THE '> " : '4 CONDITION" AND PROSPECTS PROVESTAttT :;/:" . ^* ' . "ii. o ' ':-' OF (LXXJlt^ j % t t i * V" V: ..- ' <.. .- ;'. :J BY B. P. AYDELOTT, D. D. CINCINNATI: WM. H. MOORE & CO ; WEW YOKK MARK H. NEWMAN & COJ PHILADELPHIA HERMAN HOOKER. 1848. TO THE MINISTERS, ANr MEMBERS THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHTJRCH, Never was there a time since the organization of our church, that called more loudly for serious reflection, and prompt, energetic action, than the present. The enemy IMS come in like a flood. We have seen the doctrine of Justification by faith only, and nearly every other great principle of our Protestant church, openly denied and opposed. We have seen leading men among us publicly arraying themselves on the side of * - ,- Popish corruptions, and '^giving to them their official sanction. We have seen our most important institutions lending their aid to diffuse these evils far and wide. We have seen intro- duced into our ministry men professing their attachment to Romish errors, and rejecting the most precious truths of the 4 ' ' (i PREFACE. '&: - '.%;'>? " : ' gospel of the grace of God; All these, and many similar evils have we seen ; and yet we have not seen a single instance of their authors and abettors heing called to account. So far from this, their treachery to Protestantism has heen their glory, : and their wickedness against God the very ground of their exaltation. As the result of all this, those among us who earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints are loaded with obloquy and; contempt ; our missionary and other benevolent societies become more and more feeble; a painful and para- lysing mistrust prevails through the whole length and breadth of our church; religion daily declines among us; a check is put to our extension; and while Christians of other evangelical denominations look upon us with deep sorrow of heart, papists glory in our waning Protestanism, and exult at their acces- sions from our ranks. What a humiliating, sinful spectacle! And yet every observing, thoughtful man will see that we have sketched a mere outline of the present condition of our church, and that faithfully to fill it up, would but add a deeper darkness to the picture. Are we , then, to despair? By no means. Is it not written " When the enemy sJmll come in like a flood, THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD SHALL LIFT UP A STANDARD AGAINST HIM? " There is life, there is light, there is piety, there is strength' enough among us, were they only faithfully put forth, to work out for us even now, under heaven's blessing, a great deliverance. PREFACE. V . '. , ,c.5 '.J f Let us then quit ourselves like men, and be strong. Let but our evangelical ministry consider " the great treasure com- mitted to their charge, that it is their solemn duty to drive away from the church all erroneous and strange doctrine contrary to God's word; " let but each one of us, ministers and people, in 'his several place faithfully lift up his voice and put forth his hand, and we have no reason to fear the result. The truth as it is in Jesus will triumph; Popery will be exposed and cast out, and a pure Protestantism be established throughout our Zion. ~' It is a great and very injurious mistake to suppose that our present evils have been of sudden growth. The seeds of them were long since sown, and they have gradually taken root, and grown up "while men slept," till the dreadful harvest is now visible in all parts of our church. It is important to be well aware of this fact, in order that we may see the duty and necessity of searching deeply into the causes of our troubles, and making a thorough reformation work. Perad- venture some of us even the best friends of a Protestant Christianity may find that we are endeavoring to reconcile impossibilities; that we are cherishing, or at least are very little concerned about, certain things which will be sure to bring upon us future invasions of the papal antichrist, even should we now be able to cast him out. Oh brethren, is it not a tune with us for close, faithful self-searching; a looking down deep into our foundation; a thorough scrutiny of the whole superstructure; and a full, 1* 6 PBEFACE. honest expose of the results? We must, in this our day of trial, rise above the fear and the favor of man; we must resist every desire of ease; we must quench. every ambitious aspiration; we must be very faithful for Christ and his gospel or as a church, we are LOST, LOST, -and if, indi- vidually any of us are at last saved, it will be as it were by fire. t . ' Such being oupsad condition, what must we think of those who endeavor to cover up the whole matter, and " cry peace, peace, when there is no peace? " What must we think of such men? Is it not to be feared that the character of too many of them may be learned in the parable of the tares "While men slept the enemy came and sowed tares." These professed friends of the church wish us to sleep on. "Why," say they, " disturb the peace of the church? There is no reason for apprehension; all is well; or, at least, will turn out well, if we only keep still." Thus do they, with good words and fair speeches, deceive the hearts of the simple. And when this smooth course fails, and men cannot be cajoled, but will lift up the voice of honest alarm; why then they must be branded as disturbers of the church, and their influence in this way be destroyed. Thus do these men endeavor to quiet every fear, hinder all investigation, and suppress every faithful remonstrance. What, then, must we think of such professed friends of the church? If it was the enemy that sowed tares while men slept, certainly they must be his friends who would prolong this fatal sleep. The Lord awaken PREFACE. 7 us to a sense of our daiger before it be too late! Very many of us, it is to be feared, have already slept the sleep of death. In the following pages an attempt has been made to point out some of the more prominent evils of our church, and the remedy for them. While the writer has sought to do this in all kindliness of spirit and language, he trusts that he has not been wanting in plainness and fidelity. Had he consulted his own ease or interests he would certainly have never again taken up his pen, however strongly solicited . But personal ease and interest ought to be with us a very small thing, when weighed in the balance against the cause of Christ and of never-dying souls. He has endeavored to write with the judgment seat full in view. The different Essays, as they originally appeared in the Episcopal Recorder, of Philadelphia, and were copied into other periodicals, both in this country and in England, the writer has reason to believe were read with -serious attention, and were not unproductive of beneficial results. They are republished in their present form, upon the suggestion of valued Christian friends, with the hope that they may have a still wider circulation, and contribute, with the blessing of Heaven, yet more largely to advance the gospel of the grace of God among us, and thus bring, in rich abundance, a true peace to our now troubled church. B. P. AYDELOTT. CINCINNATI, Oct. 1, 1847. CONTENTS. ADDRESS TO MINISTERS AND MEMBERS, , &c. Dangerous condition of ^he Church, Necessity of vigorous action, Startling facts, faithfulness may yet save us from total apostacy, &c., -Seeds of Romanism long since sown among us, A thorough reformation called for, Policy of Rbmanizers to cover over their designs and doings, &c. 3-7 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. Popish errors and practices rampant, All our benevolent .operations embarrassed and -enfeebled, Distrust and alarm universal, -Causes of our evils must be thoroughly inves- tigated. 13-15 CHAPTER IT. Want of carefulness in admitting to the ministry, Literary and theological requisitions quite high, but religious char- acter and spiritual fitness for the work little regarded, An alarming fact. 16-21 CHAPTER III. To preach the Gospel, the great work of the ministry, The Gospel a simple, clear, Definite message, Its great truths, Man's natural character and condition, God's counsels of grace and mercy, man's obligations, &c., The Gpspel altogether peculiar, Is it faithfully preached among us ? An interesting case, the testimony of a converted lady. 2229 10 . CONTENT?. CHAPTER IV. A most important scriptural principle, To spiritual men belong spiritual things, This principle almost entirely overlooked in our organization, Vestry, Diocesan and feneral convention, Hence we are continually liable to be ooded with error and worldliness, An infidel may sit in our general conuenZiora, The world and Popery fast friends, ': Hence much of our troubles. ' 30-43 CHAPTER V. The Lord's supper, Exercises of the converted man in view of it, Confirmation, qualifications for it, Abuses of con- firmation and evils growing out of these, A significant case, The communion office, Repentance, faith, holy character essential to the communicant, Great unfaith- fulness here, and the mischievous consequences, Pusey- ism and Romanism the natural results of lax communion. 44-54 CHAPTER VI. The church of Christ, Her duty, honor^ position, &c., The Roman Anti-christ,T Its character, fcc^ The Bible lost sight of, universal corruption and despotism, The dark ages, The true radical principle of Popery, The same principle at the foundation of High Churchmanship, Bishop Hobart's theology, its Romish character and ten- dencies, Rev. Dr. , his conversion and faithful preaching, The history of a candidate, his painful dis- coveries and anticipations,- These- last now mournfully realized, Our only remedy. . 55-69 CHAPTER VII. A cunning device of Satan, to fix men's minds on forms and ceremonies, and draw them off from truth and piety, Have we been thus deluded ? Justification by faith, Let- ter of a candidate indicating a sad state of things, An- other Carey ordination, A bishop denying justification by faith, Regeneration, or a change of heart, A faithful bishop assailed, Looseness of discipline, A shocking case of wickedness, We must return to Scriptural discipline, and preaching, This alone can save us. 70-83 CONTENTS. - 1 1 CHAPTER VIII. What is idolatry I Idolatry a great besetting sin of human nature, Rome, baptized heathenism, The idolatry of the church, its power among us, He is no churchman w.ho ' will not bow down to this idol,-r-The idolatry of the Prayer * Book, No work of man perfect, The idolatry of Episco- pacy, The miserable "results of this idolatry, We must be honest and above the fear of man, we must tell the truth plainly, The times demand such faithfulness from us, How this idolatry has grown to such a height among us, Selfish men, and ambitious men, and easy men, all help on this idolatry,-? Hence, so many .small men in our high places, they exalt the BisJtap and the Bishop exalts them, Manli- ness specially called for in these days, The Apostle Paul an eminent example of manliness, our idolatries are driv- ing us rapidly onward to Rome. 84-104 CHAPTER IX. The wisdom and piety of our Reformers; they were far from supposing the Prayer Book perfect, They made it as good as a corrupt, civil government and the ignorance of the times would let them,- It is reasonable to suppose the Re- formers did not themselves get rid of all Romish influences, facts show that they did not,-r-We are now troubled with these remnants of popery left us by the -Reformers, The communion office in 1 the American Prayer Book changed for the worse from the English Book, The absolution, two-faced, The baptismal office admits three interpreta- tions,-T-Baptismal regeneration, ecclesiastical regeneration, spiritual regeneration, Its aspect and the impression it is calculated to make, are, to some extent, Popish, We must reform this office or be continually liable to Popish out- breaks. 105-119 CHAPTER X. An opponent commended, The Churchman, Bishop Meade and baptism, High church views of baptism, the church, &c., Totally opposite to thosp of evangelical Christians, Occidentalis, His candbr and manliness, Two entirely different gospels^ and kinds of religion among us, If the one is 'true, the other must be soul-destroying error, The great cause of our present troubles, a want of candor and manliness in evangelical men. " 120-136 12 CONTENTS.' CHAPTER XI. The danger of power, to be carefully guarded, 'Are not our bishops almost totally irresponsible 1- Imperfection of our 'legislation, A casein point, Exemplification of grievous oppression, No adequate remedy for episcopal oppression A bishop, again and againy under aggravating circumstances, and with more than impunity, grossly assails the character of * others from" the press, A bishop guilty of lewd conduct could not be call&l to account, Episcopal veto upon the diocesan convention, -Hints at the entire exclusion of the laity from our conventions, ^Secret sessio'ns of the -House of Bishops. A, Judged opinion of this,^It is utterly op- posed to all bur civil institutions, It must result in despot- ' ism, Our present evils naturally grow out of episcopal irresponsibility. . . 137-151 CHAPTER XII. Necessity of deep earnestness, What ought we to do 1 Preach the gospel,: False gospels, Reformers to be care- fully studied, Prayer, special, fervent prayer needed, The press, Its power for evil, The duty of ministers and intelligent laymen here, Wilberforce?s Practical* View, Our religious periodical press, -The wickedness and mis- chief of a selfish, unfaithful editor, An error to be correct- ed, The inconsistency between high church views and evangelical principles, One or the other soon 'given' up^ Sad examples,-r-Bishop ' Hobart's theology leads to Popery, Bishop Wilson's '(of India) noble testimony against high churchism and Puseyism, rOur evils ought to be brought up at every convention, The policy of the 'enemy to pre- vent discussion, If the friends of th6 gospel are silent, all is lost, The authors of Popish outrages to be called to ac- count A general correspondence between the friends of the gospel, Consultation, &c., The necessity of a revised book of common prayer, The need of eminent personal piety, A general revival of religion is bur great want, This would speedily destroy Puseyism, &c., Division per- haps necessary, False views of unity,- A Popish idol, The prospect bright for the friends of the truth, if only candid, manly, faithful, Our present deplorable evils long foreseen and predicted. . 152-476 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. * The heart of every good man in our Zion trembles for the Ark of the Lord. Troublous times have come upon us. Popish errors, both doctrinal and practical, supposed to be long since dead, never to be revived again, have become rampant, while truth languishes in our midst, and the Spirit of God withholds his refreshing influences. All complain of the little fruits of their preaching; a deadness seems to have come over the whole Church ; while here and there a voice is heard to protest against the fatal errors, openly but most often covertly attempted to be spread through our borders. The enemy shows himself in the pulpit, in the Sunday-school, in 2 14 . CONDITION AKD PROSPECTS &C. the periodical press. Hence the universal alarm and distrust, and in very many cases, despair of "better things. Who does not see that such a state of things must embarrass our missionary and all other be- nevolent operations, prevent the extension of our church, which has grown so much till recently, and ere long cause too many of our best members to quit us in despondency. These evils have already been painfully manifested, and they will soon, it is to be feared, so thicken about us that even the most blind and unconcerned cannot re- main insensible to them. What has produced this state of things? Whence have these calamities come upon us 1 But a short time ago none made such strong claims to true Protestant character as we ; none made more encouraging advances in enlightened piety, and none more largely extended their borders. But what a disastrous change has come over us ! Is there no hope for us ? Must we ever sit by the rivers of Babylon ? And never again take our harps from the willows? There is hope, mercy is not clean gone for ever ! Let us only be faithful to ourselves, and we shall find a very present help in this our time of need. GO TO THE ROOT OF THE EVIL. 15 But what to is be done? Yes, what is to be done? Let every friend of Christ and his Church among us, think deeply upon this ques- tion, and pray much in view of our evils, and he will assuredly get eyes to see, a heart to feel, and a spirit strong to do what is to be done. When the faithful physician has a case com- mitted to him, he first endeavors to find out the cause of the disease, with the strongest confidence that if he can get light here he can scarcely fail of bringing relief to his patient. ' This is wise, all experience confirms it. Let us then imitate it. Is the whole head sick ? and the whole heart faint? And is there not a cause? And what hope can we have of a restoration to spiritual health till this cause be thoroughly searched out and faithfully exposed ? 16 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. CHAPTER II. In a former number the writer strove to turn the attention of his readers to the importance of faithfully examining 1 into the causes of the pre- sent deplorable state of our Church. This he did "with the deep conviction that unless these causes were thoroughly understood we could have no reasonable hope of deliverance. He now pro- poses briefly to point out some of these causes. But before proceeding to this task, let him dis- claim all intention to speak reproachfully, or in the spirit of fault-finding. He is too sensible of his own defects and unfaithfulness, to dare do this. And the occasion calls rather for sorrow than anger. He would also' ask his readers not to judge of his opinion of the different topics by the order in which they are presented. He must take up each one as his circumstances admit. And, lastly, he would have no one suppose that there are no other causes, or that the writer sees none, besides those brought forward in these short essays. Doubtless many more will occur to other and more experienced minds ; and should UNCONVERTED MINISTERS. 17 his imperfect attempts be the means of calling out such to take a part in th;s painful but necessary work, he will think, should he see no other fruit, that his labor has not been in vain. Let our first inquiry then be Has there teen sufficient carefulness among us in admitting candidates to the ministry? It is not in respect to literary, or theological qualifications this inquiry is made. As it regards these there are few denominations whose standard is so high as ours, and only one or two who, per- haps, are somewhat in advance of us. Neither is it in respect to merely moral character, we ask the question. Here also, our provision is, we be- lieve, sufficiently ample. Neither is it concerning the office of ordination the inquiry is suggested. That 'is full and scrip- tural, and he who sincerely and with an enlight- ened mind assents to the demands which it makes upon him at the solemn moment of presenting himself before God and his people, to be invested with the ministerial commission such a can- didate cannot but be properly qualified for the holy office. Not one of these things, then, im- portant as they are, have we now in view. It is concerning another matter, and a matter which if neglected or only slightly regarded, will render all 18 CONDITION A3XTD PROSPECTS &C. the rest, however carefully attended to, of no avail. Our question has reference to the spritual cha- racter and call of the candidate. Have \ve been sufficiently careful to ascertain, so far as man in the light of God's word can judge, whether those who apply to be admitted to the ministry are really themselves regenerated men, and called by the Holy Ghost to preach the Gospel ? Do we faith- . fully examine them whether they give scriptural evidence of a work of grace in the heart, and whether they have those views and feelings in respect to the work of the ministry which the spirit of God will certainly impart to all, whom He calls to so high and holy an embassy 1 The one grand object of the Gospel ministry is to per- suade men to be Christians. And is it not a great thing to be a Christian ? to be born again ? to be turned from darkness to light, and from the .power of Satan unto God? "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new." But of all this work of grace the unconverted man knows nothing, as he ought to know it ; he is an utter stranger, experimentally, to this spiritual, glorious transformation, without which none is fitted for, none can enter, the kingdom of heaven. Surely, then, he who is admitted to the Christian UNCONVERTED MINISTERS? 19 ministry ought himself to be a Christian a truly converted man. Without this, all his literature, all his theology, will be but " as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal." How carefully then ought those concerned in admitting men to the ministry how carefully ought they to examine, not merely into the ability and learning, and morals of the candidate, but, above all and before all things, into his spiritual character and meetness for the work. "What folly to say nothing of the sin and danger what folly to send a man forth to preach the gospel, who never yet experienced himself its transforming power in his own heart ! What folly to expect one to feel for the souls of others who never yet real- ized the worth and the ruin of his own soul ; to expect him to "know nothing among men, but Christ and him crucified," in whose own heart Christ has riever yet been revealed as "precious able and willing to save unto the uttermost all who come unto God by him !" Are these things so? Are these things so? Every faithful minister, every truly pious man, knows that they are ; he knows them by a heart felt experience to be inexpressibly important, solemn realities. . Have we then been sufficiently careful in this 20 CONDITION AND PBOSPECTS &C. matter 1 Would that we could say, we had ! But multitudes of facts at this moment crowd upon the mind of the writer, all bearing alarming testi- mony to past unfaithfulness. But one will he here state. He has been somewhat conversant with examinations for the ministry in various parts of our church ; and never, except on a single occa- sion, has he known a question put to a candidate the object of which was to ascertain whether he had proper views of the sacred office and of a call to it, or had been himself the subject of that spiritual, holy change which is essential to Chris- tian character. The writer cannot but fear, therefore, that there has not been sufficient carefulness in this matter. He .cannot but fear that many unconverted men men who know nothing spiritually of the truth and grace of the Lord Jesus, have been admitted to the ministry of pur Church. .If this;|i^j|adeed our sad case, who does not see what a fl^oji-gate of evils has thus been opened 1 It is a djvipe maxim "Like priest like people." Can we ;be surprised then at the rapid spread of Puseyism and other Popish developments through- out our borders ? Why Romanism in all its forms is just the- religion of the natural man: an unre- THE GBEAT WORK OF THE MUflSTEr. 21 generate heart is the very hot-bed in which it will most thrive. Does it not behoove us all seriously to ponder this matter? It may be, as the writer fears, that we have not been sufficiently careful here in times past. If we have not, certainly we may see in. this oversight one main cause of the existence and growth of our present troubles. Let each minister then "commune with his own heart;" and let the " spirit of the people make diligent search." Let all remember the injunction of the Apostle, { ' Lay hands suddenly on no man." and resolve to do nothing which will promote the in- troduction of any man into the ministry, unless we are persuaded that he feels the necessity of a change of hearty and has passed through such ex- ercises of mind, as one taught and called of the Spirit of God might be expected to have. Surely, "God hath not forgotten to be gracious." He will "guide us by his counsel" if we faithfully ' seek him. 22 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. CHAPTER III. It will not be denied by any consistent protest- ant that to preach the Gospel is the great work of the Christian Ministry. " Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel." Neither will it be denied that he whom Christ really sends, will fulfil his mission, he will preach not " another gospel" but l( the Gospel." He will not come as the advocate of any scheme of man's devising, however true and good in its place ; or as the promulger of any of the thousand and one forms of error which Satan so successfully uses to beguile and ruin unstable soul ; neither will he be satisfied with a vagne, indefinite statement of the gospel, or rather of something which, for all that appears, is not positively at variance with the gospel ; but he will endeavor, with " simplici- ty and godly sincerity," to declare unto men that peculiarly definite message emphatically "denomi- nated by an inspired Apostle " The gospel ojfthe grace of God. 57 To preach the gospel is, then, the great work of the Christian Ministry ; and it is only in doing this with plainness and fidelity they have, any GREAT WORK OF THE MINISTRY. 23 scriptural warrant to expect the blessing of heaven upon themselves and the souls of their hearers. " Sanctify them through thy truth ; thy word is truth," this is a part of the Saviour's last inter- cessory prayer on earth. God no where promises to bless error ; but his word is full of encourage- ment to believe that wherever the truth is faith- fully dispensed, it will prove " the power of God unto salvation." : And is it only through belief of the truth that men can be saved 1 The truth must therefore be worth to each one as much as his soul is worth. The latter will always be the exact measure of the preciousness of the former. Hence the solemn admonition of the wise man, " Buy the truth," (give any price for it) " and sell it not," (take no- thing in exchange for it, hold fast to it.) As then a minister values his own soul and the souls of his hearers, it becomes him to preach " the gospel/' just because the gospel is " The truth," the divinely appointed j instrument of sanctifying and saving men. What an awful moment was that in the career of the Roman governor when, looking down upon the then despised, but now glorified " messenger of the Lord of Hosts," he put the question to him "What is truth?" Would that Pilate had 24 ' CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. evinced any feeling befitting .the solemnity of the occasion ! Would that he had not so abruptly turned away, and thus perhaps for ever lost, the opportunity of knowing the things which be- longed to his peace ! We also ask, "what is truth?" And whilst consulting only " the oracles of God," we would humbly pray " the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, to give unto us the spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of him : the eyes of our understanding being enlightened, that we may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe according to the working of his mighty power." What then is truth? The natural character and condition of man, God's counsels of grace, and -mercy towards him, and his obligations in relation thereto ; these are the unspeakbly im- portant subjects of the gospel. Now the truth is just wliat God tells us concerning these things ; and, blessed be his name, it is written as with a sun- beam upon the pages of the Bible. But few testimonies, therefore, are required to establish it. I. In respect to the first point man's natural character and condition, hear God's own testi- WHAT IS TRUTH? 25 mony "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil con- tinually, they are all gone out of the way, there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the- law to do them, and, the soul that sinneth, it shall die." II. In respect to the second point God's coun- sels of grace and mercy to man "thus saith the Lord, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth, a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, being justified free- ly by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and re- joice in hope of the glory of God. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." - And once more, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away ; behold all things are become new." III. But what, lastly, are man's obligations in 26 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. view of this amazing grace and mercy? This is our third inquiry. "Jesus preached- repent ye, and believe the gospel. Grod commandeth all men everywhere to repent. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Put off the old man which is corrupt, put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." And to close our examination : " As he who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation." The doctrines here so explicitly and fully set forth are man's 1 apostacy from God and utter ruin through sin, redemption by the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the ap- plication of this in God's justification of the peni- tent sinner by faith only on the sole ground of the Saviour's merits or righteousness, and in his regeneration or change of heart by the sanctify- ing influence of the Holy Spirit; arid lastly, that every truly penitent believer, all who are thus justified and sanctified will, through grace, walk in the way of holy obedience, (C looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." This, then, is "the tmtli''"the gospel." And does it not lay the axe at the root of all man's pride, and teach him to ascribe the whole glory THE FALL, ' REDEMPTION, REGENERATION. 27 of his salvation to the love of God, through Jesus Christ? ' f "ou hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. For by grace are ye saved, through faith ; and that not of your- selves : it is the gift of God : not of works, lest any man should boast : for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus 'unto good works, which God hath before-ordained that we should walk in them." How very plain and simple a thing the gospel is ! How few, grand, and peculiar are its doc- trines ! It stands out clearly and perfectly distinct <3*f\ from all false religions. It is not idolatry, it is not Romanism, it is not man's morality ; neither is it any of those vague, indefinite, misty systems of religion with which so many nominal Chris- tians have unhappily deluded themselves, sys- tems however widely differing from each other, yet all agreeing in their acceptableness to the unhumbled heart of man. The writer would now ask with a deep and solemn feeling of the importance of the question, and in the spirit, he humbly trusts, of a true charity, is ^The gospel" always faithfully preached in our pulpits ? There can be no diffi- culty in this question to any really honest mind. The gospel is so plain that " the wayfaring man, 28 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS . &C. though a fool, need not err therein." Let each member, then, of our troubled Chureh,put his hand on his heart, and say, as in the presence of Al- mighty God, whether the gospel, as presented in the Scriptural Lessons aud breathed in the Litur- gy, is set forth in the sermons he usually hears, or whether the pulpit and the reading desk are not too often sadly at variance. The writer has vividly in his mind at this moment the recollec- tions of a noble-minded woman, well educated and of high rank. She had been baptized in our Church in her infancy, in youth confirmed, and then admitted to the Lord's Supper. Afterwards, in another part of the Church, it pleased God to open her eyes to her unconverted state and the perilous delusion in which she had so long lived. Upon looking back upon the unfaithful preach- ing which had so nearly ruined her soul, she ex- claimed with deep emotion to her then Rector, " O, sir, it was neither Law nor Gospel !" For one' thus mercifully awakened, alas, what multitudes sleep on insensible to their sin and danger ! " It was neither Law nor Gospel !" How em- phatically descriptive! And is such indeed the character of much of our. preaching ? If it be, it will go far to account for the troubles that have come upon us. Why the pulpit is the very heart A STRIKING CASE, BUT 2?OT piVCOMMON. 29 of the Christian Church, and if it be paralysed, what wonder that the members sicken and die ! The Ministry are the appointed sentinels of the Lord's host, and if the spirit of slumber have come over them, the enemy will certainly steal into the camp! And is he not already among us? Has he not gotten even into our high places? And is he not spreading himself far and wide among us, doing his work of darkness and destruction? We are all deeply, vitally interested here. It is therefore our duty and our safty to look faith- fully into this matter, Let each minister, then, " take heed to himself and to his doctrine." And let the people, like the noble Bereans, not only {C receive the word with all readiness of mind," but also "search the Scriptures daily whether those things aie so;" that is, let them " take heed" not only " how they hear/' but " what they hear." Where error prevails to any considerable ex- tent in a church, it is certain that the pulpit has not been faithful. Troubles, such as ours, cannot come upon a people, and the Ministry be entirely without .blame. 3 30 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. CHAPTER IV. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. The natu- ral man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto him : neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." What do these and many similar passages of Scripture teach ? Certainly it must be important to understand them. They are a part of God's word. They concern Christian character, the Christian Church, and the things of Christ gene- rally. What then do they teach 1 Let us seek, so far as our present purpose 'is concerned, to know their import clearly and exactly, that we may faithfully obey them. In doing this we consult our own highest interest and that of the Church. To neglect, or but slightly regard these ORGAIfIC DEFECTS VESTRIES. 31 divine testimonies must be wrong; and such wrong as will certainly be followed by fearful consequences to ourselves and others. We suppose that these and such like passages of God's word plainly teach that a spiritual, holy change must take place in the character of men before they can be truly said to be subjects of Christ's Spiritual Kingdom, or members of his holy catholic Church, and that only such have a spiritual knowledge of this Kingdom, or can ex- ercise a right judgment concerning its affairs. How much more instruction these verses may contain, we need not now inquire. What we have deduced from them, we doubt not, will be assented to by every intelligent, serious reader of the Bible. Now as the chief object of the visible Church is to promote Christ's Spiritual Kingdom, so, if we have rightly interpreted the foregoing Scrip- tures, we are authorized to say that they who undertake to manage the affairs of the Church, ought themselves to have a right apprehension of the spiritual nature of that Kingdom and its con- cerns. To this great practical principle will not every pious man at once assent ? Indeed, we sup- pose that no one, who professes a respect for God's word, and regards his own character for candor 32 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. and consistency, would be willing, directly and in words, to deny it. The principle here presented as iScriptural, is simply this, to spiritual men belong spiritual things. Now have we, as a Church, kept this plain Bible principle ever in view, and been duly care^ ful to carry it out in all our arrangements ? Or have we too often overlooked it, and by this neg- lect laid ourselves open to many and sore evils 1 There is here required both in the writer and his readers, not only much of charity and candor, but that unflinching fidelity to Christ which can look facts right in the face, honestly interrogate them, and simply report results. Let us endeavor thus to scrutinize some of our ecclesiastical arrange- ments. And first I. How it is with our Vestries ? These are not, as many unthinking, or ill informed persons sup- pose, merely stewards of the temporal affairs of the Church. They have many other and very grave duties to perform. In almost every parish they choose the minister, and, of course, must judge of his character and preaching, whether these are suited to the spiritual edification and oversight of the church. They generally elect delegates to represent their congregation in the Diocesan Convention. To them, as an organized DEFECTS OF VESTEIES. 33 body, it ordinarily belongs to take one of the first steps towards the admission of a candidate to the holy office. Without their certificate to his piety, he cannot be received. In some dioceses they are required, also, to judge of the conduct of mem- bers of their parish ; and in all cases it would be generally and justly expected of them, should the pastor appear unworthy on account of heresy, immorality, or unministerial conduct, to present him for trial, that in case he be proved guilty, the congregation may be delivered from so great an evil. And, to say no more, their office must ever make them prominent before the people, and give to their character and example much influence in the Church and in the world about it. Here then, are very important duties, and with- out a faithful attention to them it is impossible for the parish to flourish. They are, nearly every one of them, more or less spiritual in their nature, and demand spiritual qualifications for their due discharge. If not performed aright, how must the spiritual interests of the parish, and the Church generally suffer ! If a body of pious vestrymen is a rich blessing to any congregation, and cer- tainly none will deny this, how dreadful a curse must an irreligious vestry be ! They will hang as a dead weight upon the feet of a faithful min- 34 CONDITION AND PBOSPECTS &C. x ister. They will neutralize nearly all his in- fluence. Hence, for the most part, the cause of Christ will languish in a parish so situated; or if, through God's special mercy, it be revived, it will be sure to reform or sweep away such a vestry. The latter we have known it, in some cases, silently but efficiently to do. Now, are we careful to provide that none but pious men' should be chosen to so important an office 1 men of spiritual character, spiritual dis- cernment, spiritual judgment? At least, do we provide that only professors of religion should be vestrymen? Scarcely ever is this done. The writer knows of not a single diocese in which, if his recollections are correct, the vestry must be chosen from among the communicants of the Church. The evils which have grown out of this un- happy neglect, it would not be possible in our limited articles to enumerate, much less fully to lay open. What faithful pastor, what pious mem- ber of our Church, has not mourned over them ? Let any serious man read the certificate required of a vestry before a candidate can be admitted to the office either of Deacon or Presbyter how weighty and solemn the things there asserted ! Surely it demands no small share of spiritual DIOCESAN CONVENTIONS. 35 discernment and spiritual judgment to decide wisely and safely in such a case. How dreadful an injury must carelessness or ignorance here bring upon the Church! And yet, alas, how often does this important instrument proceed from a body of men, very few, if any, of whom give the least scriptural evidence of piety, and the most of whom make not even a profession of re- ligion! Would that we could add that this was the worst aspect of the case ! But surely enough has been saidj to show the need of reform here, if we would get rid of our present troubles, and prevent their recurrence in future. IT. And what is the Constitutional safeguard of our Diocesan Conventions ? This body elects a Bishop, and it alone, in the diocese, has power to present him for trial. It chooses the Standing Committee and the Representatives of the Dio- cese to the General Convention : and, not to go further into detail, the internal or municipal con- cerns of the diocese are all under its legislative control. Surely such a body ought to -be composed of wise and good men, in the highest, the Christian, sense of the terms. And yet the writer, after many years acquaintance with most parts of our Chiirchj can find but two dioceses in which mem- '36 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. bers of the Convention are required to be com- municants. He is confident indeed of only one ; it is to be hoped, however, that there may be others. But certainly in a great majority of our dioceses, owing to this evil, business of vital im- portance to all our Churches, and much of it of a spiritual character, is thus placed in the hands of those who, neither by Constitution nor Canon, are required to be professedly men of spiritual discernment or spiritual judgment. < * With the knowledge of this sad oversight who can be surprised, however grieved he must be, at what has at times transpiredat our Diocesan Conventions? Let no one suppose that the humiliating scenes witnessed within a few years past in the New York Convention, and which so shocked the public mind, are without a parallel. But we forbear, and yet we can scarcely sup- press the conviction that the present awful crisis in our Church imposes upon each one of her members a moral necessity of holding up this subject in all its length and breadth. The soul of piety would indeed weep over it, but the most blind and prejudiced could not long shut out the salutary feeling of our need of reform. III. How is it with our Standing Committees ? Their duties are almost entirely spiritual. They STANDING COMMITTEES. 37 are the authorised counsellors of the Bishop. No one can be ordained without their permission ; and many other duties equally important to the spiritual interests of the Church are imposed upon them. It would seem, then, to admit of no question that they upon whose judgment it so largely de- pends who shall be admitted to the Gospel ministry to say nothing of their other duties ought themselves to be spiritually-minded, indeed eminently wise and holy men. It is 'fearfully dangerous, and no small sin, to commit such a trust to any others. And yet,- are there more than two or three dioceses whose legislation requires the members of this body to be professors of re- ligion 1 The writer knows not of so many ; but he is very happy to be able to add, that there ap- pears to be a quite extensively felt propriety that the lay members of the Standing Committees should be communicants. Hence they are, he believes, for the most part of this character. One fact, however, in connection with this subject, he will mention, and that because it has in a few years past excited so wide and deep an interest among us. It is a legislative provision of our church that the election of a bishop by a diocese must ordinarily be submitted to the Stand- ing Committees of all the other dioceses for their 38 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. / concurrence before he can be consecrated. Now such is the state of things among us, or -at least was our state .not long since, that it became a matter of complaint even in some of our re- ligious periodicals, and among them the Episcopal Recorder, that whenever a minister reputed evan- gelical was presented to the Standing Committees as a Bishop-elect, every possible difficulty was thrown in the way of his consecration, so as to oc- casion long, vexatious, and most injurious delays. But in the case of others no such trouble was ex- perienced. The one seemed to go in upon a flood, wafted onward by every propitious breeze; the other had to pass through a perilous. succession of rocks, and straits, and adverse gales, so as " scarcely to be saved." IV. We now come to a most important body the General Convention. This is the grand council of our Church. It is our supreme legis- lative body. The Book of Common Prayer, the Homilies in a word, the faith and worship of our Church, much of its] discipline, and a great va- riety of other matters of vital interest to the whole Church and each member thereof are subject to the authority of the General Convention. There can be no appeal from it. Its decisions are final and universally binding. GENERAL CONVENTION, ITS IMPORTANCE. 39 Here, will it not naturally be expected by every intelligent, pious person, that we shall find in our Constitution, the most clear, careful and strong provisions made to guard against the ad- mission of any into this body, but men of eminent- ly religious character men full of faith and of the Holy Ghost 1 Would that it were so ! But let any one closely examine the last edition of the Constitution and Canons of the General Conven- tion, as published in Swords' Almanac for 1845, and he will discover not a single line, not a word, requiring even a profession of religion as neces- sary to membership in that body. So that a lay- man, without even the form of godliness, a perfectly worldly man, even an infidel, may take his seat in this. our grand Ecclesiastical council, and thus exercise a controlling influence in the most vital matters affecting our whole Church. The writer has never yet met with a plain, pious communicant, or even with a person of the least serious reflection, who could believe this fact, when first stated in his presence. He would ex- press astonishment and incredulity ; he would suppose that there must be some mistake in the matter ; 'that it could not possibly be so ! And all this would be changed into deep grief when as- sured that it was really the fact. 40 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. And have we such organic evils among us, evils not merely in one or two parts, but running through nearly the whole of our Ecclesiastical fa- bric, from the Yestry upward to the General'Cori- vention 1 "We are aware, indeed, that the natural mind the unregenerate man however wise in this world's wisdom, may see nothing in all this to disapprove, nothing to excite apprehension. But can the enlightened Christian, the spiritually-mind- ed man, who seriously reflects upon these things, fail ft> discern here many and widely open doors at which Romanism, and almost every other form of error, may not only creep in, but stalk in with form erect, and unblushing face, setting at de- fiance the paralysed arm of truth and godly dis- cipline ? And can such a man wonder, in view of these things, that a Yestry, and a Standing Com- mittee s and -a Bishop, and his Presbyters, were all found ready and willing and that in the very face of a solemn, righteous protest before God and his people to introduce into our ministry a can- didate who had openly avowed his adherence to the doctrinal decrees of the Council of Trent ? Strange would we have thought it, as things are, had this Bishop hesitated to vindicate what he had done at the subsequent Diocesan Convention, or had that Convention censured his doings. DEFECTS OF GENERAL CONVENTION. '41 And yet were we Church-loving and confiding enough to hope that the next General Conven- tion would set the whole matter straight, and fix deeply its brand of righteous condemnation upon such an unprotestant, unhallowed procedure. But how was our simplicity rebuked! and all our high hopes so reverentially cherished cast down 'to the ground! It ought to be to us all, and certainly to every enlightened, pious member of our Church, iit will be, a matter not of envious reflection but sin- cere thanksgiving to the Great Head of the Church, that scarcely any, if any, of the various other evangelical denominations have beenbetray- ed into our organic error. Whatever their prac- tice 1 may be in regard to admission to the ministry, or to the preaching of the Gospel, or to Church discipline they have at least kept the manage- ment of these things, in the hands of professedly religious men. Sessions, Associations, Presby- teries, Councils, Synods, Conferences, Conso- ciations, or by whatever name the different de- nominations may designate their several ecclesi- astical bodies, these must all be composed of communicants men who claim spiritual charac- ter, spiritual discernment, spiritual judgment, and to whom their Church, in the exercise of a chari- 4* 42 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. table hope, has accorded this high claim. Doubt- less there are many other things which make us to differ in many respects from our fellow Chris- tians of other names ; but no one, we think, of ordinary intelligence and piety, can reflect upon our peculiar organic defects without seeing how closely connected these are with our present pecu- liar troubles. Are not the World'and Popery fast friends ? And is not the only real antagonist of the latter, and consequently its most effectual preventive a true, spiritual Christianity? The Church, therefore, that has unhappily not been careful to entrust her spiritual interests exclusive- ly to the hands of spiritual men, but left almost every door open to the world, cannot reasonably expect to escape frequent visitations of the "man of sin." How many of these disastrous intrusions can we count since the days of Edward VI.? And how long before we shall shut them out ? The Lord give us wisdom and strength for this neces- sary reformation work !> We say necessary reformation work, for, unless we close our eyes against the teachings of God's Word, and all experience, what expectations can we cherish so long as such organic defects are suffered to remain? Were it possible for us this moment as a Church, " to wash ourselves with THE WORLD AND POPERY FAST FRIENDS. 43 snow water, and make our hands never so clean," how long could we preserve our purity with these flood-gates of evil opening in upon us? He is no true friend of the Church who seeks to cover over these things, instead of honestly . lifting up the voice of warning. He is not wor- thy to approach her communion, much less to minister 'at her altars, who, in this her most awful crisis, can stand selfishly counting the cost of faithfulness to her, instead of being ready atid de- termined to peril all but the salvation of his soul, for her welfare. " 44 CONDITION. ANU KROSPECTS CHAPTER V. At what a crisis did every enlightened Chris- tian feel he had arrived' when about to make a profession of religion ! How important, how solemn, how awfully responsible the step! It is a great thing to be a Christian ; it is a great thing also, to profess to be a Christian. He who does it, ceases from that moment to stand alone ; he becomes one of a company which no man. can number ; he involves the best interests of millions, he involves Christ's cause, in his individual career. Greatly may he benefit, or greatly must he injure, these interests and this cause. That a man who has reached such a point should therefore pause, and reflect, and search inwardly, and look upward with deep solicitude, is to be expected. To be without these thoughts and feelings, these hopes and fears, would argue a sad state. The mere formal professor of religion the man who has never known the plague of his own heart and the preciousness of a Saviour, may indeed doubt their sincerity, or despise them as the day-dreams of a weak but honest fanaticism: VIEWS OF THE REGENERATE SOUL. 45 but every child of God, every truly converted soul, knows them in the experience of his own heart, and by the higher teachings of God's word and Spirit, to be solemn, inexpressibly solemn realities. Every regenerate soul knows, also, that "the heart is deceitful above all things;" and therefore dreads self-delusion, and therefore desires nothing so much as to be faithfully dealt with. He knows how much he may grieve the hearts of Crod's people, how much injury he may do to the world about him, how much dishonor he may bring upon the name and the Church and the cause of Christ, by an unsound profession, and its conse- quence, an inconsistent, unholy walk ; and there- fore, when such a man, after much thought and prayer, goes to a minister to open his mind to him, and to ask counsel of him in respect to a profes- sion of religion, he determines that he will freely and fully unbosom himself, state his whole case just as it is all God's dealings with him, all his thoughts and feelings, all his hopes and fears, since first brought seriously to reflect upon "the things which belong to his everlasting peace. And he will expect the minister as he feels for his eternal interests, as he values his own soul, as he regards the purity and welfare of the 46 CONDITION AND 1'ROSPECTS &C. Church, as he desires the best interests of men- to deal honestly with him, to search him thoroughly and faithfully. So that if he have deceived himself,, he may be undeceived before it be too late, and put upon the right path ; and thus he himself, and the Church, and the world, may be preserved from the injury and the perils of an unsound profession. Such, we believe, will be, in a greater or. less degree, the views and the exercises of every truly enlightened Christian when about to make a pub- lic profession, of religion. But/jas he been usually met in a corresponding spirit ty our ministers? How has it been with us in I. Confirmation? No intelligent Christian can read the office of Confirmation and fail to discern that the qualifications for that rite are "repentance toward God, faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," in other words, true piety. He who is not fit in point of spiritual character for the Lord's Sup- per, is not fit for confirmation. And he, who has been worthily confirmed ought to approach the table of the Lord at the first opportunity. Not to do so, is to neglect a solemn duty. And yet is it not a fact, that of those confirmed, many never come to the Lord's Supper at all, and many put it off for years.? It will be found upon UNFAITHFULNESS IN COIfFntaiATIpN. 47 inquiry into such cases, that their neglect fre- quently arises from a conviction that they are not prepared for the Communion. And unhappily these convictions are too often well founded. But how happens this? Does it not proceed from the fact that ministers are frequently not careful enough to explain the true nature of Confirmation; and those spiritual qualifications which are in- dispensable to a worthy and profitable participa- tion in it? One incident the writer will relate in illustration of the errors and evils which he fears are too common upon this subject. The Rev. Mr. had notice of an Episcopal visitation of his parish. The Bishop arrivedj and when the list of candidates was handed to him, appeared much chagrined that the number was so small. He added, however, "Never mind, never mind, I recollect that in the diocese of 3 the Bishop, in the course of his visitation, once came to a Church, where he found to his great disappointment very few to be confirmed. j He ap- pointed another day, a few Weeks after, to hold a second confirmation, and upon returning he had the satisfaction of confirming over a hundred more. And as I intend to stay here another Sun- day, we can then have a larger confirmation." "Ah, Bishop!" replied the Pastor, "Such cases as 48 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. you speak of, it is to be feared, have been too com- mon. The thoughtless, the worldly, and the self-deceived have been pressed forward in throngs to the altar! But have not these occurrences brought great evil upon our Church, and towered her character in the eyes of serious people of other denominations? The list I have given you, with my name appended thereto, in obedience to the Rubric, comprises all in the parish not confirmed, of whom I can entertain a charitable hope that they possess the spiritual qualifications required by the Prayer-book. I have labored for some weeks among my people with a- special reference to this solemn service, and I can see no reason to expect that the catalogue will be much, if at all, increased by next Sunday." II. Have we been faithful in regard to the Lord's Supper ? That Christan character, or true piety is essential in a worthy communicant, is manifest from the Scriptures, and with equal clear- ness is required by our Church. Repentance and faith, and an entire consecration of heart and life to the Saviour, are most plainly and fully insisted upon in the Communion Service. Indeed it would, we believe, be scarcely possible for the pen of man to frame anything upon these points more solemn, searching, and heart-affecting. Un- WOBLDLY COMMUNICANTS. 49 doubtedly the Communion Office, like all other of man's productions, has its defects; there is no perfect book .but God's; still may we not safely assert that the principles and spirit of this Office are in most impressive harmony with the- views and exercises of the pious heart in relation to the Sacrament? But have the principles and the spirit of this service been duly carried out by us? We dp not say that the service is of no avail without such pastoral fidelity; for' doubtless, even under the most untoward circumstances, it has, of itself, at times, been the means, under divine .grace, of awakening the consciences of impenitent men, of directing the inquiring, and exciting the humble believer to increased diligence in his holy calling. But this we do say, that if our ministers have not in times past been faithful in this matter, very many unconverted men have found their way into our Churches some thoughtless, some self- deceived, and others still worse, but all worldly^ worldly. The influence of such communicants is pecu- liarly disastrous. Their spirit, their character, their daily walk, discourage faithful ministers, greatly impair their influence, 'hinder sincere in- quirers, and prove terrible stumbling blocks to the 5 50 CONDITION AND PEOSPECTS &C. worldly and the wicked. Thus they hang, at least, as dead weights upon the cause of Christ, and in too many cases, are its most efficient and malig- nant opposers. Better, we have often thought, bet- ter go* out into the highways and hedges and preach the gospel, than minister in a Church where a large majority of its communicants are of such a character. The openly impenitent and wicked will generally treat a faithful minister better than such communicants usually do; they will be more accessible to his endeavors to do them good, and more likely to find a blessing under his labors. (Matt. xxi. 31, 32.) And when such a minister has, in the course of Providence, been placed in a Church so unhappily situated usually, one of the first, if not the most salutary, effects of his preaching and pastoral labors, is the falling off of the communion. Some will openly quarrel with the truth, and quit in anger; others will -quietly cease to approach the table of the Lord, because honestly convinced that they ought not in their present state ever to have gone to it. When the Church has been thus purged, another and a bet- ter state of things will be almost sure to follow. The tone of piety will become elevated. Those left will appear in quite a different light, both to themselves and to others. They will more deeply EVILS OF LAX, COMMUNION. 51 realise their responsibility, and exert a more decided influence for good. And the result of all this can scarcely fail to be large accessions, both to the congregation and the communion, and such accessions, in the latter case, as will bring increased spiritual strength and holy influence to the Church, and thus lay the foundation for a much greater prosperity than if ever before wit- nessed. ' , ; Have we, then, been generally faithful in regard to the Lord's Supper? From long, and careful, and quite extensive observation, the writer is compelled to express his convictions that we have not been. Few things, indeed, are more painful to him than to reflect upon his own personal ex- perience in this matter. He himself was admitted to the communion by one of the most distinguish- ed ministers of our Church without the slightest examination, either as it respected his views of the Gospel, or his experience of its power. He might have been not only spiritually dead, but utterly ignorant of the truth as it is in Jesus, and even an infidel, for aught his Pastor knew. And such, he is pained to add, has been the fact with ^multitudes, also, with whom he has been con- versant since that day, in different parts of the Church. He thought, indeed, at first, that his own case was peculiar, and was surprised and 52 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C: grieved at its occurrence ; but he quickly found that he was not alone ; ; and the thirty years that have since elapsed, while they enlarged to a sad extent his sense of the evil, have prepared his mind to view, without surprise, certain very painful results that have frequently forced them- selves upon his notice, a few of which we may here just glance at. The first, is the fact that the religious world about us, very generally suppose that the standard of piety is lower in our Church than in the other orthodox denominations; that it is comparatively an easy thing to get into our com- munion; and consequently that such a position is but equivocal evidence of piety. Again : it is usually thought among us of little importance to give or require certificates of. good standing in, the case of those who are about to leave one of our churches, or be admitted to another,in the same, or perhaps a distant diocesSi Hence such certificates are seldom asked or given. What a sad state of things does this indicate ! How easy the access to communion ! And of how little worth the privi- lege ! Indeed, so much a matter of course has this looseness of religious profession become among us, that tha writer has known the bare asking for a letter by a pastor in the case of a professed communicant, who had applied to be received as such, to be treated as an insult. Pastoral fidelity, GUARD THE LOR' S SUPPER CAREFULLY. 53 % here, instead of being expected and rightly appre- ciated, was regarded as so remarkable an excep- tion, that it called forth angry remonstrance. One other fact we will mention ; .it is the difficulty of making our shrewd, frank, ' non-professing churchmen feel the importance of requiring a profession of religion in those to whom the affairs of the Church are to be intrusted as vestrymen, members of Convention, or of other ecclesiastical bodies. They cannot see such . a difference be- tween professors of religion and themselves, as would make it a matter of much importance which of them should manage, these affairs. Great, however, as these evils are, it was not with a primary reference to them we commenced these essays. It is an ulterior evil we have main- ly in view. It is the fact, that if, through the want of a faithfully administered spiritual disci- pline large numbers of unconverted men men strangers to the truth, and grace of the Lord Jesus have been admitted to the communion of our Church, if these things are so, the wide spread of Puseyism is at once accounted for. Why, such is just the foundation on which any Popish de- velopment would choose to build. The religion of sacraments, and priestly assumptions, and eccle- siastical pomp, finds a congenial home in the 5* 54 CONDITION AKD PROSPECTS &C. 9 blindness and self-righteousness of the unre- generate professor of religion. The Gospel faith- fully administered would speedily expose the unsoundness of such a professor, and lay all his proud hopes in the dust ; but Popish darkness, and Popish superstitions are the very element in which he can breathe and move most freely. .And thus it is, that loose views of Confirmation and of the Lord's Supper, and the loose practices growing out of these views, could not but largely lay us open to the" sore troubles that have come upon us ; and hence, till we reform these views and practices, we cannot get rid of our troubles. Let each Pastor, and let each member of our Church, lay these things to heart. Do not the times call for close, searching inquiry, and frank, faithful acknowledgment? The writer has spoken plainly, but, he trusts, in the spirit of kindness, and with a hearty desire to do good to the Church of his childhood, and the Church in whose weal and whose wo Providence has so long and so largely wrapt up his own. THE CHUBCH OBEK DUTY. 55 CHAPTER VI. * The Church of Christ was at first gathered by the preaching of the Gospel, and the obligation rested upon her, from the first, to extend the preaching of the Gospel as widely and as rapidly as possible. This is the Church's mission ; it is the great work which her divine Head has cajled her to do ; and it can never, be said to be accom- plished till "the earth shall be full of the know- ledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." The Gospel itself is the church's peculiar trea- sure, her true glory. She should guard it with the utmost care; see to it that nothing dims its lustre; and never cease her efforts to make it known to others, so.lpng as there is one spot on earth, one. heart not illumined by its heavenly beams. After her own growth in grace, and indeed as a means most effectually subservient to it, this is the Church's first calling, her chief duty. How great, then, how transcendent, the honor put upon the Church ! Her chief concern is with things spiritual and eternal, the truth, God, 56 CONDITION AIO) PEOSPECTS &C. Christ, the Holy Ghost, immortal souls ! In these matters, indeed, her part is merely a ministry, she is to make known the Saviour in his person, offices, work and glory. But she has the promise of the Holy Spirit to render her ministry of the truth effectual to the salvation of souls, and the advancement of God's kingdom on earth. Christ is indeed the only law-giver or source of power to the Church, and therefore what he has been pleased to reveal by his spirit, is all the Church is bound to believe or do, and all she is to require of others, or they are bound to receive at her hands. This revelation is contained in the Bible which is therefore to the Churchj and through her to the world, the only standard of faith and practice. If these things be so, the true position of the Church is then one of entire subserviency to Christ, and only so far as she faithfully occupies this humble position, is she really honorable in the sight of God and of all holy beings, or can she prove a blessing to the world. So important, then, is the duly, so precious the treasure, so high the honor, and yet so lowly the position of the Church. Bat suppose, instead of this lowly position of a " witness and a keeper of holy writ," this minis- try of perfect dependence upon Christ and entire THE IMPIOUS CLAIMS OF ROME. 57 subjection to him, there should be assumed by some, professing to be members of the visible Church, an exclusive power exclusive so far as other human agency is concerned to legislate for men's consciences, and to dispense the grace of the Gospel at their will, so that all who sub- mitted to them were really regenerate, and par- takers of the blessings of the Gospel ; but that all others, however penitent, believing, and holy, had , no part nor lot in the covenant of mercy. Arrogant and blasphemous as such an assumption would be, it has been made. . What we have stated as an hypothesis, it is well known, is really historical fact. Just the power above sup- posed is claimed and exercised by her who " sit- teth on the seven mountains." From Rome there went forth the decree not that the authority of the Bible was to be denied, O no! but that the Church had a co-ordinate authority to bind men's consciences ; that all who bowed before this claim were of the true fold of Christ and partakers of his blessing; but that all others, whatever they might profess, were really schismatics and here- tics under the indignation of Almighty God and of his blessed Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul. Thus instead of being a divinely constituted "witness and keeper of holy writ," a. servant of Christ, and 58 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. of men for Christ's sake, Rome made herself a sovereign legislator and judge a {; lord over God's heritage," dispensing life and death, tem- poral and eternal, at her will and pleasure. In a word, Rome -ceased to be a Church of Christ- she became Antichrist. And need we say, when this other foundation than the Bible was laid, what a monstrous fabric of despotism was built upon it 1 To the power of the Roman Antichrist almost all the nations were compelled, sooner or later, to submit. And to secure their allegiance, while she enchanted their senses by her gorgeous ceremonial, and gave in- dulgence to their lusts, she used all her art and power to put out the light and enfeeble the ener- gies of every people, and thus bring a second childhood of ignorance and imbecility upon the world. The Bible became a sealed book, the fountains of knowledge were dried up. and that long night of abject submission, barbarism and wretchedness followed, emphatically termed "the dark ages." Neither need- we speak of the mighty efforts of Luther, Calvin and Cranmer, and their noble compeers, to enlighten, and elevate, and purify the nations so long benighted, and crushed down, and corrupted by "the man of sin." They em- THE WORK OF THE REFORMERS. . ' 59 . ployed One chief instrument, but that was "mighty" through God to the pulling down of strong holds." They restored the, Bible to its rightful authority. The Reformation of the sixteenth century was emphatically the work of the Gospel; and it con- tinued to prosper and extend itself so long as the Church relied simply upon the preaching of '/the truth." The blessings of popular instruction, freedom and happiness, went hand in hand with the. work of the Reformers, and have been trans- mitted to the nations of our day, just so far as each one .has faithfully cherished the spirit and the truth of the Reformation. Let us here pause to inquire what it is that constitutes Popery, or rather what is the essence of Popery, its fundamental principle -that from which all its other errors and evils flow. It has been generally thought to consist in the exaltation of the sacraments, of sacerdotal power, and of the merit of works, because these errors naturally introduce that -long train of gorgeous ceremonies, debasing superstitions, self-righteous penances, and oppressive exactions which make up practical Popery, or the body of " the man of sin." That these corruptions naturally grow out of the errors of Popery, in respect to the sacra- ments, the priesthood, and human merits, there 60 CONDITION AND PEOSPECTS If! 'can be no doubt. But do not they stand related to each other only as the fruit to the tree.? for the root must we not look more deeply? , There is, among the^rnany prophecies of the Bible upon this subject, one which, if we mistake not, sounds the very depths of "the mystery of iniquity." It is as follows : " Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come < except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that: is called Godj or that is worshiped; so .that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing him- .self that he is God."~(Z Thes, ii. 3, 4) Here the dark abyss is clearly opened up, and we may look down into the very heart of "the man of sin." He first begins with usurping the throne of God, sitting in the -temple of God, and then puts forth such claims as belong only to God. How opposite is all this to true Christianity ! In ' the latter, God is the only Lord of conscience, and therefore his revealed will, the Bible,. is our only rule , of faith and practice, and the Church is merely "a witness and a, keeper of holy writ." As Christ's servant, her duty is to publish his Gospel to all nations. Here her power and her obligations alike end. Hers is merely a ministry. THE ESSENTIAL PBINCIPLE OF POPERY. 61 She cannot add to the truths and precepts of God's word; she dares not diminish them. She has no sovereign authority over men's consciences; she claims none; she is merely their servant for Jesus' sake. . Now let it be carefully noted that the Church in this her rightful, her scriptural position, in whatever age, or whatever part of the world we regard her, the CHURCH is uniformly found,; as a faithful witness and keeper of God's word, to hold up the doctrinzs of grace, the obligations of the law of holiness, and the sacredness of human rights, and especially of the rights of conscience. But when any particular Church begins to usurp the throne of God, to sit in the temple of God, and to claim the subjection of men's consciences to her decrees, the Bible sooner or later becomes .a forbidden book, and the power of her priest- hood, and the efficacy of her sacraments, and the merits of her members are really made to super- sede Christ and the Gospel of his grace. Is it not the root of Popery, then, the claim of divine authority, the usurping of God's throne, the sitting as God in the temple of God ? From this naturally grow the whole idolatry of the priesthood and of the sacraments; the assumption of infallibility ; the doctrine of penances and of 6 62 coNbrrioN AND PEOS'PECTS &c. human merits, so opposite to the gospel of the grace of God; and that all-comprehensive, crush- ing despotism : which, taken together, constitute the full development of Romanism, the complete hody of " the Man of Sin." Wherever, then, we discover this impious claim, however feebly put forth, there we may be certain that Popery is begun, and that unless in some way mercifully checked, it will go on unto perfection : it will attain unto " the measure of the fulness of" Anti- Christ. , Suppose, for example, that in certain parts of a Church whose doctrinal standards were essential- ly ^protestant, there should be put forth not only the claim of a power to bind men's consciences, but, along with this tremendous assumption of an authority co-ordinate with the word of God, a denial also of the doctrine of justification by faith only, and of other great evangelical truths, and the claim of an exclusive possession of sacerdotal au- thority and of Church ordinances. Now who cannot see with the Bible in his hand and the volume of ecclesiastical history before him who cannot see in such an anti-evangelical party and its lofty pretensions^ all the elements of .a genuine Popery? It requires only time and favoring cir- cumstances to grow up to the full proportions of THE POPERY.. OF PROTESTANTISM. .63 the man of sin, and to stand forth in deadly an- tagonism to "the gospel of the grace of. God," and the liberty wherewith Christ has made his people free. . But has such an unprotestant claim ever been put forth among us?. And have any been found in our borders seeking to carry out these unscrip- turaland exclusive views? He must be but little conversant with our past history or present state, who can be ignorant that what we have supposed to take place somewhere, has. really occurred in our church. Let any one look into the writings of Bishop Hobart, the distinguished oracle of a well known party among us, and he will there find the grand fundamental principle of Popery unhesitatingly laid down the power to bind men's consciences with the awful force of the highest moral obligation, a power clearly divine, for what more than this as a Lawgiver does God himself ever do ? And he will find it also main- tained, as was to be expected, that we are not justified by faith only; that the sacramenls are exclusively in the hands of the Episcopal minis- try, and that, as administered by them, they are necessary and efficient to our regeneration, justi- fication, and salvation; and therefore that the churches of other denominations, however evan- 64 CONDITION AND PROSPEiCTS &C. gelical in doctrine, are no churches; their sacra- ments, no sacraments; their ministers, no ministers ; and that both ministers and people, however penitent, believing, and holy, have neither part nor lot in the covenant of mercy. Now, who cannot see that the ground here occu- pied is far away from the scriptural position of our protestant church, and scarcely a stone's cast off from the territory of our " Lord God the Pope?" That very many who embrace this system of Churchism should, sooner or later, run up into Puseyism, will therefore surprise no one who considers that the relation between cause and effect is just as fixed in the moral as in the natural world. What element of Puseyism does not the Hobart theology contain? Some of them indeed quite largely developed. It is, in fact, but a step or two, "and those very short ones, from the New York school to that of Oxford. No one who stands at the first point has a right to find fault with those who have gone onward -to the second. The latter are, so far forth, the consistent men: they have merely carried out their prince pies a little further. We. would not, indeed, have the others do this, for we may not wish for evil that good may come. Neither would we counsel CHTJRCHISHj PUSEYISM, POPERY. 65 the latter to throw themselves openly into the ranks of Rome, though this would be much more honest than their present position, and take away much of the power they now possess to do mis- chief to the cause of Christ. We would rather exhort them both to abandon their errors alto- gether^ and embrace a scriptural Christianity, and thus be really Protestants. Even- should the disciples of theHobart school not generally run into Romanism, but remain stationary, we could not but regard it, on their own account at least, as a Jiappy inconsistency. But can they remain long in their present po- sition ? Must they not fall back 6n the Articles and Homilies of the Church, or go onward to Rome ? Would that wisdom and grace might be given them all to follow in the footsteps of one whom we well knew and loved, and who was early associated with them the late Rev. Dr. . He had been brought up at the feet of the great Master, and began his very popular career any- thing but a preacher of the Gospel. It pleased God, some years afterward, to open his eyes to -his miserable spiritual destitution, and lead him to a saving knowledge of ; or want of conformity, and still less frequently is there any real ground for such, complaints. Well were it with us, could we a;S successfully endure a scrutiny by the second class of requirements. Have we, then, been as. careful in respect to the vital doctrines and moral precepts of. the Gospel as we confessedly are in all that concerns Rubrics and other ceremonial laws ? Do we, for example, hold up with great plainness, clearness, and ful- ness, in all our teachings, both in the pulpit and from the press, the great PROSPECTS &C. we fear, be continually liable to put a positive construction upon the service, and thus be in danger of either running into the Popish doctrine of baptismal regeneration; or, of rejecting the service as Popish, and ultimately quitting the Church altogether; or, after struggling for light on the subject a while in vain, of settling down contented with no clear, definite views whatever. In this last state we have reason to apprehend that the great mass of our people, and not a few of our ministers, really are at this moment. Doubtless the baptismal office we repeat 1 it has kept very many enlightened, serious Chris- tians out of our Church, who would otherwise have gladly come into it. ."With no part of "the Prayer-Book have we ever heard so much fault found as with this, by pious persons, both minis- ters and people, in our Church and out of it. It is a standing reproach to us, and a stumbling- block in the way of multitudes. . Such, then, are the three views of this service which have been widely held among us. And although we doubt not, but that there is ground sufficient in the service for the favorers of the ecclesiastical and the hypothetical construction to stand upon, and thus honestly continue in the communion of our Church; yet we do greatly fear DANGER OF THE BAPTISMAL OFFICE. 117 that the general impression inade by the baptis- mal service upon our people is favorable to the views of those who teach baptismal regeneration. Nothing, perhaps, hinders the quite general pre- valence of these views among us, but the power of the Bible and enlightened Christian' experience. Indeed, so strongly impressed are we with this conviction, that we must frankly say that were we sitting in judgment on a minister charged with an offence against the Church because holding the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, we would be compelled, in conscience, to vote for his acquit- tal, on the ground that, though we believed it a most unscriptural and dangerous error, a prime element of Popery-r-yet the baptismal office was not so clearly against him as -to warrant his con- demnation. We might, indeed, have a very poor opinion of him as a pious man, and a minister of the Gospel, yet, as a functionary of our Church, holding his position on the platform of her stand- ards, we think we can see in these some honest ground for him to stand upon. Certainly the evangelical view of our Articles must be, at least, as offensive to the advocate of baptismal regenera- tion, as his views of the baptismal office are to evangelical men. And, if it be said that the proof of the first class of views is clear and abundant, 118 CONDITION AND PKOSPECTS &C. this we deny not yet, as in the latter case there is, .at least, a doubt, we would feel bound, in accordance with the well known forensic maxim, to give the accused the full benefit of that doubt. As our present object is merely to call the at- tention of serious, thinking men to the evils above noticed, and others of a kindred character, and not to write, a complete treatise upon them, we must, here close with a few brief remarks upon the influence of these evils. While, then, we would acknowledge with deep thankfulness, that the great truths of the Gospel, man's sinfulness and ruin by nature and practice, the divinity and atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, the influence of the Spirit, the neces- sity of repentance, faith, and holiness, are all set forth with a most impressive simplicity, earnestness, and solemnity in both these offices, as well as throughout the Prayer-book; yet, if with this our spiritual -food, such unwholesome ingre- dients are mingled up, as many have always com- plained, of, and we have attempted to show, can we for a single moment be 'at a loss to account for the various outbreaks of the Popish plague, with which our Church has been visited since the Re- formation? And can we reasonably hope for deliverance from that most fearful visitation of it THE SEEDS OF OUR EVIIS. 119 which now " walketh in darkness, and wasteth at. noon-day," throughout our borders, so long as we cherish the seedsof it in our very formularies? The times demand of us not only "the spirit of wisdom and of counsel, the spirit of love and of a sound mind ; ".but a most disinterested, fearless zeal, a God-given determination to sacrifice every thing, if need be, for Christ, and the purity of his Church. 120 CONDITION AND .PROSPECTS &C. CHAPTER X. It is pleasant to find something to commend in those with whom, in many respects, you are obliged to differ. It is pleasant, because such commendation may show, to the comfort of your own conscience and to the conviction of others, that you have been influenced by no unkind feel- ings when, on other occasions, you have been compelled to censure. Who has not experienced this gratification in seeing some instance of jus- tice, truthfulness, kindness, or magnanimity ex- hibited by an opponent ? It would argue a very unhappy state of mind not to be conscious of pe- culiar pleasure in such a manifestation. Indeed, so strongly do some persons desire this kind of happiness, that, not merely for fear lest they may fall short of doing full justice to an adversary, but apparently for the pure pleasure of the thing itself, do they often give credit to such an one for good qualities which he by no means possesses. We have seen instances of this, and have not felt inclined to undeceive the real magnanimity which could thus feast on fancied excellence. BISfiOP MEADE. . 121 Better err, we have thought, in this direction,- than the opposite. And yet we must not lose sight of the fact, however humiliating, that fallen human nature is usually not very quick to discern the good qualities of an opponent. We were led into the foregoing train of reflec- tions by the perusal of an article in a late number of The Churchman. .It is in some respects ad- mirable, so much so, that we can take little credit to ourselves for discovering its rare qualities and applauding them. They would force themselves upon any one not totally blind ; and most parsi- monious of praise must he be, who could withhold commendation from such extraordinary excel- lencies. The article which we have in view, is contained in The Churchman of April 10th, 1847, published in New York, a paper preeminently devoted to the propagation of Puseyism. As the piece is quite brief, and for fear that we might be suspected of partiality or injustice, to the writer, we will here copy it verbatim. " BISHOP MEADE AND BAPTISM. Dear Mr. Editor, I have just been reading at- tentively Rev. Mr. Ten Broeck's reply to Bishop 11 122 CONDITION A3fD PROSPECTS &C. Meade's " Second Letter. " And what a state of things does it reveal ! I confess it requires no little faith to see one's w,ay through such scandals. Here is a Christian Bishop daring openly, through- out the Church, to impugn the Church's teach- ing upon Baptism -a doctrine, as we all see, necessary to the slightest glimpse into the practi- cal teachings of the New Testament testified to, without exception, by every writer of the Primitive Church, that has come down to us taught most undeniably and conspicuously throughout the Prayer-book. I say a Christian Bishop dares do this, and no one dare present such a man for trial. It is a grievous offence, I assure you, to many, that such things should be suffered that our branch of the Church should have no voice to raise on such a subject. This principle of Baptismal grace is fundamental and cardinal to the existence of a Church -so univer- sally held too, that like the eternity of future punishment, and the Apostolic Succession, the Church has never thought necessary to bind it formally upon her members in the Creed ; it being not so much a doctrine as a first principle, and means of her life and existence. If these things are suffered to go unrebuked, I, for one, must look, not certainly at any thing BISHOP MEADE. 123 see, for evidence of vitality and genuineness in. such a body. Has not the time come, when these matters should be brought to some issue? How can I live in a Church where the founda- tion, that I am seeking to lay this year for the spiritual life of my flock, may, next year, through the agency of such a man as Bishop Meade, be entirely overthrown and set at naugfit? What a temptation is this to infidelity among the simple- minded! ! ; One or the other of us, must be wrongj and why not have it declared at once which of us it is ? The Christianity of him who holds the principle of Baptism, consistently, is, throughout, a different religion from that of such men as Bishop Meade. There is no reconciling them they cannot. live together, except, in the end, the house that holds them fall. If our Church is going to allow such teaching in her Bishops, I fear I must at some time question her validity [vitality?] It is the glazed eye that has only one vacant stare for every passing object, it is the dead body thfit can utter no voice when torn in pieces by contention. Is the .Church the mere relic of by-gone times, the Repository and Mausoleum, merely, of what has been said and done before? Or is she herself now, what she ever has been, really and not 124 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. commemoratively only a living body, with the right and the power to condemn false teachers in her midst, and to grapple with the age as she finds it? Yours very truly, . *OCCIDENTALIS. " Who Occidentalis is, we know not ; he may be a personal friend ; he may be an entire stran- ger. We shall go into no criticism upon the style of his piece its clearness, simplicity, and directness; for however important these quali- ties, and deserving of high praise, they are all lost in the resplendence of other and superior at- tributes. Let us notice a few of these loftier ex- cellencies. An honest, serious consideration of them may not be without its use in helping us to discern some of the sources of our present troubles. I. The CANDOR of Occidentalis. He has no reserves, no concealment. .We have read of a robe among the ancients of a texture so exquisitely delicate as to be appropriately termed woven air. Just such is our authors piece. Its candor ren- ders it perfectly transparent from beginning to end. Look at a single point, how it shines out as in a noon day's sun the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration. This doctrine is so manifestly part and parcel of Popery, that those professed CANDOR BAPTIS3IAL HEGENERATIOjV. 125 Protestants who had unhappily fallen into it, have heretofore very seldom plainly avowed it ; perhaps they have not always suspected it in themselves. But however this be, they have been wont to put it forth under various guises, at times so complicated and obscure as to -make it difficult to prove it upon them. Hence the mass could not understand them at all ; could get no definite idea whatever of their teachings upon this subject ; and the simple have often been de- cived. Thus these writers are not unfrequently able to escape the odium of Romanizing, and to raise the cry of uricharitableiiess against those who bring such 1 a charge against them. But not so our auther. He seeks no dubious phrase to cover over his meaning in whole or in. part. He most evidently understands himself, and is determined to be understood by others ; or rather, he does not seem to suppose it possible for any to misunderstand him. This doctrine, he tells us, -the doctrine of Baptismal Regenera- tion, or "Baptismal Grace," is so essential, that without it we cannot have "the slightest glimpse into the practical teachings of the New Testa- ment. " He assures us also that it is a doctrine unanimously held by the Primitive Church, "taught most undeniably and conspicuously 11* 126 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C; throughout the Prayer-book, "yea, "SQ funda- mental and cardinal to the existence of a Church that she has never thought necessary to bind it formally upon her members in the Creed. " It may indeed be objected, in respect to the last position, that if the term Creed, be used in its most narrow, technical sense, then the argument of our author is without force; for certainly there is much not in the Creed, thus understood, far from being fundamental, but which every member of our Church must believe. But if the term be employed in its most comprehensive im- port, to express the standards of the Church generally, does not our author, in this case, destroy his own cause ? For certainly none will contend that the doctrine of Baptismal Regenera- tion is a truth of Natural Theology, or a dictate of common sense ; if, therefore, continues the objector, the Church has not formally bound it upon her members, either she must have been very unfaithful, or the doctrine cannot be funda- mental and cardinal, as the author asserts. Very true, all this may be, but let it be borne in mind that we are not now defending either, his logical consistence, or the theological soundness of our author ; it is only his candor we are hold- ing up, and this excellence certainly none will MANLINESS COMMENDED. 127 deny him. Whatever our opinion of his views of Christianity or the Church, we ought not to withhold from him one -jot or tittle of merited commendation. We may indeed regret that "candor so rare were not found in a different as- sociation, still, for its own sake, who can help admiring it? Would that it had been more generally exhibited among us! How different might have been our state at this moment. What a world of darkness and misunderstanding, and controversy, and still more deplorable evils, might have been avoided! Let our author, then, have the high meed of a rare and most transparent candor awarded him. But he has another, and, if not a more noble, yet a more rare and impressive excellence. It is, II. MANLINESS. Candor and manliness gene- rally, indeed, go together, but not always. It is possible to acknowledge a principle, and yet. shrink back from its consequences. But Qcciden- talis has no such weakness. How like a man does he take his position ! " The Christianity of him who holds the principle of baptism'" (Bap- tismal Regeneration,) "consistently, is throughout a. different religion from that of such men as" do not. " There is no reconciling them. " Certain- ly not; we join hands with you here, Occiden- 128 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. talis. The religion of Spiritual Regeneration, and Justification by faith, and their kindred elements in a word. Evangelical religion is a totally different thing .from the religion of Bap- tismal Regeneration, and Justification by works, and whatever else goes to make up the religion of forms. They have no one point in common. To hold both is impossible. He who attempts to harmonise them, shows himself a stranger to one or both. And what a deal of trouble would it have saved us, and what a different position would our Church have been in at the present moment^ had others generally exhibited, in this matter, but a tithe of the manliness of our an thor. But, again, the results of this difference, how- ever painful and appalling, Occidentals does not hesitate to hold up to view. " They," that is the religion of Baptismal Regeneration, and the re- ligion of spiritual regeneration, or Evangelism and Formalism, "cannot live together, except, in the end, the house that holds them fall. " Most true, this, Occidentalis ; and most manfully spoken. The Church that is made up of such heterogeneous materials must get rid of the one or the other, or come to nought. There is no possibility of two such systems always living together. They are mutually destructive. Just HIGH CHURCHISM AND EVANGELISM ANTAGONISTIC. 129 as the one flourishes, must the other go down. The Church that attempts to comprehend both, instead of being a garden of the Lord exhibiting throughout fruits fair to the eye and good for food, must, sooner or later, become little else than a vast moral desert, full of noxious beasts and all unclean things a hideous spiritual Aceldama. Rightly then, and right manfully does our author avow that if such an association is to be allowed, he must question the " validity, " [vitality?] " of the Church ;" that she is only a Church in appearance, but really a dumb carcass, a Mausoleum full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. And let no one think that all this is mere flourish. By no means. Occidentalis is for action, right onward, manful action. He would have the matter settled at once, as between sys- tems of religion entirely opposite there can be no compromise ; one or the other must be fatally wrong. " Has not the time come," he asks, "when thfese matters should be brought to some issuel One or the other of us must be wrong, and why not have it declared at once which of us it is ?" This is candid ; it is more it is manful. It is not merely acknowledging what is true; but looking the truth right in the face. 130 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. And yet had our author stopped here, would there not have been something wanting, .some- thing to complete the proof of a perfectly manly spirit ? But he does not. He not only puts his finger upon the iiffence, bat boldly points out the offender, that he may be forthwith arraigned, and the whole matter at once and forever settled. "How," he asks, "can I live in a Church where the foundation, that I am seeking to lay this year, for the spiritual life of my flock, may, next year, through the agency of such a man .as BISHOP MEADE, be entirely overthrown and set at nought ? It is a grievous offence, I assure you, to many that such things should be suffered that our Church should have no voice to raise on such a subject. Here is a Christian Bishop daring openly, throughout the Church, to impugn the Church's teaching upon Baptism. I say a Chris- tian Bishop dare do this, and no one dare present such a man for trial. " How candid! How like a man ! Who can doubt the honest, intrepid, straight-forward consistency of Occidentalis ? But do any complain that we have not dealt out a full measure of justice to this writer ? Were we to stop here, certainly we would be open to ' such a charge. But having given all due com- mendation, and not a whit more, we believe, let MINISTERS WHO HATE THE TRUTH. 131 us now look at the matter in quite another point of view. A most candid, manly bearing all must concede to Occidentalis. This we have most freely ac- corded to him. But how does his piece appear when looked at as the production of a minister of the Church ? Is there not much in it to excite the most painful reflection? Does it not manifest throughout a settled and most determined hostility to Evangelical truth, and the religion which is the fruit of it, and all those who profess it ? Had Occidentalis his own way,he would tolerate nothing hut the religion of Baptismal Regenera- tion with its dead and deadly results ; all else would be speedily cast out, as speedily as Stephen was dragged out of Jerusalem, and very much in the same spirit too. How sad the state of things which such a piece as that of Occidentalis discloses. Our Church, with her Evangelical Articles, Homilies, and Liturgy, has in her midst who can now doubt it? men who rancorously hate her doctrines, and all who believe and faithfully preach them. Why is this so? How did such men get among us ? How is it they can remain with us ? Can our discipline be Scriptural ? Or is it that we do not faithfully carry it out? There is certainly great 132 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. fault somewhere. And till this evil be remedied by the exercise of a true Christian faithfulness, what hope can we have of deliverance from our present troubles ? But it is not chiefly with refe- rence to this evil that we have called attention to the piece of Occidental is. It suggests to us another and a far more painful evil, one without which we could have had but little of our present trou- bles, or might have soon been relieved from them. We allude to the sad deficiency in better men of just that candor and manliness which so strikingly characterise Occidentals. Were we asked, to what more than to all other causes combined do we owe our present troubles? we would be compelled to express the conviction that it was to a want of candor and man- liness in the Evangelical portion of our Church. We do " esteem these brethren very highly in love for their works' "sake :" during a ministry of nearly thirty years, we have acted in most responsible and endearing association with them ; and we have no other expectation nor wish than to live and die with them. It is, therefore, with shame and deep grief we have given utterance to the confession now made. But our convictions are the result of many years of painful experience, and we are persuaded that nothing, in the long THE GREAT CAUSE OF OUR TROUBLES, 133 run, is ever lost by a frank avowal of truth, how- ever humiliating. A wisdom far above man's policy has taught us " He that covereth his sins shall not prosper : but whoso confesseth and for- saketh them shall have mercy." We are well aware, indeed, that there is some- thing in the truly pious heart which prompts it to think the best even where appearances are strongly the other way ; and to shrink back from the avowal of what implies the condemnation ;of those who are of : the contrary part. " And, to a certain extent, this, we grant, is right ; it is a mani- festation of that "charity which thinketh no evil, and hopeth all things. " But is it not a violation of .genuine Christian charity when, by silence, or soft speeches, or compromising courses, we give our sanction to men and measures that must be radically, vitally wrong, if the gospel gives not an uncertain sound, and our professsion of religion, be not all a delusion? Now this is just the blame we take to ourselves. We have professed to be- lieve in the utter ruin of man through sin, his justification by faith only in the Lord Jesus Christ, the necessity of a spiritual regeneration or a radi- cal, holy change of heart: these we have professed as the great, distinguishing truths of the glorious gospel of the ever-blessed God ; and we have pro- 12 134 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. fessed, too, that only in the cordial reception of these truths is that character formed and that life produced which mark the child of God, and give a " meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light. " All this we profess ; and yet have we not for years heard and seen every one of these pre- cious truths opposed and denied, and a system of religion exactly the opposite, one utterly destitute of the Gospel and of every thing which the pious heart holds dear, not only insidiously urged, but openly and authoritatively promulged and pressed upon us ? Now have- we candidly and manfully, as became us, exposed and resisted these errors ? "We greatly fear that we have not. A few hono- rable exceptions, and especially of late days, there doubtless are, such as the excellent man whom Occidentalis particularly denounces, and a few others of like spirit ; but as a body have we not greatly erred in this matter?^ Had we on every proper occasion, meekly and charitably, but frankly and firmly, on the floor of Conventions, from the press, in the pulpit, and in our social intercourse, set forth the deep convic- tions of our hearts in respect to the gospel and the position of our opposers, very different, by God's blessing, might have been our present state. By such an honest, faithful course, we would at FAITHFULNESS MIGHT HAVE SAVED US. 135 least have cleared ourselves of the guilt of giving sanction to those who oppose the truth ; the world- ly among us, both professors of religion and non- professors, would have been compelled to see the difference and to judge between us, instead of being so mystified as they very generally now are by our more than dubious conduct; and who knows how many even of those now most zealous in the ranks of Puseyism might have been con- verted to Christ ? Occidentalis, we have seen, does not hesitate to say that the gospel and the religion of his party x are totally at variance with those we profess, that there is no reconciling them, that they cannot live together ; and who of us does not know this to be so, and has not at times expressed the same thing? But why have not these expressions been candidly and manfully made where and when they would be likely to be of much profit in our preaching,'in our writings, at our Conven- tions, in our intercourse with those, both minis- ters and people, whom the Word of God and our own consciences compel us to regard as opposers of " the truth as it is in Jesus, " unregenerate men, strangers to the power of. godliness 1 From a candid, manly course, we have every thing to expect. Much odium it would doubtless 136 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. excite, though not more so than it did of old, but if like the faithful of those days we shrink not back from this cross, we surely would, as they did, behold the same blessed results. Many, " both men and women, would be daily added to the Lord, " and even "a great company of Priests be obedient to the faith. " But if unchristian timidity a sheer moral cowardice, or love of ease, or ambitious aspira- tions, and above all, a hankering after the. mitre, be suffered to suppress a faithful testimony, and lead us to unholy compromises verily we shall have our reward, though Romanism continue to sweep over us, and its waters prevail exceedingly so that all the high hills under the whole heaven be covered, and all flesh die, in whose nostrils is the breath of life. POWER A DANGEROUS POSSESSION. 137 CHAPTER XI. There are few possessions more dangerous than that of power. Dangerous to those who hold it, dangerous to the subjects of it. A very large portion of the ills under which mankind have groaned since the fall, may be clearly traced to the abuse of power. And yet power mnst be possessed- by some; in- asmuch as government is a divine institution, and absolutely necessary not only to the welfare, but to the existence of the human family. As a means therefore of doing good, power may be properly desired and obtained. But no truly good man will covet it for its own sake; and he must have little self-knowledge and still less wisdom, -who would accept it without a plain call of duty. If therefore all men were wise and good, power might, perhaps, be safely left to abide with little restriction where Providence seemed to direct its course. Few would wish it ; still fewer would need it ; and all would be blessed by its exercise. But, unhappily, this is not the case with us. Scarcely anything is more greedily sought after 12* 138 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. than power ; and the selfish, and the ambitious those least fit to possess it will be sure to get much the larger part of it. Thus it certainly has hitherto been in the world. Hence so great a portion of the thoughts, the anxieties, and the efforts of men has ever been employed to devise and apply the necessary restrictions upon power, to punish the abuses of it, and to relieve the evils which it has occasioned. And let no one suppose that this hankering after power, and the abuses of power, have been con- fined to the world ; that these evils have never en- tered into the Church. Certainly there are much stronger securities in the latter against troubles from this source; and yet it is not to be denied that there are in the Church peculiar and very strong temptations to the love of power, and that the evils of its abuse are there vastly more to be dreaded. He who enslaves my body does me a great wrong ; but death will speedily deliver me from his chain. Not so the Spiritual Despot. His ills are commensurate with the soul ; they go with it into eternity, and too often, it is to be feared, drag his victim down with him to his own miserable doom. Hence the Bible has not left us without many plain and solemn warnings upon this subject. "I will punish all that oppress POWER NOT FAITHFULLY GUARDED. 139 The Lord will execute judgment for all that are oppressed. " But we must draw these introductory observa- tions to a close ; and we do so, with the general remark, that a regard for the character and happi- ness of those to whom she is. obliged to intrust power, as well as a regard for her own welfare, requires that the Church proceed in this whole matter with the utmost degree of Scriptural wis- dom, firmness and fidelity. Have we, then, as a Church, been duly careful here? If we have not, certainly we have laid our- selves open to many troubles. And is there not much, at the present time, to awaken us to a seri- ous consideration of this subject ? It ought not to be any longer overlooked : but for its full dis- cussion a volume were required. And few things, we are persuaded, could be just now of more bene- fit to us than such a volume, if faithfully written. In this essay we can only offer a few remarks upon a single point this, however, is one of chief importance. May the Sovereign Head of the Church give us grace to discuss it meekly and charitably, but frankly and firmly ! As our object is neither individual aggression nor individual vindication, but a far higher one the Church's- welfare we will name no one, \ ' * 140 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. whether the unfaithful trustee or the unhappy victim of power ; we will refer to no fact of recent occurrence, except perhaps to one or two, so noto- rious that our mention of them cannot make them more so, and we will expose no more of these evils than duty to a troubled Church, seems most solemnly to demand of us. We must speak, and how can we be more guarded, more careful to avoid unnecessary offence ? ARE NOT OTJR BISHOPS ALMOST TOT ALLY IRRE- SPONSIBLE ? We mean not so much theoretic, as practical responsibility. And it is important that this distinction be here kept in view, for although our legislation on this subject is exceedingly meagre and defective, practice under it, as might be expected, is too often far worse. As it regards the legislation, our limits, of course, forbid a particular examination of it. A single fact, however, will be sufficient to show its imperfection and the necessity of a careful revi- sion of it, if we wish, as a Church, to avoid that violent disruption which accumulated abuse of power will be sure ultimately to produce. At the trial of a Clergyman some years ago, when the several members of the Court were called upon to give their views, one, the first who spoke, expressed it as his clear, solemn con- IRRESPONSIBILITY OF BISHOPS. 141 viction, that the offender gught to be degraded ; but the other members, while they denied not the justice of this sentence, were in favor only of sus- pension, and justified themselves for deciding upon apparently so inadequate a punishment, by the fact that it would be really tantamount to degradation, because the Bishop hated the accused so much that he would keep him for ever suspended. And such was the judgment rendered! We do not find fault with the punishment in this case for its severity ; but we do complain of that legis- lation which puts it in the power of any man to gratify his vindictive feelings with impunity. Public justice, and not private passion, should be the ground and reason of punishment ; otherwise a flood gate is opened to most enormous corrup- tion and oppression. In this case indeed the ac- cused happened to be a very bad man, and richly deserved all the "ills inflicted upon him: but had he . been of exactly the opposite character, he could have had no remedy. The innocent and the guilty may alike be crushed under such a state of things. But perhaps some will say, if there is no law by which a Bishop is held responsible in such cases, why not have recourse to the convention? Surely The assembled Clergy and the Lay-representa- 142 CONDITION AND PKOSPECTS &C. lives of the Church wouid not permit the humblest member of our communion, much less a minister, to be oppressed. All this may seem very plausi- ble, but experience has proved it to be only plau- sible ; experience has proved how totally inade- quate such a body is to afford redress. One of the grossest outrages not excepting even the famous Duer case in the New York Convention which the writer ever witnessed, occurred upon an oc- casion of this sort. A Clergyman of the highest respectability both for character and position, once attempted, in the most kindly and respectful man- ner, to bring up the case of a suspended minister before the Convention of the Diocese; and what was the result? A torrent of the most malignant invective was immediately poured out upon him. He repeatedly appealed to the Bishop, as Presi- dent of the body, to protect him against per- sonalities so gross. But the Bishop permitted the storm to rage on, apparently as a terror to all who might hereafter be disposed to venture upon that way. Take a case of a different kind, which has oc- curred, and may very often occur hereafter. A Clergyman, called to an important pastoral charge in another Diocese, waited upon his Bishop to procure the usual canonical letter of dismission. The Bishop refused to give it to him. After some mild expostulation upon the hardship of his case, and finding the Bishop immovable^ the Clergyman then said, "the dimissory letter is not an expression of individual opinion or feel- ing it can never rightly be so understood it is purely an official act, declaratory of the official standing of him who bears it. Now I am not sensible of having' at any time fallen into an of- fence, either in doctrine or conduct; but if it is believed that I have, let me be at once lawfully presented and put upon trial. I refuse not to meet a public accusation; but I am unwilling to be the victim of private dislike. I ask, therefore, not as a favor, but as a matter of simple justice, either a canonical dismission, or a canonical trial." The Bishop would grant neither, and gave no other reason than his disapprobation of the Presbyter's ecclesiastical course. And yet this minister was regarded with the strongest confi- dence and affection by the flock which he was just about to leave, and by all others among whom he had before or has since ministered. His standing has never been impeached. The plain truth of the case is' the man was openly and uniformly evangelical, and the Bishop had an insuperable dislike to all such men and their ways. 144" CONDITION AND PROSPECTS,/ &C. But here it may be asked why not have the Bishop presented for such manifest and high- handed despotism? Such an attempt there was every reason to believe would have been perfect- ly in vain. At least, so the aggrieved Clergy- man was constrained to regard it. He knew that there was not the least probability of obtaining justice in this way; and even had there been, he had no means of sustaining himself and family till the result could ,be accomplished by such a process. He and they 'must starve. He felt that he was helpless, and had all power arrayed against him. He was compelled, therefore, to submit in silence to this monstrous injustice and oppression. But this is not the whole case ; it involves still another feature of Episcopal irresponsibility. The aggrieved minister removed to the Diocese to which he had been called, and presented him- self to the Bishop, and was received without the required document. The Bishop saw at a glance the nature of the Presbyter's case, and admitted him into regular standing witnout any canonical warrant whatever. How may Episcopal irrespon- sibility vault over all legal barriers ! Here the one Bishop trampled the law underfoot in re- fusing to give the required testimonial ; and the MONSTKOUS OKPBESSION.. 145 other manifested equal disregard in receiving the applicant without it. But in either case, the in- nocent may be crushed, or the guilty escape ; and rreparable evils be brought upon the Church. We have seen in the case just related, what a Bishop may refuse to do, either because there is no law, or in spite of it; but it is not merely ne- gative acts of injustice he may be guilty of with- out the possibility, as things now are, of being called to account. He may inflict also positive injuries, and these of the most serious kind with the like impunity. We have known a Bishop assail from . the press, the characters of individuals in such a manner as would subject him in any civil court in Christendom to an action for slander. Cer- tainly in such a case, the way to justice in the Church should be so open and direct, that the in- jured party could have easy and. immediate ac- cess. But 1 they well knew that they had nothing to hope for here ; that their only hope was to'repel the attack in the way in which it was made, to publish to the world however painful to their feelings and injurious to the Church a refutation of the Bishop's misrepresentations. Accordingly, a refutation so clear and abundant was presented 3 as completely to prevent his success. 13 146 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. Three Conventions decided against him, not that he should be disciplined for his assaults upon individual character; no, for that point was not up, and there was no way in which it could be brought up, but that he should not be permitted, so far as the Church was concerned, to reap the fruits of his policy. Here, would it not be supposed, that the matter was at an end 1 that having failed in his main object, he would cease to persecute those who, he supposed, once stood in his way? But as if to show how utterly irresponsible a Bishop is, how far he could go with impunity, in violation of all that is truthful, and just, and Christian, he re- published years afterwards, without the least pro- vocation., and with additional aggravation, his former charges, and all this as though nothing had been said or done to disprove them. Do we speak thus to repel these misrepresentations and expose the spirit that produced them? Not at all. .This was done long ago ; and the individuals assailed felt that rejoinder was altogether unne- cessary to their characters. We have now but one object in view, one which duty to a suffering Church compels us to attempt, it is simply to call attention to the irresponsibility of Bishops as GROSS OUTRAGES BY A BISHOP. 147 a sad evil, an evil lying very largely at the founda- tion of our present troubles. Another case we mnst present, proving still more strongly, if possible, the almosj total irre- sponsibility of Bishops. Some years since it came to the knowledge of a professional gentleman of high standing, and a member of our Church, that his Bishop had been repeatedly guilty of lewd conduct, under very ag- gravating circumstances. Having obtained legal proof of the facts, he determined to present the whole matter to the next Diocesan Convention. Bat supposing it discreet and proper to consult some other members, clerical and lay, before taking so important a step, he did so ; and was advised by them, to his utter astonishment, not to bring the matter up at all, on the ground that such a procedure would be productive of much evil, without the least prospect of doing any good. There was not, in their opinion, however conclu- sive the evidence of the Bishop's guilt, the slightest reason to hope that the Convention would present him. Convinced at last that they were right in this view however painful and humiliating such a conviction was he dropped the whole affair. And the public would probably have never been informed of it, had not this same Bishop on another 148 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. occasion, in a moment of infatuation, assailed the character of this gentleman, and made it necessary for him to publish unto the world what, it was supposed, it would be worse than useless to pre- sent to the Convention. How dark the state of things disclosed by this case ! How imperfect the legislation, or to what a depth of corruption must we have sunk, when such wickedness could be practised without being called into judgment ! But to turn to less disgustful, though equally perilous facts. What but this Episcopal irresponsibility has produced so many efforts to give to the Bishop of the Diocese a veto upon the proceedings of the Convention thereof? A measure more destruc- tive of "the liberty wherewith Christ hath made his people free, " and more ruinous to the inter- ests of religion among us, it would be scarcely possible to imagine. It would effectually and deservedly put a stop to the extension of our Church, and not only so, but speedily cause her to dwindle into utter insignificance in point of numbers and efficiency. Our people must be- come vastly more ignorant and abject than they now are before such a measure can generally pre- vail. We believe that it has been carried hitherto in only a single Diocese. But would such a thing EPISCOPAL VETO UPON CONVENTIONS. 149 ever have been attempted without .the concur- rence, if not the direct agency of the Bishop, open or secret? And what but a feeling of almost total irresponsibility could have ever en- couraged aBishop even to countenance an attempt so unwise, unscriptufal, and ruinous? And what else just to glance at a similar evil- was it but this feeling of irresponsibility that dared in an Episcopal address, on a recent occasion, to hint at the entire exclusion of the. Laity from our Conventions? One other matter of a like cha- racter demands at our hands a fuller notice. During the session of the last General Con- vention, when a deep and painful interest was generally excited by the course it would take in re- ference to the Pusey istic defection and the outrages it had already inflicted upon us, a distinguished judge of one of our state courts, and a promi- nent member of our Church, remarked to'";a *'/* friend, "I have been carefully looking at all the tidings from our General Convention to see what, the House of Bishops are doing." '-Are you aware/ 7 answered his friend, "that the proceed- ings of the House of Bishops are all secret? That nothing is ever permitted to come before the Church, but such results as they may see fit to make public?" "Sir," replied the Judge, with 13* 150 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. evident surprise and concern, ft I was not aware of any such thing !" and then added with deep emotion, " can it be possible that such a thing exists among us 1 The doings of the most im- portant branch of our General Legislature all con- ducted in the dark! Well, "nothing more is now necessary than to secure an Episcopal Fund in each Diocese, that the Bishop may be independent of the people, and then with these secret sessions of the House of Bishops and these Episcopal Funds, we shall have fastened upon us a despot- ism which no power on earth can ever shake off I" Who, not altogether ignorant of human nature, and unacquainted with the workings of govern- ment and the progress of power, can doubt the truth of the judge's predictions 1 What would be said were Congress, in either of its parts, or our state legislatures, to close their doors, and ha- bitually hold secret sessions 1 How long could our liberty stand? how long the purity of our institutions be maintained under this Star Cham- ber system? There can be no sufficient security for truth, justice, or rights, if legislative bodies, as well as courts of law, are not open to public view. The common corruption of human nature, the downward tendency of even the best go- vernments, the uniform disposition of power to ex- HOUSE OF' BISHOPS SITS IN SECRET. 151 tension and concentration, must all be .carefully guarded against, if we would not, as a Church, make shipwreck of every thing precious, for time and eternity ? Certainly if a dear-bought, hoary experience has taught mankind any thing, it is that the public eye, continually upon all its de- partments, is the best and only sufficient conser- vative influence in any government. Without this, .an irresponsibility almost total, working corruption and disaster, openly and covertly, will be felt through all our borders. What else, to notice only one other of our legion evils, but this sense, of Episcopal Irre- sponsibility has dared of .late to open the doors of ">ur Protestant ministry to such Romanizing can- didates 1 Indeed it requires but little reflection to discover how largely our present troubles are connected with this great and growing evil of Episcopal Irresponsibility ; and to see the utter impossibility of escaping them, so long as this evil is permitted to continue. 152 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. CHAPTER XII. "Lord what wilt thou have me do ?'* This was the inquiry of an earnest man. He had been carefully trained in the religion of his fathers, and had zealously professed it many years. He had said prayers daily, and, in appearance, . devout- edly ; but now he really prayed " Lord what wilt thou have me do?" He had done much hitherto which he thought right and wise, much that commended him to those about him; he was thus on the high road to distinction among his own countrymen : but now, for the first time, he really sought to know what the Lord would have him to do. He had arrived at a most momentous crisis in his caieer. He had begun to see that vain were the wisdom and power of man to guide and satisfy an immortal soul; that he must be divinely directed' if he would really advance God's canse on earth, and be saved himself. Saul was indeed, and by natural temperament, a zealous man before this ; but now he became vastly more zealous. Or rather, his zeal assumed altogether another character. There can be no THE VALUE OP TRUE ZEAL. 153 earnestness like that of religious earnestness; its sources, its objects, its motives, its ends are alto- gether peculiar. Its fire is enkindled from heaven, and all its motives and aspirations are heaven- ward. It is therefore disinterested, lofty, all- comprehensive. It has an intensity arid an en- durance which nothing in this world can supply. It was this earnestness which, made Paul what he was, a holy, benevolent, fearless, self-sacri- ficing, eminently useful servant of Jesus Christ. .. It elevated him to glory, honor, and eternal life. But necessary as this earnestness was to him, it was equally necessary, at that time, to the Church of God. The Chinch had also arrived at a deeply important crisis in her history; and Paul, now renewed to a true Christian earnestness, was just the man. to carry her safely and triumphantly through her difficulties. God's sovereignty is indeed all-powerful ; and the tallest archangel, much less "man, that is a worm," can add nothing to its efficiency. But it is also an infinitely wise sovereignty, and having determined to work by means, carefully selects those means most fitted to its high designs. Now, a true Christian earnest- ness is just that instrumentality which God usu- ally employs and most delights to honor. When was it otherwise 1 When will it ever be other- 154 CONDITION AND PHOSPECTS &c. wise ? The Scriptures, even in their boundless grace, give us no reason to hope that the Church will ever prosper and be made a praise in the earth unless this blessing be earnestly desired and earnestly so jght after. And is not our Church, at this day, in a most perilous state 1 To what a momentous, crisis have we arrived ! Shall the dark clouds which now spread far and wide over our ecclesiastical heavens, completely cover us ? Is a long night of igno- rance, superstition and corruption about to settle upon us ? Are we, professedly Christ's freemen, soon to become poor, miserable serfs of Rome? Certainly, if ever there was a time when there should go up from the heart of every minister and every member of our Church, the cry of an ago- nizing earnestness " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?" it is now. And if we do thus wake up, and call upon the Great Head of the Church, we shall all find enough to do. God will, in his providence, point out to each one of us, his pecu- liar part in the mighty work before us ; and He will so bless our.earnest effort and co-operation, as to disappoint the devices of the enemy. Surely He will yet < { save us by a great deliverance. " With such a renewed earnestness for Christ and THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL. 155 his Church, will we not see the necessity and duty of increased fidelity in 1. PREACHING THE GOSPEL ? " Great swelling words of vanity " about the Church, the Church, the Church, its ministry, sacraments, holy days, and goodly order, with sneers against dissenters ; or a morality little better than that of the world; or a mere sentimentalism, mistaken for spiritu- ality ; or some other partially developed form of Romanism; in other words, the not preaching the Gospel at all, or, as an inspired Apostle de- scribes it "the preaching of another Gospel; which is not another ;" this is not the only, evil that has, in these days, crept into our pulpits. Even those who professedly hold the great truths of God's word, as man's utter ruin through sin, justification by faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ, spiritual regeneration or a radical, holy change of character, the perfection and immuta- ble obligation of God's law, the necessity of re- pentance and evangelical holiness, even those, we say, who professedly receive these great truths of God's word do they hold them up continually in the pulpit, and from house to house, with that clearness, deep solemnity, and earnest affection, which so strikingly marked the Apostle's preach- ing, and which, one would suppose, must charac- 156 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &c. terize the whole ministry of all who really be- lieve these, truths and feel the power of them in their own soiils ? We fear that there is -a great fault here. Even where the Gospel is not altogether absent, yet is it too often pre.ached in a manner so indistinct, feeble and pointless, or so mingled up with other things as to make scarcely any im- pression. The hearer goes away little instructed and still less moved. Having no definite concep- tion of what the Gospel is, his heart remains almost totally unaffected. Hence he is poorly prepared to meet and resist . those false Gospels which confront him at every turn. No wonder then that so few are truly .converted to Christ; that revivals of religion are so rare among us ; and that such numbers fall a prey to Puseyistic and other Romish deceivers. Must not then our evangelical ministry recur afresh to the writings of the Reformers, and learn what they saw and felt Popery to be, and with what weapon they fought against it. and achieved their glorious victories for Christ and his Church ? Anti-christ has again come in like a flood upon us, and unless we meet him with the plain, una- dulterated, all-powerful Gospel in our hands, and in the honest, manly, self-sacrificing spirit of the Reformers, we shall speedily lose those precious HOW THE BEFOJRMERS PKEACHED. 157 blessings which came to us through their toil and blood. But if our ministers bring all their sermons up to the standard of God's word, thus exempli- fied .and illustrated by the lives and writings of the Reformers, and by the Articles and Homilies of the Church, they will wield a weapon which neither Puseyism nor any other form of Roman- ism can resist, a weapon wherewith they will be able to put to "flight all the armies of the aliens,." It is a good rule, that every sermon, whatever be the particular topic, should so plainly present the great truths of the Gospel, that if there be any soul present who never yet heard them, and never , will have another opportunity of doing so,; he may not be able to perish for lack of knowledge, unless he wilfully close his eyes against the light. Who knows indeed whether there are not always some such present, and if so, how can the minister, who fails thus to preach the Gospel, escape the guilt of their blood^? Again, - with a renewed earnestness for Christ and his Church, will we not see the necessity and duty of increased fidelity in II. PRAYER? Is it not a time with us for special, fervent prayer ? Should not each one of us daily wrestle with .God in his closet in view of the sore evils that prevail among us ? " Let the 14 158 CONDITION AND PKOSPECTS &C. priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach." And in every congregation, even if there are only two or three in it who mourn over the desolation of Zion^ should not these meet together at least once weekly to cry might- ily to God for deliverance from the troubles that have come upon us ? In such a case, surely, God would hear, and answer, and revive, and bless his people. Error would speedily flee away, and. superstition hide herself in the pit, and truth shine out again among us, and pieiy be honored in our high places. < But to be more definite, suppose each min- ister and each member of our communion, who has a heart for the duty, devote an early hour of every Sunday morning to secret prayer; and that there -be in every congregation a special prayer- meeting on every Monday, till this, our "calamity, be overpast." "Ye have not, because ye ask not." If we " stand fast in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the Gos- pel," certainly "the Lord will arise and have mercy upon Zioh." With a renewed earnestness for Christ and his PR-ESS DUXT OF MINISTERS: 159 Church, will we not see the necessity and duty of increased fidelity in our use of III. THE PRESS ? The press, as an instru- mentality for evil in religion, is already very powerful, and is daily becoming more and more so. It has deluged us with error, and exerted an influence incalculably mischievous far and wide through the Church. It is obviously, therefore, the duty of the friends of the Gospel among us, both Clergy and Laity, to make the press still more subservient to the propagation and defence of truth. But that what they write and publish may be wisely adapted to the times, they ought to make themselves tho- roughly acquainted, not merely with evangelical truth and its almost infinitely diversified bearings and applications, but with those peculiar errors and evils also which in all their protean forms now- so grievously trouble us. They will thus be best prepared to uphold the Gospel and beat down Antichrist. But to be more particular, let each minister publish every year, if possible, at least one tho- roughly digested discourse, setting forth some particular doctrine or duty of Christianity, or pointing out and refuting some of the prevalent errors. Let his pen also be frequently engaged 160 CONDITION AND PHOSPEOTS &C. in giving increased light and interest to the columns of our religious periodicals. But this is not exclusively the work of the ministry. The laity have here an important part to perform. There are some things they can say from the press better than the Clergy; some with more propriety; and some certainly with more effect. How few ministers, whatever their position, or however great their ability, could have produced a work so admirably adapt- ed to its purposes, and . so eminently efficient as Wilberforce's Practical View. If our Church is to be saved, the laity must -do much towards it with their pens. But, above all, let us look well to the editorial department of our religious press* That this has been, in times past, too much want- ing in fidelity to Christ and his Church, all who have even a moderate share of true earnestness for these, must feel. Error has not been as bold- ly confronted, bad measures as vigorously grap- pled with, truth as honestly and faithfully put forth, as they ought to have been. Had our re- ligious press only come up to its duty, candidly and manfully, we could not possibly have sunk, as a Church, into our present deplorable state. The writer well remembers the unutterable dis- gust with which, years ago, he threw down a PERIODICAL PKESS ITS CORRUPTION. letter he had just received and read. It was from an editor of one of our religious periodicals, and such was its strain : " those nuisances," alluding to certain anti-evangelical Bishops, " those nui- sances Providence will in time remove from his Church," and yet in his weekly columns this same man was continually " nosling about the knees of power." In private " THOSE NUISAN- CES !" in public, " OUR RIGHT REVEREND PHJE- LATES !" and so on through every form of inter- ested adulation. O the mischiefs such editors inflict upon our bishops ! the terrible mischiefs they bring upon the Church ! But what may not a faithful, ably conducted, a truly sanctified press, do for our deliverance ! But here we would remark, that there are cer- tain errors into which some good men among us have fallen, and which they must shake off, or we can never escape those plagues of Popery with which we are now so deeply infected. The evil which we here have in view may be, and in- deed has been, thus expressed. '-' It is of no im- portance how high a man's chiirchmanship may be, provided he preach the evangelical doctrines of our faith," &c. Provided ! Truly so, my good friend ; but has it never occurred to you, to ask yourself how many such High Churchmen you 14* CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C: have ever seen? In all his ecclesiastical resi- dences, North, South, East and West, the writer has never met with a single one one such, who preached distinctly and unequivocally the evan- gelical doctrines of our faith. He will riot say indeed that there are none such ; but suppose that there is one here and there to be found in some humble position ; how long will it be be- fore, as his views enlarge and his theological knowledge increases, or, especially as the way may open to his ambitious aspirations how long will it be before such a man arrives at a point where he will feel that he must give up either his evangelism, or his High Churchmanship? And which most commonly falls the sacrifice, let the sad history of too many in our Church de- clare. It never can be otherwise. For the man who embraces high-church views of the ministry, the sacraments, or the Church, if he only has logic and moral courage enough, would be sure to end at Rome, were it not for the restraints of Providence. There is really no consistent point, no reasonable half-way stopping place between such High-Church Theology as Bishop Hobart's, for example, (and we mention this because less offensive than its kindred systems,) and down- right Popery. HIGH CHURCH, PT7SEYISM, AND ROMANISM. 1J53 Let no one then be so captivated with the desire of a character for liberality, or yield so much to a love of ease, or give way so far to a feeling of moral cowardice, or so greedily covet " the pre-emi- nence, " as to be willing to concede a single hair's breadth to the false and arrogant claims of High Churchmanship. There can be no compromise with such a system. He who receives a single element of it has just so much poison in his soul that will either kill it, or, at least, greatly impair his piety, and usefulness. High Churchmanship is essentially Popery. Puseyism and Romanism are merely increasing developements of the same radical evil High Churchmanship. And we cannot rid ourselves of the two former, if we do not openly and faithfully contend against the latter. Listen to a plain, fearless testimony upon these errors and dangers, recently put forth by the pious and able Dr. Daniel Wilson, Bishop of Cal- cutta. ''In the present day the invasion of a semi- popish spirit has deluged our Church ; -a system of uncommanded human traditions has been obtru- ded upon us ; one and one only rigid form of Church discipline and polity has been magnified extrava- gantly, and made essential to the being of a Church; an apostolieal succession has been feigned in a sense in\ which it never existed ; the all-sufficiency of 164 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. Christ for our salvation has been sapped by over- statements about the sacraments, ceremonies, fastings, genuflexions, garments, and subdivisions of sacred edifices, &c. The entire ground on which we stand is shifted. The Church is shifted from the body of Christ, united to him by faith; to an external union founded on the figment oj apos- tolical succession. Justification is shifted from Christ's only merits, &c. Sanctification is shifted from Christ's raising us by his Spirit from the death of sin, &c. All is desolation, destruction, pride, idolatry, superstition, a spirit of bondage. We no longer " hold the head, " and being 1 cut off, and severed from that, our salvation is impos- sible." Lect. on Coloss. pp. 139, 390. Were we writing in almost any other country, we might here stop, because there would, perhaps, be nothing else left that we could do. But such is the organization of our Church in this free, happy Republic, that there are still other ways left us of "contending for the faith ;" still other duties to which we are called. Providence .has given to all orders among us, Clerical and Lay, a part to perform in the councils of the Church. She is therefore just what we choose to make her ; and for this we must all, in our several stations, be held to a solemn responsibility. What then : can we DISCUSS ERBORS IN CONVENTION. 165 here do, which it may seem wise for us to do, to benefit the Church, and prepare for our reckoning in the great day ? Ought we not, strenuously and .perseveringly, to endeavor to bring up Puseyism and every other Romish error with which we are troubled, before our public bodies, that they may ex- amine and condemn them ? We know indeed it was declared by the last General Convention that it had nothing to do with these matters. But we know also that multitudes, all over our Church, received this declaration with equal astonishment and grief. They could scarcely believe it pos- sible that such an utterance had proceeded from such a body. Why, if the General Convention of our Church, her , highest tribunal, her ultimate authority, her sovereign head on earth,'has noth- ing to do with a matter which is rending her unity, destroying her peace; and exposing her alike to pity and scorn, whither shall we go for redress ? We must perish in our corruption. But the case is riot hopeless. " Great men are not always wisej "; this was not left for us unin- spired moderns to discover. Even a General Convention may err. That body must yet look this matter fully in the face. Neither the cunning policy of the great adversary, nor an unchristian timidity, can always keep our troubles out of it. 166 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. The voice of the. Church, as well as the injunc- tions of her Divine Head, calls aloud upon the future members of the General Convention, who- ever these may be, to be faithful to their high trust ; not to shrink back from any dnty, however painful ; but to "quit themselves like men, and be strong." And wo to those who neglect such a charge ! Again : why have not all the agents, principal and subordinate, in our late Popish ordinations, been called to account for these monstrous out- rages against our Protestant Church ? Let no one say hereafter, as has been said," Why bring up these troubles before our tribunals and public assemblies? Nothing can there be done against them. " How can we be certain of this until the experiment be thoroughly tried? And even should every court, every council, every functionary prove faithless to their trust, which is not at all likely, still such attempts cannot be in vain. They will sound abroad as so many solemn pro- tests against evil, aud they will be heard, and ul- timately prevail. In the meanwhile they who make them will have discharged their duty, and may look forward to the reward of faithful servants. But what will become of those who do nothing 1 the lovers of ease, the faint heartedj the BRING PTJSEYITES TO TRIAL. 167 selfish, the aspiring? What will their crafty de- vices of expediency, their hollow compromises, in which they now wrap themselves so securely, what will these avail them in the great day ? Have they not reason to fear the awful doom of traitors against Christ and his Church ? Ought there not to be a. general correspondence among the friends of our Protestant faith through- out our Church, in order to united and correct action? Many now are feeble and dispirited just because they feel alone. Like the prophet of old in apostate Israel, they are ready to exclaim " They have forsaken thy covenant, and I, even I only am left; and thjey seek my life to take it away !" They have none to look to for counsel and encouragement. But in union there is strength ; and we doubt not there are left even now more than "seven thousand all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal." Let then the friends of evangelical truth, all over the Church, open a correspondence with each other, and com- pare views and get ready for combined action. And especially ought there not to be just be- fore the next General Convention, a meeting of those members of that body who grieve-over our present troubles, that they may go into it prepared to act together wisely and efficiently? and not, . 168 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. as it too often has been in times past, suffer them- selves to be defeated by a crafty minority, through their own want of mutual understanding arid set- tled views in respect to the course which ought to be pursued. Such a meeting might also draw up and put forth a thoroughly digested testimony to the great truths of the Gospel now so obscured and endangered in many parts of our Zion ; and a clear, solemn protest against those popish er- rors which are daily spreading their poisonous influence ^all about us, and destroying immortal souls. Such a testimony and protest, calm, faith- ful, moderate in tone, could not but awaken gen- eral attention, and do much, with heaven's bless- ing, to arrest our downward course. Another great duty devolves upon the friends of evangel- ical truth. Ought they not, with much and careful consultation, to prepare and publish a revised Book of Common Prayer? This idea was first suggested to us in a private letter from a distinguished Lay-member of our Church in one of the New England States; and it is cer- tainly worthy of serious thought. There are too many, at least apparent, grounds for Popish error- ists to stand upon in some parts of the Prayer- book. It is vain to deny this. Puseyites confi- dently appeal to these grounds,'and the friends of EMINENT PIETY NECESSARY. 169 evangelical truth cannot here make a perfectly triumphant defence. fionesty is always the best policy. It is ever wise and right to acknowledge our errors and reform them. Rome's Bohan Upas has been permitted in times past to spread its poisonous shade over us, and what hope can we have of escaping its deadly influence so long as we cherish its roots in our very soil? If we lop off its branches this year, they will shoot out again the next. We must go down to the bot- tom of our evils, and make thorough reformation work. Certainly this requires much wisdom, courage, and piety; but God will not withhold these if we seek Him arightly ; and if we do not, Rome must at last get entiris dominion over us, and we, as a Church of Christ, be deservedly blotted out. But amid all our efforts against error, and to advance the Gospel in our Church, there is one object never to be lost sight of, because if 'we -fail- in this, we can do little good to the holy cause in which we are engaged, and may miserably perish ourselves, -We mean an eminent personal piety : this we ought ever to keep in view, but es- pecially at the present time. Controversy, though a most important Christian duty, is always beset with great incidental dangers. It is very apt to .15 170 CONDItlON- AND PBOSRGCTS &C. injure the spirit, fill the bosom with hurtful pre- judices, and draw off the affections from things heavenly and divine. It becomes us, therefore, to make personal religion in this our hour of trial, a matter of peculiar concern. Let us be much in prayer ; let us cultivate a meek, humble, and lov- ing temper such a temper as will supply us with soft words for our hardest arguments, and lead us to treat our opponents with all due kindness and respect, while we faithfully expose their errors and resist their pernicious influence. With such a spirit, we shall have peace within, while war is raging without, and we, ourselves are manfully performing our part in it as "good soldiers of Jesus Christ." < And whatever else may be our success, we shall certainly achieve the greatest of all victories a victory over ourselves. But such a spirit, with the holy walk and character which will be sure to accompany it, will likewise add power to all our other weapons, and give us such wisdom and efficiency in the use of them, as nothing else can supply, hence it will do more to convince and to convert those "who are of the contrary part," than all -other means we can employ. Even could we succeed without such a spirit, success would be any thing but a blessing to us.. A REVIVAL NEEDED. 171 Who does not see that in the faithful use of the means above briefly' pointed out, viz : preaching the Gospel, prayer, the press, mutual correspond- ence and consultation, a solemn testimony and protest, a kind and respectful, but decided and firm stand for the truth in all our Church coun- / cils. a manifest growing personal piety who sees not that in the faithful use of these means we may expect,, under God's blessing, a revival of religion among us a revival of ' ( pure religion and under filed?" And is not this pre-eminently our present want ? The Church of Christ has always been beset; by two great evils on the one hand ration- alism, on the other superstition in other words } Socinianism and Popery. With the first, we have been little troubled ; our besetting sin has ever been the last. No one who carefully studies the history of our Church, can be ignorant of this fact, or the causes of.it. Now, while we by no means undervalue sound argument and earnest effort against errors on the right hand and on the left, yet nothing will so effectually drive these off and de- liver the Church from their influence, as a revival of religion. s They will flee before it as venomous serpents before a fire in the prairies. They can indeed stand any thing but a revival. Such a heaven-enkindled flame will either cleanse or con- 172 CONDITION AND PHOSBECTS &C. x sume the whole host of errorists. Hence every great reformation in the Church has always been accompanied by a revival of religion it was in- deed the -revival that constituted its power. When the Spirit of God moves upon the hearts of a people, and makes them to see their guilty their helplessness, and their wretchedness, and discloses to them a holy, sin-hating God, and the terrors of a coming judgment the. poor hollow figments of Popery sink into nothing before these awful realities. Miserable comforters are they all felt to be at such a time, and the awakened sinner turns from them and finds peace and satisfaction only in " the Gospel of the grace of God. " A re- vival of religion one general out-pouring of the Holy Spirit, would be the salvation of ourCHurch at this moment. For this, let n's one and all, live, and labor, and pray. " O Lord,' revive thy work in. the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known, in wrath remember mercy !" But, "suppose," some will say, ' that every effort should fail, that notwithstanding all we may do to promote " pure religion and undefiled," and throw back the tide of Popery, things go on from bad to worse, and the dark polluting stream continues to roll its desolating waves over us what then shall be done?" There is but one DIVISION 2ffiY BE NECESSARY. 173 course left it is to divide. If you cannot * reclaim, unsound men, if you cannot put off then- errors and corrupt practices, yon must separate. There is no other alternative. And to continue in alliance, with them, is to. become partakers of their sin. Such a union is not Christian union ; it is an unholy compromise of Anti-christ. A Church thus made up is not one, living, sanctified, and sanctifying whole ; but a dead, heterogeneous, corrupt, and corrupting mass. But have we not too much,lost sight of what is true Christian union ? Have we not confound- ed a lifeless, stagnant uniformity,' the effect of worldly wisdom and external pressure, with that vital union which can result only from a cordial reception of the truth 1 Yes, it is to a Popish idol falsely called unity, we have, too many of us and too long bowed down ; and thus lost sight of the all-important fact that Christian union, so far from being preserved, is necessarily lost, when attempted to be gained or maintained at the sac- rifice of truth. - There and there only is Christian union, where the itruth is held in simplicity and godly sincerity, and meekly but firmly held up be- fore the world, all else is but " a covenant with death, an agreement with hell." Very many of us, there is reason to hope, are beginning to 15 8 174 CONDITION AND 'PROSPECTS' &C. waken up to right views of this subject. Hence division is now quite frequently spoken of,- and at times, even in our high places, as that pain- ful, solemn alternative to which both duty arid safety will in all human probability, soon shut us up. Should the day come, as come we fear it will, let us "quit ourselves like men; and be strong." '"; "But what" it -has been asked, -"will le the prospect before us in, case of division ?" We can judge of the futurp only by the past. The great principles of human nature, and of the govern- ment of Providence already developed in the his- tory of the Church, will still continue to operate. A consideration of these is the only clue by which we can guide our way into the labyrinth of the future. Judging thus we believe that in case of a division among us, the leaders of the Pusey- ite body, then unrestrained, will speedily travel forward to Rome, their longed for goal ; but the rank and file who, whether in Church or State, are almost always honest, will soon discover how shamefully they have' been deceived j and will fall back. again upon the truly Protestant part of the Church; while that freed from the dead load of Popery which now enfeebles arid embarrasses it, and having with it the cordial TROUBLES LONG FORESEEN. 175 . :'..t. sympathies, of the whole Protestant world, anoV we doubt not, the blessing of heaven^ .will at once press forward in the Christian course with renewed vigor, and grow and prosper beyond all past example. How glorious a body would be such a Reformed Church ! Few denominations, as the world now is, could do. more to advance the kingdom of Christ on earth. It would " arise and shine" among the brightest constellations of those " new heavens," in comparison with which " the former shall not be remembered, nor come into t mind." . The writer is done, not because the subject is exhausted. Far from this. In each essay his greatest difficulty was to be brief. Facts con- tinually crowded upon him, but of these he could select only those most fitted, as he believed, to do good, and least likely to give offence. Many evils he has been compelled to pass over entirely; and of those noticed, he v is deeply sensible that they have been feebly, very feebly presented; He could only touch the surface, and not go down into the heart's core of the corruption, or follow its deadly streams throughout their wide circulation. More than twenty years have now elapsed since the writer first endeavored to expose these deplo- 176 CONDITION AND PROSPEQTS &C. : , rable evils, But his voice was then too feeble, or the' Church's slumbers too deep. Few heeded the ^warning. And our troubles, at that time, chieily prospective, have since been fearfully real- ized, and in some parts of our Zion the tide has already spread so far, and risen so high, that only here and there a great Protestant land-mark, or a faithful traveller, is visible above its desolating flood. It was only after repeated and urgent importu- nities, public and private, the writer again took up his pen. In what he has now done he is pain- fully conscious of having fallen below his bwn wishes, and very 'far short of .what the present awful crisis demands. But amid no ordinary trials, discouragements, and domestic afflictions, he has persevered in doing the little he could. May it not be said ( of him again,, some twenty years hence, by any of Zion's faithful friends, then weeping over her RUINS Alas ! Alas ! " the writer showed himself no loose reasoner. no vain alarmist!" '* ' * 174 CONDITION AND PROSPECTS &C. waken tip-to right views of this subject. Hence division is now quite frequently spoken of, and at times, even in our high places, as that pain- ful, solemn alternative to which! both duty and safety will in all human probability, soon shut us up. Should the day come, as come we fear it will, let us "quit ourselves like men ; and be strong." "But what," it has been asked, -"will be the prospect before us 11^ case of division ?" We can judge of the future only by the past. The great principles of human nature, and of the govern- ment of Providence already developed in the his- tory of the Church, will still continue to operate. A consideration of these is the only clue by which we can guide our way into the labyrinth of the future. Judging thus we believe that in case of a division among us, the leaders of the Pusey- ite body, then unrestrained, will speedily travel forward to Rome, their longed for goal ; but the rank and file who, whether in Church or State, are almost always honest, will soon discover how shamefully they have been deceived^ and will fall back again upon the truly Protestant part of the Church; while that freed from the dead load of Popery which now enfeebles arid embarrasses it, and having with it the cordial OUR TROUBLES LONG FORESEEN. 175 -.t sympathies, of the whole Protestant world, and, we doubt not, the blessing of heaven, will at once press forward in the Christian course with renewed vigor, and grow and prosper beyond all past example. How glorious a body would be such a Reformed Church ! Few denominations, as the world now is, could dp. more to advance the kingdom of Christ on earth. It would "arise and shine" among the brightest constellations of those " new heavens," in comparison with which " the former shall not be remembered, nor come into, mind." The writer is done, not because the subject is exhausted. Far from this. In each essay his greatest difficulty was to be brief. Facts con- tinually crowded upon him, but of these he could select only those most fitted, as he believed, to do good, and least likely to give offence. Many evils he has been compelled to pass over entirely; and of those noticed, he "is deeply sensible that they have been feebly, very feebly presented; He could only touch the surface, and not go down into the heart's core of the corruption, or follow its deadly streams throughout their wide circulation. More than twenty years have now elapsed since the writer first endeavored to expose these deplo- 176 CONDITION AJVD PROSPECTS &C. : rable evils. But his voice was then too feeble, or the Church's slumbers too deep. Few heeded the /warning. And our troubles, at that time, chiefly prospective, have since been fearfully real- ized, and in some parts of our Zion the tide has already spread so far, and risen so high, that only here and there a great Protestant land-mark, or a faithful traveller, is visible above its desolating flood. It was only after repeated and urgent importu- nities, public and private, the writer Sgain took up his pen. In what he has now done he is pain- fully conscious of having fallen .below his own wishes, and very 'far short of what the present awful crisis demands. But amid no ordinary trials, discouragements, and domestic afflictions, he has persevered in doing the little he could. May it not be said ( of him again,, some twenty years hence, by any of Zion's faithful friends, then weeping over her RUINS Alas ! Alas ! " the writer showed himself no loose reasoner. no vain alarmist !"