Betvion

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DISCOURSES

TRADITION AND EPISCOPACY;

PREACHED AT THE TEMPLE CHURCH,

PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.

CHRISTOPHER BENSON, A.M.,
MASTER OF THE TEMPLE.

LONDON:
JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND.
M.DCCC.XXXIX.

PREFACE.

The tractarians, that is, the authors, editors, and
approvers of the Tracts for the Times, are Divines
of acknowledged piety, and sincerity, and learning.
It must always be painful to be in opposition to
such men. But believing, as I do, that many of
their statements are confused and vague, their
arguments inconclusive, and their opinions, upon
Several points, indeterminate or exaggerated, and
even sometimes erroneous, I thought it incon
sistent neither with my respect for their character,
nor my duty to the Church, to endeavour to lay
before my congregation at the Temple the views
which appeared to my own mind to be both defi
nite and correct upon some of the most important
points in debate. The discourses which, in pur
suance of that plan, I preached, are now pub-

IV PREFACE.
lished, at the request of those Benchers of the
Inner Temple who heard them ; and to those
gentlemen, for the kind manner in which they
made the request, I return my thanks.
In addition to the subjects already treated of, it
would have been desirable to have considered also
some others which are brought forward in the
tracts. I allude to their doctrines upon the Sacra
ment of the Lord's Supper, upon prayers for de
parted saints, and, more particularly, upon the
powers attributed to the episcopal clergy, the power
of the keys, the power of binding and loosing, and
the power of remitting and retaining sins. Without
the discussion of this latter subject, all that has
been said upon the commission of Christ's minis
ters and on episcopacy may seem to be incom
plete. But as I was requested only to print what
had been delivered in public, I did not feel au
thorized to add anything to the present publica
tion beyond a few illustrative notes. Should any
favourable opportunity occur hereafter for dis
cussing the points alluded to, I would then ven
ture to attempt their elucidation, — difficult and
delicate as such an undertaking must necessarily
be. In the mean time, I hope, that I have not

PREFACE. V
departed from that respectful and serious tone, of
which the tractarians, if without offence we may
so call them, have, in all their controversies with
others, set, almost universally, so good an example.
For " the servant of the Lord must not strive, but
be gentle unto all men," however much he may
differ with them in the opinions he has formed of
Christian truth.

CONTENTS.

Page
THE SCRIPTURES AND THE FATHERS - - 1
Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughti
ness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which
is able to save your souls. — James i. 21.

THE TRUE HONOUR OF THE CLERGY - 28
We beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among
you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you ; and
to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. —
Thessalonians v. 12, 13.

CHRIST'S PRESENCE WITH HIS MINISTERS - 51
Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given
unto me in heaven and in earth ; go ye, therefore, and teach
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to ob
serve all things whatsoever I have commanded you : and
lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. —
Matthew xxviii. 18,19,20.
THE APOSTOLICAL ORIGIN OF EPISCOPACY 73
For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou mightest set in
order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in
every city as I had appointed thee. — Titus i. 5.
NOTES - ... ... 97

THE
SCRIPTURES AND THE FATHERS.

James i. 21.
Wherefore lay apart all JiUhiness and superfluity of naughtiness,
and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able
to save your souls.
Salvation is the greatest of all the mercies, the
most important of all the blessings, we receive
at the hand of God. For it is that mercy which
we have deserved the least; it is that blessing
which includes th& most: including the highest
happiness both of body and soul, to be enjoyed
for ever, in the company of angels, amidst the
glories of heaven, and in the presence of the
Almighty. In proportion to the excellence of the gift
itself, is the importance of knowing what are
the means by which it is to be attained, and where
the knowledge of those means may be acquired.
What must I do to be saved ? From what source,
human or divine, can I learn what is to be done ?
These are two questions which immediately pre
sent themselves for solution to the inquirer, who
has been roused to a solicitude for his everlasting
welfare.

THE SCRIPTURES

The answer which is given to these questions
by every description of Christian teachers, and
in every age, is, in one point, the same. The
Apostles, and their immediate followers; the
Fathers, as they are called, that is, the theological
writers of the earlier centuries under the Gospel
dispensation ; Romanists and Reformers ; Church
men and Dissenters; — all with one consent allow
that, upon such a subject, the Lord himself, who
is the author and finisher of our faith, can alone
point out the conditions upon which salvation will
be granted, or the qualifications of those who are
to receive it. To the will of Him who redeemed
the world, and to the revelation of his divine will,
it is universally agreed that the world must apply
for information as to the terms upon which Heaven
will be opened to sinners.
Here, however, a difference of opinion begins
to appear. All admit that the written word of
God must contain a principal part of those direc
tions, which are to guide our feet into the way of
everlasting life. But there are some who would
add, as of equal authority and necessity, those
unwritten doctrines and precepts which, as they
affirm, have been handed down by an undoubted
and unfailing tradition, from Christ himself, or
from the Apostles of Christ, to the present genera
tion of mankind. Upon this vain and dangerous
supposition it is needless for me, in this place, or,
at least, on this occasion, to dwell. All who are

AND THE FATHERS. 3
here assembled profess themselves to be members
of the established Church of England, and that
Church has determined the point for the guidance
of its members, by making the Holy Scriptures
the only standard and storehouse of essential and
saving truth. She maintains, in her sixth Article,
that " Holy Scripture containeth all things neces
sary to salvation, so that whatsoever is not read
therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be
required of any man, that it should be believed as
an Article of the faith, or be thought requisite or
necessary to salvation." She has thus determined
that those doctrines and duties alone have a claim
upon our acceptance as divine in their authority,
and as indispensable for the attainment of ever
lasting life, which are either so clearly revealed
that they may be read in the direct statements of
Holy Writ, or which may, by just process of rea
soning, be drawn as a legitimate inference from
that sacred source. It is also, I think, implied,
that every branch of the Christian Church upon
earth has a right to form, and enjoin upon the
members of its communion, whatever it con
ceives to be, either positively asserted in the
oracles of God, or capable of being undeniably
deduced from the principles those oracles have
proclaimed. Thus far the declaration of our own
formularies is plain.
There now arise some other inquiries, in the
prosecution of which it is our natural interest to
b 2

THE SCRIPTURES

engage. By what rules are those to whom the
guidance and government of the Church is en
trusted, to regulate themselves in the formation
of a public creed, out of the pages of Revelation ?
In answer to this first inquiry, we are told, by our
twentieth Article, that " it is not lawful for the
Church so to expound one place of Scripture that
it be repugnant to another." Secondly, it may be
asked, to what extent may the individual ministers
or members of the Church exercise the privilege
of judging whether the creed which they are au
thoritatively required to teach or believe, is really
scriptural or no ? In reply to this we may observe,
that it has been most wisely and considerately de
creed, in our Ordination Service, that, before any
candidate for the office of a priest shall be admitted
to the exercise of his holy functions, he shall be
called upon to express a resolution in the follow
ing terms. He declares that he will " teach no
thing as required of necessity to eternal salvation,
but that which he shall be persuaded may be con
cluded and proved by the Scripture." It is con
sequently certain, that the Ministers of the Gospel
are allowed the privilege of forming their own
opinion upon what their Church requires them to
teach as a portion of God's holy word, and are
solemnly bound to act upon the opinion they have
deliberately formed. Their persuasion is to be
the rule of their conduct as religious instructors.
What fair excuse then, can be alleged for with-

AND THE FATHERS. O
holding from the hearer with regard to the teacher
of Christianity, that same, or at least a similar
liberty to that which you allow to the teacher
with regard to his Church ? It is evidently, indeed,
both the right and the duty of even the humblest
and most unlearned of the believers in Jesus to
refuse to acknowledge anything to be divinely
true, and essentially necessary to the saving faith
of a Christian, which he is fully persuaded is
neither positively revealed in the law or in the
gospel, nor can be fairly deduced from them by a
correct mode of interpretation. In proportion to
their ignorance, or their incapacity, or their want
of time and opportunity to make a due examina
tion into the revealed counsels of the Most High,
it may, and it no doubt does well become the busy
layman and the unlettered labourer to attend to
those that are over them in the Lord. It is right
and meet that they should listen to the doctrines
of their ministers, with that respect and deference
which even common sense demands, that we should
give to all, whose life and labours are devoted
to a studious and devout contemplation of the in
spired Scriptures. But there must be no absolute
surrender of the reason and conscience which God
has vouchsafed to every man as his guides. If,
after allowing for our own comparative inability
to judge, if, after seeking for the best instruction
we can obtain, we yet feel convinced that what is
enforced upon us is actually contrary to the

6 THE SCRIPTURES
written word of God, then God and not man,
Christ rather than Christ's minister, must be
believed and obeyed. With all care and humility
we must try the doctrine; but with all firmness
we must hold fast to that which we are finally
persuaded is of the Lord, knowing that our
powers of thought and judgment, are talents
committed to us by Him, and talents for the
proper exercise of which we shall be responsible
at the last day. To inform our reason, and en
lighten our conscience to the best of our ability,
is a sacred obligation; but to act against the
deliberate dictates of our reason, and the repeated
admonitions of our conscience, is a serious sin.
The difficulty of rightly performing the duty may,
under various circumstances, and especially in the
controverted matters of religion, be great ; but the
duty itself is clear.
The conclusions to which we have arrived are
these. Every particular branch of the universal
church is authorized, under a deep sense of its
responsibility to God, to draw out for the guid
ance of its ministers and the edification of its
members those doctrines, and those doctrines
alone, which it is persuaded may be found either
distinctly or consequentially revealed in the holy
Scriptures. Every individual Christian is bound,
under a sense of the same awful responsibility, to
resolve to teach nothing as a minister, and accept
nothing as a member of any church but that

AND THE FATHERS. 7
which he is persuaded may be concluded and
proved by Holy Writ. It depends, therefore, upon
the judgment of each church to decide upon what
it conceives to be the essential doctrines of divine
revelation. It depends in like manner upon the
judgment of each Christian to decide upon those
doctrines which, as a minister, he can agree to
teach; or, as a member to accept, as being declared
in the Bible, to be essential to salvation. In other
words, it is a matter of consideration with every
man to determine to what particular community
of professing believers he will consent to attach
himself, or continue to belong.
The separate judgment of churches and indi
viduals being allowed to be thus far the tribunal
of appeal upon the essential doctrines of revelation,
it becomes of immediate consequence to discover,
— First, By what mode of interpretation is each
church to ascertain a repugnancy between one
passage of Scripture and another to exist, so that
an apparent may not be confounded with a real
contradiction ? Secondly, Upon what basis is each
minister and member of any Christian commu
nity to build his persuasion, that the things which
he teaches or is taught, are or are not openly
declared by the words, or legitimately involved in
the statements of Scripture?
Now, the Scriptures are a written document,
written by man for the instruction of his fellow-
creatures, and conveyed in that form of language

8 THE SCRIPTURES
which was then the usual medium of intercourse
between man and man, whatever might be the
subject upon which they wished to communicate
with each other. The special purpose for which
the New Testament in particular was composed
may be fairly conceived to be conveyed to us in
the language of St. John, who, as he closed the
canon with the Book of Revelation, so did he
complete the number of the Gospels and Epistles,
by adding to them his own. In his Gospel then,
and in his general Epistle, he gives the same view
of the end for which he, and, therefore, as we may
not improperly suppose, the other evangelists and
apostles wrote. That end, as he says, is this : — The
gospel histories * were written that those who read
them " might believe that Jesus is the Christ the
Son of God, and that believing they might have
life through his name." The epistles were sent
to those who already believed in the name of the
Son of God, that they " might have fellowship
with the Father and the Son, and that their joy
might be full," — that they might be guarded
against such as would seduce them into errors of
opinion or practice, and that they might remain in
the truth, and so continue in the Son and in the
Fatherf. The object of the Gospels and the
Epistles is, consequently, similar. Both have
been communicated to us that the man of God
may be perfect, and, by the due use of both, be
* John xx. 31. + John i. 3, 4; ii. 21, 24.

AND THE FATHERS. 9
thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Both
are calculated to bring men to the faith and obe
dience of Christ, that, by believing his word, and
keeping his commandments, they may do those
things which are pleasing in his sight, and attain
unto the fulfilment of his heavenly promises. But
if such be the object of the whole of the New
Testament, it is impossible, with any respect for
the characters of its holy and divinely-enlightened
authors, to imagine that it should have been so
constituted as to leave the careful, and qualified,
and diligent inquirer, under any insuperable diffi
culty, or doubt, in ascertaining the meaning of
its expressions, — at least so far as to comprehend
the things which are essential for the attainment
of its great end. True it is, that the New Testa
ment, like all other Scripture, was given by inspi
ration. But then, like all other Scripture which
is so given, it must also be allowed to be profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for
instruction in righteousness. Like the other testi
monies of the Lord, it must be designed to afford
religious wisdom even unto the simple. Though its
divine origin, therefore, may lead us to expect that
it will contain truths, which it is far beyond our
reason to discover or to account for upon earthly
principles alone, yet the Spirit of the Almighty,
as it knoweth what is in man, must undoubtedly
have the power, and, as the spirit of love and wis
dom, must surely have had the will, to utter its

10 THE SCRIPTURES
revelations, so far as they are necessary to be
known and obeyed by all, in a manner which
might be intelligible to the diligent and serious
inquiries of all.
The result to which we have arrived will by
some, perhaps, be considered as applicable to those
only who lived when the Christian Scriptures were
first delivered to the Church. To those of later
ages, it may be urged, that there are various and
insuperable difficulties. The languages in which
the Apostles wrote have ceased to be spoken.
Translations, varying from each other, and com
mentaries, in which the most learned differ and dis
pute, are now the channels through which the will
of God flows into the mind of the generality of the
believers in Jesus. Besides all this, the modes of
speaking and thinking in those countries to which
the sacred penmen belonged, were strongly op
posed to those which prevail in our own. With
them the habits of expression were metaphorical
and figurative, even on common occasions. We,
even on the most exalted themes, labour, if we
mean to be instructive, to be literal and plain.
This representation, as generally correct, it is in
vain to deny; yet, amidst all these disadvantages,
there is a clearness in the declarations of Scripture
upon the fundamental duties and doctrines of our
religion, which it must be extremely difficult to
obscure or overlook. By the Word which was
made flesh, we are taught that all things were

AND THE FATHERS. 11
made, and that, without Him, was not anything
made that was made. By Him, it is said, God
made the worlds, and by Him all things consist.
Christ once suffered to bear the sins of many, the
just for the unjust, to bring us to God, and through
his blood we have the forgiveness of sins. The
Spirit helpeth our infirmities, and our heavenly
Father will give the Spirit to them that ask him.
These sentences are so written, that he that runs
may perceive them, and when brought to his mind,
either by hearing or reading, the least educated
among the sons of men would confess their mean
ing to be plain, unless their understanding had
been previously confused and misguided by the
subtlety of their teachers.
But this, it may be said, is the very danger we
have to apprehend; for there are, and ever have
been, those, who, either by mistaking or pervert
ing the most positive assertions of Scripture, have
denied the most solemn truths of the Gospel, and
fortified themselves in their denial by such argu
ments as no ordinary Christian can withstand or
refute, and which may not improbably deceive
even the thoughtful and well-informed. Nay,
more; some of the chief corruptions of the truth
have been made plausibly to rest upon the lan
guage of Scripture itself, and been defended by
the quotation of texts, which, when separated
from their context, may be made to appear to sup
port error and heresy, as clearly as those to which I

12

THE SCRIPTURES

have already referred do, both in sound and sense,
establish the truth. Finally, it is to be observed,
that many of the misapplications of Scripture ori
ginate with those who profess sincerely to have
exercised their faculties in a steady and impartial
examination of the divine oracles, and to proceed
according to the most strict and admitted rules of
interpretation which reason and learning have
devised. From all these various and undeniable circum
stances, it may, perhaps, be inferred, that Scrip
ture doctrines should not be left to the judgment
and diligence of each individual to settle for him
self by his own intellectual powers ; for if our own
reason be the guide to which we trust for the
determination of our creed, the mass of mankind
will, through want of leisure, intelligence, or infor
mation, run the risk of being misled by erroneous
teachers, and teachers themselves be liable to mis
apprehend the meaning of God's word.
Such are the discouragements which may be
said to attend the study of the Holy Scriptures,
when examined by those usual modes of inves
tigation which the nature of the languages in
which they are written, the scope and tenour of
their contents, and the laws of just criticism
and sound reasoning supply. Where, then, are
we to find a more excellent way? is a demand
which the mind in its natural anxiety for truth
is led immediately to make. To this demand

AND THE FATHERS. 13
it may, perhaps, be replied, that the universal
consent of the church in its more ancient days
is the only test either of the truth of those doc
trines which our blessed Lord and his Apostles
taught, or of the correctness of the meaning
which is ascribed to their words. Now, if this
should be found, indeed, to be the case, most
thankfully should we receive such an inesti
mable benefit. If the unanimous testimony of
Christian antiquity, as it may be gathered from
the writings of the earlier Fathers, be an authority
which we cannot elude, the only sufficient guide
to the whole revealed faith, the surest and safest
guardian against the errors which a rational inter
pretation of scriptural language is liable to intro
duce, we are bound to receive and use this admir
able instrument as our only chance of uniting
believers in one common creed, by pointing out to
them one common explanation of God's word.
But what reason have we to suppose that this
mode of endeavouring to ascertain the truth is
really likely to lead to the establishment of an
essential unanimity among professing Christians ?
If men are to judge for themselves concerning
what Catholic tradition means and declares, is
there any better hope of an universal agreement
upon that than upon the sense of the inspired
Scriptures ? This is the real point in debate, and
we must endeavour to settle it with as much care
and impartiality as it is in our power to bestow.

14 THE SCRIPTURES
It may be observed, then, in the first place,
that all the discouragements and difficulties which
beset the Christian in forming his judgment upon
the meaning of God's holy revelation, apply with
equal strength to any attempt to draw out the
testimony of Catholic tradition as conveyed to us
in the writings of the Fathers of the Church.
For it is not true to say that the appeal to the
testimony of antiquity is nothing more than a
reference to an historical fact which none can
deny. It is, indeed, a reference to the fact that
certain statements are contained in the writings
of the Fathers. But it is furthermore a reference
to the notions they are presumed to contain, and
the meaning they are intended to convey. In this
respect, therefore, it corresponds with the appeal
which we make to the texts of Scripture as the
evidences for the doctrines we hold. The exist
ence of those texts is the first thing we assert ;
but the interpretation of the texts is that on
which we mainly depend. It is the same with
the passages which we adduce from the Catholic
doctors of the church. It is not so much the
mere fact of the existence of those passages, as
the conclusions we draw from them, that consti
tutes the force of the proof. The declarations of
Catholic tradition are first produced and then
interpreted ; but the Interpretation is the principal
point. What claim, then, have the statements of

AND THE FATHERS. 15
Catholic tradition to be regarded as free from that
difficulty which hangs upon the expressions of the
divine word ? None. The works of the Fathers
are written, like God's revelation, in languages
which have long been disused. Like the Apostles
of Jesus, the Fathers lived in a remote age in
distant and dissimilar countries, and under cir
cumstances very different both from those of each
other and from our own. Their modes of thinking
and speaking partook largely of their times, habits,
and places, and cannot easily be understood with
out some considerable knowledge of all these points.
Like the Scriptures, the works of the Fathers can
be known to the generality of Christians only
through the medium of translations which are infi
nitely more imperfect than those of the Bible, and
very frequently and flagrantly erroneous. In a
great multitude of instances no translations of any
kind have been made. Lastly, have heretics, by
perverting the just meaning of Scripture, or by
insidious misapplications of its texts, contrived to
give a seeming support to their heresies? The
very same fate has, also, attended the study of the
Fathers, and some of the worst corruptions of the
Gospel have been defended by their followers as
being grounded on the general opinions of the
primitive church. Nay, we learn from the records
of antiquity itself, that those who degraded the
Saviour to the rank of a mere man, boasted that
their heresy was the ancient and universal doc-

16 THE SCRIPTURES
trine, and pretended to mark the very period at
which a different opinion was introduced. Their
boast, as we conceive, was impious and false, but
when all these things are carefully weighed, it
would appear that, upon some of the most im
portant articles of the Gospel revelation, the voice
of antiquity must be as difficult for an ordinary
Christian to comprehend, and will be as fre
quently misrepresented and as flagrantly misap
plied as it is possible for the Scriptures to be.
But we may proceed still further than this.
There are circumstances belonging to an inquiry
into the testimony of antiquity, which render it a
far more difficult task to ascertain its uniformity
than to understand God's word. The word of
God is comparatively small in extent, and conveys
its fulness of all wisdom with a pregnant brevity
which neither absorbs our whole time nor over
loads the memory. The Fathers are voluminous,
and it is admitted that it would require a whole
life to read them in order to see how far they agree
or differ. The Scriptures are inspired ; and the
words which the Holy Ghost teacheth cannot fail
to convey its blessed communications with as
much accuracy as the nature of the case will
allow. The errors, therefore, into which we fall
in studying the Scriptures can arise only from our
own misunderstanding of the sacred text ; and a
single clear and definite passage affords sufficient
authority for the belief of any doctrine. The

AND THE FATHERS. 17
Fathers were confessedly without inspiration, so
that in what they utter concerning heavenly
things we are in danger of error from a double
source ; both from the inaccuracy or impropriety
of their manner of expression, and from our own
wrong interpretation of their meaning. Besides
all this, it is necessary, after having examined the
entire writings of each, to go on to reconcile, and
combine, and harmonize them all. This, how
ever, is a task involving such a series of compli
cated arrangements, and multiplied comparisons,
that few would be able to accomplish it with any
degree of satisfaction to their own minds. But
when, as it is usually maintained, we are to form
our opinion of what is the teaching of Catholic
antiquity, not by the consent of all who have
written, but only by the general voice of the most
eminent of the early Fathers, we so add to the
delicacy of our operations, and open such a door
for partiality or prejudice to intrude, that it must
be almost impossible to attain a satisfactory re
sult. For, who are the most eminent of the
Fathers ? Through how many centuries must
our investigations be extended ? Or, how many
of those writers we examine may be allowed to
differ, or to be silent, on any matter of doctrine or
of discipline, without destroying what is impro
perly called the universality of the traditional
faith ?
If the circumstances which I have thus briefly
c

18 THE SCRIPTURES
touched upon have been truly stated, if Christians
are to make the testimony of the ancient Fathers
the rule by which to judge for themselves of the
doctrines and meaning of God's word, it is in vain
to say that it is an easier, a safer, or a surer mode
of attaining to a uniform creed than when our
opinions of Gospel truth are formed by a dili
gent investigation into the language and state
ments of Scripture itself. It would rather seem
to be the more difficult method of the two.
To whom, then, are we to apply in order to
relieve ourselves from the difficulty ? Is that par
ticular branch of the church of Christ, to which
we belong, to be to us the medium through which
the consent of Catholic antiquity is to be con
veyed ? Are we to accept as the universal testi
mony of the ancient church whatever our own
has delivered to us as fixed by that testimony ?
To a certain extent, and in a modified sense, there
is no doubt much propriety in yielding to that
authority which a Church must have with its
members. We can have but little opinion either
of the learning, or the wisdom, or the piety of
those who framed our articles and compiled our
Liturgy, if we do not, in the hard controversies
of faith, distrust rather our own competency than
theirs. We are, verily, presumptuous and proud
if we do not examine seriously, and ponder long
before we venture to oppose what has been deli
berately and solemnly approved by many pro-

AND THE FATHERS. 19
found divines, the very least of whom was as sin
cere, as holy, as disinterested, as careful, and as
able as ourselves. But, if it be maintained that
our own, or any other Church, has an absolute
power of expounding, and decreeing, and ordain
ing, the case is altered. If it be held that when
she testifies to her children what truths, according
to her view of the opinions of the Fathers, are
requisite to be believed in order to salvation, her
children are bound to receive her expositions,
and obey her decrees, and accept her testimonies,
without any appeal to their private judgment, this
carries her authority too high. It is necessary,
at least, to pause before we allow the claim. For
suppose, if you will, that the universal church is
the representative of her divine Lord, and like
him unerring in her declarations of saving truth ;
still it is too much to acknowledge the universal
Church to be so completely represented by our
own, that when she has once pronounced what
she conceives to have been the faith of Catholic
antiquity, we are no longer permitted to be the
arbiters whether she judges rightly or no. Such
an entire submission of the will and the under
standing to her dictates can be claimed only upon
the positive certainty that she has never erred.
Such a certainty, however, can be founded only
upon two grounds. It may be founded, first,
upon the assumption of her infallibility ; or,
secondly, upon such an examination as convinces
c 2

20 THE SCRIPTURES
us that there is nothing in her doctrines, exposi
tions, and testimonies, which is really repugnant
to those views of the Gospel truth which were
unanimously taught by primitive antiquity as the
proper creed. But a claim of infallibity is the
great evil of Romanism ; the origin, or at least
the bulwark of its manifold superstitions, and
errors, and idolatries ; and it is a claim which we
thank God that the Church of England has for
mally denied to other communities of Christians,
and not assumed for her own. There remain,
therefore, only our own judgment and inquiry to
be the arbiter between us and our Church when
ever we begin seriously to suspect that she has
erred in laying down as essential to a sound and
saving faith, what is neither deducible from Scrip
ture, nor confirmed by the authority of Catholic
tradition. The result of the whole argument is briefly
this. The Scriptures are the only fountain from
which those doctrines and precepts that are neces
sary to salvation are primarily to be drawn. In
ascertaining the purity and correctness of those
doctrines and precepts which profess to be derived
from this fountain, the appeal must finally be
made to our own private judgment, so far as, upon
such matters, we are qualified to form one. That
judgment, however, may be formed in two ways.
We may decide upon the propriety of our Church's
teaching, by comparing it with that creed, which,

AND THE FATHERS. 21
with much care and to the best of our ability, our
own examination has persuaded us that we may
find in the Holy Scriptures. Or we may decide
upon it by comparing it with that form of doc
trine which, as it appears to us, the consent of
Christian antiquity has approved. In both me
thods there are difficulties to be overcome, and dan
gers to be feared in the use of our private judg
ment. But the dangers are at least equal, and
the difficulties far greater, in determining upon
those opinions which are established by the general
consent of Catholic tradition, than in gathering
the fundamental articles of our creed, from the
emphatic and infallible declarations of Holy Writ.
Nay, when we remember that awful prerogative
which the Scriptures possess, as being emanations
of the Spirit of wisdom and truth, it would seem
to be our duty to refer to them as the standard
of our faith ; not only because they are the easier,
and the clearer, but also because they are the
more sacred way. Nor, if we examine them with
piety, with humility, with a love of the truth, with
patient diligence, and with prayer for the gift of
understanding and direction from the Lord, need
we be, in any measure, cast down by a sense of the
difficulty of learning what we are to believe and do.
The words of Saint James, in the text, convey
to us most clearly, that it is rather from their
moral, than from any mental disqualifications, that
men are not able, through God's word, to save

22 THE SCRIPTURES
their souls. For when he commands those whom
he addressed, to "lay apart all filthiness and
superfluity of naughtiness, and to receive with
meekness the engrafted word," his intention, whe
ther he spoke of the word preached, or of the
written Avord, is plain. He evidently wished to
impress upon those whom he addressed, that the
sensual passions of our nature, the works of
wickedness, and worldly or intellectual pride, —
that everything in short which is evil and unholy,
is calculated to prevent our so receiving God's
word, as to become wise unto salvation. At the
same time, also, he would seem naturally to imply
that where the opposite dispositions are found,
where there is a desire to know, and a meekness
to receive, and a readiness to perform God's will,
those men will so far perceive the essential articles
of the Christian belief, as to be able, by God's
word, to save their souls. It is, in fact, those only
whose minds are corrupt through the deceitful-
ness of the world and the flesh, that, generally
speaking, become reprobate concerning the faith.
Those who love the deeds of darkness, will neces
sarily hate and turn away from the light that
reproves them. Those who haughtily resolve to
accept nothing which their reason cannot prove,
will, of course, reject the doctrine of the cross
as foolishness; and those who presumptuously
push their inquiries into the Christian mysteries
beyond what is substantially revealed, will, almost

AND THE FATHERS. 23
inevitably, fall into error of expression at least,
by endeavouring to define what the Spirit of God
can alone safely speak of in human language. So
long, therefore, as such infirmities and offences
exist in man, so long will there be schisms and
heresies, dividers of churches and deniers of the
truth, however plainly revealed. But with a right
mind, with a teachable spirit, with prayers for the
assistance of the divine grace, and with such a
patient, serious, and regular perusal of the Scrip
tures, as the most busy Christian, who is but
tolerably well-informed, can afford, I verily be
lieve that, except in some peculiar cases, every one
would be enabled to arrive at such a degree of
intelligence with regard to the nature of Gospel
truth, as would be sufficient for all spiritual pur
poses. He would learn enough for faith to act
upon, as a motive to a righteous and godly life ;
enough to lead him aright on all fundamental
points, and to prevent his being seriously misled
in those of subordinate importance; enough to
enable him to form a just estimate of what his
Church or minister might teach him ; enough for
communion with the Saints on earth; enough to
realize for himself the promise of everlasting re
demption in Heaven. There is no real disparage
ment of the value of Christian antiquity in this
view. The study of the Fathers is, indeed, one
of the natural means which every enlightened
divine, and serious Christian would, as far as he

24 THE SCRIPTURES
has the power, employ in searching out, or judging
of what he is taught concerning the doctrines of
the Gospel, and the meaning of its records. But
instead of depending exclusively on the testi
mony of the more ancient writers, he would
with equal diligence, examine the opinions of
those eminent theologians who, in later ages,
have adorned and laboured in the same holy vine
yard. Nor would he forget, despise, or censure
any other means of religious instruction, but use,
each in their turn, the aids which, either the
knowledge of languages, or the laws of just criti
cism and sound reasoning, or the researches of
learning could supply for the interpretation of the
sacred volume. With these helps he would soon
discover that the perversions of the truth into
which so many have fallen, though they suggest
much reason for caution, afford no ground for
despair, or even for any serious anxiety of mind
as to the result. He might expe ence many in
tellectual trials, but he would perceive that it is
as natural to expect that God should try his crea
tures in this probationary state, with a few diffi
culties in the understanding of his word, as with
so many temptations to disobedience to his will.
He would, also, see that the former, as well as
the latter, are to be overcome by diligence, hu
mility, and prayer.
I beseech you, therefore, that ye be not turned
away from an examination of the Scriptures for

AND THE FATHERS. 25
yourselves, or be induced to look on anything else
as the rule of what you are to believe, and the
judge of what your Church and minister may
teach you, as necessary to the attainment of eternal
life. In ordinary times such an exhortation would
have been almost needless. But these aredayswhen,
as in the political, so in the religious world, all
fixed and former opinions are called in question,
for the purpose of being changed. There has also
been much written by a School of Divines, which
has appeared to many, to be calculated, if not
intended, to make men fearful of exercising their
own thoughts, upon what they read in the oracles
of God, and to recommend the devout study of
the Fathers, as the necessary and only sufficient
guide to the pure doctrine of God's word, the only
sure guardian against our being deceived when
we read it. But be ye not moved by the fear of
being mistaken, or by the false hope of finding
out some readier and more excellent way, from
your just dependence upon the Scriptures, as the
inspired and only infallible standard and store
house of things essential to faith and holiness.
In the Fathers, there is much piety and wisdom ;
but it is mingled and debased by much that is
weak, mistaken, and superfluous. Self-denial is
too often degraded by them into unmeaning
austerities ; celibacy confounded with chastity ;
frivolous observances raised into holy mysteries;
and the inventions of men clothed with the dig-

26 THE SCRIPTURES
nity of Divine decrees. In reading them, there
fore, with any reverential submission of the
understanding and feelings, to their fancied
excellence, we are but too liable to degenerate
from the pure and perfect image of truth and
righteousness, which the Gospel holds forth, and
to have our minds brought down to the level
of their weaknesses, and beguiled by their errors,
and degraded by their superstitions. For what
ever we study much, and study as the source
of our moral and religious knowledge, must
possess a powerful influence in the formation
of our understandings, the regulation of our
feelings, and the direction of our conduct. Turn
away, therefore, from these troubled fountains,
these broken cisterns, and let them not be your
dependence and your guides; but give yourselves
rather to the study of the glorious perfection of
Holy Writ, that, by the blessing of the Spirit
on your labours, ye may be changed into some
thing of a resemblance of its wisdom and grace.
Search the Scriptures, for they have the Lord
for their author, and by a constant familiarity
with his heavenly communications, cannot fail to
purify, to elevate, to enlarge the mind, even
whilst we are humbled into the attitude of mere
listeners to what is taught. Search the Scrip
tures, for they have truth without any mixture of
error or infirmity for the staple of their argument,
and can neither inculcate what is false, nor re-

AND THE FATHERS. 27
commend what is frivolous. Search the Scrip
tures, for we are sure that, through Christ Jesus
our Lord, we have in them the way of eternal
life, and that they demand and testify of no faith
and no duty which is not ordained to lead us
forward in the way. By them ye are to be
judged, and therefore ye must needs judge of
them and of their requirements. But, thanks be
to God, they are so holy, harmless, and unde-
filed; so separate from all sin and error; so full
of all goodness, wisdom, and truth, that if they
be studied with a meek mind, and received into
an honest and good heart, they will always bring
forth the fruits of faith and holiness in their due
degree. Diligently read, and piously used, they
will, assuredly, in the end, fulfil to us the purpose
for which they were revealed, and be able ever
lastingly to save our souls.

THE
TRUE HONOUR OF THE CLERGY.

I. Thessalonians v. 12, 13.
We beseech you, brethren, lo know them which labour among you,
and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; and to
esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake.
The corruption of human nature works even in
those that are regenerate, and among the re
generate, even in those who have been more
especially devoted to the service of religion as
the ministers of Christ, and the stewards of the
mysteries of God. Who should be greatest in
the kingdom of Heaven, was a question, sug
gested by their love of power and pre-eminence
to the earliest disciples of our Lord, and an am
bitious desire to exercise that most exalted of all
authorities, an authority over the minds and con
sciences of men, has been productive of very
numerous evils in the ages which have since
passed by.
In their struggle to obtain dominion over the
faith of the Church, there were many who,
through a conscientious zeal to acquire an in
fluence which they purposed to use only for the

THE TRUE HONOUR OF THE CLERGY. 29
good of Christ's household ; and many who, it is
to be feared, with views of a less holy description,
laboured to clothe the persons of the clergy with
such a superiority to the secular power, as might
leave them free to act, without the fear of any
earthly tribunal ; and to give to their teaching
and ministrations, such a heavenly sanction as
might prevent believers from entertaining a
thought of resistance to the authority with which
they spake and acted. By that natural process
of deceiving and being deceived, through which
the workers of evil, though they work it only
that good may ensue, are always sure to wax
worse and worse, the iniquities and oppres
sions of the ecclesiastical body, actuated by one
uniform spirit of aggrandizement, and directed
in the energy of its movements, by one abso
lute and supposed infallible head, became at
last too corrupt and too dreadful to be allowed
any longer to continue in unresisted strength.
The rulers of this world were impatient under
the Church's usurped control ; the lovers of
money coveted its vast wealth ; whilst the holy
mourned for its wickedness, and they who knew
the truth, had marked and condemned its mani
fold errors and shameful superstitions. Thus
were its blasphemous assumptions of the divine
prerogative simultaneously broken in upon, under
God's providence, by the united forces of the evil
and the good ; and the ministers of Christ were

30 THE TRUE HONOUR
once more reduced, from the lords over God's
heritage, into stewards of his household, and
labourers in his vineyard.
Since that period a new scene has been pre
sented to the Christian's eye. The reformation
beginning in a resistance to the unjust preten
sions, has been followed in too many instances by
a denial of the just claims of the clergy. When
the world broke asunder the chains of the Church,
it sought, as a means of its own future liberty, to
put the Church itself in bonds. In many places,
and by many writers, and in not a few Christian
communities, the office of the Christian ministry
is stripped of all its sacred dignity, the teacher is
counted subordinate to the taught, and the
steward of the mysteries of the Gospel, made to
distribute its spiritual treasures, and divide its
saving doctrines, according to the passions or plea
sures of his fellow-servants, rather than the fixed
will and commandment of their common master.
This reaction is again producing its natural
fruits. An effort is once more making to raise
the Church and the clergy from that state of
neglect or degradation into which the privileges
of their sacred commission and character are
supposed to have fallen, and to establish such
views of their authority and office, as may impress
believers with a due sense of that submission
which, both in understanding and conduct, they
should pay to their ministers, and teach them

OF THE CLERGY. 31
what are the spiritual benefits and blessings they
may look for from their hands. Undoubtedly,
the subject is one of great importance to the
comfort of believers' minds, and the peace and
order of the Church. I propose, therefore, to
examine what are the honours and powers which
those, who now take the highest views of the
nature and claims of the Christian priesthood,
attribute to the ministers of Jesus ; and what
are the corresponding expectations and obedi
ence they would encourage in the people of
the Lord. From the exhortation of the text, I
would then point out a foundation upon which
the true honour of the clergy may be safely built,
and the highest love and reverence be felt and
shown to them, without the possibility either of
the submission of the people of Christ being too
largely required, or the minister himself being
puffed up above measure with any exaggerated
idea of his privileges and powers.
In treating, then, upon the dignity of the
Christian priesthood, and more especially of that
part of it which is established in our own land,
and whose form of government is episcopal, very
lofty expressions are used by some to magnify the
sacerdotal authority. We are told, for instance,
that as we honour the king, because he is the king ;
"just in the same way, though for much higher
reasons, should we honour the bishop because he
is the bishop." The foundation of this claim is

32 THE TRUE HONOUR
next laid before us, and the reasonableness of it
enforced upon the following assertion, namely, that
" we may be as sure that the bishop is Christ's
representative, as if we actually saw upon his
head a cloven tongue like as of fire." The bishop's
administration of the offices of his high station, is
consequently exalted in the same degree. In the
rite of confirmation he is described as being " our
Lord's figure and likeness when he lays his hands
upon the heads of children." In the rite of ordi
nation it is declared, that " as God sent Christ, so
Christ works in the bishop, and so the bishop
speaks in the priest." Moreover, it is added,
" the bishop rules the whole Church here below,
as Christ rules it above; and here again is a figure
and a witness of Christ."
As the result of these various statements it is
inferred, " that the clergy have a commission from
God Almighty, through regular succession from
the apostles, not only to preach the gospel and
administer the sacraments, but to guide the
Church ;" and are entitled and called not only to
exhort and rebuke, but " to rule with all autho
rity, as well as love and humility ;" and that, in
fact, " he that despises them, despises the apostles."
As their credentials for the assumption of all this
dignity, and the exercise of all this authority,
those words of our Saviour are quoted, in which
he gave to his apostles the power of remitting and
retaining sins, and those in which he conferred

OF THE CLERGY. 33
upon St. Peter, the privilege of having bound and
loosed in heaven whatever he should bind or loose
upon earth.
The necessary conclusion which is drawn from
all these privileges of the Episcopal ministry, is
the solemn obligation of ecclesiastical submission
in the congregations of Christ. The members of
the church are, therefore, instructed, that they
are bound not only to hear their teachers with
attention, and receive the sacraments at their
hands, but to pay them also all dutiful obedience.
The period is also looked forward to with appro
bation, when men will honour the clergy " with a
purer honour than they do now, namely, as those
who are intrusted with the keys of heaven and
hell, as the heralds of mercy, as the denouncers
of woe to wicked men, as intrusted with the awful
and mysterious gift of making the bread and
wine Christ's body and blood, and as far greater
than the most powerful and wealthiest of men in
their unseen strength and heavenly riches*."
There is, perhaps, a sense in which, after
many limitations, every one of these expressions
may be innocently used. When stripped of their
mysterious garb of metaphor, the meaning which
a judicious and humble mind would ultimately
assign to them, might be found, perhaps, to be not
* The passages quoted in this Discourse will be found in
the Tracts for the Times, No. 10, entitled, Heads of a Week
Day Lecture, and in No. 1 7- D

34 THE TRUE HONOUR
absolutely inconsistent, either with the declarations
of Scripture, or the best interests of man. But
language so strangely awful should never be left
undefined. When figurative representations of
the power belonging to the clergy are introduced,
which, if not strictly limited and carefully ex
plained, would lead the ministers of the Lord to
indulge in exaggerated ideas of their own office
and dignity, and generate in their followers
a superstitious reverence for their persons, and a
dreadful apprehension with regard to the spiritual
efficacy, for good or for evil, of their words and
acts, — in that case it is most dangerous and un
just to leave such representations without those
correctives which are requisite to prevent any
objectionable impressions from being made. Every
effort should then be employed to bring down
the lofty phrases to the simplicity of Gospel truth,
and allow no room for pride on the one hand,
or ignorance on the other, to fall into mistakes so
full of hazard.
But what other tendency can fairly be attri
buted to the bold assertions to which I have re
ferred, than that of raising such improper disposi
tions or unhappy feelings as those which I have
named. The keys of hell are placed, by St.
John *, in the hand of our ble sed Saviour alone.
The keys of the kingdom of heaven upon earth
are also entrusted by that Saviour to St. Peter f ;
* Rev. i. 18. f Matth. xvi. 19.

OF THE CLERGY. 35
but the keys of heaven itself are nowhere granted,
either to him or to any other of the Apostles.
What, then, can be the effect of applying to the
servant that awful language which Scripture ap
propriates to his Lord, but that of misleading
both the shepherd and the flock into the unau
thorized imagination that the prerogatives of the
Lord are communicated to the servant ; and that
he has, in a very high degree, the wondrous and
fearful privilege of opening so that no other man
shutteth, and shutting so that no other man
openeth either the gates of torment in hell, or the
door of blessedness in heaven. We are told,
again, in various passages of the Gospel, that what
our Lord did when he blessed the bread and the
wine, and delivered them to the Apostles as his body
and his blood, that same thing the Apostles were
to do in remembrance of Him. St. Paul * adds,
that thus we are to show the Lord's death till he
come ; so that we are verily persuaded, that what
our Redeemer himself performed as a consecra
tion of the elements in the assembly of his chosen
disciples, his ministers, unto the end of his dispen
sation, are to imitate in all other congregations of
the faithful. But there is no scriptural authority
for a phrase so startling as that of making Christ's
body and blood. Neither is it a privilege which
the holiest and most favoured Apostles, continu
ally as they were employed in the breaking of the
* 1 Cor. xi. 26. D 2

36 THF. TRUE HONOUR
bread, and the blessing of the cup, for the devout
reception of the Redeemer's Church, have at any
time ventured to assume unto themselves. St.
John* speaks with fervent reverence of that which
he and his chosen brethren had seen with their
eyes, and which their hands had handled; but
never does he allude to that which their hands
had made of the word of life. The expression,
indeed, is one which must always sound strange
and presumptuous to the humble ear, however
inoffensive may be the sense it is intended to
bear. But when we remember that it is capable
of being understood as conveying something analo
gous to that great error of transubstantiation from
which we have separated; that it appears to give
the priest a function which invests him with a crea
tive power, and that it is not forced upon us, or
even sanctioned by Holy Writ, it cannot be expe
dient to use it at all, and must lead the unwary
into the supposition of some inconceivable and
mysterious attribute of the Christian priesthood,
which may confound the understanding, and
awake the mind to a superstitious dread; but
which can add nothing to the real edification of
the life, or the inward comfort of the soul of the
believer. It may, lastly, be allowed that the un
seen strength and heavenly riches which the
disciple derives from the administration of the
sacraments of the Gospel, are far greater in value,
* Uohni. 1,3.

OF THE CLERGY. 37
and far more excellent in operation, than anything
which the most powerful of men on earth can
bestow or enjoy. But it is not just or reverential
for us, as the ministers of Christ, to call that our
unseen strength and those our heavenly riches,
which come only from the Lord himself through
the medium of his ordinances. It is ours to make
men partakers of the external rite. Whether the
grace of pardon and the Spirit will accompany the
rite, depends on the will of him who ordained the
rite. He alone knows who are fit to receive his
blessings through his appointed channels, and He
will himself give them to those whom He sees to
possess the necessary qualifications.
When we consider these various circumstances,
it cannot, I think, but appear most highly pro
bable, that, if the stewards of God's mysteries are
accustomed to designate the office they have to
discharge in such lofty, and undefined, and awful
terms, they will be in much danger of being
beguiled into the snares of spiritual pride, ambi
tion, and despotism.
But it may be said, perhaps, that " whatever
power and grace Christ has given to his ministers,
he has given them for the good, and not for the
terror of his people," for the glory of his Father,
not their own exaltation. Such, no doubt, is the
end of every promise which the Gospel conveys
for the encouragement of those who are engaged
in the arduous undertaking of converting a fallen

38 THE TRUE HONOUR
world unto God. But it is not so much the pro
posed object, as the probable effect, of so highly
exalting the ministerial authority which we have
to regard. The question is, whether to insist
much and frequently upon the dignity of Christian
ministers, without duly explaining its nature and
extent, is most calculated to secure its application
to the holy purposes for which it was given : — I
fear not. It is, indeed, true, that " to magnify
the office is not necessarily to exalt the individual
who bears it." Yet when we magnify, without
defining, the authority of any spiritual function,
those can know but little of the weakness of the
human mind, or the infirmities of the heart, who
do not confess that there is far greater danger of
the authority being abused and carried too far,
than hope of its being confined within its proper
bounds. Neither can it be maintained as true,
that " the consciousness into how high a dignity,
and to how weighty an office and charge he has
been called, will, universally, or even generally,
humble the individual, and oppress him with the
overwhelming sense of his own insufficiency." Such
ought, undoubtedly, to be the effect. But even
when the duties alone and their difficulties are
pointed out, too many remain untouched with a feel
ing of their infirmities, and a due recollection of the
exertions they should make. But when the great
ness of the dignity, and the mysterious magnifi
cence of its functions are strongly marked out,

OF THE CLERGY. 39
there is still less prospect of a beneficial result.
For there is nothing in the ministers of Christ,
more than in other men, to save them from those
sins which, whether personally or professionally,
do most easily beset them. Like the rest of their
fellow-creatures, they are subject to temptations,
and hurried along by their unruly affections and
wills. Nay, more. If we examine the pages of eccle
siastical history we shall perceive that the reli
gious and rightly disposed have but too often
been betrayed by exaggerated conceptions of their
spiritual dignity into unjustifiable extensions or
exertions of spiritual power. The piety and good
intentions of Gregory, or of Anselm, it would be
difficult to deny ; yet, however they might be
humbled in their own hearts, and before God, by
their high views of their office and its weighty
charge, they were not prevented by that feeling
from labouring to establish the oppressive power
of the Church on a still firmer basis, and extend
its encroachments upon man's spiritual liberties.
Such is the danger which attends the clergy
themselves in frequently and prominently putting
forth any high views of their ministerial dignity
and power, more especially if those views are
uttered in mysterious language and not carefully
explained. Can it, then, be truly said that there
is any benefit to be derived to the people from
expressing or entertaining such views, which is at

40 THE TRUE HONOUR
all sufficient to compensate for the danger the
ministers themselves incur.
Now, with regard to this point, it must be
allowed, that if by not unequivocally and pro
minently asserting our apostolical commission,
and the consequences which flow from it, we are
robbing, "not ourselves of honour, but the people,
to whom we are sent, of the blessedness of know
ing" something essential to their spiritual welfare,
and to the knowlege of which they would not
otherwise attain, our silence would in that case be
both cruel and criminal. But the very necessity
which this thought imposes upon us of giving
to our congregations the fullest, implies also the
equally indispensable necessity of giving them
the clearest and plainest, information upon a sub
ject so nearly connected with their conduct and
hopes of happiness. For, first, if we fall short
in our statements of that share which belongs to
us in the remission or retention of sins, we deceive
those who follow us as their religious guides. We
deprive those especially who are labouring under
the burden of what they imagine to be unfor-
given iniquity, of that comfortable assurance of
acceptance with God through Christ, which they
might have enjoyed had they been more fully and
completely instructed in what is meant, by the
power and commandment God has given to his
ministers, to declare to his people, being penitent,
the absolution and remission of their sins. But

OF THE CLERGV

41

secondly, we as effectually, and perhaps more
fatally, deceive our followers if we in anything
exceed the truth through our anxiety to place in
a more conspicuous and striking light the power
and commandment we have received to pro
nounce the sentence of God's pardon to the be
lieving penitent. Should our instructions in this
most important matter be such as to lead the
sinner to think our confirmation of his pardon to
be absolutely essential to its attainment, or to
make him suppose that his redemption depended
on our judgment of the state of his soul, or to
encourage him to think that there is peace with
God to every one to whom the minister has
uttered the promise of peace ; there is no diffi
culty in estimating the misery and the evil which
might pour in upon the Church.
Nor, lastly, can we conceive it to be a less
pernicious proceeding to leave the actual power of
the priest in a state of uncertainty and doubt,
whilst we apply to it expressions which are ca
pable of being interpreted in a sense far higher
than the real authority he holds would bear. For
then we should unsettle, as much as in the former
cases we should mislead, the believer. The timid
would be awed into an abject submission to the
assumptions of spiritual ambition ; the unlearned,
through their ignorance, would find no rest for
their souls; and the presumptuous, in their readi
ness to cast off every ordinance of the Lord,

42 THE TRUE HONOUR
would make the dubious nature of the claim of
the Christian minister to authority in religious
things, a plea for denying the propriety or resist
ing altogether the assertion of such claim. It
would seem, therefore, to be as much for the
interest of the hearers, as of the teachers of the
Gospel that there should, as far as is possible, be
nothing vague, or mysterious, or undefined in the
privileges and powers which are declared to be
long to the apostolical commission of the clergy;
neither should we permit ourselves to use, without
explaining, to the best of our powers, those figura
tive phrases which the Scriptures contain, when
referring to the power of the keys, the office of
remitting and retaining men's sins, and the pri
vilege of binding and of loosing upon earth.
Let us now proceed to consider, whether the
duty of prominently setting forth the power and
dignity of the ministers of Christ, is bound upon
us by any " obligation we owe to the chief Shep
herd and Bishop of the Christian flock."
But, upon what possible ground can such an
obligationbe maintained ? Weare,no doubt, taught
by St. Paul to look upon himself and Timothy
as ambassadors for Christ. So far as we are his
successors in the same office, we are entitled to
the same name. How far we are his successors,
is, consequently, a point we should examine with
all care, and determine with all precision, and
labour to prove, when it is doubted or denied, even

OF THE CLERGY.

43

as St. Paul did to the Corinthians, with every ar
gument which we think will establish it, and every
illustration by which it may be satisfactorily ex
plained. But when we are sure ourselves, and
find others in no doubt of our having had com
mitted to us the word of reconciliation, we may
then cease from enlarging upon the certainty and
dignity of the power given us by Christ. The
honour of our Lord will then suffer nothing by
our silence upon such an admitted fact, and we
may far more profitably, and far more consist
ently with our duty to him, employ ourselves
in pointing out the terms of the covenant of
pardon and peace, which we are authorized to
proclaim, and devote our time to the discharge of
our office.
We have thus found that whether we look to
the maintenance of the character and usefulness
of the clergy, or to the benefit and happiness of
the people committed to their care, or to the duty
they owe to the Divine Master they serve, there
is no necessity or expediency which demands a
frequent and prominent assertion of the power
and dignity of the ministerial office. To assert
them in terms so awful and indefinite as those to
which we have already referred, is most diligently
to be avoided. On the other hand, it should be
our anxious desire and employment to ascer
tain, with as much certainty as the nature of the
case will admit, what are really the powers of

44 THE TRUE HONOUR
Christ's ministers, and express them with all pos
sible simplicity. So only shall we fulfil the so
lemn duty of faithfulness to that Lord, who has
appointed the stewards of his mysteries on earth.
So only shall we do our utmost to avoid raising
the spiritual pride and ambition of the ministers
themselves, and prevent their followers from either
indulging too high or too degrading an opinion of
the dignity of the sacred office, or becoming alto
gether unsettled in their minds. So only, and it
is a consideration of no mean importance in the
present times, — so only shall we snatch from the
adversaries of our Church and its godly discipline,
an occasion to speak evil of its spiritual dignities,
and to diminish, by every means in their power,
the lawful exercise of its sacred authority.
But whatever be the exalted opinions which
either others or we ourselves may form of the power
and dignity which Christ's ministers may claim, by
reason of the Divine origin and authority of their
office, there is another foundation for reverence and
affection towards them, which is laid before us in
the text. That is, the performance of the holy and
arduous duties in which they are engaged, a
ground of honour which none who feel that they
have souls to be saved, and have experienced the
fear and trembling so natural in working out
their salvation, can have a wish to deny or dis
approve. St. Paul beseaches the Thessalonians to
know them which labour among them, and

OF THE CLERGY. 45
are over them in the Lord, and to esteem them
very highly in love for their work's sake. He
exhorts them not to look upon the minister so
much as upon his ministry; and when we remem
ber what it is that the servants of Christ, who are
engaged in dividing and distributing the treasures
of the Gospel for men's use, are called upon to do,
we shall easily understand the force of the appeal.
Their work is to bring the spiritually blind and
ignorant, out of darkness into God's marvellous
light. For this purpose, they are to lay aside the
wisdom of the world and the flesh, and give them
selves over to the study of the word of God and
to prayer, — to the study of God's word, that they
may understand the wondrous things of the Divine
law; to prayer, that they may be assisted in their
difficult undertaking. Whilst others are indulging
in the luxuries of literature for their own gratifi
cation, or pursuing the paths of science for their
own fame, or the paths of some earthly know
ledge for their own advancement in station or in
wealth, the clergy must devote themselves wholly
to sacred things, that their profiting may be
known of all men, and their proficiency become
useful to the instruction of others. And, after
all, they will find, that error and ignorance of
God's truth will still largely prevail.
The work of the Lord's ministers is to turn
men from Satan to serve the living God. To
gain their end, they must be content to be counted

46 THE TRUE HONOUR
men's enemies, because they tell them those truths
which interrupt their enjoyments, and break in
upon the guilty peace of their careless consciences.
They must check the lover of pleasure in his
career of dissipation and vanity, and wound his
pride by telling him he is a poor, frivolous, and
worthless creature upon the earth, and they must
work upon his weak and sensitive nature, by
setting before him death's hideous form, and
God's terrible judgment upon the unprofitable
after death. The ambitious must be taught what
a shadow he is, and what a shadow he pursues.
The covetous must have his wealth torn from him
to aid piety and charity, or be told that he must
inevitably perish: and pride must be humbled,
and the lowly exalted, by preaching God's equal
and universal love for all. Thus, in their turn,
the passions and prejudices of every sinner must
be invaded and condemned ; and that by a being
as frail as those he teaches, and every one of
whose infirmities will be noted down in terms of
strongest censure, by those whom he calls to
repentance, but who hate to be reformed.
The work of the Lord's minister is to preach
Christ crucified for sin; suffering death for man,
yet strong in his very weakness; the power of
God and the wisdom of God for salvation to all
that believe. This doctrine will, if fully and freely
proclaimed, seem foolishness to the philosophic,
and prove a stumbling-block to all whose thoughts

OF THE CLERGY. 47
are framed after the model of the world's natural
theology. Nevertheless, he must resolve to know
no other name for the remission of sins than that
of the Redeemer's faith and the Redeemer's blood,
nor must he shrink from taking up his Master's
words, and declaring that he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed
on the Son of God.
The work of the Lord's ministry is to testify of
human weakness and of spiritual strength. It is
to tell those who talk of the moral powers of their
nature, that, since the fall, the freedom of agency,
and the freedom of the will, are not sufficient of
themselves to enable a man to repent and bring
forth fruits worthy of repentance. They are to
declare, that, as the natural man receiveth not
the teachings of the Spirit of God, because they
are spiritually discerned, so the natural man alone
cannot perform the commandments of the Spirit
of God, because they are spiritually performed.
They must strip him, therefore, of all his fancied
sufficiency for righteousness, and teach him the
feelings of holy meekness as his best recommen
dation, and devout prayer as one great instrument
by which he may reach and clothe himself with
the Spirit's whole arms and armour.
The work of Christ's ministers is to lead on
their flock unto perfection. They must never
allow them to rest satisfied with past or present
attainments. They must rouse the sluggish, warn

48 THE TRUE HONOUR
the careless, admonish the wayward, help on the
weary. Forget what is behind, reach forward to
what is before. That is to be their language, a
language which human infirmity would willingly
think to be needless, but which must be repeated
and varied till it has wrought its effect, and even
after it has appeared to lose all power.
Lastly, it is the blessed work of Christ's minis
ters to promise, and their unwelcome but essential
duty to threaten much. The storehouse of grace
is in the revelations and in the sacraments of the
gospel. Of these sacraments the priest adminis
ters the outward rite, and he can instruct and
convince his hearers out of the oracles of God,
how simple and easy is the performance of such
ordinances, how full of comfort and divine
strength and divine mercy they are to all, who,
with faithful minds, and penitent hearts, and
reverential piety, receive them. He can point to
the terrors of the Lord as they are contained in
the same treasury of truth, and tell the disobedi
ent resisters of that truth, that there is a state of
hardened reprobacy which, by the withdrawal of
heavenly grace, seals the doom of sinners upon
earth ; and that for the unconverted in this world,
there is nothing but wrath heaped up against the
day of wrath. From this sad scene he can turn
to brighter views of joy and blessedness for those
that believe and act according to their faith.
To those who hold the beginning of their confi-

OF THE CLERGY. 49
dence steadfast unto the end, he can promise that
which the patient perseverer in well-doing, cannot
now, even in imagination, fully conceive, and
which can be but faintly and inadequately ex
pressed when we call it everlasting glory and un
speakable joy.
In all these works is the minister of Christ
engaged, and in all he is himself to be a pattern
of self-denial and good works, and prayer, and
faith, and progressive holiness. If in such things
he is found steadfast, if he labours for the salva
tion of others, as one that must give account both
for their souls and his own, is there any employ
ment which this world affords, that can have a
stronger claim for the affectionate esteem, the
reverential love of those among whom, and for
whom his time, strength and talents are used?
We are grateful to the physician who heals our
diseases, and alleviates our pain. Here is one
who, under God's blessing, and with his grace
takes away the dread of endless pain, and prevents
for us the second death. We honour him who
directs us to use our abilities and opportunities,
so as to make this world a place of comfort and
success. Here is one whose teaching directs us,
through God's word, to the right use of every
talent, and to the means of happiness in that
world which is to come. If to the instruments,
then, by which it pleases Providence to work for
our temporal good, we show all honour, gratitude,

50 THE TRUE HONOUR OF THE CLERGY.
and praise, we cannot but equally esteem and
love those who are graciously made the instru
ments of our spiritual welfare. Whilst, then, we
fulfil the apostle's precept, and show esteem and
honour to those who labour for us in the Lord for
their work's sake, we perform but what is due
from us, and what cannot injure them. Given as
such esteem and honour will be, for the sake of
the work and in proportion to the work, its only
effect can be that of urging them to more fervent
and effectual efforts in their calling; of softening
to them the cares and anxieties of their weighty
charge, and comforting them with the conviction
to which all who sincerely labour in Christ's
vineyard, must look as one of the best rewards,
the conviction that their labour has not been in
vain in the Lord. The enemies of religion and
the Church will still, perhaps, continue unsub
dued, but the honour of Christ and the benefit by
his people, will be as effectually secured as by
the highest claims to spiritual power, even if fully
admitted and temperately employed.

CHRIST'S PRESENCE WITH HIS
MINISTERS.

Matthew xxviii. 18, 19, 20.
Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given
unto me in heaven and in earth ; go ye, therefore, and leach
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them lo observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you : and lo, I am
with you alway, even unto the end of the world.
In visions in the night Daniel looked, and " be
hold one like the Son of Man came with the
clouds of heaven, and came to the ancient of
days, and they brought him near before him, and
there was given to him dominion and glory and a
kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages
should serve him. His dominion is an everlast
ing dominion which shall not pass away, and his
kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."
(Dan. vii. 13, 14.) In the day of the resurrection
and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, was the
reality which that vision was intended to pre
figure brought to pass. The Word which was
made flesh and dwelt on earth as the Son of Man
among his brethren, having once suffered upon the
cross for sin, and poured out his soul unto death,
was first raised from the dead and then exalted
e 2

52 Christ's presence
to the throne of his everlasting Father, that he
might receive the kingdom prepared for him from
the foundation of the world. Having, in the
form of a human servant, accomplished what the
Scriptures foretold, that, as a sacrifice for sin he
should endure, he ascended in the same human
form into the highest heavens, and is set down at
the right hand of the Majesty on High, ruling all
things by the rod of his might, and waiting till
all enemies be put under his feet. There all
power is given unto him in heaven and in earth,
and there will he remain in his glory until the
time of the restitution of all things. Then will
he again appear as the Son of Man coming down
from the heavens in the same manner in which
he went up, and take to himself those Saints, both
the living and the dead, by whom he has at any
time in this world been revered and obeyed.
Thus was the prophecy of Daniel fulfilled in
the event which we commemorate this day*.
Knowing that it would thus be fulfilled, and that
the comfort of his personal presence was about
to be finally withdrawn from his Church, it seemed
good to our Lord's mercy to prepare his followers
for the event. For this purpose he first assured
them that his ability to help and bless them
would suffer no diminution by his going away,
for " all power was given to him in heaven and
earth." He then directed those who were to
* The Sunday after the Ascension.

WITH HIS MINISTERS. 53
carry on the work of righteousness and salvation
he had begun, by telling them what things they
were to enjoin and do as the ministers of the
the Gospel upon earth. "Go ye, therefore, and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all
things whatsoever I have commanded you." To
support them under the difficulties and discou
ragements they might meet with, he concluded
by giving them a promise of his perpetual super
intendence and aid. "And lo, I am with you
alway, even unto the end of the world."
In proceeding to a more particular exami
nation of this passage, we may observe, that the
persons to whom it was originally addressed were
the Apostles alone. There are those who con
ceive that it embraced the whole body of be
lievers which existed at the time, and that it im
posed upon them all the obligation of labouring
for the conversion of a sinful world, and con
ferred upon them all the blessings of having their
labours assisted by Christ's enabling and abiding
grace. But the error of this imagination will
immediately appear from a reference to the verses
which precede the text. It is there distinctly
stated, not that the whole multitude of those who
believed, but that Judas Iscariot being now dead,
the eleven disciples alone went away from Jeru
salem into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus

54 Christ's presence
had appointed them. And Jesus came and spake
unto them the words to which I have already
referred. It was not, therefore, to the members
of the Church at large, but to these few and
favoured servants of our Lord that the injunction
and its accompanying promise must in all fair
ness be supposed to have been intended to apply.
It is equally clear, also, that the words were
spoken to them, not as individual Christians, but
as the appointed and authorized ministers of the
Gospel dispensation. For that end the Apostles
were first chosen by Christ. In that capacity
they had been the close attendants upon hjs
ministry. They had seen the miracles which
attested his divine authority. They had heard
the doctrines and precepts he taught as necessary
to be believed and obeyed. To them it was given
to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God.
To them, even during the Redeemer's life, had
been entrusted a mission to the Jews for the pur
pose of calling them to repentance, and per
suading them that the kingdom of Heaven was
at hand. Nay, our Lord had already ordained
these Apostles to be his future witnesses. As his
Father had sent him, so after his resurrection did
he send them into the world, with the gift of the
Holy Ghost and the power of remitting and re
taining sius. Thus qualified and thus endowed,
he now separates them once more from the rest
of his followers, and communicates to them a full

with his ministers. 55
and final commission to extend their instructions
to all nations and to look for his blessing upon
their work. He constitutes them the universal
teachers of religion to mankind, and sets before
them the rules by which they are to guide their
teaching, and the ground upon which they may
expect success.
We may remark in the second place, that in
the mode of constructing this commission of our
Lord to his apostles, the promise is made to follow
the commandment. First comes the order to go
forth and extend the faith and righteousness of
the gospel among all the families of the earth.
Then follows the assertion that they shall have the
privilege of their Lord's presence for their aid.
We are led naturally, therefore, to conclude, not
only that there is a strict connexion between the
two, but that the certainty and continuance of
Christ's presence with the apostles, was depend
ent on their obedience to what he enjoined. If
they either neglected or violated the directions
they had received, they had no reason to look for
the fulfilment of the promise. If they performed
the duties of their ministry, either defectively or
deceitfully, if they ventured to speak things either
opposed or unauthorized by the laws their divine
Maker had laid down, there is not a hope held
forth to them, that in that case they should
be favoured with the blessing of his grace. But
if they persevered with diligence and fidelity in

56 Christ's presence
the right execution of the office assigned to
their care, and enforced upon their converts no
other commandments and doctrines than those
they had received, they were then sure that all
the efficacy and assistance so gracious an assur
ance contained, would fully and unremittingly
attend them as Christ's appointed instructors in
the truth. For there is no limitation either of
place or time in the assurance. " I am with you
alway," is its comprehensive language, to which
in every part of their labours, and at any moment
of their lives, they could turn with that confidence
which the authority of the heavenly speaker
claimed. Having thus ascertained both to whom, and
in what capacity the words of the text were ori
ginally addressed, and what is the import they
convey; our next inquiry must be, whether they
are to be confined to the Apostles alone. Are the
Apostles the only ministers of the Gospel upon
whom Christ's commission has imposed the duty
of proclaiming the glad tidings of salvation by his
authority, and to whom the privilege of his pre
sence may be properly held forth as an encourage
ment to their exertions in the cause of Gospel
holiness, and truth.
Now, in endeavouring to frame an answer to
these questions, it is impossible not to perceive
that the prophecies which relate to the progress
and prevalence of Christianity, and the end and

WITH his ministers.

57

purpose for which it was originally revealed, seem
clearly to demand the perpetuity of the Christian
ministry upon earth. Christ Jesus came into the
world, that the world through him might be saved.
He came to establish a religion which should
never be superseded by any other dispensation.
For there is no other name given under Heaven,
whereby man may obtain favour with God, than
the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. There is no
other law whereby man shall be judged for the
righteousness or unrighteousness of his life, than
that which is contained in the Gospel alone; no
other source from which we can infallibly learn
what is really righteous or unrighteous in the
sight of him who is to be our judge. Like its
heavenly author, the Gospel is formed to endure
for ever. If the knowledge of the Gospel, then,
was necessary for the guidance and comfort of
that generation of sinners to which the Apostles
belonged, it is equally necessary to the generation
to which we ourselves belong ; and its necessity
and usefulness will also continue, through every
generation which may hereafter arise. In every
age, also, men will stand in the same need of
being instructed by others, in the doctrines and
duties of Christianity. For in every age they
will be subject to the same natural indisposition
of the heart to holiness, and through the multi
farious cares and occupations of this life, be inca
pacitated from furnishing themselves with the

58 Christ's presence
requisite information upon religious subjects. To
rouse their slumbering feelings towards God, to
inspire them with heavenly affections, and teach
them what are the demands which their Saviour
makes upon their belief and practice, there will
ever be a necessity for continuing the ministers of
Christ's religion, and authorizing and appointing
some particular individuals to the honours and
duties of that sacred office. For how shall any
believe in him, of whom they have not heard ?
How can the generality hear without a preacher,
or how preach except they be sent ?
Thus, the very nature of the case, and the
wants of mankind, appear to convince us, that it
could never have been the intention of our Lord,
to confine to the eleven disciples alone the commis
sion of converting and instructing all the nations
of the earth. And this conclusion may be con
firmed, if it need confirmation, by the history of
the propagation of the Gospel, as far as it is con
tained in the New Testament. We there find the
Apostles proposing to elect a successor to Judas,
and to unite him in the same body and office with
themselves. And then, after their solemn prayers
to God for his direction, we find their purpose
sanctioned by Heaven, and the lot falling upon
Matthias, as the person to be hereafter numbered
among the twelve, and entrusted with the same
charge. We read of Barnabas, and of Philip,
and of many others whom the Holy Ghost desig-

with his ministers. 59
nated to the work of pastors and teachers in the
Church. We behold our Lord himself miracu
lously calling Paul, from a persecutor to be a
preacher of the truth ; and that Paul appointing
Timothy and Titus, not only to act as Christian
ministers themselves, but to ordain others also to
the same ministry, as they saw that the increase
of believers might require. Every portion of the
Acts, and all the Epistles of the Apostles, supply
us with undoubted evidence, that neither did our
blessed Saviour intend, nor his inspired Apostles
suppose him to intend, that the authority of bap
tizing and teaching Christians was to be limited
to themselves. They perceived, and acted upon
the conviction, that when he bid them go and
make disciples out of all nations, he spoke to them
not only in their personal, but also in their official
capacity; not only as individual ministers, but
also as the representatives of all future ministers ;
who, like themselves, might be duly called and
legitimately appointed to undertake the same
duties. But if the commission which was thus given
by our Lord to his Apostles to go forth as the
teachers of his Gospel, was designed to be ex
tended to all who might hereafter become their
lawful successors in that holy office, it is equally
certain and clear, that the assurance of his pre
sence with them in their work must be extended
in the same degree. If the commandment applies

60 Christ's presence
to the Christian ministry in all ages, in all ages,
also, must the promise in like manner be applied.
For the promise, as we have observed, follows the
commandment so closely, as most satisfactorily to
prove that, to whom the one is given as a guide to
their duty, the other is added as an encouragement
to a cheerful and diligent performance of their
labours. The promise is, in fact, a sanction and
support to those who might be engaged in the
fulfilment of the command, and can never be
separated from it in reasoning or reality. The
assistance or the recompense which is generally
proclaimed, must be as generally granted, so that
wherever there is a compliance with the conditions
upon which it was originally made to depend, the
promised aid will be given. We feel confident,
therefore, from this consideration alone, that there
is no period or point of the Redeemer's universal
Church in which those stewards of the Gospel
mysteries, and those teachers of the Gospel truth,
who have been appointed the Lord's ministers in
conformity with the Lord's will, may not look
with the full assurance of hope to his continued
presence with them in the discharge of the duties
they are called to perform.
But, even without recurring to this chain of
reasoning, there is a peculiarity in the form of
our blessed Saviour's expression, which renders it
impossible to draw any other conclusion from his
words. He promises to be with the Apostles, as

with his ministers. 61
his ministers, " unto the end of the world." This is
the mode in which our own authorized version of
the Scriptures has justly interpreted the passage,
and it leaves no doubt upon the meaning which it
bears. The commission and the promise have a
duration commensurate with that of the world's
existence, and so long as there are tongues to
teach, and ears to hear, the preaching of the
Gospel, so long will the Lord Jesus be at hand to
bless the faithful instructor whom he sends forth,
and the pious disciple who seriously attends to
what is spoken.
Such is the conclusion to which, after a careful
examination of this great charter of the Christian
ministry, we have arrived; and the consequences
which flow from it, either for the direction or
encouragement of those who are employed in
converting and teaching the Gospel, come now
before us to be considered and improved.
First of all, then, it is evident that the com
mission and promise which our Lord gave to his
Apostles, though extending to all ages of the
Church, can be claimed only by those who, like
the Apostles, feel assured that they are authorized
by Christ to undertake the office. Who they are
whom he will consider as the successors of his
earliest and most favoured ministers cannot, in
any way, be determined from this passage alone.
It must be sought for in the records of the New
Testament; and in those principles which are laid

62 Christ's presence
down in the Epistles, or may be gathered from
the practice of the primitive believers. But cer
tain it is, that whoever intrudes himself into the
sacred functions of a Gospel minister in a manner
which is contrary to the will of the great High
Priest of his profession, or assumes it without
being persuaded that he has a title to be regarded
as one of those of whom the Apostles were the
representatives, can have no right to go forth
and baptize in the name of the Lord, nor any
claim for Christ's assistance founded on this parti
cular text. Where the harvest is plenteous, and
the labourers are few, there it may please God in
his mercy to give a blessing- to practices the most
irregular, and to teachers not lawfully ordained.
When an established church neglects, or is incom
petent to the full discharge of its duties, in en
lightening and sanctifying the whole nation whose
religious welfare is entrusted to its care, there we
may justly suppose that the Lord of the vineyard will
rather grant success to those who come uncalled
to the work which his regular servants are un
willing or unable to perform, than allow his people
to fall into immorality and profaneness for want
of necessary cultivation. It was so even in the
days of our Saviour upon earth, when, from a
desire that men might be brought into the king
dom of heaven, he would not forbid one from
doing miracles in his name, though he neither
followed in his train, nor had been sent forth by

WITH HIS MINISTERS. 63
Him as a preacher*. And in a similar spirit do
we find St. Paul rejoicing that Christ was preached,
though it was done by some of the brethren
rather of strife or envy than of good-will, — rather
from a wish to add affliction to his bonds than
any real interest for the truth f. In both these
cases, we find our Lord and his Apostle overlook
ing the irregularity of the means, for the sake
of the godly end which was to be gained. Upon
the same ground may those who undertake to
supply the manifest insufficiency of the ordinary
and appointed ministers of Christian instruction
in a land, hope that their efforts will not be con
demned or unassisted by the heavenly Master
whose services they have assumed. But where
there is no want of regular and faithful ministers,
those who are not duly admitted into that number
can have no pretence for intruding; and even
where a deficiency exists, they must rest their
hope rather on the general mercies of the Lord
to those who promote his glory and proclaim his
truth, than on that special promise which was
here uttered to the Apostles, and those who should
succeed them, in the text. The Apostles were
duly called and duly appointed to their office, and
those only who are persuaded that they are also
duly called and duly appointed, can think them
selves fhe heirs either of this particular commis-
* Lukeix. 49. t Phil. i. 15.

64 Christ's presence
sion to teach, or this particular blessing on their
teaching. But, however duly called or duly appointed the
ministers of Christ may be, there is still another
condition upon which his continual presence with
them depends, and that is the faithful discharge
of the duties of the office in which they are placed.
" I am with you alway unto the end of the world,"
is so indissolubly united with "teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever I have com
manded you," that even the apostles could not
look for the fulfilment of the one without a dili
gent endeavour to perform the other. Still less,
therefore, can any of those who come after them,
expect that any different conduct will be pursued
towards them; and we thus at once perceive how
vainly the Romanist pleads the unbroken con
tinuity of the apostolical succession, and his
consequent authority as a minister in the Chris
tian Church, as the reason for his own and his
people's dependence upon the blessing of God's
spirit upon his corrupt ministrations. The validity
of the commission of the Papal clergy, we may
freely admit, but the right exercise of their com
mission we as fully deny. They teach not in
some of the most important matters which are
connected with the soul's salvation, the things
which Christ has commanded his disciples to
observe, and in many other instances, they enforce
as the necessary doctrines of God, the vain and

WITH HIS MINISTERS. 65
unauthorized inventions of men presumptuously
asserting their own infallibility. Thus seeking
their own glory rather than the glory of Him they
serve, and consulting rather for the spiritual sub
jection than the spiritual welfare of those over
whom they are appointed in the Lord, they vio
late, by their foul errors and ungodly supersti
tions, one of the principal conditions upon which
the certainty of the divine blessing on their teach
ing rests. They break the terms of the covenant
which their Master has set up between himself
and the recognised ministers of his word, and so
forfeit the favour of his superintending presence
and assisting care. And, what has happened to
them must happen to every other Christian
teacher who labours not to approve himself a
workman that needeth not be ashamed by keep
ing closely and strictly to the tenor of the instruc
tions he has received, and is not careful to build
up the faith and practice of his people only upon
the doctrines and precepts of the revelations of
the Lord.
We have now seen that our Lord's words do
not take away all prospect of success from those
who, under circumstances of great spiritual des
titution in the Church undertake, without any
regular and external call, the office of a teacher of
Christ's flock, but only where no such necessity
exists. And there is evidently great wisdom in
this arrangement; for it tends to preserve the
F

66 Christ's presence
outward order and form of ecclesiastical govern
ment from being needlessly violated. At the
same time the holiness of our Lord's regulation is
equally clear, for it gives no such absolute and
unrestricted efficacy to the services of the duly
ordained minister, as to assure him that the
influence of the divine spirit will work with him
in any case in which he does not scrupulously
adhere to the course of proceeding laid down for
him by the oracles of truth. Our Lord is, in
fact, neither intolerant of those who, from zeal
and love to God and men, endeavour to supply the
lack of service in the duly ordained, nor will he
aid those who are duly ordained in what is con
trary to His will. It remains only to show what
is the advantage which the legitimately appointed
minister of the Gospel does really possess in con
sequence of this promise of our Lord.
It is simply this, that if he diligently obeys
the directions which were given to the eleven,
and goes in his zeal to convert any of the sinners
upon earth, and baptizes in the threefold name
of the everlasting God, and teaches them to
observe whatsoever Christ has commanded, and
nothing which is contrary to what he has com
manded to be believed and done, Christ has him
self, out of his own good pleasure, pledged his
word, that by his holy Spirit, he will be always
present with him in the execution of his office,
and render his ministry effectual for the great

WITH HIS MINISTERS. 67
ends and purposes for which it was originally
designed- A great, and indispensable blessing,
indeed, this is. Without it our efforts would be
languid, for our hopes of success would be feeble.
We have to struggle with the children of this
world, and the children of this world are very
wise in their generation. There is among them
no lack of pleas for infidelity, or of arguments
for heresy, or excuses for sin. The weapons of
our warfare are spiritual and not carnal. They
are nothing more than the word of doctrine, of
exhortation, of reproof, of correction and of instruc
tion in righteousness. And how can any un
aided individual make such weapons mighty to
the pulling down of the strongholds of deeply-
rooted vices, and habitual ungodliness, and long-
cherished indulgences ?
The minister is but one, he has but one voice
and one understanding, limited and confined in
its range and powers, like every other under
standing. He has to convince the minds, and
work on the affections of many, and they are all
various and different in degrees of strength and
excellence, every one of them, perhaps, by nature,
superior to his own. Who then is sufficient for
these things ? As the question is, so must the
answer also be taken frpm St. Paul, when he
speaks on this very subject. We are not sufficient
of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but
our consolation is that our sufficiency is of God.
f 2

68 Christ's presence
We have to influence the hearts of a whole con
gregation, and turn them as one man, to the ac
knowledgment and obedience of God ; and we
cannot penetrate the thoughts or fully estimate
the real dispositions of a single heart before us.
But Christ is with us, and he knoweth what is in
man, and can so shape our ideas and arrange our
words, as to give them their due application to
each hearer's wants. We can but pray and preach
for the conversion of our flock. But the Lord is
with us, who gave virtue to the simple waters of
Jordan, to wash away the leprosy of Naaman,
and can as easily cleanse away the stains of ini
quity from the soul, through the commonest
sound of the feeblest exhibitor of the divine terrors
or grace. We are weak and speak but imper
fectly, and do not always rightly divide the word
of truth. But Christ is with us, who, out of the
mouth of babes and sucklings ordained strength,
who loosed the tongue of the dumb, and caused
the tongue of the stammerers to speak plain. The
passions of the flesh are in arms to resist us, and
nature's infirmities are afraid to enter upon the
contest for Heaven. But Christ is with us, who
stilled the tumult of the raging waters, and
calmed the fears, and silenced the murmuring of
his trembling disciples; and he can subdue the
storms of the angry soul, and speak peace to those
that are troubled with the difficulty of transform
ing their life by the renewing of their mind.

avith his ministers. 69
The ear may be so seemingly closed to the demon
strations of the Spirit, that it will not hear,
and the eye so blind, that it will not see the
growing danger of damnation. But He is with
us, who touched the ear and it was opened, and
made even the clay to become the means of re
storing the natural sight ; and He can make our
poor reasonings to reach the ear which had long
refused to hear, and make even the refuse of the
earth in the gifts of eloquence or intellect, to bring
forth the doctrines of grace and mercy into a most
marvellous light. By virtue of that special pro
mise which is contained in the text, we are confi
dent that the mighty ruler of all minds, and gover
nor of all hearts, is present with us in our prepa
ration for our duties and the execution of our
office, and in that confidence we are consoled
amidst all discouragements, and without it, should
know nothing but despair.
We thank Him, and we beseech you also to
thank Him, for such a gracious and special pro
mise as leaves us not to any doubtful reasonings
as to the probability, but brings home to us at
once the certainty of the divine aid. For, indeed,
my brethren, the comfort and conviction such an
unequivocal assurance conveys to all the autho
rized ministers of Jesus, is quite as necessary for
you as it is for us. How often do we hear men
murmuring at the absence of any extraordinary
qualifications of understanding, or of utterance in

70 Christ's presence
their appointed clergymen ? 'Tis true, one says,
my teacher holds fast by the revealed doctrines of
the Gospel, and states, plainly and distinctly, the
necessary duties, and the means of sanctification ;
and urges, Very justly, the motives and rewards of
holiness: He gives himself, indeed, very faith
fully to his calling, is exemplary in life, and devo
ted to the cause of the religion he proclaims. What
he can do, he has done. But, after all, there is
no originality in his views, and he declares nothing
with poWer. I could learn the same principles
with as much clearness and satisfaction, by my
own studies, and in my own house. And then he
Wanders after some brighter star to lead him to
the court of the King of Heaven; and dazzled
by its brilliancy, mistakes what is exciting for
what is improving to the soul. Such are fre
quently the thoughts and conduct if not the
actual words, of many professing godliness. But,
in all this, they forget that, perhaps, the spiritual
dulness and darkness is principally in them
selves, and that if they studied more carefully
to use the knowledge given, and fulfil the duties
enjoined on them, they would find enough to
humble them for their past unprofitable hearing,
ahd to convince them how much they have yet
practically to learn, and engraft into their lives,
before they are at liberty to presume that they
need some higher teaching. At all events they
forget the promise of Christ's perpetual presence

with his ministers. 71
with his appointed ministers, when endeavouring,
to the best of their power, to fulfil their commis
sion, and to keep close in their instructions to
God's revealed word. If they remembered and
acted upon this, they would find that the Lord
can make the still small voice of the calm and
unambitious teacher, to tell as surely, as power
fully, and as effectively, upon the soul that is
willing to be led forward in the right way, as
the more agitating appeals of him who can boast
of the eloquence of Apollos, or the copious
reasonings of him who has the ready writer's
pen. Let the minister not relax in his own holy
exercises, and meditations, and efforts, in an un
warranted reliance upon Christ's being present
with him, to put into his mouth, without study or
preparation what, when he is speaking for God,
to God's people, he shall say; let every member of
the Gospel so rely upon Christ's presence with
the minister, as to feel assured that what he prays,
and strives, and desires, to be benefited by, will
really become blessed and strengthened to his in
creasing holiness, however weak and wanting it
may appear to be in all the ornaments and ex
cellencies for which the compositions of worldly
science and literature are admired, — let the
teacher and the hearer thus look to the Lord's
blessing, as a sure and ever present means of
rendering effectual to their instruction, their virtue,
and their everlasting salvation, whatever they de-

72 Christ's presence with his ministers.
voutly teach and devoutly hear, according to His
word and will ; and they will learn to regard the
preaching of the Christian ministry, in a true and
more profitable light, and to reckon the com
mission, and the promise which Christ gave to
his Apostles, and in them, to all who should be
legitimately called to their sacred office, as one
of the most useful and consolatory of those
spiritual promises with which the Scriptures
abound.

THE
APOSTOLICAL ORIGIN OF EPISCOPACY.

Titus i. 5.
For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou mightest set in order
the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city,
as I had appointed thee.
In my last discourse I considered the commission
and the promise which our blessed Saviour gave
to his Apostles, as the ministers of his holy reli
gion, when he commanded them to go forth and
preach the Gospel to every creature, and assured
them that he would be with them, and with their
regular successors, in their faithful discharge of
that office, even unto the end of the world. I
showed that none, however lawfully appointed to
the sacred ministry, could look for the fulfilment
of the promise, who did not truly teach the Re
deemer's doctrines and precepts. On the other
hand, I showed that none could expect a blessing
in consequence of that peculiar promise, however
truly they might teach, unless they were duly au
thorized to look upon themselves as the ministerial
successors of the Apostles in the Church. At the
same time I observed, that our Lord had not in that
particular passage laid down any positive marks

74 THE APOSTOLICAL ORIGIN
whereby those who are really the true successors
of the Apostles in the Gospel ministry might be
discriminated from those who are not. Upon this
point the evangelist was there found to be silent.
But it is evidently a matter of very great im
portance. For, unless we can determine whether
those who proclaim the salvation and administer
the sacraments of Jesus Christ have his authority
for their undertaking the work, the promise is
virtually become of none effect. If we cannot
say with some degree of certainty that our own
Church is one of those whose ministers are the
legitimate heirs of the divine commission given
to the Apostles by the Saviour, then, so far
as we are concerned, it is the same as if the
promise had never been recorded at all. It can
convey neither to the hearer nor the preacher any
comfortable prospect of the divine blessing. It
well becomes, therefore, both him who teaches to
inquire whether he is an authorized teacher, and
them who attend upon his ministrations to be
informed whether they can assure their hearts
that Christ's presence is with them to guide and
influence their understandings and affections to
wards the truth and righteousness of God.
For this purpose, then, let us now proceed to
examine who they are that in the present age and
circumstances of the Church can satisfy them
selves that they have an interest in the commis
sion and promise of Christ to his Apostles ; and

OF EPISCOPACY. 75
more especially let us pursue this investigation
With a reference to the claims of the clergy and
the members Of our oWn episcopal establishment.
Now, it is evident that not only does the diffi
culty of bringing men to an acknowledgment of
the truth and an obedience to the commandments
of Christianity, require a peculiar order of men to
be set apart for the work ; but it equally requires
that the selection of Gospel ministers should nei
ther be left to the tumultuous votes of factions in
each congregation, nor to the mere determination
of the individuals themselves. From experience,
as well as from reasoning, we learn, that wherever,
in sacred things, the choice of teachers is left to
the people alone, there the passions or the favour
of men too often overpower the judgment. In
fact, the majority being incapable of justly esti-
timating the qualifications of such as seek to be
placed over them in the Lord, are ever deceived
by pretentions to learning and piety, or deceive
themselves in the desire to obtain a pleasing
rather than a profitable minister. Neither is it
more safe to allow any one to enter upon such a
holy calling at his own will. Upon his inclina
tion to the sacred ministry there is no doubt that
every One may be able to decide, if he seriously
examine into the feelings by which he is actuated
and the motives from which they spring. But
the more powerful is his inclination for the cle
rical office, the more danger does he incur of

76 THE APOSTOLICAL ORIGIN
being hurried on to conclude, that his education
and natural gifts are such as to fit him for an
effectual discharge of its duties. Were either of
these courses, therefore, to be adopted, its un
avoidable tendency would be to corrupt that reli
gion which can only be really useful when it is
honestly taught, and to obstruct God's great de
sign of bringing the world to follow the doctrine
that is according to godliness. It would be pre
judicial to Christianity and dangerous to man.
We consequently find that the New Testa
ment has never afforded the smallest encourage
ment to such a course. Our Saviour gave not at
any time a general commission to his followers,
to become the regular preachers of his Gospel.
He selected the twelve, and he afterwards sent
forth the seventy during his life ; and to neither
of these did he intrust the charge until he had
removed their ignorance by previous instruction,
and strengthened their natural weakness by the
communication of supernatural powers. After
his resurrection the same method was pursued.
He conversed with his disciples for forty days,
enlightening them on the things connected with
the kingdom of God, and expounding to them,
in all the Scriptures, the things concerning him
self. Nor did he allow them, even when thus
prepared in understanding, to go forth to the
work of converting the children of this world
until they had been endued with power from on

OF EPISCOPACY. 7 1
high, by the gift of tongues through the descent
of the Holy Ghost. So, also, did the Apostles
act in a strict imitation of their heavenly Master's
conduct. Whilst the number of believers was
comparatively few, and the Church confined to
the city of Jerusalem, they alone went about
teaching and breaking bread from house to
house, and all the people continued steadfastly
in their doctrine and fellowship. As the faithful
increased the necessary changes were made. The
office of deacons was first added to relieve the
Apostles in their labour, and enable them to give
themselves more exclusively to the word of God
and to prayer. When, by the providence of God,
persecutions had scattered the disciples abroad,
and the Gentiles had been made partakers of
Christ's privileges with the Jews, and Paul, be
coming the Apostle of this new branch of the
Church, had planted the Gospel in the various
provinces of the Roman empire, we are told that
" he appointed them elders in every Church," and
so left them, commending them unto the Lord.
(Acts xiv. 23.)
Such were the methods employed by our
blessed Saviour, and his inspired Apostles, to pro
vide in each place, where the Gospel was received,
a body of authorized ministers to continue the
good work they had begun, and to act as their
successors in the commission to baptize and teach,
and to be aided in so doing by the empowering

78 THE APOSTOLICAL ORIGIN
presence of Christ. In no instance do the people
appear to have been left to their own discretion
to give the requisite authority to their fixed pastors
and teachers, nor the members of the Church to
take the dignity to themselves. Those who had
already been called into the Christian ministry
were appointed to ordain and sanction the voca
tion of others into a participation of their office.
Thus, both the reasonableness and expediency
of the practice itself, and the examples of those
divinely- illuminated men, whom, of all others, we
are bound to follow in the Christian conduct we
pursue, speak the same language upon this sub
ject. Both have taught us the propriety, at least,
if not the necessity, that the charge of judging of
the qualifications of those who are to be appointed
the permanent ministers of the Gospel, and the
power of communicating to them the requisite
authority, should be intrusted to such as have
been already engaged in the same holy occupation.
For such persons are, evidently, the best able to
form a correct opinion, and are bound by the most
solemn ties of duty to their Redeemer and his
people, to exercise the discretion committed to
them with reverential caution and care.
We must now go on to consider whether the
precepts or the practice, which are set before us in
the scriptures of the New Testament, have pointed
out to us any particular denominations of Chris
tian ministers whom it is right or indispensable

OF EPISCOPACY. 79
for every separate Church to possess, and whether
any particular methods are enjoined or recom
mended for each Church's government.
But it is universally allowed, that there is no
precept in the New Testament which enjoins, or
even describes, that form of ecclesiastical polity
which the whole body of Christ's disciples should
adopt. In the law of Moses, every order and em
ployment of priests and Levites, in the temple
services, is minutely laid down. In the Gospel
dispensation, our Lord and his followers most
fully set forth the essential principles of inward
and spiritual religion, and impress on mankind
what must be done and believed for the attain
ment of eternal life. But they leave the mode in
which the truth, as it is in Jesus, should be conti
nued on to future generations, without any formal
attempt to delineate for our guidance the orders
and degrees we should admit into the ministry,
and the functions which each in his respective sta
tion should have assigned to his care. All that we
can learn of the will of our divine Master, upon
such matters as these, must be gathered from the
course we observe to have been actually pursued
by those, who, by the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit, were led into all the knowledge of Christ's
will. From their conduct, and from the con
clusions we draw from their conduct, must be
deduced the principles which are to regulate our
own arrangements with regard to the teachers of

80 THE APOSTOLICAL ORIGIN
the Christian religion, and the administrators of
the Christian sacraments.
We find, then, that in the days of the primitive
believers of the Gospel, it pleased the Holy Spirit
to distribute to various individuals a variety of
special gifts, and thus to institute a variety of dif
ferent offices. The word of wisdom was poured upon
one, the word of knowledge upon another; upon
another the gift of faith, or of healing, or of mira
cles ; upon another the power of prophecy, or of
the discerning of spirits ; upon another the under
standing or the interpretation of tongues. All
these diversities of gifts formed corresponding
differences of administrations in the Church. But
the diversities of the spiritual operations having
ceased, the extraordinary offices which depended
on them have ceased also; and until the same
spirit shall undeniably renew the gifts, they may
be regarded as beyond the limits of our inquiry.
What we have to examine are the stated and
ordinary ministers of the Gospel; and of these we
find but two kinds which have engaged the parti
cular attention of the Apostles: the first is the
order of elders, and the second that of deacons.
The duties and the characters of these alone are
pointed out with any peculiar earnestness in the
Epistles of St. Paul; and both are spoken of as
essential portions of the ministry in the Churches
of Christ. Over these, however, as over every other
thing which was connected with the spiritual wel-

OF EPISCOPACY. 81
fare and government of each Christian commu
nity, the Apostles themselves exercised a superin
tendence, and possessed a control. Wherever
they were, they restrained the disobedient, and
corrected the mistaken, and regulated the inter
nal affairs of each Church by the authority com
mitted to them from the Lord. More especially
did they employ their power in the appointment
and direction of those who were to be the pastors
and teachers of the flock.
From this brief survey, it is plain that the
Christian ministry, during the life-time of the
Apostles, may be fairly said to have been com
posed of three classes of ministers, corresponding,
in a great measure, to those which exist under our
own established episcopacy. The Apostles them
selves were the first, holding a pre-eminence far
higher in reality, though in many substantial
points the same, with that which our own bishops
have received; whilst the primitive elders and
deacons agree both in subordination and the lead
ing functions they performed, with the priests
and deacons who are the ordinary guides of the
congregations committed to their charge.
It must be conceded, however, that this resem
blance is not absolutely decisive upon the form of
government which all other Churches are bound,
or even at liberty, to adopt, more particularly
with regard to the episcopal pre-eminence. The
Apostles had such varied and wonderful gifts of

82 THE APOSTOLICAL ORIGIN
the Holy Ghost, and exhibited so many miracu
lous evidences of the divine authority with which
they acted, as might fully entitle them to take
upon themselves a dignity and command which
no successor of theirs could venture to assume
without some strong reason to justify his claims.
The extraordinary powers of the Apostles cannot
in fact be allowed to constitute a fixed precedent
for future ages, unless we can find some intima
tion to persuade us that they intended their pro
ceedings to be a general example. Some circum
stances, however, there are which seem to point
out that to intrust, in each branch of the Church,
the chief place and authority to one minister
above the rest, was considered by them as the
plan it would be most expedient to pursue.
Let us look to Jerusalem. There all the
Apostles were gathered together, and there, by
reason of the divine inspiration of them all, the
existence of any superior authority in one for the
purpose of preserving order and uniformity among
the many, might appear to have been almost need
less. Yet we may observe, that the Apostle St.
James is several times spoken of in the Acts of the
Apostles in such a manner as to imply, that a
peculiar pre-eminence was assigned to him, not
only among the believers, but also among the
elders, of that most early and most honoured of
all Christian Churches. In their public council
the Apostle James presided, (xv. 13,) and to him

OF EPISCOPACY. 83
did both St. Peter and St. Paul refer, as one who
ought first to be considered in any communication
which affected their interests or related to the con
duct they intended to pursue (xii. 17, and xxi. 18).
Thus did the Apostles, even with their conscious
ness of an equality in their general calling and
qualifications, voluntarily assign such a priority to
one among their number, that, in every succeed
ing age, he has uniformly been described as the
permanent president of Jerusalem, the first in
stance of any one being preferred above the rest
of the ministers of Christ, and considered as sanc
tioning every future and similar appointment.
It is, indeed, difficult to conceive any other reason
for the distinction thus conferred upon St. James,
than either the maintenance of order, or an ex
ample of order; and, in both cases, it affords a
ground for concluding, as a general rule, that the
affairs of any Church, in which the ministers are
many, should be placed under the special superin
tendence of one.
II. But we find this still further confirmed,
and the nature and extent of the authority more
clearly defined, by the proceedings of St. Paul in
the arrangement of some of the Gentile Churches,
to which, as a pattern for ourselves, we, being a
Gentile Church, are most naturally inclined to
look. It is almost superfluous to observe that I here
allude to the information which may be derived
G2

84 THE APOSTOLICAL ORIGIN
from the epistles which that Apostle addressed to
Timothy and Titus, for the regulation of their
conduct at Ephesus and in Crete. In writing to
the former of these, St. Paul gives him a variety
of directions which imply, that an authority was
committed to him not only to exhort and teach
the truth like any ordinary minister of Christ,
but to charge some who were perverting the
Gospel, that they should teach no other doctrine
than that which had been delivered to them, and
to judge also of the qualifications of those who
were hereafter to be admitted into the ministry-
He was, also, specially ordered to commit the
doctrine he had learned to such faithful men as
should be able to teach others also. In a word,
the regulation of the Church and the ordaining of
its elders were in a great measure intrusted to his
care, and in these things he was authorized to
supply the place of the Apostle himself. The
very same powers are likewise intrusted, and in
still plainer terms, to Titus. Of him St. Paul dis
tinctly affirms, that for this cause he had left him
in Crete, that he might set in order the things
that were wanting, and ordain elders in every
city as he had appointed him. Thus does it ap
pear, that when the Apostle could not in his own
person superintend the affairs of the Churches
he had planted, he twice selected an individual
who might execute the duties of that superior
office which belonged strictly to himself, and ex-

OF EPISCOPACY. 85
ercise the authority which was attached to it in
his stead. It must be admitted, however, that in
neither of these instances do we find anything
which can be undeniably interpreted so as to
establish their appointment as the permanent
successors of St. Paul in the Churches where they
dwelt. So far is this from being the case, that
there are various expressions which prove that the
authority which was now intrusted to them was
only of a temporary nature. Thus the first
Epistle to Timothy distinctly states, that the
things which were written to him by St. Paul,
were written that he might know how to behave
himself in the Church of the living God, during
a journey into Macedonia which the Apostle hoped
would only be of short duration*. In the Epistle
to Titus, that Christian minister, instead of being
instructed to remain in the superintendence of the
Churches of Crete, is supposed to leave his charge,
as soon as he had fulfilled the duties imposed, and
commanded to be diligent to come and rejoin
St. Paul at Nicopolis, where he had determined to
winter f. But the second Epistle to Timothy
speaks still more strongly to the point. It was
written by the Apostle at a time when, having
finished his course, he was ready to be offered,
and imagined that the time of his departure was
at hand. Yet does it contain no positive or un-
* 1 Tim. i. 3, compared with ii. 14.
+ Titus i. 5, compared with ii. 12.

86 THE APOSTOLICAL ORIGIN
equivocal appointment of Timothy to the per
manent episcopacy among the Ephesian elders.
On the other hand, as he had before spoken to
Titus, so does he now also speak to Timothy, and
earnestly exhort him to quit the Church of Ephe
sus and do his diligence to come shortly, — to
come even before winter to St. Paul in Rome*.
Yet, after all this has been admitted, there is
still enough to justify us in assuming that the
appointment of some one minister above the rest
with a permanent commission to preside in the
direction of the religious affairs of the Church, and
have the chief authority in the examination and
ordination of its ministers, is a practice in strict
conformity with the example, and in perfect har
mony with the mind of St. Paul. During his
temporary absence, he thought it expedient to
assign to one wise and faithful individual the ar
rangements of the Church and the admission and
regulation of its teachers, so that order and sub
ordination, which are so essential to edification,
might suffer no interruption or injury by the
removal of his Apostolic authority for a time.
Surely, then, it must be allowed that the longer
that absence was to continue, the more necessary
did it become to adopt some measures for the
prevention of those contests for the superiority,
and those divisions in doctrine, which, amongst a
number of teachers, all equal and all wishing to
* 2 Tim. iy. 9 and 21.

OF EPISCOPACY. 87
recommend themselves to their followers, must
inevitably arise. And What measure could more
wisely and religiously be adopted than the humble
imitation of that plan upon which, by the general
consent of all the Apostles, the Church of Jeru
salem appears to have been built ; which had
afterwards, in two separate instances, been for
mally sanctioned by St. Paul, as a model for the
gentile Churches, and for the execution of which
he had, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost,
laid down a variety of precepts and rules. The
elevation, therefore, of one particular minister to
what we now call the episcopal office, and the
appropriation to him of the chief place and autho
rity in the regulation and ordination of the other
ministers of Christ, appears to be as much sanc
tioned in perpetuity by the perpetual removal of
the Apostles through death, as was the temporary
appointment of such officers by their occasional,
absence whilst they lived.
Such is the conclusion which may most rea
sonably be drawn from the practice of the pri
mitive Church as recorded in the New Testament.
It is a conclusion also which, with scarce a single
exception, continued for ages to regulate both the
opinions and conduct of the whole body of Chris
tians. The episcopal government may not have
been established in every community of believers
from the very first ; but in those principal cities
where the Apostles themselves had planted the

88 THE APOSTOLICAL ORIGIN
faith of the Gospel, history informs us that it
had always prevailed ; and persuaded by their ex
ample, and taught by experience the evils which
resulted from a different course, we know that it
was soon universally introduced, and that for
fourteen hundred years there never was a king
dom or people converted unto Christ, who did
not, with the form of sound words, receive also
and persevere in this form of Church government.
It remained for some followers of the reformation
to break this bond of external uniformity and to
condemn it as unscriptural, in order to defend
their novelties.
It thus appears, that those Churches in which
Episcopacy has been established, may be as sure,
as under the circumstances of the case it is pos
sible to be, that they have followed the mind of
the Lord, by following the example of his Apos
tles in the form of their religious government.
Those pastors, therefore, who have received their
authority to exercise the sacred ministry in such
episcopal churches, are clearly, so far as their ex
ternal calling is concerned, to be reckoned among
the legitimate successors of the Apostles in the
ministerial office. They may be satisfied that
their vocation is according to Christ's will, and
that he so looks upon them as his commissioned
servants and stewards, that whenever they rightly
proclaim his truth, celebrate his ordinances, and
teach his commandments, he is with them, in all

OF EPISCOPACY. 89
the fulness of his gracious power; and will give
efficacy to their labours, in that manner, and to
that degree, which his own boundless mercy and
ineffable wisdom, may see to be most expedient
and just.
Now, this is a privilege to which the Church
of England and its ministers can most assuredly
lay claim. It is not only constituted according
to the Apostolic model, but it has enjoyed that
blessing by an unbroken succession from the ear
liest times. There is no one that can tell us, when
we were interrupted in the regular transmission
of the ministerial authority from hand to hand.
Whatever right, then, any other Church can put
forward as entitling it to the affection, the respect,
and the adherence of its members, that right is
to be proved uninjured in our own. It is estab
lished by law; by those powers among us which
are ordained of God. The piety and wisdom of
those powers were directed by Providence to es
tablish it after the example of the inspired Apos
tles, and according to the will of Christ, so far as
it can be ascertained. It teaches the truth, and
the whole truth, and nothing contrary to the
truth, of the divine word : and whilst we eat the
bread of life under any of its branches, we may
be confident that the Lord will turn it to the
nourishment of our souls. This is a praise which
its bitterest adversaries scarce venture to with
hold from its excellence, and I humbly and de-

90 THE APOSTOLICAL ORIGIN
voutly pray, that the impiety, the foolishness, the
political worldliness, or the more fatal and sinful
lukewarmness of our own restless and reckless
generation, may not weaken its power of being
made a blessing through the whole length and
breadth of the land.
Beyond this it is not absolutely necessary for
our own comfort and conviction as episcopalians,
that we should proceed. Nevertheless, when we
behold the conflicting forms of government which
exist both in other established churches, and in
dissenting communities, it is difficult to abstain
from considering the foundation upon which they
rest. It is still more difficult not to be anxious to
ascertain whether, as we are told by some, those
churches which renounce the authority of bishops,
are in reality deprived of the assurance of any
blessing, in their administration of the sacraments,
and cut off from the communion of Christ's uni
versal Church. For, if this be undeniably the
case, it is a duty, both of piety and charity, to
condemn them as in a fatal error, and call the
people to desert their unauthorized ministers, at
the peril of their souls. The episcopal form of
Church government does then, in fact, become an
essential part of the Gospel itself, and must be
enforced with as much earnestness as the doctrine
of the atonement through the Redeemer's blood,
or the necessity and influence of the Holy Spirit,
to the performance of good works.

OF EPISCOPACY. 91
But when we look back upon the evidences
which have been produced, we find that though
they are fully adequate to sustain the scriptural
and apostolic origin of episcopacy itself, they are
not so positive as to authorize us unreservedly to
condemn every other form of ecclesiastical polity.
We have found neither any express command
ment, nor any example, which prescribes as uni
versal and unchangeable, one particular system
for the regulation of the Church and its ministers.
Our arguments consist only of inferences deduced
from the practice of the Apostles — of inferences
deduced, not from their invariable practice in
every place/ — for upon that point we have no certain
information, — but upon their practice in a few par
ticular and recorded instances alone. The con
clusions we have deduced from the new Testament,
in favour of episcopacy, are, indeed, not confined
to the advocates of our own establishment, but
were those of the Church at large for fifteen cen
turies after the death of Christ. Still they are
intimations, rather than proofs, which the Scrip
tures afford for the maintenance of episcopacy.
We can produce no single text so clear as
to compel us to conclude, that the Apostles deemed
any one peculiar form of government to be indis
pensable and unalterable in the Church. There
are, however, some general principles, which they
have laid down as perpetual laws. They have
commanded that all things should be done de-

92 THE APOSTOLICAL ORIGIN
cently, and in order, and for the edification of
believers, and for the glory of God. From these
it is impossible that they ever would, or that we
ever can, safely deviate. Had they been placed,
therefore, in circumstances where the honour of
the Saviour, and the salvation of his people would
have been injured, rather than promoted, by a
stubborn adherence to the course they had
hitherto pursued for the regulation of the Church,
we cannot but suppose that, in such cases, they
would have relaxed from the severity of their
ordinary rules, and been more anxious to secure
the holy ends for which Christianity was revealed;
than to maintain inviolate the absolute uniformity
of the instrumental means by which it was to be
propagated. But wherever, on the other hand,
the preservation of one uniform government in
the Church could be made compatible with the
attainment of man's holiness and faith, there, as
we can see no reason why the Apostles should
vary from their general practice, so we conceive
that they would never have introduced or sanc
tioned a variation.
If considerations like these be just when
applied to the Apostles, by the same considerations
should all other men be regulated, both in their
own conduct and their opinions upon that of
others. There is nothing but a firm and fervent
persuasion of the mind, that the interests of Chris
tian truth and righteousness cannot effectually

OF EPISCOPACY. 93
be promoted without a breach of the external
discipline and government of the Church, that can
justify a violation of its uniformity. Wherever,
therefore, such a violation has been made, it well
becomes those who have caused, or continue it,
to be well assured that the honour of Christ, and
the spiritual welfare of his people, demanded the
introduction of the change, or still require it to be
prolonged. If, upon this point, they have met,
deliberated, and are completely satisfied, it is
neither for them to doubt, nor for us hastily to
deny, to the ministrations of such a Church, that
inestimable blessing which the promise of Christ's
presence conveys to all his duly authorized mi
nisters, even unto the end of the world. If the
deviation from that form of Church government
which a pious and enlightened imitation of the
practice of the Apostles had established for so
many generations, be such as the Apostles them
selves would have introduced under similar cir
cumstances, we may charitably conclude that it is
a deviation which has neither destroyed the efficacy
of the Christian sacraments to those believers
among whom it exists, nor broken their bond of
union with the members, and of communion in the
privileges of the holy and universal Church.
At the same time, when we reflect how strongly
the want of unity among Christians has operated to
hinder the progress of Christianity; when we con
sider how the Heathen, and the Mahometan, and

94 THE APOSTOLICAL ORIGIN
the unbeliever, are inclined to interpret a mere want
of external uniformity of discipline, into disunion
upon the very essence of our religion, it becomes
us most carefully to labour after a perfect con
formity both in doctrine and in government.
The two lessons which we finally learn from
what has been urged upon this subject, are, first,
a lesson of sincere and steady attachment to that
form of ecclesiastical polity which has been esta
blished, or rather perpetuated amongst ourselves;
and, secondly, a lesson of forbearance both in
thought and language, towards those changes
which have been introduced into other Churches.
In our own country, a studious imitation of
the apostolical practice is in perfect consistency
with the apostolical principles. Order and edifi
cation, Christ's glory and his people's spiritual
improvement, are equally secured by that form of
episcopal government under which its ministers
are placed, and where a due subordination and
control, while they check the waywardness, do
neither impede the substantial usefulness, nor
forbid the most active exertions of individual zeal.
Our people have a respect, if not a reverence, for
their ancient, and their scriptural form of ecclesi
astical polity, and are ready to receive at the
hands of their established teachers all the instruc
tion and consolation that religion can afford. In
our own land there never has been, nor is now,
any desire for any extensive change. There may

OF EPISCOPACY. 95
be some blemishes all would wish to remove.
There may be enough of evil, and negligence, and
unthankfulness for our blessings, to cause even a
merciful Saviour at once to punish and to purify us
by the furnace of adversity. But though afflicted,
we trust we shall not be permitted to be cast
down, and though persecuted, there is still so
much truth and righteousness in our Church, as
to make it a sin to forsake her in her distress, and
a duty to uphold her through her trials, — a duty
only the more sacred, because of the danger in
which she stands.
But, whatever be the affection which our form
of sound doctrine, our holy form of prayer, and
our scriptural and apostolical method of govern
ment demand for our own Church, they demand
no judgment or condemnation from us upon that
form of government which prevails in others.
There are some truths proclaimed so loudly, and
delineated so clearly in the Gospel, that we cannot
permit any to renounce or corrupt them without
showing them their iniquity and telling them that
their heresies cut them off from Christ's favour.
But the mode of regulating the ministry of the
Church is not one of these. It is too faintly deli
neated to afford more than a sufficient ground for
us to act upon in our own case. Nowhere in the
Gospel is a perfect uniformity of ecclesiastical
polity so indispensably required as to make it meet
for any Christian to pass an absolute sentence of

96 APOSTOLICAL ORIGIN OF EPISCOPACY.
excommunication upon a brother who differs from
himself. To his own master he standeth or falleth,
and our duty lies rather in persuading him to
agreement than in urging condemnation because
he^disagrees with ourselves. For we have no right,
and we should have no inclination, to make the
gate of the Gospel more strait, or the way to
God's favour more narrow than the express reve
lations of the Redeemer imperatively demand.
We beseech you, therefore, brethren, that you
hold firmly but charitably to that Church under
whose ministry you have been placed ; firmly, be
cause the Scriptures justify you in the full assur
ance that to your clergy the promise of Christ's
presence in all its power and blessedness belongs ;
charitably, because you know not from God's word
how far men may err in the circumstantials of
religion without absolutely forfeiting their claims
to the Redeemer's aid. Leave it to him to deter
mine at the day of his final judgment, what the
Gospel has not positively determined for us in
our present state ; and pray that all who call them
selves Christians may be so led into the way of
truth, that, both in the faith of the heart and in
the outward forms of their Church's polity, they
may be more and more conformed to the mind
of Christ Jesus our Lord, — that we may be one
flock under his guidance upon earth, and be
gathered together by his mercy into one fold of
glory in heaven.

NOTES.

Page 10, line 25 to 29.
" It surely may be maintained not only that the Scriptures
have but one direct and unchangeable sense, but that it is such
as in all greater matters to make a forcible appeal to the mind,
when fairly put before it, and to impress it with a conviction of
being the true one." — Newman, p. 167.
Yet he afterwards says, that " the popular religion of the
day professes to judge of Scripture in greater matters by itself,
and finds itself unequal to its profession," p. 186. It ought not
to be unequal if the statement contained in the former passage
be true.

Page 14, line 8 to 11.
The reference to Antiquity " does not allow scope to the
off-hand or capricious decisions of private judgment ....
Though more laborious, it is a surer controversy. We are more
likely to come to an end; it does not turn upon opinions but on
facts." — Newman on Romanism, p. 49.

Page 15, line 23 to 27-
" When men are indisposed towards such an appeal, where
they determine to be captious, &c. &c, it (the appeal to antiquity)
admits of easy evasion, and may be made to conclude anything
or nothing." — Newman, p. 68.
" Not an Arian, or Socinian, or Latitudinarian, but Petavius,
H

98 NOTES.
a member of the Jesuit body . . . that great and learned
man ... for all the reverence which he professes for the
Nicene Council, and his constant acknowledgment, that the
faith confirmed in it against the Arians, is truly Apostolic and
Catholic, yet makes an admission . . . that the rulers and
fathers of the Church, before its date, were nearly all of the very
same sentiments with Arius. What was Petavius's views in so
writing, it is difficult to say." — Id. p. 74, 75.
Dr. Priestley also defended, and, I believe, founded his Uni
tarian views, upon the supposition that they were the universal
views of the primitive Church and earliest fathers. To prove
this, he wrote four volumes of the History of Early Opinions
concerning Jesus Christ. I say I believe he founded his views
upon the supposed testimony of Antiquity; because I find that
upon another subject his opinions were guided by it. After
perusing Mr. Peircb's Essay on the Lord's Supper, he became
fully satisfied, that infant communion was the most ancient
custom of the Christian Church; and therefore that the practice
is of Apostolical, and consequently of divine authority. He
entertained, therefore, upon the consent of primitive practice,
sentiments similar to those of the Tracts for the Times, and acted
upon them.
Bellarmine says it is " intolerable hardihood and ignorance "
to represent the Fathers as speaking doubtfully concerning the
doctrine of purgatory. " For, first, had they never mentioned
purgatory by name, yet their sentiments about it had been suffi
ciently plain, from their distinct statements that the souls of
certain believers need relief, and are aided by the prayers of the
living. Next, there are the clearest passages in the Fathers, in
which pugatory is asserted, of which I will cite some few." —
Newman, p. 82.
" Medina, a Spanish Franciscan, well-esteemed for his learning
in the Fathers and Councils, when writing upon the subject of
Episcopacy, is led to consider the opinion of St. Jerome, ....
and, in consequence, charges him with agreeing with the Aerian
heretics. Not content with this, he brings a similar charge

NOTES. 99
against Ambrose, Augustine, Sedulius, Primasius, Chrysostom,
Theodoret, Ecumenius, and Theophylact."— Id. p. 91.
Yet the very same writer, in tho very same work, says, — p.
48. " A private Christian may put what meaning he pleases on
many parts of Scripture, and no one can hinder him. If inter
fered with, he can promptly answer that it is his opinion, and
may appeal to his right of private judgment. But he cannot so
deal with antiquity."

Page 16, line 19 to 22.
" The Bible, indeed, is a small book, but the writings of
antiquity are voluminous; and to read them is the work of a
life. It is plain, then, that the controversy with the Romanists
is not an easy one, not open to every one to take up." — Newman,
p. 48.

Page 17, line 13 to 21.
" The Anglican divines, whom we follow, seek for a genuine
Apostolic tradition, to be established by the consent of all times,
all churches, and the great doctors of all those churches." — Pusey
to the Bishop of Oxford, p. 38, 39.

Page 18, line 1 1, and page 19.
" Our own Church is the immediate, the Church universal,
the ultimate visible authority. Our own Church is to us the
representative of the universal Church, as the universal Church
is of her Lord  We receive as articles of faith what
our own Church delivers to us as fixed by the universal Church;
what she has by her private judgment deduced from Holy Scrip
ture, we teach because we also think it to be so deducible ; if we
h2

100 NOTES.
did not so think, we should obey, must belong to her, but could not
teach." — Pusey to the Bishop of Oxford, p. 52, 53.
Mr. Newman's opinions are similar in his "Romanism.* " By
Church Catholic we mean the Church universal as descended
from the Apostles, p. 259. She is ever divinely guided to teach
the truth; her witness of the Christian faith is a matter of promise
as well as duty; her discernment of it is secured by a heavenly as
well as human rule. She is indefectible in it, and . . . not only
transmits the faith by human means, but has a supernatural gift
for that purpose,'' pp. 232, 233. — Hence " the Church Catholic
is unerring in its declarations of faith or saving doctrine, ....
will never depart from those outlines of doctrine which the
Apostles formerly published,'' pp. 259, 260. " Such being her
office towards her children, they are bound if they would remain
her children, as far as their minds attain to her doctrine, to take
it on the ground of her Catholicity," p. 313. — " Her members
must believe or silently acquiesce in the whole of it,'' p. 311.
" Our own branch may surely be considered among us as the
voice of her who has been in the world even one and the same
since Christ came. Surely she comes up to the theory ; she
professes to be the Catholic Church, and to transmit that one
ancient Catholic faith, and she does transmit it," p. 320. — >" There
is no mistaking them in this day in England, where the Church
Catholic is," p. 321.
Consequently, the attributes before given to the Church
Catholic, belong to the Church of England as at present esta
blished.

Page 25, line 25.
I have no desire to depreciate the fathers needlessly. But
I must protest against the exaggerated view taken of them and
their character, and their opponents, in the following passage.
"What must we think of the piety and reverence which
would make sport with the supposed defects of the fathers of
the Church, and discover their father's shame." — Pusey to Bishop

NOTES. 101
of Oxford, p. 59. This is putting the fathers far too high; and
it certainly is most unjust to compare the act of pointing out
and indicating their imagined follies, with tho guilt of Ham, in
discovering his father Noah's nakedness. The word father occurs
in both cases, and that is almost the only resemblance. But what
the author further adds, appears to me still more objectionable.
He seems to imply, that these irreverential critics of the fathers
will be led like the German neologists, first to the criticism of
the apostles, then to that of their Lord, and in the " last stage,
to the dethroning of God, and a setting up of self, a pantheism
which worships God enshrined in self." To make sport of any
man is, doubtless, wrong; but to do so with regard to the
uninspired fathers, can have no tendencies more evil than the
habit of making sport of any other writer of learning, respecta
bility, and piety.

Pages 31, 32, 33.
The passages quoted in the text, are far from being the
whole of those in which the Tracts exhort the ministers of the
episcopal Church to " exalt our holy fathers, the bishops, as the
representatives of the apostles, and the angels of the Churches,
and to magnify their own office, as being ordained by them to
take part in their ministry," Tract 1, p. 4. But they contain
a specimen of the spirit which pervades the whole, and of that
lofty and figurative language which the Tracts and tractarians
seem fond of using, and do not wish to explain. For they
" readily allow that this view of our calling, has something in it
too high and mysterious to be fully understood by the unlearned
Christian. But surely the learned," it is added, " are just as
unequal to it. It is part of that ineffable mystery, called in our
creed, the Communion of Saints; and with all other Christian
mysteries, is above the understanding of all alike, yet practically
alike within the reach of all, who are willing to embrace it by

102 NOTES.
true faith." Tract 4, p. 6. PracticaUy, I think, such statements
are most likely to lead, not only to " religious veneration," but
superstitious reverence and abject submission to the clergy.
And I wish that those who so frequently quote the passage,
Rom. xii. 13, in which St. Paul speaks of magnifying his office,
would consider what he really means by that expression. It
will appear, I think, that he was then alluding not so much to
the origin of his office, as an apostle of Christ, as to the nature
of the ministry intrusted to him, as a teacher of the Gentiles.
" Inasmuch as I am an apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine
office, if by any means I may provoke to emulation, them which
are my flesh, and may save some of them." He urged and
exalted the commission he had received, to go and preach the
gospel to the Gentiles, in order to rouse the Jews to embrace the
same faith, and not be left behind in the spiritual race by those
they had so long despised. But, suppose it to be otherwise, and
there is still a great difference between the miraculously con
verted, and supernaturally appointed Paul, and the ordinary
ministers of an Episcopal Church. To magnify the origin of his
office, and his heavenly designation to its wondrous revelations
and miraculous powers, might well become the one, when it
would scarcely be justified in the other.

Page 40, 41, 42.
The 17th Tract seems intended to meet those objections
which, it was supposed, would be urged against the frequent ex
altation of the power and dignity of the episcopal ministry ; and
I have endeavoured, very briefly iri the text, to consider and
weigh the force of the statements contained in that Tract. In
the present note I will venture to make a few additional
remarks. It is said, that, " if we do not assert our commission, we rob
the people to whom we are sent, of the blessedness and joy of

NOTES. 103
knowing, (first,) that God desireth not the death of a sinner, but
rather that he should turn from his wickedness arid live; and,
(secondly,) that in token of this desire, ho hath given power
and commandment to his ministers, to declare and pronounce to
his people, being penitent, the absolution and remission of their
sins." But what ? Are not the Scriptures open to all ? And do
not they proclaim as clearly, and far more authoritatively thari
we can do, that God is merciful to those who repent and believe?
The people, therefore, who read the Scriptures, are not deprived,
by our silence as to our commission, of the blessedness of knowing
that, through repentance and faith, their sins will be forgiven.
The only persons whom our silence, as to our commission, would
affect, would be those who are unhappily persuaded, that with
out the declaration of an episcopally ordained priest, the absolu
tion and remission of their sins will not be obtained. But I
fervently hope that this persuasion will never prevail in our
Church. The worst evils of Popery are near at hand, as soon as
anything like it is allowed.
Some instances, however, are brought to illustrate and explain
the preceding assertion. We are desired " to consider well this
point. There is a humble and fearful member of Christ's flock,
who desires to strengthen and refresh his soul, by the body and
blood of Christ; but he cannot quit his own conscience; he
requires further comfort and relief. Surely it is to his comfort,
that there is a duly commissioned minister of God's Word at
hand, to wnom he can come and open his grief, and receive the
benefit of the sentence of God's pardon, and so prepare himself
to approach the Holy table with a full trust in God's mercy,
and with a quiet conscience, and so draw near with faith, and
take that holy sacrament to his comfort."
Upon this I observe that the degree of comfort this person
would receive, would vary, and be very great, or almost nothing,
according to the mental, and moral, and religious qualifications
of the minister consulted. If the episcopal clergyman were not
better instructed in the principles of the Gospel, than soriie of

104 NOTES.
the sinner's lay friends, or than many dissenting or presbyterian
ministers; — or, if he were a careless, a profane, or worldly
clergyman, not very zealous in working for the salvation of
others or himself, — what, in that case, would be the result ?
Would such a man afford much assurance to the trembling
penitent, that he rightly understood the matter, or, that under
standing it, he would rightly apply the promises of God through
Christ ? Would his commission alone then bring comfort ?
Would it give anything like a good ground for believing that
his pardon, however authoritatively pronounced, was so con
sistent with the Gospel principles, that it would be ratified in
Heaven ? I apprehend that the ignorance or immorality of the
minister, would create more fear of his having mistaken the
case, and pronounced a wrong udgement, than his commission
could raise hope that God would se his sentence.
" Then again," it is said, " when one lieth sick on his bed,
does not his Saviour make all his bed in his sickness, when he
sends his minister to him, to receive the confession of his sins,
and to relieve his conscience of the weighty things which press
it down; and then, if he humbly and rheartily desires it, by
virtue of the power which he has left to his Church, assures him
of the pardon of his sins ? "
This is pathetically put: and if the clergyman be one who is
accustomed and competent to judge of cases of conscience, and
will seriously and carefully weigh the circumstances of that
before him, and labour to form a just judgment of the marks of
true repentance in him who confesses, and to determine whether
it falls within the terms of the Gospel redemption; and, finally,
if the person confessing, firmly believes that such a minister has
the power absolutely to assure him of his pardon — then, but not
otherwise, will the declaration of forgiveness from that minister,
be productive of consolation to the dying sinner.
It would appear, therefore, that the blessedness and joy
which result to the people from magnifying the spiritual autho
rity of the clergy, depend, not only on their having a divine
commission, but, equally at least, upon their diligence in quali-

NOTES. 105
fying themselves for the discharge of the duties of their high
office. And, as the latter is still more likely to be overlooked
by them than the former; as men and clergymen are far more
apt to neglect a due preparation for their holy calling, than to
forget their dignity or power; it would seem to be more for the
benefit of the Church, to make the duties of the Christian
ministry the topic of our discourse, than to inspire either minis
ters or people, with a lofty notion of that authority which the
apostolical succession may entail, or episcopal ordination confer.
In reality, whatever men claim for the order to which they
belong, they are extremely liable to push beyond its due limits,
because they continue to keep out of sight the fact, that in
making the claim for their order, they are also making it for
themselves. I will only observe further, that our liturgy, with its usual
wisdom, directs the troubled in conscience to consult some " godly
minister."

Page 65, line 5 to 10.
The Introduction to the Tracts for the Times mentions that
the Apostolic Succession, the Holy Catholic Church, our own
divinely provided discipline, and other doctrines of a similar
nature, have been neglected, — that a lamentable increase of sec
tarianism has followed, — and " that nothing but these neglected
doctrines, faithfully preached, will repress that extension of
Popery, for which the ever-multiplying divisions of the religious
world are too clearly preparing the way." Is it not singular
that, among the causes of the increase of sectarianism, the great
spiritual destitution arising from the want of churches, and the
overgrown and unmanageable extent of the population in many
towns and parishes, — that is, the inadequacy of the Established
Church to supply, with its present limited means, the religious
cravings of an increased and rapidly increasing people, should
never have been alluded to as a reason for the growth of dissent?

106 NOTES.

Page 85, line 23, <yc.
Tract 29, page 9, introduces the following argument in favour
of the permanent appointment of Timothy by St. Paul, to be
an apostle, that is a bishop, or one commissioned to govern the
church of Ephesus as St. Paul's successor.
" When St. Paul was just going to be put to death, he
writes thus to Timothy. Preach the word; be instant in season
and out qf season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering
and doctrine. Watch then in all things, endure affliction, do the
work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. From
these words, it is certainly clear that St. Paul intended Timothy,
whom he had appointed to act as his brother and fellow-labourer
¦vfhile he lived, to act as his successor, when he should be no
more." This conclusion is just. But in what sense did he here make
Timothy his successor ? The apostle's own words must answer.
He gave him authority, nay, a positive commandment, to preach
the word, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and
doctrine; to watch; to endure affliction; to do the work of an
evangelist, not of a bishop. For it is remarkable that neither
in the passages above quoted, nor in any other part of this his
Second Epistle and final instruction to Timothy, does St. Paul
say one word of his ordaining elders or governing the Church
for ever, as in his First Epistle he had ordered him to do for a
time. He is very earnest with him about other matters, but is
silent about this. How is this omission to be accounted for, if
the apostle either had already appointed, or intended now to
appoint, Timothy to the office of permanent Bishop of Ephesus ?
Surely, in either case, the consciousness of his own approaching
death would have led him to refer to this most important portion
of Timothy's duties, and to give him more full directions for the
due discharge of his episcopal office than the former epistle
contained; or at least he would have stirred up his pure mind
by way of remembrance, and have advised him to turn back to

NOTES. 107
that epistle for his guidarice. Writing to one who was, or was
to be, the permanent Bishop of Ephesus, he could scarcely have
avoided addressing him in this his higher character, and would
never have thought of confining his exhortations to the necessity
of his making full pi-oof of his inferior ministry as an evangelist.

Page 87, line 27.
The view which I have here taken of the gradual progress of
Episcopacy^ is the view of Hooker. He says, " Bishops there
have been always as long as the Church of Christ itself hath
been;" but though always, yet not always in all places. For
" the Church for a time; indeed, continued without bishops by
restraint everywhere established in Christian cities." But Jeru
salem having received Episcopacy, " even at the first, was by it
most peaceably governed, when other Churches had trouble."
Hence; when those Churches which at first had no bishops,
" had a little bitter experience of the pestilent evil of schisms,"
arid when " general experience had taught men what it was for
Churches to want" bishops, " they were soon universally ap
pointed." Such is the statement made by him. — Eccles. Pol.
b. 7; c. 13, §3.

Page 95, line 13 to 18.
I cannot but think that the doctrines laid down in the Tracts
for the Times, though they neither deny salvation to Prebyte-
rians as individuals, nor expressly unchurch the Presbyterian
communities, do still imply that there is no ground for believing,
but, rather; every reason to disbelieve the validity of any of
their ministrations. Arid if so, I apprehend, a Presbyterian
would not be able to see much difference between the two

views.

108 NOTES.
Tract 35 thus speaks, " A person not commissioned from
the bishop may use the words of Baptism, and sprinkle or bathe
with the water on earth, but there is no promise from Christ
that such a man should admit souls into the kingdom of heaven."
What then becomes of the validity of that lay baptism of
infants which our Church in certain cases allows, and does not
wish to be repeated ? Again — >" A person not commissioned
 may pretend to give the Lord's Supper, but it can afford
no comfort to any to receive it at his hands  And as for
the person who takes upon himself, without warrant, to minister
in holy things, he is all the while treading in the steps of Korah,
Dathan, and Abiram, whose awful punishment you read of in
the book of Numbers  Remember, then, that  it
is only the having received this commission (that is from the
bishop)  that can give any security that the ministration
of the Word and Sacraments shall be effectual to the saving of
your souls  The dissenters have it not."
Neither, according to the Tracts, have the Presbyterians.
For Tract 36 says, that by maintaining the validity of ordination
by elders only, they err in a fundamental doctrine. Tract 19
reckons among the important doctrines of our religion, " the
necessity of episcopal ordination in order to constitute a minister
of Christ ;" and Presbyterians, not having that ordination, are
consequently not ministers of Christ. Tract 7, P- 4, still more
distinctly affirms that " the Church has from the first committed
the power of ordination to the bishops, and has never resumed
it; and the bishops have nowhere committed it to the Pres
bytery, who, therefore, cannot be-in possession of it"
Well, then, the successors of John Knox have not the requi
site commission ; they are not, cannot be ordained in the Scotch
Kirk : they are no Ministers of Christ. When they use the
words of baptism there is no warrant for supposing that the grace
of baptism accompanies the words ; when they pretend to give
the Lord's Supper, it can afford no comfort ; and they themselves
are to be anathematized as treading in the footsteps of Korah,
Dathan and Abiram, and as they imitate the sin of those sacri-

NOTES. 1 09
legious rebels, so must they expect their punishment. This is
the miserable estate to which the principles laid clown in the
Tracts for the Times would reduce the Presbyterian ministers.
Is it wonderful that, under such circumstances, they should
begin to retaliate, and revive the accusation, as some of them
have lately done in their public speeches, that the Church of
England is one of the abominations of Popery, and Episcopacy
an intolerant tyranny, and repugnant to the Gospel. Dr. Pusey
has, no doubt, in his letter to the Bishop of Oxford, endeavoured
to mitigate and modify the declarations of the Tracts ; but still
he maintains that Episcopacy and Presbyterianism are two oppo-
sites, which cannot both be true together, and has not, so far as
I can perceive, withdrawn the sanction of his influence and
name from any of those assertions to which I have referred, and
from which, by legitimate inference, the heaviest condemnation
must be poured on all the ministers of the Scottish Established
Church. Until he does this, I fear there will be a continued
succession of railing and reviling between us and them. The
consequences resulting from Episcopalians and Presbyterians thus
condemning each other may be represented in the language of
Mr. Newman, On Romanism, Introduction, p. 26, when speaking
on another subject: — "What a prospect is this! two widely
spread and powerful parties dealing forth solemn anathemas upon
each other in the name of the Lord. Indifference and scepticism
must be, in such a case, the ordinary refuge of men of mild and
peaceable minds, who revolt from such presumption, and are
deficient in clear views of the truth. I cannot well exaggerate
the misery of such a state of things."
I must not, however, conclude this note without adverting
to the statements contained in the 15th Tract, which, in
p. 11 makes large and favourable concessions, at least to the
Lutheran churches. It is there justly observed, that "the true
faith is prior, in importance, to the Church." It is merely
lamented that " Luther and his associates did not take the first
opportunity to place themselves under orthodox Bishops of the
Apostolical Succession." It is then added, that, "instead of

110 NOTES.
viewing them as a body formed and settled, and, therefore, at
variance with the Apostolical usage, it is more accurate, as well
as more charitable, to consider them as Episcopal Churches,
sede vacante, or with the Episcopate in commission," &c. Had
such language been extended to the Presbyterians of our own
island, instead of being applied only to " Luther and some of the
foreign Reformers," it would have been gratifying, though it
might have been inconsistent with other Tracts and other state
ments.

Page 95, lines 25—27.
Tract 8, admits that the ecclesiastical system under which
we find ourselves is, in the first place, "faintly enjoined on us in
Scripture." Secondly, though " there is no part of it which is
not faintly traced in Scripture, there is no part which is much
more than faintly traced." I certainly find some difficulty in
reconciling this with the statements of Tract 4, p. 1. Instead of
allowing that there is any " want of express scriptural encourage
ment to the notion of a divine ministerial commission," it is
there maintained, that " Scripture, at first sight, is express;
whether we take the analogy of the Old Testament, the words
pf our Lord, or the practice of his apostles.'' It is also said in
Tract 29, p. 4, that " God has given a clear command in the case"
of the minister and church we are to choose. But supposing these
passages consistent: supposing that, "in the Christian religion,
the rules and regulations concerning the priesthood, are not so
exactly set down," Tract 12, 8: then, why do these Tractarians
insist with as much vehemence upon the necessity of episco
pacy to the constitution of a true branch of Christ's Church, as if
it had been written with a sunbeam upon the pages of the gospel,
and as if an adherence to it had been as indispensably required,
as the belief in God and in Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent?
Why from such feeble premises do they draw such strono- con
clusions? Why do they write such bitter things, as may be

NOTES. HI
found in the preceding note, against those who do not perceive
those faint traces so clearly, or consider those faint injunctions so
absolutely and universally binding, as themselves ? What is said
in Tract xxiv. p. 10, is, indeed, true, that " slight intimations
of our Lord's will are, in their degree, as binding upon us as his
express commands." But it is only in their degree, and the very
point to be proved is whether when he, who had only "pro
bability to guide him," is to be judged for an error into which
he has fallen, we are at all entitled to condemn him, with a
severity, which could scarce be exceeded had he violated the cer
tainty of an express and positive command. It is also true, that
"the faintest probabilities are strong enough to determine our
conduct," when we perceive them and are fully aware of the
course they prescribe. But they are not sufficient to authorize
us to speak harshly of those who do not look upon these " faint
est probabilities " in the same light as ourselves. " A reasonable
likelihood of pleasing Christ " may be a motive lively enough to
lead us to seek episcopal ordination for ourselves as the safest
course, without justifying us in positively asserting " the neces
sity " of such ordination to make a Christian minister. In all
cases, I think, the conclusion should be urged with modesty and
forbearance in exact proportion to the feebleness of the proofs and
the faintness of the probabilities upon which it rests. Nor can I
consider it the mark of a "cold," but of a reasonable spirit, "in
the Church to demand rigid demonstration for every religious
practice and observance " (Tract viii, 3), which is enforced as of
essential necessity. At any rate, I cannot regard it as a desirable
mode of advocating the Church system to say that "its evidences
require for their effect that kind of sympathy and aptness on the
part of the receiver, which would commonly and not unnaturally
be regarded as an undue prejudice, and unworthy deference." —
Preface to Oakley's Sermons, p. 27-

LONDON:
JOHN W. PARKER, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.