presbyteral character, she will be found, I apprehend, to have put forth her twenty third Article. "It is not lawful for any man to take upon him "the office of public preaching or ministering the "sacraments in the congregation, before he be law fully called and sent to execute the same. And "those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent, "which be chosen and called to this work by men "who have public authority given unto them in the "congregation to call and send ministers into the "Lord's vineyard *." 4. Since then the Church of England claims to speak authoritatively even on matters of faith to her own members, and yet since she expressly limits her authority to the written word of God: what is to be done, the Romanist may ask, if any one shall judge her decision to be contrary to Scripture? In this case, as the grand protestant principle of searching the Scriptures whether these things are "so" can never be abandoned, the Church of England freely concedes the right of quitting her communion to all those who deem its terms unscriptural. She esteems them indeed mistaken and prejudiced men; and those, who hold with her, are amazed that any one should fancy her doctrines contrary to the Bible but she would fain part in Christian charity, if not in Christian fellowship; she has no * See Bp. Burnet's very sensible and judicious and moderate exposition of this Article. I have followed his sense in my whole view of the matter, as being the most agreeable at once to Scripture and to reason. more more the wish, than the power, to persecute those who differ from her *. As for separation on such mere trifles, as, whether the priest shall wear a white gown or a black one, whether a child in baptism shall be signed with a cross or with a parallelogram, or whether the consecrated elements shall be received in a kneeling or in a sitting posture; while yet her doctrine is allowed to be pure and scriptural : she can only regret, that good men should have shewn themselves so unaccountably childish, as to deny to her a power inherent in the very essence of a body, politic; "the power to decree rites or cere"monies t." See the difference between the Levitical and Christian dispensations, in regard to religious coercion, admirably placed on its true foundation by Bp. Warburton. Div. Leg. book v. sect. 2. + Art. xx. I am fully aware how often it has been said, that the blame-worthy persons are those, who arbitrarily impose such matters, not those who resist the imposition. But this does not apply in the present case. At the original settling of the English Church after the Reformation, attention might fairly have been paid to objections of this sort however palpably trifling in themselves: but the fact was, that the Savoy conference took place a whole century after our Church had been new modelled; and, when the full claims of the non-conformists were stated, it appeared that they demanded nothing short of the abrogation of our entire liturgy. Now, when once the harmless rites and ceremonies of a Church have been settled, no party of men has a right to demand their abolition merely to gratify their own humour, unless scriptural proof can be brought of their sinful illegality: and, if they separate in consequence, the guilt of the separation rests with themselves. This was the ground taken by the bishops, and surely a very reasonable òne : for, for, had the plea of the non-conformists been admitted, no future plea of a similar nature could have been refused; and thus the ceremonial of the Church would never have been the same two years together. If a few English resident in Scotland were to object to an union with the Presbyteral Church of that country on the ground that they could not conscientiously receive the sacrament in a sitting-posture; would not that Church justly deem it a most unreasonable thing, that she should be forthwith expected to alter her ritual unless its scriptural illegality could be clearly demonstrated. I need scarcely remark, that those, who desired to take occasion, might object to the Scottish form just as much as to the English form on the ground of its discrepance from that which was used at the first institution of the Lord's Supper. The apostles, as is evident from the reclining posture of St. John, received the bread and wine neither kneel ing nor sitting, but recumbent upon couches. DISSERTATION VI. Respecting the scriptural use of the word Mystery. SECTION I, On the general use of the word Mystery in Holy Scripture. To introduce a new system of religion in direct opposition to the old theology of the Gentiles, without any allusion being made to that old theology, is a thing in itself almost impossible. The Greek Scriptures, in fact, abound with such references: whence, if I mistake not, the theology in question will at once be found, to throw much light upon various detached passages in the New Testament, to establish incidentally (though in the way of fair deduction) the catholic doctrine respecting the nature of our blessed Lord, and to illustrate in a very curious manner the entire machinery of the Apocalypse. We are apt to pass over the word MYSTERY, as it frequently occurs in the New Testament, without attempt attempting to fix any very definite idea to it. Having completely Anglicized the term, and being accustomed to consider it as denoting in our language something at once obscure and wonderful and incomprehensible; we give ourselves no further trouble about the matter, but rest quite satisfied to read a purely technical Greek word with eyes perfectly English. Thus, when we hear of the MYSTERY of godliness for instance, we conclude, that some incomprehensible truth is spoken of, which we could never have known save through the medium of revelation. Now this may be very true to a certain extent: but, unless we be altogether sure that St. Paul used the word MYSTERY precisely in the same sense that we are wont to do in our common vernacular conversation, we evidently go away with but a very imperfect knowledge of what by thus employing it he meant to insinuate. Would we really ascertain the full import of such phraseology, we must divest ourselves of the character of modern Englishmen, and assume for a season that of ancient Greeks: we must read the declaration of the apostle, not as those who are descended from a long line of Saxon Christians, but as if we were recent Hellenic converts from the superstitious rites of old idolatry. The question therefore is, what idea the word MYSTERY would have conveyed to such converts. As for the term itself, it was perfectly familiar to them long before they heard the sound of the Gospel: so familiar indeed, that it was employed to denote an ordinance, which was established among the pagans |