m I ii y& m - ~2i_3a THE CHURCH Ac. VOLUME I. LONDON : PRIXTED BY SPOTTISWOODK AND CO., NEW-STRKKT SQl'AKK AND PARLIAMENT STREET THE CHURCH AND ITS ORDINANCES BY WALTER FARQUHAR HOOK, D.D. F.R.S. LATE DEAN OF CHICHESTER EDITED RY \ THE REV. WALTER HOOK RECTO K OP i'OULOCK IN TWO VOLUMES : VOLUME I. LONDON RICHARD BENTLET & SON, NEW BURLINGTON STREET in dDrbiuarg to |fcr ^lajestjj tlje 1876 PBEFACE. OF the Sermons contained in these two volumes, all with but one exception (No. XIV.) have before been published. But as they were preached at different times of the Author's life, and under particular circumstances ; as, moreover, their circulation was to some extent con- fined to the parishes in which he laboured, it has been considered expedient to republish them in a collected form. They are now arranged under four general heads : I. The Character and Authority of the Church of England. II. The Offices of the Church of England. III. The Duty of Toleration. IV The Errors of Komanisrn. Within these general heads, the Sermons have been placed according to the time at which they were preached or published. It may be interesting to remark that the first Ser- mon in this collection was preached in the year 1822, when the Author was a Deacon and only twenty-four years of age. On all who heard the sermon a great 1117162 vi PREFACE. and favourable impression was made, and it was in consequence of a very urgent request that it was printed. To the principles therein set forth, the Author remained firm throughout his life ; and it will be observed from the subsequent Sermons, that, in the controversy which followed the publication of the ' Tracts for the Times,' he never deviated from his course, and became, in that wonderful phase of the Church of England, the champion of the ' via media.' While he entered with his usual fervour and zeal into the controversies of the day, the work of his parish was carried on with equal energy, and it is well known with what success. It is proposed to issue a third volume of his Sermons of a more particularly pastoral and parochial character. Those who remember the services in the parish church at Leeds when he was Vicar, will know how much those sermons were appre- ciated by the vast congregations which were there wont to assemble ; and it is in consequence of the request of many old parishioners that a volume of his parochial Sermons will be published. I must not omit to thank Mr. HARRISON, of Leeds, for allowing those sermons which were originally printed by his firm to be republished. W. H. PORLOCK. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. SERMON p AGH I. THE PECULIAR CHARACTER OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, INDEPENDENTLY OF ITS CONNECTION WITH THE STATE 1 II. THE CATHOLICISM OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH AND ITS BRANCHES . . . . . .14 III. HEAR THE CHURCH ..... 40 IV. A CALL TO UNION ON THE PRINCIPLES OF THE ENGLISH REFORMATION . ... 60 V. THE CHURCH AND THE ESTABLISHMENT . . 98 VI. THE CHURCH AND THE ESTABLISHMENT . . .115 VII. ' SHE LOVED MUCH ' . . . . 136 VIII. 'THE HEM OF His GARMENT' . . .158 IX. THE DUTY OF CONTENDING FOR THE TRUTH . . 181 X. THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH . . . 209 XI. TRADITION ... . . . 233 XII. 'I MAGNIFY MINE OFFICE' .... 253 XIII. 'OtJR HOLY AND OUR BEAUTIFUL HOUSE.' 279 v iii CONTENTS. PAGE SERMON XIV. ' LET ALL THINGS BE DONE DECENTLY AND IN ORDER ' . 296 XV. THE BAPTISMAL OFFICES XVI. CONFIRMATION . XVII. THE HOLY EUCHARIST 360 Erratum. In Sermon IV., pp. 63, 69, for see note at the end of the volume, read see note at the end of the second volume. SEEMON I. THE PECULIAR CHAEACTER OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, INDEPENDENTLY OF ITS CONNECTION WITH THE STATE. ' Hold fast the form of sound words, ivhich tJwu hast heard of me, in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus, 1 2 Tim. i. 13. PLACED in a situation so new to me, and under circum- stances which necessarily awaken the deepest regret, that he to whom every feeling of pious affection and gratitude is due from me, should be incapacitated from discharging an office for which he is so eminently qualified * surrounded by those who have long and successfully laboured in the vineyard, into which I have been so lately called, and in the presence of our spiri- tual visitor, whose pious and learned labours have been the guide of my youth, it would argue a serious defect of that humility, which ought especially to mark the outset of a Christian minister, were I to assume any- thing which could be thought to approach the tone of authority, or even the language of admonition. "We are all, however, embarked in one great common cause, [Preached at Newport on July 3, 1822, on the occasion of the Bishop's visitation.] & The duty devolved upon the author in consequence of his father's indisposition. B 2 THE PECULIAR CHARACTER OF in which conscience rather than the judgment of men must be taken as the criterion of our duties ; and humility itself must not be an impediment in the way of the least gifted individual among us, when called upon to take up the cross, and to follow in the steps of his divine Master. If it be at all times the duty of a minister of the Gospel to watch over and to defend the sanctuary of his holy faith, it is more imperatively so at the present period, when our apostolical Church I grieve to say it has to contend for its authority and discipline, within as well as without its pale. It is a time when even the oldest among us must not suffer himself to slumber at his post ; but it is the time of all others, for those who are beginning their ministry, to lay firm hold on the horns of the altar, and ' in the form of sound words in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus,' to guard that sanctuary from pollution or profanation. In proportion as the temporal power of the Church has decreased and no one acquainted with her canons and constitutions can deny that it has essentially de- creased within the last century it behoves her mini- sters to preserve the balance, by an increase of spiritual influence. They must labour to render her pure modes of worship, her apostolical usages, and primitive sim- plicity of doctrine more conspicuous, as the distinctions of an Establishment recede from her. It is a common but dangerous error, as pernicious to those who are induced by it to desert or oppose the Established Church, as it is subversive of that unity which the Gospel everywhere prescribes, that the THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 3 religion of the State is an engine of mere human con- trivance, political in its character, and existing only as an integral part of the institutions of man. It is need- less in an assembly like this, to enter into any detailed argument, to prove that the Episcopal Church has existed in regular descent from the apostolical times (gross and idolatrous as were the forms by which it was for a long period overlaid and obscured) ; and that it would exist in all its vigour and purity, were the State to deprive it of its civil ascendency, and to sever it from the constitution of the country. This is no gratuitous inference, induced by a too partial view of the subject; it^is not even a matter of speculative opinion. The Episcopal Church, as it exists at present, in union with the constitution of this country, has existed, and does continue to exist in the utmost purity, unconnected with, and disjoined from all civil authority. When the hierarchy fell with the kingly government, at the time of the great rebellion, our holy and Episcopal Church still strictly adhered to its rule of faith and worship, and even shone with more than its wonted purity; for it was purged and cleansed of those hollow professors, who, living under its wing, and fostered in its bosom, availed themselves of the breach which laid it open to its persecutors and oppressors ; and abandoned it to those only who were its true and faithful disciples. It was purified, not overwhelmed by the waters of adversity. Our Bishops, indeed, were deprived of the temporal and civil rights which had been vested in them by the ancient constitution of the land ; but they remained firm in the discharge of their episcopal functions, and in upholding that authority which they had derived in direct descent from the apostolic age. The Episcopal Church in Scotland was, about the the same period, deprived of its civil ascendency. It was indeed, for a short time, re-invested with power, but at the Eevolution in 1688 Presbyterianism was finally established in that part of the British dominions, to the utter exclusion of episcopacy, as the religion of the State, but not as a Church. It remained, where it had formerly stood in splendour equally firm and dignified, in poverty. Deprived of its temporalities, it not only adhered to the strict rule of its discipline and worship, but displayed a peaceable and loyal character unknown to and unimitated by any other Church, under the probing operation of persecution, as well as depression. Of late years, indeed, this Church has emerged from the shade into which it had been thrown by its oppressors. It is now tolerated ; but it is no longer an Establishment, nor can its Bishops claim any temporal power or jurisdiction. Nevertheless, their spiritual authority is as firm, as legitimate, and as truly and unquestionably derived by succession from the Apostles, as that of our own Bishops. ' It is,' in the words of Bishop Horsley, ' a pure, spiritual episcopacy ; an order of men, set apart to inspect, and to manage the spiritual affairs of the Church, as a society in itself, totally unconnected with civil government.' But although the Church of England may boast a perfect independence upon all human institutions, it is, nevertheless, our duty, our bounden duty, to apply THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 5 those means which, under Providence, are supplied for the furtherance of Christian truth and obedience, by the civil ordinances of the State into which she is adopted. We preach with authority, which human sanctions can neither increase nor diminish ; but we are no where commanded in the Gospel to reject the subsidiary authority, founded on human institution, when it does not militate against our paramount alle- giance to Almighty God. On the contrary, it was foreshown that kings should be ' the nursing fathers'* of the Church of Christ; thus clearly indicating the means of promoting the great ends of Christianity, under the operation of civil sanctions, that is, an Esta- blishment, which, in the Gospel language, is necessary among large bodies of men, to promote and maintain ' the unity of spirit, in the bond of peace.' We do not, therefore, adhere to the Church, because it is an Establishment, but because it is an Establishment founded on the revealed Word of God ; and which demands nothing, imposes nothing as necessary to sal- vation, which may not be read and proved by the Holy Scriptures. There is an individuality (if I may be allowed the expression) in the Church of England, which belongs to no other established form or mode of Christian worship ; and which, whilst it affords an additional evidence of its apostolical character, distinguishes it from all those which have emanated from or are opposed to it. After the separation of the Eastern and Western * Isaiah xlix. 23, 6 THE PECULIAR CHARACTER OF Churches, the latter, or Koman branch, soon ceased to make the Word of God its spiritual guide. Like the later Jews, it was wholly given up to traditions and fables ; and the pure light of Christianity could scarcely penetrate through the dense body of superstitious rites and observances which arose out of them. The Ko- manists maintained, indeed, the foundations of the primitive Church, and the form of Church government was in its principal article preserved. But it was only a form, and the Bible was a sealed book. The Ee- formation again opened that source of light and life to mankind ; but, as in the former instance, although under modes directly opposed, the interpretation of man soon began to supersede the simplicity of the Gospel, and the long dormant remonstrance of the apostle applied in full force, to those who boasted that they were of ' Cephas or Apollos,' of Luther or Calvin, of Melanchthon or Arminius. . The doctrine of the in- fallibility of the Pope was exploded, but the fallibility of man was still in the ascendant. The zeal of innovation is no less a distemper of the mind, than the bigotry which blinds us to existing errors. Truth is never found in extremes. And \vho that reads the works of many of the early re- formers on the continent of Europe can trace even the tone of Christianity, in the prosecution of their great scheme of Christian reform ? And yet these works have lived ; our own loved country, for a time, lay prostrate under the infliction of their doctrines, and they have descended even to our own times, cherished and supported with a zeal that would do honour to a better cause. THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 7 It is not my purpose to enlarge upon this part of ray subject, it would open too wide a field of dis- cussion upon such an occasion as the present. And I have only referred to it on account of the illus- tration it incidentally affords to the peculiar cha- racter of the Church of England, as contradistin- guished from all the various sects and creeds to which the speculative theology of the early reformers, and their compurgators and imitators in other countries, has given birth. The Eoman Church, from which these men seceded, in common with ourselves, had preserved, I repeat, the foundations of the true Church ; and when the rubbish of the superstructure was removed, these appeared fully to view. But instead of reflect- ing by whom and on whose authority they had been laid, they in their newly awakened zeal revolted from all contact with that which they denounced as being utterly and irremediably defiled. They paused not to reflect, or to compare, or to bring what was still sound to the test of the apostolical ordinances, but hastened with their various followers and prose- lytes to dig new foundations, and to erect new churches ; as if the Church of Christ were many, and not one, single, holy, and Catholic. Hence those feuds and divisions which sectarianism has engendered, and entailed upon future generations ; and which, without reference to the effects upon our own Church, but comparing them only with each other, have ob- viously and fatally broken that unity of spirit which is the essence of Christianity, and the very bond of peace. Was the Bible a sealed book to these men ? 8 THE PECTILIAE CHARACTER OF Had they never read, and do they never read 'the apostolic exhortation uttered in the fervency of in- spired zeal ? ' I beseech yon, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment. Is Christ divided ? ' * Uninspired man can never safely be made the de- positary of power, without, hazard to himself as well as to others ; I mean that power which gives him a positive, unquestioned, and uncontrolled influence over the persons or the consciences of men. There is a leaven of humanity which will mix with his best in- tentions, and give a colour imperceptibly to actions, which in their native hue and character he would have shuddered, perhaps, to contemplate. We perceive the aspiration after precedence and distinction among the very apostles of our blessed Saviour, until they were filled with that spirit which afterwards gave them with the power to work even miracles Christian humility, which shrank from all imputed merit in themselves. The founders of the various sects which were quickly generated upon the great secession from the Roman Church, each, in order to increase the number of his proselytes, influenced by his own peculiar pre- judices, or eager to display his zeal by some specific character or tenet, which should separate and dis- tinguish his authority from that of his increasing rivals, became a self-interpreter of the newly opened * 1 Cor. i. 1C-13. THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 9 Scriptures ; and dogmatised with scarcely more moderation than the Pope of Eome himself. Thus in the two extremes the same errors prevailed, qualified on the side of reform indeed, in some mea- sure, by free discussion, which will always preclude the absolute suppression of truth ; but the interpreta- tion, and the doctrines deduced from it by the re- formed leader, were as implicitly adopted in the creed, and were little less imperative upon the consciences of his followers, than the Bulls and Decretals of the Eoman hierarchy upon those who still adhered to the ancient superstition. As these tenets differed according to the various temperaments and habits of the several preachers, schisms inevitably arose, and the pale of Christianity became again narrowed and cir- cumscribed by mortal man ! Salvation was scarcely allowed to those who transgressed the prescribed boundaries ; and bigotry and intolerance were found to exist far beyond the precincts and limits of papal jurisdiction. But how differently was the Eeformation carried on in this country ! And how wise the means em- ployed, to prevent this interposition of private passions and intemperate zeal in the establishment of a Christian Church ! The old foundations, I repeat, were still visible. These were cleared and cleansed, in order that the simple structure for which they were originally prepared might be re-edified. This was not effected by one man, nor on the views or authorita- tive dicta of any separate class or denomination of Christians, but by the whole body of eminent eccle- 10 THE PECULIAR CHARACTER OP siastics then existing in the Christian community of this country ; and by a succession of wise and ex- perienced counsellors, who searched the Scriptures in simplicity of spirit, and with that singleness of heart which prayed for, and relied upon Divine assistance in fixing, according to the clear and obvious interpreta- tion of Scripture, the glory due to ' God on high,' and upon earth that ' peace and good-will towards man ' which had been announced to him in the voice of angels ! This it is which gives an individuality a character unknown to all other churches to that under which, by the blessing of Providence, we have been born and nurtured, and conducted on our way, to the blessed hope of everlasting life. In this happy Eeformation it was not proposed to open new sources of speculative inquiry on the nature of Church government ; but, as its name bespeaks, to render it conformable to ancient, known, and ascer- tainable principles, upon which it was primitively es- tablished ; to cleanse and purify it from the alloy with which it had been debased, not to cast it into the fire, to take a new shape, or to subject it again to the plastic hand of designing or fanciful theorists. To restore, not to destroy, was the pious and noble maxim of our Reformers. The structure of the Church, thus re-edified upon the primitive principles of Christianity, arose an ob- ject of respect and veneration ! Without extraneous ornament, it still preserved a simple dignity sufficient to secure it from profanation, arid to direct, not to THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 11 divert, the attention of the creature in his communion with his Creator. Such is the Church whether in a state of union with, or of separation from, the civil constitution of the country. Such, I say, is the Church ; and such were the inducements which obtained for her the protection of the State ! And that she has not forfeited the pledge originally given of her perseverance in the pure model to whicli she had been reformed, may be asserted in the face of her most open and avowed opponents. No ob- jection is urged against her which was not brought by the earliest seceders from her worship ; and so far from any undue power having been usurped or attempted on her part, during the progress of nearly three centuries, she has surrendered, perhaps, too many of her chartered rights, and scarcely retains a privilege which is not equally shared by those who are most hostile to her interests. She has, then, more than redeemed her pledge ; for while, on the one hand, she has preserved her faith pure and uncontaminated, she has so infused her mild and moderate principles into the civil constitution to which she is united, that we may challenge the whole world to produce an instance, in past or present time, of the ad- ministration of the laws and of justice, so consistent with morality, with strict rectitude and the principles of rational liberty, as under the truly Protestant Govern- ment of this country. That such a Church merits, and has proved that she merits, the sanction of the State, we may boldly assert ; but if it were possible to suppose that the civil 12 THE PECULIAR CHARACTER OF Government could sustain and survive a separation from an ally so interwoven and bound up with all her insti- tutions if such a convulsion should ever overwhelm the Church, and leave, contrary to all experience and probability, the State in security we may rest assured that, although in poverty, destitute of worldly honour, and stripped of her endowments, she would exist, and exist as purely apostolical as when first established through the labours of her great and pious founders, and sealed in the blood of her martyrs. Well then may we glory in being ministers of such a Church ! not in vain pride of man's glory, but as the servants of the Lord, elected into the holy sanctuary of His Word, to maintain His ordinances in their primitive purity, to make known His holy will and command- ments, and by our own obedience to illustrate the beauty and influence of His divine precepts. No spiri- tual pride can enter into the heart of the sincere Churchman, no private passions may be permitted to mingle with his duty and allegiance ; he is the servant, not the controller of the laws he has sworn to obey ; nor is he at liberty to compromise between his con- science and that allegiance, by adhering to the form and rejecting the spirit of the institution. 'He that is not with us is against us ! ' and what term is there sufficiently strong or emphatic to designate the turpi- tude of receiving her hire, without a sincere motive and determination to fulfil the ordinances of our holy Church ? It is not for me to fix this mark ; but it may not be amiss, in conclusion, to show that as errors of this nature have long existed, under different aspects, THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 13 so the persevering and steady adherence of true and faithful ministers to ' the form of sound words in faith and love,' has hitherto preserved us, and under God's mercy will continue to preserve us, from their do- mination. ' Of all sorts of enemies that our Church hath,' said the learned South, a century ago, ' there is none so deadly, so pernicious, and likely to prove so fatal, as the conforming Puritan. He is,' he continues, ' one who lives by the altar, but turns his back upon it ; one who catches at the preferments of the Church, but hates the orders and discipline of it ; one who in the midst of his conformity thinks of a turn of State which may draw in one of the Church too ; and, accordingly, is very careful not to overshoot his game, but to stand right and fair in case a wished-for change should bring fanaticism again into fashion, which it is more than possible he secretly desires, and does the utmost he can to promote and bring about.'* * South's Works, 1717. Vol. V. Sermon XII. on Galat. xi. 5. 14 THE CATHOLICISM OF THE SEEMON II. THE CATHOLICISM OF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH AND ITS BRANCHES. Whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it, or one member be honoured all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular." 1 Cor. xii. 26, 27. DEEPLY impressed with the importance of the solemn office for the celebration of which we are this day as- sembled, and equally aware of mine own unworthiness, as a simple Presbyter, to discuss the great questions which naturally arise out of it in the presence of so many right reverend Fathers of the Church, it is with sincere humility and diffidence that I take upon me a duty, to the performance of which I am capable of bringing little more than that fervent zeal which such an event is calculated to call forth in the breast of every true servant of our holy Catholic Church. Heartily, however, as humbly I pray unto Him, ' who worketh great marvels,' to send down upon this whole congrega- tion such a portion of the 'healthful spirit of His grace,' as may supply all deficiencies on the part of the crea- ture, and bring our designs and labours to a happy conclusion, to the honour and glory of the Creator. [Preached at the consecration of Bishop Luscombe, in the Episcopal Church, at Stirling, on Sunday, March 20, 1825.] ANGLICAN CHURCH AND ITS BRANCHES. 15 In contemplating a measure which forcibly brings back to our recollection the primitive periods of the Church of Christ, and awakens the memory of those events which have marked its career from the first mission of the Apostles down to the present hour, we are necessarily reminded of the distinguishing features by which, and by which alone, the true apostolic and Catholic character of it may be traced. In the regular procession of events first principles too frequently become obscured, or are only referred to as they partially appear to justify a latitude of interpre- tation. In an age of professing liberality especially, men are apt to be fascinated by words, and to merge the distinctive character to lose sight feature by feature of truth itself in the prevailing mode of generalising principles, as well as systems. Thus by an error, venial perhaps as far as concerns the ignorant multitude, but criminal in those who either through prejudice, or for the purpose of deluding others, foster and extend it every sect, every shade and denomination of dissent or departure from the institutions of the Apostles and the primitive Church, are comprehended equally with the most rigid and conscientious adherence to them, under the general head and title of the Catholic Church. In such an assembly as this I need not insist upon the impropriety to use no harsher term of such a general classification ; but it may not be considered irrelevant, if in discussing the merits of our present undertaking, in order to anticipate misunderstanding, and to guard against misrepresentation, we explain distinctly and clearly "what we mean by the Catholic 16 THE CATHOLICISM OF THE Church ; and hence endeavour to show how perfectly in accordance with its principles and objects is the purpose now contemplated by the pious and venerable governors of this pure and legitimate branch of it. That the Church of Kome has unjustly arrogated to herself an exclusive claim to the title of Catholic that name so dear to all who are imbued with the love of primitive Christianity has been too satisfactorily proved by a succession of the ablest divines, and, indeed, is too self-evident to need any discussion upon the present occasion. We shall rather direct our observations against the error, not only of those who dissent from our apostolic Church, but even of too many careless professors within its pale who, ignorant or regardless of the primitive institutions of Christianity the re- storation to which was the object of our Keformation content themselves with a literal interpretation of this designation of the one true Church, and thus predicate it indiscriminately of all believers. That their principle of interpretation is erroneous a little consideration will serve to show. Ascertaining o xaQohwos to mean universal, they demand where is to be found an universal Church. They perceive the dis- agreement which exists with respect both to doctrines and ceremonies among the various religious establish- ments throughout the world, and finding, strictly speak- ing, no satisfactory answer to the question, they at once assume the fact, that under the general title of the Catholic Church must necessarily be included every sect and denomination of professing Christians, however different in doctrine, in discipline or even in faith, from ANGLICAN CHURCH AND ITS BRANCHES. 17 the primitive Church. But is this a just or legitimate mode of interpretation ? Is it the mode of interpreta- tion, with which anyone who comes to the considera- tion of the subject will be satisfied ? If in the study of the literature, the philosophy, or the political economy of the ancients, we were to meet with a technical expression or a term of art, should we rest contented with the imperfect notions conveyed by either, in their first and literal sense ? Should we not rather refer to the writings of the poet, the philosopher, and the poli- tician, and adopt the term, whether agreeable or not to its strict etymological signification, in the precise sense to which it had been restricted by them ? This surely is consonant with every principle applicable to the investigation of truth, and must, in justice, be adopted in analyzing any question connected with the first and greatest of all truths ' the reason of the faith which is n in us. When, therefore, we adopt and daily repeat the creed of the early Christians, we are surely bound to ascertain not only the meaning of their words, but the precise sense in which they were used, and in which those holy Fathers intended that we should receive them. By this test, then, we are prepared to abide ; and we may, without presumption, challenge the opponents of our interpretation to point out one instance in which the term Catholic is applied by the ancients in the in- definite and indiscriminate manner for which they con- tend. They will invariably find it used, for a purpose directly opposed to that which they profess. They will 18 THE CATHOLICISM OF THE find it used, to speak logically, as a word of the second intention, to distinguish the one true and Apostolic Church the Church which was established at Jerusa- lem by the preaching of St. Peter, and existing through all ages the same by the succession of its Bishops from the various sects, heresies, and schisms which even then brought scandal upon the name of Christians. ' Christianus mihi nomen, Catholicus cognomen,' the former to distinguish him from the heathen, the latter from the heretics, was the motto not of Pacian alone, but of every orthodox member of the Church. If earlier than the age of Irenasus the distinction is not so clearly marked, it is only because the errors ol the first and the former part of the second century were so gross in their nature that they could scarcely lay claim to the common term of Christian, and that, consequently, the line of demarkation between Church- man and Heretic was too clearly ascertained to require that nice distinction which afterwards became necessary when Schism as well as Heresy divided the believers in the name of Christ. But to the writings of Irenasus, Tertullian, and St. Cyprian, the polar star of the Ecclesiastical Antiquary, we might, with safety, appeal, for the fullest proof of our assertion ; were it not amply sufficient for the object we have in view to ascertain the meaning which was attached to the term by those who first adopted it in the Creed. Although the article concerning the Catholic Church had been inserted in many of the Oriental Creeds at the beginning of the fourth century, and although the term itself had been applied to the ANGLICAN CHURCH AN1> .JETS BRANCHES. 19 Church, as we shall presently see, from the apostolic age ; it did not form part of any of those creeds which are retained by us, until the Council of Constantinople added it to the Mcene. Now it would be perfectly fail- to infer that the very circumstance of its insertion in the Creed is sufficient, if not to support our argument, at least to invalidate that to which we are opposed. The design of a Creed is not the expression of all that we believe, but the profession of certain truths which, although denied by some, are maintained by us. There is, consequently, an antithesis to every article. We profess to believe in God the Father, because the Pagan rejects Him ; in God the Son, because the Arian blasphemes Him ; in God the Holy Ghost, because His personality is denied by the Macedonian. Now, if in the profession of belief in the existence of the Ca- tholic Church, the primitive Christians had intended nothing further than the acknowledgment of the ex- istence of large masses of believers in the name of Christ, scattered over the face of the earth, no one in his senses would have objected to that which was self- evident. To have denied it, would have involved an absurdity too gross for the most weak and illiterate of mankind to have been guilty of; and to have inserted the article in the creed, would, in consequence, have been at least a work of supererogation. But if, on the other hand, they intended, as we maintain, to dis- tinguish by that title the true and Apostolic Church from the different sects of Schismatics and Heretics ; then they asserted a fact, against which those sects would vigorously contend, and then, also, we can c 2 20 THE CATHOLICISM OF THE readily account for its adoption in the various Symbols or Creeds of the Church. But we are not driven to the necessity of drawing our conclusion by inference, or from merely general views of the subject. The article now under con- sideration, we repeat, was first added to the Creed of Nice, by the Council of Constantinople.* The question, then, is what was the idea which the Constantinopoli- tan Fathers intended to convey by the term. This may be answered at once if the authenticity of the seventh Canon of that Council be admitted, and I trust I do not presume too far in affirming that the argu- ments in its favour are of equal strength, at least with those of its opponents. Now, these Fathers in their seventh Canon make a manifest distinction, between the various Schismatics and Heretics, and ' the Catholic and Apostolic Church of God,' by the appointment of particular ceremonies to be observed by the former upon their admission into this Church, of which, had they previously been members, there would have been no necessity. And let it be particularly observed that among the Schismatics specified in the seventh Canon, * The reader is requested to bear in mind, that the clauses which in our Prayer Books succeed the mention of the Holy Ghost, were not originally in the Nicene Creed, but added to it, as stated in the text at the Council of Constantinople, in the year 381. It is sometimes maintained that this alteration was made not at the general Council, but at one holden immediately afterwards at the same place. "Without entering into controversy upon this sub- ject, it is sufficient to observe, that even supposing this to be the case, since it is agreed on all hands that the same Fathers, (or at all events, the triumphant majority of the previous Council,) acted in both our argument will not be afiected by it. ANGLICAN CHURCH AND ITS BRANCHES. 21 and alluded to as being without the pale of the Ca- tholic Church, are the Novatians, the Novatians who differed less from the Church then, than any one sect, whether Calvinistic or Lutheran, differs from it now, who were, in faith Homo-ousians, and in doctrine Episcopalians. Their only distinguishing character- istic was the imcomproniising rigour of their discipline : so that if the Novatians were not considered as mem- bers of the Catholic Church, to that high privilege no other sect surely could prefer a claim. But even admitting the arguments against the authenticity of this Canon to be valid, we are still at no loss to discover the intention of the Constantinopo- litan Fathers, since they admitted the Creed and De- crees of the Council of Nice. For although the Nicene Fathers did not insert it as an article of faith, they nevertheless not only applied the term Catholic to the one true Church, in contradistinction to the assemblies of the Heretics, but actually made use of it, in this sense, at the conclusion of their Creed. The original Nicene Creed, as is well known, concludes with an anathema against the Arians, in the name of the ' holy Catholic and Apostolic Church ; ' of which Church, by a reference to their eighth Canon, it will plainly appear they did not consider either Heretics or Schismatics to be members ; since that Canon was ex- pressly framed to legislate for those of the Puritan or Xovatiau Clergy who might ' come over to the Cath- olic Church,' Trepl TUV ovopatflvraiv ptv eavrovs TTOTC, 7rpocre/D^o/xevft)f Se rfj Ka0o\iKy KCU aTrocrroXt/c^ KK\r)