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Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-08-28 00:00:00

who ordained them had been ordained by other bishops, and
so back to the apostles, who ordained the first bishops, being
themselves ordained by Christ. This is what is called the
doctrine of the apostolical succession; which is a doctrine of
the apostolical succession; which is a doctrine of consider-
able importance. For unless the ministers of the gospel are
sent by Christ, what right have they to act in his name ? If
we were passing through a foreign land, we might be perfectly
competent to act as ambassador for the Queen of England;
but would any -foreign potentate receive us as such, unless
we could produce our credentials? Many a lawyer may be
as well qualified to perform the duties of the Lord Chancellor
as the Chancellor himself, but is he able to act as Chancellor ?
No, certainly; pot unless he has first received a commission
from his sovereign. And so with respect to religion. What
right has a man to take upon himself to act as God's ambas-
sador, unless God has commissioned him so to act ? An
eloquent man he may be, and one mighty in the scriptures,
but he has no authority to speak in God's name, until God
has given him that authority. How, asks St. Paul, shall
they preach, i.e. preach lawfully, except they be sent, i.e.
sent by God ? No man, says scripture, taketh this honour
to himself, but he that is called of God. Nay, even Christ,
says the apostle, glorified not Himself to be made an high-
priest, but He that said unto Hiin, "thou art my Son, this
day have I begotten thee," even lie entered not on his minis-
terial office until lle was externaly appointed thereto.
As the Lord Jesus Christ was sent by the Father, so were
the apostles sent by him. "As my Father hath sent mr„'
Ile says, soon after his resurrection, "even so send I you.',
Now how had the Father sent Him? He had sent Him to
act as his supreme minister on earth ; as such to appoint un-
der Him subordinate ministers, and to do what He then did,
when his work on earth was done, to hand on his commission
to others. The apostles, in like manner, were sent by Christ
to act as his chief ministers iu the church, to appoint subor-
dinate ministers under them, and then, as He had done, to
hand on their commission to,others. And on this commis-
sion, after our Lord had ascended up on high, the apostles
proceeded to act. They formed their converts into churches:
these churches consisted of baptized believers, to officiate
among whom subordinate ministers, priests, and deacons,
were ordained, while the apostle who first formed any parti-
cular church, exercised over it episcopal superintendence,
either holding an occasional visitation, by sending for the
clergy to meet hint, (as St. Paul summoned to Melitus the
clergy of Ephesus,) or else transmitting to them those pasto-
ral addresses, which, under the name of epistles, form so im-
portant a portion of holy scriptures. At length, however, it
became necessary for the apostles to proceed yet further, and
to do as their Lord had empowered them to do, to hand on
their commission to others, that at their own death the go-
vernors of the church might not be extinct. .Of this we have
an instance in Titus, who was placed in Crete by St. Paul,
to act as chief pastor or bishop, and another in Timothy, who
was in like manner set over the church of Ephesus. And
when Timothy was thus appointed to the office' of chief
Pastor he was associated with Paul, who, in writing to the
hilippians, commences his salutation thus:—" Paul and
Timothens to the servants of Jesus Christ who are at Phi-
lippi, with the bishops and deacons."
Now we have here the three orders of the ministry clearly
alluded to. The title of bishop is, to be sure, given to the
,second order; but it is not for words, but for things, that we
arc to contend. Titles may change while offices remain :
so senators exist, though they are not now of necessity old
men; and most absurd would it be, to contend that when we
speak of the Emperor Constantine, we can mean no other
office than that held under the Roman republic, because we
find Cicero also saluted as emperor.
So stood the matter in the apostolic age, when the chief
pastors of the church were generally designated apostles or
angels, i. e. messengers sent by God himself. In the next
century, the office remaining, the designation of those who
held it was changed, the title of apostle was confined to the
twelve, including tilt. Paul ; and the chief pastors who suc-
ceeded them were thenceforth called bishops, the subordinate
ministers being styled priests and deacons. And thus we
see, as Christ was sent by the Father, so Ile sent the apostles;
as the apostles were sent by Christ, so did they send the first
race of bishops ; as the first race of bishops was sent by the
apostles, so they sent the sent the second race of bishops, the
second the third, and so down to our present bishops, who
can thus trace their spiritual descent from St. Peter' and St.
Paul, and prove their divine authority to govern the churches
over which they are canonically appointed to preside. Like
the apostles they have the right to appoint under them the
subordinate ministers and so, let the papists say what they
will, the clergy of England can establish their right by com-
mission from Christ to minister in sacred things.
Such was originally the consitution not of one or two
churches only, but of the church universal—the church ca-
tholic. Against the church so constituted in various places,
sectarians arose, even in,the apostolic age. These sects were
generally, like modern sects, distinguished by the names ,of
their founders. But true churches disdained to be called
after any human being whatever, since of them Christ was
the author and finisher. The episcopal churches persevere-
ing in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, were styled col-
lectively the catholic church ; and in order to distinguish it
from the surrounding sects, the true orthodox church, some-
times the catholic church of that place, and hence the tern)
catholic came, by degrees, to signify (as Bishop Beveridge
remarks) much the same as our term orthodox—the orthodox
. church, and orthodox members of the same—that church
which-adhered to the scriptural discipline and doctrine uni-
versally received, as distinguished from the discipline in-
vented, and the doctrine propounded, by individual teachers.
You see here, by the way, the folly (if it be not sin, for it
calling "evil, good—and good, evil,") of styling the Romish
dissenters in England, as some persons in extreme ignorance,
and others perhaps with bad intentions do, catholics; for this
insinuates, that we of the church of England ate heretics,
whereas you have seen that ours, not theirs, is the true and
orthodox church of Christ in this country, the real catholic
church in and of England. If they dislike the name of papist,
we may speak of them as Rornanists, or even Roman cat holies,
Roman catholics they may be styled, for (though schismatics
and dissenters in England,) itt France, and Italy, they belong
to a church true by descent, though corrupted by Roman or
popish superstitions, A bad inanas still a man, and you may
refuse to associate with hint before he reforms,—But still yuu
will never perntit him so to style himself a man as to imply
that you yourself are an inhuman being.
Pure in its doctrine, apostolic in its discipline, and edifying
in its ceremonies, this catholic and apostolic church diffused
blessings, and preserved its purity for many hundred years.
In the middle ages it existed, still working good and administer-
ing grace according to the exigence of the times; emitting a
ray of light when all around was dark. But the surrounding
ignorance'und gloom prevented the detection of various cor-
ruptions and disfigurements which by degrees crept into it;
until, in the sixteenth century, the sun of learning having
dawned upon Europe, its,defects iu this country began to- be=
tray themselves too obviously to be any luuger tolerated. Of.
these defects, so far as the English branch of the church was
concerned, the bishops of the church of England, as I have
before • stated, by degrees became aware, and while they
venerated the fabi ie which apostles had-reared, and Of whish
Christ himself was the chief corner-stone,- they carefully re-
moved the incrustations which disfigured it, and sweeping
away the rubbish by which it had been overlaid, displayed the
real-rock upon which it had been built. 'Thus was the catholic
and apostolic: church, of which we profess our belief in the
creeds, rescued in England from popish domination, and (re-
formed or brought back to its prtinit ive purity, dignified its its
Siinplicity) it retained the ministry in regular succession from
the apostles, and a ritual and liturgy which can themselves iu
great part-be traced back to the apostolic age.
s Although causelessly to separate front such a church must
he a schismatical act, yet %se do net uncharitable pronounce
sentence of 'condemnation upon those who have, by circum-
stances over which they have no controul, have brought up
Without its pale. In error, of coarse, we believe them to be,
but certainly not in such error- froio that circumstance as to
endanger their salvation : and if We suppose theist, as we must
do, to lack our privileges; this ought only to make us respect
them the more if at any time we find them (with fewer advan-
tages)surpassing us in godliness. We do not confine God's
grace and revolts to the church, for we remember that though
Job was not a member of the then church of God, still lie was
eminently pious and highly-favoured; we remember, that
though Balaam was not in the church, yet he was an inspired
prophet; we remenierretosteh the
Jethro also, the father-in-law of
hyeteltsoraellsirtaecol (;tadnsd
yetti the
schurchervant
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ttotsetsi;ntu
ehonagsh trot a p
confined
ii
God; we remember, that the Rechabites were actually com-
mended by God at the very tithe He passed censure upon
those who were then his church—the people Israel.
Remembering all this, wetlay not that other denominations
of Christians are cast out from the mercy of God-through the
Saviour because they belong not to the church ; all that we
say is, that it does not follow that these concessions must ren-
der-void the divine appointment of the church, the divine
command to all nations, and of course to all mankind, to be
united with it. or the scriptural evidence for episcopacy as the
divinely sanctioned organization of its-ministry,—and we con-
tend, that a treasure having been committed to us, we are not
undervalue it lest we should offend others, but are to preserve
it in its purity, and in all its integrity to transinit it our child-
ren's children.
And let, me ask, is not the privilege of belonging to a church
thus orthodox in its doctrine, and true by descent, thus both
catholic and protestant, a privilege for which we should be
deeply grateful to the providence and grace of God ? And
will not the account we shall have to render be awful, if we
neglect, despises, or forego, the advantages thus placed within
our reach,? -
Let us ever remember, that the primary object for which
the church was instituted by Christ, its author and finisher,
and for which the apostolical succession of its members was
;that she primary ohject for whiChs through ages
of persecution, and ages of proiperity, and ages of darkness,
and ages of corruption, and ages of reformation, and ages of
Latitudinarianism, and now in an age of rebuke and blas-
phemy, now when we have fallen on evil days and evil
tongues, the primary object for which the church has stiil
been preserved by a providential care, marvellous sometimes
if not miraculous in our eyes, was and is to convey superna-
turally the saving merits of the atoning blood of the Lamb of
God, and the sanctifying graces of his holy spirit to the. be-
liever's soul. In the church it is, that the appointed means
arc to be found by which that mysterious union with Christ
is promoted in which our spiritual life exists,—in her it is,
that the. third person of the blessed trinity abideth for ever,
gradually to change the hearts of sinfnl man, and to make
that flesh which He finds stone,—gradually to prepare us for
heaven, while our ascended Saviour is preparing heaven for
us. And, oh ! my brethren ! what a privilege it is to have
this well of living waters in which yoit may wash and be clean !
You know that you are sinful creatures, very far gone froM
righteousness; you know that yourcondition issuch, that you
cannot turn and prepare yourselves by your own natural
strength and good works to faith and calling upon God; you
know that by nature you cannot love the Lord your God with
all your heart, and soul, and strength; you cannot discharge.
the various duties of your various situations in life; you knovi
that whatever your condition now may be, the hour must come
of affliction and sorrow, of sickness and sadness, the inevita-
ble hour of death ; and the church is instituted to convey to

you pardon upon your repentance, and grace in time of need ;
it is instituted to instruct you in your ignorance, to comfort
you in your sorrows, to elevate you in your devotions, to
bring von into communion with your Saviour, your sanctitier,
your God; to prepare you for the hour of death, yea, for the
Clay of judgment; and this she chiefly does through the gos-
pel, and other divinely appointed ordinances of religion, if of
them you will but avail yourselves.
But this is not all; while the church thus ministers grace
to individuals, it is part of her business to preserve, hand down,
and proclaim the truth, the whole truth, as it is in Jesus. And
our duty, therefore, it is—especially, if we happen by God's
providence to be called to situations of influence, rank, or au-
thority—by all the means in our power to increase her effici-
ency in this respect, to place her on the watch-tower, that her
voice may he haard through the length and the breath of the
land; our duty it is, to take care that her faith be preserved
intact and pure; our duty it is, to vindicate her from the
glosses of ignorance, and the misrepresentations of prejudice
and malice; our duty it is, clearly to define, and zealously to
maintain, those peculiar doctrines and that peculiar discipline,
which have always marked, and do still continue to mark, the
distinction between the church of christ, administered under

the superintendence of chief pastors or bishops who have re-
gularly succeeded to the apostles, from those sects of Chris-
tianity which exist under self-appointed teachers.
Against the church the world seems at this time to be set in
array• To he a true and faithful member of the church re-
quires no little moral courage. Basely to pretend to belong
to her, while designing mischief against her in the heart, this
is easy enough; but manfully to contend for her because she
is the church, a true church, a pure church, a holy church.
this is difficult to those who court the praise of men, or fear
the censure of the world. May the great God of heaven, may-
Christ the great bishop and shepherd of souls, who is over ail
things in the church, put it, my brethren, into your hearts and
minds to say and feel (as I do,) "as for me and toy house,
we will live in the church, we will die in the church, and if
need shall be, like our martyred forefathers, we will die for the
church."

The Alercen comet, the appearance of which has been an-
nounced fur 1838, will be visible with a telescope in a few
days.