volume. A few references 
 may, however, be added. The first direct proof that I know of, is 
 the process against Professor Simson, of Glasgow, for teaching here- 
 tical doctrine in the Divinity class, begun in the year 1717, and 
 visited with very slight censure by the ecclesiastical authorities. 
 The Marrow Controversy, in 1720-1-2, when the Assembly did 
 appear as impugners, not of false doctrine, but of the orthodox 
 faith, is another symptom of what was going on. An account of 
 it may be found in Boston's Memoirs, and the Marrow of Modern 
 Divinity itself is worthy to be studied. The writings of the two 
 Erskines, and those of Witherspoon, afford information as to the 
 downward progress going on at their respective dates. About 1780 
 the writings of Taylor of Norwich became very popular in the West 
 of Scotland ; and a few years later Dr. M'Gill, of Ayr, published a 
 work of a similar nature, and of so heretical a character that he was 
 compelled to recant some of its contents. But it is, perhaps, inex- 
 pedient to enter into details, conclusive as their evidence would 
 undoubtedly be as to the tendencies of the Scotch system, because 
 to pursue them with accuracy would require an entire volume.
 
 IN IRELAND. 469 
 
 VII. In extending our inquiry from Scotland 
 to Ireland, we are not, in fact, losing sight of the 
 development of the religious system in the former 
 country, because it is its derivatives in the latter 
 which become the subject of our investigation. 
 The growth, in the direction of error, of these 
 offshoots of Scottish Presbyterianism appears to 
 have been rapid and spontaneous, unchecked, as 
 it seems, by any of the influences which have exer- 
 cised hitherto so salutary a power over the Es- 
 tablishment in Scotland. " In the Presbyterian 
 churches of the North of Ireland," says one writer, 
 " a vehement controversy has been carried on 
 within the last two or three years, the event of 
 which is understood to have been to detach about 
 forty churches from the body of that communion, 
 and unite them, as professed Unitarians, into a 
 society of their own, consisting of several presbyte- 
 ries. There are also congregations of this charac- 
 ter in Dublin, 1 and in other southern cities of the 
 kingdom." 2 
 
 And as a proof that heresy was not confined to 
 the ranks of those who have thus openly avowed 
 their impiety, and set up a new society, it is only 
 
 1 There was a time when such assemblies would not venture to 
 congregate there. " The Socinians," says Leslie, " have now for a 
 long time had an open meeting-house in Cutlers' hall, in London ; 
 their preacher one Emlin, formerly a dissenting preacher in Dublin, 
 but forced to fly out of Ireland for his open and notorious Socinian- 
 ism." On the Socinian Controversy, Dialog, vi. p. 40. 
 
 7 Encyclopedia Americana, vol. xii. Appendix, p. 599.
 
 470 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 necessary to refer to what has taken place amongst 
 those with whom they formerly associated. In the 
 Presbyterian Synod of Ulster, for example, in spite 
 of a strong effort and some very strong language 
 too, a professed Arian has been maintained, after 
 long deliberation, in his connexion with that body. 
 The reasons assigned for this compromise with the 
 worst form of heresy were, that " as the removal of 
 their clerk" (who was the guilty person) "from 
 office on this account might be construed into per- 
 secution for the sake of opinion, . . . they do not 
 consider it expedient to move him from it!" 1 And 
 it is said, that it was not until the interference of 
 the civil government, of which they are stipendi- 
 aries, began to be feared, that the Ulster Presby- 
 terians discontinued the employment of Socinian 
 officers. 2 
 
 This declension of Irish Presbyterianism is, 
 however, as respects its origin, to be referred to a 
 much earlier date. It was in the year 1721 that 
 the secession of the Remonstrants, or Socinians, 
 took place. About the middle of the century, 
 eight congregations withdrew, of which two still 
 exist in Belfast, the others being in adjoining coun- 
 
 1 Monthly Repository, vol. i. p. 712 (1827). 
 
 * Ibid. p. 805. The English Socinians seem to look for the 
 spread of their impiety in Ireland, p. 879 ; but I am informed 
 that the children of many of the Arians of the North of Ireland 
 have been received into the Church. Some years ago a large num- 
 ber of the wealthier inhabitants of Belfast are said to have been 
 Arians.
 
 IN IRELAND. 471 
 
 ties. And it is to be noticed of the members of 
 these congregations, that they did not in the outset 
 avow themselves to be Socinians, but separated on 
 the ground of non-subscription to the Westminster 
 Confession of Faith. 1 In consequence of the Synod 
 having afterwards relaxed in some measure the rule 
 which required a bond fide subscription to that 
 Formulary on the part of all candidates for the 
 ministry, it is supposed that persons were admitted 
 from time to time unsound on other points of the 
 Faith besides those which the Presbyterian theo- 
 logy rejects ; and these persons gradually dissemi- 
 nating their heretical opinions, formed a party of 
 considerable influence. This state of things con- 
 tinued for a time, until the Synod saw the neces- 
 sity of applying a test to prove the orthodoxy of 
 its members, and at the same time required sub- 
 scription to the Confession of Faith on the part of 
 all who should aspire to be teachers of Presbyte- 
 rianism. The application of this test revealed at 
 once the lurking evil which it was designed to 
 remedy. No fewer than seventeen 'ministers' re- 
 monstrated against the new resolutions, and ulti- 
 mately withdrew altogether from the communion 
 of the Synod, under the name of the Remonstrant 
 Synod of Ulster. They have since been joined by 
 others, though I am not aware to what extent, and 
 
 1 See the Minutes of the Synod ; and, for the connexion between 
 the Synods of Ulster and Munster, Monthly Repository, vol. ii. 
 p. 599.
 
 472 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 are now, as it is scarcely necessary to say, avowed 
 Socinians. 
 
 VIII. Returning again from the islands of our 
 own empire to the countries of continental Europe, 
 the religious state of the Netherlands becomes the 
 next subject of our inquiry. And in this case there 
 is no need to pursue it so far as to our own times, 
 because in Holland the development of the reformed 
 doctrines reached long since its ultimate form. A 
 very few references to its past history will suffice in 
 proof of this. 
 
 The period of the famous schism of the " Re- 
 monstrants" from the Synod of Dort is that to 
 which I shall first refer. 1 That the rigorous de- 
 crees of that Synod were wholly ineffectual to stay 
 the progress of heresy is now matter of history, 2 
 and was soon evidenced by the torrent of false and 
 conflicting opinions which began to prevail, and 
 continued to spread, throughout almost all the 
 United Provinces during the seventeenth century. 
 The character of the "Remonstrant" or Arminian 
 theology, on the other hand, though not fully de- 
 fined at the time when its professors first came 
 into collision with the assertors of the Genevan 
 
 1 Though it is quite certain that heretical opinions had spread 
 far and wide long before the time of that Synod. See Weismann, 
 secul. xvii. torn. ii. p. 1301 ; and the History of Poland, in the Uni- 
 versal History, vol. xii. p. 440, note A ; from which it appears to 
 have spread in Holland even before it reached Poland. 
 
 5 See the Encyclopedic Methodique, art. Sociniens.
 
 IN HOLLAND AND BELGIUM. 473 
 
 doctrine of Predestination, appears to have deserved 
 the severe judgment which from the first was pro- 
 nounced upon it. The " Reformed" theologians of 
 the Academy of Leyden, by whom the " Censure" 
 upon the Remonstrants was composed, do not 
 hesitate, even at that date, to connect these latter 
 with the Socinians, 1 and to justify the heavy charge 
 by a reference to their own writings. And the 
 Remonstrants in their reply, which is much to be 
 noticed, retort upon the Calvinistic divines, as they 
 themselves bitterly complain, the charge " not only 
 of errors, but of heresies and blasphemies." 2 It is 
 this circumstance which reveals very evidently the 
 real condition of all the various schools of disput- 
 ants the circumstance, namely, that the charge 
 of impiety which was urged by one class of these 
 religionists was always met by the antagonist party 
 with this retort, that their accusers were themselves 
 involved in doctrinal errors at least equally glaring, 
 and that their own written statements proved it. 3 
 
 The controversy between the learned Grotius 
 and Sibrandus, and the later writings of Rivetus, 
 
 1 Censur. in Remonstrant. Synodo de Dort, cap. xxi. ad finem. 
 Cf. N. Vedelius, De Arcanis Arminianismi, lib. i. cap. i. p. 7. 
 
 2 Censura, Praefat. 
 
 3 Thus the Remonstrants, alluding to the monstrous lengths to 
 which the Gomarists and others carried their notions on the doc- 
 trine of Predestination, asserted, " that the Calvinists made God 
 the author of sin." Apolog. Contra Cenmram, Examen, cap. vi. : 
 and see on this subject a writing of the famous peace-maker John 
 Dury, entitled A Discourse tending to Peace Eccksiastich, p. 3 
 (1641).
 
 474 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 afford a striking illustration of this. Sibrandus 
 having censured severely the Dutch authorities for 
 their appointment of Conrad Vorstius to the pro- 
 fessorship formerly held by Arminius, Grotius tells 
 him, that his censure was only the expression of 
 the malice which he felt towards them on account 
 of the contempt which they had evinced for his 
 own false opinions. The famous jurist adds, and 
 his words are cited here as important testimony to 
 the general fact which we are tracing, " Why do 
 you not turn your attention to the province of 
 Friesland, which is indeed full of heretics, who 
 openly profess their opinions;" whereas Vorstius 
 had denied those with which he was charged. And 
 he gives similar evidence with respect to the pro- 
 gress of heresy in other parts. 1 
 
 The history of Vorstius supplies additional 
 proof of the truth about which so much has al- 
 ready been said, that the modern system of re- 
 ligion had never the power to contend against, 
 even when detected, the principles of evil, upon 
 the tacit recognition of which they had themselves 
 been originally founded. 2 It does not seem diffi- 
 
 1 H. Grotii Ordin. Holland, et Westfrisia Pietas, pp. 8, 23, and 
 123. The dying confession of Vorst, in which he avowed his error, 
 is given by Gerard Brandt, History of the Reformation in the Low 
 Countries, vol. iv. p. 420. 
 
 2 " Vae Belgio a petulantia ingeniorum !" said Melancthon, who 
 seems to have discerned that all the barriers by which the overflow- 
 ings of error must be restrained, were already removed in his day. 
 Weismann admits (torn. ii. p. 106), that the results have proved the 
 truth of his prophecy. Huber calls attention to this circumstance, in
 
 IN HOLLAND AND BELGIUM. 475 
 
 cult to determine whether the real opinions of 
 Vorstius were generally known, as was asserted, 
 at the time of his appointment by the states. On 
 the one hand, indeed, Grotius speaks of him as a 
 divine of great reputation, and much approved as 
 a writer against the Jesuits, and not even suspected 
 by those who knew him ; l but, on the other, the 
 theologians of the Synod of Dort say expressly, 
 that he was " for many years justly suspected of 
 Socinianism ;" 2 and D'Ewes reports, that his elec- 
 tion to the divinity-chair was emphatically con- 
 demned at the time in England, and he himself 
 branded as " a blasphemer." 3 Yet, as Rivetus 
 warmly complains, he was appointed without any 
 protest. Sibrandus adds, speaking of the begin- 
 nings of Socinianism in Holland, that all the 
 churches in Germany, France, and Britain, looked 
 on with amazement, and those of the Low Coun- 
 tries bewailed their own condition ; that none, how- 
 ever, stirred hand or foot to resist what was corn- 
 
 relation to the history of religion in Holland, " que depuis la Refor- 
 mation il n'ajamais ete le m&me plus long term que Vespace de trente 
 aw ;" which will be admitted by most men to be a conclusive fact as 
 to the true nature of that mutable theology. See the Bibliotteque 
 Universelle, tome xxiv. p. 181. 
 
 1 Ordin. Holland, et Westfrisice Pietas, p. 9. 
 
 3 Act. Synod. Dordrecht. Prafat. ad Ecclesias. Cf. Biographic 
 Universelle, art. C. Vorst. 
 
 3 The remonstrance against his appointment was made by King 
 James, who added, " that if they did not in time prevent the grow- 
 ing of that pestilential sect, it would in the issue prove the utter 
 ruin of their flourishing commonwealth." See D'Ewes' Primitive 
 Practice for Preserving Truth, ^ 3.
 
 476 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 ing on, and even when some offered warning and 
 counsel, it was rejected. 1 
 
 By the time of Bossuet, towards the close of 
 the same century, we find it admitted even by the 
 protestant Jurieu : " At this day every place is 
 full of these ' Indifferentists ;' and in these provinces 
 especially? the Socinians and Remonstrants are of 
 that class by profession, and thousands of others 
 by inclination." 3 
 
 In describing their condition at a still later 
 period, I avail myself of the unsuspicious testi- 
 
 1 Respons. ad Pietatem Hugonis Grotii, p. 28. " Accuse illos," 
 says this writer, speaking of Vorst, " qui Consulibus et Curatoribus 
 suaserunt, ut hunc hominem vocarent." p. 22. It does not appear, 
 however, that any body was at all moved by such accusations. 
 "The states of Holland and West Friesland" the words refer to 
 the year 1653 "have published a proclamation against the meet- 
 ing together of the Socinians and their teachers ; as also against the 
 printing and selling of Socinian books, upon great penalties." Thur- 
 loe's State Papers, vol. i. p. 508 : yet two years later, and in spite of 
 continued vigilance upon the part of the magistrates, they are said 
 to " very much increase." Id. vol. iii. p. 50 ; and again, in the 
 same year, " the sect of Socinianism bears great sway in the Pro- 
 vince of Holland, and is assented to by most there." p. 51. Another 
 writer, who dates from the Hague, about 40 years earlier, says, 
 << We have under the press many answers to Vorstius his Apologies, 
 which come forth so much the more slowly, because in Holland inhi- 
 bitions are made to write against him, but for him free liberty and 
 permission is granted." Winwood's Memorials, vol. iii. p. 340. 
 
 2 " Qui enim exiguam cognitionem rerum praesentium habent, 
 non ignorant celeberrimas Belgicas Ecclesias his Socini furoribus 
 conturbari." Lubbert. De Jesu Christo Servatore, contra Socinum, 
 Prsefat. So Grotius of Flanders, " de qua vere dici potest, quod de 
 Grsecia olim ; periisse earn libertate immodica et licentia concionum." 
 Ordin. Holland. &c. p. 123. So Pluquet of the Flemings ; Diction- 
 naire, tome i. pp. 78, 79. 
 
 3 Quoted in the Histoire des Variations des Eglises Protestantes, 
 geme Avertissement, tome iv. pp. 510-11. Cf. Sibrand. Sesp. p. 20.
 
 IN HOLLAND AND BELGIUM. 477 
 
 mony of Mr. Candlish, a Scotch Presbyterian 
 teacher of our own day. 
 
 " The four Protestant denominations of Hol- 
 land," he says, " are Presbyterian in their form of 
 Church-government. They differ in their stand- 
 ards of doctrine, approaching more or less near 
 to the sound system of evangelical truth, but all 
 originally holding the fundamental and essential 
 articles of the Christian faith. It is said, that in 
 all of them there has been a great departure from 
 the orthodoxy of their creeds, and a great decline 
 of spiritual life, especially in the national (' re- 
 formed') Church. The taint of liberal and latitu- 
 dinarian principles has extensively pervaded the 
 ministers of that community." The explanation 
 of this change which the writer assumes to be the 
 true one, is as follows : " The political agitation of 
 men's minds in these eventful times, the contagion 
 of liberal opinions on religion spreading from Ger- 
 many and France, and other agencies and influ- 
 ences, which in the inscrutable providence of God 
 seem to have been permitted for a season to spread 
 a wide and wasting leaven of spiritual apathy and 
 unbelief throughout almost the whole of the Pro- 
 testant Churches, these, and similar facts and 
 observations, may go far to account for any hiding 
 of the Lord's countenance, and any withdrawing 
 of the Lord's spirit, which His professing people 
 or their pastors may have experienced in Holland. 
 But however this may be, [he seems to have sus-
 
 478 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 pected that this would hardly be accepted as a 
 sufficient account of the matter], it is certain that 
 there has been in the Dutch Church a grievous de- 
 clension and departure from her first faith and her 
 first love. Laxity in doctrinal views has for a con- 
 siderable time prevailed among a large proportion 
 of the clergy, and even the standard of orthodoxy 
 has been modified. . . . The sentiments of many 
 of the ministers are tainted with the Arminian and 
 Socinian heresies, and with the neological spirit of 
 scepticism." 1 
 
 1 See The Scottish Christian Herald, vol. iii. pp. 199, 200 (1838). 
 Nor is the case at all otherwise in modern Belgium. " To oppose 
 the wealth, the numbers, and the power, which Popery arrays on its 
 side, there is but a small and apparently insignificant band of the 
 devoted servants of Christ. There are eight French Protestant 
 Ministers, paid by the State, who afford religious instruction to 
 thirteen different congregations; but of these Ministers" and then 
 comes the same uniform tale " there are only four who know the 
 truth ; the rest, either Rationalists or Socinians, hate it with their 
 whole heart." The Scottish Christian Herald, vol. iii. p. 504 : 2d 
 series. So in Transylvania, Socinianism followed so fast upon the 
 heels of the new discipline, that within twenty years of its establish- 
 ment, " some hundreds of congregations were infected." Fr. Chey- 
 nell's Rise, Growth, and Danger of Socinianisme, ch. ii. p. 22 : and 
 now we are told that " the number of Unitarians in Transylvania 
 and Hungary in 1827 is stated to be between 40 and 50,000." 
 Monthly Repository, vol. i. p. 243. Of the Waldenses, again, the 
 same authority records the saying of one of their own preachers, that 
 " he did not think that there was an essential difference between the 
 Unitarians and the Vaudois." vol. i. p. 876 ; and see p. 808. " M. 
 Limborch soutient," says another, " que les Albigeois etoient dans 
 la plupart des erreurs des Manicheens. Pour les Vaudois, notre 
 auteur conclut des erreurs qu'on leur importe, qu'ils ressembloient 
 plus a ces Chretiens d'aujourd'hui qu'on appelle Mennonites, qu'a 
 aucune autre societe Chretienne." Bibliotheque Universelle, tome 
 xxiii. p. 407. See also Maitland's Albigenses and Waldenses, ^ 12.
 
 IN SWEDEN AND DENMARK. 479 
 
 IX. Of the development of the new systems in 
 Sweden and Denmark, I have hitherto found little 
 opportunity for collecting any accurate account. 
 In those countries a quasi Episcopate has indeed 
 been maintained; but even if the form of their 
 ecclesiastical polity had been much less dissimilar 
 to the apostolic type than it is, 1 the history of its 
 origin would have taught us to apprehend the 
 most unfavourable results. 2 The event, I believe, 
 has fully justified such an apprehension. 
 
 " The doctrines of Socinianism," we are told, 
 " are no longer regarded as strange in Sweden ; 
 and they are admired there, as a proof of the ele- 
 vation of thought at which the human mind can 
 arrive." 3 The Catechisms, one of the surest tokens 
 of a people's faith, are said to change frequently, 
 and to suppress fundamental truths which even 
 the Confession of Augsburg contained. The sacra- 
 ments of Baptism and the Eucharist are commonly 
 
 1 " En effet les principes de Luther sont incompatibiles avec cet 
 ordre hierarchique ; et 1'episcopat de Suede et de Danemarck est 
 essentiellement different de celui d'Angleterre." Moehler, La Sym- 
 bolique, 51. tome ii. p. 146. The authors of these countries appear 
 indeed to speak of the Episcopate in much the same language as 
 those of France and Geneva : " Ab aristocratia Episcopal! in Pon- 
 tificalem despotismum regimen Ecclesiae transiit." Eric. Gustav. 
 Geyer. Dissert. Academ. Upsal. Preside E. M. Fant. (1806.) Cf. 
 Benzelii Dissert, de Can. Apost. torn. i. pp. 138 et seq. : and see also 
 Miinter De Schola AntiocJiena. 
 
 3 Vide Maimbourg, ann. 1523 ; and Sleidan, lib. viii. ann. 1531. 
 
 3 Memorial Catholique, torn. vi. pp. 130, 131 ; De VEtat Reli- 
 gieux de la Suede. These notices of Sweden are taken from a journal 
 published at Strasbourg, and entitled Der Kathotih, eine religiose 
 Zeitschrift zur Bekhrung und Warming.
 
 480 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 regarded as mere forms ; the first being often inde- 
 finitely postponed from careless indifference, the 
 result of doctrinal error. 
 
 A writer at Stockholm, in the year 1819, says : 
 " The efforts of the Lutheran doctors of Sweden 
 to refute Socinianism shew plainly enough that its 
 impious doctrines are widely spread in that country. 
 But there is nothing more feeble than the argu- 
 ments which men, reasoning upon the principles of 
 the reformed doctrine, are compelled to make use 
 of in controversy with the Socinians. They accuse 
 them of interpreting according to their own caprice, 
 against the testimony of past ages, various texts of 
 Scripture, and of wresting them arbitrarily to their 
 own sense. The Socinians are not much embar- 
 rassed in furnishing a reply." 1 " The edicts which 
 condemn the Socinians," says Pluquet, speaking in 
 general terms of the impossibility of a solid refu- 
 tation of heresy by a Lutheran divine, "are no 
 condemnation of their principles."* And so long 
 as these are identical, as they evidently are, with 
 those of the first " reformers," those heretics will 
 
 1 Chronique Religieuse, tome ii. p. 495. Their sermons are said 
 commonly to exclude all doctrinal questions ; upon which charac- 
 teristic of their teaching it is well observed, " on peut juger de ce 
 qu'est devenue la croyance, par le silence presque general des predi- 
 cateurs sur les dogmes, et le discredit dans lequel sont tombes les 
 livres symboliques, les confessions de foi ; dont 1'adoption obligatoire 
 heurtait directement le grand principe de la reforme, de ne recon- 
 naitre aucune autorite infaillible, et d'interpreter la Bible a sa 
 maniere." Ibid. pp. 277, 8. 
 
 2 Biographic Universelle, art. jP. Socin.
 
 IN PRUSSIA. 481 
 
 not be overcome by such antagonists as they are 
 likely to meet with amongst Protestants, whether 
 in Sweden or elsewhere. 1 
 
 X. Of the state of Prussia, in relation to 
 Rationalism and the other forms of error which 
 have been generated during the last three centu- 
 ries, something was said under the head of Ger- 
 many ; and a few words in addition may now suf- 
 fice. " We have all been engaged in free inquiry 
 for upwards of fifty years," says a writer from that 
 country, whose testimony is the less liable to sus- 
 picion because he himself appears to favour the 
 Rationalists, " and we have now few amongst us 
 who conform exactly to our own nominal creeds? 
 
 1 It may be added, that a modern, and apparently an ultra-pro- 
 testant traveller, has said, " As regards the influence of religion on 
 morals and conduct in private life, I conceive the Reformation has 
 not worked beneficially in Sweden . . . the Reformation, as far as 
 regards the moral condition of the Swedish people, has done harm 
 rather than good." Laing's Tour in Sweden in 1838, chap. iv. 
 pp. 124, 5. 
 
 2 Even Mosheim, speaking of the gradual declension of the 
 Lutheran symbolical writings, says, " hence arose that unbounded 
 liberty, which is at this day enjoyed by all who are not invested 
 with the character of public teachers (and not by them only), of 
 dissenting from the decisions of these symbols or creeds, and of 
 declaring this dissent in the manner they judge most expedient. 
 The case was very different in former times. Whoever ventured to 
 oppose any of the received doctrines of the Church, or to spread 
 new religious opinions among the people, was called before the high 
 powers to give an account of his conduct, and very rarely escaped 
 without suffering in his fortune or reputation, unless he renounced 
 his innovations. But the teachers of novel doctrines had nothing 
 to apprehend, when, towards the conclusion of this century the 
 
 I I
 
 482 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 It is indeed impossible in Prussia, where, since the 
 union of the Lutherans with the other Reformed 
 Churches, we no longer know what creed we profess. 1 
 Here, every one who thinks on the subject has his 
 own private opinion ; and it would be impossible 
 to say where rational Christianity begins, or where 
 it ends. Every one has formed his individual con- 
 clusion as to the essentials of Christianity, and as 
 to what is essential." 2 And, as we have seen else- 
 where, each individual Lutheran asserts his own 
 proper right to do this, as an inalienable portion 
 of the inheritance which was bequeathed to him 
 by the founder of the Protestant religion. 
 
 " The miracles of our Lord," says a very dif- 
 ferent writer, speaking of the same facts, " are 
 denied to this day by some of the Professors in 
 
 17th the Lutheran churches adopted that leading maxim of the 
 Arminians, that a man may think what he likes, if he leads a 
 moral life." Ecclesiastical History, vol. v. pp. 294, 5. Compare 
 the account given by Weismann of the general state of the Reformed 
 communities in the same century ; torn. ii. p. 1116. 
 
 1 " Enfin les protestans ne savent pas meme dire qu'elle est leur 
 religion ; ils n'ont ni dogme, ni morale, ni culte commun : chacun 
 croit et pratique ce qu'il veut ; il rejette aujourd'hui ce qu'il avoit 
 admis la veille, et n'en demeure pas moins toujours protestant ! 
 Systeme commode, il est vrai, mais qui n'est pas tres propre a unir 
 les esprits, a maintenir la paix parmi les hommes, a former enfin 
 une veritable societe." Memorial Catholique, tome ii. p. 122. 
 
 4 Letter from Berlin to the Editor of the Revue Protestante, 
 dated 1 April, 1830 ; quoted in Monthly Magazine, vol. iv. p. 431 : 
 see Voyage en Allemagne et en Suede, par J. P. Catteau, tome ii. 
 ch. xlvii. p. 82 ; and Statistique EccUsiastique des Etats Prussiens, 
 tome ii. p. 54, from which it appears that the Anabaptists, once so 
 numerous, have been in a great measure absorbed into the other 
 sects.
 
 IN RUSSIA. 483 
 
 Prussia." And again : " They (in Prussia) have 
 but lately recovered Christianity ; rather, Christi- 
 anity and Infidelity in its extremest form of Pan- 
 theism are still struggling for the mastery in the 
 minds of their very teachers." 1 
 
 XI. In Russia, that we may consider the pro- 
 gress of the new doctrines under every variety of 
 outward circumstance, the same startling pheno- 
 menon is observed. " The Lutherans and Calvin- 
 ists" of that country, we are told, "are now really 
 no better, the majority of them, than infidels" 2 
 
 " The English," says another grave and learned 
 writer of the same nation, charitably lamenting the 
 sympathy which they too often manifest towards 
 these fallen Christians, " the English (in Russia) 
 will go any where to the Calvinists, for instance, 
 who generally deny or doubt about the Trinity, and 
 the Divinity of Christ, and who really have no wor- 
 ship, neither Priest, Altar, Liturgy, Consecration, 
 nor Sacraments." 3 
 
 Once more. " The English will go to the tem- 
 
 1 See A Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury , by Dr. Pusey, 
 pp. 123, 126. The Abbe Gregoire says, " en Prusse les Sociniens 
 merae ont obtenu une existence legale ;" Histoire des Sectes, torn. iii. 
 p. 303. I am not aware what is meant by ' une existence legale/ 
 unless it be that they are paid by the State, which seems hardly 
 possible, even in Prussia. 
 
 2 See the Count Pratasoff, quoted in Palmer's Illustrations of the 
 Latitudinarian Development of tfie original Calvinistic Community, 
 &c., p. 96. 
 
 3 The historian Mouravieff, in Palmer, p. 96.
 
 484 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 pies of the Lutherans, or even of the Calvinists, 
 and indeed do go there freely ; whereas I should 
 just as soon think," says an eminent Russian, " of 
 going to pray with the Mohammedans as with men 
 who have no fixed principle of belief, and most of 
 whom, if I am rightly informed (speaking of the 
 Calvinists), now deny the Divinity of our Saviour, 
 or regard it as a sort of open question /" f Such 
 have been the results in this country also of what 
 is still commonly called the " reformation" such 
 the fatal consequences of substituting a human in- 
 vention in the place of the ordinance of God. 2 
 
 1 Vide Palmer, p. 111. 
 
 2 It is worthy of notice, too, that the same law appears to have 
 marked the course of the various native sects of Russia. Gregoire 
 says of the sect of the Doukhobortses, that their separation from the 
 national church turned wholly upon a point of ecclesiastical disci- 
 pline, and they seem to have reached a wonderful state. Tzschirner, 
 as the Abbe quotes him, says they have rejected the doctrine of the 
 Holy Trinity. They too, like our brethren at home, are puritans; 
 see the Histoire des Sectes, tome iv. pp. 178, 180. The same writer 
 refers to Jules Klaproth for an account of a community of persons 
 in the range of the Caucasus, who have also discarded the doctrine 
 of the Trinity, and of whom a large number have altogether quitted 
 Christianity for Judaism, this is another extreme, tome iii. p. 351, 
 with which compare the account of the Seleznevtschini, who have 
 also become Jews, in Pinkerton's Greek Church, Appendix, p. 307. 
 Although almost all the schismatics, or Raskolniks, of "Russia, dis- 
 sented originally on the same ground, they are said to be now 
 divided into 30 or 40 different sects; King On the Greek Church, 
 p. 439, note : and another writer, himself a Russian, tells us that 
 those who have embraced Popoftshinism, or Presbyterianism, " have 
 divided, according to their individual peculiarities of opinion, into a 
 number of sects, mutually hostile to each other" a fact already 
 noticed in speaking of the same class of religionists in Scotland : see 
 Mouravieffs History of the Russian Church, chap. xiv. p. 251, 
 English translation.
 
 IN TEXAS. 485 
 
 XII. In every climate, the warm regions of the 
 south as well as the inclement latitudes of the north, 
 the character of the religious scheme which we are 
 considering is one and the same. Plant it where 
 you will, in this soil or that, under favourable cir- 
 cumstances or unfavourable, the result is uniform, 
 -its fruit is always poison. " The Protestant re- 
 ligion" in Texas, says a Texan writer, " consists of 
 negatives. Our creed (the Protestant) sits upon 
 us as light as summer air. It is of a most plastic 
 nature, suffering itself to be moulded into any form 
 or shape. There is but one simple point in it which 
 can be considered as unalterable, and in which we 
 all agree : it is, to protest. Hence comes our name ; 
 but we are now divided into so many petty schisms 
 and parties, that the whole is well nigh reduced to 
 an impalpable powder, having lost all the original 
 leaven and savour" 
 
 The writer proceeds to institute a comparison 
 between the morality of Protestants in this remote 
 part of the world and of their Roman Catholic 
 neighbours; and in this respect he claims on be- 
 half of the former religionists a decided superiority. 
 The fact may possibly be as he states it ; even 
 heathen strictness has before now rebuked the 
 laxity of professing Christians. He is also anxious 
 to say a word in defence of their creed, "plastic" 
 as it has unfortunately proved to be. " Think not," 
 he says, " that we deny the necessary articles which 
 constitute the basis of all religions;" and then he
 
 486 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 enumerates these fundamental tenets of the " Pro- 
 testant religion," " such as, the existence of a 
 Supreme Being, the spirituality of the soul, and a 
 future state of rewards and punishments. We hold 
 fast that indispensable substratum, without which 
 not even civil government could be maintained." 
 Texan Protestantism seems, therefore, to be simply 
 Deism. A late traveller says that he found what 
 he calls " these loose opinions" " universally dis- 
 seminated throughout Texas ;" and adds some cu- 
 rious particulars from his own observation. 1 
 
 XIII. The next country of whose present re- 
 ligious condition some account shall now, in the 
 last place, be given, is the United States of America. 
 And in this concluding case it may be expedient, 
 for obvious reasons, to enter rather more into de- 
 tail than in some of those which have been already 
 noticed. 
 
 It is, indeed, only at a disadvantage that such 
 a topic can be handled at all in these pages. In- 
 troduced merely as the foundation of a subsidiary 
 argument, without system or method, and left to 
 tell their own tale, the facts which are here col- 
 lected, strange and startling as they undoubtedly 
 are, cannot but lose much of their impressiveness 
 from the very mode in which they are adduced. 
 Had it been possible in this place, as it would cer- 
 
 1 See N. D. Maillard's History of the Republic of Texas, pp. 
 215-18.
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 487 
 
 tainly have been most useful, to trace minutely 
 their sequence and mutual relation ; had there 
 been space to examine accurately their history, 
 and to connect them in every case with the prin- 
 ciples of which they are the expression and result, 
 then, perhaps, it is not too much to say, that 
 this extraordinary series of facts would have gone 
 far to convert into an axiom the great verity of 
 which they are here rather designed to form a 
 supplementary illustration, than as in truth they 
 adequately might a complete and independent 
 demonstration. 
 
 And this remark applies especially to the par- 
 ticular case which is now about to be considered. 
 To arrange and comment upon, within the com- 
 pass of a few pages, the large mass of facts with 
 regard to the existing religious condition of the 
 United States, which has been collected during an 
 inquiry prolonged through almost five years, this, 
 of course, would be altogether impossible. A few 
 separate and detached specimens are all that can 
 be given ; and the advantage which would result 
 from a more extended and careful arrangement 
 must, in this place at least, be abandoned. 
 
 It is in America, if in any country in the world, 
 that the principles of Protestantism may be said 
 to have had fair play. And to America, accord- 
 ingly, it has been the fashion with the advocates of 
 those principles to refer for an illustration of their 
 genuine results. In accepting the appeal which
 
 4-88 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 has thus been made by Protestants to the aspect 
 of their religion in that powerful republic, we must 
 acknowledge that it has been frankly and openly 
 offered. We are going to meet them, therefore, 
 upon the ground of their own choice. And if, as 
 the puritan hypothesis assumes, the theology of 
 the teachers of the sixteenth century was based 
 upon the eternal principles of truth ; if the religious 
 systems then established were framed according to 
 the type and model of the Apostolical Institution, 
 then may we confidently expect at least in 
 America to witness the evidence of these asser- 
 tions. For it is in the highest degree unreason- 
 able to imagine, as even the adversaries will readily 
 admit, that a revival so divine and wonderful as 
 that which their theory supposes, should be accom- 
 panied by no results ; or that God, having ordained 
 a new system for the restoration of those Scripture- 
 truths which the Church during fifteen ages had 
 only corrupted and obscured, should again permit 
 this further and special dispensation utterly to fail 
 in effecting its purpose ; and having interfered for 
 the preservation of sound doctrine, should if one 
 may dare to say it have interfered in vain. In 
 this case, therefore, as in those already considered, 
 we are to inquire into the results of the religious 
 principles in question, and to examine their actual 
 development ; and this we may proceed to do with 
 a just expectation, founded upon the representa- 
 tions of their advocates, that they will be found to
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 489 
 
 be in the direction of truth, fixedness, and order, 
 and to exhibit the accomplishment of the grand 
 purposes of an ecclesiastical organisation assumed 
 to be of Divine appointment, namely, purity and 
 constancy of doctrine, and an approximation at 
 least towards unity the most complete and un- 
 broken. 
 
 The facts, however, connected with the history 
 of Protestantism in America are the direct reverse 
 of all this, and present a picture of confusion, he- 
 resy, and impiety, of which no words can exagge- 
 rate the hideous features. 1 Shocking as are the 
 accounts already given of the progress of error 
 in other lands, they are altogether exceeded and 
 surpassed in this case. And so early did the real 
 character of the Protestant theology begin to shew 
 itself in this country, that we are able to trace 
 
 1 " A spirit of misrule, of impiety, of infidelity, of licentious- 
 ness," says Bishop Onderdonk, " is stalking throughout the length 
 and breadth of our land, threatening ruin to every interest con- 
 nected with individual, domestic, social, and civil welfare. It must 
 be resisted, it must be kept at bay, it must be crushed, or we are 
 a ruined people" Sermon preached at the consecration of Christ 
 Church. Professor Stephens, of the Nashville University, echoes, 
 in very eloquent terms, the same prediction. See the New York 
 Churchman, vol. ix. no. 12. Even a dissenter, reviewing the poli- 
 tical and religious condition of Canada, is constrained to ask, " What 
 have we gained ? Why, confusion, and trembling, and infidelity 
 if not eventually ruin. Again, look at the neighbouring republic, 
 and who does not see that it must come to pieces 1 What tie upon 
 earth is there to hold it together ? Their religion is all sectarian, 
 and therefore a matter rather of disunion than union to the mass of 
 the people," &c. See Ten Letters on the Church and Church Esta- 
 blishments, by an Anglo-Canadian, Letter ix. p. 60.
 
 490 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 some of its worst and most evil results to the very 
 persons who first introduced it. It was in New 
 England, as is well known, that the Puritans who 
 fled out of their own land, from impatience of 
 goodly discipline and wholesome restraint, or, 
 as they phrased it, from abhorrence of " religious 
 persecution," and in order to enjoy the " rights 
 of conscience," first sought and found a refuge. 
 The earliest form which their religion, no longer 
 subject to control, assumed, was Presbyterianism ; 
 this, however, soon gave way to Independency, 
 which in its turn was superseded by the scheme of 
 the Anabaptists. 1 And we are told that when the 
 men had exhausted their skill in invention, and 
 none could be found to devise any additional ex- 
 travagance, then " the women undertook a further 
 reformation," and proposed new plans. 2 And if we 
 go on to inquire into the present condition of the 
 vast body of the descendants of those Puritans who 
 first settled in New England, it appears, from the 
 unsuspicious statement of one who is described to 
 me as " an eminent congregational minister and a 
 friend of Dr. Taylor," the author of what is called 
 the " New-Haven Theology," that " of all the con- 
 gregational ministers in New England, there are 
 
 1 " Qui religionis expertes sunt," says Salvian, " cum rnutave- 
 runt sectam, mutare incipiunt disciplinam." De Gubernat. Dei, 
 lib. vi. p. 147. 
 
 2 Robertson has given a very true account of these sectaries, in 
 his History of America, book x. p. 324 : they sunk at last into 
 Antinomianism ; p. 328.
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 491 
 
 not probably, at this day, twenty-five who believe 
 the doctrines of the Nicene Creed." 1 
 
 It is impossible, as I have already observed, to 
 attempt to trace here the progress of the apostacy 
 through all its various stages. The best course, 
 perhaps, which can be pursued, consistently with 
 the limits of these pages, will be to notice (1) the 
 origin of some of the leading sects of the United 
 States ; (2) to describe the actual condition of these 
 communities at the present moment; and (3) to 
 give some account of the general progress and pre- 
 valence of Socinianism, and other extreme forms of 
 error into which religion in that country has been 
 developed. This is all which can be attempted in 
 the way of systematic arrangement. 
 
 (1.) We may begin with the sect of the Bap- 
 tists, said to be "the prevailing denomination in 
 the^ United States, and numbering at the present 
 time nearly four millions of adherents. " The Bap- 
 tist ministry in this country, as we learn from 
 Benedict the Baptist historian, originated in the 
 following manner. Roger Williams, a presbyterian 
 member, adopted baptist sentiments, and urged 
 them upon others, till he persuaded several men 
 to embrace them. They formed themselves into a 
 
 1 " Men are astonished and dismayed to find," says a distin- 
 guished modern witness to catholic truth, " that the Calvinistic 
 churches of Geneva, of England, of Ireland, and of Germany in 
 part, and of New England, having set out with the very highest 
 doctrine of grace, have in the course of a few generations utterly 
 lost it, and the fire upon their altars is indeed extinct." Gladstone, 
 Church Principles in their Result, p. 185.
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 church, chose him for their minister, and two other 
 men for deacons." Having advanced thus far, the 
 founders of this "church" appear to have got into 
 a difficulty; and the way by which they escaped 
 from what certainly threatened to be a fatal embar- 
 rassment to their infant community is worthy of 
 notice. " None of them," continues their histo- 
 rian, "had ever been immersed. So the deacons 
 baptised Williams, and ordained him, and then he 
 baptised the deacons and the others. He after- 
 wards formed other churches, and ordained minis- 
 ters ; that order has descended down, and branched 
 out into a variety of denominations ; and" (the 
 writer adds) "the ministers have as much right 
 now to ordain or administer ordinances as the first 
 two deacons had before they were baptised, or as 
 any unbaptised persons have at this day." 1 That 
 such a history should be true might seem abso- 
 lutely impossible to persons unacquainted with the 
 nature of the modern religions; yet such was in- 
 deed the origin of a community of Christians now 
 numbering nearly four millions ! 
 
 The " Episcopal Methodists," the next sect to 
 be noticed, are said to include about two millions. 
 Their origin is thus described : " About fifty years 
 ago, Coke persuaded Wesley, then past eighty 
 years old, to constitute him superintendent of the 
 Methodists in America. In a private chamber of a 
 
 1 Quoted in the Church Advocate, vol. i. no. 7. p. 28 (Lexing- 
 ton, Kentucky).
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 493 
 
 public-house at Bristol in England, with but a few 
 individuals present, he laid his hands upon Coke, 
 and invoked a blessing upon him, as he was in 
 the habit of doing with his preachers. Coke came 
 to this country, called himself a Bishop, ordained 
 others, and spread the order extensively in our 
 land. After he had done this, Mr. Wesley wrote 
 him a letter of severe reproof, told him that he 
 never pretended to be a Bishop himself, nor in- 
 tended to make him a Bishop, and charged him 
 with pride and presumption in assuming the title. 
 Coke appears to have been so moved by this letter, 
 and by his own sense of propriety, as to propose 
 that he and his brother bishops would come and 
 be ordained by our Bishops. But our Bishops re- 
 quired that, in that case, all their clergy should be 
 ordained again ; this they would not promise ; and 
 so the negotiation ended." 1 And now, says an 
 American writer, "the Methodists are numerous 
 in all parts of the country. They have more than 
 three thousand travelling preachers, who are under 
 the superintendence of six bishops," 2 and "their 
 
 1 Church Advocate, ubi supra. 
 
 * " It turns out, that the Episcopal principle is the pervading 
 and ruling element of our whole religious public at this moment 
 the announcement of which, no doubt, will take many by surprise. 
 But a single glance at facts will shew that it is indeed so .... we 
 find the entire religious population, including every denomination of 
 importance, associated and organised into systematic bodies, super- 
 vised and controlled by a few individuals, and all based on the Epis- 
 copal principle, and that in most cases in the most absolute and 
 energetic form." Colton's Thoughts on the Religious State of the 
 Country, chap. iii. p. 98 ; New York, 1830.
 
 494 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 numbers are increasing." Such is the statement of 
 one of the most trustworthy writers of their own 
 land ; l and thus this vast body of religionists traces 
 its origin to a pseudo-bishop, severely rebuked for 
 his pride and folly by the very man from whom 
 alone he professed to derive his orders, admonished 
 by that person that he himself neither possessed 
 nor pretended to communicate any such authority, 
 and a witness against his own sin in having sjjgd at 
 the hands of others for that very office, to which 
 he thus acknowledged himself to have no claim. 
 And yet the members of this ridiculous sect, who 
 are living under a system as palpably of human 
 invention as any one of the purely secular schemes 
 of human policy, live and die in the belief that they 
 have been grafted into the Body of Christ, the One 
 Holy Catholic Church of the Apostles' Creed ! 
 
 Of the origin of Presbyterianism and Congrega- 
 
 - - 9 n " _ 
 
 tionalism, both systems being mainly referrible to 
 
 the old Puritans, it is not necessary to speak parti- 
 cularly. We may proceed, therefore, at once, to 
 give some account of the working of these sects, as 
 well as of the other two just noticed. 
 
 (2.) And in describing the working of Presby- 
 terianism in America, I gladly avail myself of the 
 testimony of a writer to whose qualifications as a 
 witness no exception can be made ; who has been, 
 in the course of his 'ministry,' both a Congrega- 
 
 1 See Caswall's America and the American Church, chap, xviii. 
 p. 317.
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 495 
 
 tionalist and a Presbyterian, and who, speaking of 
 his intimate knowledge of " the practical operation 
 of Presbyterianism in all its parts," says, " I had 
 seen it in all its forms in a pastoral life of ten years 
 .... I was intimately concerned in the revision of 
 the statutes of the Presbyterian Church, as a mem- 
 ber of the General Assembly for two years while 
 that business was in hand ; and I have sat as 
 Moderator of different courts employed in public 
 investigations and trials under these laws, in all, 
 many weeks, not to say months, and in some in- 
 stances several days in succession." 1 The evidence 
 of such a person must be accepted, then, by both 
 sides. 
 
 Now I have said that one of the effects of such 
 a system as, by hypothesis, that of Calvin is repre- 
 sented to be, ought to be fixedness and uniformity 
 of doctrinal teaching. A special revelation would 
 hardly be made only to teach different creeds. Let 
 us, therefore, hear our author first on this point. 
 
 " The great diversity" he says, " and not un- 
 frequent extravagance of creeds, introduced into 
 the Presbyterian and Congregational connexions, 
 is a sad and, for any thing I can see, an irremedi- 
 able evil. I mean the creeds of every several com- 
 monwealth or church. I am aware that the prin- 
 ciple of the Presbyterian Church of the United 
 States is, that all its separate organisations or con- 
 gregations shall adopt and subscribe to the creed 
 
 1 Colton, chap. i. p. 28.
 
 496 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 of the Directory, as determined and ordered by the 
 General Assembly ; but such is not the fact ; and 
 the congregations have too much independence to 
 conform to that rule, where they have not done 
 it from the beginning. All the Congregational 
 churches of New England are associated under 
 such articles of faith as were drawn up for them by 
 the clergyman who originally organised them into a 
 body, except, as in some instances, they have been 
 remodelled. The same is the fact extensively 
 through the bounds of the Presbyterian denomi- 
 nation. The diversity cannot, I think, be less than 
 some hundreds ; and each one is shaped, with mi- 
 nute exactness, according to the theological model 
 of the head that formed it, as a Hopkinsian, as a 
 New-light, as a moderate or high Calvinist, as an 
 Old or a New-school man, with all the grades be- 
 tween these extremes, from the time of Jonathan 
 Edwards down to this present ; and some of them 
 far higher and far lower than either of these. From 
 the known scrupulosity of divines of these two 
 great denominations in all such matters, it cannot 
 be a subject of surprise, that this great variety of 
 creeds should be guarded and defended on cer- 
 tain points, most dear to the authors, in a manner 
 somewhat extravagant and impressive. Such, in a 
 great diversity of instances, have I found them to 
 be. At one time I have been pleased, at another 
 amused, at another astonished, at another morti- 
 fied. One can hardly go from one town to another,
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 497 
 
 although he is in the same denomination, without 
 finding a different creed ; unless he may happen to 
 fall into the track of a minister or missionary who 
 organised several churches, and of course gave to 
 each the same ; though I have actually found them 
 varying even in such a case, on former missionary 
 ground in the western parts of New York. I have 
 myself organised some ten to fifteen churches, 
 giving them creeds drawn up by my own hand, 
 which varied from each other, according as, by 
 more thinking on the subject, I supposed 1 could 
 improve their forms." 1 After more of this kind, 
 the writer pointedly adds, " How different this from 
 the practice of a Church which has the same creed 
 throughout the land, and that creed in every man's, 
 in every woman's, and in every child's hand!" 2 
 
 Such being the working of Presbyterianism in 
 this momentous particular, we may inquire next 
 into its tendencies to maintain unity of another 
 sort the external bond, namely, of peace and 
 good order. Of "the present state of the Pres- 
 byterian church" in this respect, the same author 
 says, " Churches are divided ; Presbyteries are di- 
 vided ; Synods are divided ; the General Assembly 
 is divided ; and the whole denomination, composed 
 of more than 2000 ministers, nearly 3000 churches, 
 
 1 Kal ov iravTa\ov 8oy/i<m' rouro, iraXivrpoTros yap (art TTJV irioriv 
 KOI 7ro\vpop<f>os. S. Eulogii Alexandr. Orat. ap. Photii Biblioth. 
 no. 230. 
 
 1 Colton, chap. ii. pp. 03-05. 
 
 K K
 
 498 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 more than 250,000 communicants, having allied to 
 them a population falling probably not much short 
 of 2,000,000, is in violent agitation and conflict 
 with itself party against party all originating 
 from two great and leading facts, totally unlike, 
 uncongenial, and meeting, as extremes frequently 
 do, not in this instance for coincidence, but for 
 collision. It is extreme looseness in doctrine and 
 practice on the one hand, and a violent attempt to 
 coerce it into orthodoxy and order on the other. 
 The first seems to me to be the natural result of 
 such an organisation, when the body gets to be 
 large ; and the last an impracticable theory, ap- 
 plied to remedy the evil, but doomed apparently to 
 produce only concussion and dissolution. ... It 
 seems to be apparent that the Presbyterian organi- 
 sation has in it the germ of perpetual strife . . . the 
 essential elements of collision ; and the uniform 
 result, as actually developed, is no disappointment, 
 but a fulfilment of its tendencies." 1 
 
 Elsewhere the writer says, "Just at this mo- 
 ment, another grand explosion seems ready to 
 burst upon us, and the Presbyterian church of 
 the United States is in all probability to be rent 
 in twain, if not broken into several fragments." 2 
 Without pursuing more minutely the important 
 statements of this author as to the true character of 
 the system with which he was so well acquainted, 3 
 1 p. 66. 2 p. 204. 
 
 3 And of which he gives a description, which, in spite of certain
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 499 
 
 we may proceed to notice the fulfilment of his 
 prediction as to the destinies of American Presby- 
 terianism. " They have just been afflicted," says 
 
 peculiarities of American sentiment and language, is worthy of the 
 most attentive perusal. Nothing can be more convincing than the 
 temperate account of this author, as to the total failure of the Pres- 
 byterian system to effect any of the purposes for which the Church 
 alone, in the strength of her divine commission, has ever been ade- 
 quate. For (1) that system is shewn to have no power to check 
 error, however extravagant. " A woman," Mr. Colton says, speak- 
 ing of what has actually occurred, " could disturb a church, and a 
 man could overthrow it ; a bad and viciously disposed minister could 
 bid defiance to his brethren, and lay waste religious societies, for 
 want of authority to arrest his career;" p. 175. (2) It is a system 
 in which the teachers are slaves to the taught. " They are literally 
 the victims of a spiritual tyranny, that has started up and burst 
 upon the world in a new form at least with an extent of sway that 
 has never been known. It is an influence which comes up from the 
 lowest conditions of life, which is vested in the most ignorant minds, 
 and therefore the more unbending and uncontrollable ;" p. 138. 
 (3) Professing to discard forms, it is in fact a system of " common- 
 place, crude, undigested forms. The Presbyterian, the Congrega- 
 tionalist, the Methodist, the Baptist, all have their forms, their set 
 
 forms It is form from beginning to end in the order and in 
 
 the matter except, perhaps, as recently, and to a wide extent, bold 
 attempts have been made to break down all order and all form 
 by the habitual introduction and rapid succession of startling and 
 shocking novelties." So that now the only question is, as expe- 
 rience has proved, whether men shall have forms " carefully and 
 prudently" (he should have said " divinely") " provided, and 
 collected from such sources as the purest and best devotional writ- 
 ings and manuals, produced by Apostles, Saints, and Martyrs, from 
 the day of Pentecost to this time ; or shall be doomed to the far 
 more defective, the much more exceptionable, and the sometimes 
 offensive, startling, and shocking forms, entailed upon us by loose 
 unauthorised customs, and doled out in such measure and parts as 
 may be convenient to the memory, or as may suit the feelings and 
 taste of the minister for the time being;" pp. 117-20. (4) Lastly, 
 Presbyterianism in America has been fruitful at once of schisms and 
 intolerance, beyond the example, perhaps, of any other sect in any 
 part of the world. " It has made our land," Mr. Colton says, and
 
 500 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 another writer, speaking of this body only two 
 years later, " with another schism, the most exten- 
 sive which they have experienced. In May 1838, 
 the General Assembly divided into two sects of 
 almost equal strength, containing about 1200 mi- 
 nisters respectively. The schism arose from the 
 old controversy between the adherents of the old 
 and new schools ; and there are now two represen- 
 tative bodies, each of which declares itself to be 
 the General Assembly!" 1 
 
 The New-school Presbyterians are now thought 
 to be the most numerous of these sects ; " and 
 they," as I am informed by an eminent American 
 clergyman, writing in the year 1841, "together 
 with the Congregationalists of New England, deny 
 the doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son 
 of God." The development of Presbyterianism 
 in New England appears indeed to have reached 
 a climax. " The more intelligent class of New- 
 Englanders," says another American writer, "have 
 become tired and disgusted with the shadows and 
 metaphysics of religion" (alluding to the theolo- 
 
 he regards this as one of its characteristic properties, " literally to 
 swarm with religious sects. No part of Christendom has been so 
 prolific in this product as our country. It might almost be said to 
 be our religious staple. This land of freedom has in this particular 
 proved most intolerant ; and intolerance has multiplied schisms like 
 
 the locusts of Egypt It is a singular fact, that these two 
 
 extremes, viz., a boast of religious freedom, and a persevering effort 
 to strangle it, should have characterised the religious history of this 
 country ;" pp. 204, 5. 
 
 1 Caswall, chap, xviii. p. 318.
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 501 
 
 gical systems of the various sectarian teachers) ; 
 "they have seen their practical tendency to run 
 into Unitarianism, Universalism, or what is per- 
 haps still more common, into infidelity." He adds, 
 that " infidelity has made rapid strides in that part 
 of the country during the last twenty years ; and 
 that, at present, not one half of the adult popula- 
 tion are in the habit of attending any religious 
 worship, or even belong to any Christian sect. I 
 am able to state this from statistical facts, gathered 
 by clergymen (of all denominations) from different 
 parts of the New-England states. In conversation 
 lately with a physician from a county in Connec- 
 ticut, whose practice extends through nearly the 
 whole county, and whose acquaintance with the 
 people is not surpassed by that of any man in the 
 state, he remarked, ' I am surprised to find how 
 prevalent infidel opinions are among the farmers of 
 Connecticut. It is very common to find the works 
 of Paine, and other infidel writings, making up 
 nearly the whole of their libraries, and with many 
 the French Philosophical Dictionary is a sort of 
 vade-mecum. The metaphysics of divinity, and 
 the fanaticism of the New-school revivalists, have 
 latterly tended to the rapid spread of sceptical no- 
 tions ; and if things go on for the next fifty years 
 as they have done for the last twenty, Connecticut 
 will be as noted for infidelity as she has been, infor- 
 mer days, for puritanical strictness'" The writer 
 proceeds thus : " I was not at all surprised to hear
 
 502 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 this testimony, as it coincided with ray own obser- 
 vation. In Massachusetts, the tendency of the 
 popular mind has been more towards Unitarianism 
 than infidelity, owing to the influence of a few 
 powerful minds exerted in support of its doctrines ; 
 but in other states, for the want of a half-way 
 house, they have gone the whole distance, from 
 unintelligible metaphysics to open infidelity." 1 
 
 The Baptist sects, although by far the most 
 numerous of all, are said to have but little influ- 
 ence on the mass of society, " on account of their 
 divisions and their uneducated ministry." They 
 are divided into numerous parties, including the 
 old Calvinistic Baptists, the Free-will, the Seventh- 
 day, the Six-principle, the Christian, who altoge- 
 ther deny the proper divinity of our Lord, and the 
 Campbellite Baptists. The latter sect was founded 
 some years ago by a preacher named Campbell, 
 who began to introduce among them the Socinian 
 heresy. To aid in its dissemination, he recom- 
 mended an improved version of the New Testa- 
 ment. 2 He has been eminently successful in draw- 
 
 1 Quoted in the New York Churchman, vol. ix. 110. 25. 
 
 8 The Baptists having, as it seems, already one of their own. 
 The Canadian Methodist before quoted says, " I cannot shut my 
 eyes to the fact, that we have not from them (the dissenters), and 
 cannot have, any security that the sacred volume will not be cor- 
 rupted under the pretence of more correct translations, &c. : already 
 we have had to lament over a whole host of attacks on the authorised 
 version, evidently manifesting, that were it not for those Christian 
 enactments which in Britain prevent the ready publishing of spu- 
 rious editions, we should have been overrun with them ; as it is, we 
 have had the garbled ' New Version ' of the Unitarians, and, in the
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 503 
 
 ing away whole congregations from the old Bap- 
 tists, and it is thought that " the Campbellites " are 
 now the more numerous of the two in the Western 
 States. 1 The most prominent Campbellite preacher 
 in the southern country was formerly a Presby- 
 terian Elder. The latest improvement upon the 
 Baptist heresy is Mormonism. 2 
 
 A schism took place in the Methodist denomi- 
 nation in the year 1830 ; the separating body, who 
 style themselves Protestant Methodists, going out 
 upon the principle that the laity ought to be ad- 
 mitted to share in the government of ecclesiastical 
 affairs. It is a curious fact, that the spurious 
 Episcopacy of this American sect claims and exer- 
 cises a more extensive and unquestioned authority 
 over an immense body of members than perhaps 
 any ecclesiastical rulers hitherto recognised among 
 
 United States, the translation by the Baptists, purposely designed 
 to support their peculiar views ; besides many others oi'a like nature. 
 Of the same stamp was the Liverpool Liturgy, published by the 
 Presbyterians in 1692; of which Mr. Orton says, ' It is scarcely a 
 Christian Liturgy; in the Collects the name of Christ is hardly 
 mentioned, and the Spirit is quite banished from it.'" Ten Letters 
 on the Church and Church Establishments, Letter vii. p. 45 ; Toronto, 
 1839. 
 
 1 " The Socinians have now spread extensively through nearly 
 all the northern, southern, eastern, and western states, and are at 
 this day (1823) the most numerous of all the General Baptists." 
 Letter x. p. 72. 
 
 z It is unnecessary to do more here, with respect to this extra- 
 ordinary imposture, than to mention Mr. Caswall's History of Mor- 
 monism. That gentleman refers its success, in some measure, to a 
 reaction from the prevailing low sentiments on the doctrine of Bap- 
 tism. Bishop Kemper said, as late as Jan. 7, 1841, " Morraonism 
 continues to increase."
 
 504 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 professing Christians. 1 I am informed, upon the 
 highest American authority, that " the great body 
 of Methodists, following Dr. A. Clarke, have de- 
 parted from the true doctrine of the Trinity." 
 Their method of keeping up the religious excite- 
 ment which belongs to their system deserves no- 
 tice. " Their camp-meetings," says Mr. Caswall, 
 "often present the most extraordinary spectacles 
 of enthusiasm. Sermons and exhortations succeed 
 each other in quick succession ; the most lively 
 hymns are sung, perhaps for an hour together. 
 The people become powerfully excited ; they shout 
 'Glory' and 'Amen;' they scream, jump, roar, 
 and clap their hands, and even fall into swoons, 
 convulsions, and death-like trances. 2 And all this 
 is supposed by many to be the immediate work of 
 the divine Spirit!" 3 
 
 It is to these monstrous extravagances, among 
 other causes, that the spread of infidel opinions is 
 often ascribed even by American writers. 4 Their 
 
 1 " Presbyterian and Congregational ministers must, will, and 
 do have their leaders self-appointed heads ; heads who do every 
 thing by the rule of their own heads. ' God sends us Bishops, 
 whether we will have them or not ;' and the mischief is, when we 
 refuse them, that they force themselves upon us under a system 
 which often originates in their own whims; at best, a system of 
 their own devising, and which changes with every new comer." 
 Colton, Thoughts on the Religious State of the Country, chap. iii. 
 pp. 85, 86. 
 
 2 IlopvT) yap e<TTiv f] atpea-is, rais ^ycwT^/iei/aty f/Sovals yor)Tevov<ra. 
 S. Greg. Nyssen. In suam Ordinationem Orat. torn. ii. p. 43. 
 
 3 America and the American Church, fh. xviii. p. 317. Mr. Cas- 
 wall seems to hope that they are " changing for the better." 
 
 4 One of them observes, that the dreadful effect of the ' Re-
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 505 
 
 effects appear to be of a very fearful character ; and 
 we can only hope that we ourselves are looking on 
 at a safe distance from the wild revels of which 
 this republic of sectaries is the theatre. 
 
 The sect of Quakers has progressed according 
 to the same law which marks the course of all the 
 rest. " The Quaker Societies in the United States," 
 we are told, " are 462, among whom there has 
 been a schism, one party being called orthodox, 
 and the other Socinians :" this writer makes them 
 equal in number, and puts the Socinian preachers 
 of the sect at 23 1. 1 I am informed that they are, 
 at the present day, as three to one. 
 
 (3.) It is time now to speak of the spread of 
 Socinianism in general ; and first, of the state- 
 ments of its own advocates. The "Executive 
 Committee of the American Unitarian Association " 
 published in 1827 the following " Report :" " The 
 Committee have been gratified by the sympathy 
 expressed for them in the prosecution of their 
 
 ligious revivals' " may be styled the maladie du pays, for it is 
 literally and unfortunately such." American Criticisms on Mrs, 
 Trollope's l Manners of the Americans? p. 14. See also Burder's 
 Religious Ceremonies, where an account of them still more shocking 
 and ludicrous is given. 
 
 1 Vide Church and State in America, by G. C. Colton, p. 8 
 (1834). Mosheim says, " the European Quakers dare not so far 
 presume upon the indulgence of the civil and ecclesiastical powers 
 as to deny openly the reality of the history of the life, mediation, 
 and sufferings of Christ ; but in America, where they have nothing 
 to fear, they are said to express themselves without ambiguity upon 
 this subject, and to maintain publicly, that Christ never existed but 
 in the hearts of the faithful." Ecclesiastical History, vol. v. p. 470.
 
 506 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 duties by Unitarians near and at a distance. They 
 have been favoured with letters from Maine, New 
 Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Rhode Island, 
 from all sections in this state, from the city of New 
 York, and from the western part of the state of 
 New York, from Philadelphia, Harrisburg, North- 
 umberland, Pittsburg, and Meadville in Pennsyl- 
 vania ; from Maryland, from the district of Colum- 
 bia, from South Carolina, from Kentucky, and from 
 Indiana. In all these letters the same interest 
 is exhibited in the efforts which the Association 
 promises to make for the diffusion of pure Chris- 
 tianity." 
 
 Again, describing their numerical strength : " Of 
 New England it would be difficult to speak with 
 certainty. There are, in almost every town, Unita- 
 rians ; in many towns of Massachusetts they con- 
 stitute the majority, and in many more they have 
 respectable though not large churches ; but in far 
 the greater number of parishes in New England 
 they are still blended with other sects. The number 
 of these silent Unitarians is increasing, and, at the 
 same time, more are manifesting a determination 
 to assert their rights as citizens and as Christians. 
 The Committee conceive that they have sufficient 
 evidence of the increase of Unitarians in New Eng- 
 land, especially in Maine, in some parts of New 
 Hampshire, and in the valley of the Connecticut 
 in Massachusetts. They say this gladly, but not 
 boastingly. The progress of correct opinions has
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 507 
 
 been more rapid than their supporters could have 
 expected for them. They are introducing them- 
 selves into every village. ... In the middle states, 
 also, Unitarianism is constantly acquiring new ad- 
 herents. The erection of a second church in New 
 York, the increased prosperity of the society in 
 Philadelphia, and the commencement of a build- 
 ing for Unitarian worship in Harrisburg, the seat 
 of government of Pennsylvania, are auspicious cir- 
 cumstances. From the southern and western divi- 
 sions of our land, it is presumed that future corre- 
 spondence and the communications of agents will 
 furnish intelligence equally gratifying. We are 
 assured that the society in Charleston, South Ca- 
 rolina, continues to prosper, that there are several 
 churches in North Carolina, and that Unitarians 
 are numerous in the states which lie west of the 
 Alleghany mountains." 1 This is indeed a fearful 
 statement, and it is confirmed unhappily by the 
 testimony of others, who would very gladly deny 
 it if they could. 2 
 
 1 First Annual Report of the Executive Committee of the Ame- 
 rican Unitarian Association, 1827. In their third Annual Report 
 they state that they have circulated, during the preceding year, 
 74,300 Tracts ! 
 
 8 M. De Beaumont, on his return to France from the United 
 States, observed of the Socinians, that they are " the philosophers 
 of the United States ;" and then, referring to the effects of ' phi- 
 losophy' in France, he adds, "in America it labours at the same 
 work the destruction of religion and its ministers but is obliged 
 to veil its operations under a cloak of religion. Its mantle is the 
 Unitarian doctrine." Quoted in the Church Advocate, vol. i. p. 70. 
 Mr. Potter stated in the House of Commons, August 0, 1833, that
 
 508 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 A few words, in the last place, upon Universal- 
 ism, another of those monstrous forms of error 
 which the religion of "the Bible and the Bible 
 -only" has generated in America. "This strange 
 creed maintains 1 that neither temporal nor eternal 
 death are consequences of sin .... it denies that 
 the death of Christ was properly an atonement . . . 
 it denies the supreme divinity of our Lord, the 
 distinct personality and divinity of the Holy Spirit, 
 and the doctrine of the Trinity." In a word, it 
 denies almost every article of the Christian faith. 
 And to this deadly heresy, as to almost every 
 other, Presbyterianism, in its various forms, ap- 
 pears to have been the stepping-stone. The 
 founder of Universalism was John Murray, a 
 
 he could declare that the spread of Unitarian opinions in America 
 had been rapid. There was now hardly a town in that vast country 
 in which there was not a Unitarian Chapel ; in the large towns two, 
 and in the town of Boston there were no fewer than sixteen pro- 
 fessing Unitarian belief." " In England," says the writer who 
 quotes these words, " these semi-infidels are poor and weak ; in 
 America, they are many, and rich, and strong." Ten Letters on 
 the Church, Sfc., Letter x. p. 72. A writer quoted by Colton, who 
 enumerates instances of a successful opposition to the ravages of 
 this devouring heresy, says, " the Legislature of the State was under 
 its control, and all important public offices of the commonwealth 
 were monopolised by it ; until it was discouraging enough for any 
 one to think of aspiring to place unless he were an Unitarian." 
 Church and State in America, p. 39. Cf. Remarks on the Moral 
 and Religious Character of the U. S. of America, p. 51 (1831); and 
 Capt. B. Hall's Travels in the United States, vol. ii. ch. vi., who 
 observes, that "the religious institutions of the country harmonise 
 with every thing else." 
 
 1 See Universalism as it is, by Edwin F. Hatfield, p. 33 ; New 
 York, 1841.
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 509 
 
 Wesleyan preacher. 1 Its leading advocates have 
 been, " Elnathan Winchester, a popular preacher 
 of the Baptist sect ; Dr. Joseph Huntington, pas- 
 tor of a Calvinistic church in Connecticut ;" and,, 
 latterly, " Mr. Balfour, who, bred in the Church 
 of Scotland, next became an Independent, or 
 Congregationalist, then a Baptist, and at last a 
 Universalist." 2 The tenets of this sect, which 
 are perpetually fluctuating, are too absurd and 
 blasphemous to be noticed in detail; and yet 
 such is the incredible religious state of America 
 the advocates of this preposterous heresy " are, 
 in their own estimation, 3 the fifth, if not the fourth 
 in order, in point of numbers, respectability, and 
 talent, among the denominations of the land ; 
 among the greatest reading people in the Union ; 
 having no less than nineteen or twenty periodi- 
 cals, issuing every month at least 100,000 sheets 
 to 25 or 30,000 subscribers, among at least thrice 
 that number of regular readers." " In the southern 
 and western states," they say, "the doctrine is 
 extending its progress faster than preachers can 
 follow to proclaim and defend it; while in the 
 eastern and middle states, ministers, laymen, and 
 even whole societies, are embracing this calumni- 
 
 1 Ibid. ch. i. p. 13. "The notions of religion entertained by a 
 large proportion of the disciples of Murray were derived, for the 
 most part, from Calvinistic preachers and the Westminster Cate- 
 chism," p. 16. 
 
 * chap. xxiv. p. 302. 
 
 3 Life of Murray, p. 272.
 
 510 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 ated doctrine, and coming over to its avowal and 
 support." 
 
 " Such were the pretensions of this sect eight 
 years since/' i.e. in 1833: "their statistics for 
 the present year shew that they have lost none. 
 . . ... They maintain, 1 that 'during the past year 
 no less than fifty-nine new labourers have entered 
 into' their ' field of labour, of whom nine are con- 
 verts from the Partialist ministry ; whilst hundreds, 
 yea, thousands, if not tens of thousands, of the 
 Partialist laity have embraced and avowed the faith 
 of Universalism during the past year. There are,' 
 they say (p. 71), 'in the United States alone, 
 1 general convention, 12 state conventions, 56 
 associations, about 853 societies, 512 preachers, 2 
 and 513 meeting-houses owned wholly or in part 
 by Universalists.'" 3 
 
 " The denomination to which I belong," says 
 a Universalist preacher to a Socinian in this coun- 
 try, as far back as sixteen years ago, " is com- 
 posed of upwards of 300 societies, and about 200 
 preachers. These numbers are continually receiv- 
 ing accessions. We have increased most in New 
 England, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania; 
 though there are Universalists scattered all over 
 the United States. It will, perhaps, be pleasing 
 
 1 Universalist Companion, p. 70. 
 
 2 Only one year later (1834), Mr. Colton puts the Universalist 
 preachers at 600 ; Church and State in America, p. 8. 
 
 3 Universalism as it is, Preface.
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 511 
 
 to you to learn, that this sect is, with indeed a 
 very few exceptions, entirely Unitarian. I know 
 of but three ministers, in the whole order, who are 
 Trinitarians ; and I believe the greater proportion 
 are Humanitarians. With the few exceptions just 
 mentioned, we concur in rejecting, as absurd and 
 unscriptural, the old idea of atonement," l &c. &c. 
 
 Such are a few facts, chosen out of a multitude 
 of similar ones, in illustration of the development 
 of Protestant doctrines and systems in America. 
 And fearful as is the religious condition which 
 they indicate, we cannot even hope that things are 
 yet at the worst. Professor Moses Stuart, after 
 quoting some of the most extreme opinions of the 
 German Rationalists, says to his Socinian corre- 
 spondent, " You are doubtless inclined before this 
 time to say, ' What is all this to us ? We do not 
 avow or defend such opinions.' True, I answer; 
 at present, you do not. A short time since they 
 did not. But as soon as their numbers increased, 
 so that they began to be fearless of consequences, 
 and their antagonists urged the laws of exegesis 
 upon them, they abandoned the ground of defend- 
 ing the divine authority of the Bible at once. A 
 few years since, the state of theological questions 
 in Germany, in many respects was similar to what 
 
 1 See Monthly Repository, vol. i. p. 177, and vol. iv. p. 775. 
 Its own adherents are quoted as acknowledging that it often " leads 
 to infidelity, and thence to atheism," and that " many of its strongest 
 supporters are avowed infidels." Universaliam as it i, chap, xxiii. 
 p. 319.
 
 512 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 it now is here. At present, the leading German 
 critics, rejecting ' accommodation,' and casting off 
 all ideas of the divine origin of the Scriptures, are 
 disputing with great zeal the questions, Whether 
 a miracle be possible ? Whether God and nature 
 are one and the same thing ? (Schelling, a divine, 
 is at the head of a great party which maintains 
 that they are the same.) And, whether the Jews 
 ever expected any Messiah ? Some time ago, many 
 of their critics maintained that no Messiah was 
 predicted in the Old Testament; but now, they 
 question even whether the Jews had any expecta- 
 tion of one. It would seem now, that they have 
 come nearly to the end of questions on theology, 
 at least I cannot well devise what is to come 
 
 next The persons who read their works will 
 
 see what the spirit of doubt and unbelief can do in 
 respect to the Book of God, and where it will carry 
 the men who entertain it. It is indeed a most af- 
 fecting and awful lesson. But is there no reason 
 to fear that we are to learn it by sad experience ? 1 
 Does not the progress of the sentiments which you 
 defend illustrate the nature of this subject? A 
 short time since, almost all the Unitarians of New 
 England were simply Arians : now, if I am correct- 
 ly informed, there are scarcely any of the younger 
 preachers of Unitarian sentiments who are not sim- 
 ple Humanitarians. Such was the case in Germany. 
 
 1 This was asked in 1819 ; they have learned all this in America, 
 and more, since that time.
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 513 
 
 The divinity of Christ was early assailed ; inspira- 
 tion was next doubted and impugned. Is not this 
 already begun here ? Natural religion comes next 
 in order ; and the question between the parties here 
 may soon be in substance, Whether natural or re- 
 vealed religion is our guide and our hope." 1 
 
 Such, then, have been the results in this. coun- 
 try also of the principles upon which the modern 
 systems were founded. 2 And in the case of Ame- 
 
 1 Stuart's Letters to Dr. Channing, pp. 147-52. 
 
 8 Which results it is easy to foresee will be urged by Roman 
 Catholics as an argument in their behalf, and so may seem to be 
 somewhat inconsistently referred to by a member of the Anglican 
 Church. On this point I am anxious to make one or two observa- 
 tions. And first, if such developments be, in any measure, a con- 
 firmation of Roman Catholic views, why should we, if our love of 
 truth be any thing more than a mere matter of words, deny them 
 the full benefit which they claim from them ? As between the 
 Church of Rome, then, and the various Protestant sects, the facts 
 under consideration must no doubt be regarded as conclusive ; but 
 in what way do they affect the controversy between the same Church 
 and ourselves? The English Church, by God's gracious favour, is 
 witnessing at this day to catholic truths as heartily as at any former 
 period of her history, from the apostolic age downwards. If, there- 
 fore, it be an argument in defence of Rome, that while innumerable 
 sects have plunged one after another into an abyss of heresy and 
 unbelief, she has still preserved the faith ; and if of the Anglican 
 Church the same constancy may with no less truth be predicated ; 
 then in the same proportion in which the developments of mere 
 ' protestantism' are favourable to the claims of the one church, they 
 are a vindication also of the other : or rather, if the English 
 Church, in spite of difficulties peculiarly her own, has still main- 
 tained her divine character as the mother of saints and guardian of 
 the true faith, then may her children point to the downfal of the 
 modern systems with even more confidence than those of the sister 
 churches, and to her own present condition as a sufficient proof that 
 having been once espoused to Christ, her alliance with Him is not 
 yet divorced. One answer may indeed be made by our enemies 
 
 L L
 
 514 DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN SYSTEMS. 
 
 rica, as has been already observed, tbe develop- 
 ment of these principles may the more certainly be 
 regarded as a token of their real nature., from the 
 circumstance that they have there been professed 
 from the first without check or restriction of any 
 kind, and, as indeed their advocates boast, have 
 been beyond the reach of those influences which 
 in other lands might have impeded their natural 
 growth. This circumstance of their history is there- 
 fore worth noticing ; but it is quite evident, from the 
 facts which have been here collected, that no variety 
 of position, though for a while it might modify or 
 even correct the views of the modern religionists, 
 could long avail to conceal or counteract the real 
 tendencies of their religious principles. In an em- 
 pire, a province, or a republic ; in weakness or in 
 power; triumphant or tolerated, the result has 
 still been the same ; and the lapse of a few short 
 years has in each case sufficed to demonstrate, that 
 
 for so, it seems, they wish us to regard them viz. that the deve- 
 lopment in our own case is not yet complete, and we may be re- 
 minded that at this very day two antagonist principles are struggling 
 for the mastery in the bosom of our distracted Church. To this 
 objection let it be freely answered, that if which may God forbid ! 
 the ' protestant' element in her constitution should ultimately 
 prevail, it would be wholly inconsistent with all that is here col- 
 lected, to deny, or even to doubt, that she too must perish and 
 decay : but if, as there is surely just reason to expect, the catholic 
 or religious element should absorb and neutralise the other, then 
 may we hope, not only for the continuance and enlargement of 
 her own prosperity, but even that she should be made the instru- 
 ment of bringing nearer to the primitive standard the Roman Church 
 herself.
 
 IN THE UNITED STATES. 515 
 
 a new Discipline generates a new Doctrine, a new 
 Church requires a new Gospel, the enemies of the 
 Bishops have proved the enemies of Christ, and 
 schism has declined, by an unfailing law, to heresy, 
 blasphemy, and unbelief. 1 
 
 And now that we may come to a conclusion 
 if any, seriously reviewing the evidence which 
 has here been adduced, should deem that that 
 system of religion which we have been consider- 
 ing, a system which, beginning by the suppres- 
 sion of one truth, ends, in every case, by the denial 
 of all, is in fact the most awful presage of the 
 coming Antichrist which the world has yet seen, 
 at least he would seem to have some reason for the 
 thought. 2 
 
 1 As those who delight in the proofs of this declension seem very 
 well to understand. An English Socinian, reviewing the progress 
 of his own sentiments in different parts of the world, and expressing 
 his confident expectation of a yet more general diffusion of them 
 amongst the various sects of these latter days, speaks as follows of 
 the fatal heresy which he professes. " It is the form towards which 
 I believe Christianity to be tending in all sects. It will grow up 
 imperceptibly in the bosom of various sects, as it did formerly in this 
 country under the cover of Presbyterianism ; as it has more lately 
 in the Calvinistic Church of Geneva, and amongst the Independents 
 in America ; first prompting a modification of the hereditary creed, 
 and destroying the power before the name of orthodoxy, till some 
 unforeseen occurrence shall call for an explicit declaration of opi- 
 nion ; when Christians of very different denominations will be asto- 
 nished to find how nearly, in their real and inward convictions, they 
 were agreed." Monthly Repository, vol. i. pp. 179-181. 
 
 2 Nor would it be altogether a novel sentiment, though founded 
 upon facts which are only now at least upon so large a scale 
 coming under our observation. Various writers, including Bishop 
 Jeremy Taylor, have before now intimated their belief, " that the 
 existence of the Apostolic order, or, in other words, the episcopacy
 
 516 GENERAL SUMMARY. 
 
 XI.V. It only remains now, in the last place, to 
 recapitulate the different arguments, and combine 
 the separate proofs, which have been employed or 
 collected in these pages. And this may be done 
 in a few sentences. 
 
 (1.) The primary objection to the Catholic 
 System, which lies at the root of the whole subject 
 of Church Polity, and which in many minds ap- 
 pears to be held almost unconsciously, and quite 
 independently of any process of reasoning, is this : 
 that " if it had been of divine appointment, it 
 would have been more plainly set forth in Holy 
 Scripture." To this assumption, for it does not 
 even claim to be more, it was answered, in the 
 first place, that the objection applies to many of 
 the acknowledged fundamentals of Christianity, 
 and therefore proves too much ; in the second, 
 that it is equally fatal to one system of Church- 
 government as to another, and therefore to all sys- 
 tems whatever ; and in the third, that it was the 
 very argument urged against the facts of the Gos- 
 
 of the Church, is that which withholdeth the revelation of Anti- 
 christ." See Todd's Discourses on the Prophecies relating to Anti- 
 christ, note, p. 244. And there is surely some reason for such a 
 belief, if it were only from this consideration, that there was never 
 an instance in any country of the subversion of the episcopate, which 
 was not followed by the gradual rejection of all the distinctive tenets 
 of Christianity ; nor, on the other hand, has there been a single 
 example, either in England, Scotland, or America, of the falling 
 away of so much as one congregation in communion with the suc- 
 cessors of the Apostles, though the reformed Catholic Church in each 
 of those countries has long been contending with the most distress- 
 ing difficulties and temptations.
 
 GENERAL SUMMARY. 517 
 
 pel as the Resurrection and its essential doc- 
 trines as the Holy Trinity by every class of 
 heretic and unbeliever, from the Apostolic age 
 down to our own. It is an objection, therefore, 
 not so much to Episcopacy, as to Christianity. 
 
 It was contended, in the next place, that not 
 only does this supposed ^ priori objection fall to 
 the ground, but that there are antecedent pro- 
 babilities in favour of the Catholic Polity such as 
 really determine the whole question of its origin 
 without the witness either of Scripture or history, 
 and constitute in themselves an evidence approach- 
 ing as nearly to demonstration as the nature of 
 moral subjects appears to allow. The great fact 
 of the Jewish Church, which was confessedly typi- 
 cal of and introductory to a future system, is the 
 first of these. The corresponding fact of a kindred 
 Institution professing to be of divine origin and ex- 
 hibiting manifest tokens of that character, actually 
 taking the place of and assuming to represent, with 
 the consent of all mankind, this its supposed type, 
 is another. And the necessary conclusion from 
 the joint consideration of the two, that the later 
 Institution, namely, was either that very one de- 
 signed by God to succeed the former ; or else that, 
 for more than fifteen hundred years, it had no suc- 
 cessor at all, is a third. The Church Catholic, 
 it is plain, was either the system predicted by the 
 Prophets and foreordained of God, or no system 
 was predicted and foreordained; because during
 
 518 GENERAL SUMMARY. 
 
 fifteen ages no other existed. And the only an- 
 swer to this which can be conceived, is, that during 
 all that period prophecy was unfulfilled and the 
 divine purpose frustrated. 
 
 If, therefore, no further revelation had been 
 made, even in that case the evidence was com- 
 plete. The elder Dispensation had done its part, 
 was cancelled, was superseded. The new Dis- 
 pensation commenced, assumed a definite form 
 and shape, was recognised, was obeyed: what 
 more was wanted ? The setting up of the new 
 order was in itself sufficient evidence of the divine 
 sanction. That sanction was implied in its very 
 existence ; it could have had no being without it. 
 And when the Records of the New Covenant were 
 promulgated, it was enough that they should recog- 
 nise without defining the new ecclesiastical system, 
 which, being itself the accomplishment of manifold 
 prophecies, needed no further witness. 
 
 (2.) Such being the state of the argument, ap- 
 peal was made in the next place to those sacred 
 Records. And these were found to contain not 
 only the outlines which alone was antecedently 
 probable but even many of the details of that 
 economy which had already been several years in 
 operation when they were first collected together. 
 The office of St. James of Jerusalem, of Timothy, 
 of Titus, and of the seven Prelates of the Asiatic 
 Churches, was minutely traced, and proved to be 
 identical with that of our modern Bishops, upon
 
 GENERAL SUMMARY. 519 
 
 evidence which nothing but the necessities of a 
 counter-theory could resist. Invested with abso- 
 lute authority over all the churches and clergy of 
 their jurisdiction, and provided with instructions 
 which, while they formed a body of canons for 
 their own guidance in the execution of their office, 
 serve also as an accurate representation to the 
 faithful in all ages of its nature and purpose, those 
 holy men are set forth to us in the divine story as 
 the first-fruits among those spiritual rulers whom 
 it was the eternal purpose of God to " make princes 
 in all lands" 1 And that they were only the first 
 of a long line of fathers to be hereafter begotten 
 of the Church, is plain, not less from the express 
 statements of the blessed Apostles by whom they 
 were ordained, and by whose authority they were 
 solemnly charged to ordain others, than by the 
 testimony of the very men who succeeded to their 
 chairs, and of the people who, in submitting to the 
 government of these successors, boasted one to 
 another, that they could trace through them to 
 their predecessors St. James and St. John. So 
 that, if the words of Holy Scripture be not alto- 
 gether unmeaning and unsubstantial if the Church 
 of the Apostles be any thing more than a phantom 
 or vision if its first rulers, St. James and St. John, 
 Clement and Epaphroditus, Ignatius and Polycarp, 
 were really what they seem to have been, what they 
 claimed to be, and what they were admitted to be, 
 
 1 Psalm xlv. 16.
 
 520 
 
 GENERAL SUMMARY. 
 
 then is it most certain that they, and all their 
 successors after them, were, as universal Christen- 
 dom believed, Bishops, or Apostles, in the Church 
 of God. And to this the adversary offers out of 
 Holy Scripture a solitary objection, which, as be- 
 ing the beginning, middle, and end of their answer, 
 it was well to notice, but which, besides its utterly 
 vain and trifling character, has not even the poor 
 shew of ingenuity with which heresy is fain to 
 trace out of Scripture its creed of many hues. A 
 childish play upon words and names, of which, of 
 course, the signification might vary even from age 
 to age, but which they chose artfully to confound 
 with the unchangeable realities of which they were 
 only the convenient symbols, such has been the 
 reasoning with which a few moderns have thought 
 to mutilate the faith of a world, such the weapon 
 with which they would seek to confound and put 
 to flight " the armies of the living God." 
 
 (3.) Passing on from the evidence of the Sacred 
 Scriptures, it was obvious to inquire next into the 
 testimony of Christian Antiquity, and to ask of 
 those highly-favoured men who had sat at the feet 
 of Apostles, or been taught by their disciples, what 
 was the ecclesiastical constitution under which they 
 themselves lived. That they should be mistaken 
 as to the matter of fact with which, from day to 
 day, their own senses were cognisant, was impos- 
 sible. And if their witness could avail to deter- 
 mine the canon of Divine Scripture, it might be
 
 GENERAL SUMMARY. 521 
 
 accepted with at least as much confidence in be- 
 half of that spiritual polity, that present and living 
 organisation, under which their own offices were 
 administered, and by which they were visibly en- 
 compassed and girt around. Their testimony was 
 cited at length, and found to be consistent, unequi- 
 vocal, and decisive. The three orders or degrees 
 of the sacred ministry, which they professed, with- 
 out contradiction of heathen or heretic, to have 
 received from the Apostles, and in which they re- 
 cognised the fulfilment of many prophecies of the 
 Holy Spirit, were not only maintained by them as 
 an economical arrangement suitable for present 
 need, or expedient under a particular state of the 
 fortunes of the Church, and so capable of modifica- 
 tion and adjustment; such thoughts would they 
 have abhorred, not enduring even to listen to no- 
 tions so injurious to the common faith ; rather did 
 they reverently judge of them as ordained by a 
 decree from everlasting, as a portion of the divine 
 counsel and scheme for the salvation of sinners, 
 a very type also and present figure of the Most 
 Holy Trinity, and so absolutely necessary and un- 
 changeable throughout all times, that those saints 
 and martyrs of God could as hardly have set them- 
 selves to contemplate a religion without Christ, as 
 a Church without Bishops. 1 And so constant was 
 
 1 The idea was not indeed brought before their minds as it is 
 before ours, and therefore they nowhere enter upon the discussion 
 of it. Yet some of the ancients have used language upon certain
 
 522 GENERAL SUMMARY. 
 
 this belief among all lands wheresoever the Gospel 
 had been preached, that even those misbelievers 
 who fled out of the ark of the Church, and formed 
 to themselves conventicles apart, never dreamed of 
 setting up any purer nor more primitive nay, nor 
 any other form of government than this, but per- 
 petuated their errors by a succession of pseudo- 
 bishops. And when certain women, " led away 
 with divers lusts," and seeking to annul even the 
 distinction between the sexes, ventured to usurp 
 the office of teachers, and to frame a new company 
 of believers, it was by imitating the only order 
 which they had ever heard of, and appointing from 
 their own ranks Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, that 
 they attempted to execute their impious plan. 
 
 occasions which sufficiently indicates the judgment they would have 
 pronounced upon our modern religionists. A remarkable instance 
 is the sentence of St. Athanasius upon Ischyras. After stating in 
 his defence of M acarius, who had been charged with having broken 
 the mystical Cup when in the hands of Ischyras that the latter had 
 never been ordained a Priest by the authority of the Church, and 
 that therefore his celebration of the sacrament was only a profane 
 mockery, the Saint asks, Tiodev ovv TrpfcrfBvrfpos 'l(r\vpas ; rivos Kara- 
 arfjcravTos ; apa Ko\ov6ov ; TOVTO yap XotTroi'' aAV art KoAovtfos Trpecr- 
 ftvrfpos &>v ereAevnjo-e. Ischyras is only a layman, he says ; for Co- 
 luthus, who is pretended to have ordained him, was himself no more 
 than a presbyter. Apolog. torn. i. p. 732 ; and see the confession of 
 Ischyras himself, p. 782, and pp. 794, 5. The annulling the ordina- 
 tions of a blind bishop, whose hands had been directed by certain 
 presbyters, and the very severe and emphatic language of the 
 Council which so decreed, is another instance : see the case apud 
 Burchard. Ex Condi. Braggar. Decret. lib. i. cap. iii. It is upon 
 this and other like examples, that Bellarmine forcibly remarks, 
 " Esse ex jure divino ut soli Episcopi ordinent, inde colligitur, 
 quod habebatur irritum si quid in ea re fecissent, qui veri Episcopi 
 non essent." De Clericis, lib. i. cap. xiv.
 
 GENERAL SUMMARY. 523 
 
 It was in vain, then, for the adversaries to deny 
 the certainty of the historical fact, which even the 
 enemies of the Church, both by words and deeds, 
 so abundantly confirmed. Truth, however, was 
 not that which they sought ; and so, turning away 
 from the evidences of it which appeared on every 
 side, they resorted to a device in meeting the ar- 
 gument from Antiquity, which is not, perhaps, to 
 be surpassed by any contrivance of deliberate un- 
 belief since the beginning of the world. " True," 
 said they, " these fathers, and others, do bear wit- 
 ness to the universal acceptance of Bishops in their 
 days, and ascribe it to the appointment of the 
 Apostles. But then they were mistaken that is 
 all. It was not the discipline of the Apostles, 
 though their own disciples and the whole world 
 so long thought so, but a new office introduced 
 into the Church a few years after they were with- 
 drawn from the earth. Presbyterianism was, in 
 fact, their form of discipline ; and Episcopacy was 
 substituted for it by their followers." This was 
 their answer. 
 
 Having made up their mind at all events to 
 reject Episcopacy, they were obliged to assign 
 some reason for doing so. The whole world, 
 without contradiction of a single fragment of all 
 the ancient writings, testifies to its existence within 
 a few years of the Apostles : this, therefore, it would 
 have been hopeless to gainsay. Still, if it was to 
 be spoken against with any success, its origin must
 
 524 GENERAL SUMMARY. 
 
 needs be asserted to date from after the withdrawal 
 of the inspired rulers of the Church. The period 
 immediately subsequent to their departure was, 
 therefore, the only suitable epoch for the myste- 
 rious change which their hypothesis supposes ; l and 
 to this period that change was accordingly referred. 
 And whatever we may think of their integrity, we 
 can at least make no exception to their ingenuity. 2 
 
 Ancient and holy truth is not, however, to be 
 obscured by wit and subtlety, much less by an arti- 
 fice so transparent as this. The reply which was 
 made to this notion, which is still relied upon, as 
 if it were not really too extravagant for any sober 
 man to defend, was, in a few words, such as the 
 following. 
 
 The 'change' of discipline asserted supposing, 
 for the sake of argument, that its accomplishment 
 was within the compass of things possible must 
 have been effected either with the consent of the 
 
 1 " Ex falso maluit colligere quod falsum est, quam ex vero 
 quod verum. Et cum debeant incerta de certis probari, hie proba- 
 tionem sumpsit ex incerto, ad evertendum quod erat certum." Lac- 
 tantius, De Origine Erroris, lib. ii. p. 161. 
 
 2 Though we shall probably suspect, with Sir Guyon, 
 
 " That all this famous antique history, 
 Of some the aboundance of an ydle braine 
 Will judged be, and painted forgery, 
 Rather than matter of just memory, 
 Sith none that breatheth living aire doth know 
 
 Where is that (proofe) 
 
 Which these so much doe vaunt, yet no where show ; 
 But vouch antiquities which no body can know." 
 
 Spenser, Faerie Queene. bk. ii. canto i.
 
 GENERAL SUMMARY. 525 
 
 Apostles or against it. If the first, then Episco- 
 pacy is still confessed to be Apostolical ; but if 
 not, then, as was observed in noticing the point 
 above, we must believe that it was erected through- 
 out the world under circumstances so strange and 
 marvellous, that the establishment of Episcopacy 
 upon the ruins of Presbytery would deserve to be 
 ranked amongst the most extraordinary events 
 which ever excited the astonishment of mankind. 
 For not only does the assumed change imply 
 either the active fraud or disgraceful apathy of all 
 those primitive Christians in whose time and by 
 whose consent or agency it must be supposed to 
 have been wrought, so that the very first gene- 
 ration of believers must be asserted to have apos- 
 tatised from their obedience to Christ and His 
 ordinance but the penalty of this guilt was vo- 
 luntarily incurred by them without the slightest 
 prospect of advantage either to themselves or to 
 any one else ; the carnal ambition with which 
 these meekest and holiest of men are charged 
 only dooming them to be the earliest victims of 
 persecution, and the unlawful precedence which 
 they so unaccountably craved, even to the utter 
 subversion of the discipline of Christ, being simply 
 a precedence of suffering and death ! And as the 
 Bishops, on the one hand, were thus covetous of 
 a prohibited eminence only to procure a larger 
 share of danger and temptation, so the Presbyters, 
 on the other, must be understood to have yielded
 
 526 GENERAL SUMMARY. 
 
 to them with a facility equally unaccountable, 
 resigning one after another the lawful authority 
 with which God had entrusted them, when there 
 was not only no motive for so shameful a com- 
 pliance, but not even the pretence of any power 
 to enforce it ; and this they did silently and sub- 
 missively from one end of the world to the other, 
 not one solitary presbyter being found with zeal or 
 spirit enough to remonstrate against it, and that, 
 too, at the very time when whole churches were 
 agitated with keen debate upon the minutest points 
 of ritual or ceremonial observance, and Christians 
 were manifesting, as infidels have scoffingly re- 
 marked, the most watchful and sensitive jealousy 
 upon every point of doctrine and discipline ! And 
 further, this extraordinary revolution, one of the 
 most extensive and important which is pretended 
 to have taken place in any period of the history 
 of the world, accomplished in hundreds of places 
 at the same moment, and acquiesced in by thou- 
 sands and tens of thousands of men of every 
 language and country, was effected amid a silence 
 so deep and unnatural, that not only were the 
 actors in it apparently unconscious of their own 
 deed, but the whole world conspired together ever 
 after to suppress the very memory of it, so that in 
 all the voluminous records of Christian Antiquity 
 there is not so much as one passing allusion to 
 it. And when men, well reputed of for sanctity 
 and blameless living, ventured immediately after
 
 GENERAL SUMMARY. 527 
 
 to mock themselves and others by exalting Epis- 
 copacy as the ordinance of Christ, and to censure 
 with solemn anathemas all who opposed them- 
 selves to it, not one mouth was opened to remind 
 them of its true origin, nor to reproach them with 
 their folly and deceit ! Such are a few of the wild 
 and preposterous notions which men, shrewd and 
 sagacious in the conduct of their worldly affairs, 
 are constrained to defend, in order that they may 
 not be forced to resign an error which begins by 
 taking for granted that all these are unquestion- 
 able truths ! 
 
 (4.) That men should ever have set themselves, 
 then, deliberately to impugn that form of eccle- 
 siastical polity, to the divine origin of which Pro- 
 phecy, Scripture, and History, had thus clearly 
 and harmoniously witnessed, was very highly im- 
 probable. Of all the adversaries by whom the 
 Church had been so rudely though vainly assaulted 
 during fifteen successive ages, one only, and he 
 convicted out of his own mouth, was found to 
 attempt a work at once so daring and so absurd. 
 And it has been shewn, that not even those un- 
 scrupulous men who, in the sixteenth century, 
 undertook with loud tongues and violent deeds to 
 reform the corruptions of the Catholic Church, 
 contemplated in the outset of their movement any 
 such extravagance as this. Animated in some in- 
 stances by a just abhorrence of grievous and well 
 nigh intolerable evils, in others only by an insa-
 
 528 GENERAL SUMMARY. 
 
 liable appetite for personal distinction and aggran- 
 disement, but in none, it is to be feared, by any 
 adequate sense of the exceeding awfulness of the 
 work to which they put their hands, and the in- 
 estimable preciousness of that unity which they 
 so intemperately despised, these persons vehe- 
 mently demanded the reformation which was as 
 vehemently denied, and in a temper, as it appears, 
 but too much akin to their own. They deter- 
 mined next to accomplish for themselves the need- 
 ful work, of which the lawful rulers of the Church 
 contented themselves with only admitting the ne- 
 cessity. That their vocation to this purpose was, 
 at the least, imperfect, they did not at first hesi- 
 tate to acknowledge. Again and again, as has 
 been shewn in these pages, they professed their 
 willingness to resign to the Bishops the task which 
 of right belonged to them. Any disrespect for 
 their office in the abstract they emphatically dis- 
 claimed, the least token of sympathy or assistance 
 from them they eagerly accepted. And this atti- 
 tude they maintained for a long while. At length 
 it became apparent that they must either take the 
 decided step of casting off their allegiance to the 
 Bishops altogether, or resign their power and au- 
 thority to them. They chose the former course. 
 And this their whole history, in spite of certain 
 inconsistencies, would have led us to anticipate. 
 Former concessions must now be obscured, or 
 plausibly explained, or boldly withdrawn. The
 
 GENERAL SUMMARY. 529 
 
 battle henceforth was not for truth, but so far 
 as the ' reformers' were concerned for existence. 
 The Scriptures, from which their manifold and 
 conflicting creeds were already so confidently de- 
 rived, were invoked again for aid; and the next 
 doctrine "wrested" out of them for the conveni- 
 ence of their party was this, that Episcopacy was 
 a corruption of the Discipline of Christ. Even in 
 this, however, they could not attain to be consis- 
 tent ; and the Anglican Episcopate, by what texts 
 of Scripture they omitted to say, was specially ex- 
 empted from so severe a judgment. Their error 
 in this respect, however, has been discerned by 
 their later disciples, and the English Bishops are 
 now to be resisted, as no less tyrants and usurpers 
 than their co- Apostles of the Western Church. 
 
 (5.) Such is the history of the extraordinary 
 error which certain moderns are still found to 
 maintain, against the united testimony of Scripture 
 and Antiquity, and even the confessions of their 
 own masters and teachers. Hitherto, however, 
 with more or less success, it has been disguised, 
 under the pretence of zeal for the Gospel, and the 
 reformation of error ; and so long as it wore this 
 mask, it has been able to deceive many, to whom 
 such professions were an all-sufficient recommen- 
 dation. This mask has at length been removed, 
 and the whole truth is now revealed to the world. 
 The teachers of ' Protestantism ' may still amuse 
 themselves and their disciples with the phraseology 
 
 M M
 
 530 GENERAL SUMMARY. 
 
 of a past age ; but it will deceive no longer. They 
 are detected. The evidence of their imposture 
 meets us at every turn. We have found out at 
 last what 'the Gospel' and 'the truth' mean in 
 their mouths. And if they will still set themselves 
 in array against the appointed guardians of the 
 Faith, they must be content to do so henceforth 
 in their real character. Their former disguise will 
 serve them no longer. We know them now ; and 
 he must be deeply in love with error who will 
 suffer himself to be deceived hereafter by the 
 solicitations of so palpable a fraud. 
 
 And now to conclude. Had it been possible 
 at an earlier period to point to the developments 
 which have been noticed in this place, or had the 
 argument founded upon them been already em- 
 ployed in vain, no other result could have been 
 anticipated for the present attempt than such as 
 has attended the labours of those to whom it was 
 given in past times to bear witness to holy truth. 
 The appointed word would have been spoken ; but 
 it would have been spoken without effect. There 
 is, however, something so appalling in the facts 
 which it has been reserved to us for the first time 
 to contemplate, and which seem to indicate so 
 plainly the approach of that final contest between 
 the Church and the Enemy, of which Holy Scrip- 
 ture speaks, that we cannot but hope that at least 
 some few of our brethren may learn at length to 
 understand their true position, and be led to seek
 
 GENERAL SUMMARY. 531 
 
 shelter within the Ark of God from the torrents 
 which are beginning to pour themselves on every 
 side. Hitherto hath the Lord " covered the deep, 
 and restrained the floods thereof;" but even now 
 the storm which shall strew the earth with wrecks 
 is rising, and gathers blackness day by day : al- 
 ready there are around us the tokens at least of 
 that final apostacy towards which the world is 
 gradually tending, and of which our Lord has 
 warned all men in the awful words, " When the 
 Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the 
 earth ?" And we of this generation seem to be 
 summoned to choose our side, whilst yet we may 
 to know our enemies, stripped at length of every 
 disguise, and to prepare our hearts for that con- 
 flict, in which, though we stumble, we shall rise 
 up again, though we fall, we shall surely triumph ; 
 " for their rock is not as our Rock, even our ene- 
 mies themselves being judges. For their vine is 
 of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomor- 
 rah ; their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters 
 are bitter. Their wine is the poison of dragons, 
 and the cruel venom of asps .... their foot shall 
 slide in due time ; for the day of the calamity is at 
 hand, and the things that shall come upon them 
 make haste." 
 
 THE END.
 
 PRINTED BY ROBSON, LEVEY, AND FRANKLIN, 
 Great New Street, Fetter Lane.
 
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