PREACHING: ITS WARRANT, SUBJECT, & EFFECTS, CONSIDERED WITH REFERENCE TO THE TRACTS FOR THE TIMES."- %* Any Profits arising from the sale of these Sermons will be yircn to the Fund for the erection of the ^artwrS' fHtmortal. PREACHING: CONSIDERED WITH REFERENCE TO THE TRACTS FOR THE TIMES:" TWO SERMONS, PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN, & COUNCILLORS OF THE CITY OF OXFORD, A SERMON, PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY, AT ST. MARY'S. REV. W. SIMCOX BRICKNELL, M.A. OF WORCESTER COLLEGE ; INCUMBENT OF GROVE, BERKS ; AND ONE OF THE OXFORD CITY LECTURERS. an 1 The blessed ordinance of God." Hooker. ' An instrument which Scripture has never much recommended." Tracts for the. Times. LONDON: F. BAISLER, 124, OXFORD STREET; SEELEY AND CO., FLEET STREET. OXFORD: GRAHAM; SLATTER ; VINCENT; & WHEELER. 1841. ' K . Eg CONTENTS. SERMON I. PAOfi The warrant and object of St. Paul's commission, (1 Cor. i. 17) 1 SERMON II. The subject and effects of St. Paul's preaching, (I Cor. i. 17) 30 SERMON III. Conviction and consolation through the preaching of the Cross of Christ, (John i. 29) - 56 APPENDIX. A. " Admonitions of those who have authority in the Lord's vineyard" - 89 B. " The Sacraments, not Preaching, are the sources of Divine grace " - ... 186 The Atonement not to be held forth for the conversion of the impenitent - 188 VI CONTENTS. C. PAGE Religious awakening at Kishnaghur. Practical testi- mony to the efficacy of preaching the Atonement - 192 D. Grievous misrepresentation of the views and teaching of what is called by the Tractarians, the " Ultra- Pro- testant Party" - 200 E. Extracts from " Froude's Remains" - - - 206 ERRATA. Page 6, line 8, for evermore, read ever more. Page 1 16, line 33. for ant, read out. Page 189, line 15, for tupera, read supra. PREFACE. THE subject of the Sermons which have unex- pectedly given rise to the present publication was naturally suggested by the occasion upon which they were delivered:* that existing circumstances should no less plainly have pointed out the ne- cessity of treating such a subject in a manner which savours in any degree of religious contro- versy, must, indeed, be matter of regret, but cannot, I hope, afford just ground for censure. Should any apology be required for my having so far exceeded the request with which I was fa- voured, as to publish a volume instead of two single sermons, it will be found, I trust, in the desire which I felt to avail myself of the oppor- tunity to render what feeble service I could to the cause of truth, at a period second in importance The appointment of the Author to the Oxford City Lectureship, vacant by the resignation of the Reverend the Warden of Wadham College. Vlll PREFACE. to none that has occurred in the history of the Church since the time of the Reformation. With this object, I have appended a series of extracts from several publications having reference to the doctrines and principles, for some time past so industriously promulgated by the authors of the " Tracts for the Times." And, bearing in mind that the most effectual method of counteracting error is to inculcate truth, I have endeavoured to select such extracts as may serve at once, not merely to point out the dangerous tendency of the Tractarian system, but also to exhibit that which, in the opinion of competent judges, appears to be the sound and orthodox view of several of the chief subjects in debate : the value and proper office of Tradition, as well as the exaggerated im- portance attached to it ; the benefit to be derived from the study of the early Fathers, together with the danger arising from a too implicit reliance upon their judgment, and a too indiscriminate ad- miration of their works. There is another point which I have had in view, in making the quotations which form so large a portion of the present volume ; and that is, to afford a specimen of the temper and spirit, the diligent and candid consideration, as well as the ability, displayed by those who have hitherto stood forward in opposition to the Tractarian party. Judging from the tone in which the organs of that party are wont to speak, it might be supposed PREFACE. IX that their opponents are altogether destitute of these most essential qualifications. It matters not whose voice it is that is lifted up as a testimony against them, it is heard by the Tractarians * as "vox etprseterea nihil;" the aggressor, if not passed over in silence, is referred to in some brief and supercilious remark ; either he has no right to speak; or, he belongs to " a certain school,*' and his opinion is, therefore, worthless ; or, he writes in an uncharitable and unchristian spirit ; or, the bias of his mind and the direction of his studies dis- qualify him for the controversy ; he asserts where he ought to prove, and rails where he cannot argue ; his knowledge is superficial ; his extracts garbled ; his quotations mistranslated ; or, what is far more likely and more excusable than all, he is unable to comprehend the meaning of those with whom he ventures to contend. f * The term " Tractarians " first introduced, I believe, by Mr. Benson, has been adopted as being, upon the whole, less open to objection than any other. It is certainly much less offen- sive than many of the names applied by themselves to their opponents, such as " modern religionists" " peculiar school" &c. &c. ; and very far preferable to the title assumed for his own party by Mr. Froude, and not given to them in derision, as some have too hastily complained : " vivas valeas et Apostolicus fias ;" and again, 4 ' love and luck to all the Apostolicals" and " sub-apostolicals." Vide Froude's Remains, pp. 401, 331, 390, 329. t The Archbishop of Dublin, speaking of the Bishop of Chichester's Work on Tradition, says " I may here observe, that this author, and some others to whom I have made reference, display a tone of fairness and of Christian courtesy, b X PREFACE. Of the propriety of such treatment as this, some opinion may be formed from the extracts which I have given. That within so short a compass I should in all cases have done justice to the writers from whom I have quoted, is more than I will un- dertake to affirm. I have endeavoured, however, to do injustice to none, and shall feel that I have lost neither my time nor my trouble, should any, into whose hands the following pages may fall, be induced to consult for themselves the works of which I have here done little more than furnish them with a catalogue. Those works contain, for the most part, the deliberate judgment of men whose official stations entitle them to the attention of the Church, and whose sentiments ought at least to meet with respectful consideration at the hands of those among us who profess so high a reverence for ecclesiasti- cal authority ; who declare, that " as God sent Christ, so Christ works in the Bishop, and so the Bishop speaks in the Priest ;" that " this is FAITH ivhich fully refutes a sweeping charge brought by some of their opponents, that ' their arguments are not answered, but they are opposed simply by railing? That they may have been opposed by railing and by false extracts ' is very probable ; this by itself proves nothing either way ; but that they have been opposed ' simply by railing,' is an assertion applying to all who have disputed doctrines ; and it is one which if made by any person wwacquainted with the publications I have referred to, argues most culpable rashness ; and something much worse than rashness, in any one who has read them." Essays and Sermons, p. 137. PREFACE. XI to be as sure that the Bishop is Christ's ap- pointed representative, as if we actually saw him work miracles as St. Peter and St. Paul did." * Whether after the disapprobation of their views so strongly and officially expressed and that, too, by those who "stand in the place of the Apostles"-^ the Tractarians can fairly claim for them the appellation of " Church principles;" or, whether they are any longer justified in holding themselves "acquitted of having put forth any such doctrine as may call for the admonitions of those who have au- thority in the Lord's vineyard;"], are queries which few beside themselves will find it easy to answer in the affirmative. In conclusion I may be allowed to add, and the only member of the school in question with whom I am acquainted, will, I am persuaded, give me credit for sincerity when I say it, that in collect- ing so many serious accusations against a system of theology which has derived from himself (with- out any intentional disrespect) one of its most popular appellations, I have been influenced by no unkind or unchristian motive, but only by a desire to discharge a duty not, I trust, altogether self- imposed. Of the individual to whom I refer, it is impossi- ble to think, much more to write, with any other * Tracts for the Times, No. 10, p. 4. f Ibid. J Dr. Pusey's Letter to the Bishop of Oxford, p. 9. b 2 Xll PREFACE. feelings than those of the most unfeigned esteem and respect ;* and widely as I must presume to differ from him on other points, it is some comfort to feel assured that we agree together in the prayer, that the time may speedily arrive when there shall " be no schism in the body ;" when the members of the universal Church shall " all speak the same thing ;" shall " be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment ;" " united" to use his own words upon an occasion which will not readily be forgotten " in that mightiest, strongest, most enduring tie, the tie of Christian brotherhood, "f * Frequent reference will be found in the following pages to the high character of the authors of the " Tracts for the Times," together with its real effect upon the present contro- versy. Vide Index. f- Sermon preached at the consecration of Grove Church, August 14, 1832, by Edward Bouverie Pusey, B.D., Regius Professor of Hebrew, and Canon of Christ Church. Page 26. INDEX. ALTAR. MEANING of the term in the New Testament, 178; soon metaphorically applied to the Lord's Table, 178 ; how used by the Tractarians, 208. ANTIQUITY, ECCLESIASTICAL. Study of, ought to be exceedingly beneficial, 176 sometimes accompanied by too indiscriminate admiration of the Fathers, 176 ; proper reverence for, 104, 105, 137 ; when made an idol of, 137 ; danger of outstepping the modesty of the Church in veneration for, 147. APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. A certain and undoubted channel of God's love and mercy to the Church, 181 ; avails nothing unless we are built upon and hold to the one foundation, Jesus Christ, 147 ; whether Doctrine or Order is its most essential characteristic opinion of the Fathers and Reformers on this point, 162 ; said to be essential to a true church of Christ, 161 ; doctrine of our Church as stated by Bishop Burnet, 1 62 ; placed by the Tracta- rians in juxta-position with the divinity of the Holy Ghost, 160, 161. ARTICLES. Seeming disparagement of, 108, 210, 211. ATONEMENT, DOCTRINE OF. Not to be held forth for the conversion of the impenitent, or to stimulate the affections, 188 ; doctrine of Scripture on this point, 68, 188 ; example of John the Baptist, 60 of our Lord, 62 of the Apostles, 67 doctrine of the Church, 70, 71, 189 opinion of St. Chrysostom, 69 of Bishops Andrews, Hall, Beveridge, and Wilson, 189, 190 ; con- version by preaching it, 68, 136, 138, 139, 188. Display of God's mercy in the Atonement described as a " modern opinion," 189 testimony of Scripture on this point, 189. Prevailing system of preaching the Atonement declared to be " unscriptural and un-catholic," 24, 35, and a "human scheme," 51. XIV INDEX. The " chief object of our faith and preaching," (Barrow,) 81 the only sub- ject of all our preaching, (Hooker,) 18 the leading feature of the Christian ministry, 123, 125, 136, 180 the preaching it the only sound and apostolical divinity, 154. Importance of preaching it boldly and explicitly, 82, 87, 131, 138, 148, 149, 183, 184 ; practical testimony to the efficacy of such preaching, 50, 192, 199 ; ready reception of the doctrine by the Kurta Bhojas, 196. To be preached not to the exclusion of, but as the spring of holiness, 139 ; must be exemplified in the life, 37, 53, 54, 55 ; so taught by the " Evan- gelical" or " Ultra- Protestant party," 204. Way for it not to be prepared by moral teaching, 53, 60, 61, 63, 125, 136. Preached by St. Paul, not in the life only, but by the lips, 36, 40. The food with which St. Paul fed babes in Christ, 41, 42. The foundation of Christian knowledge and practice according to St. Paul's teaching, 43. (See Reserve.) AUTHORITY. Human, not decisive, 95 danger of referring to it as such, 92. Ministerial, danger of exaggerated views of, 169, 172, 173. BREVIARY, ROMAN. Republication of, 163, 181. CHURCH. Catholic, unity of in fundamentals, after the Reformation, 184. English, state of, at the close of the last century, 126, 127, 156-158. Church authority, caution against lowering claims of, 134 ; danger of dis- proportionate regard for, 147, 148. Church discipline, caution against inattention to, 134. Church establishment, embarrassments occasioned by, 210; "an incubus upon the country," 211 ; compared to Egyptian bondage, 211 to the Upas tree, by a Tractarian and a Dissenting minister, 211. Church services, the source of embarrassment, 210 ; Communion service described as "a judgment on the Church;" proposed substitution of the Liturgy of St. Peter, 153, 210. Church Missionary Society; its great success, 198; support of colonial bishops, 199 ; opposition of Tractarians inconsistent with their professed reverence for Episcopal authority, 199. CONGREGATION. Praying with back to, recommended, 210. CRANMER, ARCHBISHOP. Sneered at, 208. DEAD. Religious commemoration of, rejected by the Reformers, 117 rashly re- commended by the Tractarians, as completing what the Reformers began, 117 ; result of such a practice, 117. INDEX. XV Prayers for, said not to be discouraged by the Church of England, 1 1 6 deliberately repudiated by the Church, 116. EPISCOPACY. Its demands upon our respect hardly to be asserted too strongly, 181 ; senti- ments of the Tractarians concerning, 181 ; want of reverence for, 207, 208. " EVANGELICAL," or " ULTRA-PROTESTANT SCHOOL." Gross misrepresentation of its teaching and effects by the Tractarians, 51, 52, 85, 86, 200, 204 ; these misrepresentations turned to good ac- count, 53. EUCHARIST. Strange and startling expressions on the subject of, 108, 152, 153, 171, 172, 212. Christ represented as continuing with His Church until His second coming, concealed under the species of the Eucharist, 58. Protestant doctrine respecting, declared to be " proud, irreverent, and foolish," 212. Said to be no sacrament unless administered by a minister of the apostolical succession, 181. Improperly termed a sacrifice, 178 ; simple language of the Apostles com- pared with that of the Fathers, 179. EVIDENCE. Instruction in, deprecated, 91. FAITH. In what consists the Faith commended by Christ and His apostles, 91 ; the opposite of this represented as Christian Faith, 92 ; consists not in un- inquiring acquiescence, 91 ; danger of a spurious kind of, 91 ; the efficient cause of holiness, 113. FATHERS. Benefits to be derived from study of, 154 ; in what respects deserving of the highest admiration, 128 ; their testimony on some points invaluable and conclusive, 128; under what circumstances to be received, 122, 128; their remains bequeathed to the Church for our great advantage, 177. Character of their writings, 169 ; laboured under great disadvantages, 114 ; little versed in critical accuracy, 129 ; their incautious expressions easily wrested to the support of the grossest errors and abuses, 129 ; often breathe a tone and spirit unlike that of the Apostles of Christ, 177; not to be implicitly subscribed to, 122; too great importance attached to their opinions led gradually to the errors and corruptions of XVI INDEX. the Romish Church, 129 ; not certain guides in theology, or safe ex- pounders of Holy Writ, 128, 169 ; when no longer to be regarded as witnesses, 122. Carefully distinguish between their own writings and Scripture, 93 ; did not claim the authority since assigned to them, 93. Abettors of Gospel, as well as of High Church principles, 154. HALL, BISHOP. His truly Protestant principles widely departed from by the Tractarians, 115, 116; his opinion of the Church of Scotland, 133. HOLTT SPIRIT. Necessity of our dependence upon ; a doctrine not to be prominently and explicitly brought forward, according to the Tractarians, 24. JEWEL, BISHOP. Censured as a despiser of the Apostolical Succession, 162 as an " irreverent Dissenter," 207 ; Hooker's opinion of him, 207. JOY. Not to be sought for as the end of holiness, 77 ; consequent on the reception of the Gospel, 197, 198, 201. JUSTIFICATION. Mr. Newman's doctrine of Justification through the indwelling manhood of Christ in the believer, 98, 99 compared with that of Osiander, 97-100. " Through the Sacraments," 112. By Faith in Christ's merits, doctrine of, openly and covertly assailed by the Tractarians, 110; doctrine of the Apostles and Reformers, 148, 149; necessarily leads to good works, 112 ; whether part of the doctrine necessary to salvation, questioned by Mr. Froude, 209. Not identical with sane tificat ion, 112. KlSHNAGHDR. Religious awakening at ; practical testimony to the efficacy of preaching the Atonement explicitly, 192-198. LATIMER, BISHOP. Described as " something in the Bulteel line," 208. LORD'S TABLE. Expression said to be " polluted by Protestant use," 1 53. INDEX. XV11 MINISTERS, CHRISTIAN. Do not require implicit reception of what they teach, 14 ; are not to set themselves up as oracles, 95. MINISTRY, CHRISTIAN. An undue exaltation of its offices and dignity an invasion of the Divine glory, 177 ; such exaltation indicated by gradual alteration of the senses of words, as "Altar," "Priest," &c., 177, 179. MONASTIC SYSTEM. Projected revival of, 212. NEWMAN, MR. His doctrine of Justification, 97-100; Labours to subvert the Creed of Luther, 97 ; his system described, 99, 175 ; his personal character, 175. PARDON. Perfect pardon preached through the Cross of Christ, 76, 77, 131 testimony of Bishop Pearson, 78, 79 ; if obtained under the Law, much more under the Gospel, 77. (See Sin after Baptism.) PEARSON, BISHOP. His sentiments opposed to the Tractarians, 80. PENANCE. Said to be a subject which cannot profitably be brought into controversy with the Romanists of the present day, 117. POPERY. Its abominations too tenderly treated, 108, 115, 181, 211, 212. POWER, SPIRITUAL. Who most likely to be ensnared by unsuspected desires after ; influence of this temptation in the early Christian Church, 177. PREACHING. Ordinance of, how described by Hooker, 18 ; state of the Church when neglected, 20 ; its legitimate effects, 27, 28 when it fails to produce them, 19 ; danger of misusing, 26, 27 ; abuse of, no argument against it, 26 ; a blessed instrument of conversion, 1 20. xvm INDEX. Disparaged by the Tractarians, 16 ; as not much recommended by Scripture 17, 21, 23; as little esteemed by Heathen moralists, 17; Hooker's opinion on this point, 18 ; not the source of Divine grace, 186 ; testi- mony of Scripture on this subject, 186 ; of Hooker, 187 ; of Bishop Wilson, 188 ; should be quite disconnected from the services, 210 ; main cause of this disparagement, 23, 24. Argument against, from expression " House of Prayer" answered, 20, 21 ; testimony of the Homilies to the practice of Christ and his Apostles, 20,21. St. Paul's preaching. Its warrant, 9 ; Object, 15 ; Subject, 31 ; Effects, 43. PRIEST. Term never in any single instance applied by the Apostles to the ministers of Christ, 178 ; how used by the Tractarians, 208. PRIESTLY, DR. His doctrine of a seminal body, compared with Mr. Newman's theory of the immateriality of the body of the regenerate, 100. PROTESTANTISM. Fundamental principle of, 96 ; Mr. Froude's description of, 209. PURGATORY. Extract from Tract on, 80. REFORMATION. Importance of a temperate discussion of the questions connected with it, 154 ; a wonderful work, 155; danger of attempting to improve upon it, 155. Traduced and undermined by the Tractarians, 104, 110, 167, 208, 209. REFORMERS. Guided by discretion in the handling of Antiquity, 154 ; zealous churchmen and evangelical teachers, 155. Their authority trampled upon, and their memory insulted, by the Tracta- rians, 54, 167, 207, 208. RESERVE IN COMMUNICATING RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE. Belongs properly to a Divine instructor, 90 ; practised by God himself, 90, 134 by our Lord, 134, 136 ; Whitby's Annotations on Mark, iv. vei*. 21, 22, 134 ; these examples proposed for our imitation, 134 ; argument from our Lord's conduct in raising the daughter of Jairus, and from parable of new wine and old bottles, answered, 63, 64. A most presumptuous exercise of authority in any human teacher, 90. RESERVE IN PREACHING THE ATONEMENT. Opposed to express command of Christ, 65, 134 to the practice of the Apostles, 32 43, 67, 160 ; contrary to the use of the best antiquity, 137 ; INDEX. XIX example of St. Augustine, 137 ; inconsistent with the duty of a Christian minister, 119 ; subversive of the objects for which the Scriptures were written, 182 ; at variance with the special and distinct requirement of our Church, 119 ; and with the principle upon which its services are constructed, 182 ; tends to repress love, and to substitute a spirit of legal fear, 135 ; effects which must ensue if the principles of the Tractarians on this subject are adopted, 182. Argument of Tractarians for, sophistical and fallacious, 134 at variance with express words of Christ, 1 34 irrelevant and inconsequential, 1 34 overthrown by themselves, 137; analogical argument from our Lord's teaching set aside, 136, 137. (See Atonement.) RIDLEY, BISHOP. Sneered at, as the " associate of Cranmer," 208. ROME, CHURCH OF. Designated by Tractarians as our mother, through whom we were born to Christ, 180 ; its doctrines not to be called " blasphemous" language of our Church on this subject, 211 ; points of difference between us to be reckoned as " theological opinions" 211. RULE OF FAITH. Meaning attached to the expression by the early Fathers, 120 ; false principle asserted by the Tractarians, 102, 103, 106, 107 ; not Scripture and Tradition conjointly, 106; Scripture the sole and exclusive rule, 131 this a " trumpery principle," 209. SACRAMENTS. Danger of disproportionate regard for, 147, 148 ; said to be the keys of the kingdom of heaven, 167 ; view of the Church of England on this point, 167. Caution against opposite extreme of disparaging their efficacy, 134. SACRIFICE. Term, how employed in the New Testament applied by the early Fathers to the Lord's Supper tends immediately to overthrow the nature of a sacrament, 178. SCRIPTURE. The inspired and only infallible standard of faith, 169 ; contains "sufficiently' all doctrine required of necessity for salvation, 14. Entire sufficiency of, controverted, 110; made to be the secondary teacher of Divine truth, 103 ; depressed into an expositor of Tradition, 103 ; texts of, weakened and contracted to narrowest and most doubtful sense, 108. XX INDEX. SERMONS. How esteemed by Hooker, 18 ; error of supposing that religion consists chiefly in the hearing of, 120. SIN. After baptism, No plenary pardon for, according to the Tractarians, 80 ; such a view tends to rob the Gospel of its peculiar message, and Baptism of its full and genuine efficacy, 1 1 8. (See Pardon.) Venial and mortal. Dangerous tendency of the language of the Tractarians on this subject, 118. TAYLOR, BISHOP. Censured as " heretical," 208. TKACTARIANS. Their personal character, 91, 97, 101, 102, 104, 112, 113, 126, 129, 136,138, 157, 168, 175 ; a topic which ought not to be brought into the dis- cussion, 157 ; does not alter the tendency of their system, nor lessen the danger of their principles, 104, 114 ; renders it more necessary to guard against their errors, 157 ; not superior to that of Romanists, who have carried out their doctrines to the fullest extent, 102. Origin and source of their erroneous views and system. Undue and excessive reverence for antiquity, 128 ; alleged dissatisfaction with the existing state of the Church, 157. Adoption of their erroneous views accounted for. Combined attractions of antiquity and novelty, 96, 111 ; supposed tendency to promote piety and morality, 96 ; disposition to extreme and exclusive statements, 127. Hold erroneous views with reference to Apostolical succession, 161 ; au- thoritative teaching of the Church, 152, 169, 172; confession, 117; constitution of the Church, 127, 210, 211; ecclesiastical rites and observances, 127, 167, 210; Episcopacy, 181; invocation of saints, 115, 212; justification, 110, 127, 166, 209; penance, 117; prayer for the dead, 116, 174; purgatory, 80, 116; religious commemoration of the dead, 117; reserve, 110, 127, 119, 160, 161, 174, (vide supra;) sacra- ments, 127, 152, 153, 167, 180, 212; saints, prayers of departed, 163, 164; Scripture, sufficiency of, 110, 209; sin after baptism, 110, 118, 127 venial and mortal, 118; Tradition, 102, 109, 113, 114, 115, 127, 152, 180, 209; worship of images, 115, 212. Not safe and consistent members of the Church of England, 1 53 ; profess to complete what the Reformers began, 117 ; depart widely from the Protestant principles of Bishop Hall, whom they profess to follow, 115; how far opposed to the corruptions of the Church of Rome, 153 ; adopt illegitimate principle of Romish Church, 1 74 ; plausibly palliate Romish corruptions, 108, 151, 152, 181 ; cavil against the wisdom and necessity of the Reformation, 110, 151, 152, 167, 183, 207, 208 (see Re- formation ;) prefer corrupt Church of Rome to Church of Scotland, 133. Their meaning frequently obscure and unintelligible. 98, 100, 112, 168; elicit important truth with great alloy of error, 96, 151, 175 are the INDEX. XXI unconscious and involuntary pioneers of infidelity, 165 ; fears enter- tained for their disciples, 104. Their system Leading particulars, errors and defects of, 101, 102, 108, 127, 152, 166, 167, 180, 181; effects of, if not checked, 109, 130, 158; caution against adoption of, 106, 109, 131, 164, 166, 184 ; not likely to be permanent, 101, 111, 113; no new system, 111, 112, 130; founded on mistaken views of the general tenour and character of Scripture, 112; loosens our exclusive hold on the great doctrines of Scripture, 165 ; manifests a propensity to tamper with the great verities of the Christian faith, 163, 166 ; draws away men's minds from fundamental principles, 1 1 1 ; a trifling and fanciful theology, 111; an extraordinary mixture of the trifling and the serious, the true and the false, 175; generates an inadequate, superficial, and superstitious religion, 109 ; exalts the ritual to an equality with the spiritual elements of religion, 1 58 ; directly opposed to the evangelical system of doctrine and practice, 157 ; tends palpably to create doubt, distrust, and terror, 135, 185 ; is the source of baneful division, 133, 157 ; derived essentially from Romanism, 130 ; an increasing aberration from Protestant principles, 152, 185; threatens a revival of the worst Roman errors, 101, 109, 111, 153, 165, 183; traduces and undermines the Reformation, 104, 110, 133, 152, 167, 183, 207, 208, 209 ; tends to represent the Church in its points of re- semblance to Roman Catholicism, and to throw it into strong contrast with the spirit of Protestantism, 141 ; dangerous in its effects upon the people at large, the young, unlearned, and inexperienced, 101, 104, 111, 153, 161, 163, 165, 185. Their writings. Strangely misnamed " Tracts for the Times," 133, 174 ; calculated to sow seeds of discord, 133 ; tend to mistake and counteract the very nature, object, and design, of the Gospel, 130, 182 ; calculated to obscure and displace some of the most important doctrines of Scripture, 185 ; tend to make men fearful of exercising their own thoughts on what they read in the oracles of God, 169 to recommend the study of the Fathers as the necessary and only sufficient guide to the pure doctrines of God's "Word, 169 ; in direct opposition to the acknowledged principles of Protestantism, 185 ; tend to deny or explain away, the distinguishing principles of the Reformation, 130 and to accredit the pretensions and errors of the Church of Rome, 130 ; imperative necessity for decided protest and warning against, 112, 152, 180, 183. Their doctrines and opinions. Likely to cause a diminished respect for the Sacred Writings, 114; opposed to Scripture and to the genius of Christianity 128, 130, 131, 135 ; if popular would be essentially injurious to the cause of Protestantism, aud to Christianity, 114; dangerous to the Protestant Church, 150; at variance with the teaching of the Reformers, and with the principles and doctrines of the Church of England, 112, 128, 130, 133, 135, 185; closely connected with the grand corruption of Christianity, 150 ; how regarded by Romanists themselves, 151, 165. Evidence of combination and design, 151, 152, 212, 213. XX11 INDEX. TRADITION. Its proper use, office, and value, 104, 105, 120, 121, 122, 140, 142 ; taken by itself has no vitality, 141 ; just and proper evidence, 105, 142, 180 ; authentic testimony, 105 ; a most important confirmation of what we must believe as taught in Scripture, 142, 145 ; a guide to the knowledge of what Scripture reveals, 142 ; over urged, saps the foundation of a penitent sinner's hope in the Atonement of Christ, 107. Limit of reverence for, fixed by our Church, shewn from her articles, homilies, and ordination services, 142, 143, 144. What the only authoritative Tradition, 122 ; how divided by Bellarmine, 144 ; unwritten Tradition recognised by Irenseus, 121. Latitude in which the word is taken by the Tractarians, 103, 107 ; near approach of Mr. Keble's scheme to that of Dens, 104. Not a primary authentic revelation, 142 ; not in any sense a part of our Rule of Faith, 144 ; not a primary source of doctrine, 145, 146 ; erroneously described as the interpreter of Scripture, 115, 180, 209. TRANSUBSTANTIATION. Placed by Tractarians in juxta-position with the divinity of the Holy Ghost, 159, 160, 166 ; controversy respecting it to be kept in the back- ground, 116. TROTHS, RELIGIOUS. Not all equally clear, or equally important, 160 ; not all to be taught at once, 40, 90 opinion of Hooker, 4 1 ; argument from hence in favour of Reserve in preaching the Atonement, answered, 40-43. UNIVERSITIES. Importance of, to the Church, 155. VlNCENTIUS LlRINENSIS. Rule of, 94, 105. VOLUNTARY SYSTEM. Recommended by Mr. Froude, 211. WORDS. Gradual alteration in the senses of, indicating a gradual change in the views and practices of the Church, 177. WORSHIP OF SAINTS. " May, perhaps, be idolatrous," 212. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL THE MAYOR, THE ALDERMEN, SHERIFF, AND OTHKR MEMBERS OF THE TOWN COUNCIL, Cije Cit of THE TWO FOLLOWING SERMONS PREACHED BEFORE THEM, AND PUBLISHED AT THEIR REQUEST, ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BV THE AUTHOR. SERMON I. THE WARRANT AND OBJECT OF ST. PAUL'S COMMISSION. 1 COR. i. 17. '* CHRIST SENT ME NOT TO BAPTIZE, BUT TO PREACH THE GOSPEL." OF all the Churches planted by St. Paul, none perhaps experienced a larger share of his labour, or was favoured with a longer continuance of his personal ministrations, than " the Church which" was " at Corinth." 1 Certainly, none appears to have excited a deeper interest in his heart, or to have called into more frequent and powerful ex- ercise those zealous and affectionate feelings for which the great apostle of the Gentiles was so pre- eminently distinguished. He had come among them at the first " in weakness and in fear, and in much trembling ;" 2 and well he might: to the eye 1 1 Cor. i. 2. 2 1 Cor. ii. 3. 2 THE WARRANT AND OBJECT of sense, the field in which he was called to labour seemed little likely to reward his toil ; a city whose inhabitants were licentious even to a pro verb ; " a city of rhetoricians and philosophers," abounding on the one hand with all the luxury of worldly wealth, and on the other with all the pride of worldly wisdom, presented to the spiritual hus- bandman a soil but ill adapted to the growth of plants which were of pure and heavenly origin. But He who cheered the mind of his desponding prophet in the wilderness with the assurance that He had yet " reserved unto" Himself " seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which had not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which had not kissed him," 1 confirmed the spirit of the apostle, enabled him to withstand the opposition and blas- phemy by which he was assailed, and to look beyond the discouraging prospect before him with the same joyful communication: "I have much people in this city !" Yes, even in the licentious and abandoned Corinth ! " Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace : for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee ; for I have much people in this city. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them." " And many of the Corinthians 1 1 Kings, xix. 18. Rom. xi. 4. OF ST. PAUL S COMMISSION. 3 hearing, believed, and were baptized." 1 He was thus permitted to reap the fruit of his labour in the establishment of a church, in which " the testimony of Christ was confirmed," and whose members, " enriched in all utterance and in all knowledge, came behind," or were deficient, " in no" spiritual " gift." 2 He went forth weeping, bearing precious seed, and he came again with joy, and brought his sheaves with him. 3 He was privileged to behold the day when, having rehearsed the fearful cata- logue of " the works of the flesh," he could speak in terms like these of his Corinthian converts : " And such were some of you : but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." 4 What encouragement is here afforded, brethren, to the minister of Christ to cast the bread of life upon the waters, in full assurance that he shall find it, though it may be after many days ! 5 to " preach the word ;" to "be instant in season and out of season," 6 believing that, however circumstances appear to be against him, his " labour shall not be in vain in the Lord." 7 " For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower 1 Acts, xviii. 9, 10, 11. 8. - 1 Cor. i. 5, 6, 7. 3 Ps. cxxvi. 6. * 1 Cor. vi. 11. 5 Eccles. xi. 1. 6 2 Tim. iv. 2. r I Cor. xv. 58. B 2 4 THE WARRANT AND OBJECT and bread to the eater ; so shall my Word be that goeth forth out of my mouth : it shall not return unto me void ; but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." 1 But the need we have of such encouragement as this, is too plainly manifested in the subsequent history of the Corinthian Church. About three years after he left them to preach the Gospel in other parts of Greece, the apostle addressed to his converts at Corinth the epistle from which my text is taken; and melancholy indeed is the picture which he draws of that which once was fair and flourish- ing, and full of hope. The " enemy" had sown his " tares among the wheat ;" 2 " the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things," had entered in and " choked the word," and it was become "unfruitful." 3 " Grievous wolves" had found their way into the Christian fold ; nay, even of themselves had men arisen " speaking per- verse things, to draw away disciples after them." 4 And they who had been baptized into one common faith, they who had been " called in one hope of their calling," 5 forgetting that one was their Master, even Christ, and that they all were brethren, 6 had "heaped unto themselves teachers, having itching 1 Is.lv. 10, 11. 8 Mat. xiii. 25. 3 Mark, iv. 19. 4 Acts, xx. 29, 30. 5 Eph. iv. 4, 5. 6 Matt, xxiii. 8. OF ST. PAUL S COMMISSION. 5 ears ;"' so that there was among them " envying, and strife, and division," one said "I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos." 2 To remedy these sad abuses to restore the Corinthian professors to the simplicity of the faith, to " the unity of the Spirit, in the bond of peace," 3 were among the chief objects of the apostle in writing the epistle before us. Nor let us overlook the manner in which he addressed himself to his task. Doubtless " his spirit was stirred in him" by the tidings which had reached his ears, and he felt as one who " must give account" 5 for the faith- ful exercise of that authority with whi'ch he was entrusted ; but he sought to use " the power which the Lord had given" him " to edification and not to destruction ;" 6 the mouths of the unruly and vain talkers, and deceivers, must be stopped, and therefore he rebukes " them sharply that they may be sound in the faith ;" 7 but he reproves them at the same time " with all long suffering." 8 His " exhortation was not of deceit," he "used" no " flattering words, nor of men sought" he " glory ;" 9 yet he writes " in love and in the spirit of meekness," 10 " affording," as it has been well observed by one just taken from among us to fill the 1 2 Tim. iv. 3 2 1 Cor. iii. 3, 4. 3 Eph. iv. 3. * Acts, xvii. 16. 5 Heb. xiii. 17. 6 2 Cor. xiii. 10. 2 Cor. x. 8. " Tit. i. 10, 11 13. 8 2 Tim. iv. 2. 9 1 Thess. ii. 3. 5, 6. 10 1 Cor. iv. 21. 6 THE WARRANT AND OBJECT highest office in the Church of Christ, " affording a beautiful specimen of what a Christian teacher might and should be in all ages of the Church stern and inflexible in the great questions of sound belief and of practical holiness, yet manifesting, even in the midst of his severity towards offenders, an eager anxiety to hope and to believe the best ; and evermore desirous to lead men back to the path of duty by kindling afresh their holy and generous feelings, than to compel them to it by harshness of inculpation and severity of punishment. So happily did he ex- emplify in his own person his own beautiful pre- cept, expressed in another epistle, ' Be ye angry and sin not.' '" Instead of upbraiding the Corin- thians with their too notorious departure from the belief and practice of the truth, and thus perhaps closing their hearts against the admonitions which it was his purpose to convey, he begins with the salutation of " grace and peace ;" 2 he refers with gratitude to " the grace of God which" had been "given" them "by Jesus Christ," 2 and to the spiritual gifts with which they were formerly enriched ; and, knowing that " God is faithful," 3 he ventures, in the spirit of that " charity" which " hopeth all things," to express his belief that they shall yet be " con- 1 Dr. Shuttleworth's Paraphrastic Translation of the Apos- tolic Epistles. Pref. to 1st Cor. 2 1 Cor. i. 3, 4. 8, 9. 8 I Cor. xiii. 7. OF ST. PAUL S COMMISSION. 7 firmed unto the end," and " be blameless in the day of Christ." Then, referring to the subject which seems to have lain most upon his mind the dis- sentions with which the Church was harassed " I beseech you, brethren," says he, " 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. For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, that there are contentions among you. That every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided ? was Paul crucified for you ? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul ? I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius ; lest any man should say that I had baptized in my own name. And I baptized also the household of Stephanas ; besides, I know not whether I baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel." 1 Such were the circumstances which drew from the apostle the remarkable declaration in the text. So deeply was he impressed with the great impor- tance of Christian unity to the well-being of the Church, so sensible that where that unity was want- ing there would be " confusion, and every evil 1 1 Cor. i. 1017. 8 THE WARRANT AND OBJECT work," 1 that he was led to consider it as a subject for devout thanksgiving to God that his public ministrations in the Church of Christ had been so ordered as to free him from the charge of having afforded, by his conduct, any sanction to the mischief which he so deeply deplored. No possible pretext could be urged from his example in defence of that party-spirit which he was now called upon to reprobate and suppress. " I thank God that I bap- tized none of you, ... .lest any man should say," however falsely, " that I baptized in my own name." So anxious was he to avoid even the " appearance of evil." : And let us observe, that his conduct in this respect was not the result of any casual circumstances which had directed the course of his ministrations into one particular channel. It was not from any preference for one duty above another, nor from any caprice or predilection of his own, that the apostle had left to other labourers the office of administering the holy Sacrament of Baptism, while he applied himself all but exclu- sively to the preaching of the Word. He acted in this, as in all other matters, under the authority and by the express command of the great Head and Ruler of the Church, who, counting him faithful, had put him into the ministry, 3 and " sent " him "not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel."' 1 Jam. iii. 16. 8 1 Thess. v. 22. 3 1 Tim. i. 12. 1 Cor. i. 17. OF ST. PAUL'S COMMISSION. 9 I shall endeavour, in the remainder of this dis- course, to direct your attention to two most impor- tant subjects contained in this brief declaration of the apostle : I. THE WARRANT OF THE COMMISSION WITH WHICH HE WAS ENTRUSTED ; and, II. THE OBJECT OF THAT COMMISSION. May the Holy Spirit of God vouchsafe his bless- ing, that the consideration of these topics may be as profitable to our souls as they are appropriate to our respective circumstances and relations ! I. Let us notice, in the FIRST place, THE WAR- RANT OF THE APOSTLE'S COMMISSION. " Christ sent me." When our blessed Lord ordained the first Minis- ters of the Gospel, he selected, from the body of his disciples, Twelve, whom " he sent" forth " to preach the Kingdom of God," ' and upon whom he conferred the name of " Apostles," 2 that is, Messengers sent upon an express errand ; and before he ascended into heaven, having completed his own ministry upon earth, he delegated to them the great work in which he had been engaged, with these solemn words, " As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." 3 " All power is given me in heaven and in earth ; go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 4 " Go ye into 1 Luke, ix. 2. 2 Luke, vi. 13. 3 John, xx. 21. 4 Matt, xxviii. 18, 19. 10 THE WARRANT AND OBJECT all the world, and preach the Gospel to every crea- ture." 1 Besides the appointment of the Twelve, the case which we are now considering affords the only instance of an apostle deriving his commission from our Lord in person. Hence St. Paul speaks of himself as "called to be an apostle," 2 " not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead." 3 It was necessary as we learn from the address of St. Peter to the disciples, recorded in the first chapter of the Acts that they who were first chosen " to take part of the apostleship" 4 should be men who, of their own personal knowledge, could bear wit- ness to the truth of that fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And it was doubtless for this among other reasons it was to qualify St. Paul in this particular respect for the work to which he was ap- pointed that " the Lord, even Jesus, appeared " to him " in the way," 5 as he journeyed to Damascus, and called him with his own voice to preach " the faith which once he destroyed." To this the apos- tle evidently alludes in the fifteenth chapter of the epistle before us, when, speaking of the several occasions upon which our blessed Lord manifested 1 Mark, xvi. 15. 2 Rom. i. 1. 3 Gal. i. 1 ; see also ver. 12. 15. 17. 4 Acts, i. 25. 5 Acts, ix. 17. 8 Gal. i. 23. OF ST. PAUL'S COMMISSION. 11 himself after his resurrection, he says, " And after that he was seen of James, then of all the apostles, and last of all he was seen of me also." Thus far the first preachers of the Gospel received their commission immediately from Christ himself. Henceforth it seemed good to him to devolve upon his apostles, and through them upon their succes- sors in the Christian Church, the solemn and most re- sponsible duty of sending labourers into his vineyard. They were to " lay hands suddenly on no man ;" but to " commit the things which " they had " heard to faithful men, who" should " be able to teach others also." 2 And surely, brethren, it is not too much to hope and to believe nay, rather is it not a grievous want of faith to doubt that He who promised to be with his Church, not in her early infancy alone, but " always, even unto the- end of the world," 3 will make good his word, and ratify his own appointment ? That he invests with his authority those who in his name are set apart for the office of the ministry "those which," as our Church says, " be chosen and called to this work by men who have public authority given unto them in the congregation to call and send ministers into the Lord's vineyard ?" 4 This then is the war- rant of our commission. Thus authorized, we hesitate not to declare to you that Christ sent us. 1 1 Tim. v. 22. - 2 Tim. ii. 2. 3 Matt, xxviii.20. * Art. 23. 12 THE WARRANT AND OBJECT " As his Ambassadors, who should give us our com- mission but He whose most inward affairs we ma- nage ?" We come to you in His name ; we beseech you in His stead ; 2 else, brethren, is " our Preaching vain, and your Faith is also vain." 3 But how important the consequences which result from tins consideration ! How fearful the respon- sibility that is thus attached, as well to us who speak as to you who hear ! If it be " required in " earthly " stewards that a man be found faithful," 4 what fidelity must be expected at the hands of those who are " stewards of the mysteries of God !" ! " Son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel ; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die ; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity ; but his blood will I require at thine hand." Truly, brethren, if such be our commis- sion, we do well to magnify our office ; 7 and that, not " as lords over God's heritage ;" 8 it is not the dignity of our office that we would most desire to press upon you, but its unspeakable importance to yourselves. We call upon you " to esteem " those who bear it " very highly in love for their work's 1 Hooker, Eccles. Pol. B. 5. 77. 2 2 Cor. v. 20. 3 1 Cor. xv. 14. 4 1 Cor. iv. 2. * I Cor. iv. 1. 6 Ezek. xxxiii. 7, 8. 7 Rom. xi. 13. p 1 Pet. v. 3. OF ST. PAUL'S COMMISSION. 13 sake ;" l and none the less because the " treasure" is committed to " earthen vessels," 2 for it is so com- mitted for this very end, " that the excellency of the power should be of God, and not of us." We come to you as sent of Christ ; and though the message we deliver be no longer, as it was at first, confirmed by miracles and mighty works, yet is it still accompanied by signs which prove it to be the word of Him at whose voice the dead in sin arise and live. It is still attended by a power which melts the stony heart, and " maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak." 3 As such we bid you to receive it, " not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God, which effectually worketh " in all them " that believe." 4 We would guard you against the peril of refusing Him who, by the mouth of his Ministers, thus speaketh to you from heaven : 5 "If thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul.'" " Verily, verily I say unto you, he that receiveth whomsoever I send, receiveth me ; and he that receiveth me, receiveth Him that sent me." 7 " And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. 1 1 Thess. v. 13. 2 2 Cor. iv. 7. 3 Mark, vii. 37. 4 1 Thess. ii. 13. 5 Heb. xii. 25. 6 Ezek. xxxiii. 9. 7 John. xiii. 20. 14 THE WARRANT AND OBJECT Verily I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment than for that city." ! But let it not be thought, my brethren, that the Ministers of the Gospel demand a blind and implicit reception at your hands. It is for you to examine our credentials. You are to " try the spirits whe- ther they are of God." 2 We refer you to no tradi- tions of men; "persuaded," as we have solemnly declared ourselves to be before God and the Church, "persuaded that the Holy Scripture contains SUFFI- CIENTLY all doctrine required of necessity for eternal Salvation, through faith in Jesus Christ," 3 we appeal alone to the unerring standard of God's written Word. " Whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of the faith;" 4 it hath "neither strength nor authority ;" 5 it is not to " be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation." 4 Search tbe Scriptures, therefore, whether these things are so. 6 "To the Law and to the Testimony;" if we speak " according to this word," 7 it will be to the peril of your immortal souls that you reject our message. But " though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, let him be accursed !" 8 1 Mark, vi. 11. 2 1 John, iv. 1. 3 Ordination Service. 4 Art. B. 6 Art. 21. Acts, xvii. 11. 7 Is. viii. 20. 8 Gal. i. viii. OF ST. PAUL'S COMMISSION. lf> II. Let us now proceed to notice, in the SECOND place, THE OBJECT OF THE APOSTLE'S COM- MISSION. " I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of those things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee ; delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgive- ness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me." 1 Such, brethren, were the terms in which the apostle was addressed by a voice from heaven, when he was first " put in trust with the Gospel." 2 The object of his mission was to disciple men to Christ ; and as the " Faith" upon which alone they could be admitted into the Christian covenant, was to come " by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God," 3 his grand business was to preach that Word that they might believe. I shall take occasion this evening, if God permit, to enter more fully into the subject of St. Paul's Preaching ; at present, therefore, I content myself with reminding you that the simple Preaching of the Word was the work to which the labours of the 1 Acts, xxvi. 16, 17, 18. 2 I Thess. ii. 4. 3 Rom. x. 17. 16 THE WARRANT AND OBJECT apostle were almost exclusively confined. " Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel." And here, perhaps, I need scarcely observe, how aptly the Ministry which I am called to exercise among you is described in these few words. Happy should I be were this the only circumstance which renders the consideration of them seasonable at the present moment. Brethren, believe me it is from no love of controversy that I feel bound in all Christian faithfulness, and, I trust I may add, with all Christian charity, to call your attention to the subject on which I am about to remark. It is not because I think that controversial preaching is best adapted to spiritual edification, but because I feel that there are seasons when it comes, as it were, in the due course of our ministrations, and cannot be avoided without a dereliction of duty. " Sent not to baptize, but to PREACH THE GOSPEL," an attempt to uphold the importance of my commission could not, under any circumstances, be out of season ; much less so, surely, at a moment when, in this very place, and among ourselves, there have arisen men who seek to lower the estimation in which the Ordinance of Preaching has been held, who, though, to use their own words, they " would not be thought entirely to depreciate preaching as a mode of doing good" yet describe it as that which "may be necessary in a weak and languishing state;" "the characteristic of a system opposed to the system of OF ST. PAUL'S COMMISSION. 17 the Church ; an instrument which Scripture, to say the least, has never much recommended ;" and which " the great teachers of heathen morals esteemed but little useful for their purpose." 1 Not such the 1 Tracts for the Times, No. 87, p. 75. *' If from Revelation we turn to the great teachers of morals which have been in the world, we shall be surprised to find how little they esteemed it useful for their purpose. The exceeding jealous apprehension of rhetoric which Socrates evinces is remarkable, as shewn throughout the Gorgias. Nor does it ever seem to have occurred to the sages of old, as a means of promoting morality ; and yet some of them, as Pythagoras and Socrates, made this purpose viz. that of im- proving the principles of men, the object of their lives : and the former was remarkable for his mysterious discipline, and the silence he imposed ; the latter for a mode of questioning, which may be considered as entirely an instance of this kind of reserve in teaching. " St. Clement, of Alexandria, .... maintains, by many curious instances, that this reserve in communicating moral and religious truth was observed by all the heathen philoso- phers He shews it was so in the hieroglyphics of Egypt, in many expressions of Plato, in the Pythagorean mysteries, in the Platonic and Epicurean secrets, in the esoteric and exoteric doctrines of Aristotle, in the fictions of the ancient poets. He says, that the philosophers tried the sincerity of their hearers in their lives, before they communicated divine know- ledge to them. And besides, he says that ' through some sort of a veil, truth itself appears greater and more venerable, like fruits which shine through water, and forms which are half concealed. Moreover, when different modes of apprehension are held forth, the ignorant is deceived,* the wise only under- stand.' "Tracts for the Times, No. 87, p. 75, 34, 35. If, as may be collected from other passages, the writer of this Tract understands the Apostle to refer to the Ordinance of * " The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." Ps. xix. 7. C 18 THE WARRANT AND OBJECT language of one, whose authority has long been regarded in our Church with the highest deference and respect. " So worthy a part of Divine service," says Hooker, 1 contending against men who, in his day, had fallen into the opposite extreme, despising " the bare reading of the Word of God," and looking upon sermons as "the only ordinary means whereby we first come to apprehend the Divine mysteries ;" " So worthy a part of Divine service we should greatly wrong, if we did not esteem Preaching as the blessed Ordinance of God ; Sermons as keys to the kingdom of heaven, as wings to the soul, as spurs to the good affections of man, unto the sound and healthy as food, as physic unto diseased minds." But let me not be misunderstood. I would not have you unduly exalt one Christian Ordinance to the disparagement of the rest, or suppose, as some preaching, rather than to the doctrine which he delivered, when he speaks of fj /juapla TOV xrjpvyfjiaTOG, then the practice and opinions of the heathen philosophers above quoted, afford a striking confirmation of the truth that " God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and things which are despised to bring to nothing things which are." In any other point of view their testimony can have no weight. Is it fitting to compare their methods of instruction with that by " which the Holy Ghost teacheth ?" But, after all, were the heathen teachers of morality so exceedingly jealous of rhetoric ? Hooker says, " This the knowledge of the Cross of Christ, the only subject of all our preaching we know that the Grecians or Gentiles did account foolishness; but that they did ever think it a fond or unlikely way to seek mens conversion by Sermons, we have not heard." Eccles. Pol., B. v. 22. 1 Eccles. Pol., B. v .22. OF ST. PAUL'S COMMISSION. 19 have done, that " where Sermons are not," there " both Sacraments and Prayers also" are of no avail :' too many we fear there are who act as though they were influenced by such a supposition, and to their conduct may be attributed, in no small degree, the indifference with which, in certain quarters, the Ordinance of Preaching is now come to be regarded. That Ordinance assuredly does not effect the end for which it is designed, if it fail in leading men to a more diligent use of every other means of Grace ; if it cause them to grow remiss in the discharge of the duties of religion, or to under- value the importance of their Christian privileges. But, if it does so, the fault is in themselves and not in the Ordinance ; the Ordinance " is good if a man use it lawfully," 2 if any man abuse it let him bear the blame. It is because the public Preaching of the Word of God is and ever has been calculated to produce the very opposite effects, that we would urge upon you the necessity of forming a proper estimate of its value, and warn you against being led away with the error of those who disparage this most important office of the Christian ministry.* 1 Hooker, Eccles. Pol., B. v. 22. 2 1 Tim. i. 8. * The following observation of Milner, upon the state of religion in the fourteenth century, has been but too abundantly confirmed by the experience of the Church at other periods of her history. " If ' Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the c 2 20 THE WARRANT AND OBJECT We are told, that "According to the modern sys- tem the Church of God would be the house of PREACH- ING, while Scripture calls it the house of PRAYER.'" Let us see what sanction such an argument derives from the practice of Him* who claimed this title for His Father's house.' 2 Did He not sit daily teaching in that house of prayer? 3 Did not the public Preaching of the Word form part, and that a most conspicuous part, of His ministrations " in the Synagogue and in the Temple ?" 4 Surely, when we follow Him from city to city, and see Him entering, "as His custom was, into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day ;" when we hear Him expounding to the people, among whom " He had been brought up," that beautiful passage of the Prophet, in which His office as a Preacher is so emphatically Word of God,' we may venture to affirm, that wherever Christian preaching is disused or despised, whether through the influence of superstition or of refinement, there godliness is at a low ebb, and the principles of Christianity are almost unknown." History of the Church of Christ. Cent. XIV. 1 Tracts for the Times, No. 87, p, 73. * " It is written in the stories of the Gospels in divers places, that * Jesus went round about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom;' in which places is His great diligence in continual preaching and teaching of the people most evidently set forth. In Luke ye read how Jesus, according to his accustomed use, ' came into the temple, and how the book of Esaias the Prophet was delivered to him ;' how He read a text therein, and made a sermon upon ike same." Homily on the Right Use of the Church. 8 Matt. xxi. 13. 3 Matt. xxvi. 55. 4 John, xviii. 20. OF ST. PAUL'S COMMISSION. 21 described " The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor ; He hath sent me to heal the broken- hearted ; to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind ; to set at liberty them that are bruised ; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." When we find Him applying this passage to Himself, as fulfilled that day in the ears of them that heard Him, and so bringing it home to their hearts and consciences that " all bare Him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth," 1 we can scarcely persuade ourselves to believe that an ordinance thus sanctioned by our blessed Lord's own example is " an instrument which Scripture, to say the least, has never much recommended"' 2 ' If we pass on to the subsequent history of the Church, and inquire how this instrument was employed by those into whose hands it was com- mitted by Christ himself, we shall come to no very different conclusion.* When we observe how, by the blessing of God upon the Ordinance of Preach- 1 Luke, iv. 1622. 8 T. 87, p. 75. Several passages of Holy Scripture, shew- ing the effects ascribed to the " Word preached," will be found quoted in Appendix B., in opposition to the assertion that " the Sacraments not Preaching are the sources of Divine Grace." * " The same example of diligence in preaching the Word of God in the Temple, shall ye find in the Apostles" Homily on die right Use of the Church. 22 THE WARRANT AND OBJECT ing, the Church of Christ grew and was multiplied ; when we witness the effect of the first Apostolical Sermon upon record, 1 in the conversion of three thousand souls, not so much convinced by the miracle which they had seen, as " pricked in their hearts" 2 by the words which they had heard ; when we find at Ephesus a minister of the Church described as " an eloquent man, and mighty in the Scriptures," " speaking boldly in the synagogue," and " mightily convincing the Jews, and that pub- lickly, shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ ;" 3 when we find the Apostle of the Gentiles in the exercise of his ministerial commission, con- fining himself all but exclusively to the Preaching of the Gospel " witnessing both to small and great those things which the Prophets and Moses did say should come," 4 and so discoursing " con- cerning the faith in Christ," so " reasoning," even in bonds, " of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come," 5 as to make princes tremble ; can we be told without astonishment that " Scrip- ture speaks of instruction, but never of powerful ap- peals of speech ?" that " no part of Scripture itself appears in this shape as the remains of what was delivered with powerful eloquence ?" that " there is no instance of it," " no recommendation of it in precept, or example, or prophecy ?" that preaching 1 Acts, ii. 41. 3 Acts, ii. 37. 3 Acts, xviii. 24, 26, 28. * Acts, xxvi. 22. 5 Acts, xxiv. 24, 25. OF ST. PAUL'S COMMISSION. 23 is " an instrument which Scripture, to say the least, has never much recommended ?'" We have reason, brethren, to look with suspicion and alarm upon any attempt to lower, in the esti- mation of the Church, this " blessed Ordinance of God/' come from whatever source it may. How much more to be deplored is such disparagement, when we find that it proceeds in great measure from a conviction we doubt not, an honest and consci- entious, though most erroneous conviction that the Preaching of the present day, characterized as it is beyond that of some former periods by the full 1 Tracts for the Time*, No. 87, p. 73 to 75." Certainly the silence of Scripture," (see Appendix B.) " should make us cautious how we allow too much to this in- strument. The great importance now attributed to these means is sufficient to shew the tendency of the system ; it is one of expediency, it looks to man : that of the Church is one of faith, and looks to God. Their principle is to speak much and loud, because it is to man ; that of the Church is formed on this, ' That God is in heaven, and we on earth ;' therefore, ' keep thy foot in the house of God,' and ' let thy words be few.' "Tracts for the Times, No. 87, p. 76. Melancthon, whose authority would have little weight with the writer of this Tract, appears at all events to agree with him in his application of this advice of Solomon, which he confines to the " doctrines we deliver concerning God.'' The whole passage seems to be addressed rather to the hearer than the preacher, and refers much more naturally to those who, in offering vows, prayers, or thanksgivings, " think that they shall be heard for their much speaking." In this sense, as " most proper to the place," it is understood by Bishop Patrick, and other commentators. 24 THE WARRANT AND OBJECT development of Gospel truth, is at variance with the system both of Scripture and of the Church, and fraught with peril to the souls of men ! That the " doctrine of the ever-blessed Atonement, and the ne- cessity of our dependence on the good Spirit of God," are subjects which ought not to be "so promi- nently and explicitly brought forward " in our pul- pits, but taught with caution and reserve. That the opposite and prevailing system of teaching is " thoroughly unscriptural, uncatholic, and un- real." 1 There was a time when these doctrines did not hold so prominent a position in public Preaching ; when they were not so " loudly inculcated," so " in- discriminately thrust forth" 1 upon the attention of the people. It was a " weak and languishing state, "- a dismal period in the history of our Church, which we pray God may never return. But while the open and explicit declaration of the leading truths of the Gospel, in what is most incorrectly denominated " popular Preaching," ap- pears to be the principal source of that indifference with which the Ordinance itself is regarded by the party in question, there is another and a far more plausible objection, which, in conclusion, I must briefly notice, because it is well calculated to lead to a serious and practical application of the subject before us. 1 Tracts for the Times, No. 87, pp. 49. 47, 48. OF ST. PAUL'S COMMISSION. 25 It is asked, " What are the effects of this system ?' n What the result of this " unreserved discourse on the holiest subjects?" 1 "It brings people toge- ther ; it creates strong religious impressions ; and so far it may be well. But does it make men more desirous to learn, more exact in adhering to truth ? Does this system in the long-run make men more humble and obedient to their appointed ministers, more frequent in attending the daily Prayers, more honest and just in their dealings with mankind ? Does it lead them to think more of God and his appointments, and less of men and their gifts ? Does it produce a healthful and reverential tone of feeling respecting the blessed Sacraments ? Are persons who have been used to popular preaching " that is to the unreserved and explicit declaration of the grand doctrines of the Gospel, are such per- sons " more submissive to Divine Ordinances, and more easily moved to the self-denying duties of Repentance and Prayer ?" l My brethren, while we know that unto other generations as well as to our own the Gospel has been preached without profit ; 2 while we recollect that even among those who heard it from the mouth of Christ Himself, there were but too many who brought " no fruit to perfection," 3 although they received the word with joy ; 3 while we know that 1 Tracts for the Times, No. 87, pp. 75, 48, 75. 2 Heb. iv. 2. s Luke, viii. 14, 13. 26 THE WARRANT AND OBJECT " the preaching of the cross " of Christ is and ever will be "foolishness to them that perish," 1 that it is " the savour of death " 2 to numbers who hear it ; and while we cannot therefore admit that effects so lamentable form any argument whatever against the Ordinance itself, still, the questions which I have just read to you are well worthy of your most serious attention. If you frequent the Preaching of the Gospel merely from motives of idle curiosity ; if you come not with the honest and good intention of being, by the grace of God, " doers of His Word and not hearers only ;" 3 if after looking into the mirror of God's truth, and there beholding your own proper image, and acknowledging perhaps its correctness, and confessing yourselves "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked," 4 you go your way, and straightway forget what manner of men you are, 3 and act as though you were " rich and increased with goods, and in need of nothing:" 4 if spiritual pride usurps the place of meekness and humility of heart ; and the quiet discharge of Christian duty is superseded by the noisy profession of Christian privilege ; if you despise or disregard the other no less important means of Grace ; if you speak or think slightingly of Baptism ; if you 1 1 Cor. i. 18. 2 2 Cor. ii. 16. 3 Jam. i. 22, 23, 24. 1 lluv. iii. 17. OF ST. PAUL'S COMMISSION. 27 absent yourselves from the Table of the Lord ; if you are remiss or formal in your Prayers ; then, brethren, it is but too plain that however you may seem to rejoice in the light of God's truth, however you may flatter yourselves with the idea that you really value the Preaching of his Word, that Word is in fact no more to you than it was to Israel of old j 1 it is but a dead letter ; it is but as " sounding brass, and as a tinkling cymbal j" 2 it profits you nothing, for it is not mixed with faith in your hearts. And not only so ; you are helping, by your conduct, to bring discredit on this " blessed Ordinance of God;" you put it into the power of those who disparage its importance to say, " is there not a cause ?" 3 you may possibly be instru- mental in depriving others of a privilege which they would more duly estimate, and more diligently improve. And is not this a solemn consideration ? " It must needs be that offences come, but woe unto that man by whom the offence cometh !" 4 Brethren, " we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany Salvation, though we thus speak." 5 We trust that the good seed which has hitherto been sown among you has not been sown in vain, but that it is bringing forth fruit abundantly to the praise and the glory of God. If you " receive with meekness the engrafted Word ;" 1 Heb. iv. 2. 2 1 Cor. xiii. 1. 3 1 Sam. xvii. 29. 4 Matt, xviii. 7. 5 Heb. vi. 9. 6 6 James i. 21. 08 THE WARRANT AND OBJECT if it " dwell in you richly in all wisdom j" 1 if instead of neglecting the sacred Ordinances of religion, you become under the Preaching of the Gospel " more meet partakers of those holy Mysteries ;" 2 more fervent in Prayer, serving God in the spirit ; 3 more diligent in working out your salvation ; if you " grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ;" 4 if you thus exhibit in your lives the legitimate effects of the public Preaching of the Gospel ; then shall " your profiting appear unto all men," 5 and they shall " report that God is in you of a truth." 6 Then shall "the Word of the Lord have free course and be glorified." 7 It shall be seen that Christ will honour His own appointment : and however weak an instrument the Ordinance of Preaching may be deemed by some, it shall com- mend itself to your consciences " in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." 6 May it be thus, brethren, among ourselves, and " in all Churches of the Saints." 9 In the beautiful language of our Homilies, " May the Lord of heaven and earth, of His great mercy, so work in all men's hearts, by the mighty power of the Holy Ghost, that the comfortable Gospel of His Son Jesus Christ may be truly preached, truly received, and 1 Col. iii. 16. 2 Com. Service. 8 John, iv. 24. * 2 Pet. iii. 18. 5 I Tim. iv. 15. 6 1 Cor. xiv. 25. 7 2 Thcs. iii. 1. 8 1 Cor. ii. 4. 9 1 Cor. xiv. U3. OF ST. PAUL'S COMMISSION. 29 truly followed in all places, that, like scattered and dispersed sheep, being at length gathered into one fold, we may in the end rest all together in the bosom of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, there to be inheritors of eternal and everlasting life, through the merits and death of Jesus Christ our Lord !"' AMEN ! 1 Homily for Whitsunday. 30 THE SUBJECT AND EFFECTS SERMON II. THE SUBJECT AND EFFECTS OF ST. PAUL'S PREACHING. 1 COR. i. 17. " FOR CHRIST SENT ME NOT TO BAPTIZE, BUT TO PREACH THE GOSPEL." I ENDEAVOURED, upon a former occasion, after noticing the circumstances which led to this decla- ration of the Apostle to lay before you the WAR- RANT and OBJECT of the commission with which he was entrusted ; pointing out, in the first place, that his warrant consisted in his having been SENT BY CHRIST ; and secondly, that he was so sent for the express purpose of PREACHING THE GOSPEL. I then attempted to shew that the ministers of Christ come to you upon a similar errand, invested with the same Divine authority, and that the Or- dinance of Preaching, which they are called to ad- minister, is not, as some among us have ventured OF ST. PAUL'S PREACHING. 31 to assert, a weak and inefficient " instrument, which Scripture, to say the least, has never much recommended." We shall feel, I trust, more deeply, the inestimable value of this " blessed Ordinance of God," 1 if we proceed to consider from the passage with which the text is connected I. THE SUBJECT OF THE APOSTLE'S PREACHING ; and, II. THE EFFECTS PRODUCED BY IT. " Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel. Not with wisdom of words, lest the Cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the Preaching of the Cross is, to them that perish, foolishness ; but unto us, which are saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise ? Where is the scribe ? Where is the disputer of this world ? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world ? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom : but we preach CHRIST CRUCIFIED, unto the Jews a STUMBLING-BLOCK, and unto the Greeks FOOLISHNESS : but unto them that are called, loth Jews and Greeks, Christ THE POWER OF GOD, AND THE WISDOM OF GOD. Because the foolishness 1 Hooker, Eccles. Pol., B. v. 22. 32 THE SUBJECT AND EFFECTS of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." 1 Can anything be plainer, brethren, than that the grand subject of St. Paul's Preaching was the CROSS OF CHRIST ? That the great doctrine of THE ATONEMENT, the amazing scheme of love and mercy which the wisdom of God had devised for the salvation of a ruined world, and which had now been finally accomplished by the death and suffer- ings of a crucified Redeemer, formed the sum and substance of those " glad tidings of great joy" which he was commissioned to declare " to all people?" This was the " mystery which, since the world began," had hitherto been " kept secret" from man- kind at large, and taught only to a favoured few by types and shadows, but which was now, " according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith." 5 This, brethren, was the Gospel which the Apostle preached, when he entered upon his ministry at Corinth, and " delivered" to the inhabitants of that abandoned city, "first of all that which he also re- ceived, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." 3 Nay, so fully did this glorious theme engross his thoughts, that he " determined to know nothing else among them, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." 4 But why need we mention 1 1 Cor. i. 1725. 2 Rom. xvi. 25, 26. 3 1 Cor. xv. 3. " 1 Cor. ii. 2. OF ST. PAUL'S PREACHING. 33 Corinth? Follow the Apostle where you will in the execution of the commission with which he was charged, go with him " preaching the kingdom of God," 1 whether to Jew or Gentile, whether to bond or free, learned or unlearned, you will find him, at all times and in all places, " teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ ;"' " witness- ing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come: that Christ should suffer, and that He should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people and to the Gentiles.'' 2 And who, that examines the writings of the Apostle with even common attention, can fail to see that " in all his epistles" 3 the Cross of Christ was ever present to his mind ; that it was the groundwork of all his instructions, the foundation of every argu- ment, the spring of every motive by which he strove to bring men to the knowledge and practice of the truth? Does he display the Perfections of God ? Does he vindicate His justice in passing by the transgres- sions of His people ? "God hath set forth" Christ for this very end, " to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, that He might be 1 Acts, xxviii. 31. 2 Acts, xxvi. 22, 23. 3 2 Peter, iii. 16. D 34 THE SUBJECT AND EFFECTS just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." 1 Does he magnify the love of God ? " God com- mendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." 2 He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things ?" a Are we "justified ?" it is by the blood of Christ. 4 Are we " reconciled to God ?" it is " by the death of His Son;" 4 it is "through the blood of His Cross;" 5 it is " in the body of His flesh through death." 5 Are we " sanctified ?" It is " through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." ( To this end " He suffered without the gate, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood." 7 Are we exhorted to the practice of humility and lowliness of mind ? He is to be our pattern " who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputa- tion, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was found in the likeness of men : and being found in fashion as a man, humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross."* Are we taught " to deny ungodliness and worldly lust, to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world ? The grace of God which bringeth 1 Romans, iii. 25, 26. 2 Romans, v 8. 3 Romans, viii. 32. 4 Romans, v. 9, 10. s Col. i. 2022. 6 Heb. x. 10. 7 Heb.xiii. 12. "Phil. ii. 6 8. OF ST. PAULS PREACHING. 35 salvation" is set forth by the Apostle as our best instructor ; our strongest motive is the " looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a " peculiar people, zealous of good works." 1 But it were endless to multiply proofs upon such a subject. Let me entreat you to search the Scrip- tures for yourselves ; examine the writings of the Apostle with this object in view ; you will find the Cross of Christ pervading them in every part ; you will find that on every occasion, whether he is ex- plaining the doctrines of religion, or enforcing its duties ; whether he seeks the conversion of the sinner, or unfolds the privileges of the true believer, all his topics are drawn from one and the self-same source, " JESUS CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED. : ' 2 And yet, in the face of all this evidence which might be multiplied a thousand fold there are men in the bosom of our own apostolical Church, men of learning, and, what is more, men of deep devotional feeling, who tell us that " the prevailing notion of bringing forward the Atonement explicitly and promi- nently on all occasions, is evidently quite opposed to what they consider the teaching of Scripture ;" that, 4< in whatever way we consider it, there is no Scriptural sanction for the necessity of it ;" that "IF the epistles 1 Titus, ii. 1114. 2 1 Cor. ii. 2. D 2 36 THE SUBJECT AND EFFECTS of Paul APPEAR to favour it, it is only at first sight ;" that when the Apostle "speaks of himself as at all times preaching Christ crucified it is not the Atonement and Divinity of our Lord which he brings forward, although it is implied in that saying." That " it may be seen, by attention to the context in ALL the passages where these expressions occur, that it is a very different view, and in fact THE OPPOSITE to the modern notion which St. Paul ALWAYS intends by it. That "it is the necessity of our being crucified to the world, it is our humiliation, together with Christ, mortifica- tion of the flesh, being made conformable to His suf- ferings and death." 1 Most true it is, brethren, that the Cross of Christ which St. Paul preached, was that " whereby 2 the 1 Tracts for the Times, No. Ixxx. p. 74, 75 ; No. Ixxxvii. p. 6469. " IF the doctrine of the atonement is conveyed in the expres- sion of Christ crucified, as used by St. Paul, it is by teaching, at the same time, the necessity of our mortification, which is re- pugnant to principles now received. It is expressing, in other words, our Saviour's declaration, ' He that cometh after me must take up his cross daily and follow me.' They both imply that we cannot approach God without a sacrifice a sacrifice on the part of human nature, in union with that of our Saviour. Both of which seem to be taught in the legal sacrifices We ob- serve that in the Old Testament all approaches to God were accompanied with sacrifices and ablutions ; in the Gospel, with the denunciation of our Saviour's, that none are to follow Him without taking up the cross daily and the fuller manifestation at the last is seen through the extreme humiliation of human nature in Christ crucified." Tracts for the Times, No. Ixxx. p. 75 79, * Marginal reading. OF ST. PAUL'S PREACHING. 37 world" was " crucified unto" him, and he " unto the world." 1 Most true it is that he always bore about in his body "the dying of the Lord Jesus ;" a most true it is as I shall presently have occasion to observe that the Cross of Christ must be made manifest in the life, or the preaching of it by the lips, and the hearing it by the outward ear, will be of no avail : but, when we are told that this was all that the Apostle meant by the oft-repeated declara- tion, that he preached Christ crucified ; when we are told that it was not his custom to make this the subject of his public exhortations, but that he taught it secretly as it were, and with reserve, by the con- stant exhibition in his own person of the Christian duties of self-abasement and humiliation, to those who were prepared, by natural piety, 3 for the recep- tion of so mysterious a doctrine ; when we hear such statements as these put forth by men, whose seriousness in religion we cannot question, we ought surely to be led to depend more implicitly upon the teaching of that Holy Spirit who alone can preserve us from error and guide us into all truth. Brethren, " I speak as unto wise men, judge ye what I say." 4 When the Apostle, in the fulfilment of his commission to preach the Gospel, " witnessed both to small and great, saying none other things 'Gal. vi. 14. 2 2 Cor. iv. 10. 3 Tracts for the Times, No. Ixxxvii. p. 50. 4 1 Cor. x. 15. 38 THE SUBJECT AND EFFECTS than those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come : that Christ should suffer ;" 1 when " he expounded and testified the kingdom of God" to " the chief of the Jews" at Rome, 2 was his Preach- ing that of the life only, or of the lips ? When he " persuaded them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the Prophets, from morn- ing till evening," 2 is it reasonable to believe that he withheld the doctrine of the Atonement, the very fulfilment of all the types, and ceremonies, and sacrifices of the law, the very subject upon which " Moses in the law, and the Prophets did write ?" 3 Or, to take his own assertion in the passage before us ; when he declares again and again that he preached " Christ crucified ;" that when he first came to the Corinthians he " determined," in the exercise of his ministry, " to know nothing else among" them, can we look at the context and receive the interpretation which is now put upon his words ? Can we understand him to mean that he preached Christ only by a life of mortification and self-denial ? The very language which he uses to describe the character of his ministrations is utterly inconsistent with such a conclusion. " Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel ; not with wisdom of words, lest the Cross of Christ should be made of none effect :" 4 and again, " I, brethren, 1 Acts, xxvi. 22. 2 Acts, xxviii. 17 23. 8 John, i. 45. 4 1 Cor. i. 17. OF ST. PAUL'S PREACHING. 39 when I came unto you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testi- mony of God." 1 And again, " My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom." 1 Let us consider these expressions in connexion with the circumstances under which they were used. The Apostle had his enemies in the Church at Co- rinth ; there were those who spoke slightingly of his natural endowments, and disparaged his talents as an orator ; " his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible." 2 This perhaps had been one cause of the divisions which prevailed among them. He tells them, therefore, that he laid no claim to studied oratory ; that " excellency of speech" was not his object ; that the glorious theme on which he discoursed needed not the " enticing words of man's wisdom ; that he spoke with " great plainness" 3 and simplicity, lest the Cross of Christ should be made of none effect, lest human eloquence should claim the triumphs it achieved. " My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wis- dom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of Power." 1 It would surely be difficult to find terms which could more clearly convey the impression that the Apostle's preaching was the preaching of '1 Cor. ii. 14. 2 2 Cor. x. 10. 8 2 Cor. iii. 12. 40 THE SUBJECT AND EFFECTS the lips and not of the example only, than those which he has here employed." 1 Before I proceed to consider the different effects produced by St. Paul's ministry, let me here briefly notice an objection against the explicit Preaching of the Atonement, to which the conduct of the Apostle towards the Church at Corinth seems to furnish a sufficient reply. It is asked, " Why in religion are all truths to be taught at once ? In other matters there is a gradual inculcation ; something must be withheld) something taught first ; and is not the knowledge of religion as much a matter of degrees as any human science?"' 2 Undoubtedly it is: " first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear ;" 3 and this is as 1 Since these sermons were delivered, Professor Scholefield has published Five Discourses, preached before the University of Cambridge, in November, 1840, with reference to the doctrines promulgated in the " Tracts for the Times.'' ( See Appendix A.) The following passage confirms the view which I have here taken of St. Paul's preaching : " To an unprejudiced reader this very chapter (1 Cor. i.) might seem abundantly sufficient to settle the question. In verse 17 the Apostle says, Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel ; not with wisdom of words, lest the Cross of Christ should be made of none effect Here the Preaching of the Cross is opposed to the ivisdom of words, to those rhetorical displays of the subtlety of human wisdom with which the sophists of Greece had unhappily familiarized their hearers." Appendix ty Sermon II. p. 36. * Tracts for the Times, No. Ixxxvii. p. 45. 3 Mark, iv. 28. OF ST. PAUL'S PREACHING. 41 true of the communication of spiritual Knowledge, as it is of the increase of spiritual Grace ; the Chris- tian comes not at once to the " perfect man" 1 either in belief or in practice ; he attains not at once " unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." " With religion it fareth," says Hooker, " as with other sciences ; the first delivery of the elements thereof must, for the like consideration, be framed according to the weak and slender capacity of young beginners." 2 But then the question arises, What are " the elements first to be delivered?" What is the " something which is to be withheld?" Is it the doctrine of the Atonement ? Is it the preaching of the Cross of Christ ? Was this the practice of St. Paul? "I delivered you among the first things," says he, " that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins" 3 Look at the description which he gives of the state of his Corinthian con- verts at a subsequent period, and of the manner in which he dealt with them. 4 They were children in Christian knowledge. He " could not speak unto" them " as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ." He " fed" them " with milk and not with meat, for hitherto" they had not been " able to bear it, neither" then were they " able." They were " yet carnal" There were among them " envying, and strife, and divisions." They were 1 Eph. iv. 13. 2 Eccles. Pol., B. v. 18. 3 1 Cor. xv. 3. if 7rpwrot. 4 1 Cor. iii. 1 3. 42 THE SUBJECT AND EFFECTS " carnal," they " walked as men." But what was the food which the Apostle considered suited to their case ? What was the " milk" on which he fed these " babes in Christ ?" He preached to them the Cross of Jesus. He " determined to know nothing else among" them " save Jesus Christ and Him cruci- fied." This, in the judgment of an inspired Apostle, was food for babes. Whatever that " strong meat" might be, which in his wisdom he reserved for the more advanced and experienced believer, it was not the doctrine of the Atonement ; that doctrine, in his opinion, entered into the very elements of Christian instruction; it was " among the first things" that he taught. Or to take another view of the subject " ye are God's building," 1 says the Apostle, addressing these very same Corinthians, and that too with reference to the sad dissensions which existed among them "Ye are God's building ;" not the building of Paul, or the building of Apollos, or the building of Cephas, though they were privileged to be " labourers together with God." 1 Now,w r hat had been the Apostle's work with respect to this building? "As a wise master builder, / have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon." 1 We know how abundantly he had laboured; we know how, "in season and out of season," 2 he had preached the Cross of Christ ; yet in doing this he had but " laid 1 1 Cor. iii. 9, 10. 2 2 Tira.iv. 2. OF ST. PAUL'S PREACHING. 43 the foundation" upon which other hands were to rear the goodly edifice of the spiritual temple. Surely, brethren, in his view, the doctrine of the Atonement entered into the very elements of Christian instruc- tion ; it was the very foundation of Christian know- ledge and of Christian practice. But we pass on to consider, in the SECOND place, THE EFFECTS PRODUCED BY THE PREACHING OF THE APOSTLE. " The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, TO THE JEWS A STUMBLING-BLOCK, AND TO THE GREEKS FOOLISHNESS, BUT UNTO THEM WHICH ARE CALLED, BOTH JEWS AND GREEKS, CHRIST THE POWER OF GOD, AND THE WISDOM OF GOD. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weak- ness of God is stronger than men." 1 I have already referred to the discouraging cir- cumstances under which the Apostle commenced his ministry at Corinth. His first appeal was to his own countrymen. " He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath-day, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ." 2 But the veil was still upon their hearts ! 3 accustomed as they had been to look for a deliverer, who should redeem them from the bondage of their temporal oppressors and " restore again the kingdom to Israel," 4 they turned in de- 1 1 Cor. i. 2225. * Acts, xviii. 4, 5. :) 2 Cor. iii. 15. * Acts, i. 6. 44 THE SUBJECT AND EFFECTS rision and contempt from such a mockery of all their hopes and expectations as that which was exhibited in the picture which the Apostle drew of a spiritual Redeemer. A prince, whose empire was to be esta- blished in the hearts of men; a kingdom which came "notwithobservation;" 1 a deliverance which left them as much as ever in subjection to a foreign yoke ; presented a sorry contrast indeed to the glowing language in which the Prophets had portrayed the Person and Character and Government of their Mes- siah. And therefore they " required a sign." They must have fuller and more decisive evidence before they could receive the " strange things" which the Apostle published in their ears. So it was with them in the days of Christ himself. " What sign shewest thou ?" 2 "By what authority doest thou these things, and who gave thee this authority?" 3 " If He be the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him." 4 Thus were they continually closing their hearts against the truth. It was not enough for them that the blind received their sight, that the lame walked, that the lepers were cleansed, that the deaf heard, that the dead were raised up, that the poor had the Gospel preached unto them : 5 these mighty works were lavished on them but in vain. As far as ever from conviction, they still persisted 1 Luke, xvii. 20. 2 John, ii. 18. 3 Matt. xxi. 23. 4 Matt, xxvii. 42. 5 Matt. xi. 5. OF ST. PAUL'S PREACHING. 45 in their demand ; one other sign was given them, 1 but this too failed of its effect there went one to them from the dead, but still they repented not ! 2 It was in this state that the Apostle found them. " The fulness of the time was come ;" 3 all that Moses and the Prophets had spoken concerning the pro- mised Messiah was accomplished, yet the Jews still required a sign. Can we wonder at the effect that followed ? When " Paul testified to them that Jesus was Christ, they opposed themselves and blas- phemed." 4 But one alternative remained ; he had come " to his own," like his Divine Master before him " but his own received him not ;" 5 " he shook his raiment, and said unto them, your blood be upon your own heads, I am clean ; from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles." 6 Nor was this the case only at Corinth. Wherever the Apostle preached the Cross of Christ, there he set up " a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence" 7 in the way of his unbelieving fellow-countrymen. It was so at Rome. " There came many to him" there " to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the Pro- phets. And some believed the things that were spoken, and some believed not. And when they 1 Matt. xii. 3840. 2 Luke, xvi. 30, 31. * Gal. iv. 4. * Acts, xviii. 5, 6. 5 John, i. 11. 8 Acts, xviii. 6. 7 Isaiah, viii. 14. 46 THE SUBJECT AND EFFECTS agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word ; Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go ye unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand ; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive : for the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed ; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and be converted, and I should heal them." 1 Let us now see what reception the Apostle expe- rienced from the Gentiles. Corinth, as I have before observed, is described as " a city of rhetori- cians and philosophers." It was the abode of men full of the pride of human learning ; men whose minds were occupied with the subtle theories and refined speculations of this world's wisdom. But what had their philosophy achieved ? It had taught them " gods many, and lords many," 2 but it left them as ignorant as ever of the nature and character of Him in whom they lived, and moved, and had their being. 8 One point indeed it had fully esta- blished it was an humbling and mortifying truth " the world by wisdom knew not God." 4 No wonder, then, that so little had been accomplished for the amelioration and improvement of mankind. 1 Acts, xxviii. 23 27. z 1 Cor. viii. 5. 3 Acts, xvii. 28. 4 1 Cor. i.21. OF ST. PAUL'S PREACHING. 47 It was not because nothing had been attempted ; all that the philosopher could suggest or the legislator prescribe had been tried ; but where was its effect ? " Where was the wise ? where was the scribe ? where was the disputer of this world ?' n They had " wea- ried" themselves " with lies," 2 and laboured for very vanity. " God had made foolish the wisdom of this world." 1 When, therefore, the Apostle came, and with all plainness of speech proposed to teach them that knowledge which their boasted reasoning never could attain ; when he set before them a simple remedy for the evils which they had vainly attempted to remove ; when they found that his doctrine had no laboured arguments and subtile disputations to recommend it to their attention, but that, on the contrary, it was calculated to cast down their proud imaginations ; 3 when they were told that, in spite of all their vaunted science, they must become fools in their own eyes or ever they could be truly wise ; 4 when they were called upon to receive in the capa- city of a lawgiver one who had been executed as a malefactor by his own people a people whom they utterly despised ; when they were directed to look for freedom to a slave for strength to one who " was crucified through weakness ;" 5 they rejected with ridicule and scorn a religion which offered 1 1 Cor. i. 20. 2 Ezek. xxiv. 12. 3 2 Cor. x. 5. 4 1 Cor. iii. 18. 5 2Cor.xiii. 4. 48 THE SUBJECT AND EFFECTS nothing but an insult to their understanding ; they reviled the Apostle as a " babbler," and cast out his words as folly. Thus was the preaching of " Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness." 1 But did the Apostle therefore abandon his commis- sion ? or change the subject on which he preached ? Did he leave the Cross of Christ for some other and more attractive topic ? Did he humour the taste, or give way to the prejudices, of those whom he ad- dressed ? Did he adopt the system of reserve, and "hold back the sacred and important truths" of the Gospel because his hearers were not of a " disposition to receive" them ; because the " knowledge would be injurious to persons" so " unworthy of them ?" 5 We look in vain for any instance of the kind. The Jew blasphemed t and the Gentile scoffed ; the Cross of his Redeemer was a " stumbling-block" to the one, and to the other " foolishness;" but the Apostle still persisted in his course ; he still " determined to know nothing else among" them C( save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." And why ? Because he knew that " by the foolish- ness of Preaching" God would " save them that be- lieved." 3 That " unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks," the Cross of Christ should yet prove " the power of God, and the wisdom of God." 2 Yes, brethren ; there were some of those who 1 1 Cor. i. 23. * Tracts for the Times, No. Ixxx. p. 3. 8 1 Cor. i. 2124. OF ST. PAUL'S PREACHING. 49 heard him whose hearts " the Lord opened" so that they " attended to the things which were spoken of Paul ;"' some even of the stiff-necked sons of Israel who learned to recognise the true Messiah in Him whom " with wicked hands" they had " crucified and slain :" 2 and though " not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble were called," 3 yet some there were among the proud and self-conceited moralists of the Gentile world, who felt the utter worthlessness of all their boasted systems of philosophy, and confessed that, in the wondrous scheme of man's recovery through the Cross of Christ, " the foolishness of God was wiser than men, and the weakness of God was stronger than men ;" 4 that He had indeed " chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise ; and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty ; and the base things of the world, and things which were despised, and things which were not, to bring to nought things that were." 4 Such Was THE SUBJECT OF THE APOSTLE*S PREACHING, and such THE EFFECTS BY WHICH IT WAS FOLLOWED. Two thousand years have almost passed away, but the ministers of the Gospel go forth into all the world with the self-same theme. And what is the report they bring ? " Our mis- 1 Acts, xvi. 14. 2 Acts, ii. 23. 8 1 Cor. i. 26. 1 Cor. i. 2528. 60 THE SUBJECT AND EFFECTS sionaries, like St. Paul, know nothing among their converts but ' JESUS CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED ;' which, though still ' a stumbling-block' to some, and folly to others, is l Christ THE POWER OF GOD AND THE WISDOM OF GOD' to them which are called, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues All our doctrine in these missions is simple, apostolic, old-fashioned truth; without superstition on the one hand, and without fanaticism or neglect of means on the other." 1 This, brethren, is the recent testimony of a Christian Bishop from distant India ; one whose praise is in all the Churches ; one whose character, and station, and authority, entitle him to he heard ; and whose position, amid the strongholds of hea- then darkness and idolatry, renders him a competent witness to the powerful efficacy of the simple Preach- ing of the Cross of Christ, for he is privileged at this moment to behold its triumphs displayed with all the fulness of Pentecostal glory, in the conver- sion, not of tens, but of thousands to the obedience of the faith.* We look back to our own country and how do we find this explicit preaching of the Atonement 1 Letter from the Right Rev. Daniel Wilson, Lord Bishop of Calcutta, to the Earl of Chichester, President of the Church Missionary Society. Dated Bhoyrup, near Kishnaghur, Oc- tober 30, 1839. * See Appendix C. OF ST. PAUL'S PREACHING. 51 characterized by the party to whose views I have already had occasion to refer ? It is declared to be " a system of late years and of human invention ;" " which has claimed for itself the inmost sanctuary of religion." A system which " is nothing else but a method of human device * able to quote a part of Scripture for its purpose;" but to which " the tone and spirit" and " whole harmony of Scriptural teaching" are " quite opposed." A system which " disparages the Sacraments," which "is very jealously afraid of Church authority, of fasting and mortification being recommended, of works of holiness being insisted on, of the doctrine of the universal judg- ment ;' a system which is " MADE TO CONVEY PRESENT ASSURANCE AND COMFORT, AND TO RELIEVE US OF THE SELF-DENIAL AND SEVERITY OF PRACTICAL HOLINESS." 2 ! 1 Tracts for the Times, No. Ixxxvii. p. 47, 48, 49, 52, 64. 2 British Critic, April, 1839. Art. i. p. 293. * " What do they really mean who adopt the human scheme of teaching and receiving in its fulness the doctrine of the Atone- ment ? how is this to be done ? do they understand the meaning of their own words ? We hardly know what we speak of when we speak of the Atonement, it is a vast sea which no man can fathom : who can think of it worthily ? Who can comprehend the Sacraments in which it is hidden ? . . . Surely men know not what they do, when they define and systematize the ways of God in man's redemption, under expressions such as IMPUTED RIGHT- EOUSNESS, JUSTIFICATION, and SANCTIFICATION, and the like ; which words stand in their minds for some EXCEEDING SHALLOW POOR HUMAN IDEAS, for which they vehemently contend as for the whole of religion." Tracts for the Times, No. Ixxxvii. p. 66, 67. t See Appendix D. E 2 52 THE SUBJECT AND EFFECTS And they who maintain this system, " they ivho hold these opinions," 1 they who determine with the Apostle, " to know nothing else" as the subject of their ministrations " save Jesus Christ and Him crucified ;" they who, copying, as they believe, the example of Scripture, and the teaching of the Church, set forth without reserve, explicitly and prominently on all occasions, the doctrine of the Atonement, as well for the conviction of the sinner as for the comfort and edification of the true believer, are described as men " MOST STUDIOUS TO MAKE THE NECESSITY OF WORKING RIGHTEOUSNESS OF SECONDARY IMPORTANCE ;'" men who SPEAK OF " CHRISTIAN REPENTANCE AS SOMETHING NOT ONLY SEPARATE FROM, BUT OPPOSED TO Christ." 1 These, brethren, are grave and serious accusa- tions. Stronger language could scarcely have been employed had the Church been sunk in all the depths of Antinomian licentiousness. They are charges, surely, which ought not to have been put forth, as mere assertions, unaccompanied with any reference or authority for their support. We speak mildly when we call them most unjust and ungene- rous representations ; but when we remember that it is very possible for men to be so absorbed in the contemplation of distant objects, as to overlook the things which lie immediately before them ; so busied with the study of antiquity, as to have little 1 Tract Ixxxvii., p. 53, 57. OF ST. PAUL'S PREACHING. 53 time, and perhaps less inclination, to make them- selves acquainted with the real character and genuine effects of what they call a " system of late years and of human invention" we hope and believe that we have traced these accusations to their source. But, brethren, let us turn them to good account. While the attempt which is now making to exclude the explicit preaching of the great doctrine of the Atonement from the pulpits of our Church, leads us only the more exclusively to glory in the Cross of Christ, let the statements which have been adduced remind us that that doctrine must be realized in the life, that Cross must be exemplified in the practice. We know nothing of that inverted method of communicating the knowledge of the Gospel which would "make men meet to receive the gracious mys- tery of the Atonement, by a life of" previous " seJf- denial, and mortification," 1 we point you at once to a crucified Redeemer, that seeing how he bore his Cross, you may learn to carry yours. For, brethren, you must carry one yourselves, you must bear it in your hearts and in your lives as well as upon your foreheads, unless you would be Christians only in name. " Whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple." 2 Such we believe to have been the teaching of the APOSTLE when he said, " Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves 1 British Critic, April, 1839, p. 292. * Luke, xiv. 27. 54 THE SUBJECT AND EFFECTS likewise with the same mind : for he that hath suf- fered in the flesh hath ceased from sin ; that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God." 1 Such we hold to be the teaching of our CHURCH when she addresses those " who by Baptism have put on Christ," and exhorts them " to walk answer- ably to their Christian calling, as becometh the children of the light ; remembering always that Baptism doth represent unto us our profession, which is to follow the example of our Saviour Christ, and to be made like unto Him ; that as He died and rose again for us, so should we who are baptized, die from sin and rise again unto righteous- ness ; continually mortifying all our evil and cor- rupt affections, and daily proceeding in all virtue and godliness of living." 2 Such, in strict accordance with SCRIPTURE and with THE CHURCH, was the teaching of our RE- FORMERS men who lightly as some may estimate their authority* loved not their lives unto the death, but gave their bodies to be burned in defence of what is now regarded as a " modern system of human invention." " Forasmuch as Christ hath given Himself to death for us, to be an oblation and sacrifice to His Father for our sins, let us give our- 1 1 Peter, iv. 1, 2. 2 Ministration of Baptism to such as are of Riper Years. * See Appendix E. OF ST. PAUL'S PREACHING. 55 selves again unto Him, making unto Him an obla- tion, not of goats, sheep, kine, and other beasts that have no reason, as was accustomed before Christ's coming ; but of a creature which hath reason, that is to say of ourselves, not killing our bodies, but mortifying the brutal and unreasonable affection that would gladly rule and reign in us. These are the sacrifices of Christian men, these hosts and oblations are acceptable to Christ." 1 Archbishop Crauiner. Book of the Sacrament. 56 CONVICTION AND CONSOLATION THROUGH SERMON III.* CONVICTION AND CONSOLATION THROUGH THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST. JOHN, i. 29. " BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD, WHICH TAKETH AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD." IT need scarcely be observed, that these words con- tain the third and most explicit testimony of the Baptist concerning Him whose way he was com- missioned to prepare. He had indeed even before he knew Christ in the flesh spoken of Him with reference to himself, as one greater and mightier than he, whose shoes he was not worthy to bear : he had declared the superiority of that Baptism with which Christ should baptize His disciples, the Baptism " with the Holy Ghost and with fire," 1 1 Matt.iii. 11. * Preached before the University of Oxford, at St. Mary's, on the Second Sunday in Advent, 1838, with reference to an anonymous publication " On Reserve in communicating Re- ligious Knowledge," being No. Ixxx. of the " Tracts for the Times.'' THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 57 over the rite which he himself was appointed to administer ; and, on a subsequent occasion, " when the Jews sent Priests and Levites from Jerusalem," to ascertain his pretensions, and " to ask him, Who art thou ?" he had confessed that he was not the Christ, repeating the former avowal of his own com- parative insignificance, " There standeth one among you whom ye know not. He it is who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose." 1 But the Baptist's testimony was not yet complete. He had still to point out in person to his country- men the individual whose character he had already partially described. Seeing Jesus therefore, re- turning, as it is supposed, from his temptation in the wilderness, he saith, " Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world ! This is he of whom I spake," when I said yesterday to the messengers of the Sanhedrim, " After me cometh a man that is preferred before me, for he was before me." 2 Let us endeavour for awhile to engage our thoughts upon this most important testimony to the Person and Office of the Messiah ; a testimony which can never be out of place among the members of a Church which in all her assemblies witnesseth the same confession, and daily in her temples ceaseth not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. 3 But most 'John, i. 19, 26,27. 2 John, i. 29, 30. ' Acts, v. 42. 58 CONVICTION AND CONSOLATION THROUGH appropriate, surely, is the consideration of this testi- mony to the present season, the commencement of our Christian year, the time when our attention is more particularly directed to that " great mystery of godliness, God" not "hidden more" beneath the veil of our humanity,* but " manifest in the flesh " l a time when the ministers of the Gospel are espe- cially reminded of the dignity of their high office as " stewards of the mysteries of God," 2 appointed like the Baptist to " prepare and make ready His way" before He " cometh again in His glorious majesty to judge both the quick and dead." 3 May that same Holy Spirit who at His first advent revealed the Lamb of God to His forerunner in the 1 1 Tim. iii. 16. 2 1 Cor. iv. 1. 8 Collect for First and Third Sundays in Advent. * " Since writing the above, I find that these two opinions, which have been stated, of the manhood of our Lord formerly, and of a sacrament now serving for a veil of the Godhead, are confirmed by Pascal, who says, '' ' Before the incarnation, God remained hidden in the re- cesses of His divinity ; and after it He became, in some respects, more hidden, by putting on the veil of our humanity. It had been easier to have known Him while invisible, than when He conversed in a visible shape ; and at length, designing to accom- plish the promise which He made to His apostles, of continuing with His church till His second coming, He chose a concealment more strange and obscure than either of the former, under the spe- cies of the EucJiarist /' " Tracts for the Times, No. Ixxx. p. 33. " There is a tradition (mentioned, I think, by Origen) highly interesting from the moral reflections it suggests, that our Lord was in the habit of appearing to different beholders in a different personal form." Ibid. p. 25. THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 59 wilderness, disclose Him also to our hearts ; that " now in the time of this mortal life," having " known Him by faith," in His " great humility," we " may, after this life, have the fruition of His glorious Godhead." 1 " Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world !" Thus, at the commencement of His ministry, was the Messiah publicly announced in terms expressly pointing to the nature and design of that stupendous work, for the accomplishment of which He had come in the flesh. Angels, indeed, had proclaimed Him as a Saviour ; 2 but it was re- served for " the Prophet of the Highest" to declare the nature of His salvation, and " to give knowledge of" it " unto His people for* the remission of their sins." 3 And what words could more clearly convey that knowledge than those before us ? " Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world !" He spoke to men whose forefathers for ages and generations had been schooled under the discipline of a law which was intended to bring them to Christ ; 4 a law which taught them daily that " without shed- ding of blood," there was " no remission of sin." 5 But they had failed to profit by the lessons which they received ; they had searched, with little benefit 1 Collect for First Sunday in Advent and Epiphany. 8 Matt. i. 21 ; Luke, ii. 1 1. 3 Luke, i. 76, 77. 4 Gal. iit.24. 5 Heb. ix. 22. * Marginal and Prayer-book reading. 60 CONVICTION AND CONSOLATION THROUGH to themselves, the lively " oracles of God," 1 so long " committed" to their care, the Scriptures in which they thought that they had eternal life, 2 and which, for the space of fifteen hundred years, hy types and prophecies, had testified of Christ as the one great Sacrifice for sin. It was to a 2, 24. 4 John, v. 33, &c. G6 CONVICTION AND CONSOLATION THROUGH the Word of Life were commanded to go and preach that Word " to every creature under heaven." 1 No " city of the Samaritans" was any longer to be ex- cluded; there was no " way of the Gentiles" 2 into which they were not to "enter ;" what had been told them in darkness they were to speak in the light ; what they had heard in the ear they were to publish upon the house-top ; 3 they were to "go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature ;" and the same effects which followed upon the minis- try of their Master and His forerunner were still to follow theirs, " He that believe th and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that belie veth not shall be damned." 4 Invested with so responsible a commission, the Apostles waited, according to their instructions, "for the promise of the Father," 5 the Spirit, who, during Christ's bodily absence from his Church, was to guide them into all truth, bringing all things to their remembrance, whatsoever He had said unto them. 6 Having received that promise ; being filled with the Holy Ghost and with power, and having now a perfect knowledge of the way of sal- vation through a crucified and risen Saviour, they went forth, and " in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the ! Col. i. 23. * Matt. x. 5. 3 Matt. x. 27. 4 Mark, xvi. 15, 16. 5 Acts, i. 4. 6 John, xvi. 13 ; xiv. 26. THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 67 earth," 1 they testified of Christ as " the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." And whose eyes were first directed to that mysterious spectacle ? To whom, when the scheme of man's Redemption was complete, was the first offer of that Redemption made? To whom were Repentance and remission of sins in the name of a crucified Saviour first proclaimed ? Was it not to those who " denied the Holy One and the Just, and killed the Prince of Life ?" 2 The very men whose wicked hands had slain the victim were invited, before all the world, to accept the benefits of the Sacrifice which they had ignorantly offered, and to wash in that fountain which themselves had opened for sin and for uncleanness. 3 " Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made this same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ." 4 * " Him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Sa- viour, for to give Repentance unto Israel and for- giveness of sins." 5 " The things which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his Prophets that Christ should suffer, He hath so fulfilled," 6 the Lamb is slain ; the sacrifice is offered ; " neither is there salvation in any other," 7 " Repent ye, there - 1 Acts, i. 8. 2 Acts, iii. 14, 15. 3 Zech. xiii. 1. 4 Acts, ii. 36. 5 Acts, v. 31. 6 Acts, iii. 18. 7 Acts, iv. 12. * " Athanasius speaks of them (the Apostles) as observing the same reserve which is here noticed in our Lord respecting His divinity." Tracts for the Times, No. Ixxx. p. 26. F2 68 CONVICTION AND CONSOLATION THROUGH fore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out." 1 And did the light of the glorious Gospel shine into minds as dark as theirs ? Were men who had been persecutors, and blasphemers, and injurious, pricked in the heart when they heard these things ? 2 Were there added to the Church by the first Preach- ing of the Cross, three thousand souls ? 3 * And shall the minister of the Gospel now despair of the conversion of the most abandoned sinner by the agency of the same powerful Instrument? Is there among the spiritual weapons of our warfare one so mighty for the pulling down the strongholds of sin and Satan as the faithful Preaching of the Cross ? Has the experience of eighteen hundred years devised a method more effectual for " bringing into captivity to the obedience of Christ" 4 the stoutest heart of the most rebellious transgressor ? Would we " persuade men" by the terrors of the Lord ? 5 Can anything display those terrors with more ap- palling majesty than the Cross of Christ ? The eternal Son of God forsaken of His Father, and left to perish in unutterable agonies of soul and body, simply because He bare our sin ! Would we try a gentler method ? Would we win men by the love of God, and " beseech" them by his " mercies ?" 6 and 1 Acts, iii. 19. Acts, ii.37. 3 Acts, ii. 41. 4 2 Cor. x. 4, 5. 5 2 Cor. v. 11. 6 Rom. xii. 1. * See Appendix B. THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 69 yet withhold the noblest instance of the one, or veil the brightest radiance of the other ? And are there none whose breasts the simple story of a Saviour's sufferings has touched with sorrow ? None who in their mad career of folly and dissipation, amid the vanities of the world, and the pleasures of sin, have paused to listen to the mournful accents of the Lamb of God. "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger. From above hath He sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them ; He hath spread a net for my feet ; He hath turned me back : He hath made me desolate and faint all the day. For these things I weep ; mine eye mine eye runneth down with water, because the Comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me." 1 " Reproach hath broken my heart ; I am full of heaviness : I looked for some to take pity, but there was none ; and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." 5 Surely, to use the language of Chrysos- tom, surely, " any man hearing of the order of that night, how Christ was mournful among His disciples, how He was delivered, how He was bound, how He was led away, how He was arraigned, and how meekly He suffered all that was done unto Him, were he 1 Lam. i. 12, &c. 2 Psalm Ixix. 20. 70 CONVICTION AND CONSOLATION THROUGH as hard as a stone, yet should he be soft as wax, and would throw both the earth and all earthly cogita- tions away from him."* How many a once careless and impenitent trans- gressor can bear witness to the constraining efficacy of the love of Christ, brought home, for the first time, with power to his heart by a sight of that Cross on which the Lamb of God was content to suffer and to die, to bear our griefs and carry our sorrows ! ! But let us " hear the Church." How loudly does she call on sinners to " Behold the Lamb of God ;" how plainly does she point them to the Cross of Christ that she may warm their frozen hearts, and fill their bosoms with remorse and shame. " It was sin, O man, even thy sin, that caused Christ, the only son of God, to be crucified in the flesh, and to suffer the most vile and slanderous death of the Cross. If thou hadst kept thyself upright, if thou hadst observed the commandments, if thou hadst not presumed to transgress the will of God in thy first father, Adam, then Christ, being in the form of God, needed not to have taken upon Him the form of a servant ; being immortal in heaven, He needed not to have become mortal on earth ; being the true Bread of the soul, He needed not to hunger ; being the healthful Water of life, He needed not to thirst ; being Life itself, He needed not to have suffered death. But to these and many other such extremi- * See Appendix B. ' Is. 53, 4. THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 71 ties was He driven by thy sin, which was so mani- fold and great that God could be pleased only in Him, and none other. Canst thou think of this, O sinful man, and not tremble within thyself? Canst thou hear it quietly without remorse of conscience and sorrow of heart ? Did Christ suffer His passion for thee, and wilt thou shew no compassion towards Him ? While Christ was yet hanging upon the cross, and yielding up the ghost, the Scripture wit- nesseth that ' the veil of the temple did rent in twain, and the earth did quake, and that the stones clave asunder; that the graves did open, and the dead bodies rose ;' and shall the heart of man be nothing moved to remember how grievously and cruelly He was handled of the Jews for our sins ? Shall man shew himself to be more hardhearted than stones, to have less compassion than dead bodies ? Call to mind, sinful creature, and set before thine eyes, Christ crucified ; think thou seest His body stretched out in length upon the Cross, His head crowned with sharp thorns, and His hands and His feet pierced with nails, His heart opened with a long spear, His flesh rent and torn with whips, His brows sweating water and blood ; think thou hear- est Him now crying in an intolerable agony to His Father, and saying, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' Couldst thou behold this woeful sight, or hear this mournful voice without tears, considering that He suffered all this, not for any 72 CONVICTION AND CONSOLATION THROUGH desert of His own, but only for the grievousness of thy sins ?'" Are there any among us insensible to this appeal? any whose hearts are "hardened through the deceitfulness of sin ;" 2 " alienated" from God, " and enemies in" their " mind by wicked works ?" a We point you to the Cross of Christ ; we bid you there behold in the expiring agonies of the Lamb of God, the wrath of an avenging Judge, who will by no means clear the guilty. Did Jesus in a cruel and accursed death endure the awful penalty of sin ? that penalty shall still be exacted to the uttermost, of every impenitent transgressor ! Did He receive " at the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury?" 4 that same cup is still reserved for the ungodly ; " the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them !" 5 But, brethren, there are better things than these of which the blood of Jesus speaketh. It tells of pity and of love ; it tells of pardon and of peace. We point you to the Lamb of God as an atoning Sacrifice for all your guilt. We point you to a Father reconciled in Him to the most rebellious of His children. We point you to a Judge who has received at His hands double for all your transgres- sions. " To you which" are" afar off" 6 " is the Word ' Homily on the Passion of Christ. 2 Heb. iii. 13. 3 Col. i. 21. " Isaiah, li. 17. 5 Psalm Ixxv. 8. 6 Eph. ii. 17. THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 73 of this Salvation sent ;"' to you who are " dead in trespasses and sins" 2 the ministers of the Gospel come " preaching Peace by Jesus Christ." 3 We " set before you a blessing and a curse ;" 4 and while we " pray you in Christ's stead" to be " reconciled unto God," 5 to " flee from the wrath to come," 6 " to lay hold on the hope set before" 7 you in the Gospel, we would as solemnly remind you that " there re- maineth no more Sacrifice for sins," 8 that the offer of Salvation now proposed to you must bitterly increase your condemnation should you reject or despise it. Listen, therefore, we entreat you, to the voice which saith, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 9 He hath magnified my law, and made it honourable ; I am well pleased for His righteousness' sake. 10 And though He did no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth, yet have I bruised Him and put Him to grief. 11 I have poured out upon Him the fury of mine anger, for I have laid on Him the iniquity of you all." 12 Brethren/' if they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not" you " escape if" you " turn away from Him who" thus " speaketh from heaven ! 13 If he that despised Moses' law 1 Acts, xiii. 26. 'Eph.ii. 1. 3 Acts, x. 3 5. 4 Deut. xi. 26. s 2 Cor. v. 20. 6 Matt. iii. 7. 7 Heb. vi. 18. 8 Heb. x. 26. 9 Matt. iii. 17. 10 Isaiah, xlii. 21. " Isaiah, liii. 9. 10. 12 Isaiah, liii. 6. 13 Heb. xii. 25. 74 CONVICTION AND CONSOLATION THROUGH died without mercy," 1 if the " blood of bulls and of goats" inefficient of itself to "take away sin" 2 could not be trifled with, or disregarded with im- punity, of how much sorer punishment shall they be thought worthy who tread under their feet the Son of God, and count the blood of the everlasting Covenant an unholy thing I 1 " Beware lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the Prophets, Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish !" 3 Yet a little while, and " the things that belong unto your peace" shall be forever " hid from your eyes." 4 A day is at hand in which that same Jesus in whose name is now " preached unto you the forgiveness of sins," 5 " shall be revealed from heaven, with His mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel." 6 However you may now neglect Him as a Saviour, you must then meet him as your Judge ; for, " Behold, He cometh with clouds ; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him." 7 Then shall you call upon the mountains, and upon the rocks, and say, " Fall upon us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb."' Brethren, ere yet that wrath is kindled which 1 Heb. x. 28, 29. 8 Heb. x. 4. 8 Acts, xiii. 40, 41. 4 Luke, xix. 42. 5 Acts, xiii. 38. 6 2 Thess. i. 7, 8. 7 Rev. i. 7. 8 Rev. vi. 16. THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 75 shall burn like fire, take refuge in the blood of Jesus. Yet once again is He evidently " set forth crucified among you:" if you look unto Him you shall " be saved ;"' if you turn away your eyes, you perish and that for ever ! Such is the tremen- dous alternative which attends the Preaching of the Cross. And yet, " allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel," it is " even so we speak," 2 " determined not to know anything save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." It must needs be " in weak- ness, and in fear, and in much trembling." 3 We trust, indeed, that the savour of the knowledge of Christ is made manifest by us unto some " in every place." 4 God grant that it may be so this day ; but we cannot hide from ourselves the awful truth that " we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ," not only " in them that are saved," but " in them" (also) " that perish : to the one we are the savour of death unto death, and to the other the savour of life unto life ; and who is sufficient for these things ?" 5 But while, in the due discharge of their sacred office, the ministers of Christ uphold his Cross in the sight of all men, and point the hardened sinner and the self-righteous Pharisee to the Lamb of God, with how much greater satisfaction do they turn to those who mourn for sin, to those whose hearts the Lord has opened to perceive the dread requirements of his most righteous law, and their own utter 1 Isaiah, xlv. 22. 2 1 Thess. ii. 4. 3 1 Cor. ii. 2, 3. 4 Cor. ii. 14, 15. 5 2 Cor. ii. 16. 76 CONVICTION AND CONSOLATION THROUGH inability to perform them. " Be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through this man is preach- ed unto you the forgiveness of sins ; and that by Him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses." 1 Do the terrors of that law alarm you ? " Behold the Lamb of God !" " The end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." 2 The hand-writing of ordinances that was against you, that was contrary to you, He hath blotted out ; He hath taken it away ; He hath nailed it to His Cross. 3 Are you weighed down by a sense of guilt? in heaviness, by reason of your manifold transgressions ? " Behold the Lamb of God !" " A full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, ob- lation, and satisfaction, for the sins of the whole world." 4 Behold in that Atonement the guilt of sin removed ; its stain effaced ; its power de- stroyed ; its condemnation cancelled. " The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin." 5 Who then shall circumscribe its power, or sound the depths *of that which is unfathomable the pardoning love of God in Christ towards every repenting sinner ? " Hath God forgotten to be gracious ? hath He shut up in displeasure," 6 under that new and " better covenant" 7 of " grace and 1 Acts, xiii. 38, 39. Roin. x. 4. 3 Col. ii. 14. 4 Prayer of Consecration. 5 1 John, i. 7. a Psalm Ixxvii. 9, Prayer-book version. 7 Heb. viii. 6. THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 77 truth which came by Jesus Christ" 1 hath He shut up under the Gospel that "loving-kindness" and those tender mercies which were wont of old to shine so brightly under the sterner dispensation of the Law ? Or hath He ceased to plead with sinners now that the arguments which He deigns to use have received their fullest confirmation, hath He ceased to plead with them, and say, " Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord ; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow ; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool?"' Surely if, in the dim and shadowy twi- light of the Mosaic ritual, the returning sinner found his way through mystic types and carnal ordinances to pardon and to peace, and held that way rejoicing* that his " unrighteousness" was " forgiven," and that his " sin" was " covered" 3 they whose happier lot it is to live in the full splendour of the Gospel day cannot be left to seek in doubt, or to enjoy with less assurance of hope, the same glo- rious privileges ! Surely " if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the 1 John, i. 17. - Isaiah, i. 18. 3 Psalm xxxii. 1, Prayer-book version. * " Scripture does not set before us any sensible Joy or satis- faction to be sought for as the end of holiness." Tracts for the Times, No. Ixxx. p. 82. " Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous ; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness." Psalm xcvii. 11, 12. 78 CONVICTION AND CONSOLATION THROUGH unclean," could " sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, much more shall the blood of Jesus, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God." 1 " If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." 2 " If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 2 " Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." 4 Do we need the "witness of men" after this far "greater witness of God?" 5 Let us hear it from the mouth of one whose authority has hitherto been received with no little deference in our Church. " As those which are received into the Church by the Sacrament of Baptism," says Bishop Pearson, 6 receive the " remission of their sins of which they were guilty before they were baptized ; so after they are thus made members of the Church, they receive remission of their future sins by their repentance. Christ, who hath left us a pattern of prayer, hath 1 Heb. ix. 13. 2 1 John, ii. 1. 3 1 John, i. 9. 4 Isaiah, Iv. 7. s 1 John, v. 9. 6 Exposition of the Creed, Art. 9. THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 79 thereby taught us for ever to implore and beg the forgiveness of our sins ; that as we through the frailty of our nature are always subject unto sin, so we should always exercise the acts of repentance, and for ever seek the favour of God. This then is the comfort of the Gospel ; that as it discovereth sin within us, so it propoundeth a remedy unto us. While we are in this life encompassed with the flesh, while the allurements of the world, while the stratagems of Satan, while the infirmities and cor- ruptions of our nature, betray us to the transgres- sion of the law of God, we are always subject to offend ; and so long as we can offend, so long we may apply ourselves unto God by repentance, and be renewed by His grace and pardoned by His mercy. This is God's goodness, this is man's happiness. For blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, and whose sin is covered ; blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. The year of release, the year of jubilee, was a time of public joy ; and there is no voice like that, ' Thy sins are forgiven thee.' By this a man is rescued from infernal pain ; secured from everlasting names ; by this he is made capable of heaven, by this he is assured of eternal happiness."* * There is appended to each number of the " Tracts for the Times," a list of " works which will be found more or less to uphold or elucidate the general doctrines inculcated in these Tracts ;" at the end of this list, among " larger works which may be profitably studied," appears " Pearson on the Creed." 80 CONVICTION AND CONSOLATION THROUGH Having this hope in him, and blessed with this assurance, is he to go mourning all the day long, "swallowed up with over much sorrow?" 1 Nay, rather shall he not " go in peace," 2 and " sin no more ?" 3 " Reconciled unto God by the death of His Son," shall he not also "joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom" he hath " now received the Atonement ? 4 Shall not " the work of righteousness be Peace, and the effect of righteous- ness Quietness and Assurance for ever ?" 5 It has been well observed from this place, that " Christianity may be described in few words, as being God's arrangement for the expiation of human 1 2 Cor. ii. 7. 2 Luke, vii. 50. 3 John, viii. 1 1 . * Rom.v. 10, 11. 5 Isaiah, xxxii. 17. How far the authority of Bishop Pearson can be urged in support of Mr. Newman and his party will be seen by com- paring the foregoing passage with the following extract from Tract Ixxix " On Purgatory against Romanism / ' "1. The persons who are reserved for Purgatory. Some Christians die simply in God's favour, with all their sins forgiven ; others die out of His favour, as the impenitent, whether Christians or not ; but others, and that the great majority, die, according to the Ro- manists, in God's favour, yet more or less under the bond of their sins. And so far we may unhesitatingly allow to them, or rather WE OURSELVES HOLD THE SAME, if we hold that after Baptism there is NO PLENARY PARDON OF SINS IN THIS LIFE to thcsijliier, HOWEVER PENITENT, such as in Baptism was once vouchsafed to him. If for sins committed after Baptism we have not yet received a simple and unconditional absolution, surely penitents from this time up to the day of judgment may be considered in that double state of which the Romanists speak, their persons accepted, but CERTAIN SINS UNCAN- CELLED." pp.6, 7. See also Dr. Pusey's Tracts on Baptism. THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 81 sin by the Redemption of Christ." 1 The time would fail did we attempt to shew how entirely the Cross on which that Redemption was effected must per- vade the teaching of those who would " make full proof of" their "ministry." 2 "The Gospel itself," says one of our most eloquent Divines,* " the Gospel itself is, in St. Paul's lan- guage, o Xoyos- TOO . 89 APPENDIX A. ADMONITIONS OF THOSE WHO HAVE AUTHORITY IN THE LORD'S VINEYARD." * LIST OF AUTHORS QUOTED. 1. Dr. Whately, Archbishop of Dublin. 2. Dr. Lawrence, Archbishop of Cashel. 3. Dr. Wilson, Bishop of Calcutta. 4 Dr. Suniner, Bishop of Chester. 5. Dr. Shuttleworth, Bishop of Chichester. 6. Dr. Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter. 7. Dr. Kaye, Bishop of Lincoln. 8. Dr. M'llvaine, Bishop of Ohio. 9. Dr. Pearson, Dean of Salisbury. 10. Archdeacon Browne, Ely. 11. Archdeacon Wilberforce, Surrey. 12. Dr. Hampden, Regius Professor of Divinity, Oxford. 13. Dr. Turton, Regius Professor of Divinity, Cambridge. 14. Dr. Faussett, Margaret Professor of Divinity, Oxford. 15. Rev. J. J. Blunt, B.D., Margaret Professor of Divinity. Cambridge. 16. Rev. J. Scholefield, A.M., Regius Professor of Greek, Cambridge. 17. Rev. C. Benson, M.A., Canon of Worcester. 18. Rev. G. S. Faber, B.D., Canon of Salisbury. 19. Dr. Hawkins, Canon of Rochester, and Provost of Oriel College. 20. Rev. G. Townsend, M.A., Canon of Durham. 21. Dr. Wilson, Canon of Winchester. * Dr. Puscy's Letter to the Bishop of Oxford, p. 9. 90 APPENDIX. DR. WHATELY, ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN, Late Principal of St. Alban Hall, and formerly Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford. 1. " Essays on some of the Dangers to Christian Faith which may arise from the Teaching or the Conduct of its Professors." 2. " Three Discourses, delivered on Several Occasions." 1839. RESERVE IN COMMUNICATING RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE. " HENCE our Lord claimed and exercised (most justly) the right either to publish or to withhold any portion of divine truth, according as He saw fit ; and to impart whatever know- ledge concerning the gospel dispensation He did impart, when- ever, and to whomsoever He would. <' This, evidently, is an exercise of that kind of authority which belongs properly to a divine instructor and which it is therefore most presumptuous for a human instructor, even were he a prophet to assume, unless he can sheiv that he is expressly commissioned to exercise it. " It is, perhaps, scarcely necessary to observe, that it is not meant to be recommended that the whole sum of gospel truths should be taught at once in a single lesson, or should be imparted without any regard to the age, understanding, pre- vious knowledge, opportunities, and other circumstances of the learner; or to the various degrees of difficulty, and of importance, in different parts of what is to be taught. " In the teaching of any science, art, language, or profes- sional business, every judicious instructor pays regard to all these points; giving 'line upon line, and precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little,' not expecting the same rate of progress, or the same ultimate proficiency in all. " The censure implied is, not, of a Christian minister who teaches the religion of the gospel as well as he can / but of one who does not teach all men as well as he can ; who. as if he were not a < steward of God's mysteries and manifold grace,' but of his own, introduces the system of the double doctrine ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN. 91 the exoteric and esoteric, borrowed from the ancient philosopJiers, and early introduced into the Alexandrian school of divinity ; who takes upon him to impart to the select few, initiated into mysteries, certain secret doctrines which he conceals from the great mass of Christians, and ' shuns to set before them the whole counsel of God,' so as to be ' pure from the blood of all men.' " Essay III. On the Danger of an erroneous Imitation of Christ's Teaching. Sect. i. pp. 120, 121. " DOCTRINE OF THOSE WHO DEPRECATE INSTRUCTION IN EVIDENCES." " It is not impossible that some of niy readers may consider me to have been dwelling unnecessarily on truths which uo one at least, no educated Christian of the present day can doubt. " But they may find most opposite principles set forth in modern publications, professedly Christian, and enjoying con- siderable repute, as being supposed to exhibit the tenets of a party within the established Church. " They will find it maintained, for instance, that we the Christians of this age and country are to be censured for having ' shifted the ground of our belief from testimony to argument, and from faith to reason.' The reader may observe, that this is almost the very language of Hume's sneers against Christians, whom he represents as giving credence to such ' testimony ' as does not furnish (which all testimony must, that is worth listening to) any valid argument;' and as resting their 'faith,' not on evidence, not on reason,' but on... faith ; i. e., on itself." Essay II. On the Danger arising from Neglect of Instruction in Christian Evidences. Note B. p. 109. " DANGER OF RECOMMENDING A SPURIOUS KIND OF FAITH." " We may learn from our Lord's appeal to miraculous proofs as the foundation of His claim to authority, how great is the mistake of those who imagine that Christian faith consists in an uninquiring acquiescence without any reason for it ; or that, at least, there is the more virtue in a man's faith, the less it is founded on evidence. " The Faith which Jesus and the apostles commended 93 APPENDIX. in their hearers consisted in a readiness to listen fairly to what was said in an ingenuous openness to conviction and in an humble acquiescence in what they had good ground for be- lieving to have come from God, however adverse to their pre- judices, and wishes, and habits of thought; in a firm trust in what they were rationally convinced God had promised, how- ever strange and foreign from their expectations and con jectures. " And yet there have been persons in various ages of the Church and the present is not without them who represent Christian Faith as a thing not merely different from this, but even opposite to it. A man's determination to adhere to the religion of his fathers, merely on the ground that it was theirs, and that it has long existed, and that he has been assured by persons superior to him in rank, and in presumed learning, that the authority of the Bible, and the meaning of it, are such as they tell him ; this Jias been represented as the most perfect Christian Faith f " Such grounds for adhering to a religion have been de- scribed as not merely sufficient for the most unlearned classes not even merely as the utmost these are capable of attaining but as absolutely the best; as better than the most rational conviction of a cultivated understanding, that has long been sedulously occupied in proving all things, and holding fast that which is right.' " Now this kind of (falsely called) Faith, whose usurped title serves to deceive the unthinking, is precisely what is cha- racterised in scripture as want of Faith." Essay III. Danger of an Erroneous Imitation of Christ's Teaching. Sect. iii. pp. 125, 127, 128, 129. " DANGER OF REFERRING TO HUMAN AUTHORITY AS DECISIVE." " But if our Lord had designed to delegate to others, besides the apostles, an inspired authority to decide on gospel truths, tcithout bestowing at the same time the miraculous gifts which are ' the signs of an apostle,' He would necessarily have desig- nated, in express terms, that could not be mistaken, the persons and the places to which Christians must resort for such autho- ritative decisions. He would have dearly pointed out (as ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN. 93 under the former dispensation) ' the place which the Lord had chosen, to cause His name to dwell there.' He would have plainly declared that either the Bishops of some particular church, whether Jerusalem, or Rome, or Constantinople or that the Christian writers of the first three, or the first four centuries or that the unwritten traditions current in a certain specified country or that the majority of votes in a general council, so and so convened were to have this decisive autho- rity. And thus by that specification on His part their decisions would have been stamped by the miraculous proofs He himself had displayed. " It is only by such a distinct designation as this, or else by the bestowing of sensibly miraculous gifts, that He could have enabled Christians in all ages to know with certainty where they were to apply for the decisive responses of a living oracle of gospel-truth. I say, ' with certainty,' because, on this point, if on no other, certainty was to be confidently expected ; the very object supposed, being to supersede all uncertainty, and all exercise of private judgment. It would have been a mockery, therefore, to bid us first decide as well as we can, by our own fallible judgment, on doubtful questions and conflicting claims. Had our Lord's design been to provide such a perpetual living oracle, He would not have failed to point to it by a perfectly plain declaration. Now, as we know that He did not make any such declaration, we must conclude that he did not delegate the authority with which He himself taught, to any but those to whom His Spirit bore testimony, 'confirming their word by signs following.'* " All who have endeavoured to find some such unerring oracle residing in any man, or body of men, M/zgifted with ' the signs of an apostle,' all, in short, who (as some of them express it) have ' thrown themselves unreservedly on revelation wherever (as they fancied) ' it was to be found, whetJier in scripture or anti- quity ;' all these have proceeded in the search, each on some arbitrary rule devised by man, and not warranted by any declara- * " Dr. Shuttleworth has pointed out, in a recent work, that the most emi- nent of the very Fathers referred to, did not even themselves assert a claim (though it would not have been admissible if they had) to the authority some have since assigned to them ; but are careful to draw the distinction between their own writings and those of the inspired Evangelists and Apostles." 94 APPENDIX. tion of our Divine Master. ' Feeling strongly' (as they profess) ' the inadequacy of their own intellect to guide them to religi- ous truth,' they have trusted to their own intellect, or their own imagination, to stamp on whatever they think fit, the character of REVELATION, the great source of religious truth ! " But, 'when they shall say unto you, Lo ! here! or, Lo! there ! believe it not ;' ' if they shall say, Behold ! he is in the secret chambers,' (of some conclave or council of divines,) < or Behold ! He is in the wilderness,' (inspiring some enthusiastic and disorderly pretender to a new light,) ' go not after them.' Whether they fix on this or that particular church as the abode of such inspired authority, or on the universal church which again is to be marked out either as consisting of the numerical majority,* or the majority of those who lived within a certain (arbitrarily-fixed) period, or a majority of the sound and orthodox believers i. e., of those in agreement with the persons who so designate them, all these, in their varying opinions as to the seat of the supposed inspired authority, are alike in this; that they are following no track marked out by Christ or his apostles, but merely their own unauthorized conjectures. While one sets up a golden image in Bethel, and another in Dan, saying, ' These be thy gods, O Israel !' all are, in fact, ' going astray after their over inventions,' and * worshipping the work of their oivn hands' " For however vehemently any one may decry ' the pride of intellect,' and the presumption of exercising private judgment, it is plain that that man is setting up, as the absolute and ulti- mate standard of divine truth, the opinions held by himself or his party, if these are to be the decisive test of what is orthodoxy, and orthodoxy again the test of the genuine church, and the church the authoritative oracle of gospel-truth. And yet this slightly-circuitous mode of setting up the decrees of fallible man, * " Some are accustomed to cite a passage from a work of Vincentius Liri- nensis, describing the Catholic Faith as what has been held ' always, every- where, and by all.' And certainly if any doctrine were broached which no Christians hitherto, of any age or country, shall appear to have received, there would be a moral certainty, that this could not be any part of the Christian Faith. And if, again, any doctrine could be proved to have been universally received as a part of the Faith, we could not doubt its being such. But there is no one, I suppose, who would limit within these bounds the articles of his creed, rejecting everything that had ever been denied by any.'' ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN. 95 as the object of religious veneration and faith, will often be found to succeed in deluding the unwary." Essay III. Danger of an erroneous Imitation of Christ's Teaching. Sect. v. pp. 134140. l: HUMAN AUTHORITY NOT DECISIVE." " In giving religious instruction to any class of persons, but especially to the class I have more particularly in view at present, those just passing from the condition of children to that of adults, 1 ivarn you I do not say, against setting up yourselves, but, permitting them to set you up as oracles, as a decisive authority, as a final appeal in respect of religious truth. You must not only incite and teach them, to read, and to read pro- fitably to ' mark, learn, and inwardly digest' the Scriptures, but you must leave and lead them to exercise the best of the powers of understanding that Providence has bestowed, to ' prove all things, and hold fast that which is right;' to allow to no mere uninspired man, or church, or other body of unin- spired men, the claim either of superseding scripture, or of possessing a joint and equal authority ivith scripture, or pro- nouncing and deciding infallibly what is the sense of scripture : but like the Beraeans, to ' search the Scriptures daily whether those things are so' which we teach." Discourse I. On the best Mode of conveying Scriptural Instruction. Sect. ii. p. 235. " To decide what persons can or cannot be members of the same religious community on earth, uniting in public worship and other observances, is no more than it is possible, and allowable, and requisite, for uninspired man to undertake ; and this is implied, and is all that is necessarily implied, in the ordinances and formularies of every church ; but to decide who are or are not partakers of the benefits of the Christian covenant, and to prescribe to one's fellow-mortals, as the terms of salvation, the implicit adoption of our own interpretations, is a most fear- ful presumption in men not producing miraculous proofs of an immediate Divine mission. " You that are engaged in the ministry will never, I trust, for a moment forget the solemn vows by which you are bound to ' instruct out of the Scripture the people committed to your care,' and to teach nothing as essential to salvation, but ' whatyoti 96 APPENDIX. are persuaded is contained in, or may be proved by the Scriptures.' What you are to teach, is, be it observed, not whatever others are convinced, but, what you are yourselves convinced, is de- clared or implied in scripture. Were you to inculcate what you were not yourselves thus convinced of, though it might chance to be in fact scriptural, you, nevertheless, having received it on human authority, would have been setting up man in the place of God. And to repudiate this procedure is the grand fundamental principle of Protestantism,'' Ibid. pp. 235_240. ADOPTION OF THE ERRONEOUS VIEWS ABOVE REFERRED TO, ACCOUNTED FOR. " I have no doubt that many have of late been led to adopt very heartily some most erroneous views in these matters, through the combined attractions of antiquity and novelty. Some degree of partiality for each of these probably exists, in very various proportions, in every human breast. And any system which offers gratification to both these feelings at once, is likely to be eagerly received by many ; even though it should revive but a small portion of neglected truth, combined with a great mass of obsolete error. " In some instances, however, to my own knowledge, and pro- bably in many others, such notions as I allude to have been more or less countenanced by persons wJw are aware, or at least were at first aware, of their unsoundness, from their supposed tendency to promote piety and morality. " But the good effects resulting (and such often have, appa- rently at least, resulted) from any false system, have a conti- nual and rapid tendency towards decay, while the evil fruits are borne in continually increasing profusion, and with more and more of poisonous luxuriance." Essay III. On the Danger of an erroneous Imitation of Christ's Teaching. Note C. p. 183. ARCHBISHOP OF CASHEL. 97 II. DR. LAURENCE, LATE ARCHBISHOP OF CASHEL, Formerly Canon of Christ Church, and Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University of Oxford. Visitation of the Saxon Reformed Church in the years 1527- and 1528. With an Introduction and some Remarks on Mr. Newman's ' Lec- tures on Justification.' " 1839. MR. NEWMAN 6 DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION COMPARED WITH THAT OF OSIANDER. " A public disputation upon the subject was afterwards holden, and Osiander being called upon to express his opinion in writing, wrote down the following proposition : ' Justitiam essentialem Dei, qua est Deus, Pater, Filius, et Spiritus Sanctus, nostram justitiam esse, cum per verbum Dei in nos credentes in- fluit, et in nobis habitat.' Melchior Adam in Vita Osiandri, p. '233. " The doctrine of Osiander soon died away in the Lutheran Church. But an attempt has been lately made to revive it, or at least something which seems to me very much like it, in our own. I allude to a recent publication entitled, ' Lectures on Justifica- tion, by John Henry Newman, B.D., Fellow of Oriel College, and Vicar of St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford.' 1 The talents, learning, and piety of this writer want not ray eulogium ; but he must excuse me, if I think the argument which he advances, and the opinions which he grounds upon it, a little singular, and much too refined. While labouring to subvert the creed of Luther upon this subject, and to establish the literal sense of scriptural language, he displays no common skill in logical deduction and metaphysical distinction ; but when these re- sources fail him, and he finds it impossible to explain what is inexplicable, he exclaims, Cease to investigate, and adore my glory, which you cannot comprehend. Justification, according to him, consists in the ' habitation in us of God the Father, and the Word incarnate through the Holy Ghost. This is to be 98 APPENDIX. justified, to receive the Divine presence within us, and be made a temple of the Holy Ghost.' Page 160. Again ; 'And fur- ther let it be remarked, that the Divine presence vouchsafed to us, besides being that of the Holy Trinity, is especially said to be the presence of Christ ; which would seem to imply, that the Word made flesh is in some mysterious manner bestowed upon us.' Page 164. But this mysterious presence of the Word mode flesh, is in another passage more particularly alluded to. ' It appears, moreover,' he says, ' that this inward presence is some- times described as God's presence or communion, sometimes that of Father and Son, sometimes of the Holy Ghost, sometimes of Christ the incarnate Mediator, sometimes of God through the Spirit, sometimes of Christ, of His body and blood, of His body in flesh and bones, (Ephesians v. 30,) and this through the Spirit.' Page 167. And even this he further makes more mysterious, by elseM'here observing ' I quote these words here, (he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit,} in order to point out, that the gift of the Spirit is none other than the entrance into us of the ascended and invisible Saviour. To be joined as one spirit to Christ, and to be a temple of the Holy Ghost, are spoken of as the same gift. It is to be observed that St. Paul, who here speaks of Christ as a Spirit, elsewhere speaks of Him as still possessed of a bodily substance, and communicating Himself to us as such. We are members of his body, of His flesh and of His bones.' Page 245. " I know not what precise idea Mr. Newman may entertain of this Divine presence, to which he repeatedly alludes, of this communication of Christ Himself to us as a bodily substance, or whether he has any distinct idea of it at all ; but I fear that his pertinacious attachment to literal interpretation has not much improved the perspicuity of his diction, diffuse as it is, or the simplicity of his conceptions ; at least, I find it no easy task, perfectly and consistently to comprehend his precise meaning.'' Pages 177179. " In another passage he thus expressly describes the manhood of Christ as communicated to, and dwelling in believers. ' The divine life which raised Him (Christ) flowed over, and availed unto our rising again from sin and condemnation. The spirit within His sacred manhood, reviving on the third day, only more powerful for His brief overthrow, changed it, (the manhood) ARCHBISHOP OF CASHEL. 99 into Spirit assimilating it to itself, without His ceasing to be man, and imparted it to us to dwell as a new, creating, trans- forming power in our hearts.' Page 239. Here evidently, the manhood of Christ that is, His glorified body is stated to be the indwelling power to which allusion is made, and the resi- dence of which within us, constitutes our justification. " But this is not all. The manhood of Christ is said to have been perfected on the Cross, and then when taken up into heaven, to have been and still to be the same and not the same as it was before. Paraphrasing the discourse of our Saviour in the sixth chapter of St. John, he puts the following language into our Saviour's mouth : ' You being flesh understand me to speak of mere flesh, material, mortal flesh ; whereas, when I speak of my flesh, though I do speak of my body and blood, yet it is not of anything carnal or earthly, it is not of what you see with your eyes, but of this my body and blood ; when having passed through its state of humiliation, and having been perfected upon the cross, it shall ascend to Heaven in a new way, the same and not the same, by the power of the Spirit. Then it shall no longer be a substance that can be seen and handled, it shall be a spiritual body, it shall be spirit, and this is that which giveth life. It is the Spirit that quickeneth ; this is what I spoke of, when I said, that whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, shall have eternal life ; I spoke of the Spirit, of my glorified body.'' Page 242. " What contradictory terms a system of theology may admit, it is not, perhaps, easy to say ; but surely no legitimate system of logic will allow us to predicate of a body, that it may be wholly changed and still continue the same; that it may be turned into spirit, and still remain body ; that it may be at once the same and not the same. " Besides, what it is to eat the body and drink the blood of Christ figuratively and spiritually, I can well understand ; but what it is to eat His body and drink His blood literally and actually that is, His body and blood in His glorified state, sub- stances which can and which cannot be felt and handled, being both the same and yet not the same., as they were when He existed on earth, exceeds, I confess, my comprehension. " The philosophy of this Tract seems not less mysterious than its theology. The reasoning, strange as it may appear, is that of the materialist, the late Dr. Priestley, upon the resur- H 2 100 APPENDIX. rection of the human body viz., that we contain within us a sort of seminal body which never dies. ' There is,' the author remarks, ' a natural body and a spiritual body, and the natural body comes first as the seed does ; the spiritual body, how or what we know not, is formed within it, the same as it, yet dif- ferent in its accidents. Corruption, dissolution, mortality, are but the accidents of the Christian's body, and are separated from it for ever on its rising again. What we see is not the real body, it is but the outward shell ; the real body of the regenerate is not material, but spiritual, of which the seed is deposited within us. Page 243. Remarks, &c., pp. 180 182. " It will be seen by the following documents, as I have already remarked, that Luther and Melancthon, when they contended for justification by faith only, did not exclude the necessity of previous repentance and subsequent amendment of life and morals, but strongly insisted upon both. So also does Mr. Newman ; but he goes further, and argues, that jus- tification consists not in repentance, faith, and amendment, but solely in the indwelling of Christ, and with Christ, the Father, and the Holy Ghost, in the soul of the believer. " Osiander, at the period of the Reformation, advanced, as I have remarked, a similar opinion, in direct opposition to Lutfier and Melancthon; maintaining that justification consisted not in the remission of sin, but in the indwelling of Christ, with the Father and Holy Ghost. Mr. Newman, indeed, asserts (page 426) that the opinion of Osiander bears no more rela- tion to his, than ' the Manichaean blasphemies concerning the union of the substance of God with the natural world, bear to the Scripture truth, that in Him we live, and move, and have our being.' But he descends to no particulars." Pages 188, 189. " In conclusion, I must freely confess, that I esteem the piety and zeal of Mr. Newman more highly than I do his judg- ment; persuaded, as he takes the liberty of differing so widely from others, that he will permit me to use the privilege of differing from him ; and of thinking, that as he sometimes, perhaps ineffectually, endeavours by illustrations to render doctrines plain, which are in themselves obscure ; so does he at other times certainly render doctrines obscure, which, as gene- rally understood, are in themselves sufficiently plain and ob- vious" Pages 199, 200. BISHOP OF CALCUTTA. 101 III. DR. WILSON, BISHOP OF CALCUTTA. " Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Diocese of Calcutta." 1838. " If I dwell at some length on the reaction which these and a variety of other errors have produced for a most fearful reaction, as I have intimated, has begun to flow in it is for two reasons ; because those who are now urging HUMAN TRA- DITION IN MATTERS OF RELIGION true as some part of their statements may be are manifestly preparing the way for all kinds of superstitions and departures from the simplicity of the Gospel, resembling those of the Church of Rome ; and also because, being individuals of no ordinary learning and piety, and justly entitled to the highest respect in the stations of influence in which they move, their writings are likely to attract considerable attention amongst our young divines, and to be reproduced in an aggravated form, as most other impulses from home are, in this country. It is the last novelty of the day ; and though it will probably soon begin to wear itself out, yet it may still create such extraordinary mischief in India, that I feel compelled, long as I have already detained you, not to withhold from you such remarks as occur to me in the way of respectful precaution. " It is to me, I confess, a matter of surprise and shame, that in the nineteenth century we should really have tJte fundamental position of the whole system of Popery virtually reasserted in the bosom of that very Church, which was reformed so determinately three centuries since from this self-same evil, by the doctrine and labours, and martyrdom, of Cranmer and his noble fellow- sufferers. What ! are we to have all the fond tenets which formerly sprung from the Traditions of men re-introduced, in however modified a form, amongst us ? Are we to have a refined Tran- substantiation the Sacraments, and not Faith, the chief means 102 APPENDIX. of Salvation a confused and uncertain mixture of the merits of Christ and inherent grace in the matter of Justification Remission of sins, and the new creation of Christ Jesus, con- fined, or almost confined, to Baptism perpetual doubt of Pardon to the penitent after that Sacrament the duty and advantage of self-imposed Austerities the innocency of Prayers for the dead and similar tenets and usages which generate 'a spirit of bondage' again asserted amongst us? And is the paramount authority of the inspired Scriptures, and the doctrine of the Grace of God in our Justification by the alone merits of Jesus Christ which reposes on that authority, to be again weakened and obscured by such human superadditions ; and a new edifice of ' will-worship,' and ' voluntary humility,* and the ' rudiments of the world,' as the Apostle speaks, to be erected once more in the place of the simple Gospel of a cru- cified Saviour? " My language is strong, my Reverend Brethren, but I think you will agree with me, that it is not too strong for the occa- sion. You shall judge for yourselves. I select as a specimen of the whole system, and what forms its basis, so far as I can understand it from the various publications which have reached me, the following passage from the able, learned, and accpm- plished author of the Sermon on Tradition ; for it is not neces- sary to disparage in the slightest degree the high endowments of the leaders in this new way.* " ' With relation to the supreme authority of inspired Scrip- ture,' says the Professor of Poetry ,-f- it stands thus Catholic tradition teaches revealed truth, Scripture proves it ; Scripture is the document of faith, Tradition the witness of it ; the true creed is the Catholic interpretation of Scripture, or scripturally- proved Tradition ; Scripture by itself teaches mediately, and proves decisively ; Scripture and Tradition taken together are the joint rule of faith.' J * " Who would ever think of disparaging the far higher attainments of those who went the whole length of the principles now reasserted Thomas a Kempis Fran9ois de Sales Pascal Nicole Fenelon Quesnel Bossuet Bourdaloue Massillon, and a host of others? " f Mr. Keble, Professor of Poetry in the University of Oxford. i Catena Patrum, in Appendix of Sermon on Primitive Tradition, 3rd edition, 1837. p. 2. BISHOP OF CALCUTTA. 103 " So then, Tradition is the primary, and Holy Scripture the secondary teacher of divine Truth ; so then we are to search the inspired Word of God, not as the one anthoritative, ade- quate rule of faith, but as the document of what this Tradition teaches ; we are to study the Scriptures, not in order to ascer- tain simply God's revealed will, but to prove Tradition by scriptural evidence ; and the standard of revelation is no longer the Bible alone that is, the inspired Word of the Eternal God in its plain and obvious meaning, but ' Scripture and Tradition taken together are the joint rule of faith? tl All this is surely sufficiently alarming ; but it becomes incomparably more so, when we learn with what latitude the word Tradition is understood. It includes, as we gather from the other repeated statements of the learned author, ' unwritten as well as written' traditions, 'certain remains or fragments of the treasure of Apostolical doctrines and Church rules;' in other words, an oral law, * independent of, and distinct from the truths which are directly scriptural;' which traditions are to be received ' apart from all Scripture evidence, as traditionary or common laws ecclesiastical.'* So that it appears that SCRIP- TURE, AND UNWRITTEN AS WELL AS WRITTEN TRADITION ARE, TAKEN TOGETHER, THE JOINT RULE OF FAITH. " I appeal to you, Reverend Brethren, whether we have not here a totally FALSE PRINCIPLE asserted as to the Rule of Faith. I appeal to you, whether the very reading of this statement is not enough to condemn it.f I appeal to you, whether the blessed and all-perfect Book of God is not thus depressed into a kind of attendant and expositor of Tradition. I appeal to you, whether this is not to magnify the comments of men above the * " This is so important a point, that I have been careful not to advance it without overwhelming proof." f " What Protestant would not at once, and without waiting for detailed argument, refute this Confession, and say, on the contrary 'Scripture teaches revealed truth ; catholic written Tradition is a valuable, but fallible gloss and interpretatiop of it ; Scripture is the document of faith, Tradition is the witness to certain facts connected with it, and to the meaning of certain passages in its inspired records. The true creed is the Holy Scriptures rightly understood. Scripture by itself teaches immediately, and proves conclusively. Tradition proves negatively where Scripture is silent, and teaches mediately and subordinately. Scripture alone is the sole and adequate rule of faith.' " 104 APPENDIX. inspired words of the Holy Ghost. I appeal to you, whether this is not to make Tradition an integral part of the canon of faith, and so to undermine the whole fabric of the Reformation, or rather of ' the glorious Gospel of the blessed God,' which that Reformation vindicated and affirmed.* " I am as far as possible from supposing that the various pious and learned authors to whose sentiments, and especially one of them, I am alluding, have any such intention. I am sure they have not. But the tendency of the system is not in my view the less dangerous. Such will and must be, I think, the general effect of its diffusion amongst a multitude of young divinity students, ivith comparatively little experience, and too apt to follow the new theories of popular and distinguished persons.-^ " And wherefore this deviation from our old Protestant doctrine and language ; why this false principle ; why this new school, as it were, of Divinity ? Ancient testimony in its proper place, who had undervalued ? The dignity and grace of the Sacraments, who had denied ? The study of primitive Antiquity, who had renounced ? The witness of the early Fathers, who had disparaged ? Wherefore weaken, then, by pushing beyond its due bearing, the argument which all writers of credit in our Church had delighted to acknowledge ? " The testimony of the Apostolical and primitive ages, for example, to the genuineness, authenticity, and Divine inspira- tion of the Canonical Books of the New Testament, as of the Jewish Church to those of the Old, who had called in question? Or who had doubted the incalculable importance of the witness of the universal ancient Church, at the Council of Nice, to the broad fact of the faith of the whole Christian world, from the days of the Apostles to that hour, in the mysteries of the adorable Trinity and of the Incarnation, as there rehearsed and * " How nearly the above scheme approaches to a part of the doctrine of the Church of Rome, may be judged of from the language of the too celebrated Dens. ' Sacred Scripture,' he says, ' is not authentic with us, except through the tradition and doctrine of the Church.' ' % The legitimate sense of Scripture is discovered through Tradition.' ' The true sense of Scripture is to be borrowed from the doctrine of the Fathers.' Dens, torn. ii. pp. 106, 107, cited in the South Indian Christian Repository, Vol. ii. No. 3." f " I HAVE MORE FEAR OF THE DlSCIPLES THAN OF THE TEACHERS.'' Bishop of Oxford. Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of Oxford. 1838. p. 20. BISHOP OF CALCUTTA. 105 recognized ? Or who had called in question the other matters of fact which are strengthened by Christian antiquity as the Divine authority and perpetual obligation of the Lord's Day the institution and perpetuity of the two, and only two, Chris- tian Sacraments the right of the infants of the faithful to the blessings of holy Baptism the Apostolical usage of Confirma- tion the permanent separation of a body of men for sacred services the duty of willing reverence from the people for them the threefold rank of Ministers in Christ's Church the use of Liturgies the observation of the festivals of our Lord's birth, resurrection, ascension, and gift of the Holy Ghost with similar points. To which may be added, their important nega- tive testimony to the non-existence of any one of the peculiar doctrines and claims of the modern Court and Church of Rome. These and similar facts we rejoice to acknowledge, as fortified by pure and uncorrupted primitive Tradition or testimony. " We rejoice also to receive, with our own Protestant Re- formed Church, the universal witness of the Catholic Fathers and ancient Bishops, expressed in the three Creeds, as a most important method of guarding the words of Revelation from the artful ambiguities of heretics, and as rules and terms of communion ; just as we acknowledge our modern Articles, Liturgy, and Homilies for the same purpose. We rejoice again in tracing back almost the whole of our most sublime and scrip- tural Liturgy to a far higher period than the rise of Popery to the primitive ages of the Church in our own and every other Christian country. We thus admit, in its fullest sense, for its proper ends, the rule of Vincentius Lirinensis ' Quod semper, quod ab omnibus, quod ubique, traditum est.' " And we receive such Tradition for this one reason be- cause it deserves the name of JUST AND PROPER EVIDENCE. It is authentic testimony. It is a part of the materials from which even the external evidences of Christianity itself are derived. It furnishes the most powerful historical arguments in support of our faith. It is amongst the proofs of our holy religion. ' But evidence is one thing ; the rule of belief another. Not for one moment do we, on any or all these grounds, confound the history and evidences of the divinely inspired rule of faith 106 APPENDIX. with that Rule itself. Not for one moment do we place Tra- dition on the same level with the all- perfect Word of God. Not for one moment do we allow it any share in the standard of revealed Truth. Scripture and Tradition taken together are NOT, we venture to assert, ' the joint rule of faith ;' but ' Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation ; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of faith.' And Tradition is so far from being of co-ordinate authority, that even the Ecclesiastical writers who approach the nearest to them, and are read in our Churches which not one of the Fathers is 'for example of life, and instruction of manners,' are still, as being unin- spired, not to be applied to establish any one doctrine of our religion. " Against this whole system, then, as proceeding upon A MOST FALSE AND DANGEROUS PRINCIPLE, and differing from the generally -received Protestant doctrine, I beg, Reverend Brethren, most respectfully to caution you. I enter my solemn protest against the testimony of the Fathers to any number of facts, being constituted a 'joint rule of faith' I protest against their witness to the meaning of certain capital series of texts on the fundamental truths of the Gospel being entitled to the reverence only due to the authoritative Revelation itself. I protest against the salutary use made of the testimony of pri- mitive writers by our Church, as a safeguard against heresy and an expression of her view of the sense of the Holy Scrip- tures, being placed on a level with the blessed Scriptures them- selves that is, I PROTEST AGAINST A MERE RULE OF COMMUNION BEING MADE A RULE OF FAITH. " ' Stand fast,' therefore, Reverend Brethren, ' in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free,' if I may adapt to such a subject the admonition of the great Apostle of the Gentiles, ' and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.' Keep close, I affectionately entreat you, to the Holy Scriptures, ac- cording to your ordination vows. Venerate, study, magnify, consult, preach the revealed will of God, ' not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth.' Remember, you have in the Holy Scriptures, as I venture to believe, the entire depositum fidei rjv BISHOP OF CALCUTTA. 107 7rapaKaTaO!iKT)t> that same good and noble deposit of the faith which was committed to Timothy to guard yourselves, and to hand down to the next age. Remember that the piety of a neiu way scarcely survives its first inventors, however able, devout, or well-intentioned they may be ; but loses most of its re- deeming qualities, and acquires dangerous ones at each remove. Remember that what is Tradition impregnated with will-wor- ship to-day, is superstition and spiritual death to-morrow. Remember how easy it is, through the corruption of the human heart, to rear on the same foundation of Christ Jesus, ' wood, hay, stubble ;' as well as ' gold, silver, and precious stones.' Remember that this is amongst the very class of evils against which St. Paul so earnestly warns his young and pious Bishops, Timothy and Titus fables, genealogies, oppositions of false- named science, logomachies, and other human inventions, which ' minister questions rather than godly edifying, which is in faith.' Remember how insidiously, but surely, the traditions of men, if once laid as a foundation, or part foundation of faith, ' make void the Word of God ' as the evils which were pro- duced by the oral law of the Jews, by the commandments of men brought in by the Pharisees at the time of our Lord, and by that mass of traditions in the Church of Rome under which the Gospel has been buried and almost lost for twelve cen- turies, sufficiently prove. Remember, above all, that unau- thorized, or over-urged human observances and traditions are always found to sap the foundation of a penitent sinner s hope in the alone Satisfaction and Atonement of Christ. " Yes ; you may rely upon it, Reverend Brethren, that this ' joint rule of faith ' will never long consist with the simplicity of the Gospel. I speak with fear and apprehension, lest I should in the least degree overstate the case. I suspect not I repeat, I suspect not the Reverend and learned Leaders of the least intention or idea of forwarding the process which I think is in fact going on. But the plague is begun. A FALSE PRINCIPLE IS ADMITTED IN THE RULE OF FAITH, AND IS ALREADY AT WORK. " Already an amplitude is given, as we have seen, to the word Tradition, which may include anything and everything, and therefore justly awakens our increased alarm. Already texts of inspired Scripture are weakened or contracted to the 108 APPENDIX. narrowest and most doubtful sense.* Already are expressions dropped on the subject of the holy Eucharist to which our ears are unaccustomed.f Already are the idolatries and abomina- tions of the Church of Rome spoken of in these very books and tracts of controversy, with far too much tenderness. Already are Tradition and the Church too prominently brought forward, and Christ and the Justification through His blood and the Sanctification of His Spirit too little insisted on ; whilst a feebler language is employed on these and other great doctrines of the Gospel even when they are introduced. Al- ready are some rather lotvering intimations given, not inten- tionally I am sure, but conveying the impression to the ordinary reader, concerning our Articles and Homilies. Already are appeals made to documents which were superseded by the more purely evangelical formularies of our present Book of Common Prayer, with its Articles and Homilies, at the defini- tive settlement of our reformed Church ; and a desire, not obscurely expressed, that our Reformation had retained more of the Traditionary model. " All this is but too natural. The false principle will go on ' eating as doth a canker,' if things proceed as they now do. * " The ' good confession made by Timothy" can only mean the Apostles' Creed, or some corresponding formula recited at Baptism." Sermon on Tradition, p. 16. " The ' good thing committed ' to Timothy was ' the treasure of Apostolical doctrines and Church rules,' ' the perfect Apostolical body of government, doctrine, and sacramental grace.' " pp. 20, 42. " ' This is a faithful saying,' is an expression indicating a Christian pro- verb." p. 14. " Ancient Catholic tradition sets the Church's seal, as it were, upon one among many possible expositions, as that Melchisedec's feast is a type of the blessed Eucharist." p. 36. " The ' Holy Ghost dwelling in us' ' can only be Apostolical or episcopal grace,' the treasure of sound doctrine was to be guarded by the grace of the Apostolical succession.'' pp. 42, 43. " ' It is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth,' or ' the truth,' that which causes the reality and substance of the Sacraments, and hinders them from being mere signs or shadows." p. 94. ( " ' The oblation and consecration of the Eucharist.' ' Its virtue as a com- memorative sacrifice.' Its being ' a real, life-giving miracle,' including a ' mystical, spiritual, true and positive presence of Christ's blessed body and blood,' and being of a ' thoroughly mysterious nature both in Scripture and Tradition.'" p. 47. BISHOP OF CHESTER. 109 The inspired Word of God will be imperceptibly neglected ; and the Traditions of men will take its place. The Church will supersede the Bible. The Sacraments will hide the glory of Christ. Self-righteousness will conceal the righteousness of God. Traditions and Fathers will occupy the first place, as we see in the sermons of the chief Roman Catholic authors of every age, and Christ come next or not at all ; and a lowered tone of practical religion will come in. " The whole system, indeed, goes to generate, as I cannot but think, an inadequate, and superficial, and superstitious reli- gion. The mere admissions of the inspiration and paramount authority of Holy Scripture will soon become a dead letter ; due humiliation before God, under a sense of the unutterable evil of sin, will be less and less understood ; a conviction of the need of the meritorious Righteousness of the incarnate Saviour, as the alone ground of Justification, will be only faintly incul- cated ; the operations of the Holy Ghost in creating man anew will be more and more forgotten ; the nature of those good works which are acceptable to God in Christ will be lost sight of; and 'another Gospel,' framed on the Traditions of men, will make way for an apostasy in our own Church, as in that of Rome unless, indeed, the evangelical piety, the reverence for Holy Scripture, the theological learning, and the forethought and fidelity of our Divines of dignified station and established repute at home INTERPOSE BY DISTINCT CAUTIONS TO PREVENT IT." pp. 5776. IV. DR. SUMNER, BISHOP OF CHESTER. Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of Chester." 1838. " Many subjects present themselves, towards which I might be tempted to direct your thoughts one more especially con- cerns the Church at present; because it is daily assuming a more serious and alarming aspect, and threatens a revival of the worst evils of the Romish system. 110 APPENDIX. " Under the specious pretence of deference to Antiquity, and respect for primitive models, the foundations of our Pro- testant Church are undermined by men who dwell within her walls ; and those who sit in the Reformers' seat are traducing the Reformation. " It is again becoming matter of question whether the Bible is sufficient to make men wise unto salvation; the main article of our national confession, Justification by Faith, is both openly and covertly assailed ; and the stewards of the Mysteries of God are instructed to reserve the truths which they have been ordained to dispense, and to hide under a bushel those doc- trines which the Apostles were commanded to preach to every creature." pp. 1, 2. V. DR. SHUTTLEWORTH, BISHOP OF CHICHESTER, Late Warden of New College, Oxford. 1. " Justification through Faith. The merciful character of the Gospel Covenant. The sufficiency of Scripture as a rule of Faith. Three Sermons preached before the University of Oxford.'' 1840. 2. " Not Tradition but Scripture." Third edition, 1839. " The restlessness of public feeling, which has for some time past been exercising its influence over other branches of study, has now extended itself to our theology. The doctrines of ' Justification through Faith, 1 of' the free Pardon of sin through the Gospel Covenant' and of ' the entire sufficiency of Scripture as our guide to salvation,' are no longer, as formerly, accepted by all parties within our Church as almost trite and undeniable truths. Within the last few years a strong and extensively organized effort has been made, if not openly to controvert them, at least to weaken their evidence, and practically to supersede them. " Minute and unessential points of practice have been rigidly insisted on ; inferences, either derived from Scripture by a strained exaggeration of particular texts, or purely and simply BISHOP OF CHICHESTER. Ill the product of human caprice, have been oracularly brought forward as indispensable pa r ts of faith ; and thus, whilst men's attention has been drawn away from fundamental principles, a system of theology has been set up, not of that soul-stirring and yet simple character taught by the Apostles, but blended with many of the super additions, not to say cold superstititions, of a later and far less pure period. 11 That a form of Christianity thus at once arbitrary and servile, (not now adopted for the first time, but merely the revival of obsolete and almost forgotten opinions,) is not likely to retain any lasting hold of the public mind, I most readily believe. Momentary novelty, strong excitement arising from external and incidental causes, and the plausibility which always to a certain degree accompanies theories when set off by a dis- play of discursive reading, may invest it with a short-lived popularity. But the characteristic lineaments which mark God's revealed dealings with mankind, stand out in the sacred writings too strongly prominent to be thus easily obscured. With a little time and patience, truth will re-assert her rights. The recurrence from a trifling and fanciful theology, such as that now described, to the contemplation of the great scheme of God's reconciliation with man as revealed to us in the Gospel, is like a transition from the study of some puny efforts of art, to that of the great works of the Creator as displayed in the awful magnificence of nature. ' As one who long in populous city pent, Forth issuing on a summer morn to breathe, .... from each thing met conceives delight ;' so the mind, intensely conscious of its spiritual wants, is not likely to be detained long by the artificial pageantry of human inventions from throwing itself in humble but satisfied confi- dence at the foot of the Saviour's Cross. " Confident, however, as I am that the system now at- tempted to be set up in this country is not likely to be of long duration, still it is not without feelings of anxiety that I have remarked the momentary prevalence which it has obtained during the last few years, more especially among the younger members of our clergy. " Under such circumstances it would seem to be incumbent 112 APPENDIX. upon every sincere friend to the principles of the Protestant Re- formation and (as I conceive them to be) of evangelical truth, openly to declare their dissent from doctrines which, if they are doing nothing more, are at least disarming those principles of their poignancy and efficacy!' Three Sermons, &c. Advt. pp. 5 9. " We have recently been told by the writers of a peculiar school of divinity in this country, against the tendency ofivhose doctrines I feel it my duty to protest, however I may be disposed to respect their individual characters, that Sanctification is either in itself identical with Justification, or precedes it in the order of time, as cause is prior to effect. " Not only does this statement appear to me directly contrary to the whole tenour of the New Testament, but / cannot imagine in what way its supporters consider it as compatible with the doctrines of our own Church, as comprised in its 12th and 13th Articles." Sermon i. p. 31, note. " We have been told in a recent publication that ' Justifi- cation comes through the Sacraments ; is received by Faith,' &c. If the meaning of this expression is merely, that ' by our parti- cipation in the Sacraments we manifest our faith in our Lord's Atonement, and through that Faith are Justified,' then the only objection which I would make to it is, that it is less clearly worded than it need have been, had it approached more nearly to the usual phraseology of Scripture. " If, however, the intention of the writer be to assert that the Sacraments are ultimately, and l perse t ' the instrument and cause of our Justification, then I have no hesitation in saying that such an assertion is directly contrary to the express declaration of St. Paul." Sermon i. p. 40, note. " The object of the author in publishing the first edition of the following short Tract a twelvemonth ago, was that of re- cording his personal protest against a system of doctrines recently attempted to be revived after the lapse of more than a century, and which have ever appeared to him to be founded upon mistaken views of the general tenour and character of Scrip- tural " The question involved in the discussion is, in fact, no less than that of the first foundation upon which all our hopes of salvation are to be built : Whether we are to consider works as leading to justification, or justification as necessarily leading to BISHOP OF CHICHESTER. 113 good works : whether holiness is the efficient cause of faith, or faith that of holiness. The first Reformers of our Church be- lieved and taught the latter doctrine; and however (whether induced by feelings of ascetic devotion, or relying upon pre- sumed intellectual strength and extensive learning) men may be tempted for the moment to deviate from the ancient and familiar paths, to this conclusion will the rallying good sense and spiritual aspirations of mankind, in their sober and unpre- judiced moments, most assuredly return." Not Tradition but Scripture, Adv. to 3rd edit. pp. 7, 9, 10. TRADITION " And yet such is the rival which we are earnestly called upon at this moment, and by influential members of our own Church, to set up as of equal and concurrent authority with Holy Writ ! A rival, asserted by Mr. Keble, to be ' parallel to Scrip- ture, not derived from it ; and consequently fixing the inter- pretation of disputed texts, not simply by the judgment of the Church, but by the authority of that Holy Spirit which inspired the oral teaching itself, of which such Tradition is the record.' And for the recovery of this ' good deposit," we are told by the same author, that 'present opportunities of doing good ; external quietness ; peace and order ; a good understanding with the temporal and civil power ; the love and co-operation of those committed to our cliarge ; these and all other pastoral conso- lations must be given up, though it be with a heavy heart, rather than we should yield one jot or tittle of ' the faith once delivered to the saints.' A high and portentous price this, surely, for the forlorn hope of obtaining so very equivocal a possession ! " Most of my readers are probably well acquainted with the efforts which have been made for some time past in this Univer- sity, by means of periodical publications, and, on more than one marked occasion, by exhortations from the pulpit, to establish the opinions which I am now deprecating. With regard to the authors of these publications and discourses, I wish to speak of them, so far as I am acquainted with them personally or by com- mon report, with all the respect that they justly deserve, for their admitted learning, their talents, and the purity and holiness of their lives. But I cannot, nor do I wish, to conceal my opinion, i 114 APPENDIX. that the doctrines which they advocate, should they become popular, would, in other hands, be essentially injurious to the cause of pure Protestantism, and with it to sound Christianity, in this country. In this case the respectability of the advocates must not make us blind to the danger likely to ensue from the principles which they adopt." Not Tradition but Scripture, pp. 8385. " If these opinions are really such as I now describe them, (and it is far from my wish to overrate or misrepresent them,) then I own / see not how it is possible to adopt them without suffering a diminished respect for the sacred writings ; and, in- stead of looking to an infallible and tangible revelation of God's will, finding ourselves left to hunt after truth among the shifting caprices and inventions of human speculation ; and surely we may well ask, Can this really be so ? Is it, can it be, essential to a sound Faith, that we should surrender the verdict of our own deliberate judgment in the attempt to understand the plain text of Scripture, merely because a certain number of unin- spired human beings, like ourselves, may have thought other- wise ? Men not removed, indeed, so far as ourselves from the apostolic age in point of time, but perhaps more separated from it than even we ourselves are at the present day, by the interrupted intercourse of man with man which prevailed at that period, by the scanty circulation of their literature, and their ignorance of the necessary canons of sound criticism.'' Not Tradition but Scripture, pp. 88, 89. VI. DR. PHILLPOTTS, BISHOP OF EXETER. " Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of Exeter." 1839. TRADITION. < On this very subject of Tradition, while I freely acquit them of all approach to heresy, I yet lament to see them give to it 50 definite and so high a place in the great scheme of God's revelation of His will for the recovery of lost mankind. BISHOP OF EXETER. 115 " I lament to hear them speak of adherence to ' the Bible, and nothing but the Bible? as ' an unthankful rejection of another great gift, equally from God, such as no true Anglican can tolerate.' " I lament to see them state as ' the sounder view, that the Bible is the record of necessary truth, or of matters of Faith, and the Church Catholic's Tradition is' not a most venerable witness, or most useful assistant in interpreting it, but ' THE interpreter of it.' " POPERY. " While I reject the charge of Popery, applied to them, as being as absurd as it is uncharitable, I yet cannot but lament that they sometimes deal with some of the worst corruptions of Rome, in terms not indicating so deep a sense of their perni- cious tendency, as yet I doubt not that they feel. " For instance : defending themselves against the charge of leaning towards Popery, they confidently affirm, that ' in the seventeenth century the theology of the body of the English Church was substantially the same as theirs? (Tracts for the Times, No. 38, p. 11 ;) and in proof of this, they profess, in stating the errors of Rome, to ' follow closely the order observed by Bishop Hall in his treatise on ' the Old Religion,' whose Protestantism, they add, ' is unquestionable,' and is claimed, therefore, as a voucher for their own. But, looking to particulars, I lament to see them ' following' indeed ' the order of Bishop Hall,' but widely de- parting from his truly Protestant sentiments, on more than one important article." THE WORSHIP OF IMAGES. " Of ' the worship of images? (for so that great divine, Bishop Hall, justly designates what they more delicately call 1 the honour paid to images,') they say only that it is ' dangerous in case of the uneducated that is, of the great part of Christians.' But Bishop Hall treats it, as not merely ' dangerous' to some, but as sinful in all ; as ' against Scripture ;' ' the Book of God is full of his indignation against this practice ;' and ' against reason.'" Bishop Hall's Works, 8vo, vol. 9, p. 340. THE INVOCATION OF SAINTS. " These writers say, that it ' is a dangerous practice, as tend- ing to give, often actually giving, to creatures the honour and 12 116 APPENDIX. reliance due to the Creator alone.' (Tracts, No. 38, p. 12.) But how does the good Bishop whom they profess to follow, speak on this same point ? ' These foul superstitions,' says he, ' are not more heinous than new, and such as wherein we have justly abhorred to take part with the practisers of them.'" Bishop Hall's Works, 8vo, vol. 9, p. 365. TRANS CBSTANTIATION. " I lament to read their advice to those who are contending for the truth against Romanists, that ' the controversy about Transubstantiation be kept in the back ground, because it cannot well be discussed in words at all without the sacrifice of 'godly fear.' (Tracts, No. 71, p. 9.) As if that tenet were not the abundant source of enormous practical evils which the faithful advocate of the truth is bound to expose ; in particular, of the extravagant exaltation of the Romish priesthood, which seems to have been its primary object and still worse, of that which is its legitimate and necessary consequence, the adoration of the sacramental bread and wine, which our Church denounces as ' Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians.' " PRAYER FOE THE DEAD. " I lament, too, the encouragement given by the same writers to the dangerous practice of prayer for the dead. " Nor do I assent to their opinion, that ' our Church does not discourage prayer for the dead " I cannot easily reconcile it with Christian discretion, for any member of the Church to speak with so much of favour of a practice which was thus deliberately, and for such grave reasons, repudiated by the Church herself." PURGATORY. " Still less can I understand what justification can be offered for saying of the Romanist, that in ' deciding that almost all souls undergo a painful purification after death, by which infectum eluitur scelus, ant exuritur igni,' he only < follows an instinct of human nature' Surely, if this be true, the Romanist is right in his decision ; for an instinct of our nature could have come only from the Divine Author of that nature it must be indeed the voice of God within us.' " BISHOP OF EXETER. 117 RELIGIOUS COMMEMORATION OF THE DKAD. " I c mnot but deplore the rashness which has prompted them to recommend to private Christians the dedication of particular days to the religious commemoration of deceased men and even to furnish a special service in honour of Bishop Ken, formed apparently on the model of an office in the breviary of a Romish saint To what must such a practice be expected to lead ? The history of the Church of Rome has told us ; and the fathers of our Reformation, in compiling the Liturgy, have marked their sense of the danger, by rejecting every portion of the Breviary which bears on such a practice, even while they adopted all that was really sound and edifying in it. Yet these writers scruple not to recommend this very practice, thus delibe- rately rejected by those wise and holy men, and (strange to say) recommend it as only ' completing what our Reformers have begun, 1 as ' a means of carrying out in private, the principle and spirit of those inestimable forms of devotion, which are contained in our authorized Prayer Book.' " Tracts, No. 75, pp. 216. CONFESSION. " I lament to see the reason for which they enumerate ' the necessity of Confession,' in their list of ' those practical griev- ances,' to which ' Christians are exposed in the Romish com- munion ;' namely, ' because without it no one can be partaker of the holy Communion."' Tract 71, p. 9. " They thus seem studiously to decline including in the same list the pretended sacrament of Penance, generally (of which Confession is but a part ;) though Penance, as taught by the Church of Rome, is the greatest, because the most soul- destroying, of all those ' grievances' we might rather say, the foulest perversion of God's saving truth, which the cunning of Satan ever put it into the heart of man to conceive .... Yet, this is not, it seem?, one of 'the subjects, which,' in the opinion of these writers, ' may be profitably brought into controversy with Romanists of the present day.' 118. APPENDIX. SIN AFTER BAPTISM. " Still more do I lament to read in one of the ' Tracts,' which, in the main, is worthy of the highest estimation, I mean ' Scriptural Views of Holy Baptism/ much of what is there said of the effects of sin after Baptism : for instance, that if, ' after having been then washed, once for all, in Christ's blood, we again sin, there is no more such complete ablution in this life.' (Tract 67, p. 63.) No restoration ' to the same state of undisturbed security, in which God had by Baptism placed us.' " Tract 67, p. 58. " These, and passages like these, however they may be ex- plained, tend to rob the Gospel of the blessed Jesus of much of that assurance of the riches of the goodness and mercy of God in Christ, which is its peculiar message, its glad tidings of great joy. ' Come unto me all that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' Our Church teaches us to apply this blessed promise to those who are ' heavy laden ' with sins committed after Baptism. " Surely, too, they tend to rob Baptism itself of its full and genuine efficacy of that which our Church expresses, when it says, that God ' hath vouchsafed to regenerate us by water and the Holy Ghost, and hath given unto us forgiveness of all our sins,' not of those only which were committed before Baptism, but also of all the sins we ever shall or may commit, on the conditions (I need not add) of that covenant into which we were then admitted, Repentance and Faith." VENIAL AND MORTAL SIN. " Nor may we forget the tendency of such language to encourage the pernicious and perilous habit of distinguishing betioeen such sins as may destroy our state of grace, and such as we may think still leave that state secure. Let it never be absent from our minds, that every wilful sin is deadly ; and let us beware of hardening our own hearts, and corrupting the hearts of our brethren, by whispering to ourselves, or them, which sin is more or less deadly than others. That which we deem the least will be deadly enough, if unrepented, to work our perdition; those which we deem the most deadly will, if repented, have been thoroughly washed away in the blood of our Redeemer." BISHOP OF LINCOLN. 119 RESERVE IN PREACHING THE ATONEMENT. " I lament, and more than lament, the tendency at least, if not the direct import, of some of their views ' on reserve in com- municating religious knowledge / especially their venturing to recommend to us to keep back, from any who are baptized, the explicit and full declaration of the doctrine of the Atonement." Tract 80, p. 74. " I know not how such reserve can be made consistent, not only with the general duty of the Christian minister, to be able, at all times, to say with St. Paul, that he has ' not shunned to declare all the counsel of God ;' but also with the special and distinct requirement of our own Church, that every child be taught the catechism ; for I need not remind you that, in the catechism, this great article of our faith holds a most promi- nent place ; that it is there taught, both by plain implication, in saying that God the Son hath redeemed us ; again, in the inward grace of each Sacrament, and more explicitly and ex- pressly in the reason ' why the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was ordained' namely, 'for the continual remembrance of the sacrifice of the death of Christ, and of the benefits which we receive thereby.' How is the meaning of these passages to be taught, without also teaching the doctrine of the Atonement ?" Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of Exeter, pp. 77 84. VII. DR. KAYE, BISHOP OF LINCOLN. Charge to the Clergy of the Diocese of Lincoln." 1840. PREACHING. " Let me, before I quit the subject of Preaching, guard against a possible misinterpretation of my meaning ; let no one infer, from what I have said, that I am disposed to undervalue its importance. It has been in all ages of the Church, and 120 APPENDIX. ever will be, the blessed instrument both of turning the sinner from the evil of his way, and of promoting the growth of the confirmed Christian in holiness. I mean only to offer a caution against an error into which many, I fear, in the present day, are liable to fall the error of supposing that religion consists chiefly in the hearing of sermons." Page 16. TRADITION. '* There is still another subject to which I must draw your attention before I bring this address to a close. Fifteen years ago, I ventured to express the opinion that the time was not far distant, when the whole controversy between the Roman and Anglican Churches would be revived, and every point which had formerly been made a matter of dispute, would again be discussed. " The event has proved that I was not mistaken in my antici- pation ; and I am in consequence induced to offer some brief remarks upon one of the most important of the controverted points the Rule of Faith, in which is involved the question of the authority of Tradition. " You are, perhaps, aware that the expression * Regula Fidei,' or its equivalent, 6 KO.VWV rjjje TTJOTCWCJ Karwv ri/c aXijOeme, fre- quently occurs in the writings of the early Fathers. It is, therefore, important to ascertain what meaning they attached to it. " Irenaeus, who wrote in the second century in confutation of the Gnostic heresies, then prevalent, informs us that when the heretics were confuted out of Scripture, they appealed to oral Tradition. He proceeds, therefore, to inquire where the true apostolic doctrine is to be sought. He answers, in those Churches which were founded by the Apostles ; ' for it is not,' he says, ' to be supposed that they would keep back from those whom they appointed to be their successors in presiding over and feeding the flock of Christ, any portion of the knowledge necessary to qualify them to become the instructors of others. This knowledge they left as a precious deposit in the churches which they founded ; so that, if they had committed nothing to writing, still the true doctrine would have been pre- served traditionally in those churches, as it actually is among BISHOP OF LINCOLN. 121 the barbarous nations which have been converted to Chris- tianity, and do not possess the Scriptures. " Here, then, Irenaeus recognised the existence of an un- written Tradition, from which Christians might collect all that it was necessary for them to know and to believe unto salva- tion. But what was this tradition?* It was the Creed, the Ilegula Fidei, that summary of religious truth, in which every catechumen was required to profess his belief before he was admitted to Baptism ; and of which all the articles, as they are enumerated by Irenaeus, are expressly contained in Scripture. " In distinguishing, therefore, the Tradition of the Apostolic Churches from Scripture, far from meaning to convey the notion that there was any difference between them, he meant to affirm that they were in perfect agreement. ' We have arrived,' he says, ' at the knowledge of the dispensation of our salvation through no other channel than that through which the Gospel has come down to us. The Apostles first preached the Gospel, and then, by the will of God, delivered it to us in the Scriptures, that it might be in all future ages the ground and pillar of our faith.t What the Apostles taught orally and what they committed to writing, the unwritten and ivritten Tra- dition, was one and the same ; and when once the Gospel Jiad been committed to writing, the appeal to oral Tradition was superseded." Pages 85 39. " Supposing, however, the appeal to be made, where are we to look for the uniform Tradition of the Church ? In the writings of the Fathers ? Who are the Fathers ? A series of writers extending through ten centuries, of whom the more recent cannot be regarded as independent witnesses to the faith of the primitive Church, but merely as repeating what had been declared to be such by those who preceded them. " To the authority, then, of the early Fathers alone, can weight in this question be attached ; and when they, living as * OuTta i KCLI 6 TOV Kavova r/jc dXtjOfiag dicXivrj iv iavrqi Kari-^tav ov dia TOV /SaTrrirr/taroc flXijQt. K. r. i. Lib. i. o. 1, sub fin. He then, in c. 2, gives this Rule of Faith, agreeing in substance witli the Apostles' Creed. f " Non enim per alios dispositionem salutis nostraj cognovimus, quam per eos per quos evangelium pcrvenit ad nos ; quod quidem tune praeconiaverunt, poslea vero per Dei voluntatem in Scripturis nobis tradiderunt, fundamentum et columnam fidei nostrac futurum." Lib. iii. 122 APPENDIX. they did near to the apostolic times, tell us what was the Rule of Faith then taught, and what were the sacred books then read in the Church, we receive their testimony as that of witnesses in whose means of information, and in whose in- tegrity, we have perfect confidence. But when they put forth their own arguments in defence of the Rule of Faith, or their own interpretations of Scripture, we no longer regard them as wit- nesses,* but as reasoners ; and we pay no greater deference to their authority than to that of other good and pious, but fallible men. In the exercise of the right of private judgment, we are bound to consult every source of information from which we are likely to obtain the means of arriving at a just conclnsion ; and an interpreter of the Bible would be guilty of great pre- sumption, if he were to disregard, or to reject without examin- ation, the opinions of the Fathers ; but he is not bound im- plicitly to subscribe to them, even when he finds a very general agreement in any one interpretation. The only authoritative Tradition is that of which Irenceus speaks, the doctrine delivered by the Apostles to the Churches which they founded, and after- wards consigned by them to writing in the volume of the New Testament, in order that it might be in all future ages the ground and pillar of the truth. " The Church of England, therefore, almost speaks the language of Irenaeus, when she declares that Holy Scripture contains all things necessary to salvation ; and proposes it as the test by which the truth of every doctrine is to be tried ; requiring her members to give their assent to the three Creeds, not because they were sanctioned by the decrees of Councils, not in obedience to any infallible authority residing in herself, but because they can be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Writ. She calls not the Scriptures the Rule of Faith. The framers of her articles knew that in the Primitive Church, this title was applied to the Creed ; but she says that no article is to be received as a part of that Rule which is not read in, or cannot be proved by, Scripture." Pages 41 43. * " Non de testimonio eorum, sed vero de judicio est qua>stio, in qua nullum habent a sua vetustate presidium. '' Dodwelli Diss. Cyprianicae, iv. sect. 13. BISHOP OF OHIO. 123 VIII. DR. M'lLVAINE, BISHOP OF OHIO.* Charge to the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of Ohio." Reprinted from the American edition. London, 1840. EXPLICIT PREACHING OF THE ATONEMENT. " While such eminent importance is attached to the preaching of the Gospel so that it is written that ' faith cometh by hearing,' there is one distinguishing feature of the preaching of the Apostles, on the contimial and prominent exhibition of which they rested all their hope of advancing the cause of their Master. Various as were the topics on which they spake, and skilful as they were to accommodate their instructions to the different circumstances and characters of their hearers, there was one great subject in which all hearers were taught to behold the beginning and the ending of religion, the whole consolation of a sinful world ; the whole business, strength, and glory, of a Christian minister. They made it their invariable principle to know nothing, to glory in nothing, among men, but ' Jesus Christ, and Him crucified,'' so that ' everywhere, in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.' " Sitting at the feet of their inspiration, to learn by what teaching the minister of the Gospel in these days may hope to be made instrumental ' in bringing many sons unto glory,' we obtain this most important lesson that to preach * Christ crucified* is to preach the Gospel ; that nothing can be done to any purpose for the salvation of sinners, but so far as this one subject is exhibited in simplicity ; that while all learning, and eloquence, and human wisdom, without this can do nothing, all that is feeble and foolish among the wise men of the world, if it have but this, may be mighty through God to confound * An examination of the doctrines contained in the " Tracts for the Times,' by the Bishop of Ohio, is now in the press. 124 APPENDIX. the wise, and win souls to Christ; consequently that all our talents and prayers should be drawn this way, and concen- trated upon this very thing of learning, through the en- lightening of the Holy Ghost, the more simply, spiritually, and completely ' to teach and preach Jesus Christ.' " The Gospel is a system of truth and duty : its parts all har- monious and mutually relevant and dependent. It has a centre, luminous, glorious, all-controlling, to which all the parts around refer for the light in which they are revealed, and the harmony of their very bearing. You can neither illustrate this system till you have shewn its central power and light, nor fully describe its centre, without exhibiting the various relations and dependencies of its surrounding system. The centre is Christ. All lines meet in Him; all light and life come from Him ; all truth is dark till He is risen upon the scene. Lesser lights are only to rule the night ; it is for the sun to rule the day. " Now what is the best mode of exhibiting this wonderful arrangement of grace, so that he who runs may read ? Where will you begin ? At the outskirts of the system, taking up first its remoter elements and reasoning on from one relation to another till you get to Christ? To do this clearly you must give it the time of many discourses. In some circumstances, and after a more direct method has been well employed, it may be well. But supposing a people ignorant, in a great measure, of the first principles of the Gospel, how can you keep them waiting so long in the dark ; they have come to see the King ; and how- ever important may seem to you their tardy introduction, every thing seems to them impertinent till they have been admitted to His presence. You find your hearer as a benighted traveller, afraid to continue his way lest there be a precipice at his feet. You may present him with a chart of his road, but how will it help him as long as he cannot see ? He waits the sunrise. One ray from the sun will serve him better than a thousand maps to be read in the dark ; then, but not till then, will a chart of the country be important. " Astronomers, in teaching the doctrine of the solar system, begin with the sun. They proceed directly to tell what it is, and what it does. This is the first thing to be understood ; nothing in the science can be explained till this is explained. " Let the teachers of the Gospel system imitate the example. BISHOP OF OHIO. 125 So I perceive the Apostles began. In their preaching I behold no gradual, ceremonious approach from a great distance, like the parallels of a siege, to the one object of their ministry. There was one Personage whom it was the immediate business of their Apostleship to introduce to sinners ' Jesus of Nazareth, the only begotten Son of God, full of grace and truth.' There was one capital event in His history which it was their immediate business to make known to every creature Jesus crucified as a propitiation for the sin of the whole ivorld. To these their ministry immediately leaped. Here they always broke ground first, and set up their tower of attack. Just at the point, where their enemies, in malignant triumph, supposed the Gospel had died, with the Cross of its entombed Founder for its only memorial, His disciples in the triumph of Faith, and lifting up that Cross for a banner, made their beginning. Just that which laid the stumbling-block to the Jew and seemed such foolishness to the Greek, they adopted as the head and front of their preaching ; advancing boldly upon both Jew and Greek, like David with his single stone against the contemptuous giant of Gath; glorying in nothing, determined to use nothing, 'save Jesus Christ and Him crucified' As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so did they at once lift up Christ upon the Cross, as an ensign to the people. They could not spare time to be rooting out prejudices, and gradually preparing the minds of the unbelieving Jews and Gentiles for the great subject of Christ's Atonement. They knew no way of removing darkness so sure as that of introducing the Sun ; no way of subduing the enmity of the heart to the Gospel so short as that of making men acquainted with the very essence of the Gospel. There was a declaration of the Master which an Apostle could not misunderstand '/, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.' In this they read the secret of their success. Lifted up on the Cross by His enemies He had been already ; lifted up in the sight of all the people He was now to be by the ministry of the Word." Pages 4 12. 126 APPENDIX. IX. DR. PEARSON, DEAN OF SALISBURY. " Charge to the Clergy of the Deanery of Sarum. " 1839. " I cannot conclude this address without adverting to one point of an interior and momentous nature, to which, as it in- volves matter of controversial discussion and division, a strong and imperative sense of duty alone induces me to refer ; and in noticing which, I sincerely desire to preserve that spirit of fairness and candour, and that regard to Christian union and brotherly love, which ought to characterize the expression of all difference of sentiment among members of the same Church. I allude to the general tenour of the opinions and sentiments contained in the ' Tracts for the Times,* and in various publications to which those writings have given birth. " In common with many who have animadverted upon the leading doctrines of the Tracts in question, I give to their learned and accomplished authors the fullest credit for upright- ness and sincerity of intention, for deep conviction of the ne- cessity and importance of their design, and for zeal and ability in carrying it into execution. " It must also be acknowledged, that there may have been in some members, and even writers, of our Church a departure from sound and genuine Church principles, or at least, a lax and indifferent regard to them, which occasionally led not only to the neglect of Church order, but to the depreciation or omission of some portion of Catholic doctrine. These were, however, for the most part, the errors of by-gone days, and of men long since departed. Generally speaking, whatever may have been, in these respects, the -faults or the deficiencies of the last generation, they are not those of the present. It is notorious, that those who were most obnoxious to the charge in question have been, of late years, gradually correcting their mistakes, and becoming less liable to it. It is on all hands ac- knowledged that irregularity has been very generally succeeded DEAN PEARSON. 127 by a dutiful regard to Church order ; that enthusiasm has almost universally yielded to sobriety of sentiment and con- duct ; and that low Church tendencies have been manifestly rising to a much higher elevation of Church principles and Church practice, to the just and legitimate standard of our apostolic and reformed communion. Within the Church this is undeniably the case; and though her enemies and opponents, of various classes, have assailed her with united bitterness and violence, it is not to them that the views and arguments of the writers to whom I refer are primarily addressed ; but to ourselves and our brethren within our own episcopal pale. " Now, admitting that amongst ourselves, during the period immediately preceding the present, when strenuous efforts were making to inculcate and maintain the distinguishing doctrines of the Gospel, which had been confessedly for a time lost sight of, some important Church principles and practices had been, com- paratively, undervalued and neglected, the manner in which it has been attempted to revive, assert, and diffuse them, has only afforded another proof of the tendency in human nature to oppose and correct one class of errors, by running into and embracing another ; and it is precisely this disposition to extreme and exclusive statements which has produced the class of writings to which I with so much reluctance refer. 11 You will, doubtless, expect, my reverend brethren, that I should more particularly specify and define the sentiments and opinions to which I have thus generally objected. " There is, I need scarcely observe, much of Scriptural and Catholic truth in the ' Tracts for the Times,' and other kindred publications, and much useful instruction and admonition, in which I cordially acquiesce. But after much, and, I trust, im- partial, examination, I feel bound to state, that, on the subject of Tradition, either as forming, as it is asserted, together with Holy Scripture, the joint Rule of Faith, or as being its only just and legitimate interpreter ; on the doctrine of the Sacra- ments, as almost the exclusive and necessarily efficient channels and means of Grace ; on the Forgiveness of sin after Baptism; on the grand article of Justification by Faith ; on Reserve in the communication of Divine Truth; on some inferences drawn from the Constitution of the Church; and on the due estimation of ecclesiastical Rites and Observances, the authors in 128 APPENDIX. question appear to me to hold tenets and opinions opposed to Holy Scripture, and to the genius of Christianity, and at variance with the sound and authoritative principles of the reformed Church of England. " The origin and source of what I consider to be the erro- neous views alluded to, is an undue and excessive reverence for Catholic antiquity. Upon this fundamental and interesting point, I am anxious that my sentiments should be distinctly understood. No one can be more inclined than myself, both by natural disposition and taste, and by the grateful recollection of early and of later studies, to admire the excellences, and to revere the character and the legitimate authority, of the ancient Fathers of the Church. I reverence their devout and spiritual minds, their deadness to the world, their pastoral and charitable labours, their constancy amidst persecution, their faithfulness, in some instances, even unto death. In all these divine and holy qualities they are deserving of high admiration) and worthy to be had in everlasting remembrance. " But truth compels me to add, that their piety was too often alloyed by superstition, and that, with some exceptions, their learning was neither accurate nor extensive that their reason- ings were often weak and inconclusive, their interpretations of Scripture fanciful and unsatisfactory, and their judgments incorrect and erroneous ; and, consequently, tJiat it is vain to look up to them as certain guides in theology, or as judicious and safe expounders of Holy Writ. " As witnesses, together with the ancient creeds and con- fessions of the Church, to the principal facts of the Gospel, and to the outline of doctrine comprised in the great ' mystery of godliness,' to the inspired Canon of sacred Scripture, to the use of prescribed Liturgies, to the threefold order of the Christian Priesthood, to the episcopal form of Ecclesiastical Government, and, generally, to the nature, offices, and authority of the Church, the testimony of the primitive Fathers continued in unbroken succession from the apostolic times, and uniform and harmonious, is invaluable and conclusive against the errors of all, who, whether in ancient or in modern times, had separated from the great body of the Catholic Church. " I am persuaded, also, that the celebrated challenge of Bishop Jewell with respect to the absence of any plain and un- DEAN PEARSON. 129 equivocal evidence in favour of the peculiar errors and ob- servances of the Church of Rome, in the ecclesiastical writers of the first six centuries, and to their substantial agreement and consent with the doctrines and discipline of the Church of England, may be fully and successfully maintained. " But it is one thing thus confidently and thankfully to appeal to the support of Christian antiquity for the general identity of our principles and our practices with the primitive Church, and quite another to elevate either the decisions of Councils, or the opinions of Fathers, into a standard of authority almost equal to, or divinely interpretative of, Scriptural doctrines or Apostolic ordinances. " It was this which, amidst the darkening and downward pro- gress of the middle ages, gradually and imperceptibly led to the errors and corruptions of the Romish Church. Nor must it be concealed, that with the growing disuse of the devout study of the Holy Scriptures, and the nearly exclusive regard to human writings, the incautious, ambiguous, figurative, and illustrative expressions which abound in the works of the Christian Fathers, little versed, in general, in critical accuracy, and, except when contending with Pagan or heretical opponents, chiefly intent on devotional or pastoral instruction, were easily diverted from their original and sounder meaning, and wrested to the counte- nance and support of the grossest errors and abuses both of the Eastern and Western churches to the undue exaltation of Apostolic Tradition, falsely so called to Monasticism, and the compulsory celibacy of the Clergy to the efficacy of the Sacraments ex opere operato to Transubstantiation, and the Sacrifice of the Mass to Justification by Works, or by infused Grace to the doctrine of Penance and Purgatory to uncom- nianded and excessive austerities to the Adoration of Saints and Angels, and the Worship of Images, and to the tyranny and usurped dominion of the See of Rome. " I cannot bring myself to apprehend much danger, at this advanced period of the world, and in this enlightened and re- formed country, of the extensive prevalence and the revived supremacy of that corrupt church ; except as the result of the righteous judgments, and the inscrutable counsels of the Most High. But this I cannot avoid saying : that, while I fully and frankly acquit the pious and learned writers to whom these 130 APPENDIX. remarks are intended to apply, of any the remotest intention to bring us back to the wretched and degrading bondage of that unscriptural communion, there is the greatest danger of accredit- ing its pretensions and errors, by exhibiting and advocating sen- timents and practices, drawn, indeed, from the writings of Christian antiquity, but in which the germes and first principles of some of those corruptions may not obscurely be traced; and, what is more, of superseding the supreme and sole authority, and the infinite superiority and incomparable excellence of the in- spired volume ; and of ' teaching' and receiving ' for doctrines the commandments of men;' of forgetting, denying, or explain- ing away the distinguishing principles of the English Reforma- tion ; and above all, of mistaking and counteracting the very nature and design of the Gospel, as a dispensation not of form and shadow, but of substance and of power not of works, ex- cept as the fruits of faith, but of grace not of the letter, but of the Spirit not of slavish terror, but of filial confidence and freedom not ' of meat and drink, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.' " There is, I need scarcely say, nothing new in the views which I am opposing ; nor is there, indeed, anything which its supporters would more indignantly repudiate than the imputa- tion of novelty. It is, in fact, only the revival of a system often refuted, derived essentially from Romanism, and consistent with its intolerant and exclusive principles, but abhorrent from those of genuine Christianity, and of our Reformed Church ; which, however graced and illustrated, as it has been, by some great and venerable names, once contributed to deprive the Church of its national influence and of its temporal privileges, and which, unchecked and predominant, would too surely lead to the same un- happy result ; which, though now again arrayed in the attrac- tive and imposing form of primitive Christianity, would ere long degenerate into mere ritual and superstitious observance, and cold and barren orthodoxy ; and once ntore call forth the spirit of irregular and enthusiastic zeal, to restore amongst us the neglected truth, and the decaying but vital energy of the Gospel. " Deeply, however, as I regret the prevalence of opinions, the errors and dangers of which I so solemnly deprecate, ' 1 hope better things,' even things which, under the superintending guidance and control of its exalted Head, will tend to the purity DEAN PEARSON. 131 and increasing union, strength, and influence of the Church, 'though I thus speak.' I am especially anxious that those of the same ' household of faith,' however differing, partly, I doubt not, from an imperfect apprehension of each other's sentiments, and the unavoidable ambiguities of language, should cultivate towards one another the most ' fervent charity,' cherish feelings not of distance and distrust, but of mutual confidence and re- gard, and endeavour, if possible, to think and ' to speak the same things ;' but, at all events, ' to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace ;' to avoid 'doubtful disputations as tend- ing to alienation and discord, and to direct our most strenuous efforts to the maintenance and defence of those grand and master-truths which lie upon the very surface of Holy Writ, and in which we all substantially agree as necessary to salvation.' " To what, then, my reverend brethren, do these observations and strictures principally tend ? To guard you, to whom I do not, though invested with ancient and extensive authority, affect to speak ex cathedra, but to some of you as my equals in age, to the greater number as an elder brother, against being drawn aside by plausible and attractive, but unsound and un- scriplural theories, ' from the simplicity which is in Christ,' to entreat you, in all your studies, ministrations, and judgments, to refer, not to the traditions or opinions of men, however worthy of reverence and regard, but to the inspired Word of God, as tlie sole and exclusive rule of Faith and criterion of practice, interpreted with the aid of all the learning, ancient and modern, of which you may be masters, according to the wise, and mo- derate, and truly Catholic decisions of the Church of which we are members and ministers, as contained in her authorized documents and formularies never to forget, that our ministry is, by way of eminence, ' the ministry of reconciliation' 1 to preach boldly, after the example of the great Apostle to the Gentiles, ' Salvation by Grace, through Faith' in a crucified and risen Saviour, the only satisfactory evidence of which is, a new, a devout, and a holy life to announce the promise of forgive- ness to all, who, at any time, and under any pressure either of guilt or terror, ' ivith hearty repentance and true faith' turn unto God to teach, with the blessed Apostle St. John, that it is at once the duty and the happiness of the Christian ' not to sin ;' but that ' if fin)/ man sin. ice have an advocate with the Father, K 2 132 APPENDIX. Jesus Christ the righteous 1 to withhold in our ministrations * nothing that is profitable,' but to 'declare the whole counsel of God' to insist upon the right reception of the Sacraments, as essential to their efficacy and, in opposition to the extravagant and exclusive pretensions of the Church of Rome, to adhere to the milder, more tolerant, and more scriptural principles of our own Apostolic Church, of her wise and holy Reformers, and of her most learned and able defender, the venerable and judicious Hooker, upon all that concerns the great subject of ecclesias- tical Polity. " These, as you will readily perceive, are but hints and sug- gestions, which I must leave to be developed and applied by your own private meditations and judgments. They are offered as the result of much serious deliberation, and of no slight expe- rience in the school of Christ, with earnest prayer to Him who ' maketh men to be of one mind in an house,' that he would ' shew to them that be in error,' whoever they may be, ' the light of His truth, that they may return into the way of godli- ness,' and that 'all they who do confess His holy name, may agree in the truth of His holy Word, and live in unity and godly love ;' that ' God who did once teach the hearts of His faithful people by sending to them the light of His Holy Spirit, would grant unto us, by the same Spirit, to have a right judgment in all things,' and that, 'proving all things, we may hold fast that which is good.'" Pages 25 36. X. ARCHDEACON BROWNE. 1. " Strictures on some parts of ' The Oxford Tracts.' A Charge de- livered to the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Ely, 1838.*' Pub- lished at the request of the Clergy. 2. '' Strictures on some parts of The Oxford Tract System, especially as it is developed in the 80th and 83rd Tracts. A Charge delivered to the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Ely, 1840." Published at the request of the Clergy. " Such, my reverend brethren, are some of the baneful tenets (baneful, at least, as they appear to me) which are disseminated ARCHDEACON BROWNE. 133 in the Oxford Tracts. These Tracts, by a strange misnomer, are designated ' Tracts for the Times.' Can, however, those publications be regarded as adapted to the exigencies of the times, which, when our combined and concentrated energies are wanted to repel our common foes, are calculated to sow the seeds of discord among ourselves, by reviving former controversies and renewing the discussion of questions which may give rise to interminable strife ? While, Popery, by the removal of those disabilities under which its adherents formerly laboured by the encouragement which it has met with in high places and by other adventitious circumstances, has regained an in- fluence in this country which it has never possessed since the work of the Reformation was consolidated in the reign of Queen Elizabeth can it be seasonable to propagate opinions ivhich have a direct tendency to obliterate that broad and well- defined line of demarcation which has been traced out by our Reformers between the doctrines of the Church of England and those of the Church of Rome ? Can it be seasonable to advance anything in disparagement of that great and glorious work which they achieved with so much labour, and which some of them sealed with their blood ? Or, lastly, when Dissenters and Infidels have entered into a triple league with the abettors of Popery, each in pursuit of their own sinister ends, and each aiming at the subversion of our Established Church, can it be seasonable to exercise our charity towards the corrupt and apos- tate Church of Rome, in preference to our Sister Establishment of the Church of Scotland, which, though she differs from us in some points of discipline, harmonizes with us in the great essentials of Christianity ?* " But while I can easily anticipate your answer to these questions, and while I would most earnestly deprecate the in- troduction into our University of many of the opinions promul- gated in the Oxford Tracts, allow me to caution you against that reaction to which the human mind is so prone. Let me * " There probably has never been a more learned, strenuous, and efficient assertor of the claims of Episcopacy than Bishop Hall j yet even he does not scruple to designate those Reformed Churches abroad, which had adopted the Presbyterian discipline, as Sister Churches : ' We love and honour those Sister Churches as the dear Spouse of Christ.' Bishop Hall's Works, vol. ix. p. 634." 134 APPENDIX. exhort you to beware of falling into the opposite extreme. Let me exhort you to beware of giving utterance to any sentiments tend- ing to depreciate the efficacy of those Sacraments which, when rightly received and duly administered, must, by virtue of their Divine institution, have a special blessing attendant upon them. Beware of loicering the claims which our Apostolic Church has upon the allegiance of its members, and of evincing any inattention to its discipline." Charge, &c. 1838, pp. 34 37. RESERVE IN PREACHING THE ATONEMENT. '' The truth is, that the leading argument which pervades the Tract in question, is sophistical and fallacious. It pleased God to exhibit some measure of reserve in his communications with those to whom he vouchsafed to make Himself and His future counsels known. He saw fit to impart the light of revelation in a gradual and progressive manner, and to veil some of its sublimest truths in types and shadows, till the time appointed for their full disclosure had arrived. It seemed good, also, to the Son of God, in whom were 'hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,' to practise, to a certain extent, a similar reserve, and to make known the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven to a select few, whom He had chosen to be the depositaries of those mysteries, and whose minds He had prepared for their re- ception. These examples are proposed for our imitation. So that, forsooth, because such a procedure was adopted by infal- lible wisdom, before the complete development of the gracious plan of man's salvation, it is to form a precedent for the guidance of fallible man after that plan has been fully unfolded. Such a course of argument is obviously irrelevant and incon- sequential in the highest degree. It is, moreover, most pointedly at variance with the express words of our Saviour. After having explained the parable of the Sower to His disciples apart from the multitude, He put to them this question : ' Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed, and not to be set on a candlestick ? For there is nothing hid that shall not be manifested ; neither was anything kept secret but that it should come abroad.' "* Charge, &c. 1840, pp. 25, 26. * " The advocates of the principle of reserve would do well to ponder attentively this passage, with Whithv's paraphrase upon it, which is here ARCHDEACON BROWNE. 13~J " There is another consideration of essential and supreme importance, which the advocates of the system of reserve seem entirely to have overlooked, and that is its obvious tendency to repress and extinguish the emotions of love, and to substitute in the room of this refined and exalted principle, a spirit of legal bondage and servile fear. " Can it for a moment be questioned whether love be not the most acceptable, as well as the most efficacious motive to obedience, that can actuate a rational and intelligent being? Or, can it be supposed that a system which has a palpable ten- dency to create doubt, distrust, and terror, is more likely to reclaim the wicked from their fatal wanderings, than one which possesses every requisite for inspiring hope, confidence, and love ?" Charge, &c. 1840, pp. 2831. " Upon these vital and essential points, it is my deliberate conviction that the views so assiduously propagated by the writers of the ' Oxford Tracts' and their partisans, are at va- riance with the teaching of the Reformers, as it is embodied in the Liturgy, Articles, and Homilies of our Church, and, consequently, irreconcilable with Scripture." Charge, &c., 1840, p. 44. given. ' These words being only spoken to Christ's disciples, when He was alone with them, and both here, and in Luke, viii. 16, 17, subjoined to the explication of this parable, I think it best to explain them accordingly. As if Christ had said, ' I give you a clear light, by which you may discern the import of this and other parables. But this I do, not that you may keep it to yourselves and hide it from others, but that it may be beneficial to you, and by you be made beneficial to others ; and that having thus learned, you may instruct them how they ought to hear, and to receive the Word heard, in good and honest hearts. And though I give you the knowledge of these mysteries of the kingdom of God (xara^onxf) privately, I do it not that you may keep them so ; for there is nothing (thus) hid which should not be made manifest, neither was anything made secret (by me) but that it should (afterwards) come abroad.' Whitby's Annotations on Mark iv. 21, 2'2." 136 APPENDIX. XL ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE. The Ministry "of Reconciliation. A Sermon preached at the General Ordination held by the Lord Bishop of Winchester, Dec. 15, 1839. By Samuel Wilberforce, M.A., Archdeacon of Surrey." Published by his Lordship's desire. ON PREACHING THE ATONEMENT. " The leading idea of our ministry is, in fact, to be the bringing home to men's hearts the power and truth of Christ's Atonement. . . .The message will run out into numberless details of a blessed revelation and a holy life ; but this is its especial burden, it is the ' word of reconciliation.' This is what must open hearts : this is what must be first, middle, and end. We dare not lower down this message ; WE DARE NOT DREAM OF PREPARING THE WAY FOR IT BY MORAL TEACHING ; W6 know that it, in its simplicity, it, as with the power of God it ad- dresses itself to the wounded conscience, is the great moral healer, the great restorer of man's peace and holiness." Pages 8, 9. " Holy Scripture, constant experience, and right reason, bring us to the same conclusion; that bringing out before our people the blessed message of Atonement, through the blood of Christ, is to be the LEADING FEATURE of our ministry, if we would have it full of the great power of God. " And now let us for a moment weigh the chief objections which have been urged against this truth ; which is all the more needful, because it is not only from men of a low and worldly standard, who seek thereby to justify a course of practice, into which cold-heartedness has led them, but also from high and devout minds, that they have of late been heard. " First, then, we are told that the law of God's dealings, and of our blessed Master's teaching, has ever been to reserve for some prepared hearts such wonderful discoveries. " Now, granting this assertion to the full, what does it prove ? Nothing, we may see at once, unless it can be shewn that the ARCHDEACON WILBERFORCE. 137 bearer of a message has the same discretionary power with him who sends it. The infinite wisdom of our God determines what shall be 'revealed,' and what be ' covered :' but ice have no such discretion ; we are simply bearers of a message, and woe unto us if we mar its clearness through any fancied rule of acting as our Lord has done. So that all suck analogies are set aside at once ; our rule is, not what we think we gather from God's doings, but what we know that we receive from God's command ; about which there can be little question. For even when reserving much Himself, our blessed Master taught us that ' what He had spoken in the ear, we were to proclaim on the house-top ;' that the time was coming when parables should no more wrap up the truth, but when He, through us, should ' shew ' men < plainly of the Father ;' when His Apostles should preach in His name among all nations ' repentance and remission of sins.' " But, again, we are told, that there is a want of reverence in speaking openly and often of our Lord's Atonement. God forbid that any one should thus sin against the marvellous goodness of the Lord ! But how can it be irreverent to speak of the Lord Jesus, the Mediator between God and man, and yet reverent to speak of the awful majesty of the Father? And yet this is not forbidden us ; on the contrary, we are told to prepare men for hearing of the Atonement, by awakening in their minds a due sense of the terrors of the Lord ; a direction which destroys, therefore, the objection to support which it is urged. " Again, we are told, that Christian Antiquity did not so. Now there is a right reverence for Christian Antiquity, which let no man withhold. But he that makes it into an idol, debases and dishonours what he seems to exalt ; and he does make it into an idol, who sets it up above any light or any truth which God has given to His Church. " . . . . But, further, we maintain, that the clear and un- clouded declaration of these great Gospel truths was the use of the best antiquity Take no\v but the single instance of St. Augustine. It is impossible to crowd any discourses more entirely full of reiterated statements of this blessed message than he has done, in almost every line of his sermons to the common people. He had known enough of the struggle of lii> 138 APPENDIX. own heart, and handled too carefully the consciences of others, not to know that to this golden key alone the inner recesses of man's soul will open." Pages 14 17. " Follow, then, boldly their example. Look upon every soul committed to you as instinct with this great life-mystery, believe that every one has a conscience to speak to a deep- seated want of something far higher and greater than any of the miserable substitutes with which, in his ignorance of his true rest and peace, he has been striving to satisfy his soul. Lift up before him THE CROSS; let all your ministry be the bringing him as a sinner to a Saviour s blood ; let this be the very front of your address; let it fill your own soul when you deal with his ; and as the ' rivers of the south,' the hardened hearts shall, of God's mercy, ' turn again.' Settle it in your inmost conviction, that just as far as you are enabled to bring out before men this one central idea of Christianity, just so far do you, in God's name, command the homage of their souls ; that in it is the strength of Moses' rod of the prophet's voice ; that when it strikes, the rocks must melt; when it speaks, the streams must distil ; that it is the satisfaction of that after which men's hearts have all along been thirsting ; that there is a deep wisdom in simply acting on this word of God. Keep ever in view, as you look out upon your flock, the true cause of man's wretchedness, and its only cure separation from God, to be done away through the blood of Christ. 11 Carry this out, as you would have your ministry prosper. Resolve, in God's strength, that against the whispers of earthly wisdom you will ever close your ears ; against the representa- tions of false delicacy you will ever harden your face ; against all substitutes of man's invention, for this pure and simple Gos- pel, you will ever testify, as did the saints of old, against the calves of Bethel ; that this, and this only, you will know amongst your people ' JESUS CHRIST, AND HIM CRUCIFIED.' "But, then, brethren, do not suppose that the mere general repetition of this great truth in certain prescribed phrases, is the true fulfilment of this awful duty. A ministry of such a character must disappoint your desires ; and it is no doubt, in great measure, the evident fruitlessncss of such a style of preaching, which has led zealous and devout men into the same error under another garb to the error of cloaking and hiding PROFESSOR HAMPDEN. 139 inllitiyly, what is, in fact, in those they blame, not brought out too much, but cloaked and hidden by the careless gene- ralities of indolence. You must use this truth as a remedy, not as a charm. You must apply it iu the detail of cases to the consciences of men. You must deal with their different characters as needing various treatment For it is not a mere effect upon the feelings at which you are to aim ; it is on the whole character. You are not, as some object, * to preach the Atonement, to the exclusion of holiness :' you are to bring out the Atonement, as the spring of holiness ; to shew men how they may, and how only they may, become holy, as having been ' made nigh by the blood of Christ,' and so being dwelt in richly by Him, through the Spirit. You are to press on them Holy Sacraments as the tokens of reconcili- ation, as the instruments of consequent grace ; you are to make them love the Church, because it is Christ's redeemed flock, His very body mystical ; you are to shew them Christ's Atone- ment as the very pith of Sacraments ; Christ's Atonement as the cause and instrument of a renewed life. You must speak of God's judgments, of His righteous law, of his holy anger, even of eternal torments, as ever remembering the blessed Atonement, and ever, through, and with them, bringing it before the sinner s eyes. It must be their strength against temptation, their restoration from falls, their hope of pardon, their means of obeying, their inner life here, their staff in death, their sure glory hereafter." Pages 18 21. XII. DR. HAMPDEN, Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford, Principal of St. Mary Hall, and Canon of Christ Church. J. " Lecture on Tradition read before the University, in the Divinity School, Oxford, March 7, 1839." 2. " The Lord our Righteousness.'' A Sermon preached before the Uni- versity of Oxford, November 24, 1839. " .... I am influenced by no personal or party feeling in addressing myself to the subject now before us ; I desire simply 140 APPENDIX. to discharge a duty providentially imposed on me, by stating, to the best of my judgment, the truth, on a subject demanding our especial consideration at this time, and on which the junior members of the University will naturally look to me for an ex- pression of my views. God forbid that I should ever employ this chair for any mere selfish purpose, or any purpose but that of the Christian edification for which it was instituted. I am not come here to censure or to praise any one .... But prin- ciples and opinions every one is entitled to discuss ; and in matters of theology especially am I entitled, or rather indeed required to do so, by the prescription of my office." Lecture on Tradition, pp. 5, 6. TRADITION: ITS ABUSE; HOW REGARDED BY THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. ' It may seem strange, at the first view, that we should at this time be debating a fundamental principle of the Reforma- tion itself that after nearly three centuries of happy experience of a Church system established on the basis of Scripture autho- rity, we should be inquiring into the authority due to Tradition in the Church of God, and wrangling about boundary-lines which it was one great business of the Reformation to ascertain and fix, " No principle so broadly and positively separates our Church from that of Rome, as the limit placed by our Re- formers to the authoritative source of Divine Truth. And yet it is now eagerly asked, what is the nature and use of Tradition ? as if we had yet to settle the terms of difference between Rome and ourselves, as if the wisdom and piety of our forefathers had not already decided them for us still stranger does it seem that controversy should be going on among ourselves, among members of the Church of England itself, and not only mem- bers but ministers of that Church, as to the estimation in which our Church holds Tradition, a controversy in the presence of our Article declaring the sufficiency of Scripture to salvation, and excluding everything not contained in Scripture from being required of any man as necessary to salvation." Ibid, pp. 7, 8. " I have referred to the moderation of our Church its dis- tinctive character, as it is separated from the extremes to which PROFESSOR HAMPDEN. 141 it may appear to approximate. I need hardly state that at this period, the prevailing disposition, or rather the tendency of that energy which is most busily working among us, is to repre- sent the Church in its points of resemblance to Roman-Catholicism, and throw it into strong contrast with the spirit of Protestantism. Thus it is, that we find the subject of Tradition now so studi- ously brought into notice, and elaborate arguments drawn from the stores of ancient controversy, adduced to prove the tradi- tionary derivation of the doctrines of the Church, or the insuffi- ciency of Scripture for salvation, until its treasures have been unlocked by the hey of a supposed Divine Tradition of doctrines and interpretations and rites. " As I feel it my duty to oppose this statement, it will be proper for me in the first instance, lest I should seem to incur the fault, which I have just noticed, of meeting an erroneous opinion by its direct contrary, to state that view of the nature of Tradition which is maintained, as I conceive, by the Church of England, and which accordingly I would advocate. " Let me be understood then, as one most ready to concede very great importance to Tradition, taken in its most compre- hensive and popular sense, as an authentic collection of doc- trines, interpretations, and rites, existing in the Christian Church by the side of the Bible. But then I attribute no divine authority to it in itself. It is divine only as it is shone upon by Scripture. Like the giant of heathen story, it has strength only as it touches the solid and holy ground of Scripture. Take it by itself, as something existing independent/// of the Bible, and it has no vitality in it. I will go along with the most ardent ad- mirer of antiquity, in expressing my veneration for truth that comes down to us with the hoar of ages upon it, and for whatever is associated with the piety and constancy of our forefathers in the faith. But I remember thatl must not make my religion a matter of imagination, or even of feeling exclu- sively, that because I am disposed to love and cherish a pre- cious relic of antiquity, I must not suffer it to tempt me to superstition and an idolatrous reverence of itself. If some are fnclined, like those objectors in the time of Ignatius, to rest the whole cause of the Gospel on the appeal to antiquity, I would reply with Ignatius k^nA fit ap-)(ala iariv 'Ijja-oy? Xpcoro?, rii 142 APPENDIX. iidiKra apxaia o ffravpu^ uvrov Kcii o Qavarog, k't // >'a Kal / TrtoTie / & uurou. * " Whilst therefore I fully receive all the information which ecclesiastical antiquity can impart, as most valuable evidence of the truths of the Gospel, / deny to it the prerogative which be- longs to Scripture alone, of revealing to me what I am religiously bound to believe. I will accept it as confirmation, and most important confirmation, of what I am bound to believe as taught by Scripture ; but I will not absolutely resign myself to its teaching, as a primary authentic revelation from God in itself. Its witness to the truth of what is set forth in Scripture shall be respectfully nay, devoutly heard, and attended to ; but it rmtst not dictate what I am to believe, as Scripture does, or require my unquestioning submission to its authority without further appeal. Nor if I scrupulously examine into it, and require that it should be proved to be divine by the evidence of Scripture, am I to be accounted as one slow to believe, and as demanding an impossible evidence for supernatural truth. For I am most ready to believe all that has the evidence of its being God's Truth, with whatever difficulties it may be accompanied to my understanding. I require nothing more than the evi- dence, that it is His Truth. Further, I will readily take the Tradition of Christian Truth along with me, as my guide to the knowledge of what Scripture reveals ; but I will not exalt my guide into an oracle ; nor, because the training hand and voice of the Church have been my first introduction to the Gospel, will I regard this my ecclesiastical education, as essential to the due understanding of the Scriptures in order to salvation. As a valid and important confirmation then to the evidence of Scripture, on every point of faith and discipline, as a provi- dential guide to the right understanding of the truth revealed in Scripture, and a reasonable inducement to the reception of that truth, I most highly esteem the mass of religious instruc- tion which we familiarly designate by the name of Tradition ; but I cannot carry my estimation of Tradition beyond this limit. " This is the limit which I am persuaded our Church has fixed to our reverence for Tradition. The 6th Article speaks * Ignat. Ep. ad Philadelpli., c. 8. PROFESSOR HAMPDEN. 143 clearly enough as to the exclusion of any other authority but that of Scripture in matters of faith. The first Homily also declares, that 'There is no truth nor doctrine necessary for our justification and everlasting salvation, but that is, or may be, drawn out of that fountain and well of truth ;' and forbids our running to men's traditions, devised by men's imaginations, for our justification and salvation ;' since ' in Holy Scripture is fully contained what we ought to do, and what to eschew, what to believe, what to love, and what to look for at God's hands, at length.' " The Church speaks to the same purport, when it requires no other divine hnoivledge of the candidate for Deacons' orders, but that he be ' sufficiently instructed in Holy Scripture ;'* and of its ministers of every order no submission to any authority in matters of faith, but to ' the Canonical Scriptttres of the Old and New Testament.^ It is very remarkable too, how, throughout the Ordination Services, the Church sets its seal on the Bible as the only ' Word of God.' Controversial state- ments would not find a place in offices of prayer; but the Church seems throughout these admirable services protesting against the error of dividing God's Word into two partial rules ; and very pointedly so, when it gives the New Testament into the hands of its Deacons, with authority to read and to preach the Gospel, and the whole Bible into the hands of its fully-com- missioned ministers, its Priests and Bishops, as ' the Word of God' which they are to preach, and the warrant of their minis- trations. Had our Church held Tradition as an authority co-ordinate with Scripture, it would surely have introduced some reference to such an authority in the Services of Ordina- tion. It would have spoken of the Doctrine or Faith of the Church, not simply, as it does, of ' the Doctrine and Sacra- ments, and the Discipline of Christ, as the Lord hath com- manded, and as this Church and Realm hath received the same, according to the commandments of God ;' and would have expressly required its minister to believe a* the Church believes, or to receive nothing but what the Church receives ; instead of pointing with such impressive solemnity to Prayer, in conjunc- tion with ' reading' and ' exercise in the Scriptures,' and ' thinking * Pref. to the Ordin. Serv. f Ordin. Serv. \ Ordering of Priests. 144 APPENDIX. upon the tilings contained" in them, as the means in order to ' the true understanding of the same.'* " But the silence, not only of the Ordination Services, but of the Articles, on the subject of Tradition, is very emphatic. Here again, had Tradition been regarded by the framers of the Articles as in any respect authoritative in matters either of dis- cipline or faith, its authority would surely have been stated in conjunction with that of Scripture. But the subject is not even mentioned in the Articles, except as it is connected with the rites and ceremonies of the Church. We have an Article, De Ecclesiaticis Traditionibus ' On the Traditions of the Church' Here it may be thought we have a recognition of Traditions of some kind at least. But let us turn to the work of Bellarmine, De Verbo Dei, which treats the subject methodically, and we there find the explanation of what are called ' Traditions of the Church.' Bellarmine divides Tradition into three heads: 1. Divine; 2. Apostolical; 3. Ecclesiastical. The first two kinds are, according to him, authoritative ; differing only in their original form of communication; those called Divine, being such as were imparted by our Lord Himself to the Apostles : those called Apostolical, being such as were received by the Apostles by immediate inspiration of the Holy Spirit ; whereas those called Ecclesiastical, or Traditions of the Church, claim no divine authority, but are merely usages or customs begun of old by the prelates or people, and which by tacit consent have obtained the force of law.f These last, accordingly, our Church admits, not regarding their want of Scripture authority as any objection to their reception ; so that they be not repug- nant to Scripture, and that they be edifying in their use. By this remarkable silence of the Articles on the subject of Tradi- tion, considered as an authoritative source of doctrine or dis- cipline, and their reference only to those traditions which do not rest on Scripture authority, it is plain, that the Church does not intend that Tradition should in any sense constitute a part of our Rule of Faith. " But it has been objected, that the Church of England sets forth Scripture, not as an original evidence or source of God's Truth, but rather as the test of the truth conveyed clown by the * Ordering of Priests and Consec. of Bishops, f De Verbo Dei, 1. 4. c. 2. PROFESSOR HAMPDEN. 145 Church. The reverse, in fact, of the view which I have taken of the teaching of the Church has been stated to be the just account of our 6th Article that Tradition is the primary source of Doctrine, and Scripture its confirmation; not Scrip ture the primary source, and Tradition only the confirmation. " Now it might be enough to disprove this assertion, to appeal to the ground on which the 8th Article requires our acceptance of the three Creeds. The three Creeds, the Nicene, the Athanasian, and the Apostles' Creed, are to be received, 'because they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture.' Would not a clause have been inserted in this place, intimating that Tradition was the source of the doctrines con- tained in the Creeds, had it been intended to guard the prin- ciple of Divine Tradition ? Undoubtedly, we receive the Creeds as documents, as we do the sacred books themselves, by Tradition : and \ve may for that reason alone give them a reverent attention. But the same Tradition which fully ac- credits them as documents, does not establish their inspiration ; and they cannot, therefore, be received as containing truths of God, on their own evidence. But the truths which they declare being found in Scripture, it then becomes a powerful confirma- tion of them, or rather of their having been rightly collected from Scripture, that they are also found in such venerable documents of the early Church. And further, the documents themselves become, for the same reason, and not merely because they have been handed down to us, most worthy of our recep- tion. This accordingly appears to me the view which our Church has expressed in its Article on the Creeds, and in its sanction of what ancient Fathers have faithfully collected and taught out of Scripture. That the Church indeed does not place its Creeds, or any part of its ritual, on the footing of dirinc authority, is sufficiently evident from the Preface to the Book of Common Prayer ; where it is asserted, that the ' Book, as it stood before established by law, doth not contain in it any- thing contrary to the Word of God, or to sound doctrine, or which a godly man may not with a good conscience use and submit unto, or which is not fairly defensible against any that shall oppose the same ; if it shall be allowed such just and favourable construction as in common equity ought to be allowed to all human writings, especially such as are set fortn 146 APPENDIX. by authority, and even to the very best translations of the Holy Scripture itself.' "It is further, however, objected, that we should not have been led to the discovery of the truth in Scripture without Tradition, that Tradition tells usjirst what truths may be collected out of Scripture, and that then we proceed to draw them out, and not otherwise. Whence, it is inferred, that the truths are assumed as already possessing their evidence on the ground of Tradition ; and that Scripture coming subsequently, only serves the office of confirming and establishing the original existing evidence from Tradition. Our Article speaks of doctrines being 'established' by Scripture, when it excludes the Apocryphal books ; or. as the Latin Article speaking of these books says, the Church does not apply them ad dogmata confirmanda ; assuming, that is, that we have the doctrines already before us when we come to the investigation of Scripture. But clearly the Article is here de- scribing what takes place actually, the state of the case as it is, and drawing from it a practical criterion for discriminating between Canonical and Apocryphal Books. No one would deny that we, who are brought up in the Faith, have the great leading doctrines in hand when we search the Scriptures, and that practically we do establish or confirm them as known to us already by Scripture. Nor would an 4 )' 6$ us who undertake to teach the Gospel to others admit that its truths were yet to be searched out ; for this would imply that we had not already assured ourselves that what we teach are its truths. But the true theory of the use of Scripture is the reverse of this. Scrip- ture is our source. As Tertullian says, ' what we are, that the Scriptures are from their beginning""; out of them we are ;' quod sumus, hoc sunt Scriptures ab initio suo ; ex illis sumus* The truths of Religion, according to our Article, are all there ; being either expressly contained in Scripture, or manifestly to be collected from it. If so, they may be discovered there, as in their proper source, though our experience may not inform us of any one who has so discovered them. Take the case of the truths of physical science. Except to those who are the dis- coverers of any new fact, the theory to be investigated by observation and experiment is already known. But it is not for that reason thought to be less grounded in the nature of * De Prase. User. c. 38. PROFESSOR HAMPDEN. 147 things, because we have only verified it, and not originally found it out by our own researches into Nature. And as all inquirers into the laws of Nature readily avail themselves of former discoveries, and ascertained theories, and even reason- able hypotheses, for aiding their own investigations; so do all sober inquirers into God's revealed ways take along with them what former searchers of Scripture and proficients in sacred wisdom have already obtained from Scripture. And yet it remains that, as what is ultimately learned and taught by the physical philosopher, is the Wisdom of God in Nature, so what is ultimately learned and taught by the Scriptural student, with all his previous steps and accessions of knowledge from without, is God's Wisdomin Scripture." Lecture on Tradition, pp. 7 17. ZEAL FOR ANTIQUITY. APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. " We may take warning from the history of the case in the Church of Rome, how we outstep the soberness and modesty of our Church, in our veneration of antiquity, and our zeal for the maintenance of the Apostolical, rather than the Scriptural, charac- ter of our Church. Doubtless, we are quite right in this venera- tion, and this zeal. But, for that very reason, we should watch more strictly the tendency in our nature to carry them to the extreme, and especially in such a case as that of our own Church, where we justly feel that we can throw ourselves with perfect confidence on the testimony of the purest ages of the Gospel, and cite the primitive confessors and martyrs as our own Fathers in the Faith. We must remember, above all, in the midst of these our just claims to Apostolic descent, that we are a living Church only as we hold to the foundation, as we are built up, a spiritual house on Jesus Christ ; as living stones, fitly framed and joined together in Him by the Spirit. It will not avail us, that we are followers of Paul or Cephas, bright as their example is of Christian faith and Christian holiness ; but it is, because we are of Christ, because we look to Him crucified and trust in His name only, that we have hope of eternal life." Lecture on Tradition, pp. 52, 53. DANGER OF A DISPROPORTIONATE REGARD FOR THE SACRAMENTS AND CHURCH AUTHORITY. " The same may be observed with regard to the doctrine of the Sacraments, and the Authority of the Church. We have L2 148 APPENDIX. comparatively no temptation (trained as we are by the sober wisdom of our Church) to adopt the extreme views set forth by the Church of Rome on these heads, as we have to take inter- mediate ground to lay, that is, an undue stress on these parti- cular points of our system, to give them an undue prominence in our teaching and practice, to interpret and apply every thing else in our religion by a reference to them. This is a line of error into which we may be tempted to deviate ; because it recommends itself, by counteracting a laxity of opinion in the opposite direction ; and it appears to be only a revival of atten- tion to a portion of the teaching of our Church, which has been at times too much cast into the shade. " In this way, men's minds may be drawn into a dispropor- tionate regard for the Sacraments and the Authority of the Church, and to acquiesce in high-wrought statements of the truth respecting them, whilst they would at once reject the full doctrines of Sacramental Justification, and of the Infallibility of the Church, as taught by the Church of Rome. Thus does error in doctrine, as in morality, seem to lose its evil, by losing its grossriess. And we have need to guard against seductions which address themselves to our right feelings, and which may be in some respect corrective of error, even more jealously than against those, which present themselves in a more repulsive form, and carry a warning against themselves on their very front." ON PREACHING THE ATONEMENT. " Be it our anxious endeavour, then, brethren, to ' keep the good deposit committed to our trust by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.' What is it that the Apostles themselves, the first receivers of the truth as it is in Jesus, are found ever labouring to teach and enforce ? It is the doctrine of the Cross the righteousness of God in Christ. Looking ever unto Jesus as the Author and Finisher of Salvation, they proclaim His exceeding love to the world in dying for us to save us from our sins, as the burden of their preaching and their comfort under their trials Following in their steps, the Reformers of our Church only revived the preaching of the Apostles, when they disentangled the doctrine of the Cross from the intricate mazes in which it had been involved, and called upon men to renounce PROFESSOR HAMPDEN. 149 all other claims to Justification before God, but the self-denying one of faith in the merits of their Saviour. " Shall we then be ' ashamed of the testimony of Christ?' Shall we dread the reproach of fanaticism, or of a rash and irre- verent zeal, in boldly, and loudly, and unceasingly publishing to the world, in its original simplicity, a truth, which has filled the hearts of Apostles and Saints with joy, which Apostles and Saints have ever had on their tongue, in the scandal of which Apostles and Saints have ever gloried, which, though regarded by the vf orld as a stumbling-block, and as foolishness, Apostles and Saints have ever held forth as the power and the wisdom of God unto Salvation ? Or shall we, under the name of preaching the Cross of Christ, and the righteousness of Christ, preach our oivn cross, our own righteousness, turning our glad tidings into a message of despondency to frail sinful man, giving ashes for the bread of life the sackcloth of human holiness, for the white garment of t]ie righteousness of God ? Woe is unto us who are ministers of the Lord, the inheritors of the Apostolic com- mission to preach the Gospel, if we thus preach the Gospel, unsaying the word which the Lord has put into our mouths to speak! Woe is unto us, rather, if, so preaching it, \vepreach not the Gospel ! Woe is unto us, if we preach any other right- eousness but that of the Lord our God and Saviour, any other holiness but His, who * only is Holy,' any other life but that which is ' hid with Christ in God.' Woe is unto us, if, whether as pastors, or as sheep of the Lord's flock, we follow any other shepherd but Him, the good Shepherd, who laid down His life for the sheep," Sermon on " The Lord our Righteousness." pp. 29 33. 150 APPENDIX. XIII. DR. TURTON, Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge, and Dean of Peterborough. Letter to Professor Scholefield. " I feel, however, that there is a closer bond of sympathy between us, which might embolden me thus indirectly to asso- ciate your name with the present attempt to guard the minds of our academic youth against the poison of seductive error : and this is, the common apprehension we entertain of danger to our Protestant Church from the spread of doctrines, ivhich, in your own language, (allow rne here to adopt it, though used incidentally and in a private communication by yourself) are ' so closely connected with what you conceive to be the grand corruption of Christianity."' Professor Scholefield's Discourses on " Scriptural grounds of Union." Dedication to Professor Turton. Page 4. XIV. DR. FAUSSETT, The Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity, and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. " The Revival of Popery." A Sermon preached before the University of Oxford, at St. Mary's, on Sunday, May 20, 1838. " It has become, however, no longer possible to disguise the painful fact, that the hopes thus excited have been succeeded by at least a temporary disappointment, and by a feeling of suspicion and even alarm, which the most candid and dis- PROFESSOR FAUSSETT. 151 passionate observers no longer pronounce to be either vague or indefinite, or unfounded ; that the zealous efforts to revive a due respect for ecclesiastical and properly Catholic principles, have been far too little connected with the requisite caution re- garding their inveterate abuse by the Church of Rome ; and that amidst much of important truth elicited and displayed, an alloy of Popish error and superstition has undeniably insinuated itself. [' This has at length become so notorious, that the Romanists themselves, not in this country only, but on the Continent, are deriving hope and encouragement from our presumed change of views and principles. " ' L'universite d'Oxford est celebre par le savoir de ceux qui la cornposent, par leur attachement a I'eglise Anglicane, et par leur zele pour son ancienne doctrine. Us ont consignc leurs opinions dans une suite de dissertations intitulees Traites pour les temps presens, dont ils viennent de publier le troisieme tome. II est curieux d'observer les aveux qu'ils rendent a la verite.' ' II ne faut pas s'etonner que ces dissertations aient ete denoncees par beaucoup de protestans comme prou- vant une defection totale des doctrines de la reforme, et un rapprochement trop manifesto de la croyance catholique.' L'Ami de la Religion, Samedi, 13 Janvier, 1838.] " The general object being at once so desirable and so ably pursued, a few unguarded statements, the result probably of individual haste and indiscretion and it might have been hoped, abandoned on reflection by the authors themselves it would have been premature, it might even have been inju- dicious, to notice with any severity of censure. " But when they assume more and more unequivocally the marks of deliberation and design, the evidence of numbers and of combination ; when the most plausible palliations of Romish corruption, and the most insidious cavils against the wisdom, and even in some measure the necessity, of the Reformation, find their way into the periodical and popular and most widely dissemi- nated literature of the day ; when the wild and visionary sentiments of an enthusiastic mind, involving in their un- guarded expression an undisguised preference for a portion at least of Papal superstition, and occasionally even a wanton outrage on the cherished feelings of the sincere Protestant his pious affection for those venerated names which he habitually 152 APPENDIX. associates with the inestimable blessings of the Reformation are dragged forth from the sanctuary of confidential inter- course, and recommended to the public as ' a witness of Catholic vieivs,' and to ' speak a ivord in season for the Church of God ;' * as 'likely to suggest thoughts on doctrine, on church policy, and on individual conduct, most true and most neces- sary for these times,' and as ' a bold and comprehensive sketch of a new position' for the Church of England \\ and this, too, under circumstances which imply the concurrence and approval, and responsibility too, of an indefinite and apparently numerous body of friends and correspondents and editors and reviewers ; who shall any longer deny the imperative necessity ivhich exists for the most decisive language of learning and caution, lest these rash projectors of 'a new position' for our Church should be un- warily permitted to undermine and impair her old and approved defences ? LEADING FEATURES OF THE SYSTEM OF THE TKACTAEIANS. " The leading particulars in which this increasing aberration from Protestant principles has displayed itself, may perhaps be considered as the following : a disposition to overrate the im- portance of Apostolical Tradition, and the authoritative teaching of the Church; exaggerated and unscriptural statements of doc- trine with regard to the two Sacraments ; and a general tendency on the one hand to depreciate the principles of Protestantism and the character and conduct of the Reformers, and on the other, not indeed absolutely to deny the grosser corruptions of Popery, but so far to palliate her errors, and display in the most favourable light whatever remnant of good she still retains, as to leave it in a manner doubtful to ivhich side the balance of truth inclines, and to banish from the mind of the unwary Protestant every idea of the extreme guilt and danger of a reunion with an Idolatrous and anti-Christian Apostasy." Pages, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. STRANGE EXPRESSIONS ON THE SUBJECT OF THE EUCHARIST. " The naked and unqualified, and therefore ambiguous, ex- pression, real presence, now so systematically antl studiously * Preface to Froude's Remains, p. 22. f British Critic for January 1838, p. 225. PROFESSOR FAUSSETT. 153 adopted by some persons, is highly objectionable and dangerous, and there is but too much reason to apprehend that some of those who employ it are far even from intending the supposed qualification. Those, at least, cannot intend it who advance the startling position, ' tfiat the power of MAKING the body and blood of Christ is vested in the successors of the Apostles ;' who pronounce the expression, ' Lord's table,' authorized as it is by Scripture and our Church, to be so polluted by Protestant use, as to be no longer fitted to designate the altar ; who are become so sensitive with regard to the altar itself, as to attach importance even to the situation of a pulpit, lest it stand in the light of what ' is more sacred than the Holy of Holies ;' and who with reference, no doubt, to the ' sacrifice of praise and thanks- giving,' and other well-guarded language of our Liturgy, de- clare our present Communion-service to be ' a judgment on the Church' and point out the advantage of ' replacing it by a good translation of the liturgy of St. Peter? " To affirm that these persons are strictly Papists, or that within certain limits of their oivn devising they are not actually opposed to the corruptions and the Communion of Rome, would, I am well aware, be as uncharitable as it is untrue. " But who shall venture to pronounce them safe and con- sistent members of the Church of England? and who shall question the obvious tendency of their views to Popery itself? For if by some happy inconsistency they are themselves, and for the present, saved from the natural consequences of their own reasoning, what shall we hope for the people at large, should these delusive speculations (which God in his infinite mercy forbid) extend their influence beyond the circle (and, it is hoped, not yet a very extensive circle) of educated men, to which they are at present limited ? If such should become the ordinary instruction of the unwary pastor to his credulous flock, what shall preserve them from all the fascinations and idolatries of the Mass, or from welcoming with open arms those crafty emissaries who have already succeeded to such a fearful extent in re-imposing the yoke of spiritual bondage on the neck of our deluded countrymen ?" Pages 22, 23, 24. 154 APPENDIX. XV. REV. J. J. BLUNT, B.D. Margaret Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. Introduction to a Course of Lectures on the Early Fathers. 1840. STUDY OF THE FATHERS. " If therefore there are any who look with jealousy on the Fathers as abettors of high church principles as they are now called, (I have no delight in the phraseology, but it saves cir- cumlocution ;) which they partly may be; let them forgive them the wrong, when they contemplate them as abettors of Gospel principles too, which is undoubtedly true of them ; and I feel confident, both from the effect they have had on my own mind, and from the very nature of things, that these two results would be found generally to follow from a study of the Fathers namely, an increased reverence certainly for ecclesiastical insti- tutions and ordinances, as having in them a great mystery ; but an increased conviction also that the only sound and apostolical divinity is that which 'ceases not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.' " THE REFORMATION AND THE REFORMERS. " Nobody can enter with any thoughtfulness into the multi- tude of most delicate and difficult questions which the Reforma- tion stirred, without learning to be temperate in all things ap- pertaining to it ; and, if he is called upon to take part in the intricate controversies which those questions give rise to, with- out striving to beware, that ' he shoot not his arrow o'er the house, and hurt his brother.' The deeper he dives into the writings of the primitive Church, with a view to elucidate the principles upon which that great crisis moved, the more, I think, will he be inclined to acquiesce in the discretion which on the whole guided our Reformers in their handling of antiquity ; and the more will he perceive a call for the exercise of that virtue in himself, whilst he now calmly reviews and PROFESSOR BLUNT. 155 passes judgment on their wonderful work. Aud if there may be some particulars which he, as an individual, would be glad if they had adopted from the primitive Church, or if, having adopted, they had held them fast, even at the risk of whatever abuse might have followed, and which the experience of past times had proved real, yet, considering how unspeakable a blessing it is for a people to have a form of faith and worship on which they repose, established for ages and hallowed by numberless associations ; bearing in mind the caution of the preacher, but too little remembered in these days ' whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him, and whoso re- inoveth stones shall be hurt therewith ;' he will be slow to disturb that which is good by any attempt at a second reformation, even with a view to improve upon the first ; content if he can raise the Church again something nearer to the platform on ichich Cranmer and Ridley left it ; and from which, it must be con- fessed, it has insensibly settled down ; who, treading in the steps of the old Fathers, were at one and the same time, zealous Churchmen, (witness the Ritual they have left us) and Evan- gelical Teachers, (witness the Articles and Homilies, the por- tions of Scripture appointed by them for holy days, and which days mark the sense in which they understood those passages,) and in short, witness the whole of our Liturgical Services from the first line to the last. Rejoiced shall I be if any efforts of mine shall contribute to this consummation ever so little ; nor do I despair of it, not from any presumptuous confidence in my own powers, but because I feel the 'vantage ground I here occupy ; and that fountains, as our Universities are, from which the ministers of God are dispersed over the whole surface of the island, here, if anywhere, can the tree be cast in which shall flavour the waters. " If, then, I had to express in a word the general effect which I am anxious these lectures on ecclesiastical antiquity should produce, it would be this ; that they may induce my hearers to say ' Amen' to that part of the declaration of the good Bishop Ken, contained in his last will 'As for my religion, I die in the communion of the Church of England, as it stands distin- guished from all Papal and Puritan innovations, and as it ddhercs to the doctrine of the Cross.' " Pages 48 51. 156 APPENDIX. XVI. REV. JAMES SCHOLEFIELD, A.M. Regius Professor of Greek in tlie University of Cambridge. " Scriptural Grounds of Union considered in Five Sermons, preached before the University of Cambridge.'' 1840. ORIGIN AND CHARACTER OF THE SYSTEM OF THE TRACTARIANS. STATE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AT THE CLOSE OF THE LAST CENTURY. " Let us, then, in the outset, mark the position of the ques- tion proposed to be dealt with. " However undesirable it may be to speak of, or even to recognise, different sections in a church which ought to be bound together in the most perfect unity, it must be taken as a fact too important to be kept out of sight, that the great revival of religion with which God mercifully visited our Church towards the close of the last century, was marked by an ex- tensive return to her great fundamental principles, as authorita- tively laid down by our martyred Reformers. There existed in the bosom of our Church a large and increasing body of Clergy, whose theology symbolized much more closely with that of the sixteenth century than with that of the age immediately pre- ceding their own ; and in whose preaching and writings the doctrines so lucidly exhibited in our Articles and Homilies, of Original or Birth Sin of Sanctifying Grace of Justification by Faith were recovered in a manner, and drawn out from tho obscurity and oblivion into which they had sunk. " The prominence given to these great doctrines so strongly contrasted with the general character of parochial ministrations, that both the preachers and the preaching were regarded for a time with suspicion and distrust ; alarm was excited by the fancied opposition between Faith and Holiness ; and this, taken in connexion with other matters of order and discipline, was supposed to threaten so much danger to the Establishment, that a broad line of separation divided into two opposing classes the members and ministers of the same Apostolical Church. PROFESSOR SCIIOLEFIELD. 157 " The march of events happily co-operated with the healing influence of time, and the progress of mutual inquiry, to remove a misunderstanding so deplorable and perilous ; the great Catholic principle was again recognised among us, that we are all brethren, children of one nursing-mother; and our Church, emerging from the mists that had obscured her glory, seemed to be growing strong in union, and prepared to start afresh in a great and united effort to subdue the heathenism of the land, and gather in its scattered millions to the fold of Christ, the common Saviour. " At this most important crisis it is that the baneful work of division again commences, and a check is interposed (whether for evil or for good) by the announcement and promulgation of certain principles, recovered (as it is professed) from the forgotten treasures of antiquity, and presenting a direct, though not at first an avowed, opposition to that system of doctrine and practice, which in connexion with the recent wide diffusion of religious feeling had grown up into an influential prominence, and the aim and tendency of which may be fairly described to be the promotion of vital and spiritual religion. " In entering on an examination of the opposing system, I pass over altogether the question of motives and intentions, and all that relates to the personal characters of its authors, as one with which we have nothing whatever to do ; the whole controversy lies between truth and error ; if they have truth on their side, its independent excellence will win converts to them : and if they are in error, it is the more necessary to guard the unstable and unwary against a delusion that comes recom- mended by personal sanctity, and earnestness, and honesty of pur- pose, on the part of its abettors. Error is never more dangerous than when its author ' is transformed into an angel of light.' " Omitting therefore all consideration of a topic which ought never to have been brought into the discussion, we are concerned to form a right judgment of the inherent character of the pro- posed system. It had its origin in an alleged dissatisfaction with the existing state of things. It seems, that with much religious excitement and inquiry there was by no means a cor- responding degree of attention to order and regularity ; with much zeal for Preaching there was not an equal earnestness about the Prayers of the Sanctuary ; that the Sacraments of 158 APPENDIX. the Church did not maintain their proper rank in the people's estimation among the means of grace ; that to Episcopal authority the same deference was neither asked nor rendered, as in the early and better ages of Christianity. " In reference to these and other matters, it is something to say, (though of course it is not enough,) that even in these respects the new state of things exhibited an improvement upon that which preceded ; that to have our churches crowded was better than having them deserted ; that the appetite for hearing was not inconsistent with the spirit of prayer, and might have been ripened into it ; and that if the newly awakened zeal had been rightly directed by the kindly exercise of authority and in- fluence, not only might it have ministered occasion for rooting the Church generally and permanently in the affections of the people, but whatever had been overlooked or left defective in the first outburst of zeal, might have been supplied by growing experience and more mature deliberation. " But if we admit the existence of the evil, without cavilling as to the extent of it, it opens the question as to the suitable and effectual remedy. With regard to that which is offered in the attempted revival of principles and practices, not only long since forgotten, but many of them at least questionable in their original value, it looks far too much like avoiding one extreme by going back to the opposite ; and I cannot hesitate to avow my settled conviction, that it is substantially, what it has been described to be, 'an attempt to exalt the ritual elements of religion to an equality with the spiritual ;'* and that if it succeed to its full extent, the effect will be to evaporate the spiritual life and power of religion in forms and exercises of unprofitable will- worship" Sermon i., pp. 5 8. HYPOTHETICAL MANNER OF SPEAKING OF THE GODHEAD OF CHRIST AND OF THE HOLY GHOST. " And before I proceed to other matters, I would touch upon one in passing, which, though not belonging properly to this peculiar system, is yet practically so infused into it, and is in itself of such deep importance, that it requires a serious protest to be entered against it on behalf of all young students in theology. I allude to the hypothetical manner in which the Ancient Christianity, vol. i. p. 267. PROFESSOR SCHOLEFIELD. 159 writers in question allow themselves to speak of such high and awful doctrines as the Godhead of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. " There is an inconsiderate recklessness in bringing forward these sacred topics, and perilling them on the ground of contro- versy along ivith other opinions infinitely less important, as if they should stand or fall together. And the student in such a school becomes unhappily familiar with fundamental truths deposited in his head, to be brandished on occasion as so many weapons of argument, instead of having them laid up in a con- trite heart to be rejoiced in, and prayed over, and lived upon. " In condemning, for instance, a particular interpretation of St. James's w r ords on Justification, a mode of reasoning is employed which, in effect, says to an adversary, Your argument stands on a similar ground to that of the Socinians against the Deity of Christ. You must either give up your own argument, or you must admit that of the Socinians. The adversary feels the ground of his own argument to be strong and unshaken, and his mind revolts from the painful kind of collision into which he is brought with a doctrine so inexpressibly glorious. Such a way of speaking is calculated to unsettle first principles in our minds, and to loosen the hold which the great mysteries of our faith ought ever to maintain upon our devout and un- wavering belief." Sermon ii., pp. 18 19. " Here I must first notice, how grievously the Holy Spirit is dishonoured by that reckless employment of hypotJietical reasoning, which I adverted to on a former occasion. I speak as unto wise men, and to those who, when they utter the solemn declaration, ' I believe in the Holy Ghost,' feel that in the glorious but awful doctrine of the Trinity are bound up all their hopes and consolations; and I ask, what judgment they form, and how their hearts are moved within them, by the manner in which the Deity of the Holy Spirit is brought forward in the following passage ? ' What is to hinder the multitude of men, who have been allowed to reject the doctrine of TRANSUBSTANTIATION because THEY do not find it in Scripture, from rejecting also the DIVINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST, because He is noivhcre plainly called God ?'* * Newman's Lectures on the Prophetical Office of the Church, p. 179. 160 APPENDIX. " Again, in the following extract I must not be suspected of garbling a quotation, because my object is not to deal with the author's argument, but only to exhibit the revolting boldness of hypothetical statement in which he indulges : ' Thus,' he says, ' a person who denies the APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION OF THE MINISTRY, because it is not clearly taught in Sripture, ought, I conceive, if consistent, to deny the GODHEAD OF THE HOLY GHOST, which is nowhere literally stated in Scripture.'* '* Now, surely, in such rash reasonings as these, there is want of tJiat holy reverence with which doctrines of such high and awful mystery should be associated in the mind of one, who, in humble, faith and hope, looks for the grace of the Spirit to guide him into truth and peace ; surely such solemn truths ought not to be dragged down to the level of controverted points, where differences of opinion may and do exist, and their acceptance or rejection to be even for a moment, or in appear- ance suspended upon a similar issue with Transubstantiation or the Apostolical succession. If we were to concede to them their view of this latter point, the Apostolical succession which yet in their sense and degree we cannot does it never occur to those who preach and write thus, that though all truth \sequally true, yet all truth is neither equally clear nor equally important ; and that the same person who would shudder at the thought of casting a shade of doubt upon the Divinity of his Sanctifier and Comforter, may be innocently in error, may be pardonably ignorant, upon the disputed question of the Apostolical suc- cession ? .. " Will they affirm that they have so studied the Scriptures, that they find these two doctrines revealed there with an equal degree of clearness, and demanding with the same peremptori- ness our implicit belief as necessary to salvation." Sermon iv., pp. 7779. RESERVE IN PKEACHING THE DOCTRINE OF THE ATONEMENT. " But now in broad and palpable contrast to this view of the Apostle's ministry, we are warned of the danger of ' bringing forward full statements of religious truth / and this principle is specially applied to the ' explicit and prominent preaching of the Atonement." We are required, on the contrary, to begin * " Tracts for the Times," No. 85, p. 4. PROFESSOR SCHOLEF1ELD. 161 with ' insisting on natural piety, the necessity of common honesty, repentance, and judgment to come,' and so at last by these and other means to ' bring persons to the truth as it is in Jesus, with that awe and fear, which our Lord's own teaching and that of His Apostles would inspire,' and ' to require from both grown persons and children an explicit declaration of a belief in the Atonement, and the full assurance of its power,' is numbered among those ' unhallowed approaches to our blessed Saviour, which will in some manner lead to a disbelief in His divinity? "* Sermon ii., pp. 25, 26. APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. " Their claims on its behalf" (Apostolical Succession) " were at first more modest and cautious. They pleaded for ad- herence to the line of succession as the ' safest course,' f and were content to ask, < Who among living Christians have so fair a chance of being in communion with the Apostles, as they who are careful to maintain the Apostolical Succession ?' Now, as we have seen, the doctrine itself is brought into a singular kind of juxta-position with that of the divinity of the Holy Ghost ; f Where the succession fails, the truth of doctrine is' declared to be put < in imminent jeopardy :' the promise of Christ, ' I am with you always even to the end of the world,' is limited by them to Episcopal Ordination ; the Church of England is spoken of as ' the only Church in this realm which has a right to be quite sure that she has the Lord's body to give to His people.'^ In a word, where the Apostolical Succession is wanting, there is no true Church of Christ. " We cannot read such statements as these without feeling alarm at the self-complacent arrogance they are calculated to foster in youthful minds, embracing them as crude notions, irre- spective of those sanctifying influences of the Spirit which are doubly necessary to balance so lofty an elevation ; and without, at the same time, deeply grieving for the uncharitable exclu- siveness they breathe and engender. Is it not free to the Spirit of God to divide to every man, and to every class of Christians, * Tracts for the Times, No. 80, pp. 747879 ; and No. 87, p. 30. t Tracts for the Times, No. 4. t Keble's Visitation Sermon, p. 44. Tracts for the Times, No. 4. M 162 APPENDIX. severally as He will, and to select His own instruments for His work, and put upon them severally such honour as His own wisdom and grace may appoint ? And though God has been pleased to limit Himself by certain rules of proceeding, which He has Himself ordained and revealed, yet it is not for us to mark those limits where He has left them undefined, still less to narrow them within what He allows. We dare not deny, that in former days He has set the broad seal of His blessed Spirit on the ministrations of many who received not their orders in the same line of succession with ourselves, but yet gave evidence that they loved the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, and were burning and shining lights in their generation. Our own Church, in her 23rd Article, seems purposely to avoid limiting the pre- rogatives of this succession to one exact line ; and in Bishop Buruet's language, ' leaves the matter open and at large for such accidents as had happened, and such as might still happen? " And here the question returns upon us, Which is the more essential characteristic of apostolical descent doctrine or order 9 And which of the two is it, in the preservation of which the honour of the Holy Spirit is more nearly concerned, and the defect of which would supply the more convincing evidence that His influences and grace were withdrawn from the Church ? Our own Reformers hesitated not to attach the greater importance to the succession of doctrine, as is plainly declared by our great Jewel, in one among many passages for which he is flippantly censured by these modern Divines, as being at heart a despiser of the Apostolical Succession, and of the great truths and rules connected with it from the beginning.'* But his language is, ' Lawful succession standeth not only in possession of place, but also, and much rather, in doctrine and diligence. Yet the Bishops of Rome, as if there were nothing else required, ever- more put us in mind of their succession. 'f Nor herein do the Reformers of the sixteenth century so widely differ from the Fathers of the fourth ; for one of the most eminent of these latter distinctly speaks of 'piety as the true and proper suc- cession.' "% Sermon iv., pp.82 84. * Preface to Froude's Remains, Part ii., p. 29. f Defence of his Apology. | Gregor. Nazianz. Orat, 2 1 . PROFESSOR SCHOLEFIELD. 163 ROMAN RREVIARY. PRAYERS OF DEPARTED SAINTS. " Who can witness without grief and amazement that awful tampering ivith Popish idolatry, exhibited in the republication of the abominations of the Roman Breviary ?* Is idolatry a thing so harmless that youthful and imaginative minds may safely be familiarized with its poison ; and that, too, so subtilly mixed up with truth, that it will be the more likely to pass un- observed and unsuspected ? " The apology for this is, that as ' our own daily service is formed upon the Breviary, it may suggest character and matter for our private devotions, over and above what our Reformers have thought fit to adopt into our public services ;' and this, it is said, will only be 'carrying out and completing what they have begun.' Now, will it not rather be undoing what they have done 9 For they retained the sound doctrines, and rejected the error; and we, it seems, shall complete their design by re producing the error, and incorporating it with the truth. " Let us take an example to illustrate it. In the same page occurs the beautiful Collect which our Church has adopted : ' Grant to us, Lord, we beseech thee, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance, that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness, through the Lord;' and then immediately follows, 'Holy Mary, succour the wretched] &c. ; and after several similar supplica- tions, it is added, ' Pray for us, Holy Mother of God.'-\- Brethren, have we forgotten Him who hath said, ' I will not give my glory unto another 9 ' There is ONE GOD and ONE MEDIATOR between God and men' 9 Have we forgotten that great and terrible name by which He has revealed Himself, ' The Lord, whose name is JEALOUS, is a jealous God '9 J And then can we dare thus to mix together the chaff and the wheat that which glorifies God, and that which dishonours Him upon pretence of ' suggesting matter for our private devotions,' and think it enough to plead for such a practice, that ' these portions of the Breviary carry with them their own plain con- demnation in the judgment of an English Christian ? ' * Tracts for the Times, No. 75. t Ibid. No. 75, p. 53 J Is. xlviii. 11. 1 Tim. ii. 5. Exod. xxxiv. 14. ^ Tracts for the Times, No. 75, p. 9. M2 164 APPENDIX. " And how is this poison neutralized in the defence of the publication subsequently put forth ? A very mild censure is past on the Church of Rome in the form of a question : 'Is it not safest not to pay the saints this extraordinary honour ? '* And afterwards a direct defence is set up for a practice, which may justly be regarded as the first step to this, and which has no warrant either in Scripture or the writings of our Church viz., that of applying to departed saints, in conjunction with living ones, to * pray the Lord our God for us.' It is true, that this is not direct worship ; but see how easily and naturally it leads to it. You begin with asking jointly the prayers of the living and the dead ; then, as you profess to attach a greater reverence to departed saints, and a greater value to their intercessions, it is not unnatural that sometimes, at least, the prayers of the dead should be sought too, apart from those of the living ; and then, past experience shews us how easily this passes into the direct Invocation of Saints. Upon their own grounds, then, it is not SAFEST not to admit the practice of ' beseeching Mary, and John Baptist, and Peter, and Paul, and all Saints,' with our living brethren, to pray for us?" Sermon ii., pp. 19 21. CAUTION AGAINST ADOPTING THE SYSTEM OF THE TRACTARIANS. " Suffer me now, brethren, in the conclusion of the whole subject, to submit a few brief remarks, by way of putting you in remembrance on some leading and practical points. " Let me remind you, then, of the present position of this im- portant question, and your mvn position, as members of the Church of England, in relation to it. And if you determine to take your stand upon the principles of that system, which not my choice, but a sense of duty, has led me to bring under your consideration, weigh well the tendencies of it, the direction in which it leads you, and the issue to which it will probably conduct you : for it is a wise maxim brought forward on the other side, and equally just as against themselves, ' To see where we shall * Dr. Puscy's Letter to the Bishop of Oxford, pp. 196 199203. See on this subject the whole article on Prayer to Saints in Usher's Answer to a Jesuit, and especially pp. 871, 372. PROFESSOR SCHOLEFIELD. 165 end if we go forward, may, through God's mercy, persuade us to go back.'* " If you enter, then, upon such a course as this, where do you hope to stop ? The direction in which you are going leads evidently to the Church of Rome ; and Rome is already exulting in anticipated triumph, as she marks the footsteps of so many bending towards her. Are you so perfectly armed at all points, that you can take fire in your bosom and not be burnt ?f Can you venture within the camp of the enemy, virtually stripped of that heavenly armour which is your only adequate pro- tection ? and, standing on the middle ground between Pro- testantism and Popery, do you hope that you can win over the adherents of that great apostasy, and will not rather give them facilities which they will too successfully turn against you ? Oh, standfast, while you may, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free / J Do not adopt the very principles by which Rome acquired and maintained so long her dominion over the souls of men. Do not take that first step in error, which will so naturally lead you on to another and another, and which, if you go far enough, will certainly conduct you to all the pernicious abominations of Roman corruption.^ " Beware also of the opposite danger of Infidelity, of the spirit of infidelity creeping into your religious speculations, and so beguiling your mind, and taking the imagination captive, as to bring you finally to deny the Lord that bought you. And this, like the former, is no imaginary danger, no impossible result, as arising out of the principles we have been considering. The upholders of those principles I mean not to charge with being infidels, or with any propensities or tendencies in that direction ; God forbid ! they are but the unconscious and in- voluntary pioneers of infidelity. They will loosen our exclusive hold on the great doctrines of Scripture, only to make us afraid of * Newman's Lectures on Justification, p. 141. t Proverbs, vi. 27. \ Gal. v. 1. " On the very day after this Sermon was preached there appeared in a London newspaper a painful illustration of the justness of the apprehension expressed above. The account given by ' A graduate of Oxford' of a young Protestant's conversion to. Popery, by means of the publications which called forth this warning protest, needs no comment ; but surely it may not un- reasonably admonish the authors of those publications to ' consider their ways.' " 166 APPENDIX. rejecting their own theories; but when they have thus set men's minds in motion, they can neither regulate the direction in which they shall move, nor fix the limit to which they shall advance : some will go beyond them into Popery, and others will start aside from them into Infidelity. You have seen into how near a position they bring Transubstantiation and the Divinity of the Holy Ghost. Now, an infidel will turn the argument thus : ' These two doctrines stand upon the same ground, and must either be received or rejected together. You cannot, of course, admit Transubstantiation ; but you must either admit that, or reject the other.' Whichever alternative may be accepted in an individual case, the original movers of the ima- ginary difficulty, however unfeignedly they may lament it, cannot have much reason to wonder or complain. " Pause, then, I beseech you, before you commit yourselves to this appalling danger. Refuse to be driven by an argument which allows you no resting-place to stand still upon ; be con- tent to hold in simplicity the great verities of Christian faith, and stand aloof from a school of theology which manifests a propensity so perilously to tamper with them. " Be aware, that by adopting the system in question, you are drawing off" from that spiritual religion, in which our Aposto- lical Church seeks to bring up her children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Not only soundness of doctrine, but fervour of devotion and habitual communion with God by His Spirit, are the essential elements of that religion which is life and peace. Truly our fellowship is with the Father and ivith His Son Jesus Christ. Now, as you have seen, ' tJiere be some that trouble you, and would pervert the Gospel of Christ.' DEFECTS AND ERRORS IN THE TEACHING OF THE TRACTARIANS. " In their teaching, CHRIST is not honoured as the Alpha and Omega of a sinner s salvation. The WORD OF GOD is degraded from its high pre-eminence. The SPIRIT OF GOD, with all His riches of grace and mighty influences and Divine consolations, is overlooked and forgotten. WORKS AND OUR OWN HOLINESS are mixed with Christ in the matter of JUSTIFICATION, and the whole subject of Justification itself is thrown back into that darkness and confusion, out of which the Reformers under God recovered PROFESSOR SCHOLEFIELD. 167 it. FORMS AND CEREMONIES are magnified beyond their due im- portance, to the prejudice of that which our Lord preferred before all forms of place and circumstance, the worshipping God in spirit and in truth. The SACRAMENTS, from being seals and means of grace, are perverted into instruments of Justification^ and are declared to be the Keys of the kingdom of lieavcn ;* and so men are led to place a reliance upon them, which, being in- dependent of Faith in receiving them, will too probably be fatal to their souls." Sermon v., pp. 115 119. DISPARAGEMENT OF THE REFORMERS AND THE REFORMATION. " Finally, let it be remembered, that the controversy calls upon us to declare ourselves either for or against the venerable Reformers of our Church. There is no middle course. It is declared that the Church of the sixteenth century stands opposed to that of the fourth ; and in a manner not at all ambiguous the preference is given to the latter.^ The authority of our Reformers is trampled upon, except where it may occa- sionally serve the purpose of their traducers. Bucer, the illustrious fellow-labourer of our Cranmer and Ridley, having been buried in the days of ' blessed King Edward,' within the walls of this sacred edifice, afterwards in the days of Mary was dug up from his resting-place, to be ignominiously burnt in our streets ; and now, at the distance of three hundred years, his memory is irreverently insulted, and a bitter taunt is hurled at the great name of Ridley, as having been ' the associate of Cranmer and Bucer f ' * a Compare with this view the passage, Matt. xvi. 19, and compare with it also the view of our Church, which certainly will not be suspected of under- valuing the Sacraments ; yet the language of the Rubric at the end of the Communion of the Sick is as follows : ' But if a man, either by reason of extremity of sickness, &c do not receive the Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood, the Curate shall instruct him, that if he do truly repent him of his sins, and steadfastly believe that Jesus Christ hath suffered death upon the Cross for him, and shed His Blood for his redemption, earnestly remember- ing the benefits he hath thereby, and giving Him hearty thanks therefore, he doth eat and drink the Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ profitably to his soul's health, although he do not receive the Sacrament with his mouthS " f Newman on Justification, pp. 209, 210. Froude's Remains, vol. i., pp. 379; 293. 168 APPENDIX. " Brethren I it is come to this: we must either discard our reverence for our martyred Reformers, or we must cling to them more closely and affectionately than ever. May their holy prin- ciples be more deeply rooted in the hearts of all the children of that Church, whose foundations they sealed with their blood !" Sermon v., pp. 121 123. XVII. THE REV. CHRISTOPHER BENSON, M.A. Canon of Worcester, and Master of the Temple. Discourses on Tradition and Episcopacy. Preached in the Temple Church, and published by request." Third edition. 1840. CHARACTER AND STATEMENTS OF THE TRACTARIAN8. " The Tractarians that is,, the authors, editors, and ap- provers, of the ' Tracts for the Times,' are divines of ac- knowledged piety, sincerity, and learning. It must always be painful to be in opposition to such men. But believing, as I do, that many of their statements are confused and vague, their arguments inconclusive, and their opinions, upon several points, indeterminate or exaggerated, and even sometimes erroneous, I thought it inconsistent neither with respect for their character, nor my duty to the Church, to endeavour to lay before my congregation, at the Temple, the views which appeared to my own mind to be both definite and correct, upon some of the most important points in debate.'' Preface, p. 3. THE SCRIPTURES AND THE FATHERS. " I beseech you, therefore, that ye be not turned away from an examination of the Scriptures for yourselves, or be induced to look on anything else as the rule of what you are to believe, and 'the judge of what your church and minister may teach you, as necessary to the attainment of eternal life. In ordinary times such an exhortation would have been almost needless. But these are days when, as in the political, so in the religious CANON BENSON. 169 world, all fixed and former opinions are called in question, for the purpose of being changed. " There has also been much written by a school of divines, which has appeared to many to be calculated, if not intended, to make men fearful of exercising their own thoughts upon what they read in the oracles of God, and to recommend the devout study of the Fathers, as the necessary and only sufficient guide to the pure doctrines of God's Word, the only sure guardian against our being deceived -when we read it. But be not ye moved by the fear of being mistaken, or by the false hope of finding out some readier and more excellent way, from your just de- pendence upon the Scriptures, as the inspired and only in- fallible standard and storehouse of things essential to faith and holiness. " In the Fathers, there is much piety and wisdom ; but it is mingled and debased by much that is weak, mistaken, and super- fluous. Self-denial is too often degraded by them into unmeaning austerities ; celibacy confounded with chastity ; frivolous observ- ances raised into holy mysteries; and the inventions of men clothed with the dignity of divine decrees. In reading them, therefore, with any reverential submission of the understanding and feelings, to their fancied excellence, we are but too liable to degenerate from the pure and perfect image of truth and righteous- ness which the Gospel holds forth, and to have our minds brought down to the level of their weaknesses, and beguiled by their errors, and degraded by their superstitions. For whatever we study much, and study as the source of our moral and religious knowledge, must possess a powerful influence in the formation of our understandings, the regulation of our feelings, and the direction of our conduct. Turn away, therefore, from these troubled fountains, these broken cisterns, and let them not be your dependence and your guides ; but give yourselves rather to the study of the glorious perfection of Holy Writ, that by the blessing of the Spirit on your labours, ye may be changed into something of a resemblance of its wisdom and grace." Sermon i., p. 24 26. EXAGGERATED VIEWS OF MINISTERIAL POWER AND AUTHORITY. " In treating, then, upon the dignity of the Christian Priest- hood, and more especially of that part of it which is established 170 APPENDIX. in our own land, and whose form of government is Episcopal, very lofty expressions are used by some to magnify the sacer- dotal authority. " We are told, for instance, that as we honour the King, because he is the King, 'just in the same way, though for much higher reasons, should we honour the Bishop, because he is the Bishop.' " The foundation of this claim is next laid before us, and the reasonableness of it enforced upon the following assertion namely, ' that we may be as sure that the Bishop is Christ's representative, as if we actually saw upon his head a cloven tongue like as of fire.' " The Bishop's administration of the offices of his high station, is, consequently, exalted in the same degree. In the rite of Confirmation he is described as being 'our Lord's figure and likeness when he lays his hands upon the heads of the children.' In the rite of Ordination it is declared, that 'as God sent Christ, so Christ works in the Bishop, and so the Bishop speaks in the Priest.' Moreover, it is added, ' the Bishop rules the whole Church here below, as Christ rules it above; and here again is a figure and a witness of Christ.' " As the result of these various statements, it is inferred, * that the Clergy have a commission from God Almighty, through regular succession from the Apostles, not only to preach the Gospel, and administer the Sacraments, but to guide the Church,' and are entitled and called not only to exhort and rebuke, but to ' rule with all authority, as well as love and humility,' and that in fact, ' he that despises them, despises the Apostles.' As their credentials for the assumption of all this dignity, and the exercise of all this authority, those words of our Saviour are quoted, in which He gave to His Apostles the power of remitting and retaining sins, and those in which He conferred upon St. Peter the privilege of having bound and loosed in heaven whatever he should bind or loose upon earth. " The necessary conclusion which is drawn from all these privileges of the Episcopal ministry, is the solemn obligation of ecclesiastical submission in the congregations of Christ. The members of the Church are, therefore, instructed that they are bound not only to hear their teachers with attention, and CANON BENSON. 171 receive the Sacraments at their hands, but to pay them also all dutiful obedience. The period is also looked forward to with approbation, when men will honour the Clergy ' with a purer honour than they do now namely, as those who are entrusted with tJie keys of heaven and /tell, as the heralds of mercy, as the denouncers of woe to wicked men, as entrusted with the awful and mysterious gift of making the bread and wine Christ's Body and Blood, and as far greater than the most powerful and wealthiest of men in their unseen strength and heavenly riches.'* " There is, perhaps, a sense in which, after many limitations, every one of these expressions may be innocently used. When stripped of their mysterious garb of metaphor, the meaning which a judicious and humble mind would ultimately assign to them, might be found, perhaps, to be not absolutely inconsistent, either with the declarations of Scripture, or the best interests of man. But language so strangely awful should never be left undefined. " When figurative representations of the power belonging to the Clergy are introduced, which, if not strictly limited and carefully explained, would lead the ministers of the Lord to indulge in exaggerated ideas of their own office and dignity, and generate in their followers a superstitious reverence for t/ieir persons, and a dreadful apprehension with regard to the spiritual efficacy, for good or for evil, of their words and acts, in that case, it is most dangerous and unjust to leave such represent- ations without those correctives which are requisite to prevent any objectionable impression from being made. Every effort should then be employed to bring down the lofty phrases to the simplicity of Gospel truth, and allow no room for pride, on the one hand, or ignorance on the other, to fall into mistakes so full of hazard. " But what other tendency can fairly be attributed to the bold assertions to which I have referred, than that of raising such improper dispositions or unhappy feelings as those which I have named ? The keys of hell are placed, by St. John, in the hand of our blessed Saviour alone. The keys of the kingdom * " The passages quoted in this Discourse will be found in the ' Tracts for the Times,' No. 10, entitled, ' Heads of a Week-Day Lecture," and in No. 17." 172 APPENDIX. of heaven upon earth are also entrusted by that Saviour to St. Peter ; but the keys of heaven itself are nowhere granted, "either to him or to any other of the Apostles. What, then, can be the effect of applying to the servant that awful language which Scripture appropriates to his Lord, but that of mis- leading both the shepherd arid the flock into the unauthorized imagination that the prerogatives of the Lord are communicated to the servant; and that he has, in a very high degree, the wondrous and fearful privilege of opening so that no other man shutteth, and of shutting so that no other man openeth, either the gates of torment in hell, or the door of blessedness in heaven ? " MAKING CHRIST'S BODY AND BLOOD. " We are told, again, in various passages of the Gospel, that what our Lord did when He blessed the bread and the wine, and delivered them to the Apostles as His body and His blood, that same thing the Apostles were to do in remembrance of Him. St. Paul adds, that thus we are to shew the Lord's death till He come ; so that we are verily persuaded, that what our Redeemer Himself performed as a consecration of the elements in the assembly of His chosen disciples, His ministers, unto the end of His dispensation, are to imitate in all other congregations of the faithful. But there is no scriptural authority for a phrase so startling as that of < MAKING Christ' s body and blood.' Neither is it a privilege which the holiest and most favoured Apostles, continually as they were employed in the breaking of the bread and the blessing of the cup, for the devout reception of the Redeemer's Church, have at any time ventured to assume unto themselves. St. John speaks with fervent reverence of that which he and his chosen brethren had seen with their eyes, and which their hands had handled ; but never does he allude to that which their hands had MADE of the Word of Life. The expression, indeed, is one which must always sound strange and presumptuous to the humble ear, however inoffensive may be the sense it is intended to bear. " But when we remember that it is capable of being under- stood as conveying something analogous to that great error of Transubstantiation from which we have separated ; that it appears to give the priest a function which invests him with CANON FABER. 173 a creative power ; and that it is not forced upon us, or even sanctioned by Holy Writ, it cannot be expedient to use it at all, and must lead the unwary into the supposition of some incon- ceivable and mysterious attribute of the Christian priesthood, which may confound the understanding, and awake the mind to a superstitious dread ; but which can add nothing to the real edification of the life, or the inward comfort of the soul of the believer." Sermon ii., pp. 31 36, " But, what ! Are not the Scriptures open to all ? And do not they proclaim as clearly, and far more authoritatively, than we can do, that God is merciful to those who repent and believe ? The people, therefore, who read the Scriptures, are not deprived, by our silence as to our commission, of the blessedness of knowing that, through repentance and faith, their sins will be forgiven. The only persons whom our silence, as to our commission, would affect, would be those who are unhappily persuaded, that \vithout the declara- tion of an episcopally ordained priest, the absolution and remission of their sins will not be obtained. But I fervently hope that this persuasion will never prevail in our Church. The worst evils of Popery are near at hand, as soon as anything like it is allowed" Notes, p. 103. XVIII. REV. GEORGE STANLEY FABER, B.D. Canon of Salisbury, and Master of SherburnHospital. " The Primitive Doctrine of Justification Investigated. Second edition: with an Appendix, containing, among other matters, a Notice of Mr. Newman's Lectures on Justification.'" 1839. PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD. RESERVE IN PREACHING THE ATONEMENT. ILLEGITIMATE ROMISH PRINCIPLE ADOPTED BY THE TRACTAEIANS. " Can I conclude a Treatise on the Primitive Doctrine of Justification without seriously expressing my sorrow, that men 174 APPENDIX. should be found in the bosom of the Church of England, who, apparently careless of the mischief which they may do, can amuse themselves with tossing about paradoxes, much as indiscreet children amuse themselves with tossing about fire- brands ? " Mere tolerable trifles, which, if they do no good, may, peradventure, do no great harm, we may silently pretermit, satisfied with the conviction, that, like other toys of ingenious and speculative men, they will have their day, and then dis- appear, until possibly another turn of the wheel of fancy may again bring them into observation. " But the case is widely different when we are gravely assured tliat an actual adoption of the very Principle of Popery, in tJie matter of Prayers for the Dead, argues no tendency to Popery ; and still more when from the misrepresented practice of the early Church, we are no less gravely told, that the Clergy, on the very same Principle, ought to be reserved and backward in preaching, upon all occasions, explicitly and promi- nently, the doctrine of the ATONEMENT. " The present times, sure enough, in more respects than one, are wofully out of joint ; but when such things are indus- triously propounded as jit and suitable to them, it clearly becomes a duty more especially on the part of the Clergy, to protest, so far as we have opportunity, against vagaries of this worse than ambiguous character." Appendix, pp. 446, 447. " But the principle, adopted by the Oxford Tract writers, and most wofully exemplified in the two cases of favouring Prayers for the Dead and of eschewing in our public Sermons on all occasions an explicit and prominent declaration of the ATONEMENT, (though here, even on their own grounds, most erroneously,) while it professes to include the legitimate principle of the true Anglican appeal to Antiquity namely, an appeal touching the right interpretation of Doctrinal Scripture, unhappily adds to it the ILLEGITIMATE PRINCIPLE of the Church of Rome, as it is formally propounded and maintained by the Council of Trent an ILLEGITIMATE PRINCIPLE, by virtue of which, purely on the authority of some certain of the Fathers, or on the practice of the Church at a later period while she was rapidly sinking into the predicted apostatic corruption, we are called upon to settle our faith and to regulate our practice CANON FADER. 175 in accordance with, and in dependence upon, statements which nowhere occur in Scripture, and which frequently (to say the least of them) are anything rather than agreeable to the analogy of the Christian Faith." Pages 448, 449. MB. NEWMAN AND HIS SYSTEM. " A correspondence with Mr. Newman has given me the highest opinion of his truly Christian spirit ; and a personal conversation with him has heightened that opinion. While I mourn over his extraordinary delusion, I feel that I could love him as a brother. But still, even to my respect and regard for such a man, the lofty cause of Christian Truth must not be betrayed and sacrificed. "The least evil of Mr. Newman's System is, that it is a tissue of contradictions and inconsistencies. Were it nothing more, it would reflect only upon his own clearness of apprehension ; but, unhappily, it exhibits a strange and mischievous attempt to mix up together ivholesome food and rank poison, the sound doctrine of the Church of England and the pernicious dogmas of the Church of Rome, Scriptural Orthodoxy and Popish Hetero- doxy :' Pages 426, 427. CHARACTER AND VIEWS OF THE TRACTARIANS. "Of our brethren who profess to emit Tracts suitable for the Times, whether in the way of guiding the Laity, or of in- structing the Clergy, I would willingly speak with all kindness and affection. " There is, I believe, according to their own views, much good intention, much sincerity, and much religious feeling among them ; but the whole is unhappily distorted into such a strange, unaccountable shape, if shape it might be called that shape had none distinguishable, it presents such an extraordinary admix- ture, of the trifling and the serious, of the true and the false, of the openly propounded and the apparently withheld, (though the publication of Mr. Froude's Remains has, indeed, most ef- fectually withdrawn the veil from much of this last character,) that a quiet divine of the sober school of Jewel and of Hooker, (though Jewel, I admit, has, with sundry other children of the 176 APPENDIX. Reformation, been put under the awful ban of Mr. Froude, (Remains, vol. i., p. 380,) finds himself pretty much in the un- comfortable predicament of those monarchs, who, as a great poet assures us, are perplexed with fear of change, by reason of the disastrous twilight unluckily produced by some dim eclipse. " May our brethren be led, by the good Spirit of God, to turn their real excellence into a channel, beneficial to their own souls, and profitable to sound religion ! May they, in conformity with the sound advice of our ancient English Homilist, diligently search for the well of life in the boohs of the Old and New Testament ; and not run to the stinking puddles of men 1 s traditions, devised by men's imagination, for our Justi- fication and Salvation. And may they, more and more, be brought to the conviction that, in Holy Scripture is fully contained what we ought to do and what to eschew ; what to believe, what to love, and what to look for at God's hands. "- Pages 452, 453. XIX. DR. HAWKINS, Canon of Rochester, and Provost of Oriel College. " The Ministry of Men in the Economy of Grace and the Danger of over- valuing it." A Sermon preached before the University of Oxford, Oct. 25, 1840. " A revived attention to the study of ecclesiastical antiquity, and an increased regard for the Church as a Divine Institution, such as we have lately witnessed in this country, ought to be exceedingly beneficial. But they are likely to be sometimes accompanied by too indiscriminate an admiration of the works of the Fathers, and too unreserved an acquiescence in their lan- guage and views with respect to what is often called the Church system. Hence the occasion of the greater part of the follow- ing Discourse." Adv., p. 3. CANON HAWKINS. 177 INVASION OF THE DIVINE GLORY BY AN UNDUE EXALTATION OF THE OFFICES AND DIGNITY OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. " Those are the most likely to be ensnared by unperceived and unsuspected desires after spiritual power, ivhose souls are altogether raised above the sordid views of vulgar minds. And the danger will be indirect. Even the monstrous system of Rome, although at length it exalted the agency of Priests and Saints to the very height of blasphemy, yet did not begin with any direct intention of invading the Divine glory. Yet it is an invasion of the Divine glory, although indirect and perhaps unperceived, if, in any case, we extend the offices or dignity of His ministers beyond what our Lord has authorized ; claim a Divine warrant for rites and institutions which, however useful or excellent, are of human appointment ; invest the Sacraments and Ministry, which He has really appointed, with unscriptural characters ; or preach as the doctrines of Revelation what, whether right or wrong, are only the opinions of men. " And that we may observe the subtle and unsuspected in- fluence of this temptation upon the minds of Christians of the purest and most exalted character, such of my hearers as have leisure for the inquiry would do well to trace it in the early Christian Church, and even in Apostolical men, whose valuable remains have indeed been bequeathed to the Church for our great advantage, yet which often breathe a tone and spirit unlike that of the Apostles of Christ, and do not speak ' as the oracles of God: " ALTERED MEANING OF THE WORDS, 'MYSTERY,' 'OFFERING,' ' ALTAR, ' PRIEST,' ' SACRIFICE.' " Thus it is not a little instructive to observe the gradual alteration of the senses of words, of words, that is to say, more or less technical, such as ' mystery, 1 ( offering] ' altar,' 'priest,' 'sacrifice.' For these, as they are gradually employed in senses unlike those which they bear in the New Testament, indicate a gradual change in the views and practices of the Church, and such a change as we are now considering ; a ten- dency towards an undue exaltation of that human instrumentality which our Lord has condescended to employ in the economy of His kingdom of grace. 178 APPENDIX. " After the same manner the term ' sacrifice,' came to be applied to the Lord's Supper by the early Fathers, and with a lavish variety of epithets ' holy, sacred, spiritual, reasonable, life-giving, mystic, fearful, terrible, tremendous,' epithets which would tend, some of them, even more perhaps than the term itself, when taken in combination with that term, to obscure the scriptural character of that blessed Sacrament.* In the New Testament, on the contrary, the word Qvaia is frequently employed, but always either with reference to the sacrifices under the Law, or with relation to the Sacrifice of the Saviour Himself, or with a metaphorical application, which could mislead no one, to the spiritual sacrifices of our praises and thanksgivings, our alms, our bodies, and our Christian lives. " Just so of the word ' altar, 1 Qvaiaar^wv, which would naturally be used in corresponding senses. In the New Testa- ment there is only one place in which, with any shew of like- lihood, it can be interpreted with reference to the Table of the Lord ; and in this it probably refers to Christ Himself; but in the early Church the term was soon applied metaphorically to the Lord's Table, which, by degrees, came to be regarded even as an actual altar " In exact accordance, lastly, with the changes in the em- ployment of such terms as have been mentioned, we find that remarkable difference in the use of the word ' Priest,' uptix;, to which the attention of Protestants has often been directed. . . . Considering that the Apostles were even more familiar than the Fathers with the terms and rites of the Mosaic Law, it is the more remarkable that the inspired writers, whilst they continually employ the words ieptvs and ap\ipevQ, with re- ference to the Priests under the Law, should in no single instance have designated the ministers of Christ by the names of the Mosaic Priesthood, but have either spoken of the whole body of the faithful as the Priests of God, or, more commonly, * " It is obvious that the combination of some of these epithets with the word ' Sacrifice,' may be of great importance e. g. , either of the two Sacra- ments may be justly called 'a life-giving Sacrament,' if at least the nature of a Sacrament is properly understood ; but call the Eucharist a ' life-giving Sacrifice,' and the expression tends immediately to overthrow the nature of a Sacrament, by confounding the sign with the thing signified, and to obscure our single view of that one Sacrifice upon the Cross, which is the fountain of our spiritual life." Articles xxv., xxviii., xxxi. CANON HAWKINS. 179 applied the titles of Priest and High Priest to Him, to whom alone they can with strict propriety be attributed under the Gospel. " .... It is instructive to observe the frequent use of even an obvious and innocent metaphor gradually tending towards an erroneous creed, and a gradual declension from a Scriptural use of words indicating an increasing disposition to give more than a scriptural prominence to human instruments and their ministrations. " Take almost any passage in which several of such words occur together, and they will scarcely sound like ' the oracles of God,' as, 'Ev TE\EI Se Travrwv 6 'lepapx 7 ^ ETTJ n)v tepwran?*' KaXel TOV rfrfXeCTjufVov, /cat r% TUV reXeortJCtZv fivcr- raSicufft KoivwviaQ.* How different is this lan- guage, ' the Hierarch,' ' the initiated,' ' the mysteries that make perfect,' from the simple 'breaking of bread' in the Apostolic age, though the Apostles did not fail to teach ex- pressly the transcendent importance of that heavenly feast, and the great danger of the unworthy partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ." Sermon, pp. 1421. XX. REV. GEORGE TOWNSEND, M.A. Canon of Durham. Charge to the Clergy of the Peculiar of Allerton and Allertonshire. 1838. BRIEF NOTICE OF OBJECTIONABLE STATEMENTS. " I turn to you, ray Reverend Brethren, to beg you to per- mit me, with great respect and deference, to speak to you on a point of much greater moment, than any to which I have now * From the work ascribed to Dionysius Areop. de Hiernrch. Eccles. c. ii., sect, viii., p. 224, cited by Suicer under the word, N2 180 APPENDIX. referred the preaching of the doctrine of THE ATONEMENT, as the sum and substance of Christianity. I should deem myself, however, to be most presumptuous in requesting, that I might address you on such a subject, if circumstances had not rendered it necessary that some among us, who are invested unth authority to speak to their Brethren, as I now do to you, should direct their attention to this important and most solemn topic." Page 11. " Favour me with your attention while I relate the whole matter respecting a publication which recommends to your approbation, from a most influential quarter, a great error, against which I consider it to be my duty to warn you, and with you, all my brethren of the Church of which we are members. " For some years past a series of Tracts have been published by certain members of the University of Oxford, addressed generally to the Clergy, to me, and to you. I am about to notice, at any length, only one of these publications. " I have but time to point out to you the very objectionable manner in which their authors speak of the CHURCH OF ROME, as our Mother, through whom we were born to Christ.* Whereas the conversion of the Saxons under Augustine was not only limited and partial, though it was made the ground-work of sub- sequent usurpation ; but the faith of Augustine was almost as different from the Creed of Trent as the Articles of the Church of England are different from the same formulary. t " CATHOLIC TRADITION J is declared to be the Interpreter of Scripture ; whereas Catholic Tradition is the source of at least as much error as it is of truth ; and it can only be considered, therefore, as an additional evidence to that of accomplished prophecy, history, criticism, the analogy of faith, and other proofs of the truth of Christianity ; and without these, there can be no dependence upon any supposed uniform tradition of Scriptural interpretation. " THE BREAD AND WINE in the Sacrament is declared to be, to devout men and to pious minds, merely an edifying ceremony ; but not the ' verily and indeed taking and receiving ' the Body Tracts for the Times, No. 77, p. 33. t See Soame's Anglo-Saxon Church, and Batnpton Lectures. J Tracts for the Times, No. 71, p. 8. CANON TOVVNSEND. 181 and Blood of Christ, unless the Eucharist be administered by a minister of the APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION.* " So much of the rejected BREVIARY of the Church of Rome is approved, that we find the prayers to the Virgin Mary to in- tercede for us, to be mentioned, without sufficient reprobation, either of its idolatry, or of the innumerable evils which have resulted from the old doctrine of canoni/ed Saints, and suppli- cations to the Virgin, the Angels, the Apostles, and the Saints to intercede for us at the throne of God.t " Much lamentation is expressed over the FIRST SERVICE BOOK OF KING EDWARD. " EPISCOPACY, which is an institution of Apostolical origin, ancient, useful, honourable, and entitled to the universal homage of Christians ; and whose first demands to our respect can hardly be asserted too strongly, is so mentioned, that the most firm asserter of its claims, among those who remember that it is possible a Bishop, as well as a Presbyter or Deacon, may preach error, and be, therefore, personally unworthy of our approbation, shrinks back from the sentiments. of the writer,:}: and refuses to unite in the praise which the unsparing language of the author of the Tract in question elicits from our Papist brethren. RESERVE IN PREACHING THE ATONEMENT. " I pass these, and many other things, and leave them to ano- nymous Popish praise, or to anonymous Protestant censure, for * Tracts for the Times, No. 52, p. 7 : " I love and value the Apostolical Succession as a certain and undoubted channel of God's love anil mercy to the Church. But when I remember that the Apostolical Succession has taught error, I dare not say it is the sole, only, exclusive channel of grace, and affirm that none of the Lutheran or Calvinistic Churches have ever partaken truly of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper." t " I refer here to the Work it is not a Tract, No. 75 on the Roman Breviary. The direct worship of Saints and of the Virgin is censured, pp. 9 and 23 ; but it is so mentioned, in pp. 61 , 10 and 1 1, that I express my opinion very gently, when I say the passages in question excited much surprise." \ " See Tract No. 10, p. 4. We must be as sure that the Bishop is Christ's appointed representative, as if we actually saw him work miracles, as St. Peter and St. Paul did. With much more of the same sort. It is im- possible that our people can be as sure. The evidence is not the same. Various degrees of evidence produce various degrees of conviction." 182 APPENDIX. the more important matter of rebuking an error which I believe to be utterly subversive of the objects for which the Scriptures were written, for which the Catholic Church, in the true sense of tJtat word, has been established upon earth ; and for ichich the Church of England is open to all, and appeals to all" Pages 1318. The error to which I refer shall be mentioned in the words of the writer. It is the inference or conclusion, from the preceding reasoning in his book. It is this : " ' The prevailing notion of bringing forward the Atonement explicitly and prominently on all occasions, is evidently quite opposed to what we consider the teaching of Scripture, nor do we find any sanction for it in the Gospels. If the Epistles of St. Paul appear to favour it, it is only at first sight.'* Page 23. " The question is, whether we, the teachers of Christianity, are to possess the power of withholding, at our pleasure, in the public worship of God, or in the general instruction of the people, any part of the mysteries of religion, or the whole counsel of God? Are we to be entrusted with the tremendous power of saying to our congregations, ' God has revealed to mankind certain truths respecting His divine nature, and the manner in which alone the fallen race of man can be reconciled to Him ; but you are ignorant, weak, and unlearned, and I will teach to you these sublime truths, tvith a reserve, of which I will be the judge, and you shall be the victim?' <{ I tell you, my Christian brethren, that the Services of the Church of England are constructed on the very opposite principle. We teach all the mysteries all the deep mysteries of Chris- tianity to our people, in the public prayers of the Church, without any reserve, on account of supposed unfitness from ignorance, or unfitness from wickedness, to receive them. If they are so taught in our prayers, it is our bounden duty to teach them, without re- serve, from the pulpit ; and to leave the sincerity of the prayer which the people may offer, and the manner too in which they shall receive our instruction, to the God who shall judge them. We are to teach the whole counsel of God; and if the principles of this Tract be adopted, our services must be reconstructed our Congregations classed, like large schools, according to their knoio- * Tracts for the Times, No. 80, p. 74. CANON TOWNSEND. 183 ledge, talents, power of expression, and general proficiency. Pride of intellect would succeed to holiness of heart. The submis- sion of reason to Revelation, in ivhich so large a portion of our moral probation consists, would be ruined by the subtilties of a disputatious philosophy. The Clergy would be invested ivith an authority tohich the ivorld, I trust, could not again bear ; and the worst evils from ivhich the intellect and the sou/ /tare escaped in this Christian England, would be imposed upon the Church and people. " I have thus, as briefly as possible, submitted to you, my Christian brethren, the evil ivhich I deeply regret to see begin to prevail in the Church, the perversion, by learning, of the simplicity of Christian teaching. I would not have ventured thus to ad- dress you, if I had not believed it to be my bounden duty to your- selves and to tJte Church to God and His glory to my blessed Saviour, and the cause of His holy Gospel. The plague has begun. In spite of the loathing of these doctrines, on the part of so many of the most attached and zealous of our laity, our brethren at Oxford are continuing to revive the obsolete to recommend the foundations of the old and unendurable pretensions on which all the power of Rome was founded and to render, therefore, the Reformation, which is nothing but a re-establishment amongst us of Spiritual and Scriptural Christianity, a bye-word and a reproach.* " My Christian brethren, forgive me for so long occupying your time. Permit me again, as the last word I may have an opportunity of speaking to you in this official manner, to charge you, and to implore you, to stand fast in that liberty from the old bondage, from which Christ, or the conviction of the neces- sity of holiness, proceeding from faith in His Atonement, hath set free this country, and its Holy Church. I charge you, as you value the salvation of the people the spirit of the Ordinances of the Church the happiness of your own souls peace of con- science, and the faithful discharge of your solemnly sworn duties, to preach the doctrine O/"THE ATONEMENT without reserve, on all occasions, explicitly and prominently, as the foundation of all your hopes of usefulness. * I recommend to my readers the study of a small Tract, by the Rev. Fred. W. Faber, Fellow of University College, entitled, " The Reformation ; and the Duty of keeping to its Principles." 184 APPENDIX. " I charge you, in the name of Christ, and as the last tones of the dying jurisdiction which enables me to address you, to shun these novelties, to despise such teaching, to abhor such perver- sions of learning as those of which I have now spoken. I call upon you, in the right and strict sense of the words, to adopt the language of St. Paul / am determined to know nothing among any people, but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, to the Greeks, to the worldly philosopher, to the proud of intellect, to the puffed in head, and the vain in heart, foolishness, indescrib- able foolishness ; but to the humble Christian, to the penitent sinner, to the inquirer, What shall I do to be saved? Christ the ivisdom of God to the reason, and the power of God to sanctify and to change the affections. " My Christian brethren ! the common faith of the peasant, the vulgar Christianity which the wayfaring man, though a fool, derives from the study of Scripture, and the Services of the Church, is the one true religion of Christ. Teach and preach it with all its doctrines, and all its mysteries, with all authority, and without reserve" Pages 37 41. XXI. DR. WILSON, Canon of Winchester. A Brief Examination of Professor Keble's Visitation Sermon, entitled, ' Primitive Tradition recognised in Holy Scripture.' " 1837. UNITY OF THE CHURCH CATHOLIC IN THE FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS OF CHRISTIANITY, AFTER THE REFORMATION. " Three centuries have passed away since the honest and intrepid protestation of Luther, against the corruptions, errors, and abuses of the visible church, resounded throughout Christen- dom. It pleased God to give such vigour arid success at that time to the testimony for divine truth, that countless multitudes, sunk in moral degradation, under superstition and idolatry, were CANON WILSON. 185 roused to new energies in spiritual religion. The Church clothed herself with the garments of salvation, and resumed her sacred character in the world, as a witness for God. " It is true, that a large portion of those who had been in external communion with the Church, refused to take their stand with her in this high station. Divisions and separa- tions ensued ; but the charge of schism fell back on those who proved themselves not ' of the truth.' The undoubted followers of Him who ' came to bear witness to the truth,' were of one heart and of one mind in all the leading points of Christian Faith ; and the confessions which issued from several branches of the Church Catholic, present a harmony of belief which can- not but deeply interest the minds of all who sincerely love the Lord Jesus Christ. The essential features of every truth which a Christian ought to know and believe to his soul's health,' were thus clearly defined ; and the frequent discussions into which the members of the Reformed Churches were calledj tended to establish the great and unchangeable principles on which Scrip- ture truth must for ever rest." CHARACTER AND EFFECTS OF THE VIEWS OF THE TRACTAR1ANS. " Many of these principles, alas ! are overlooked, disparaged, or forgotten, in the present day ; and, instead of building on the foundations thus laid, men are raising up novel theories, which have no agreement, or but a partial one, with those doctrines for which confessors and martyrs shed their blood. " The consequence is, that weak minds are bewildered, the un- learned and unstable are seduced from the simplicity of the Gos- pel ; and true, vital religion is impaired or destroyed, where it seemed to be taking root in the heart. " The writer of these pages means not to prejudge the in- quiry on which he is about to enter; but thus much he may be allowed to state, in limine, that he would have been far from putting his hand to the undertaking, if he had not the fullest conviction that some of the positions assumed in the sermon to which he is about to refer, are in direct opposition to the acknotv- Icdffcd principles of Protestantism, and calculated to obscure or displace some nf the most important doctrines of Scripture" Pages 1, 2. 186 APPENDIX B. Pages 2123. " THE SACRAMENTS, NOT PREACHING, ARE THE SOURCES OF DIVINE GRACE."* ' IT is worthy of notice, that in the Parisian Breviary, there appears no allusion to this end, as the object of building Churches, viz., the converting of persons by Preaching? Tracts for the Times, No. 80, p. 69. " The subject under discussion may, in the next place, be wisely applied as a test to the popular modes of extending Christianity, which partake of the spirit of the age. And these may be considered under three heads, that of bringing Churches near to the doors of everybody, cheap Publications, and National Schools If Churches are to be brought home to all, then are all persons to be brought into Churches, and this by human means So far from it being considered necessary to keep persons from Church on account of irreligious lives, it is usually thought that everything is done, if they can be brought to it." Tracts for the Times, No. 80, p. 68, 69, 63. SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY. " Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed ? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard ? And how shall they hear without a Preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent. . . * Tracts for the Times, Adv.. vol. i. APPENDIX. 187 ... So then Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Rom. x., 1317. " In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel." 1 Cor. iv. 15. vith the large and increasing numbers of candidates RELIGIOUS AWAKENING AT KISHNAGHUR. 193 for Baptism who had applied to him from all the villages around. He described himself as quite overwhelmed. I wrote to him a few lines instantly, to ' comfort him concerning his faith ;' and promised him to visit his station the moment I could get away from Calcutta. I begged him to answer me, in the mean time, eight or ten questions also, that I might judge the better of the blessed appearances which he spoke of. On the receipt of his reply I was struck with amazement and ad- miration of the grace of God I could scarcely believe the accounts, for joy. There seemed to be hundreds being 'born at once.' Finding that I was unable, however, to leave home, from an unexpected crowd of duties, I begged of the Arch- deacon to go down without delay, and bring up a full state- ment of the position of things, that I might submit it to the Church Missionary Corresponding Committee, and advise with them how to meet the rising demand for help. The Arch- deacon is just returned ; and the meeting of the Committee took place, as I have intimated, this morning : and I am now redeeming the pledge which I made of communicating with your Society, through its honoured President, without an instant's pause. " It appears that between fifty-Jive and sixty villages are thirsting for the waters of life, in a greater or less degree : they stretch to the north and north-east of Kishnaghur on the Jelingha, to the distance of forty or fifty miles, and to the south-west fifteen or twenty. The numbers described as pre- pared for holy Baptism in various measures of course are between three thousand and three thousand Jive hundred. The Archdeacon assisted himself at the reception of about Jive hundred souls, including women and children, into the Christian Church : and there seems the fairest prospect, if we can but enter at the wide and effectual door in time, that not only these 3000 or 4000, but the whole population of the fifty or sixty villages, may receive the Christian Faith, and resemble our Christian villages in the times of our Anglo-Saxon forefathers, in the sixth and seventh centuries. Such a glorious scene has never yet been presented to our longing eyes in Bengal ! And, after making all deductions for over-statements, sanguine hopes, the existence of secular motives, and the instability of large numbers nay, after allowing for the influence of the temporal 194 APPENDIX. relief which was exhibited to the sufferers, Christian and Heathen, by one of those inundations to which the sandy banks of the Jelingha are peculiarly liable, and which occurred during the progress of this religious awakening, and which ex- cited a natural admiration, as it ought to do, in the neighbour- hood, and contributed to augment the number of our inquirers admitting all this, and as much more as the most timid ob- server can require, it still appears that a mighty work of Divine Grace is begun a work wide and permanent, as we trust a work marking the finger of God a work which will demand, and warrant, and repay, all our pastoral care, anxiety, and labour a work for which our fathers in India, (Brown, Bu- chanan, Martyn, Thomason, and Bishops Corrie, Middleton, and Heber,) would have blessed and praised God, in the loudest strains of gratitude and joy." Religious Awakening at Kish- naghur, pp. 17 19. Bhoyrup, near Kishnaghur, Oct. 30, 1839. " I have now been twelve days in the midst of the Mission Villages of this Station, accompanied by my Chaplain, the Rev. John Henry Pratt ; and have been examining, to the very best of my power, the mighty work which has been for these two years going on : a work it is and a great one I cannot doubt a work of the Lord Jesus, of the same character as that for which St. Paul gave thanks without ceasing, on account of the Philippian Converts : Being confident of this very thing, that He which had begun a good work in them would perform it until the day of Jesus Christ a work, at the same time, requiring all the caution, fear, distrust, discipline, incessant nurture, which the Churches in the Apostolic times demanded, and without which the fairest prospects have been found, in every subse- quent age, to fade and disappear ; but a work calling for joy, gratitude, adoration to the God of all grace, and which may possibly issue in the awakening of the whole body of the Kurta- Bhojas to that inquiry after the Gospel which has already com- menced, and bring one hundred thousand souls within the boundaries of the Christian Church. " When I last wrote to your Lordship, in February, I men- tioned my design of beginning this winter's branch of my Second Visitation by coming to Kishnaghur. We arrived here on Saturday the 19th instant ; and the accidental delay of the RELIGIOUS AWAKENING AT K1SHNAGHUR. 195 steamer, which was to have met us at Moorshedabad, has given us a week's additional opportunity for observation. " The progress of things generally, since the Archdeacon's Report in February, has been most encouraging. Seventeen new villages have welcomed the Christian Instructors. The number of those who are asking the way to the Heavenly City is now above four thousand. The number baptized is, including those of which I shall presently give some account, between one thousand and one thousand one hundred. The demand for teachers stretches over an extent of 80 miles from Hooghly to the Jelingha ; and a family of seven Gooroos, who have had many thousands perhaps 8000 or 9000 under their direction, as spiritual guides, have embraced the Gospel, and placed them- selves among the catechumens of the Missionaries. Nor does there seem, at present, any given limit to the flowing tide : the current is widening and deepening daily on all hands ; and, I confess, I stand astonished and overwhelmed with the goodness and grace of God in Christ Jesus ! ' One day spent as yester- day was, in the Village of Joy, (Anunda Bas,) is worth as my honoured predecessor, Bishop Heber, said at Trichinopoly, in 1826 ' years of ordinary life.' " I find it difficult, indeed, to sober down my mind to that cool and discriminating point of judgment, which I know I ought to do, in estimating the real good likely to be effected. But I will do my best to moderate my feelings ; and your Lord- ship and the Society will still deduct from my statements what- ever you may think needful or safe. We are in a world of sin and temptation ; we have an active, powerful adversary. The human heart is deceitful, appearances are treacherous. Popular movements of any kind draw in numbers of ill-informed fol- lowers. The habits of Heathen Society soon steal behind the Christian Inquirer, and entangle him in the old ambush. The result of real conversions, even at home, and in our largest parishes, and where crowded congregations in every quarter promise abundant fruit, is comparatively small. What, then, are the allowances to be made for our feeble flocks in Pagan India ? Still, the work of grace is, I am persuaded, begun in this Station ; and these indications of the Spirit of God moving, as it were, on the face of the waters, are causes of admiration, hope, and praise. Such beginnings of things, indeed, may, and o 2 196 APPENDIX. will, to a certain extent, fail ; but, without these beginnings, all would remain fixed in death-like sleep. And these very begin- nings are what prophets and kings have desired to see, and have not seen them if I may allude to our Lord's language, with humble reverence, on such a theme." Progress of the Reli- gious Awakening at Kishnaghur, pp. 5 7. " On our return to Kishnaghur on Thursday, we found that the delay of the steamer would allow us a few more days ; and we instantly formed a plan for visiting Anunda Bas and Rano- bunda, where many candidates for Baptism, as well as Confir- mation, were anxiously awaiting us. On Monday the 28th, accordingly, we reached Ruttenpore, where I began this letter; and on Tuesday celebrated Divine Service at Anunda Bas so termed from the beauty of its site about two miles from the little river Bhoyrup, which flows gently, like the waters of Siloah, and blesses, instead of desolating, like the Jelingha, the lands which it inundates. Here a crowd of 500 filled the Mis- sionary Chapel, with verandah and tent-cloths extended beyond, to defend them from the sun. " There were 150 or 160 Candidates for Baptism, approved by Mr. Deerr, who had now risen from his sickness, and was, for the first time, with us ; and upward of 100 Candidates for Confirmation, of those baptized in February by Archdeacon Dealtry ; the rest, to the number of 250 or more, were Cate- chumens and Heathen. The Service lasted about three hours, in an atmosphere inexpressibly hot ; and we were pressed on all sides with human faces. I began, therefore, with the ex- amination for Baptism. The Candidates were arranged in rows. ' Are you sinners ? ' ' Yes, we are all sinners,' was re- sounded from one end of the Chapel to the other. ' How are you to obtain forgiveness ? ' ' By the sacrifice of Christ,' re- echoed the crowd. 'Who is Christ?' 'The only Son of God.' ' What do you mean by His sacrifice ?' ' We were sinners, and deserved God's wrath ; and Christ bore that wrath in the stead of us,' shouted some. ' He suffered in our place,' cried other voices. " I pause to call the Society's attention to this point : the Kurta-Bhojas uniformly seize on the doctrine of Atonement. They say, ' This is what we have been seeking for ' It seems that their notion of obtaining a sight of God is met by the doctrine of a God RELIGIOUS AWAKENING AT KISHNAGHUR. 197 Incarnate suffering for man. Thus our Missionaries, like St. Paul, know nothing among their converts but Jesus Christ and Him crucified ; which, though still a stumbling-block to some, and folly to others, is Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God, to them that are called of all nations, and kindreds, and tongues, and people. " But I proceed : ' How is your heart to be changed, and made holy ?' By the Holy Ghost.' ' Why do you desire Baptism ?' ' To obtain the pardon of our sins.' ' Will you renounce all conformity to idolatry : poojahs, feasts, pro- cessions, &c. ?' ' We renounce them all.' ' Will you give up Caste?' ' Yes, we have already.' 'Will you forgive injuries for Christ's sake?' 'Yes.' In short, I went over the chief points in the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Com- mandments, and the other topics in the Catechism. I then asked Mr. Deerr how long they had been under instruction ? He replied, a year, or more. I inquired if they had been living consistently ? He answered, ' Yes.' Upon this I begged Mr. Deerr to proceed with the Baptismal Service, in Bengalee. When he came to the questions, I paused, and said, ' The Church requires two witnesses for each candidate for adult Baptism ; will, then, the baptized Christians present be wit- nesses for them ?' They shouted that they would. Will you advise, assist, warn, and strengthen them?' They answered, ' Yes.' The sight now was most touching. The flock already baptized, with keen look, were waiting to know whether the new candidates would be admitted. I said, ' Then I accept your sponsion.' The Rev. Mr. Pratt and Mr. Alexander, with the Catechists presenting the moveable font, then proceeded along the lines of Catechumens, and administered Holy Baptism. I then stood in the midst, and received them in a body into Christ's Church, pronouncing, as well as I could, in Bengalee, the prescribed formula. The Rev. Brethren then again went round and signed them with the sign of the Cross, repeating to each the appointed words of signature. It is impossible to conceive the solemnity and joy on every countenance. " The Baptisms being ended, I explained the nature of Con- firmation, or Ratifying ; and having the Candidates before me above 100 I asked them if, after eight or nine months, they were ready to stand to their baptismal engagements ; or if, on the contrary, they repented of their vows ? They shouted, with 198 APPENDIX. thrilling energy, ' No, we ,do not. repent : we stand to our bap- tismal dedications.' I inquired whether they were prepared to go on, under the banner of Christ, to their lives' end, whatever they might be called to do, or to suffer. They replied ' Yes.' i asked in what way they hoped to do so. ' In the strength of Christ,' was the shout of answer, almost in the words of the Apostle : for all our doctrine in these Missions is simple, apos- tolic, old-fashioned truth ; without superstition on the one hand, and without fanaticism or neglect of means on the other. When the Confirmation was over, I addressed a brief exhortation : ' Your village never deserved the name of Anunda Bas till these days of the Son of Man : it is now the abode of joy. Three kinds of joy are in it joy in the tidings of a Saviour, as the angels sang joy in your hearts by this Saviour being born and formed within you, as the Apostle speaks and joy in heaven over many sinners who have repented. You, who are confirmed, have now given in your names again as the soldiers of Christ ; and the Holy Ghost has been, and will be, commu- nicated to you, in answer to prayer. You who have come to Holy Baptism, repenting and believing, have been 'made chil- dren of God, members of Christ, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven.' You, who are Inquirers and Catechumens, have this day seen in what holy bonds you are to be knit to Christ. You, who are spectators only, are now invited to examine the evidences of the Christian Faith, and no longer to worship an Unknown God. Let joy fill every heart the joy of inquiry, the joy of expectation, the joy of Baptism, the joy of Confirma- tion in Christ, the joy of a Saviour born into the world, the joy of the heart receiving this Saviour, the joy of angels exulting over penitent sinners. There is only one class of persons which causes no joy the hypocritical the false-hearted the back- sliding the obstinate the impenitent. What joy can there be on the account of these treacherous and rebellious spirits ? None ; except to the Devil, the great adversary, and his angels ! ' " Progress of the Religious Awakening at Kishnaghur, pp. 1215. Such are the practical effects which follow the plain and explicit preaching of " Jesus Christ and Him crucified." CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 199 In opposing a Society whose labours have been so long and so eminently favoured with the Divine blessing, is there no danger of being "found to fight against God?'' How is such opposition to be reconciled with the principles of those who profess so high a reverence for Episcopal authority ? The Church Missionary Society carries on its work under the ex- press sanction and encouragement of those Rulers of the Church who, from their position, are fully competent to form a correct judgment as to the objects which it has in view, and the means which it employs for their accomplishment. They have expressed their cordial approval of both : the Bishops of CAL- CUTTA, MADRAS, BOMBAY, AUSTRALIA, BARBADOES, JAMAICA, all take the most lively interest in the proceedings of this Society. The Tractarians regard it with very different feelings ; and yet they tell us that " we must honour the Bishop because he is the Bishop ;" that " he rules the whole Church here below, as Christ, the true and eternal Sovereign, rules it above ;" that " this is FAITH to be as sure that the Bishop is Christ's appointed Representative, as if we actually saw him work miracles, as St. Peter and St. Paul did." * * Tracts for the Times, No. 10, p. 4. 200 APPENDIX D. Page 51. GRIEVOUS MISREPRESENTATION OF THE VIEWS AND TEACHING OF WHAT IS CALLED BY THE TRAC- TARIANS THE " ULTRA-PROTESTANT PARTY." THE following is the whole of the passage referred to at page 51 ; it occurs in a review of the Tract, " On Reserve in Com- municating Religious Knowledge," which forms the first article in the 50th Number of the " British Critic and Quarterly Theological Review," a periodical well known as the organ of the Tractarians. " How very different this from the manner in which the sacred mystery is, in the present day, pressed forward by a peculiar school, whether for the conversion of unbelievers, or for winning back stray souls to their duty and allegiance. It is held forth, and touchingly depicted to all men indiscriminately, but specially to be laid hold on as full of virtue and healing efficacy by those who are living in plain neglect or abandonment of their Christian calling. " The characteristics of its full reception into the heart of any individual seem* to be an entire disclaiming of any merit or desert in himself, f a watchful jealousy of any worth or im- portance in anything he can do,J a casting himself upon * Does the writer of this article really mean to assert that these are not the " characteristics" of a "full reception" of the truths of the Gospel " into the heart of any individual" I If so, " the place in" his " doctrine of such texts as the following" must surely be "forgotten ;" they can " have no part in" his " system." f " I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing." Rom. vii. 18. J " So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all these things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants." Luke, xvii. 10. GRIEVOUS MISREPRESENTATION, ETC. 201 Christ,* a hearty, joyous, confident sense of the efficacy of that blessed Sacrifice, as complete and life-giving to every one who so apprehends it, and to himself in particular, f an affectionate acknowledgment of having been brought to feel and understand this,J and an absorbing contemplation of that Sacrifice without reference to the further necessary realization of the doctrine in his own practice. " Hence it is made a matter of present triumphant satisfac- tion, and the place in the doctrine of such texts as the following is forgotten. The meaning of ' the abounding of the sufferings of Christ in us ' the ' bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our body ' the ' filling up that which is behind of the afflic- tions of Christ in our flesh ' the knowing ' the fellowship of His sufferings being made conformable to His death ' seem lost sight of, and have no part in their system. It is made to convey present assurance and comfort, and to relieve us of the self-denial and severity of practical holiness ; and of the anxieties about falling away from a state of grace, or of whether we dare hope God in His mercy will bear with tJie 'dregs of a polluted life ;' and it is by stimulating the affections, and kind- ling what are accounted feelings of fervent piety, that men are brought to cast themselves, in a way, out of themselves, and at once, in full confidence of faith, to lay hold of, and apply to themselves the saving efficacy of this doctrine. " Is it to be wondered at, that when so deep and mysterious * " Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life." John, vi. 68. "Abide in me, and I in you ...... for without me ye can do nothing." John, xv. 4, 5. f " God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Gal. vi. 14. " And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the Atonement." Rom. v. 11. " Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? " Horn. viii. 3339. J " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which accord- ing to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the resur- rection of Jesus Christ from the dead." 1 Pet. i. 3. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him : rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." Col. ii. 6, 7. 202 APPENDIX. a doctrine as the Atonement is put forward, as though its heavenly grace and meaning may be at once apprehended and brought home, by a sudden movement of the affections, or an act of the understanding, that there is an impatience of doctrines which require submissive, lowly faith, teachable acquiescence in doubt and uncertainty, as to the immediate blessings on the practice of them, and steady and persevering self-denial ? Is it to be wondered at, that sacraments are slighted as formal, life- less, and superstitious, while the feelings of the heart are rather made tests of right devotional exercises ? Is it to be wondered at, that painful self-denying obedience, the punctual practice of external services, such as public prayer and fasting, are regarded with suspicion, as unspiritual, formal, derogatory to the Redeemer's merits, and undue restraint on Christian liberty that there should be a manifest tendency to explain away all mysteries in religion that men should be offended at the notion of the severities of the Christian faith; and that the notion of any reserve in Scripture, designed by Almighty God to answer certain moral purposes, and brought out practically, as in the teaching and discipline of the early Church, should be impa- tiently rejected? " These few remarks have been rather added, because it is notorious how popular books of the day bring forward the doctrine of the Atonement; and press it in every rhetorical form, as the great instruments/or the conversion of the careless and ill-living." British Critic, No. 50, pp. 292 294. The following passage contains assertions still more unjust and caluminious : " The evils to which this modern system has led, in various forms of dissent,* are too evident, wherever we turn our eyes, leading men to the neglect of honesty and plain dealing, and at length to indifference, unsettledncss, and infidelity. " In the Church it excludes, with jealous eagerness, all things * Nothing can be more contrary to experience than this assertion. Should the system of the Tractarians ever unhappily become as prevalent as that which is here so grievously calumniated, it will soon be seen which of the two tends to the edifying of the Body of Christ, and which is the prolific source (unintentionally indeed, but not on that account less certainly,) of Schism and Dissent. GRIEVOUS MISREPRESENTATION, ETC. 203 that may alarm the consciences of those who heartily adopt the system ; obedience to Church authority, practices of mortification, the fear of God, and the doctrine of judgment to come. " It sets forth religion in colours attractive to the world, by stimulating the affections, and by stifling the conscience, rather than by purifying and humbling the heart. Hence its great prevalence in places of fashionable resort.* " And to those who have in any way forfeited their character for religion and morality or sound doctrine, instead of the process of painful, secret self-discipline and gradual restoration, or the open and salutary penance of the ancient Church, it affords an instant and ready mode for asmming at once all the privileges and authority of advanced piety. " And the consequence is, that real humility of heart, and a quiet walking in the ordinances of God, finds not only the world in array against it, but that which considers itself as Christianity also. " Through all its appearances it is marked by a want of reverence; and, therefore, it can use worldly instruments and worldly organs. It may serve as a ready cloak to cover an un- subdued temper and a worldly spirit, concealing them as well from the individual himself, as from others. It may offer a convenient refuge to those who would cling to the Establishment, * The writer would have been much nearer the truth if he had said " It sets forth religion" as something totally distinct from, and opposed to, " the world ;" hence the enmity which it excites " in places of fashionable resort." He can have seen but little of such places and of the manner in which the " System" which he traduces is received by the generality of those who resort to them, or he could never speak, as he does elsewhere, (Tract 80, p. 77,) " of Christianity having become publicly acceptable to the world contrary to our Lord's express declarations." Did he never hear the disciples of this " Modern School" accused of being " righteous overmuch;" and " the teaching alluded to" condemned as too severe, as harsh, exclusive, and uncharitable? Is this because it "stifles the conscience," and " excludes with jealous eagerness practices of mortification, the fear of God, and the doctrine of the judgment to come ? " It is not, however, the first time that religion has beon assailed with charges in themselves the most opposite and contradictory. "John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine ; and ye say, He hath a devil. The Son of Man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners ! But wisdom is justified of all her children." Luke, vii. 33, 34. 204 / APPENDIX. rather than the Church, if she should be spoiled and persecuted." Tracts for the Times, No. 87, pp. 79, 80. After reading statements so manifestly opposed to truth as those which are contained in the foregoing quotations the bare assertions of anonymous writers, without even any attempt at proof, or any reference whatever to authority, it is really a satisfaction to be able to persuade oneself that ignorance must have originated, though it cannot possibly excuse them. The Tractarians are continually reminding their opponents that " it is written," "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour /' surely, if they have not themselves forgotten the existence of such a precept, they are but too little mindful of its spirit when they suffer themselves to write thus. They will do well to remember that " it is written again," " If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." And again ; " Thou that teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? " A short extract from the writings of a well known disciple of the " Modern School," alluded to in the passages above quoted, will serve as a specimen of the teaching of that school with reference to the doctrine of the Atonement, and shew how far it corresponds with the description given of it by the Tractarians : <' The Cross of Christ, when contemplated by an enlightened mind, most emphatically teaches the glory and beauty of the divine character ; the seasonableness and excellency of the moral law ; the value of immortal souls ; the vanity of earthly dis- tinctions ; the misery of the most prosperous transgressors ; the malignity of sin; the lost state of man ; the presumptuous nature of every self-righteous confidence; the inestimable value of this foundation for our hope ; the sinner's motives and encourage- ments to repentance; and the believer's obligations to the most self-denying and devoted obedience to his reconciled God and Father. He, therefore, who truly believes and understands this doctrine, and who glories in the Cross of Christ alone, habitually gives his eternal concerns a decided preference to every worldly object. He feels an earnest desire to promote the salvation of mankind, especially of those who are most dear to him. l He is crucified to the world and the world to him.' He repents of all his sins, forsaking and hating them, and seeking tJie crucifixion of every sinful propensity. Though he GRIEVOUS MISREPRESENTATION, ETC. 205 utterly renounces all confidence, save in the unmerited mercy of God in Christ Jesus, he yet deems it his pleasure, privilege, and honour to* live to Him who died for him and rose again.' The example and love of Christ reconcile him to reproach, contempt, self-denial, and persecution for righteousness' sake ; and dispose him to forgiveness, love of enemies, enlarged benevolence, and whatever can ' adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour.' " Scott's Essays. 206 APPENDIX E. Page 54. EXTRACTS FROM " FROUDE'S REMAINS." TRACTARIAN ESTIMATE OF THE REFORMERS AND THE REFORMATION. A FEW quotations upon this important subject, from the " Remains of the late Rev. Richard Hurrell Froude," may be fairly introduced by the following extracts from the Preface of the Editors, who are well known to be the leading and most influential teachers in the School of which Mr. Froude was an early and diligent disciple. " Many recoiling from his sentences, so direct, fearless, and pungent, concerning all sorts of men and things, will be fain to account them speeches uttered at random, more for present point and effect, than to declare the speaker's real opinion ; and, so judging, will, of course, disapprove of the collecting and pub- lishing such sayings, especially on high and solemn subjects, as at best incautious, and perhaps irreverent. "But they who thus judge must be met by a denial of the fact, The expressions in question were not uttered at random ; he was not in the habit of speaking at random on such matters. This is remarkably evinced by the fact, that to various friends at various times, conversing or writing on the same subjects, he was constantly employing the same illustrations and arguments, very often the same words as they found by comparison after- wards, and still go on to find. Now maxims and reasonings, of which this may be truly affirmed, whatever else may be alleged against them, cannot fairly be throivn by as chance sayings. Right or wrong, they were deliberate opinions, and cannot be left out of consideration in a complete estimate of a writer's character and principles. The off-hand, unpremeditated way in which they seemed to dart out of him, like sparks from a EXTRACTS FROM " FROUDfi's REMAINS." 207 luminous body, proved only a mind entirely possessed with the subject ; glowing, as it were, through and through. " His opinions had a wonderful degree of consistency and mutual bearing ; they depended on each other as a whole : who was to take the responsibility of separating them? " Again ; it was due to the reader to shew him fairly how far the opinions recommended would lead him. There is no wish to disguise their tendency, nor to withdraw them from such examination as will prove them erroneous, if they are so " Nothing, therefore, is here kept back but what, it was judged, would be fairly and naturally misunderstood; the insertion of which, therefore, would have been virtually so much untruth. " Lastly, the compilers can most truly affirm, that they have not, to the best of their judgment, inserted any- thing, which did not tell, indirectly, perhaps, but really, towards filling up that outline of his mind and character which seemed requisite to complete the idea of him as a WITNESS TO CATHOLIC VIEWS. " It can hardly be necessary for them to add, what the name of Editor implies, that while they of course concur in his senti- ments as a whole, they are not to be understood as rendering themselves responsible for every shade of opinion or expression." Preface to Froude's Remains, pp. 19 22. EXTRACTS, &c. THE REFORMERS. REVERENCE FOR EPISCOPACY. " HE THAT DESPISETH THE BlSHOPS DESPISETH THE APOSTLES. IT IS OU R DUTY TO REVERENCE THEM FOR THEIR OFFICE* SAKE; THEY ARF. THE SHEPHERDS OF CHRIST'S FLOCK." Tracts for the Times, No. 10, p. 4. "As to the Reformers, I think worse and worse of them. JEWELL" (Bishop) " was what you would call in these days, an irreverent Dissenter.* The Defence of his Apology disgusted * He bore a different character in former days. Hooker speaks of him as "THE WORTHIEST DIVINE THAT CHRISTENDOM HATH HAD FOR THE SPACE OF KO.ME HUNDREDS OF TEAKS." Eccles. Pol. book H. 6. " A work which may be profitably studied." Tracts for the Times. 208 APPENDIX. me more than almost any work I have read." Froude's Remains, p. 379. " Also, why do you praise RIDLEY ?" (Bishop.') " Do you know sufficient good about him to counterbalance the fact that he was the associate of CRANMER," (Archbishop,) " Peter Martyr and Bucer ? N.B. How beautifully the Edinburgh Review has shewn up Luther, Melancthon and Co. ! What good genius has possessed them to do our dirty work ? " Pour moi, I never mean, if I can help it, to use any phrases even, which can connect me with such a set f " I shall never call the Holy Eucharist ' the Lord's Supper ;' nor God's Priests* 'Ministers of the Word;' or the Altar* 'the Lord's Table,' &c. &c. ; innocent as such phrases are in themselves, they have been dirtied." Pages 393 395. " I wonder a thoughtful fellow like H. does not yet to hate the Reformers faster. I felt they were the very kind of fellows would have most hated and despised* if he had known them ; used to give me such snubs' for speaking disrespectfully of them, that I did not recover them for a week or a fort- night. He was a long time giving up CRANMER." Pages 434, 435. " I really do feel sceptical whether LATIMER" (Bishop) " was not something in the Bulteel line."-\- Page 252. THE BEFORMATION. " Really / hate the Reformation and the Reformers more and more ; and have almost made up my mind that the Rationalist Spirit they set afloat is the ipfi/co^po^rjrqc of the Revelations." Page 389. Vide supra, pp. 178, 179. f Many similar instances of reverence for the Bishops occur in different parts of the Work ; e. g., " I am shocked to see Jeremy Taylor so heretical about excommunication. He says, that when unjust it is no evil." Page 322. " Some months ago, before I had repented of my Radicalism, I was devising a scheme for you which was knocked on the head by my finding from the British Magazine that you were ordained by the Bishop of . For my part I had rather have had my orders from a Scotch Bishop, and I thought of suggesting the same to you : the stream is purer." Page 385. " Certainly we cannot trust the Bishops for Patrons ; for however good the present may be, the next may be a ." Page 405. EXTRACTS FROM " FROUDfi's REMAINS." 209 " The Reformation was a limb badly set ; it must be broken again, in order to be righted." Page 433. PROTESTANTISM. " That odious Protestantism sticks in people's gizzard." Page 322. " I do believe he hates the meagreness of Protestantism as much as either of us." Page 425. RULE OF FAITH. TRADITION. " May not one broadly maintain, that no one has any right to call any opinion necessary, unless he believes its necessity, as distinct from its truth, to be revealed, I mean, in Scripture or Tradition? "Page 332. " Your trumpery principle about ' Scripture being the sole rule in fundamentals,' I nauseate the word." Page 415. " And now I will have another go at you about your rule of Faith in fundamentals." Page 417. " As to our controversies, you are now taking fresh ground, without owning, as you ought, that on our first basis I dished you. Of course, if the Fathers maintain that nothing not de- ducible from Scripture ought to be insisted on as terms of communion, I have nothing more to say. But again, if you allow Tradition an interpretative authority, I cannot see what is gained ; for surely the doctrines of the Priesthood and the Eucharist may be proved from Scripture interpreted by Tra- ,1 if ion." Pages 419, 420. JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. " As to giving up the Tracts, the notion is odious. Is it expedient to put forth any paper on ' the Doctrine necessary to Salvation ?' I am led to question whether Justification by Faith is an integral part of this Doctrine." Page 332. < nrncH SERVICES. " It" (ordination by a Scotch Bishop) "would have left me free from some etatmrrfUtinff engagements.'' [" Such as tin v 210 APPENDIX. necessity of holding by the Union of Church and State ; of con- tenting himself with the English Liturgical Service," &c. Editor's Note.] Pages 385, 386. " I verily believe would now gladly consent to see our Communion Service replaced by a good translation of the Liturgy of St. Peter ; a name which I advise you to substitute in your notes to for the obnoxious phrase of ' Mass Book.'" Page 387. " The more I think over that view of yours about regarding our present Communion Service, fyc., as a judgment on the Church, and taking it as the crumbs from the Apostles' table, the more I am struck with its fitness," &c. Page 410. " I should like to see a good Tract on Clergy praying with their faces to the altar and backs to the congregation. In a Protestant church the parson seems either to be preaching the prayers or worshipping the congregation." Page 365. I am sure the Daily Service is a great point ; so is kneeling with your back to the people, which, by-the-by, seems to be striking all the Apostolicals at once." Page 390. PREACHING. " I think that in the present state of religion Preaching should be quite disconnected from the Services, and looked on as an address to the unconnected" Page 338. THE ARTICLES. *' I could be content to waive the Articles, (i, e., as necessary to Salvation, to Church Communion, as fundamental, as the one standard of doctrine,) keeping the Creeds, and so forth ; as I think the Spirit of the Times an instrument towards this, I am reconciled to it." Page 332. " In the Preface to the Articles it is said, that we are to understand them in their grammatical sense ; which I interpret into a permission to think nothing of the opinion of the framers." Page 363. " I have been thinking over and over again N's argument from the Fathers, that Tradition, in order to be authoritative, must be in form interpretative ; and can get no farther than EXTRACTS FROM " FROUDE's REMAINS." 211 that it is a convenient reason for (the Church's) tolerating the (I forget which) Article." Page 423. THE ESTABLISHMENT. " The Church can never right itself without a blow up." Page 250. " If the Church was thrown on the Voluntary System, and left to make its way as the Wesleyans do among the poorer classes, it would make sure as it went, though, perhaps, the progress might at first seem slow ; but now all is mere show and rotten- ness As to weaning the Colonial Church from its mother, dreams not of the possibility of 'it ; and, in fact, unless the Establishment is given up entirely, and the Church made in- dependent of the higher classes, it is impossible." Page 400. " The present Church System is an incubus upon the country. Would that the waters would throw up some Ache- loides, where some new Bishop might erect a See beyond the blighting influence of our UPAS TREE.* I admire M's hit about our being united to the State, a* Israel was to Egypt." Page 405. " admits that if the Roman Catholics would revoke their anathemas, we might reckon all the points of difference as theological opinions. This TOTTOC is a good one" Page 329. " I must enter another protest against your cursing and swearing at the end of , (against the Romanists,) as you do. What good can it do ? and I call it uncharitable to an excess. Surely you should reserve ' blasphemous >-\ impious,' &c., for denial of the Articles of Faith." Page 422. * " The Episcopal Church is compared to a tree stretching forth its um- brageous arms, beneath the shade of which Dissenters may sit down in peace and safety. If it be a tree at all, it more resembles the UPAS than the oak !" Report of the Reading Church-rate Abolition Meeting, 1836. Speech of Mr. Stoughton, a Dissenting Minister. What a strange coincidence of sentiment ? Must we class Mr. Froude with Bishop Jewel, as an " irreverent Dissenter 9" f The Church of England is not so scrupulous. Vide Art. 31, in which the" Sacrifices of Masses" are pronounced to be "blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits. " 212 APPENDIX. THE EUCHARIST. " I am more and more indignant at the Protestant doctrine on the subject of the Eucharist, and think that the principle on which it is founded is as proud, irreverent, and foolish, as that of any heresy, even Socinianism" Page 391. ' I should like to know why you flinch from saying that the. power of MAKING the Body and Blood of Christ is vested in the successors of the Apostles ?" Page 326. THE WORSHIP OF SAINTS, ETC. " I think people are injudicious who talk against the Roman Catholics for worshipping Saints and honouring the Virgin and Images, &c. ; these things may, perhaps, be idolatrous, I cannot make up my mind about it." Page 294. THE MONASTIC SYSTEM. " It has lately come into my head, that the present state of things in England makes an opening for reviving the Monastic System. I think of putting the view forward under the titte of ' Project for reviving religion in great towns.' " Page 322. THE TRACTARIAN "CONSPIRACY." " About acting as a Party the Useful Knowledge Society have proved that the poisoning system may be carried on by a Party." Page 317. "What say you to a life of Bishop Butler? R. thinks Biography the best means of infusing principles against the reader's will" Page 321. " has sent me your resolutions for our association, which I think excellent." Page 326. " B. is anxious to assist us with trouble and money in any way he can. I told him it was better not to say anything about money yet, till we had given people a longer trial of us." Page 329. " Mind to send lots of Tracts, for / shall try hard to poison the minds of the Natives out here." Page 365. EXTRACTS FROM " FROUDE's REMAINS. " It has often occurred to me that something attractive and poisonous could be made out of a history of missions." Page 365. '* Do you know I partly fear that you and , and , are going to back out of the conspiracy, and leave me and to our fate. I mean to ally myself to him in a close league, and put as much mischief into his head as I can." Page 377. " has certainly contrived to hit the right nail on the head by his sermons ; at least they take everywhere with the people one wishes them to take with, and the others are annoyed at them" Page 416. " It certainly would bear out our Party in excommunicating Protestants:'' Page 420. Such are some of " the sentences concerning ajl sorts of men and things," " not uttered at random," as " mere chance sayings," but "deliberate opinions," the publication of which the Leaders of the Tractarian party have, " to the best of their judgment," deemed "requisite" "towards filling up the outline of the mind and character" of one whom they put forth as " A WITNESS TO CATHOLIC VIEWS," and TO SPEAK A WORD IN SEASON FOR THE CHURCH OF GOD.* May they have their use in " shewing the reader fairly how far the opinions recommended " by the Tractarians " will carry him." f Mr. ^roude tells us, (Remains, p. 332,) that he " aspired to the character of a real genuine enthusiast" Let us hope that (to use his own words) such enthusiasts are " a sort of which there are not many ;" may they speedily become, indeed, " THE RAREST THING GOING." * Preface to Froude's Remains, pp. 19, 2022. f Ibid. p. 21. THE END. T. C. iavill, Printer, !()/, St. Martin's Lane. 00 105 704