THE DUTY OF YOUNG MEN
IN TIMES OF CONTROVERSY:

THE DUTY OF YOUNG MEN
IN TIMES OF CONTROVERSY.

A SERMON

WILLIAM 8EWELL, B.D.,
SUB-RECTOR OF EXETER COLLEGE,
AND LATE PROFESSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY.

PKEACHED BEFORE
THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD,
ON MAY 29, 1843,
BEING
THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE RESTORATION.

OXFORD,
JOHN HENRY PARKER;
J G. AND F. RIVINGTON, LONDON.
MDCCCXL1II.

OXFORD :
PRINTED BT I. SHRIMPTON.

TO THE
JUNIOR MEMBERS OF EXETER COLLEGE,
THE FOLLOWING PAGES
ARE MOST THANKFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED,
NOT AS NEEDED AGAINST WRONG,
BUT TO ENCOURAGE THEM IN RIGHT,
WITH PRAYER AND CHEERFUL HOPE,
THAT HE, WHO BY HIS BLESSINGS AND HIS WARNINGS
HATH BEGUN IN THEM A GOOD WORK,
WILL PERFORM IT UNTO THE GREAT DAY.
THROUGH JESUS CHRIST,
THEIR ONLY SAVIOUR AND REDEEMER.

At the suggestion of friends, whose advice is
most valuable, a few words are prefixed, in no
spirit, it is hoped, but that of humility and peace,
to prevent this publication, insignificant as it is,
from adding in any way to the trial and temptation,
to which those for whom it is designed, may be ex
posed by circumstances which have occurred since
it was sent to the press.
They will not think that any warning here given,
or fault implied, was intended to swell a popular
clamour against those good men, to whom, under
God, the Church is mainly indebted for the first
revival of its principles and authority in this day.
Wherever errors have been thought of, they have
been errors of young, undisciplined, intemperate
minds ; whose possible extravagancies have been
dreaded on all sides from the first, and who have
inflicted a blow upon the cause of Catholic truth,
which it will require a long time, and the greatest
care, to heal.
It is possible for Christians to dread the for
mation of a party within the Church, as one of
the greatest evils which can befal it ; to differ, it
may be, in points of opinion ; to endeavour,
a 2

by God's assistance, to walk independently of any
human authority but such as is directly and offi
cially commissioned in the Church ; to deplore acts
which seem indiscreet or dangerous ; and yet to
feel such rejoicing at good done, such cheerful
hope of blessings still to come, such reverence for
piety and learning, and such gratitude for spiritual
benefits received both by ourselves, and by those
for whom we are most interested, that a wound
inflicted even upon individuals, with whom we have
little immediate cooperation, must affect us with
the deepest sympathy and sorrow.
I could not bear at such a moment as the present,
to speak at all in reference to the immediate discus
sions of this day, unless what was said could be
cleared from the appearance of reflecting upon
those to whom we owe such a debt of gratitude.
To them, under the blessing of God, (I speak as
a witness, and as one engaged in the education of
this place,) the Church and the University are
chiefly indebted for the increased piety, the deep
ened principles, the enlarged views, the higher
standard of practice which have risen up among
our younger members within the last few years.
From their teaching chiefly, young men, either
directly or indirectly, have recovered those great
truths and principles of action, which twenty years
since were nearly lost in this country ; and without
which a country must perish. By them at first
they were taught, with the aid of God's Holy Spirit,
to recognise their social duties as. Churchmen;

their life and being as members of the body
politic of the Church under Christ, its head ; the
spiritual authority and independence of that Church ;
the duty, and still more, the happiness and privi
lege of obedience to its Rulers ; the awful obliga
tions and blessings of their Baptismal covenant ;
the quietude, simplicity, and reverence, which cha
racterize true devotion ; and the wisdom and power
of faith. Most of all, — a blessing, which those will
appreciate most highly, who have the care of their
souls, — they have been led to a deeper sense of
the unutterable mystery and power of that Holy
Communion, in which the faithful, while they duly
' receive God's creatures of bread and wine,' "verily
and indeed take and receive the Body of their
Blessed Lord," " spiritually eating His Flesh, and
drinking His Blood," — are ' made one with Him,
and He with them,' — ' dwell in Him, and He in
them,' — and through faith in His Blood, obtain
" remission of their sins, and all other benefits of
His Passion."
In the same quarters they have seen, and seeing,
it would be hard indeed if they failed to honour,
men who acted what they preached ; who, by alms
giving and self-sacrifice, by simplicity and hardi
hood of life, by energy in the cause of truth, and
munificence for the glory of God, have given even
to this place a nobler and more saintlike character,
and gathered round it a deeper love and veneration
from the first and best men of their age.
If this nation is still to be saved from the perils

which surround it, they who first endeavoured to
invigorate the arm, and elevate the spirit of the
Church, must be regarded as the great instruments
employed by Almighty God in that blessed work.
If this place is now ministering more abundantly
to that work, and sending out labourers into the
Lord's vineyard more able and more ready to bear
the burden and heat of the day, to the same hands
its gratitude is due.
And those who know these facts will sympathise
deeply with the young, and grieve over their trial,
when they see men who have been authors of so
much good exposed to censure, especially under cir
cumstances like the present ; and most of all, when
the censure has fallen upon one whose voice has never
been raised in bitterness and violence, and whose
gentle and affectionate nature, and even the guile-
lessness and humility which have chiefly entangled
him in misrepresentation, have attracted round him
the strongest affection. From sorrow to sympathy,
from sympathy to resentment, from resentment
against authority to resistance, from resistance to
party spirit, from party spirit to schism, and from
schism to every other sin, the steps are short and
easy. They have been trodden again and again by
men, who have made shipwreck of their faith. Let
us pray fervently, and with one accord, that He
who is the Author of peace, and Lover of concord,
will avert any such evil from ourselves.
In His name, for young and ardent minds, and
in connection with the immediate subject of this

Sermon, I would humbly suggest some thoughts
of quietness, which may indeed be needed by us
all ; knowing well that they will sound coldly, and be
suspected, and can have little power ; but satisfied if
only one or two of those most near and dear, may
be encouraged by them in that spirit of gentle for
bearance, and equitable construction of others' con
duct, which Christ would form in His little ones.
First, it is to be remembered, that when acts are
done by inferior constituted authorities, which seem
to us severe or unjust, all systems of society recog
nise some regular course of appeal to higher tribu
nals : which appeal the aggrieved party is solemnly
bound for the sake of truth and justice to prosecute,
and in which no one else has a right to interfere.
Secondly, if no such appeal be recognised by law,
then the original decision becomes final and conclu
sive. The tribunal has been established as ultimate
and supreme : and we cannot endeavour to reverse
or annul its decrees by an appeal to popular clamour,
without subverting the constitution ofthe body politic,
and violating the duty of obedience ; a duty most
stringently enforced on us in this place by the oath
which the University requires of its graduated
members. Thirdly, not in a spirit of false moderation and
vacillation, but in an honest and equitable mind ;
in that spirit, which judges not, that it may not be
judged ; and measures by the measure with which
it would be measured to again ; let us remember,
that however true may seem to us language which

8
has been censured, and however harsh the judgment
to condemn without hearing a defence, and without
declaring an accusation, even here there may be
much to clear it from the charge of persecution.
1 . If alarm and opposition have been manifested
towards those whom we love and respect, does it
necessarily follow that they are directed against great
and holy truths which all Christians are bound to
uphold ? May not the firmest upholders of those
truths dread, and feel bound to resist, anything
like the formation of a party in the Church ? (And
parties are formed insensibly without our being
able to trace their growth.) Have there not been
acts committed, and language uttered by intempe
rate followers, which have dismayed, and shocked,
and revolted the most devoted friends to the highest
principles of the Church ? Have not unexplained
motives and circumstances — good motives, let us
well believe, and inevitable circumstances — prevented
teachers and leaders from publicly condemning and
repudiating the wrong acts of their followers ? And
may they not therefore be considered in the eye of
public authority responsible for such indiscretions ?
2. If the proceeding of the censure be statutable,
(and otherwise an appeal must lie against it,) how
ever harsh it may seem, the duty of those who fear
its abuse, must be to procure by constitutional
means an amelioration of the law, not to disobey or
contemn it, as it exists at present.
3. If the judge, in exercising a right which the
words of a statute seem clearly to allow him, has

chosen, as in the present case, what seems to us the
harsher alternative permitted to him, and con
demned without specifying the charge ; even this
may be not only a prudent but a noble part, to
prevent at his own risk, as far as in him lay, the
opening of a fearful controversy on the most solemn,
and awful, and difficult, and dangerous of subjects ;
in which, to speak highly, as we ought, before the
world, is to cast pearls before swine ; and to speak
lowly, is blasphemy and condemnation.
And if, lastly, it be thought that the cause of
truth, the cause of our Blessed Lord, the cause and
the doctrines of the Church, which no fear of perse
cution or love of peace must induce us to betray,
will suffer by patience and quietude under the
present trial, let us remember that as yet no truth
has been condemned, because no charge has been
specified. A sermon is a wide field, in which many
statements may be found liable to censure, even in
the most cautious writer. And if any one subject of
discussion is open to misstatements and misconcep
tions, except when we use the very words of the for
mularies of the Church, it is that, which has led to
the present lamentable and perilous event — an event
most lamentable and most perilous, whatever opinion
may be formed upon the proceedings themselves —
because even the semblance of persecution at such
a time against such a man — a man whose honest
unaffected loyalty and attachment to the Church
cannot be doubted by those who know him, — must
endanger the peace of the Church.

10
In such a discussion, the very highest words,
guarded by the sanction of our Blessed Church,
may be used with safety, as only faintly coming
up to the elevation and depth of her belief; and yet
presented to us under any suspicion, or dread, of
inclination to the errors of Romanism, they will
sound to us full of danger and error. Let us not
rashly, without the last necessity suppose, or allow
it to be supposed that teachers in Israel have not
known, still less that they have condemned, great
and high truths, palpably written in the very words
of their Church, even if they should have scanned
too jealously and severely great and high language.
Let us not seek to know what has been condemned
— who has been to blame. How often in the inter
course of life do we pray that faults may not be
proved — that we may not know where to lay them —
lest our affection and dutiful reverence should be
diminished to either of the parties by whom they may
have been committed ? Better for ourselves — better
for Christ's little ones entrusted to us — better for
the quiet and the fame of these strongholds of the
Church, which have cherished us, and which we
must delight to cherish — better for the unity of
Christ's Body — better, far better for the souls of
those whom controversy on this most awful subject
may lead on the one side into disobedience and
schism, and on the other into irreverence and con
demnation — and better, most of all, for the glory
of God's most Holy Name, and the sanctity of His
Blessed Mysteries, that silence should be set on all

11
that is past — and that he who has suffered, whether
justly or unjustly, should suffer, as his own meek
spirit would wish to suffer, in resignation and
humility, amidst the love and gratitude of those
who have been brought nearer to heaven by his
teaching, — than that the vulgar tongue, and coarse
eye, and profane touch of an unholy populace,
should be let loose into the very sanctuary of
Christ's Temple, making that which should be a
House of Prayer a den of thieves.
They, whom He has placed to witness td His
doctrines, may, and must witness to them still — wit
ness fearlessly, openly, unshrinkingly ; each in his
own place, each in sobriety and humility, but each
without compromise or concealment — all kneeling
morning and evening before our God in our closets
as in our Chapels, with a prayer for truth and
peace — truth and peace, if so He bless us, both of
them together — first truth and then peace — no
peace without truth — but truth, if so He will that
it cannot be purchased otherwise, at the cost of
all peace, even at the sacrifice of life.
But let us not be afraid of moderation. And
when peace and moderation are urged, let us
remember that it is not the moderation which
wavers backward and forward between two sides,
halting and stumbling between two opinions, afraid to
move at all lest the movement should run into excess,
and losing all courage, and power, and elevation of
thought, in a miserable compromise and weakness.
This is not moderation, but cowardice of heart,

12
and impotency of action. The moderation which
God approves, and our own Blessed Church espe
cially requires, is, to walk boldly, steadily, and
earnestly in that line of truth and holiness which
she has marked out ; which is not to be considered as
true because it is the mean, but which is the mean
because it is true ; which at times seems vague and
indecisive, not because it desires to keep clear from
two errors so much as because it embraces two
truths, each of them declared by God ; which
follows sobriety, not by dallying with one duty,
but by resolutely performing all; and not so
much by external acts, as by the inward temper
of the heart, the temper of "love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meek
ness, temperance," which are the fruits of the
Spirit. It is moderation to think well of all men; to
refuse to be carried away to violence by an impulse
even of natural resentment, or of holy affection ; to
stand firm, where God's Providence has placed us ;
to abstain from unauthorized combinations, even
under guidance or in vindication of the best of men;
to think more of the whole body of which we
are members, and of its constitutional rulers, than
of individuals round whom our own inclinations
would gather us. It is moderation boldly to con
demn, even at any cost, faults which, if we do
not condemn, we may be justly supposed to encou
rage ; to brave suspicion from all, and accusations
from those whom most we value, accusations of

13
cowardice, of self-interest, of faltering steps, of half-
opened sight, of paltering to expediency, of unkind-
ness to man, and irresoluteness in the service of
God, — to brave all this, (and the young, in days
like the present, must face it like the old,) rather
than suppress the truth, or seek for it, a momentary
triumph ' out of due order,' knowing that obedience
to order will finally save it from all trial, and dis
obedience must lay it low in ruin.
And no where (God's holy Name be praised for
it and blessed !) is more of this wise moderation to
be found than in this place,
It may be that the Almighty goodness which,
within the last few years, has poured upon us
more abundantly the blessing of knowledge and
understanding, may design these present trials to
ripen also within us the blessings of charity and
peace. While the world without is agitated and
poisoned with the violence and bitterness of con
troversy, we here may learn to preserve in it, as
for the most part His grace has enabled us to
preserve hitherto, a peaceableness and gentleness of
spirit. We may be taught even by events which
we most deplore, to be more cautious of offending —
more patient in enduring, less hasty to condemn ;
less positive in forcing upon others conclusions of
our own suspicions — more obedient to authorities —
more fearful to toss about the firebrands of op
probrious and party names ; more scrupulously vigi
lant in resisting the least step, which by forming the
nucleus of a party, may ultimately lead to a schism

14
within the Church. One hope at least is before us,
the hope which rests on prayer, that notwith
standing these troubles and uneasinesses we may
all ' be led at the last into the way of truth, and hold
the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace,
and in righteousness of life.'
And for the rule and measure of our words and
acts, to assist in this blessed end, there is advice
well worthy to be engraven on our minds — advice
of one of the holiest lights of our Holy Church,
with which I venture to conclude.
" aThat amid, and notwithstanding all this variety
of opinions, there may yet be preserved in the
Church the unity both of Faith and Charity, these
few things seem to me to be of profitable and im
portant consideration.
" 1. That particular Churches would be as tender
as may be in giving their definitions and determina
tions in such points as these ; not astricting those
that live therein determinately either to the affirma
tive or negative, especially where there may be ad
mitted a latitude of dissenting without any prejudice
done either to the substance of the Catholic Faith,
or to the tranquillity of the Church, or to the salva
tion of the dissenter. In which respect the mode
ration of the Church of England is much to be com
mended, and to be preferred, not only before the
Roman Church, which with insufferable tyranny
bindeth all her children, upon pain of damnation, to
all her determinations, even in those points, which
a Bishop Sanderson's " Pax Ecclesise."

15
are no way necessary to salvation ; but also before
sundry other Reformed Churches, who have pro
ceeded further this way than our Church hath
done. "2. When by reason of the important conten
tions and wranglings of learned men in particular
Churches, about points yet undetermined therein,
differences shall be so far prosecuted, as to come to
open sidings, and part-takings, and factions (as it
happened in the Netherland Churches between the
Remonstrantes and Contra-Remonstrantes) so as for
the composing ofthe differences, and the maintenance
of the public peace and tranquillity of the Church,
it shall be needful for those Churches synodically to
determine something in those points ; that yet they
would then also proceed no farther in their deter
minations, than the present necessity should enforce
them ; not requiring men (specially in points of
lesser consequence) to give, and by oath, subscrip
tion, or other like means, to witness their express
positive assent to such determinations ; but permit
ting them to enjoy their own private opinions in
their own private bosoms, so long as they keep them
to themselves, and do not by venting them unsea
sonably, disquiet the peace of the Church there
withal. "3. That Catechisms, for so much as they are in
tended for the instruction of children and ignorant
persons in the first principles of Christian religion,
should not be farced with school-points and private
tenets ; but contain only clear and undoubted truths,

16
and such as are necessary unto Christian edification
either in faith or life : the rest either altogether
omitted, or but occasionally and sparingly touched at,
and not positively, and doctrinally, and conclusively
delivered before the Church have agreed upon
them. "4. That private men would endeavour for so
much ingenuity, as
"1. To other men's speeches and writings (espe
cially where they intend to discourse but exoterice
and popularly, not accurately and dogmatice) to afford
a favourable construction, without taking advantage
at some excesses in modo loquendi, or exceptions at
some improprieties and acyrologies, so long as they
are orthodox in the main substance of their discourse.
" 2. Not to obtrude any tenet, as the received doc
trine of any particular Church, which either is not
expressly contained in the public confession of that
Church, or doth not apparently result thence by
direct and immediate consequence ; though the wit
of man make it seem at length, and by continuance
of discourse to be probably deduced therefrom.
"3. In their own writings to observe formam sano-
rum verborum, and to abstain not only from sus
pected opinions, but as much as may be also from
phrases and speeches obnoxious to ill construction.
For first it is not enough, much less a thing to be
gloried in, for a man to be able by subtilty of wit to
find loopholes how to evade, and by colourable pre
tences to make that, which through heat of passion,
or violence of opposition hath fallen from him un-

17
advisedly, to seem howsoever defensible : but he
should have a care to suffer nothing to pass from
him, whereat an ingenuous and dispassionate adver
sary, though dissenting from him in opinion, should
yet have cause to take distaste or exception. And
besides, it were a thing of very dangerous conse
quence in the Church, if every man should be suf
fered freely to publish whatsoever might by some
strain of wit be made capable of a good construction,
if of itself it sounded ill and suspiciously. For so
notions of Popish, or Puritanical, or other heretical,
schismatical opinions, might unawares be conveyed
into the minds, and impressions thereof insensibly
wrought in the hearts of men, to the great damage
of the Church, and prejudice to the truth.
"4. To acknowledge freely, and readily to revoke
whatsoever either error in re, or misprision in testi-
monio, or exorbitancy in modo loquendi, hath passed
from their pen, when it shall be fairly shewed them,
and their judgments convinced thereof, rather than
to seek to relieve themselves by excuses, colours, or
evasions. " 5. That private men in particular Churches, who
dissent in points yet undetermined by the Church,
should not uncharitably intercharge each other with
heresy or schism, or any such like imputation for
so dissenting, so long as they both consent to the
whole doctrine and discipline in the said Church
maintained and established. As ex. gr. in the
points now so much debated among the Divines of
the Church of England between the Calvinists and

18
Arminians (for I must take liberty, for distinction's
sake, to express them by those names they usually
bestow the one upon the other) why should either
those men on the one side be branded with Popery,
who misliking Calvin's opinion, rather choose to fol
low the Arminian ; or those on the other side with
Puritanism, who finding less satisfaction in the way of
Arminius, rather adhere to Calvin ? so long as both
the one and the other do entirely, and freely, and ex
animo subscribe to the Articles of the Common
Prayer-Book, and that of Consecration, and do not
rent the unity, or disturb the peace of the Church
by those differences."
Exeter College, June 12, 1843.

THE OATH TAKEN BY ALL WHO ARE ADMITTED
TO DEGREES.
" Tu dabis fidem ad observandum Statuta, Privilegia,
Consuetudines, et Libertates istius Universitatis." Respond.
"Do." " Jurabis etiam, quod pacem istius Universitatis per te non
perturbabis, nee per alium vel alios qualitercunque perturbari
procurabis ; nee perturbatorem vel perturbatores, aliquem vel
aliquos, in perturbatione pads, ope vel consilio juvabis ; nee
impedies per te, vel per alium vel alios, quo minus de pads
perturbatore vel perturbatoribus fiat justitia." Respond.
" Juro." "Item specialiter tu jurabis, quod inter nullas communi-
tates vel personas istius Universitatis, impedies pacem, con-
cordiam, et amorem. Et si aliqua dissensio inter aliquas
communitates vel personas exorta fuerit, illam nullo modo
fovebis, vel accendes ; nee conventiculis interesse debes, nee
eis tacite vel expresse consentire, sed ea potius, modis quibus
poteris, impedire." Respond. " Juro."

A SERMON.

1 Peter ii. 13, 14, 15.
Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for
the Lord's sake : whether it be to the king as
supreme ; or unto governors, as unto them that
are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers,
and for the praise of them that do well. For so is
the will of God, that with well doing ye may put
to silence the ignorance of foolish men.
The commemoration of this day carries us back
in thought to one of the most remarkable periods
in the History of the Universal Church. It ex
hibits a National branch of that Church, contend
ing in the persons of its Bishops and its King
against that evil spirit, which has troubled Christ's
flock from the beginning ; for which the offering of
Cain was rejected, and Miriam was smitten with
leprosy, and Nadab and Abihu devoured with fire,
and Korah and his company swallowed up alive in
the pit, — the spirit of self-will, and of disobedience
towards our rulers under Christ in His Church.
The Great Rebellion was a rebellion of religion.
b2

20
And as such, it must never be confounded with
ordinary outbreaks of popular license. Its leaders
were fanatics, its end the triumph of a sect, its
armies congregations, its battle-word the Most
Sacred Name, its proclamations Sermons, its
statutes a liturgy ; its deadliest crimes perpetrated
as the will of Almighty God by men who consulted
His holy Word, and pleaded the inspiration of His
Holy Spirit for treason and for murder.
It began with an over-zealous dread of a religious
system, confessedly full of corruptions, and it ended
with generating from itself a mass of heresies and
blasphemies such as perhaps never before disgraced
a country calling itself Christian.
And thus when required by the Church in the
services of the day, to remind ourselves of the duty
of " submitting to every ordinance of man for the
Lord's sake;" it may seem not unfitting to dwell
upon it as applied to our submission to the Church,
or to that system of spiritual polity which, however
ordained of God, and pervaded by His Holy Spirit,
appears before us in a human form, and embodied
in the ministrations of man.
It may be that in this day and in this place we
all, and especially our younger members, require to
be earnestly and affectionately admonished of this
solemn duty. We are living in an age of change
and movement, when old things are daily passing
away, and new forms springing up. Minds have
been loosened from restraint ; and taught to enquire
and criticise, as if to criticise was every thing, and

21
to enjoy was nothing. Eyes are prying all around
us into defects in existing systems ; and tongues
proclaiming them upon the house-tops. And while
" many are running to and fro, and knowledge is
increased3," scoffers, as in the latter days, are rising
up, and false teachers — men " presumptuous and
self-willed, that despise government, and speak evil
of dignities : " and not yet overtaken by that swift
destruction, which will fall upon the deniers of
their Lord.
And even the blessed seeds of good, which by
God's great mercy seem abundantly springing up
among ourselves, cannot be expected to ripen, with
out being mixed with tares. Deep feeling, earnest
action, is naturally sensitive, irritable, and impatient.
As young men pray more often, they grieve more
keenly over the loss of prayer. Where they rever
ence and love most fervently, there coldness or
irreverence in others is most revolting. As they
learn to fast and to deny themselves, the neglect of
it will be more repulsive. Each time they come to
the table of the Lord increases their hunger and
thirst for the bread of life, and their pain when it is
withheld. And every act of obedience to the Church
fills them with more alarm and perplexity at
breaches in its unity and peace.
And young minds especially are unable to allow
for that caution and delay, which good and prudent
rulers will always interpose before change. Still
less can they realize the difficulties and dangers
a Dan. xii. 4.

22
under which an existing system was shaped in days
gone by ; or readily distinguish between evils, which
have gathered round it from the disobedience of its
members or from outward attacks, and such as may
seem to have grown out of its inherent principles. ' ' If
thou wert pure and upright," said the friends of Job,
"surely now God would awake for thee, and make
the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous \"
" Thou " hast not given water to the weary to drink,
and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry.
Therefore snares are round about thee, and sudden
fear troubleth thee." And yet it was for such
words a that the ' wrath of the Lord was kindled
against them,' for that they had not ' spoken the
thing that was right.'
It may not therefore be out of place on the pre
sent occasion, to suggest some brief practical con
siderations for young minds exposed to this heavy
trial ; praying, that He, who alone can order the
unruly wills and affections of sinful men, may guide
and turn them to a blessing ; and save them at
least from ministering to the provoking of anger, or
to the strife of tongues.
And first, we may do well to remember that under
no government whatever upon earth, not even, it
may be, under the government of God in Heaven,
can we escape from the trial of subjection to a
power which to us will not seem perfect. To
ignorant and corrupt man the best of rules will
b Job viii. 6. c Job xxii. 7, 10. d Job xlii. 7.

23
seem unwise and bad. "With the holy Thou
shalt be holy, and with a perfect man Thou shalt
be perfect ; with the clean Thou shalt be clean, and
with the froward Thou shalt learn frowardness."
"John came neither eating nor drinking, and they
said, He hath a devil. The Son of man came eat
ing and drinking, and they said, Behold a man glut
tonous, and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and
sinnersV None but the children of wisdom can
justify or understand her ways. And even they,
when placed to serve as servants round the throne
of the Most High, must veil their faces with the
seraphim, and walk by faith and not by sight amidst
the mysteries of Him, who hath made ' darkness His
secret place e, and His pavilion round about Him of
dark waters, and of thick clouds.' Resignation, we
are told, may be necessary for us all, even amidst
the happiness of Heaven ; because even in Heaven
there must be things which finite creatures cannot
know, and goodness far beyond their own. And
thus the rule even of bad men may be the fittest
preparation for our living patiently and meekly
under the rule of God. And instead of idly seeking
for a perfect system which will govern us wisely
and well, our duty and happiness may be to live
wisely and well under any system to which Provi
dence may call us.
To indulge a restless craving for a higher rule ;
to fly from post to post ; to seek to change our
place rather than our heart ; and to luxuriate in
' Psalm xviii. 25, 26. f Matt. xi. 18, 19. g Psalm xviii. 11.

24
imaginary palaces, instead of building up a humble
but quiet sanctuary where God has cast our lot, is
one of the greatest temptations offered by the Evil
One to youth. And a curse is sure to attend it.
And few situations are more fearful ; and few lament
ations more bitter than of men who like the fallen
angels H have 'kept not their first estate, but left
their own habitation;' and instead of light and free
dom have fallen into chains and darkness. " Who
is among you1," says the Prophet, " that feareth the
Lord, that obeyeth the voice of His servant, that
walketh in darkness, and hath no light? Let him
trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his
God. Behold all ye that kindle a fire, that compass
yourselves about with sparks, walk in the light of
your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled.
This shall ye have of mine hand, ye shall lie down
in sorrow."
Secondly, let us never forget that it is an essen
tial condition of a Christian's life that he be grafted
into some branch of the Church, — that he live in
society, under rule — in society and under rule of
men — and those men the accredited servants and
Priests of the Most High. He is not at liberty to
choose between a Church and a doctrine ; to abandon
a Church that he may hold what he deems a truth,
unless he can pass into another lawful Church which
can without schism receive him into her bosom. He
may not capriciously cast himself out of the spiritual
any more than out ofthe civil state, to become home-
h Jude 6. i Isaiah 1. 10.

25
less, Solitary, lawless, aviano?, avowo?, avrj/jtepos, his
hand against every man, and every man's hand against
him. Any shelter, however lowly, within the courts
of the Lord is better than utter nakedness. Any form
of government happier than the tyranny of our own
will. Life may be tolerable and Heaven attained in
one, but it cannot be in the other. Enter into the
ark, and we may be preserved. ' Except ye abide in
the ship ye cannot be saved.' Stay within the doors,
and the destroyer will not smite usk. Let the door of
the house be shut upon us, and every vessel within
it may be filled with the unction of the Holy Spirit.
We are not precluded from appealing, from
remonstrating, from protesting, against doctrines
and practices in our own Church, which a con
science truly enlightened, and soberly regulated,
would pronounce to be wrong, — provided we appeal
to authorized tribunals, and in a spirit of humility
and meekness. Still less are we required to do any
thing wrong, to take any active part in promulgating
or exhibiting doctrines which we are justified in
believing contrary to the word of God, — justified I
say — and justified we cannot be till after the most
honest, searching, and patient enquiry, conducted
according to the laws of sound reason and true
religion. But when brought to such a conclusion,
our duty is not to cast ourselves out of the Church,
but to cling to it till we are cast out by others ; not
to raise our hand against our rulers, but to refuse
to allow our hands to be raised against the truth ;
k Exodus xii. 23.

26
not to rebel, but to suffer ; to witness, as God has
appointed, but to witness by our patience rather than
by our activity, by our silence rather than our com
plaints. Thirdly, it follows that the real trial and tempta
tion appointed for us by God in this life is the dis
cernment of spirits; the distinguishing between
false prophets and true ; the choice of our rulers
rather than of our rule, of our teachers rather than
of their doctrines. And this is the general con
dition of our nature. God has not left us to be
tempted merely by the devices and desires of our
own hearts ; but as there is beside us a living
Power and Personality of good, so there is of evil.
There is a Spirit of Truth, and a spirit of lies ; a
Christ, and an Antichrist ; a Church of God, and
a Church of Satan ; each with its ministers and
masters, its prophets and preachers, standing before
us, often in the same garb, using the same language,
seducing by the same promises, working at times,
or seeming to work the same miracles, so as to
deceive, if it were possible, even the very elect.
Even when the appeal is made to conscience, it
is still the same. Since, for conscience to become a
sure guide, it must be recognised as a person — as
a ruler with a will — as a moral governor distinct
from and opposed to ourselves — as the voice of God
within us, not of our own heart, or of our own reason.
For this purpose it must be sanctioned and supported
as far as possible by the declarations of other men ;
and those men not chosen by ourselves, but placed

27
over us by God. And thus in every instance, from
the serpent that seduced Eve to the false prophet
that shall be cast into the lake of fire, man's trial
appointed by God is not what, but whom he shall
follow. And in this trial two things are required.
The first is, to know the marks and signs by
which the true prophet may be distinguished from
the false, — such as the following, given to us by our
Lord Himself. The not bearing witness of himself1 ;
the not coming in his own name™ ; the seeking not
his own glory11 ; the doing nothing of himself0; the
speaking only what he has heard and seenp ; the
receiving witness from Godq ; the adherence to one
primitive revelation, and to the faith of Abraham1 ;
the being witnessed to by other prophets of the
Most High8; the doing the works of the Father';
the not being convinced of sinu ; the laying down
his life for his sheep* ; the being hated of the worldy;
the entering in by the door, that is, by Christ, and
not seeking to climb up into Heaven by any other
way*; the coming in not to steal and to kill and to
destroy, but to give lifea ; the speaking to the world
in parables b ; the sanctification of himself for his
1 Johnv. 31. m John v. 43,
n John vii. 18. ° John viii. 28.
p John viii. 26. i John viii. 18.
r John viii. 56. s John v. 32.
' John x. 25. u John viii. 46.
x John x. 15. ^ John xv. 19.
z John x. 1. a John x. 10. b John iii. vi,

28
disciples c; the bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit;
the dying that he may not abide alone d; the coming
not to judge but to save6.
All these are outward marks ; by which, even
under the most subtle disguise, a true prophet may
be discerned from a false. But there is another
thing even more necessary, and more immediately
affecting ourselves, to which I shall at present con
fine myself.
It is to fix our own minds in the right position
for discerning these signs — to cleanse our own
hearts — to fill our own eye with that light, without
which the knowledge of outward signs will be as
vain, as all the evidences of the Gospel are vain,
except to those who have the light of the Spirit
within their own souls.
And for this I will now venture to offer a few
practical suggestions.
In the first place, let us stamp upon our minds
a deep sense of the awfulness and peril of such a
temptation. It is no less than to have Satan stand
ing at our right hand as an angel of light — to be
visited with the great tribulation of the last days,
when "there shall arise false Christs, and false pro
phets, and shall shew great signs and wonders, so as,
if it were possible, to deceive the very elect f." What
should we have thought, if the Apostles, when led
out by our Lord into Gethsemane as to the place of
His last conflict with the Evil One — if St. Peter,
c John xvii. 19. <* John xii. 24.
e John xii. 47. f Matt. xxiv. 24.

29
when warned by Christ that Satan had desired to
have him that he might sift him hke wheat — if
Nicodemus when in anxiety and perplexity he came
to Jesus by night — if Pharaoh when amazed be
tween the wonders of Moses and the magicians — if
Ahab and Jehosaphat when consulting for life or
for death the lying prophets — if Sergius between
Elymas and St. Paul, had entered on such a trial
with levity and carelessness of heart. Awfulness and
sorrow, fear and trembling, silence and watching,
weeping and fasting, prayer, most fervent prayer,
that our Heavenly Father would not lead us into
temptation, this surely is the only frame of mind
with which to contemplate even its possibility. It
is a trial, in which if we fail — if we err, even by an
error of judgment — we shall tear and rend the body
of Christ — we shall make shipwreck of the faith —
we may be led to deny the Holy One and Just, and
to desire that a murderer be given us — we may
commit that unforgiven sin, and blaspheme against
the Holy Ghost, attributing to the spirit of lies, the
working of the Spirit of God — we may even be led
on like the husbandmen to take the servants of the
Almighty, and kill and stone them ; and crucify
the Lord of life in the person of His ministers;
thinking that we are doing Him service : and with
the very words of the Jews, " For a good work we
stone Thee not ; but for blasphemy ; and because
that Thou being a man, makest Thyself Godg."
Secondly. Such a fear will engender a reverent
b John x. 33.

30
and scrupulous care not to run into the temptation
wilfully and of ourselves. We shall pray against it,
strive against it, drive the thought of it from our
mind, until the voice of the Lord come to us thrice
and again, as we watch within His temple, so clear
that we cannot deny the call, to examine our ways.
Peter did not come down out of the ship to walk
upon the waters, until his Lord said " Come." And
even then so perilous was the attempt, that he was
afraid and began to sink\ And how much more
shall we sink, if without the hand of the Lord
stretched out to save, we venture on that sea of
doubt, in which so many have been lost before us.
Let us beware (I am speaking now to the young
and the weak) how we enter needlessly into contro
versies and doubts. Let us not study in the books
of any but members of our own Church. Let us
not form associations, still less friendships with
men of any communion, by joining with which we
must be severed from our own. Let us avoid con
versation which turns upon such questions, and that
above all which treats them lightly. Beware of
those persons especially whose duty it must be, if
they are true to their profession, to shake our faith
in our Church ; and whose talents may enable them
to succeed. Let us not visit their abodes, nor enter
even from curiosity into their places of worship ;
nor indulge rashly and without cause in that, foreign
travel, which, by separating us necessarily from our
own pastors, exposes us to the seductions of the
h Matt. xiv. 30.

31
stranger. "Look not thou upon the wine when it is
red, when it giveth its colour in the cup, when it
moveth itself aright." It may be that at the last
" it will bite like a serpent, and sting like an adder1."
And the very thought " it may be," is sufficient to
warn us against it. Even the ordinary intercourse
and courtesies of society are full of danger, when
they preclude us from feeling and expressing that,
of those who meet in cheerfulness and seeming
friendship, one or the other (we know not which)
at that moment must be guilty of a deadly sin before
God — the sin of schism ; and of the crimes that
flow from schism ; and that fear, and sorrow, and
mutual warning and rebuke, or joint prayers for en
lightenment in truth, can be the only fit communi
cations between men so placed. Above all, let us
avoid the use of books of devotion which belong to
another communion not at unity with our own.
We do not need them ; God has not been so
sparing of His bounties to the Church of our
fathers — our fathers of the earliest ages, and our
later fathers of this country — that we should be
compelled to seek for waters of salvation in a
strange land. And the very holiness and goodness
which is found in them will only render more insi
dious the poison with which they may be mixed.
Sin and folly never come before us first except
under shelter of goodness and wisdom. At wisdom
and goodness indeed, wherever they exist, we shall
rejoice and give thanks ; and strive to emulate
' Prov. xxiii. 13.

32
them. But emulate, let us remember, not imitate —
for imitation insensibly breaks down the line of
separation — while emulation maintains it firmly.
And separate we must be, so long as the condition
of one communion is to denounce and come out
from another, as no true part of the Church of
Christ. Thirdly. As we must not go out to war with
him that hath twenty thousand, we that are single-
handed, and unarmed with the whole armour of God,
until we are called by Him, so we must beware
of mistaking for this call any mere device or desire
of our own heart. It is not curiosity, not casual
impressions, not fondness for religious reading, still
less for religious controversy, not even the forced
intrusion of such questions by the circumstances of
society, or the teaching of individual Ministers of
God — which are to be accounted as a call from God.
They may be temptations of the Evil One; " I am a
prophet also as thou art," said the old prophet of
Bethel, to his disobedient brother; " and an Angel
spake unto me by the wTord of the Lord." " But
he lied unto himj." And if we are young — igno
rant — under teaching — in the hands of parents or
friends — not yet responsible for our choice of life —
able to withdraw from the conflict without aban
donment of duty — or occupied by other necessary
studies — if we labour under any weakness of judg
ment, or excitable temperament — if we are unable
to master questions of human learning — above all,
¦> 1 Kings xiii. 18.

33
if we are a prey to any known sin — we may well
doubt if our heavenly Father, the Father of mercy
and loving- kindness, who will not suffer any man
to be tempted beyond what he is able to bear, is
summoning us to this conflict with the Evil One —
this task of discerning spirits ; which more than any
other requires clearness and steadiness of heart and
eye. It was not till David had slain the lion and
the bear, that he ventured forth to fight with the
Philistine. " If thou hast run with the footmen,
and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou
contend with horses ? and if in the land of peace,
wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how
wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan1" ?" And it will
not be written against us in the day of judgment,
that we have not exercised ourselves in great
matters, or in things too high for us ; if we abstain
in humility and quietness like a weaned child1.
Fourthly. If under any circumstances (which in
the case of young men here, must be very rare)
we cannot thus quiet our conscience, and free our
mind from doubts and apprehensions, then follows
this obvious rule. Begin the examination and com
parison by ascertaining first the real character and
the real goodness of our own Church. Let us first
stand still ; let us learn fully the advantages of our
present post, before we even think (if such a thought
should be suggested by the tempter) of leaving it for
another. We can know what we have ; we cannot
know what we have not. And let us begin the
k Jer. xii. 5. ! Psalm cxxxi. 2.
C

34
enquiry in a humble, child-like, reverential spirit,
for her who bare us, and by whose name we have
been called1". Whatever be the issue, or the
truth, in this we cannot sin. But we shall sin, sin
with the sin of Ham — and be cursed with his curse,
of being made ' a servant of servants unto our
brethren",' if even the sin of a parent leads us into
irreverence or scoffing. What son can make the
fault of a mother, even supposing it to be proved,
a jest, or a sentence of condemnation ? Who does
not guard her fame with a noble and jealous indig
nation at the slightest calumny ? Who would not
cover from public gaze the defects of those whom we
love, and those by whom we have been loved ;
" humbling ourselves, even at the thought, with
fasting, and with prayers that turn into our own
bosom — behaving over them as over a friend and a
brother — bowing down heavily as one that mourneth
for his mother0 ?"
I will not ask at present what may be defects or
excellencies in our blessed Church. This would
be for another enquiry. But to us here present (if
indeed we are now in Christ, and without it we must
be in the power of the Evil One, and all our doubts
may be his temptations) — she has been a Mother.
Of this we are sure ! Let us say to ourselves, I am
about to sit in judgment upon a parent — on her who
bare me unto Christ in baptism ; who fed me with
the first words of the Gospel ; who blessed me
through the hands of her Bishops with the blessing
m Isaiah lxiii. 19. n Gen. ix. 25. ° Psalm xxxv. 15.

35
and intercession of a parent, that blessing so
powerful with the Most High — who hallowed the
womb from which I sprung, and the paps that gave
me suck — who formed my childhood with her
teaching — who taught my lips to pray, and my
hands to fight against sin — who nursed the sick
bed of my fathers in the flesh, and laid them down
with her blessing in the grave — who has spread for
me the table of the Lord — who has raised her sanc
tuaries, appointed her Sabbaths, measured out the
year for my learning, and discipline, and rejoicing,
set at my side a holy company of saints and pro
phets of her own creation under God, that I may
never be without instructors — who has established
this place above all others as a perpetual memorial
and example of her power and wisdom, round which
the admiration and envy of generations and Churches
have gathered, as the stronghold of God's truth,
and under whose blessed shadow I am now nurtured
and defended. — I am about to sit in judgment upon
a parent ! — upon one whose voice was ever raised
to warn and pray that I may be saved from all
'evil, and mischief, and sin,' and 'to nourish me
in all goodness !' And myself her disobedient child !
How often has she called, and I refused ; she
stretched out her hand, and no man regarded !
And now when distress and anguish are come upon
her, shall I turn round and mock at her weakness —
as men reviled our Lord upon the cross, on which
they themselves had hung Him !
Fifthly. When the voice of God seems to call us
c2

36
clearly and distinctly, so that we cannot close our
ears ; even though it should tell us of iniquities in our
spiritual mother, and of judgments coming upon
her which will make the ears to tingle, because her
sons made themselves vile, and she restrained them
notp, let us act like the child Samuel ; " And he
arose, and went to Eli, and said, Here am I, for
thou didst call." Let us go to the priests of the
Lord, to His regular appointed consecrated Ministers
for instruction, and in obedience. Let us beware
of following any self-called teacher, of gathering
round any new centre, of establishing any new
spring of action independent of the rulers of the
Church, of forming any party, calling ourselves by
any name, subscribing to any exposition of doctrine,
including ourselves and others within any test, but
such as the Church has appointed. Let us go to the
Priests of the Lord. God indeed has seldom left His
Church without prophets also, men raised up by His
extraordinary grace to warn, console, and guide in cer
tain exigencies. But He has not given them power to
supersede the authority of those who sit by regular
order in Moses' seat ; or, if this at any time has been
done, He has not raised them up without giving some
mark of prophecy and miracles, by which all Israel
may know that they are established to be prophets of
the Lord. We may rejoice to be judged by a
Samuel, rebuked by a Nathan, to offer offerings and
dedicate temples with David and with Solomon — to
take the prophets of Baal at the word of Elijah —
i> 1 Sam. iii. 13.

37
with Hezekiah to open the doors of the house of
the Lord, and to repair them — with Josiah to keep
the Passover unto the Lord, and to hear read in the
ears of the people the words of the book of the
covenant01 — with Nehemiah to arise and build up
Jerusalem ; — but in all this we must never forget
the warning of David — we must call for the Priests
and Levites — for the authorized governors of the
Church, that they may sanctify themselves1, and
bring up the ark of the Lord. " For," continued
that King and Prophet, " because ye did it not at
the first, the Lord our God made a breach upon us,
for that we sought Him not after the due order."
Sixthly. There follows another rule ; to dis
tinguish clearly between the personal acts and
characters of those who minister in the house of
the Lord, and the Church which they represent.
Individuals change, and err, and sin, and are cut
off; they may deny the truth, or assert the false
hood. And yet the Church itself may remain un
defiled and uncorrupted, just as the soul of man
preserves its integrity and immortality, while every
atom of the body fluctuates and falls off, or the
whole body perishes with disease. Let us re
member that a society, like an individual, has a
soul and a body. Through the body let us look to
the soul, and by this alone make our judgment.
And the character of the soul of a Church is to be
judged, not by the acts or opinions of its individual
ministers, but by its own solemn, deliberate, formal
i 2 Kings xxii. 2. r 1 Chron. xv. 12.

38
promulgations and decisions. It is responsible for
no acts which are not done in compliance with its
own laws — &v pJi] fiera, voptwv r/papTep. So long as she
recites the Creeds, her faith is sound — so long as she
pronounces over the baptized child, that it is a child
of God, a member of Christ, and an inheritor of the
kingdom of Heaven, — her baptism is most precious.
So long as she imparts to us at the table of the
Lord the body and blood of Christ, as ' verily and
indeed taken and received by the faithful,' she dis-
cerneth the Lord's body, and comes not into con
demnation. So long as she bids us fast and repent
in sackcloth and ashes, she herself is penitent and
forgiven, and penitents may cling to her, and walk
with her in peace, though they are but a remnant.
If the disobedience of the child forfeited the cha
racter of the parent, what judgment, with reverence
be it spoken, will the unbeliever form of the govern
ment of the righteous God Himself in this world of
rebellion and ungodliness ? It may be, that even
in this seeming powerlessness of our blessed Church
to control the waywardness of her sons she bears
on her a stronger resemblance to the Divine image
than if she ruled the nations with a rod of iron.
The Lord God Himself, the Almighty, the All-wise,
the All-good, has put forth no charm or awful power
by which to hold His creatures in such subjection.
He sets before them life, and good, but allows them
to choose death and evil ; and His Church is the
voice with which He speaks to us. And while that
voice is raised, though only as a witness, rising

39
early, and protesting, though men obey not8, nor
incline their ear ; she herself, the prophetess, is not
cut off. So it was with our Blessed Lord. He
taught, while on earth, by the mouth of men, foolish
and slow of heart', faithless and fearful", and heavy-
eyed3', among whom there was a devil. And now
He has ascended into Heaven, and His gifts have
been given to servants, who may say in their hearts5',
My Lord delayeth His coming ; and beat the men-
servants and maidens, and eat and drink and be
drunken ; and yet His spirit is still on earth, His
promise is sure, His body with us, His kingdom
open to us.
Lastly — When we would know and understand
the real character of our spiritual teacher and parent,
let us remember that this cannot be learned without
first mastering its excellencies ; nor this be done with
out realizing them in our own personal character
and practice. All enquiry whatever must begin in
faith ; and to learn the good of others by practising
their goodness is a far safer and far surer mode of
arriving at their true character, than by criticising
their evil. It is the only mode. And this rule, so
obvious and so binding, will supersede the necessity
of all others, for a long, a very long period ; it may
be, until we are at the gates of Heaven, and the
veil shall be taken away from all our hearts.
Let us ask ourselves whether we have obeyed it
-^ask ourselves especially when we hear either from
" Jer. xi. 7. ' Luke xxiv. 25. u Matt. iv. 51.
* Matt. xxv. 43. v Luke xii. 45.

40
adversaries without, or from the thoughtless within,
complaints of the imperfections of our Church, and
hasty projects for amending them ; " Do I yet know
all her goodness ? Am I yet as good as she is ?
She bound me in my baptismal vow to renounce the
world, the flesh, and the devil. Is my baptismal robe
still unsullied ; or again washed clean with tears of
penitence, and the blood of the Lamb ? She pledged
me to renew that vow at my confirmation. Have I
continued ever since in God's heavenly grace, and
daily increased in His Holy Spirit more and more z ?
She invites me to the Lord's table ; and some may
have thought her call too cold and cautious, and neg
lectful of primitive example. Have I ever entered
into her words in all their depth and meaning ?
Have I called back each time the memory of God's
Saints 'who have departed in His faith and fear,'
and fixed before me the hour when I hope to be
' partaker with them of His heavenly kingdom ? '
Have I mourned over 'my sins as grievous, and
the remembrance of them as intolerable ?' While
I knelt meekly to receive God's ' creatures of bread
and wine,' have I realized at the same time all the
awful mystery contained in her solemn admonition^
" The body and the blood of Christ?" Have I
prayed that by that holy sacrifice upon the Cross,
which we there commemorate,— not only " we, but
the whole Church, may obtain remission of our
sins, and all other benefits of Christ's passion?"
Have I lifted up my heart to Heaven, till I felt
1 Confir. Serv.

41
myself with ' Angels and Archangels, and all the
company of Heaven, crying, Holy, Holy, Holy,
Lord God of Hosts ?' We miss the name of sacri
fice. Have we worthily commemorated that 'one
great oblation upon the Cross once offered' — wor
thily besought our Heavenly Father to accept our
own 'sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving' — worthily
' offered and presented unto Him our souls and
bodies to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice
unto Him,' notwithstanding our manifold ' unwor-
thiness to offer unto Him any sacrifice ?' Have
we glorified God with the song sung over the cradle
of our Lord ; 'praised Him, blessed Him, worship
ped Him, glorified Him, given thanks to Him
for His great glory ;' cried to Him 'that taketh away
the sins of the world,' as if no words of human
utterance could give vent to our gratitude or our
faith ? And from the full height of exultation, from
almost the agony of supplication, have we ever
drank fully into our hearts, the calm, the deep
repose of that ' peace which passeth all under
standing,' with which we are sent back into the
world ? Till we have worshipped thus, beware how
we ask for rites more stimulating to our frail
imagination — for words more closely bordering on
enthusiasm, and on profaneness.
Other Christians, we know, have prayed seven
times a day. Our Church prays twice. But have I
regularly and fervently prayed with her thus often,
and added, at my rising up and at my lying down,
my own supplications in my closet ? She is sepa-

42
rated, we think, from the great body of Christians.
So was Christ's Church, while He was walking
visibly upon earth, a little flock. But before we
dream of unity, which may not be purchasable with
out the sacrifice of truth, let us as affectionately,
as constantly as our blessed Church, pray to Him
who is the Author of concord, that all ' that profess
His Name, may be brought into the unity of the
Spirit, and the bond of peace.'
She submits herself, some have thought too meekly,
to God's chosen servants and ministers in the Civil
State. Let us first, as she commands, in the name
of the holy Apostle, accustom ourselves to make
prayers and supplications for all Christian kings,
princes, and governors ; and then we may be able
to understand if this loyalty to man be treason
towards God.
She has been cautious, over-cautious, we may
think, in cutting off from us every temptation to
error, every thing which might offend one of the least
of her little ones. When we have been equally
cautious in bridling our tongue, in weighing our
actions lest we injure our weaker brethren, we
shall be able to judge if her tenderness be pre
sumption, and her sobriety indifference.
And so of other things.
Let the simple majesty of her ceremonies be put
forth, free from all frivolity and tawdriness ; and we
may then pronounce if more be wanting to stimulate
the fancy and the feeling. Let all the great truths in
her formularies, contrary as they may seem to each

43
other, and irreconcileable, be tested by Scripture, be
embraced and acted on, fully and impartially, and
we shall then know if their apparent ambiguity be
the result of vacillation and compromise, or of a wise
and bold comprehension of the fulness of truth.
It will then be time to enquire if we need a more
technical system, and to complain that nothing is
given us but an outline of dogmatic teaching. She
fails, a young mind may complain, when newly
awakened to a sense of its responsibilities before God,
— She fails to supply me with guides into whose ear
I can pour all my secret sins, and secret sorrows.
But let the complainer first ask — Have I done what
the Apostle with the Church requires, and ' examined
myself ?' Have I confessed myself specially to God
in my closet, and generally in the congregation, and
there heard God's promise of pardon with hearty con
trition and true faith ? And if still my conscience is
troubled with some grievous sin, have I — not in
vanity, or a love of excitement, or the hope of
rousing interest, or a morbid passion for sympathy,
— but in simplicity and seriousness of heart, sought
out some discreet Minister of God's word, the least
likely to indulge my faults, from whom ' to receive
absolution, and his ghostly counsel and advice ?'
She has, it is said, no refuges for the poor ; no
organized bodies for education ; no houses of reli
gious men, incorporating the Church in visible socie
ties, and enabling it to grasp the whole sphere of its
duties. — Are we turning to account those which she
has given to us in this place ? or are the sins of

44
our youth the great obstacle to making them all
that she desires ? She needs more discipline and
unity of rule. Have we reverently obeyed those
rulers whom she does place over us, and given them
such confidence in our obedience as to justify in
creased energy in themselves, so that they may ven
ture to take the lead as Heads, without risking a
schism in the body ?
And our Church is weak and powerless to dis
charge her duties and to defend herself from foes !
Have I yet, let each of us say, in my own walk, as
one of the members of her body, as drawing my life
from her heart, as bound to execute all her godly
motions — have I yet essayed the strength which
she can give me, and through me can realize in
herself? the strength of prayer, the strength of
truth and knowledge, the strength of faith, the
strength of self-denial, the strength of holy conduct,
the strength of humble childlike obedience to rulers,
the strength of almsgiving and fasting, the strength
of social living in a Christian fellowship, the strength
of quietness and meekness, the strength of sobriety
and prudence, the strength of energetic action under
rule, the strength of hearty and affectionate union
one with another in every good work ? Until this
has been done, my young and beloved brethren,
those who are older must adjure you in the Name
of Him, who is the Head of the body — whose body
you cannot destroy without being destroyed your
selves — whose prophets you cannot mock without
being'giving over to be torn by the Evil One, — Close

45
up your hearts and ears against the voice of the
tempter, and honour your father and your mother,
lest you be cut off from that blessed land which the
Lord your God hath given you.
Of your lips I say nothing.
But if in any moment of thoughtlessness or ex
citement, any one still in his youth may have pre
sumed to sit in the seat of the scorner, and to
speak lightly and irreverently of her whom Christ
has placed over him in His Church, let him bethink
himself of that hour when he shall give account for
every idle word at the day of judgment. Let him
feel that a tongue from which such things have
fallen, is no longer a tongue to speak of reverence,
of obedience, of faith, of the mystery of sacraments,
of the unity of the Church. All such words must
sound from him as hypocrisy — all such speculations
only serve to harden his heart.
And let him not deceive himself by thinking that
such words are dropped and forgotten, because they
have fallen from young lips, and have here been
passed over in silence.
In this day, and in this place, what is thus
spoken in the corner is preached elsewhere upon the
house-tops. I speak of what I know. The thought
less act, the rash language, the boyish extravagance,
is noted down, and carried, in the very spirit of
the father of lies, into the farthest parts of this
empire, even into distant continents, and there pro
claimed, by a most subtle foe, as the rising voice
of this whole Church and people. It would be a

46
fearful thing for the most thoughtless among us
to know that his casual sarcasm or complaint had
been proclaimed from the pulpit or the Altar in dis
tant lands ; that it had there confirmed the blind in
blindness and the rebellious in rebellion ; that it
had shaken the faith of the weak ; had disturbed
the peace of the simple-minded ; had set brother
against brother ; had kindled jealousy and malice
even among the priests of the Lord ; had re-opened
the wounds of the Church; had driven the timid
farther from the truth, and the headstrong more
blindly into error ; had set stumbling-blocks in
the way of the doubtful ; had caused the rash to
blaspheme holy men, and to speak unadvisedly
with their lips of God's most awful mysteries ; that
it had thwarted the advancement of His Church ;
had paralysed the labours of her servants ; had
given triumph to the ungodly, and weapons to
heresy and schism ; had chilled temporal rulers
in their efforts to do good, and filled our spiritual
rulers with dismay, and covered them with obloquy
and slander. And yet, it is not too strong to say,
that intemperate acts and expressions, dropped within
this place, have thus done, and still are doing, the
work of the Evil One all around us ; and that
to these, far more than to deliberate discussion, we
owe the strife of tongues, and disquietude of heart,
which now are imperilling the Church.
May God in His infinite mercy forgive any among
the young, who may have so deeply sinned !
And may He equally forgive us the older, and

47 ..
therefore the more guilty, if by thought, word, or
deed, we have been instrumental in their temptation !
We have lived in troublous times, when they who
strove to repair the breaches in the city of God
have been obliged with ' one hand to work the
work, and with the other to hold a weapon1.' The
truth has been grasped by fragments, ' precept upon
precept, line upon line, here a little and there a
littleV And they who have recovered most clearly
the sight of forgotten principles have been healed
by degrees, and seen 'men as trees walking,' before
they have ' seen every man clearly0.' If under such
a trial any of us have ministered to this evil, igno-
rantly or wilfully, in petulance or in blindness, by
indulging feeling too strongly, by generalising too
rapidly, by thinking too little of the scruples of
weaker brethren, in sorrow over the erring, or in
impatience at disappointment, or in over zeal for
the house of God, or in too fervent an imagination
of what is holy, or in unbalanced reverence for
antiquity, or in confined views of duty, or in specu
lative thought without practical experience, — may
He who is long-suffering, and most merciful, forgive
us our sin also !
It is not too late to come before Him with peni
tence ; and before those, whom our rash words may
have misled, with admonitions and warnings of
their peril.
One thing above all, on our part, seems wanting
a Nehemiah iv. 17. b Isaiah xxviii. 10.
* Matt. viii. 23.

48
to restore even now strength and health to the
Church, and to bind up her wounds, and pour into
them oil and wine.
Love for her, and loyalty and reverence — fervent
love — unwearying loyalty — most dutiful reverence.
With this she may still become what God by His
innumerable blessings, as on this day manifested,
would seem to have designed, "a light to lighten the
Gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel."
Without it there remains for us little but this
fearful warning: —
"Whoso shall offend one of these little ones
which believe in Me, it were better for him that a
millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he
were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto
the world because of offences ! for it must needs be
that offences come ; but woe to that man by whom
the offence comethd!" "It were better for that
man that he had never been born."
d Matt, xviii. 6, 7.

OXITOBD : MINTED BY I. SHE1MPION.