The Middlebury people's press. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1841-1843, 1843-06-28
PACiFICUS.
THE CHURCH.

The Rev. DIR. Hawks. of st Thomas'5
Church, who has been spoken Of a very hiuh
Churchman, If not Puseyite, preached n
sermon Of great boldness on Sunday NOR
ming last which certainly defined his posi-
ton as very far from Puscyisn. lie made,
a clean sweep, in fact, OF all hicrarchicai
or church power as assumed BY men over
each other, declaring that the rule of Chris
rian authority was 10 be looked for not in
the decisions Of an oligarchy, nor in tral;-
ton, but in the Scriptures alone. And he
said, with DR.. Emmons. the great Congra-
ga:ional divine, that the only passage in no.
ly writ which could be chained as authori.
zing ecclesiastical jurisdictiction, was that
direction the Saviour, Malh. xvii, Is
Moreover, if thy brother shall irespass a.
gaInst thee,go and tell him his fault between
thee and him alone if he shall hear thee,
thou hast gained thy brother But if he will
not hear thee, then take with thee one or
two more, that in the mouth Of two or THREE
witnesses every word may be established =
And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell
il unto the Church; but if he neglect to hear
the Church, let him be unto thee as a hea.
then man and n publican" Brt even this
authority, DIR. Hawks said, did not apply
TO the Christian Church. (Which al that
time had not been established,) but TO the
form of government existing in the Jewish
Church and was in strict accordance with
the customs and usages of the times. Divine
revelation, he said does not give authority
whereby priesthood may claim the right,
in any form, of dictation or cOmpulsion in
matters Of cosciencc.
Whenever this right is claimed, said DR..
H., it is universally attended by an avar-
cious and grasping desire for more power.
until the mask IS thrown off, ard they stand
before the world in opposition to all reason
and law. human and divine; opposed 10
their fellow men, opposed TO their God
Such claims have heretofore kept the della
ded beneath a yoke of scrvitude, but the
system can not be continued in this enIigh-
tened and republican age. For our part,
said the DR.. emphaticallv, VIC are directed
10 search. not the Church. but the Scrip
lures. Worship thy Maker in all lowliness.
Fear Him, bat no Church. Love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart and soul and
strength; this is the first and great COM
mandme mt. And the second is like unto
it,-love thy ncighbor as thysclf. Upon
these two commandments hang all the law
and the prophets. The DR.. closed with an
eloquent appeal to the good feelings and
good sense of his hearers. who we are told,
have very extensively expressed themselves
highly delighted with the sentiments Of the
sermon journal Of Conmerce.
A great dignity of the English Church -
no less person than Archbishop WhatcIy.
the primate of Ireland-has been led BY his
study of the Scriptures 10 entertain views
similar to those put forth by DIR. Hawks
as we learn from reading portions OF his
"Kingdom of Christ" recently published
by Wiley and Putnam. This is by for the
most catholic treatise on theology we have
ever known written by Church Of Eng
land man, and it Is deeply imbued with
delightful spirit of tolerance and charity
In many points the Archbishop is strongly
at issue with his ecclesiastical compecfs;
and notably in his denial of the right or
authority of any Christian denomination to
urfogatc to itself the title of "I'bs Church.
in his assertion for all congregations or
associated bodies Of Christian believers OF
the right to frame laws and forms for ,t:-.
own spiritual government, of course uadcr
subsection to the explicit Instructions Of the
Apostles, where such instructions have been
given-in his rejection of what are called
the traditions of tho Church and in his
unqualified denial Vi APosiolical Succession,