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 WILLIAMS 
 
 l/i/HAT CONSTITUTES 
 A CHURCH
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH? 
 
 OB, 
 
 FREE EEOM THE EllRORS OF THE CHURCHES OF ROME 
 
 AND GERMANY; y^ <7? j/^ 
 
 TOGETHER WITH /2 n^ 1^ *^/ '(./ 'f/ , 
 
 LETTERS TO THE EEV. LORD SIDNEY G. OSBORNE, 
 
 ON HIS REMARKS ON THE BISHOP OF SALISBURY'S CHARGE ; 
 
 / 
 
 AND TO 
 
 THE CIIURCinVARDENS OE THE DIOCESE OE SARUM. 
 
 BY 
 
 J. A. WILLIAMS, 
 
 ONJi OF TJIJC t'UUULHWAIlDENa OX' BAYUON, NUJail WILTS. 
 
 ILoiltJOIT, 
 
 lilVINGTONS, WATERLOO PLACE; 
 
 TllINITV STBEET, 
 
 II I Oil STUBJiT, 
 
 tf>iforti. 
 
 CTamtirilJflr. 
 
 18G7.
 
 ^^x 
 
 . -^ 1 
 
 [A^LTIhw 
 
 TO THE 
 
 RIGHT KEY. THE LORD BISHOP OF SALISBURY. 
 
 My Loud, 
 
 The letters on the Christian Church, included in this 
 pamphlet, which I take the liberty of dedicating- to your 
 Lordship, were written, the most of them, before the delivery 
 of your Charge at your recent Visitation. 
 
 As, unhappily, there has been through your diocese an 
 opinion, among too many, that the contents of your Charge 
 are not in harmony with the principles of the Reformed 
 English Church,— the Rev. Lord Sidney G. Osborne, too, 
 having published in the Times a letter, intimating that you 
 ought no longer to remain within her })ale — and the " Anti- 
 Ritualistic " meeting held at Salisbury, to condemn the 
 principles you advocate — induce me, although the letters 
 were signed " A Churchwarden of North Wilts," to acknow- 
 h'dgethe authorship, and give them publicity, in the hope that 
 tiiiiny who may read them will go through the Bible as 
 I have done, and see for themselves the order and discipline 
 that the Almighty requires in His Universal Churcli, and 
 contrast it with the bitter feelings that have existed in our 
 own Church since the Reformation. 
 
 The letters to Lord Sidney (J. Osborne and the Cluirch- 
 wardens of your diocese, were written with a view to counter- 
 act what 1 consider a lircacli of 1h;it decorum in lliose whose 
 <lul\ it \'> to Icnrn, \\\\\\v\- limn /'/ Ifucli ; ;in(l ;is \(iur Lord- 
 
 372247
 
 IV DEDICATION. 
 
 ship is entrusted with the great responsibility of teaching, not 
 only the Clerg-y, but the Laity through them, I tender you 
 my humble thanks for the manly and straightforward manner 
 in which you have done so in your Charge. 
 
 Hoping, and offering my prayers, that you might be 
 spared for many years to come, that you may witness the 
 fruits of your labour, 
 
 I beg k) subscribe myself 
 
 Your Lordship's faithful Servant 
 and Churchwarden, 
 
 J. A. WILLIAMS. 
 
 Baydon, North Wilts, 
 Nov. 4, 1867.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The following letters on " The Christian Church/' published 
 in the early part of the present year in the Devizes Gazette, 
 and sig-ned " A Churchwarden of North Wilts/' were called 
 forth on account of that paper being- filled, week after week, 
 with meetings of different societies, at which Clergymen of 
 the Church of England scrupled not to deny the spiritual 
 office they held ; with letters, too, from some few individuals 
 denouncing our Bishop's principles as Romanistic, and an 
 address from a large mimber of influential farmers in the 
 county, thanking the Rev. Lord Sidney G. Osborne for the 
 part he had taken against the Bishop. 
 
 In offering them to the public, I am free to confess myself 
 the author. There was no need for this whilst writing them ; 
 but as, on reading the letter of S. G. O. commenting on the 
 Bishop's Charge, and having it sent me as a CImrchwarden, 
 with a request to assist in remonstrating against the said 
 Charge — having heard it throughout, and being satisfied that 
 our Church in her Articles and Service taught what the 
 ]5ishop had declared, I felt constrained to write the letter 
 (which will be found in the A])pendix) to the liev. Lord, and 
 also felt bound to acknowledge myself the author of the other 
 letters. 
 
 The proofs I have given of " What constitutes a Church?"
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 are mainly quotations from the Scriptures, and I would 
 earnestly and respectfully ask my readers to do, as the Bereans 
 of old did — to search them, and see " whether these things are 
 so;" and I trust, by God's providence, a more united feeling 
 may exist within the Church, on so sacred and vital a part 
 of our religion. 
 
 J. A. WILLIAMS. 
 
 Baydon, Noeth Wilts, 
 July 15, 1867.
 
 WHAT COXSTITUTES A CHTJECH? 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 To the Editcn- of the " Devizes Gazette." 
 
 Dear Sir, — Your columns have of late contained a variety of 
 theological discussion and opinion, Avhich has no doubt been read 
 with much interest, and, in my case, with no small amount of 
 sorrow and concern for the welfare of our Church. We have seen, 
 in two instances (Devizes and Calue), Clergymen from Bristol 
 and London attending a public meeting and declaring " they were 
 no Pj-tests''' — although they had solicited their respective Bishops 
 to admit them to Priest's Orders, and had received from them the 
 authoi-ity, " Receive thp Holy Ghost for the office and work of a 
 Priest in the Chui'ch of God, now committed unto thee by the im- 
 position of our hands. Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are 
 forgiven ; and whose sins thou dost retain, they are retained. And 
 be thou a faithful dispenser of the Word of God, and of His Holy 
 Sacraments : in the name of the Father, and of the vSon, and of 
 the Holy Ghost." This office was solicited by the two indivitluals 
 above mentioned, and (I blush while I write it) they have denied 
 the efficacy of the holy office they have undertaken. Your corre- 
 spondent, too, from East Kcnnett — another Clergyman — seems to 
 me to be vainly attempting to prove the same thing. Then we 
 have a gentleman from Avebury professing to belong to the Church 
 of England, bnt denying her aiitlioi'ity, and estaldishing a Free 
 Curucii in that parish, forgetting that " Unity is i<trength" He 
 has been filling your columns for the past twelve months. Next 
 we liavc the "Chinch Union" meeting at Devizes (would that it 
 were an Union) attempting to show lis the necessity of high 
 ritualism ; and then (he Kev. Lord S. G. O., wi-itiiig of onr Bisho]) 
 in tcitns vvjiich seem to nut not \(iy becoming tnwards a supe- 
 rior. The Bishop's mild and C'liri>liati ri'ply, too; an<l liistly, the 
 address of seventy-five ui' oni' W'illshiie farmers to the Jiev. Lord 
 S. G. O., tiianklng him i'm I be part he had taken against their own 
 liishoji. 
 
 Surely, Mr. Kdilor, tli(!re must be somctbing wrong in I lie 
 teaching of our Church, that all these; several pailies r<(n faiivy
 
 8 AVHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 
 
 themselves to he right, and professing to belong to the same Church, 
 the very doctrine of which, as laid down by our Saviour Himself, 
 is, " Be ye all as one, even as my Father and I are one." 
 
 I have been looking for years past to find out the cause of this 
 miserable division of opinion in our Church, and I have no hesi- 
 tation in saying that it can be traced back to the glorious Refor- 
 mation. I do not deny that it was a glorious Refoi-mation, as it 
 cleansed the English Church from the errors and heresies of the 
 Church of Rome ; but, at the same time, it was shorn of the gi'eater 
 part of its glory, by introducing into our Church those divisions 
 which have existed from that time to the present, and are now 
 getting too hot long to remain as they have been. It, therefore, 
 behoves every man who has the interest and welfare of his Church 
 at heart, to put a spoke in the wheel, and aid in maintaining her 
 in righteousness and truth ! 
 
 With this motive in view (with yoiu' permission) I will attempt 
 to show what, after much study, I am satisfied are the true prin- 
 ciples of the English Church ; and, that I may not be deemed 
 egotistical or puffed up in my own opinion, I " will show the 
 reason why ! ! " 
 
 There are two parties in our Church, termed the High and the 
 Low Church ; and I trust there are a vast number, myself among 
 them, who are content to be called Churchmen ; viz., those avUo 
 take the Prayer Book, agree to all they see therein, as taught 
 by our forefathers ; and who, after saying the three Creeds as 
 they come in oidei", actually believe what they say they do ; 
 and in partaking of the tivo Holy Sacraments, believe them to 
 be what the Fathers of the Church and our Saviour Himself say 
 they are ! 
 
 Thus prefacing, my subject shall be entitled, " The Principles 
 and Faith of the English Church, apart from the Errors of the 
 Church of Rome on the one hand, and the Churches of Germany 
 on the other!" 
 
 There is such a thing as consistencf/, and in nothing is it so 
 necessary that it should develo]:) itself as in Ecclesiastical matters. 
 We will see how this material is welded into the principles of 
 those who have been so prominent in causing the controversy that 
 has arisen amongst us, and which eventually will cause the serious 
 meml)ers of our Chuix'h Avho differ, to consider, whether it is not 
 possible that they may be vn'ong in the opinions they liaA e imbibed 
 from their youth. It is very certain that all cannot be right ; and 
 I am free to confess for myself, that in holding the opinions I do 
 now, they are totally different from what I held in my youth. A 
 simple narrative of facts as they occurred will illustrate my case. 
 As a young married man, I held to the doctrine of the Low Chin-ch 
 — viz., I did not believe in regeneration in baptism ; and I under- 
 stood but little of the other Sacrament, further than, as a member 
 of the Church, to do as I Avas bid. The Oxford controversy was 
 going on, but not a single tract have I ever seen. I was quite 
 satisfied to condemn the whole of those who were termed High 
 Church ; but a curious circumstance occurred. Dr. Pusey was to
 
 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH f 9 
 
 preach before the University ; and his subject was, " The Real 
 Presence in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper." I thought it 
 must be heresy, that it could be nothing more or less than the 
 doctrine of Transubstantiation ; and so, I suppose, thought some of 
 the authorities at Oxford — for his sermon was demanded, and, 
 ivithout avii cause assu/ned, it was pronounced heretical, and he 
 was prohibited from preaching again for three yeai's. Dr. Pusey 
 demanded that they should show in what part of the sermon the 
 heresy consisted ; but this the authorities declined doing, and I 
 said to myself, however I may diifer from Dr. Pusey, this conduct 
 of the Oxford men is not consistent ; it was like the case of St. 
 Paul, when Festus told Agrippa " that it seemed to him unrea- 
 sonable to send a prisoner, and not Avithal to signifij the crimes 
 laid against him." The sermon being jiublished, I got a copy ; it 
 seemed mystical at first sight ; but, after reading it three times, I 
 liad reason to thank God for the light given me. It showed 
 plainly Avhat the English Church held. He quoted some of the 
 best of the early writers, as Hooker, George Herbert, &c., and he 
 summed up by quoting our Saviour's own words, " Take, eat, this 
 is my body ;" and he observed, "He said it, and I believe it." But 
 he proved it to be there in a spiritual sense, and not carnally, as 
 the Romish Church hath it. I felt convinced that I had been 
 wrong, but I determined to look further. I knew that Ridley had 
 been a mai-t)T for this very cause ; so, having his life, I looked to 
 see what he said on the matter, and to my satisfaction I read as 
 follows : — When asked by the Bishop of Lincoln to show what 
 were his opinions of Christ's presence in the Sacrament, he an- 
 swered, "Both you and I agree that in the Sacrament is the very 
 true and natural body and blood of Christ, even that wJiich was 
 born of the Viigin Mary, which ascended into heaven, which sit- 
 tetli at the right hand of God the Father, which shall come fronx 
 tlieuce to judge the quick and the dead ; only we difler in modo, in 
 the way and manner of being ; we confess all one thing to be in the 
 Sacrament, and dissent in the manner of being there. I, being 
 fully by God's Word thereunto persuaded, confess Christ's natural 
 body to be in the Sacrament, indeed, by spirit and grace ; because 
 that whosoever receiveth worthily that bread and wine, receiveth 
 cffi'ctually Christ's body and drinketh His blood; that is, he is 
 made effectually a partaker of His passion ; and you make a grosser 
 kind of being, enclosing a natuial, a lively, and a moving body, 
 uniler the shape or form of bread and wine. 
 
 "Now, this dillerence considered, to the question thus I an- 
 swer ; that in the Sacrament of the Altar is the natural body and 
 blood of Christ, vere-rea liter, indeed, and ideally, if you take these 
 terms indeed and really, for spiritually by grace and etlicacy ; for 
 so every worthy receiver receiveth the very tiiic body of Christ; 
 but if you mean really and indeed, so that tlicrcl)y you would in- 
 clude a lively and a movable body undei' the fonns of bi'ead aiul 
 wine, then in that sense is not Christ's hotly in the Sacrament 
 really and indeed." 
 
 Such are the words of Uiylioj) liidlcy, <inly a few days before
 
 10 AVHAT CONSTITUTES A CHUKCH ? 
 
 his martyrdom ! I next turned to the Twenty-eighth Article of 
 our religion, and found, " The body of Christ is given, taken, and 
 eaten, in the supper, onlu after an heavenly and spiritual manner. 
 And the mean whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten 
 in the Supper is faith." 
 
 Now, reconciling oneself to this triith, there is no difficulty in 
 understanding that part of the sixth chapter of St. John, " Except 
 ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, ye have 
 no life in you." 
 
 The Jews asked the question, " How can this Man give us His 
 flesh to eat ? " Nicodemus asked a similar one with respect to the 
 Sacrament of Baptism ; both were in unbelief; and I would put it 
 to those Clergymen who have put themselves so prominently for- 
 ward to condemn the Church of Rome for her heresy, and those of 
 the Church of England who are certainly going beyond the line of 
 prudence, if it is not jxist possible they themselves are guilty of the 
 same offence? For what is the meaning of the term "Heresy?" 
 Walker gives it as follows : — " An opinion of j^rivate men diffei^ent 
 from that of the Catholic and Orthodox Church;" and he gives the 
 meaning of the word " Heretic :" " One ivho propagates his private 
 opinions in opposition to the Catholic Church." 
 
 I fear I am trespassing too much on your space for one week ; 
 l)Ut will, with your permission, resume it next, and shall bring that 
 ingredient " Consistencj" to bear, wherever I find it wanting, in 
 Church matters. 
 
 I beg to subscribe myself yours faithfully, 
 
 A CHURCHWARDEN. 
 
 NoKTH Wilts, Dec. 18, 1866. 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 To the Editor of the ^^ Devizes Gazette." 
 
 Dear Sir, — I concluded my last letter by quoting Walker's 
 definition of the words Heresy and Heretic ; and as truth is truth 
 all the world over, let us see whether there is any heresy to be 
 found beyond the pale of the Romish Church ! We will take the 
 {Sacrament of Baptism ; and here it is to be lamented that, at 
 Oxford and Cambridge, the schools for teaching those who are to 
 teach and instruct their pai'ishioners in after-life, truth and 
 error are both to be learnt there ; or, at all events, if error is not 
 taught there, it is imbibed; and we find clergymen educated there, 
 located in two adjoining parishes, the one teaching regeneration 
 in baptism, the other denning it, and saying that regeneration or 
 the new birth takes place in after-life, when a man becomes con- 
 verted. Now it is impossible that both these opinions can be right ; 
 and what a serious matter it becomes, that any member of the 
 Church should hold an erroneous opinion ! I verily thought, in my
 
 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 11 
 
 early days with the low Church (as it is called), that regeneration 
 did not take place in baptism ; but when I found out my mistake 
 with respect to the other Sacrament, I thought I would look more 
 closely into this ; moreover, I had a family of young children, 
 christening nearly one a year ; and it was a serious thing {for 
 u'hich I icas 7-e sponsible) to teach them otherwise than the truth ; 
 and, again, if my child was to receive the benefit of the Sacra- 
 ment through the faith of its parents, how I hazarded his welfare 
 through my ignorance I I fii'st looked deeply to the teaching of 
 the Church. I looked to see who compiled our Prayer Book, and 
 found the names of Di\ Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury ; Dr. 
 Goodrich, Bishop of Ely ; Dr. Skipp, Bishop of Hereford ; Dr. 
 Tliirlby, Bishop of Westminster ; Dr. Day, Bishop of Chichester ; 
 Dr. Holbeck, Bishop of Lincoln; Z>/-. i??V//f^, Bishop of Rochester ; 
 Dr. May, Dean of St. Paul's ; Dr. Taylor, Dean of Lincoln ; Dr. 
 Heynes, Dean of Exetei- ; Dr. Redman, Dean of Westminster ; 
 Dr. Cox, King Edward's Almoner ; Dr. ]\L Robinson, Archdeacon 
 of Leicester. 
 
 I thought, if the names of Cranmer and Ridley were there, surely 
 they knew as much as I did, or somewhat more ; sol looked to the 
 service which they had compiled for the Sacrament, and found 
 that, in the fomier part, pi-ayers were made to the Almighty, that 
 He would give His "Holy Spirit to tliis infant, that /;«', being born 
 again, and being made an heir of everlasting salvation," &c. ; 
 that " by the Baptism of Thy well-beloved Son Jesus Christ in 
 the river Joi'daii, didst sanctify ivater to the mystical washing 
 away of sin," &c. " We call upon Thee for this infant that he, 
 coming to Thy holy baptism, may receive remission of his sins by 
 spiritual regeneration," &c. — " Sanctify this water to the mystical 
 icashiiirj away of sin." These jjrayers I found in the service pre- 
 ceding the child's being baptized; and, afterwards, the congregation 
 are addressed as follows: "Seeing now, dearly beloved brethren, 
 that this child is REGENERATE, and grafted into the body of Christ's 
 Church," &c., and then again, " We yield Thee hearty thanks, 
 most merciful Father, that it hath [)k'a>ed Thee to regenerate this 
 infant with Thy Holy Spirit, to receive him for Thine own child 
 by adojition, and to iucorpoiate him into Thy holy Church." All 
 this had never struck me before, but I no longer doubted its truth; 
 still I thought I would look further. There was " the Catechism," 
 liy which the Church taught her children. I found the question, 
 " Wiiat is the inward and spiritual grace," in the Sacrament of 
 liaptif-m ? Answer, "A death vnto sin, and a, 7tew blrlh unto 
 lighteousness ; for, being by nattire born in sm, and the children of 
 wriitli, we are hereby made the children of grace." 
 
 As the Bercans of old were more noble tJiau the Thessalonians, 
 because they looked to sec "if these things were so," so I detei- 
 niinetl to see if Scri])tui'c snj)ported the view the Chnrcli Iiiid 
 evidently taken. As she had ali\ided in the .Service tooni- Saviour's 
 Baptism in the river .Jonhm, as '■'■ sanrtifyiiaj irater," I tuiiied 
 Id tliat, and found the Ba])tisl telling Him there was no need for 
 Iliiii to Ite biiptizcd ; ftbnt was) I[( had no sin to he cleansed of;
 
 12 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 
 
 but that, as it was necessary He should be baptized " to fulfil all 
 righteousness," he did it ; and as there is no other instance given of 
 the reality of the Sacrament, let all, but more especially those 
 clergymen who deny regeneration, consider well the result ! When 
 the Baptist used " the outward and visible sign," Water, the 
 Heavens opened, and the Spirit of God descended upon the Saviour, 
 and a voice from Heaven said, " This is my Sou {in haptisni), in 
 whom I am well pleased." And where is the cold unbeliever 
 who will assert that in every case where infants are brought by faith, 
 and made sons in baptism, cleansed of the old Adam — viz. " ori- 
 ginal sin," that the Almighty does not give His Spirit, and welcome 
 him as His beloved son (in baptism) in whom He is well pleased? 
 
 Let it not be supposed that I would presume to place here any 
 of mankind on an equal footing with the Saviour ; still, as we are 
 made " soris of God " in baptism, and the Chiu'ch teaches the 
 child as soon as it can lisp, to say " Our Father, Avhich art in 
 Heaven," I am not afi-aid that I have overdrawn the reality, 
 which it is pleasing to think of. 
 
 But I thought 1 would look still further, and take the case of 
 an adult ; so I turned to St. Paul, and found that it was termed 
 " The Conversion of St. Paul," when it was made known to him in 
 his journey to Damascus " that he was kicking against the pricks." 
 Well, said I, this is the stumbling-block of the Low Church ; let 
 us see when his regeneration took place. I read on, but could find 
 nothing to satisfy me in that account ; but in the twenty-second 
 chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, I found him giving a 
 description of his baptism, in his defence to the chief captain and 
 the people. " And one Ananias, a devout man according to the 
 law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there, came 
 unto me, and stood, and said unto me. Brother Saul, receive thy 
 sight. And the same hour I looked up upon him. And he said, 
 The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest 
 know His will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the 
 voice of His mouth. For thou shalt be His witness unto aU men 
 of what thou hast seen and heard. And now why tarriest thou ? 
 arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the 
 name of the Lord." 
 
 Can it be necessary to produce any farther evidence ? StiU, 
 here it is, in the second chapter of the Acts, when Peter, the 
 mouthpiece of the other eleven Apostles, told the Jews on the day 
 of Pentecost, Avheu they asked, " Men antl Brethren, Avhat shall 
 we do ? Then Peter said xinto them. Repent and be baptized 
 every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of 
 sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.''' 
 
 Surely the Church, if she is orthodox, can teach nothing less 
 than regeneration. And every time we repeat the Nicene Creed, 
 " I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins," what 
 description of religion is ours if we don't believe it? 
 
 Let us next look to the consistency of those ministers of the 
 Chui'ch of England who are so loud in the condemnation of 
 others. Whether they have ever looked on their own holy
 
 ■WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 13 
 
 office seriously, and can justify their position, I know not ; but 
 this I know, tiiat the Church of Rome — though she has no right 
 to be called so in this country (as where can we read of St. Paul, 
 writing to the Church of Rome, which was at Corinth, or Ephesus, 
 or Galatia, or Thessalonica, or Colosse? Or, suppose that he 
 had written to the Church which was in England, if she was 
 Christianized at that time, would he also have included the Church of 
 Rome WHICH IS in England ?) — even the Roman Catholics are con- 
 sistent, so far as thinking all the world is subject to her, and trying to 
 maintain their claim ! The Dissenters too, who cannot believe in 
 the doctrine of the Church, and keep without her pale, are con- 
 sistent also ; and even those men (so much abused) who, through 
 their impatience, have left our Church for that of Rome, act a 
 consistent part in comparison of those who dissent from her doc- 
 trines, whether High or Low, and still remain, administering her 
 Sacraments and teaching her children what " The Church" has 
 never sanctioned. What can we say of those clergymen who, 
 baptizing an infant, supplicate the Almighty, to " sanctifij that 
 water to the mystical ivashing away of sins, and pray, that that child 
 might be born again." And afterwards thank Almighty God 
 that he is become regenerate, and declare the same to the congre- 
 gation ! What, I say, can be said of such, who having gone 
 through the service, do not believe it ; where is the consistency 
 of these men remaining in our Chxirch? I can respect the honest 
 Dissenter ; but the holy office alone that they hold demands my 
 esteem ! 
 
 I may ]>e told that they put a diffisrent construction on those 
 parts of the Service I have mentioned ; but that is a rather 
 dangerous practice, as St. Peter and St. Paul say, " The Scrip- 
 tures are not oi private interpretation ;" and if every one is to twist 
 them about to suit his oicn pu7-pose, will not the Church of Rome 
 have good cause to maintain that the Bible should not be given to 
 the laity? They might say, better to be in ignorance and obedient, 
 than to misconstrue the truth, and cause the divisions, or other- 
 wise, the heresies and schisms we luifortunately find in our 
 Church. But I am again trespassing too long on your space, 
 and will crave further room next week, when I hope to show that 
 our Church stands prominently forward as the English branch of 
 tlie Cliurch Catholic I 
 
 I remain. Sir, yours faithfully, 
 
 A CHURCHWARDEN. 
 
 NoiiTU VViLTS, Dec. 22nd, IStJG. 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 2\> the Editor of the " Devizes Gazette." 
 
 Deak Sik, — I resume my subjci-i, to pi(.\c iIk; English Cliiucli 
 a true branch of the Church Catholic ; and lo ilo tliis wc will
 
 14 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 
 
 see Avliat constitutes a Church. If we go back to the days of 
 Adam we shall find the Church consisted of him and his wife ; 
 we shall see the holy estate of matrimony instituted, and the 
 Scripture declaring, " Therefore shall a man leave his father and 
 his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they twain shall be 
 one Jfesh." After our first parents were joined together by the 
 Almighty Himself, it was necessary there should be a Church on 
 earth to perform such a nii/steri/. And we find the Patriarchs 
 styled, " Priests and Kings " in their families. 
 
 It is interesting to trace the Church of God through the Old 
 Testament: we find it existing in the person of Abel ; then again, 
 Eve rejoicing at the birth of Seth. She makes no mention of 
 her other children ; but here she seems to foresee the future : 
 " For God," said she, " hath appointed me another seed instead of 
 Abel, whom Cain slew." " And to Seth was born Enos. Then 
 began men to call upon the name of the Lord." Next is given 
 the genealogy of ten generations from Adam to Noah, including 
 Enoch and Methusaleh, when we come to this remarkable passage 
 — "And it came to pass when men began to multiply on the 
 face of the eai'th, and daughters were born unto them, that the 
 sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and 
 they took them wives of all which they chose." 
 
 Here was the visible Church mingling with idolatry ; and the 
 result was such an amount of wickedness as to cause the Almighty 
 to destroy the world by a flood. This brings us over a space 
 of 1656 years ; and then we find the Church on Mount Ararat, 
 consisting of only eight souls. " And Noah builded an altar unto 
 the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, 
 and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a 
 sweet savour ; and the Lord said in His heart, I will not again 
 curse the ground any more for man's sake." 
 
 We next come to the eleventh chapter of Genesis, and find the 
 " Church visible " through the family of Shem, the son of Noah, 
 and ten more generations to Abram, called Abi-aham, when God 
 made a covenant with him, " 2'he covenant of Circumcision." It 
 had now existed 2106 years. We find, too, that mysterious 
 person, Melchizedek, king of Salem, "the Priest of the Most 
 High God," blessing Abram, and receiving " Tythe " of liim ! 
 Then we see it in the line of Jacob, Isaac's youngest son ; and we 
 see, in the thirty-fifth chapter, the Almighty blessing Jacob, 
 and changing his name to Israel. 
 
 We follow Israel into Egypt, and find them in bondage, and 
 Moses and Aaron raised up for their deliverance ; and, finally, 
 leaving Egypt, and going into the wilderness of Sin. And after 
 three months, when the Church had existed 2513 years, we find 
 them in the wilderness of Sinai, at the foot of the mountain. 
 Here the Almiglity delivered the law of the ten commandments 
 to Moses, to give to the children of Isi-ael ; here, too, we see 
 more fully what is required by the Almighty of those who form 
 His Church : — " And the Lord spake unto Mosep, saying, Speak 
 unto the children of Israel that they bring Me an offering : of
 
 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 15 
 
 every man that giveth it willingly with his heart, ye shall take 
 My offering ; and this is the offering AA^hich ye shall take of them : 
 gold, and silver, and brass, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, t|-c. / 
 And let them make Me a Sanctuary, that I may dA^ell among 
 them." 
 
 Instructions are given for the altar, the ark, and for the 
 service, and Aaron and his sons set apart for the Priest's office, 
 the ceremonies of consecrating the Priests ; and, in the eighth 
 chapter of Leviticus, we find Moses commanded to consecrate 
 Aaron and his sons, and the manner in which he did it ! We see 
 next, " >;adab and Abihu," two of the sons of Aaron, destroyed by 
 fire, for offering strange fire to the Almighty ; Ave find, too, the 
 tribe of Levi set apart for the service and ministry of the sanc- 
 tuary ; being the first instance of a threefuld ministry in God's 
 Chm-ch, and which, I believe, has existed from that time to the 
 present ! Aaron was the High Priest, his sons Avere under him as 
 Priests, and the Levites Avere under both, ministering in the 
 Tabernacle. 
 
 We come now to an era in the Church in the Avilderness, 
 Avhich Christians of all denominations in the present day will do 
 Avell to study — " The Rebellion of Korah," in the sixteenth 
 chapter of Numbers: — "Now Korah the son of Izhar, the son of 
 Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of 
 Eliab, and On, the son of Vclcth, sons of Reuben, took men. And 
 they rose up before Moses, Avith certain of the children of Israel," 
 &c. &e. They rebelled against Moses, and offered strange fire 
 unto the Lord. " And Moses said unto Korah, Hear, I pray 
 you, ye sons of Levi ; seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that 
 the God of Israel hath separated you from the congregation of 
 Israel, to bring you near to Himself, to do the service of the 
 Tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation, to 
 minister unto them ? And He hath brought thee near to Him, 
 and all thy brethren the sons of Levi Avith thee : and seek ye the 
 Priesthood also ?" 
 
 This Avas their sin, and their punishment Avas as follows : — 
 " And it came to pass, as Moses had made an end of speaking all 
 these words, that the ground clave asunder that Avas under them ; 
 and the earth opened her mouth, and SAvallowed them up, and 
 tlicir houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and 
 all their goods. — They, and all that appertaiiied unto them, went 
 doAvn alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon tlicm : and they 
 perished from among the congregation.'" 
 
 " The Lord also said to Moses, Speak to Eleazar the Priest, 
 that he take the censers of these sinners agiunst their own sonls, 
 and make l>road plates for the altar; for they Avere hallowed," 
 being offered before the Lortl. " To be a sign unto the children 
 of Israel, that no stranger Avhich is not of the seed of Aaron, 
 come near to offl'r incense l)efore the Lord." 
 
 The eighteenth (•lia])ter of iNnnibers gives a clear descri|.li(iii of 
 the Priest's and Levite's office, and ///fjV //n/Z/o//. " Ami, lichold, 
 I have given tiie children of Levi all the tenth in Israel, foi- an
 
 16 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 
 
 inheritance, for their service which they serve, even the service 
 of the Tabernacle of the congregation." — The next significant 
 point is the deatli of Aaron the High Priest : " And the Lord 
 spake unto Moses, saying, Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, 
 and bring them up unto Mount Hor : and strip Aaron of his 
 garments, and jmt them upon Eleazar his son : and Aaron shall be 
 gathered unto his people, and shall die there. And Moses did as 
 the Lord commanded." The death of Moses is the next to 
 notice, and the appointment of Joshua in his stead. " And the 
 Lord said unto Moses, Take thee Joshua, the son of Nun, a man 
 in whom is the spirit, and lay thine hand upon him, and set him 
 before Eleazar the Priest, and before all the congregation ; and 
 give him a charge in their sight. And thou shalt put some of 
 thine honour upon him, that all the congregation of the children of 
 Israel may he obedient" 
 
 The Church, with the Ark of God, now approaches the pro- 
 mised land of Canaan, and as Moses was not (like Aaron) to enter 
 it, he ascended Mount Nebo, and the Lord showed him all the 
 land of Canaan, and he died there on the Mount. — Joshua then 
 takes the command ; and, as he approaches the river Jordan, it, like 
 the Red Sea, divided to let them jDass through. We then see him 
 driving out all the nations before him, and find him at the end of 
 the Book of Joshua, settling the tribes of Israel in their inherit- 
 ance, and then died ; Eleazar the High Priest died also. The 
 Church had now existed 2584 years ! — Fourteen years afterwards, 
 we find Phineas, the son of Eleazar, as High Priest ; and in the 
 sixth chapter of the first of Chronicles, we find the line of the 
 Priests, and also of Aaron and his sons, who succeeded him as High 
 Priests : — " But Aaron and his sons offered upon the altar of the 
 barnt-offering, and on the altar of incense, and were ajypointed for 
 all the work of the place most holy, and to make an atonement for 
 Israel ; and these are the sons of Aaron : Eleazar his son, Phineas 
 his son, Abishua his son, Bukki his son, Uzzi his son, Zerahia his 
 son, Meraioth his son, Amariah his son, Ahitub his son, Zadok his 
 son, Ahimaaz his son." 
 
 We next find, in the Book of Samuel, Saul is anointed the first 
 King over Israel ; and is succeeded by David, and Solomon his 
 son, who builds the magnificent Temple at Jerusalem ; and, in the 
 sixth chapter of the Second of Chronicles, we find his beautiful 
 prayer at the dedication of it, and which is the first lesson in the 
 Service of Consecixition of all our Churches! 
 
 Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, succeeds him. Ten tribes revolt 
 to Jeroboam, and henceforth the Tribes of Israel are described as 
 Israel, and Judah, and the King of Israel as " Jeroboam the son 
 of Nebat, who made Israel to sin." They sinned on through 
 nineteen generations of kings ; till, in the reign of Hoshea, Shal- 
 maneser, the King of Assyi^a, went up and besieged Samaria. — " In 
 the ninth year of Hoshea, the King of Assyria took Samaria, and 
 carried Israel away captive into Assyria, and placed them in 
 Halah and in Habor, by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the 
 Modes." " And the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as He
 
 WHAT COXSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 17 
 
 liad said by all His servants the prophets. So was Israel carried 
 away out of their own land to Assyria, unto this day." Tlie 
 Chm-ch is henceforth to be seen in the Tribe of Jiidah. " There- 
 fore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and i-emoved them cnit 
 of His si(jht: there was none left but the Tribe of Judah only." — 
 The Tribe of Benjamin formed a part of Judali, with the Priests 
 and Levites, and these constitute the Chnrch, who in the reign of 
 Zedekiah became so sinful, that God's mercy and patience were 
 worn out : " And the wi-ath of the Lord arose against His people, 
 till there was no remedy." He brought upon them the King of 
 the Chaldees, who had no compassion on them, but slew a great 
 number, and burnt Jerusalem and the Temple with fire, and took 
 all that remained captive to Babylon. Here they remained in 
 captivity till the first year of the reign of Cyrus the Persian. 
 
 We read in the Book of Ezra, " Thus saith Cyrus King of 
 Persia, the Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms 
 of the earth, and He hath charged me to build Him an house at 
 Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all 
 His people ? His God be with him, and let him go up to Jeru- 
 salem, Avhich is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of 
 Israel (He is the God) which is in Jerusalem. 
 
 " Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, 
 and the Priests and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God 
 liad raised to go up, to build the house of the Lord Avhich is in 
 Jerusalem." In the second chapter we see the number that re- 
 turned ; and in the sixty-first and sixty-second verses, thus : — 
 " And the children of the Priests, the children of Habaiah, the 
 children of Koz, the children of Barzillai. These sought their 
 register among those that were reckoned bi/ cjenealogy, but they 
 were not found, therefore were they, as polluted, put from the 
 Priesthood." 
 
 I have often heard people speak of the ten " lost tribes of Israel," 
 that looking through the nations of the world they can nowhere 
 lic recognized ; but if the pro])lictic language of Ezekiel, in his 
 vision of dry bones has been fulfilled, a remnant of them, or a 
 tenth, as is elsewhei'e said, should return to Judah. The thirty- 
 seventh chapter fully explains this, and at verse 21, "And tliou 
 shalt say unto them. Thus saitli the Lord God, Behold, I will take 
 the children of Israel y)'0?« among the heathen whither they be gone, 
 and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own 
 land. And I will make them one nation in the land upon the 
 mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king to them all ; and 
 they sliall be no more two natioiis, neither shall they be divided 
 into two kingdoms any more at all. And David my servant shall 
 111' king over them ; and they all sliall have one shepherd ; they 
 hliall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do 
 them." As David had been dead more than 400 years when this 
 profjliecy was written, it was his successors on the throne of Judah 
 tliat were to reign over them. 
 
 The Bildn tells us but very litllc more respecting the where- 
 abouts of the Jews; we find Jehoiachin, King of Judah, in the 
 
 B
 
 18 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 
 
 thirty-seventlx year of their captivity, taken from prison by the 
 King of Babylon, and his throne set above the kings that were 
 with him in Babylon, and we find the whole of them going to 
 Jerusalem after the second Temi^le was built ! This was 457 
 years before Christ, and, consequently, the Church had existed 
 3547 years. 
 
 Tradition, I have no doubt, will fill up the space of these four 
 centuries and a half. The first chapter of Matthew only tells us 
 that there were fourteen generations from the captivity to the 
 birth of Christ, and that Herod was King of Judea at that time, 
 and that the Priests and Levites still existed in the Church. 
 
 We may gather, then, from this brief history, that as soon as 
 the Almighty had a sanctuary, or tabernacle, built Him, " That 
 He might dwell among His people," He ordained three orders of 
 the ministry — the High Priest, the Priests, the sons of Aaron, and 
 their successors — and the Tribe of Levi wholly set apart for the 
 service of the sanctuary ! In the case of Nadab and Abihu, and 
 Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, the awful punishment they received 
 for daring to offer strange fire, and a warning given to the Jews, 
 that NO STRANGER should presume to take upon him the Priest's 
 office ! We again find when the Jews returned from captivity, 
 and the Priests were requii-ed to prove their genealogy, that three 
 families could not do it, and they were put from the Priesthood, as 
 
 POLLUTED ! 
 
 Such is the history of the Church of God during the lives of the 
 Patriarchs to the time of our Saviour ; and as my letter is already 
 too long, I must leave till next week the transition state of the 
 Jewish and the Christian Church ! And remain 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 A CHURCHWARDEN. 
 
 NoKTH Wilts, Jan. 7, 1867. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 To the Editor of the " Devizes Gazette." 
 
 Dear Sir, — In my last letter I traced the Patriarchal and the 
 Jewish Church up to the time of om* Saviour : it existed without 
 change for twenty-nine years, during His infancy, and on to His 
 manhood, till He took upon Himself the office of High Priest. We 
 find Him conforming to its rules, " circumcised the eighth day," 
 and when He was twelve years old, going up to Jerusalem with 
 His parents to keep the feast of the Passover. And as His custom 
 was. He went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day." And 
 when He began to preach, in His beautiful sermon on the mount. 
 He said, " Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the 
 prophets : I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I 
 say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle, shall 
 in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."
 
 ■WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 19 
 
 The preaching aud ministry of our Saviour, I will term the 
 transition state between the Jewish and the Christian Church ; 
 and the first person we have to notice is John the Baptist. " Be- 
 hold I send My messenger before Thy face, which shall prepare 
 Thy way before Thee." — " John did baptize in the wilderness, and 
 preach the baptism of repentance /or the remission of sins " Aud 
 we find our Savioiu- in the sixteenth chapter of St. Luke, saying 
 " The law aud the prophets were until John : since that time the 
 kingdom of God is preached." Still we can only look on the 
 Church as in a transition state, as the Jewish ceremouies aud 
 worship were kept up, our Saviour fulfilling his part, as when He 
 healed the lepei'. He said unto him, " See thou tell no man, but go 
 thy way, shew thyself to the Priest, and offer the gift that Moses 
 commanded" Aud again, Avhen the ten lepers were healed — " Go, 
 shcAv yourselves unto the Priests, and it came to pass that as they 
 went they were cleansed." 
 
 John the Baptist was the son of Zacharias the High Priest, 
 and he {no stranger) was sent to prepare the Avay for the High 
 Priest of the Christian Church ! We find, then, at the birth of 
 Christ the three-fold ministnj existing as before — the High Priest, 
 the Priests, and Levites — and when our Saviour began His mi- 
 nistry. He may well be termed the High Priest ; aud then we 
 find Him calling and ordaining His twelve Apostles. "And when 
 He had called His twelve disciples He gave them power against 
 unclean spirits, to cast them out, aud to heal all manner of sick- 
 ness, and all manner of disease ;" and sent them forth, saying, 
 " Go not into the way of the Gentiles, but go rather to the lost 
 sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The 
 kingdom of heaven is at hand." ^^ And whosoever shall not receive 
 you, nor hear your words, when you depart out of that house, or 
 city, shake off the dust of your feet ; vei-ily I say unto you, it 
 shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom aud Gomorrah in the 
 day of judgment than for that city." 
 
 We read, too, in the tenth chapter of St. Luke — " After these 
 things the Lord aj)pointcd otlier seventy also, and sent them two 
 and two before His face into every city and place Avhither He Him- 
 self would come," 
 
 These seem (like the Levites in the Jewish Church) to have less 
 authority given them than the twelve Apostles ; still there is the 
 same sentence of condemnation against all those who would not 
 receive them, as in (he former case. 
 
 Here, then, we find again, a three-fold ministry in this transition 
 state of the Church— Jesus, the H"igh Priest ; the twelve Apo- 
 stles ; and the seventy Disciples ! 
 
 It is not necessary for my purpose to quote much of our 
 Saviour's ministry, bnt we will note {as it has been questioned by a 
 Wiltshire Incumbent) the thiid diapter of St. John, twenty-second 
 verse — "After these things canic Jesus and His disci])lcs into the 
 land of Judea, and there He tarried with them, <(nd bajitizcd.'"' 
 But it is said in the next chapter — "Though Jesus Himself bap- 
 tized not, but His disciples." As a matter of course, ivith His an- 
 
 n 2
 
 20 -WHAT CONSTITUTES A CnURCH ? 
 
 tlioriUj, and shewing that the act of baptizmg was left to the 
 inferior clergy, the same as when Peter was in the house of Cor- 
 nelius the Gentiles receiving the Holy Ghost, "He commanded 
 them to be baptized in the name of the Lord." 
 
 I mentioned at the beginning of my last letter, the institution of 
 the Holy estate of Matrimony ! Our Saviour now treats of it Him- 
 self in the nineteenth chapter of Matthew — " The Pharisees also 
 came unto Him, tempting Him, and saying unto Him, Is it law- 
 ful for a man to put away his wife for every cause ? And He said 
 unto them, Have ye not read, that He which made them at the 
 beginning made them male and female ? and said, for this cause 
 shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife : 
 and they twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore they are no more 
 twain, but one flesh. What, therefore, God hath joined together let 
 not man put asunder." 
 
 I shall have occasion again to refer to this, as there is a long 
 difierence between this description of matrimony, and that per- 
 formed at the " Board of Guardians ! " 
 
 The time is now come, when our Saviour, having planted His 
 Church by choosing His twelve Apostles and the seventy Dis- 
 ciples, is about to make the great sacrifice promised to Adam, and 
 prefigured through the whole of the Old Testament ; but before 
 He leaves the world, He makes that beautifully solemn prayer 
 that we find in the seventeenth chapter of St. John, where He 
 prays His heavenly Father to glorify Him, and to preserve His 
 Apostles in iinity and truth ! — " I have manifested Thy name unto 
 the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world : Thine they 
 were, and thou gavest them Me ; and they have kept Thy word. 
 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, 
 and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep through Thine own 
 name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may he one, as ive 
 are. I pi^ay not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, 
 but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil. Neither pray I 
 for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me 
 through their loord ; that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art 
 in Me, and I in Thee ; that they also 7nay be one in us ; that the 
 
 WORLD MAY BELIEVE THAT TlIOU HAST SENT Me." 
 
 The Saviour now makes the great atonement for sin, and for a 
 time the Christian Church has but two orders in the ministry^ 
 the eleven Apostles, and the seventy Disciples — but we may look 
 upon it as in a state of abeyance, as we find in the first chapter of 
 the Acts of the Apostles they were bid not to depart from Jeru- 
 salem ; " but ivait for the promise of the Father, which, saith 
 He, ye have heard of Me." 
 
 The Jewish Church has been one of authority up to this time ; 
 and we find the High Priest, the Chief Priests, and the multitude 
 of the Jews demanding the Saviour's death ; and when Pilate 
 washed his hands and said, " I am innocent of the blood of this 
 just person, see ye to it." " Then answered all the people and 
 said. His blood be on us and on our children." And sure 
 enough it has been, for although they still exist as a people they
 
 "VTHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 21 
 
 have no nation, and are scattered over the face of the whole 
 earth. 
 
 As the Christian Church is now established, let ns see what 
 anthority is given to those that om* Saviour left behind Him at 
 His death ? He had made the great atonement, but He had evi- 
 dently left a portion of His icork unfinished ; and St. Luke tells us, 
 in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, "The fonncr 
 treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both 
 to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after 
 that He, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandments nnto 
 the Apostles u-hom He had chosen. To whom also He showed 
 Himself alive after His passion, by many infallible proofs, being 
 seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the 
 kingdom of God.''^ 
 
 St. Matthew tells us Jesus came to the eleven Disciples and 
 said unto them, "All power is given unto 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 ; 
 teaching them to obseiwe all things whatsoever I have commanded 
 you : and lo, / am ivith ijou alway, even unto the end of the icorld." 
 
 St. Mark says, " Afterward He appeared unto the eleven, as 
 they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and 
 hardness of heart, because they beheved not them which had seen 
 Him after He was risen. And He said unto them. Go ye into all 
 the world, and preach the Gospel to every creatiu-e. He that 
 believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that believeth not 
 shall be damned." 
 
 St. Luke tells ns, " Then opened He their understanding, that 
 they might understand the Scriptures." And in the twentieth 
 chapter of St. John we read : " Then said Jesus unto them again, 
 Peace be unto you : as my Father hath sent Me, even so send I 
 you. And when He had said this. He breathed on them, and saith 
 unto them. Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosesoever sins ye remit, 
 they are remitted unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are 
 retained." 
 
 Having given the Apostles authority as above, and promised 
 them that they should be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many 
 days hence, we read in the first chapter of Acts, " When they 
 therefore were come together, they asked of Him saying, Lord, 
 wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel ? And 
 He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the 
 seasons which the Father hath put in His own power. But ye 
 shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you : 
 and ye shall be witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem and in all 
 Jiidcii, and in Samaria, and unto the idtermost part of the earth. 
 And when He had spoken these things, while they l)elield. He was 
 taken up ; and a cloud received Ilim out of their sight." 
 
 There is no doul)t whatever respecting the true t'onjuiii-sion juul 
 anthority given by tlie Saviour to the eleven Apostles, after that He 
 arose from the dead ; and wo find the first thing they did was to 
 fill lip the vacancy caused by the death of the traitor Judas " In
 
 22 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH .'' 
 
 those days Peter stood up in the midst of the Disciples, and said, 
 — Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, 
 which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before con- 
 cerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus, for he 
 was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry, &c. 
 — For it is written in the Book of Psalms, Let his habitation be 
 desolate, and let no man dwell therein ; and his bishopric let an- 
 other take. — Wherefore of these men (the seventy Disciples) which 
 have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in 
 and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until that 
 same day that He was taken up from us, must one be ordained to 
 be a witness with us of His resurrection. And they appointed 
 two, Joseph called Barsabas, and Matthias. And they gave forth 
 their lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered 
 ivith the eleven A2)ostles." 
 
 The Jews were the peculiar people of the Almighty : they are 
 now invited to believe in the Saviour and join the Christian 
 Church ! The twelve Apostles, the seventy Disciples, John the 
 Baptist, in fact all who have taken any part hitherto in the Chiu'ch 
 were Jews, and we find St. Peter when he went to Cornelius, the 
 Centurion, saying, unto him, " Ye know how, that it is an unlaio- 
 ful thing for a man that is a Jew, to keep company with, or come 
 unto one of another nation ; but God hath showed me that I shoidd 
 not call any man common or unclean." Here was the calling of 
 the Gentiles, and all the world into the Christian Church, as our 
 Saviour said, " And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold ; 
 them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice ; and there 
 shall be one fold and one Shepherd." 
 
 We find in the second chapter of Acts by the preaching of 
 Peter three thousand souls were added to the Church, and that 
 " The Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved." In 
 the fourth chapter again, that five thousand believed ; and at the 
 thirty-second verse, "And the multitude of them that beUeved, 
 were of one heart, and of one soul!" 
 
 The third order of the Priesthood in the Christian Church is now 
 to be appointed, and we read in the sixth chapter of the Acts, 
 "Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, 
 and said, It is not reason that we should leave the Word of God, 
 and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you 
 seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, 
 whom ive may appoint over this business. And the saying pleased 
 the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, and Philip, and 
 Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, 
 whom they set before the Apostles; and when they had prayed, 
 they laid their hands upon them. And the Word of the Lord in- 
 creased ; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem 
 greatly ; and a great company of the Priests were obedient to the 
 faith." In the eighth chapter we see the Church planted in 
 Samaria, by Philip ; and in the ninth chapter the " miraculous 
 conversion of St. Paul." In the twelfth chapter we find, " But 
 the Avord of God grew and multiplied. And Barnabas and Saul
 
 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 23 
 
 retiu'ned from Jerusalem, when they had fulfilled their miuistry, 
 aud took with them Johu, whose surname Avas Mark." The next 
 chapter begins thus ; " Now there were in the Church that was at 
 Autioch, certain prophets and teachers ; as Barnabas, and Simeon, 
 aud Lucius, and Manaen, aud Saul. As they ministered to the 
 Lord, and fosted, the Holy Ghost said. Separate me Barnabas and 
 Saul, for the work ivhereunto I have called them. And when they 
 fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them 
 away. So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed 
 unto Selucia ; aud from thence they sailed to Cyprus." 
 
 I must here make a digression, to introduce a similar instance in 
 the Eughsh Church at the pi-esent time ! ! ! Separate me Milman 
 and Butler, for the work ivhereunto I have called them!!! And 
 when the hands OF our Bishops have been laid upon them, they will 
 be sent away to the work appointed for them to do ! ! ! 
 
 The three orders of the miuistry in the Christian Church, which 
 our Saviour and His Apostles had established, consisted of the 
 twelve Apostles, or Elders, or Bishops; the seventy and other 
 Disciples, or Presbyters, or Priests; and the seven Deacons. And 
 when we say, every time we repeat the Nicene Creed, " 1 believe in 
 one Catholick and Apostolic Church," it is every national branch of 
 THIS Church, which makes it Catholic, or universal ; and it was 
 founded by the Apostles Avhicli makes it Apostolick ! I am again 
 encroaching too much on your space, so remain. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 A CHURCHWARDEN. 
 
 NuKxn WiiTS, Jan. 21, 1867. 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 To the Editor of the ''Devizes Gazette." 
 
 Dear Sir, — In my last letter I traced the Christian Church to 
 the appointment of the seven Deacons, completing therein the three 
 07-ders of the ininistry, the same as had existed in the Jewish 
 Church, and in that in whicli our Saviour ministered. The Dis- 
 ciples it seems were first called Christians in Autioch, and now I 
 shall follow the Acts of the Apostles to see how fiir om- English 
 Church conforms to the doctrine laid doAvn by them. 
 
 We find Taul and Baiiiabas going to Lystra anil Dcrbe, cities 
 of Lycaonia, and to Iconium, and Antioch, confiiming the souls of 
 the Disciples: — "And when they had ordained them ciders in 
 every Church, and liud prayed with fasting, they comniendetl them 
 to the Lord, on whom they believed." We find Timothy ordained 
 thti first Bishop of the Church of the Eidiesiuns, and Titus tho frst 
 Bishop of the Cretians, and St. Paul writing to Titus — " For this 
 cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the 
 things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had 
 appoint<;d thee." That these ciders were Bishops, is i)rovcd by
 
 24 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 
 
 the next two verses — " If any be blameless, the husband of one 
 wife," &c. " Foi- a Bishop must be blameless, as the steward of 
 God," &c. And St. Peter wi-ites in his first epistle — " The elders 
 which are among you, I exhort, tvho am also an elder." 
 
 Our English Church is here completely Apostolic ; for we have 
 no City without a Bishop, and we have no Bishopric without a 
 City. When Dr. Lee was ordained Bishop of Manchester, 
 which was only a horoiigh town, Manchester was made a city to 
 receive a Bishop ! It is true, that through the niggardliness of the 
 State, in some few instances, we have two cities with only one 
 Bishop, such as " London and Westminster," " Bath and Wells," 
 "Gloucester and Bristol;" but as a rule we have, as I before 
 stated, no city without an elder or Bishop. I must here mention, 
 too, another instance of the State's great care and affection for the 
 Church : that when Dr. Lee was created Bishop of Manchester, 
 our Liberal Government, fearing the Church would be too strongly 
 represented in the House of Peers, and be able to defend herself 
 against her numerous enemies, decided that the junior Bishop in 
 the Church should be ivithout a seat in that august assembly. 
 
 The fifteenth chapter of the Acts begins — " And certain men 
 which came down from Judea, taught the brethren, and said, 
 " Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot 
 be saved. When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dis- 
 sension with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas, and 
 certain others with them, should go up to Jerusalem unto the 
 Apostles and elders about this question." " And when they wei'e 
 come to Jerusalem, they were received of the Church, and of the 
 Apostles and elders." "And the Apostles and elders came 
 together for to consider of this matter." Peter, and Barnabas, 
 and Paul seem to have argued the point. " And after they had 
 held their peace, James (tlie metropolitan Bishop of Jerusalem) 
 answered, saying. Men and brethren, hearken unto me," &c. 
 " Wherefore mj) sentence is, that we trouble not them which from 
 among the Gentiles are turned to God," &c. 
 
 This is the first council held in the Christian Church, and the 
 result was as follows : — " Then pleased it the Apostles and elders, 
 with the whole Church, to send chosen men of their own company 
 to Antioch ; and Avrote letters by them after this manner. The 
 Apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren 
 which are of the Gentiles in Antioch, and Syria, and Cilicia. For- 
 asmuch as we have heard that certain ivhich went out from us have 
 troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, ye must 
 be circumcised, and keep the law ; to whom ive gave no such com- 
 mandment." " It seemed good unto us," &c. The next chapter 
 tells us that Paul and Silas, when they came to Derbe and Lystra, 
 " As they Avent through the cities, they delivered them the decrees 
 for to keep, that were ordained of the Apostles and elders which 
 were at Jerusalem. And so were the Churches established in the 
 faith, and increased in number daily." 
 
 We see in the instance above, how any division in the early 
 Christian Church was set at rest, and this appears to have been
 
 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 25 
 
 the first Berious dissension, caused " by certain that went out from 
 the Apostles," acting without their autlwritij. The unconverted 
 Jews (who may now be termed a sect) seem to be at this time the 
 only religious opponents of the Christians, " the Pharisees and 
 Sadducees," forming a part of them ; and St. Paul, in writing to 
 them in the Epistle to the Hebrews, explains to them the mode of 
 salvation, and urges them to join the Christian faith, and concludes 
 in the last chapter, " Remember them which have the rule over 
 you, who have spoken unto you the word of God : whose faith 
 follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ, 
 the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. Be not carried 
 about icith divers and strange doctrines ; for it is a good thing that 
 the heart be established with grace, not tvith meats, which have 
 not profited them that have been occupied therein. We have ax 
 Altar " (in the Christian Church) " whereof they have no right 
 to eat, which serve the tabernacle," &c. It is here self-evident 
 that the Jews who would not believe from that time to the pre- 
 sent, have acted upon their own responsibility, and have shut 
 themselves out from the " new and better covenant," mentioned in 
 the eighth chapter. 
 
 And now, would that I could persuade every Dissenter of every 
 denomination to go through this simple history of the Church 
 with me, to follow St. Paul through all his epistles ; but before 
 we do this, let us look to the acts and deeds of the Apostles once 
 more! In the twentieth chapter Ave find — "And from Miletus 
 Paul sent to Ephesns and called the elders of the Church," &c., 
 "and he said unto them, Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and 
 to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you over- 
 seei-s, to feed the Church of God, which He hath purchased with 
 His oAvn blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall 
 grievous ivolves enter in among you not spaiing the flock. Also of 
 your own selves shall men arise, speaking 'perverse things to draw 
 away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember that 
 by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night 
 and day with tears." 
 
 Well enough might those teai"s have been shed, if, when he 
 eaid, " I know this," he could have had any conception of what 
 our English Churcli is at the present time ; but we will folloAV him 
 through his epistles, and see the unity he conceives necessary 
 for God's Churcli ! ! ! To the Church which is at Rome he writes, 
 "Now I beseech you, brethren, ?7i«r^ them ivliich cause divisions 
 and offences, contrary to the doctrine tvhich ye have learned: and 
 avoid them." To " the Church of God which is at Corinth," we 
 find, " Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no 
 divisions among you; for it hath been declared unto me, that there 
 are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of 
 yon saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I 
 of Christ — Is Cmkist uiviukd? Was Paul crucified for you?" 
 &c. The Corinthians ai'c here rebuked, not that they left the 
 Chiu'ch to follow dissent, for I'aul, and Apollo.;, and Cephas, were
 
 26 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 
 
 all mim'sters of the Church; but because they approved of one 
 more than another, the same as if the parishioners of one parish 
 cliose to leave their pastor, because they liked the one in the next 
 parish better. How miich more serious then the division when 
 we say, I am of the Church, I am of Wesley, and I of Calvin ! 
 What woidd St. Paul say to this, who began his Epistle to the 
 Corinthians as above, and finished as follows : — "Finally, bre- 
 thren, farewell; be perfect, be of good comfort, he of one mind?" > 
 
 In wi-iting to the Galatians, he says, " I marvel, that ye are so 
 soon removed from him that called you into the Grace of Christ, 
 unto another gospel : which is not another ; but there be some 
 th it trouble you and icoiild jjervert the gospel of Christ. As we said 
 before, so say I now again. If any man preach any other gospel 
 unto you, than that ye have received, let him be accursed." And 
 again, " foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that you 
 should not obey the truth." 
 
 To the Saints which are at Ephesus, he writes : — " I, there- 
 fore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of 
 the vocation wherewith ye are called — endeavouring to keep the 
 unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one 
 spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling — one Lord, 
 one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all." In wi'itiug to 
 the Saints at Philippi, with the Bishops and Deacons, he says, " If 
 there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of 
 love, if any fellowship of the Spirit — fulfil ye my joy, that ye be 
 like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one 
 mind." 
 
 To the Thessalonians, he wi-ites : — " Therefore, brethren, stand 
 fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether 
 by word, or our epistle — and if any man obey not our loord by this 
 epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he 
 may be ashamed." To Timothy, the Bishop of Ephesus, he 
 ^i-ites : — " I charge thee, therefore, before God. Preach the 
 word, be instant in season, and out of season; reprove, rebuke, 
 exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will 
 come when they wilhio;; endure sound doctrine; but after their own 
 lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears : 
 and they shall turn aioay their ears from the truth," &c. 
 
 Who can read these quotations from St. Paul's writings, and 
 not lament the " false doctrine, the heresies, and schisms," of the 
 
 present day. 
 
 Again, we find in St. Peter, third chapter—" Finally, be ye all 
 of one mind:" and "but there were false prophets also among the 
 people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily 
 shall bring in damnable heresies," &c. His last chapter begins 
 thus : — " This second epistle, beloved, I now write imto you ; in 
 botli which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance ; 
 that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before 
 by the holy prophets, a7id of the commandment of us the Apostles of 
 the Lord and Saviour." St.John, too, writes in his Epistle :— " To 
 ti-y the Spirits, as many false prophets are gone out into the world."
 
 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 27 
 
 St. Jiule finishes tliis fearful list, complaiuiug that, " there are 
 certain men crept in unawares," &c. — and then, " But, beloved, 
 remember ye the words which Avere spoken l)efore of the Apostles 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ ; how that they told you there should 
 be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own 
 ungodly lust. These he they who separate themselves," &c. 
 
 Can there be any doubt of the unity that ought to exist in the 
 Church of God — nay, that must exist? See what St. John 
 wi'ites to the seven Chm-ches which are in Asia, national Churches, 
 of the Holt Jerusalem, which he saw in a vision. "And the 
 wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of 
 the twelve Apostles of the Lamb." "And there shall in nowise 
 enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh 
 abomination, or maketh a lie; but they which are written in the 
 Lamb's book of life." 
 
 If the foundation of the New Jerusalem is built on the faith of 
 the Apostles, how careful Ave should be, in striving to enter in, to 
 walk in their footsteps ! And as our Saviour, in giviny them avthority 
 over the Church, promised to be avith them, " even unto the end 
 of the tcorld," all those Avho have received lightful ordination 
 according to St. Paul's instructions to Timothy and Titus, are 
 those who, at the pi'eseut time, throughout the world, are the mi- 
 nisters of God's Church. It is the Bible that I have quoted through- 
 out ; I have carefully looked to find, if possible, any warrant for 
 dissension. I find St. Paul saying to the Jews, " It was necessary 
 that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you ; but 
 seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of ever- 
 lasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles." And in the quotations I 
 have made from his writings, to the Corinthians in particular, it is 
 evident what he thought of divisions and dissent in the early 
 Cliurch. " Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present 
 Avorld, and is departed into Thessalonica." " Hymeneus and 
 Alexander, concerning faith having made shipwi'eck, I have de- 
 livered unto Satan, that they may learn not to Itlaspheme." 
 
 Having Ijcen through the Avholc Bible to sIioav what constitutes 
 a Church, I will endeavour in my next to fulfil my intention of 
 illustrating tlie Church of Enghxnd apart from the Churches of 
 Rome and Germany, and the evils avc are sufiering from the intro- 
 duction of the principles of the latter at the time of the Glorious 
 Jiefoi'mation. 
 
 I remain, dear Sir, yours faithfully, 
 
 A CHURCHWARDEN. 
 NoETH Wilts, Feb. 11, 1867.
 
 28 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 To the Editor of the " Devizes Gazette." 
 
 Dear Sir, — I liave now to stand champion for the English 
 Chnrch, her purity, free from the errors of her sister in Rome, 
 and from what I conceive still worse, the "Heresy and Schism" 
 that has existed ainotig us from the Reformation to the present 
 
 time. 
 
 It Avill be necessary, in order to show the working of our 
 Eno-lisli Church system, to give some authority for the connexion 
 of tJie Church ivith the State. I shall go back to the Jewish Church 
 for example, first quoting the forty-ninth chapter of Isaiah, who, 
 speaking of Christ being sent to the Gentiles, and the Church 
 restored, says : " AjuI Kings shall be thj nursing fathers, and their 
 Queens thy nursing mothers." It will be seen that the Church, by 
 God's appointment, gives authority to Kings to rule ! The first 
 King given to the Jews was Saul ; and we find Samuel officiating 
 on the occasion. " Then Samuel took a vial of oil, and poured it 
 upon his head, and kissed him, and said. Is it not because the 
 Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance?" In 
 the case of David we find, " Therefore came all the elders of Israel 
 to the King to Hebron, and David made a covenant with them in 
 Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David King over Israel, 
 according to the word of the Lord by Samuel." Then with re- 
 spect to Solomon ; " And King David said. Call me Zadoc the 
 priest, and Nathan the prophet ; and the King said unto them, 
 take with you the servants of the Lord, and cause Solomon. my 
 son to ride upon mine own mule, and bring him down to Gihon ; 
 and let Zadoc the jrriest and Nathan the i:)rophet anoint him there 
 Kino- over Israel." Again :" ^/zs^a the prophet CdMeA. one, of the 
 children of the Prophets," and sent him to Jehu to pour a box of 
 oil on his head, and say, " Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed 
 thee King over Israel." And King Solomon, too, fulfilled his 
 office of temporal head of the Church, when he made that beautiful 
 prayer at the dedication of the Temple. So it is with our English 
 Sovereigns at their coronation; the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 assisted by the Bishops, officiate at the ceremony which makes the 
 reigning Prince the temporal head of the Church! ! ! 
 
 We will now look to the Church of Rome, which I have entitled 
 above " Our Sister," and which, at least for the three first centuries, 
 till the reign of Constantine the Great, stood in the front rank of 
 the Christian Churches, as doing honour to God by sending four- 
 ffths of her Bishops and Popes into that assembly, which we 
 recognize daily when we say, " The noble army op martyrs 
 PRAISE Thee." Out of thirty Bishops and Popes of Rome that 
 succeeded each other during the period from the Emperor Nero 
 to Diocletian, and the ten persecutions in the reigns of the several 
 Emperors of Rome, including those two, there were but four that 
 died a natural death, twenty-four suFiEREi) martyrdom, and
 
 WHAT CONSTITrXES A CHURCH ? 29 
 
 two were slain. And if we look to St. P.anl's Epistle to the 
 Romans, cliap. 1, ver. 8, he says, " First, I thank my God through 
 Jesus Chrii^t for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout 
 the xvhole icorld." 
 
 Whatever might be said in later years of the Popes of Rome 
 being Antichrist, they, surely, were not during these three cen- 
 turies. It was the Pagan Emperors during this period who tilled 
 that character — Domitian in the year eighty-seven, and Diocletian 
 in 293, assuming the title of Lord and God, and requiring their 
 subjects to li'orship them as such. 
 
 Here was no connexion of the Church and the State ; the 
 Emjierors were all Pagans, and we see the result. Our English 
 Chm'ch (the Anglo-Saxon) although planted by St. Augustine, 
 sent here by Pope Gregory, never became subject to Rome till the 
 time of William the Conqueror, and his sons, William Rufus and 
 Henry the First. The Conqueror 7mled by might, and, conse- 
 quently, was no "nursing father" to the Church. "After the 
 death of Lanfranc, Arch])ishop of Canterbury, the see was left to 
 the disposal of William Rufus, who kept it open for four years ichile 
 he plundered its revenues. Other Bishoprics, Abbeys, and Priories, 
 as they fell vacant, he tool in the same xcay into his own hands" — 
 (Churton's Early English Church). The reign of Henry the 
 First was no better. " As to the Clergy, every parish church was 
 put under a fine, and the Parson was to 2Kiy a ransom for his liberty.''^ 
 Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, said to King Rufus (recog- 
 nizing the Church and the State), " The Church is yours to defend 
 and guard it as a patron ; it is not yours to invade its rights and 
 lay it waste. It is the property of God, that His Ministers may 
 live of it, not that your armies and wars should be suppox'ted from 
 it "—(Ibid.). 
 
 It is not to be wondered at, that, treated as the Church was l)y 
 these Norman conquerors, the Archbishop of Canterbury, William 
 of Corboil, appealed to the Pope, Ilonorius II., Avho issued a bull 
 appointing "our very dear brother, William, Arclil)ishop of Can- 
 terbury, to the office of our Vicar in England and Scotland.'''' 
 
 This was the admission of Popery into our English Church. Had 
 these Norman kings been " the nursing fathers of the Church,'''' it 
 might possibly never have happened ; as it was, it existed for 400 
 years, till the Reformation. 
 
 We will pass over this period, simply observing, that usurped 
 power and might vested in one Church, and more especially in one 
 individual, is certain to bring about abuses that in the end will 
 undermine itself. So it was in our Church ; the worship of the 
 Virgin Mary, the doctrine of Transubstantiation, of Puigatory, of 
 works of supererogation, and a host of others, being followed up 
 BV THE SALK OF INDULGKXCKS TO SIN, arouscd the miiids of our 
 Refonners to the iniquity of such a system, and they, together with 
 Hcniy VIII., of biill-dog coiii'age, defied the Pope, and the reign- 
 ing Prince again became " the temporal hcial of the Church." 
 
 We have now to notice the unfortunate schisms and divisions 
 that took place, where unity should have been the bond of love
 
 30 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 
 
 that moved them to action. On the accession of Queen Mary to 
 the throne, the Reformers either became martyrs or exiles ; the 
 latter chiefly went over to Germany, among which number was 
 John Jewel, afterwards Bishop of Salisbury, and from his life, 
 written by C. W. Le Bas, M.A., I gather the following informa- 
 tion : — Jewel, having made the friendship of Peter Martyr, Pro- 
 fessor of Divinity at Oxford, who had left the University and 
 settled at Strasburg, went and resided with him in his exile, and 
 here he Avas amongst his bi-ethren in exile ; but how different in 
 mind and spirit the following quotation will prove : — " It is truly 
 piteous to think that all these holy consolations" (the hope of re- 
 turning home on the death of Queen Mary) " should ever have 
 been overshadowed, even for a moment, by stormy contention 
 among the Protestants themselves. But so, alas ! it was. The 
 demon of strife descended among the champions of peace and 
 truth. The scenes of their banishment were converted into schools 
 of angry controversy. In the fii'st days of their exile the brethi-en, 
 for the most part, dwelt together in unity ; but many of them 
 had, unhappily, sought refuge in various places whei-e the genius 
 of Calvin was predominant, and there they gradually imbibed a 
 fondness and an admiration for the mighty works of that master 
 builder of the tower of confusion. From that moment all con- 
 cord and harmony was at an end among the exiled Protestants. 
 The spirit of discord went forth from Geneva, and speedily shed 
 its pernicious influence among the brethi-en at Frankfort. The 
 English Liturgy was the first thing that suffered from the erup- 
 tion. As early as 1554, the RefoiTners of Frankfort began to 
 tamper with their service-book, and it soon appeared that the 
 ' beginnings of strife are as when one letteth out water.' The 
 proceedings of the malcontents were vehemently encouraged by 
 John Knox, afterwards ' the great incendiary of Scotland ;' and the 
 effect of his interference was, that on the 15th of November, 1554, 
 the men of Frankfort despatched to them of Zuric an open and 
 bitter defiance of the English formularies. The men of Zuric 
 retorted on the 28tli of the same month ; and, thenceforward, the 
 debate became fierce and obstinate, and the breach well nigh 
 incurable. 
 
 " It Avas in vain that Grindal and Chambers were sent from 
 Strasbm-g for the purpose of allaying these commotions. It was 
 equally in vain that representations were subsequently forwarded 
 from the whole body of English at Strasburg, with the same 
 pious and charitable object. These measures had no other efiect 
 but to drive the innovators to an appeal to the almost pontifical 
 authority of Calvin. His decision, of course, was in favoiu' of the 
 dissentients ; and they were thus confirmed in their bitter opposi- 
 tion to the English Ritual. In the following year (1555) some 
 slight advantage was obtained over the Calvinistic party, by the 
 exertions of Dr. Richard Cox, who arrived at Frankfort in March, 
 and succeeded in driving Knox from the place, and re-establishing 
 the Liturgy there. This success, however, was but transitory and 
 insignificant. For in the ensuing August, Knox and Goodman
 
 WHAT COXSTITUTES A CHtTRCH ? 31 
 
 retired to Geneva, the metropolis of scliism, and "vrere followed 
 tliither by the main body of the separatists. Under the ministiy 
 of these two men, they ntterly rejected the whole scheme of the 
 English Reformation, as accomplished in the reign of Edward VI., 
 and professed their entire conformity to the discipline of Geneva. 
 It is well known with what disastrons effect their principles were 
 afterwards imported into England. At this period, Jewel was 
 with Peter Martyr at Zuric, and no efforts were spared by him to 
 heal these miserable distractions, and to bring back the spirit of 
 peace and nnity to the suffering Church. He omitted no tojiic of 
 exhortation or entreaty -which might recall them to a sense of their 
 infatuation. But, alas ! he was preaching to the tempest. The 
 winds of discord had got loose ; and it far exceeded all human 
 power to command them back to their confinement. They con- 
 tinued to rage with unabated fury, and to render the Protestant 
 cause, in the season of its adversity, a spectacle of sorroio to its most 
 faithful followers, axd of exi'ltatiox to its most malignant j^erse- 
 cutors." 
 
 Here then at Geneva was the hot-bed, from whence those rank 
 weeds, that were afterwards imported into England and shore the 
 Reformation of its glory, were propagated ; but I am again trespass- 
 ing too much on your space, and Avill conclude in another letter 
 the further divisions at this time, with the consequences and effects 
 to the present day. 
 
 I remain, dear Sir, yours truly. 
 
 A CHURCHWARDEN. 
 
 NoBTn Wilts, March 4, 1867. 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 To the Editor of the ^'Devizes Gazette." 
 
 Dear Sir, — My last letter concluded by showing how fearful 
 were the divisions among the Reformers at Geneva ; and the 
 English Divines who were exiled there returned in the reign of 
 Elizabeth to instil the poison they had imbibed into our Church 
 system, which required all the energy, unity, and zeal that could 
 possildy be brought to bear, to grapple Avitli the encroaohmouts of 
 Ivome, and show the world at huge that in reforming our Church 
 they had no intention of upsetting or destroying the Catholic dis- 
 cipline therein, but to thoroughly cleanse it from every thing that 
 was idolatrous, superstitious, or impure ! I will give another quo- 
 tiition from Le Las' Life of Jewel: — "Another cause of confusion, 
 which was then beginning to distract the kingdom — the scrujdes 
 of the party since known by the title of Piiritxns, relative to the 
 lawfulness of ceremonies and clerical attii'e, Avero beginning to 
 assume a formidable shape ; and it was a most disastrous circura- 
 -tance, that tlie cause of Noucouformity should find two leaders so
 
 32 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 
 
 distingnislied by their learning and their piety as Samppon and 
 PInmphry. The names of such men gave incredible force to the 
 insurrectionary movement which was then setting in against the 
 anthority and discipline of the Church, and which eventually 
 effected the temporary downfall both of the Altar and the Throne. 
 By these men, and men of the same stamp, the true siiirit of our 
 Reformation a]J2)ears to have been loell-nigh forgotten. It never was 
 the intent of our original Reformers to present the Church of 
 England to the public mind under the aspect of a neiv establishment, 
 sidDstituted in the place of an old one which had been subverted 
 and demolished. The Church of England to which all their toils 
 and cares were devoted was the very same Church vthich 
 HAD existed from THE BEGINNING ; and their object was, not to 
 sweep it from the face of the earth, and to plant another on its 
 site; but to cleanse it from superstitious comiptions, and to effect its 
 deliverance from a shameful servitude. Unfortunately, however, 
 many of our Protestant exiles brought back with them, from 
 Geneva and Zuric, notions at mortal variance with the wisdom of 
 our more moderate Reformers. They, too many of them, seemed 
 to consider the Reformation as neither more nor less than the in- 
 troduction of a totally new system, which shoidd have nothing 
 whatever in common with that which had passed away. Their 
 imaginations were possessed with what they conceived to be the 
 primitive model of Christian worship, every superficial relic of 
 the former superstition was no better than an accursed thing. The 
 surplice and the square cap were badges of the servitude which 
 had been recently thrown off; and out of these prejudices and 
 scruples had arisen a diversity of practice which was beginning to 
 render the Reformation contemptible in the eyes of the public, and 
 to afford an open triumph to the Papal party. The effect of all 
 this dissention was unspeakably calamitous. Some forsook the 
 Church because the habits were used ; others, again, because the 
 habits were not used. All reasonable and sober-minded persons 
 were disgusted at the disorder ivhich p)revailed, while the Romanist 
 was loud in his denunciation of it, as at once the inevitable result 
 and the righteous punishment of a national defection from the 
 Apostolic unity. 
 
 Matters got even worse than this. One Cartwright, who was 
 Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, went such lengths 
 with the Puritans against the Church, that in 1571, the Houses of 
 Convocation, together with the Parliament, took most stringent 
 measures to bring the Nonconformists to reason. However much 
 dissention might have prevailed in the English Church for the first 
 eleven years of Queen Elizabeth's reign, the sin of schism was un- 
 known. "Till about that time, 1570, the Roman Catholics held 
 communion with the Reformed Church, and the Puritans the 
 same. In 1569 Pius V. issued a bull in which he excommuni- 
 cated Queen Elizabeth and her supporters. Those Roman Catho- 
 lics who would not conform to the Reformation, now left the 
 reformed Church and became a sect. The same year which wit- 
 nessed the separation of the Romanists, was al>H) the commence-
 
 WHAT CON'STITCTES A CHrRCH ? 33 
 
 ment of the Puritan separation. When thej beheld the Reforma- 
 tion re-established according to the forms adopted in the reign of 
 King Edward, they became dissatisfied ; and after much fruitless 
 agitation to alter the Church, they at length began to declaim 
 against her as infected with Popish errors and superstitions ; and, 
 affirming EPISCOPACY to be anti-Christian, they separated /)-o?« the 
 Church and formed conventicles, about 1570. From this time the 
 Puritans, and those ivho followed their principles and pj-actices 
 \nTHOrT SEPARATING FROM THE Church, became exceedingly 
 troublesome." — Palmer's History of the Church. 
 
 In my first letter, I said I would point out any inconsistency I 
 might meet with in the task I had undertaken : here, then, was the 
 commencement of that system which has existed ever since, and 
 has luistaufjld millions of the Cluirch's most eai'uest and zealous 
 members. " Those who followed the principles and practices of 
 the Puritans, icithout separating from the Church'''' — if the Bible is 
 true, and those portions I have quoted from St. Paul's epistles, 
 and the other Avriters in the New Testament have any meaning — 
 have something to answer for the consequences of their division. 
 The doctrine of the Low Chui'ch, in opposition to Church principles, 
 has existed ever since. These men evidently feared the " sin of 
 schism," and so kept within the communion of the Church ; but 
 the effect of their teaching is too evident at the present time, when 
 we see Churchmen deliberately asserting at a public meeting held 
 at Dorchester, the following quotation, Avhich I copy from your 
 paper of Februaiy 28 : — " Lord Shaftesbuiy, in acknowledging the 
 compliment [a vote of thanks as chaiiman] said Lord Portman had 
 thrown out a suggestion of the greatest possible importance. His 
 lordship had well said, that, if he was offended in his religious 
 principles, and annoyed in one Church, he would go to another {hear, 
 hear). He (Lord Shaftesbury) Avas not one \Nho would hastily 
 quit his parish Church, or the minister to whom he ordinarily 
 listened ; but there were things paramount to that — loyalty to a 
 pew was sometimes inconsistent with loyalty to Christ {hear, hear). 
 He was therefore sure that, if Lord Portinan's suggestion were 
 can-ied into effect icith moderation and care, it would produce the 
 result they desired (hear, hear)." How can the unity (f the Church 
 exist, if these sentiments are cheered in a large assembly such as 
 was held at Dorchester ? — and are they not precisely the same as 
 those for Avhich St. Paul rebuked the Corinthian Church ? — "I 
 am of Paul, I of AjkiHos, I of Cephas, and 1 of Christ." Is 
 Christ divided ? Well might Lord Shaftesbury recouniiend it 
 should be done " loith moderation and care ;" for who can tell, 
 with sucli a system l)Cguii, Avheie or how it woidd finish ? But 
 we can come nearer home. Youi- jwpei' of last week coiilaiiis the 
 account of a similar meeting at Devizes, where Mr. K. P. Long, 
 one of the members for the Noithern Division, attended to exj)lain 
 the fonnation of a Lay Association, where you report liiin to 
 say: — "The Lay Association, however, would do, and lie be- 
 lieved do effectively, that wliicli was loo invidious a tiling for 
 private individuals fn undertake (hcur, Iiku). lis prouHiIci^ pro-
 
 34 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 
 
 posed, therefore, if they succeeded in obtaining the adhesion oj 
 the greater part of the Churchwardens, that in any case where the 
 clergyman introduced practices and doctrines which hitherto had 
 not been regarded as the practices and doctrines of the Church of 
 England, the Churchwarden could call the attention of the Asso- 
 ciation to the matter. Then, after due inquiry, the Association 
 would remonstrate with the Bishop ; and they hoped that such a 
 remonstrance, proceeding from such a body, and backed up, as 
 it would be, by the social influence of various members of the 
 Church throughout the Diocese, would have a weight with the 
 Bisho]) which the remonstrance of a single individual perhaps might 
 not have {hear, hear). Such was the proposed modus operandi, 
 and they believed it would be effectual. But, supposing they were 
 mistaken, it would then devolve upon the Association to devise 
 measures for getting over the difficulty in some other way. His 
 hope, however, was, that the Bishop, of whom he wished to speak 
 in the most respectful, reverential, and affectionate terms, would 
 be infliienced by the force of public opinion in the Diocese ; and 
 that he would at once step forward and discharge what they believed 
 was his duty at this critical juncture (Jiear, hear). But if his lord- 
 ship refused to do so, they must then devise such measures as 
 might be deemed expedient for obtaining that which they felt 
 bound to insist upon having {applause), whether the Bishop was 
 with or against them. They would not have their parish Churches 
 spoiled. They would maintain, in their integrity, those services 
 of the Church of England which they believed to be in accordance 
 with her principles and her doctrines {hear, hear); and, whether 
 the Bishop was with, or against them, from that point they would 
 not swerve {applause). In the most temperate tone and manner 
 they desired to make their remonstrance, but give way they would 
 not {applause). And they were all the more resolute, because 
 they desired to maintain a respectfiil, moderate, and reverential 
 tone towards those in spiritual authority over them {hear, hear)." 
 
 I can truly sympathize with our worthy Bishop, and ask — Who 
 would be a Bishop in these days ? He is answerable to God only 
 for the manner in which he discharges his duty ; and yet we find 
 him expected " to step forward and discharge what they believed 
 was HIS duty at this critical juncture ! " And, moreover, if his 
 lordship should consider it his duty not to interfere in certain cases 
 where an individual Churchwarden may suppose the practices and 
 doctrines exceeded those hitherto used in the Church of England 
 {ivhich are of a very diverse character), the Lay Association "would 
 have a weight with the Bishop which the remonstrance of a single 
 individual perhaps might not have." Is the Bishop then to have 
 no liberty of conscience ? Is he supj^osed to be a mere tool, to 
 work out the principles of a certain number of clergy, who deny 
 the spirituality of their holy office? The honourable member, I trust, 
 will excuse these remarks ; but, standing champion for our Church, 
 I could do no otherwise than notice it. 
 
 There was a degree of consistency in those puritans who left 
 the Church of England in the reign of Elizabeth ; but " the Godly
 
 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 35 
 
 people" went on in their hatred of the Church, till, with the Bible 
 in one hand, and the sword in the other, the Altar and the Throne 
 were attacked, and the Archbishop and the King were destroyed : 
 those professing extraordinary piety overlooking that part of the 
 Bible: '■'■Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm" ! ! 
 
 Let us next look to Scotland. Where is the Church of God to 
 be found there ? It is a very small, feeble, twinkling light ; but 
 there it is, and always has been, " the Episcopal Church." It is 
 the only one that holds communion with our own ; but the State 
 has ceased to be " its nursing father." John Knox, of Geneva 
 notoriety, whom Le Bas calls "The great incendiary of Scotland," 
 went there with his anti-Episcopal notions, and succeeded in in- 
 stituting a NEW Church ; one free from those restrictions which 
 St. Paul left the first Bishop of the Cretians, in Crete, " to set in 
 order." 
 
 What has been the consequence ? By some means or other, the 
 Holy Estate of Matrimony was performed edgeways ; and it was 
 found that the high families in Scotland were illegitimate, and an 
 Act of Parliament had to be passed to legalize the same. There 
 was nothing of this in the Episcopal Church ; and so it happens 
 that those who will run counter to the Apostolic rule, bring about 
 circumstances not very favourable to themselves. 
 
 One of the effects of the divisions in the EngUsh Church is 
 seen, in the State having legalized what used to be the " Holy 
 Estate of Matrimony" into a civil contract. Think of this! — the 
 Almighty fii-st said, " Therefore shall a man leave his father and 
 mother and cleave unto his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh." 
 Our Saviour, in alluding to it, says, " What God has joined together, 
 let no man put asunder." And St. Paul, in the 5th chapter of 
 the Ephesians, likens the married state to Christ and His Church; 
 and concludes, " For this cause shall a man leave his father and his 
 mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. 
 This is a great mystery ; but I speak concerning Christ and the 
 Church." If any of those parties married at the Board of Guar- 
 dians, or the like, should come to inherit property, their marriage 
 will not be disputed in law ; but that God has had any thing to do 
 with such a ceremony, it is absurd to think of. And how can His 
 blessing be expected on those who choose to make such an agree- 
 ment.^ There is none of that '^mystical union" spoken of by St. 
 Paul, and consequently we may conclude they are twain still! I ! 
 
 The quotations I have made have so lengthened my letter, that, 
 as I wish to notice the Irish Church, and the purity of our own, 
 I will conclude this. 
 
 Remaining yours truly, 
 
 A CHURCHWARDEN. 
 
 NOBTH \ViLT.q, March 20, 1867. 
 
 C 2
 
 36 AVHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 To the Editoi' of the "Devizes Gazette." 
 
 Dear Sir, — I have now to notice the Church in Ireland, 
 planted by St. Patrick in the year 432, and continued free from 
 the aggressions of Rome till the twelfth century. At the Refor- 
 mation, in the reign of Elizabeth, it rejected the Papal power, 
 and the English ritual was again introduced. Two Bishops only, 
 out of about twenty-six, refused to agree with the Reformation, 
 and were driven from their sees. Here is another instance of the 
 Church REMAINING THE SAME, but cleansed from her errors; but 
 we have to notice the anomaly of two Episcopal Churches {if such 
 can possibly exist) — the Irish Catholic Church, and the Roman 
 Catholic Chvrch in Ireland. Can any one doubt which is the true 
 Church there ? Is God the author of confusion ? Or is it likely 
 that He who, by the mouth of His Prophet Samuel, says, " That 
 rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft ;" and, by St. Paul, "That 
 whosoever resisteth the higher powers, resisteth the ordinances of 
 God, and shall receive to himself damnation" — could ever sanction 
 the perpetual rebellions that the Popes of Rome have instigated 
 (Pius V. and Gregory XIII. , in particular), to force the Irish 
 people into the Romish Communion again. 
 
 Pius V. conferred the dominions of the Queen to Philip II., 
 King of Spain ! Gregory XIII. issued a bull, in which all who 
 should unite in rebellion against Queen Elizabeth were promised a 
 plenary pardon of their sins ! 
 
 But I can best illustrate the fearful consequences of this schism 
 by a quotation from Palmer's " History of the Church." 
 
 " It was only by a long series of rebellions that the schism in 
 Ireland was consolidated, and became so widely extended. The 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth, however, sufficed for this lamentable 
 catastrophe. King James I. wisely discouraged the Roman schism, 
 and forbade the residence of its Bishops, Priests and Jesuits in his 
 dominions ; but, under his successor, Charles I., a relaxation of this 
 wholesome severity encouraged the Schismatics in Ireland to 
 insult and disturb the Church; and ultimately, in 1641, to massacre 
 in cold blood a hundred and fifty thousand of its adherents, and 
 to break into insurrection. 
 
 "The Church was now dreadfully persecuted by the Papists 
 and by the English Parliament ; but, on the return of Charles II., 
 I'esumed its rights. Persecution was renewed under James II., 
 in 1690, when the Romish party obtained power ; and in the rebel- 
 lion of 1798. From that period, the Romish party has acquired 
 great political power, and the Church has been almost continually 
 persecuted, especially within the last few years, in^which the 
 clergy have been reduced nearly to starvation ; some have been 
 murdered, and many placed in peril of their lives. To add to 
 their afflictions, the Government, in 1833, suppressed ten of the
 
 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 37 
 
 Bishoprics, on pretence of requiring their revenues for the support 
 of ecclesiastictil buildings ; althougli the Bishops of Ireland, in a 
 body, protested against such an act ; and offered to pay the amount 
 required from the income of their sees, provided that so great an 
 injury were not done to the cause of religion." 
 
 We see here the fearful consequence of such a schism as the 
 Church of Home, which is in Ireland; and the sooner the world can 
 be satisfied that the oxe Episcopal Church AViiicn has been, or 
 is to be found, in nearly all the nations of the earth, is the true 
 Church of God, the better and the happier it will be for all 
 parties. 
 
 We are told, and I have noticed above, " that the Almighty is 
 not the author of confusion." It was the Devil that caused 
 our first parents to sin ! It was he that withstood the Almighty 
 to His face, and told Him that holy Job Avould deny Him, if he was 
 only afflicted I It was he who had the audacity to tempt our 
 blessed Saviour in the wilderness ; and, if possible, to frustrate the 
 salvation of mankind ! 
 
 It is he that has caused all the heresies, schisms, and divisions 
 iTi God's Church! — and it is he, still, that blinds the eyes of 
 men, that they should not see the ejects of the multitude of opinions 
 they hold till it is too late, till that which has been (which I will 
 conclude this letter with) may perhaps be again ; and Christianity 
 itself, which a laxity of opinion and Church principles may under- 
 mine, give way (as it has done before) TO infidelity. 
 
 Let us now look and see if there is any real cause for these 
 divisions. I will take the life of a man, from his birth to his death 
 in old age ; first quoting the words of our Saviour, u-hen giving 
 authority to the eleven Apostles, " Go ye into all the world, and 
 preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is 
 baptized shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be 
 damned." 
 
 Our Church, then, finding these the tenns of man's salvation, when 
 an infant is born, calls him into her Communion by baptism, tliat 
 the original sin of Adam which he inherited by nature may be 
 "washed away," and that he who was '• born in wrath" may become 
 the child of God ! Here she takes a merciful part ; for if, as some 
 assert, persons ought not to be baptized till they are adults 
 and penitents, — if they should die at any time unha]>tized, there is 
 no assurance of their salvation ; and the rubric of our burial ser- 
 vice says it is not to be read over such persons, jtlainly showing 
 the o])iiiioii of those who compiled it. Having taken surety of the 
 faith of sponsois, that the child shall be taught " the Creed, the 
 Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments," she next calls upon 
 him to ratify in his own person, at Confii-matioii, what ho could 
 nf)t do in infancy, and to acknowledge himseli' htjund to believe 
 what his sponsors had promii^cd foi' him ! 
 
 The Clinrch, too, has compiled a Catechism for his instruction, 
 in which siie explains Iter meaning of those things he is to believe: 
 she has also a siivice for private baptism, <nid also for adults. 
 And the mother is not forgotten ; theie is a seivice for li«i lo
 
 38 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 
 
 attend, and offer her thanks and offerings (like the Virgin Mary of 
 old) for her safe delivery ! Alas ! that dissent should ever have 
 been the cause of making people forget the true reason why that 
 offering is made. Yet I know an instance in my own parish (the 
 man told me himself), that he had taken his wife to the Methodist 
 Chapel in the next parish to have her *' Churched ;" for he did 
 not see why he should pay a shilling at the Church when he could 
 get it done at the Chapel ybr nothing! ! 
 
 The Christian next inclines to the married state. The Church 
 is provided with a service after the law of God; and there is no 
 question but " they twain are made one flesh." Her bells, too, 
 rejoice with the happy pair : — 
 
 " Oh, merry are the village bells 
 
 That sound with soothing chime 
 From the dim old tower, grown grey beneath 
 
 The shadowy touch of time ; 
 And gaily are they borne along 
 
 Upon the summer air. 
 Telling of bridal happiness 
 
 To the youthftil and the fair." 
 
 Those bells, too, call him weekly, and, in many instances, daily, 
 to worship and service : — 
 
 " 'Tis past, the bridal glee is past, 
 
 Those echoing peals are o'er ; 
 But the sweet, the Holy Sabbath comes. 
 
 We hear them now once more. 
 With a message from the heaven of love, 
 
 A voice that speaks to all ; 
 Unto the temple of our God, 
 
 Unto His shrine thet call." 
 
 And again, when he dies, they call him to his last home, to await 
 the day of the general resurrection ! — 
 
 " And yet once more your music breaks 
 
 Upon my listening ear. 
 Though not the gaily-sounding notes 
 
 We love so well to hear ; 
 Changed is your message to the heart, 
 
 Your joyous tone is fled ; 
 You speak to us of buried hopes, 
 
 A requiem of the dead." 
 
 But ere that takes place in old age, he has a lifetime to pass : 
 " to work out his own salvation with fear and trembling." His 
 Church takes care he shall not be ignorant (unless wilfully so) of 
 all it is necessary he should know. She does what she can to 
 teach him to read the Scriptures, but she provides that all may 
 know them by hearing, if they will only attend her service; for she 
 appoints to go through the whole of the Bible and Testament 
 during the year, and the principal chapters on Sundays and Holy 
 Days. Her prayers and supplications, too, are after the manner 
 given by St. Paul to Timothy and Titus. 
 
 She has given us a Creed also, compiled by the Apostles them-
 
 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 39 
 
 selves, that we may not be ignorant of what is essential that all 
 should know ; antl, that all believing the same, there may be that 
 Unity in the Church that the Bible teaches ; and when the Church 
 was beset with heresy in the days of Arius, 318 bishops assembled 
 at the Council of Kice, condemned his heresy, and established the 
 Nicene Creed, further to instruct and keep in the true faith the 
 members of the Universal or Catholic Church ; and, after that, the 
 Creed of St. Athanasius was added, to explain, as far as we are 
 permitted to know, the mystery of the Holy Trinity I 
 
 Oiir Churchman occasioually Hills sick, in old age, perhaps 
 " unto death." He is instructed " To call for the elders of the 
 Church, and let them pray over him. And the prayer of faith 
 shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up ; and if he 
 has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." The time ap- 
 proaches that he must die. She calls him to his last home to rest 
 around her sacred walls, till the trumpet shall sound at the general 
 resm-rection. Nothing can be more beautiful or sublime than her 
 service here : she hails his remains with the cheering words, " I 
 am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord : he that believeth 
 in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever 
 liveth and believeth in Me, shall never die" We are told, in the 
 lesson, that that body about to be sown " is not quickened except 
 IT DIE," and then we commit his body to the ground (from whence 
 it was taken) " earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust ; in 
 sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life, through 
 our Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
 What more on earth can a Christian require than this ? Our 
 Church used, in days of old, to be called " The Poor Man's 
 Church," Is it so in the present day ? I fear not : the divisions 
 among her own clergy, the different sects that have risen up 
 among us, " draiciny away disciples after them, as St. Paul 
 predicted : the propagating a slang, vulgar term invented by 
 Satan himself, " The nearer the Church, the further from God." 
 All this has so alienated the peasantry of England from their 
 parish churches, that if we go on as at present, there will be no 
 need after a time to go abroad to convei't the heathen. 
 
 Then again, look at her parochial system ! In every parish 
 there is a reguini-ly ordained minister, licensed by his bishop to the 
 cure of that parish ; and, whether the inhabitants will receive him or 
 not, it must not he forgotten, the sentence our Savioui- passed on 
 all those who would not receive and hear the twelve apostles and 
 seventy disciples he sent out by twos into every city. On the 
 other hand, the words of the Prophet Ezekiel apply to him : " So 
 thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of 
 Israel ; therefore thou sliult 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 r/ox/ not speak to warn the wicked 
 from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his 
 BLOOD roill I require at thine hand." 
 
 I find I am again taking too niudi of your space, so I must make 
 one more letter to notice those of our clergy who have taken up
 
 40 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 
 
 the ritualistic movement, and the consequences of division to 
 the Churches of the East by their divisions, and the sword of 
 Mahomet. 
 
 I remain, dear Sir, yours faithfully, 
 
 A CHURCHWARDEN. 
 
 North Wilts, Easter, 1867. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 To the Editor of the " Devizes Gazette." 
 
 Dear Sir, — In concluding this series of letters on the Christian 
 Church, it i-emains to notice that portion of our Clergy who have 
 caused such a stir of late among those who form the low Chui'ch 
 and the Dissenters. Those men who advocate high ritualistic 
 practices. 
 
 I can say much in their favoiu', and a great deal against them. 
 The Church Union they advocate must in j^rinciple be a sound 
 measure : St. Paul's epistles (that I have so fully quoted) are full 
 of it : it is not the scant measure of union in our own Church only, 
 though we have much to do here ; but union, sooner or later, with 
 all the Churches in the woi'ld, Eoine included ! ! ! 
 
 If the peaceable Kingdom of Christ shall ever happen — if " the 
 wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard lie do\^m with 
 the kid" — if " He shall a second time assemble the outcasts of 
 Israel from the four corners of the earth" — and, '^ the envy of 
 Ephraim s/m// r7(7)ar?, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut 
 off: Ephraim shall not envij Judah, and Judah shall not vex 
 Ephraim," — should this happen in this generation, and Christ's 
 " Kingdom come," how would those persons stand reproved and 
 convicted who are for ever ciying out, " No peace with Rome." 
 The Church of Rome is our sister ; it is true she is an erring one, 
 but that is the very reason why we should try to reclaim her. An 
 offer (if I am not mistaken) has been tendered to her to hold com- 
 munion with us, upon true Catholic principles ; she contemptuously 
 rejected it — saying, it was for us to repent of the heresies and 
 schisms we had been guilty of, and then return to the true Chui-ch. 
 This is nothing more than Ave could expect. Can Rome {who is 
 united in herself) look upon the divisions in our Church with any 
 other view than she did at the Reformation ? Even if she were 
 inclined to admit her errors, could she not reply, on application for 
 reunion : " First cast out the l)eam that is in thine own ei/e, and then 
 shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote that is in thy brother's 
 eye ? " The principle of " Cluu-ch Union" is correct ; would that 
 those who advocate it Avould show their sincerity by following 
 the example of St. Paul, who says, " All things are lawful for me, 
 hut all things are not expedient!" The Ritualists strangely outdo 
 St. Paul, for 'all things they do are not lawful! Witness the
 
 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHLKCH ? 41 
 
 incense, and the elevation of the consecrated elements for adora- 
 tion — and, again, having promised at their ordination '■^reverently 
 to obey their ordinary and other chief ministers," thej appear to 
 have forgotten tliat part of a Christian minister's duty. But even 
 supposing they were right so far, surely it is not expedient, the 
 extreme part they are taking. Our Reformed Church requires 
 nothing more than that the Priest should wear the white surplice, 
 " the emblem of purity,''' externally ; and, as regards the inner man, 
 " let your Priests be clothed with 7ijhteous7iess.'" It is true, in the 
 Jewish Church, the Lord commanded Moses " to make holy gar- 
 ments for Aaron and his sons, for glory and for beauty; and to 
 make them "of gold, and hhie, and purple, and scarlet, and fine 
 linen." Yet we find John the Baptist, who was sent to prepare 
 the way for tlie Saviour and the Christian Church, " had his 
 raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins :" 
 showing, at all events, tliere is no necessity for keeping up the 
 Jewish custom in the Christian Church ! And, moreover, if unity 
 is their object, how much sooner would they gain the laity over to 
 them, if to the zeal with which they labour for their flocks (which 
 even Dissenters give them credit for) they had the discretion to 
 know what things " icere not expedient" 
 
 I have now given what I believe to be a Scriptural view of 
 " what constitutes a Church." Would that those who differ from 
 her would in time consider what possibly might be the effect in 
 our own England of the multitude of opinions that her people choose 
 to hold — yea, consider whether the words of Jeremiah may possibly 
 apply to us : " Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord ? 
 Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? A won- 
 derful and horrible thing is committed in the land. The Prophets 
 prophesy falsely, and the Priests bear rule by their means, and My 
 people love to have it so — and what Avill ye do in the end thereof?" 
 
 \\'hat has been done in the end thereof, where other nations, 
 slighting the privilege of the Christian Church among them, have had 
 their candlesticks removed, I will show, by again quoting "Pahner's 
 History of the Church." 
 
 " While the Monothclite heresy was disturbing the Church, the 
 false prophet Mahomet and his followers were conquering the 
 Asiatic possessions of the Eastern Empire, and extending their 
 ti-iumphs through Egyi)t, and along the northern coast of Africa. 
 Mahomet was an impostor whose pretensions would have simk 
 into immediate obscurity, like those of many other pretended 
 Pi'ophets, had they not been sustained by force of arms and vast 
 military success. He declared tliat a Divine commission had been 
 given to him to establish the true religion by force of arms, and to 
 destroy idolatiy. He admitlccl that the Jewish and the Christian 
 revelations were Divine; but lie pretended that they wei-e only 
 introductory to his own; and wliile he denounced eternal damna- 
 tion to those who should I'ei'iise to receive it, lie forced them at 
 the point of the sword to take the alternative o\' slavery or death. 
 
 " In Egypt and (he East, the invaders wei-e assisted liy the 
 Eutychian and Nest<iri;iii Iierctics ; and tlicii- icligioji consequently
 
 42 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 
 
 received a degree of favour which was denied to that of the 
 Church. Pei'secution at length assailed the faith of Christians ; 
 and the result was, that in Africa, after four or five centuries, ive 
 hear no more oj those four or five hundred episcopal sees which had 
 formerly shed light on that region. In the East, Christianity 
 slowly declined under oppression and persecution ; but it was 
 always preserved ; and, after the lapse of twelve hundred years, 
 there are still many Churches in Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, and 
 Egypt, though theij hear but a small proportion to the eight hundred 
 episcopal Churches which, in the fifth century, existed in those 
 countries. 
 
 " It would be in vain for us to attempt to fathom the profound 
 depths of those Divine counsels which permitted so large a portion 
 of Clmstianity to pine away and perish beneath the yoke of 
 Mohammedan infidelity. What may be the final ends and objects 
 of this visitation, are at present concealed from our view ; but some 
 lessons it does distinctly convey. The Nestorians and Eutychians of 
 the East had revolted against the truth of the Gospel, and arro- 
 gantly despised the united judgments of the whole Christian world. 
 The Donatists in Africa had separated from their Christian bre- 
 thi-en, and by violence and bloodshed had established their human 
 Church. In all those countries which Mohammedanism perma- 
 nently subjugated, schism and heresy had struck deep roots, and 
 obtained many adherents. The separatists made common cause 
 with the infidels, and rejoiced to see the Church oppressed, but 
 they brought destruction on themselves. All were involved in a 
 common ruin ; and those who had rejected the truth, as well as 
 those who retained it, were delivered over to the tyranny and the 
 degradation of the infidel dominion. How great must have been 
 those ofiences, and how odious in the sight of God, which brought 
 down so terrible a punishment on these nations, involving even 
 the Church of God in their calamities ! And may we not most 
 justly fear, lest nations in which similar offences extensively and 
 long prevail, may be delivered over to judgments equally awful, 
 and deprived of those means of grace and that way of salvation 
 which so many of them have despised and rejected ? 
 
 " Such examples should furnish new arguments against volun- 
 tary separation from the Church of Christ." 
 
 Here is indeed a lesson, if Englishmen will only learn it. As 
 Nadab, and Abihu, and Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and all that 
 belonged to them, were destroyed for their schism, division, and 
 rebellion in the Jewish Church, by the direct hand of God, so was 
 Mahomet permzYiec? by Him to destroy the Christian faith in those 
 nations in the East and West, where many of " the prophets pro- 
 phesied falsely, and God's people loved to have it so." " Shall 
 not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this ? " 
 
 Where, at the present time, are the Seven Churches of Asia ? 
 The " false prophet" can answer for what has become of them. Six 
 of them, at least, he has destroyed — as regards Smyrna, of whom 
 St. John writes to the angel, or messenger, or bishop : " These 
 things saith the first and the last, which Avas dead and is alive ; I
 
 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 43 
 
 kuow thy works, and tribulatiou, and poverty {but thou art rich), 
 be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." 
 As regards Smyi-na, Dr. Walsh, who was chaplain to the English 
 Embassy at Coustantinople, in 1838, writes : "The approach to 
 Smyrna was very enlivening. Of all the cities of the Apocalpyse, 
 this is the only one ivhich is not desolate. There was no denun- 
 ciation of the removal of its candlestick, like that of Ephesus; aud 
 it is now, perhaps, as populous and flourishing as it was in the 
 time of the Apostles." Still it was under Turkish government, 
 and the Church existing in a climate of infidelity. 
 
 He speaks, too, of having visited the ancient city of Nice, or 
 Nicsa, its walls eight miles in circumference, twenty-five feet 
 high, and fourteen feet thick at the base, aud then in a state of 
 perfection, though not a vestige of a street or a building was to be 
 seen inside the whole town, except one solitary Greek family. 
 The sword of Mahomet had destroyed the place where formerly 
 was held the grand synod; where 318 bishops, besides a vast 
 croAvd of Presbyters and deacons were summoned by the Emperor 
 Constantine, and assembled to condemn the Arian heresy, aud 
 from whence we derived the Nicene Creed. 
 
 He gives the following graphic description of the place : — 
 " From the time of those important Councils, Nicasa continued to 
 be, not only a celebrated, but also a large and populous city .... 
 Even so late as the year 1677, it was a flourishing and populous 
 town. It then contained a population of 10,000 Christian Greeks, 
 and many precious remains of antiquity to attest its former 
 splendour. But the desolating hand of the Turks has since effiiced 
 every trace of this, and it is a subject of melancholy contemplation 
 now to behold it, the shadowy phantom of a magnificent city, on a 
 beautiful and fertile spot, where bountiful nature has provided 
 every thing necessary for human life ; an extensive plain exulierant 
 with fertility, sloping lawns verdant Avith pasture, wooded hills 
 covered with the finest timber, expanding waters teeming with 
 fish, and a climate the most bland and delicious that ever refreshed 
 a mortal frame. Yet here hmnan life is actually extinguished, 
 human haljitations totally obliterated, and the solitude rendered 
 more striking by the irrefragable testimonies of its former 
 splendour, and the visible evidences of what it recently was, and 
 what it still might be." 
 
 These two cities of Smyrna and Nicaja teach us again another 
 lesson ! St. Polycarp, the pupil of the Apostle St. John, and who 
 was ordained by him liisho]) of Smyrna, was the individual whom 
 St.. John addressed in the Revelation as " the Angel of the Church 
 of Smyrna;" and to whom he says (speaking in the person of the 
 Saviour), " Bo thou faithful unto death, and T will give thee a 
 crown of life." St. Polycarp, after ministering eighty-six years, 
 received the crown of martyrdom in the year 167, under the reign 
 of Marcus Aurelius, being bumt alive in the hundredth year of his 
 age ! Who can tell l)nt that the veneration and respect in which he 
 was held for liis i)iely, and " faitiifuliioss unto death," was the 
 means of saltiiuj the city of Smyrna to tlic picr-cnt time ; as our
 
 44 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 
 
 Saviour said to his Apostles, " Ye are salt of the earth? " On the 
 other hand, let us contrast the conduct of Theognis, Bishop of 
 Nice, who, at the time the great Council was held, was strongly 
 imbued with the Arian heresy, and who, although he subscribed 
 his name to the Nicene Creed, was still unconvinced by the mul- 
 tudes of proofs brought against the heretic Arius. Only three months 
 after the Council had dispersed, he went to the Emperor Constan- 
 tine with Eusebius, another bishop, and told him " We have done 
 ill. Sir, in that, for fear of you, we have subscribed an impious con- 
 fession." Here, ^^ the salt had lost its savour;" and, may be, the 
 poison he instilled never ceased to exist in the city of Nica^a, till 
 the sword of Mahomet was permitted to do its dreadful work ! ! ! 
 
 Let us for a moment consider what these champions for the truth 
 had to do at this first general Council at Nice. There were no 
 I'ailways in those days, and no steam ships that can cross the 
 Atlantic, 2000 miles, in nine days. Yet the Emperor cited bishops 
 from all parts of the known world at that time — from Europe, Asia, 
 and Africa ; and 318 attended, besides a host of Presbyters and 
 deacons. They were taken by the public conveyances at the 
 Emperor's charge, and he maintained them during upwards of 
 two months that the Council sat ! ! ! 
 
 If any thing be wanting to prove "what constitutes a Church," 
 surely, here it is ! Here is the Catholic, or universal Church, 
 assembled together to protect the faith. And could one be held 
 in the present day in our own country ? What part could the 
 Wesleyans, the Calvinists, the Unitarians, the Independents, and 
 all the other sects, take at such an assembly ? 
 
 In conclusion, I have one word to say with respect to the term 
 " Protestant." No man is more ready than myself to protest 
 against the errors of the Church of Rome ; but, unfortunately, many 
 members of the English Church have substituted the term for the 
 word Catholic ; the effect of which is, they have forfeited their birth- 
 right, and the Roman Catholics must laugh in their sleeves to think 
 that, when ive speak of " the Catholics," we mean them ! The 
 Apostles' Creed, given to the Church in its earliest days, teaches us 
 to believe in " the Holy Catholic Church ! " The Nicene Creed, 
 composed by Hosius at the Council of Nice, and subscribed by all 
 the Bishops there assembled, instructs us to say, " I believe in one 
 Catholic and Apostolic Church," and the Creed of St. Athauasius 
 tells us, " Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is neces- 
 sary that he hold the Catholic faith." And the Catholic faith is 
 this, that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity." 
 Then again, " So are we forbidden by the Catholic religion to say. 
 There be three Gods, or three Lords." And it concludes, " This 
 is the Catholic faith, which, except a man believe faithfidly, he 
 cannot be saved." 
 
 The term "Protestant" is not to be found in the Bible, the Tes- 
 tament, or the Prayer Booh. And, if it were possible that we could 
 be a Protestant Church, apart from the Catholic or universal 
 Chiu'ch of Christ (a mere thing of human invention), we should 
 become a pretty spectacle to " angels and to men."
 
 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHUKCH ? 45 
 
 No ; let us not be any longer misled by this term. Protest, if 
 you like ; but take care that we don't yield to Rome the privilege 
 of being considered members of the Catholic Church. 
 
 I have now to thank you for the patience y.ou have shown, and 
 the space you have afforded me in yoiu* valuable paper ; and I trust 
 that the Scripture quotations I have made will satisfy some, at 
 least, that our Saviom-, when He instituted the Chi'istian Church, 
 and prayed, as He tlid to His heavenly Father, " that they may be 
 one, even as He and His Father were one," never intended to be 
 worshipped in the multitude of ways at present to be met with, 
 and any other, that any private individual may set up for 
 himself. 
 
 I remain, dear Sir, yours truly, 
 
 A CHURCHWARDEN. 
 
 NoBTH Wilts, Mai/ 13, 1867. 
 
 LETTER TO THE REV. LORD SIDNEY G. 
 
 OSBORNE. 
 
 To the Editor of the " Devizes Gazette." 
 
 Dear Sir, — The following letter I have sent to the Times, as 
 the patron of the Rev. S. G. O., supposing they would have the 
 candour and honesty to give it insertion in their columns. As 
 tliey have not given it publicity, I presume they wish to keep the 
 principles held by the rev. lord intact, and allow the serious 
 charge he has made against our worthy Bishop to have its full 
 effect with their readers. 
 
 As an advocate for the truth, I beg its insertion in your 
 paper : — 
 
 To the Rev. Lord S. G. Osborne. 
 
 !My Lord, — I have just received officially from " the Salisbury 
 Diocesan Church Lay Association," as one of the Churchwardens 
 of this parish, a copy of your letter to the J^oid Bishop of the 
 Diocese, wliich appcjircd in the Tiin('f< some time since. 
 
 As a private individual, J should not have presumed to have 
 uoticed any part of that letter ; but as the Lay Association have 
 an object to serve in pulilishing and cii'culating it among the 
 Cliui(;liwardens ; as one of them, I trust you will aUow me to be as 
 outsjjoken as yourself, and see whether the doctrines you repudiate 
 and our Bishop maintains, are those our Church established at the 
 Kcforination, when she conipilcfl hc-r Prayer Book." 
 
 This is a serious sul)ject; as, in your letter, you boldly imply that 
 tiie liishop ought not to liojd the holy office he docs ; or otherwise, 
 "could you Im' convinced" the (ioctrines he has piit foi'Avard in bis
 
 46 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 
 
 charge " were those of our Church, you would not remain in con- 
 nexion with her." 
 
 In the fourth paragraph of your letter you utterly repudiate, as 
 the doctrine of the Church, the real presence in the consecrated 
 elements of the Holy Eucharist, and the power of the Priesthood to 
 pardon or retain sins, which the Bishop insisted on in his charge. 
 
 In the fifth paragraph " you deny that the clergy, through their 
 ordination, are invested with any prerogative purely Divine, either 
 in regard to any action on the elements of the Lord's Supper, or 
 in giving or withholding absolution from sin." 
 
 In the sixth paragraph, you solemnly assert your disbelief " that 
 any rational interpretation of the Scripture would justify you in 
 teaching your people that, by any operation at your hands, the 
 bread and wine can become the channel of an ineffable mystery, in 
 the sense that inwardly it becomes ' that which my Saviour took 
 from the blessed Virgin, which He offered on the cross as a 
 sacrifice.' " 
 
 Now, my lord, permit me to ask you, with regard to the teaching 
 of your parishioners, if the children in your parish are taught the 
 Church Catechism ? — because therein you are teaching this very 
 principle ! — " What is the outward part or sign of the Lord's 
 Supper? — " Bread and wine, which the Lord hath commanded to 
 be received." " What is the inward part or thing signified ?" — 
 " The hody and Hood of Christ, which are verily and indeed taken 
 and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper." 
 
 This is how the Church instructs her children; and her Twenty- 
 eighth Article says, " The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten 
 in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner." And 
 again, in the prayer before consecrating the elements, you pray 
 the Almighty, " That He will grant us grace so to eat the flesh of 
 Thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and drink His blood, that our sinful 
 bodies may he made clean by His hody, and our soids ivashed through 
 His most precious blood," &c. And in the prayer of consecration, 
 you say, " Hear us, O merciful Father, we most humbly beseech 
 Thee, and grant that we, receiving these Thy creatures of bread 
 and wine, according to Thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ's holy 
 institution, in remembrance of His death and passion, may be par- 
 takers of His most blessed body and blood." 
 
 Our Church, too, is authorized in asserting this by our Saviour 
 Himself, who said, on instituting the Holy Supper, " Take, eat, this 
 IS 7ny body," " Drink ye all of this, /or this is my blood." 
 
 There can be no question that the Church always held this 
 doctrine, though unfortunately her ministers have seldom or never 
 taught it; and the natural consequence is, so many of the laity are 
 inclined to disbelieve it, and have taken the part they have done 
 against the Bishop. As her Twenty-eighth Article asserts, " The 
 body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper, 07ily after 
 an heavenly and spiritual manner." There is, therefore, no analogy 
 (as you say) between that and the transubstantiation, or the carnal 
 presence, held by the Church of Rome. 
 
 With respect to your denial " That the clergy have any power
 
 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 47 
 
 invested in them in giving or witlihoUling absolution," I have 
 been writing for several months past in the Devizes Gazette a series 
 of letters on the Christian Church, My arguments were contro- 
 verted by a clergyman in North Wilts ; and I replied to him in the 
 following words — which, substituting your own parish for the one 
 in question, will well apply to your lordship : — 
 
 " I like to illustrate these things, if possible; so Avill fancy my- 
 self a parishioner of Dm-weston, one who had led a bad life, like 
 ' the thief on the cross;' and like him, too, shown mercy at the 
 eleventh hour. On my death bed, I become a true penitent; and 
 read in St. James, ' If any be sick among you, let him call for the 
 elders of the Church, and let them pray over him : and the prayer 
 of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and 
 if he has committed sins, they shall he forgiven him.'' Accordingly, 
 I send for yom* lordship, my pastor ; you attend me, and, accord- 
 ing to the instructions of your Church, you read to me the service 
 ' for the visitation of the sick.' When, after acknowledging my 
 faith, and expressing repentance of my past life, you are authorized 
 to administer to me the absolution, which differs from the general 
 absolution, ' He (the Almighty) pardoneth and absolveth ;' or from 
 the absolution in the Communion Service, ' Almighty God, our 
 heavenly Father, have mercy upon you — pardon and deliver you 
 from all your sins,' &c. But in this case, you, my lord, address 
 me as follows : — ' Our Lord Jesus Christ, ivho hath left power to 
 His Church TO absolve all sinners who truly repent and believe 
 in Him, of His great mercy forgive thee thine offences ; and by 
 His authority committed to jie, I absolve thee from all thy sins, 
 in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost.' What great comfort this to the dying penitent ! it sounds 
 like the gracious words of our Savioiu", ' This day thou shalt be 
 with Me in paradise.' " 
 
 You admit, in the fifth paragraph, " you have authority to 
 declare to the congregation that, when penitent, their sins are 
 remitted ; just as you have the same authority to make any one 
 declaration, which concerns the statement to them, of any one 
 simple truth of the Gospel." 
 
 Now our Church certainly does not limit the office of tlie Priest 
 to BO low an e])b as you have stated above, for if such were the 
 fact, you would have been allowed when a deacon to have read the 
 absolution " the same as you could dccUvre the truths of the 
 Gospel." But you know j)erfectly well that, as a deacon, you 
 were not allowed to read the absolution, or to consecrate the 
 elements at the Holy Communion. 
 
 Well, my lord, you applied for Priest's orders; and what au- 
 thority did you receive ? After promising reverently to obey your 
 ordinary and other chief ministers, and many other questions, the 
 Church requires an answer to — "the Bishop and Priests present 
 laid their hands on you; the Bishop saying, ' Receive the Holy 
 Ghost for the office and work of a Priest in the Church of God,'" 
 &c. "Vi^honemn^Tuov dost forgive, they are forgiven ; and whose 
 Bins thou dost retain, they are I'Ctained."
 
 48 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 
 
 Can you, my lord, doubt the jiower given to you at your ordi- 
 nation ; or is this service a mere farce ? When our Saviour had 
 done every thing necessary to man's salvation, and had paid the 
 penalty for sin by His death, there was one thing He had not 
 (lone, and He came on earth again and gave authon'ti/ to His eleven 
 apostles in the very words you received yours! And He promised 
 to be with them always, " even to the end of the world" This 
 must include yourself as well as them, from whom you have 
 derived your own. 
 
 There is one instance in the Bible of the " retaining of sins," 
 (which the Bishop mentioned in his charge). St. Paul, who most 
 probably received ordination from the Apostles themselves, in 
 writing to Timothy, says, that Hymenius and Alexander, having 
 made shipwreck of the faith, "he had delivered unto Satan, that 
 they might learn not to blaspheme ; " or, in other words, he had 
 excommunicated them from the Church. 
 
 You say, in the ninth paragraph, "I am one of those who think 
 that, allowing a great margin for private opinion, there is a limit 
 at which none are justified in holding office in an Establishment 
 recognized as Protestant, If, passing that limit, they avow a creed 
 repugnant to every idea connected with the history of our Church, 
 her preaching and practice for centuries, I esteem them not justi- 
 fied, for their own sake, or for the sake of those who are true to 
 her, to I'emain within her pale." 
 
 These are strong words, my lord, and seem to imply that our 
 Bishop ought not to continue to fill the office he does. You 
 conclude by saying, " Could I be brought to believe the doctrines 
 on vp^hich I have now commented to be those of our Church, I 
 would not remain in connection with her." 
 
 The simple mode I have adopted, by supposing myself to be 
 one of your pai'ish loners, to illustrate our Church's teaching ; and 
 the services I have quoted — to my mind, distinctly prove that the 
 charge of our Bishop is strictly in keeping with the doctrine of the 
 Church. Should you be able to prove that I am wrong, I shall be 
 quite ready to apologize to yom' lordship for having presumed to 
 venture on a subject too deep for my comprehension ; at the same 
 time, I am satisfied, till such proof is given, that if one of the two, 
 the Bishop or yourself (according to your own argument), ought 
 to leave the Church, it might be decided in the words of the 
 Prophet Nathan to David. 
 
 I remain, my lord, with all due respect, 
 Your faithful servant, 
 
 J. A. WILLIAMS, 
 One of the Chmxhwardens of the Parish of Baydon, 
 
 North Wilts. 
 June 11, 18G7.
 
 AVHAT OOXSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 49 
 
 TO THE CHURCHWARDENS OF THE 
 DIOCESE OF SARUM. 
 
 Gextlejiex, — All of you that were present at the meeting of 
 the Lay Association at Salisbury, on Tuesday last, are aware that 
 I could obtain no hearing to explain why I could not agree Avith a 
 large number of yourselves, in condemning the charge of our 
 Bishop " as having a tendency to the Romish doctrine of transub- 
 stantiation," I therefore ask of you patiently to go through my 
 arguments, free from prejudice or bigotry. Answer me, any of you, 
 if you think I am wrong; and let us look at this serious charge with 
 that Christian spirit and with that charity which should guide the 
 proceedings of such a large number of influential persons who are 
 entrusted with the temporal management of our Churches. 
 
 When the programme of the Association was sent to me, I thought 
 of becoming a member : its very title gave it an authority in my 
 mind, that it was just what was required in the English Church. 
 
 It was as follows : — 
 
 " The Lay Association of Members of the Church of En/jland, in 
 the Diocese of Salisbury, for upholdixg the Principles of the 
 Established Church." 
 
 Now, I am free to admit that the above title would ensure my 
 membership, and all mij energi/ in support of such an Association ; 
 but how I was confounded and thrown aback, when, on reading in 
 the Devizes Gazette the account of a meeting at Devizes to inaugurate 
 the said Society, Mr. Long, the honourable member for the Northern 
 Division of our county, gave utterance to such sentiments Avith 
 respect to the Bishop of the Diocese, that I was convinced the 
 Association did not intend to perform what it professed to do — "To 
 uphold the principles of the Established Church." 
 
 Now, my object in going to Salisbury was to ask of the meeting, 
 what were the principles of the Church of England, and where are 
 they to be found ? 
 
 There is no question but they are to be found in " the Book of 
 Common Prayer"; and the question next arises — by whom was 
 that Prayer Book compiled ? 
 
 It was compiled by Dr. Cranmer, Archbishop of Cantcrl)ury- 
 Six Bishops : viz., Dr. Goodrich, Bishop of Ely; Dr. Skip, Bishop 
 of Hereford ; Dr. Thirlby, Bishop of Westminster ; Dr. Day, 
 Bishop of Chichester; Dr. ITnllx'ck, Bishop of Lincoln; Dr. 
 KiDLEV, Bishop of Rochestei-. Four Deans : viz., Dr. May, Dean 
 of St. Paul's ; Dr. Taylor, Dean of Lincoln ; Dr. Iloynos, Dean of 
 Exeter; Dr. Redman, Dean of Westminster. Dr. Cox, King 
 I^dward's Almoner; jmd Dr. M. Robinson, Archdeacon of Lei- 
 cester. 
 
 To these thirteen reformers were entrusted the duty to compile 
 the Book of Common Prayer, when onr Church wrested herself 
 
 D
 
 50 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 
 
 from the base servitude which, for four hundred years, the Church 
 of Rome had subjected her to. 
 
 When we find above the names of Cranmer and Ridley, surely 
 Ave might be satisfied that, as they sealed their faith loith their 
 blood in martyrdom, so we need not fear to accept the doctrines 
 that they have handed down to us, and believe that what we find 
 in the Prayer Book were the doctrines held by our early re- 
 formers ! 
 
 If any one doubts that the service I have quoted from our 
 Prayer Book were the principles of those who compiled it, listen 
 to the words of Ridley, the Martyr, just befoi'e he suffered. 
 
 When questioned by the three Roman Catholic Bishops, of 
 Lincoln, Gloucester, and Bristol, and charged with aifirming and 
 teaching " That the true natural body of Christ, after the conse- 
 cration of the Priest, is not really jjresent in the sacrament of the 
 altar. That in the sacrament of the altar remaineth still the sub- 
 stance of bread and wine," he answered, " Both you and I agree 
 herein, that in the sacrament is the very true and natural body and 
 blood of Christ, even that lohich teas born of the Virgin Mary, which 
 ascended into heaven, ivhich sitteth at the right hand of God the 
 Father, ivhich shall come from thence to judge the quick and the 
 dead; only we differ in modo, in the way and manner of being. 
 
 " I, being fully by God's word thereunto persuaded, confess 
 Christ's natural body to be in the sacrament indeed, by spirit and 
 grace ; because, that whosoever receiveth worthily that bread and 
 wine, I'eceiveth effectuously Christ's body, and drinketh His blood 
 -—that is, he is made effectually partaker of His passion ; and you 
 make a grosser kind of being, enclosing a natural, a lively, and a 
 moving body, under the shape or form of bread and wine." 
 
 And again, when charged that he had publicly asserted : " That 
 in the sacrament of the altar remaineth still the substance of bread 
 and wine," he answered : " That in the sacrament is a certain 
 change, whereby that bread which was, before common bread, is 
 now made a lively representation of Christ's body ; and is not only 
 a figure, but effectuously representeth His body." "Notwithstand- 
 ing this sacramental mutation, which all the doctors confess, the 
 true substance and natiire of bread and wine remaineth." 
 
 Such was the answer of Ridley ; and the Bishop's charge is to 
 the same effect — and let those who so loudly asserted at Salisbury 
 that it was the Romish doctrine of transubstantiation, go to the 
 dictionary again and learn the true meaning of the word. 
 
 This brings me to the meeting of Tuesday last ; when our 
 member for North Wilts, Mr. Long, thus spoke : " They must 
 examine for themselves the nature of that system, which was more 
 and more increasing on every side ; they must settle, each man for 
 himself, and each woman for herself, whether it was the authori- 
 tative doctrinal system of the Church of England. If, holding 
 the Bible in one hand and the Book of Common Prayer in the 
 other, and comparing with them the doctrines given out to them 
 by certain ecclesiastical authorities and a vast number of the 
 clergy, they were unable to reconcile them Avith those of the Bible
 
 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 51 
 
 aud the Prayer Book, there devolved upon them a duty of pro- 
 testing against the inculcation of those doctrines ; aud not only of 
 protesting against, but of practically opposing them." 
 
 Now, the honourable member had several ecclesiastical gentle- 
 men around him, who took an active aud most eloquent part in 
 the proceedings of the day ; and, supposing he had the Bible in one 
 hand and the Prayer Book in the other, and they avere both open, 
 he could have told the Rev. Talbot Greaves, of Weymouth, when 
 he declaimed against, and denied, " that there was any altar in the 
 Christian Church, and consequently no Priest," — that he diflered 
 from St. Paul, who said, in the thirteenth chapter of Hebrews, 
 when he wished to convert the Jews to the Christian Faith ! "We 
 HAVE AN ALTAR," (in the Christian Church) " whereof they have 
 no right to eat Avho serve the tabernacle." He could also have 
 told him, from the Prayer-book, Avhen the reverend gentleman 
 was denying the power to absolve sins, and that he himself was a 
 Priest, and Lord Osborne too, aud the Rev. W. E. Pears ; that 
 they had each of them sought for Priesfs orders in the Church of 
 England, and had received authority from the Bishop as follows: — 
 " licceive the Holy Ghost for the office and work of a Priest in 
 the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the imposition of 
 our hands. Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven; and 
 irhose sins thou dost retain, they are retained," &c. Again, he could 
 have put them in remembrance, and also have derived information 
 for himself, who had just said, " It was the Priest's power that 
 they objected to ; because, if the clergy had gianted to them 
 the power of granting absolution — of remitting and retaining sin at 
 pleasure — it followed as a logical necessity that they must have 
 the confessional." He could have surpi'iscd a great many in that 
 Assembly-room : he could have rebuked the three clergymen ivho 
 denied this power; and, I should think, have been astonished at 
 himself, if he had read from the service " for the visitation of the 
 sick," the absolution, as follows : — 
 
 " Our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath left power to His Church to 
 absolve all sinners who truly repent aud believe in Him, of His 
 great mercy forgive thee thine offences ; and, by His autliority 
 COMMITTED TO ME, I ABSOLVE THEE /rom all thy sins, in the name 
 of the P'ather, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The 
 rubric preceding this says: " Here shall the sick ])erson be moved 
 to make a special confession of his sins, if he feels his conscience 
 troubled with any weighty matter; after ichich confession the 
 Priest shall absolve him (if he humbly and heartily desire it), 
 after this sort." 
 
 I have read of some few clergymen who have denied that they 
 were Priests; but I never heai-d one till Tuesday last, when Mr. 
 (ireaves, of Weymouth, so eloquently declared they were no such 
 thing ! 
 
 Then, after hearing the three clergymen who sjjoke, denying the 
 real presence in the sacrament, and having alluded to the same 
 himself, Mr. Lfing could have turned to the Communion Seivice, 
 and rearl — " Dejiilv bclo\cd, on Sunday next T pur|iosf', through 
 
 n 2
 
 52 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 
 
 God's assistance, to administer to all such as shall be religiously 
 and devontly disposed, the most comfortable sacrament of the 
 BODY AND BLOOD OP Christ," &c. Then, in the Exhortation: 
 " For, as the benefit is great, if with a true penitent heart and 
 lively faith we receive that holy sacrament (for then we spiritu- 
 ally eat the flesh of Christ and drink His blood," &c.). Then the 
 prayer before Consecration — " Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, 
 so to eat the flesh of Thy dear Son, Jesus Christ, and to drink His 
 blood" &c. And, in the act of Consecration, " Hear us, O mer- 
 ciful Father, we most humbly beseech Thee, and grant that we 
 receiving these Thy creatures of bread and wine, according to Thy 
 Son our Saviour Jesus Christ's holy institution, in remembrance 
 of His death and passion, may be partakers of His most blessed 
 body and blood," &c. 
 
 Now, all this service that I have quoted was compiled, with a 
 few exceptions mentioned in the Bishop's charge, by the thirteen 
 individuals I have enumerated : and they may justly be termed 
 our earhj reformers. Would that all the members of the reformed 
 Church had consented to receive the doctrines put forth by them, 
 as those of the Church of England! But this was not the case. 
 
 During the reign of Queen Mary, the reformers either suffered 
 martyrdom or exile. Those who, to save their lives, went into 
 exile, went over to Germany, and unfortunately fell in with Calvin 
 and Knox, at Geneva, imbibed their principles ; and the consequence 
 was, on their return to England, on the accession of Queen Eli- 
 zabeth, they came with opinions at moral variance with the prin- 
 ciples of those EARLY REFORMERS wlio had compiled our Prayer 
 Book : they caused division and dissension in the Church till the 
 eleventh year of the Queen's reign, when many of them having in 
 vain attempted to alter the Prayer Book, proclaimed EPISCOPACY 
 as anti-Christian, and left the Church! 
 
 Would that they had all gone away: that they had had the 
 honesty to have left an Establishment, the principles of which, laid 
 down by Cranmer and Ridley, they would not believe. But it was 
 not so ; a certain portion remained who feared the sin of schism, but 
 still would not conform to the ritual of the English Church. They 
 have existed ever since ; causing that division in the Church, for 
 the space of three hundred years, against which our Saviour so 
 earnestly prayed in His last prayer on earth — in the seventeenth 
 chapter of St. John ! 
 
 Unfortimately, things are not altei'ed at the present day : and 
 we find the Rev. Lord S. G. Osborne, the Rev. Talbot Greaves, 
 and the Rev. E. W. Pears, successors of those members of the 
 Established Church who imbibed the Lutheran, Genevan, or Low 
 Chinxh doctrine, and still remained within the pale of the Church. 
 A great deal was said by the several speakers at Salisbury about 
 Protestantism and the Protestant Church. How fearfully they 
 forget what they really are ! Mr. Long could have told them, with 
 the Prayer Book opened, that every day they read the service, 
 they were obliged to say tvhat the Apostles taught them: ** / believe 
 in the Holy Catholic Church ! " He could have shown them
 
 WHAT CONSTITUTES A CHURCH ? 53 
 
 that the Council of Nice had instructed them to say, in the Nicene 
 Creed: "And I believe in one Catholic and Apostolic Church." 
 And he could haA'e referred them to the Athanasian Creed, which 
 pays, " Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary 
 that he hold the Catholic Faith," &c. 
 
 I could fill columns more on this subject, and icill if you wish 
 it ; but, for the present, time and space will not allow it. And I 
 earnestly appeal to you, that you will not allow your influence and 
 your names to be further handled as A lever for the use of a 
 faction, to hinder our worthy Bishop from the manly, courageous, 
 and truly Christian manner in which he has so single-handed come 
 forward to teach what you and I should have been taught by the 
 clergy " from our youth up until now." 
 
 There is one thing I would allude to in the Bishop's charge, 
 which those who are so set against him cannot see : the beautiful 
 allusion at pages 123, 124, to the great doctrine o^ justification 
 by faith. Get his charge and read it throughout ; look at it 
 without prejudice ; and look to the Scriptm'es (as the Bereans 
 of old did), and see if these things are so." 
 
 I remain, my brother Churchwardens, 
 
 Yours faithfully and respectfully, 
 
 J. A.WILLIAMS. 
 Baydon, North Wilts, July 30, 1867. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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