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 CHARGE 
 
 DELIVERED TO 
 
 THE EPISCOPAL CLERGY 
 
 CITY AND DISTRICT OF GLASGOW, 
 
 May 4, 1842, 
 
 RIGHT REVEREND M. RUSSELL, D. C. L., 
 
 OF ST JOHN'S COLLEGE, OXFOfiD. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 EDINBURGH : OLIVER & BOYD. 
 
 GLASGOW: DAVID ROBERTSON. 
 
 LONDON: RIVINGTONS. 
 
 1842.
 
 Printed by Oliver & Bovd, 
 Tweeddale Court, High Street, Edinburgh.
 
 My Reverend Buethren, 
 
 The return of the stated period at which the prac- 
 tice of the church calls for this exercise of official 
 duty on my part, is the only reason why I address 
 you at present ; for the circumstances of our body, 
 generally speaking, undergo so little change that 
 the lapse of three years rarely presents any new 
 matter to which your attention requires to be spe- 
 cially directed. At all times the duty of a clergyman 
 is nearly the same ; and the motives which should 
 urge him to the performance of it are equally obli- 
 gatory and unchangeable. 
 
 It is true that, were I disposed to pass the bounds 
 which limit the territorial interests of our body, 
 ample scope might be found for dissertation in the 
 movement which has recently taken place, and still 
 continues, in the larger branches of the Episcopal 
 Communion. But in reference to that excitement 
 in the united church of England and Ireland, which 
 has called forth so much talent and zeal on both 
 sides of the question, I might hold it enough to say 
 that we, Scottish Episcopalians, have nothing to do 
 with it ; because the circumstances whence it took
 
 its rise have not, at any period, extended to us. 
 This assertion may perhaps require to be explained, 
 especially for the sake of those who, having been 
 educated and ordained elsewhere, are less likely to 
 be acquainted with our history, in the respect, at 
 least, to which I now more particularly allude. 
 
 In general, then, I mean to affirm that, owing to 
 her local position and her complete separation from 
 the State, the Episcopal Church in Scotland has been 
 free from the influence of those causes which, in 
 the South, gradually brought the Establishment into 
 such a predicament as almost necessarily led to the 
 reaction which now partially disturbs her repose. 
 
 The causes to which I allude may be traced as 
 far back as the Revolution of 1688, when a sovereign 
 ascended the throne, who himself being without any 
 fixed principles in religion, was desirous, for the 
 sake of public peace and other political objects, to 
 unite all parties on a common ground, where the 
 various forms of church government and even of 
 theological opinion were not, compared with the 
 end in view, to be held of primary importance. 
 His intention was to introduce such a scheme of 
 Comprehension as would include all who held, or 
 professed to hold, the fundamental tenets of the 
 gospel, and who might be found willing to sacrifice 
 their peculiar notions of ecclesiastical polity as well 
 as the distinguishing doctrines of the several Divinity 
 schools. In a word, he imagined it quite practicable 
 to unite on the same platform of doctrine, discipline 
 
 ^ UIUC ^
 
 and worship, the Presbyterian and Episcopalian, the 
 Arminian and the Calvinist. 
 
 In pursuance of this object he obtained the aid 
 of some Divines, and, among them, of the celebrated 
 Bishop Burnet, whose work on the Thirty-Nine 
 Articles was not less calculated to remove differ- 
 ences on debated questions, than to establish the 
 faith of the Anglican church on the broad ground 
 of Scripture. You require not to be told that the 
 purpose contemplated by his majesty, though aided 
 by no small portion of learning, was not fully real- 
 ized ; being, in truth, utterly impracticable without 
 the most extensive sacrifice of personal honesty and 
 public faith. But the attemj)t produced effects 
 which did not pass away with the ruler at whose 
 suggestion it was undertaken. An inroad was 
 thereby made upon the old church-feeling which 
 had distinguished the great divines of the preceding 
 reigns ; and a downward progress was commenced 
 from those high principles which supported primi- 
 tive truth and order, during the discouragements of 
 the Commonwealth, and the more dangerous period 
 of licentiousness and infidelity that succeeded the 
 Restoration. In the reign of Anne, notwithstanding 
 her personal attachment to the ecclesiastical estate, 
 low-church views continued to gain ground. It is 
 true that, under her auspices. Potter wrote his able 
 " Discourse of Church Government ;" but the feeling 
 of the age was against him ; and the lax notions of 
 Hoadly sank deep into the men of the next gener-
 
 6 
 
 ation, who remembered not the eloquent learning of 
 Jeremy Taylor, the piety of Sanderson, nor the 
 uncompromising orthodoxy of Bishop Bull. 
 
 Upon reverting to the annals of last century you 
 will find that its beginning was marked by a great 
 change in the theological literature of England. 
 During the inauspicious administration of Charles 
 the Second, scepticism spread to a great extent among 
 the higher classes ; the evidences of Christianity 
 were subjected to a severe examination ; and it had 
 become fashionable for men of wit and literary pre- 
 tension to indulge in the freest strictures on the 
 doctrines as well as the primitive history of the 
 christian faith. Even some of the philosophers of 
 the period openly professed what was called Deism ; 
 a system of opinions which implied a total disbelief 
 in all revealed religion. 
 
 To meet this assault the divine came down from 
 the high places of his creed, and assumed arms simi- 
 lar to those with which he was attacked. Finding 
 himself surrounded by profound reasoners and acute 
 thinkers, by men who had resolved to discard every 
 thing which was incapable of analytical examination 
 and logical proof, he deemed it necessary to cultivate 
 the powers of argument, and to call to his aid all 
 the resources of metaphysics, rhetoric, and natural 
 theology. Hence we find that many writers of 
 eminence at this period who undertook the defence 
 of the christian cause, narrowed very much the 
 limits of the faith, in order that they might main-
 
 tain with success the ground which they deemed it 
 expedient to occupy. The gospel, robbed entirely 
 of its true spirit, of its peculiar energies, and of all its 
 diviner aspects, gradually assumed the appearance 
 of a philosophical system illustrated in the language 
 of scripture. The churchman of that feeble epoch 
 had neither courage nor power to assert the au- 
 thority and value of the holy mysteries to which he 
 had bound his conscience. Nay, we are assured that 
 a correspondence was maintained between certain 
 prelates who possessed the confidence of government, 
 and some German divines suspected of looking with 
 a favourable eye towards the dogmas of Socinus, 
 to determine whether a doctrinal and ecclesiastical 
 imiformity might not be established among all the 
 protestant churches and sects of Europe. The mere 
 proposal to accomplish such uniformity shows the 
 extent to which either party was disposed to yield ; 
 and there is no room for doubt that Archbishop 
 Tillotson acceded not less to the spirit of the times 
 than to the wishes of the sovereign, when he listened 
 to the overtures of the rationalising doctors in 
 Switzerland and Prussia. 
 
 The church had now fallen on evil times, and her 
 glory was diminished in the eyes of all orthodox 
 communities. In Jewell, Hooker, and many others, 
 she had possessed a treasure of learning, wisdom, 
 and piety, which on all occasions found utterance 
 in such a rich and fascinating eloquence as to add 
 greatly to its value. These men were so wholly
 
 possessed by their subject, and so entirely devoted 
 to its consideration, that the great truths of divinity 
 were worked into their inmost hearts, and became 
 a part of their very nature. No earthly motive 
 could have induced them to depart from their prin- 
 ciples, or to found their preaching and arguments 
 on any other ground than the very highest. But 
 the example and the influence of those great char- 
 acters passed too soon away ; and with Bull, Taylor, 
 Jackson, and a few others, the older school seemed 
 to expire, or at least to fall into abeyance. For a 
 brief space, indeed, the ancient vigour was partially 
 renewed in Stillingfleet and Waterland ; yet even 
 in them, while there was the same store of learning, 
 the same sound judgment, the same reverence for 
 catholic antiquity, and perhaps the same devoted- 
 ness to their subject, there were wanting the co- 
 piousness of diction, the exuberance, the warmth, 
 and the tenderness which fix the words of Hooker 
 and of Hall in the deepest places of our memory. 
 
 An apology has been suggested for the divines 
 who flourished in the earlier portion of the last cen- 
 tury by the fact, already stated, that infidelity was 
 so openly avowed by men of genius as to give a new 
 turn to the studies of theological writers. It became 
 their object to defend not the mere outworks, but 
 the citadel itself ; not any particular form of Chris- 
 tianity, but the main truths of the gospel, considered 
 as a Divine revelation. They had to combat so- 
 phistry with sound reasoning, rather than mistaken
 
 opinions with deep professional learning ; and to 
 this necessity we are indebted for a series of valu- 
 able works in reply to the Deists, which retain 
 their reputation and may be read with advantage 
 even at the present day. It is, indeed, to be re- 
 gretted that such a necessity should ever have 
 existed, for the effect of it was most paralysing and 
 deadly. The perpetual weighing of evidence, the 
 exposure of sophistry, the replying to fallacies 
 founded on abstract principles, is an unfavourable 
 employment for the mind, viewed in reference to 
 the purifying of the heart, and the elevation of 
 pious feeling. The intellect may be improved, but 
 the moral nature is left untouched and uncultivated ; 
 and the hurtful tendency of this species of mental 
 exercitation was but too visible in the writers who 
 attracted the largest share of public notice during 
 the first fifty years after the Revolution. 
 
 It is not, as some have insinuated, that those 
 learned men had, to no small extent, ceased to hold 
 the great truths of the gospel. On the contrary, 
 they were not less zealous than able in defending 
 the leading doctrines of revelation ; but it must 
 be confessed that, in replying to philosophers, they 
 frequently forgot that they themselves were divines 
 and christian ministers. Those who are acquainted 
 with the various Lectures founded by Boyle and 
 others, and who have read the elaborate discourses 
 pronounced by Kidder, Gastrell, Harris, Bentley, 
 Samuel Clarke, Bradford, and Blackball, will un-
 
 10 
 
 derstarid what I mean. A school grew up with 
 very peculiar and distinct features. The men who 
 composed it were ingenious, acute, and philosophical, 
 maintaining the low ground on which they stood 
 with remarkable dexterity. Their style, though cold 
 and dry, was clear, and well suited to the character 
 of their dissertations. They moved with great re- 
 gularity in their contracted orbits, giving a steady 
 light, though neither brilliant nor exhilarating. Mo- 
 deration was their watchword ; and the principal 
 end of their labours was to find out some middle 
 path between the lofty divinity of the preceding 
 age, and the diluted theology which had been intro- 
 duced from the Continent. Their maxim too often 
 was to surrender what were considered the less im- 
 portant tenets and usages of their own communion, 
 that they might be able to retain the remainder 
 with greater safety — a maxim which is always 
 dangerous and often impracticable. 
 
 If you wish to ascertain what species of fruit 
 grew on the tree I have now described, go back 
 some thirty or forty years, and ask what was the 
 character of clergymen in England, and what 
 were their notions concerning the constitution of the 
 church and the nature of the ministerial office. The 
 venerable Hooker, Bishop Hall, and the learned 
 Leslie, had been succeeded by such writers as 
 Jortin, Balguy, and Powell ; men, no doubt, en- 
 titled to respect for their talent and acquirements, 
 but who were so exceedingly lax in their principles
 
 11 
 
 that, while tliey perpetuated the notions of Hoadly 
 on high doctrinal points, they seemed to teach that 
 any one form of ecclesiastical polity was as good as 
 another, provided it were sanctioned by the civil 
 government. The older divines, the glory of the 
 Anglican church, dwelt with the utmost earnestness 
 on her constitution and the ministerial commission, 
 as necessary for the due possession of the sacraments 
 by the people. They taught plainly that priests are 
 nothing of themselves ; that their value is derived 
 from their office, and from the commission to mini- 
 ster in their Master's name which that office gives 
 to them ; and that human laws can no more make 
 a priest than they can make a sacrament. But 
 when the new school had possession of the church, 
 it was taught that the injunctions of the apostles, 
 and the constant practice of the whole christian 
 world during fifteen hundred years, cannot be of 
 any consequence to us, if we shall be pleased to 
 conclude that a church can subsist without a bishop, 
 and a priest without ordination ; that the State can 
 create ministers of God's word at its own pleasure 
 and after its own fashion, and that such persons are 
 fully qualified to dispense the word of life and the 
 sacraments of the gospel. These low notions were 
 but too common beyond the Tweed at the close of 
 the last century, and have not yet perhaps altogether 
 disappeared. If you desire to know how such mis- 
 erable degradation could enter into a Communion 
 which had once heard the truth from the great
 
 12 
 
 lights of the seventeenth century, you will find it 
 was let in by that race of low divines, who made it 
 their boast to take what they were pleased to call the 
 common sense view of every question in theology, 
 and treated with derision every one who taught that 
 in the mysteries of the gospel there are things which 
 we can neither touch, taste, nor handle, but which 
 are as necessary to our spiritual life as the air we 
 breathe, and as true as the oracles of God.* 
 
 Under the chilling influence of that heartless sys- 
 tem where the principles of secular learning had in 
 a great measure supplanted the authority of divine 
 revelation, the church lost her power over the public 
 mind, and had a name to live while in most of her 
 essential attributes she was really dead. Her solemn 
 rites, now little understood and less valued, had 
 sunk into mere formalism ; and the great doctrines 
 on which her foundations were laid were seldom 
 enforced by the priest, and came at length to be 
 reluctantly received by the people, who had been 
 gradually allowed to lose sight of their vast im- 
 portance. 
 
 * See " Disputatio habita in Scliolis Publicis Anno 1756," by 
 William Samuel Powell, D.D., late Archdeacon of Colchester, and 
 Master of St John's College in Cambridge. The theme is as follows : 
 " Ecclesiastici regiminis, in Anglia et in Scotia constituti, neutra 
 forma aut juri hominum naturali aut verbo Dei repugnat." This is 
 to be found in the Discourses published by Doctor T. Balgiiy, 1776. 
 
 The Study of Church History recommended, &c., by Hugh James 
 Rose, B.D., pp. 52, 58, London, 1834.
 
 13 
 
 Hence a great evil arose, to which the present 
 crisis may be distinctly traced, and of which, indeed, 
 it is in some degree the necessary result. About 
 the beginning of the present century, a number of 
 zealous men appeared within the precincts of the 
 church who lamented her inactivity and condemned 
 her want of zeal ; and seeing among some classes 
 of the dissenters a more ardent spirit, a deeper in- 
 terest in the spiritual welfare of their fellow-crea- 
 tures, and a more honest attachment to their own 
 principles, they attempted to transfer to the Estab- 
 lishment some portion of the living flame to kindle 
 the coal on her altar which no longer gave either 
 light or heat. They encouraged a revival, but 
 too much, unfortunately, in the language of dis- 
 sent ; they laboured to rebuild the temple, but paid 
 too little attention to the original plan or the proper 
 materials ; and accordingly there were thousands 
 and tens of thousands who applauded their motives, 
 who yet could not approve their proceedings, and 
 were grieved to see the church outwardly supported 
 by those who slighted her principles and paid small 
 respect to her ritual. In point of fact, the most ac- 
 tive persons, during a considerable period, were those 
 who did not glory in the name of churchmen, but 
 who, symbolizing rather with the advocates of dis- 
 sent, gave their countenance to certain shades of 
 doctrine which could not boast the authority of 
 primitive times. A painful crisis hence arose ; the 
 house seemed divided against itself: and while the
 
 14 
 
 priest at eveiy altar announced his belief in the 
 holy catholic church and the communion of saints, 
 there was neither catholicity in doctrine nor unani- 
 mity in sentiment. 
 
 It was obvious to all that such a state of things 
 could not long continue. Those who had accustomed 
 themselves to mark the progress of events, and to 
 watch the indications of God's Providence, cherished 
 a hope that the evil would in due time correct it- 
 self ; that though the blood had forsaken its wonted 
 channel and a lethargy had seized the whole body, 
 warmth would return to the cold heart, and dis- 
 tincter views to the erring head. In the moral as 
 well as in the natural world there are always in 
 reserve certain compensating principles which are 
 usually called into action by the very excess which 
 they are calculated by Divine Wisdom to check and 
 adjust ; and though for a time, under the influence 
 of human folly, one extreme may produce another, 
 the due balance is at length obtained. 
 
 It may have fallen under the notice of some of 
 you that the movement in the South was foreseen 
 by one at least of those who felt that the church 
 could not always persevere in her downward course, 
 but must either resume her essential doctrines or 
 consent to perish. Addressing a brother clergyman 
 he said : — " I seem to think I can tell you something 
 which you who are young may probably live to see, 
 but which I, who shall soon be called away off the 
 stage, shall not. Wherever I go, all about the
 
 15 
 
 country, I see amongst the clergy a number of very 
 amiable and estimable men, many of them much in 
 earnest and wishing to do good. But I have ob- 
 served one universal want in their teaching : the 
 uniform suppression of one great truth. There is 
 no account given any where, so far as I can see, of 
 the one holy catholic church. I think the causes of 
 this suppression have been mainly two. The church 
 has been kept out of sight partly in consequence of 
 the civil establishment of the branch of it which is 
 in this country, and partly out of false charity to 
 dissent. Now this great truth is an article of the 
 Creed ; and if so, to teach the rest of the Creed to 
 its exclusion, must be to destroy the analogy or pro- 
 portion of the faith. This cannot be done without 
 the most serious consequences. The doctrine is of 
 the last importance, and the principles it involves 
 of immense power ; and some day not far distant, 
 it will judicially have its reprisals. And whereas 
 the other articles of the Creed seem now to have 
 thrown it into the shade, it will seem, when it is 
 brought forward, to swallow up the rest. We now 
 hear not a breath about the church ; by and by, 
 those who live to see it will hear of nothing else ; 
 and just in proportion, perhaps, to its present sup- 
 pression, will be its future development. Our con- 
 fusion now-a-days is chiefly owing to the want of it ; 
 and there will yet be more confusion attending its 
 revival. The effects of it I even dread to contem- 
 plate, especially if it come suddenly. And wo betide
 
 16 
 
 those, whoever they are, who shall, in the course of 
 Providence, have to bring it forward. It ought 
 especially of all others to be matter of catechetical 
 teaching and training. The doctrine of the church 
 catholic and the privileges of church-membership 
 cannot be explained from pulpits ; and those who 
 will have to explain it will hardly know where they 
 are, or which way they are to turn themselves. 
 They will be endlessly misunderstood and misinter- 
 preted. There will be one great outcry of popery 
 from one end of the country to the other. It 
 will be thrust upon minds unprepared, and on an 
 uncatechised church. Some will take it up, and 
 admire it as a beautiful picture ; others will be 
 frightened, and run away and reject it ; and all will 
 want a guidance which one hardly knows where 
 they shall find. How the doctrine may be first 
 thrown forward we know not ; but the powers of 
 the world may one day turn their backs upon us, 
 and this will probably lead to those effects I have 
 described."* 
 
 This is a very singular and instructive prediction, 
 and it is most worthy of our notice as coming from 
 the mouth of an old man who had marked as well 
 as read the history of the church, and who, assured 
 of her revival as an ordinance of God, knew that 
 she must return to purity, though not without some 
 
 * Dr Pusey's Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury. The 
 clergyman here referred to was the late Dr Sikes of Gilsbro'.
 
 17 
 
 reproach, and perhaps much tribulation. But with 
 that state of things, I repeat, we Scottish Ejns- 
 copalians have no immediate concern, because we, 
 as a body, were free from the deteriorating causes 
 which operated so unfavourably in the case of the 
 Anglican communion at the Revolution, and during 
 the greater part of the century that followed. Our 
 bishops were not forced into latitudinarianism by 
 the policy of a compromising government who at- 
 tempted to carry Erastianism even into the doctrines 
 of our most holy faith. Being cast off by the State, 
 we escaped the malign influence to which I have 
 alluded. Our prelates have had amongst them no 
 Hoadly ; and our presbyters have never had their 
 zeal cooled or their principles shaken by the plau- 
 sible sophistry of such men as could consent to 
 enjoy the revenue and dignities of the Establish- 
 ment, without holding her doctrines or defending 
 her polity. The bishops and priests of our humble 
 body remained entire strangers to the tenets of the 
 new school, and more especially to its lukewarm 
 principles. Our people were taught to look over 
 the heads of such puny divines to the giants of a 
 former age, whose character and whose works will 
 be had in everlasting remembrance. In Scotland, 
 belief in the holy catholic church has not only been 
 professed, together with the other articles of the 
 creed, but the institution itself has been venerated 
 as that ordinance of God, by which and througii 
 which the ineans of grace are conveyed to the faith-
 
 18 
 
 ful, and perpetuated from age to age for the ultimate 
 welfare of the whole human race. 
 
 Such being the circumstances of our ecclesiastical 
 body, we are not open to the influence of any tem- 
 porary movement from without. The waves of that 
 sea which has been put in motion elsewhere do not 
 reach us ; and therefore all insinuations that we 
 have adopted views or admitted impressions from 
 learned persons in another section of the church, 
 are totally without foundation. Such teaching was 
 not needed here : our native clergy required not 
 the light which it is meant to convey ; and our 
 people, generally speaking, had not so far forgotten 
 the instruction received in their youth as to render 
 a revival necessary from any other quarter however 
 respectable. In reference to the insinuations just 
 mentioned, I shall therefore simply remark, that 
 where they have arisen from ignorance they are to 
 a certain extent without guilt ; but where they have 
 had their origin in a design to injure our characters, 
 or blast our prospects in an important undertaking, 
 they deserve, and cannot fail to receive, the repro- 
 bation of all upright minds. Such imputations 
 have been circulated in most parts of the country, 
 including, there is reason to believe, our own district ; 
 and it is with the view of obviating the effects of 
 the particular charge to which your attention can- 
 not fail to have been directed, that I have entered at 
 so much length into the theological history of the 
 Episcopal church, in either division of the island, 
 during the last hundred years.
 
 19 
 
 As to the doctrines which have been revived or 
 recommended in the South it becomes me not to 
 give any o^iinion. Considered simply as principles 
 of the doctrine of Christ, I find not that they have 
 been condemned by any who, by learning and re- 
 search, have qualified themselves to pronounce a 
 judgment. Some strange opinioiss have, no doubt, 
 been associated with the elucidation of orthodox 
 views ; and unwise practices, there is reason to fear, 
 have been founded upon them by young men, whose 
 zeal in a new path has greatly exceeded their dis- 
 cretion. A wise and learned head has remarked, 
 that upon the great mass of the people the revival 
 of obsolete usages has the same disadvantageous 
 effect as the introduction of positive novelties ; a 
 truth to which the ardent and inexperienced cannot 
 pay too much attention. But still I am satisfied 
 that, under the overruling providence of God, real 
 and substantial good will result from this apparent 
 evil. The rapidity with which the notions alluded to 
 have spread, and the eagerness with which they have 
 been received in many quarters, where no motives 
 but good ones can be supposed to have operated, 
 show, at least, a consciousness of some defect ; and 
 though, in several instances, dangerous speculations 
 may have been countenanced, and foolish ceremonies 
 introduced, there is no doubt that important conclu- 
 sions have at the same time been established, which 
 will ultimately lead to clearer views both as to the 
 constitution and the proper authority of the church.
 
 20 
 
 Already I perceive that the chaff begins to be 
 separated from the wheat ; that the dross is cast 
 aside and the precious metal retained ; and in due 
 time, we may piously trust, the evil will altogether 
 disappear and an important benefit remain behind. 
 But neither with the good nor the evil have we, in 
 these parts, any direct concern. 
 
 Turning to ourselves, permit me to remind you 
 that we have all along reposed on principle, and 
 sought no other aid. But our attachment to our own 
 doctrines has never rendered us intolerant towards 
 others whose tenets are different, who either have 
 not taken the trouble to examine into our system, or 
 who are disposed to undervalue it because it has 
 not the authority of a legal establishment. On all 
 occasions we have maintained our peculiarities with- 
 out any wish to infringe on the christian liberty of 
 others, or allowing the remotest grudge to harbour 
 in our minds. Did we not differ from the Presby- 
 terian church in some very essential points, we should 
 have no apology for dissenting from her pale, nor 
 be able to acquit ourselves of the blame of a needless 
 and disgraceful schism. But let us maintain our 
 differences in the spirit of christian affection and 
 esteem, and live, as we have hitherto lived, on terms 
 of friendship with the members of the national com- 
 munion, joining with them in promoting all objects 
 of benevolence, and all schemes of public utility. 
 Should any of them, in an unguarded moment, at- 
 tack our principles, or, as is sometimes done, ascribe
 
 21 
 
 to us principles which we do not really hold, let us 
 protect ourselves with reason and calmness ; never 
 imitating the injustice we condemn, nor falling into 
 the intemperance which they themselves at a cooler 
 hour must heartily regret. 
 
 If the Episcopal church in Scotland enjoys no 
 protection from the State, farther than is implied in 
 a liberal toleration, neither is she in any degree im- 
 peded in the exercise of her discipline, or restricted 
 in her spiritual prerogative, by the pressure of laws 
 emanating from a secular source. In these respects 
 she enjoys all the freedom which belonged to the 
 primitive christians before any of the kingdoms of 
 the world professed to belong to the kingdom of the 
 Redeemer; following in her laws those principles 
 which she believes to have regulated the government 
 of christian communities in the purest times, and 
 adopting in her administration the maxims which 
 appear to have guided the ministers of Christ, before 
 ambition could awaken in their breasts those less 
 sacred motives which adhere to worldly things. 
 
 The form of Episcopacy which exists among us is 
 that which has been properly described as Moderate, 
 and for the attainment of which a great effort was 
 made about two centuries ago. The legislative 
 power is vested alike in the bishops and clergy, the 
 consent of each being held indispensable to the en- 
 actment of our canons. The administration of our 
 laws, too, is intrusted to both orders, as represented 
 in the synods annually held, the Diocesan and the
 
 22 
 
 Episcopal. The rights and influence of the Presby- 
 ter are as carefully guarded as those of the Bishop ; 
 and the union of the two, acting either separately 
 or together, gives a beauty and a strength to our 
 system which will never be impaired so long as we 
 have confidence in one another — so long as we re- 
 member that it is our duty and our interest to be of 
 one mind in the things pertaining to God — and to 
 seek that unity and forbearance which the Blessed 
 Redeemer so strongly recommended to his immediate 
 disciples. Our strength and security rest entirely 
 on principle, warmed and enlightened by confidence 
 and mutual affection ; and the history of the church 
 in these northern parts, will show how effectual 
 such means are to resist the heaviest pressure of ex- 
 ternal circumstances, the weight of persecution, the 
 frown of power, the alienation of the great, and the 
 contempt of those whose opinions are formed by 
 a regard to mere outward appearance. Principle 
 cannot be destroyed, and it will never die. You 
 may depress a man to the lowest depth of poverty, 
 you may tear his flesh on the rack and give his 
 body to be burned, but you cannot reach the inward 
 part where is lodged the covenant which he has 
 made with his God and with his own soul. He 
 fears not them which kill the body, and after that 
 have no more that they can do ; and hence the last 
 breath of the expiring martyr rises to heaven and 
 becomes a flame which will either enlighten or con- 
 sume. — No church was ever more tried by adversity
 
 23 
 
 than that to which we belong, and by a species of 
 adversity, too, which sooner exhausts the principle 
 of endurance than a direct persecution pointed 
 against the life. When men are dragged forth to 
 scaffolds and held up as a spectacle to a sympathiz- 
 ing and admiring multitude, a power of reaction is 
 created in the soul which laughs to scorn the 
 weapons of such a warfare, and at the same time 
 forges other weapons which will in due season 
 avenge their cause, and bring back their captivity 
 like rivers in the south. The iron which entered 
 into the soul of the poor Episcopalian during the 
 evil days when penal laws hung over his head, was 
 not taken from the burning fiery furnace : it was 
 rather like that cold and sharp instrument which 
 pierced the heart of the young Hebrew when he lay 
 in the prison of Egypt, suffering at once from for- 
 getfulness, groundless suspicion, and contempt. But 
 the pains and penalties denounced against the Scot- 
 tish churchmen made no change on their principles 
 nor on their determination to adhere to them ; and 
 hence when the hour of sorrow had passed away 
 they were found unaltered as to their creed, their 
 solemn ritual, and their apostolical constitution. In 
 this issue we cannot fail to perceive the value of a 
 fixed and intelligible principle. Other communions, 
 differently constituted^ if they ceased to be held to- 
 gether by the bond of a legal establishment, would 
 fall asunder ; they would separate into numerous 
 sects, and in a short time lose all the characteristics
 
 24 
 
 which now distinguish them. The fate of the puri- 
 tans in England illustrates what I am now at- 
 tempting to unfold — the difference between a system 
 founded on a well-defined principle, acknowledged 
 by all and held indispensable by all — and a system 
 which rests merely on local opinion, is supported by 
 a few leaders who succeed in impressing their senti- 
 ments on the passing age, and which, having such 
 an origin, cannot be expected to continue long in 
 one stay. 
 
 In the circumstances which distinguish the position 
 of our body, our principles, while they are clear 
 and distinct, are most easily reduced ta practice ; 
 and as our views and motives are the same, so, 
 generally speaking, are our feelings and conduct. 
 With us there can be no such distinction as high- 
 churchman and low-churchman — a distinction per- 
 haps that has no appreciable meaning any where, 
 but which here must be positively absurd. Were 
 we not churchmen, we ought not to be professional 
 members of the Communion to which we belong; 
 and I see not how we can be either more or less. 
 
 Being such as we are, and hence necessarily, in 
 point of ritual and ecclesiastical constitution, differ- 
 ent from the church by law established in Scotland, 
 we have certain duties to perform and sentiments 
 to cherish in regard to our presbyterian brethren. 
 In return for the toleration which we enjoy and 
 the countenance bestowed upon us by the govern- 
 ment of the Empire, we owe to the Establishment
 
 25 
 
 the respect and support which are due to an insti- 
 tution which is sanctioned by the legislature, and 
 by the consent of a large body of the people. Upon 
 this principle the Episcopalians have ever been found 
 to act ; and though no other class of dissenters in 
 this country would profit so much as they would, by 
 the withdrawal from the established church of her 
 endowments and honours, yet they have uniformly 
 appeared on the side of her friends ; refusing to 
 participate in the designs of those who wish to 
 limit her influence and her means of usefulness. In 
 truth, the principles, I might almost say the preju- 
 dices, of the Scottish Episcopalian, are all pointed 
 towards the maintenance of order, subordination, and 
 the supremacy of legitimate power ; and therefore, 
 though he may be called to suffer loss, or to endure 
 privations, for the support of national institutions, 
 he is in general found to persevere in his endeavours 
 to uphold what the law of the land has sanctioned. 
 He is a Conservative, not in the narrow acceptation 
 of party nomenclature, but in that broader and 
 more comprehensive sense which embraces national 
 welfare and the permanent advantage of the whole 
 community. 
 
 I now take leave, chiefly on account of my less ex- 
 perienced brethren, to make a few remarks on the 
 discharge of certain parts of our duty ; more especi- 
 ally the catechising of the young, and the observance 
 of the week-day services, as enjoined by the authority 
 of the church. The former I have always considered
 
 26 
 
 as one of the most interesting labours which belong 
 to our sacred office. To have the stream pure you 
 must begin at the fountain ; and to have a people 
 void of reproach and devoted to their holy calling, 
 you must teach them to remember their Creator in 
 the days of their youth. You have to deal with 
 tender minds, and consequently have the advantage 
 of making the first and deepest impressions upon 
 them ; whereas to preach to a people without prin- 
 ciple is, as said an old divine, " to build where there 
 is no foundation, or rather where there is not so 
 much as ground to build upon." But, on this head, 
 it is not necessary that I should say more, for the 
 solemn service of yesterday presented the most 
 gratifying proof of your zeal and success. You not 
 only suffer but invite the little children to come 
 unto you for knowledge and direction ; and in this 
 respect the pleasure of the Lord seems to prosper 
 in your hands. Persevere, my dear brethren, and 
 the blessing of the great Head of the church will 
 ever be with you.* 
 
 As to the week-day services I feel induced to say 
 a few words, because, for reasons which it is not 
 necessary to detail, this portion of our Communion 
 has not been superintended with the same care as 
 some others, and is consequently less acquainted 
 
 * The allusion here is to the solemn rite of confirmation adminis- 
 tered the previous day, when two hundred and thirty candidates' 
 exclusively from the city, appeared at the altar.
 
 2T 
 
 with her usages. In the district with which my 
 personal residence has more closely connected me, 
 our practice more than thirty years ago was to 
 have one chapel open on Wednesday and Friday 
 throughout the year, the clergy taking the duty in 
 rotation. Of late that practice has been discon- 
 tinued ; and at present, I believe, there is Divine 
 worship in two chapels on alternate days. But I 
 state not these facts as a positive rule, nor as being 
 in any degree obligatory ujion you. My own custom 
 has been to have public prayers on Wednesday and 
 Friday during the solemn season of Lent ; and on 
 every day throughout the year for which the Church 
 has provided an Epistle and Gospel. This practice 
 I wish to be observed in every congregation vmder 
 my official inspection, because, besides being a duti- 
 ful obedience to the law and spirit of the Church, it 
 is attended with many important advantages. 
 
 The solemn days to which I allude bear a special 
 reference to the history of our Blessed Lord — to the 
 mystery of his incarnation, his holy nativity and 
 circumcision, his baptism, fasting, and temptation, 
 his agony and bloody sweat, his cross and passion, 
 his precious death and burial, his glorious resurrec- 
 tion and ascension, and, finally, the fulfilment of his 
 gracious promise by the coming of the Holy Ghost. 
 The other days turn our thoughts to the labours, 
 the sufferings, the testimony, and the death of those 
 inspired men whom the Redeemer employed to pub- 
 lish his gospel and found his church upon earth.
 
 28 
 
 No subject can be so fruitful in admonition and 
 encouragement. In what the holy apostles did and 
 taught, we see the christian life most beautifully- 
 combined with the christian doctrine. His word, 
 in a subordinate and figurative sense, is again 
 made flesh. The virtues and graces which shone 
 in his own person, are reflected in the character 
 and actions of his chosen messengers ; and though 
 in their case the standard is lowered and even mixed 
 with some degree of human infirmity, it is not on 
 that account less useful. Nay, to a certain extent, 
 the bright exemplar is rendered more accessible and 
 more suitable to us : its very imperfection makes it 
 more impressive and practical: for if in the very 
 greatest of them we see sin and error — the fall of 
 St Peter, and the persecuting spirit of St Paul — we 
 shall also see a sincere repentance and the renewed 
 heart. 
 
 For the first year I would recommend a series of 
 discourses on the days commanded by the church to 
 be kept holy, in remembrance of those great leaders 
 of her noble army of martyrs. The people take a 
 deep interest in such narratives, and derive from 
 the examples thereby set before them the most 
 valuable instruction. It is sometimes urged as an 
 apology by ministers for neglecting such services, 
 that their congregations will not attend : but this 
 defence is wrong both in principle and in fact. If 
 a clergyman is satisfied that the Church commands, 
 his duty is to obey ; and my own experience proves
 
 m 
 
 that whenever the pastor leads steadily and consci- 
 entiously, his flock will follow him, more especially 
 in observing the holy rites which have been conse- 
 crated by the authority of the primitive saints, and 
 by the practice of the great body of believers during 
 nearly eighteen centuries. The most healthy state 
 of a christian community, be assured, is that where 
 the members resort to the sacred assembly to hear 
 God's holy word, to set forth his most worthy 
 praise, and to ask those things which are requisite 
 and necessary as well for the body as the soul. 
 
 In regard to your method of teaching, it is not 
 necessary that I should say much. It has always 
 appeared to me, that from regard to his own char- 
 acter as a minister of God's word, as well as in 
 deference to the judgment of those whom he ad- 
 dresses, a clergyman ought on all occasions — more 
 especially on public occasions — to write his sermons 
 with care. It is not meant that he shall so slavishly 
 devote himself to his manuscript as not to lift his 
 eyes from it to mark the countenance of his audi- 
 tors ; but simply that he shall have his discourse 
 before him, so that he may not wander into ex- 
 traneous discussions, violate the analogy of faith, 
 and, which sometimes happens, contradict himself. 
 
 In maintaining our own views and doctrines, I 
 farther take leave to recommend to you, as the fruit 
 of some reflection, this important maxim, that the 
 most effectual method for checking the progress of 
 what is false or unsound is to inculcate with zeal and
 
 30 
 
 constancy what is true, rather than by any direct 
 attack on the stronghold of error when defended by 
 those to whom we owe forbearance. We uncon- 
 sciously do much harm to the cause of Christianity, 
 at least in weak minds, by bringing forward objec- 
 tions even when we think ourselves able to refute 
 them ; because the objection remains, so far as to 
 bewilder the imagination, to create a feeling of in- 
 security, and to throw a stumbling-block in the way 
 which before was plain and easy. So is it with 
 respect to matters of ecclesiastical polity, worship, 
 ceremony, discipline, and other similar points : we 
 succeed best when we simply give the grounds and 
 reasons of our own belief and practice, leaving the 
 conclusions of others entirely out of sight, so far at 
 least as they are questions of controversy and fitted 
 to minister strife. It is better, in short, to store the 
 minds of our people with sound knowledge which 
 cannot be questioned, than to attempt to make our 
 hearers parties to a theological dispute which they 
 cannot fully understand, and which will rather per- 
 plex than edify them. I speak, now, solely of our 
 discourses from the pulpit ; for whenever we are 
 induced to appear before the public as authors, we 
 must treat our subjects in an argumentative form, 
 and endeavour to establish the truth upon the ruins 
 of error. 
 
 I have left myself little time to enforce the consid- 
 erations which respect personal character as bearing 
 on professional duty — considerations interesting and
 
 31 
 
 important at all times, but to which I feel that it 
 is only necessary I should simply refer. Allow me 
 then to remark, that the most impressive lesson 
 that is ever given by one human being to another 
 is conveyed in the form of example ; and to this 
 duty we all bound ourselves by a solemn promise in 
 the presence of God when we devoted our lives to 
 the service of his church. True it is, we are but 
 earthen vessels, men of like passions with others, 
 liable to be misled by wrong views, and even by 
 those which are right if unduly followed out. But 
 let us never forget the words addressed by our 
 Blessed Lord to his discijjles when preparing them 
 for their great task of evangelizing the world, 
 wherein they were commanded to make their light 
 so shine before men, that others, informed and 
 stimulated by their example, might glorify the great 
 Father in heaven. He said to his chosen servants, 
 " ye are the salt of the earth ; but if the salt have 
 lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted ? It is 
 thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and 
 trodden under foot of men." Is it not a beautiful 
 and instructive metaphor by which our Lord sets 
 forth his church and her ministers under the like- 
 ness of that penetrating principle which prevents 
 corruption and decay in all organized substances ? 
 From his expression we are led to infer that the 
 gospel, when proj)erly administered, acts upon the 
 great body of society as salt acts upon animal and 
 vegetable matter, counteracting the natural tend-
 
 32 
 
 ency to dissolution, and preserving it in purity and 
 soundness. For this gracious purpose our Redeemer 
 sent forth his apostles, and he continues to send 
 forth others into the world with a commission to 
 admonish, reprove, and instruct ; to infuse a living 
 principle into those who are dead in trespasses and 
 sins ; to sanctify the unholy mass ; to cure the 
 distempered soul ; to cleanse the moral leper ; and 
 to spread over the surface of society the fair aspect 
 of purity and health. But if this purifying prin- 
 ciple shall itself become impure ; if this active 
 principle of life shall itself become morbid ; if this 
 sanctifying influence shall itself become unholy ; 
 in one word, if the salt shall have lost its savour, 
 wherewith shall it be salted ? Alas ! the healing 
 virtue cannot be restored ; the holy influence can- 
 not be brought back ; the quenched light cannot be 
 rekindled ; the savour is gone, and the insipid re- 
 sidue is good for nothing but to be cast out and 
 trodden under foot of man. No balm from Gilead 
 can supply its place, nor can the frankincense of 
 Arabia compensate for its loss ; the spirit of life 
 and purity has fled, and only a corrupt and cor- 
 rupting carcass remains behind, spreading around 
 it contagion and disgust. 
 
 And let me appeal to your experience of the world, 
 and ask if it is not so ? What is there in human 
 society so loathsome and so much contemned as a 
 demoralized clergyman — a man who has broken his 
 vows to his God, to his Redeemer, and to his fellow-
 
 creatures ; a man whom neither heaven nor earth 
 could restrain, who preached to others and consented 
 that he himself should be a castaway ; who incul- 
 cated a faith which had no hold on his own heart, 
 who spake of a judgment to come that he himself 
 believed not ; and described an eternity of weal or 
 wo in words he did not feel, and which never in- 
 fluenced his own conduct ? The curse denounced by 
 the Divine Head of the Church falls heavily on that 
 man, and so crushes him that there is hardly any 
 hope that he will ever rise again to respectability 
 or usefulness. The salt has lost its savour, and it 
 is trodden under foot of men. 
 
 The words of our Blessed Lord are full of mean- 
 ing, and convey to us solemn warning and admoni- 
 tion ; reminding us of our frailty, of the great trust 
 committed to our charge, and of the dreadful penalty 
 with which the prostitution of our high office will 
 be visited. But, for our comfort, let us remember 
 that every penalty implies a reward, and every 
 threatening implies a promise ; and hence the same 
 scripture which delineates the suffering of the un- 
 faithful servant, speaks also of those who, having 
 been faithful to the trust reposed in them, are called 
 to share the joy of their Lord. At the great and 
 dreadful day those who sleep in the dust of death 
 shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to 
 shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be 
 wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, 
 and they who turn many to righteousness, as the 
 
 c
 
 34 
 
 stars for ever and ever. That this great and endless 
 blessing may follow the labours of every individual 
 here present, may the good God and our Saviour 
 the great shepherd of the sheep, grant of his infinite 
 mercy. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed by Oliver & Boyd, 
 Tweeddale Court, High Street, Edin))ur;:h
 
 
 
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