r 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. J^ ■ 
 
 No. Case, ^^ '_^ ^ ;,- 
 BR '45 .B35 18A7 
 
 « 
 
 Bampton lectures 
 
''^ w, 
 
 THE SUPREMACY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 FOUR LECTURES 
 
 COMPOSED FOR DELIVERY 
 
 BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 
 
 IN LENT AND EASTER TERMS 1847, 
 
 AT THE 
 
 LECTURE FOUNDED BY THE REV. JOHN BAIPTON, M.A.) Le-C-^uTHf 
 
 CANON OF SALISBURY. 
 
 TO WHICH ARE ADDED, 
 
 TWO SERMONS 
 
 O.V THE 
 
 INFLUENCES OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, 
 
 PREACHED 
 
 BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY ON WHITSUNDAY, 
 1845. 
 
 BY THE LATE --'^ 
 
 WALTER AUGUSTUS SHIRLEY, D.D. 
 
 BISHOP OF SODOR AND MAN. 
 
 OXFORD: 
 
 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. VINCENT. 
 
 W. BEMROSE, DERBY. 
 
 J. HATCHARD & SON, PICCADILLY, LONDON. 
 
 MDCCCXLVII. 
 
EXTRACT 
 
 FROM 
 
 THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 REV. JOHN BAMPTON, 
 
 CANON OF SALISBURY. 
 
 " I give and bequeath my Lands and Estates to the 
 
 " Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the University of 
 ** Oxford for ever, to have and to hold all and singular the 
 *' said Lands or Estates upon trust, and to the intents and 
 " purposes hereinafter mentioned ; that is to say, I will and 
 " appoint that the Vice- Chancellor of the University of Oxford 
 " for the time being shall take and receive aU the rents, issues, 
 " and profits thereof, and (after aU taxes, reparations, and ne- 
 " cessary deductions made) that he pay all the remainder to 
 " the endowment of eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, to be 
 " established for ever in the said University, and to be per- 
 " formed in the manner following : — 
 
 " I direct and appoint, that, upon the first Tuesday in 
 " Easter Term, a Lecturer be yearly chosen by the Heads of 
 " Colleges only, and by no others, in the room adjoining to 
 " the Printing-House, between the hours of ten in the morning 
 " and two in the afternoon, to preach eight Divinity Lecture 
 " Sermons, the year following, at St. Mary's in Oxford, 
 *' between the commencement of the last month in Lent Term, 
 " and the end of the third week in Act Term. 
 
IV EXTRACT FROM CANON BAMPTON S WILL. 
 
 " Also I direct and appoint that the eight Divinity Lecture 
 " Sermons shall be preached upon either of the following 
 " Subjects — to confirm and establish the Christian Faith, and 
 " to confute all heretics and schismatics — upon the divine 
 " authority of the holy Scriptures — upon the authority of the 
 " writings of the primitive Fathers, as to the faith and practice 
 " of the primitive Church — upon the Divinity of our Lord and 
 " Saviour Jesus Christ — upon the Divinity of the Holy Ghost — 
 " upon the Articles of the Christian Faith, as comprehended in 
 " the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds. 
 
 " Also I direct, that thirty copies of the eight Divinity 
 " Lecture Sermons shall be always printed, within two months 
 " after they are preached, and one copy shall be giv€n to the 
 " Chancellor of the University, and one copy to the Head of 
 " every College, and one copy to the Mayor of the city of 
 " Oxford, and one copy to be put into the Bodleian Library ; 
 " and the expense of printing them shall be paid out of the 
 " revenue of the Land or Estates given for establishing the 
 " Divinity Lecture Sermons ; and the Preacher shall not be 
 " paid, nor be entitled to the revenue, before they are 
 " printed. 
 
 *' Also I direct and appoint, that no person shall be quaUfied 
 " to preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons, unless he hath 
 " taken the degree of Master of Arts at least, in one of the 
 " two Universities of Oxford or Cambridge; and that the same 
 " person shall never preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons 
 " twice." 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It is probably in the recollection of most of 
 those into whose hands the following pages 
 will fall, that the late Bishop of Sodor and 
 Man, in consequence of his appointment to 
 the Bampton Lectureship for this year, had 
 commenced the course in the last Lent Term, 
 and had delivered only two Lectures when he 
 was seized by the illness which terminated 
 fatally in the following April. 
 
 Under these circumstances it is scarcely 
 necessary to say, the usual publication is im- 
 possible; but several highly valued friends, in 
 the University and elsewhere, have expressed 
 a strong desire to see the publication of the 
 discourses already delivered, and of as much 
 of the remainder as might appear on examina- 
 tion to be sufficiently finished to be presented 
 
VI. PREFACE. 
 
 to the public. It was found that the two Lec- 
 tures next in succession were nearly completed; 
 but of the rest none were sufficiently advanced 
 even to be submitted to their friendly inspec- 
 tion. It is in compliance with the wishes, and 
 in deference to the opinion of these kind 
 friends, that the following discourses were 
 committed to the press. 
 
 By the same advice are subjoined two 
 Sermons delivered in St. Mary's, on Whit- 
 Sunday, 1845. They are connected with the 
 Bampton Lectures as well by an incidental 
 bearing on the same topics, as by the circum- 
 stance of their being delivered before the 
 University. Together with the Bampton 
 Lectures they complete the short list of dis- 
 courses dehvered by the late Bishop from the 
 University pulpit. 
 
 M.S. 
 Wyaston, October, 1847. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 Isaiah viii. 20. 
 
 To the law and to the testimony ; if they speak not accord- 
 ing to this word, it is because there is no light in 
 them p. 1 
 
 LECTURE IL 
 Habakkuk II. 20. 
 
 The Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep 
 silence before him 33 
 
 LECTURE in. 
 
 JUDE 3. 
 
 Ye should earnestly contend for the faith once delivered 
 to the saints 69 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 On the testimony of the Fathers generally 97 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 John xiv. 17. 
 
 He dwelleth with you, and shall he in you 135 
 
 SERMON n. 
 
 John xiv. 17. 
 
 He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you . , 1 65 
 

 *••' 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 ISATAH VIII. 20. 
 
 To the law and to the testimony ; if they speak 
 not according to th 
 is no lisrht in them. 
 
 not according to this zvord, it is because there 
 
 Whatever may be the peculiar characteristic 
 of the critical age in which our lot has been cast, 
 it clearly is not indifference to the general subject 
 of religion. Hardly ever perhaps was there a 
 time in which religious questions were more freely 
 discussed in public and private, or in which re- 
 ligious considerations entered more largely into 
 the formation even of political parties, or gave a 
 more decided colour to the current literature of 
 the day. This is so far encouraging that he who 
 would do his Lord's work feels that there is at 
 least sensibility in the public mind; his efforts 
 are not chilled by apathy nor paralyzed by con- 
 tempt ; he has something to act upon and grapple 
 with; and though there may be many adversaries, 
 
 B 
 
2 LECTURE I. 
 
 *'a great door and effectual" is spread open be- 
 fore him. For this we may well be thankful, and 
 certainly should endeavour to turn it to the best 
 account, but it is important to bear in mind that 
 excitement is not an invariable evidence of healthy 
 action: and thus all this religious interest, and 
 the ready access which religious questions have 
 gained into our social intercourse, may only tend 
 to prove that the standard of the religion pro- 
 fessed, has been brought by controversy within 
 the sphere of general interest, and so reduced to 
 the level of the popular mind, not that public 
 opinion has been brought into subjection to the 
 obedience of Christ. Hence religion of a certain 
 kind and degree may be in favour, without the 
 Kingdom of God havingbeen materially extended ; 
 and while open infidelity is frowiied upon and 
 repudiated, there may still be little real faith. 
 We may even go further, and say that there may 
 be the most implicit belief in certain religious 
 opinions, and the most entire submission to the 
 teaching of the visible church, without any faith 
 in the word of God, or any devout allegiance to 
 his supreme will. Unquestioning credulity, and 
 a superstition which, like that of the Athenians, 
 would receive even an "unknown God," for fear of 
 rejecting any thing which might possibly be 
 "called God, or be worshipped," is consistent 
 
LECTURE I. S 
 
 -with entire neglect of *'the law and the testis 
 mony " of God, and with all but an open rejection 
 of its authority. Nor is what is called "implicit 
 faith" merely consistent with practical infidelity, 
 but so far as it is a blind submission to human 
 teaching on divine subjects instead of referring 
 -all to the revealed word of God, it is of the very 
 essence of unbelief, for it trusts man rather than 
 God. Wherever the appeal is not made on all 
 religious questions directly and simply " to the law 
 and to the testimony," the course of our argument 
 will tend to shew that there is no spiritual light, 
 there is no real faith.* They whose indiscrimi- 
 nating credulity received ''gods many and 
 lords many " were condemned for not retaining 
 God in their knowledge, and were punished by 
 the visitation of so strong a delusion that they 
 " beheved a lie," under the influence of which they 
 worshipped the creature rather than the Creator 
 who is over all God blessed for ever.'' Super- 
 stition and infidelity have often been contrasted, 
 but it is important to observe carefully their points 
 £>i contact, and even of coincidence; for they 
 have a common origin, and produce similar re- 
 sults : they are of their father the devil, and the 
 
 Titubabit fides, si scripturarum sacrarum vacillet auctoritas, 
 Aug. Doc Christ. 2, 9. 
 "Rom. i. 25. 
 
 b2 
 
4 LECTURE I. 
 
 works of their father they do." It is not siinply 
 by reaction that superstition and infidehty pro- 
 duce each other, so that the bhnd devotee, when 
 light breaks in upon his mind, rushes to the op- 
 posite extreme of absohite unbehef, or the 
 audacious infidel yields himself up to the most 
 abject spiritual bondage; but these principles act 
 upon each other reciprocally as cause and effect. 
 The carnal indifference of one age produces the 
 voluntary humility and will worship of the next; 
 but neither come from God ; for asceticism is not 
 piety, nor is superstition faith; andin both instances 
 the carnal mind was seeking rest by a way of 
 its own, instead of the way of God's appointment. 
 The very same state of mind which rejects the 
 righteousness of God, goes about to establish its 
 own, substituting religious formalism for spiritual 
 life; but formalism without life not only is not 
 of God, but is the most subtle shape which spi- 
 ritual delusion can assume, for it satisfies the con- 
 science with the semblance of godliness, and 
 consecrates the self-indulgent habits of the world 
 after exacting from them the propitiatory sacrifice 
 of some acts of external mortification. 
 
 A similar remark will apply to the intellectual 
 manifestations of the carnal mind; for an unenquir- 
 ing submission to ecclesiastical authority, is usually 
 
 " John viii. 41. 
 
LECTURE I. 5 
 
 little more than tlie refuge of scepticism or in- 
 difference, despairing of making its way to divine 
 truth through a host of difficulties, or satisfied 
 for the sake of peace to give up the investigation, 
 and yield a passive assent to the teaching of 
 others; but in neither case is there faith in God. 
 Indeed submission to ecclesiastical authority as 
 such, and irrespective of any personal conviction 
 that what is thus taught is really derived from the 
 Bible, is as essentially rationalistic as if we were 
 to treat the Bible as a dead letter to which our 
 own reason is to give a living meaning and 
 power, for in the latter case we yield assent to our 
 own reason, and in the former to the reason of 
 other men, but in neither case are we the believing 
 disciples of a "teacher come fromGod." Human au- 
 thority under every form is essentially rationalistic. 
 It makes the word of God of none effect, developes 
 into simple rationalism, and has not any resting 
 place mitil it settles into a system which does not 
 even profess to be contained in the Bible ; and 
 though deducing its origin historically by succes- 
 sive changes from the former ages of the church, 
 rests actually upon the dominant opinion of the 
 present age. But this developed system is not 
 another gospel. It is simply a form of theosophy 
 moulded according to human conceptions, and the 
 act of mind by which it is embraced may be 
 
6 LECTURE I. 
 
 belief in man, but clearly is not faith in God, 
 Unless the authority from which it is derived be 
 itself inspired, and so becomes in fact the voice 
 of God. 
 
 It is most important to draw these distinctions, 
 and to unravel the web of sophistry by which 
 submission to man's teaching is confounded with 
 belief in the record which God has given us, for 
 confused ideas on this point lie at the root of 
 no small portion of the multiform errors of our 
 day, and prevent men from observing the identity 
 of the conflicting evils with which we are threat- 
 ened, from rationalism on the one hand, and 
 authority on the other; both of them obscuring 
 and superseding the word of God, and submitting 
 It to the bar of human reason. We are tempted 
 to think that if we have persuaded men to sub- 
 mit to what we believe to be truth all is gained -^ 
 but we must bear in mind that if they have sub- 
 mitted their judgment to our authority, without 
 having been convinced that what we teach is 
 really contained in the Bible, they have not per- 
 formed an act of faith, but of reason. They 
 have received our teaching, not as the word of 
 God, but as the word of man ; and therefore even 
 though their opinions be scriptural, yet their trust 
 has been given to a human teacher, and is not an 
 exercise of faith in God, In the same way, and 
 
LECTURE I. 7 
 
 for a similar reason, if we receive the Bible as the 
 record of honest men who reported to the best 
 of their knowledge what they had heard or seen, 
 and deal with it as the human, and therefore fal- 
 lible, history of divine facts, our faith is not given 
 to the Bible as a revelation from God, but to a 
 religious system of our own, which the Bible has 
 only assisted us to construct: and here again 
 there is no exercise of faith in God. Until the 
 will of man is brought down to the will of God, 
 and the reasonings of man are subjected to the 
 teaching of God, no advance is made towards a 
 state of harmony with the divine mind ; there is 
 neither hght, nor life, nor real faith. Therefore 
 our great object as Christian teachers must be to 
 bring men to the Bible, as the record which God 
 has given them, and by which they must be 
 judged at the last day. We must shew them that 
 before this inspired volume all their preconceived 
 notions must bow, and that they are responsible 
 to God for bringing to the study of its contents 
 a prepared and teachable spirit, and for the em- 
 ployment of every legitimate means with which 
 they have been furnished. We contend as much 
 against the presumption of ignorance deciding on 
 things beyond its reach, and despising its ap- 
 pointed teachers, as we do against a blind and 
 passive submission to merely human authority. 
 
8 LECTURE I. 
 
 With this hmitation, however, we are bound to 
 assert not simply the right of private judgment, 
 but its duty, and to shew that no man can evade 
 the responsibihty of employing the reason which 
 God has given him, to understand the volume in 
 which God has been pleased to reveal to him His 
 will of love and mercy. 
 
 To this great object I propose to dedicate the 
 course of lectures on which we are entering, and 
 to maintain the supreme authority of holy writ 
 against the claims of tradition and authority, on 
 the one hand, and of presumptuous and rational- 
 istic speculations on the other. 
 
 It is hardly possible to form an exaggerated 
 estimate of such a subject, especially at such a 
 time as the present, and he who addresses you 
 in conscious weakness and an unfeigned sense of 
 his inability to treat so high an argument as it 
 ought to be treated, would earnestly solicit your 
 prayers that He of whose word we are about to 
 treat would be pleased to lead us into all truth, 
 to preserve us from all error, and so to bless the 
 whole discussion that we may be edified together, 
 and the good estate of Christ's holy Catholic 
 Church be thereby promoted. 
 
 Let me first observe that my object shall be to 
 conduct an enquiry which must partake, in some 
 degree, of a controversial character, as far as pos- 
 
LECTURE I. 9 
 
 sible in an uncontroversial spirit, remembering 
 that we are enjoined to ^'^ speak the truth in 
 love/"^ and that if we look to influence the spirits 
 of our fellow men, it must be not by contentious 
 wrangling, but by the exercise and exhibitian 
 of that heavenly wisdom which "is first pure, 
 then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, 
 full of mercy and good fruits, without par- 
 tiality, and without hypocrisy."* We should bear 
 in mind that we have to do in this matter not 
 with men, but with things, and the object present 
 to our mind should be not individuals, but 
 opinions, and these viewed only as they bear 
 upon the general interests of the Church. Be- 
 sides which, if ever there was a time for a con- 
 tentious handling of the subjects at issue among 
 us, that time has passed. At present we have to 
 do much more with feelings than with arguments ; 
 to break the spell of mystical illusion ; to recall 
 men from medieval visions to common sense, and 
 the plain letter of the Bible ; and to solicit back 
 their wandering affections to the Church of their 
 Fathers, and teach their morbid taste to relish 
 the simple but wholesome spiritual food which 
 that Church has provided for them. 
 
 We must also bear in mind that men who 
 were once devotedly attached to the National 
 
 <* Eph. iv. 15. ° James iii. 17. 
 
10 LECTURE r. 
 
 Church in which they were first dedicated to 
 God, and His promises of grace pleaded for them, 
 could not have been estranged from it, or even 
 led to look beyond it for spiritual support, or 
 consolation, or excitement, without the applica- 
 tion of powerful motives, and probably not 
 without considerable misconception of the ground 
 taken at least by thoughtful men among their 
 opponents. Were those who are not carried 
 away by the bhnd impulse of party feeling to 
 explain their views in calmness and candour to 
 one another, though I am far from thinking that 
 there would not be still found to be very grave 
 and vital points at issue in the great controversy 
 of the present day, yet assuredly much miscon- 
 ception would be removed, and the ranks would 
 be increased of those who, for the sake of unity 
 of spirit and action, are content to merge strict 
 uniformity of expression, and can overlook cir- 
 cumstantial points of difference, while rallying 
 round essential points of agreement. For the 
 sake of these, the men of comprehensive wisdom 
 and patient love among us, I am anxious, before 
 entering upon the direct assertion of the supre- 
 macy of Scripture, to point out several conces- 
 sions, or at least what may by some persons be 
 regarded as concessions, which ought to be made.. 
 
LECTURE I. 11 
 
 Such are the following : — 
 I. In the first place, we must concede that 
 natural religion is antecedent to revealed religion ; 
 for we must believe that there is a God, before 
 we can be persuaded that He has spoken. " He 
 that cometh unto God, must (first) believe that 
 He is, and (then) that He is the rewarder of those 
 that diligently seek Him." ^ If a missionary were 
 to find himself among a people so savage that 
 they had no idea of a great Spirit above them, 
 and the source of all things, it would be a vain 
 task to present them with the Bible, even if they 
 had been taught to read, and to comprehend its 
 contents. He would, in the first instance, have 
 to appeal to *" the heavens which declare the glory 
 of God, and the firmament which sheweth his 
 handy work,"^ and to prove that " the invisible 
 things of God from the creation of the world are 
 clearly seen, being understood by the things that 
 are made, even his eternal pov/er and Godhead, 
 so that men are without excuse.'"* Without going 
 further into this subject, it seems hardly possible 
 to deny that we are taught this lesson by St. Paul 
 in the first chapter of his Epistle to the Romans,^ 
 and I am anxious to make the remark from a 
 strong conviction that very perilous statements 
 have been put forth by some zealous advocates of 
 
 ^ Heb. xi. 6. « Ps. xix. 1. *> Rom. i. 20.- 
 
12 LECTURE I. 
 
 the necessity of a revelation fi'om the assumed 
 impossibihty of our having any knowledge what- 
 ever of God from external nature, or from the 
 operations of our own minds. Still it is most 
 true that man could not by his own searching 
 *^find out the Almighty to perfection/" as a Being 
 holy, just, and true, and yet full of love to peni- 
 tent sinners. This is the mystery unfolded in 
 the gospel, the revelation of " God manifest in 
 the flesh.'"' 
 
 II. We may concede, secondly, that God might, 
 had it so pleased Him, have made known both 
 his character and his will to man without a 
 written communication. " God speaketh once, 
 yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not ; in a 
 dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep 
 falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed, 
 then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their 
 instruction, that he may withdraw man from his 
 purpose, and hide pride from man.'" We cannot 
 limit the Almighty in his methods of spiritual 
 communication, for "He giveth not account to 
 us of his matters." He " who at sundry times 
 and in divers manners spake in times past unto 
 the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last 
 days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath ap- 
 pointed heir of all things ;" and this last very 
 
 ' Job. xi. 7. ^ 1 Tim. iii. 16. ' Job xxxiii. 14. 
 
LECTURE I. 13 
 
 remarkable expression may mean not only that 
 all blessings centre in Jesus, and are conveyed 
 through him, and in him, to his body the Church, 
 but that every previous mode of divine revelation 
 pointed to the visible revelation of the Godhead 
 in the flesh, and had its full expression in that 
 mysterious utterance of the mind of God, speak- 
 ing to man, in the actings of a man, that man 
 might hear and understand, and so the finite 
 might in some limited way attain unto a know- 
 ledge of the Infinite. 
 
 Man had been favoured with revelations oral, 
 personal, prophetical, and when, at last, the 
 complement of them all, the actual revelation of 
 God manifest in the flesh, was granted, there was 
 nothing to prevent the Spirit, when taking of the 
 things of Christ and reveahng them to the Church, 
 from using all former methods of communication 
 in this last, and most glorious dispensation. In- 
 deed even now our only question must be whether 
 they who profess to reveal to us the divine will, 
 have in truth a divine warrant ? 
 
 III. We must moreover allow, thirdly, that 
 when the Son of God, the living Word, pro- 
 claimed the Father's will of love, he did so by 
 oral teaching, and did not during his personal 
 ministration dictate any written document. This 
 is a remarkable, and perhaps a significant fact. 
 
14 LECTURE I. 
 
 for it clearly might have been otherwise, and the 
 reason is not so very obvious to us why, as the 
 old law was given to Moses in a graven document, 
 and he was himself inspired to collect all former 
 revelations, and commit them to writing, together 
 with those which had been made to himself, there 
 was not some corresponding record of that new 
 law which was to be written on the hearts of 
 -God's people, not in the letter only, but in the 
 spirit, that it might be to them the seed of life. 
 
 Nor WHS this the case only while the Lord 
 Jesus was going in and out among his disciples, 
 manifesting the Father to them in all they saw 
 him do, and in all they heard him speak, but 
 even afterwards for several years, " the salvation 
 which was first spoken by the Lord""* was ver- 
 bally handed on, and confirmed to the faithful by 
 those who heard him, as we shall have occasion 
 more fully to observe hereafter. It would seem 
 that nothing was committed to writing until the 
 Spirit had led the disciples into all truth, and the 
 faith was fully delivered to the saints ; for there is 
 reason to believe that even the gospel of St. 
 Matthew was not written long before the earliest 
 epistle of St. Paul, which exhibits the Christian 
 system in its complete development. The ques- 
 tion therefore is not between a written, or an 
 
 •" Heb. ii. 3. 
 
LECTURE I. 15 
 
 oral revelation ; for all methods not only might 
 have been adopted, but have actually been em- 
 ployed ; but whether we have a faithful record of the 
 mind of Christ, as he was a faithful exhibition 
 of the Father's mind ; and whether that record 
 is complete, and self-sufficient so to speak, in the 
 written document which we possess ? 
 
 IV. Hence it will follow, fourthly, that if it 
 can be proved that any part of our Lord's actual 
 teaching, the words " such as never man spake," 
 the things which, as St. John says, "if they 
 should be written every one, even the world itself 
 could not contain the books that should be writ- 
 ten"" — If, I say, it can be proved that any of 
 those divine acts or sayings, not written by evan- 
 gelists or apostles, have nevertheless been pre- 
 served, by sure and unbroken tradition, in the 
 household of faith, these things also would claim 
 our belief, and mhiister to our edification. 
 Whether there are any such divine records so 
 preserved is a practical question which will be 
 discussed hereafter, but we are bound at once to 
 make this hypothetical concession. At the same 
 time we must bear in mind that such oral traditions 
 must be subject to the same critical scrutiny as 
 the written word, and if the use of a dipthong 
 can make all the difference between the Catholic 
 
 " John xxi. 25. 
 
16 LECTURE I. 
 
 faith and heresy, with what jealousy ought we to 
 scrutinize what professes to be an imwritten word 
 of God? 
 
 V. For the same reason, however, by which 
 we are bound to receive such an unwritten record 
 of the words of Christ, if it can be authenticated, 
 it will follow, fifthly, that if it can be shewn that 
 an apostle, or other inspired teacher, taught any- 
 thing to the Church, as of divine authority, this 
 also would be binding on us still. But it is im- 
 portant to limit this concession to those things 
 for which a divine warrant was claimed ; for 
 though every word of Christ had vital power, it 
 would not follow that all the teaching, however 
 sound or pious, of Moses or David, of Isaiah or 
 Malachi, of the Evangelists or Apostles, were of 
 universal obligation, unless it could be shewn 
 that they, God's accredited messengers, had com- 
 municated them as such to the Church. The 
 Spirit dwelt without measure in the Son of God. 
 He was the express image of His person, the 
 clear and unclouded reflection of His mind. All 
 therefore that He said was divine ; and all that 
 He did presented a perfect example. But this 
 cannot be said even of the Twelve, not simply 
 because it would include the Traitor (a consi- 
 deration full of meaning) but because they had 
 each only their several gift of the Spirit of God, 
 
LECTURE I. 17 
 
 and in other points were liable to error, and ac- 
 tually did err, as in the case of one among the 
 very chiefest of them whom his brother Apostle 
 "withstood to the face, because he was to be 
 blamed."" In this careful manner must we guard 
 our concession respecting the authority even of 
 a well authenticated apostolical tradition, if such 
 can be proved to exist in the sense in which the 
 phrase is usually employed; for we must be 
 satisfied respecting it, both that it was originally 
 of divine authority, and that it was designed to 
 be of perpetual and universal obligation. 
 
 VI. Then with regard to the mode in which 
 the Church received the apostohcal teaching, we 
 may acknowledge, sixthly, that the Creeds con- 
 tain the substance of what was taught orally be- 
 fore the Gospels or Epistles were written ; but 
 this concession is of no great moment, inasmuch 
 as the only Creed which has the slightest claim 
 to an apostolical origin, though most precious 
 as a document of venerable antiquity, and a 
 summary of Christian truth, not only contains 
 nothing that is not expressly and plainly written 
 in the Gospels or Epistles, but does not even, as 
 the Micene and Athanasian Creeds, give a more 
 formal, and, so to speak, more scholastic expres- 
 sion to the doctrines of Scripture, especially that 
 °Gal. ii. 11. 
 
 c 
 
18 LECTURE I. 
 
 cardinal one of the proper Divinity of our blessed 
 Lord, than may be gathered from Holy Writ. 
 Whether it can with any accuracy be said that 
 the Creed was collected from the oral teaching 
 of the Apostles, as distinguished from the written 
 gospels, may be a matter for curious ecclesio- 
 logical investigation, or speculation, but does not 
 materially affect the question before us. While it 
 is clear that the Creed teaches no other doctrine 
 than is contained in the written word, and while 
 it is at least not clear that it rests upon the same 
 divine authority, we receive the Creeds generally 
 with reverential deference, as evidence of the 
 truths received by the Church at and up to the 
 time at which they were promulgated; but we 
 must remember that our Church demands our 
 faith in their contents, not as original docu- 
 ments, but because '' they may be proved by 
 most certain warrant of holy Scriptvn-e." '' The 
 Creeds, as a summary of Scriptural truth, pre- 
 pare us for what we are to expect to find in the 
 Bible ; and thus direct our investigations, and 
 confirm or restrain the conclusions we may be 
 led to deduce from the study of Scripture ; but 
 Scripture authenticates and hmits them, not they 
 Scripture. This is the touch-stone by which 
 they must be tested, and was, as we hope here- 
 
 ^ Art. 8. 
 
LECTURE I. 19 
 
 after to prove, the source from which they were 
 derived. 
 
 It is, however, important, even at this stage of 
 our enquiry, to protest against the logical fallacy 
 which is contained in a phrase which has formed 
 the staple of many arguments on this subject ; 
 namely, that " the substance of the Creed is older 
 than Scripture.'"* The correct statement of this 
 proposition would be that the substance of the 
 Creed is older than the substance of Scripture, 
 which every one may perceive is only true in the 
 sense in which it becomes identical. The facts 
 and doctrines contained in the Creed were doubt- 
 less taught before any part of the New Testa- 
 ment was written, because what is contained 
 in the New Testament, the substance that is of 
 Scripture, was first orally communicated; but 
 there is no evidence that the Creed acquired a 
 fixed or written form, until long after the volume 
 of inspiration was completed, written, and pub- 
 lished ; and there is much evidence, on the other 
 hand, to the comparatively recent origin of even 
 what is commonly called the Apostles' Creed, 
 and there is absolute proof that it did not assume 
 its present form for some centuries. 
 
 ' The Rule of Faith. A Sermon by Archdeacon Manning, 
 p. 76, 2nd. Edition.' 
 
 c2 
 
20 LECTURE I. 
 
 VII. But it may be thought that whatever be 
 the source of the divine doctrine possessed by the 
 Church, the fact of its possession by the body of 
 Christ is at least a presumptive evidence of its 
 truth, and that if we could shew of any doctrine 
 or practice that it had prevailed in the Church 
 from the beginning, and wherever the true faith 
 of Christ was professed, we should be constrained 
 to yield our believing submission to such teaching, 
 and to receive such institutions, as of divine autho- 
 rity and universal obligation. 
 
 In propositions of this kind there is such a 
 mixture of truth and error, of assertion and 
 proof, of hypothesis and fact, that it is not easy 
 to unravel the web of sophistry which is thus 
 constructed, and this point will be matter of spe- 
 cial and separate investigation. We may however 
 admit to a certain extent at least, the soundness 
 of the celebrated dictum of Vincentius Lirinensis,' 
 that, on the one hand, we should receive with 
 all deference those doctrines which the Universal 
 Church of all nations, and of all ages, had ever re- 
 ceived under the warrant of the revealed Word of 
 God ; and that on tlie other hand we should be un- 
 willing to receive any doctrine of which it could be 
 clearly shewn that there was a time prior to which 
 it had never been heard of in the Church, except 
 ' " Quod semper et ubique et ab omnibus," &c. 
 
LECTURE I. 21 
 
 perhaps as the private speculation of individual 
 doctors, for in that case there would be a pre- 
 sumption, amounting to moral certainty, that it 
 could not be contained in the plain letter of God's 
 Word. Whether there are any doctrines, espe- 
 cially those which are matters of controversy 
 among professed Christians, respecting which an- 
 tiquity, universality, and consent, can be abso- 
 lutely predicated — for an unlimited conclusion 
 must not be deduced from a limited premiss — is 
 a question of fact with which we are not now 
 concerned, but we may allow that he would be a 
 rash and most self-sufficient theologian, giving 
 little evidence that he possessed the spirit of 
 God, who should set his own private judgment 
 against that of all other Christian men. Still if, on 
 the other hand, a man yielded simply to authority, 
 even of the Universal Church, without the 
 personal conviction of his own judgment that 
 what was taught was really contained in the very 
 words of the Bible, he would have yielded to 
 man, and not to God. 
 
 It is important also to observe that even the 
 Monk of Lerin himself limits the negative appli- 
 cation of his dictum (which in fact was not his, 
 but had long prevailed in the Church) to recent 
 heresies, and allows that it will only serve to 
 shew that doctrines which we know, and can 
 
22 LECTURE I. 
 
 prove, to be of recent introduction are not divine, 
 but human. When thus limited this is a test 
 from which the Church of England need never 
 shrink, and indeed it is one to which she has con- 
 stantly appealed. It is in fact the rule according 
 to which she receives as " Holy Scripture those 
 canonical books of the Old and New Testament 
 of whose authority was never any doubt in 
 the Church." ' 
 
 It is however a matter of some difficulty and 
 judgment to apply this rule to individual cases, 
 and the necessity for the Hmitation we have taken 
 will appear from the well known fact of some 
 books of the New Testament having been ad- 
 mitted into the Canon respecting which there 
 was considerable doubt at one time, and tliat very 
 generally in the Church of Christ ; while others 
 have been rejected which were at one time very 
 extensively received. 
 
 Negatively however the rule has great force, 
 and our Church has not received into the Canon 
 any books which were ever universally rejected by 
 the Church, as the Apocryphal books of the 
 Old Testament ; nor has she rejected any which 
 were ever universally received. She has consi- 
 dered the whole a matter of evidence, and has 
 accepted or rejected books, claiming to be divine, 
 
 • Art. 6. 
 
LECTURE I. 23 
 
 according to the grounds which there were for 
 believing their claims to be well founded or other- 
 wise. She appealed in fact from the authority 
 of Augustine, and the recent Western Church, 
 to the evidence of Jerome, and the earlier Church 
 writers of the East. 
 
 VIII. This last point touches clearly upon the 
 great question of the authority of the Church in 
 the interpretation of Scripture, to which the same 
 rule, with similar limitations, will very nearly ap- 
 ply ; but in connection with this subject, we may 
 safely concede, further, and eighthly, that there 
 are matters of external observance, "traditions 
 and ceremonies,"* as our Church calls them, 
 such as modes of Church government and 
 of worship, the alteration of the day of sacred 
 rest, and the like, which not being of the essence 
 of the faith, and, "being things in their own 
 nature indifferent, and alterable,"" "need not 
 be in all places one and utterly alike,"* 
 but may be estabhshed or changed upon the 
 simple authority of the Church, which is bindings 
 at least to this extent, on all her members. 
 " The Church hath power to decree ceremonies, 
 and authority in controversies of faith," y but every 
 Christian community is responsible to God and 
 
 * Art. 84. " Preface to tlie Prayer Book. ' Art. 34. 
 '^ Art. 20. 
 
24 LECTURE h 
 
 man for the due exercise of this right, and the 
 apphcation of this authority, and will be guilty 
 of schism if she decree ceremonies which are re- 
 pugnant to the letter or spirit of God's word, or 
 will have lapsed into heresy if she teach for doc- 
 trines the commandments of men, controverting 
 the teaching of Scripture, 
 
 On this head too it is important to note the 
 significant fact that it is only in the sense of what 
 relates to external observances that our Church 
 ever uses the word Tradition in the Prayer Book, 
 and when in the first Homily she speaks of 
 "what are called apostohcal traditions," or doc- 
 trines for which an apostolical, as distinguished 
 from a scriptural origin, is claimed, it is only to 
 condemn them in the strongest language of which 
 our homely mother tongue is well capable. And 
 this she does while claiming for herself "authority 
 in controversies of faith," in the exercise of which 
 authority the articles of religion were drawn up 
 and imposed, and she requires further the dutiful 
 submission of her children, who belong to her 
 only so far as they agree with her views of the 
 essential doctrines of Christianity, as deduced 
 from Scripture. 
 
 IX. Lastly, we would not withhold our assent 
 from the statement that Scripture no where as- 
 serts its own suflflciency, or even inspiration, as a 
 
LECTURE I. 25 
 
 whole ; but this admission must be quahfied by 
 the following observations : — 
 
 a. First, it is not the sufficiency, nor even the 
 inspiration of Scripture, which we are now con- 
 cerned to maintain, but its supremacy, as the one 
 rule of faith and practice ; or if that expression 
 be objected to as having been applied by early 
 writers to the Creeds, we would explain it by 
 saying that our object is to prove the Bible to be, 
 practically, the only divine record we possess, 
 and the one standard of truth and error, to which 
 all must appeal, and by which all may be guided 
 into truth. The sufficiency and the inspiration 
 of the Scriptures rest on ample proof, partly ex- 
 ternal, and partly internal, and though there is 
 some truth in the remark that they are not di- 
 rectly asserted in any one passage of the Bible 
 respecting the whole book, yet it certainly is 
 at least very significant that the sacred Canon 
 should conclude with that remarkable declara- 
 tion, " If any man shall add unto these things, 
 God shall add unto him the plagues that are 
 written in this book; and if any man shall take 
 away from the words of the book of this prophecy, 
 God shall take away his part out of the book of 
 life."" Though the letter of this very solemn ana- 
 thema apphes only to the book in which it is con- 
 
 • Rev. xxii. 18, 19. 
 
26 LECTURE I. 
 
 tained, its spirit is applicable to the whole volume 
 of God's revealed will, and condemns those alike 
 who detract from the authority of any part of 
 the inspired record, and those who add to it 
 human traditions. Thus also the command 
 given by God to Moses, expressly guarded 
 against the tendency of man to adapt the law of 
 God to his own ways of thinking; "ye shall not 
 add unto the word which I command you, neither 
 shall ye diminish aught from it."* So that in both 
 dispensations there was a warning to the same 
 effect, and one of the heaviest charges brought 
 by our Lord against the Pharisees is that they 
 had transgressed the command of God both posi- 
 tively and negatively; they "had taught for 
 doctrines the commandments of men," on the one 
 hand, and on the other, they "had made the 
 word of God of none effect through the traditions" 
 which they had dehvered from one generation to 
 another." 
 
 Such then are the concessions with which it 
 seemed to be important, and indeed our bounden 
 duty, to prepare the way for the discussion of the 
 important subject before us: but when we sum 
 them all up, it will appear that they amount only 
 to this, that God might have spoken to us other- 
 wise than He has done, and that whatever can 
 
 ' Deut. iv. 2. " Mark vii. 7, 13. 
 
LECTURE I. 27 
 
 really be proved to be His word, whether written 
 or unwritten, is entitled to supreme authority 
 over our faith and practice. 
 
 Having therefore disposed of these preliminary 
 and theoretical matters, our enquiry will be 
 mainly a practical one; namely, how God has 
 actually spoken to us; in what way we should 
 submit ourselves to His teaching ; and whether 
 we have reason to believe that there is, in the 
 traditions of the Church, or elsewhere, any con- 
 current or supplemental revelation, which either 
 explains the sense ' of the written word, or sup- 
 plies its deficiencies, so that the whole mak'es 
 one body of divine truth. This enquiry is most 
 important, for it is clear that whatever teaches 
 the sense of Scripture with an authority to which 
 we are bound absolutely to submit, becomes in 
 fact a revelation to us, and must be even of 
 greater moment to us than the written word itself, 
 as will be seen when we come to discuss the 
 practical bearing of tradition, and Church autho- 
 rity, on revelation. Therefore it becomes us most 
 carefully, not to say anxiously, to distinguish 
 between what is human and divine in religious 
 teaching ; for while we bow with reverential and 
 silent submission to *' every word which proceed- 
 eth out of the mouth of God," the same feehng 
 of humble piety will make us " very jealous for the 
 
28 LECTURE I. 
 
 Lord of Hosts/' lest the word of man be received 
 as the Word of the living God, for this produces 
 the same practical effect as when the divine au- 
 thority of God's Word is denied. It is the more 
 necessary to be watchful on this point because 
 most of the great corruptions of the truth have 
 arisen in the first instance from a confusion of 
 this nature. It was by adding the services of 
 Baal to that of Jehovah that Israel first trans- 
 gressed, and provoked the Lord to anger, and it is a 
 remarkable feature in the whole history of pagan- 
 ism that, with few exceptions, there were always 
 traces of one supreme God to which the multi- 
 tude of inferior deities were not only accessory 
 but subordinate. It is well known also that in 
 the religious books even of the Hindoos, poly- 
 theism is condemned almost as distinctly as in 
 the Bible.'' So also idolatry was not, usually, 
 the actual worship of the material idol, but the 
 
 ' South Indian Sketches, p. 19. The Vedas must have been 
 compiled at least 1,400 years before Christ, that is, in the time 
 of the Judges: and about 500 years after, or near the time of 
 Jehoshaphat, a code of laws was drawn up, bearing the name of 
 " Menu." Both of these give much insight into the state of re- 
 ligion and polity in those distant ages; and though the doctrine 
 in the code of Menu is less pure than that of the Vedas, yet in 
 both, we may find proofs that the knowledge of God was not then 
 quite extinct. There is in both of them a distinct acknowledg- 
 ment of one Supreme Being, the Creator of heaven and earth, 
 while the use of images is discouraged and the form of worship 
 seems to have been patriarchal, the head of each family oflSciating 
 as its priest. 
 
LECTURE I. 29 
 
 employment of a sensual object to aid the mental 
 operation of worship addressed to the Deity repre- 
 sented by the idol. Thus again to adduce a case 
 still more directly in point, the Pharisees appealed 
 to the Bible at the very time when they were 
 superseding its teaching, and the talmudical 
 writings of the Jews were always placed in a po- 
 sition of theoretical subjection to the Bible, 
 though they usurped one of practical superiority, 
 because they taught the sense of Scripture, which 
 is more precious than the mere letter, and applied 
 rules not contained in Scripture to the daily con- 
 cerns of life, which is a matter in which every 
 man is far more nearly concerned than in any 
 merely abstract speculations. 
 
 Thus also with regard to ourselves, our contest 
 even with the Church of Rome is not that the 
 supremacy of Scripture is denied in so many 
 words, but that it is practically superseded by 
 the admission of Tradition to the same homage, 
 reverence, and obedience, as are due to the Word 
 of God. There is a real distinction between the 
 teaching of the Church of Rome on this subject, 
 and the views of some at least of those among 
 ourselves who have of late pleaded for the au- 
 thority of Primitive Tradition. But we have had 
 many solemn warnings to beware of yielding any 
 credit to the vague and floating testimony of 
 
30 LECTURE I. 
 
 Tradition on doctrinal points, unless confirmed 
 by most certain warrant of holy writ. This, be 
 assured, is the point on which to take our resolute 
 stand; for when once we drift from the sure 
 anchorage of God's word written, there is no 
 saying into what ocean of superstitious reveries, 
 mystical hallucinations, rationalistic speculations, 
 or even of unhmited and bottomless scepticism, 
 we may not be carried, before we are aware, and 
 even while we deem ourselves most secure in the 
 guidance of primitive orthodoxy, and catholic 
 consent. "To the law, and to the testimony; 
 if they speak not according to this rule, it is 
 because there is no hght in them ;" where we 
 may observe, by way of practical apphcation, that 
 the heavenly hght is lost first, and then men resort 
 to the "sparks of their own kindhng." "When 
 the rehgion professed is decayed and full of scan- 
 dal, you may expect the rising up of new sects." 
 When personal piety faints and dies within, the 
 Bible is no longer relished as the record of a 
 Father's love, for the veil is on our hearts while 
 we read it, and being unwilling to lay the blame 
 on ourselves, or our want of spiritual discern- 
 ment, we assume the essential obscurity of the 
 Book ; we then look elsewhere for an authorita- 
 tive teaching which will at once save us the 
 labour, and we hope also the responsibiUty of 
 
LECTURE I. 31 
 
 religious thought, and dihgent, humble, suppli- 
 cating enquiry, and which will at the same time 
 supply us with a more objective worship, adapted 
 to the carnal state of our mind. In this way a 
 worldly and careless life leads to a formal religion, 
 for men soon learn to adapt their theories to 
 their practice. If therefore we would be pre- 
 served from the terrible downfall of lapsing into 
 some form or other of antichristian error, for 
 antichrist is not one but many, his name is 
 Legion, we must "keep the heart with all dili- 
 gence, knowing that out of it are the issues of 
 life."*^ It is only by the careful maintenance of 
 childhke communion with our God and Father 
 that we shall continue to find the simple truths 
 of the Gospel so refreshing, and so satisfying to 
 our souls, as the very bread of life and the waters 
 •of salvation, that we shall not be induced to look 
 elsewhere for instruction or excitement. Per- 
 sonal piety, is the best safeguard of doctrinal 
 integrity. 
 
 " Prov. iv. 23. 
 
LECTURE II, 
 
 Habakkuk ii. 20. 
 
 The Lord is in his holy temjole, let all the earth 
 keep silence before Him. 
 
 It will be in your recollection that among the 
 explanations and concessions with which it seemed 
 necessary to introduce and qualify the assertion 
 of the supreme authority of Holy Writ, we did 
 not deny the possibihty of the mind of God be- 
 ing conveyed to us by an unwritten tradition. So 
 that the real question is a practical one ; namely, 
 whether the Bible is the exclusive and supreme 
 teacher of divine truth to man ; for if God speaks 
 by that Book, and by that only, in his Church, 
 " all the earth must keep silence before him." 
 
 We may indeed, and we ought, to seek for 
 human assistance to enable us to understand what 
 God has said, and are bound to defer to the 
 authority of our own Church in matters of faith, 
 but this deference and all human aids are not to 
 
34 LECTURE II. 
 
 supersede but to assist and guide our own proper 
 judgment, for our absolute unquestioning submis- 
 sion must be given exclusively to the Record 
 itself, whatever be its form, oral or written, and 
 our best aid will be that of the Spirit of God 
 preparing our hearts to receive, and comprehend 
 the message. It is obvious that this is a question 
 of the utmost importance, for we have no distinct 
 and settled views of Truth while the standard by 
 which they are to be tested is vague, and unde- 
 fined ; and it is eminently the question of the 
 present day, in which the controversy between 
 us and the Church of Rome, and kindred systems, 
 has been revived, and cannot be declined by those 
 who are the appointed teachers of the nation. 
 The cardinal point, however, of that entire con- 
 troversy is now, as it always has been, whether 
 Scripture be supreme in matters of faith, or 
 whether there are Apostolical traditions in the 
 Church which are to be received with equal re- 
 verence and submission. Not, observe, whether 
 there might be such traditions, for we do not 
 deny the abstract possibility of their existence, 
 nor even whether, if they did exist, they ought 
 to be received with the same implicit faith as is 
 due to Scripture itself, for on this head the con- 
 clusion of the Council of Trent,^ startling and 
 
 ' Sess. iv. " Necnon traditioues ipsas, turn ad fidem, turn ad 
 
LECTURE II. 35 
 
 even blasphemous as it appears to those who are 
 accustomed to regard the Bible as the only- 
 inspired record, may be successfully defended, if 
 once it be allowed that there is in the Church an 
 " unwritten word of God." This is one instance 
 among many of the acuteness and logical accu- 
 racy with which the Church of Rome has deduced 
 her conclusions from assumed premises, and also 
 of the boldness with which, unrestrained by 
 public opinion, or the fear of contradiction, or 
 the charge of inconsistency, she has pushed her 
 principles to their legitimate issue. Those who 
 advocate principles which are at variance with 
 the doctrines to which they are pledged, will be 
 timid, wavering, and inconsistent, because they 
 will be ever attempting to fix their argument in 
 the middle of its course, but the Church of Rome, 
 however its agents may practice a discreet reserve 
 in this country, does in its authorized documents 
 teach boldly, plainly, and consistently, that she is 
 in possession of an ^'^ unwritten word of God," 
 which is to be received on precisely the same 
 grounds, and with the same assent, and unen- 
 quiring submission — " jmri pietatis ajfectii " — as 
 God's word written. We have then to investi- 
 
 morcs pertinentes, tanquam vel oretenus a Christo, vel Spiritu 
 Sancto dictitas, et continua successione in Ecclesia Catholica con- 
 servatas, pari pietatis afFectu, ac reverentia suscipit, et vene- 
 ratur." 
 
 d2 
 
36 LECTURE II. 
 
 gate the fact here assumed of the existence of 
 this unwritten word of God, and to shew that the 
 authority of Scripture, the testimony of Christian 
 antiquity, and the teaching of our own Church, 
 are all opposed to the idea of there being an oral 
 record of divine origin, which supplies the defi- 
 ciencies of Scripture, explains its difficulties, or 
 fixes its interpretation. 
 
 Our immediate object this morning will be the 
 scriptural part of the question; but before we 
 proceed to establish from the Bible its exclusive 
 claim to be our divine instructor, consider what 
 is the level of divine dignity, and absolute autho- 
 rity to w^hich any other record, written or 
 unwritten, must be raised before it can occupy 
 the place of a concurrent teacher of divine truth. 
 We submit to the Bible as the word of God, be- 
 cause we believe that it was written by holy men 
 of God, who were filled with the Spirit, and 
 "spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." '^ 
 When we refer to the ^vritings of these holy men 
 we find them distinctly asserting in many instances 
 and implying in all, that they had no original 
 ideas to communicate, that their words were not 
 of private interpretation, and that they were only 
 the instruments by means of which God was 
 speaking to man. For instance, to begin with 
 
 f 2 Pet. i. 21. 
 
LECTURE II. 37 
 
 Moses, "the Mediator of the old covenant/'^ 
 whose distinguished office it was to collect, em- 
 body, and sanction all the traditions which had 
 gone before : how does he act with reference to 
 the patriarchal traditions, which were indeed the 
 unwritten word of God ; and how does he speak 
 of the nature of his own commission ? 
 
 In the first place, we have to bear in mind that 
 those patriarchal traditions had been preserved, 
 so far as they were preserved, by the longe- 
 vity of those to whom they had been con- 
 fided. Noah was born a little more than a 
 century after the death of Adam, and Hved six 
 hundred years with Methuselah, who was himself 
 for more than two hundred and fifty years a con- 
 temporary of Adam, and witnessed for about the 
 same period his father Enoch's walk with God, 
 until that holy man " was not, for God had taken 
 him " to his rest. The special provision by which 
 during the whole antediluvian period of about 
 1,500 years the oral conveyance of the revelation 
 originally made to Adam was entrusted to only 
 one intermediate person, shews the watchful care 
 of God over his truth through belief of which 
 man was to regain his lost estate. And yet the 
 general, and with the exception of a single family, 
 the universal departure fi'om God of the ante- 
 
 ^ Gal. iii. 19. 
 
38 LECTURE II. 
 
 diluvian world, notwithstanding the prophecy of 
 Enoch respecting the coming of the Lord/ and 
 the preaching of righteonsness by Noah through 
 the Spirit of Christ for 120 years, shews how 
 necessary this provision was to preserve among 
 men any saving knowledge of the Most High. 
 
 From the Flood to the Exodus was another 
 period only about half the length of that from 
 the Creation to the Flood ; and here, again, we 
 may observe the same merciful provision. The 
 average duration of the life even of the favoured 
 line to which was entrusted the unwritten oracles 
 of God was not indeed equal to the days of the 
 years of their antediluvian forefathers, but the 
 period itself was so much shorter that nearly the 
 same practical result was obtained. On the one 
 hand Isaac had lived fifty years with Shem, who 
 had not only been saved with his father in the 
 ark, but had lived nearly one hundred years with 
 Methuselah, the contemporary (as we have seen) 
 of Adam : and on the other hand, the days of 
 mourning for Isaac had not yet come when Joseph 
 was sold into Egypt, and Joseph had been dead 
 little more than sixty years when Moses was born, 
 so that Moses might have heard from many living 
 witnesses the act of faith by which " Joseph when 
 he died made mention of the departing of the 
 
 " Jude, 14. 
 
LECTURE II. 39 
 
 Children of Israel, and gave commandment re- 
 specting his bones.'" On that ''night much to be 
 observed"" when the hosts of the Lord were de- 
 livered from bondage^ and were baptized to a 
 new life in the sea, the embalmed body of the 
 patriarch Joseph, wrapped in cerements, and 
 decorated with eloquent hieroglyphics (as was 
 the manner of the Egyptians to bury) borne along 
 in the midst of the "sacramental host of God's 
 elect," — his holy Catholic Church — told its own 
 silent story, and formed the connecting link be- 
 tween the unwritten tradition of former ages, and 
 the book of God's law which Moses was inspired 
 to write. Hence we see that the sacred tradition, 
 *'the unwritten word of God," had passed through 
 only three hands between Joseph and Adam; 
 namely, Isaac, Shem, and Methuselah. 
 
 Such was the provision made by God for pre- 
 serving, during this second period, the knowledge 
 among men of his character, and his will. A 
 merciful provision indeed, but assuredly not 
 greater than the case required, when we bear in 
 mind how soon men, notwithstanding, forgat 
 the knowledge of the Most High, and that al- 
 most every form of paganism may be traced up 
 to corruptions which owe their origin, if not to 
 Ham, and Japheth, at least to their immediate 
 
 ' Heb. xi. 22 " Exod. xii. 42. 
 
40 LECTURE II. 
 
 descendants. And not only so, but even Terah 
 the father of Abraham was, we know, an idolater,' 
 and the children of Israel appear to liave nearly 
 lost all distinct knowledge of God, or at least to 
 have suspended all public worship of Jehovah 
 during their captivity in Egypt. 
 
 Hence we learn, from Scripture itself, how in- 
 secure was the custody of Tradition, even under 
 the most favourable circumstances, and what 
 need there was of a written document to preserve 
 men from error and darkness. 
 
 The next point on which Scripture may instruct 
 us is the position of isolated dignity, and supreme 
 authority, which the written document, so merci- 
 fully given to man, claims to occupy. When 
 Moses after this period of spiritual darkness in 
 Egypt was first commissioned to declare God's 
 will to his countrymen, God said to him, " I will 
 be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou 
 shalt say.""" So that when Moses is directed to 
 employ Aaron as his spokesman, the remarkable 
 expression is used, " He shall be to thee instead 
 of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of 
 God."° Afterwards we meet constantly with the 
 solemn phrase "Thus saith the Lord," and are 
 told that ''God spake to Moses all the words of 
 
 ' Josh. xxiv. 2. '" Exod. iv. 12. ° Exod. iv. 16. 
 
LECTURE II. 41 
 
 the law/' '^as a man speaketh unto his friend;"" 
 and that the tables of that first covenant were 
 engraven with the finger of God — "the writing 
 was the writing of God."'' The ecclesiastical 
 polity and ordinances were framed strictly ac- 
 cording to the pattern shewn him and the in- 
 struction given in the mount, and Moses was 
 commanded to commit these words to writing.** 
 The five books written by one to whom God had 
 been so nigh, descend to us with a sanction to 
 which no merely human document, written or 
 unwritten, can lay claim, and this divine record 
 at once supersedes all reference to the oral tra- 
 ditions which had gone before, and which are 
 in fact embodied in its sacred and mysterious 
 contents. Nor is it among the least observable 
 peculiarities of the Pentateuch that while it 
 embodies the previous oral teaching, and per- 
 haps the general contents of some written docu- 
 ments, as ''the book of the wars of the Lord,""" it 
 makes no reference whatever to any traditional 
 knowledge of God, as of authority in matters of 
 faith and practice, and leaves nothing to be 
 supplied by the collective spiritual knowledge 
 of the Church, but on the contrary declares, 
 in the most solemn manner, much as the Evan- 
 
 ° Exod. xxxiii. 11. ^ Exod. xxxii. 16. " Exod. xxxiv.27. 
 ' Num. xxi. 14. 
 
42 LECTURE II. 
 
 gelist John at the close of the Apocalypse, "ye 
 shall not add unto the word which I command 
 you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that 
 ye may keep the commandments of the Lord 
 your God which I command you.'" And yet it 
 is instructive also to observe that when Moses 
 refers to the external institutions of patriarchal 
 theology, as, for instance, the observance of a 
 day of holy rest, the offering of sacrifices, and 
 the sacrament of circumcision, they are not 
 spoken of as new things, but as recognized and 
 established ordinances; and all that Moses is 
 commissioned to do with regard to them is to 
 give directions as to the manner in which they 
 are to be observed. He thus indicated a marked 
 distinction, which we shall hereafter see reason 
 to believe was maintained by our Lord himself, 
 between ecclesiastical traditions of external obser- 
 vances, and those which relate to matters of faith, 
 which could not under ordinary circumstances be 
 entrusted to oral transmission.* 
 
 In order also to secure still further the pre- 
 servation and accuracy of the divine record, 
 there is a remarkable command given in anti- 
 cipation of the monarchy which was predicted ; 
 namely, that on the inauguration of the anointed 
 sovereign, when he came to " sit upon the 
 
 • Deut. iv. 2. * Deut. xxxi. 19. 
 
LECTURE II. 43 
 
 throne of his kingdom, he should write him 
 a copy of the law in a book out of that which 
 was to be before (or in charge of) the priests, the 
 Levites." " It is true that the priests, to whose 
 custody the book of the law was entrusted, were 
 its authorized expositors, the umpires and judges 
 of disputes between man and man, and those to 
 whom it belonged to decide without appeal be- 
 tween clean and unclean, and specially in cases of 
 leprosy, but they were to decide according to the 
 written word, and not according to any oral tra- 
 ditions preserved amongst themselves. Yet even 
 this limited authority is no where given in the 
 New Testament to Christian Ministers, or to the 
 general assembly of the Church (except in the 
 age of inspiration) for all were alike to be the 
 recipients of the same spirit who was to lead 
 them into all truth, and give them an unction 
 whereby they should know all things necessary 
 for their souls' health. 
 
 The same absence of all reference to any con- 
 current oral teaching, and the same assumption 
 of absolute supremacy for the written word, 
 distinguishes every subsequent period. David, 
 "the sweet psalmist of Israel," ^ speaks much of 
 his value for the Scriptures such as he had them 
 in his day, and is so far from looking for any 
 
 " Deut. xvii. 18. ' 2 Sam. xxiii. 1. 
 
44 LECTURE 11. 
 
 supplemental teaching elsewhere that he says 
 " I have more miderstanding than all my teachers^ 
 for thy testimonies are my meditation. I under- 
 stand more than the ancients, because I keep thy 
 precepts." ^ 
 
 Observe too how, at the close of his life, he 
 speaks of that portion of the divine record 
 which he had been honoured to reveal; "The 
 Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his 
 word was in my tongue,'"" where we see that, 
 like Moses, he regards himself simply as an in- 
 strument by which God made known his will, so 
 that the very words were not his, but the actual 
 words of God. Such is the scriptural idea of 
 inspiration, and he, by whom it is simply received, 
 will not readily admit any document, written 
 or unwritten, to a like position, for he will require 
 strict evidence of its being the expression of the 
 mind of God; and practically we shall find that 
 low views of inspiration very commonly accom- 
 pany a tendency to receive Tradition upon an 
 equality with Scripture, or to admit rationahstic 
 modifications of its teaching. 
 
 It would be easy to refer you to all the 
 prophets, as many as have spoken, from Isaiah 
 when he saw the glory of Christ and spake of him,* 
 
 1. cxix. 09, 100. '■2 Sam. xxiii. 2. 
 
 ' Isa. vj. 1, compared with John xii. 41. 
 
LECTURE II. 45 
 
 to Jeremiah dictating at the bottom of his dun- 
 geon the fearful words of God to Baruch," and 
 Malachi introducing, as it were, the long expected 
 "Messenger of the Lord of Hosts''^ into his 
 Temple, that he might be heard speaking there 
 with a voice of authority and power. We might 
 shew that all these holy men, moved by the 
 Spirit of God, and writing, not their own words, 
 but His, claim for what they write an authority 
 by itself, and above all other which does not pro- 
 ceed directly from the inspiration of God : but 
 it is unnecessary to do this, for this all beHevers 
 in the Bible know, and are persuaded of. 
 
 Let us then pass on from the testimony which 
 the Old Testament bears to its own supremacy, 
 both by its direct assertion, and by practically 
 absorbing into itself all other divine communi- 
 cations, to consider that which is given by our 
 Lord and his Disciples in the New Testament to 
 the former revelation, and to whatever can claim 
 to be an inspired document. 
 
 What was the state of the world when He the 
 great teacher, the visible incarnate God, suddenly 
 came to his Temple speaking and acting there ? 
 The second Psalm was to all appearance very 
 far from its accomplishment, for not only had 
 the kingdoms of this world not become the 
 
 ". Jerem. xxxvi., xlv. ' Mai. ii. 7. 
 
46 LECTURE II. 
 
 kingdom of Jehovah and of Christ, but the 
 Prince of this world, the abomination which 
 maketh desolate, had enthroned himself even in 
 the very house of God, and had first to be cast 
 out thence, that God might enter and be heard, 
 and being heard might be worshipped. Man 
 was talking there very wisely of his Traditions 
 and his washing of pots and pans, his days and 
 months and years, his sabbaths and new moons, 
 his evasions of the law, his complement to its 
 provisions, but all had to be silenced that God 
 might be heard — and He was heard. 
 
 Is it true that the Lord is now in his holy 
 Temple, and that He is speaking? Yes, it is 
 true. He dwelleth not in Temples made with 
 hands — John saw none in the new Jerusalem — 
 but in the contrite humble heart : that is the 
 Temple of the living God ; there He dwells who 
 inhabiteth eternity and there He speaks. If we 
 are of His mark he dwells in us, "I in them and 
 thou in me, that they may be made perfect in 
 one,'"^ and He speaks to us. Let us be silent 
 ourselves and hush every human voice into 
 silence, that we listen to his voice of love but of 
 supreme authority, and that having heard we 
 may obey, "for obedience is better than sacrifice 
 and to hearken than the fat of rams." " 
 
 " John xvii. 23. ' 1 Sam. xv. 23. 
 
LECTURE II. 47 
 
 Though the complete Bible does not wit- 
 ness to its own completion, yet we have the 
 advantage of the break between the two Dis- 
 pensations, and the independence of the Records 
 by which they are revealed, that the latter 
 stamps the former with divine authority, and 
 teaches us, further, in what way we should 
 receive "every word which proceedeth out of the 
 mouth of God." In this respect, as in all others, 
 the conduct of our Lord with regard to the Old 
 Testament, and with regard also to the Traditions 
 currently received by the Jews of his day, is full 
 of instruction to us, and to the men of all ages, 
 and all countries, communions, and churches, for 
 in that conduct is embodied everlasting and un- 
 changing truth. How then did Jesus act with 
 regard to the religious records, divine or human, 
 of the Jewish Church, and their ecclesiastical 
 institutions, whether derived from the law as 
 given by Moses, or established by the authority 
 of the Church? 
 
 This question is answered in few words as far 
 as the Scriptures of the Old Testament are con- 
 cerned, for it is hardly necessary to remind you 
 that our Lord refers to them, and to them ex- 
 clusively, as the oracles of God, the authentic 
 exponents of the Father's will, and the supreme 
 guide of man in all that he was to believe, and 
 
48 LECTURE 11. 
 
 do, and hope for. He appeals to them as the 
 record in which the Jews confided and desired 
 all whom he addressed to search therein for their 
 testimony to himself. He does not send them 
 to the traditions of their chmxh, nor to the San- 
 hedrim, nor to Doctors, Lawyers, Scribes, or 
 Pharisees, but to Moses, and David, and the 
 Prophets. "Search the Scriptures," he says to 
 the plain men around him, "for in them ye think 
 je have eternal life, and they are they which 
 testify of me.'"' But the Jews came short 
 of this eternal life; they attained not unto 
 the righteousness of God; and both our Lord, 
 and his disciples, explain to us the reason to have 
 been that they took counsel of each other, instead 
 of going directly to God. "How can ye believe 
 which receive honour one of another, and seek 
 not the honour that cometh from God only? 
 For had ye believed Moses ye would have be- 
 lieved me, for he wrote of me."^ And in the 
 same spirit when the rich man in the parable 
 would have Lazarus sent to his brethren for their 
 special warning, the authority and sufficiency of 
 Scripture is emphatically asserted. "They have 
 Moses and the Prophets ; let them hear them ; 
 for if they hear not Moses and the Prophets, 
 
 '' John V. 89. ^ John v. 44. 
 
LECTURE II. 49 
 
 neither will they be persuaded though one rose 
 from the dead.''^ 
 
 To the same effect is the manner in which our 
 Lord proves the doctrine of the resurrection,' 
 not from tradition, or the authority of the 
 Jewish church, but from what might otherwise 
 appear the somewhat obscure indication of Scrip- 
 ture in the language of God to Moses at the 
 bush. 
 
 It may be objected on this head that on one 
 occasion our Lord said to the multitude, and 
 to the disciples, "the Scribes and the Phari- 
 sees sit in Moses' seat; all therefore whatsoever 
 they bid you observe, that observe and do ; 
 but do not ye after their works, for they say, and 
 do not."" Now in reference to the objection 
 which may be raised on this text we have to ob- 
 serve, in the first place, that it is no part of our 
 argument to release men from the obligation they 
 are under to submit lowly and reverently to their 
 spiritual pastors and teachers, or to invalidate the 
 proper authority which belongs to the regularly 
 appointed ministers of religion, and still less to 
 that of the Church at large, as will appear when 
 we come to speak specifically on that part of the 
 subject. But we do aim at defining the proper 
 limit of that authority, and at asserting the 
 
 " Luke xvi. 29. ' Matt. xxii. 81, seqq. ^ Matt, xxiii, 2. 
 
 E 
 
50 LECTURE II. 
 
 supremacy of the Bible in all matters of Faith, 
 and the duty of every individual to rule himself 
 by its dictates, and to judge by this infallible 
 standard, which is sufficiently plain for all practi- 
 cal purposes, of the pretensions even of Prophets, 
 who might be wolves though they came in sheep's 
 clothing.' 
 
 But we may further observe that the decisions 
 of the Scribes and Pharisees to which the people 
 were to submit were those which referred to legal 
 i][uestions, and the ceremonial observances of the 
 Mosaic ritual, and were such as Moses had him- 
 self directed that the Priests should at all times 
 hear and judge ; Aaron and his sons after him 
 were to put difference between unclean and clean 
 that they might teach the children of Israel all 
 the statutes which the Lord had spoken to them 
 by the hand of Moses.™ So again it was ordered 
 that the Priests should constitute a court of final 
 appeal to which absolute submission should be 
 paid in " cases between blood and blood, plea and 
 plea,stroke and stroke : " " which is no more than 
 the jurisdiction, in civil and criminal actions, which 
 the supreme court of every nation must possess. 
 The people are directed to study God's word, and 
 to teach it diligently to their children, as their 
 plain guide ; and the points to be risferred to the 
 
 ' Matt. vii. 16, "' Lev. x. 10, 11. " Deut. xvii. 8. 
 
LECTURE II. 51 
 
 Priests related to the evidence of particular facts, 
 and the application of the simple letter of the law 
 to each individual case. There was no douht, for 
 instance, that a leper was unclean, and should be 
 separated from the congregation, the doctrine 
 was clear, and unquestionable, but the Priest 
 was to decide whether the spot he saw was one 
 of leprosy or not ; and afterward i he was to de- 
 cide whether or no it had been healed. Hence 
 we have every right to assume that it was our 
 Lord's meaning that all practical questions re- 
 specting the application of the law should be 
 referred with entire submission to the Scribes and 
 Pharisees who were the appointed judges of such 
 matters ; but we cannot for one moment suppose 
 that doctrinal questions were to be referred to 
 those who rejected Jesus as the Christ, and whom 
 he denounces in the very passage before us not only 
 as "hypocrites, blind guides, serpents and a 
 generation of vipers/' but whom he charges with 
 having "made the word of God of none effect 
 by their traditions," and with ^' taking away the 
 key of knowledge"" by interposing their corrupt 
 gloss between the people, and the plain letter 
 of the Bible. 
 
 When, however, we turn from the question of 
 ,an authorized interpretation of the written law, 
 
 ° Luke xi. 52. 
 
 e2 
 
52 LECTURE II. 
 
 to the manner in which our Lord treated the tra- 
 ditions of the Jewish church, the case is far more 
 simple, and is strictly analogous to similar ques- 
 tions which are now raised in the Christian church. 
 In applying this analogy we must bear in mind 
 that the Jewish and the Christian church are not 
 two bodies, but one ; and that this one church 
 has grown up in these last days, by the nourish- 
 ment ministered to it by God, from childhood 
 into manhood ; and therefore has an increased 
 capacity for the reception, and comprehension of 
 divine truth. We should remember also that 
 this question respecting the traditions of the 
 Church as supplying the sense of Scripture, and 
 meeting cases for which there was presumed to 
 be no express provision in the Bible, is not new 
 to the Church. If roe require the aid of tradi- 
 tion to teach us the way of the Lord more fully 
 respecting the doctrine of the Trinity, the Lord's 
 Day, Infant Baptism, Church Government, and 
 Scriptural difficulties, we should bear in mind 
 that it was a question in the Jewish Church 
 whether even the cardinal doctrine of the resur- 
 rection could be deduced from Scripture without 
 tradition, or rather we may say that the Saducees 
 denied it because it was not, as they supposed, 
 revealed in the Old Testament, and the Pharisees 
 rested their belief on this, and many other points. 
 
LECTURE II. 53 
 
 on the Traditions which had of old been received 
 among them, and for which it would have been 
 quite as easy and plausible to have assumed a 
 patriarchal authority as it is to refer any Christian 
 traditions to the teaching of the Apostles. We 
 know too that these traditions of the elders had 
 assumed a systematic form long before the Ad vent, 
 and that the Jews regarded them as the oral law, 
 and of the same authority, and even antiquity, 
 as the written law, for they believed that both 
 were revealed by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, 
 and should therefore be received by his Church, 
 to adopt the language of the Council of Trent, 
 " ])ari jnetatis affectu, ac reverentia" The two 
 cases are strictly parallel ; and yet a single text 
 will be sufficient to give our Lord's decision on 
 this important matter. "Ye have made the 
 commandment of God of none effect by your 
 tradition." " In vain do they worship me, teaching 
 for doctrines the commandments of men."'' So 
 that our Lord decides this point, and declares that 
 a tracUtion of extreme antiquity, received by what 
 would be regarded as the entire sound or orthodox 
 portion of the Jewish Church, and which professed 
 to explain doubtful points of Scripture, and to sup- 
 ply a rule where Scripture was silent, came under 
 the condemnation of adding to God's word, was 
 
 ^ Matt. XV. G, 9. 
 
54 LECTURE II. 
 
 teaching for doctrines the commandments of 
 men, and thus made the commandment of God 
 of none effect, and rendered the worship of 
 those by whom it was received as a subsidiary 
 rule of faith, vain and unacceptable to God. 
 There could, surely, hardly be a stronger case 
 on this whole question, or one on w^hich we 
 have a more distinct and unequivocal decision ; 
 for the case ruled was not simply that the tradi- 
 tion was false and erroneous, but that it was an 
 addition to God's word, which it practically 
 superseded. 
 
 There is, however, another point closely con- 
 nected with the same subject on which our 
 Lord's decision was somewhat different ; though 
 here, as ever, most instructive. I allude to his 
 conduct in respect of those ecclesiastical ordi- 
 nances which were confessedly of human institu- 
 tion, and being in themselves innocent, or even 
 useful, did in no way interfere with the supreme 
 authority of Scripture. As one instance of this 
 we may mention our Lord's attendance at the 
 Feast of Dedication, which had been appointed 
 about 200 years before," by Judas Maccabeus, 
 after the pollution by Antiochus Epiphanes, and 
 therefore had only a similar origin, or authority 
 with our state holidays. Yet we find Jesus at 
 
 " B.C. 170. 1 Mace. iv. 52—59. 
 
LECTURE II. 55 
 
 this Feast walking in the Temple, in Solomon's 
 porch, and teaching the people/ 
 
 But another matter, and one which is even 
 still more applicable to the present circumstances 
 of the Church, is the conduct of our Lord, pro- 
 bably, and of his disciples, certainly, with regard 
 to those parts of the church government which 
 had not been determined by the law of Moses. 
 I refer to the constitution, and entire discipline 
 of the synagogue. It is a very remarkable fact 
 that the law made no provision " for the con- 
 gregation of the people ' to exalt Jehovah con- 
 tinually," in the towns and villages of Judea, 
 even on the Sabbath day. There was no form 
 of prayer provided even for the Temple at 
 Jerusalem, and no provision for the instruction 
 of the people by publjc preaching. Yet we 
 know that there were synagogues scattered 
 throughout the land; that Moses had of old 
 those who preached him in the synagogues every 
 Sabbath day :^ that there was a liturgy in use 
 among them, and a regularly constituted order 
 of ecclesiastical officers. We find several of 
 these officers distinctly mentioned by the evan- 
 gehsts. For instance, Jairus a ruler of the syn- 
 agogue " we find falling down before the feet of 
 
 ' John X. 22. ' Ps. cvii. 32 ' Acts xv. 21. 
 
 " Luke viii. 41, 49. 
 
56 LECTURE II. 
 
 Jesus and entreating him to go into his house, 
 and heal liis daughter. Then we have afterwards 
 the chief of the synagogue sending word that 
 the child was already dead. We read moreover 
 of Elders ^ sent by a Centurion to request our 
 Lord to heal his servant. In another passage ^ 
 we find the minister {v7rr)piTr]<i) filling the office of 
 a deacon, for he received at the hands of our 
 Lord the book of the Prophet Isaiah from 
 which Jesus had just read,' and restored it to its 
 place. These officers, or at least the Chief- 
 priests, or Scribes,^ for they seem to have been 
 identical, and were perhaps the same as the 
 rulers of the synagogues, had a seat in the San- 
 hedrim, and we find them there at the trial of 
 our Lord. The Mishna has reference also to 
 another officer mentioned in the Apocalypse : 
 namely, the Angel or messenger of the Church. 
 It may be shewn that avrocTTo^o?, ayyeXo^, eVtcr/coTro?, 
 are convertible terms, or at least that they are 
 used without any precise distinction. We know, 
 too, from sources independent of the New Tes- 
 tament, that these officers, and this state of dis- 
 cipline, existed ; and such being the case we 
 find both our Lord, and his disciples, habitually 
 freqenting the synagogues on the Sabbath day ; 
 
 * Luke vii. 3. ^ Luke iv. 20. ' Isaiah Ixi. 
 
 " Matt. xxvi. 57, compared with verse 69. 
 
LECTURE II. 57 
 
 and not only so, bnt there is every reason to 
 suppose that this was the model on which the 
 government of the Christian Church was formed. 
 Under the law, a Temple, Priests, and Sacrifices 
 were provided, but the form of worship was left 
 to the ordering of the Church. Under the Gos- 
 pel when the One priest had offered his one 
 sacrifice, there was neither Temple, nor sacri- 
 ficing priest, nor an offering for sin, but there 
 was a synagogue, there were Apostles with the 
 chief general authority over the Churches, and 
 each particular Church had its ruler, whatever 
 might have been his name, which is of little 
 moment, and under him there were assistant 
 ministers. All this was recognised by our Lord, 
 and adopted into his Church ; but still, as was 
 the case with its original in the synagogue, not 
 as a matter of divine command, and therefore 
 essential to the very being of a Church, but of 
 good order, to which all wise-hearted and hum- 
 ble people would willingly and thankfully submit. 
 A similar remark will apply to the Baptism of 
 our Lord. This was an ordinance not mentioned 
 in the law, but altogether a human institution, 
 and yet our Lord not only submitted to it at the 
 hands of John, but gave as his reason that " thus 
 it became him to fulfil all righteousness."" To 
 
 " Matt. iii. 15. 
 
58 LECTURE II. 
 
 this case we might add the payment of tribute ; 
 but these instances are sufficient to shew that 
 " tlie mind of Christ " was disposed to sanction 
 and adopt existing human institutions, when not 
 in themselves wrong, and to make his absolute 
 rejection and denunciation of the whole body of 
 traditionary teaching the more emphatic and in- 
 structive. 
 
 We might also refer to the account of the 
 temptation of our Lord, which was doubtless 
 intended to teach us how we ought to resist the 
 devil, and to shew how our Lord himself met, and 
 designed that we should meet, scriptural difficul- 
 ties. We may observe that in this mysterious 
 transaction the temptations are such especially 
 as believers may be exposed to, and that they 
 are derived from Scripture. The lesson we learn 
 from it is, that if one text of Scripture is chfficult 
 of comprehension, and liable to be misapplied, 
 we need not look beyond the Bible to have our 
 doubts resolved; but if we are of a teachable 
 spirit shall find some other scriptural passage too 
 plain to be misunderstood, and directly bearing 
 on the case in hand. 
 
 When we pass from the personal teaching of 
 our Lord to that of his inspired Apostles, we 
 find the same mind. We find them constantly 
 proving from the Scriptures that this is very 
 
LECTURE II. 59 
 
 Christ/ They reason out of the Scriptures, 
 and quote Moses, and the Psalmists, and the 
 Prophets, as we may see very particularly in the 
 addresses of Peter at the day of Pentecost, and 
 of Stephen at his martyrdom-/ and indeed in 
 every case where the argument was with those 
 who acknowledged the authority of the Old 
 Testament. 
 
 In the various discussions also which arose 
 about circumcision, the general obligation of the 
 law, intercourse with Gentiles, and similar mat- 
 ters, we never find any reference made to any 
 oral teaching of Christ not contained in the gos- 
 pels as we have them, still less to any special reve- 
 lation made, as the Gnostics supposed, to a select 
 number from among the apostles. Indeed it is very 
 remarkable how little reference there is in the 
 Apostolical writings to the details of our Lord's 
 life and teaching. We have summaries, much 
 in the nature of the early creeds, as for example 
 1 Cor. XV. 1 , &c., but referring only to the leading 
 facts of Christ's work of redemption, and chiefly to 
 the evidence of his having come in the flesh, and 
 having really died, risen, ascended, and returned 
 
 ' Acts xvii. 2—5. 
 
 ^ I^The reference to historical tradition in the narrative con- 
 tained in this speech cannot be justly urged in the present argu- 
 ment, as it was the intention of the author to have she^\^l in the 
 notes to have been appended to these Lectures. — Ed.^ 
 
60 LECTURE II. 
 
 to the throne of glory. There is only one say- 
 ing of our Lord preserved in the Apostolical 
 writings ; namely where St. Paul desires the 
 Ephesian elders to remember the words of 
 the Lord Jesus, how he said, " It is more blessed 
 to give than to receive."^ A very precious 
 fragment, doubtless, of that heavenly manna 
 with which the Church had been fed, but it 
 it was the very commandment of love which 
 they had from the beginning. Surely it is utterly 
 inconsistent with the idea of an "unwritten 
 word " of divine authority existing in the Church, 
 that this should be the only saying of our Lord's 
 quoted by the Apostles, and this not bearing on 
 any of those doctrines, or practical points, which 
 perplexed the primitive Church, and needed the 
 special teaching of the Spirit ; leaving many 
 points still to try our faith and patience, that 
 we may learn to be contented with our ignorance 
 where God has not spoken, and not seek to be 
 wise above what is written. 
 
 Besides this, we know from the Acts and the 
 Epistles, how the Apostles taught their converts 
 from Judaism or Paganism. They did not require 
 implicit faith in their word, but conviction, the 
 result of scriptural investigation; an investiga- 
 tion guided doubtless by the instruction of the 
 
 • Acta XX. 35. 
 
LECTURE II. 61 
 
 Apostles, and influenced by their miracles and 
 authority to a degree peculiar to that case ; but 
 still their faith was to come by hearing, and to 
 be the result of conviction that these things were 
 so. I need only refer to the well known case of 
 the Bereans, in which it is clear that the Apostle 
 encouraged them to search the Scriptures for 
 themselves, and not to be satisfied unless they 
 found there what had been taught them : for thus 
 only would their religious faith be their own. 
 The Apostle first taught the Bereans from the 
 Bible, and then referred them to the Bible to 
 satisfy themselves that he had taught them truly; 
 he sought not to have dominion over their 
 faith, but to be helpers of their joy.^ 
 
 Nor let any one suppose that though this was 
 true of the first principles of Christianity, there 
 were other and higher doctrines, strong meat 
 not generally given to all, which had been de- 
 posited in the oral teaching of the Apostles, and 
 not committed to writing lest it might fall into 
 hands not prepared for its reception. This would 
 have been a very natural idea, especially to those 
 who had been accustomed to the Cabbala of the 
 Jews, or the mysteries of the Pagans; and we 
 know in fact that this was the basis of the early 
 7VQ)o-fc9 before Gnosticism assumed an lieretical 
 
 ^ 2 Cor. i. 24. 
 
62 LECTURE 11. 
 
 form. But refer to St. Paul's case of the mysti- 
 cal term perfection, and you will find that he 
 knew of no perfection which was not revealed in 
 Scripture, and might not be attained by God's 
 blessing on the reading of the Old Testament in 
 the light of the Gospel. A single instance may 
 be sufficient to illustrate this remark. In that 
 touching allusion which he makes to the pious 
 education of Timothy, he says that "all Scripture 
 is given by inspiration of God, and is able to make 
 wise unto salvation through ftiith which is in 
 Christ Jesus : (that is, through the reception of 
 the Gospel) and that it is profitable for doctrine, 
 for reproof, for correction, for instruction in 
 righteousness, that the man of God may be per- 
 fect, throughly furnished unto all good works." ^ 
 Here then is the man of God (the true Gnostic, 
 as Clement of Alexandi'ia would call him) leaving 
 *' the principles of the doctrine of Christ," and 
 *' going on unto perfection,'"' being made wise 
 unto salvation; receiving all that was required 
 for his instruction in righteousness, and throughly 
 furnished unto all good works ; and this by such 
 plain teaching as a faithful mother could give 
 her docile child, for whom she sought, and ob- 
 tained, that "preparation of heart which cometh 
 only from the Lord.' Thus when God revealed 
 
 8 2 Tim. iii. 15—17. ^ Heb. vi. 1. ' Prov. xvi. 1. 
 
LECTURE II. 63 
 
 himself in his book, Eunice and her son were 
 enabled to say with Samuel, "Speak, Lord, for 
 thy servant heareth." 
 
 So also when a Christian female studying the 
 Bible at home came to any difficulty, it is very 
 instructive to observe the course which the 
 Apostle directs her to take to have her doubts 
 resolved. She is not to go to the Church, and 
 talk to the presbyters and congregation about 
 her perplexities, but if she would learn any thing, 
 she is to '''ask her husband at home."" 
 
 Such was the character of Christian teaching 
 even in the age of the Apostles, and when, if ever, 
 the Church was in possession of some special 
 instruction not contained in the Gospels; but we 
 find all along that reference is made to ''those 
 things which were written," and that the apos- 
 tolic writings contain no additional facts, while 
 they expand and elucidate the doctrine of the 
 Gospel, and that with a clearness and point 
 which tend to impart sa\ing wisdom.' 
 
 ■■ I Cor. xiv, 35. 
 
 ' We may observe that on several occasions the Apostles refer 
 to their v^'ritings as provided for the express purpose oi fixing the 
 faith of the Church: for instance, Luke i. 3; 2 Pet. i. 12, 15, 
 where St, Peter goes on to give a sort of creed, v. 16. ike. So St. 
 Paul having warned the Ephesian elders against grievous wolves. 
 Acts XX. 29, wrote his epistles to confirm that Church. So again 
 St. Peter, 2 Peter iii. 2, refers to the Old and New Testaments, and 
 to St. Paul's epistle, as scripture. 
 
64 LECTURE Ifr 
 
 The same remark applies to the last apostolical 
 document ; for in the Apocalypse we have indeed 
 a wonderful insight into the future, together with 
 the trouble which should come upon the Church 
 from without, and the heresies which were to 
 distract it within, many of which were even then 
 working; but still there is no reference to any 
 authorized interpretation of Scripture, none to 
 any absolute ecclesiastical authority in matters 
 of faith, and still less to any one visible centre of 
 Christian union, other than the living Head, even 
 Jesus, and the one faith in Him. And thus the 
 distinguished Apostle who wrote a supplemental 
 Gospel to supply all the instruction needed by 
 the Church at that time, respecting Jesus and 
 his personal ministrations, with special reference 
 to existing heresies, was spared several years 
 beyond the lives of the other Apostles and Evan- 
 gelists to bestow upon the Church a written 
 record, that there might be no doubt of the 
 things to come, which the spirit of Christ had 
 revealed, and that nothing might be taken from 
 this revelation of the will of God, or added to it. 
 
 Yet, we may observe that even in the Apoca- 
 lypse, written when the Church was pei-plexed 
 by diversities of opinion on fundamental points, 
 there is no reference to a living infalhble teacher ; 
 and though the Church was distracted by here- 
 
LECTURE II. G5 
 
 sies and sects, there is no mention of a visible 
 centre of union. 
 
 Thus have we seen that before the knowledge 
 of writing was communicated to man, precautions 
 were taken by God, through the longevity granted 
 to the Patriarchs, to secure the oral revelation 
 from the danger to which it was then exposed; 
 and that afterwards, when once the record of 
 God's will was committed to writing, the supre- 
 macy of the record was maintained, and no con- 
 current authority recognized by which its sense 
 could be determined, and what men might con- 
 ceive to be its omissions supplied. The fact is 
 that the omissions of Scripture, its silence upon 
 some points which man is most curious to know, 
 are not among its least instructive peculiarities ; 
 and as when '^ the Lord speaks " the " whole 
 earth should keep silence before him," so also 
 when the Lord does not speak, man must not 
 presume to conjecture respecting things unseen : 
 for we can know nothing of God beyond what he 
 is pleased to reveal to us of himself. " The things 
 of God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God.**"" 
 Humility is the gate of wisdom. 
 
 But if Holy Scripture be, as I have endeavoured 
 to prove, the one supreme rule of faith and 
 practice, permit me, in applying this subject, to 
 
 "" 1 Cor. ii. 3, 11. 
 
 F 
 
66 LECTURE II. 
 
 lay on you, my brethren in the service of our 
 common Lord, the recipients and stewards of 
 the revelation of his will, the solemn charge 
 which I would take to myself, that ye handle not 
 the word of God deceitfully, either by endeavour- 
 ing to bend it to your own notions, or by partially 
 communicating what has been unreservedly com- 
 mitted to your keeping. We must honestly bring 
 all our specvdations to this touchstone to see 
 whether they be gold or no, and should cast 
 away the dross from us. If this be indeed the 
 very book of God, how shall man dare to torture 
 its meaning to his own sense, or, dealing with it 
 as the word of man, endeavour by conjectural 
 criticisms to construct from it narratives and 
 doctrines other than the simple words convey ? 
 If this be also the message of our Heavenly 
 Father to the imiversal family of his children on 
 earth, how shall man, in his presumptuous igno- 
 rance, venture to say what part of that message 
 niciy be communicated, and to whom, and what 
 part should be kept back and reserved for the 
 special instruction of other men, and other times ? 
 It is the manna which the Lord has caused to 
 rain down from heaven round about our taber- 
 nacles in rich abundance, sufficient, but not 
 superfluous. Gather it up and feed upon it 
 yourselves, and hand it on to your children in 
 
LECTURE II. 67 
 
 confiding gratitude, for it is the very bread of 
 life. Treat this blessed book, the record of God's 
 mercy in Christ to perishing sinners, with un- 
 doubting loyalty. Fear not to give it free and large 
 circulation, for it is essential to sound theology, 
 as is the air we breathe to the healthy exercise of 
 our animal functions. Trust God with the effect 
 of his own book on the souls of men. We may 
 say with Augustine nolidt taceri quod voliiit scribi, 
 and although some may wrest the Scriptures to 
 their own destruction, even as their table, and 
 common daily mercies are a snare to many,-this 
 is no reason why we should presume to with- 
 hold them from others, or shrink from referring 
 all our teaching to that one standard of everlasting 
 truth ; the standard, be it remembered, by which 
 all of us shall be judged at the last day. 
 
 f2 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
 JUDE 3. 
 
 Ye should earnestly contend for the faith once 
 delivered to the saints. 
 
 We have seen that while the revealed will of God 
 had not yet been committed to writing, but was 
 preserved in the patriarchal traditions, it pleased 
 God to guard it from corruptions by the longevity 
 granted to the Patriarchs; and that when once 
 Moses had been commissioned to collect and 
 write down the prophecies, histories, and doc- 
 trines which had been thus preserved, and to add 
 to them the communications with which he had 
 himself been favoured, this written volume, the 
 Book of the Law, became the sole depository of 
 truth; the one supreme and exclusive rule of 
 faith. 
 
 We have seen too that when the canon of the 
 Old Testament had been concluded, and our 
 Lord had given to the entire document of the 
 
70 LECTURE III. 
 
 faith^r as received by the Jewish Church, his divine 
 sanction, he not only did not recognize, but in 
 the strongest terms condemned and rejected the 
 entire body of doctrinal traditions which that 
 Church had received, though he at the same time 
 confirmed its confessedly human ecclesiastical 
 ordinances. 
 
 It has been shewn also that although the 
 Evangelists did not profess to relate all that Jesus 
 did or taught, yet that their narratives were re- 
 garded as so perfect that we have only a single 
 sentence of our Lord's teaching added in the 
 whole course of the apostohcal waitings. 
 
 It has further appeared that these apostolical 
 writings appeal to the existing Scriptures as their 
 document, and make no reference to any concur- 
 rent infallible authority as then existing, or as 
 about to be raised up in the Church, and that 
 the last of these writings concludes with a solemn 
 anathema against any one who should add to the 
 words of that book, or deduct any thing from 
 them. 
 
 So far then the authority of Scripture is su- 
 preme ; and indeed the supremacy of Scripture is 
 so essential to its inspiration, that the strongest 
 advocates for the concurrent or at least subsidiary 
 authority of Tradition have hardly ventured to 
 deny it in so many words, though their theory 
 
LECTURE III. 71 
 
 does practically make this acknowledged supre- 
 macy of none effect. 
 
 This theory is, that Scriptm'e being a dead 
 letter miless the sense be added, when once the 
 inspired interpreters of Scriptm-e were withdrawn, 
 it was necessary to look elsewhere for some 
 authority to fix the sense. The necessity thus 
 assumed, which in fact discredits the promised 
 aid of God's Holy Spirit to every devout and 
 humble enquirer, has led to most of the erro- 
 neous ideas which have been held on this subject. 
 
 It has led, for instance, some persons to believe 
 in an oral teaching of the Apostles faithfully 
 transferred from one christian teacher to another; 
 but they have not yet been able to give us any 
 summary of that teaching. Others have held the 
 practical infallibility of the universal Church, but 
 have not been so clear respecting the test of 
 universahty, nor the seat of infallibility. Others, 
 observing that the decisions of the universal 
 Church, or at least of what they regarded as 
 such, had been various and contradictory, have 
 maintained the theory of development, which 
 takes away all fixedness of doctrines, and requires 
 a constant inspiration, completely superseding 
 the written record we possess of the faith once 
 delivered to the saints. The Church of Rome, 
 assuming this theory, has not hesitated to decree 
 
72 LECTURE III. 
 
 in its private council held at Trent, that not only 
 the apocryphal books, but even the vague, un- 
 written, undeveloped traditions current in its 
 communion, are to be received with precisely the 
 same dutiful reverence as the written word of 
 God. We shall have occasion hereafter to discuss 
 these propositions more particularly, but having 
 first consulted Scripture for its decision as to the 
 paramount authority which it claims to exercise 
 over our feith, our next and immediate question 
 will be, what doctrine did the ancient Fathers of 
 the Church gather from Scripture on this sub- 
 ject? Did they claim for themselves, or recog- 
 nize as existing anywhere in the Church, an 
 unwritten word of God, or an infallible judge in 
 matters of faith, and if not what directions did 
 they give to the enquirer after truth ? How, in 
 short, did the Fathers of the Church propose to 
 establish truth, and to refute error? 
 
 If the Church has always believed in the exist- 
 ence of an unwritten word of God, a faithful 
 tradition of apostolical teaching, over and above 
 the Scriptures, we shall, doubtless, find it most 
 clear and abundant in the inmiediate followers of 
 the Apostles, and most distinctly enunciated in 
 the creeds and councils of the early Church. 
 
 If, moreover, the apostolical Fathers, and the 
 creeds and councils of the early Church, become 
 
LECTURE III. 73 
 
 thus divine documents supplying the defects of 
 Scripture, and fixing its sense, we shall find them 
 appealed to by all subsequent writers as at once 
 decisive of every controversy that could arise in 
 the Church, and determining every doubtful 
 question among its members. 
 
 Let us then enquire how far this is the case; 
 beginning with the apostolical Fathers ; for if they 
 do not recognize and appeal to an authoritative 
 Tradition, the first link in the chain is wanting. 
 
 This consideration makes their writinors of 
 
 o 
 
 extreme importance to the whole question in 
 which we are engaged; and the conviction of its 
 importance has led to the fictitious homilies, 
 epistles, constitutions, recognitions, and canons, 
 which have been palmed upon the Church in 
 their name ; and to the corruption and interpo- 
 lation of their authentic remains to such an 
 extent as to throw a degree of doubt and discredit 
 on what we have on the whole reason to believe 
 to be genuine. 
 
 Nor is it only that the remains of the apostoli- 
 cal Fathers are few and scanty, but those we 
 have were for the most part written under cir- 
 cumstances which did not admit of the declaration 
 of their opinions on many of the points which 
 have since agitated the Church. These reverend 
 men seem to occupy the position of the leaders 
 
74 LECTURE III. 
 
 of a small band in the face of a superior force. 
 Their call is to steadiness and subordination : 
 that each should keep his rank, and stand to his 
 post. Such circumstances will account for the 
 strong expressions they use respecting the im- 
 portance of subordination and discipline, but 
 they are not suited to general exhortations how- 
 ever useful at other times, and still less to abstract 
 speculations however sound. Therefore we look 
 in vain for answers to many theological questions 
 ofthe greatest interest in the Apostolical Epistles 
 which were written by men who, to use the lan- 
 guage of Eusebius with regard to Clement, 
 ^'as they had seen the blessed Apostles, and 
 had been connected with them, might be said 
 to have the doctrine of the Apostles sound- 
 ing in their ears, and what they delivered be- 
 fore their eyes," and who had witnessed the 
 sufferings even to death of some from among 
 the noble army of martyrs, and were an- 
 ticipating, almost with impatience, the hour 
 when the same crown of glory might fall upon 
 their own heads, or on those of the flock they 
 were appointed to feed. We want to know, for 
 instance, how the infant Church walked alone 
 when not only its Lord left it, as far as his bodily 
 presence was concerned, but when his twelve 
 
LECTURE III. 75 
 
 chosen witnesses had also, one after another, 
 been removed; and we learn indeed that the 
 Church was not comfortless, but was strength- 
 ened to do and to suffer, though we do not gain 
 very full information respecting its discipline or 
 doctrine, at least until a somewhat advanced 
 period in the second century. 
 
 The testimony of the Apostolical Fathers is, 
 unquestionably, most interesting and valuable as 
 far as it goes ; their very silence on some points 
 recently agitated is full of instruction ; but its 
 value is chiefly of a negative kind : for they es- 
 tablish little, but disprove a good deal. Even on 
 some of the cardinal doctrines of the faith the 
 testimony of the earliest, and in some respects 
 the most eminent among them is so far from 
 being distinct that Photius questioned the ortho- 
 doxy of Clement of Rome on the doctrine of 
 the Trinity; though knowing as we do how 
 firmly the doctrine was held by the Church at 
 Rome in his day, the absence of a dogmatic 
 assertion on the subject tends rather to shew that 
 this epistle was written before the Churches of 
 Rome or Corinth had been distracted by formal 
 controversy on this vital point. So with regard 
 to the Supreme authority of Scripture, we have 
 not direct assertions of its exclusive claim to be 
 
76 LECTURE III. 
 
 the teacher of Truth, but what we gather from 
 Clement's epistle to the Corinthians is that the 
 Bible, as we now have it, was practically appealed 
 to by all parties as the one authoritative teacher 
 of the faith, and guide of conduct ; and we meet 
 with no rival or concurrent source of divine 
 knowledge." Clement wrote, too, be it remem- 
 bered, not simply in his own name, but in that 
 of the Church at Rome to "the elect and sanc- 
 tified Church of God at Corinth ;" ° and he wrote 
 on two points, one of discipline, the other of 
 doctrine, on either of which a living authority, 
 or an universally received oral tradition, would 
 have given irresistible force to his arguments, and 
 weight to his exhortations. But I need hardly 
 remind you that not only does Clement Bishop 
 of Rome not claim, either for himself, or his 
 Church, any authority over the sister Church at 
 Corinth, but even the author of the pseudo-Cle- 
 mentine epistle, written probably a century later, 
 recognises Jerusalem as the metropolis of Chris- 
 tendom, and her Bishop as having precedence 
 over all Christian pastors. I am quite aware 
 
 " [Compare his frequent yiypairrai yap, and especially i. cap. 45, 
 ipiKoveiKoi f(TT(, a.Se\(po\, KOi ^TjAoira) Trtpl fx^ avriKovroiv ets crwTrjpiav. 
 ^EyKviTTiTe (IS ras ypa<\)a.s, ras a\ri6u? I>7)(rei5 irvivfjLaTOS rod aylov. See 
 also cap. 53 — Ed.] 
 
 ° Inscription of the first Epistle. 
 
LECTURE III. 77 
 
 that in this argument it is not enough to shew 
 that the primitive Fathers quoted Scripture as of 
 divine authority, for that even Romanists allow, 
 but we must shew further positively that they 
 treat the Bible as the only divine teacher, and, 
 negatively, that they do not refer to any other 
 teacher as explaining infallibly the sense of Scrip- 
 ture, or speaking with divine authority where 
 Scripture is silent. 
 
 Bearing this in mind, observe how Clement 
 argues when he would suppress the ecclesias- 
 tical sedition at Corinth. There Presbyters (for 
 nothing is said of Bishops, at least by that name) 
 who had been appointed by the Apostles, or by 
 those who had received ordination from those so 
 appointed, with the consent of the whole Church, 
 and who had for many years exercised their mi- 
 nistry with fidelity and zeal, had been wantonly 
 ejected by the people, who were themselves not 
 only insubordinate, but also unsound in the faith. 
 How natural would it have been for him in such 
 a case to have alleged an apostolical tradition to 
 prove that the congregation had usurped an 
 authority which did not belong to it, and what a 
 summary way would this have been of dealing 
 with the whole case. The entire absence then 
 of all such reasoning is direct evidence that Cle- 
 ment who had lived with the Apostles, and their 
 
78 LECTURE III. 
 
 contemporaries, was not possessed of any such 
 tradition beyond the written gospels and epistles. 
 Therefore we find him appealing to the Scripture 
 constantly, fully, and exclusively. He goes over 
 both the Old Testament and the New for argu- 
 ments and examples, so that a very considerable 
 portion of his Epistle consists of quotations ft'om 
 Scripture, some of which may be thought not 
 very pertinent, but which he treats as leaves from 
 the oracles of God, and as the very voice of God 
 himself. His plea never is, such is the teaching 
 of the Church to which you must submit, and 
 such the authority of its decrees pronounced by 
 me ; nor does he refer to traditions received from 
 Peter or Paul, but his constant argument is 
 "Thus it is written." The only exception to 
 this is when he reminds them of the injurious 
 effects of their sedition on the Church, and the 
 disgrace and scandal which it had occasioned 
 among those who were without." Then he says 
 " Seeing that those things are manifest to us (re- 
 ferring to quotations from Scripture) and having 
 looked into (e^/ce/tu^ore?) the depths of divine 
 kno'wledge, we ought to do all things which the 
 Lord has commanded in order, and at the ap- 
 pointed time." Here he not only speaks of the 
 
 P Cap. 40. 
 
LECTURE III. 79 
 
 Scripture as the depths of the divine knozdedge, 
 anticipating that esoteric 7vw<ri9 to which Clement 
 of Alexandria gave too great a sanction, and 
 which developed into the heretical gnosticism 
 of the next age, but he uses here, as in many 
 other parallel passages, an expression (e^/ce/cy^oTe?) 
 which Polycarp'' also dehghts to use in the same 
 sense ; strikingly indicative of the intense earnest- 
 ness with which those who came early to the 
 sepulchre looked into the place where their Lord 
 had lain ; and with which to adopt the allusion 
 of St. Peter"" the angels figured by the Cherubim 
 over the ark of the Covenant, looked into the 
 mysteries of the New Covenant : or with which 
 a believer is represented by St. James as looking 
 into the written record of the Covenant " the 
 perfect law of liberty." * And Clement having 
 thus referred to Scripture in general, to the 
 preaching of the Apostles testifying of Jesus, and 
 to the teaching of Jesus testifying of the Father, 
 directs the special attention of the Corinthians to 
 their own apostohcal epistle. " Take (he says) 
 the Epistle of the blessed Paul into your hands. 
 What did he first write to you in the beginning 
 of the gospel ? Verily he did by the Spirit ad- 
 monish you concerning himself, and Cephas, and 
 
 1 Cap. iii. speaking of St. Paul's Epistles — 6js &j tav iyKvirrrire. 
 1 Peter i. 12. '^ James i. 25. 
 
80 LECTURE III. 
 
 Apollos, forasmuch as even then ye had begun to 
 fall into parties and factions." ' 
 
 Would not this have been a most fitting occa- 
 sion for one who had known both Paul and 
 Cephas, and probably witnessed the martyrdom 
 of those two great apostles of the Gentiles and 
 the circumcision, to have referred to their per- 
 sonal teaching, and to such oral directions as they 
 might have given when about to put off their 
 fleshly tabernacle ? Here was the very case after- 
 wards put by Tertullian, when he referred heretics 
 who perverted Scripture to the support of their 
 errors to the Apostolical Churches where the 
 authentic epistles of the Apostles were still re- 
 ceived." But does Clement assume that such 
 privileges were any adequate security, even in the 
 second century, against false doctrine, heresy, or 
 schism ; and is not his very silence decisive that 
 he, and the Church in whose name he wrote, not 
 only claimed no authority over other churches, 
 but that they had no oral teaching, no unwritten 
 word, no authoritative interpretation, which they 
 could bring to bear upon the matter before them ? 
 
 The same remark will apply with even additional 
 force to the manner in which Clement handles the 
 doctrinal question of the Resurrection, on which 
 it is sad to think that the Church at Corinth 
 
 ' Cap. xlvii. ' " Tert. De Praeser.c. xxi. 15.209. 
 
LECTURE III. 81 
 
 should, at so early a period, have fallen into se- 
 rious error. It is almost humihating to find Cle- 
 ment proving the Resurrection to Christians, who 
 "for the time ought to have been teachers," not 
 only from Scripture, from the growth of seeds 
 after they have been buried, and the formation of 
 the bud after the leaf has faUen off, from day and 
 night, and from our awaking out of sleep ; but 
 even from the fabulous story of the Phanix/ 
 Yet in the midst of all these arguments, drawn 
 from such various and questionable sources, there 
 is no reference even to a generally received creed, 
 or to any authority whatever external to the 
 Scriptm-es, from which there could be no appeal. 
 When we turn to Ignatius, a man by no means 
 indisposed to exalt the authority of the Church, 
 we find that though his epistles afford us less in- 
 formation on the matter in hand than the single 
 epistle of Clement, this holy man, and constant 
 martyr of Jesus Christ, kindles our love, and ani- 
 mates our zeal, by his devotion to his Lord and 
 Master : and though there are many exaggerated 
 expressions, even after every allowance is made 
 for forgery and interpolation, which make us feel 
 that we are not reading an inspired record, yet we 
 are disposed to make every allowance for an aged 
 Bishop hurried along by the Roman soldiers, 
 
 * Clem, ad Cor. i. 25, seqq.. 
 
 G 
 
82 LECTURE III. 
 
 ** leopards," as he calls them, who never left him 
 day or night, mitil he arrived at the spot where he 
 cheerfully committed his body to the wild beasts 
 set to devour him, and commended his spirit to 
 his God and Saviour. We cannot wonder that 
 one made thus " a spectacle to angels and to men," 
 should have been exposed to the temptation of 
 " thinking of himself more highly than he ought 
 to think," and he warns his Christian friends not 
 to spoil him by their flatteries, nor to disappoint 
 him of his martyr's crown by their solicitations 
 on his behalf. He seems indeed from one pas- 
 sage to have been so far carried away as to believe 
 that special revelations had been made to him as 
 a martyr, which ordinary Christians, as " babes 
 in Christ," were unable to bear*/ but this state of 
 exaltation, w^hich touches upon the notion of 
 an esoteric tradition, only renders the more re- 
 markable his entire deference and submission to 
 the Scriptures, and the absence of all pretension 
 to any tradition received by him from St. John, or 
 any of the primitive Christians. 
 
 The main subject of his exhortation is, as it 
 well might be, to unity, and absolute submission 
 to the Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, " as unto 
 the Lord." Yet on this subject he, like Clement, 
 refers to nothing but Scripture ; and has not a 
 
 '' Ignat. ad Rom. v. seqq. 
 
LECTURE III. 83 
 
 single word about any apostolical tradition which 
 fixed the exact gradation and duties of every 
 officer and member of the Church. When he 
 endeavours to secure the Philadelphians against 
 the danger to which they were exposed from 
 false teachers, who appear to have been of a 
 judaizing character, he speaks of himself as 
 " fleeing to the Gospel as to the flesh of Christ," ^ 
 and exhorts them not to listen to any teachers 
 who did not '' speak concerning Jesus Christ." 
 He calls upon them to return to unity, and the 
 -counsel of their Bishop, that they should do all 
 " according to the instruction of Christ." * And 
 there is a passage of gi'eat obscurity in reply to 
 some who declared that they would not believe 
 the Gospel unless they found it wi-itten in some 
 other ancient monuments,^ (or it may mean, un- 
 less confirmed by the Old Testament,) in which 
 he says, " I answered them, ' It is written ;' and 
 to me Jesus Christ is instead of all ancient mo- 
 numents in the world, together with those unde- 
 filed monuments, his Cross, and Death, and 
 Resurrection, and the faith which is by him ; by 
 which I desire, through your prayers, to be jus- 
 
 » Ignat. ad Pliilad. cap. v. a Cap. viii. 
 
 [b The interpretation depends on the reading. The MS. reading iv 
 
 ro7s apxaiois " in antiquis vaticiniis" is acknowledged hy the Latin 
 
 version, and defended by Jacobson, Credner and others, as well as by 
 
 Hefele in his last edition. Others read apxf'iots "archivis, monumentis." 
 
 ■ Vid. Hef. ad I.e. cd. 3. Ed.] 
 
 r. 9 
 
84 LECTURE III. 
 
 tified." Here, at least, is no reception of the 
 Bible on the authority of tlie Church ; nor any 
 reference to an external tradition to explain its 
 contents ; but a simple appeal to the written 
 word, as the one document in which are the 
 words of eternal life. So again, when he exhorts 
 Polycarp how to deal with those who appeared 
 to be faithful, but who were heterodox teachers, 
 he exhorts him to " stand firm as a warrior who, 
 though wounded, is victorious," patiently waiting 
 upon Christ.*^ Though there is little of a positive 
 nature in this passage, yet his very silence, when 
 treating of schism and heresies, teaches us that 
 Ignatius knew nothing of a rule of faith distinct 
 from the Bible, or even subsidiary to it ; nor of 
 any supreme ecclesiastical authority by which 
 such disputes could be settled, and insubordi- 
 nation restrained. We feel that the advice given 
 in this case is very different from that which 
 would have been given even a century later. 
 
 There is a remarkable agreement between 
 Ignatius and his brother bishop, Polycarp, not 
 only in general sentiment and doctrine, but even 
 in the use of some pecuhar words and phrases, 
 which the latter probably caught from the former. 
 There are the same pleadings for unity, and sub- 
 jection to their " Presbyters and Deacons, as unto 
 God,'"^ and for a gentle deahng with those who 
 
 c Ignat. ad Polyc. cap. iii. ^ Ignat. ad Polyc. cap. v. 
 
LECTURE III. 85 
 
 were in error; but more especially there is a 
 similar exhortation to search (^iyKvirro)'^ the Bible 
 for *' the faith once delivered to the Saints." In 
 this spirit we find Polycarp congratulating the 
 Philippian Christians that " the root of the faith 
 which was preached from ancient times, re- 
 mained firm in them, and was fruitful;"" and 
 then he shews what those ''ancient times" were, 
 and by whom that fruitful root of righteousness 
 had been planted. "These things," he says, 
 '' my brethren, I took not the liberty myself to 
 write unto you concerning righteousness, but you 
 yourselves before encouraged me to it. For 
 neither can I, nor any other such as I am, come 
 up to the wisdom of the blessed Paul, who being 
 himself in person with those who then hved, did 
 with all exactness and sonndness teach the word of 
 truth; and being gone from you, wrote an 
 epistle to you, into which if you look (eyKVTrrtjre'^ 
 ye will be able to edify yourselves in the faith 
 that has been delivered unto you ; which (faith, 
 not the church) is the mother of us all."*^ This 
 surely is not the language of a man who consi- 
 dered the Church as the depository of an un- 
 written tradition, which was the real document 
 and teacher of the faith, which was only to be 
 proved or attested by Scripture ; or that the 
 
 e Polycarp. ad Phil. caj). i. ^ Idem, cap. iii. 
 
86 LECTURE III. 
 
 apostolical epistles were too obscure to be of use 
 to ordinary Christians ; for though he refers con- 
 tinually to the examples of " Paul himself and 
 the rest of the apostles," and to the recent wit- 
 ness borne to the truth by Ignatius, and Zosimus, 
 and Rufus,^ he makes no reference to the oral 
 teaching even of St. Paul, but says, " I trust that 
 ye are well exercised in the Holy Scriptures, and 
 that notliing is hid from you.''^ In this last ex- 
 pression Polycarp reminds us of his master, St. 
 John, who says of the Lord's " little children," 
 to whom he wrote, " Ye have an unction from 
 the Holy One, and know all things."' It is re- 
 markable too that both the Evangelist and his 
 disciple, in these parallel passages, are rebuking 
 those who had caused divisions in the Church, 
 (perhaps Gnostics,) so that his argument is that 
 they who have the Bible in their hands, and the 
 unction of the Holy One in their hearts, know 
 all things necessary to their salvation, for nothing 
 of essential truth will be hid from lowly and 
 teachable spirits, who are well exercised in the 
 Holy Scriptures. 
 
 But we must not pass over the single epistle of 
 
 ( Cap. ix. " Cap. xii. 
 
 ' 1 John ii. 20. See Manning, Rule of Faith, p. 47.— He 
 thinks that "Ye know all things" means that they had received 
 the full oral tradition; see v. 21, 24, 27. 
 
LECTURE III. 87 
 
 Polycarp without referring for additional infor- 
 mation respecting him to the very touching and 
 graphic account of him given by Iren^us, as pre- 
 served by Eusebius ;^ and I feel the more bound to 
 make this reference because the testimony of 
 Irenffius is supposed to be adverse to the views 
 which it is my object to establish. In the passage 
 to which I refer, Iren^us is opposing the peculiar 
 doctrines of Florinus which were so singular and 
 novel, we are told, that not only were they in- 
 consistent with the doctrine of the Church, but 
 even the heretics out of the Church had not at- 
 tempted to assert them. Then he adds ; " These 
 doctrines were never delivered to thee by the 
 Presbyters before us, those which also were the 
 immediate disciples of the apostles. For I saw 
 thee when I was yet a boy in the Lower Asia 
 with Polycarp. I can tell the very place where 
 the blessed Polycarp was accustomed to sit and 
 discourse. And also his entrance, his walks, the 
 complexion of his life, and the form of his body, 
 and his conversation with the people, and his 
 famihar intercourse with John, as he was accus- 
 tomed to tell, as also his famiharity with those 
 who had seen the Lord. How also he used to 
 relate their discourses, and what things he had 
 heard from them concerning the Lord. Also 
 
 k Euseb. H. Eccl. v. 20. 
 
88 LECTURE III. 
 
 concerning his miracles (of Christ), his doctrine, 
 all these were told by Polycarp, in consistency 
 with Holy Scripture, as he had received them 
 from the eye-witnesses of the doctrine of sal- 
 vation." We may regard this interesting pas- 
 sage, and Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians, 
 as mutually illustrating each other; and they 
 combine to teach us that though Polycarp en- 
 joyed singular opportunities for preserving and 
 transmitting the oral teaching of the apostles, 
 yet that not only did he always teach himself in 
 exact *' consistency with the Holy Scriptures," 
 but that all his arguments were drawn from that 
 only source of assured and unmingled truth. 
 Irenseus was therefore with justice persuaded 
 that if Florinus had ventured to announce his 
 novel doctrine, so opposed to " the words of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ," in the presence of Polycarp, 
 that aged saint would have stopped his ears, and 
 escaped from the defiling contact of error, in the 
 same spirit which is said to have hurried St. John 
 from the bath which was polluted by the presence 
 of Cerinthus, and which made Polycarp himself 
 not only refuse to return the salutation of 
 Marcion in the streets of Rome, but denounce 
 him as the " first born of Satan." ' Polycarp was 
 prepared to contend earnestly for the faith once 
 
 ^ Idem, iv. 14. 
 
LECTURE III. 89 
 
 delivered to Mm. He was determined to con- 
 tinue in the things which he had learned, and 
 been assured of, knowing of whom he had learned 
 them,"' even from him who was the beloved dis- 
 ciple of the Lord, who not only had witnessed 
 all that Jesus did and taught, but who had sub- 
 sequently been led into all truth by the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 The question is not whether St. John taught 
 Polycarp and Ignatius by word of mouth, or by 
 a written record, but whether the verbal teaching 
 and the written record were co-extensive, and for 
 all practical purposes identical. This question 
 is answered by our finding nothing of Christian 
 teaching in the writings of the Apostolical 
 Fathers which we do not find in the New Tes- 
 tament. We see there no pretensions to any 
 private knowledge ; but on the contrary express 
 disclaimers of any independent authority ; while, 
 as in the passage just referred to from Irenaeus, 
 we learn that the teaching of one at least of those 
 holy men exactly coincided with the New Tes- 
 tament. It is important also to observe that the 
 very fact of these early bishops having addressed 
 epistles to Apostolical Churches, without the 
 slightest intimation that those Churches were in 
 possession of a peculiar Christian knowledge, is 
 
 ■" 2 Tim. iii. 14. 
 
90 LECTURE III. 
 
 in itself an argument against the theory that the 
 apostohcal tradition resided specially in the 
 churches which had an apostle for their founder. 
 And this argument is still further confirmed by 
 our finding that Clement writing to the Co- 
 rinthians, and Polycarp to the Philadelphians, do 
 not refer to their traditionary knowledge of St. 
 Paul's doctrine — how he "taught in all churches" 
 — but to their possession of his original letters ; 
 and that they argue upon all points of faith and 
 practice, just as we should in the present day, 
 referring men to the plain teaching of God's 
 Spirit in the Scripture of Truth. 
 
 No doubt the Christians of the first age had a 
 body of Christian truth which they had collected 
 from the Scriptures, and which they regarded as 
 the catholic faith, though the term was not yet 
 adopted, for that was not an age of terminology 
 and system, and the agreement in this body of 
 truth of different Churches, planted at different 
 times and places, and by different Apostles, 
 or other christian teachers, was then, and is 
 now, a powerful confirmation of the identity of 
 the New Testament with the teaching of our 
 Lord, and of his Spirit ; and also that the churches 
 thus agreeing had rightly received the teaching 
 of their original founders, and did correctly inter- 
 pret the Gospels and Epistles which were circu- 
 
LECTURE III. 91 
 
 kted among them. And these Gospels and 
 Epistles, be it remembered, had been committed 
 to writing by those inspired men who first taught 
 orally in order that the Church might be able 
 to have always in its remembrance" the com- 
 mandments of the Apostles of its Lord and 
 Saviour/ and that all might know the certainty 
 of the things in which they had been instructed." 
 
 As therefore we first teach children orally that 
 they may be the better prepared for self educa- 
 tion, and the more accurate investigation of truth 
 in books, or in the phenomena of mind or matter; 
 and as in religious teaching we discipline those 
 by catechetical instruction into whose hands we 
 are about to put the hvely oracles of God's re- 
 vealed will, so was the early Church taught by 
 the Apostles, and then left to mark, learn, and 
 inwardly digest the holy Scriptures, that it might 
 be thus carried on to perfection, and be thoroughly 
 furnished unto every good word and work. 
 
 We learn, then, from our review of the Fathers 
 of the Apostolic age, whose writings have come 
 down to us, that they were faithful keepers and 
 witnesses of holy writ ; that though they had no 
 formal creeds or confessions among them, and 
 did not confess to have any private traditions 
 received from the Apostles beyond the written 
 
 '^ 2 Pet. i. 15. o 2 Pet. iii. 2. " Luke i. 4. 
 
92 LECTURE III. 
 
 one which we ourselves possess, and assumed no 
 pecuhar claim for themselves or their Clunxhes, 
 to be the unerring interpreters of the word 
 of God, yet that there was a remarkable harmony 
 of behef among them, whereby truth within the 
 Church, and error without it, were at once tested 
 and distinguished. This harmony of belief is the 
 more remarkable a witness to that holy writ on 
 which it was founded, and to which it constantly 
 referred, because the Churches at that blessed 
 period rejoiced in Christian liberty. No anti- 
 christian Prelate had yet dared to call himself the 
 Bishop of Bishops, and the living representative 
 of Christ's sovereignty, nor had any Church pre- 
 sumed to usurp the title of the Mother and 
 Mistress of all other Churches. They walked in 
 Christian sisterhood in humility and love towards 
 each other, and in profound reverence and sub- 
 mission to their common Head. It is true that 
 there were heresies and schisms affecting the 
 most vital points of Christian doctrine, and hardly 
 inferior in number to those of our own distracted 
 period, but they were the means by which the 
 Church was purified, and the ideas and language 
 of Christians corrected, for as each separatist 
 went out from the fellowship in which he had no 
 proper part, he taught the faithful brethren the 
 preciousness of the faith which he had renounced. 
 
LECTURE III. 93 
 
 and made them cling the closer together, in the 
 face of contempt and persecution, in defence of 
 the miity which had been disturbed. We may 
 indeed discover in the state of the Church of the 
 first century some things which we could wish 
 otherwise, for the germs of corruption both in 
 doctrine and discipline manifested themselves at 
 a very early period ; and assuredly we learn from 
 the history of the primitive Church that we must 
 never expect that divisions will cease in the 
 Church, when they were so abundant, and on 
 such momentous points, in the age of the Apostles, 
 and of their immediate successors. Still there 
 was hope of union so long as uniformity was not 
 deemed essential to its existence ; and of concord, 
 while all moved round the common centre of 
 their invisible, but ever present Head. 
 
 It now only remains for us who have fallen 
 on times less happy in this respect, to use our best 
 endeavours to combine the discordant members 
 of Christ's holy catholic Church by a recurrence 
 to those principles of scriptural truth which 
 guided the first age, and by the firm but meek 
 rejection of all human traditions, and the claim 
 of any man, or any body of men, to be the in- 
 fallible interpreters of Scripture, and the supreme 
 rulers of Christendom ; for such usurpation, when 
 a part assumes to be the whole, is of the very 
 
94 LECTURE HI. 
 
 essence of schism. Our great argument is that 
 the faith has been dehvered to the saints once 
 for all. Our comfort is that what God has been 
 pleased to communicate he will enable every 
 devout and humble enquirer who uses the means 
 provided by God, to understand, so far at least 
 as is essential to the salvation of his soul, w^hich 
 is the object proposed in the preaching of the 
 Gospel. Our duty is therefore to contend 
 earnestly for what we are assured is the faith thus 
 delivered to the household of faith; being per- 
 suaded that man has nothing which he can add 
 to it, and that it contains the record of eternal 
 life for all those by whom it is cordially embraced, 
 and stedfastly maintained. 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
 ON THE 
 
 TESTIMONY OF THE FATHERS GENERALLY.* 
 
 We have endeavoured to prove that the Aposto- 
 lical Fathers, and the Churches over which they 
 presided, or to which they addressed the Epistles 
 which have come down to us, knew nothing of 
 Tradition in the comparatively recent sense of 
 an unwritten word of God, of like authority with 
 Scripture, and of greater practical value as ex- 
 plaining its sense. If this point may be regarded 
 as estabhshed, the first hnk is wanting in the 
 chain of the traditionary system, for we can hardly 
 suppose that those writers who so freely quoted 
 the written documents of the Evangelists and 
 Apostles, would not have referred to their private 
 and supplemental oral communications, had any 
 such existed. 
 
 Let us, however, proceed to take a wider view 
 
 * The text to this Sermon is wanting in the author's MS. 
 
96 LECTURE IV. 
 
 of the general history of tlie Church, and enquire 
 whether, in point of fact, the doctrine and disci- 
 phne of the Church were constructed in the first 
 instance, and defended afterwards from the as- 
 sauhs of heretics, by a reference to tradition and 
 authority, or by an appeal to the supreme, 
 infallible, and independent authority of Scripture. 
 
 It will, of course, be impossible, within the 
 limits of a single discourse, to enter with any 
 minuteness of detail into such a subject, but it 
 will be my object to bring before you a few 
 prominent points on which this whole question 
 turns, and by which a judgment may be formed 
 of its general bearing. These shall be — 
 
 1st. The Creeds. 
 
 2nd. The Controversies. 
 
 3rd. The Councils of the Church. 
 
 1. — The Creeds. If there is anywhere an 
 Apostolical Tradition of concurrent authority 
 with Scripture it must be in the Creeds, for these 
 are the only early documents in which the faith 
 of the Church, at least during the ante-nicene 
 period, was contained, and put forth with any- 
 thing which bore even the semblance of authority. 
 
 There are, however, one or two circumstances 
 connected with the Creeds which will at once 
 dispose of their claim to be received as the 
 depositories of an oral tradition of the Apostles. 
 
LECTURE IV. 97 
 
 We have already seen that the writings of the 
 immediate successors of the Apostles which have 
 come down to us, not only do not contain any 
 Creeds, but that they do not refer to any autho- 
 rized summaries of the faith as existing in the 
 Church. This fact alone is sufficient to overturn 
 the idle legend of Ruffinus,'' that what we call the 
 Apostles' Creed was the joint composition of the 
 Twelve, each of whom contributed an article. It 
 may, however, be further shewn, 
 
 a. In the first place, fi'om the construction of 
 the early Creeds which we meet with in subse- 
 quent writers, and from their variety, that they 
 could not have been derived from the personal 
 teaching of the Apostles, and that they did not 
 in fact lay claim to such an origin. 
 
 With regard to the construction of the early 
 Creeds it may be sufficient to refer you to those 
 which are contained in the controversial treatises 
 of Irenaeus and Epiphanius, the simple perusal 
 of which will convince any one who is capable of 
 forming a judgment in such matters, and is willing 
 to admit conviction, that they are simple sum- 
 maries of the contents of the New Testament. 
 After a confession of faith in the Trinity, they 
 state the main facts of the Gospel history ; as the 
 incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection and ascen- 
 
 '^ Expos, in Symb. jj 2. 
 
 H 
 
98 LECTURE IV. 
 
 sion of our Lord, and then branch out into diffuse 
 quotations from Scripture respecting Christian 
 doctrines. They do not profess to guide the 
 faith of the Church, but simply assert what it is, 
 and adopting the very words of Scripture, dis- 
 tinctly manifest the source from which they were 
 derived. 
 
 And even were it otherwise, the variety of the 
 Creeds is of itself fatal to their pretension to be 
 received as an apostohcal document. The very 
 expression tJie Creed involves a fallacy, for it is 
 well known that there were almost as many 
 Creeds as Churches, in the first five centuries," 
 hardly any two of which exactly agreed with each 
 other, or with the one which the western Churches 
 finally adopted. Nor is this merely a difference 
 of expression which might be consistent with a si- 
 milar tradition, but articles are contained in some 
 which are omitted in this, as for instance that of 
 the descent into hell, which clearly implies a va- 
 rious interpretation of a well known passage in 
 St. Peter." In addition to which we may observe 
 that another article, that, namely, respecting the 
 " holy Catholic Church," is supposed to have been 
 
 * One hundred and seven are enumerated : — vid. Walchius's 
 Biblioth. Symbolica. LA very full list of authorities on the sub- 
 ject of the Apostles' Creed is given by Hagenbach, Hist, of Doc- 
 trines, i. 89. Engl. Trans. — Ed.] 
 
 • 1 Pet. iii. 10. 
 
LECTURE IV. 99 
 
 added by Augustine : but he who added an article, 
 and they who received it, could not have regarded 
 the Creed as of apostolical origin, or divine 
 authority: and in point of fact Augustine ex- 
 pressly declares that the Creed was a summary 
 of Scripture, and was not derived from an inde- 
 pendent oral Tradition." 
 
 h. In the next place, we may observe, that 
 even if the Creed could be traced to the Apostles, 
 it would not enlarge the bounds of traditionary 
 teaching, for it contains no doctrines which we 
 do not find on the very surface of Scripture. It 
 does not fix the sense of any passage of Scripture, 
 except it be in the case of the clause respect- 
 ing the descent into hell already referred to, 
 which is confessedly the addition of a later age ; 
 nor does it determine any of the great contro- 
 versies which have from time to time agitated the 
 Church. The very existence of the Nicene and 
 Athanasian Creeds is decisive on this point, and 
 their reception by the Church tends also to 
 prove that none of the Creeds previously received 
 were regarded as summaries of the unwritten 
 word of God derived by Tradition from the 
 Apostles. 
 
 c. It may be urged, and has in fact been urged, 
 that -although the Creed may be traced to Scrip- 
 
 * Aug. de Symb. Ad Catecli. c. 1. 
 
 h2 
 
100 LECTURE IV. 
 
 ture, and contains nothing which we do not find 
 in Scripture, yet that it is a divinely appointed 
 complement to the written word, which is 
 rendered necessary by the imperfection of human 
 reason. It is granted that if individual Christians 
 could certainly understand all Scripture, or if 
 Churches, that is collective Christians, could in- 
 fallibly explain the Bible, nothing now would be 
 wanting, because the " Law of the Lord is per- 
 fect," but [it is urged] that it cannot "make wise 
 the simple" unless an interpreter is added, and 
 that therefore the Holy Ghost inspired the Creed 
 that the interpretation might not be wanting. 
 
 In this view of the subject there are several 
 assumptions: first, the necessity of an infallible 
 interpreter, of which we shall have more to say 
 hereafter : secondly, the fact that the Creed really 
 does interpret the Bible, on which any plain man 
 may form his own opinion by referring to the 
 notorious circumstance that not only the Churches 
 of England, and of Rome, and of Greece, receive 
 it, but that almost every protestant sect would 
 acknowledge it to be a faithful summary of Chris- 
 tian doctrines : and, thirdly, that either the Creed 
 claims for itself, or that the early Church claimed 
 for it, a divine, and tlierefore infallible authority; 
 on which point we need only refer to the com- 
 
LECTURE IV. 101 
 
 merits on the Creed up to that of Salvian in the 
 5th century. 
 
 2. — Thus then we see that the Creeds, which 
 contain the positive assertion of the Christian 
 faith, were clearly derived from Scripture and not 
 fi'om tradition. Let us, secondly, proceed to en- 
 quire how the faith was maintained, negatively, 
 in the controversies which were carried on with 
 the heretics by whom the peace of the Church 
 was disturbed, and its purity endangered. 
 
 Li instituting this enquiry, I propose to refer, 
 and that very briefly, to those of the Fathers 
 who have written upon the heresies of their time, 
 and are generally quoted by Romanists, and 
 others, in defence of the authority of tradition, 
 and shall aim at illustrating their theoretical 
 opinions, practically, by the manner in which 
 they conducted the controversies in which they 
 were respectively engaged. 
 
 The writers to whom I refer are Irenaeus, Ter- 
 tullian, Epiphanius, Augustine, and Vincentius 
 Lirinensis, to whom some others might be added ; 
 but these will be sufficient for our purpose. 
 
 It is perfectly true, then, that these writers 
 speak as follows : — 
 
 I. Irenaeus in his treatise against heresies in 
 general, but especially against the gnostic here- 
 sies of his day, says, we must oppose to their 
 
102 LECTURE IV. 
 
 secret and private tradition the public tradition 
 and doctrine of the Universal Church." This 
 Church, he proceeds to say, is the gate of life. 
 All others are thieves and robbers whom we 
 must shun, but love what belongs to the tradition, 
 and embrace the tradition of truth. If there is 
 a dispute on any small matter, must we not have 
 recourse to the most ancient Churches, in which 
 the Apostles ministered (conversati sunt) and 
 learn the truth from them ? Even if the Apostles 
 had not left us the Scriptures (or any wi'itings) 
 ought we not to follow the tradition which they 
 dehvered to those to vdiom they committed the 
 Churches ? This course of proceeding is recom- 
 mended to us l)y barbarous nations, (who are in 
 the position in which the Church would have 
 been if it had not possessed the Scriptures,) for 
 they believe in Christ without the aid of ink and 
 paper, having the righteousness of God written 
 in their hearts by the Spirit, and so keeping the 
 ancient tradition, they believe in one God the 
 maker of heaven and earth, and of all things 
 therein, by Jesus Christ the Son of God. Thus 
 through that micient tradition of the Apostles, 
 they do not admit into their minds a thought of 
 any of the monstrous doctrines of the heretics.'' 
 
 " Iren. adv. liter, iii, 2, 8. 
 
 * lb. iii. 4 ; Goode's Divine Rule, ii. 204 ; Hagenbach. i. § 34, 
 
LECTURE IV. 103 
 
 On tliese passages we might observe, in the 
 first place, that the whole is an argument a 
 fortiori. He is shewing what we might do if we 
 had not Scripture ; and he expressly tells us that 
 he introduces this argument of tradition because 
 the heretics must be resisted not only by Scrip- 
 ture, but in every way, and by all means. But 
 the most important point to observe is that his 
 tradition relates to the actual teaching of the 
 Apostles ; and that he assumes its perfect identity 
 with the written record which we actually possess 
 of that teaching. He tells us that what the Apos- 
 tles preached, that they afterwards, by the will 
 of God, delivered to us in the Scriptures, to be 
 the foundation and pillar of our faith. ^ There is 
 in all that he says no notion of anything supple- 
 mental to the apostoHcal gospels and epistles, 
 still less modifying or correcting them, for this 
 was the very error of the Gnostics against which 
 he was contending. Both the Church and the 
 heretics had the Scriptures which were received 
 by all as authentic, but the heretics boasted that 
 they had a private esoteric doctrine in addition, 
 while the Church asserted that it had an univer- 
 sally received doctrine which strictly coincided 
 with the simple exoteric teaching of the Apostles 
 as contained in the Scriptures. Take away then, 
 
 '' Iren. adv. lifer, iii. ] ; Goodc, ii. 287. 
 
104 LECTURE IV. 
 
 for the sake of argument, the Scriptures which 
 are the part common to both, and the compa- 
 rison will lie between the secret and particular 
 tradition of the heretics, and the public and 
 general tradition of the Church, This is, I be- 
 lieve, a simple explanation of the meaning of Ire- 
 naeus ; and that it is so is further confirmed by 
 the fact that his main argument with these here- 
 tics, his body of proof, so to speak, is all along 
 derived from the Scriptures both of the Old Tes- 
 tament and the New, and none of the heretics 
 even pretended to have a tradition which reached 
 back into the Old Testament : but it is important 
 always to bear in mind that whatever authority 
 we give to tradition in one dispensation will also 
 be apphcable to the other. 
 
 It may, however, be said that this defence of 
 the simple minded Irenseus will not apply to the 
 subtle and vehement Tertullian, who has a trea- 
 tise written expressly to shew that heretics are to 
 be met by the argument of prescription. 
 
 Without quoting, at length, from the well- 
 known treatise, '^ we may acknowledge the argu- 
 ment of Tertullian to be that, the Scriptures are 
 the possession of the Church ; and that when 
 heretics leave the Church, they do as it were 
 leave the Bible behind them, and have no right 
 to put their sense upon a book which is not 
 
 ^ Dc Pncscriptione adv. HiPvet . 
 
LECTURE IV. 105 
 
 theirs, and for the interpretation of which they 
 have no legitimate key. The Church can say, 
 we received these writings, and doctrines which 
 are coincident with their plain teaching (for he 
 no where speaks of a secret and additional doc- 
 trine) from those who went before us, and they 
 in continuous succession from the Apostles. 
 Can you shew any tradition of doctrine which 
 will terminate in the same point, and if we trace 
 back your peculiar doctiines shall we not find 
 that they were originally derived, through Marcian, 
 &c., from Simon Magus ? There may be diffi- 
 culty in discussing particular texts of Scripture, 
 and the various readings which the corrupt text 
 of the heretics contains, and the issue of such a 
 discussion will always be more or less uncertain, 
 but while we have this compendious argument 
 (as Tertullian expressly calls it)^ of Prasscription, 
 we need look no further, and should be very un- 
 wise to relinquish the vantage ground we occupy 
 by descending to the common level of Scriptural 
 discussion. 
 
 I believe this to be a fair statement of the ar- 
 gument of Tertullian, and candidly confess that 
 I do not think that it can be altogether defended 
 on the principles of the Church of England. We 
 must, however, bear in mind the time and cir- 
 
 ' Adv. Hermof^. c. i. p. 23-3. 
 
106 LECTURE IV. 
 
 cumstances in which the treatise in question was 
 written. An argument derived from the tradition 
 of doctrine which was vahd, and perhaps irre- 
 sistible, in the 2nd century, will have lost all its 
 cogency in the 19th : and reasoning which was 
 applicable to men who professed to have a mys- 
 tical doctrine transmitted through private hands, 
 and distinct from the teaching of the apostles, 
 most of whom were assumed to be imperfectly 
 instructed in the mystery of godhness, will hardly 
 be applicable to the controversies among Chris- 
 tians of the present day, which turn rather on 
 the meaning of Scripture than on the hands 
 through which it has been transmitted. At the 
 same time we must confess that if any one body 
 of Christians can prove itself to be the Church, as 
 the Church of Rome claims to do, they may 
 consistently employ the argument of Tertullian 
 for what it is worth. But the real test of its 
 value is to be ascertained by the actual conduct 
 of Tertullian : and when we find him, notwith- 
 standing this compendious formula of defence 
 against heretics, arguing with them, as is noto- 
 riously the case throughout his works, from 
 Scripture, so nearly to the exclusion of every 
 other plea, that only two passing allusions to the 
 argument from tradition can be discovered in the 
 
LECTURE IV. 107 
 
 whole of his voluminous writings/ and these ca- 
 pable of an easy explanation, we cannot assign 
 much weight to the ingenious, but rhetorical ar- 
 gument of a single treatise. When, however, we 
 look beyond his writings to his life, and remember 
 that this rejector of those without the pale of the 
 Church from the free use of Scripture in contro- 
 versy, excluded himself from that pale, and all 
 the privileges connected with it, by embracing 
 Montanism ; and from his position without the 
 Church denounced those within as "carnal, having 
 not the spirit," however we may admire the ori- 
 ginal genius and subtle eloquence of Tertullian, 
 we cannot bow to his authority, and may rather 
 quote his example to prove the inefficacy of the 
 argument from prescription and tradition. 
 
 Another Father who has written expressly on 
 heresies, and the manner in which they are to 
 be refuted, is E-piphanius, and as he flourished 
 late in the 4th century, when the Church system 
 had acquired considerable consistency, his testi- 
 mony is of some weight, if it can be shewn, as I 
 believe it can, that notwithstanding the occa- 
 sional employment of the argument from tra- 
 dition against the heretics, he recognized no 
 other source of the faith but Scripture, and ap- 
 peals to its plain meaning for the solution of all 
 
 ' De Corona, cc. 3, 4, and Adv. Marc. i. c. 21 ; iii. c. 1. 
 
108 LECTURE IV. 
 
 difficulties, and the establishment of every doc- 
 trine. 
 
 There is a detached passage in this Father fre- 
 quently quoted by Romanists in what appears to 
 me to be a most dishonest manner : that, namely, 
 in which he says that we must use tradition also, 
 because all things cannot be gathered from Scrip- 
 ture. "Wherefore the holy Apostles delivered 
 some things by writing, and some by tradition : 
 according to what St. Paul says, '' As I dehvered 
 unto you."*' The simple explanation of this 
 passage is that he is talking of ecclesiastical or- 
 dinances, such as celibacy, fasting, and the like, 
 which he says are not laid down in Scripture, 
 but are enjoined on the authority of the Church ; 
 and though he claims for them an apostolical 
 origin, he carefully distinguishes between them 
 and the more sacred mysteries, as he calls them, 
 such as the two sacraments "which are to be 
 observed according as the tradition of the Gospel 
 and the Apostles direct.'"" 
 
 Epiphanius draws as clear a line of distinction 
 as the Church of England herself between what 
 */ the undivided Catholic Church holds respecting 
 the faith," which, he says, "is taken from the 
 divine Scriptures;" and "the laws of the Church 
 
 " Epiph. de Ilicr. Apostol. GI, ^ G. 
 
 *■ Goode ii. 387 ; Adv. Hser. Expos. Fid. Cath. § 22. 
 
LECTURE IV. 109 
 
 which are observed, some by command, and 
 others by a voluntary reception.'"' When he 
 sums up the Christian faith, he says, " This the 
 Church beheves as she has received and been or- 
 dered,"'' that is, from Scripture ; and when he uses 
 the word tradition in reference to matters of 
 faith, he means the doctrine actually transmitted 
 through the prophets, evangelists, and apostles, 
 and not any vague unwritten report of their 
 teaching. 
 
 That this is his meaning may be proved by the 
 manner in which he treats the numerous heresies 
 of which he gives an account. He pleads that 
 the test of sound reason is not the imagining of 
 the heretics, but the plain teaching of Scripture. 
 Having drawn up their errors in array, he de- 
 clares his intention of bringing against each 
 phrase and chapter refutatory arguments from 
 the divine Scripture, and from right reason, and 
 from logical questionings. Proofs from the 
 divine Scripture and pious reasonings are the 
 weapons he professes to wield, and he challenges 
 the submission of all men, with a pious mind and 
 sincere confidence, to that which the Holy Spirit 
 teaches through the holy Scriptures ; and he 
 rejects the notions of the Valentinians as idle 
 
 " Goode ii. 326, 883, 386. 
 
 e Epiph. Adv. Ha;r. c. xviii. p. 1100. 
 
no LECTURE IV. 
 
 fables, and destitute of confirmation, "because the 
 Scriptures nowhere mentioned them, neither the 
 Law of Moses, nor any prophet of those who 
 came after Moses, nor, moreover, the Saviour, 
 nor his evangehsts, nor the apostles." For, he 
 says, if these things were true, the Lord, and the 
 prophets, and the apostles, would have declared 
 them to us plamlij. *" This is his constant lan- 
 guage, and it is quite sufficient to shew what he 
 means when he speaks of the faith of the undi- 
 vided Cathohc Church, what those points are 
 which can alone be deduced from tradition, and 
 that Scripture is the source of truth, and the rule 
 of faith, and that the illumination of God's spirit is 
 the faithful teacher of the truth contained in 
 Holy Writ, of which the Church is only the 
 keeper and witness, so that he says the Church 
 is known by Scripture, not Scripture by the 
 Church, and even miracles do not prove that the 
 Church is true, for they derive all their value 
 from being performed in a true Church ; in con- 
 firmation of which he observes, that after our 
 Lord had risen from the dead, he still referred 
 the disciples to what was written in Moses and 
 the Psalms to prove that he was the Christ."^ 
 
 The general authority of Augustine is so de- 
 cidedly on this side, that it would not have been 
 
 ' II»r § 51 ; Valent. § 84 ; Goode ii. 384, 5. « Luke xxiv. 44. 
 
LECTURE IV. Ill 
 
 necessary to refer to him but for a single epistle 
 written against what was called the Fundamental 
 Epistle of Manichaeus. Unhappily for the in- 
 terests of truth in this and in many similar cases, 
 we do not possess the heretical writings to which 
 the Catholic Fathers were replying ; but we may 
 collect from what Augustine says, that Mani- 
 chaeus was regarded as the Paraclete, just as 
 Montanus had been before him, and that his 
 claim to this impious title was supported by the 
 authority of Scripture. Now it is quite clear 
 that no text of Scripture could be adduced as- 
 serting that Manichaeus was himself the Paraclete 
 who was to be expected by the Church. The 
 utmost that could be derived from Scripture 
 would be, and that a most uirsound deduction, 
 that the Paraclete was distinct from the Holy 
 Ghost, and that after the outpouring of the Spirit 
 on the Day of Pentecost, a Paraclete, (and why 
 not many ?) might be expected by the Church 
 to teach, to comfort, to strengthen, and guide 
 the faithful, leading them into all truth. Now 
 it is clear that such a notion was subversive of 
 all fixedness of behef ; so that the teaching of 
 Scripture might itself be superseded by the plenary 
 teaching, the more developed doctrines of Mon- 
 tanus, Manichaeus, and in after times of Ma- 
 homet ; for he too was regarded as a Paraclete 
 
112 LECTURE IV. 
 
 by his followers. In this case Augustine had to 
 contend with a pretension to a new revelation, 
 recognizing the generally received scripture as 
 the basis of his pretensions,'' but practically super- 
 seding the Bible by the new doctrine for which 
 an inspired authority was claimed. 
 
 His answer to these pretensions was that the 
 very authority on which the canonicity of the 
 Bible rested was fatal to the attempt of Ma- 
 nichseus to prove from the Bible that a Paraclete 
 was yet to be expected by the Church, and that 
 he fulfilled the conditions of the prophecy so 
 that he was the promised Comforter. Augustine 
 proves the canonicity of Scriptm-e elsewhere by 
 reference to as many Catholic Churches as pos- 
 sible, especially those over which apostles had 
 presided, and to which apostolical epistles had 
 been addressed. And so completely is this re- 
 ference a question of evidence, that he admits 
 the dangerous principle of a greater or less 
 degree of weight attaching to the different books 
 of the New Testament, in proportion as they had 
 been received by the greater number of Churches, 
 and by those of most dignity and authority. 
 Hence he comes to the conclusion, expressed 
 
 ii [Only, I believe, tlie New Testament, adding to this the 
 Apocryphal Gospels. The authorities on this point are collected 
 by Gieseler, Eccl. Hist. i. 220, 7. (Dr. Davidson's Translation.)— 
 Ed.] 
 
LECTURE IV. 113 
 
 perhaps in an unguarded manner, that he would 
 not believe the Gospel, if the authority of the 
 Catholic Church did not move him to do so : 
 that is to say, if he did not find that the Gospel 
 had been received by Christians as a faithful 
 record of what Jesus did and taught — if it ap- 
 l)eared now for the first time, or having appeared 
 before had been rejected by Christians, who de- 
 lived their ideas of Christianity from other 
 sources ; or not having been rejected, had never- 
 theless remained inoperative, with no signs of 
 -s'ital power, giving life to those who read it, and 
 forming the Church, as it were, around itself; in 
 this case the Gospel would have no claims upon 
 liis reverential submission and belie£ 
 
 He then applies this rule to test the analogous 
 claims of the Manichseans. You, he says, profess 
 to have a new revelation, or at least an inspired 
 development of the doctrines contained in that 
 which you, in common with us, have already re- 
 ceived. Remember then, that the claims of the 
 new revelation must rest upon similar grounds to 
 those on which we have submitted to the teaching 
 of our common Bihle ; and if we would not re- 
 ceive the Bible if it were a recent discovery, or if 
 it had never been recognized by Christians as the 
 authentic document of their faith, so the novelty 
 of your interpretation of the promises relating to 
 
 J 
 
lU LECTURE IV. 
 
 the Paraclete, which has never been received by 
 any Christian from the beginning, is conclusive 
 against its truth, and the claims of Manichaeus 
 to be the Paraclete, while he is at the same time 
 excluding himself from the fellowship of the 
 Catholic Church, which has been formed by the 
 teaching of the Bible, and in whose custody it 
 has ever been, are so preposterous, that this cir- 
 cumstance alone is sufficient to condemn them, 
 without any special discussion of the passages of 
 Scripture which are alleged by him or his fol- 
 lowers. 
 
 This is the same argument, in effect, as that 
 used by Tertullian in the treatise which we have 
 already noticed, and in the commonitorium of 
 Vincentius Lirinensis, to which an interest 
 beyond its intrinsic merits, or the personal 
 weight of its author, has attached from the 
 recent controversies in the course of which it 
 has been often quoted. I would throw these 
 treatises together, and we might add to them 
 those of Ireneeus and Epiphanius, for the sake of 
 applying to them the common remark that their 
 argument as far as it goes is a negative rather 
 than a positive one, and that this argument is re- 
 sorted to almost exclusively to refute recent 
 heresies. 
 
 I am not prepared to defend the argument 
 
LECTURE IV. 115 
 
 which runs through these treatises, and shall 
 have occasion in my next lecture to shew that 
 the Church of England takes much sounder and 
 safer ground, but my present object is to prove 
 that even this rhetorical formula by which it was 
 thought that all heretics could be at once dis- 
 posed of, falls short of the dangerous theory 
 that we are to receive our views of Christian 
 truth from tradition, and refer to the Bible only 
 for their illustration or support. 
 
 Throughout these treatises it is assumed that 
 the whole body of Christian doctrine is contained 
 in the Bible, and can alone be deduced from it^ 
 but as the test of the accuracy and faithfulness 
 of the doctrinal deductions brought forward by 
 any one it is asked whether they are such as 
 have always been received by the universal 
 Church. There is a wide practical distinction 
 between a scripturally proved tradition, and 
 scriptural teaching tested hy tradition, that is, 
 between tradition teaching positively and testing 
 negatively, and tradition employed only to reject 
 what is new, and therefore unauthorized. For 
 instance if we take the case of the cardinal 
 doctrine of the Deity of our Lord, we should find 
 the positive evidence of Christian writers in the 
 first two centuries silent in some cases, and 
 doubtful in others ; but it was an important con- 
 
 J 2 
 
116 LECTURE IV. 
 
 firmation of the true doctrine as received and de- 
 clared by the Fathers in the Council of Nice, that 
 what Scripture appeared to them to teach dis- 
 tinctly had been held by those who went before 
 them, and that no Christian Church had ever 
 taught the contrary doctrine. 
 
 So also with regard to the canon of Scripture, 
 though the canon could not be constructed by 
 this rule, for we receive books which have not 
 always been universally received, it is a sufficient 
 argument against the Apocrypha to shew that, 
 up to a comparatively recent date, it had never 
 been received by the Church of God. 
 
 Accordingly we find this argument adopted as 
 a short and easy method to silence heretics as 
 they successively appeared, to whom it was 
 deemed sufficient to say, " You are of yesterday, 
 therefore you are wrong." Whether it was a 
 sufficient argument, even to this extent, it is be- 
 yond our present purpose to enquire, for the 
 question before us is simply whether the Fathers 
 recognised the supreme and independent autho- 
 rity of Scripture, or whether they maintained 
 the existence of an unwritten word of God, by 
 which the written word was to be authoritatively 
 explained. The very use of such an argument 
 as the one we are discussing implies that there 
 was no living authority in the Church to decide 
 
LECTURE IV. 117 
 
 controversies, and is altogether inconsistent with 
 the theory of development, for it would be an 
 answer to each developed doctrine to shew that 
 it had not been received everywhere, always, and 
 by all. When, therefore, we find Vincentius 
 Lirinensis, the last Church writer who has given 
 a formal expression to this argument, acknowledg- 
 ing that it is applicable only to recent heresies, 
 we have a key to the sense in which it was used 
 by him, and in a modified form by the earlier 
 Fathers, and learn that it was deemed sufficient 
 only to refute novel errors, but insufiicient to 
 establish truth ; and thus interpreted and modi- 
 fied it is a theory clearly inconsistent with the 
 idea of an infallible authority within the Church, 
 and still more with the doctrine of development 
 which assumes that what was not received by 
 the Church of a former age, may yet be abso- 
 lutely binding, as God's own truth, on the Church 
 of the present day. 
 
 It may however be thought that though the 
 Creed may be shewn to be only a compendium 
 of Scripture, and that the doctrine of universal 
 consent is an hypothesis rather destructive of 
 error than constructive of truth, yet that oecu- 
 menical councils may be deemed to express the 
 sense of the Universal Church, and to determine 
 
118 LECTURE IV. 
 
 infallibly the sense of Scripture on all points ruled 
 by them. 
 
 Let us shortly examine this point by a reference 
 to the Council of Nice, to which the greatest 
 weight and authority has ever been attached by 
 the Catholic Church. 
 
 In the first place we may observe that this the 
 first general council (if we except the assembly 
 of the Apostles and Elders and Brethren at 
 Jerusalem)' was not held till A.D. 325, so that 
 during three most critical centuries, when the 
 ecclesiastical system was in the course of forma- 
 tion, the Church had never spoken in its corporate 
 capacity. 
 
 In the next place we must bear in mind that 
 this council, convoked and presided over by an 
 Emperor not yet baptized, was attended by only 
 three hundred and eighteen Prelates," and of these 
 only a comparatively small number were of what 
 is now called the Western or Latin Church. How 
 far such a council may be taken to represent 
 Christ's Holy Catholic Church, that is the body of 
 Christian people scattered throughout the whole 
 world, may well be doubted. But even assum- 
 ing that it did so represent them, it is clear from 
 
 ' Acts XV. n. 
 
 '' [According to the highest calculation ; others give 250 and 
 300 as the number. — Ed."] 
 
LECTURE IV. 119 
 
 the narrative of Eusebius that the assembled 
 Bishops did not presume to think that they spoke 
 with infaUible authority. Each gave what he 
 thought to be the true meaning of Scripture, and 
 the assembly, while it denounced the Arian 
 doctrine as unscriptural and novel, shewed with 
 what scrupulosity it adhered to the very language 
 of Scripture, by defending the word which the 
 subtlety of heretics constrained it to employ, on 
 the ground that though the word itself was not 
 in any passage of the Bible, the sense was every 
 where. This was the hne of defence taken by 
 its immortal advocate Athanasius, and certainly 
 when he stood alone for the truth against the 
 world, the argument of universal consent would 
 have been httle to his purpose.' Athanasius re- 
 fers to the Council simply as evidence of the 
 opinion of so many Fathers, carrying with it no 
 light authority, but his apology for the use of 
 an expression not contained in the Bible, and 
 his elaborate scriptural defence of the doctrine 
 of the Trinity, proves that in his opinion the 
 decision of a Council was not an absolute end 
 of all strife. Even at a later period, Augustine,"" 
 defending the same doctrine against the Arians 
 
 1 Athan. de deer. Syn. Nic. § 20, 33. Fid. Expos. Opp. torn, 
 i. p. 79j 1,3,4. 
 '" De Trinit. passim. 
 
120 LECTURE IV. 
 
 of his day, still appeals to the Supreme autho- 
 rity of Scripture, and acknowledges that not even 
 a Council could set the question at rest for ever, 
 for if the Council of Nice should be quoted on 
 one side, that of Ariminum, attended by a much 
 larger number of Bishops, might be alleged on 
 the other. 
 
 What a Council had ruled, an Emperor might 
 make binding, so that all who did not receive its 
 decrees were excommunicated and ejected from 
 their benefices, but this did not in after times 
 settle all disputes on the points so ruled even by 
 those who were in communion with the Church, 
 and hardly any one now would consider it suffi- 
 cient when maintaining the consubstantiality of 
 the Son with the Father, to quote the decision 
 of the Council of Nice, though he might refer 
 to the Canon of that Council as of very grave 
 authority in the question. We do not practically 
 believe the doctrine because of the Canon, but 
 we ae confirmed by the authority of thi Canon 
 in our reception of a doctrine wliich we believe 
 to rest on most certain warrant of God's written 
 word. Thus Creeds, Fathers, and Councils, may 
 be helpers of our joy, assuring us that the glad 
 tidings of salvation which we gather from the 
 Bible are really contained there, but they must 
 not have such dominion over our faith as to su- 
 
LECTURE IV. 121 
 
 persede the duty of patient and humble enquiry, 
 the exercise of our own proper judgment, and 
 the instruction of an intelligent behef, the result 
 of personal conviction. " Faith cometh by hear- 
 ing, and hearing by the Word of God ;"" and that 
 is not faith, in the Scriptural sense of the term, 
 which rests merely on any human authority, 
 however entitled to our deferential respect, and 
 is not derived from the study of the word of 
 God. 
 
 We shall of course be met here by the old 
 argument that all this painful investigation, and 
 anxious enquiry, is not only a very troublesome 
 process, but that it implies more intellectual 
 power and leisure than falls to the lot of most 
 men, and that even those who are able to inves- 
 tigate rehgious subjects come to very different, 
 and even opposite conclusions, so that we never 
 can hope for certainty, or unity, unless we have 
 some infallible judge in religious controversies. 
 
 We fully acknowledge the truth of this remark. 
 If there is to be uniformity of belief, or rather 
 of profession, for belief cannot be coerced, there 
 must be an infallible judge. All must feel what 
 repose such an unerring authority offers to the 
 mind, but the question is whether we are war- 
 ranted to expect it, and whether it is in fact pos- 
 
 " Rom. X. 17. 
 
122 LECTiURE IV. 
 
 sessed by the Church. We discover in the New 
 Testament no provision for a court of absolute 
 authority in matters of faith, and practically we 
 do not find that there is such absolute agreement 
 with Scripture or with each other, in the decisions 
 of councils or churches, as to lead us to suppose 
 that they were infallible. Besides which, even if 
 we were prepared to acknowledge an infallible au- 
 thority somewhere, a gi'eat many questions might 
 still be raised respecting the seat of infallibility, 
 which even the Church of Rome has not yet 
 solved, and which are at least as difficult of solu- 
 tion as the plain letter of the New Testament. 
 
 From all this there is the strongest presump- 
 tion that it was not God's design that we should 
 have such absolute certainty, but that the diffi- 
 culties connected with religious enquiry should 
 remain for the trial of our faith, and the exer- 
 cise of those graces of patience, humihty, and 
 child-like dependence which they are calculated 
 to ehcit. But if such was the design of God, we 
 may be assured that resisting his will in this 
 respect, and rebelling against his wise and loving 
 dispensation, must be productive of manifold and 
 great evils. Let me then in conclusion, remind 
 you what a pregnant source of false doctrine, 
 heresy, and schism, this desire for absolute cer- 
 
LECTURE IV. 123 
 
 tainty in religious matters has proved to the 
 Church. 
 
 This was the real origin of the Gnostic theory 
 which, even before it had led to its heretical and 
 semi-pagan development in the hands of Valen- 
 tinian and others, had corrupted the simplicity of 
 the Gospel by introducing artificial senses of 
 Scripture under the idea that the hidden mean- 
 ing of the Bible had been revealed to only three 
 of the Apostles, and was derived from them by a 
 chosen few— a sort of intellectual election— made 
 capable by God's special and predestinating favour 
 of receiving those doctrines which the multitude 
 even of Christians could neither comprehend nor 
 receive. This elect body was therefore the 
 Gnostic seat of infallibility, and thus the desire 
 after certain truth of intellectual speculators was 
 met and satisfied— but the fruit of the tree of 
 knowledge did not prove the source of spiritual 
 life. The Bible teaches us that spiritual know- 
 ledge is the result of the progress which the 
 Christian makes in the life of love, but Gnosti- 
 cism regarded knowledge as an end, and correct 
 views of doctrine as the meritorious cause of 
 salvation, rather than the consequence and issue 
 of a holy walk with God. Nor is it in Gnosti- 
 cism only that we discover this over estimate of 
 abstract doctrinal accuracy, for we are all too apt 
 
124 LECTURE IV. 
 
 to forget that religion is rather a divine life than a 
 divine science, and to lose sight of the end, which 
 is conformity to the [Divine] likeness, while we 
 rest satisfied with intellectual speculations." 
 
 In minds, however, of a less ideal, and more 
 practically earnest kind, the same desire for an 
 authoritative teacher, for some great mystagogue 
 who would substitute certainty for doubt, and 
 repose for excitement, will seek for the resolution 
 of cases of conscience, for information beyond 
 what sacred scripture contains respecting the 
 present discipline, and future expectation of the 
 Church, and for some rule of life by which not only 
 shall the Church be separated from the world, but 
 one Christian shall be raised above another in 
 spiritual attainment. This is more than a natural 
 desire, for it is one which the child of God will 
 feel, and therefore is the temptation arising from 
 this source the more subtle. Yet when we bear 
 in mind that the temptations to which our blessed 
 Lord was exposed were intimately connected 
 with his Sonship, and were just such as God's 
 children are especially called to undergo, we need 
 
 " [Beyond this point, the first draft only exists of the sermon, 
 which, it will be seen, entirely wants a conclusion. It is doubtful 
 •whether the matter here presented was intended to have been in- 
 cluded within the limits of one discourse, but it was thought ad- 
 visable to give it 80 far as it presented a continuous arg\unent. — 
 Ed.] 
 
LECTURE IV. 125 
 
 not be surprised if we find that the longings of a 
 convinced and troubled spirit for guidance and 
 rest, and the efforts of a Christian athlete to gain 
 the highest prize, have been themselves perverted 
 to evil by the tempter of the brethren. In such 
 feelings as those, we have every reason to suppose, 
 the errors of the Montanists originated. They 
 thought that the body of those around them who 
 professed and called themselves Christians, were 
 languid, conformed to the world, and falling 
 very far short of the Gospel standard; or, if 
 not of the standard of the Gospel as dis- 
 tinctly enunciated, at least of the spirit which 
 became a child of God and an heir of glory. If 
 you add to this the idea of the inherent evil of 
 matter, ,a Gnostic notion which comes up to the 
 surface in a thousand forms in the history of early 
 Christianity, you have the state of feeling in 
 which Montanism originated, or at least the 
 nidus, so to speak, in which it germinated. 
 
 The remarkable fact that a sect formed in 
 Phrygia, by the excited ravings of an Asiatic 
 preacher, and two formal followers,'' should have 
 mastered the vivid intellect of such a man as 
 Tertullian, though he had previously written in 
 the most orthodox manner against them, and have 
 formed a sect which spread from the east to the 
 
 P Neander, K. Gesch. i. 870, folg. 
 
126 LECTURE IV. 
 
 west, from Asia to Europe, and from Em-ope to 
 Africa, and which Epiphanius " reports to be in 
 existence in his day, two hmidred and ninety- 
 years after the death of Montanus, shews that 
 it must have touched some chord with which our 
 common feehngs vibrate, and that a doctrine so 
 acceptable and so influential, met wants which 
 the human heart earnestly longs to have supplied. 
 Church history never can be understood if we 
 pass lightly over the sects and heresies which 
 have fi-om time to time arisen, or simply con- 
 demn them without considering what good thing, 
 what vital principle, gave them origin, and enabled 
 them to rule over the minds of men for a season. 
 Montanism told Christians how they might be 
 perfect, and probably also revealed the time and 
 place of the descent of the New Jerusalem out of 
 heaven. The teacher of this new doctrine, and 
 the revealer of this hidden mystery, went about 
 every where rebuking the worldliness of the 
 visible Church, — and where has it not needed such 
 a rebuke ? — and calling on those who desired to 
 win a heavenly crown, to come forth to a life of 
 mortification and self denial. This teaching of 
 Montanus was confirmed by two ladies of 
 station and wealth, who wrapt into extacy, and 
 carried beyond themselves, declared that the 
 
 ■i Epiph. Hseres. 44, § 4. 
 
LECTURE IV. 127 
 
 Paraclete was incarnate in Montanus and spake 
 by them — the teacher of a more blessed and exalted 
 doctrine than had been taught by Christ or his dis- 
 ciples — who were only under the guidance of the 
 Holy Ghost, a different and inferior agent. In 
 all this there was exactly that mixture of real 
 truth and specious error which in all ages of the 
 Church has been the staple out of which Satan 
 has woven his tissue of deceit, but the point to 
 which I am anxious to advert in the present in- 
 stance, is, that the immediate effect produced by 
 this preaching so blinded men to its injurious 
 tendency that the Bishop of Rome gave the 
 Montanists letters of peace ; and Tertulhan had 
 no idea of becoming even a sectary when he em- 
 braced their views, though at length he found 
 himself in a state of spiritual exaltation which 
 the narrow pale of the Catholic Church was 
 insufficient to contain. So he, who had held that 
 all who left the Church stood self-condemned, 
 and were not to be reasoned with out of sacred 
 scripture, standing without that pale, denounced 
 those within as carnal worldlings, listened to a 
 teaching which superseded the Hmited instruction 
 of the written word — as food only for babes — and 
 at length, following out the ascetic views of the 
 Christian life which he had adopted from the 
 Montanists, became himself the leader of a sect 
 
128 LECTURE IV. 
 
 of which Augustine tells us that in his day there 
 was a single Basilica at Carthage which had re- 
 cently been delivered up to the Catholic Church/ 
 How full of instruction is this whole story, 
 especially when we compare it with the origin, 
 the development, and the issue of Gnosticism. 
 The Gnostic obtaining authoritative interpre- 
 tation by a rationalistic tradition, the Montanist 
 obtaining an infallible guide by direct inspiration, 
 but both explaining away, or superseding the 
 written word, and leaving the Church practically 
 to human guidance. And there is also this 
 remarkable point of coincidence in these sects, 
 that Gnosticism in its Manichaean form, fell into 
 the very error of the Montanists, and regarded 
 Manichaeus as an Apostle of Christ, and an in- 
 carnation of the Paraclete. Indeed, if it would 
 not take us too far from our subject, we might 
 shew that Mohammed was regarded in the same 
 light by his followers, and his mission also was to 
 protest against, to denounce, and to punish the 
 carnality, idolatry, saint worship, and multitudi- 
 nous corruptions of the Church at the beginning of 
 the seventh century. So that in both these cases 
 the radical evil was that with a view to promote a 
 good end, and for a time at least with a degree 
 of beneficial result, an authority other than that 
 
 ' Aug. Ilseres. 80. See Neander. K. G. i. 1168. 
 
LECTURE IV. 129 
 
 of the plain word of God in its simple meaning 
 was introduced, and having been introduced, led 
 •eventually to the most pernicious results ; but as 
 we have seen in the case of Gnosticism, may we 
 see in that of Montanism, that when once the 
 Church was awake to the danger, the only proper 
 remedy was perceived to be not the simply set- 
 ting up the counter authority of the Church, (for 
 her character was impugned, and her authority 
 set at nought,) but upholding the supremacy of 
 Holy Scripture as the rule of faith and practice. 
 So when Tertullian, before his perversion, 
 would expose the errors of the Cataphrygians, 
 (as the Montanists were then called,) he repre- 
 sents in strong language the enormity of their 
 pretensions, that the Paraclete had spoken more 
 truths, and of greater importance, by Montanus 
 and Priscilla and Maximilla, than by Christ and his 
 disciples : thus pointing out what will ever be the 
 effect of admitting the infallible authority of any 
 hving teacher, namely that his instructions bear- 
 ing as they will directly on the daily circumstances 
 of actual life, not merely laying down broad 
 principles as Holy Scripture does, but going into 
 the details of conduct, speaking when Holy 
 Scripture is silent, and bringing out into full light 
 what the Bible designedly left in obscurity, will 
 always be preferred by those who receive it to 
 
 K 
 
130 LECTURE IV. 
 
 the letter of God's word ; for the mind of man is 
 always seeking rest and certainty, so that even 
 the promise of repose is tempting. In other 
 passages Tertullian tells us plainly enough what 
 was his opinion of the supremacy of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, when he uses that memorable expression, 
 " Adoro plenitudinem Scripturae,'" (like Cyprian's 
 "divinae plenitudinis fontes"*) and goes on to 
 quote Rev. xxii. 19. as applying to any one who 
 should bring in doctrines which were not simply 
 taken from Holy Writ. He calls the Bible (when 
 quoting one of the Apostolical Epistles) the voice 
 of God." "He who hears them will find God; 
 he who seeks to understand them, will be com- 
 pelled also to believe.'"' He speaks of the reading 
 of the Bible as the excitement of faith, and 
 the refreshment of the soul.^ It is true that in 
 his celebrated treatise, De Praescriptione adversus 
 Hcei'eticoSy he refers much to the body of truth 
 held by the Church as a compendious argument 
 against all heretics,^ yet in his practical discus- 
 cussion with heretics his appeal is, not to the 
 authority of the Church, but simply to Holy 
 Scripture : as, for example, where he says, " take 
 from the heretics what they have in common 
 
 • Tert. adv. Ilermog. c. xxii. p. 241. 
 
 ' Cypr. adv. Jud. prsef. p. 18. see further Hagenbach. Hist. 
 Doctr. i. 77. (Eng. Transl.) 
 " Apol. cap. 31 * Ibid. ^ Apol. cap. 18. ' Ad. Uxor ii. 6. 
 
LECTURE IV. 131 
 
 with the Pagans, and let them bring the points 
 at issue to the simple test of Holy Scripture," 
 and the same remark will apply to the whole 
 character of his writings against heretics/ 
 
 a [Of the rest of the Lectures nothing exists but memoranda, 
 and scattered sentences, in a state totally unfit to meet the 
 public eye. Of the matter given above, some, it will be seen, had 
 been in the author's second draft, interwoven into the earlier part 
 of the discourse ; but it would have been difficult to separate, and 
 it seemed better, therefore, to give a simple impression of the 
 MS.— Ed.] 
 
TWO SERMONS 
 
 INFLUENCES 
 
 HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
SERMON I. 
 
 John xiv. 17. 
 
 He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 
 
 In order that we may render unto God intelli- 
 gent thanksgiving for the grace conferred on his 
 universal Church, which we this day commemo- 
 rate, it is essential that we have distinct views of 
 what was the nature and extent of that grace. 
 We should inquire, with a view to this end, 
 1. — In what manner and degree the Holy Spirit 
 was present with the Church before the special 
 effusion on the day of Pentecost. 
 
 2. — What gift was then communicated. 
 3. — What is our present and personal interest 
 in that gift. 
 
 This at least we know, that God will give his 
 Holy Spirit to those that ask him ; and we are 
 bound, as at all times, so more especially when 
 our inquiry is respecting the spiritual aid and 
 comfort which He has promised to bestow, de- 
 
136 SERMON I. 
 
 voutly to implore Him to pom* upon us such an 
 "unction from the Holy One" that we may know 
 all that he has revealed on this important subject. 
 
 1. — When then we speak of the Holy Spirit 
 as having been given to the Church on the feast 
 of Pentecost, which followed the return of our 
 Lord to glory, the first inquiry which suggests 
 itself is. What was the state of the Church from 
 the beginning to that day of Pentecost ? 
 
 The second verse of Genesis tells us of the 
 presence and personal operation of the Holy 
 Spirit moving upon the face of the chaotic waters, 
 as the author and giver of order, and light, and 
 life. Even the Jewish commentators* on this 
 verse say, "This is the Spirit of King Messiah, 
 concerning whom it is written, ' And there shall 
 rest on him the Spirit of the Lord,' " ^ shewing, 
 even according to their view, the identity between 
 the creating Spirit which worked in the begin- 
 ning, and the renewing Spirit which now restores 
 the works of God which sin had defaced. "As in 
 the work of the days he breathed light upon the 
 face of matter, so his sabbath work ever since 
 has been the illumination of his chosen." He 
 alone is "the author and giver of life." There- 
 fore, wherever the light of spiritual life has illu- 
 minated man's soul, or given him wisdom and 
 
 a See Schoettgenius, HorfE Ilebraicae, ike. •' Isa. xi. 2. 
 
SERMON I. 137 
 
 skill to do the work of God, there we discover 
 the operation of the Holy Spirit. Hence we 
 learn that those "holy men of old," by whom 
 God made known to us his will in the Sacred 
 Scripture of truth, "wrote as they were moved 
 by the Holy Ghost." "^ If Abel, in the exercise of 
 faith, offered an acceptable sacrifice, that very 
 faith must have been the gift of God's Spirit, so 
 teaching him things to come that he rejoiced "to 
 see the day " of " the Lamb of God that taketh 
 away the sin of the world, and he saw it, and was 
 glad." 
 
 If Enoch and Noah walked with God, and 
 found favour in his sight, they must have been 
 led in that holy path by the Spirit of God ; or 
 they could not have pleased Him; they could 
 not have been his sons, nor heirs of the righteous- 
 ness which is by faith ; for " whatever the 
 righteous do, they do by the Holy Spirit," accord- 
 ing to the remarkable sentiment of the Jewish 
 commentator to whom I have already referred. 
 
 When God commissioned Moses to lead his 
 people out of Egypt, the encouraging promise 
 given to him was, " My presence'' shall go with 
 thee : " and Moses answered, " If thy presence 
 go not with me, carry us not up hence." ^ This 
 
 •^2 Peter i. 21. 
 
 d The expression "The presence of God,'' appears to imply some 
 special manifestation of God. See Gen. iii. 8 ; iv. G ; Jon. i. 3, 10. 
 « Exod. xxxiii. U, 15. 
 
138 SERMON I. 
 
 presence was, we know, made visible by the pillar 
 of cloud and fire, in which we have at least a 
 very striking parallel to the " cloven tongues of 
 fire " which sat upon the Apostles on the day of 
 Pentecost; and to the "rushing mighty wind 
 which filled all the house where they were 
 sitting," ^ and must therefore have been a visible 
 vapour, as was the moving cloud in the wilderness. 
 We are afterwards expressly told that the Holy 
 Spirit was thus given to Moses, and was com- 
 municated to the seventy elders, who were ap- 
 pointed by God as his assessors in judgment. 
 God says, " I will take of the Spirit which is upon 
 thee, and put it upon them." And afterwards 
 we read that " the Lord came down in a cloud, 
 and spake unto Moses, and took of the Spirit that 
 was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy 
 elders : and it came to pass, that when the Spirit 
 rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not 
 cease." s These expressions of the Spirit being 
 thus taken, and transferred, and resting, seem to 
 imply some visible action, and certainly a real 
 indwellhig. So again Joshua the son of Nun is 
 spoken of as a man " in whom is the Spirit ; " 
 and even of the chief artificers who were to con- 
 struct the tabernacle, Bezaleel and Aholiab,*" it 
 is said that they were *' filled with the Spirit of 
 
 f Acts ii. 2, 3. e Num. xi. 17—26. »> Exod. xxxi. 2—6'. 
 
SERMON I. 139 
 
 God in wisdom, and in understanding, and in 
 knowledge." 
 
 Very observable also is that mysterious trans- 
 action by which a double portion of the spirit of 
 Elijah was conveyed to Ehsha after a sacramental 
 manner, by the mantle of the glorified prophet 
 falling on his successor.' 
 
 In the cases to which I have referred we have 
 an outward and visible sign, conveying, as by an 
 instrument, the inward and spiritual grace. 
 
 The same remark will apply to the use of the 
 sacred oil, when employed to anoint prophets, 
 priests, or kings, for the work to which God had 
 called them. When Saul had been thus anointed 
 we read that " God gave him another heart ; " 
 that he was turned into another man ; that the 
 spirit of God came upon him ; and that he pro- 
 phesied;" and when Saul rebelled against God, 
 we read,' that the Spirit of the Lord departed 
 from Saul, and an evil Spirit from the Lord 
 troubled him. So, also, we are told that Caia- 
 phas"* being the anointed High Priest that year, 
 prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation, 
 and not for that nation only, but that he should 
 gather together in one the children of God that 
 were scattered abroad. 
 
 These two cases, to which might be added that 
 
 i 2 Kings ii. 9. ^ i Sam. x. ' 1 Sam. xvi. 14. "^ John, xi. 61. 
 
140 SERMON I. 
 
 of Balaam, shew that, with the visible anointing, 
 there was actually conveyed a measure of God's 
 Spirit for the work in hand. These cases are the 
 more instructive and observable, because there is 
 every reason to fear that two at least of those 
 persons were unholy men ; so that the Spirit of 
 God might be given in so real and personal a man- 
 ner that its recipient "became another man," 
 " had the gift of prophecy, and understood all 
 mysteries, and all knowledge," " and yet without 
 producing real conversion of the heart to God, 
 and submission of the will to His will ; a solemn 
 lesson how far we may go in theological know- 
 ledge, so as to have " our eyes open," and with 
 what correctness we may declare the will of God, 
 without being wise unto salvation, or made meet 
 to dwell with God. We may " see him, but not 
 nigh ; " we may know God by the hearing of the 
 ear, without knowing him by the comprehension 
 of the heart. 
 
 Yet we cannot doubt but that wherever there 
 were evidences of spiritual life among those who 
 lived under the Old Testament, the Spirit of God 
 was acting upon their hearts, as with Christians 
 now ; and it is impossible to read the Psalms, for 
 instance, where we find the Psalmist praying that 
 God would not take from him his holy Spirit, 
 
 " 1 Cor. xiii. 2. 
 
SERMON I. 141 
 
 and that he would uphold him by his free Spirit/ 
 without feeling that all those devout affections 
 were wrought into his soul by that one and the 
 self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally as 
 he willed.'' 
 
 As we look through the sacred history of the 
 world, we see a long and continuous succession 
 of gifted men in whom the Spirit was, and " in 
 whose light they saw light." These saw by his 
 illumination what their fellow men did not, and 
 could not see ; for their enlightened faith saw the 
 invisible, and gave it evidence, it saw the future, 
 and made it present : for it was as true then as it 
 is now that " the natural man understandeth not 
 the things of the Spirit of God, and cannot know 
 them, for they are spiritually discerned ;" '^ but that 
 they who " have an unction from the Holy One, 
 know all things,'"" — are capable, that is, of re- 
 ceiving the whole counsel of God. There were 
 many such spiritually enlightened men, doubtless, 
 besides those whose prophecies are recorded in 
 the Bible for the general edification of the uni- 
 versal Church, who edified the Church of their 
 own age and country; and that was the Catholic 
 Church to them. 
 
 But besides those who were endowed with the 
 special miraculous gifts of the Spirit, (if it be 
 
 " Ps. li. 12. p 1 Cor, xii. 11. "> 1 Cor. i. 14, 15. r 1 John ii. 20. 
 
142 SERMON I. 
 
 right to draw such a distinction where all is spe- 
 cial and preternatural) — but besides those inspired 
 seers, there were many holy, humble, meek, and 
 believing men (of whom the world was not worthy), 
 the seven thousand who bowed not the knee to 
 Baal,' the children who would not partake of the 
 king's meat, nor worship his golden image,* and 
 many like-minded, who underwent various forms 
 of martyrdom, and whose names are written in 
 the book of life, because their souls were quick- 
 ened by the life-giving Spirit of their God. We find 
 a summary of this goodly fellowship in that well- 
 known chapter, (Heb. xi.,) and yet the Apostle 
 having told of their patience and their triumph, 
 adds, " these all having obtained a good report 
 through faith, received not tJie promise ; God 
 ha^^ng provided some better thing for us, that 
 they without us should not be made perfect." 
 Notwithstanding, therefore, the eminent commu- 
 nication of both the gifts, and the graces of God's 
 Spirit to the holy and favoured men of that old 
 dispensation, there was a promise, called by our 
 Lord " the promise of the Father ; " there was a 
 ''perfect gift ; " which the greatest and most holy 
 of them had not received. 
 
 This distinction is illustrated in a very striking 
 manner by the intermediate position of John the 
 
 • 1 Kings six. 18. ' Dan. i. — iii. 
 
SERMON I. 143 
 
 Baptist, of whom our Lord said that he was the 
 greatest of all who had been born of women up 
 to that day ; and yet that the least in the king- 
 dom of Heaven was gi^eater than he." 
 
 Now we must bear in mind that the main dis- 
 tinction between the baptism of John, and that 
 of our Lord, was that John baptized with water 
 unto repentance (the death unto sin), but Jesus 
 " the quickening Spirit," baptized " with the 
 Holy Ghost, and with fire,' unto the life of right- 
 eousness. 
 
 We do not read of any designation of John 
 for his ministry by a visible communion of the 
 Holy Ghost, (unless we are to understand in that 
 sense St. Luke's expression, " He was strong in 
 spirit ;" '') but we do read expressly that when 
 Jesus was in the baptismal waters of Jordan, 
 the " heaven was opened upon him, and John 
 saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and 
 lighting upon him." ^ The accounts given of the 
 Baptist's ministry are so scanty that it is difficult 
 to judge of the character, or extent, of the 
 Spiritual communication with which he was fa- 
 voured, though we are told that he was "filled 
 with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb," 
 and that he was commissioned by God to " turn 
 
 " Matt. xi. 11. ^ Luke i. 80. =' Matt. iii. 16. 
 
144 SERMON I. 
 
 many of the children of Israel to the Lord their 
 God."^ 
 
 But the teaching of a master is often best 
 known by its effects, whether good or bad, 
 on his disciples, and of the disciples of the Baptist 
 we have several accounts. We are told that 
 Apollos was mighty in the Sacred Scripture, in- 
 structed in the way of the Lord, fervent in spirit, 
 and teaching diligently the things of the Lord, 
 knowing only the baptism of John."" Those dis- 
 ciples also of John the Baptist whom St. Paul 
 found at Ephesus, whatever may have been the 
 degree of their knowledge and attainments in 
 other respects, ^^had not so much as heard 
 whether there was any Holy Ghost :'"' and what- 
 ever interpretation we may put upon that expres- 
 sion, it clearly implies that there was something 
 very deficient in their views and attainments ; 
 and that it was not merely the absence of those 
 miraculous powers which were afterwards con- 
 ferred upon them, is evident from the pains taken 
 by Aquila and Priscilla to expound to Apollos, 
 who was in a similar position, " the way of the 
 Lord more perfectly." The pious people too, 
 even before the baptism of John, who were 
 known as a class by the designation of those 
 
 • Luke i. 16, IG. * Acts, xviii. 24. ^ Acts xix. 2. 
 
SERMON I. 145 
 
 " who looked for redemption in Israel," "^ clearly 
 had some particular teaching of the Holy Ghost, 
 which enabled them to see a glimmering, at 
 least, of light, through the obscurity of that dis- 
 pensation, as was the case with Anna, for instance, 
 who " departed not from the temple, day and 
 night." We are expressly told also of Simeon, 
 an eminent member of that body, that he was a 
 just and devout man, " waiting for the consola- 
 tion of Israel," and that the Holy Ghost was upon 
 him, and we are told that he came by the Spirit 
 into the temple when the parents brought in the 
 child Jesus, to do to him after the custom of the 
 law.*^ 
 
 Thus, in all these cases, there was a conside- 
 rable, and distinguishing communion of the Holy 
 (jhost, and we may add continually increasing in 
 intensity, clearness, and power, up to the time 
 of our Lord ; and yet still with manifest marks 
 of imperfection, and the constant express decla- 
 ration of the inspired writers that there was 
 something greater and more blessed, in reserve 
 for the children of God. 
 
 If now we advance to the personal ministry of 
 our blessed Lord in whom the Spirit dwelt '*^ with- 
 out measure," we find two very observable cir- 
 cmnstances, first, that much of spiritual influence 
 
 c Luke ii. 38. ^ Luke ii. 25. 
 
 L 
 
146 SERMON I. 
 
 was communicated, even while he was yet per- 
 sonally present with the Church; but secondly, 
 that much more was withheld and promised. 
 
 We have observed that the baptism of Christ 
 was specially to be ''the baptism of the Holy 
 Ghost;" and we are told^ that "Jesus made and 
 baptized more disciples than John," though he 
 deputed the office of baptizing to his disciples. 
 Yet we read of the Baptist that "there went out 
 to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the 
 region round about Jordan, and were baptized of 
 him in Jordan, confessing their sins."*^ Therefore 
 as Jesus baptized more disciples than John, a vast 
 multitude of persons having been taught by our 
 Lord, and having confessed that he was the 
 Christ, must have been baptized under his eyes, 
 by his disciples, in the name of the Father, and 
 of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Were all 
 these baptized with the Holy Ghost? and if so, 
 what was the character and degree of the gifts 
 or graces thus conveyed to them, and in what 
 were they deficient? What lacked they yet? 
 That they lacked something we are quite certain, 
 for we read long after, even in the last day of the 
 feast just before our Lord's death, that "the Holy 
 Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was 
 not yet glorified."^ Our Lord had indeed, at a 
 
 •^Joliuiv. 1. f Mat.iii.r),G. sjohnvii.39. 
 
SERMON I. 147 
 
 much earlier period, told his disciples that 
 "when they should be brought unto the syna- 
 gogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, they 
 were to take no thought how or what things they 
 should answer, or what they should say, because 
 the Holy Ghost should teach them, in the same 
 hour, what they should say." ^ Still more remark- 
 able, however, as illustrative of the view we are 
 taking, is that memorable transaction in which 
 our Lord *' breathed on his disciples, and said. 
 Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whosesover sins ye 
 remit, they are remitted unto them ; and whose- 
 soever sins ye retain, they are retained." ' These 
 w^ords are very remarkable, whether we look 
 back and consider what the disciples had pre- 
 viously received, or look forward, and bear in 
 mind that they were still in expectation of a more 
 abundant blessing. ^ 
 
 a. With regard to their previous apostolical 
 course, we must remember that not only had 
 they been called by our Lord to be apostles, but 
 they had been sent out by him through Judea, 
 and he had given them "power against unclean 
 spirits to cast them out, and to heal all manner 
 of sickness, and all manner of diseases." ^ Nor was 
 it only the Twelve to whom such powers were 
 given, for the Seventy also were commissioned 
 
 " Lukexii. 11, 12. ' John xx. 22. ^ Mat. x. 1. 
 
 l2 
 
148 SERMON I. 
 
 "to heal the sick, and power was given to them 
 to tread upon serpents, and scorpions, and over 
 all the power of the enemy ; " ' and it was promised 
 that "nothing should by any means hurt them." 
 That expression, too, "he that heareth you, 
 heareth me,'"" and so forth, addressed to the 
 Seventy ; and the declaration, also addressed to 
 them, that it should be '* more tolerable for Tyre 
 and Sidon in the day of judgment, than for the 
 cities against which they should shake off the 
 dust of their feet," imphes much the same as the 
 binding and loosing authority given after the 
 resurrection to the Twelve." b. Still how much 
 had they yet in prospect, for even with regard 
 to the Twelve, on a subsequent occasion to that 
 in which our Lord had breathed on them, and 
 thus visibly conveyed to them the Holy Spirit 
 for the work to which he called them, he said 
 " Behold I send the promise of the Father upon 
 you ; but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem ; until 
 ye be endued with power from on high." ° They 
 had been formally commissioned ; they had 
 already received and exercised miraculous powers ; 
 the Spirit had been given to separate them unto 
 the office of Apostles ; and yet they had not re- 
 ceived thejnomise of the Father. They had not yet 
 
 1 Luke X. 9, 19. "• Luke x. 16. " John xx. 22. 
 
 <' Luke xxiv. 49. 
 
SERMON I. 149 
 
 experienced that which was spoken of by Joel ; "^ 
 nor had they been endued with power from on 
 high, in fulfilment of the prophecy that the Lord 
 should *" ascend on high, leading captivity captive, 
 to receive gifts for men, yea for the rebelhous 
 also, that the Lord God might dwell among 
 them." " The Spirit of God was indeed zdth the 
 disciples of Jesus, for many blessed purposes, but 
 he was not yet hi them in the full sense of the 
 Saviour's gracious promise in the text. 
 
 IL Our way is now cleared to the second 
 question which we proposed to investigate ; 
 namely : — What was that j^romise of the Father ^ 
 What was that new and distinguishing gift for 
 which the disciples were to tarry at Jerusalem, 
 and which was, as on this day, bestowed on the 
 Church ? 
 
 This is an enquiry, be it remembered, not of 
 private interpretation, or individual theory, 
 but a plain Scriptural investigation as to what 
 God promised by Joel and David, and " as many 
 as spake of these things ; " and what he did in- 
 deed perform. It is moreover a subject of deep 
 personal interest ; for the promise was not to the 
 men of that day, nor even to their children 
 merely, but '^ to as many as the Lord our God 
 shall call ;" and " He is no respecter of persons, 
 
 " Joel ii. 28. " Ps. Ixviii, 18. 
 
150 SERMON I. 
 
 but in every nation he that feareth him, and 
 worketh righteousness is accepted with him." ' On 
 recurring to the prophecy of Joel which Saint 
 Peter expressly says is that which was fulfilled on 
 the day of Pentecost, we read of the " pouring 
 out of the Spirit on all flesh," and of dreams, 
 visions, and prophecyings, as gifts to the Church. 
 Hence we conclude, (a). That the Church was 
 to be enlarged so as to embrace " all flesh " within 
 the fold of Christ ; and that (b), it was to be en- 
 dued with special gifts. 
 
 (a.) With regard to the promised enlargement 
 of the Church by the pouring out of the Spirit 
 on all flesh,' it has often been understood to im- 
 ply the universal conversion of the world : and 
 therefore has been regarded as something yet to 
 come. But the expression of Saint Peter that 
 the prophecy was actually fulfilled on that day, 
 when there were present " devout men of every 
 nation under Heaven :" and the subsequent re- 
 sult that God henceforth made no distinction 
 between Jew and Gentile, but *' broke down the 
 middle wall of partition," and poured out on the 
 Gentiles also the gift of the Holy Ghost,' appears 
 
 ' Actsx. 34, 35. s Acts, x. 45. 
 
 t See Acts, ii. 6. There were present good men " of every 
 nation under heaven," and the gift of tongues enabled them all 
 to receive the blessed message that God was prepared to dwell 
 among them. The gift of tongues was adapted to the pouring out 
 of the Spirit on all fleshy and the cloven tongues were a sign of 
 their being bilingiials — reversing the curse of Babel. 
 
SERMON I. 151 
 
 to limit us to the conclusion that what was meant 
 by the words spoken by Joel, was simply, that 
 "the kingdom of Heaven was opened to all 
 behevers," of all kindreds, and people, and 
 tongues." 
 
 It is the more important to bear this in mind, 
 because mistaken views of the real meaning of 
 this promise, lie at the root of errors which have 
 an injurious effect, in many ways, on the ministry 
 of the gospel, and more especially on the whole 
 missionary work. Yet what a warrant does it 
 give, when rightly understood, for missionary 
 zeal, even to the very ends of the earth, for is 
 any thing too great to expect from the assurance 
 that the Holy Spirit has been already bestowed as 
 a universal and an everlasting gift ? the effects of 
 which the Church is constantly experiencing, and 
 will experience more and more in proportion as 
 it puts forth greater energy, and makes more cost- 
 ly sacrifices, for the extension of the Redeemer's 
 kingdom. Wherever the Holy Spirit accom- 
 panies, with divine power, the preaching of the 
 gospel, there is the result, and the application of 
 that which was spoken of by the prophet Joel, 
 but which was given and fulfilled on the day of 
 Pentecost. Just as the work of Jesus was 
 
 ° We are told that the times of the Apostles were the last days. 
 See Acts ii. 17. 2 Tim. iii. 1. Heb. i. 2- 2 Pet. iii. 3. 
 
152 SERMON I. 
 
 "finished," when he "bowed his head and gave 
 up the ghost," but is applied when each individual 
 believer is crucified with him to the world, and 
 the flesh, and overcomes the devil; so when we 
 say, according to the words of Saint Peter, that 
 the prophecy of Joel was fulfilled on the day of 
 Pentecost, we mean to assert that access to God 
 by the Spirit was then opened to all, and pro- 
 vision made for the spiritual wants of the Church 
 to the end of time. 
 
 Therefore the pentecostal effusion of the Spirit 
 was a visible manifestation that the once crucified, 
 but now glorified Saviour, had taken to himself 
 great power, in heaven and in earth, and had set 
 up the kingdom which could not be moved. His 
 reign had begun, even in the midst of his ene- 
 mies ; the mustard seed was planted that was to 
 become a great tree for all the fowls under 
 heaven ; the stone was cut out with hands, that 
 was to break in pieces the image of man's do- 
 minion, and to become a great mountain, filling 
 the whole earth. 
 
 It was, in truth, the baptism, the spiritual na- 
 tivity of Christ's holy Cathohc Church, which is 
 His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. 
 That grand idea rises up henceforth before our 
 imagination of the "Holy Church throughout all 
 the world" — the called, and chosen, and faithful. 
 
SERMON I. 153 
 
 of all nations, and of all ages, the ten thousand 
 times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, 
 the militant and the triumphant, saying with 
 a loud voice, from heaven and from earth, 
 "Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive 
 power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, 
 and honour, and glory, and blessing.'"' That 
 song of harmonious praise was the jyromise of the 
 Father unto the Son, when he said, " Ask of me, 
 and I shall give thee the heathen for thine in- 
 heritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth 
 for thy possession ; " ^ and that promise was ful- 
 filled by the Spirit being poured out on all flesh, 
 to sanctify, without any national distinction, all 
 the elect people of God, by dwelling in them, and 
 supplying them with such special power as their 
 peculiar circumstances required — a pledge and 
 assurance to the Church that God would at all 
 times, and under all circumstances, supply its 
 need, whatever that need might be, for the sake 
 of combining together the scattered members of 
 Christ into one mystical body. 
 
 It is doubtless a very glorious and subhme idea, 
 that of the "gathering together in one of the 
 children of God that are scattered abroad"^ to be- 
 come one body, a bride adorned for her heavenly 
 bridegroom, and sanctified and cleansed with the 
 
 * Rev. V. 10, y Ps. ii. 8. " John xi. 50. 
 
154 SERMON I. 
 
 washing of water by the word, and presented to 
 him all ''glorious within," '' not having spot, or 
 wrinkle, or any such thing, but holy and without 
 blemish."* Yet when we turn from the contem- 
 plation of the idea, as presented to us in Sacred 
 Scripture, of what the Church is designed to be, 
 and such as she was when believers were of one 
 heart and of one mind, to the actual condition of 
 the visible community of those who "profess and 
 call themselves Christians," well may we exclaim 
 with the prophet, ''How is the gold become dim! 
 how is the most fine gold changed! the stones 
 of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of 
 every street.'"' In good truth, the history of the 
 Church of Christ is a very painful subject, for 
 though, blessed be God, it presents to us, in bright 
 array, "the noble army of martyrs," and those 
 patient confessors of their Lord, of whom the 
 world was not worthy ; yet it tells of corruptions 
 spreading even from the earliest times, and of the 
 very triumphs of the cross in the Roman Empire, 
 fixing and extending many of those corruptions, 
 when "he that did bite was taken out of the way." 
 It tells us of contentious sects, "biting and devour- 
 ing one another, until they were consumed one of 
 the other,"'' and this, as the Apostle declares, be- 
 cause they were not walking in the Spirit, but 
 
 a Eph. V. 27. " Lam. iv. 1. <^ Gal. v. 15. 
 
SERMON I. 155 
 
 were carnal, fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. We 
 see in consequence along whole districts of the 
 Lord's vineyard the fences so broken down by 
 divisions and worldliness, that "the boar out of 
 the wood wasted it, and the wild beast of the field 
 devoured it."^ Paganism, in many instances, re- 
 gained the ground it had lost, and Islamism won 
 an easy triumph over whole nations of nominal 
 Christians, while they were contending together 
 about ecclesiastical supremacy, vestments, and 
 ordinances, and the oppositions of theological 
 '•science, falsely so called;"^ vain babblings, which 
 were ever the louder, and more vehement, in pro- 
 portion as their subject was of the least practical 
 importance, and the furthest removed from the 
 grasp of man's limited understanding. 
 
 Then came on the monstrous usurpation of 
 the Church of Rome, superseding the ancient 
 primacy of the chair of St. James, and presuming 
 to occupy the very throne of Christ, instead of 
 His Spirit, who was to be with the Church to the 
 end of time, in His place, the only real vicarius 
 Christi, as the Spirit has been not unfitly called. 
 The claim of the Church of Rome to exercise 
 universal dominion, and require external unity, 
 and ceremonial conformity, according to her rule, 
 has been the great source of schism, by refusing 
 
 •» Ps. Ixxx. 12, 13. e 1 Tim. vi. 20. 
 
156 SERMON I. 
 
 the very name of Christ to all that will not "re- 
 ceive her mark on their foreheads," ^ for it is of the 
 essence of schism when a part claims to be the 
 whole. Would that unity had not been sacri- 
 ficed elsewhere, and since, to a dead uniformity; 
 for this it is, mainly, which has prevented, and 
 does yet hinder our all coming "in the unity of 
 the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, 
 unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of 
 Christ," that is, to unity under Him, the head over 
 all things to his Church.^ Yet such was the object 
 of the gift this day bestowed upon the Church for 
 Christ's sake, and such will be its issue. "In that 
 the Father put all in subjection under the Son, he 
 left nothing that is not put under him:" and 
 though "we see not yet all things put under 
 Him," we do see that, in the midst of sad general 
 corruption, the kingdom of Christ has been ex- 
 tended, and is extending; the gospel has proved 
 to be the power of God unto salvation, and the 
 Holy Ghost, the Comforter, has not only been 
 present zaith the Church, but has truly dwelt in 
 the hearts of God's adopted children, preparing 
 them for the glory that shall be revealed. They 
 alone in whom the Spirit thus dwells are, in- 
 clusively, and exclusively, the Catholic Church 
 of the living God — his children — the spiritual 
 
 f Rev. yiii. 17. " Eph. iv. 13. 
 
SERMON I. 157 
 
 worshippers whom the Father seeketh to worship 
 Him, and whom he gives to the Son that they 
 may have eternal hfe. 
 
 This part, however, of our subject, namely, the 
 effect of the pentecostal gift on individual be- 
 hevers, must be reserved for our consideration 
 this afternoon. 
 
 In the mean time, we should bear in mind 
 what are the practical results to which we are 
 brought by a scriptural view of the Spirit's agency. 
 
 I. — One lesson which we may learn from this 
 review is that not only of the reality of Spiritual 
 influence, but of the personality and proper Deity 
 of Him by whom that influence has been exerted. 
 We learn that the Holy Spirit, proceeding from 
 the Father and the Son, is a real, living being, 
 acting in a manner unseen by us, as the wind is 
 felt but not perceived; yet coming and going; 
 grieved and striving; visiting one and leaving 
 another; teaching prophets and apostles; sup- 
 porting martyrs and confessors ; and comforting 
 and teaching the people of God. There is some- 
 thing of individuality in such actions, and though 
 one almost shrinks from the attempt to give 
 utterance to the feelings, and experience of faith 
 touching Him, the Holy One, (for language is a 
 rude vehicle for the expression of spiritual ideas, 
 and there is something of a too material character 
 
158 SERMON I. 
 
 in the terms we are compelled to use on the most 
 ahstract, and mysterious subjects,) yet in the ac- 
 count which the Bible gives us of what the Spirit 
 has done for the Church, we see distinctive traces 
 of the divine character, and the near, and almost 
 familiar intercourse of a friend, and guide. 
 
 It is in the Bible that the mysteries of the 
 Triune Jehovah are best studied ; for they are 
 presented to us there, not as matters of abstract 
 reasoning, or dogmatical assertion, but of per- 
 sonal application ; and certainly the most profit- 
 able way in which we may learn to think rightly 
 of the Trinity, and especially of the Catholic 
 doctrine of the personality, and divinity of the 
 Holy Ghost, is by following out historically, in a 
 humble, teachable, and devout spirit, the Scrip- 
 tural account of the mode and extent of his 
 operation ; and comparing that account with 
 what we ourselves experience of his actings upon 
 our own hearts. 
 
 II. Another practical lesson which we should 
 learn from the subject is, that the abode of the 
 Spirit with the Universal Church was not to form 
 a new Church ; but to enlarge and enlighten the 
 qI^ one — " the Israel of God." Still less was it 
 to produce a merely external unity, the outward 
 and visible form of a Church only ; but to create 
 a new, living, breathing man, the body of Christ 
 
SERMON I. 159 
 
 united to him as its head, and acting under him, 
 and according to his one and supreme will. 
 
 Hence it follows that we are individually 
 members of that holy fellowship to which the 
 promises belong only in proportion as, feeding 
 hour by hour upon the spiritual food of the 
 most precious body and blood of our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, we grow up into him in all 
 things, and are very members incorporate of his 
 mystical body, which is the blessed company of 
 all faithful people. Our interest in all these 
 privileges, as a Church, or as individuals, is not 
 to be made out by genealogical deductions, but 
 is to be demonstrated by the sanctity of our 
 conduct, the devotedness of our zeal, the meek- 
 ness of our tempers, the humility of our spirit, 
 and the depth of our self-denying love. 
 
 Without Him we are nothing, and can do 
 nothing ; for we have no independent life, and it 
 is only while we abide in him, and he in us, that 
 we can live or be fruitful ; and it is only while 
 our own, or any other Church, is productive of 
 such living and fruit-bearing branches, that she 
 can reasonably rejoice in the perception ofpente- 
 costal blessings. The Spirit was poured out on 
 the primitive church for its advancement in holi- 
 ness and power, and it is impossible to read the 
 Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles, without 
 
160 SERMON I. 
 
 feeling that the disciples of Christ did so advance 
 from that day forward ; they became new men, 
 and had another mind given to them. They be- 
 came bold, and decided ; men of deeper views, 
 and more exalted aims, who " counted not their 
 lives dear mito them if they might finish their 
 com'se with joy, and the ministry which they had 
 received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel 
 of the grace of God." ^ 
 
 Even so " the manifestation of the Spirit 
 is given to every one of us to profit \vithal,"' 
 and we should give all diligence that our pro- 
 fiting may appear unto all men by our bring- 
 ing forth more abundantly the fruits of the 
 Spirit in " love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gen- 
 tleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and tem- 
 perance." Such good fruits will shew that God is 
 with us of a truth, and his Spirif^thus " working 
 in us will witness to our spirits that we are the 
 sons of God." 
 
 III. Further we derive this advantage from 
 the visible nature of the Spirit's actings in the 
 former ages of the Church, that we learn some- 
 thing of the manner and circumstances under 
 which God is pleased now to communicate his 
 manifold gifts of grace. We cannot but observe, 
 then, that outward signs were usually, indeed 
 
 h Acts, XX. 24. ' 1 Cor. xii. 7. 
 
SElliMON I. IGl 
 
 we might almost say uniformly, employed to con- 
 vey the Holy Ghost, though doubtless the gifts 
 thus conveyed might have been communicated 
 without any such outward process, and visible 
 demonstration. In illustration of this remark 
 we need only refer to the anointing oil, the im- 
 position of hands, the breathing of our Lord on 
 his disciples, and the tongues of fire on the day 
 of Pentecost. Thus has God intimated to us 
 that He is pleased to connect the inward and 
 spiritual grace with the outward and visible sign, 
 not indeed as cause and effect, but as means and 
 end ; and so to connect them that we have no 
 warrant in expecting the end without the use of 
 the means. The Sacraments, therefore, and the 
 other means of gi'ace which Christ has ordained 
 for the conveyance and the continuance of spi- 
 ritual life, are '' generally necessary to salvation," 
 We cannot say that God may not, and even does 
 not, grant his holy Spirit without the use of such 
 means, as the Holy Ghost seems in former times 
 to have possessed, and inspired individuals, in 
 what might be deemed an irregular manner ; but 
 we dare not neglect the ordinances of God with 
 which his promises of the Spirit's presence stand 
 connected; while, on the other hand, we use 
 those sacraments and ordinances in the assured 
 
 M 
 
JG2 SERMON I. 
 
 hope through faith of receiving the grace of which 
 they are the divinely appointed sign, and pledge, 
 and conveying instrument. 
 
 IV. Yet, on the other hand, we learn from the 
 discontinuance of the anointing oil as a symbol 
 of the Holy Spirit in the ordination of ministers 
 of the New Testament, that the dispensation of 
 symbols has passed away. The Spirit is now 
 conveyed by prayer, and the laying on of hands, 
 but not symbolized by any material sign. And 
 it is the more important to bear this in mind be- 
 cause no small portion of the errors which have 
 of late distracted our Church, appear to have 
 been derived from looking in the Christian dis- 
 pensation for a series of symbols parallel to those 
 of the Mosaic ritual; instead of which we 
 should remember that in the Gospel we have the 
 very tiling of which Judaism had the sign — we 
 have the substance of their shadow, not another 
 shadow of a more subtle and less opaque cha- 
 racter ; but the absolute removal of all shadow 
 by the full glory of the light of Christ. Thus the 
 Jews had the anointing oil for their prophets, 
 their priests, and their kings, as a symbol of the 
 Holy Spirit which was given for the discharge of 
 those offices ; but Christ has made all his jjeople, 
 without distinction, kings and priests to their 
 
SERMON I. 163 
 
 God and Father, not with an outward anointing, 
 but by the real communication of the Holy 
 Spirit. Hence they share his triumph and reign 
 with him ; and offer up unto him spiritual sacri- 
 fices of prayer, and praise, and holy living ; and 
 serve not in the oldness of the letter but in new- 
 ness of spirit. 
 
 V. Lastly let us from what God has done 
 hitherto for his Church and people, learn to ex- 
 pect largely from his abundant grace. We have 
 seen that the Holy Ghost was from the begin- 
 ning with the Church, in a measure, according 
 to its special necessities ; and that every promise 
 of a more abundant outpouring of the Spirit was 
 fulfilled. What an encouragement is thus given 
 to us to pray to Him, who has promised to give 
 his Holy Spirit to those that ask Him, that he 
 would be pleased to convey the riches of that 
 heavenly grace to ourselves individually, to the 
 Universal Chvirch, and specially to that branch 
 of it which by his goodness has been established 
 in our country, to all in authority over us, to all 
 who are working with us, that God may so bless 
 and guide, sustain and sanctify us and them, lead- 
 ing us into all truth, and preserving us from all 
 error, that we may be effectual ministers of his 
 good pleasure, and that through our instrument- 
 
164 SERMON I. 
 
 ality, though in ourselves we be nothing, his way 
 may be known upon earth, his saving health 
 among all nations, with whom he has placed us 
 as a people in such extensive, mysterious, and 
 deeply responsible contact. 
 
SERMON 11. 
 
 John xiv. 17. 
 He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 
 
 As these words form part of our Lord's discourse 
 with his disciples immediately before he passed 
 over the brook Cedron, and entered into the 
 garden of Gethsemane, there to be dehvered into 
 the hands of wicked men, they describe the con- 
 dition of the Church up to the latest period of 
 his personal ministry. Yet in our consideration 
 of this subject this morning, we have seen (1) 
 how very largely the Holy Spirit had been granted 
 to the Church of the Old Testament; and that 
 not the Apostles only, but the seventy Disciples 
 also, had been endowed before the day of Pente- 
 cost with miraculous powers, as a warrant for 
 their ministry, and with special gifts and graces 
 for its discharge. 
 
 Still it is evident from the text that some 
 greater blessing was withheld and promised ; and 
 
166 SERMON II. 
 
 that greater blessing, the reception of which made 
 it expedient for them that Jesus should go away, 
 was to be waited for at Jerusalem, as a qualifi- 
 cation for their ministry, even though the risen 
 Saviour had previously breathed on them, and 
 said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost."* 
 
 It appeared then further (2) that "the j^romise 
 of the Father" as given by Joel, and fulfilled at the 
 day of Pentecost, was of a two-fold import : first, 
 in respect of the universality of the blessing — 
 that the Spirit should be poured on all flesh — and 
 next, with regard to the special character of the 
 gifts then conveyed; adapted, as they were, to 
 the peculiar wants of the Church at that time. 
 
 Having thus considered two of the questions 
 proposed for our investigation; namely, (1) the 
 degree of spiritual influence which was granted 
 to the Church before the day of Pentecost : and 
 (2) the nature of the gift then communicated : 
 it remains that we now enquire, 
 
 (3) What is our present and personal interest 
 in that gift ? In other words, what were and 
 are the distinguishing peculiarities of the ministra- 
 tion of the Spirit, that is of the gospel dispensa- 
 tion ? How was the Spirit, who up to the day 
 of Pentecost dwelt zvith believers, so to dwell in 
 them afterwards that they should become temples 
 
 a John XX. 22. 
 
SERMON I. 167 
 
 of the Holy Ghost, Christ thus fulfiUing his 
 promise that he would be with his Church, even 
 to the end of the world ? 
 
 I. To answer this question, we must consider 
 the terms in which " the iwom'ise of the Father " 
 was conveyed; and the manner in which it was 
 fulfilled as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, 
 yet further illustrated in the Epistles, and com- 
 pared with the present influence of the Spirit on 
 the people of God. 
 
 In the 68th Psalm we are told, generally, that 
 the Messiah was to " ascend up on high, to receive 
 gifts for men, yea even for the rebellious also, that 
 the Lord God might dwell among them," But 
 the prophet Joel is more explicit, and declares 
 that when the Spirit should be poured upon all 
 flesh " the sons and daughters should prophesy, 
 the old men should dream dreams, the young 
 men should see visions ; and also upon the ser- 
 vants, and upon the handmaids in those days God 
 would pour out his Spirit." ^ As then we have 
 already seen that the Catholic Church was con- 
 stituted by the pouring out of the Spirit on all 
 flesh — that is on every nation — so here we see 
 that the Church was to be richly endowed by 
 the general communication of the Holy Spirit, to 
 the believing members of Christ, without distinc- 
 
 i> Joel ii. 28. 
 
168 SERMON II. 
 
 tion of age, sex, or station. Moses had said, 
 " Would that all the Lord's people were pro- 
 phets ;" "" and here we are told that the " sons and 
 daughters should prophesy : " which is at least in 
 harmony with our Lord's gracious invitation 
 " Suffer little children to come unto me, and for- 
 bid them not, for of such is the kingdom of 
 heaven.""^ The '^old men and the young men" 
 may be taken in an official sense, as in 1 Pet. v. 5., 
 "Ye younger submit to the elder;" and perhaps 
 also in what St. John says in his first epistle, of 
 old and young men : and if received in this sense it 
 will imply that the special and personal reception 
 of the Spirit should not be restricted to the 
 Apostles and Elders of the Church, to qualify 
 them for their pecuhar services, but that it should 
 be the common inheritance of all the holy bre- 
 thren. It would imply that there should be no 
 such strongly marked distinction as there had 
 been under the law between the priests, and 
 levites, and the people, but that the gifts and 
 graces of the Spirit should be communicated to 
 all, in a far more general manner, only with a 
 distinctive call to the discharge of special duties. 
 The mention also of the servants and handmaids 
 is to the same effect ; and indicates one grand 
 feature of the Christian dispensation. " The poor 
 
 c Numbers xi. 2!). '' Luke xviii. IG. 
 
SERMON II. 169 
 
 have the gospel preached to them." " "As many as 
 have been baptized into Christ, have put on 
 Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there 
 is neither bond nor free, there is neither male 
 nor female; for they are all one in Christ 
 Jesus." ^ 
 
 This is a distinctive feature of Christianity in 
 respect both of Judaism, and Paganism. In the 
 latter it is well known that the esoteric and ex- 
 oteric doctrines differed essentially from each 
 other, and that the people were studiously and 
 on principle excluded from the hidden doctrines 
 conveyed in the mysteries, because it was a more 
 spiritual system, and at variance with the popu- 
 lar mythology. But with regard even to Judaism, 
 not only was there the difference between Jew 
 and Greek, but it could hardly be said that there 
 was none between male and female, when the 
 initiatory sacramental rite was applicable to one 
 sex only. Nor is this all ; for there must have 
 been something very nearly approaching to an 
 esoteric doctrine. The Spirit of God must have 
 taught individuals truths not revealed, at least 
 to ordinary perceptions, in the portion of Holy 
 Writ possessed by that ancient Church. Not 
 only were there traditions of the elders by which 
 the word of God was made of none effect, but 
 
 e Matt. xi. .5. ' Gal. iii. 27, 8. 
 
170 SERMON II. 
 
 there is every reason to suppose that there were 
 also real spmtual truths handed on, with more 
 or less distinctness and purity, from one to 
 the other, which acted as a key whereby believers 
 discovered *^ the secret things of God's word." 
 We feel on reading the Psalms, for instance, that 
 the Psalmist not only possessed himself, but as- 
 sumes the possession in ordinary uninspired 
 readers of views of doctrine, the sources of which 
 we, at least, cannot discover in the previously 
 revealed Scriptures. Amidst all the darkness — 
 the thick vail — which evidently hung over the 
 minds of the Jews in the time of our Lord, we 
 perceive traces of doctrinal views respecting the 
 resurrection of the body, for example, of which, 
 to say the least, we find no distinct revelation 
 before life and immortality were brought to light 
 by the Gospel. The Rabbinical comments, also, 
 on the Sacred Scripture (in the midst of multi- 
 plied puerilities) prove that the Jews possessed 
 views of Divine truth, which were not conveyed 
 by the mere letter of the Old Testament ; nor 
 can we suppose that believing Jews assisted at 
 the sacrifices ordained by the law of Moses, 
 without having a spiritual perception of the one 
 gi-eat sacrifice for sin which the Mosaical writings 
 are far from teaching so as to be readily perceived 
 by all. Ceremonies, indeed, were plainly revealed ; 
 
SERMON II. 171 
 
 the history of God's dealings with his people was 
 given with much particularity ; but doctrines 
 were so sparingly communicated that the book 
 of Job, obscure as it is, has sometimes been re- 
 garded as a doctrinal supplement to the writings 
 of Moses. But the prophecy of Joel predicts 
 that even the servants and handmaids should 
 prophesy ; and the fact was, and is, that the vail 
 is done away in Christ,^ so that all believers be- 
 hold with open face, as in a glass, the glory of 
 the Lord, by the Spirit of the Lord. There is 
 the same full and explicit revelation of doctrines 
 under the New Testament that there was of 
 ceremonies under the Old Testament, while on 
 the other hand we have nothing in the New Tes- 
 tament answering to the Leviticus of the Old. 
 All Christians are now encouraged to search the 
 Sacred Scriptures, as the recently converted 
 Bereans were by St. Paul, with the promise that 
 if they search them in humility, and faith, and 
 prayer, they shall be taught of God, and guided 
 into all truth that is necessary for their salvation. 
 Another point worthy of remark, in reference 
 to the gifts conferred on the Church, is that the 
 promise in Joel says nothing about the gift of 
 tongues; nor indeed of any special miraculous 
 powers with which individuals should be endowed, 
 
 6 2 Cor. iii. U. 
 
172 SERMON II. 
 
 except that they should prophesy ; and that God 
 would himself '' shew wonders in the heaven and 
 in the earth," of such a nature that they are de- 
 scribed under the terrible figures of "blood and 
 fire and pillars of smoke." Yet it seems to be 
 with some special reference to the gift of tongues 
 that St. Peter says, " This is that which was 
 spoken of by the prophet Joel." The promise 
 was that the Spirit should be given to all flesh, 
 and that they to whom he was given should pro- 
 phesy ; that is should reveal, or declare, or ex- 
 pound the written word of God, past, present, 
 or to come, to all people. As it was, however, 
 impossible that this could be done by " unlearned 
 and ignorant men," the promise of the means, 
 the gift of tongues, was included in the promise 
 of the end — the universal preaching of the gos- 
 pel. When our Lord commissioned the Twelve, 
 and afterwards the Seventy, to preach the 
 gospel throughout Judea, he gave them autho- 
 rity over unclean spirits, and to heal all manner 
 of diseases ; but he said nothing then of their 
 speaking with new tongues, because that gift was 
 not required to enable them to preach the gospel 
 to their own countrymen. But when, after his 
 resurrection, he charged them to "go into all the 
 world, and to preach the gospel to all nations ; " 
 
SERMON II. 173 
 
 he then, for the first time, foretold that believers 
 should speak with new tongues. 
 
 From all this we may, I think, deduce the im- 
 portant conclusion that the gift of tongues, at 
 least, was only an accidental circumstance of 
 the outpouring of the Spirit, required by the 
 pecuhar wants of the Church as a missionary 
 body sent forth, at once, upon a work which 
 needed the possession of other tongues than that 
 in which they were born. In confirmation of 
 which we may observe that St. Paul, whose mis- 
 sionary labours appear to have been the most ex- 
 tensive, and among the greatest variety of people, 
 thanks God that he " spake with tongues" ^ more 
 than others. We may, in like manner, thank 
 God that we have greater faciHty of intercourse 
 with the various nations of the world than others, 
 and possess versions of the Sacred Scripture in 
 a far greater variety of languages than was the 
 lot of Christians in any former age, or any other 
 country : and, therefore, we have no reason to 
 look for the gift of tongues, for which we have 
 no special necessity ; and we have certainly an 
 especial call to be more abundant than others in 
 missionary labours : but we are warranted to 
 believe that the Lord our God will dwell among 
 us, and supply all our need whatever it may be. 
 
 h 1 Cor. xiv. 18. 
 
174 SERMON II. 
 
 Would that this special call to missionary labour 
 were more deeply felt by British Christians, as 
 being the very work which the Lord of the vine- 
 yard has with the greatest distinctness assigned 
 to them ; and that in consequence more of our 
 very best and choicest spirits, our young men of 
 highest promise, were moved to consecrate them- 
 selves, their talents, and their attainments, to that 
 blessed and honourable service, the forefront of 
 the Lord's battle. 
 
 Thus then we see that while, on the one hand, 
 the distinguishing feature of the gift this day be- 
 stowed on the Church was the universality of the 
 blessing ; so, on the other hand, the gift was, in 
 respect of its nature, such as to supply the pecu- 
 har necessities of the Church at that time, and of 
 such extent as to give the disciples reason to re- 
 joice that the bodily presence of that gracious 
 Lord who had hitherto been their Comforter was 
 withdrawn, and that he had sent unto them 
 another Comforter to teach them truths which 
 they had not been able to bear before, and to 
 endue them with powers and virtues which they 
 had not previously received. 
 
 Here, however, we are met with an inquiry 
 of the most extreme personal mterest; namely, 
 what is all this to us individual Christians ? When 
 the Holy Spirit who had been with the disciples. 
 
SERMON 11. 175 
 
 came and dwelt in them, according to the words 
 of our Lord in the text. He manifested his pre- 
 sence by giving them utterance in other tongues, 
 by shewing to them things to come, and by en- 
 abling them to do many wonderful works. But 
 what interest have we in a promise which was 
 thus fLilfilled, and what evidence, short of similar 
 mighty works, can testify the Spirit's hidden resi- 
 dence in our hearts ? 
 
 That we may have clear ideas on this point, 
 and give a satisfactory reply to such questions, 
 let us pass in review the gifts of the Holy Spirit 
 to the early Church, and compare them with the 
 work of the Spirit on every behever in Jesus 
 Christ, under the present circumstances of the 
 Church. 
 
 1. Miracles. — In the first place we observe 
 that the power to work miracles had been pos- 
 sessed by the Church long before the day of 
 Pentecost ; that it was, as we have just seen, no 
 part of the original promise, except as implied in 
 the necessity of the means to the end ; and that 
 in our Lord's discourse from which the text is 
 taken, when He speaks of the coming of the Spirit 
 of Truth to dwell in the disciples. He says nothing 
 of the gifts which were to be manifested, but a 
 great deal of the heavenly knoxdedge and graces 
 which were to be conferred. When the Seventv 
 
176 SERMON II. 
 
 returned from their mission with joy, saying, 
 " Lord, even the devils are subject to us through 
 thy name ; " the answer of Jesus was, *' Notwith- 
 standing in this rejoice not that the spirits are 
 subject unto you ; but rather rejoice because your 
 names are written in heaven." ' Hence it ap- 
 pears that miraculous gifts were not only not of 
 the essence of the indwelling of the Spirit, but 
 that they were not even its most important acci- 
 dent. What was essential, and of vital moment, 
 was the assurance of " a place in the Lamb's book 
 of life ;" but such assurance may be as much, and 
 as truly, the portion of one of God's children now, 
 as it could have been of the very chiefest among 
 the Apostles. St. Paul says that the gospel came 
 to the Thessalonians " in power, and in the Holy 
 Ghost, and in much assurance ; " '' and even if we 
 suppose the word power to refer to miraculous 
 gifts, it is clear that the other expressions do not. 
 Moreover, as any or all of these gifts might exist 
 without love, and therefore without life, whatever 
 assured the Thessalonians, "made their calling 
 and election sure," may in like manner assure 
 our hearts. If they were convinced by the 
 miracle of tongues, or other preternatural agency, 
 that Jesus was exalted to the right hand of God, 
 and that the gift of the Spirit was conferred on 
 
 1 Luke X. 17, 20, '' ] Thes. i. 6. 
 
SERMON II. 177 
 
 them by him ; so may believers now have similar 
 convictions, when they " feel in themselves (to 
 use the language of our Church) the working of 
 the Spirit of Christ mortifying the works of the 
 flesh, and their earthly members, and drawing 
 up their minds to high and heavenly things.'" 
 
 II. So with regard to Prophecy. It was foretold, 
 among the other promised gifts, that they on 
 whom the Holy Spirit should be poured out, 
 should see visions, dream dreams, and prophesy. 
 This was, we know, fulfilled to the early Church 
 in a way peculiar to itself: but it was also fulfilled 
 in a way common to us. As the new law was 
 conveyed to the Church on the day which com- 
 memorated the giving of the old law; so was it 
 after a somewhat similar manner that God then 
 made known his will. Our Lord had told his 
 disciples that the Spirit should bring to their 
 remembrance all things that they had seen and 
 heard, and "should shew them things to come." 
 Accordingly we find several visions recorded; 
 that, for instance, of St. Peter, respecting inter- 
 course with Gentiles ; that of Saul at his conver- 
 sion, and of ^neas, and many others. The New 
 Testament abounds also in prophecies, and has 
 one book almost exclusively prophetical : and we 
 collect from 2 Thes. ii. 6, that the Thessalonians 
 
 ' Art. xvii. 
 
178 SERMON IL 
 
 were well acquainted with the Christian prophe- 
 cies respecting antichrist. Still it is clear, as I 
 need hardly say, that the word to lyropliesy is 
 used in a much wider sense than that of foretel- 
 ling future events, even when immediately con- 
 nected with the fulfilment of Joel's prediction. 
 For example, when Peter and John returned 
 from the council of the Jews to their Christian 
 brethren, and they had all joined together in 
 prayer and praise, we read that "■ the place was 
 shaken where they were assembled together, and 
 they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and 
 spake the xvord with boldness."'^ We should have 
 expected to read that they forthwith *' prophesied, 
 and ceased not ;" but we find boldness in proclaim- 
 ing the gospel mentioned as the immediate result 
 of their being filled with the Holy Ghost. Indeed 
 the whole history of the Apostles after the day 
 of Pentecost, compared with their previous con- 
 duct, shews that a main effect of the gift of the 
 Spirit was to make them bold in preaching 
 Christ. Such freedom from the fear of man, and 
 worldly motives, as will lead us now to confess 
 Christ before men, without being ashamed of 
 Him, and liis cause, and if ministers, fully to 
 preach his gospel, is still a characteristic result 
 of the indwelling of God's Spirit. When the 
 
 " Actsiv. 31. 
 
SERMON II. I7y 
 
 Spirit dwells in the heart of a man assuring him 
 by his own experience of the truth and power of 
 religion; the simplicity, and fearless singleness of 
 mind with which such a man will proclaim the 
 whole counsel of God, will be according to his 
 personal conviction of its truth and importance : 
 he will "prophesy according to the proportion 
 of his faith."" 
 
 There is another sense also in which the pro- 
 phetic influence of the Spirit may yet be com- 
 municated to the Church ; and that is in teaching 
 its members to apply prophecies which have 
 been already fulfilled, and to comprehend the 
 meaning of those which yet await their fulfil- 
 ment. Those seem to have been called prophets 
 in the New Testament who were employed in 
 the exposition of prophecy, and in shewing how 
 all the prophets of the Old Testament gave wit- 
 ness to Christ; and though we have no warrant 
 to expect preternatural illumination for individual 
 students of prophecy, and certainly there is 
 abundant reason to convince us that no such 
 special teaching by the Spirit has hitherto been 
 granted, yet we are warranted to believe that 
 God's Spirit will guide the Church into all need- 
 ful truth, and that devout and humble investi- 
 gators of Sacred Scripture will be employed by 
 
 " Rom. xii. 6. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 SERMON II. 
 
 him to make known his designs, as the various 
 (events referred to in prophecy approach to their 
 accompHshment. 
 
 3. Baptism. — When we pass from these 
 special gifts to what are considered the more 
 ordinary effects of the presence of the Holy 
 Spirit with the Church, we find that if it was true 
 of believers of the first age, that the Holy Ghost 
 was not only with them, but dwelling in them ; 
 it is, in the same sense, equally true of behevers 
 in Christ at the present moment. In the first 
 place, it is impossible to overlook the connexion 
 of the gift of the Holy Ghost with Christian 
 baptis7n: but the promises made to the early 
 Church in that sacrament are none other than 
 those which are now made to ourselves. St. 
 Peter preached to those who had witnessed the 
 outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, 
 "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."" Though w^e do not look for such 
 miraculous gifts as those who were then baptized 
 received, yet we look for, and if penitent and 
 faithful, receive as true a ''gift of the Holy 
 Ghost" as they did. The waters of Baptism seal 
 to us an interest in the same privileges, and con- 
 
 ° Actsii.SR. 
 
SERMON II. 181 
 
 vey to us, as by a legal instrument (to use the 
 significant illustration of our Church) the same 
 grace, and that upon similar conditions ; namely, 
 repentance and faith, without which nothing is 
 conveyed; even as a deed is said to convey an 
 estate from one person to another, but the acci- 
 dental or unjust possession of a title deed, without 
 a legal title, does not of itself give an interest in 
 the estate, though it does give presumptive evi- 
 dence of such an interest. 
 
 It is important to observe also, in reference to 
 this subject, that even in the early Church the 
 gift of the Holy Ghost, whether of ordinary 
 grace, or of miraculous power, does not appear 
 to have been uniformly, or exclusively, granted 
 in immediate connexion with baptism. For in- 
 stance, when Peter had preached to Cornelius 
 and his company, " while he yet spake," the Holy 
 Ghost fell on all them that heard the word. " "^ 
 After the Spirit had thus confirmed the efficacy 
 of the Apostle's preaching, St Peter proceeds to 
 say, "Can any man forbid water that these 
 should not be baptized who have received the 
 Holy Ghost as well as we?"** So we see that 
 they did not receive the Holy Ghost because they 
 were baptized, but they were baptized because 
 the Holy Ghost had already accompanied the 
 
 " Acts X. 44. '' Acts X. 47. 
 
182 SERMON II. 
 
 word preached, according to our Lord's promise, 
 "with signs following" in them by whom it was 
 believed; they received the title deed, because 
 their interest in the estate had been demonstrated. 
 
 On the other hand, the disciples of John the 
 Baptist whom St. Paul found at Ephesus, and 
 who had " not so much as heard whether there 
 was any Holy Ghost,'"" were first baptized into 
 the name of the Lord Jesus, and it was not until 
 the Apostle had afterwards laid his hands on 
 them that " the Holy Ghost came upon them, 
 and they spake with tongues, and prophesied." 
 
 To take a totally different case, Simon 
 Magus is said to have believed, and to have 
 been baptized; and there is every reason to 
 suppose that when the Apostles Peter and John 
 came down to Samaria, and laid their hands 
 on the recent converts there, that Simon Magus 
 received the Holy Ghost with the rest. Yet we 
 read, immediately afterwards, that his " heart 
 was not right with God, and that he was in the 
 gall of bitterness, and the bond of perdition.'" 
 
 Thus is the connexion of the Spirit of God 
 with baptism the same now that it was in the 
 beginning. 
 
 4. Ordination. So also in ordination. We 
 beheve that God's Spirit does now move the 
 
 ^ Acts xix. 2. • Acts viii. 23. 
 
SERMON II. 183 
 
 hearts of good and humble men, first to quahfy 
 themselves by all needful learning for the work 
 of the ministry, and then to devote themselves 
 to that blessed office : and we beUeve that they 
 who, being thus moved, seek the imposition of 
 the hands of the Bishop, and of the Presbytery, 
 and the prayers of the Church, do receive the 
 Holy Ghost for the office and work to which they 
 are ordained, and much boldness in the service 
 of their Lord and Master. There is nothing in 
 the epistles of St, Paul to Timothy or Titus, 
 which is not apphcable to the work and the pri- 
 vileges of a minister of Christ among ourselves; 
 and when the Apostle exhorts Timothy ' to keep 
 that good thing which was committed to him by 
 the Holy Ghost, which he says, as in our text, 
 dwelleth in us, he uses language which a Bishop 
 may now address to one of his presbyters. While 
 guarding most sedulously therefore, against ex- 
 aggerated and Judaizing notions of sacerdotal 
 pre-eminence, which are utterly inconsistent with 
 the whole genius of Christianity, we must be 
 careful so to magnify our office, as to claim the 
 spiritual privileges which were promised by Christ 
 when he said, '' Lo! I am with you always, even 
 to the end of the world,"" for certainly no consi- 
 deration is more calculated to stimulate to 
 
 t 2 Tim. 1.14. " Matt.xxviii.20. 
 
184 SERMON II. 
 
 devoted zeal, or to rouse to holy vigilance, than 
 that we have our Lord, though absent in body, 
 yet spiritually present by the Holy Ghost who 
 dwelleth in us. What a thought is this to accom- 
 pany a clergyman in his closet, his family, his 
 parish, and his church ! What earnestness will 
 it impart to his prayers, what sanctity to his con- 
 versation, what power and tenderness to his pas- 
 toral intercourse, what unction, simplicity, and 
 weight, to his entire ministrations! We may 
 still say, with grateful joy, " when he ascended 
 up on high he led captivity captive, and gave 
 gifts unto men. And he gave some, apostles ; and 
 some, prophets ; and some, evangelists ; and some, 
 pastors and teachers ; for the perfecting of the 
 saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edi- 
 fying of the body of Christ.'"' 
 
 5. Ordinary Christian life. So again with re- 
 gard to the ordinary life of a Christian, we shall 
 find what corresponds with the gifts bestowed on 
 the Church. If the minister of Christ is war- 
 ranted to believe that the Holy Ghost will dwell 
 in him after any spiritual manner, it is simply in 
 reference to his meetness for the office to which 
 he has been called, and his support in its dis- 
 charge ; for unto every member of the household 
 of faith is given grace " according to the measure 
 
 * Eph. iv. 0—12. 
 
SERMON II. 185 
 
 of the gift of Christ ;" ' that is, the gift of Christ— 
 the Holy Spirit — is conveyed by the triumphant 
 Saviour to all his people, as every one hath need ; 
 not only to the early Christians as they had 
 need, nor to the ministers of Christ according 
 to their wants, but to the universal Church, till 
 the mystical body of Christ is completed by the 
 accession of every joint, and member, knit toge- 
 ther in love under its living Head. Christ and 
 his work are the same now as ever ; " for by one 
 Spirit we are all baptized into one body," the 
 Spirit dividing grace to every one severally as he 
 wills, and as thei/ need. As we would not con- 
 fine the promise of the Spirit to the Apostles, 
 but shew that, for all ministerial purposes, it ex- 
 tends to all the ministers and stewards of God's 
 mysteries ; so also we would carefully maintain 
 the interest of all God's children in the like gift, 
 according to their individual necessities, and ac- 
 cording to the faith with which they are enabled 
 to plead the promise which was given " to as 
 many as the Lord our God should call."^ If we 
 refer to the words connected with the text, we 
 do not find any thing that need restrict their 
 apphcation to the Apostles, or to the men of that 
 day. What he said unto them, he said unto all : 
 " If ye love me, keep my commandments, and I 
 
 ^ Eph. iv. 7. " Acts ii. 39. 
 
186 SERMON II. 
 
 will pray the Father, and he shall give you ano- 
 ther Comforter, that he may abide with you for 
 ever ; even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world 
 cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither 
 knoweth him, but he dvvelleth with you, and 
 shall be in you." Neither is it true that " the gift 
 of the Spirit" means, as some have imagined and 
 taught, only miraculous powers ; for St. Paul is 
 writing to ordinary Christians, and with reference 
 to their daily walks, when he says, "know ye 
 not that ye are the temple of God, and that the 
 Spirit of God dwelleth in you."* He reminds also 
 the faithful brethren in Christ at Ephesus that 
 they were builded together, as living stones of the 
 holy temple, " for the habitation of God through 
 the Spirit ;"'' so that as the Spirit dwelt in the 
 temple at Jerusalem, and afterwards in the tem- 
 ple of the body prepared for the incarnation of 
 the Son of God, so does he now dwell in be- 
 lievers, making their bodies, as the Apostle says, 
 " temples of the Holy Ghost," and, we may 
 add, his only earthly temples. The Apostle to 
 the Hebrews calls believers " the house of Christ," 
 and he exhorts the Corinthians to " examine 
 themselves whether they were in the faith," by 
 the searching consideration, '' Know ye not your 
 own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you, ex- 
 
 • 1 Cor. iii. 16. " Epli. ii. 21. 
 
SERMON II. 187 
 
 cept ye be reprobates ;"" and he says to the Ro- 
 mans, " ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, 
 if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Noro 
 if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is 
 none of his.""^ 
 
 These are very strong expressions, doubtless, 
 but they are in entire harmony with the words 
 of our text ; and yet they are clearly apphcable, 
 not only to an age of special and miraculous 
 agency, but to the present state of every Chris- 
 tian. 
 
 If then it is true of every behever in Christ 
 that the Spirit of God dwelleth in him, let us, in 
 apphcation of our subject, consider this truth in 
 a practical point of view. 
 
 1. As a test of character. 
 
 If we are warranted as Christians to expect 
 more than the presence of Christ among us, even 
 the actual dwelling of the Holy Ghost within us, 
 so that we are to become the " temples of God 
 through the Spirit," it clearly becomes us to in- 
 quire whether the Holy Ghost does thus dwell in 
 us ? On the one hand, we must not be deterred 
 from making such an inquiry by fear of the en- 
 thusiasm, strictly so called, to which this doc- 
 trine may have given rise ; for it is clear that the 
 words of the text do imply a real intercourse 
 
 " 2 Cor. xii. 15. " Romans, viii. 9. 
 
188 SERMON II. 
 
 between the Spirit of God and our own minds, 
 which it is reasonable to expect, and therefore it 
 is reasonable to inquire whether it has been re- 
 ceived. Nor, on the other hand, should we 
 remain satisfied with a merely intellectual creed, 
 and a form of godliness, but must long after a 
 rehgion within ; the life of God in the soul. We 
 must seek for such a living and acting presence 
 of the Holy Ghost, according to our Lord's most 
 gracious and true promise, as will produce the 
 " fruits of the Spirit in all goodness, and righte- 
 ousness, and truth." We must remember that 
 our Lord said of Christians, " If any man love 
 me, he will keep my words, and my Father will 
 love him, and we will come unto him, and make 
 our abode with him."^ There must be something 
 real meant by such words as these, and some- 
 thing distinctive. They must mean such a 
 manifestation of Christ by the Holy Ghost as is 
 not made unto the world, and which marks out 
 those to whom it is made as being not of the 
 world, even as Christ was not of the world. 
 
 But this presence, this abiding, this special and 
 distinguishing manifestation, as it is granted to 
 those who obey God under the influence of love, 
 so will it also give evidence of its existence by 
 the conformity of the will, the temper, the affec- 
 
 ' Eph. V. 9. ^ John, xiv. 23. 
 
SERMON II. 189 
 
 tions, the desires of the mind, the habits of the 
 life — the whole character — to the likeness of Him 
 who takes up his abode in the heart. If then 
 our character, the spirit of our mind, be still 
 carnal, and worldly ; if our tempers be unre- 
 strained, the flesh still unsubdued, and the affec- 
 tions bound dow^n to the earth, it is evident, in 
 proportion as this is the case, that the Holy 
 Ghost does not dwell in us, and that we are not 
 led by the Spirit of God. There is, therefore, 
 in such case no witness given to our spirit that 
 we are children of God ; and if we be not chil- 
 dren, then we are not heirs, but aliens, as yet, 
 from the covenant of promise, without that good 
 hope which faith alone can give, and without 
 God in the world ; for the believer in Christ re- 
 ceives not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit 
 which is of God.^ Although we may have had 
 the sacramental pledge of all those privileges, 
 yet as circumcision became uncircumcison to the 
 Jew who kept not the law, so to the wordly and 
 carnal Christian, his baptism becomes of none 
 effect, yea, rather it will tend to his greater con- 
 demnation, for God will bring him under the 
 bond of the covenant, and by it will he be 
 judged. 
 
 2. A standard of attainment. — If then we may 
 
 8 1 Cor. ii. 12. 
 
190 SERMON II. 
 
 test our character by tlie expectation we are 
 warranted to form of the indwelling of God's 
 Spirit in our hearts, if we be faithful, we may 
 use the same doctrine, further, as a standard of 
 attainment. And what an exalted standard is thus 
 presented to us! The Apostle, who declared 
 that in his flesh dwelt no good thing, that he 
 could do nothing by his own natural powers, 
 because by nature he was spiritually dead, says 
 nevertheless that he can " do all things through 
 Christ strengthening him," and that Christ liveth 
 in him. 
 
 Therefore we must be careful not to think that 
 we have attained, and sit down contented with 
 such a low standard of holy hving, and holy 
 dying — that daily death — as passes current in 
 the world; but forgetting the things that are 
 behind, and reaching forth to those things which 
 are before, we must press toward the mark of the 
 prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.*" 
 We are taught by the communion service of our 
 Church that if we "^spiritually eat the flesh of 
 Christ, and drink his blood," not only in the 
 celebration of that blessed sacrament, but in the 
 daily habit of our lives, " we dwell in Christ, and 
 Christ in us, we are one with Christ, and Christ 
 with us." So also St. Paul tells the "Saints and 
 
 '' Phil. iii. 13, 14. 
 
SERMON II. 191 
 
 faithful brethren in Christ at Colosse," that they 
 ought to " set their affections on things above and 
 not on things on the earth, because they were 
 dead to the world, and their life was hid with 
 Christ in God." ' What a heavenly life is that to 
 lead! how full of peace, and joy, and blessedness! 
 and surely, with such a passage as the text before 
 our minds — warranted to beheve that the Holy 
 Ghost shall be in us as a well of water springing 
 up unto eternal Hfe — we ought not to be satisfied 
 to "walk as men," according to the course of this 
 present evil world. 
 
 In fact, the standard of attainment which a 
 simple minded reader would gather from the word 
 of God, is so exalted a one, that it has often made 
 people think a godly life something " high above 
 out of their reach," quite incompatible with the 
 discharge of the common duties of this world, 
 and even with the ordinary intercourse of man- 
 kind. Hence have arisen two opposite forms of 
 error with minds of peculiar temperament. Some 
 vigorous and active characters, eagerly bent on 
 the pursuit of this world's business, have put re- 
 ligion on one side because they felt its demands, 
 if yielded to, to be so absorbing that they must 
 needs go out of the world to satisfy them ; and 
 therefore that Christianity might be suited to the 
 
 i Col.iii. 2, n. 
 
192 SERMON II. 
 
 scholar, or the recluse, the unoccupied or the 
 infirm; but that it was impracticable to be at 
 once "fervent in spirit," and yet "not slothful in 
 business." 
 
 Others of a contemplative turn of mind, and 
 perhaps less vigorous constitution, have retired 
 from the world, dwelt in " dens and caves of the 
 earth," harassed their flesh by voluntary mortifi- 
 cations, and practised a sort of physical piety; 
 acknowledging thereby the justice of the very 
 conclusion to which the most worldly arrive, 
 namely, that religion is not consistent with an 
 active interest in the affairs of this rough world. 
 
 We should indeed be in an evil case if these 
 conclusions were correct ; for in that case Christi- 
 anity would be of no use to those who most 
 needed it, and we must go out of the world if we 
 wish to win heaven, and leave this world's affairs 
 to be managed by those who were for this very 
 reason the least fitted for the task, because their 
 whole soul was devoted exclusively to them, and 
 they had no views beyond the grave. It was 
 however no part of our Lord's prayer for his 
 people that they should be taken out of the 
 world, but that they should be kept from its evil 
 — ^living in it, and yet not of it — walking on the 
 earth, and yet having their conversation in heaven 
 — living as the men of another world, the citizens 
 
SERMON II. 193 
 
 of a glorious and holy city towards which their 
 desires are constantly directed, and for which 
 they are daily becoming more meet. 
 
 3. An encouragemeiit to exertion. — But if the 
 worldly and the ascetic are ahke wrong in the 
 conclusion which they derive from the exalted 
 standard of attainment which the doctrine of our 
 text exhibits, that it is something which they 
 cannot hope to reach who are engaged in the 
 affairs of life, and exposed to its temptations, we 
 may also regard the subject as affording the most 
 ample encouragement to sjnritual exertion. 
 
 If God be for us, who can be against us ? If 
 Christ dwells by his Spirit in the hearts of his 
 people, they may descend into the arena of life, 
 and fight there, day by day, an unceasing and 
 unwearied battle, sore let and hindered, often 
 baffled, often discouraged, sometimes afraid, faint 
 yet pursuing, and still advancing onwards to final 
 and certain victory. Such is the Christian's life 
 and conflict, and such its blessed issue. Not pe- 
 culiar to this or that man, but common to all of 
 every age, and station, and national character. 
 No man is exempt from the struggle with the 
 evil one, and therefore we should not think it 
 strange when we are exposed to some fiery trial, 
 and so be discouraged and cast down, as though 
 some strange thing had happened unto us : but 
 
194 SERMON II. 
 
 we should remember at the same time, for our 
 encouragement, that no believer in Christ is ex- 
 cluded from the benefit of his Saviour's triumph, 
 when he ascended up on high that he might send 
 down the Spirit to dwell in the hearts of his 
 people, that they might be strengthened with all 
 might by his Spirit in their inner man." There- 
 fore we may work without discouragement, and 
 fight without fear, and pray with all boldness, 
 being assured that our Heavenly Father will give 
 his Holy Spirit to those that ask him; and that 
 if He dwells in us, we shall have a present help 
 in every needful time of trouble and danger. 
 
 4. Finally we may observe that as all our com- 
 fort, and all our strength, are derived from the 
 presence of the Holy Ghost among us, so may 
 every evil under which the Church or individuals, 
 labour, be traced to his absence. It is the re- 
 mark of a great man that *'when the religion 
 professed is decayed and full of scandal, we may 
 expect the rising up of new sects ; " ' and cer- 
 tainly a considerable portion of the sects which 
 have in all ages disturbed the peace of the Church, 
 and weakened its power, may be distinctly shewn 
 to have been derived from dissatisfaction with 
 the religion of professed Christians, and a craving 
 after something deeper, and better. These aspi- 
 
 ^ ] Peter iv. 12. ' Bacon, Essay on Religion. 
 
SERMON II. 195 
 
 rations were, no doubt, often unreasonable, and 
 proceeded from that vain expectation of finding 
 perfection here on earth, and setting up a human 
 model, which has led astray so many noble minds, 
 and made them restless, and exposed to the in- 
 fluence of every wind of doctrine : but it is im- 
 possible for any thoughtful student of Church 
 history not to feel that the languor, and even 
 unsoundness of the general condition of the 
 Church, in some particular periods and countries, 
 was such as ought not to have satisfied any 
 earnest mind. 
 
 Thus, doubtless, has it been with ourselves. 
 The frigid theology, the decent formalism, the 
 negative piety, of the last century, was what 
 could not satisfy any one who thought seriously 
 upon so absorbing a subject as the well being 
 and the eternal prospects of his own soul, and 
 consequently of the souls of others. Such a 
 state of things was philosophically false, as well 
 as theologically wrong. There was evidently 
 more reason in the self immolating fanaticism of 
 a Hindoo Fakir ; more truth in the wild enthu- 
 siasm of a Mahometan Dervish, and more piety 
 in the ascetic and unprofitable abstraction of an 
 anchorite. It is, however, easier to discover 
 error than to find out truth ; and so men, star- 
 tled out of their dreaming satisfaction with a 
 
196 SERMON II. 
 
 form of godliness without power, a Christianity 
 without the cross, orthodoxy without life, rushed 
 different ways in search of truth and reality, but 
 in too many instances discovered only an oppo- 
 site form of error, each one fixing upon that 
 which was most congenial with his own tem- 
 perament, physical or intellectual, and therefore 
 most injurious to him. What we all want to 
 turn us away from such deluding phantoms is 
 the realization of the blessed promise of the 
 text; for when the very Spirit of the Father 
 and of the Son dwells in us richly, inspiring the 
 Hfe of love, we shall indeed be studious to pro- 
 voke one another, but it will be to love, and to 
 good works ; and our hearts will be so occupied 
 by high and holy things, that we shall have little 
 time, and less inclination, for minute disputa- 
 tions ; we shall learn how much more blessed it 
 is to be the honoured instruments of turning 
 many to righteousness, or even of reclaiming one 
 stray sheep to the fold of Christ, than to have 
 silenced a thousand adversaries in the unhappy 
 conflicts which rend and distract the Church. 
 In proportion as the Spirit dwells in us, our con- 
 test will be who shall with most meek and 
 thankful patience bear the hallowed burthen of 
 his Redeemer's cross, and best exhibit the mind 
 which was in Christ Jesus, When people see 
 
SERMON II. ' 197 
 
 Christianity presented before them in this real 
 and attractive form, they will not turn back to 
 the gloomy mysticism, the wild worship, and the 
 sensuous fiction, of a corrupt Church. They 
 will not attempt to purchase God's favour by 
 laborious and painful acts of penance, for their 
 whole life will be one continuous act of peniten- 
 tial gratitude : nor will they seek access to God 
 through the mediation of the Virgin Mother, or 
 the innumerable fellowship of angels, for they 
 will find free and immediate access to the Father 
 by that one Spirit who dwells in them, and takes 
 of the things that are Christ's, even his accom- 
 plished salvation, and reveals all to the believer 
 as his own right and purchased possession. What 
 we all want is more of God's Spirit dwelling in 
 our hearts, and what the Church wants, to heal 
 its many wounds, is not more logic, but more 
 grace — less disputation, and more love — rest, ra- 
 ther than medicine. Our feverish excitement 
 about circumstantials will subside, as our interest 
 in what is essential increases ; and so all these 
 joints will fall into then* proper places, and as- 
 sume their due relative proportions. Then will 
 our religion be no longer a dead speculation, but 
 a living law ; it will be matter not of restraint, 
 but of privilege ; not of disputation, but of prac- 
 tice ; not of fear, but of love. Knowing the 
 
198 SERMON II. 
 
 Son by the Spirit's teaching, he will set us free 
 from the bondage of the world, and the flesh, 
 and the devil ; and we shall go forward in our 
 way towards heaven, that is, towards holiness, 
 rejoicing in the glorious liberty of the children 
 of God. 
 
 Let us then leave off contention, and open our 
 hearts to welcome the Spirit of love ; and may 
 the God of peace and love be with us !