<5".Z.Ov5: Srom t3e fetfirari? of (profeBBor ^amuef (glifPer tn (^emorg of 3ubge ^amuef (giifPer QSrecftinrib^e ^reeenteb 6l? ^amuef (tttiffer (grecftinrib^e feong fo f^ fei6rarp of rprinceton C^eofogicdf ^eminarg ON ^vottitnnt Homottformttg. VOL. II. I^ ON / / Protestant Nonconformity. BY JOSIAH CONDER. " We are to be concerned for this interest, not merely as tlie canse of a distinct party, but of truth, honour, and liberty j and I will add, in a great measure, Ihe cause of serious piety too." Doddridge IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: PRINTED FOR JOSIAH CONDER, ST. PAULS CHURCH YARD. MDCCCXVIir. BOOK III. ON THE RITES AND SERVICES OF THE CHURCH. CHAP. I. The Rule of Public Worship. ^ 1. When Martin Luther first published Tbesuffici- •^ _ ency ot the his ninety-five theses against Indulaencies, no- scriptures, *' , . ^'"^ founda- thins: could be more remote from his tfiouahts, tion-stoneof ^ ... Protestant- than any project of delivermg his countrymen ism. from the Papal thraklom. Could he have an- ticipated the consequences of that bold mea- sure, he would have shrunk with horror from the prospect. At that period, he entertained no suspicion against the Divine origin of the Papacy. His professions of dutiful respect for the authority of the Holy See were perfectly sincere; nor was it till the unjust and oppres- sive measures taken by the Court of Home to silence him, had put him upon the necessity of self-defence, that he proceeded to examine the principles upon which his unconditional sub- mission was exacted ; and, pushing on his in- X SOfJ SUFFICIENCY OF THE SCRIPTURES quiries and attacks, from one doctrine to ano- ther, began at length to shake the very founda- tions of the Romish Church. The discovery of truth, in all cases in which it is not fortuitous, is an achievement of great dif- ficulty, although, having once been discovered, truth of all kinds may be apprehended with ease. This is particularly the case with regard to those grand but simple propositions, which rank among the first principles of moral sci- ence. They were arrived at by slow and painful efforts ; while they who were the instruments of eliciting them, were not, in many instances, fully conscious of the nature of the discovery. They were in the situation of a mariner driven by the exigencies of pursuit or bad weather, to harbour in some. unknown position, the general features of which he has not time to explore; his only object being the present shelter it af- fords, and leaving it to others, who may follow in the same track, to avail themselves of its natural advantages. The most splendid actions, those which have been attended by the most bene- ficial results to mankind, have seldom taken their- rise in enlarged views of the principles \^hich they involve. The first step has been taken under the impulse of duty; and it has not been till the individuals were called upon to combat its consequences, that general prin- ciples have begun to occupy their attention. THE BASIS OF PROTESTANTISM^ 307 Those very principles which could alone justify their conduct, would probably have been dis- claimed by them with utter repugnance, had they been presented under the different modi- fications of which they are susceptible. No ordinary degree of moral intrepidity is requi- site, to dare all the consequences of admitted truths. The principle upon which Luther was ulti- mately driven to take his stand, although he was far from having, at first, any distinct per- ception of its general bearings, — the principle upon which alone he was able to maintain his ground, was, the sufficiency and exclusive au- thority of the Holy Scriptures, as the sole standard of religious truth. This cardinal ar- ticle of Protestantism was his fortress; he found it impregnable; and thus intrenched, he was able to bid defiance to the leagued powers of darkness. To the authorities of popes and councils, to the dogmas of the schools, to the decisions of the beatific doctor, and to all the sophistry of the casuists, he opposed simply the Bible, that sole umpire, that only eccle- siastical authority in matters of faith. This was the weapon, " the sword of the Spirit," with which he achieved the greatest moral vic- tory that has been won since the establishment of Christianity. Among a large class even of Protestants, X 2 308 SUFFICIENCY OF THE SCRIPTURES. however, this grand truth, although bearing all the marks of clearness and certainty which characterize the principles of science, is far from being recognised as entitled to an unqua- lified assent. Like other general truths, in the absence of those circumstances which necessi- tate their being resorted to as the immediate rules of action, it is admitted in speculation, and then laid by in the mind's dormitory, among the rusty weapons and obsolete armour of intellectual warfare. There seems to pre- vail, indeed, in many cases, a secret dread of its being brought into use, as a rule of universal application ; there is, at least, a strong propen- sity to stop short of its full development, as if, when pushed beyond a certain extent, it be- came unsafe to follow it out in practice. A principle true in itself, cannot, however, lose the character of truth, in consequence of its being carried too far, unless it can be proved that in its application it involves a contradic- tion of some other equally certain principle, which prescribes its limitation. The sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures, cannot be shewn to have the least, hostile relation to any truth of equal authority; the limitations by which it has been attempted to fetter its application, rest entirely on hunian policy. Various methods have been adopted to deprive Protestants of the free use and full benefit of this fundamental TRADITION NOT A RyLE. 300 principle of the Reformation, among which the following are the grounds upon which its ap- plication has been most plausibly resisted. § 2. First, The sufficiency of the Scriptures Tradition has been impugned, on the ground that eccle- tTorUaUve siastical tradition is, on certain points, a neces- sary guide. This is the plea of the Romanist, who contends for the equal authority of x\po- stolic tradition, as orally transmitted through successive ages, without interruption, by the Church of God ; it being a matter of indifFe^-- ence, according to his argument, whether the doctrines originally given by Divine Revela- tion, are to be found in the written records, or have been thus delivered by word of mouth. Protestants professedly reject this notion with abhorrence, as subversive of the only solid basis of faith. It has been, indeed, the fruitful source of the grossest impositions ever practised upon the credulity of mankind. Under similar pretences, the Jewish doctors contended for the authority of the Mishna, as imbodying the oral law; making the commandments of God of no effect by their traditions : *' In vain do " they worship me," said our Saviour, " teach- " ing for doctrines the commandments of meri." Yet, although in contending with the Papist, a due jealousy has been manifested for the ex- clusive claims of the Scriptures, as the only in- "^ spired authoritative standard of faith, human au- 310 TRADITION NOT A RULE. thorities have been on other occasions appealed to, as possessing a force little short of what the Church of Rome ascribes to tradition. It is in a spirit not very different from that of Popery, that the authority of antiquity, the authority of the fathers, the authority of the Church, are called in by Protestant controvertists, in support of opinions and practices, for which the sacred volume affords no sanction. There is, indeed, an obvious sense, in which these may be regarded as authorities, but it is a sense essentially different from that in which the term is employed to express the claims of Divine Revelation. There is the authority attaching to a human record, which consists simply in the internal marks of veracity; but the au- thority of the Divine records partakes of the authority of a law. With regard to the one, belief is reasonable, but it is at our option to believe; with regard to the latter, there is su- perinduced upon the reasonableness of be- lieving, the highest obligation to the exercise of faith. When it is asserted, that the Scriptures are the only standard in matters of religious duty, it is not implied that they are the only possible source of information with regard to such subjects as are connected with our faith or our practice, but that the Divine testimony in the Scriptures is the only basis upon which belief can, as a religious duty, rest; the only TRADITION NOT A RULE. 311 legitimate evidence by which the truth of what is proposed to our reception as the matter of faith, can be established. The highest degree of credibility which belongs to human records, when ascertained to be genuine, amounts only to this, that in the judgment of men of com- petent understandings, yet fallible in their de- cisions, and limited in their opportunities of knowledge, things were so ; but, without any impeachment of their veracity, there is still room to consider them as mistaken. With re- spect to the rule of faith, the veracity of the human witness is accompanied with the infal- libility of inspiration, and hence results the certainty that what is recorded as revealed, is true. The three points usually referred to, as war- ranting the notion of the validity of the autho- rity of Tradition, are, the integrity of the Canon of Scripture, the obligation of the Christ- ian Sabbath, and the practice of Infant Bap- tism. Each of these, it is imagined, rests upon evidence distinct from the Scriptures; and that, therefore, the practice of every church involves a tacit admission of the necessity of some col- lateral or auxiliary authority, to supply the de- ficiencies of the inspired standard. [1.] The genuineness and integrity of the objected New Testament records, are not, however, the totheCanon matter of faith, but a previous question deter- " ''"p""- 312 TRADITION NOT A RULE. minable by the laws of historical evidence. Those who lived nearest the times of the in- spired writers, had, in some respects, superior advantages for ascertaining the fact ; and their unanimous concurrence in a declaration con- cerning it, is entitled to the highest consideration, as part of the chain of external evidence sub- stantiating the authenticity of the sacred Canon. Butneitherdoesthegenuineness of the Apostolic writings, rest simply on the declaration of any Council that they are genuine, but rather on evidence antecedently existing, which afforded the ground of that decision ; nor can their au- thority, as inspired writings, be made in the least to depend on the testimony of Tradition with respect to their authenticity. That testi- mony is of no other avail, than to establish the historical fact, that the sacred writings com- posing the New Testament, were so early re- ceived by the Church as constituting the Canon of Christian Scripture. The Divine claims of Revelation to individual reception, are wholly independent of Tradition, and these are what are intended by the exclusive autho- rity of the, sacred Scriptures. Objected [2.] The practice of Infant Baptism, consi- to Infant dereclas a lact, it is equally within the com- petent province of Tradition to substantiate, by affording in its support the rational evidence of ancient precedent. From this precedent we Baptism. TRADITION NOT A RULE. 313 may fairly reason as to the construction which was put upon the scriptural command — ^to bap- tize, by those who lived the nearest to the pe- riod when Christian Baptism was instituted, adducing" this consideration in support of the strong probability that the practice of Infant Baptism did not originate in a departure from the Apostolic directions. In ascertaining the import and design of the Scriptural command, a stress is with propriety laid on the testimony of ancient writers ; but the validity of Infant Baptism itself does not rest upon either the opinions or the practice of the early Christians. Historical authorities must be allowed their due weight, as evidence of the pre-existing law, but the obligations of duty can have no other basis than the revealed will of Christ. [3.] The authority of what has been termed objecteri ,^->,,.. oiiii' 1 ••11 exceplionas the Christian Sabbath, is supposed principally toiheSab- to be derived from Tradition, since no specific command substituting the first day of the week for the seventh, as a Sabbath, is to be found in the New Testament. In this case, however, it is not less obvious, than in the preceding one, that the evidence of a pre-existing obligation, and the source of that obligation, are considera- tions essentially distinct. Waiving, therefore, the question, how far the Scriptures contribute sufficient information for our guidance in this respect, (to say nothing of the arguments in fiXr 314 TRADITION NOT A RULE. vour of the moral expediency of such an ob- servance, in the absence of specific command,) it is sufficient to remark, that Tradition (which is but another word in this reference for his- torical documents,) cannot have the virtue of a law, or supply, in the silence of the Scriptures, the place of a rule of faith. Ai%edin- For even were we to allow, with regard to sufficiency oftbe Scrip- any one of these points, that the Scriptures are lures, inca- pable of deficient in clearness, and so far practically in- sufficient, the supposed difficulty is not at all removed by calling in the aid of Tradition, because the authority of Revelation cannot ex- tend beyond what is actually revealed. The rule of faith, that which constitutes the only certain evidence of duty, is, the Divine testi- mony. Where this leaves us in comparative uncertainty, it is that lower degree of evidence ^ pre-supposed by doubt, upon which we are called to regulate our belief and , obedience ; and how many are the occasions on which, in the common transactions of life, our decisions and exertions are necessarily determined by mere, probabilities! With the judgment of others, respecting the degree of clearness at- tending Revelation, we have little concern : human opinion adds nothing to the evidence of truth. What is revealed is certain ; but it is equally certain, whether it is believed by us or not; and to any declaration on the part of un- TRADITION NOT A RULE. 315 inspired men, that it is revealed, no certainty can attach, because that declaration rests sim- ply upon opinion, and cannot oblige the con- science. The only basis of religious duty is the Divine command; but all the commands of God are not attended by the same degree of clearness. What is virtually comprehended in any Divine precept, is as much our duty, though not so obviously, as what is conveyed by specific injunction; but in these instances, the existence or the application of the com- mand is a fact which remains to be determined by a process of Scriptural induction or moral reasoning. Such reasonings, however, although they may serve to ascertain what is duty, can- not be said to constitute the rule itself, or to originate the obligation, any more than the pri- vate exposition of a human law can claim to render that law more binding. A declaratory law requires in the instituter, nothing less than the same legislative right which authorized the original enactment. The authority of the sa- cred Scriptures, is that of Inspiration. A de- claration of the import of any part of the Scrip- tures, must, in order to be binding upon our belief, proceed from men who are themselves inspired. Tradition, then, and human opinion, which have no pretensions to the character of Inspiration, can possess no authority similar to that which in the sacred Scriptures claims our 316 REASON NOT A RULE. implicit submission. Thus, the Bible is inca- pable of receiving any aid in remedy of its sup- posed insufficiency. It is not merely the su- preme, the ultimate, but the only certain rule of duty. That which contributes to establish the certainty of this rule, forms no part of the rule itself; that which adds to its clearness, adds nothing to its authority; our obligations, in matters both of faith and practice, are deter- minable by that rule alone. Reason not § 3. A sccoud uiethod, in v/hich it has been in Ihe same , . . /. i • sense anile, attempted to cmbarrass the application of this fundamental article of Protestantism, is, by contending that the Bible itself pre-supposes and recognises other rules of human action, such as the natural law of conscience, and the light of reason, and that consequently it cannot be justly said that it is the only rule. This ap- parently irrelevant argument has been gravely brought forward in order to confute the notion that all knowledge is formally contained in the Scriptures. Some of the old Nonconformist controvertists appear to have been betrayed, by their zeal, into this extravagance of opinion, far beyond the protection of the argument. Hooker has much the advantage over his op- ponent, when he remarks in reply : *' The testi- " monies of God are true, the testimonies of " God are perfect, the testimonies of God are " all-sufficient for that purpose for which they REASON NOT A RULE. 317 •' are given. Therefore, accordingly, they do '* receive them; we do not think that in them " God hath omitted any thing needful unto his " purpose, and left his intent to be accomp- " lished by our devising. But the absolute *' perfection of Scripture, is seen by relation " unto that end whereto it tendeth."* The spe- * b.u.juu cific commands contained in the word of God, are assuredly not the only rules of human ac- tions. The design of Revelation has no such positive reference to the regulation of social af- fairs, but relates almost exclusively to the dis- covery of those supernatural truths, the know- ledge of which is necessary to salvation, but which knowledge reason could not supply. The sufficiency of the Bible, as a rule of faith and practice, is to be considered as exclusive, not of other means of rational guidance, but of all other sources of authority in matters of re- ligious duty. It is not implied, that nothing but what Scripture commands is lawful, but that nothing which Scripture has not made to be duty, can, as respects the concerns of reli- gion, be constituted our duty by the authority of man. The word of God is our only rule, in the sense both of a law and a standard ; a rule sufficient, as opposed to all deficiency ; exclu- sive, as relates to the Divine authority from , which it emanates ; universal, as embracing all the principles of human actions ; and ultimate, 318 ON AN AUTHORIZED INTERPRETER. as admitting- of no appeal. For all religious purposes, it is literally the only rule, because the Divine comniand constitutes the only rea- son, as well as the only law of religious actions; and there can, therefore, be no scope for other rules, except with regard to the mere outward circumstantials of religious duties, which do not come within the obligations of any law. On the I13- § 4. A third ground on which the opponents pothesis ''f^i .-, |.. /»i 1 ' au author- 01 tho practical application of the grand prin- ized inter- .. it • ii- i*i- i.reter. cipic undcr discussion take their stand, is this: They concede that the Scriptures are the only standard of religious truth, but this standard must needs have an authorized interpreter. The Church is, according to this notion, " a witness " and a keeper of Holy Writ," and as such, hath not only " power to decree rites or cere- " monies," but hath also " authority in con- " troversies of faith," or, in other words, the right of interpreting Scripture. It is truly astonishing that an hypothesis of this kind, so fatal, were it tenable, to the cause of Protestant- ism, should ever have been heard of out of the precincts of the Romish hierarchy. Yet has this claim been extensively regarded as inse- parable from the honour and the interests of the English Episcopacy. We have seen it in the present day revived by a powerful faction in the Establishment, as among the chief rea- sons of their determined hostility to the plan of ON AN AUTIIOTIIZED INTERPRETER. 319 the British and Foreign Bible Society. No one can imagine that the coalition of Episcopalians and Protestants of other sects, in that admira- ble Society, would have excited so much jea- lousy and alarm, had the Prayer Book been permitted to take the Bible under its guardian- ship. It is the principle on which the society was instituted, and what is implied by that principle — the sufficiency and exclusive au- thority of the Bible without note or comment^ which have roused into full play the latent ««/2-Protestantism which seems inherent in all establishments. The institution of the British and Foreign Bible Society, has served, in this respect, as a grand experiment, to determine the relative state of the moral atmosphere within and without the pale of the National Church, and to shew what is the degree of affinity be- tween the spirit of Episcopacy, and the spirit of the Bible. Serious alarms have been ex- pressed by the clergy, as to the probable effects of an unrestricted circulation of the Scriptures, in reference to the safety of the Established Church; and language has again and again been suffered to escape from Church-men in the warmth of their anger and the imbecility of panic fear, which, from the lips of a Dissenter,. would have sounded like the bitterest sarcasms. Many, indeed, of the opponents of the Bible Society, have not scrupled boldly and unequi- 320 ON AN AUTHORIZED INTliRPRETER. vocally to maintain the unsuitableness of the Bible, as well as its inefficiency, in the hands of the common people. Argument To all siich representations as these, as well from the in- i i i • i i i ternai ci.a- as the hypothcsis they are employed to support, Scriptures, is to bc opposcd, in the first place, The internal character of the sacred Scriptures themselves^ The Scriptures, which alone could supply ade- • quate proof of the existence and claims of an authorized interpreter, are not merely silent on the subject, but furnish evidence utterly fatal to all such pretensions. The circumstances under which they were originally promulgated, prove that they were designed for popular use, and for the most unrestricted publicity. With respect to the Jewish Scriptures, it will scarcely be contended, that " the Church" is, in the sense intended by the phrase, a " witness and " keeper" of holy writings, which were, ages prior to the Christian era, the peculiar property of the Hebrew nation. The key to the ancient prophecies, the true means of interpretation, is vmdoubtedly in the possession of the Gentile Church ; but the right of interpretation must needs belong to those more especially to whom were originally " committed the oracles of " God." It must be the New Testament, then, to which these factitious claims relate. But do the Gospels require the illustration of an authorized expositor? Few will deny that these are suf- ON AN AUTHORIZED INTERPRETER. 321 ficiently intelligible to be entrusted in the hands of all descriptions of persons. Besides, the Church does not go so far as to claim a right of interpretation extending io fads. The doc- trinal parts of Scripture, therefore, can alone be alluded to as requiring the light of an authorized exposition to be thrown upon their mysterious contents, in order to their being rendered safe or intelligible to the vulgar. And now we arrive at the true meaning of the ob- jection. It is the Epistles of which " tlte Churcli' has always shewn this prudent jealousy, mis- quoting the words of St. Peter, as the ground of sPeteriii. ignorant allegations against the writings of St. Paul, and holding out thai text in terrorcm, to deter all unauthorized interpreters from trench, ing upon the prerogative attached to the true succession. Hence that marked distinction in the Liturgy, between the Gospels and the Epis- tles, which is expressed by the direction to stand up while the former are read, but to hear the latter read sitting; a distinction originating in the days of the darkest superstition, and the pernicious influence of which is very apparent in the indelible prejudice so prevalent among even the better informed church-people, in fa- vour of the superior sanctity of the historical' portions of Inspiration. Yes : it is the Epis- " ties, respecting which these apprehensions are entertained. From what other source can con- Y iLe Epistles. 322 ON AN AUTHORIZED INTERPRETER. troversies of faith arise? These, these are the vantage ground of heresy and schism, which it becomes expedient to appropriate and inclose with the circunivallations of ecclesiastical au- thority. chaiacterof But what is the gcnuinc character of the sa- cred Epistles? They were letters addressed to collective bodies of believers, designed to be publicly read in the assembly " to all the holy " brethren ;" letters which treated of social du- ties common to all the members of the Christian society, referring, often in terms of familiar and affectionate regard, to many individuals by name. It was given by our Lord, as a charac- teristic of his own ministry — " The poor have " the Gospel preached unto them ;" and it is ex- pressly recorded concerning those, to whom his instructions were addressed, that "The common " people heard him gladly." The ministry of the Apostles was conducted on the same prin- ciples as that of their Divine Master, nor did the general results differ. " Not many wise '* men after the flesh, not many mighty, not " many noble," obeyed the call of the Gospel : the primitive churches were composed of what the world deemed baser materials. All intel- lectual differences among those who had em- braced the Christian discipleship, were merged in a perfect religious equality; and to the mem- bers at large of these associations, without dis- ON AN AUTHORIZED INTERPRETER. 323 crimination, were addressed those exhortations which pre-suppose a competency individually to choose, to judge, to distinguish between things that differ, to understand what the will of the Lord is, to prove all things, to try the spirits whether they were of God. A restricted right of interpretation with regard to the letters conveying these very instructions, would have annulled their force and meaning. Such a re- striction could not exist in a society in which the means of interpretation were common to all, and the religious rights of all were equal. With more shew of reason might it be maintained, that the discourses of our Saviour to the mul- titude, required an authorized interpreter, since it is evident that even the disciples themselves were sometimes unable to apprehend the design of his parables. As to the qualifications re- quisite for understanding aright the doctrine of the Apostles, St. Paul, in his emphatic style, thus expresses himself: *' If any man among *' vou seemeth to be wise in this world, let him " become a fool, that he may be wise." In this consisted the only clanger of misinterpretation, the pride of wisdom, the want of simplicity of mind. At what period in ecclesiastical histo- ry, then, was the common right of Christians forfeited by their supposed incompetence to understand the Scriptures, so as to necessitate the erection of a tribunal of interpretation? Y 2 324 ON AN AUTHORIZED INTERPRETER. - That incompetency cannot be charged on the obscurity of the Scriptures, for they have un- dergone no change, and all the difficulties con- nected with a learned language have been long vanquished by translators. Would it not be just rather to argue, that the incompetence of the people at any period, must be charged upon their instructers ? But, in fact, no such occasion for an authorized interpreter, has ever arisen out of the ignorance of the people, and if it had, it could not have been the ground of depriving them of the free use of their moral faculties. The supposed necessity of an interpreter, has originated in those controversies, of which the great mass of the people have always been in- nocent ; and claims of this nature have been maintained with a pertinacity exactly propor- tioned to the degree of neglect in which the Scriptures themselves have been suffered to re- main. In the hands of the people, the Bible would have been safe from perversion, and free from obscurity ; their obligations to obey its sacred precepts, are not greater than their in- terest in arriving at its general import. " They *' have no temptation to abuse it, by forcing "' upon it a language foreign from its original "intention: their concern in religion is of the " purest and most unsuspicious nature, since " the only advantage which it is conceivable " they can derive from it, is assistance towards ON AN AUTHORIZED INTERPRETER. 325 " holy living and dying. If it fails to put them *' in possession of a share in the common *' salvation, there is no subordinate end to be " answered, no private emolument attainable *' by its means to compensate for their loss. If " it is ineffectual to enlighten and to save them, " there is no other benertt which they can flat- *' ter themselves with the hope of deriving from " it."* What was predicated of the religion of *Mr.RoRT. Hall. Jesus Christ, is not less true in reference to the inspired medium of Revelation : it was origin- ally calculated, and it is still calculated for the plainer part of mankind. | God has in this res- t Bishop HoRSLEY, in one of his Sermons, has the fol- lowing admirable remarks: " I will not scruple to assert, that ''the most illiterate Christian, if he can but read his English " Bible, and will take the pains to read it in this manner, ** (viz. comparing parallel passages) will not only attain all •' that practical knowledge which is necessary to his salvation, ** but, by God's blessing, he will become learned in every *' thing relating to his religion in such degree, that he will " not be liable to be misled, either by the refined arguments '' or by the false assertions of those who endeavour to ingraft *• their own opinion upon the oracles of God. He may safely " be ignorant of all philosophy except what is to be learned " from the sa'cred books ; which indeed contain the highest " philosophy adapted to the lowest apprehensions. He may " safely remain ignorant of all history, except so much of the ** history of the first ages of the Jewish and of the Christian '" Church as is to be gathered from the canonical books of " the Old and New Testament. Let him study these in the " manner I recommend, and let him never cease to pray for 326 ON AN AUTHORIZED INTERPRETER. chosen the foolish things of the A neglect and pect also, " world to confound the wise." contempt of the common people, as Dr. Dod- *"Thoughts dridge has well remarked,* "is far from being on the best . . ,. , ^^ i 51 mi • • 1 • j • means of re- " thc spiHt of the Gospcl. 1 his anti-christiau Dissentins Spirit is, however, unequivocally manifested in the sentiment now combated. In the common people, it seems to be imagined, that belief is something quite different from what takes place in the minds of those who are born to the privi- lege of exercising their faculties ; — that it is, with regard to them, a mechanical process, by which their opinions are made to take the shape and impress of the artificial mould prepared by those who have the authority. What are human creeds, into the making and enforcing of which this arrogated right of interpretation mainly re- solves itself, but expedients for giving to the religious sentiments of the vulgar, a passive uniformity, which the Scripture-rule is not suf- *' the illumination of that Spirit by which these books were " dictated ; and the whole compass of abstruse philosophy " and recondite history shall furnish no argument with which " the pei-Verse will of man shall be able to shake this learned " Christian's faith. The Bible thus studied will indeed pro^ e " to be what we Protestants esteem it, a certain and si(ffi- ^' cient rule of faith and practice, a helmet of salvation, " which alone may quench thc fiery darts of the wicked." Bishop Horsley's Sermon on Psalm xcvii. 7. " JSine " Sermons," p. 227. ON AN AUTHORIZED INTERPRETER. 327 ficiently exact, or sufficiently clear, or suffici- ently authoritative to produce ? Thus, while the Scriptures are professedly acknowledged to be the only rule, this rule must needs be deter- mined and defined by another rule, which other rule is itself to be tried by the first and only rule. Matchless paradox ! Who does not per- ceive that this self-regulated standard of inter- pretation, which pretends to derive its authority from that on which it assumes to fix a meaning, becomes by this means, in effect, the ultimate rule of faith, and that the interpreter takes the place of Revelation? Not only is this hypothesis of a;n author- An Author- ized interpreter disproved by the silence, as preter ought well as at variance with the internal character, and infal- of the sacred Scriptures ; its absurdity may be shewn by the necessary condition of such a claim, namely, that the Church invested with this authority, must he one and infallible. On this point, the Papist argues far more consist- ently than our half-Protestants; and since, as he contends, the consciousness of infallibility would naturally, hot to say necessarily, accom- pany the possession of the gift, a Church makin": no such pretensions on behalf of its rulers, tacitly concedes a point essential to the hypothesis. If a right of interpretation be- longs to any church, no doubt the Church of Rome has the most to advance in support of LIBLE. 328 ON AN AUTHORIZED INTERPRETER. her pretensions, and could these be substan- tiated, Luther was a schismatic and Calvin somediing worse. The Church of Rome is pos- sessed of all those external characteristics on which the advocates of the English Episcopacy found its mj^sterious claims: hers, most pecu- liarly, are the succession, the sacraments, the power to regenerate and to confirm, to absolve from sin, and to confer the Holy Ghost, to sanctify, and to consecrate, and to perform all the other transcendent functions of the Christ- ian priesthood ; hers, too, must of necessity be the original power to decree rites and ceremo- nies and to determine controversies in mat- ters of faith, since, through no other channel, or rather, from no other source, can all these pre- cious things have been derived by any Protest- ant episcopate. Besides, an authorized inter- preter must needs be furnished with the requi- site means of certainty ; for the authority to know, without the possession of the means of knowledge, would be something very near a non-entity. Were we to admit that this won- derful gift is not the exclusive property of the Church o.f Rome, but that the authority is vest- ed in more than one depository of infallibility, it is obvious that the decisions of these collateral interpreters, must be identical. Two author- ized interpreters at variance, would present a spectacle as monstrous as that of two rival ON AN AUTHORIZED INTERPRETER. 329 popes fulminating- against each other their res- pective infallible anathemas. Yet such is the predicament in which the Church of England stands in relation to the Church of Rome. With regard, however, to the matter of inter- pretation, there appears to be this difference between them. The Church of Rome, ex hy- pothesis cannot err, but nevertheless, in point of fact, if Protestants may be believed, she has erred; the Church of England disclaims infal- libility, but neveitheless she has not erred. Yet, perhaps, the seemingly incompatible claims of these authorized interpreters, may admit of ad- justment in this manner: the Church of Rome is infallible within the States of the Church, the Church of England, within the British domini- ons. Still, the existence of either authority, stands in need of being proved. An authority which cliiims this extensive control over the dictates of Inspiration itself, must be accredited by nothing short of those miraculous tokens which uniformly accompany supernatural pow- ers. In this instance, again, the Church of Rome is consistent in asserting her power to work miracles; and the above-nanjed functions of the priesthood, may possibly be represented as the standing miracles of Episcopacy. A mi- racle, however, in the strict sense of the term, is not an outvjrard sign of something supposed or believed to take place, but a real visible 330 ON AN AUTHORIZED INTERPRETER. transaction, which appeals not to faith but to the senses in the language of ocular demonstra- tion. And surely, if the first commuuicationof Revelation by prophets and apostles, required to be miraculously attested in order to com- mand belief, still greater need would there be, that an authority extending to the whole sub- stance of Revelation, should be so shewn to be of God. Were it, therefore, true, that without an authorized interpreter, the Bible is not a certain rule, and we yet had not the requisite means of arriving at certainty as to the con- flicting pretensions of the several interpreters, all basis of rational belief is at once destroyed, and no intermediate point is left on which the mind can rest, between implicit credulity, and hopeless scepticism. The atithority supposed in the hypothesis of a restricted right of interpretation, would, in fact, be absolutely destructive of the moral ex- ercise of the rational faculties ivhich enters into the essence of religious duty. To believe on insufficient evidence, is not faith, but credulity. In matters of religion, human testimony amounts to absolutely nothing in point of evidence, and the belief which has no better foundation, is built upon uncertainty, is not in truth a reason- able belief. As the Divine authority is the only source of our obligation to believe, so is the Divine testimony the only certain evidence of ON AN AUTHORIZED INTERPRETER. 331 truth. The interposition of human authority in the character of an interpreter, between the con- science and the substance of Revelation, at the same time that it suspends the freedom of choice, weakens the force of obligation. To believe a thing because it is revealed, is one thing; to be- lieve that it is revealed, is another. What is revealed, is certain, but no such certainty can attach to the interpretations of Scripture, which rest on human opinion; these address them selves to the reason, not to the conscience; they claim to be examined, but have no authority ; they add nothing to the evidence of revealed truth, and the claims of Revelation are inca- pable of being strengthened. What we were under an obligation to believe, previous to the decision of any church or council as to the mat- ter of belief, just so much and no more are we bound to believe, and equally, and only equally bound to believe, subsequently to such decision. But when human interpretations are imposed, instead of the Scriptures, as the rule of faith, a rule doubtful in itself, and by which we are imder no obligation to abide, is substituted for one which is at once infallible and authoritative. Opinion is substituted for Revelation, probabi- lity for certainty, human authority for the Di- vine command. And not only so ; but there is no longer any scope left for "the obedience " of faith," which must have an immediate re- 332 ON THE POWER TO DETERMINE fereiice to the testimony of God. The know- ledge derived from such a source, is a notion, a prejudice; it is not conviction, for it does not rest upon evidence, and it has no relation to the moral character. Thus, in every point of view, the hypothesis of an authorized interpre- ter of Scripture, or of an " authority in matters " of faith," is subversive of religion. Give up this point to the Romanist, and nothing- is left of Protestantism worth contending for. But the Bible, the Bible only is the religion of Protest- ants. Slorii'%T § ^- A fourth method of evading the apptica- determine tiou of this ffraud principle of the Reformation — things not . . commanded thc sufficieucy of the Scripture-rule, (the one in Scripture. • i i • i i tvt M'lth which the JNonconformist controvertists have had chiefly to contend,) remains to be ex- amined : the argument is to this effect — That though the Bible is the only unerring standard, as well as the ultimate rule, yet, things left un- determined by Scripture, or things in their own nature indifferent, may be made binding by the authority of the Church ; or that, in other words, " the Church hath authority to " decree ri.tes and ceremonies." Upon this plea, submission is demanded to prescribed obser- vances, confessedly resting upon no Scripture foundation. Because they involve nothing con- trary to Scripture, therefore, it is argued, they are lawful ; and being lawful, they may be de- THINGS INDIFFERENT. 333 creed to be necessary ; and in contesting this point — the lawfuhiess or expedience of parti- cular observances, (which, had they not been imposed, would long since have ceased to exist except among the forgotten materials of obso- lete controversy,) the main argument, which re- lates to the authority of the imposer, has been too often lost sight of. The clergymen who, by the Act of Uniform- ity, were ejected from the Establishment, were naturally led to give prominence to those spe- cific objections which rendered it incompatible with their most sacred obligations to comply with that arbitrary decree ; but nothing can be more erroneous than to represent those objec- tions, however valid, as forming the reasons of Nonconformity. They were only the occasion of leading those excellent men to act up to their principles as Protestants, the operation of the Actof Uniformity being, in this respect, m uch the same as that of the publication of Indulgences, which led to the Reformation : it did not origin- ate those principles, it only led to their disco- very. The ground on which the Nonconform- ists refused compliance with the prescribed con ditions of their retaining their stations in the Establishment, was, their conscientious objec- tions to the things imposed ; but there were reasons against the imposition itself, which lay deeper than those objections. Whether their 334 ON THE POWER TO DETERMINE scruples were, or were not, intrinsically valid, is of little consequence. Our present business is not to canvass the theological opinions of either party, but to examine the principle on which the whole controversy hinges, — the ex- istence of an authority competent to decree what Scripture has not commanded. Illogical A preliminary remark is naturally suggested that things by the illogical character of the position, that maybemade bccausc Certain things are left indifferent, there- "^' fore they may be imposed ; because they are not in themselves necessary, therefore the Church may make them necessary ! Would it not have been more natural to conclude, that their indifferent nature presents the strongest reason against their being- made obligatory ? Were they, then, left indifferent on purpose to afford scope for the exercise of human authori- ty? That were to ascribe to the Scripture- rule a designed imperfection, whicli would leave us in uncertainty whether human authority had yet fulfilled its allotted part in completing the standard of religious duty. If it be necessary to determine certain points relating to religious duty, which Scripture has not determined, then, the Scripture-rule does not supply all the knowledge that is necessary for our guidance ; it is not a perfect rule : but, if it be unnecessary to determine them, if they be strictly indifferent, on what pretence can the wanton interference THINGS INDIFFERENT. 335 of arbitrary power in such matters be justified? " What charter," to use the words of Stilling- fleet, " hath Christ given the Church, to l)ind " up men more than himself hath done?"* Will * ** He that came to take away the insupportable yoke of "Jewish ceremonies, certainly did never intend to gall the " necks of his disciples with another instead of it. The ** grand commission the Apostles were sent out with, was " only to teach what Christ had commanded them. Not ''the least intimation of any power given them to inipose or ** require any thing beyond what himself had spoken to them, " or they were directed to by the immediate guidance "of the Spirit of God. We never read of the Apostles' '' making laws but of things supposed necessary. VVhen the " council of Apostles met at Jerusalem for deciding a case *' that disturbed the Church's peace, we see, they would lay " no other burden besides these ' necessary things,' (Acts xv. "28.) It was not enough with them, that the things would " be necessary when they had required them: but they " looked on an antecedent necessity, either absolute or for " the present state, which was the only ground of tlieir im- *' posing those commands upon the Gentile Christians. There *' were, after this, great diversities of practice, and varieties of " observations among Christians, but the Holy Ghost never " thought those things fit to be made matters of law, to which *' all parties should conform; all that the Apostles required as " to these, was mutual forbearance and condescension to- ** wards each other in them. Without all controversy, the main *' inlet of all the distractions, confusions, and divisions of the " Christian world, hath been by adding other conditions of • " church-communion than Christ hath done. The unity of " the Church is a unity of love and affection, and not a bare " uniformity of practice or opinion." — Bishop Stil,ling- FLEET, Preface to Irenicum. 336 ^^ THINGS IMDIFFERENT. it be said, that though the things imposed na- turally admit of the freedom of choice, yet that, respecting them, individual freedom is over- ruled by the duty of agreement, which requires the sacrifice of private opinion ? That duty can respect only the manner of performing what is in some sense necessary to be done: for it can- not be necessary to agree about matters really needless. Besides, so far as agreement res- pecting things indifferent, is a moral duty, en- forced by the desire of avoiding offence, or by a regard to the feelings and interests of others, it obviously supposes a voluntary surrender of individual liberty and inclination, as opposed alike to compulsion or to positive claims : but both the exercise and the moral purpose of the duty of conciliatory agreement are precluded by the interposition of authority, terminating all alternative by an absolute law. " The Apos- " tie, who was strong in the faith," it has been shrewdly remarked, "parted with something of " his liberty to please the weak ; therefore the " weak must part with their consciences, where- » Melius In- " in they have no liberty, to gratify the strong!"* p. 233. ' Such is the reasoning of those who would exact submission to this Apocryphal authority in mat- ters indifferent. onUieierm Biit tlic word ludifllerent, is itself of equivocal indifferent. . i • i • • • • nnport. If by bemg left m different, it is meant simply that the things alluded to, are not the OM THINGS INDIFFERENT. 337 subject of specific command, or of specific pro- hibition in the New Testament, there is an ob- vious fallacy in the application of the term ; for, if the spirit of any command extends to their being performed, or to the mode of their per- formance, then, they are not left indifferent. We may go further and add, that if it is the private conviction of the individual, though that con- viction may be erroneous, that they are virtually comprehended in any Apostolic direction, or if it be esteemed only probable that they are vir- tually commanded or forbidden, to the indivi- dual so judging, the matter is not left absolutely indifferent; nor can he be discharged from the higher duty of yielding obedience to the Divine authority on any degree of evidence, by the in- terposition of human authority declaring the matter to be indifferent, and founding on its indifference restrictive or positive enactments. With regard to things confessedly indifferent in themselves, which nevertheless, as respects the conscience of the individual, are not indifferent, we have the decision of an Apostle as to the positive guilt of compliance : " He that doubt- " eth is condemned if he eat." Can then com- pulsive enactments enforcing obedience in mat- ters held to be doubtful, be clear from the charge of wilfully violating the spirit of the Apostolic law! When compliance is unlawful, can the command be otherwise than unjust ? Further, z iK 338 ON THINGS INDIFFERENT. if the matter be left absolutely indifferent in Scripture, yet, in respect to the reason of the thing, it does not appear to the individual to be indifferent^ the conscience still claims an im- munity from human obligations, as the necessary condition of religious actions ; still resents the imposition of an arbitrary standard of such ac- tions, which is not founded upon their intrinsic quality as acceptable or unacceptable to the Great Object of Worship.* * " The Pope's usurpation mainly lies in imposing things *' upon men's consciences as necessary, which are doubtful, '' or unlawful ; and wherever the same thing is done, there is *' an usurpation of the same nature, though not in so high a " degree ; and it may be as lawful to withdraw communion " from one as well as the other. If it be said that men are " bound to be ruled by their governors in determining what " things are lawful, and what are not 1 To this it is an- " swered : first, no true Protestant can swear blind obedience '' to Church Governours in all things. It is the highest *' USURPATION TO ROB MEN OF THE LIBERTY OF THEIR *' JUDGEMENTS. That which we plead for against the Papists, *' is, that all men have eyes in their heads as well as the *' Pope ; that every one hath a. judicium private discretionis, *' which is the rule of practice, as to himself; and though •' we freely alloAv a ministerial power, under Christ, in the ""Governours of the Church, yet that extends not to an ob- " ligation upon men, to go against Jthe dictates of their own " reason and conscience. Their poviter is only direct- " ive and declarative, and in matters of duty " can bind no more than reason and jevidence " BROUGHT FROM SCRIPTURE BY THEM DOTH. A man ON THINGS INDIFFERENT. 339 Some of the old Nonconformist controvertists what is not command- have ffone the leno-th of denyinj?, that any matters ed, isfor- . . J ir?' ^ J bidden. of a religious nature can be considered asindif- " hath not the power over his own understanding, much less " can others have it. Nullus credit aliquid esse verum, quia " vult credere id esse verum ; non est enim in potestate homi- " nis facere aliquid apparere ijitellectui suo verum quando ** voluerit. (Pious Mirand. Apol.) Either therefore men are " bound to obey Church Governours in all things absolutely, "without any restriction or limitation (which it it be not usurp- " alion and dominion over others' faith in them, and the worst " of implicit faith in others, it is hard to define what either " of them is,) or else if they be bound to obey only in lawful " things; I then inquire who must be judge what things are " lawful in this case, what not ? If the Governours still, then " the power will be absolute again ; for to be sure, whatever " they command, they will say is lawful, either in itself, or " as they command it: if every private person must judge " what is lawful, and what is not, which is commanded, " (as when all is said, every man will be his own judge in this " case, in things concerning his own welfare,) then he is no " further bound to obey tiian he judgeth the thing to be law- " ful which is commanded. The plea of an erroneous con- " science, takes not off the obligation to follow the dictates " of it ; for as he is bound to lay it down, supposing it erro- " neous, so he is bound not to go against it, while it is not " laid down. , But then again, if men are bound to submit to " Governours in the determination of lawful tilings, what " plea could our Reformers have to withdraw themselves " from the Pope's yoke ? It might still have held true, Boies • " arabant et Asince pascebantur simul, which is Aquinas s " argument for the submission of inferiours in the Church to " their superiours. So that let men turn and wind themselves z 2 340 ON THINGS INDIFFERENT. ferent, or of a purely negative character. Their favourite positioo is, Whatsoever is not com- manded is forbidden ; and those words in Deu- tDeut.xii. teronomyf have been cited as decisive of the truth of this assertion, "What thing soever I " command you, observe to do it ; thou shalt not " add thereto, nor diminish from it." Tiiese stur- dy Protestants were too apt to take truth by vio- lence, to seize it in the gross, without being al- ways aware of the logical offences with which they were chargeable in attaining their point, or of the untenable nature of some of the positions they had to make good in their rear. Hooker, who loses no opportunity of availing himself of the weak points in his adversary's argument, could not fail to perceive, that this unqualified assertion, notwithstanding the seeming counte- nance of Inspiration, was deficient in accuracy, and might even be turned against the enemy. He knew that a Scripture quotation is not always Scripture authority, and that this text, in its " which way tliey will, by the very same arguments that any " will jjrove separation from the Church of Rome lawful, be- *\ cause sl>e required unlawful things, as conditions of her " communion, il will be proved lawful, not to conform to " any suspected or unlawful practice, required by any Church " Governours upon the same terms; if the thing so required, " he, after serious and sober inqim'y, judged umvarrantahle " hy a mau^s own conscience.^' Bp. Stillingfleet. Ireni- cum. B, I. Ch. vi. ^ 6. ON THINGS INDIFFEEENT. 341 literal meaning, were it at all applicable to the matters at issue, would seem equally condem- natory of whatever regulations of order and dis- cipline among themselves, the Nonconformists couhl not shew to be positive Apostolic insti- tutes. The advocates of ecclesiastical autho- rity have plausibly remarked, that " there is " no book of Leviticus in the New Testament :" the circumstantials of religious worship, must, therefore, it is argued, be determined by every church for itself. The position, however, to which we have adverted, although too sweeping and unquali- fied, is not fundamentally erroneous. The Non- conformists were not always logically accurate, but they were in general, as in this instance, substantially right. What are the things to which this natural indifference is supposed to at- tach, whereby they are brought within the range of human authority ? They relate to the public order of the Church and the worship of God ; matters of faith, it is taken for granted, being al- lowed oil both sides to be determinable only by the Scriptures. The reasonableness of wor- ship, however, consists in its being acceptable to the Divine Being ; and the knowledge that it is acceptable, must originate in its being com- manded. The Divine command is the only basis of religious duty, and will-worship of 342 ON THINGS INDIFFERENT. every description, has uniformly drawn down the expression of the Divine displeasure. With regard, then, to whatsoever partakes of the essential nature of worship, it may safely be af- firmed, that what is not commanded, is virtually forbidden. This constitutes the broad line of distinction between the worship of faith and the offerings of superstition : the former alone par- takes of the character of obedience, being founded upon the knowledge and recognition of the Divine will. "By faith Abel offered " unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. " Without faith it is impossible to please " Him." The offerings of superstition are to an " unknown God," whom ignorantly it wor- ships. As there may, nevertheless, be partial ig- norance where there is some certain knowledge, so, there may be blended with true faith, vari- ous degrees of superstition ; and even in cases in which the ignorance is so gross as to lead to a direct violation of the Divine commandment, there may still exist the living principle which constitutes religious worship acceptable to God. Amid all the darkness of the Romish supersti- tion, doubtless there were thousands, and tens of thousands of the Lord's hidden ones, who had never bowed down to Baal in their hearts. Nevertheless, .we have the warrant of Scripture for the conclusion, " that whatsoever is not of ON CIRCUMSTANTIALS. 343 faith," whatsoever consequently has not the Divine command as its basis, is not obedience, but " sin." As respects that in which religious worship consists, nothing, then, is left for man to insti- tute; but since to every external duty attach some necessary circumstances of performance, and in order to the performance of social ac- tions, the public determination of those circum- stances is previously necessary, it has been contended, that the circumstantials of religious worship, being left indefinite by the Scriptures, fall within the province of human authority. Here the axiom, that what is not commanded is forbidden, does not seem to bear upon the point at issue. §6. But what is meant by circumstantials, in ontbedr- reference to religious actions ? The natural cir- of religious ,.,. 1111 11 actions. cumstances which inseparably adhere to all ac- tions, whether sacred or civil, are those of time, place, agent, and wicaw* of performance. Now, of these, (all being equally necessary) some, it is evi- dent, are left indifferent in Scripture, and others are not. With regard to the circumstance of time] God has commanded us to keep one day in seven holy unto Himself, and the first day of the week is regarded by Christians as " The '' Lord's Day :" this is a circumstance of religi- ous actions which is not left indifferent. Uuder the Jewish dispensation, the circumstance of «>44 ON THE CIRCUMSTANCES place^ was not less absolutely determined by the specific limitation of positive precept, as indeed, were all the circumstantials of the Jewish ritual. When the circumstances of a religious action are specified in the Divine precept, they form an essential part of what is instituted: what would be termed its natural circumstances, then acquire the character of religious circum- stances, and are designated as holy day, holy place, and sacred office. Now, since that which determines the religious character of any cir- cumstances, is the Divine precept constituting them an essential part of the ordained duty, it may be safely inferred, that circumstances un- determined by Scripture, are not susceptible of this sacred character ; for He who is the So- vereign Institutor of worship, is alone compe- tent to ordain what shall form the essential conditions of its being acceptable in his sight. Human limitations which presume to determine on any circumstances as possessing this virtue or sacredness, directly interfere with the Divine prerogative. Tonoreligious circumstances of Di- vine worship, therefore, can indiflference attach ; they cannot rest upon the will of man : the Bi- ble, the Bible only is the religion of Christians. onibena- The circumstanccs of religious actions not tural cir- • i i o • i • i ' cumstances detcrmmcd by Scripture, must be either such actions". as arc simply necessary to their being perform- ed, or necessary, in the opinion of those who OF RELIGIOUS ACTIpNS. 345 prescribe them, to their being worthily and fitly performed. With regard to the former, that is to say, the circiimstaj^ces which by simple ne- cessity adhere to such actions, all persons upon whom devolve the obligations of religious duty, must be left at liberty to avail themselves of any of the natural means of discharging them, among which means must certainly be placed these co- necessary adjuncts, and they may be consider- ed, therefore, as virtually included in the com- mand. That human authority, which has no power to determine religious duty itself, should yet claim to prescribe the circumstances under which exclusively it shall be performed, is a strange and unwarrantable presumption. In the limitation thus imposed, it is manifest that the means of performance are infringed upon. For instance, it is the duty of Christians to as- semble together as a church of Christ, at stated seasons, for the purposes of Divine worship and religious edification; and it is necessary that some particular time and place should be agreed upon as the circumstances of their so assem- bling: as the act itself, like every other act of religious obedience, must be voluntary, it is necessary that the circumstances of time and place, so far as they are undetermined by Scrip- ture, should be fixed upon by common consent: the duty of determining those requisite cir- cumstances, involves the right to determine 346 ON THE CIRCUMSTANCES them; both the duty and the right, therefore^ must belong to those upon whom is laid the ob- ligation of the Divine command. In point of fact, as generalexpedienceistheonlyreason by which the determination can be regulated, no difficulty is likely to arise in fixing upon every necessary circumstance in order to religious communion. But now, should human authority undertake to enact, that inasmuch as the Scriptures have left it indifferent at what hour of the Lord's day, and in what places, Christians shall assemble, therefore it shall be lawful for them to meet only between certain specified hours and within certain circumscribed localities; would it not be the effect of this enactment, not simply to restrain the natural liberty of moral actions, but to lessen the facility — in some cases to inter- fere with the opportunity of performing the duty at all? For since the Divine command is equally fulfilled, at whatsoever hour or place persons may assemble for the purpose, any im- posed limitations must be regarded as actually abridging the means of obedience. No neces- sary circumstances of any religious duty can be considered as left absolutely indifferent, for all afe permissively comprehended in the precept which renders some circumstances necessary. To decree that, because all means are indiffer- ently commanded, and some means are neces- sary, certain means only shall be held lawful. OF RELIGIOUS ACTIONS. 347 is a wanton infringement upon the liberty of the moral agent, who, as being alone responsible for the action with all its circumstances, has the exclusive right of determining for himself how it may best be performed. It is not, however, in reference to the natural ^^"^fj;"''- circumstances of religious actions, those which ««-n«ta«ces. are intrinsically necessary, that this authority to determine things indifferent is pretended to, so much as to such adventitious circumstances as are deemed conducive to the more decorous and orderly performance of religious actions. And now the term circumstance will be found to undergo a portentous transformation. This wooden engine proves to contain within itself a hostile army. What may not by this artifice be smuggled into the Christian Church? Rites are circumstances, ceremonies are circumstances, circumstances fitting and decent in order to the due celebration of Divine worship. The cross in baptism, is a circumstance; so are the spit- tle, and the oil, and the salt, circumstances; such is tlie use of the crucifix itself. The con- secration of churches, is a circumstance ; so is the consecration of water, of vestments, and of images. The Prayer-book and the Mass-book are alike circumstances, and so are all the mum- meries of Rome. Who then is to decide what rites are only decent and what are superstiti- ous; what may be considered as virtually com- 348 ON THE CIRCUMSTANCES manded, and what as virtually forbidden? Are all circumstances alike indifferent, of which Scripture does not contain an express prohibi- tion ? If so, the Church hath, it should seem, authority to decree all alike to be expedient and binding ; and if any Church may claim this authority, doubtless it belongs to the Church of Rome. With what grace or consistency, then, can Protestants acknowledging such an authority, charge the parent Church with un- scriptural innovation, because she has availed herself of this same " power to decree rites and " ceremonies," with what they presume to deem indiscreet freedom or bad taste? If, however, these circumstances are not all alike indifferent, the proof that they are not so, must be ultimate- ly deducible from the sacred Scriptures, not- withstanding that they appear to maintain a si- lence respecting them, which apparent silence is construed into a tacit permission given to the Church to determine them by authority. The proposition, that every thing relating to the worship of God, which is not commanded, is forbidden, presents after all, when rightly un- derstood, .the only satisfactory conclusion on which we can rest. As those co-necessary na- tural circumstances which adhere to every ac- tion, are virtually comprehended in the precept which is the basis of the instituted duty, so, whatsoever circumstances, considered strictly OF KELIGIOUS ACTIONS. 349 as means of discharging what is positively en- joined, conduce to the more decent and impres- sive performance of the duty, are strictly con- sonant with the Divine command ; are permis- sively although not specifically involved in it. On the contrary, whatsoever does not partake of the strictly subordinate character of means, or, if the term may be allowed, does not come under the description of modal circumstances of obedience, — whatsoever is added as a moral or religious circumstance with the view of consti- tuting the action either more efficient, or more acceptable to the Lord of worship, is to be con- demned as superstition; it being that sort of addition to the commandments of God, which is expressly forbidden. The application of this axiom may, like that of every general principle, be a matter of some delicacy ; for this very rea- son, the decision must ultimately be left with conscience; but thus much there is no room for hesitation in affirming, that all symbolical or ceremonial worship, not expressly instituted by God himself, borders upon modal idolatry. These form a part of worship, therefore, they are worship, and worship uncommanded 25 for- bidden, — the analogy warrants the use of the metaphor, — it is strange fire. The ritual conse- cration of places and things, is clearly no part of the circumstantials of obedience ; it has no re- kition to any positive commandment, and must >50 ox THE CIRCUMSTANCES be classed with those palpable corruptions of Christianity by human invention, which the Scriptures pointedly condemn. " It is not in " the power of man/' it has been well remarked, " to determine of any such religions or holy " place, because he can make none so."* Here Protestants are called upon to make a stand, and to reiterate tlte famous declaration of Chil- lingworth in terms somewhat modified: the New Testament, the New Testament only is the religion of Christians. The relative holiness of any time, or place, or thing-, is a religious circumstance which can originate in nothing short of the positive ordinance of God. True it is, that " there is no book of Leviticus " in the New Testament," for there is nothing Lemtical in Christianity . Such things are not left indiiferent; they are strictly analogous to those Judaical superstitions which the Apostle Paul combats in his Epistles, witli all the force of inspired authority. As to many of them, their origin is by no means unequivocal. Christ- ian Rome adopted them from Pagan Rome^ * "Though we acknowledge God to be in everything, yet so '' to worship him in any thing as if his essential presence were " confined thereto, while it ought to be conceived of as im- " mense, this is idolatry: and therefore they who so conceive " it as confined, (ortied in respects wherein he hath not so " lied it himself,) are concerned to beware of running upon " this rock." Howe's Works, Vol. i. p. 254. OF RELIGIOUS ACTIONS. 351 grafting the religion of temples on the religion of churches, — thus producing the religion of cathedrals, — a religion of sacrifices, and altars, and vestments, and priests, and holy days, and holy ground. Protestant Episcopacy has unwit- tingly imported some of these Pagan antiquities, and having given them Christian baptism, would fain pass them off as decorous and edifying so- lemnities. But " what saith the Scripture ?" Jesus Christ instituted two mystical ceremo- nies in his Church, and only two : Baptism, and the Lord's Supper. These exclusively are by Protestants termed Sacraments. The Church of Rome contends for seven sacraments ; yet many of her learned writers frankly confess, that five of these are but mystical ceremonies resting upon ecclesiastical tradition. And what less is Confirmation in the English Church? The unction is now disused ; but as an outward symbol of spiritual grace given unto us, it an- swers to the received definition of a Sacrament.* * The .design of this rite, may be learned from the Ru- bric contained in all the Common-Prayer Books before the last Review, which declares " That forasmuch as Coufirraa- " tion is ministered to them that be baptized, that by impo- " sition of hands and prayer they may receive strength and • '* defence against all temptations to sin, and the assaults of " the world and the devil ; it is most meet to be ministered " when children come to that age, that partly by the frailty .' of their own flesli, partly by the assaults of the world and 352 ON THE CIRCUMSTANCES Besides, wherein consists the nice distinction between the authority to decree rites and ce- " the devil, they begin to be in danger to fall into sundry " kinds of sin." The Collect contains the petition, " That *' God who had vouchsafed to regenerate the persons who now " come to be confirraed, by Water and the Holy Ghost, and " had given unto them forgiveness of all their sins, would " now strengthen them with the Holy Ghost the Comforter, " and daily increase in them the gifts o/^rocc, viz.: The seven- " fold gifts of the Holy Spirit." "The Fathers everywhere," says Hooker, " impute to it that gift or grace of the Holy *' Ghost, not which maketh us first Christian men, hut, when " we are made such, assisteth us in all virtue, armeth us '' against temptation and sin." Tlie honour of administer- ing Confirmation, we are told by Wheatley, is restricted to the Bishops, as their '' peculiar and incommunicable prero- " gative :" " as they have the sole honour, so they have also " the whole charge of this institution. It must be wholly " omitted, if they do not perform it." " But though thelay- " ing on of hands," continues this learned expositor of the Book of Common Prayer, " is a token that the Bishops act in " this office by Divine authority ; yet at the same time they " sue to heaven foj* the Messing they bestow, in humble ac- " knowledgment that the precious gifts hereby con- " FERRED are not the effect of their own power and holiness, " but of the abundant mercy and favour of him, who is the " only fountain of all goodness and grace ! !' * The illustration of this rite, as practised in the English Church, is of the more importance,- as it serves to throw con- siderable light on the disputed import of her other ordinances. If Confirmation be a means of conferring the Holy Spirit, surely it is not incredible that she should also teach that Baptism conveys Regeneration. Let us abide by old Hook- OT RELIGIOUS ACTIONS. 353 reiiionies, and the power to make Sacraments, that so insignificant a stretch of prerogative on the part of the infallible pontiff, as is involved in the latter, should be deemed a ground for complaint, while the former is allowed to be legitimate by Protestant Episcopacy itself? But neither rites nor ceremonies, can, by any authority or decree, save that of our Lord Jesus Christ, be constituted significant modes of Di- vine worship; all discussion of the question — To whom should be committed such an author- ity, is thus rendered superfluous: the observ- ances imposed, being in themselves positively unscriptural, the principle of the imposition cannot be otherwise than erroneous. In conclusion: As to any circumstances of religious actions, which, although not simply ne- cessary in order to reduce the ordinances of Christ into act and exercise, are yet susceptible of vindication, as conducive to their being more fitly performed, *' it is no great matter," shrewd- ly remarks a writer of the last century, " who " determines them, if they have but power, and er's axiom, Avhich he introduces in answer to some of the specious pleas of the Romanists: " In actions of this kind, " we are more to respect what the greatest part of men is '''commonly prone to conceive, than what some few men's " wits may devise in construction of their own particular " meaning. 2 A 354 ON THE CIRCUMSTANCES ''abuse not that power T But the duty of de- termining, relative to these more artificial cir- cumstantials, not less tlian, as has been argued, with regard to circumstances essentially neces- sary, devolves upon those who are alone respon- sible for the performance of the action itself. Human authority, if interposed to limit the freedom of this determination, embarrasses the right and abridges the means of discharging the obligations of duty, under any circumstances that reason and convenience may dictate. Such is the nature of religious duty, that the utmost freedom in discharging its obligations by all means, is an unalienable right; the generally acknowledged superiority of any particular mode of conducting religious worship, would form no reason at all that it should be authorita- tively imposed, seeing that no possible mode can be by man legitimately forbidden. As to the necessity that every voluntary socie- ty should come to an agreement in determining upon some circumstantials, this neither implies nor involves the least restriction of the natural li- berty of the individuals composing such a socie- ty; whereas-, the imperative predetermination of such circumstances by foreign authority, — the authority, for example, of the civil magistrate, as in the English Establishment, — is a direct vi- olation of the rights attaching to the church as a voluntary association, as well as an infringe- or RELIGIOUS ACTIONS. merit upon the rights of individual conscience, in reference to the discharge of obligations sim- ply religious. From so undue an exercise of human authority in matters with which it has no legitimate concern, — from the imposition of other rules than those which are the basis and standard of religious duty, the appeal lies to the sacred Scriptures, and by that safe and only rule we abide. Or, as Lather appealed " from " the Pope ill-informed, to the Pope when he "should receive more full information;" so, Nonconformists may be allowed to appeal from Human Authority decreeing rites and ceremo- nies, to Human Authority better instructed con- cerning the rights of conscience and the true na- ture of religion itself. In matters of religion, we acknowledge no master but Christ, no bonds of conscience but his laws, no dominion over our faith but his revealed will ; and, therefore, the Scriptures being in this also our authority, we cannot but " render unto Caesar the things *' which are Csesar's, and unto God," and unto Him alone, " the things which are God's." 2a2 CHAP. II. On the Nature of Public Ordinances. Truecauae § 1. J.T was, indeed, an achievement well troTersy re- worthy of all the energies which it called forth, /heRule. and of all the labours and sufferings which it cost, to break the seals which the presumptu- ous wickedness of man had put upon the Di- vine records, to display again to the world the inspired volume in all its sufficiency, and to re- establish its authority as the sole standard of religious truth. But how came a point so es- sentially connected with the evidence of Christ- ianity, to be involved in obscurity? The aur tlienticity of what purports to be Divine Reve- lation being admitted, how could its sufficiency become a question? Is it not obvious, that within a society which had preserved a conform- ity to the directions of the Inspired standard, no suph doubt could have originated ? No oc- casion for the invention of other rules, could ever have perplexed a Church adhering to the simple purpose of Scriptural institutions. Er- rors in the creed have usually their source in corrupt practice. When, therefore, purposes ORIGIN OF THE CONTROVERSY. 357 not contemplated by the founders of the Christ- ian Church, came to occupy the minds of men who styled themselves successors of the Apo- stles, the insufficiency of the sacred Scriptures, as an authority for the inventions of human policy, could not but be manifest. " We do not *' think that in them," as Hooker says, " God " hath omitted any thing needful unto His pur- " pose ;" but the purposes of man are widely dif- ferent, and these they are not adapted to sub- serve. This essential difference lies at the foundation of the present controversy. Between those who admit, and those who deny the ab- solute sufficiency of the Scriptnre-rule, there will be found to exist, as the true cause of this opposition of sentiment, a total contrariety of views and habits of feeling respecting the whole range of subjects to which the standard of faith and practice is designed to apply. Thus, with regard to the public ordinances of Christian worship, it will be found, that the point at is- sue, is not simply whether the Scriptures area sufficient and exclusive rule of duty, but what is the nature of those religious services which constitute the matter of the duties to be regu- lated. " It was a true observation of a learned " person, that leave Englishmen to their Eng- " lish Bibles, and there will a new offspring " arise in every age, that will have the same 358 ORIGIN OF THt; CONTROVERSY " apprehensions about these matters, that Non- • Melius In- quirendum. *' conformists now have."* The notions entertained by the Papists re- specting the Sacraments, as of inlierent efficacy, are universally deemed by Protestants, a gross and pernicious error; yet they form, in truth, but one feature in a consistent system of error, which has necessitated the plea of Tradition in its defence. What, according to the Romish theology, is Prayer ? The reiteration of an un- meaning form to ideal mediators, by which, as by a penance, the slaves of that dreadful super- stition are taught to believe that they may propitiate the Deity ! And, according to what the Church assures them, there is scarcely any thing which prayers such as these cannot effect. They are the conditions of Indulgences to the living, and the means of salvation to the dead ; they shorten the road through Purgatory, and open the gates of Paradise. With scarcely more brutal ignorance do the idolatrous tribes of *v. klap- Tartars, visited by modern travellers,* revolve ROTH sTra- *' veis. 1814, \yi their prayer-mills their scraps of devotion, with the view of lightening their conscience at les« expense of time and of labour than is re- quired by oral recitation : so abject is the depth of degradation to which a religion must stoop, which should seek to accommodate itself to the grossest conceptions of the human mind \ RESPECTING THE RULE. 359 Of all kinds of labour, that species of intellect- ual exertion which has to do with the obliga- tions of religious duty, is to a carnal mind the most irksome; there is none which men shew so Constanta propensity to devolve upon others, content to barter their moral freedom for the privilege of thinking and praying, repenting and believing, by proxy. Whether it be by means of the priest or of the prayer-mill, the de- gree only of stupidity is different; the motive and intention are the same. The Romish Church, by conducting its public services in a language un- known to the common people, did its utmost to encouragethispropensity, availing herself of it to hold them in miserable bondage to the priests their mediators, by whom, regenerated, confirm- ed in grace, and absolved from all transgression, they were to be put in possession of the stipu- lated salvation. Notions scarcely less intelligent than these have, however, been found to consist with a Protestant creed. There are thousands in this country, who attach to the public services of the Church, as performed by the Established Clergy, a mysterious efficiency not easily to be distin- guished from that which the Romish Church holds to belong, ex opere operato, to the due administration of the Sacraments. Not only is Baptism identified with spiritual regenera- tion, and represented as " the only regeneration 360 ORIGIN OJ* THE CONTROVERSY " possible in this life," but all the ordinances of religion are considered as a species of propitiato- ry service deriving its efficacy from the legitimate appointment of the officiating minister, rather than from its being the common act of the peo- ple. * Thus, in the English Book of Common * It would be easy to multiply proofs of this statement, by extracts from almost any of what are termed the High- Church writers. The impious extravagance of an assertion of Law, has already been adverted to. (Vide p. 207. Note.) The following passage from the so highly-lauded " Essay on " the Church," by Jones of Nayland, having been recent- ly quoted with unqualified approbation, may be given as a fair specimen of the notions adverted to. " With those who *' are ignorant, and ill-instructed in the nature and use of a " Church, there is a perverse prejudice in favour of preach- *' ing; and, consequently, a shocking neglect of those duties *' which belong to the people. It is a fine easy way for peo- *' pie, with itching ears, to hear a preacher talk them into *' heaven, while they neglect all the more essential parts of ' Divine worship. There is a fashion of inviting people to *' come to Christy without telling them where and how he is '* to be found. Besides, it is a great mistake to suppose that " the whole of religion consists in our taking of Christ; it is *• beginning at the wrong end, for Christ is to take us, as he " took little children in his arms, and gave them his blessing. " He said to his Disciples, Ye have not chosen me^ but I have ** chos^you. There is a covenant between us and God, into " \vhich God, of his infinite grace, takes us: we do not take " him, neither can we; and this confines us to the ordinances of " the Church, which are not of us, but are the gifts of God's " free grace to us miserable sinners ; and Christians are united " to God, and to one another, by the services of prayer, and RESPECTING THE RULE. 361 Prayer, the minister is still designated as the Priest, and nothing is more common than to hear people speak of Christian temples, and of Christian altars. Were such phrases purely unmeaning, they might be suffered to escape condemnation as the language of metaphor ; but they are not of this negative character. They lead people to regard what is termed Divine Service, as a celebration upon which they are called to attend, but which it is the part of ano- ther to perform for them, they being only the auditory ; for indeed the generally accepted phrase, to read prayers, or to preach before such and such noble or right honourable personages, warrants this conclusion. Long before phrases of this kind could have passed into familiar use, false notions of the things themselves to which they relate, must have become prevalent ; notions which are to be traced either to some errors in the received system of ecclesiastical theology, or to some defect in the scheme of public instruction. *' the participation of the Sacraments, more than by hearing *' the word of God Avithout them ; which many hear for " reasons of vanity and uncharitableness. Who are the best " friends every minister hath in his parish 1 They who at-' " tend the Prayers and Sacraments with him ; who are edi- ."fied by his Pr/es prayer is actually assumed as plea sufficient for a liturgy ! [2.1 A second argiument in favour of the use Argument ^ -' ^ ^ from diffi- of precomposed forms, is founded on the sup- cuUyofcon- (lucling free posed difficulty of conductmg extemporary or prajcr. free prayer in a decorous and unobjectionable manner. It is adduced by Dr. Paley, as one chief advantage of a liturgy, *' that it prevents *' absurd, extravagant, or impious addresses " to God, which in an order of men so nume- *' rous as the sacerdotal, the folly and enthusi- *' asm of many must always be in danger of "producing, where the conduct of the public ** worship is intrusted, without restraint or as- ** sistance, to the discretion and abilities of the " officiating minister."* But is it not very re- markable, that this opinion, as to the necessity of liturgical forms, should be maintained almost exclusively by members of the English Estab- lishment? Is it not strange, that out of the pale of Episcopacy no such necessity should, among Protestants, be found to exist? Are the other reformed churches, who, equally with the Eng- * *-' Moral Philosophy." B, v. C. 5. Bishop Bull has the same argument. " Secondly, set and prescribed forms of " prayer are necessary in the public worship of God, that " ministers less learned may have provision of devotions *' made for them. It is a truth not to be dissembled, the " less learned have been, and I fear always will be, the greater " number.'' Primitive Christianity, Ser. xiii. 376 ON FORMS OF PRAYER. lish Dissenters, discard the use of liturgies, all guilty of misconducting the order of public worship? Is the service of the Episcopal Church alone decorous and acceptable? Who then is to be the arbiter? Hooker, with less calmness of temper, and less propriety of language than he usually preserves, thus attempts to com- bat by witless sarcasms the arguments of those who resisted the imposition of the Prayer-book. *' If prayers were no otherwise accepted of " God than being conceived always new, " according to the exigence of present occa- *' sions : if it be right to judge him by our own *' bellies, and to imagine that he doth loath to " have the self-same supplications often intreat- *' ed, even as we do to be every day fed with- " out alteration or change of diet ; if prayers be " actions which ought to waste away them- *' selves in the making ; we cannot excuse " Moses, who gave such occasion of scandal to " the world !" But was it ever contended that prayers were more acceptable to God, on ac- count of their being extemporary ? Was ever novelty of expression represented as an excel- lence in public addresses to the great Object of worship ?' The notion that either the efficacy or the acceptableness of our prayers, depends in any respect upon the selection of the language, or the qualities of the composition, is an ab- surdity originating entirely with the advocates ON FORMS OF PRAYER. 377 for forms. Nor were it more superstitious to entertain even the grossly ridiculous persuasion "which Hooker satirizes, than it is to imagine that the acknowledged beauty or excellence of any human compositions, constitutes them more pleasing to tlie Almighty, than the most homely effusions of a devout and fervent mind. The supposed difficulty of conducting the public services of the Church in a decorous man- ner, is, after all, far from being remedied by the expedient of a Prayer-book, for it is in the pow- er of an incompetent or careless reader, to ren- der the finest compositions far less impressive than the most inartificial oral language; in this respect the extemporaneous services of the Dis- senters, with all their alleged imperfections, may safely bear comparison with the usual per- formances of the reading-desk. It cannot be, however, for a moment admitted, either that extemporary public prayer is really in itself a matter of so much difficulty as to afford an argument in favour of the use of liturgies, or that the practice of it presents any ground for the apprehensions expressed by the advocates of forms-, as to its possible abuses. The necessity for lituro'ies can arise onlv from the absence of the appropriate qualifications for the sacred . function in the ministers of the Church ; and to •argue from their expediency in such cases, their iudispensableness in all, — to make the incom- 37B ON FORMS OF PRAYER. petency of those who know not how to pray, the measure of the attainments and abilities of all who are condemned to the use of forms, is, to say the least, not very reasonable. The art of public speaking is confessedly of difficult acquire- ment; nevertheless, experience shews that it is within the reach of a decent mediocrity of ta- lent, and that a facility of expression is the easy result of habit. The sacred duties of the pulpit are attended by peculiar advantages, since, in proportion as the mind is abstracted from external objects, which will be the effect of a powerful sense of spiritual realities, — in pro- portion astheattentionis distinctly concentrated upon the simple purpose of its exertions, — '■ the difficulty of recollection and expression be- comes indefinitely lessened, and words seem to suggest themselves with an instinctive propriety. Prayer is rightly denominated a gift, because ef- fectual fervent prayer can proceed only from a spiritual mind and a renewed heart; but, in rela- tion to the human faculties, it may be strictly termed a habit ; a habit the most natural to a pi- ousmind,the most delightful in its exercise, and, taking into consideration the promised aids of the Holy Spirit, the most easy and certain of at- tainment.* If the pious clergy experience any * *' The Gift of Prayer," (they are the words of an Episco- pal divine) " may be thus described. It is such a readiness " and faculty, proceeding from the Spirit of God, whereby a ON FORMS OF PRAYER. 379 difficulty in extemporaneous devotion, (which it may be confidently presumed they do not, at least to an equal degree, in private,) the cir- cumstance is purely attributable to their being so long habituated to the mechanical operations of the reading-desk.* *' man is enabled, upon all occasions, in a fitting manner, to '' express and to enlarge the desires of his heart in this duty. " Unto the attaining of this gift in its true latitude and ful- *' ness there are three sorts of ingredients required : 1. Sonie- " thing to be infused by the Spirit of God. 2. Some natu. " ral endowments and abilities. 3. Something to be acquired " or gotten by our own industry." Bishop Wilkin s on the Gift of Prayer, p. 2. * The same excellent writer refers to " two extremes, " which usually hinder men from a proficiency in this gift." One of these is, he says, "when they so confine themselves to " the help of books and particular set-forms, as not to aim, *' at, or attempt after any further improvement of their own *' knowledge and abilities in this kind." " For any one," he adds, ** so to sit down and satisfy himself with his book- " prayer, or some prescript form, as to go no farther, this " were still to remain in his infancy, and not to grow up in " his new nature. This would be, as if a man who had once " need of crutches, should always make use of them, and so " necessitate himself to acontinual impotence. And if it be a " fault- not to strive and labour after this gift of prayer, much " more is it to jeer and despise it by the name oUx tempore " prayer, and praying by the Spirit; which expressions (as «' they are frequently used by some men by way of reproach) " are for the most part a sign of a profane heart, and such as ' " are altogether strangers from the power and comfort of thi§ "duty." /6i(/. pp. 11,12. 380 ON FORMS OF PRAYER. Argument [3.] A tlili'd argument in favour of liturgies, cuity in IS raised on the supposition that they are more free player, favourablc to the general concurrence of the congregation in the public service. It is repre- sented as more easy for persons to follow the minister by the aid of a formulary, than to take part in extemporary prayer. Much may, in this respect, be conceded to the effect of early habit in persons accustomed to join only in services which they could repeat memon7er, and whose earliest associations and deepest emotions have attached them to those venerated forms. They may possibly find it laborious to keep up their attention to the service of domestic or of public worship, when conducted in a method to them altogether novel. Yet there is scarcely room to doubt that the effect of any powerful excitement of devotional feeling in the same individuals, whether produced by fear, by sorrow, or by sympathy, would be to destroy at once all sense of difficulty in taking part in the fervent prayer prompted by the occasion, and to make that mode of pouring out the common feeling before Him who heareth prayer, commend itself as the most-natural to the heart. - With iegard to its being found by many per- sons more easy to follow the language of the Prayer-book, than to take part in extemporary prayer, there is reason to fear, that this very circumstance is the source of a dangerous de- ON FORMS OF PRAYER. P,f{\ liision. Persons are often led to imagine, while mechanically listening to the well-known col- lect, and reciting the ancient creed, that they are actually performing a spiritual sacrifice; and they are not so sensible, as they would be, were the service unfamiliar, or varied, how, during the whole process, their thoughts have been occupied with a thousand impertinences, — perhaps, among those impertinences, with the beauty and admirable appropriateness of the forms that were being recited, — and their spirits idle and slumbering. It is not equally easy for those who attend the extemporary service, if their hearts are not devotionally interested, to deceive themselves with the idea that they are taking part in the common prayer. The indo- lent hearer knows that he is indolent ; the for- malist, that he exhibits only the form. Much of the alleged difficulty of following such ser- vices, is resolvable into the fact, that they in a manner necessitate an exercise of mind alto- gether different from the mechanical habit of going along in the accustomed routine of a li- turgy, and that by presenting at every moment the mean« of self-detection, they seem to render attention more arduous, because they discover its vagrancy. Some objectors have gravely represented, (and one is astonished to find so sensible a wri- ter as Paley, adopt it as an argument in favour 382 ON FORMS OF PRAVEK. of liturgies,) that in following extemporaneous services, the hearer has the course of his feel- ings perpetually interrupted by being compelled to suspend, till the end of each sentence, the consentaneous act of mental prayer; ** that, be- " fore he can address the same request to God " for himself, and from himself, his attention is *' called off to keep pace with what succeeds :" as if the rapidity of thought were not adequate to the mind's seizing the meaning of the half- developed sentence, so as completely to anti- cipate its utterance ! But what is the actual fact? A regular attendance upon any minister who adopts the method of free prayer, not only augments, by the mere force of habit, the faci- lity of attention, but so familiarizes the audi- tory to certain habitual trains of thought and modes of expression, as to enable them to adopt the successive sentences, with scarcely the con- sciousness that they originate in suggestions ex- ternal to their own minds. It is very possible to listen to prayers offered up in any mode, with the same apathy with which one would, hear a child recite its school exercise ; nor is it in the-powerof the conductor of extemporaneous prayer, any more than it is in that of the reader of a form, to compel the attention of the thought- less ; but as to the question of difficulty, a Christian of devout habits and spiritual mind, does not experience less in accompanying the ON FORMS OF PRAYER. 383 oft-repeated words of the Prayer-book with adequate attention or lively feelings, than in uniting in the free exercise of devotion. That what is spoken with energy and feeling, is far more impressive than the best-read ad- dress, will scarcely be denied. Recited composi- . tions may succeed in delighting the taste, or in convincing the judgment; but the heart — the spirit is not moved, except by means of sympa- thy with the speaker. In fact, mere earnest- ness of manner, the impassioned tone, and the all-pervading animation of genuine feeling, will often, in spite of ourselves, affect us, when every other attribute of eloquence is wanting. This is remarkably illustrated in the different effects produced by opposite modes of preach- ing. It has been sarcastically remarked, that while actors speak of fictions as if they were realities, the clergy are too generally wont to speak of realities, as if they were fictions. But this is not universally the case ; and the im- pression which a more affecting style of pul- pit address has upon the audience, is remark- ably conspicuous in the large congregations uniformly collected by the Evangelical clergy. Is there, then, any thing in the nature of the public service of devotion, that should exclude the operation of sympathy from having its na- tural share in producing those emotions which it is the design of social worship to awaken? •384 ON roHMs of prayer. " A congregation," it has been argued, " may " be pleased and affected with the prayers and " devotion of their minister, without joining in " them, in like manner as an audience oftentimes '* are with the representation of devotion upon " the stage, who nevertheless come away with- *' out being conscious of having experienced •Palky's '< any act of devotion among; themselves."* But Moral Phi- '' ^ ^ ® tomphy,\o\. allowing that, in a certain proportion of cases, no other result takes place, (although the pa- rallel cannot be for a moment admitted to have either force or propriety,) the question to be determined, is, whether the being affected with the devotion of another, does not tend to gene- rate devout feeling, and to incline the mind to inward prayer. If this natural tendency only be admitted, notwithstanding any thing that may be urged as to the uncertainty of its issu- ing in effect, the argument in favour of a mode of prayer adapted thus to operate on the mind, remains complete. But there is no occasion to stop short at this point: it may be affirmed, that whatsoever impression may be produced on the spectators by the. mimicry of devotion in theatric representation, (an exhibition which ought to inspire with only horror and disgust,) it is extreniely improbable, that persons in a congregation, assembled for public worship, should be either pleased or affected-with the prayers of the minister, which yet have not the ON FORMS OF PRAYEH. 385 effect of inducing them to join in the act of prayer. The influence of sympathy in this case, partakes (which it cannot do in the other) of a moral efficacy, acting, or at least being adapt- ed to act, upon the conscience. The argument now combated, tacitly admits, that the effect produced by the recital of a liturgy, is not of a similar kind : otherwise, the alleged objec- tion to extemporary prayer, would be totally irrelevant. It rests then with these objectors to explain how it comes to pass, that a Church which systematically takes into its service all the various artificial methods of exciting such emotions as are thought to predispose the mind to devout worship, — which calls in the aid of music, painting, architecture, vestments, to solemnize and illude the mind, should yet reprobate the method which nature has herself provided, founded on the universal law of sym- pathy, as tending only to enthusiasm; just as if, in religion, the imagination rather than the affections, were the proper medium of emotion ; as if, so long as the language of the ritual, and the circumstantials of the performance, are adapted to gratify the taste, it mattered not how little there might be in the personal character and manner of the minister himself, to move the * best feelings of the heart. In the Episcopal Church, accordingly, to read prayers is the 2c 388 ON FORMS OF PRATER; function of the inferior minister, while to read a sermon is deemed the province of the superior! And it is indeed highly fitting that the pulpit should rank in dignity above the reading-desk. But that prayer, the most important part, as it is alvrays represented, of the pubUc service, — that solemn act in which the creature is brought into immediate communion with the Creator, should be degraded into the recitation of a form, and become a drudgery in the hands of the hired curate ; — nothing that is crude, or ec- centric, or indecorous in the extemporaneous services of the Dissenters, can surely come up to this ! But the argument derives still greater force from the consideration, that it enters into the very design of the institution of social worship, to afford scope for the operation of religious sympathy ; that to be so affected by the devo- tion of the minister, as to kindle at his fervour and to share in his zeal, is as much compre- hended in the purpose which we ought to have in view in our attendance in the house of pray- er, as to join in the suppHcations which he pre- sents. What is the end of prayer, but to keep alive a sense of our wants and of our depend- ence, and to bring into exercise those disposi- tions of heart in relation to unseen realities, which constitute the essence of religion? Pray- er is not merely an ordained condition of our ON FORMS OF PRAYER. 387 receiving good ; it is a means of putting us into the possession of spiritual blessings ; it is that vital breath which the soul lives by exhaling. Social prayer is designed both to unite the hearts of men in the common exercise of holy dispositions, and to augment the force of their operation in each, by means of that mysterious excitement which assembled numbers recipro- cally impart. This mainspring of emotion, thus called into exercise for the purpose for which it was implanted in our nature, is rendered con- ducive to the very life of rehgion in the soul. Why then should what confessedly tends to this result, — the natural operation of sympathy with the fervour, and earnestness, or plain sin- cerity of the speaker, be disregarded, or con- temned? The emotions produced by sympathy, of whatever kind they are, may be, no doubt, as illusive as they are transitory ; and religious emotions, if they have no deeper source, will die away like other excitements, when the cause has ceased to act. But this does not prove, that such emotions have not in themselves a sa- lutary tendency, or that they are not adapted permanently to influence the character. The mere emotions of taste have, on the contrarv, no similar connexion with the moral principles* of our nature. They terminate upon self The pomp of Gothic aisles, the dim religious light, the thrilling chaunt and deep underswell of the 2c2 388 ON FORMS OF PRAYER. orj^an, " the painted altar, and the white-robed " priest," — all that constituted popery the reli- gion of poetry and of the arts, — all that Pro- testant Episcopacy still cherishes in her cathe- drals, — these solemnize the imagination ; but do they encourage one benevolent feeling? Do they not rather tend to abstract the individual from those around him, to elevate him in all the self-sufficiency of intellect above the distasteful sphere of ordinary realities, to inclose him with- in his own feelings, so as to counteract the de- sign of social worship ? And is not the Prayer- book, in too many cases, an accessary to that refined sentimental semblance of devotion, with which individuals love to soothe their con- sciences, who would startle at the unaccus- tomed tones of genuine prayer. Far removed from the intention of the writer is any insinuation, that the use of forms is not perfectly compatible with the most exalted spirit of devotion; but when, in self-defence, the advocates of extemporaneous services are called upon to vindicate their preference of a method against v/hich are brought so formid- able objections, it becomes necessary to insti- tute a comparison between the respective ten- dencies of the opposite modes. Without ques- tioning the expediency of a liturgy in the Es- tablished Church, where the pastoral office is not filled up with any deference to the choice of ON FORMS OF PRAYER* 389 the congregation, * and the minister is conse- quently, in so large a proportion of cases, a man unaccustomed to pray; still, Nonconform- ists must be allowed to retain the conviction, that the extemporaneous mode is in itself more conducive to the life and spirit of devotion, to the exercise of the social affections, and to the sanctification of the heart. " What one " says of counsel to be had from books," (re- marks Bishop WiLKiNs in his Discourse alrea- dy referred to,) " may be fitly applied to this "■ -prayer by book. That 'tis commonly of itself, " something flat and dead, floating for the most " part too much in generalities, and not particu- " lar enough for each several occasion. There " is not that life and vigour in it, to engage the " affections, as when it proceeds immediately ** from the soul itself, and is the natural expres- *' sion of those particulars, whereof we are most " sensible." The opportunity which free prayer affords for adopting the train of devout thought, and the tenor of the supplications, to the exigen- * The argument used by Bishop Bull, that "If a man come ** into a congregation where the minister is left to pray as he *' pleases, he cannot immediately join with him in prayer, • " unless he have an implicit, that is, a foolish faith and con- ". fidence in the person that prays," — falls to the ground, as wholly inapplicable to Dissenters, who know beforehand the character and qualitications of their minister, and whose at» tendance proceeds from an intelligent choice. 390 ON FORMS OF PRAYER. cies or proprieties of the occasion ; the scope which it allows to the operation of those influxes of solemn feeling which sometimes visit the mind in the act and attitude of prayer; the salutary necessity to which it subjects the minister, of cultivating in the closet the habits which can alone qualify him for the duties of the pulpit: these are to be enumerated among the many important advantages of that method which is exclusively sanctioned by Apostolic practice. Does it not afford, moreover, some degree of presumptive evidence in favour of the superior efficiency of extemporaneous services, in regard to the interest which they excite, that while the recital of the Liturgy, even with all the solemn and picturesque accompaniments of the cathe- dral service, on the days appointed by the Church, when no sermon is preached, is found insufficient to attract a regular audience, the prayer-meetings of the Dissenters exhibit the primitive spectacle of" many gathered together, "praying?" May not the exemplary observ- ance of the duty of family worship among the members of Dissenting Churches, ge/zeralh/, be appealed to as furnishing legitimate evidence of the practical efficacy of their public devotions, in cherishing the spirit of prayer? Does it not suggest the possibility of there being some deficiency of adaptation to the wants and feelings of the heart, in that mode of ON FORMS or PRAYER. 391 worship which seems to awaken so much more of admiration than of interest? Can it be de- nied, that we are more strongly affected by hearing a good man pray, than by hearing him read a prayer ? And is it not natural, that per- sons who are themselves habituated to the free expression of their own devout feelings in secret, should prefer that mode of social worship which seems most to come home to the heart? Will not the tones, the language of sympathy, the voice of the friend heard in the prayer of the pastor, be more soothing to him who seeks in the house of prayer that relief to his burdened mind, and those heavenly consolations which the hope of the Gospel imparts, than the never-varying iter- ation of the same cold forms ? It must be so ; and whatsoever speculative objections, there- fore, may be brought against the extemporary mode, facts and considerations such as these, sufficiently establish its practical advantages and superior efficiency. It is very Hkely that the public services of the Nonconformists, may not be in all respects acceptable to men of taste ; nor is it, perhaps, possible, or even desirable that they should be, since men of taste form a very inconsiderable proportion of those who receive the Gospel of Christ; but we may be well assured, that neither the prevalence of prayer, nor its spiritual efficacy is, in the slightest degree, affected by such a circum- 392 ON FORMS OF PRAYER. stance as this. As to those general charges of irreverence, vulgarity, and gross impropriety, so frequently adduced by objectors to extem- poraneous prayer, *' we are still persuaded," to adopt the words of Hooker in reply to a similar species of argument, " that a bare denial is an- " swer sufficient to things which mere fancy ob- " jecteth. Our answer therefore to their rea- " sons is, No ; to their scoffs, Nothing."* * '' It is the manner of some, to speak evil of the things " thei/ know not. But supposing ministers dropped a less " proper expression, they ought not to be tlwught worthy of " such treatment; especially since the prayers of the an- " cients were not always the most exact, to say nothing worse " of them. This is taken notice of by Austin, who, by a " prudent advice, endeavoured to prevent honest men's be- *' ing laughed at upon that account. * When they (says he) " ' come to be made Christians, who excel others in the art of " ' speaking, we must inculcate upon them one thing, over and " ' above what we do upon illiterate persons; namely, we must *" diligently admonish them to be clothed with Christian hu- " ' mility, that they may learn not to despise those who, they " ' will see, more carefully avoid a fault in their actions, than *' ' in their expressions; and may not dare compare an elo- " ' quent tongue with a pure heart, though they have been " * used tQ give it the preference Make them under- *" stand, that not the voice, but the affections of the soul, " ' reach God's ears ; for then they will.not laugh, if they ob- " ' serve any of the bishops, and ministers of the Church, are " ' guilty of barbarisms, or solecisms, in their praying to God ; " ' or do not understand, but blunder in the words they pro- " ' nounce.' {De Catech. rudib. c. 9. Tom.iv. pp. 298 & 262.) BOOK OF Common prayer. 393 § 4. When the Book of Common Prayer was Book of - , X • CI • Common first instituted in the room of the Latm Service- Prayer. book, in the reign of Edward the Sixth, not only was the exchange in itself highly important and valuable, but it was the best measure which could, under the existing circumstances, have been adopted. The general ignorance which prevailed, as well as the inveterate prejudices of the clergy, rendered some such substitute in- dispensable. The innovation was not suffered to pass without a struggle from " the old jJopa- *' /m5." "■ This last communion," said a po- pish parson in Queen Mary's reign, "was the " most devilish thing that ever was devised." Before this " General Public Office" came forth, there were a great variety of forms of prayer and communion in use: the Popish service- books of Sarum, of Hereford, of York, ofBan- " Whence, by the way, 'tis plain bishops and ministers were " not bound up, at that time, to the use of a set form of words "in prayer." Pierce's Vindication of the Dissenters, Part iii. c. iy. p. 405. " That they (the primitive Christians) " had no such prayer-book, appears yet more evidently from " TertuUian, who describing their public prayers, says — that '" looking up to heaven, they spread abroad their hands, "' because innocent; uncovered their heads, because not " ' ashamed ; and without a monitor, because they prayed Jrom ".' the heart.'" See the argument pursued, relative to the worship of the Primitive Church, in Lord King's Inquiry, Part ii. p. 33-42. 394 BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. gor, and of Lincoln, which were followed by different churches, remained still in force ; and the English forms which had been partially in- troduced, w^ere termed iimovations and neiv rites; they had, indeed, been expressly forbid- den by the Government, although it was after- wards thought fit to connive at them for a * strype's while. * " For the preventing of this different Memorials, . r /~\ t / f ^ • !••• i B. I. c. ii. '' serving oi God, (for by it great divisions and " contentions happened,) the King resolved to " have one form of prayer composed, to be only *' used, and none other, throughout his realm." The real design w^as to prevent the priests, who were ill-affected towards the Reformation, and who understood perhaps, says Strype, better to mumble over the Latin service than to read the English book, from making use of the popish missals. In the royal circular addressed to the Bishops, urging the strict observation of the Common Prayer, the King exhorts them " to " put away all vain expectation of having the " pubhc service, &c. in the Latin tongue, which " were a preferring of ignorance to knowledge, " and darkness to light."* At length, in the * One of the grounds on which the English Service Book was deprecated, is curious enougli; as being the very coun- terpart to the objection raised against extemporary prayer by the advocates" of liturgies, that the people "are merely " hearers/' and so in manner pray not at all. The following remark is attributed to " as learned a man as any in his BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 395 third and fourth of Edward the Sixth, the po- pish service-books were called in and abolished by act of parliament. " Though even the first Communion Service, " and the first book of public prayers, struck " off," as we are told, " abundance of supersti- " tions, and reduced the service of God to the " primitive pattern and the rule of God's word, " yet the Reformers never looked upon it so " perfect, but that it might admit of amenrlment " and imnrovement."t Accordin2;lv, two years tSTEVPt, ^ ' . . P- 216. after (1550), it " underwent a diligent inspection " and reformation by some of the bishops." One of the rules then first inserted was this : " If there be a Sermon, or for other great cause, " time," John Christoferson, Bishop of Chichester, 1557. " When they, (the people,) come to chmche, and heare the " priestes who sayelh common prayer for all the whole multi- " tude ; albeit thty understand them not, yet if they be oc- " cupied in godly prayer thcmselfes, it is sufficient for them. *' And lette them not so greatly passe for under standynge " what the priestes say, but travayle tiiemselves in fervent " praying, and so shal. they hyghly please God. Yea and " experience hath playnlye taught us, that it is much better "for them not to understande the common service of the " churche then to understand it, because, that when they " heare other prayinge with a lowde voyce in the language " that they understande, they are lettid from prayer them- " selfe, and so come to such a slackness and negligence in " prayinge, that they, at lengthe, in maner praye not at all." Lewis's History of Translations. Prefatory Dissertation. 3J)6 BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. *' the curate by his discretion may leave out the " Litany, Gloria in Excelsis, the Creed, T'ho- *' mily and the Exhortation to Communion." The venerable framers of the English Prayer- book, were far from designing, as it is evident, to impose that rigid unabatable adherence to the prescribed course of services, which is now en- , forced npon the clergy on pain of suspension. The length of the prayers was then confided to the discretion of the minister, and in case of a sermon being preached, it was considered as proper, that those portions of the service, in particular, which were adapted to supply that too common deficiency, should be omitted. The prohibitory force of the enactment, was di- rected, not against extemporary prayer, for this, such was the state of the clergy, there was no occasion to discountenance, but against the Latin Mass-book. The original design of li- turgies, as it is declared in the Preface to the English Prayer-book, was, " that all the whole *' Bible (or the greatest part thereof,) should be " read over once every year, intending thereby, " that the Clergy, and especially such as were " ministers in the congregation, should (by '* often reading, and meditation in God's word) " be stirred up to godliness themselves, and be " more able to exhort others by wholesome " doctrine ; and further, that the people (by " daily hearing of Holy Scripture read in the liOOK OF COMMON PRA'i'ETl. 397 *' Church) might continually profit more and •* more in the knowledge of God." " But," it is added, " these many years passed, this god- *' ]y and decent order of the ancient Fathers hath " been so altered, broken, and neglected, by *' planting in uncertain stories, and legends, " with multitude of responds, verses, vain repe- *' titions, commemorations and synodals ; that " commonly when any book of the Bible was " begun, after three or four chapters were read " out, all the rest were unread. And moreover, " whereas St. Paul would have such language *' spoken to the people in the Church, as they " might understand, and have profit by hear- " ing the same ; the service in this Church of "England these many years hath been read in " Latin to the people, which they understand " not, so that they have heard with their ears " only, and their heart, spirit, and mind, have *' not been edified thereby." *' From hence," remarks Vincent Alsop, " we are evidently *' taught, First, That the true original of litur- " gies, was only an order for the methodical " reading of the Scriptures for the benefit of an *' ignorant clergy, and sottish people : and, Se- " cond]y,That that wherein the Reformers glo- " ried to have out-done Popery and edified the * " people, was, that they had procured them '" their worship in a language understood." Since the 5th and 6th of Edward Vlth, the 398 BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. Liturgy has undergone three revisions : first, when re-established by I. Elizabeth; again, in the first year of King James; and lastly, in 1061, the xivth of Charles the Second, when the last Act of Uniformity was passed. The alterations made in the Service at these different periods, were, however, extremely few and un- important ; and many of them, so far from being- dictated by the spirit of the Reformation, were rather adapted to cherish the lurking remains of Popish superstition. The various applica- tions since made for a review, have been alto- gether unsuccessful. The same jealousy of prerogative which led the Government, in the reign of King Edward, before the Communion Book was published, to forbid the use of En- glish services, on private authority, as an ar- rogant forestalling of the King's godly orders, displayed itself, to a still more prejudicial ex- tent, in the succeeding reigns, when the dispo- sition to carry forward the work of Reforma- tion, gave place to a less enlightened policy, and the Puritans became, instead of the Papists, the objects of suspicion and enmity. Extem- porary prayers now came to be regarded as a far worse abomination than the Mass-book, and more violent measures were resorted to, in or- der to force an observance of the rites and ce- remonies which the Church claimed the power to decree, than had ever been employed to BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 399 make the papalins read prayers in the English tongue. The minutes of the Savoy Conference shew how little disposition there existed at that period, to concede an iota to the objections raised against the Prayer-book, by Protestants of the most distinguished learning and piety. Since then, we have heard only of the perfection of the Liturgy, and two thousand clergymen were sacrificed to the intrigues of a wicked fac- tion, for being of a contrary opinion. Their scru- ples were, of course, attributed by their perse- cutors, to sanctimonious obstinacy. Their own explanation of their conduct was this : " They '' scruple giving up their consciences to those *' whom they see no great reason to trust, till '* better evidence be given how they regard their "own.* * Melius J II- quirenditni. At no period, however, could the use of the i> so Prayer-book have been generally dispensed with in the Establishment. Had the imposi- tion only been less rigorous and unconditional, had free prayer been still allowed to those who stood not in need of a form, little controversy would have arisen as to the general expedience of the enactment, while the excellence of the compilation, in connexion with the habits of the clergy, would have effectually secured its adoption. From the Reformation to the Com- monwealth, a very large proportion of the Churches were supplied by mere readers, whose 400 BOOK OF COMMON TRAYER. utter incompetency either to preach or to pray^ rendered the expedient of a prescribed form absolutely necessary. Many of the benefices remained in the hands of concealed papists, and the general character of the clergy was so low, both in respect to moral and intellectual quali- fications, that when in the reign of Elizabeth, a survey was made by royal authority, of the state of the parishes throughout the kingdom, there did not appear, on the face of the returns, to be one minister in ten tolerably qualified for the office. To be able to read, was, in those times, a distinguishing attainment, and even the parish- clerk w as not unfrequently in holy orders. Ser- mons were for the most part, in the country cures, out of the question, and it was literally true, no Common Prayer-book, no Common Prayer. The value of such a compilation as the English Liturgy, at that period, considered simply as a means of instruction, must not be lightly appreciated. Richard Baxter, who de- scribes the state of the parochial clergy as be- ing, when he was young, deplorable in the ex- treme, in point of both ignorance and immoral- Jty, yet frankly testifies that he joined in the Liturgy, then, with as hearty fervency as after- ward he did with other prayers. "As long as " I had no prejudice against it, I had no stop in Lifkind <■<■ lyjy dcvotlous froui any of its imperfections."* rune.', iol. i\uti. ur. So true is it that the spirit of piety is often ON PREACHING. 401 found in combination Avith the humblest degrees of rehgious knowledge! Let this simple-hearted statement have all the weight which it can claim: it is certainly adapted to repress any doubt, (if such doubts are entertained,) as to the efficiency of the written service for the pur- poses of devotion ; it may teach Dissenters to unite with a just preference of their own mode, a respectful and candid appreciation of the ri- tual of the Episcopal church. It is the spirit of imposition which is to be deprecated, as the source of all the unhallowed feelings which have mingled in this controversy, — the impious at- tempt to prescribe to men in what way alone they shall be suffered to unite in prayer to their Maker. " peries; prayers in an unknown tongue; prayers to multi- " tudes of beings; and the whole load of absurdities and " depravations of true religion under which the Christian " people were in captivity, till they became gross and " weighty enough at last, to break the props that supported " them. It was authority which recommended and guarded " them, by disgraces and by inquisitions, by making it infa- " mous, or terrible, to any, to oppose them. It was autho- " rify which would have prevented all reformation where it " is ; and which has put a barrier against it, wherever it " is not. It was human authority in religion, which alone " set up itself against the beginnings of this Church of ." England itself; and which alone now contests with it the " foundation upon which it stands. This authority was at " first exercised in little, by those who were so far from " pretending to such enormities as it afterwards arrived at, " that they would have detested and abhorred the thought " of them. And so it will be, for ever, and every where. AS A BOUNTY. 527 cation of secular inducements, for the produc- tion of a corresponding profession of belief. By a bounty upon any branch of commerce, is meant, the attempt to force by premiums,, a supply beyond the demand, or to reward the production of a particular article by a sum over and above its marketable value. Instruc- tion is, upon the scheme under consideration, the commodity which is professedly snpplied ; the wants which it is designed to meet, are not " The calling in the assistance of mere authority, even " against errors or trifles, in religious matters, at tirst, will " by insensible degrees come to the very same issue that it has " been ever hitherto seen to end in. And how, indeed, can " it be expected, that the same thing which has in all ages, " and in all countries, been hurtful to truth and true reli- " gion amongst men, should, in any age, or in any coun- " try, become a friend and guardian of them ; unless it can " be shewn that the nature of mere authority, or the nature " of man, or both, are entirely altered from what they have " hitherto been ? For it is not in religion, as it is in the " civil concerns of human life. The end of human society " is answered by outward behaviour and actions : which " therefore, ought to be restrained and governed by civil '* authority? But the end of religion, and of the Christian " religion in particular, is destroyed, just in proportion to " the influence of great names, and to the eiFect of world- " ly motives, and mere authority of men, separated from " the arguments of reason, and the motives and maxims of " the Gospel itself."— Bishop of Bangor's " Answer to " the Committee of the Lower House of Convocation." pp. 313—315. 528 ESTABLISHMENTS VIEWED less real in themselves, nor do they less infalli- bly produce a demand, than any of the physical wants of society. The same maxims, there- fore, may without violence, be applied to the case of religious instruction, as to the case of any other species of production. Viewed in this light, the scheme of an Esta- blishment is open to formidable objections of an economical nature. Why, it might be said, if its object be to furnish instruction, is the bounty attached to the production of a specific kind, when other kinds are equally adapted to meet the demand ? Why should not the re- spective qualities of each kind be left to re- commend it to the preference of the commu- nity? The only reason that can be given, is, that the State has other ends to answer by this mode of provision, than that the people should simply be supplied with religious knowledge ; that its object is to give an advantage to that specific kind which it has adjudged to be the best. But in relation to what purposes is it the best? Is it the best in its influence upon the social character? Instruction of any kind is in- fluential in proportion, not to its abstract good- ness of quality, but to its being actually imbibed. In other words, religion can answer any pur- pose to society, only so far as it becomes in individuals a principle of action. A system of religion is good exactly in proportion as it is AS A BOUNTY, 529 true ; it is influential only in proportion as it is believed. On this account, a system of be- lief chosen by the individual himself, even al- though a false one, is more likely to have the desired effect to make him a good member of society, than the profession of the true religion imposed upon him by another. The credibi- lity of a man's testimony, for instance, is by no means necessarily dependent upon his creed. An oath taken upon the Koran by a Mahotn- medan, is as good for the purposes of society, as the oath of a Christian upon the Gospels, provided there is, in each case, equal reason to believe that the individual is conscious of the obligation of an oath. The case is still stronger with regard to the different sects of Protestantism. The affirmation of a quaker will, in any court of justice, go as far as the oath of an episcopalian. Civil character, it is evident, is a thing perfectly distinct from re- ligious profession. An Establishment, there- fore, which distinguishes between particular systems of doctrine as false or true, leaves us still to seek for the evidence of a man's being religious in any sense which can be of advan- tage to society. All systems, unless they di- rectly authorize fraud or licentiousness, are, in proportion to their influence as principles of action, equally conducive to the legitimate purposes of the State : their actual influence in 2 M 530 Establishments viewed particular instances, is a fact which must be determined, not by their truth, but by the pro- babilities upon which we found our good or bad opinion of a man's social character. It is granted that the truest religion, if believed, will have the best tendency ; but not to advert to the incompetency of the State to determine which is the truest, a scheme, the efficiency of which terminates at securing a mere profession of belief, (admitting that what it provides is truth,) will, after all, be inferior in tendency to one which effectuates the great object of mak- ing men, though by a ruder kind of instruction, religious. Is the species of knowledge upon the pro- duction of which the State sets so high a pre- mium, the best in any higher reference, as re- lating to human salvation? The benefits to be derived from the knowledge of the true religion in this respect, so entirely depend upon a cor- dial belief in its doctrines, as the matter of Divine revelation, and upon a right disposition of the heart with regard to the objects of faith, including both the operation of free choice, and a corresponding habit of the affections, that its bedng prescribed to a man by the State as the best, can be of no service to him whatsoever, un- less he also deems it to be the best, that is to say, the truest : and this, on grounds very different from its being the religion of the State. Those AS A BOUNTY, 531 persons who should adopt a system of faith be- cause it happened to be the established religion, would, on the supposition of its being true, adopt it upon false grounds, under the operation of incorrect motives, and would evince, that their conception of the truth was not agreeable to its genuine character. It is needless to remark in how large a majority of instances this rule of decision would mislead, as it has misled thou- sands, to adopt a system of error. But, sup- posing the established religion to be the 'best, unless it be the o)ily modification of Christian- ity, by believing in which a man may be saved, unless rejecting this, he is " left to the unco- " venanted mercies of God," its being abstract- edly the best, is no reason why it should be thus exclusively prescribed, since of all possi- ble systems deducible from the word of God, by which salvation is attainable, it is right that every one should adopt that which seems to him the most accordant with the dictates of Inspiration, since, through his faith, not through his accuracy of judgement, he shall be saved. If, however, on the around of its beins: for t^" h"""'r ^ . ° . ° inefleclniil this or any other purpose the best, the State *" 'secure a supply. deemed it advisable to encourage by a bounty the production of a certain species of doctrinal instruction, one would expect that every pre- caution should be taken to secure its being ac- tually produced. Dr. vSmith, in treating of '2 M 2 532 ESTABLISHMENTS VIEWED bounties, shews how the State suffers itself to be imposed upon when, as in the case of a tonnage bounty, the premium is proportioned, not to the diligence or the success of the trader, but to the burden of the ship, and vessels are in consequence too frequently fitted out " for " the sole purpose of catching not the fish. Wealth rf " but the bounty."* This is exactly what Nations, '' B. iv. c, 5. ~ — ~~~~ — " * The following opinion of Archbishop Cranmer respect- ing ecclesiastical sinecures, occurs in a letter to Cromwell (Earl of Essex), given in Burnet's History of the Reforma- tion, relative to " the new establishment in the metropolitaD ** church of Canterbury." — " Nevertheless in my opinion, the prebendaries, which *' will be allowed 40/. a piece yearly, might be altered to a *' more expedient use : and this is my consideration, for *' having experience, both in tymes past, and also in our " daies, how the said secte of prebendaries have not only *' spent their time in much idleness, and their substaince in *' superfluous belly chere, I think it not to be a convenient *' state, or degree, to be mainteyned and established ; con- *' sidering first, that commonly a prebendarie is neither a " learner, nor teacher, but a good viander. Then by the *' same name they look to be chief, and to here all the hole *' rule and preheminence, in the college Avhere they be re- *' sident. By means whereof, the younger of their own *' nature,, given more to pleasure, good chere, and pastime, *-' than to abstynance, studye, and lerning, shall easily be *' brought from their books to follow the appetite and exam- " pie of the said prebandaries being their hedds and rulers. " And the state of prebandaries hath been so excessively " abused, that when learned men hath been admitted unta " such room, many times they have desisted from their good AS A BOUNTY. 533 takes place in an Establishment. Those who stipulate to provide the required article — in- struction, are paid not for the supply they furnish, but merely for their undertaking to supply it ; the bounty, instead of being bestow- ed on the production, is bestowed on the mere promise of production, without the least secu- rity being either given or required, that the sti- pulated article shall be produced. What is the fact? Unless we consider the reading of prayers as an efficient mode of instruction, no service whatever is rendered in a very large proportion of instances in which the bounty is received. No intention of rendering it is entertained at the time of making the engagement. Indeed, " and godlie studies, and all other vertuous exercise of ** preaching and teaching; wherefore if it may so stand with " the king's gracious pleasure, I would wish that not only " the name of a prebendarie were exiled his grace's founda- ** tions, but also the superfluous conditiones of such persons. ** I cannot deny but that the beginning of prebendaries, was *' no less purposed for the maintenance of good learning " and good conversation of living, than religious men were: " but for as much as both be gone from their first estate and " order, and the one is found like oftendour with the other, " it^maketh no great matter if they both perish together: " For to say the truth, it is an estate which St. Paule, " reckoning up the degrees and estates alowed in his time, ** could not find in the Church of Christ." Records. Part 111. B. iii. No. 65. 534 ESTABLISHMENTS VIEWED the larger part of the bounty which is exacted from the nation, is not directed at all to the production of the supply of religious know- ledge, being arbitrarily appropriated, in very unequal shares, to offices connected with the Establishment, of the nature of sinecure, the holders of which render no service whatever to the public. Under this description may be ranked the large body of non-resident clergy- men, amounting, in 1811, to between five and In 1817, to six thousand,* with the exception of the few of 10,603! who out of this number are virtually resident. Deans and chapters, prebendaries and canons, all who constitute the mere state-equipage of the scheme, pluralists to the extent to which their engagements exceed the possibility of their service, are receiving the bounty upon re- ligious instruction upon the same false pre- tences. The reason assigned for such an ar- rangement, by the apologist for Establishments, is, that the edification of each rank in society, is better provided for by stationing in each an order of clergy of its own class and qua- lity, and that the fund thus distributed, pro- duces " more eflTect, both as an allurement to PAirv.cb. *' men o-f talents to enter into the Church, and on Msta- . i • i /• I i biishments. " as a stmiulus to the mdustry ot those who " are already in it." The reply to this state- ment is obvious : first, the edification of the ty^ AS A BOUNTY. 535 higher ranks is not the allotted business of the higher orders of clergy, inasmuch as men of all ranks are equally bound to attend upon the instructions of the parish priest, or of his cu- rate, and the sinecurists referred to have no share in producing the desired provision: se- condly, the allurement and the stimulus have no tendency to produce a larger or better sup- ply of actual provision, but simply to ensure a larger number of candidates for the bounty itself, which, as it is never proportioned to the industry of the labourer, can never stimulate him to greater activity. It is admitted, that those among the clergy The bounty , j-i^i !• •• I T« ^^^ ^ prerai- who contribute by their writings to the religi- umnponta- ous instruction of the people, although they should render no other service, do yet come under the description of effective labourers. The encouragement given to men of learning to enter the Church, in order that they may be at leisure to prosecute their studies with a view " to augment the fund of sacred literature," is assigned by Dr. Paley as an argument in fa- vour of the scheme of an Establishment* And " this leisure and opportunity must," he con- tends, " be afforded to great numbers," in order to produce a few capable of subserving the desired object, on the same principle as that on which *' we sow many seeds to raise one " flower." Unless, however, opportunity car- 536 ESTABLISHMENTS VIEWED ried with it the power of a motive, a scheme which supersedes the necessity of any species of industry, would not seem to be the best adapted to give birth to exertion. The opera- tion of a fund in which the industrious and the idle equally participate, must have a directly opposite tendency : it amounts, in fact, to a bounty upon inefficiency, for the inefficient are, in comparison, gainers to the extent of the la- bour furnished by the industrious which re- ceives no remuneration. In like manner, ** the " endowments of schools and colleges," as Dr. Smith has remarked, " have necessarily " diminished, more or less, the necessity of *' application in the teachers. Their subsist- " ence, so far as it arises from their salaries, " is evidently derived from a fund, altogether " independent of their success and reputation *' in their particular professions."* *' In every " profession, the exertion of the greater part *' of those who exercise it, is always in propor- *' tion to the necessity they are under of raak- " ing that exertion." In an EstabHshment, no such necessity is laid upon those who receive the pay of the State. The stipend is not a pre- mium given to encourage extraordinary dili- gence, to promote emulation, or to reward ac- tual service, for then, learning, if not religion, might be the better for its application ; but it is to all intents and purposes a totmage hmmty; * B. 1-. c. Art 2. AS A BOUNTY. 537 a bounty professedly bestowed on the produc- tion of a particular species of religious teach- ing, but bestowed, in reality, to a great ex- tent, upon those who produce nothing what- soever. The men of learning, and others who by their writings efficiently contribute to the service of religion, are not the persons with regard to whom the inequality in the distribu- tion of this fund, operates as an allurement, or proves to be a reward ; but are, for the most part, men actively engaged in the discharge of their appropriate functions, and enjoying very moderate portions of the bounty which, in the shape of benefices, prebends, and other digni- ties, is freely lavished upon mere sinecurists. Another reason yet remains to be noticed, in K"™^* ar- '' ' gunieat tor favour of rewarding with so high a bounty, the tiie ijoiin^j- mere covenant to supply the required sort of instruction ; it is this : " The interested dili- *' gence of the clergy," says David Hume, (another advocate for Establishments,) ''is what " every wise legislator will study to prevent." Their encouragement cannot, as he conceives, " be safely intrusted to the liberality of indivi- *' duals who are attached to their doctrines, " arid who find benefit or consolation from " their spiritual ministry and assistance;" be- cause, although their industry and vigilance would *' be whetted by such an additional mo- *' tive," and their skill in their profession in- 538 ESTABLISHMENTS VIEWED creased, yet this very diligence would display itself in a pernicious emulation to increase the number of their followers at the expense of truth and decency ! " In the end, the civil " magistrate," he adds, " will find that he has " dearly paid for his pretended frugality in " saving a fixed establishment for tiie priests; " and that, in reality, the most decent and " advantageous composition which he can " make with the spiritual guides, is, to bribe " their indolence, by assigning stated salaries " to their profession, and rendering it super- " fiuous for them to be farther active, than " merely to prevent their flock from straying in " quest of new pastors. And in this manner " ecclesiastical establishments, though com- " monly they arose at first from religious "' views, prove in the end advantageous to the " political interests of society." With the same views of the actual effect of this excessive bounty conceded to a favoured sect, Dr. Smith argues, that the sovereign must, in order to be secure, possess the means of holding the clergy in dependency upon the executive power. " In a country where the .*' law favoured the teachers of no one religion " more than another," this would not, he ad- mits, be necessary. " In such a situation, he " would have no occasion to give himself any *" concern about them, further than to keep AS A BOUNTY. 539 the peace among them, in the same manner as among the rest of his subjects, tliat is, to hinder them from persecuting, abusing, or oppressing one another. But it is quite otherwise, where there is an established or governing religion. The sovereign can in this case never be secure, unless he has the means of intiuencing in a considerable de- gree, the greater part of the teachers of that religion. And he can influence it only by the fears and expectations which he may excite. Those fears and expectations may consist in the fear of deprivation or other punishment, and in the expectation of fur- ther preferment." D. ».ct In these passages, the design of the scheme of an Establishment, is openly and distinctly represented to be, to corrupt the motives of its instruments, and to render the supply of re- ligious instruction a source of influential pa- tronage to the State. That it has this tendency can scarcely be denied. To defend it on this ground, I leave to the apologist for corruption as a means of good government, and to the ad- vocate for expediency as the basis of morals. 2\s to the dangers arising to the State from an Establishment, they are far from being chime- rical; yet it is seldom, if ever, that any sect ' has given trouble to the civil government, un- til, if established, it was robbed, or, if not esta- 510 ESTABLISHMENTS VIEWED InefBcieDcy of the bounty as respects quality of service. blished, oppressed. A good government needs not the aid of corrupt influence to render it secure. A government which should ovi^e its security to corruption, cannot be a good go- vernment. Hitherto we have been viewing the ineffec- tual operation of the bounty upon ecclesiastical performances, in respect of the mere quaritity of service which it procures. It may be worth Avhile just to advert to the total failure of the expedient, as regards the quality of the sup- ply. The required provision is, a specific kind of religious teaching, of which the Articles pro- posed for subscription, may be assumed to be the standard. What security is there that in- struction answering to this sample shall be actually furnished ? What precautions are taken to ensure, in the party undertaking to furnish it, efficient capacity to instruct? What is to prevent a totally opposite species of instruc- tion from being administered ? Obviously, none. The Articles are an instrument of exclusion, in reference not to the doctrines taught, but to the teachers who decline, on the condition of sub- . scription, the offered bounty. Those who have subscribed to the Articles, preach, it is no- torious, when they do preach, what they please; and the comparatively small minority who preach in conformity to the doctrine of the Thirty-nine Articles, are a cl^ss upon, whom AS A BOUNTY. 54 1 good care is taken that a very moderate share of the bounty should fall ; they are the class who render the most service, and have the least pay. The same species of doctrinal instruction's pro- duced by teachers of other sects, without any bounty or premium upon the production, with- out any consequent expense to the State. If the mere supply of the natural demand were the sole object of an Establishment, the bounty upon the article, when thus shewn to be unne- cessary for its production, might be expected to be withdrawn. The result of an open com- petition must needs be, to give a prodigious as- cendancy to truth over error. People are, after all, not the less disposed to believe in a thing be- cause it is true, nor are they inclined to disbe- lieve its truth, in proportion to the clearness of the evidence by which it is attested. That which is the truest religion, will in the end approve itself as the best. Besides, where the Bible is in the hands of the common people, a test is at hand, by which they may examine the nature of the tendered supply ; and this will render it extremely difficult to impose upon them a v'u tiated article, whatever bounty is laid upon its production. It is rather a suspicious circum- stance, that the receivers of this ecclesiastical bounty should, as a body, manifest so excessive an anxiety to discourage the circulation of a test which presents the infallible means of de- 5-j2 ESTABLISHMENTS VIEWED tecting imposition. This dread of the Bible, this great care " not to suffer the word of God " to go abroad without the word of man to '* speak for it," — what does it denote, but a consciousness that their chiims to this bounty do not arise from the quality of what they fur-». nish, or the efficiency of the services they yield, that they rest upon a fiction, upon pretence? This pretence is religious instruction, while the real object of the system, is, the appropriation of a bounty conceded by the State, which re- ceives back an equivalent in iniiuence? Such are the economical objections to which the scheme of an Establishment is liable, but as embracing the systematic application of se- cular inducements to the consciences of men, for the purpose of producing a professed be- lief in certain doctrines, it is further to be view- ed as operating in direct contrariety to the de- sign of the Gospel. ciirisiianity Christianity is a system of doctrines, that is to say, its authoritative claims relate in the first instance to our belief in an assemblage of facts: but this by"no means describes the whole of its nature. Christianity is also a system 'of motives, its object being less to pro- duce an assent to its doctrines, than to ef- fect a change in the disposition and character. One of the most prominent features in this change, the New Testament writers uniformly a systein of moUves. As A BOfNtY. 5io Represent to be, a spirit of self-renunciation, and of magnanimous indifference with regard to the honours and possessions of this world. " Love not the world," says the Apostle John, " neither the things that are in the world. *' If any man love the world, the love of the " Father is not in him." " How can ye be- i Joim, ;;. " lieve," said our Saviour, " who receive ho- " nour one of another?' " How hardly shall jobnv. 44. *' they that have riches enter into the king- *' dom of God!" Nothing is more conspicu- Lnkcxvii.. ous than the constant solicitude manifested by our Saviour, to exclude the operation of secu- lar inducements from having any share in pro- ducing a reception of his doctrine. When a strife arose among his disciples, (probably in anticipation of their being eventually advanced to temporal dignity in the Messiah's kingdom,) " which of them should be the greatest," our Lord expressly told them, that lordship and authority formed no part of w^hat they had to expect as his followers, who himself " came *' not to be ministered unto, but to minister, *' and to give his life a ransom for many." For mm.xx. some time, it is evident that his disciples che- rished' fond expectations of realizing in the pre- dicted Messiah, the deliverer of Israel, and of sharing in the glories of his temporal reign. They were extremely slow to conceive, that the kingdom whicii he came to establish, " is not 544 ESTABLISHMENTS VIEWED *' of this world." The death of their Master plunged them in despondency, but did not wholly dissipate these delusions : " We trusted " that it had been he who should have redeem- *' ed Israel." But, after his resurrection, their hopes seemed to be rekindled, and with eager- Acts i.e. ness they inquired: "Lord, wilt thou at this " time restore the kingdom to Israel?" A re- markable change, however, subsequently took place in their views and their characters. Arm- ed with a very different spirit, they went forth as the preachers of Christ crucified, perceiving how God had chosen things base and despica- ble in the sight of the world, as the instru- ments of bringing to nought the objects of that world's idolatry. Then, the circumstances of the Christian calling, seemed to preclude the possibility of secular influence vitiating the motives of the professed convert. "Those who " believed," are said to have " sold their pos- " sessions and goods, and parted them to all " men, as every man had need." No room was left for the operation of any lower induce- ments than those which had respect to the re- compense of the final reward. And when Simon - . Magus would have purchased the power (which, is claimed by the bishops of the Establisli ment on a title not very different) of conferring on whom- soever he might lay hands, the liqly Ghost, with what severity of indignation is his impious offer AS A BOUNTY. 545 rejected: " Thy money perish with thee, be- *' cause thou hast thought that the gift of God *' may be purchased with money." How does Actsviii.20. the Apostle Paul spurn at the idea of making a gain of the Corinthians, refusing to burden them 2 cor. xi. 9. even to the extent of his personal support ! It 2 Thess. iu. is however predicted, that the time would come, when false teachers should arise, who should " ivith feis^ned words make merchandize'' ^ , 2 Peter, ii. of them. " Feed the flock of God which is s. *' among you," says St. Peter, " taking the " oversight thereof, not for filthy lucre, but of " a ready mind: neither as being lords over '* God's heritage, but being ensamples to the " flock." And what are the motives which the 1 Pet. v. 2. inspired writers propose to call into action as substitutes for the allurements and stimulants of secular rewards? " The love of Christ con- " straineth us." " They watch for your souls *' as those that must give account." "■ Feed " the Church of God which he hath purchased " with his own blood." Any motives short of what such expressions as these imply, could, in their view, have no efficiency to produce a care for the souls' of men; nor could any qua- lifications exclusive of this, constitute a fitness for the ministerial office. The idea of bribing men to teach, and that of compelHng them to * believe, were equally remote from the notions which the Apostles entertained of the religion 2 N 0d6 ESTABLISHMENTS VIEWED of Jesus Christ. They disclaimed alike all dominion over the faith of the Church, and all the craft of a worldly policy, contenting them- selves w^ith inculcating on the churches the equitable principle, that " the labourer is wor- " thy of his hire." Contrast with this representation the lan- guage of the ad vocates for Establishments. Ex- amine the motives which the inducements at- tached to that scheme call into action, and their bearings upon the ministerial character. Judge of the nature of that faith, of the efficiency of that teaching, which are produced by the bounty of the State ; judge of them by their fruits. Compare the principle of sowing many seeds to raise one flower, with that on which the founders of Christianity proceeded ; and bring to the same test, the political expedients of subordinating the teachers of religion, by the hope of preferinent, to the interests of the sovereign, of bribing their indolence by render- ing them independent of those who are alone interested in their exertions, and of thus allur- ing men of talent to take up a profession which they would otherwise despise. Finally, contem- plate iii all the length and breadth of its ope- ration, this plan for identifying the once irre- concileable interests of God and the world, the praise of men and the reward of heaven, extending through all the gradations of society, AS A TAX. 547 from him who receives for being a minister of Christ, his twenty-thousand pounds a year, down to the poor artisan or dealer of the coun- try village, whose scanty maintenance hangs on his keeping to his church. Who can but ad mire the perfection of the mechanism, the har- mony of the scheme ? How can that Establish- ment be any other than the palladium of true religion in the country in which it exists, which employs in its promotion every motive that has respect to the fears and hopes and interests of this present world, compelling men, though not exactly in the scriptural import of the words, — compelling them " to come in ! " § 8. The fund assigned for the maintenance Estabiish- of the endowed clergy, has, in the preceding Td "s^a'to' section, been considered in reference to its pro- fessed object, as a bounty upon religious instruction. This bounty must of course be drawn from the people in some shape or other as a tax. An Establishment, therefore, must include. Thirdly a compulsive obligation laid upon the community, to contribute to the pro- pagation of the religious opinions embodied in the authorized standard. This obligation being universal, the contributors divide themselves into two dasses; the one consisting of those who do approve of the doctrinal instruction by that means provided, and the other, of those who do not. 2 N 2 548 ESTABLISHMENTS VIEWED Objection on the ground of conscience. With regard to the latter class, it constitutes not the whole, but by no means an inconsider- able part of the grievance, that they are com- pelled by the State to contribute to the propa- gation of what they conscientiously regard as error. A portion of the fruits of their industry, is diverted to maintain in influence and splen- dour the ministers of (it may be) a false reli- gion ; for on the same principle that the con- tributions of the nation are demanded in sup- port of any one system, because it is the religion of the State, they may be exacted for the maintenance of any other system, be it Christian, or Mahommedan, or the worship of Juggernaut himself. Here then arises a ques- tion of religious duty, which may be put in this form : How would the Apostles and first Chris- tians have acted, had they been called upon to contribute to the support of the Roman esta- blishment? Would that species of tribute have been regarded by them as comprehended in rendering to Cesar the things that are Cesar's ? or would not the demand have thrown them into the predicament of having to choose whe- ther to obey God or man? The proper reply, in the writer's opinion, would be this, That if their contributing to the ecclesiastical institutions of the empire, did not expose them even to the appearance of sanctioning the established ido- latry, they had no more reason for claiming an AS A TAX. 549 exemption from such an impost, than from any other species of civil tribute, the application of which might not be less opposite to the spirit of Christianity. The question is, whe- ther submission to an assessment, the payment of which is not optional, but compelled, can be considered as involving a participation in the responsibility attached to its application. If not, (and to the writer there appears no room for hesitation in deciding in the negative,) the subject is not justified in his disobedience to the requisitions of the civil magistrate. But, although there may not be sufficient objectionon ' "J *' the ground o^round for resisting: the demand of the State, ofitsine- "-" ^ ^ quality. when made in the form of a tax, the requi- sition may not the less be a grievance, as an act of essential injustice ; for not only is the indi- vidual contributing in such a case to the sup- port of what he regards as a pernicious system; he has also to furnish his voluntary contribu- tion to the maintenance of the system of reli- gion which he adopts : and he is thus placed by his dissent from the religion of the State, under the necessity of a double contribution, part arising from political, part from moral obliga- tions. The plea usually advanced in defence of a compulsory mode of raising a fund for the maintenance of the clergy, is, that otherwise few would ultimately contribute any thing at " all." " Temptations of interest" would be 550 ESTABLISHMENTS VIEWED " in opposition to the duties of religion," and " pretences of conscience" would be alleged as " an excuse for not sharing in a public bur- " then." " If/' continues Dr. Paley, '• by de- " dining to frequent religious assemblies, men " could .save their money at the same time that " they indulged their indolence, and their dis- " inclination to exercises of seriousness and " reflection ; or if, by dissenting from the na- *' tional religion, they could be excused from " contributing to the support of the ministers " of religion; it is to be feared that many " would take advantage of the option which " was thus imprudently left open to them, and *' that this liberty might finally operate to the " decay of virtue, and an irrecoverable forget- Chap. X. " fulness of all religion in the country."* But biisiSlnts such an argument can hold good only thus far, ^"^ that all the members of the community should be required to contribute, in definite propor- tions, to the support of the ministers of reli- gion. Where, therefore, proof could be ob- tained, (and it obviously might be rendered ob- tainable, under legal regulations which should leave no room for evasion,) that this definite proportion was actually contributed by the individual to the maintenance of some religious teachers, although not those of the Established Church, there would be good ground for ex- cusing the contributor from an assessment, AS A TAX. 551 having for its professed design to compel the reluctant subscriptions of the mercenary and the irreligious. Dr. Paley himself refers to a mode of assessment adopted in the United States, which approximates, as nearly as tax- ation can do, to this equitable arrangement. " In this scheme it is not left to the option of " the subject, whether he will contribute, or ** how much he shall contribute, to the main- " tenance of a Christian ministry: it is only " referred to his choice to determine by what " sect his contribution shall be received." The grievance sustained where no such op- objectionon tion is conceded by the State, is yet further ag- of its appH- gravated by the circumstance already adverted to, that the fund to which, after paying his quota of voluntary aid to his own sect, the in- dividual is compelled to contribute his full proportion, is not exclusively applied to its professed object — the maintenance of the mi- nisters of religion ; but, to the extent to which the bounty is not employed in the production of actual service, goes to feed the source of a corrupt influence. The assessment, therefore, is unjust, inasmuch as it is excessive; exces- sive just so far as what is raised is superfluous for purchasing the requisite supply of instruc- tion. To reconcile him to this overcharge, this one consideration may, however, possibly pre- sent itself; that the excessive bounty has the 552 ESTABLISHMENTS VlEWEt) effect of " bribing the indolence" of those whose activity would only conduce still more power- fully to the dissemination of error. But " the authority of a church establish- Paley. " ment is founded on its utility." Since, then, all participate in the advantages resulting from its influence on society at large, all are bound to contribute to its maintenance. This is a fa- vourite argument with those who assume it as an admitted principle, that theEstabhshment is, to use a hackneyed phrase, the palladimn of so- cial order, the soul of all good magistracy, " the *' bulwark of pure religion and the pillar of Di- Bp. How- " vine truth." Beit so; admit that Dissenters Charge. ""* should bc compcllcd to share in its support be- cause they share in its advantages. We affirm that the operation of Dissent is at least equally beneficial to society at large ; that the members of the Establishment participate in the good ef- fects resulting from its influence ; and that they should, on this principle, be compelled also to contribute to the maintenance of Dissenting teachers. This assertion must be proved, not- withstanding that it may lead to a somewhat in- vidious train of comparison. In what consists, and by what is evinced, the beneficial influence of the Establishment, as re- gards society at large? Does it respect an at- tendance upon the ordinances of Christian wor- • ship? Then, since the provision made by the Es- AS A TAX. 553 tablishment is confessedly inadequate (not to speak of any deficiency of adaptation) to the wants of the population, the circumstance of an additional provision being voluntarily made by the Dissenters, at their own cost, must, one would think, claim to be considered as of some benefit to the community; unless it would be better, that is, more beneficial to the State, that the people should not worship God at all, than that they should attend upon " a worship which " makes them Dissenters."* Were we to take the aggregate of attendants, instead of the ag- gregate of places of worship, as the basis of the comparison, it would not perhaps be overstat- ing the fact to affirm, that one half of the popu- lation who actually attend Divine worship on the Sunday, are to be found worshipping within the walls of non-established conventicles. What- ever benefits, as regards the interests of mora- lity, are connected with the observance of the Lord's day, and an attendance upon the means of religious instruction, the nation is a debtor * " In the most populous parishes, places of worship, ac- " cording to the Church of England, are notoriously defi- " cient. The people have no option but the entire neglect " of all Divine worship, or the attendance upon a worship " which makes them dissenters from the Establishment' • • • " The parish church, open perhaps only once on the Sunday; " is insufficient to accommodate the rich, and in too many " places is almost shut against the poor." Earl Harrow- BY's Speech, 18th June, 1812. 554 ESTABLISHMENTS VIEWED for one half, therefore, of those benefits, to the Dissenters. Does the beneficial influence of the Establishment display itself in a reverence for the laws? There are circumstances which would lead us to think that the influence of Dis- senting institutions is not inferior in this respect. Notwithstanding all that has been alleged concerning the tendency of Calvinistic preach- ing to promote licentiousness and to embolden crime, the fact is, that our jails and our hulks are filled with criminals who have been bred in a different school. The number of offenders who have received their education among the Dissenters, or attended upon the worship of the conventicle, bears no proportion to the culprits upon whom has been expended in vain the in- fluence of the Establishment. If, again, the character of the population in a district where there is no Dissenting teacher, be compared with the moral condition of the same class of society, where the Dissenters are numerous, the inference from the contrast which will almost invariably presentitself, will be not less in favour of the moral tendency of Dissent. Method- ism, enthusiasm, puritanism, or whatever name may best describe the form the endemic shall assume, doubtless may be generated, and may call for the corrective influence of theatres* or • Eight or nine clergymen, not very long since, attended in a body, for the purpose of sanctioning the performances of AS A TAX. 555 fairs, in order to reclaim the wrong-headed mul- titude from a morose morality; but still, the ale-house and the jail will not be quite so much crowded. And as to that species of offence termed a riot, especially riots having for their object to prevent the performance of public wor- ship, I am not aware that Dissent has ever had to answer for such breaches of the peace. Cer- tainly Dissenting ministers have never, on such occasions, occupied the station of ring-leaders, although clergymen have. In fact, whatsoever other benefits may accrue to society from the Establishment, there is one species of beneficial influence, in the merit of which a full share must in candour be conceded to the Dissenters, and that is, on the part of their teachers, the influence oi example. But further, is it in the spirit of zeal and active philanthropy to which the Esta- blishment gives birth, that its salutary effects a party of strolling players in a town in one of the eastern counties. A sermon is said to have been preached on the preceding Sunday, recommending innocent amusements. The understood object was, to oppose the Dissenters, and " The Hypocrite" was performed one night hy particular request. Five ^ears ago, it was remarked by the Grand Jury, that no district furnished so few criminal cases; at the last assizes, it produced an ample number, and the respectable inhabi- tants have found themselves under the necessity of establish- ing a private night patrole. This is by no means a solitary instance of the kind in England. The same policy has been resorted to in Geneva, in order to put down the ultra'OXiho- dox in that city. 556 ESTABLISHMENTS VIEWED are discernible ? Do those numberless benevo- lent institutions by which this country is ren- dered so illustrious in the eyes of other nations, together with the splendid combination of self- prompted agency by which they are rendered effective, — institutions for propagating the Gos- pel, for circulating the Holy Scriptures, for edu- cating the poor, — do these originate exclusively with the Establishment? No: if indeed Bible societies, tract societies, sunday-schools, mis- sionary societies, have any beneficial influence upon society, engendered as they aie in the hot- bed of schism, forming as they do " the hive of " Dissent," for no very small proportion of that good, the country is fully aware that it is in- debted to the Dissenters. Or is it in the ad- vancement of piety in its own members, in the degree of intelligence which it serves to render general, in its tendency to meliorate the moral condition of the people at large, that the benefit of an Establishment consists? Let the state of education, the tone of morals, and the standard of piety, among the Dissenters, be impartially estimated, and the operation of non-established institutions will not appear to be less salutary. But the pre-existence of an Establishment is presumed to have conduced to the success of sectarian efforts. What, it is sometimes urged, would have been the state of things, had it not been for an Establishment? As it is not the de- sign of these remarks to intimate that the Esta- AS A TAX. 557 blishment has been of no utility, it will be suffi- cient to inquire in return, what would have been the state of things, including among those things the Establishment itself, had it not been for Dissent?* If, then, it be but admitted, (what * " It may perhaps be thought an anomaly of sentiment," says a distinguished minister of the Scottish Establishment, " that one so impressed with the need and the advantage of " an extended religious Estabhshment, should be equally de- " cided as to the advantage of a most zealous, active, and " unrestrained dissenterism. If the former were armed with " such a power of intolerance as would enable it to crush the '* latter, instead of a blessing it would prove a curse to the " country which sustained it. It would soon be overrun " with indolence and corruption, and the various evils which " are ever sure to result from the exercise of a secure and '' independent patronage. — For the accomplishment of this " object," (the infusing of fresh vigour into the existing Esta- Jjlishments,) " we shall ever look upon Dissenters as great " moral benefactors of their country. They call forth a " most salutary reaction in the church. They exert a most " salutary control over the dispensers of patronage. They " do make such progress at times as to perplex and alarm " the bigots of an Estabhshment. But such we believe to " be the native preference of our people for our Establish- *' ments, that we feel quite contident and secure that Dis- " senters never will make more progress than they deserve " to make; and thatlhey never will obtain such an ascen- " dancy over the mind of the country, as to lead to the " subversion of its religious establishments, till these esta- " blishments deserve to be subverted. With a single " view to the moral and religious character of our people, " we hail Dissenters as our best and most valuable auxilia- " ries. We look upon them as indispensable friends, whose " services we cannot spare. We disclaim all sympathy with 558 ESTABLISHMENTS VIEWED only the most besotted bigotry can deny,) that the operation of Dissent has been to any extent beneficial in its mfluence upon the moral con- dition of society, the members of the Establish- ment, all who have any stake in the country, must be considered as participating in the ad- vantages arising from Dissent; therefore, by pa- rity of reasoning, they should be compelled to contribute to the maintenance of Dissenting teachers. It will not be imagined, that this is a conclu- sion which would be for a moment seriously urged for any other purpose than to expose the fallacy of the argument for compelling the con- tributions of the Dissenters to a church to which they do not belong, founded on the alleged uti- lity of an Establishment. All that it is designed to shew, is, that the mutual obligations which the established and the non-established sects are under to each other, are not so unequal as to justify on the part of the former a claim to the full measure of assessment in support of its ministers from all the members of the latter. A large class of contributors, however, is " those who are ashamed, or with those who are afraid of ** them. We should like to see every badge and remnant " of inferiority taken from off their "persons, and are most *' thoroughly convinced, that their full and equal admission " into all the offices of the state, is an essential step in the " progress of an enlightened policy." — Chalmers's Sermon on the Death of the Princess Charlotte. Appendix. AS A TAX. 559 composed of those who professedly approve of the doctrines and discipline of the Establish- ment. There can be no question, Mvhether they ought to contribute to the support of the church to which they belong; the only question is, whether they should be compelled to contribute, whether this contribution should be exacted in the shape of an assessment, and if so, what mode of assessment is the least exceptionable. Into this subject I shall not enter further than to remark upon the great, the radical change which is introduced into all the institu- tions of Christianity, as the inevitable conse- quence of an Establishment. " In the beginning " it was not so." The firstministers of Christian- ity disdained the reluctant tributes of those on whom the motives of the Gospel had no power. In their view, the disposition of the giver was every thing :* " Every man according as he * See page " purposeth in his heart, not grudgingly, or of " necessity." No specific sum was exacted, no kind of compulsive authority employed ; they contented themselves with simply appealing to the generosity — the gratitude of believers: " If " we have sownunto you spiritual things, is it *' a great thing if we shall reap your carnal " things?" Surely, there was nothing miraculous in this method of providing for " the preserva- *' tion and communication of religious know- " ledge." Whence, then, has it arisen, that 155. 560 ESTABLISHMENTS VIEWED Christianity has lost its Divine power of enforc- ing its own claims upon the hearts of men, so as to be driven to throw herself on the patronage of the secular power for a maintenance in the world? How is it to be explained, that the in- spired writers did not foresee, or foreseeing did not provide for this delicate crisis in the affairs of theChurch, which should necessitate soessential a change in its constitution, as is involved in the superseding of all voluntary demonstrations of obedience in the members of the Christian fel- lowship, by substituting for religious motives, the obligations of human law? " Let him that is " taught in the word," says the Apostle, "com- *' municate in all good things to him thatteach- " eth :" but this precept, together with the mo- tive by which it is enforced, is virtually abroga- ted by enactments which designedly render the teacher wholly independent of his people, lift- ins him at once above their control, their moral claims, and their gratitude. It is readily granted, that upon " the scheme " of voluntary contribution," much less in point of amount, w^ould probably be raised for the maintenance of religious teachers, and that the fund tlrus obtained, would be drawn from only a portion of the community. Many would, no doubt, choose to save their money, by refusing to contribute any thing to the support of reli- gion. It is worthy of consideration, ho^veve^, AS A TAX. j)(jl whether a fund might not by this means be raised, fully equal in amount to that proportion of the assessment which, in an Establishment, goestotheproduction of actual service, and whe- ther its effective application might not subserve to a still greater extent the professed object of the bounty of the State. Should this prove to be the case, there can be little doubt that the cause of religion would be materially promoted by a recurrence to the primitive mode of sup- porting the teachers of Christianity, which left the ministry of the gospel to operate, in a way congenial to its character, its designed effects upon the world. But, should it be admitted, that the mainte- Tiie Tithe- nance of the teachers of religion, is an object to which, with the greatest propriety, the public money may be appropriated; it would still ap- pear to be of vast importance, that the means of levying the requisite supplies, should be as free as possible from all tendency to alienate the minds of the people from the ministers of reli- gion ; for this would frustrate its very design. A prejudice thus excited, would be dangerous in the extreme to the spiritual interests of those whom the scheme was intended to benefit ; in- asmuch as Christianity, rendered disgusting and burdensome to them in one form, might, in too many cases, be rejected altogether. What, then, must be the moral, what the political ten- •2 o system. •562 ESTABLISHMENTS VIEWED dencies of a system which absolutely merges the pastor in the tithe-collector; which is perpe- tually bringing into irritating collision the inter- ests of the incumbent and those of the proprie- tor; which presents the ecclesiastical claimant, when simply prosecuting his legal rights, in the light of a rapacious intruder upon the profits of another's industry, and which gives to the laws themselves the character of oppression? Surely, if an Establishment must be maintained, this would seem to be at all events the worst con- ceivable mode of providing for its maintenance * § 9. Fourthly: An Establishment has the ef- fect of placing the right of spiritual instruction at the disposal of the proprietors of the soil. Whatsoever claims the episcopal clergy may advance to an exclusively legitimate commis- sion to instruct and to convert mankind, as de- rived from their apostolical ordination, it is their being established which alone gives to those claims any real consequence or effect in the minds of the people. Were it not for this cir- cumstance, their pretensions would be as in- * In reference to this most complicated and most import- ant subject of political economy, I cannot resist taking the opportunity of directing the public attention to a very mas- terly Review of the question, both as regards the expediency of some plan of commutation, and the absurdity of the cla- mour raised by the tenacious advocates of " irrevocable, '' prescriptive right," in the Eclectic Review for Sept. and Dec. 1817. (Vol. viii. New Series.) As A SYSTEM OF PATRONAGE. _ 563 liocuous as those of the Roman Catholic episcopacy in our own country, by which this Jand of heretics is still partitioned out into ti- tular dioceses, under the supremacy of our holy father the Pope. The effect of the Establish- ment is, to give a political shape and substance to these ghostly claims, and to aggravate by considerations of personal interest, the feel- ings naturally generated by the spirit of the order. The endowed minister regards the intrusion of a sectarian minister into his neigh- bourhood, as a direct invasion of his legal pre- rogative. It is not simply because the li- censed teacher presumes to exercise an unau- thorized ministry, that his schismatical labours are viewed with jealousy and contempt, al- though this, in the eyes of a thorough episcopa- lian, is in itself an inexpiable offence ; but be- cause, as tolerated by the State, he asserts an equal right to teach the very subjects of the church-man's spiritual domain. The parish, with all the souls which it contains, is the allotted cure of the clergyman, within which he considers himself as invested with a sort of patent right to administer instruction, and it is his labour to impress the people with the same notion. Hence those reiterated exhorta- tions to keep to their church, to beware of the sectaries,* which are to be heard continually * The following declaration, worthy in every respect but •J o 2 564 ES TABLISHiMKNTS VIEWED even from evangelical preachers within the Es- tablishment. Hence the attempt to represent Dissent as a factious opposition to constituted authorities. Hence the language employed to shew the importance of the national system of education, as avowedly a counter-project ne- cessitated by the pernicious activity o^ fanati- cism in promoting the education of the lower classes. " Every populous village," declares the present Bishop of London, " unprovided " with a national school, must be regarded " as a strong- hold abandoned to the occupa- Primcmj a ^jqjj gf ^/^g enemv ." Whence can originate Charge. ^ ~ this irritation and feverish alarm at witness- ing benevolent and disinterested exertions, having for their sole object the instruction and melioration of mankind, but from the idea that they infringe upon the chartered rights of the established clergy, — rights of the nature of its imbecility, of the priesthood of Rome, is pasted, in a printed form, in the Prayer-books of all the children belong- ing to a national school in a country town, " This I " am sure of, so long as you continue in our communion, " you are in the communion of the true church of Christ. " I dare answer for the salvation of all those who continuing " in our church, live up to the principles of it. But I " dare answer nothing for them, who being brought up in " this church, and having so great" opportunities given " them of knowing the truth, do yet depart from it. I pray " God they may be' able to answer for themselves. "R.M. M." AS A SYSTEM OF PATRONAGE. o60 prerogative, which when they cease to be ex- clusive, cease to exist, — the rights of a spiri- tual monopoly? But whatever prerogatives of this description, real or imaginary, attach to an endowed clergy, can arise only from their being appointed by the State. This right to teach may be considered as a part of that ec- clesiastical property, of which a clergyman becomes possessed on the presentation of the patron or proprietor of the benefice, and which he devolves upon the curate as his delegate; a local title of this kind, derived from appoint- ment to a specific cure, being a necessary pre-requisite to holy orders. Whether ordina- tion or appointment be the source of this supposed right, is, however, a matter of no moment. So far as it belongs to the esta- blished clergy, it belongs to them by virtue of the stations which they occupy, and those persons who have the disposal of the station, do in fact dispose of the rights annexed to it. It is unnecessary to state, that these per- sons are, to a great extent, the large landed proprietors ; they are the class in whom is vested the hereditary privilege of providing the living with its occupant, and, consequently, the people with their spiritual guide. This right of presentation, is as much the patron's property, as the tithe is that of the rector; it is a sort of manor-right, which is to be taken 566 ESTABLISHMENTS VIEWED into consideration in the event of sale and purchase, like any other appendage to an es- tate. Upon this very ground, Dr. Paley argues in favour of the necessity of tests, because the system of patronage established in this coun- try, " allows private individuals to nominate " teachers of religion for districts and congre- '* gations to which they are absolute strangers." The requisition of subscription, he represents to be merely " a restriction upon the exercise *' of private patronage." " The laws speak " to the private patron thus : — ' Of those '' ' whom we have previously pronounced to ** ' be fitly qualitied to teach religion, we al- " ' low you to select one : but we do not " ' allow you to decide what religion shall be " * established in a particular district of the " 'country; for which decision you are no " ' wise fitted by any qualifications, which, as " ' a private patron, you may happen to pos- " ' sess. Tf it be necessary that the point be " ' determined for the inhabitants by any other '* ' will than their own, it is surely better that " ' it should be determined by a deliberate re- " ' solution of the legislature, than by the ca- "/ sual inclination of an individual, by whom ** * the right is purchased, or. to whom it de- " ' volves as a mere secular inheritance.' Where- " soever, therefore, this constitution of patronage " is adopted, a 7iational religion must alioays AS A SYSTEM OF PATRONAGE. 567 ** necessarily accompany it." This, then, is the admitted fact, that patrons, who are in " no " wise fitted by any qualifications to decide" what religion should be established, and who may be " absolute strangers" to the district for which they claim to nominate a teacher of re- ligion, under the sole restriction of his being professedly of the established religion, have, by right of purchase or of inheritance, the ap- pointment of Christian pastors. The State hav- ing decreed what shall be taught, they have the selection of the teacher. Power has de- cided the former point, Wealth has the deter- mination of the latter ; and thus the kingdom of Christ is shared between these confederate elements of the world ! Of the evils which result from the present corrupt state of ecclesiastical patronage, no one will attempt to dispute the existence; but " what plan, what system," it will be said, " may not be perverted so as to become a '* source of abuse? Where the will of the inha- " bitants has had a share in determining the *' appointment, what tumults, what disgraceful " animosities have arisen from the contest of " parties !" This is true ; but what do such oc- currences prove more than this, that when se- cular emolument and dignity have become an- nexed to spiritual functions, no method of disposing of the oflSce can be devised, which 568 ESTABLISHMENTS VIEWED shall not give rise to a conflict of personal in- terests, and endanger the formation of hostile parties ? The spirit, the motives of men will alw^ays partake in some measure of the cha- racter of their object, and if its nature be but in part secular, the taint of secularity will ine- vitably diffuse itself through their actions. Po- pular elections in the Establishment, have the disadvantage of being grafted on a system of policy ^vith which they have no natural agree- ment, and they by this means appear to be the cause of evils which spring in reality from the secularized character of the sacred office. Ne- vertheless, the result of ecclesiastical elections determinable by the will of the parishioners, is almost uniformly to secure an effective preacher. No one whose practice was at open variance with his doctrine, would risk the or- deal of such a contest ; and this consideration alone outweighs a thousand objections to such a mode of appointment. With regard, however, to the system of pa- tronage, it is not any accidental circumstances connected with its administration, it is not mere abuses, which form the ground of the objection, but what is necessarily involved in the system itself. Who are the possessors, the proprietors of this world ? What is their scriptural character? Who, under any con- ceivable change in human affairs which should AS A SYSTEM OF PATRONAGE. 5()9 leave human nature itself unchanged, can we expect them to be, but such as the inspired writers emphatically denominate the men of this world ; men who " discern not the things " of the Spirit of God," to whom they are foolishness, " because they are spiritually dis- "cerned?"' Is there a sane individual who dreams, that the state of things will ever be so completely reversed, as that the mighty, and the noble, and the rich, who have their portion in this world, shall prevailingly embrace the spiritual religion of the Son of God, and the meek be, in this literal sense, the inheritors of the earth ? Whatsoever may be in reserve among the undiscovered glories of the Mille- nial age, no intimations at variance with exist- ing facts are afforded by the apostolic writers. They, on the contrary, leave us under the full impression of our Lord's hard saying : " How *' hardly shall they who have riches enter into '* the kingdom of God f They call us to hearken to this appeal : " Hath not God cho- ** sen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and " heirs of the kingdom which he hath pronsised *' to them that love him?"' But what is the ef James ii. 5. feet of the scheme of an Establishment? It is to place the poor at the absolute mercy of the richy in the matter of their salvation. It is to* constitute men of this world juriges as to who are qualified, and arbiters as to who shall be 570 ESTABLISHMENTS VIEWED allowed, to convert sinners like themselves, and to preach that gospel of the power of which they exhibit their own ignorance. It is to make the care of souls a profession, nay a merchandize, for the right to save them is an- nexed to the disposable living! It is to ex- clude the will of the people from all share in determining whether the person to whose guid- ance they are called mutely to surrender them- selves, shall be a shepherd or a hireling, al- though they are the only parties interested, and they are infinitely interested, in the alter- native. It is, in short, to offer the highest secu- lar inducements to the irreligious or insincere, to take upon themselves the awful responsibi- " lity of an office which they are alike incompe- tent and indisposed to discharge, to impose upon the nation as instructers, blind leaders of the blind, and to prostrate the Christian mi- nistry at the feet of the world, and the god of this world. The advocate of Establishments has, in dis- cussions like these, one great advantage : he can make himself easily intelligible to persons of all descriptions of character ; he has no oc- casion ^to advert to topics on wliich it is una- voidable for the Christian to give offence, and on which he can hardly expect that mere poli- ticians should feel the force of his reasonings. Yet, topics uf this nature, if we would view an AS A SYSTEM OF PATRONAGE. 571 Establishment in its most important bearings, it is impossible to avoid. We must tell the poli- tician plainly, that how well soever he un- derstands his own business, he does not enter into the genius of the Gospel of Christ; that his institutions, exquisitely adapted as they may be to secular objects, are utterly useless as means of promoting the triumphs of Christia- nity in the salvation of man. The melioration of society, by every expedient which may de- velop the intellectual faculties of the indivi- dual, and give a salutary direction to his active powers, or which, by strengthening moral re- straints, may subordinate his passions to the general good, is the noblest object which hu- man wisdom can achieve ; but when, not con- tent with this the appropriate sphere of its legislation, philosophy, or that which assumes the name of philosophy, proceeds to tamper with the souls of men, it is in the very nature of things impossible that its schemes should prove otherwise than abortive. Whatsoever may be intended by the spiritual Babylon, whose destruction forms so prominent a part of the yet unfulfilled records of prophecy, whatsoever may be comprehended in her pre- dicted fall, can we suppose that those who participate in her guilty merchandise, stand in no danger of receiving of her plagues ? If not, although the infidel may treat with ridicule the 572 ESTABLISHMENTS VIEWED idea of drawing arguments from the Apoca- lypse, and Protestants may deem it a sufficient exoneration from the charge, that they trade neither in masses nor in indulgences, there is still a significance in the expression which should prevent it from being lightly passed over : among the unhallowed riches of the mighty city are enumerated — " slaves and the " souls of men." bUshme^nt § 10. A Fifth objcctiou to the scheme of an v"irtuai pi-^ Establishment, founds itself on a circumstance Dii"nteir! which, if not hypothetically necessary, is, ac- cording to the representations of the advocates for Establishments, highly expedient as a co-in- cident part of the scheme, viz. the exclusion of Dissenters from eligibility to civil offices, or what may be termed the virtual pimishmeni of Dissenters. The words, virtual punishment, are used, because it has been denied that such an exclusion has any thing in it of a penal nature. Bishop Warburton has devoted a chapter of his famous treatise of the " Alliance between " Church and State," to proving that disqua- lification by a test law, is only a restraint, and not, in the true sense of the word, a pu- . nishment; that at least it was not intended to be such, but only " becomes a punishment by " accident.'' " To punish sectaries, in order to bring them " over to the national religion, is," says his IN CONNEXION WITH A TEST-LAW. 573 Lordship, " plainly iniquitous ; but to re- *' strain them from injuring the national reli- " gion, is evidently just. Therefore, had the " intention of the Legislature in this case been " doubtful, yet, a general laiv of a free people *' would admit of no other interpretation." The only principle on which an established religion and (what he considers as necessary to its support) a test-law, are, in his view, suscep- tible of vindication, is that oi civil utility . Were religion to be established and protected by a test-law, on the mere ground of its being the true religion, and opinions to be encouraged, or discouraged, as opinions, then, he acknow- ledges, that an Establishment would be, " 1. '* Unjust, Because," he argues, " the civil ma- *' gistrate as such, hath no right to determine, '* which is the true religion ; this powder not *' being given him on man's entering into so- " ciety. Nor could it be given him ; because " one man cannot empower another to deter- *' mine for him in matters of rehgion. There- " fore, he not being judge, and there being no " other to be found with authority to arbitrate *' between him and the several schemes of relir " gioo, he hath no right to establish his own. *' Again, it is unjust, because, were the magis- " trate a competent judge of what was true- " religion, he would have yet no right to reward " its followers, or discourage its opposers^ be- 574 ESTABLISHMENTS VIEWED " cause matters of opinion belong not to his " jurisdiction. He being, as St. Peter tells us, '* ' sent by God for the punishment of evil- " ' DOERS, and for the praise of them that do "'WELL,' 2. An Establishment is aZ»5i