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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
THE CHRISTIAN
CITIZEN,
OBLIGATIONS OF THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN,
REVIEW
OF HIGH CHURCH PRINCIPLES IN RELATION TO CIVIL AND

RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS.
A. D.
EDDY
Newark, N.
"
J.-
Two
classes of religious opinions are
conflict, the Catholic
now, and probably
for the last time, in
and the Genevan."

Dr. Pusey.
" The precious spark of liberty (was) kindled and preserved by the Puritans
alone, and it is to this Sect, that the English owe the whole freedom of their
constitution."
Hume,
NEW-YORK:
S.
TAY
145
LOR & CO
NASSAU-STREET.
Entered according
John
S.
Taylor,
to the act of
2.*2-
Congress, in the year 1843, by
in the Clerk's office of the District Court, of the
Southern District of New-York.
*"
WILLIAM
S.
DORR, PRINTER,
183 Fulton-street.
.-..;
/^
A.%. tfC".
>
"
:
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ADVERTISEMENT
Tee
leading sentiments of the following pages were pre-
sented to the congregation of which the author
is
the stated
From
minister, on the occasion of the last State Thanksgiving.
the business, political and religious aspect of this city, as well
as of the country generally, the author
and
to his congregation, to
The unexpected
interest
submit them
due
felt it
himself
with which they were received, and the
which they have excited from other
attention
to
to their consideration.
sources, forbid
that he should decline the request for their publication, in a
new and more
extended form, sustained by such references
and authorities as
men must
may
speak in defense of their
though those of others
The
necessity
pages
to
There are times when
be relied upon.
do
may
own
principles,
which has been
laid
upon the author of these
so, at this time, is better
known and
necessary or proper, fully to state.
This necessity
him, a matter of sincere regret
it
effort to
speak in love and
Newark, N.
/.,
for
Feb., 1843,
even
thereby be called in question.
yet,
truth.
felt,
than
is,
with
has been his aim and
CONTENTS.
TAGH.
Government
in General
Its Origin
and Claims
Dangerous tendency of Party
13
........
16
22
24
The Jewish Commonwealth

Spirit.
Religious Principle the chief security of Government.
The American Government founded on
the
Principles of
Protestant Christianity, and for the Purposes of Civil and
Religious Liberty
26
Discordant Elements and conflicting Interests
28
Religious Character of the Continental Congress and of the
Administration of Washington.
The subsequent Prevalence
The
29
of Infidelity
Necessity of a correct
33
Public Sentiment, and of the
Christian Virtues, to correct the Evils of the Govern-
ment
43
The Importance
The Value
The Duty
of maintaining the
Supremacy of
Laws.
49
of Inviolate Faith in the Fulfillment of Contracts.
51
cf selecting
Men
the
as Rulers of Intelligence and of
unimpeached Moral Integrity
The
Influence
Organizations, on the Civil Institutions of the Country.
High Church
59
of Religious Principles and Ecclesiatical
65
Principles hostile to the peculiar Republican
Institutions of our
Country
76
CONTENTS.
YI
Extraordinary Powers which they confer upon one Man.
The
" Divine Right" and "Apostolical Succession."
Origin of the distinctions in the Christian Ministry.
The High
Church System a departure
The
Origin of Liturgies and
Forms of Worship,
..
120
High Church Principles on Evangelical

.
Doctrines of the English Church at the
134
Conditions of Salvation maintained by

writers,
The
opposed
to the
127
Reformation
decidedly Calvinistic
The
114
their Influ-
Piety
The
98
109
'.
&c
Influonce of
85
from the original
of Archbishop Whately.
ence,
The
...
...
Church
principles of the English
Views
78
83
History of these Principles
Word
of
High Church
God
Influence of these Principles on those
who
138
are educated
143
in their belief.
Their Practical Tendency the same as Romanism, and destructive of Moral Distinctions, and of the practical and
saving efficacy of the Doctrine of the Trinity.
Concluding Remarks.
..........
....
145
..
150-
INTRODUCTION,
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH AND CONGREGATION,,

IN
To
THE CITY OF NEWARK,
N.
Jt
the recent proclamation of our Chief Magistrate,
we
are
indebted for another of those interesting occasions, when, with

the changes of the seasons,
we are summoned
to
acknowledge
our mercies, in gratitude to our Heavenly Father.

recall the
occasion that gave rise to
American Thanksgiving.
It arose
primitive in this country,
which
stand, venerated
among the usages
stand,
I love to
the institution of an
and
of times
I trust will long
memorials of the sterling integrity,
intellectual
strength and evangelical piety of our fathers.
They had encountered many a calamity. The winter,

war and the deep wilderness, were
mine, pestilence, savage

fresh before them.
Many
prayer they had observed.
oft
all
repeated seasons of fasting and
Amid
forgotten mercy, and failed in
fa-
filial
may have
upon the Father of
calamities, they
reliance
goodness.
Another day of humiliation being proposed,

that the divine goodness as
gard.
Instead of a
fast,
w ell
T
it
was suggested
as chastisement claimed re-
a day of thanksgiving was designated,
and our Puritan ancestors originated that institution, which

has been commended to our regard by the Executive of this
Commonwealth.
The instrument
that convened us, speaks of general peace,
freedom from pestilence, and of plenteous harvests, and, above
INTRODUCTION,
V11I
all,
we have p^sented the eeligion of Jesus
pre-eminently our unfeigned thankfulness.
Christ, as claiming
In your name, and
as one of the ministers of that religion, I thank the
of our State, for this open and
common
manly
GOVERNOR
tribute of respect to our
Our civil rulers would not be honored

more often and highly honored God and our confidence in them is proportionate to their fear of Him. While
the blessings of a common providence are enriched by the civil
relations and immunities with which we enjoy them, these
less, if
Christianity.
they
and immunities borrow their chief support from the

Hence, Christianity does not overlook civil
government nor does government, in its wise administration,
overlook religion. The one is essential to the high ends of the
relations
gospel of Christ.
;
other,
and religion
is
the purest, and best
when
diffusing the
leaven of its sanctifying influence through every department of

our social economy.
Though
there
is
no necessary connexion between the exter-
nal order and framework of Christianity, and the polity of the
commonwealth, there must ever
be, in every well regulated
community, the diffusive influence, and elastic power of Christianity, to control the minds and hearts of men, in the relations
of civil and political
life.
There
is
no
intellectual
culture
nor moral perfectibility of our race ; no wisdom or form in

human government and laws, which can dispense with the
and teachings of a divine religion. Every experiment

has proved a failure and an offense, entailing weakness and a
The nation and kingdom that will not serve (God)
curse.
spirit
shall perish.
The
favorable
manner which many of the
cussed in the following pages were received,
principles dis-
when
delivered,
on the anniversary of our State Thanksgiving, has induced me

to submit them to your disposal in a more extended form.
They
are
commended
hope that you
may
to
your serious consideration, with the
better appreciate the responsibilities of the
Christian Citizen, and
more highly
prize and enjoy the
immu-
which our
and religious
institutions confer.
That
nities
civil
the political aspect of the country
is
without
many alarming
INTRODUCTION.
indications
we
IX
cannot believe, and that existing evils will pass
away, without our judicious
efforts to
remove them,
In the remedy or endurance of these
be expected.
and religious principle
is to
is
evils,
not to
moral
be chiefly relied upon as the most
efficient agent.
In the discussion of both political and religious questions,

from my uniform freedom from participation in party politics,
and from controversy in religion, you will not suppose that I
am
engaging in the one or courting the other.
I intend to
have nothing to do with either. Yet I would contribute in

my humble measure, to allay the violence of party in the state,
and to moderate the unwarrantable zeal of sectarian re ligionists.
While
civil
governments greatly
checking the diffusion of

siastical organization
vitality
ments;
its
features.
affect religion, in aiding or
spirit,
and shaping
much towards
religion does
government, and
to
severity of
its
mitigating
Hence the
the despotic rule of the
its
eccle-
imparting
increasing the
arm of pagan governMahomedan and Chinese

iron
empires, and the almost equal tyranny of Spain and the Italian
States.
and
It is
from
religion, that
this
same
we meet
reciprocal -action of state policy
everywhere, with the darkness and
Romish communion, the most restricted rights

among the people. We find the mixed and
anomalous confederacies of Germany, Holland and Switzer-
cruelty of the
of citizenship
land,
with the equally anomalous character of the churches of
the kingdom of Great

with its republican and aristocratic Parliament, and
its nominal Monarchy, clinging to its own fading shadow, with
its unstable church, as crowding dissenters and a teemingpopulation are demanding the fullest liberty of the gospel.
And hence it is we meet the solitary spectacle of our free
the Heidelberg and Helvetic faith
Britain,
with the Scotch Presbytery shorn of its original

and unscriptural assumptions, and Independency, in its various
forms, reserving to itself its inherent rights and acknowledging
institutions,
no superior, but its divine Master. Any ecclesiastical polityharmonizing with other forms of civil government, is obviousl
INTRODUCTION.
may be its pretensions

outward framework, receives but
little sympathy from our free institutions, and its ultimate
influence upon our civil polity is a subject of no ordinary
not indigenous to our
to
soil,
a heavenly origin in
and, whatever
its
interest to every Christian citizen.

It is from these considerations that I shall speak freely, and
hope kindly, of both political and religious institutions, as
found existing among us; and as these are favorable to the
stability of our government and the growth of a spiritual reli-
warmest confidence and
gion, they claim our
support.
Our
civil
and religious principles are our richest and dearest inheritance;
and the time has

sneak in
when it is our imperious duty to

You are not wholly ignorant of the
arrived,
their defense.
circumstances which claim
this, at
my
hands, at the present
lime.
There are a few subjects connected with our

religious interests,
ty the most
To some of
which are not

it
is
my
and
even
Christian community.
intelligent classes of the
these,
civil
sufficiently considered
duty and desire to direct your
attention.
There
which leads
a natural concentration of power,
is
imperceptibly and rapidly to complete despotism, alike in the
church and
in the state.
And
right or
most
this is the
where it
violently usurped, but where
cult to resist or recall, not
consent, conferred and received, at
is
rapid,
and
diffi-
claimed by hereditary
it is
first,
delegated by popular
for
the purpose of
conscience and religion.

It is
here that Christianity, or the visible church, opens
instructive
and warning records.
entire " liberty:" that
" evangelical
was
The gospel,
at
first,
its
breathed
It marked the age of

memorable and bright through
near two hundred years when this
its "spirit."
Christianity,"
apostolical times,
and
for
catholic " liberty," passing from fraternal supervision, yielded

to ecclesiastical control.
cils,
The Word
of
God was
sole arbiter
the interpretations and decisions of church counWhile the " power of the spirit" clothed
in the second.
in the first
the one, as with the radiance of charity ; the energies of the
INTRODUCTION.
XI
earthly arm, in God's name, without his love, invested the

other.
From
the church, power gradually and insensibly passed
hands of her clergy, with
into the
ment of her
and moral
effort
faith
discipline,
whom
and
felt
the settle-
left
power succeeded, and
after Christ, a solitary
in the spiritual
she
relieved from mental
responsibility.
farther concentration of
hundred years
is
and
man
is
in
seven
found enthroned
empire of God, his august Vicegerent
This
the concentration of religious power.
No
and certain is the tendency to concentration

powers of the state. Supremacy here is ever tending
from the many to the few, with a rapidity always in proportion as the strong coercions of government are required, or
men are unprepared to govern themselves ; till recoiling from
less natural
in the
the blasting tempests of a wild, gregarious infidelity of igno-
rance and blood, they
shelter to the
fly for
bosom of an
iron
despotism.
The
gospel reverts this fearful tendency of concentration,
And
and would throw power back from the few to the many.
this
it
does, not
tions of
by any
direct
government, but by
and
on the func-
forcible action
fitting society for self-control
or
by rendering legislative enactments, governmental restraints and coercion needless, so that the vast, delegated power to frame and enforce laws shall be comparatively
Whes. men are intelligent and moral enough to
unnecessary.
in other words,
govern themselves, that
demand
is,
to act right, there will
for this vast array of legislative, judicial
be no such
and martial
power.
Thus
Christ
left
his church, instinct
with his
spirit divine
Thus he would make the world, a

commonwealth of charity, its every law fulfilled in love the
kingdom, and the greatness of the kingdom, under the whole
heaven, given to the people of the saints of the Most High
God. The state and the church are thus lost in one great
Himself
its
only Head.
brotherhood, intelligent in Christ their Sovereign, Savior, God.
There are few,
if
any portions of our population on whom,
INTRODUCTION.
Xll
the principles
of civil and religious liberty have stronger

upon the citizens of this Commonwealth. Here
their price was most dearly paid ; their virtue most rigidly
tested.
Here came the Hugunots of France, and the Exiles of
claims, than
Switzerland suffering for Christ.

resting from their toils;
Here came the Pilgrims
the Puritans, firm in the faith and
hope of God.
Here was raised the voice of the eloquent and revered
Witherspoon pleading the principles of civil and religious freedom. Here our Caldwell fell, their stern and able advocate.
Through these
lence.
streets our fathers were driven, by foreign vioEvery rod of earth around us is enriched by their
blood.
On
every
hill
bleach the bones of holy
men
that
Here are the battle

of opinions and of arms for the liberty and
contended for our liberty and religion.

fields of that conflict
leligion of mankind.
And
and matured some of the noblest

The names of Burr, of
Brainard, Edwards, McWhorter, Boudinott, Finly and Griffin,
hallow the spot where we live. Theirs were the principles of
here, too,
were
started
institutions of Christian benevolence.
the gospel, of the reformation, of missions, of Christian liberty
These principles have come down to

you from great and holy men. Their sanction was their
for the entire world.
was their blood. They are now in your

There may they never be undervalued, impaired or
obscured. Reaping their rich immunities, transmit them to
your posterity and mankind that shall come after you.
piety
their purchase
hands.
A. D. E.
Feb., 1843.
THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN.
GOVERNMENT OR THE SOCIAL CONSTITUTION:

AND CHIEF SECURITIES.
1. CIVIL
ITS ORIGIN, CLAIMS,
The
captious Pharisee, attempting to
make
the claims
Roman,
of the Savior conflict with the government of the
asked, " Is
it
lawful to give tribute to Caesar or not
Redeemer, the symbol of
Rom in supremacy
??'
The
before him,
with inimitable wisdom replied, " Render unto C&sar the

things that are Ccesar's, and unto
God's."
Here was recognised
God
government, with the obligation of
and sustain
it
and
in
sion with the
prepares
human
is there any
demands which the laws and
authority impose,
when
government and laws of God.
men
them good
for the
one,
not in colliChristianity
kingdom of heaven, by making
citizens of the earthly state
fitted for the
human
subjects to honor
its
no part of the Gospel
release from the imperative

institutes of
the things that are
the existence of
who has
and no man
is
not well discharged the duties
of the other.
Government, as a science, may be denominated, " the

In popular language it
frame work of the social polity."
sometimes
signifies, " the
carrying of the national affairs
14
into execution.
whom
Sometimes the person or persons upon

In more general and com-
duty devolves."
this
prehensive terms,
And
is in this
it
it
is
the " Constitution of o;iety"*
wide sense that
every member of society

tuent part, looking up for
and
compelled
is
to
it
so interesting to
is
as each one
becomes a
consti-
protection and immunities,
its
share in the responsibilities of
its
support.
Government, or the " social constitution," has appeared

under various forms, and never yet assumed a permanent
and fixed character.
have been embraced
in
Its
most general features
three comprehensive forms
the
Democratical Republican, the Aristocratical Monarchy,
and an Absolute Despotism.
Dismissing the
with the various combinations which they
last
two,
may have
as-
sumed from time Jo time, the consideration of the first

becomes a subject of personal interest to every American
citizen. f
This appears to be that form, to which all
governments
which
the
which,
if
in
their ceaseless
popular
mind
we mistake
changes are advancing
everywhere
not, the
demands,
and
word and providence of
* Government, says the Hon. John Quincy
Adams, is the exercise

power directing or controlling the will of human beings. This
power may be exercised by every individual over himself, or it may
be exercised by one or more individual over others. Sec Lecture
of
at Providence,
t It
is
Nov., 1842,
p.
11.
impossible to give any one definite term that shall express
the true nature of our government.

tution, and all united form
tution.
Each State has
its
own
consti-
the Confederacy, under a separate consti-
Neither of these, nor the two combined, says Mr. Adams,
can, without a gross and fraudulent perversion of language be termed
They are neither democracy, aristocracy nor monarThey form together a mixed government, compounded of these
a Democracy.
chy.
three elements, with a fourth added element, of Confederacy.
God
that.
for
15
near six thousand years, authorise us to believe,
He,
in
mercy, destines
all
mankind yet
to sustain
and enjoy.
Under
this form,
says the eloquent and accomplished
Montesquieu, " Public
pervading the hearts and
virtue,
conduct of the whole body of the people,
Every
and sustaining principle.
is
the animating
and exclusive
selfish
purpose must be relinquished by the individual

country,
its
session
of
glory and
his
its
Froud
breast.
distinction
government, and happy the people among

established
and his
happiness must take entire posfor
popular
whom
it
is
the principle were a sure consequence of
if
the form."
our duty and privilege, as Christian citizens, to
It is
Having
see that principle secured.
ernment,
we
trust that
it
is
that
"form" of gov-
God's purpose
us and to those
who may come
the legitimate
fruit
to
secure for
us this principle as
of the form when properly underafter
stood and rightly administered.
We
say the word and providence of
this idea of
government.
God seem
to favor
review of that government,
which he early established over the Hebrews, and the

details of which were so admirably carried out in the
administration of the lawgiver of Israel, confirm us in
the belief of this position.
Reverting
to
these times and these
first
principles,
not only find government to be a divine institution
we
" the
powers
that
marked
the relations, privileges and duties of the various
be, ordained of
God;" but we
classes of society, the separate elements of
composed
that while
find clearly
which
it is
man, must have government and
be governed, his duty and his destiny are, wisely,

ously, and religiously to govern himself:
virtu-
by the union
16
of cultivated mind, virtuous hearts and purposes of

strength, he
is
to
meet and
terests of ignorance
manly
control all the opposing in-
and wickedness.
Under
the salu-
men
tary direction of providential and gracious influences,

are to take
wisdom and
care of themselves, in associated strength,

virtue
silence, subdue or
"as members one

throw out of
their
of another
communion
who
refuse submission to the constitution
ment
that enlightened counsels
'
to
all
and govern-
and religious virtue have
reared.
There is nothing in the original and exalted position

which God himself held over the government of the HeDrews which forbids this conclusion. He did indeed defrom Sinai prominent and general laws for the government of a moral and religious community. But these
rery laws are to be considered as having their foundation
liver
ultiin the immutable principles of mnral reniiiiirLp^

mate and existing facts in the intellectual and moral
kingdom of God. These laws make no new principles,
nor do their penalties do anything more than enforce
These laws are but sayprinciples already established.
ing to the world what is right and necessary among mo_a.<;
ral agents,
will
and they foreshadow
in their penalties
what
be the necessary and inevitable results of disre-
And if God had never descended

garding these rights.
on that rocky mount, and its thunders and fires never
there been known, these fixed, moral principles, with
their results, would all have been met in the progress of
our race.
These laws were subsequently drawn
out and
more
fully applied in detail to the various relations of social
and
civil life.
administration,
And though from their origin and incipient

we must recognise and admit a Theoc-

racy, that
God was
17
monarch of
in fact the
his people
yet the government which he gave to Israel,
was not
without those usual forms which are found existing in
God
the civil institutions of men.
it is
true
was the
king,
and the high priest of the sanctuary borrowed from above
At the same time the po-
the prerogatives of his office.

litical
Hebrew
arrangements of the
state
were under the
To
direction of elders, princes and subordinate officers.

these, in behalf of the people,
and through them
people, Mose"s delivered the divine
to all
the
commandments, and
receiving through them the wishes of the people, submitted their requests to the decision of God.
at first
view,
if
All this
may
not in reality, assume the appearance of
an aristocratical monarchy
haps advancing upon
this,
but beyond
we
in popular assemblies," clothed with that
ence which " demanded the laws

for their approval
and
all this,
or per-
find the " tribes of Israel
to
ratification."
paramount
influ-
be submitted to them
They even assumed

own
and were not denied, "the right of proposing their
laws, and at times to resist such as were already enacted."

"There was in the Hebrew commonwealth no
power of levying taxes but such as the people themselves
imposed." Here was shadowed forth that more spiritual
government of the gospel, where the sovereignty of God
never suspends nor infringes the freedom of men.

No one can rise from the study of the Jewish economy
without perceiving and admiring this leading feature, the
obvious design of God, to enlighten, elevate and
empower
his people with the privileges and blessings of self-control,
and of self-control on the principles of the divine
government.
An
able writer has said, " Considering the age of the
world in which the Jewish code was established and

2*
18
how
was understood
somewhat remarkable, that
the doctrine of personal rights
little
in the world generally, is
it
not
the laws of
Moses were so decidedly
liberty?
know
which
is
the friend of civil
work
not where to look for any single
so full of the great principles of political wis-
dom, as the laws of Moses and the history of the kings of
Judah and
Notwithstanding their recent servi-
Israel.
tude to a foreign and despotic prince, and though just

entering upon a tedious pilgrimage in the deserts of Arabia,
they adopted a regular form of government.
a government
they came
It
was
which lasted almost half a century before
to the
promised land, and which, when they
ultimately settled in that land, remained for a series of
years undisturbed, and enabled them to maintain their
independence throughout
history.
And
yet,
all
the varieties of their national
with the exception of the writ of Habeas
Corpus, a privilege not required under their government
because
it
did not allow of imprisonment,
that there is a single feature of a

distinctly developed.
do not
Free State but
They were
know
here
is
a people remarkably
well acquainted with their rights and form of government.
Though
rich in resources and powerful in arms, they
were few. Though holding as they did, in the time of

David and Solomon, the balance of power between the
two great monarchies of Egypt and Assyria, and giving
law to all the kingdoms between the Euphrates and the
Mediterranean, xhey remained a free people.
were
free in
choosbg
their
free in the enacting of their
own form
laws
They
of government;
free in that the
laws
governed and not men."

The form of government established by Moses was republican; though, with salutary restrictions, the people
were
at liberty to
change
it
when
they desired.
It
con-
THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN,

sisted of twelve great tribes,
19
each under
leader con-
its
commonwealth, while all were united in

one great republic. They were a nation of confederate
states, bound together for the purposes of defense and
stituting a little
Their laws though originating for the

conquest. * * *
most part with God, were approved by themselves. The
own
nation, in other words, adopted their
which
ledge, in
their
Nor
laws.
is
my know-
there an instance on record, to the best of
laws were not proposed
to
the re-
presentatives of the people and received their unanimous
consent,"
"
No nobler people
no better organised community ever
existed than the ancient
industry
cence
wealthy,
ready
at
Hebrews.
but without
Inured
to
honorable
ostentatious
magnifi-
a moment's call to resist any attack
upon their country's freedom

ing in their revered ancestry
with an honest pride

they may well be regarded
exult-
during the more auspicious period of their history, as the

noblest specimen of a free and independent nation."*
With these views and obvious

ment of
Israel, perfectly
institutes of the gospel.
ground of an equality of
brings
It
mutual and reciprocal
men upon one common
It
to character
and wants, and
mon judgment, where
spirit, aims and

everywhere goes upon the
rights, of
obligation.
all
features of the govern-
harmonise the
it
destines
them
spirit
retributions of a
of the Lord
is,
a com-
the " incidental, circumstantial and
temporary distinctions of men," shall be
manding
level as
all to
common
lost in the
eternity.
there is liberty ;"
com-
" Where the
and just in propor-
tion as the evangelical spirit of the gospel has arisen,
pervaded and governed society, have the uncomfortable

restraints
and adventitious distinctions of

* Br. Spring.
life
and of gov-
20
ernment been
and the arm of arbitrary and
laid aside,
oppressive authority weakened or withdrawn.
The
gospel in
and precepts comes
its spirit
human passion
rate
diffuse charity, the social affections
mankind.
It
comes
to
to
mode-
subdue selfishness and pride
to
to
and good-will among
enrich the poor, to strengthen the
feeble, to comfort the afflicted, to relieve the oppressed,

to let the captive
go
free.
would impart
It
that constitution
Here
deed.'
it
where men may say we are free inall mankind in the hopes
'
and sympathies of Christ
raise the entire family of our
heirs of a corrupted bondage
Most High from

barian, Scythian,
all
making freemen of the
kings and priests of the
the willing captives of sin and death.
In Christ Jesus, there
The
men
forming
would equalise
race to the citizenship of heaven
"
the ele-
all
ments of the best regulated self-government
neither Greek, nor Jew, Bar-
is
bond nor
religion,"
free.
says Tocqueville, " which declares
equal in the sight of God, will not refuse to
acknowledge
the law."
equal in the eye of

ho adds, "is the combattles and in all its con-
that all citizens are
"This same
religion,"
panion of liberty in
all
its
the cradle of
its
infancy, and the divine source
flicts
of
claims."
its
What
the laws, institutes and religion of the Bible and
the spirit of Christianity would have
men
to be,
govern-
ment, ordained of God, wisely administered and sustained
by the people, kindly and of necessity comes in to make

them and it is only by sustaining and administering the
:
one, in the spirit and on the principles of the other, that

this result
can be secured.
Christian citizens only, can
create and sustain a Christian government, and govern-
ment administered on any
principles
but those of the
THE CHRISTIAN
21
CITIZEN".
Bible, will not long be a government over free and inde-
pendent men.
The
great difficulty and danger imminent to this coun-
hope and the struggle to attain that, by government and law alone, which can be secured and enjoyed
by that only which lies back of government and law,
try, is the
enlightened,
Christian
virtuous
gives to government
its
supremacy and worth.
principle
ornament and pride

It is
that
;
to
which
law
its
the casting off of these high
principles, resisting their attractive power, that throws us
in wild circuity from the sympathy, the light
and radiant
glory of the great, conservative system of truth and God,
and
like a baleful star stricken
from
its
orbit, left to fall
in loneliness and night.

It
becomes then the duty of every
citizen of the state,
and every member of the government, to see his part perform^

fvnof mot -*>"' TMo plodgoo U ~ *. ~ a _.. ilio
principles and in the spirit of a common and divine
Here we meet together as members of the
Christianity.
o.
>>,*,
civil
community, under equal laws and equal moral
obli-
and the Christian preacher, as one of the members of the civil community, and as one of the expounders of the divine law and the principles of moral respongations
sibility, is to aid
by his ministrations of truth and mercy,
the stability of the government and the salutary execution of
its
laws.
He
transcends not the sphere, nor does
he come down from the elevation and sanctity of his

office, when he calls upon every man in the name and in
the language of his
Master
to
things that are Caesar's, and to
God's
render unto Caesar the
God
the things that are
whether as a citizen or a ruler of
state, to
govern
and be governed as a Christian member of the commonwealth.
There
is
but one law of moral rectitude, and
22
that
law stretches
imperious claims from the pauper
its
on his bed of straw
to the chair of state,
the majesty of
crowns and the throne of God and that man is a traitor

to his race and a rebel against God who refuses its bind;
ing power.
The
to
origin and design of
reverence
character
its
government should lead

;
respect
industriously seek the benefits
it
its
would confer.
perfections are not to be attributed to
its
arise from the imperfect societies of
men.
becomes more and more perfect

in
its
and
administration as
its
virtue, labor for the
and party
for personal
Though the rulers

his own choice, and
institutes,
in its
subjects,
origin
Its
men
and
im-
but they
Government
laws and happy
growing
in
wisdom
general prosperity rather than
distinctions.
of the Christian citizen, rise under

the laws they enact are
made
his
and the sanctions that clothe them, are to be

respected as the " powers that are ordained of God ;" so
them,
that he can never revile nor resist their execution with
rudeness or irreverence.
The
absorbing influence of personal or party ends,
which overlooks
alike the source, the security
and pur-
poses of government, must be carefully guarded. There

may sometimes be party discussions and arrangements,
which with due moderation may have
their uses in sup-
pressing local jealousies and sectional designs, as well as
by imposing a
vigilant inspection
the abuse of executive powers

will hazard the general
nance, and
when
there
is
to
its
struggles for predomi-
attained, recklessly bind every interest
to the increase of its
And
good in
and salutary check
But undisciplined party
own
spoils.
often equal danger in servile adherence
THE CHRISTIAN CiTlZEN.
23
measures of a party administration, as
to the
able opposition and violence to
No
ments.
one can innocently or safely
exclusive banners of party at
contending
enlist
whether
all,
in
unreason-
character and enact-
its
in
under the
power
attainment, considered as a party.
for its
these struggles, the government of the state will
secondary
tion,
to
or
In
become
the triumphs of personal and party ambi-
and the precious interests of a whole community
madness of
lost in the
faction.
Thus
blind attachment
or indiscriminate resistance to party, impairs the vigor of
government, degrades
the
"
power of God.
ple," says
Andrew
this
heavenly ordinance and resists
The
great point of a Christian peo-
Fuller,
"should be an attachment
to
government as government, irrespective of the party that

administers
it."
When Nero
ruled and Christians bled,
even then, loyalty was enjoined, and the despisers of
government were rebuked and silenced as the opposers

of
God and
a divine Christianity.
With these views of the civil relations and that ordinance which defines the obligations of the citizen to the
state,
may
be seen the folly and guilt of prostituting the
administration of law and government to any selfish or
Too
merely temporary purposes.

praised and honored in
it
cultivates and encourages virtue
keeps open and
fruitful the
often is
government
constituted authorities, not as
its
and holiness, but as
it
sources of pecuniary gain, and
invests the selfish and aspiring with the immunities of
subordinate office
strance that
men,
while the loudest cries of remon-
come up from
arise from their
Amid
calamities so often experienced, a Christian peo-
ple should recognise the
perhaps
the thousand habitations of
embarrassment and losses.
hand of God rebuking them,

government and the abuse
for the perversion of
24
of
When tliese are wrongly applied, the very

winch they were made subordinate are lost, and
laws.
its
ends
to
Human
a twofold defeat ensues.
on
in vain,
There
tional calamities.
no foreign invasion
exist
suspension of worldly resources

nor
sterility
open and
there
is
no
no pestilence,
the heavens are propitious and the generous
earth yields her increase, and the

is
sagacity often searches
ordinary principles, for the cause of na-
all
embarrassment
commerce of
At such times we search
free.
in vain,
till
we
the world
causes of
for
refer to the perversion of
the social and civil relations, to the forgetfulness of that

intelligence, virtue and religion,
of
God
to cultivate
In addition
government,
of God,
when
is
rigid regard for the proper ends of
must be remembered, that though ordained
vast and complicated interests are safe only
its
in the
whom
to this
it
which they were ordained
and maintain.
hands of the intelligent and virtuous,
are the promises of the divine favor
made
and
the duty of Christian citizens to implore upon the
Subordination, respect, obedience,
rulers of the nation.
support, yea, reverence for law, and prayer for

authority, are duties
to
which every Christian
powers,
for
Whosoever,
in
all
owes
citizen
Be
government that protects him.
the
to
this it
subject
the powers that be are ordained
to
of God.
therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the
ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive unto
themselves condemnation.
dues
tribute to
honor
first
of
to
whom
all
whom
honor.
custom
to all their
whom
to
custom
for all that are in
exhort yon, saith the apostle,
that supplications, prayers, intercessions
the giving of thanks, be
and
Render, therefore,
tribute
made
for
all
men;
authority, that they
quiet and peaceable life in all godliness
for
may
and
kings
lead a
and honesty
THE CHRISTIAN
25
CITIZEN.
good and acceptable in the sight of God our
for this is
Savior.
It
we
must be remembered,
governments such as
that in
are considering, the highest securities do not emanate
from
and authority, from the chair of
office
capitol of the country
hands of the people.
rest in the
and the
state
but they rise from the hearts and
Safety
is
found only in
wisdom, integrity and religion of the community.
the
Here
is
whence
the source of power,
ture of office.
Here
arises the investi-
are found the bulwarks of defense,
as the munition of rocks.
That people who respect

to
authority, render obedience
law and government, and pray
for the divine blessing,
possess the substantial elements of a free and happy
state.
With them
legis-
lation
On
Government,
God.
rests the favor of
and the execution of law are easy and salutary.
the other hand, without this spirit and these virtues,
The
there is no promise of protection, and no safety.
God
very laws and government of
are but anarchy
and
wild confusion amid the rebellious and maddened multitudes of
men, and the authority of God
is
then secured
only by the desolating scourges of his vengeance.
In view of the value and great ends of government,
becomes
the
imperious duty of Christian
cultivating the principles essential to
give
it
their
becoming
to
most
efficient support
their responsibilities,
its
ciiizens,
maintenance,
to
and with vigilance
and the interests involved,
which threatens
guard against every evil
it
by
its
pros-
perity.
It is
nition.
here that history opens
The
annals of
all
its
pages of fearful admo-
ancient
munities are dark and melancholy.
and crowded com-
They
rose, flourish-
26
and discarding the virtues of
ed,
vain for their palaces and thrones.
known
erned the world are
disgrace and destruction

of crowded
We
reli-
search in
Nations that gov-
only in the annals of their
and we walk over the ashes
awed by
capitals,
and of
civil life
judgments of God.
gion, died under the
the justice and the judg-
ments that swept them from the earth. The people

and the church of God free, enlightened, enriched and
;
powerful Israel, casting aside the restraints of virtue and

law, are scattered, desolate and lost amid the thousand
nations of the earth.
Another chapter
government
opened, and a
is
The
arises.
unheeded are
vain, anl
its
new economy
experience of the past
solemn admonitions.
countries and nations throw off the fear of
God
war with
the
and
virtue
religion,
binding
is
of
in
Cities,
violently
souls
and
bodies of the saints, and bowing the entire Christian
world
to the iron
arm of
the judgments of
God
But a
relief of his people.
begins.
less
continent,
bosom
to
man
the "
We look for
of sin."
in vindication of truth
new
unknown
and the
course of providence
for ages,
opens
its
stain-
persecuted and exiled families of
the
Christ.
A new
government
gent and pious
God,
men
here founded by the most
intelli-
selected from the very church of
we
and advanwere the Jews for the

of the wisdom and power of God in their an-
for a purpose,
cing religion and

illustration
is
;
believe, of restoring
civil liberty
as
cient
and divinely ordered government.
trious
men came
These
illus-
not alone for civil liberty, but confes-
sedly to advance religion

and in the spirit and culture of
the one to secure to the world the blessings of the other.
;
free
church, a spiritual religion, the rights of con-
They
quent.
the one,
God
petitioned neither
their
and conse-
liberty subordinate
civil
were
the glory of God,
science, the grace and
primary object*
27
nor their king for
they had secured, enjoyed and established
till
With all this they were

demanded and secured it.
Thus became erected the government which we now
enjoy.
So far from being dissociated from religion,
the other on a firm foundation.
prepared
because
for the other,
it
incorporated none into the civil framework of
the state as to
it,
legalized, ecclesiastical organization,
its
God
from the beginning, adopted the laws of
statutes,
and the gospel as
ment since
its
common
the theocracy of Israel,
No
law.
was so
as
its
govern-
distinctly
and
emphatically founded on tbe principles of the Bible and

for the great ends of a spiritual religion.
Christianity
was
its
and
basis,
it
was
of knowing no religion,
its
instinct with
it
primary object of pursuit, and
founded, through
judicial
principle
all
its
branches,
its
but religion as
bond of union.
Thus
-egislative, military,
and executive, moral obligation and Christian

were feit and acknowledged. Its vows of alle-
giance, oaths of office, and pledges of trust,
given and received on the

the government of Israel
ment, so evidently
of Christianity
plainness defined.
was
Word
of God.
was founded a
this established
As
all
religious govern-
on the principles
And
as the safety of Israel
we
was
in the
are secure only from
the spirit and energ7of a divine Christianity.

all this
were
clearly as
and the purposes of each, with equal
shelter of God's protection, so
as
Instead
its spirit.
knew nothing
As
clearly
entered into the original structure of our gov-
ernment, as
institutions,
the animating and pervading

it
spirit
of
its
ever has and will continue to have, op-
28
posing principles
which,
it
may
with which to
God has never
and before
Yet
From the elastic power

we may recover and rise above
deserted us.
of this vital Christianity

the deep waters that
The
conflict,
often for a season appear to yield.
come over
us.
original materials of the
American
society,
and
the various elements combining in this concentrated gov-
ernment, have given rise
occasional difficulties and to
to
country, both as to their
There was a
two great divisions of the
religious principles and the chief
causes which led
settlement.
no
little
anxiety as to the
final results.
diversity of character in the
to their
There are the claim-
ed and questioned rights of separate and sovereign
states,
leading to almost unceasing " conflicts of the law ;" the

the almost necesdiversity of population, slave and free
;
sary rise of party and sectional jealousies, with conflict-
ing pecuniary interests
and from the ceaseless workings
of the elements of such a complicated, anomalous and
growing confederacy, departures may often occur, from

that decorum, integrity and religious principle which
ennobled and guided
The
founders.
its
ecclesiastical intolerance and civil oppression
which many of them

which the great body
fled,
of
from
and the leading design by
them were governed, long pre-
served in vigorous action their religious principles, and
every day strengthened their attachment to the political
and ecclesiastical institutes of their adoption.

Through the whole period of the continental Congress,
the perils and storms of that memorable day, there were
repeated recognitions of
providence.
Days
God and
a wise reference to his
of fasting and prayer for the aversion,
of evils, and for the divine favor, were frequent, and
THE CHRISTIAN
29
CITIZEN.
every department of government seemed cheerfully

recognize the claims of a
The
common
administration of Washington was
out by a rigid regard for
marked throughand
leligious principle,
man everywhere commended
great
to
Christianity.*
and
virtue
this
religion,
not only as the sure basis of a free government, but as

essential
statesman.
elements in the character of a patriot and

" While we are zealously performing the
duties of citizens and soldiers," says he, "
ought not
To
to
be inattentive
we
certainly
to the higher duties of religion.
the distinguished character of patriots,
it
should be
our highest glory to add the distinguished character of
* Sept. 11th,
1777, Congress, by special vote, ordered 20,000
copies of the Bible to be imported from " Holland, Scotland, and
elsewhere," into the different ports of the United States.
In 1782,
"in consequence of the difficulty of importing Bibles," recommended

the edition of Robert Aiken, of Philadelphia.
Mar. 14th, 1776,
it
was voted
humiliation, fasting and prayer."
1778
Mar.
lution designating the last,
May
"a day
17th as
Another was appointed
six
of
months
Similar seasons were set apart by Con-
afterwards, Dec. 11, 1776.

gress, Mar. 7,
to observe
10,
we
of our divine Redeemer, with
1781
Mar. 19, 1782. In the resowords " That the religion
find these
all its
benign influences,
may
cover the
earth as the waters cover the sea."
Nov.
1,
Congress
Nov.
1777,
in
day
for public
thanksgiving was proclaimed by
view of the Divine favor
17, 1778, a similar
to the armies of the country.
day was appointed in view of the reduction
army under Earl Cornwallis. " Congress in a body repaired

Dutch Lutheran Church, Oct. 24, 1781, and rendered thanks
Dec. 13, 1781, was proclaimed as a day of
to Almighty God."
thanksgiving throughout the United States. Another was designated
of the
to the
for
is
Nov. 28, 1782, with
this
emphatic declaration
"
On
every
man
urged, each in his station, and by his influence, the practice of true
and undefiled religion, which
is the
perity and national happiness."
3*
great foundation of public pros-
THE CHRISTIAN
30
The
Christians.
CITIZEN.
signal instances
goodness demand from us,
of
his providential
a particular manner, the
in
warmest returns of gratitude and piety

Giver of
The
all
opinions of great
Christian
the
sustain
to the
Supreme
good."
practices of such a
men
are not alone sufficient to
religion
man
as
opinions and
the
but
George Washington,
attest-
ing the value, yea, the absolute necessity of the religion of

the gospel to the safety of our free institutions, claim our
profound respect, admiration and gratitude

effort to
impair the
fair
fame of
this great
And we
are based.
to
but an attempt
upon which our
civil interests
bound
feel
man, and
is
invalidate his claim to evangelical piety,

to loosen the foundation
and every
to question the right, if
not to rebuke the efforts of infidels, to drag surreptitiously
ranks
into their
the venerated father of our
They have been
country.
anxious, says Dr. Cox, " to claim
him
as their own," and this they have done upon high autho-
them, and have labored hard
rity to
which they
rable foundation on
*
Thomas
tells
me
Jefferson in his
that
he had
it
'
Ana,''
to sustain
But
rest.*
Feb.
the mise-
in this, says
Rush
1800, says, Dr.
1,
from Asa Green, that
when
the
clergy
addressed General Washington on his departure from the govern-
ment,
it
was observed in
said a word
any occasion,
their consultation, that

to the public
he had never, on
which showed
a belief in the
Christian religion, and they thought they should so pen their address
as to force
him
Christian or not.
at length to declare publicly
They
did so.
However,
whether he were a
his author observed, the
for them.
He answered every article parwhich he passed over without notice. " I
know that Governeur Morris, who pretended to be in his secrets and
believed himself to be so, has often told me that General Washington
old fox
was too cunning
ticularly except that,
believed no more of that system than he himself did."
Writings, vol.
Why
iv. p.
Jefferson's
512.
does Mr. Jefferson rest on such testimony
when he was
inti-
THE CHRISTIAN
the
same distinguished
failed, as their interests
CITIZEN.
author,
and their
31
" they
have
efforts will
signally-
soon be
all
and eternally bankrupt together."
Nothing
is
more clear than
ends of
essential aids to the
its
Prayer was no stranger
wise government.
all
Washington was a
that
firm believer in Christianity, and
camp, and the high decorum of religion adorned
to his
the entire character of his civil
Christian in the closet alone
He was
life.
not a
not such from the fac-
from principle,
titious interest of state relations, but
at
home, abroad, everywhere a professed Christian. A

Christian, neither sectarian nor exclusory.
He met the
followers of
God
communion
of
at the table of Christ,
with a cordiality
as fraternal and strong, as he
commended
the principles and virtues of a divine and spiritual Christianity to the friends
"
And every
redeems
is
his
fame from
welcomed by
part of the
and fellow-citizens of his country.
fact that illustrates his piety, or in

this
calumny
any way
(of infidel claims),
the public sentiment of the country as a
common
treasure of mankind."*
mate with General Washington from 1769, and that for four years
while he was Secretary of State, he says, " their intercourse was
daily confidential and cordial."
*
Vol.
II. p.
349.
army of General Washingten was in winter

Morristown, N. J. The Rev. Dr. Johns was the pastor
In 1779-80, the
quarters at
of the Presbyterian Church in that place.
Mr. Johns
to
,f
The General requested
have a longer intermission between his morning and
afternoon services, that his officers might attend: so
and the
The
officers
it
was changed,
attended both services."
service of the
communion which was observed
but twice a year, occurred while the army were
at
in that
church
Morristown.
In a
morning of the previous week, the General visited the house of the
Rev. Dr. Johns, and thus accosted him " Doctor, I understand ;hat
:
the Lord's Supper
is
to
be celebrated with you next Sunday.
32
There were, however, many adverse influences
to the
moral and religious principles upon which the govern-
ment of
istered.
this
country was established and
We
have already alluded
racter in the elements of
which
demoralizing influence of
greatly
and
increased
it
the
to
admin-
at first
the diverse cha-
was constructed. The

war of the Revolution
aggravated
this
and
diversity
strengthened the enemies of religious principle, specially

in
its
bearing upon the government of the state.
secret influences were at
work adverse
evangelical piety of the puritans
whose professed
principles
Long and
to the stern
and
and there were many
demanded the most enlarged
and who violently opposed every appearance, real
liberty,
or imaginary, of aristocratical
affinity.
The
restraints of
moral and religious obligation were as unfriendly
to
the
former, as the most extended and agrarian democratic
was dear
principle in the state
And while
to the latter.
the demoralizing influence of the war above-mentioned
augmented the one, the
greatly
excited
and
would learn
agitated
state of the
world abroad,
by the scenes of revolutionary
accords with the canons of your church to admit
if it
communicants of another denomination"!" The Doctor rejoined,

" most certainly ours is not the Presbyterian table, but the Lord's
;
table
and we hence give the Lord's invitation to
The General
of whatever name."
as
I
it
ought to be
would ascertain
that occasion.
nonexclusive
but as
it
replied,
was not quite sure of the
from yourself, as
followers,
all his
"I am glad
of
it,
fact, I
that
is
thought
propose to join with you on
member of the Church of England, I have

partialities."
The Doctor re-assured him of a cordial
Though
welcome, and the General was found seated with the communicants
the next Sabbath."
There
are
Dr.
living
Cox's Theopneuston, pp. 28-9.
witnesses
to
the verity
of
this
and
other
instances of Washington's participation with Christians at the table
of Christ.
33

France, was stimulating the other almost
to
a state of
phrensy.
France was endeared

aid
to us
by her kind sympathy and
through the eventful crisis of our revolution, and
own sanguinary experiment was not

was loudly claimed as a signal advance
of human society
a splendid march of intellect and
the result of her

fully settled.
It
moral achievement towards the perfectability of
our
race.
The depressed
many
state of morals in
sections of the
country, and the settled opposition of multitudes to any
which could be sup-
restrictive forms of administration,
harmonize with aristocratical government in any

features, were preparing the way for signal changes
posed
of
its
to
in the general aspect of society.
concentrating
influence,
attraction, to unite these strong
An
required but
It
some commanding
some
object
of
and unstable elements.
individual long distinguished in the councils of this
who had
country,
written
his
name
deep and endur-
structure, and
whole nation, had
become familiar with the principles of French philosophy
both in politics and religion.'
He had enjoyed the
ing on the foundation-stone of our
on many accounts was endeared
society and
civil
to the
become deeply imbued with the
spirit of that
remarkable people, and he sincerely sympathised with
them in
ment of
their visionary speculations
upon the advance-
society, and their full belief in the
tellectual culture to secure the highest

state.
Infidelity
had done
its
work on
Thomas Jefferson, governed by
power of
in-
ends of the social

his great mind.
the spirit of Euro-
pean scepticism, and animated with the speculative philosophy of revolutionary France, and aided by the peculiar circumstances of the country at that time, found
34
own hand
in his
power of turning
the
the
scale
in.
favor of his elevation to the presidency of these United

States.*
Under such
auspices, and surrounded by these circum-
stances, he enters
high
office
upon the solemn
responsibilities of his
and whatever may be said of his own per-
sonal and direct influence, or of his political character, of
which we have here nothing to

obvious as it was melancholy.
say, the result
was as
Instead of the
stern
virtues of the Puritan faith and of evangelical piety, with
the conservative
energies of
government, lending
aid to the
its
confederate
Christian
advancement of
virtue
French morals, French infidelity, French

philosophy, like French fashions, soon spread a new
and
religion,
aspect, over the fac& of society,
and from the heart sent a
feverish and fatal action to every extremity.
One
of the peculiar and leading,
if
not most efficient
influences that attended the elevation of Mr. Jefferson,
was the "levelling system," so ruinous in France, and

which found its way to this country at this eventful crisis
of its history.
It was not the agrarian movement of the
Tiers Etat alone, but the very cry of the sans culotte
of the streets of Paris.
effort
to
elevate
Instead of a wise and efficient
every class of the community, and a
laudable desire to advance through the influence of education and morality

inferior orders
there
was a determination
of society to rise on the
higher classes of the community.

for the
most enlarged
liberty,
A demand
5,
M. L. Davis,
in
the
and No. IIL Jan. 1838,
Davis, vol.
II.
pp. 71-74.
was made
and the vulgar prejudice
* See notice of the Life of Jefferson and the
Burr, by
in the
ruins of the
Memoirs of Aaron
New-York Review, No. I. Mar. 1837, p.

And also the Life of Burr, byp. 175.
35

was fanned
jubilee
its
high priest was the chief of
and his voluminous writings, as well as his

show how faithfully he served the altar at which he
the nation
life,
its
ignorant, and scurrilous
Low,
to a flame.
had
infidelity
ministered.
His works have already been commended to the

young men of our country, and as the guardian of their
morality every Christian citizen must desire to furnish
And
along with them an antidote to their poison.
many
while
claim the right to question the political sagacity of
this distinguished
on the morals of
man, we
shall ever regret his influence
this nation,
and
feel
it
our duty to speak
in decided disapprobation of his religious principles.
During the period of his administration and

years
following
for
some
which he embraced
the principles
it,
exerted a most disastrous influence on the popular mind.

Infidelity, both
in
refinement and in
its
its
grossness,
from the schools of Rochester, Rosseau, and Shaftesbury
went
forth to poison the
at the seat of
Not a
New
retired village, remote
discuss
its
its
was popular not

was so everywhere.
It
government, but
England, but had
Paine,
public mind, and to feed the
voracious appetite of the vulgar.
only
Tom
from Hobbs, Blount, Voltaire, and
it
among
the mountains
of
youthful society organised to
principles and favor
its
claims
while every
seed thickly sown and
institution of learning found its
springing with a vigorous growth.
When
the head and the heart are both alike diseased,
the whole body, to

the fatal contagion.
its
remotest members, cannot resist
Jefferson
was
the head, the heart,
the idol of a numerous and powerful class of

sceptics.
It blindly
avowed
Disease spread through almost every member.
worshipped and had
its
reward.
36
While the influence of

pared, in a measure, the
infidelity,
the
war of the Revolution pre-
way
for this disastrous reign of
no one can question,
sibility for its
that the
burden of respon-
continuance and spread rests in a great
measure on Mr. Jefferson. Of this he was proud. His

own table and the Sabbath became the theatre and the
occasion on which " Christianity was made the subject
of his conversation and his sneers," and the
young men
of his favorite university were the victims of his majestic,

ex cathedra invectives against the religion of the gospel.*
He
sought
to lay the foundations of infidelity
deep and
durable by the broad projection of this literary institution,
down
and
in all his writings,
that
he dictated, as well as
to
one of the
latest epistles
in his rejection of the
conso-
lations of religion on his death-bed,f his sentiments
See Trumbull's Reminiscences of Washington.
The
t
life
were
letter of
Mr. Jefferson
to
John Adams near the close of his
also Tucker's Life and Character of Jefferson, vol. II. p. 495.
his correspondence
la
he expressly denies the claims of Christ and the
His remarks respecting Jesus Christ and
inspiration of the Gospel.
the wife of Joseph are too indelicate and blasphemous to be repeated.
He
this
charges the apostles with "stupidity and roguery,'' and says, "of
band of dupes and impostors Paul was the great Coryphceus."
In a letter to William Short, speaking of his university, he says
" The serious enemies are the priests of the different religious sects, to
whose
tile as
spells
on the human mind
its
improvement
these sects are, in every other point
unite in maintaining
believe there
is
their
mystical
only one God.
the most intolerant of
all
sects
The
;
is
to
ominous.
Hos-
one another, they
theogony against those who
Presbyterian clergy are loudest
the most tyrannical and ambitious.
They pant to re-establish by law that

now only infuse into public opinion.
holy inquisition which they can
We
have most unwisely com-
mitted to the hierophants of our particular superstition the direction

of public opinion, that lord of the universe.
We
have given them
stated and privileged days to collect and catechise us, opportunities

avowed and determined.
private, consequent
his life
Of
37
the morality, political or
on such sentiments, the history of
must decide.
When
Dr.
D wight
entered on the presidency of Yale
College, that institution was entirely overrun with
infi-
and the most able productions of his great mind
delity,
are found in his invaluable discourses on
modern scep-
ticism.
A reaction in the public mind soon took place, and

under the fostering care of our literary and religious
began
institutions better principles
Men
dency.
to
regain the ascen-
almost universally saw that something bet-
ter than infidelity
was needed
and enlighten the general mind

religious principle there
to
;"
was no
"improve the reason

and
that without moral
security for the rising
generation, and no permanent stability to government or
As France had sunk
law.
into the iron
arms of a des-
potism, more cruel than that from which she revolted,
and become the executioner of her own best sons, her

friends and admirers here,
warned by her sad
phy, no longer to idolise reason
catastro-
in the rejection of Christ,
to reverence the principles of the gospel as the

only sure charter of republican liberty. The man, who
" in his high and palmy slate," was the idol of millions,
began
had passed away, and "like all retiring statesmen," when

power of patronage, " experienced the deserwho once lived upon his smiles and
multitudes
tion" of
losing their
of delivering their oracles to the people in mass, and of moulding

their
minds as wax
in
the hollow of their hands.
their Eliminations against
to
of
But
in spite
improve the reason of the people and encourage them

it,
of
endeavors to enlighten the general mind,

in the
use
the liberality of (Virginia) this state will support this institution
and give
fair
play to the cultivation of reason."
88
were loud
own
may
Here he found the
in his praise.
" favorite dogma/'
" that
men
be wrong, yet
at first frequently
truth of his
though popular opinion

will
at last
This became realised in
reach a correct conclusion."
own case, and we no longer wonder that, in the language of his own eulogist biographer, " it was the fate
his
of
Thomas
Jefferson
be
to
at
once more loved and
praised by his friends, and more hated and reviled by

his adversaries, than any of his compatriots
ever admiration
no respect
is
may be
due or can be paid
gious principles.
tudes
Having
became ready
neglected and
to
;"
and what-
given to his political sagacity,
moral and
to his
reli-
tasted their bitter fruits, multi-
espouse the cause of a long
vilified Christianity.
As by common conbecame
sent other minds and "other principles ultimately
ascendant, and the more valuable, moral interests of the
country began to advance, while virtue and religion lent

their
aid to the
order and
interesting chapter
is
stability of
the
state.
An
here opened in the literary and
religious history of this country.
Passing over a few years
we come
to the
war of 1812.
This scourge always brings a train of moral evils and

throws up new elements of society, which under no
other circumstances would ever rise.
In its desolating
influence on the institutions of religion,
for scepticism
and vulgar
infidelity, as
it
paves the
way
well as for the
habits of gross licentiousness.
The immediate
its
terrors of this period passed
demoralising influence continued.
prostrated
moral and religious obligation was weakened,
and Christianity had but few advocates
We
away, but
The Sabbath was
do not recollect,
that,
in
high places.
during eight years of one con-

tinuous administration, there
39
was any express recognition
of a divine religion from the executive department, and

but feeble illustrations of
The
tal.
its
virtue
anywhere
at the capi-
plea of state necessity and the advantage of
rapid intelligence to the community, legalised the desecration of the Christian Sabbath, and
its
legitimate result
was the general prevalence of a lax morality.

Though there was a season of resting from political
animosities, after the battles of this war were fought
there was, at the same time, too much countenance everywhere given to the loose and infidel habits of men. The
agrarian spirit began again
off the
supremacy of
its
work, and seeking
intellect,
And what-
the restraints of law and moral obligation.
we may
ever
ral results
refer
think of the times that succeeded, their mo-
cannot be overlooked
them
Magistrate, and
we
and
We
to the right source.
that the besc intentions
are bound to
have not a doubt,
governed the distinguished Chief
we impute
of an infidel philosophy.
for
to
him none of the
We
principles
looked with lively hope
the results of his elevation, and anticipated
popular reformation
mary
much
though our fears had not wholly
We
subsided in view of his previous history.
bered the resolute

dier
throw
to
demanded freedom from
spirit
remem-
and the moral daring of the
the vast responsibilities he

justice that he executed.
sol-
assumed and the sumAs to the right of such
assumption, and the necessities that demanded
it,
we
However, the great body of the

people may now coincide with the judgment then exercised, it was an experiment which the genius of our
have nothing
government
to say.
will sanction, but at great peril
in a solitary instance, the result
may
and though,
be salutary, the
principle at once invalidates our chief security, the sacred
40
This
majesty of law.
is
rather a question of casuistry
than of constitutional or statute law, and as such, forming
the
and only precedent of the kind
first
For
should be seriously considered.

silent leges,"
in this country*
" inter
if,
arma,
then our constitution and laws must yield to
the sword, and even the writ of Habeas Corpus be
left at
the disposal of adventitious military power, which the

constitution
has not trusted to the hands even of
Chief Magistrate himself, nor has
and executive powers combined, with the autho-
lative
rity,
the-
clothed the legis-
it
proclaim martial law over private citizens, by
to
which they may become subjected
to
councils of war.
(See Con.,fflh and sixth amendments.)
How
far
these acts of military
responsibility,
insubordination
From
decide.
to the
soon ensued,
that
of personal
the general spirit of

it
impossible
is
to
a variety of concurring causes, all tending
same end,
example,
power and
may have encouraged
required but a solitary
it
to settle the
commanding
opinions and conduct of thousands.
Events long maturing were approaching a
The
men were
crisis.
clashings of party and the indomitable spirit of
impatient of control, and an easier morality was every-
where demanded.
Sources of intelligence, and means of
moral culture were
check the popular

were in vain.
insufficient, to
licentiousness, and providential scourges
Pestilence swept like the winds through almost every

dwelling, and universal embarrassment succeeded.
The
demand for a general fast in view of the public calamity,

was answered in the language of Jefferson, "this country
knows no
religion."
and vulgar
infidelity
Our
were
cities
full
At
this time, the
became
of
it,
growth of popular
rapid and almost universal.
and
with the flower of our youth.
its
halls
were crowded
Its victims, its
preachers,
men and women,

and
its
domestic and foreign, were every where,
It
came
it
variety of
of liberty, of rational reli-
In meliorating the condition of soci-
would reduce
penalties,
name
in the
gion, of humanity.
ety
assumed every
principles and purposes
shape.
41
criminal
its
demanding the
law, by banishing
its
of no man, the murderer not
life
excepted.
.As the natural result of
these things, multitudes, cast*
and setting aside
ing off moral responsibility,
of law, entered upon
own way.
their
The
the administration
all
forms
of justice in
ruffian in the street, the
duellist,
the enraged legislator, and crowds of excited and reck-
men, catching the same spirit, carried forward the

work, till law and justice were but a name, and
less
fearful
To this
powerless before the storm.
very hour, the mur-
derer stands unrebuked in the halls of legislation, boldly
avowing
in
his adherence to his shameless " code of honor,"
open contempt of the laws of God and his country,
perjured by the violation of his
own
Violent and
oath.
visionary men, contemning the whole system of law, and
encouraged by the vapid speculations of transcendental

philosophisings, would overturn our entire social system.
The
Mr.
striking
these
parallel of
times
with those of
Jefferson's administration, the historian has yet to
write
and
with a discerning hand
sponsibility involved.
In
this
may have already been done
to
respect,
equalize the re.

great
to individuals,
censure fallen, not upon the most guilty.
No
injustice
and severe
single
man
can either cause or cure the multiplied evils that have
been
inflicted
upon
us.
The
disastrous influences of war,
a general, corrupt public sentiment, and the violence of

party, in the
two instances before
us,
were more powerful
than the principles and patronage of any one man, what=

4*
42
may have been.

And we must remember, that it is public sentiment that
makes men rather than men, singly or politically asso-
ever those principles and patronage
ciated, that form the public
zens,
we must
share in
all
sentiment, and that, as
citi-
the responsibilities of public
station.
We
always love
highly prize
to
foreign traveller will take no

secrets and the
and
we
more pains
regret
the
that
go into the
to
charms of our society, and not judge of us
alone from those light elements that float upon
And we
We
speak well of our country.
institutions
its
its
surface.
still
more, that the stern virtues and in-
tegrity, the intellect
and moral sense of the country, have
regret
The
so long slumbered over the violence of party zeal.

result has
come upon
us,
and
it
cannot be endured.
By
confessed, confidence in legislation has been impair-
all
ed; the press subsidized and often scurrilous
has impaired
itself
its
own good name, and
become disrobed of
its
the Senate
the Executive office
primitive honor and
dig-
nity.
We
and
believe, however, that all this is but temporary,
that
not so
even now,
much from
it
the
as from the fact, that

intelligent,
dency.
has begun to work its own cure

want of elements upon which to act,
the people are tired of it, and that
;
moral principle, will no longer allow
The
energy of Christianity
its
ascen-
and
God, hearing the cry of his own people, restrains the
violence of men.
elastic
There are signs of
a better day.
still lives,
The more
able portion of the public journals begins to
character and breathe a milder
an abatement of
lic
grievances
its
own
spirit.
The
wear
respecta better
press demands
nuisance, and the redress of pub-
the cessation of party violence and pro-
THE CHRISTIAN
scription.
Christian
All these favorable indications appeal to the

citizen,
and religious of
And
to rely
43
CITIZEN.
all
demanding, specially from the moral

parties their active co-operation.
in seeking the
remedy of public
we
evils,
on sudden and revolutionary movements
are not
nor on
any rapid succession of changes of men in office and geThese principles are too
neral principles of government.
firmly fixed, or should be so, to admit of sudden change.
The
restless
and radical
evils out of society,
every action of
life,
Social evils do not
spirit that
and multiply
is
as hopeless
come upon us
be removed in a moment.
would
legislate all
statute law, to reach
as
it
is
imperious.
in a day, nor can they
Evils that
have been of gradual growth, and had
mote and perhaps unseen causes.
may now
exist,
their origin in re-
It is
only by sub-
economy, general intelligence,
stantial industry, virtuous
a rigid morality and a spiritual religion, that the manliness, order, stability and happiness of the
ple can be restored and confirmed.
is
not the
work
of a day
nor
manent good, but from those

lie at the basis
is
And
American peothis,
we
repeat,
there any hope of per-
religious principles,
which
of the social constitution as well as of
private worth and vital piety.
Men, even
to
in the social state, are too
much accustomed
charge upon others, specially their rulers, the evils
which they suffer. The embarrassments of the commubecome so identified, and habits of political immoral-
nity
ity,
are often so incorporated with the administration of the
government, and that too with the consent and from the
demands of the people, that the government itself loses

power to remedy the evils it may have created, and
must wait the action of a correct public sentiment. It is
its
44
to that sentiment, that
we must
This
look.
what we
is
should strive to create.
all
The
of purchase and proscription on party

moral question simply, must not be permit-
system,
grounds, as
a-
To
the settled policy of this government. "
become
ted to
the victors belong the spoils," must be erased from our
Promotions
records.
grounds of party
to
and removals, on
the
are alike injurious to those
who
office
affinities,
bestow and those who receive the preferment.
Thomas
Jefferson, with
have had
to
for
an apology, even for
first
installment.
this
system may be said
It
its
saw
the necessity
most cautious exercise,
was demanded, he
at his
says, that his
might be harmonious and unobstructed.
administration
With
whom
origin in this country,
its
this secured, his only inquiry as to qualifications
for all subordinate office, should be, " Is
he capable
easily
may
is
he
this
inquiry be forgotten, and
tions required, at the
constitution
The
he honest
is
But how
faithful to the constitution ?"
new
qualifica-
expense of moral character and the
letter
addressed
to
President Munroe, upon the
subject of his cabinet ministry, from one
remembered and admired by
who succeeded
That advice
pay no respect to party relations, but to select the
best and ablest men, irrespective of such affinities. This,
no doubt, was the deliberate judgment of this man of
him,
is
was,
to
all.
commended " Roman virtue," and it did much towards

own subsequent elevation. But it was one thing, to
say how government should be formed and administered,
his
while seated
at
so to administer
sibilities
the
it,
Hermitage, and another, actually
when
the burden of
was assumed amid
its
vast
the storms and
respon-
waves of

and the clamors of
party violence,
governmemt now, on
denned
clearly
principles
It is
unreasonable and cruel
however correct and
est.
surmountable obstacles in the
cir-
11
to raise
men to office, and

may throw in-
We
proper functions.
its
aspirants,
administer that
calmer moments and under other
in
cumstances, "hie labor, hoc opus
then obstruct
political
To
pressing their conflicting claims.
45
way
of the very govern-
ment which we create, and literally shake its foundations

and shall
by the storms of popular and party violence
we then charge all the evil upon the single man, whom
:
we
have thus disabled from acting on his own prin-
ciples,
and from carrying out his
There
admired.
The
ven
mariner
;
with
no
is
may
purposes
prin-
a species of moral rebellion and trea-
is
son here, which
own
which we may have sanctioned and
ciples and purposes
slight peril to the social system.
lay his course direct from the quiet ha-
skies and starry nights sail safely and
fair
way
but when storms and winter snows,

and dark tempests, " come down upon the sea when
rapidly on his
many days appear, and all hope

away ;" then he may " undergird,"
neither sun nor stars for

of being saved
is
taken
cast his anchors or " unlaid" his burden
but there
is
" mutiny on board," and amid this " Euroclydon," what
can he do
Amid
" angel stand by him," the storm

wrecked on a barbarous coast.
Though an
does not cease
he
is
the warring of moral elements, what can sterling
integrity do
It
may
resist, long, manfully,
But the cry from out the winds of party

mined, as
it
is
profane.
pure as an angel's,
it
'*
Though
deter-
the administration be
shall be overthrown,"
despotism of party triumphs
unimpaired:
strife is
and the iron
the distinguished victim
sacrificed on the altar of Moloch.
is
46
Providential changes and
mind
the public
new
popular
affinities agitate
fear.
The
The government of
alternately with hope and
sublimest moral spectacle
is
seen.
millions entirely changed without bloodshed or even vio-
But, religious principle and God,
lence.
much
The
forgotten.
falls to
the dust, and a nation
tary lesson,
and
we
fear,
were too
high object of admiration and hope

rebuked.
is
It
was
a salu>
like Israel of old, congregations of wor-
shippers through the land, openly
bowed
in recogniiion of
the divine chastisement.
Again a noble principle

"
government defined.
is
avowed, and the policy of
No man
shall
be
proscribed on grounds of party affinities."
removed or
But the
pri-
vate citizen in view of the chair of state, and the incum-
bent there installed, are not always one and the same.
And
in
our popular government and social character, the
Men
reason for this fact should be seriously considered.

are human, whether in
private life or on the throne
and under the pressure of "
may
purposes,
state
necessity" or for party
be driven from their
own
principles, to
which other circumstances would have forbid.

The remedy for all this, we have said, lies with the
people, who are the source of power and the virtual exresults
ecutives of the country.
porate into
all
It is for
them, to raise and incor-
the departments of government, those ster-
ling principles upon
which
it
was founded.
That
maxim, " this government knows no

must be rebuked by the actual presentation of
and
in the
al!
pervading demonstration of
its
truth of a final
distribu-
Congress the Christian Scriptures
ing days of fasting and prayer
power
its
excellence.
government founded on Protestant Christianity

ting by acts of
false
religion,"
fatal
hold-
requiring belief in the
and eternal retribution
for the validity of

an oath
while every servant
on the inspired records
delity
no religion
47
employs must swear
it
fi-
Such a government u know
/"
This government knows no particular denomination of

Christians and encourages no distinct religious party or
form of ecclesiastical
There
ligion ?
tianity
an
which
this
is
But
polity.
common
incoporated into
its
Divine Redeemer,
first
acknowledged and
common
elements of
thousand ways recognised the claims of

bare
recognition
This
enough.
of
an
re-
a common Chris-
accredited Gospel of a
government from the
knowing no
is this
religion
law, and in a
Providence
overruling
We
infidelity will admit.
The
Author.
its
is
not
must cling
to
the Christian Scriptures and the Christian virtues.
From
admiration of these principles and from deep con-
viction of their importance to us,
and example of our
spirit
we
often refer to the
from their
fathers, fresh
ings and strong in Christian faith.
We venerate
Chief Magistrate of our country.
There was
ty in his character independent of his religion

this,
and
first
a sublimibut
it
was
most the soldier and the statesman,

be his lasting monument, when the achieve-
that adorned
this will
ments of his
hence
it
political greatness shall pass
came
away.
And
was, that the living and dying testimony of his
late successor, to the excellence

ty,
suffer-
the
like a divine
and power of Christiani-
encouragement
prayers of the Christian citizen.
It
to
was
the hopes and

as the returning
of the long loved star, precursor of day.
The great ends of government must ever be kept in

view both by the people and their rulers. And when
meeting the responsibilities and discharging the duties of
Christian citizens, we
may
safely confide in the govern-
ment which we have created, and demand from our
rulers
48
those securities and blessings for which government is

ordained.
"
Government has something more
Webster, " than

prise
due reward."
its
We
aim.
to protect industry,
Mr.
to enter-
has, or should have a higher
It
must regard the moral sentiments of the com-
"
munity.
to do," says
and secure
Amid
the efforts and sacrifices for the ad-
all
vancement of society
at the present day, I have thought,"

says this distinguished man, " that the influence of Gov-
ernment on the morals and on the religious feelings of

the community,
is
apt to be overlooked, or underrated.
speak, of course, of
of
its
"
its
indirect influence, of the
example, and the general tone which
A popular government,
powerful institution
appeared
as
it
character.
its
good or
example,
Its
its
human happiness
which most
their general morals also.
has been put forth

there
is
for other things
it
is
is
whether
most im-
among those
things
morals of mankind, and
advert to this, because there
modern times the
in
one morality
opponents,
affect the political
for evil, ac-
tone,
of respect or disrespect to moral obligation,

portant to
most
has sometimes
me, than the influence of most other human
to
institutions put together, either for
cording to
power
inspires."
in all these respects, is a
more powerful,
it
for politics,
false
maxim
that
and another morality
that in their political conduct to their
men may
say and do
that,
which they would
never think of saying or doing in the personal relations

of private
rality,
'
consider as the very concrete of false mo-
was
that " all is fair in politics."
If a
falsely or calumniously of his neighbor,
reproached
It
which declares
man speaks
is
There has been openly announced a sen-
life.
timent which
for the offence, the
in relation to public
and
ready excuse
political matters
and
is this
;
cher-

ished no personal
as a political man.'
when
whatever against that individual,
will
ill
but quite the contrary
In
my
spoke of
my
adversary merely
day
opinion, the
is
coming
falsehood will stand for falsehood, and calumny
will be treated as a breach of the

it
49
commandment, whether
be committed politically, or in the concerns of private
life."
"
The
feelings,"
he adds, " are
passions are to be restrained
be inspired
to
be disciplined
Such sentiments
and sustained by
to
circumstances."
all
as these, borrowed from the gospel,

its
the
spirit,
Christian citizen
statesman are to cherish and disseminate.
when pervading
;
the
a profound religious feeling to be instilled
and a pure morality inculcated under
state
and worthy motives
true
private
life,
and ennobling the
vulgar infidelity will
retire
and
Before these,
offices of
scepticism refined,
public justice re-assume its prerogatives,

its charms
and law become secure in the open execution of its
lose
penalties.
I.
From
the foregoing considerations of the principles
of a free government, the sacredness of constitutional law
and
the
maintenance of legally administered justice ascasuist can
sume an importance which no Christian nor

for a moment overlook.
The
people of this country have long rested in the
To all sugfancied securities of a government of law.

of
danger, we
predictions
and
abroad
gested fears from
have had one standing reply
law, and not of will."
in this strong guaranty, that
the value or
demand
And
" Ours
few could
for that patriot
a government of
we been
at all appreciate
and Christian
ment of Mr. Wirt, pledging his support

5
is
so confident have
to
senti-
" the Constitu-
50

and Laws"
tion
less perhaps, did they see the ne-
Still
cessity for the injunction of the dying Magistrate "
let
THE PRINCIPLES OF THE CONSTITUTION BE CARRIED OUT."
These great men knew the value of constitutional law.
They knew more the necessity of moral and religious
principle for its support and administration
And no
;
doubt their sagacious minds perceived the foreshadowings
of
Their cautions were needed, and their counsels
evil.
Experience
wise.
in
is
a teacher true, and severer
still.
This government was established a government of law,

contradistinction to a government of will.
Its found-
ers
had long endured the oppression of the one and
mately broke from
its
As
chains.
far as
human
ulti-
foresight
and providence could do, they framed a constitution and
laws
for the other.
jects of
of
They never dreamed that the

demand its revulsion
protection would
would ever invalidate
it,
The
rity.
solemn asseveration
that the hand, lifted in
all
tain
its
its
restrictions, limits
claims or spurn
and checks
to
to
its
subleast
mainautho-
delegated
and executive power, by written law, appeared abundant.

But experience has ever shown, that law, without
tue
and religious principle,
very body that enacted

cute
vain and powerless.
and the hand
may
be
vir-
The
that should exe-
among the first to annul and

has already become a part of history,
it,
It
it
is
annihilate
it.
that the will
not only of adventitious parties, but the force of individual will
has
far
titudes every
invaded a government of law, and that mul-
where have spurned
its
righteous claims.
Long
established principles of legislation have been set
aside,
and what one branch of the government has set up,

The enactments of yesterday
another has subverted.
are annulled to-day, or rudely assailed and erased from
Law
the statute book.
has been shorn of
51
its
majesty and
the constitution, of both our civil and religious liberties
Even
greatly impaired.
most sacred
have been
treaties
common and
of both
the decisions of the highest ju-
have been scorned and
dicial tribunal
statute law, while
The
set aside.
violated, at the
expense
men every where
assuming the responsibility of law and justice have warred upon personal security and
And
form
Regularly administered law with the
demanded.
is
severe and just infliction of
be dispensed with, and
must
the
life.
these things too have met their crisis and a re-
be carried
capitol,
The
vered.
out"
'*
its
penalties cannot longer
the principles of the constitution
from the humblest cottage
till,
to
majesty shall be respected and re-
their
Clnistian citizen pledging his respect, obe-
dience and vindication of the constitution and laws under
which he
dial
and
lives,
and proffering
demand from them

II.
to rulers
efficient cooperation,
may
and magistrates cor-
rightfully expect
Another subject, and not wholly foreign
preceding,
is
and
a faithful discharge of their high trust.
to the
the faithful regard to the fulfilment of pro-
mises.
The
violation of the public faith
the injured and oppressed
denial of justice to
the disregard of treaties, and
virtual annulling of contracts
form a melancholy chapter
in the history of this country.
State necessity, not only,
has been pleaded; but the providence of
God towards
uncivilized nations adduced in justification of that wast-
ing process, which has driven the original proprietors of

this land
from home and
life,
till
scarce a remnant re-
mains.
The
influence of
commanding example,
it is
impossible
THE CHRISTIAN
52
CITIZEN.
may every
What do we now
to trace, yet the violations of tlie public faith
where be seen working
disastrously.
see through the land, but the most fearful delinquency of
moral obligation, and alarming

responsibility
escape even legal
efforts to
Entire sovereignties are meditating the
hazardous experiment of repudiating their pecuniary

gations
and corporate
obli-
institutions dissolving into their
irresponsible elements, are leaving the innocent to sufTer
and shaking
all
confidence in the value of securities and
the faith of promises.
It
may
truly be
said, that this
whole nation, in its very questionable law of bankruptcy,

has assumed the fearlul responsibility of legalized repudiation.
As a question of casuistry, we must feel that
in this act of national supremacy, a giant
blow has been
struck at the basis of commercial morality, weakening
every where the sense of pecuniary obligation.
The
influence of these high proceedings has been fast
working
more
its
way down to the calculations and habits of the

members of society, who from such prece-
private
dents, from the laws of bankruptcy, or from their embar-
rassment and losses, feel
at liberty to
repudiate their indi-
vidual debts, and set aside those claims
which otherwise
would remain sacred.
The
doctrine of repudiation in
we must
all
its
forms, as Chris-
We
would unite the pulpit and the press, the judge and the jury, and every
where speak in terms of the most decided condemnation.
tian citizens,
oppose.
In the moral and religious community,

let the faith of
membered,
that
he
no where
Let
it
else,
be re-
that is unjust in the least is unjust also
in much, and that he

tions,
if
promises be unimpaired.
who
repudiates his extended obliga-
cannot be trusted on the grounds of his honesty, in
any of the more
restricted operations of
life.
An
unfore-
53
seen inability to meet our engagements does not free us
from responsibility, and no acts of compromise nor laws

of bankruptcy can annul that moral obligation, which to a
Christian
human
than
stronger
is
Compromise,
law.
bankruptcy, repudiation pays nu debt, and where either
exempts the debtor from the cruelty of an oppressive

creditor,
impairs not
it
at all his
obligation to
meet every
engagement, when he shall have acquired the

do
it.
may
Christian citizen
ability to
rightfully avail himself of
the advantages of compromise, or of the laws of bankrupt-
cy perhaps, but
after
having " provided
for his own,'' that
which their necessities demand, he must

he owes to be bin ling still.
every debt
feel
moment any
by those communities, which as
Repudiation cannot be admitted for a
where, and least of
all
independent sovereignties
by the supports of or-
exist, not
dinary law, but by the faith and honor of nations.
How
Who
are the
can such a community repudiate

state
They, who
morrow.
But the
live
its
debts
and are here to-day, are gone
state lives,
to-
and the successors of repu-
diating rulers live, and with their immunities, must as-
sume
the responsibilities and
creditor.
We
meet the claims of every
will not believe that
one of these confede-
rate sovereignties will ever seriously enter
upon
this ha-
zardous experiment.
sacred regard
to
the faith of promises
essential for the support of private
is
no more
worth, than for the
reputation and existence of the associated and corporate

relations of society,
where so many seem
to lose their
personal responsibility and sense of justice.

is this faith
essential to the integrity
compacts.
The
are implicated.
first
may
Still
and success of
respect but a few
more
civil
here
all
In one case you pollute the spring that

5*
54
rises at your
As
we
own
which
fountain at
door
the other, you poison
in
sovereignties, repudiate
appear
ago, proudly
our
debts
eyes of civilized nations
to the
the
millions drink.
How
A few
demanding the claims of our
shall
years
and
citizens
rushing into war with France for a farthing, and
now
indebted to half Europe hundreds of millions and refuse
Upon
to
pay
if
demands
our
own
on the principles of
what have we
principles,
made on us
are
name
in the
international
Europe, recog-
law,
nizing us in our national sovereignty, should
seas and bury us in our

disgrace and
own
blood
The
doom no American could
to say,
of nations, and
wade
the
justice of our
call in question.
Rather a thousand times combine the ample resources of

this vast country
and restore every member of the con-
federacy into the credit and
Repudiate our debts,

but
it
we must
does not pay them
confidence of the world.

not
we
cannot.
Do
nor cancel obligation, nor
it
lia-
Nations are not bound by mercantile laws, that
bility.
bankruptcy
may
evade
are the bonds of state
but honor and moral integrity

and when we stand bankrupt or
we become disgraced and outlawed

from the fraternity of nations, and the civilized world to
repudiate our debts
whom we
are indebted,
may
justly seize
and confiscate our possessions, as we
on our estate
goods
and chattels of the insolvent debtor and equalize his
distrain the
assets to his creditors.
We
cannot wholly dismiss this subject without a brief
allusion to those habits

to that
which have greatly contributed
embarrassment, which so severely
integrity of
men
and
we do
tries the
moral
so on account of their direct
bearings upon the question of morals.
How
far the
long established usages of mercantile and
THE CHRISTIAN
commercial
may have
life
dition of society is
55
CITIZEN.
contributed to the present con-
an important inquiry
be no doubt that a revision
is
and there can
There
here demanded.
must be something wrong, or such sudden and general
when no
revulsions could not so often occur
We
causes intervene.
credit, yet all allow
And
would not
that
it
providential
reject the
system of
has been greatly abused.
who have sought most extensively its advanhave shared most largely in pecuniary embarrass-
those
tages,
ments.
While the men
limited
resources,
with moderate
and
that relied at
first
on
persevered modestly,
profits, are
now
men
the
their
own
satisfied
of responsibility
and wealth, resting in the valuable reflection that they

have been the makers of their own fortunes.
not for us to say, that corporate and monied insti-
It is
wrong, and of questionable moral
tutions are all
ence
tration
seem
to
be very poorly defined.
ted institution" of this kind,
But while one of

to all parties
How
far
engaged
such
in
"
well-regula-
allow to be a blessing.
all
character
this
favors, there are thousands
tion
is
found dispensing
its
which have proved disastrous
them.
institutions tend to relax
moral obliga-
and weaken a sense of personal responsibility, by
presenting temptations to dishonesty stronger than
ought ordinarily
ment.
ful
influ-
but the principles and limits of their safe adminis-
to
men
encounter, are questions of serious mo-
And whether
consolidated wealth, creating power-
monopolies, and subjecting
men
their pleasure, is not destructive
to
dependence upon
of that kindness and
indulgence on the one hand, and of that keen sense of

obligation and gratitude
and the bond of the
on the other, which are the basis
social, business
not prepared to decide.
community,
we
are
56
That universal system of operation, which these

have adopted, proffering credit not alone
tutions
racter, business talent

er, but to the
insti-
to
cha-
and the responsibility of the borrow-
pecuniary strength of the security he
offers,
lays the ground for that mutual deception and distrust
which
often ends in the bankruptcy of all parlies,
and
The
the relaxing of a sense of moral obligation in each.
borrower hazards resources that are not his own, and

the lender enforces his legal claims on the party that has
received no benefit, and the surety, thus unexpectedly

involved, while he
bows
to
the stern mandate
of the
law, never feels that peculiar moral obligation which his
own immediate
contracts
be as strong, but
it
is
create.
The
obligation
may
of another kind, and as he meets
it,
under the severity of a rich corporate claimant, reflecting

perhaps upon the integrity of the borrower,
if
ing him with positive delinquency, there
obviously on
all
is
not charg-
concerned an unfavorable moral influence.

It
credit
cannot be questioned,
that
the
whole system of
by associated corporate bodies, and the extended
demand
for its facilities, judging
from the developments
of the last twenty years, have produced no very favorable

results, either to the
pecuniary interest or moral character
Repeatedly has the business and commercial community been severely tried within this brief
of the country.
period, wrecking thousands of extended fortunes, while
who have been most deeply engaged in this syswho have sought and enjoyed its facilities, are among the severest sufferers, both in a pecuniary
and moral point of view. And we have often thought, that
if Solomon, who wrote with inspired wisdom for a people
those
tem, and those
almost wholly pastoral,
and
to
them
surety for a stranger shall smart for
said,
it
He
that is
and he
that
THE CHRISTIAN
hateth suretiship
striketh
sure
is
A man
void of understanding
hands and becoraeth surety
his friend
And
57
CITIZEN.
presence of
in the
again in direct caution
Be
not thou
one of them that strike hands, or of them that are
Solomon,
wrote,
why
If thou hast nothing to pay,
sureties for debts:
should he take away thy bed from under thee

in a pastoral age
what would
and
say
if
had he
cautions
his
And
We
to a pastoral people, thus
have been
written for the present day
if
Roman
Paul, the
and the Hebrew of the Hebrews, amid all the

enterprise and commerce of the Augustan age, wrote,
citizen
Owe no man
anything, but to love one another
writing
now, would not every epistle speak the salutary admonition,
and reveal in decided terms the perils of suretiIt has been well
1
ship and of extended obligations

said, " the debtor is the natural
and where payment

the
enemy
enemy
of the creditor,"
withheld, the creditor becomes
is
of the debtor, and no disability is ordinarily
heavy enough
unfortunate
the
relieve
to
from severe
reflections, if not imputations of actual dishonesty.
Long experience and many recent

that
monied corporations
capitalists,
nor are
we
afford
events have
shown
no increased security
enlarged facilities for active business to such as

entitled to credit
own
from their
On
the contrary,
the peculiar
monied corporations
their relation to the
the
are
character, talents and
that from
personal responsibilities.
to the conclusion,
to
aware, that they create any very
security
we
are driven
character of
they require,
borrower, that there
is
and
often less
moral obligation
felt towards them, than towards an ordinary private creditor, and as none of that interest is
directly created towards him,
which
and none of
that gratitude
arises from the kind aid of the rich towards the
58
young adventurer, the
better feelings of both are not at
brought into exercise.
all
Whatever maturity of
this subject,
to
drawn, such
is
the state of the world, that but
gard can be secured

is
we may have
reflection
for
them,
at the
subject at
all
though
it is
we
reit
revert to this
forced upon our consideration
widow and
utter absorbing of millions from the
phan, wasted
little
present time, and
chiefly in a moral point of view, that
by the
brought
and whatever conclusions we may have
or-
fortunes of thousands and the unparalled
moral delinquency of the most responsible and respect-
men, with the almost
able of
entire subversion of these
very institutions themselves.
We
would, however, request the casuist and the ex-
pounders of the doctrines of
political
economy,
further thought upon this subject, both as to
bearings and moral influences.
men, who
in
the senate, at
We
the
all
to
bestow
commercial
would ask those
hustings,
change, in the crowded factories,
and amid
its
on the ex-
at the land-auction,
the splendor and luxury abounding, so loudly
and confidently inquired
in
1836,
'
What has
the credit
system done for this country?" repeat the same inquiry in

1843.
The answer
shall not be given, in prostrate for-
tunes, private losses, general bankruptcy and universal
embarrassment, but in that wide wreck of moral character,
universal distrust,
places of
trust,
unparalleled dishonesty in high
which the wealth of commerce cannot
re-
pay, nor centuries of national prosperity repair.*

* Mr. Barnard, in Cungies?, says, thatin the United Slates 90 out of
every 100
every 100.
who buy and
sell,
become bankrupts
in
England, 35 out of
In the United States the creditors receive, on an average,
about 8 per cent, from the estates of insolvents;

receive about 35 per cent.
in
England, they
The
III.
lers of
We
duty of selecting
unimpeached moral
men
59
as Magistrates
and Ru-
integrity.
are driven to the consideration of this subject,
that party spirit
by
and proscription which so often disturbs
and endangers the safety of legislation and the due administration of law.
The government
of this country is
not of that self-perpetuating character which frees the
people from responsibility and solicitude in

tration
but
what they
thing
it
will
more
is
created by the people, and
is
be feared, than the administration of
party, ever active to perpetuate
by opposing
and
its
ordinarily
In such a government, no-
shall be.
it
to
adminis-
its
is
its
Chafed
ascendency.
interests, its operations will be embarrassed,
temptations strong
overawe by proscription.
this to doubt its
to corrupt
We
by patronage, or
have seen too much of
reality or question its
dangerous ten-
dency.
Under
the influence of party,
own avowed
brance of their
private
life.
the bribes
lose the
Places of trust and emoluments of
which
is virtual
remem-
office are
too often stain the hands of executive
power and corrupt

This
men
principles and pledges in
the aspirants for political preferment.
bribery, and needs only a competent
bunal for a decision, and
it is
tri-
felony at law.
Every indication of general uneasiness at this party

is a happy indication of re-
purchase and proscription,

form, and
when
private citizens shall refuse to aid all
party aspirants, and no more beset the sources of govern-
ment patronage with
petitions for office, either for
them-
selves or others, at the expense and removal of worthy
incumbents, then, and not

this
till
then,
may we hope to
While men
demoralizing system done away.
see
are
corrupt enough to sell themselves to the leaders of a party
THE CHRISTIAN
60
CITIZEN.
administration, or to government at
we
all,
fear that there
will not be wanting purchasers to
pay the price of their

profligacy.
While we hope to see from every quarter
and from every class of the community such decided dissatisfaction with this corrupting policy of patronage
we
proscription on party grounds,

effectual
remedy
is to
And
of the people.
and
are confident that an
be found no where, but in the hands
it
becomes the duty of
all
the friends
of good order and political morality, to speak in decided

tones of disapprobation, that a correct and efficient moral
sentiment
may
be created upon this
vital
now be,
party, to soothe
asperity, and restore the
its
to
The
question.
great effort should
break up the government of
ascendency of
moral principle, making capability and honesty the only
To
essential qualifications for office.
comes the duty of the Christian

vate men as magistrates and
it
be-
and
ele-
effect this,
citizen, to select
of unimpeached
rulers
moral integrity.
It is
not necessary nor desirable that religious
from the responsibilities of
retire
required to engage in
civil life,
more vigorous
men
but they are
efforts
guard
to
which already so
against the increase of that corruption
extensively prevails, so that men, without sufficient qualifications
may
not thrust themselves forward, and by the
aid of associates equally unworthy,
demand and secure

become
the suffrage and support of Christians, and thus
seated in the most responsible places of

givers and magistrates,
rals
to
trust, as
our law-
undermine the mo-
and best security of the country.
We
are required, as Christian citizens, to respect and
pray for our rulers and

raise
empowered
up good men
certainly
to
all
in authority
make and
becomes our duty
that
God would
administer laws.
to select
and vote
It
for
then
such

men> and
we can
men only,
we can
such
for
and moral
integrity,
as,
61
from their intelligence
whom
safely trust, and for
reasonably implore and expect the divine bene-
diction.
"
The
exercise of the elective franchise," says Mr.
Webster, "
a social duty, of as solemn a nature as
is
can be called
to
with his vote
perform; a
man may not
every free elector
others as himself, and every
is
innocently
man
trifle
a trustee, as well for
man and
every measure he
supports has an important bearing on
the interests of
others as well as on his own."
we
If
absent ourselves from those primary assemblies,
where candidates
conduct
for office are selected, our
to-
wards them should be a decided demonstration of our adherence
man
As
dence.
of
for office
Christians,
and
action,
low
and our determination
to correct principles,
support no
we
who
as
ing this principle of action, but
not adopt
it?
What
terests to
men who
do
a patriot and
its
precious in-
who can
give no
refer-
Nor
or advise, that candidates selected
be professed
But,
we do
at liberty to select
who have
for
members of any church com-
we
say, that as Christians,
and aid in elevating
men
are not
to places of
not the requisite qualifications for meet-
ing the responsibilities
We
al-
reject-
we have no
office, shall
trust,
will
by
party organizations, nor to religious sects.
we demand
munion
commits
be distinctly understood, that
it
to
who can be
betray them
will
guaranty for faithfulness
Let
to
confi-
patriotism but love of country?
is
that be love of country that
ence
We
patriots.
possible not to forfeit Christian character
it
Can
unworthy our
are bound to adopt this rule
so
equally
is
we impose upon
them.
are aware that, in the present state of party organ
62
ization, questions of difficulty
a moment greatly embarrass
may be met which will for

us.
But we are never to
become, in any sense, the instruments of party

unless
we
are prepared to be
We
misrule and violence.
made
dictation,
the victims of party
are not at liberty to sacrifice
our principles as Christians to continue or countenance
and corruption which often invades
that political intrigue
alike the halls of legislation
and the sanctuaries of justice.
power of the moral and Christian community to check at once this giant eviL Not by the
organization of new parties not by the officious obtrubut as Christian men of all
sion of religion in any form
It is
in the
parties, to decide
shall our
once, that under no circumstances
at
countenance or suffrage be given
tute of intellectual
to
and moral qualifications
men
desti-
sufficient to
we commit
warrant a faithful discharge of the trust
to
them.
It
may
be pleaded that there
is
now a
crisis
and some
important interests involved, and that others under the
same Christian and moral obligations will not be governed by our example.
There will always be a crisis
pleaded, and important principles said to be involved.
But no
crisis is so great,
that crisis
and those
sidering.
The
and no principles so important, as
principles,
crisis
which we are now conwhen virtue and mo-
has arrived
rality, political integrity, or political profligacy
and gen-
eral desecration of moral principle, are to be sustained
or abandoned
by the moral and
community.
The
great question
religious portions of the

is to
be settled, whether
Christian citizens are to be governed by the spirit and
laws of their religion in the exercise of their civil rights,

or submit to the domination of blind and reckless party
zeal.
Though
Christians,
we
do not cease
to
be citizens

of the state, nor can
we
in
one
63
relation, either forfeit or
And
resign the rights and responsibilities of the other.

it
is
a part, and an important part of our religion, to
study and secure the advancement of the public safety
and morality, by exercising our
civil rights,
and meeting
our political obligations, with a strict regard to the divine

precepts.
way only that we can be good

same time maintain our Christian
in this
It is
and
citizens,
at the
government, which, in
we have
citizens,
and
way that we are to prepare the

common with others of our fellow-
It is in this
integrity.
framed, to return to us that protection,
secure those ends for which
to
designed.
It is this
way,
was
it
originally
we may keep
too, that
out the
seeds of corruption and the elements of discord, which

other and fatal influences
may
plant in the vitals of our
social system.
We
cannot doubt that the best
men
of
parties
all
and
power of the moral and reliof the community to redeem them trium-
desire to see these principles revived and sustained
we
believe that
gious portions
many
in
cases
it
adjust the balance of

office in
ciples to
it is
may be
power
controlling,
and happily
in the selection of
men
for
every party; and this can be done by refusing
to sacrifice or
but
the
is in
Their influence should always be salutary,
phantly.
and
it
compromit
their
moral and religious prin-
any temporary or party purposes.
Not only
so,
their duty also for the sake of their example, to
say distinctly, that they will not be overruled in the dis-
The man
posal of their votes by the decisions of party.

that sells himself to party, throws
virtue
and the
the shield of his
last security of his patriotism.
tian citizen cannot

It is
away
do
Chris-
it.
upon the foregoing principles alone,
that
we
can
64
guard against those baleful influences, which in past

ages brought on the
which the
Already
union of church and
fatal
was corrupted and
state
political parties
state, in
the church died.
approach whole denominations
of nominal Christians with virtual bribes, and seek to
bind them
respective
their
to
pledges,
which
robbery
to fulfil.
it
for resisting these
by redeemed
interests
was wrong to make and which it is

At the same time others are rebuked
approaches, and for their maintenance
of constitutional law and moral rectitude.
In the face of
Christians,
and
we
that, in
all this,
we
should remember that while
are also citizens of the
commonwealth
discharging our duties to the state,
bound by the principles of our
We
religion.
we
der unto Caesar the things that be Caesar's, and unto

the things that are God's.
all
their details
demand
are
are to ren-
God
Civil and political action in
the conservative influence of a
divine Christianity.*
The
following patriotic and Christian sentiments, are from the
aged and distinguished correspondent A. A. of the New-York Observer,
whose name
is
enough
to
commend
his opinions to every one.
" If Christians would exercise their right of suffrage conscientiously,

in the fear of God, and with a single eye to his glory
men, well
consent to go into stations
be done,
from
if
and
if
pious
would deny themselves, and

of influence and usefulness, much might
qualified for public stations,
not to purify our halls of legislation, yet to preserve them
total destruction
by mingling with them the conservative influ* * " Let the pious then
ence which genuine piety would produce."
combine
their influence,
stations,
men
and bring forward as candidates
of piety and talent.
It is
not
meant
influence should be brought to bear on our elections.
Few
a government like ours, are more to be dreaded." * * "
consequence of any one denomination attempting

tical
influence, will
be to unite
all
other
for public
that a sectarian
things, in
The
certain
to acquire a poli-
denominations against
65
THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLES AND
II.
OF ECCLESIASTICAL ORGANIZATIONS IN FORMING THE
CHARACTER OF
While
CIVIL INSTITUTIONS.
the civil government greatly affects religion,
in aiding or checking the diffusion of
ing
its
ecclesiastical organizations
towards imparting
vitality to
character of
the
its spirit,
and shap-
religion does
much
government, and in mitiga-
ting or enhancing the severity of
contributing to
its
its
features, as well as
original
structure.
arm of Pagan and Mahomedan despotism the almost equal tyranny of Spain and the Italian
states.
It is from this same reciprocal action of state
polity and religion, that we meet every where, with the
darkness and cruelty of the Romish communion, the
Hence
the iron
them." *
" Let Christians of every denomination unite to elect
good men, men of wisdom and integrity, who would honestly aim at
the good of the commonwealth." * * "In a government such as
ours, good men must come forward and claim and exercise their
There are already ominous
rights, or the consequences will be fatal.
appearances in our political horizon.
We have, within a few years,
witnessed events which the founders of our political institutions
never apprehended.
try.
Dangers thicken around our once happy coun-
"While every thing
is
proceeding prosperously, Christians
may
be indulged in their love of retirement and peace but when the

republic is in jeopardy, it behooves them to come out and exert their
;
influence to preserve our free institutions, and to

evils which threaten to
mar
ward
or destroy our peace, order,
ofT those
and
liberty.
them to embark zealously in party politics."

It would be wisdom in them to cast their vote in favor of a
candidate whose politics differed from their own in regard to the
expedience of particular laws and measures, provided he was a truly
There
* * "
is
no need
for
good man."
6*
66
most restricted rights of citizenship among the people.

We find the mixed and anomalous confederacies of Germany, Holland and Switzerland, with the equally anomalous character of the churches of the Heidelberg and
Helvetic faith
the
Britain with
kingdom of Great
republican and aristocratical Parliament, and
monarchy, clinging
own
to its
its
its
nominal
fading shadow, with
its
unstable church, as crowding dissenters and a teeming
demanding the fullest liberty of the

And hence it is, we have the solitary spectacle
population
gospel.
are
of our free institutions with the Scotch presbytery shorn

of
its
and unscriptural assumptions, and Inde-
original
pendency in
its
various
reserving to
forms,
itself its
inherent rights, and acknowledging no superior but
Divine Master.*
Every
sing with other forms of civil government,
pretensions to a heavenly origin, in

receives but
it
tutions,
and
its
little
influence
obviously
is
may
be its
outward frame-
not indigenous to this soil; and whatever
work
its
ecclesiastical polity, harmoni-
its
sympathy from our
upon our
civil polity
free insti-
becomes a
question of interest to every citizen.
From
we hope
these considerations
we
shall
speak
freely,
and
kindly, of ecclesiastical institutions as at pres-
ent existing
among
us,
and as these shall be found
to
favor the stability of our government and the growth of a

spiritual religion, they claim our confidence
If
we
mistake not, there
is often
and support.
gleaming from the lift-
ed folds of the ancient economy, and
still
more
clearly to
be met in the Gospel, indications of truths and commanding principles, which go far to settle the nature of that
*
It
has been said, that Mr. Jefferson was indebted for some of the
finest republican features of his Declaration of
American Indepen-
dence to the elaborate constitution of a certain Independent Congregational Church.

government, which
is
best fitted to the enlightened and
And with
Christian state of the world.
we
67
this conviction,
are driven to the consideration, yea, the cordial adop-
tion of those sentiments in religion,
and those principles
which most harmonise with these

There are religious sentiments and
of ecclesiastical polity,
scriptural views.
ecclesiastical organizations which, in their legitimate action,
have ever proved themselves friendly
religious liberties of mankind.
It
was
to the civil
in
and
view of these
sentiments, that the observing and sagacious foreigner,

to
which we have before
alluded, while looking over this
more
country, and searching the
latent causes of its civil
immunities, deliberately writes, that, "

declares
to
all
acknowledge
" This same religion
and in
all its
is
And what
equal justice and beauty added,
conflicts
the heart of
New
England,
circles of religious culture,
ments of
its
the cradle of
its
its
infancy
claims."
its
religion is this
ecclesiastical polity
its
which
the companion of liberty in all
and the divine source of
and
religion
that all citizens are equal in the eye of
And with
the law."
battles,
The
are equal in the sight of God, will not refuse
What
are
its
sentiments
This man had gone
into
to its firesides, to its social
and
to the republican arrange-
primitive churches.
And
it
was thence he
traced the legitimate action of Christian sentiment and
order on the civil institutions and political movements of

the country.
If
we
revert to the days of the Stuarts of England,
the conflicts of those sanguinary times,
we
and
shall find a
given set of religious opinions in most powerful action,
and
all
tending to the revulsion of long established orders
of priestly and church oppression, and which found their
end only in the security of personal and equal
rights, in
the polity of the church, as well as in the order of the
68
If
state.
we
travel farther into
the
past,
and review
the scenes enacted on the continent of Europe,
when
al-
most universal darkness and oppression reigned, we shall

there find this
same peculiar
class of religious opinions,
working manfully, and ultimately rising in the majesty

and power of the Reformation. Their end, at that time,
was
the same, the security of equal rights in the church,
and, as far as the age allowed, an increase of civil liberty.
And we may
germ of political,
say, that the
ecclesiastical freedom, then sprung forth,
now
live in all the benefits of both,
England,
to the
Monk
to the Puritan of
of Germany, and the indomita-
more than we can ever pay.
ble spirits of Switzerland,
We
owe
as well as of
and we, who
acknowledge the debt, not
in insolvency, but in the
richness of the treasure, which in faithfulness to them
and the world,
We
we must
need not say,
defend and transmit unimpaired.
that
a simple, scriptural faith
was
it
the spirit of the Gospel
a church of equal orders in
its
members, that
governed these men, and girded them for such achievements. We have history as the memorial and preserver
ministry, and of equality of rights in
of their faith and their aims.
no friend
to the
one and a
now
enjoys.*
And that historian who was

enemy of the other, has
bitter
declared that England owes
she
its
to the
Puritans
all
the liberty
The commonwealth, under Cromwell,
brings double weight to this high testimony.
Here was
a warring of principles, both political and religious, which
They were
cannot be misunderstood.
ciples of
Geneva, and the kindred
equal rights
the religious prin-
political principles of
among mankind, in both civil and ecclesiasAnd the courtiers of kings, and the cour-
tical institutes.
tiers of prelates,
together with the presbytery, clamorous
Hume.

were
of divine right,
69
combined, hand passibus
all
cequis,
against them.*
At
this time
must be acknowledged there were other
it
and other principles of ecclesiastical

which were, and ever have been, in vigorous
action against the sentiments and principles, both political and religious, of the Reformers and the Puritans.
religious sentiments
polity,
And
history has decided as clearly, that these sentiments
and orders of church have ever sympathised with governments wholly foreign
war with
our own, and which are at
to
genius and
its
These, wherever
aims.
its
found, must be working against the equalising influence

of free institutions, both of the church and the state.
true, that " the religion that
be
it
declares
in the sight of God, will not refuse to
men
surely, the religion that declares all
in the sight of
is it
not so
of
Rome. And
opposed the action of
Rome
alone
No
in hand.
The
that
then
are not equal
it
does so
all
to this hour.
institutions
free
but
opposed the rise of

Germany? and France,?
the prelacy and
let history
in
and equally the
And which warred
deepest in blood,
*
Here
of the Prelacy.
hand
;"
Who
free institutions in Switzerland,
The papacy
law
God, will demand a distinction in the eye
And
of the law.
If
are equal
acknowledge
the eye of the
equal in
are
citizens
all
all
fast friends
the papacy go
the best, and
decide.
Who
England
To whom
waded
did the
general diffusion of knowledge as well as an increase of
civil liberty,
was an object uniformly sought by the
friends of the
Reformation, and the same has steadily been pursued by the advocates for popular rights every where.
of English
laid,
history,
when
The most
was
and many other of her most valuable institutions were projected,
was during the commonwealth, under Cromwell.

Romanists, or the
to
enlightened period
the foundation of the Royal Society
fast
advance the cause
But when did the
friends of high church principles, ever unit
of
popular education]
THE CHRISTIAN
70
CITIZEN.
advocates of the divine right of kings and of passive obe-
dience look, but
to the
the Prelacy and
its
nities of the gospel,
defenders of the divine right of
apostolical claims to all the
immu-
and the passive submission of
men
Did not the apostate

hands swore to maintain the
to their exclusive ministrations
James I., who, with lifted

" solemn league and covenant" of the Kirk of Scotland,
become so charmed and intoxicated with this harmony,
that as he passed the Tweed, within nine months,
avowed it as his daily motto, " No bishop, no king /"
And
it is
seriously doubted whether the English throne
could stand and her costly aristocracy
live,
were
it
her bench of bishops and her exclusive church.

national
not for
The
sympathy between the monarchical aristocracy
and the ecclesiastical orders before us, has always been
and it was never more so than now,

though shorn of much of its power to act.
While we wish as far as possible to avoid the appearance of partizan zeal and all invidious comparisons, it
clear and strong,
will be necessary for us to speak
Rome
cy of
more
often of the papa-
and of the prelacy of England, than of any
Not because these are the only denominawhere these principles have appeared, but because
other parties.
tions
they here
find,
from the politico-ecclesiastical structure of
these two communions, their most genial and favorable

associations
so much
so, that the responsibility of their
origin and maintenance lies almost exclusively with them.
Yet,
let it
be distinctly understood that
it
is principles,
men or sects, which we are reviewing and from

which we are compelled to dissent.
and not
We
are
all
acquainted with the action of these princi-
ples in the time of our revolution, and with
all
the noble
exceptions that these times record, there were few to be
found
who adopted
the doctrines of divine right in the

clergy or of exclusive
power
in
71
any church,
the struggles of that day.
and
faith
Men
that favored
who joined
the liberal sentiments of the revolution and
of Puritan
in
principles
were the advocates and the founders of our
free
Others were sheltered from the storm or retired to the protection of " legitimacy" in their native
institutions.
land.*
The ascendency
of the evangelical sentiments of the
Reformers and the Puritans has been so general and

the minds
people
of the
so engrossed in cares inci-
dent to a young and growing country, that

tion has
been given
to
the secret workings
little
atten-
of opposing
sentiments, or to the growth of other ecclesiastical claims.
The
decided victory achieved in England
at the
downfall
of the Stuarts, contributed to quiet our fears as to the

return of the evils of their disastrous reigns.
But times have somewhat changed, and the shaken dyEurope are looking around for the old securi-
nasties of
" divine right of kings," in the " divine right
ties to the
of priests" and churches.

And if we mistake not,
shall hear again, " no bishop, no king"
We
we
cannot misunderstand the action of Catholic go-
vernments on the continent of Europe, and their

to establish their faith
every where.
efforts
Nor can we misun-
derstand that remarkable retrogression in England, of
bishops and churches toward the sentiments and usages

of Popery.
There
cal opinions
and
is
obviously a reunion of ecclesiasti-
efforts
to sustain, not
only the divine
right of church prerogatives, but the divine right of kings

also.
And who
are sympathising in these
Are they the friends of

* It
may
movements 1
Are they the
be said Washington was an Episcopalian, and Caroll o
Carolton, a Catholic.
men
free institutions
True they were, but neither were high-church-
or exclusive religionists.
72
friends of freedom
any where
guise the fact that, there are

pathise in
the
all
movements
arrogant principles.
It is
men
to sustain
And we
not for us to dis-
every where
who sym-
and advance these
are free to say, that these
high church principles any where, and in whatever com*

munion, are hostile
are to be
There
is
the state, and
alike every where.
a tendency in the times to laxness in religious
sentiments,
these,
to free institutions in
met and opposed

to liberty
bordering on licentiousness, and
where Christianity
is
not wholly discarded, uni-
formly resort, with boastful confidence, to mere forms and
This
ceremonies, to the rejection of a spiritual religion.

is
not confined exclusively to any one communion, but is
diffusing
say,
it is
its
leaven in every direction. Rather,
working
itself out of
of the Christian family, and urging

original source, the
We
sprung.
bosom of
we should
every spiritual association
that
its
way back
to its
communion whence
it
hear the lofty tone of " divine right," not
alone from the papacy and the prelacy, but sometimes, as

of old, from the aspiring presbyter, and even the descend-
ant of the Pilgrims will talk of his
scriptural system.
There is also an unmanly, if not an unholy, effort to reflect upon that Bible, which has cheered millions for centuries
with
its
pure translation of the original Scriptures,
and a natural demand, that

or not of Christ.
There
all
is
shall be
under one symbol
also a feeble return to
" habits" and " rags" of the sixteenth century,
pious and learned
when
the
the
Hooper was persecuted and imprison-
ed, for refusing the " frock
stallment as a bishop.
commending
and the surplice," at his inGrave ecclesiastical bodies are
to their clergy
mere
articles of dress,
while
prelates are ordering the arrangements of church furniture,
with
Just as
if.
all
the interest that essential verities demand.
drapery, silk and lawn, had anything to do with
THE CHRISTIAN
manner
Christ or his ministry, or the
munion
its
73
CITIZEN.
in
which the com-
table shall stand, with the faith that partakes of
All of this, wherever found,
elements.
tending to-
is
wards Rome, and strengthening the arm of the Man of

As Christians, and as Christian citizens, we must
Sin.
against
protest
It is
it.
the genius of anarchy in the
state, begetting intolerance in political action, as in
church
enactments.
we were under
If
tutes of rites
the Jewish economy, with the insti-
and typical service,
we
should defend and
hallow the mitre, the vest and the fringes of the priestly
garments
yea, the candlestick, the
and the ashes of the

tend for
but now,
altar,
we
unsymbolising gospel
:
and above
dencies,
all
snuffers, the incense
would,
if
necessary, con-
dismiss the whole and believe
both foolish and wicked
nals
we
to
carry
over
to
it
simple,
Aaronical or pagan exter-
either
when we remember
their popish ten-
how they were once advocated and
the prelacy,
enforced by
what wars they have occasioned, and what
blood has been shed in their defense and enforcement
upon others, we should more than
reject
the
Yes, with our Puritan ancestors, refuse them
whole.
for con-
science sake, as the symbols and the sanction of a corrupt, false

It is
and bloody system.
with profound humility and regret that
we
are
obliged in grave discussion to allude to such insignificant

puerilities as clerical dress,
no one could dream of
its
and but
for records of truth,
importance.
Its
past history
demands a notice of its origin. When the church visible

went to Rome, with the throne she inherited heathenism,
and exchanged the spiritual favor of God for the protection of Caesar.
mend
it
to
To
adorn and dignify religion, and com-
heathen Rome, the
Roman
toga
became
the
74
TrfE
CHRISTIAN CITIZEN,
vestment of her clergy
faint
resemblance
(a thought of
Hence sprung
robe of Aaron.
after times) to the
the
Romanism and the prelacy. And

they have been to many a conscientious worshipper
costly garments
costly
of
through ages of exclusion and suffering, and are
still
no
doubt pampering to the pride of the youthful aspirant,
who
carrying his
credentials
and human,
visible
is
devout only and can worship best amid gothic towers
and cathedral chants, and
on
the
Church of
We
is holiest
of
stair-case
veritable
of
all
Pontius
when kneeling
Pilate
the
in
Peter.*
St.
repeat that the exclusive spirit that would excom-
municate
other churches on the ground of a single
all
form, and reject our long venerated Bible for the translation of a
word
or that pretended respect for order that
breaks up communions, and that more arrogant assumption
of titles and rights, temporal and spiritual,
apostolical succession, or
sion, are not to be overlooked or admitted for a
in this age of light
not a
is
from
by exclusive divine commis-
moment
and we declare of the whole, there
shadow of foundation,
either in Scripture or in
the history of primitive times for their support.
We
confess that
we have
never been free from appre-
hensions, considering the tendencies of
and
*
that necessity
The more
which most men
human
feel for
nature,
some kind
conscientious Christian converts rejected the toga or

common cloak " a plain 'garment
robe, and used the pallium or
commonly worn by
Christians."
Christian, " even to a proverb,"
Hence the heathen derided

a toga ad pallium
the
which led Ter-
tullian to write in defense of the cloak.

The Roman, however, ultimately robed the Christian through centuries of darkness. See Lord
King on
the
Heathen Origin of
andTertullian "
De
Pallio."
Clerical Dreas, Prim. Ch., p. 179
THE CHRISTIAN
75
CITIZEN.
of religion, that high church Arminianism would yet

advance, and in connexion with high church pretensions
to " divine rights," corrupt
and waste the pure doctrines
of the gospel, and war against the principles of the Refor-
We
mation.
have long watched the natural
of the prelacy and the papacy, and
hoped
that the corruptions of the
affinities
we had sometimes
Romish Church
would,
be laid aside, and that her members, advancing intelligently

to
the safer discipline of a
under the auspices of a
modified
spiritual
Episcopacy, and
Christianity,
would
return to the faith and worship of the primitive believers,
with the
Catholic
and
spirit
by
elastic
energies
of
an
But our hopes have been met
approaching millennium.
this strange retrogression of the prelacy to the cold
And
embrace of the papacy.

prepared
for this religious
if
mind was not
the public
advancement,
may
it
yet be
found best, that the reversion towards popery was thus

early, that
we might
be more sensible of our
danger and the worth of those principles of
ment
for
which the reformers contended
civil
common
govern-
argument and
in
our fathers in arms.
When we
intelligent
look
at
these melancholy recedings from
piety and scriptural theology
forms and ceremonies
to the
in its simple ordinances
ming
this return to
undervaluing of the gospel
and with
this
see that assu-
and the courting of the papacy, and the recommending of garments to the clergy of
air of prelatical authority
Jesus Christ, better suited to please Parisian
mere children, than
to the
women and
simple and spiritual worship
God, we cannot but revert again to the excellent

Hooper, " persecuted about clothes," actually imprisoned,
of
fatigued into preferment, and compelled against his will

to be
made an Episcopal bishop
in the
"habits"
of
76
We
popery.
carried naturally to the times of bare-
are
headed bishops and barefooted
friars,
coming
forth as the
ghostly attendants of the dying and the imperious rulers of

the living
many
to
Ximenes with
and un-
hair-shirt
der-garments of canvass, with bread and water, the pen-
ance of the
yet with robes of office, the sword
spirit,
and armies of thousands, the symbols and exe-
of state,
We
cutioners of saintly power.
Parker and Laud wading
and sufferings come fresh and

Christians simply,
we
that under
God,
to
we have
civil interests
which are not only favorable
The
1.
but
do.
view,
warned of these
the saints, and are
ness, but friendly to our
to
difficulty
we have something more
very adverse influences,
in our
this,
all
assured,
rest
are required to contend earnestly for the faith
once delivered
tect,
and
itself,
would survive every
it
Christian citizens,
While we
of our father's faith
forcibly before us.
might, in view of
leave religion to take care of
as
blood of evangelical
The thousand memorials
Christians.
As
cannot but remember
the
in
common
tendencies of
hostile
to
to
to pro-
our social happi-
Christianity.
High Church
the peculiar
principles
institutions
are,
of our
country.*
There may be nothing dangerous
to a
republican gov-
ernment, in the mere fact that a clergyman

* la
1830 the author prepared an
Arminian
principles,
Vol.
120.
II. p.
article
which was inserted
Being responsible
in
is
ordained
on High Church and
the Christian Spectator,
for that article,
though anonymous
when published, he has transferred to the following pages whatever

was suited to his present purpose, without any further notice of its
previous publication.
THE CHRISTIAN
77
CITIZEN.
by a bishop, rather than by " the laying on of the hands

of the presbytery."
expediency, and
is liable
But when
it.
when abused
be recalled
to
to
see no serious objection to such a
constitution of things, in any
best to adopt
is felt
be exercised as a matter of mere
to
we can
evil purposes,
power thus delegated
If the
and acknowledged
community who may think

power is claimed by a
this
few individuals, as concentrating in their persons by a

divine right, and when obedience to this power is de-
manded under
sure,*
ic is
the most awful penalties of God's displea-
a serious question, what must be the conse.
quences of yielding
to
such a claim.
Religious institutions and ordinances are indispensable

our social,
to
civil
must have men
Hence we
and national existence.
set apart for religious purposes
and these
their station
and employment, their talents and
character,
will exert
on the public mind and morals a
prodigious
influence.
men, from
what kind of men

ber of prelates
The
us.
But on high Church
are they
may
principles,
numamong
Just such as a small
please to commission and send
prelate of an entire state, for example, on these
principles, claims to hold, directly from
only power which
is
God
himself, the
known, or can be acknowledged, of
commissioning the ministers of Christ
for
millions
of
No one can be recognised in this immense multisouls.

tude of rational and immortal beings, as authorised to engage
in the ministry of reconciliation, in
der
any ecclesiastical regulations,
this " one
man"
until
any way, or unhe has gone to
subscribed the articles of his faith and
taken from his hands, as the delegated agent of God, the
pp.
See Bishop Hobart's Companion
156159.
for the
Altar, fourth edition,,
78
power
to
Unparalleled
preach the gospel of his Son.
concentration of power!
tory as large as
all
New
Every minister within a terriEngland, on whose head the
hands of an Episcopal bishop have not been

once leave his people, repair
or never again
presume
break the bread of
life.
to
laid,
must
at
altar of prescription,
to the
preach the love of God, or
What
a scene would be opened
in this country by high church principles, carried out into full
operation as they unquestionably ought to be,
if
The whole body
of
on the authority of God
resting
the ten thousand clergy of this

tion of a few hundred, are
country, with the excep-
thrown out of the sacred
forever, unless their consciences
made
and their
office
faith could
be
quadrate with the standard set up by the smallest
to
body of men among
Upon
us.
man on
these principles, what
this
continent
would possess any thing like the power of an American

prelate 1
And what power is so controlling as religious
supremacy what grasp so unyielding as that of indivi-
dual authority, rendered fearless by popular submission,
and awful as death by the presumed appointment of God?
Such must
inevitably be the
only authority
known
power
of those
who
hold the
or believed to exist, of commission-
ing the ministers of religion for sixteen millions of people
of saying who
shall,
and
who
shall not, preach the
Gospel of Christ.
And how
power
to the
shall the
people resist the
worst of purposes
from the Church like our Puritan
fathers,
gious liberty under free institutions
ed
to
Judge
abuse of this
Shall they withdraw
But
and seek
reli-
this is declar-
be " rebellion against the Almighty Lawgiver and

;"
exposure io the " awful displeasure of Jehovah
at least, there is the
utmost reason
to
;"
believe so, and none

This
to believe otherwise.
at
once, from
nal
to
declared to cut off the soul,
is
known, covenanted
all
And
life.
we
as
79
title
are supposing the
or hope of eter-
whole community
be fully enlightened on this subject, no one can be
weak enough
to sacrifice the salvation of his soul, for the
poor recompense of maintaining the rights of a freeman.
And
if
he attempts
to
do
so,
he must encounter
resistance of subordinate clergy,
upon
all
these
rebuke of his diocesan, and the
fearful consequences, the
who
are ever dependent
his smiles.
Let high church principles be universally embraced in

(as they ought to be if they are correct),
this country,
and we have
ing, not
at
once an Established Hierarchy,
on the weak basis of human enactments,
rest-
like the
English Church, founded as an establishment by Henry

VIII.
command
but on the immutable
For the clergy of
this
and by divine injunction,

support.
" Let him that
cate with
him
that
God
of
church we are bound

to
is
provide a
all
himself!
conscience
and honorable
full
taught in the
teacheth in
in
Word communi-
good things."
This
go only to such religious teachers, as a

few prelates think proper to appoint and ordain. The
support must
all
people have no option in the case but

perhaps, arrange
this,
among themselves how
to
they may,
dispose, in
the most satisfactory manner, of the individuals

the diocesan shall designate for the care
The power
of the men, too, thus commissioned,
mendous.
It
lies
with them
to
whom
of their souls.
is tre-
administer or withhold
those sacraments, which, in the words of the high church

historian,
"are necessary to salvation." It is madness

moment, in yielding implicit obedience
to hesitate, for a
who have the awful prerogative of granting or

withholding a " covenant title" to eternal life, or 10 array
to those
SU
ourselves in " rebellion against (our) Almighty Lawgiver
and Judge," by refusing
may
clergy"
which
his " regularly ordained
think proper to prescribe.
the consequence of such
we
receive the rites of his reli-
to
gion, on those conditions,
shut our eyes to
all
power
But what
in the clergy
will
be
Unless
past history of our race, and sup-
pose that God has conferred an absolute
infallibility
on
the priesthood which he has placed over us, with such
awful sanctions to enforce our obedience,
we know and
man-
are certain, that this authority will be abused, in a
ner totally inconsistent with our rights and privileges as
freemen.
And who
is
ignorant of the practical operation of high
church principles, where they have acted without

straint
What
principles
created
and
Court of High Commission and the Star Chamber
re-
the
sustained
Who
advocated the arbitrary measures of the House of Stuart?

" Who opposed the glorious revolution of J 688
And,
in the language of Dr.
mies of our
own more
John Rice, " who were the ene-
glorious revolution
High church-
In the language of this, one of

of our age, we declare, " on the other
men^ the world knows."

the ablest
hand, in
all
men
these instances, low churchmen and dissen-
ters, united heartily
and co-operated vigorously."
faithful records of history afford,
on
The
this subject, a series
of most instructive facts, and warrant the strongest conclusions as to the tendency of high church principles."*
* " High Churohism and Toryism," says Dr. Bethune, " have ever
Horsely says, " Calvin was unin hand in England."
gone hand
questionably a Republican," and
adds,
"that he endeavored to
fa-
shion the government of all the Protestant churches on republican principles,"
prelate in
country has
this
81
power,
in his
it
to
great extent, to secure the prevalence and succession of
may
his
own
for
he appoints the clergy of his diocese, and they are
sentiments and practices, whatever they
such and only such,

pleased
to
members
to
in
sentiment and character, as he
And
commission.
own
of their
how
long the
may
one
To
be perpetuated.
stroy
It is
may
is
how
intolerance
power invested
recall the
consent,
not difficult to
be made, and
and religious
of error
man by popular
is
elect a successor
vestries, are to
certain this succession
influence
they with the associated
him who has thus created them.
see
be
more
the hereditary despotism of ages.
in
than to de-
difficult
And we
ask,
has not power and influence, established by the means be" In the time
was
of our Revolution, a Presbyterian loyalist
a ihing
unheard of," says William B. Reed, Esq. of Philadelphia and he adds,

" The debt of gratitude which independent America owes to the
;
dissenting clergy and laity, never can be
paid."
his
gentleman
presents us with the following extract fr^m a letter written by a tory

of the Revolution, residing
claration of Independence.
in
New-York, two years
" You
will
friend to Presbyterians, and that I fix
ordinary American proceedings
The
the chief and principal instruments in
all
De=
am no
the blame of these extra-
all
upon them.
England people were among them.
before the
have discovered that
Very few Church of
Presbyterians have been
these flaming measures, and
they always do, and ever will act against government, from that restless
and turbulent anti-monarchical
guished them every where,
when
spirit,
which has always
they had or by any
sume power, however illegally."

James I., writing to Lords Jermyn and Culpepper,
the request
to abolish
Episcopacy, says, "
distin-
means could
as-
in
answer to
Show me any
precedent,
wherever presbyterial government and regal was together without

perpetual rebellions.
ground of
KING."
their doctrines
Indeed,
is
it
cannot be otherwise,
anti-monarchical."
" No
for
the
bishop
No
82
fare us,
been already exerted even
in this country with,
great and unsparing effort, and with pernicious effect
Have
not the noblest designs of Christian charity; the
exalted enterprise of giving the Bible to every family in
our land
the most generous efforts for the instruction of
oppressed Christian nations, or of the heathen world, lying in wickedness been repeatedly shut out from nearly the
whole of an extended diocese by a single word

bishop does not approve of these
proper for any one
to solicit
efforts,
"
he thinks
it
The
im-
our aid for such objects"
hundred churches are instantly closed, and ten thou-
sand hearts are steeled against those men, who are pleading perhaps for those very charities, which originated in
the
zeal
Church.
and piety of the evangelical of the English
We
forbear to allude to other instances of pre-
We
latical authority.
We
undertake not
to
call in
question no man's motives.
decide whether any individual has
acted right or wrong, in the exercise of the power thus
But
assumed.
we
do ask, must not that system be wrong,
hostile to our liberal institutions and pernicious to the intarests of true
religion,
which thus tends
to
place the
consciences of a whole diocese under the control of a

single man,
and
to
make our
the no-
religious charities,
blest characteristic of the present age, dependent on his

will,
by
and the
faith of the
ry where.
No
whole community
to
be governed
" Religious principles will be felt eve-
his dictation ?
circle of private
government, but must feel them.
life,
no department of
They
belong
to
the
mind itself." W hat then must be the effect on freedom of

mind among us on the exercise of private judgment,
r
and above
all
on the rights of conscience,
tem should ever become predominant
The
if
such a sys-
in this
history of the world gives but one answer.
country
THE CHRISTIAN
While
therefore
we
83
ClTlZEff.
see nothing hostile to our free in-
who acknow-
Catholic spirit of those,
stitutions in the
ledge every other evangelical communion to be equally
with themselves, a part of the Church of Christ,
we
be-
lieve that nothing but a standing miracle could save us
from the consequences of a general prevalence of High
Church
sen for
few men, cho-
principles, giving as they do to a
the only
life,
known power on
earth of commis-
sioning ten thousand clergy, and clothing that clergy with

the awful prerogatives of granting or withholding these
sacred ordinances, without which
it
maintained, there
is
no known covenant of mercy, or promise of eternal
is
If this
life.
ally prevail
must yield
be
truth,
among
and
us,
these principles must gener-
if
we can
to the greater, the
only say, that the les3
freedom of our country
to the
salvation of our souls.
We
must then look
sults of these things,
guide us.
the
We
must look
light
of past times must
at the natural
sympathies and
strong affinities of these principles, with that more
arrogant and superstitious
communion which has ever
freedom of opinions in religion and of

freedom in the walks of civil life. Which has alike
warred against
all
and ultimate re-
at the legitimate
and the
all
her inquisition, and her
and the rebel
We
fires for the heretic in the
say then
let
the baleful advances of popery, and
the supercilious air of
the prelacy
awaken our
gilance to guard our rights and principles.

ple see to
it
church
in the state.
and
let the ministry
be careful
to
hand down
unimpaired and unsullied both the symbols of their
and the
spirit
of
its
devotion.
The way
is
vigi-
Let the peo-
office
open and easy,
the steps are natural and rapid from the corrupted spirit
of religion to veneration for
its
empty externals and
fiery
84
zeal for
its
symbols,
till
you reach the mandate
for entire
confoimity or the lighted fagot that shall frighten

heretic and
consume the
to face in water, so the heart of
that hath been,
new
is
it
that
which
to
man
to
that intellectual
The
man.
shall be,
the
face answereth
thing
and there
Standing where
thing under the sun.
us never contribute
As
dissenter.
we
is
no
do do.
let
debasement and
moral corruption, that shall demand the re-enactment of

scenes of terror
still
fresh and vivid before us.
Let the
wars of Grenada and the slaughtered jews of Spain*

the carnage of St. Bartholemew's
sands of papal
Rome
day
in
Francef
the
and the butchered thou-
millions of confiscated estates
and of the English hierarchy,! ever
admonish us of what human nature can be and what human power can perpetrate in the name of religion. We
would be watchful and jealous of the symptoms of ecusurpation and refuse the badges of every
exclusive order, lest we yet be required to give the same
clesiastical
reasons for their rejection, that our fathers gave

*
Not less than from
fifty
to a
when
dis-
hundred thousand Jews were supposed
to have died from persecution, during the reign of the amiable Isabella,
while hundreds of thousands were expelled from her dominions, for the
Roman
honor and purity of the

t
More than
France, on
this
religion.
Protestant Christians were slain in

memorable anniversary and within the space of thirty
days following,
thousand
thirty
many
of
whom
had been decoyed
to Paris, for the
purpose of destruction.
%
Not
less than eight
prison and at the

slain in Scotland
thousand persons are said to have died in
stake in England alone,
and other places,
the Acts of Conformity.
for
The names
without including those
having refused to submit to
of sixty thousand sufferers, on
account of religion, are recorded, between Charles
The
II.
and William.
pecuniary damages sustained by the Puritans, have been esti-
mated between fourteen and
fifteen millions sterling.
85
senting from their Church and driven in exile from their

at the stake.*
country or burnt
may be said, the " divine right" must be mainand the " apostolical succession" preserved, whatever may be the bearing of ecclesiastical organizations
But
it
tained,
upon
Although
civil institutions.
assigned
to this
it
transcends the limits
review, this requires a brief considera-
tion.
By
the "divine right" and "apostolical succession," as
here used,
is
meant, an exclusive privilege and power
claimed by some single and separate denominations, as

the only true church, and secured to such as they shall
appoint by their spiritual heads, to illustrate and administer the
For
ordinances of the Gospel.
ecclesiastical forms
sanction of the Scriptures.
All other professed churches,
they would designate them, and
as
their peculiar
and arrangements, they claim the

all
ministers
con-
nected with them, they declare without authority from

Christ, and without sanction from the Gospel.
This right
claimed by the Romanists and by

one section of the Episcopal denomination, to the exclu-
and
this succession are
sion of
While some of other
sects
occasionally advanced their claim to the
same
other churches.
all
may have
and succession, it has not been to the utter excluall other branches of the Christian family.
This
has been reserved for the Romanists and the high church
riiiht
sion of
We hope
to
be freed from the charge of invidious comparisons by
so closely associating the papacy and the prelacy in this discussion
we have found
finities are now so
but
it
impossible to avoid
and as their natural
af-
extensively claimed and by comparatively so few,
of either party denied,
them more
it
we
shall be
excused
distinct.
for
not being able to keep
86
party of the Episcopal denomination.
To
these our at-
tention is of course at this time restricted.*

If the prelacy of the Episcopal church is of divine right
or of exclusive scriptural authority,
whence
did
Henry
VIII. with his revengeful and adulterous designs, secure

j
His unfaithfulness
it ?
ful spirit
towards the
to his
Roman
vorce, led this haughty
own
wife, and his revenge-
pontiff, for refusing
monarch of England
him
di-
to interdict all
commercial intercourse with Rome, and to annex the

supremacy to his own crown. Forever after,
ecclesiastical
it
was ordained by
his Parliament, " that the king is the
only supreme head on earth of the Church of England."
Thus severed from Roman supremacy, the English

church became established in its present Episcopal character.
Its head was found at Westminster, in Henry
VIII., rather than in his holiness on the Tiber.
act of a faithless
Did
this
and profane sovereign unite the discor-
dant and corrupted elements of the English communion

to
Jesus Christ as his church, and breathe into the dry
Bishop Hobart says, " That none can possess authority
minister the sacraments but those
from the bishops of the church."
who have
No
to ad-
received a commission
one supposes that Dr. Ho-
bart would allow any to bebishops, but Episcopal.
Mr. Howe, once
whose writings are still of high authority,

" In her standards, the Episcopal Church expressly declares,
the pride of his party, and

says,
that there have been three
times
and
that
no
man
orders of ministers from the Apostle's
shall be accounted a lawful minister without
" The only appointed road to heaven is

through the visible church on earth." " Aliens from the church have
no covenanted title." Comp. for the Altar and " Letters to Mil-
Episcopal ordination."
ler."
The
late
Bishop Ravenscrofl and others are equally exclusive,
and the whole Episcopal denomination, with but few exceptions,

practically exclude all other churches
Gospel.
from the fellowship of the

bones of
Was
sepulchre the vitality of spiritual being
this
this
all
87
done by a divine
apostolical succession
right,
Was
and did
by the same
it
it
secure
right,
and
in virtue of this succession, that Elizabeth consolidated
the English Establishment in
Did Christ ever
its
princes, with their regal
present form
power and the sword, the conspiritual flock ?

Take the
and head of his
servatives
history of this Establishment in the line of
compare
tentions,
it
may
is at
hand.
be said, that this Establishment or the Epis-
copal Church are of divine right, as coming
Romish communion,
the
it
and
ter,
This very claim destroys
so.
it
can, at best, but share
with the very church
down from
part and parcel of the papacy,
transmitted from the polluted hands of the
Be
high pre-
its
with the simplicity and spirituality
of the gospel, and the answer

It
revengeful and lascivious
constitute
its
its
Man
of Sin.
exclusive charac-
honors in
Tracing
common
powers
become invested with an
exclusive " divine right," bearing away from that establishment all its boasted prerogatives ? Does the apostolWhere does the Romish
ical succession rest here 1
church find this succession, and the divine right on which
it
repudiates.*
and immunities there, does
relies
it
We
Amid
it
the darkness, confusion and blood of
have never yet been able to discover the validity of these
claims to " the succession," as borrowed from the
would seem that the prelacy destroyed

sion,
its
by tracing
it
to
Rome,
with the northern presbyter
and,
;
upon
for the
Roman
See.
It
their claims to this succes-
their
own
principles, leave
former were wholly
it
excommu-
nicated by the Pope, and every clerical and ecclesiastical power was
revoked, while the establishment of the Presbytery at the north re-
mained unassailed, many of whose clergy were acknowledged to be

regularly constituted ministers, having received Episcopal ordination.
88
In the East or in the
those troubled ages, where?
At Rome
test
or at
Avignon
And when
West
the threefold con-
was waged, where was the divine right and the suc?
The Romish church, whence the Episcopal
cession
professedly borrows
tion,
where
this
has never settled the ques-
its origin,
"right" lay, and through which dark
Whence
channel the " succession" flows.
then,
we may
well ask, does the prelacy of England, receive her divine

right
ply.
and prided succession ? From Rome, they ever reAs soon would we search for the pure springs of
Jordan in the dark and tideless waters of the Dead Sea,
whence nothing ever
We
flows to cleanse or refresh.
are not astonished at this searching for " a divine right
and apostolical succession," amid the conflicts of rival

darkness and abominations of the
popes, and in the
^'Mother of Harlots."
Some
subjects are most ably de-
fended amid confusion and night.*
On
the principles of the
possibility of tracing an
says,
"
Who
High Church there appears
unbroken succession.
succession) was ever introduced.
no such
consecrated ivhen mere children; of
violence
broken
men
We
officiating
been
read of bishops
who
barely
knew
of prelates expelled and others put in their places by
of illiterate and profligate laymen, and habitual drunkards,
admitted to holy orders."
Am.
taint (a
Irregularities could not have
wholly excluded, without a perpetual miracle.
no
can undertake to pronounce, that during that long
period, usually designated as the dark ages,
their letters
to be
Archbishop Whately
Ed., Vol.
III. p.
T. Babbington Macauley says, (Essay
299, " Extreme obscurity overhangs the history
of the middle ages, and the facts which are discernible through that
obscurity prove that the church
was exceedingly
ill-regulated.
We
read that sees of the highest dignity were openly sold, transferred
backwards and forwards by popular tumult bestowed sometimes by

sometimes by a warlike baron
a profligate woman on her paramour
;
on his kinsman, a mere stripling.
We
read of bishops of ten years

Bishop Hoadley well says, "
till
consummate
am
89
fully satisfied that
stupidity can be happily established,
and universally spread over the land, there

that tends so
clergy, as the
much
to
destroy
all
nothing
is
due respect
demand of more than can be due
to
to the
them
and nothing has so effectually thrown contempt upon a

regular succession of the ministry, as the calling of no
succession regular but what was uninterrupted

and the
making of the eternal salvation of Christians to depend
upon that uninterrupted succession, of which the most
;
learned must have the least assurance, and the unlearned
can have no notion, but through ignorance and credulity."
But
may be
it
through which
said, the
media descendendi, or the hands
comes down,
it
is not at all destructive
the divine right transmitted from Christ
succession
may
proof that
it
committed
to
possibility of
old
legitimately lie here.
was transmitted from
still
of
many popes who were
of
and that the
But where
Christ, or
such hands ? We will soon

any such conclusion.
office years old
Ireland was
is
the
by him ever
state the im-
boys."
The
state oi
worse, and after mentioning the manner in which
ordinances were administered, he adds, "we are at a loss to conceive

how any clergyman can feel confident that his orders have come down
correctly."
"It
is
probable," he adds,
Church of England can

to bishop
even so
far
"that no clergyman of the
trace up his spiritual genealogy from bishop
back as the time of the Reformation.
There
remains fifteen or sixteen hundred years, during which the transmission of his orders
is
buried in utter darkness."
strenuous defender of his church, acknowledges
boasts of apostolical succession.
all
Baronius, the
this,
and yet
correspondent of the London
(Episcopal) Record informs us, that it is well known that the baptism
by Episcopal hands of Archbishop Seeker, Bishop Butler and Arch-
bishop Tillotson, has been called
cession
in
question, and never
clearly
"What then, on Episcopal principles, becomes of the suc-
proved.
1
8*
90
And we would
here ask. on the ground of these exclu-
sive pretensions, with
ceived into favor,
what consistency
with her iron-handed
and covenant," ever
at
Scotland re-
is
" her league
faith,
war with the prelacy
legalized ministrations, valid
becomes the
crown, with no validity
if
Here are
not of divine right
while
dissenter, without favor from the
the prelate
to his
own
ministrations though
claiming unbroken succession from Christ himself.*

is
Why
PresbyteFianism north of the Tweed, so legitimate,
divine and valid, while south of that narrow stream,
it
is
schismatical, unauthorized and invalid, so that not even

the grace of God can extend " covenant mercies" to its
own
subjects
dream of such
But
living
for
trifling
us in the gospel, so pure in
left to
simple in
We
its
forms
who would
examples,
with a spiritual and divine religion,

its
doctrines and s
prefer to leave both
Rome and
Canterbury, and
borrow divine right and our succession from Jesus Christ,

not from any pretended virtue in his incarnate hands or
of the " presbytery" that succeeded him, but from the
gift
of his grace and the
On
this
hopes
foundation
and
all
we
of every
Holy
Spirit to all that believe.
build both the church and our
name who
rest here
as Christians, asking and enforcing
no
we
receive
rites but the sim-
ple ordinances significant of the Spirit and of the Cross
and even these

*
It is a
of this
we
own
require, not for their
question of some interest
how men who
virtue
are so tenacious
"divine right," can recognize three separate denominations
as legally in possession of its immunities
papacy, the
prelacy
as in
Canada, where th
and the Scotch presbytery,
are admitted
privileges, under the sanction ol her majesty the head of the
Church Establishment and of the bench of

sworn defenders of an exclusive succession.
lish
to
to
Eng-
spiritual lords, the

save, but
and
91
and symbols of things unseen
as the pledges
spiritual.
The church
was Aaron,
looks for her ministry, called of God, as
God
the grace of
She expects
Leo X.
not sent as Tetzel from
in their ministrations
of truth
not
from baptisms, indulgences, confirmations and extreme

unction,
which the price of Simon Magus might pur-
chase.
We
ask for our clergy the attending and
attest-
ing symbols of the Holy Spirit, and not the worshippers

of a formal Christianity, that talks
more of
ministrations, " covenant mercies,"
its
the church, its
liturgy
and shadow-
ing rites, than of justification by faith, the sovereignty of
God
in regeneration
ministrations
that
sciousness of
its
God
shall exalt
own
we
abase
guilt
We
life.
require
the soul with the con-
and wretchedness, and
alone in the work of
With such
reunion to himself.
a succession
and holiness of
shall
are satisfied.
qualifications
We
that
renewal and
its
and such
have here a
living,
divine right, and a true apostolical succession.
And
we would by no means speak
yet
lightly of the
ministerial succession, or call in question the divine right

to all the
powers and immunities which belong
We
succession.
believe
there
is
preach the gospel and administer

that this right
Church of
may
its
divine
to that
right
ordinances,
to
and
be traced back in the line of the
whose ministers are to be acknowand are owned to be such by the attending
Christ,
ledged as his,
influences of the Spirit.
The
inquiry
becomes important, what
gitimate succession to the
say
to
the
that there
The
apostles,
yet
first
we wish
were no successors
apostles
constitutes a le-
apostles of Christ
to
had no successors.
to
be
We
understood^
the apostles, as such.
From
its
very nature
92
their apostolic office
They were
ended with them.
ap-
pointed and invested with power for a special purpose, to

carry out the designs of Christ in founding a
new
religion.
power of working miracles, the gift of

tongues and inspiration were conferred upon them and
who shall presume on a succession to these divine investments ? When we ask, then, what constitutes a succession to the apostles of Christ, we speak of them only
For
this end, the
as ministers of the Gospel, in distinction from their character as apostles.
To answer this inquiry, what constitutes a legitimate

we must ascertain what constitutes a valid,
succession,
authorized,
sy.
shall find the true succession without controver-
We
shall not at this time discuss the question of
and the various evidences of an
spiritual qualifications,
accepted ministry.
mere consent,
men
to
more
enough
It is
or transmission
of
for us to say, that the
power from one
set of
another, to administer external ceremonies, can no
unite
them
ministry of the
tle
With
and divinely acknowledged clergy.
we
them,
their
to the evangelical, spiritual,
and accepted
Saviour's original designation, and enti-
human
ministrations to
respect, and the divine
approbation, than the garments of the rabbies and priests
of the
Jewish service, can constitute the
officiating
The
servants of the synagogue, the true Israel of God.
elements essential
are
to
the accredited ministery of Christ
not to be found in anything merely external
these,
by whomsoever handed down, can form no
succession.
The
thing
is
utterly impossible.
the qualifications for the ministry, nor the

its
immunities rest here.
true church
If the charter
must be founded and the
and
true
Neither
succession
to
on which every
spiritual succession
are not here, the nominal descent is but an
empty name.
THE CHRISTIAN
The
93
CITIZEN.
doctrines and principles of the Bible, Christ and his
may
Spirit,
not be there, and
The
succession cannot be.
the Bible are the charter of
if not,
the true apostolical
principles and doctrines of

all
and
ecclesiastical rights,
the spirit of these is essential to a valid ministry.
These
principles do not sanction the least laxness of
sentiment or practice, either as to the church or the min-
So
istry.
far
from encouraging a presumptous advance
towards the ministry, on personal or individual responsithey repel the claims of every one
bility,
to
confidence,
but upon the highest and clearest scriptural authority.
And when asked
is
there any such thing as a divine
warrant or scriptural authority for the

istry,
we
unhesitatingly answer yes
office of the
min-
and we look for the
authority of this ministry in the divine right whickrests
church
in the
to confer
it
but
which by no means be-
longs exclusively to any one denomination.
It
is
one of
the inherent and inalienable prerogatives of Christians, to
carry out their principles and the purposes of the gospel,
and
they must have a ministry.
for this
Christians, call-
ed of God, and united in the fellowship and ordinances of

the gospel, are a true
and apostolical
Church of
and whoever
Christ, both scriptural
is
here set apart for the
administration of the ordinances, comes into the possession of a divine right, and with proper spiritual qualifications,
has
all
the elements of a true minister of Jesus
Christ.
The
only question that can here arise, respects
the
proper organization of a church, or what shall entitle

to a scriptural
it
character, or the divine right essential to
such a communion.
We affirm
that
when any body
of
men become
associ-
ated upon the principles of the gospel, and for the pur-
THE CHRISTIAN
94
poses
which
for
cultivating
it
was
spirit,
its
CITIZEN.
given, receiving its doctrines, and
they constitute a true
church invested with a divine
right, the
Where two
munities of a scriptural succession.
my name,
are gathered together in
am
I in
Christian
powers and imor three
says the Saviour, there
the midst of them.*
Governments, when properly organized, become "the
powers
God/' and
that are ordained of
in his
name may
which the
Scriptures authorize, and the good of the body politic
demands. In no other sense, and in no other way, are
there any divine rights of kirgs, and kingdoms, or any
offices of trust.
And no one will deny that " the powassume
and exercise
* Ireneus
quae est
speaks
in
of
church.
is
in
any place.
"when
Lybia, there
in
Tertullian
Ubi
tres
thinks that
Ecclesia
three
were
so
many
Euseb.
lib. 7,
came
sufficient
Exhort, ad Cassitat.
est.
Ea
Diony-
Lib. 2, cap. 56, p. 158.
unto him that even there he had a church."
Christians
259.
which
church,
that
quoque loco Ecclesia.
sius Alexandrinus says that,
p.
the prerogatives
all
make
to
457.
p.
See
Ecclesia Romana, Cyprian Epis. 31, &c.

"
church," says Peter King, Lord High Chancellor of England,
" the
usual
and
common
acceptation of the word,
is
a society of
Christians, meeting together in one place, under their proper pastors,

for the
performance of religious worship and the exercise of Christian
discipline.
" The constituent parts of a church are called

a5s\<pol,
ckXcktoI, the
the "brethren," and nlarol, the "faithful."
Smyrn. ad Eccls. Philomel. Euseb.
lib.
God
company
p. 39,
"are those
God throughout the world. This

but we cannot say that he hath
that worship or serve
has had since the beginning
ever had a visible church.

ration after
elect,"
4, cap. 15, p. 134.
" The Church of God," says Lightfoot, Vol. VII.

or that
''
Epist. Fccles.
Visible churches (p.47) have died gene-
generation, yet the true church, he adds, like the soul
of man, lives, though unseen."
With
this
corresponds the Scripture
representation of the Church of Christ which he has sanctified.
government " are ordained of God," though they
ers" of
have no unbroken succession, as
to the
them, and are every day
minister
modes
structure and
when
95
was founded,
the
And government
of administration.
the
rejecting
corrupt,
agents that ad-
changing in their
upon which
principles
inalienable lights
it
may be
of men,
supplanted, utterly destroyed, and that authority which

rises
on
its
ruins,
becomes the " power
that is ordained
And
of God," and bears the sword in his name.
surely
no one government amid the thousands of this world, can
claim an exclusive possession of right
be called,
to-
by way of eminence, the government, or

er
of God,"
ordained
and
assume
to
the
over
authority
rejection
try
from the
of state
of
list
Can she
and
nence and exclusive

her
folly
Eng-
Shall
erase this coun-
reject
our ministers
rights,
let
continent
to the
government but that of England
her empire, armies and navies,
at
is,
others,
all
denationalize France, dethrone her
and dismiss her envoys
citizen king
Is there 'no
nations
of
others.
all
land, venerable and powerful as she
"pow-
the
With
all
her claim pre-emi-
and the world would laugh
and spurn her powers.
No more
can any
one church claim pre-eminent and exclusive prerogatives,
and say
to all others,
you have no divine
rights,
and legitimate succession in your ministry

church
This
demand
is
no
valid,
you are no
incomparably more absurd than the high
for universal
temporal authority, as the mind
and soul of man are freer and more indomitable than

mortal sinews, and truth and grace like the unchained
elements of
As we
life,
free to
see what
it
is
all,
and making
all
" the powers that are ordained of God," so

clear,
what
it
is,
men
free.
in governments, that constitutes
that lays the
it is
equally
foundation for a divine
THE CHRISTIAN CiTIZEN.
96
and
right
its
succession in the church.
It is
obligation, inalienable rights, recognized
word of God,
the
the organi-
on the immutable principles of moral
zation of the one
that
makes
and enforced in
a government
it
and
it is
the reception and belief of the doctrines and principles of
power of
the gospel, and the governing
its
and the Bible only," says Chillingworth, "
The
is
that
spirit,
The
Church of God."
constitutes the other the
Bible,
the religion
charter on
which the church is founded. These oracles of God become our confession of faith and our common law. The
of Protestants."
Bible
divine right thus secured,

heraldry, by will and deed
embrace
its truth,
its
if
the
divine
transferred, not as senseless
but
its
who
ever have the Bible,
laws and cherish
its spiri-
immunities and succeed
honors and powers of the
red
submit to
tual vitality, inherit
would ask
is
is
true, Apostolical
to
the
We.
church.
any thing else can, by whomsoever confer-
Here
a right borrowed from
is
a spiritual Christianity,
mere externals, nor secured by

any or
vital
all
and
of
God
the succession of
which cannot be resolved

seals, rites,
into
symbols, keys,
human investments, from which every thing

may have fled. Who would look for
spiritual
the succession of a Christian church and a spiritual ministry in the
hordes of merciless and profligate monks, or in
the " fox-hunting clergy" of England, and
deny
it
to
Bax-
ter, Cranmer and Bunyan, holy men of God, persecuted

for righteousness' sake and doing wonders in the name of
Christ
We
should as soon think of Bonaparte, wasting
on his ocean rock, and his wandering family as the ruling

powers of continental Europe, to the rejection of the
rightful sovereigns, or regard the asphaltic slime pits
mercing the
fallen
im-
towers and palaces of Babylon, the
living city of millions.
We
are
happy
to
97
recognize as Christians, and find our
fellowship with Leighton, Sherlock and Tillotson, valiant

for the truth
and powerful amid the profligacy of courts
or with Massillon and Bourdaloue, rebuking sin on the

throne.
And no
Fenelon
in
we
do
less
rejoice to
commune with
exile persecuted, yet radiant in the charity
and glory of Christ; with Oberlin warm-hearted amid

mountain snows of Switzerland
with Felix NerT
on the icy Alps, and with Owen and Doddridge, and
Pearce and Fuller, and all the humble followers of Christ,
the
doing good in his name, and gathering the credentials of

their office
and their
from the renewing power of
spirit
God.
While we admit then
a qualified divine right to every
Christian church and to their ministers acting under the
great commission, and with those spiritual qualifications,
which are
essential to the functions of their office,
must remember, that when these

commission expires, and the
their
away.
And though
the
'
divine right' passes
name may sound
as lofty and its
ministrations be increasingly splendid and costly,
The
cold and dead.

did
dome and
parted.
may
shrine
we
qualifications depart,
all
is
stand beneath the splen-
gilded minerets, but the divinity has de-
The church
of Christ and his ministry are not
here.
We
trust that
from
brief and imperfect statement
this
of an important argument,
being indifferent
than in the
to
state.
We
resist
shall not be
in the
charged with
church, any more
would sbut the avenues against
an unauthorized ministry,
would
we
government
in the one, as resolutely as
we
the assumptions of self-appointed rulers in
the other.
We
cannot leave this subject without a brief notice of

9
98
the origin of that distinction in the Christian ministry
which
one of the strongest supports of the principles
is
We
before us.
allow that the Jewish church had her
rich ceremonial, her temple service imposingly splendid,
her
many grades and her High
officials of
however, affords
this,
ecclesiastical organization under the gospel,
This
to learn.
for a priest to
sacrifice
hands
the
do
Where
What
which he
the altar at
is
we have
yet
and what has
it,
shall
are the victims that are to bleed in his
Claiming
High
altar
another dispensation
is
Priest with
powers divinely delegated. That

support for any peculiar and exclu-
peculiar and
duties
to
follow in the footsteps of Christ,
Priest of our profession, the
minister at the
And
must himself become the victim.
we
claiming
where are
found the attending credentials of the apostolical comapostolical succession as to office,
mission
Where
ask,
are miracles and inspiration
and who
receive the Holy Ghost and speak with tongues, beneath
even associated prelatical hands
The Gospel never assumed,
in
any of
its
forms and
early services, the ceremonial of the ancient economy. In-
troduced by
its
divine Author,
form and simple
it
rose wi'h
spirituality, in the
in the imposing temple service.*
its
unassuming
synagogue, rather than
And no one can
* "It appears highly probable," says Bishop Whately, "

say, morally certain, that
was brought, the whole

pel, the
wherever
fail to
might
Jewish synagogue existed, that
or the chief part of
it,
to
embrace the Gos-
Apostles did not there so much form a Christian church, (or
congregation, Ecclesia), as make an existing congregation, Christian"
Hence
this author justly concludes,
that
we have
so
little
the ministry and the constitution of church government.

stitutions
tles.
had
The
church, and
little
as to externals.
These
of novelty, not originating wholly with the
officers of
its
said about
the
synagogue became the
in-
Apos-
officers of
the
simple services were continued, with no great change
THE CHRISTIAN
see
how
99
CITIZEN.
simple, unaffected and unostentatious
ordinary devotions of the synagogue.
were the
Tracing the re-
peated services of the Redeemer with his disciples, and

the frequent assemblings of his followers, subsequent to
his ascension, there
is
found nothing of the imposing cere-
monial of the Jewish temple service
ments of the ministerial
office,
no gorgeous vest-
and no apparent distinc-
powers of the apostles and
tion in the
their
immediate
successors, as the preachers of the Gospel.*

tablished
They
es-
churches every where, and the ministers of
Each
these churches were called Bishops or Presbyters.
church had
its
bishop, and these were generally not as nu-
merous nor as extensive as the ordinary parishes of city

and country clergymen at the present day. * As for the
word diocese, I do not remember," says Lord King, " that
I
ever found
but there
is
used, in this sense, by any of the ancients
it
another word, which they frequently denomi-
nated the bishop's cure, and that
is
parish.^
We
read
of the parishes of Asia, the parish of Ephesus, of Corinth,

of Athens, and of the
parish of Carthage.J
So that a
Lord King, " is the same as
parish," in the language of
a particular church, or a single
These
congregation.
parishes had their respective " bishops or ministers, one
bishop to a church, and but one church
to a
bishop."
* " Whatever a bishop did, the same did a presbyter." " Bishops
" They had one and the
and presbyters were of the same ordrr."
same name each being indifferently called bishops or presbyters."

Clemens Romanus, sustained by Polycarp's exhortation to the Philippians, abundantly confirm these opinions.
lib. 5,
Cap. 14.
t Ireneus to
parishes.
See Lord King
193, Cap. 24, p. 193.

Pope Victor, twice speaks of the
Twv
Euseb.
p.
irapo\Ku?v.
Euseb.
lib. 5,
bishoprics of Asia, as
Cap. 14,
p. 193.
See Euseb.
See Dissertations of Appollonius against Alexander the Heretic.
lib. 2,
3 and
4.
100
All the people of one diocese, parish or church,
1.
met
together in one place, "where," says Justin Martyr, " the
bishop preaches and prays."
one
communion
altar or
2.
which his whole flock received

" There is but one altar," says
one bishop.*
The
3.
"
The
table in his
bishop had but
whole diocese,
at
the sacrament from him,"

Ignatius, " as there
bishop also baptized
ceived this ordinance in his diocese.
"The
4.
is
but
that re-
all
charities
of the church were deposited with the bishop," as Justin
Martyr says
seer of
all
" he
was
the orphans,
prisoned, and, in a word, of

digent."
were present
6. "
The
curator and over-
all
that
were needy and
as
church censures, as Origin describes an
at
appearing " before
was
offender
the
whole
"
When
in
the bishop
one place
" by the suffrage of
all
to
was dead,
choose a
know-
They were
"
plead," says Cyprian, "their cause before
met together
church."
not restored without the
ledge and consent of the whole diocese."
ple."!
in-
" All the people of the parish (or diocese)
5.
offender,
common
the
widows, diseased, strangers, im-
all
all
new
to
the peo-
the people
bishop
;"
the brotherhood," says Cyprian.
De universes fraternitatis suffragio " by

who were met together in one place for
all
the brethren
that very end."
" At the ordination of the clergy the whole body of the

were present." 9. " Public letters from one
8.
people
church
"
10
to
another were read before the whole diocese."
The whole
diocese of the bishop did meet
all to-
gether to manage church affairs."
What can more

limits,
* Epist. ad Philad.
i
strictly
correspond with the character,
and usages of our ordinary parishes, or be more
p.
41.
Also Justin Martyr.
Acturi causam apud plebera universam. Epist. 10,
4,
p..
30>
101
unlike the wide territory and multiplied congregations of

?
Not only so. but " the real size,"
says Lord King, " of these bishoprics, concerning which
a modern diocesan
we have any
notices remaining on ancient records, the
very largest of them were no greater than our particular

congregations are."
;
This was true of the bishoprics of Smyrna, Ephesus,
Of this the " Epis-
Magnesia, Philadephia, and Trallium.

tles of
Polycarp"
may
ceses of Antioch,
furnish abundant proof.
The
dio-
Rome, Carthage and Alexandria,
three hundred years

single congregation.*
after
Christ,
The whole
for
remained each as a
region around
Rome,
along the banks of the Tiber, was studded with separate

parishes or dioceses, each having
whose
its
distinct
bishop,
were exclusively confined to a single congregation.

Hundreds of churches as bishoprics, with
their pastors as bishops, so called, were to be found, here
duties
arranged, built up and sustained as Christian churches are
Hence, says Cyprian, "bishops were ordained

Per omnes provinall provinces and cities"
now.
throughout
cias, et
per urbes singulas ordinati sunt episcopi, (Epist.
52, 10, p. 119), and he adds, that he
own
In
was chosen by
his
people.f
all this
to rule
we
find
no archbishops and no popes rising
with the divine right of an apostolical succession,
but the beautiful simplicity of the days of Christ and his
immediate followers
in
the
ministry of
mercy
to lost
mankind.
Having shown
that there is
no proof
that the doctrine
of " divine right" or of an exclusive " apostolical succes-
* See Lord King. A. Ed. p. 42.

t Populi universi suffragio.
Epist. 55, p. 139.
102
sion "
was ever claimed
during the
first
the
for
papacy or the prelacy
we
three centuries after Christ,
thorised to assert that no authority
is
feel au-
obtained from the
gospel itself. Having seen also, that no distinction was

known among the clergy during most of this period and
as we shall yet see that no forms of worship or liturgies
;
were imposed upon the people and no such peculiar effito ordinances and ceremonies as subse-
cacy attached
quently appeared
God and
and being
satisfied with the
the authorities adduced,
moment
cessary to advert for a
and "juvenile fathers "
which labyrinth of
we
feel
it
Word
to the multitude of
crowded the dark ages
that
night, of ignorance
of
wholly unnemystic
;
from
and corruption, the
advocates of every system of error so confidently borrow

support.
Nothing
is
more uncertain and unsatisfactory
than that long array of authorities in support of clashing
systems and sentiments which are summoned from this

dark abyss
where " we
find
council; fathers against fathers

thority against authority."*
council
;
We
in
opposition to
pope against pope
shall resort there for
au-
no
support to our arguments, nor consent to meet any bor-
rowed from
to leave its
that source.
earlier times,
ushers the
We
till
dawn
that
morning
hour increases,
is
till
star of the
Reformation
of another and a brighter day.
Wyckliffto Luther the pure

centuries
prefer to bridge the whole*
mystic puerelities, and rest in the light of
light of truth
and
life
From
every
the dense night of more than ten long
broken, and the morning
is fully
ushered
in.
Germany, Switzerland and France as if waked at once

by the same mighty power, burst the chains of delusion
and welcomed to her suffering sons the liberty of Christ,
* Rev. Robt. Ferguson, p. 23.
103
and rising as from the sleep of sepulchres, reorganize
To
and reanimate the church of God.
the enquiry of
popish and prelatical pride, where was your church be-
We
was where truth, grace

where the Char'
ter of the kingdom of heaven was sacred and inviolate.
Whether in exiled families, chased, crowded, suffering
fore Luther
and the
came
spirit of
God
reply,
it
lived and reigned
amid mountain rocks and eternal snows, or with the

and despair at the abominations
of cruelty and sin, whose remonstrant successors, came
saints sighing in silence
from the bosom of night, that constellation
forth at last
of wonders and
toils.
These were
the church, and to the
church universal the resurrection of
and triumph of a
church, and
not to
it
Rome,
life
and hope, the joy
spiritual Christianity.
Here was
can be no where else even now.

to
We
the
look
Canterbury, nor Geneva, but where "be-
lievers" meet, rejecting a cold and miserable formalism,
and God, there is our church, our home,

There is the ministry of Christ, vital and valid ;
the Holy Ghost its sanction and heaven its hope.
But we must briefly trace the rise and progress of th.pt
new ministerial order and we can merely glance at it and
refer the reader to history, for the full record of the most
gigantic structure, ever conceived or reared amid the
ruins of the apostacy, whose summit, if not reaching hea-
in love with truth
our
rest.
ven
like
tomless
Babel of
old,
has
its
base deep laid as the bot-
pit.
"The
duties of a bishop," says
Lord King, "were
preaching the word, praying with his people, administering the true sacraments
taking care of the poor, ordain-
ing of ministers, governing his flock, excommunicating

offenders, absolving penitents
i.
e.
preaching, worship
104
and government, were part of the bishop's function and

office."*
In an extended congregation
for the minister
it would not be unnatural

growing weary under its care or wasting
with the infirmities of age, to desire some assistance

in the performance of his
church
become
to
necessary
to
branch
new and
off into
third century,
during the
occurred.
nor for
a
it
separate congre-
seems actually
this
In the extreme
suburbs
congregations
Eusebius, distinct
the
of
to
have
city,
says
(tfwwywyul) began
to
from the remoteness of their residence from the
usual place of worship
yet they did not at once sepa-
rate from " their old church

this
In the church, diocese or parish of Alexandria,
gations.
arise,
arduous duties
so numerous and extended as to find
and bishop," but retaining
endearing relation, they by permission enjoyed
stated seasons the ministrations of others,
age or circumstances were naturally in

subordinate,
and
and innocent
under
the
direction
of the
mother
we can
discover, is the modest
rise of that collossal
system of diocesan and
Here, as
church.
at
who from their

many respects
far as
power which like clouds from the bottomless

pit have overshadowed the earth, making the spiritual
kingdoms of this world above all its civil powers, and
pontifical
blending the spiritual with the earthly, honoring the one,

to the destruction of the other.
It is
not difficult to see,
how unequal endowments,
age, and maturity of learning and piety, might give to one
man
commanding
influence over
many
minds.
The
presiding officer of an ecclesiastical assembly, under the

influence of his station, or the pastor of
See Origen. Tertul
some popular
Justin Martyr. Firmilian.
or
105

central church, in the capital of the country,
cient
to its
whose an-
and commanding ascendency becomes transferred

minister, soon finds himself unconsciously, perhaps
against his will, clothed with
uncommon powers
stand-
ing amid his juniors, his sons and admirers, venerable

for age, learning
and
piety,
he
is
the patriarch of the
churches, even of churches whose powers and whose

ministry are essentially the sa'me.
tinctions
In this
church and the Christian
in the
doubt had their rise
way
and history has written the
the dis-
ministry no
results,
through fifteen hundred years of ecclesiastical corruption,

clerical
cate
The gorgeous
and oppression.
pride
pontifi-
the regal prelacy, robed, mitred, and enthroned in
scarlet,
on the seven
hills,
claiming the mistresship of
nations and the prelatic empire of the world, are
the
achievements and the memorials.

History has
tained.
not
left
Constantinople,
the foregoing positions
unsus-
Rome, Alexandria, Antioch and
Carthage, had powerful and extended churches within
which pride, learning, commerce and wealth had given ascendant powers. Their
primitive ministry was no more, and their original Christian simplicity had passed away
the corruptions of the
church and of the age had favored the extension and
abuse of that power with which they were clothed. The
their respective borders, to
rivalship
existing
between these
cities,
especially the
most distinguished, became transferred to their respective churches, whose spiritual heads were not insensible
honors of an overshadowing influence.
Whatever may have been the result of the enlarged
powers of the venerable minister of Alexandria in the
to the
third century,
it
was
not until the close of the sixth, that
anything like prelatical or papal jurisdiction and
pre-*
106
eminence was known.
Rome,
From
the imperial character of

of " Gregory the
or from the ascendant talents
Great/' he was acknowledged as holding the
among
first
place
the patriarchs, yet " with express limitation
stantinople, as yet the "
imperial aspirings of
of
John, the Patriarch of Con-
jurisdiction and bounds."
head
city,"
and jealous of the
Rome, became emulous of
the as-
cendant honors and influence of Gregory, and claimed
to
be styled the " universal patriarch' or bishop, as the city

1
''
where he officiated was the chief residence of the emperor.

Lending the aid of his overshadowing influence
to
the feebler
and remote churches, he received that
homage and gratitude due to beneficent greatness, and

there was no general resistance to his claim.
Gregory of Rome, however, remonstrated, and denied
the right of his brother to such exclusive assumptions
"
It
was Lucifer
was antichrist it could belong to

So indignantly did the patriarch of
protest
his wounded pride, doubly
it
no bishop on earth."
the imperial city
vigorous from the apparent piety that sanctioned

the Patriarch of Alexandria,
currences of his
own
it,
that
remembering perhaps the oc-
city in the third century
and
to
pacify
Rome, bestowed upon him the more magof universal pope.

But Gregory was too
his brother of
nificent title
modest, or too
far
committed by his denunciations of
honor under another name, and with
all
himself " the servant of the servants of

lips the living
synonym
church, as
Rome
God
of papal power.
pope, the father of that whole race
this
humility declares
:"
in mitred
Gregory was
imperial
in
the
to the world.*
* See His. of Oath. Chh. by Alexander Petrie, Cap.
and Campbell's Lectures, Lee. XVI.
p.
27L
II.
pp. 9-11
107

Thus we have
the
rise
of unassuming,
patriarchal
supervision in the third century, growing slowly through
more than three hundred years

tion
from
its civil
into diocesan jurisdic-
and geographical relations
at
length
assuming prelatical powers, and not even nominally pon-
and papal
tifical
till
near seven hundred years of corrup-
and darkness obscures the true
tion
We
know
of nothing
rivalship,
but that
greatest
and
all
and
prelatical,
than
this.
It
is
foregoing
the
memorable dispute who should be
the distinctions in the ministry, papal
are
no
more primitive nor
apostolical
not from prejudice towards any class of
we oppose
that
light.
apostolical like
these high church principles
men
but from
deep conviction of their unscriptural character, and from

their necessary influence upon those that adopt them.
This
is
seen not alone on the page of history.
memorials in
all
This influence
sations of the world.

at
Rome, and
pate
but
at
it is
It
has
its
the archives, institutes and civil organiis
seen not alone
Canterbury, in the papacy of the Episco-
seen also in the Presbyter, and had the
clamorous demands once made in England by the Presbyterians, for the sword, been heard,
we might have seen
the northern presbyter of Scotch zeal, fresh and firm in

the
remembrance of
his national and religious wrongs,
carrying something more to
his " confes-
London than
sion of faith," with his " solemn league and covenant
;"
and how many a papist and adherent of Episcopacy would

have found their way
it
is
to the tower, the fleet
not easy to say.
high Presbytery in
domination
tions of
its
The
another hemisphere, and
moment
energy when
at this
and the stake,
aspect and late doings of
in Scotland, are
unrestrained.
its
some
And
as
proud
indica-
human
1^8
nature does not vary essentially any where, nor in any
Cromwell been
age, had
as
vain
of his theology,
as
Henry VIII.
and the Independents long enough in
power to learn all its blessings, notwithstanding the na;
ture of their principles, the one might have been a sec-
ond " defender of the
faith,"
and the other, shorn of their
unshared excellence, hung with

of the Protector.
We
all
servility
not allowed to begin their work upon these
and simple
tural faith
on the arm
rejoice that these principles
men
were
of scrip-
trust in Christ for salvation.
We
human nature with these principles any

They show themselves most in the papacy and
would not
where.
trust
the prelacy, because they have there lived so long and
gathered such encouragement from their
and more so from the very nature of
And
ganization.
it is
now more
in
and of other principles, dearer than
civil relations,
their eclesiastical or-
defence of ourselves,
life,
that the Christian
citizen as well as the Christian preacher is called to op-
pose them.
And
let
it
be remembered that
we
are not alone in
these views of entire dissent from the principles before

us.
Those
better acquainted with
them from experience
of their disasterous results on the moral and religious interests of the church, shall give their testimony to the
truth and reasonableness of our positions.
allude
to
the worthy
men
We
shall but
of the Episcopal church,
who
are struggling against them in this country and to the

prelates and the
lishment,
rians.
now
We
numerous clergy of the English Estab-
so vigorously resisting the Oxford tracta-
shall rely chiefly
on the opinions of the most
learned and pious of the English church in past times,
whose sentiments and
authority are held in the highest
estimation at the present day.
We
repeat
it,
we
109
are not acting in our sectarian cha-
by those who better know the principles before us, than we do, and who have felt more of
their influence than we hope ever to experience.
We
racter unsustained
appeal to the Episcopal church

vindication of every position
men we
led to
shall
adduce
our
for
itself for the truth
and
we have taken, though the

support, may not have been
consider the political and religious bearings of
these principles as others
may have been compelled
to do,
2.
In
the next place the
parture from
the
system under review,
is
a de-
of the Episcopal
original principles
Church of England, as established at the era of the Reformation.
In reference to ecclesiastical discipline, no historical

fact is
more certain than
this, that all the
reformed church-
es renounced the principle of any divine right of Episcopal ordination.
As
a single instance,
we may mention
which strenuously assert the identity of bishops and presbyters, and their
equality by divine right, in the power of ordination.
These articles were signed by nearly eight thousand
ministers, among whom were Luther, Melancthon, BuTo a similar effect was the declaration of the
cer, &c.
Function of the English church, about the same period,
which states as follows " In the New Testament there
is no mention of any degree or distinction of orders, but
only of deacons or ministers, and of priests or bishops."*
This declaration was signed by thirty-seven distinguished
the Smalcaldic Articles, in 1533,
civilians
and divines, and by thirteen bishops.

Burnet's
Hist, of Ref.
10
I.
321
fol.
Nor was
110
this subject, as
by
the
some have
insinuated, hastily decided on
On
English reformers.
the contrary,
it
was
re-
garded as one of the cardinal questions of the Reforma-
and was examined by them with great care and de-
tion,
liberation.
ed
It
to a large
was one of a number
of queries propound-
council of the most distinguished divines
and bishops, under Henry VIII.
As
specimen of the
answers which were then given, we transcribe the
fol-
lowing.
of Canterbury, says "
Cranmer, Archbishop
shops and priests were
at
The m>
one time, and were no two
things, but both one office, in the beginning of Christ's

religion."
Dr. Cox, afterwards bishop of Ely under Elizabeth,

"By scripture (as Jerome saith) bishops and priests
be one. Yet bishops as they are now, were after priests t
and therefore made of priests."
Dr. Redman, says, " At the beginning, were both one
wherefore one made the other indifferently."*
To a similar effect were the decisions of Dr. Day, Dr.
Edgeworth, The Bishop of London, and generally of the
adds,
most distinguished friends of the Reformation.
Accordwere embodied by the bishops in

the Necessary Erudition of a Christian Man, which was
approved by a vote of both houses of Parliament in 1543,
and prefaced with an epistle by the king himself. In this
ingly, these principles
it is
declared, that " priests and bishops are by God's law
one and the same, and that the powers of ordination and ex-
communication belong equally
to loth."
These were the
Church during the whole reign
Foreign churches were recognized by
principles of the English
of
Edward VI.
* Burnet
I.
223.
THE CHRISTIAN
Ill
CITIZEN.
the Reformers as in the fullest sense churches of Christ.
large number of foreign divines were invited by Cranmer from abroad to aid in the Reformation, and were instantly
employed
in clerical duties without
On
re-ordination.*
one hint of
the restoration of the English church,
its present footing, under Elizabeth, it was enacted by

Parliament " that the ordination of foreign churches
on
should be held
valid,
and that those who had no orders,
should be of like capacity with others to enjoy any place
That these were the
of ministry in England."!
ments of the clergy
who solemnly appeared
first
senti-
"
at this time, is most, evident.
Stillingfleet, "
hierarchy," says
Bishop
"Whifgift, a sage
and prudent person,
The
English
in vindication of the
was archbishop
whom we
cannot
suppose ignorant of the sense of the Church of England,
Yet he frequently
or afraid or unwilling to defend it.
against Cartwright asserts " no form of church governis by the Scriptures prescribed to, or commanded the
church of God." And so Dr. Cosins his chancellor, " it can-
ment
not be proved that any certain, particular form of church
government,
*
Among
is
commanded
us by the word of God."
these was the celebrated John Knox,
to the king, and
was sent
At
Martyn Bucer was another, who
says Strype, "at St. Martins Cambridge do. do.
II.
207.
the death of Bucer, a funeral sermon was preached by Parker^
afterwards the most active

footing, as
first
in
establishing the church on
archbishop under Elizabeth.
with
much
its
present
In this sermon he terms
Bucer a " chief master workman" placed there by God
and dwells
feeling on the loss sustained by the church, and on the cer-
tain happiness to
29.
chaplain
also by the privy council to preach at Ber-
wick, see Strype's Annals III. 235.

officiated,
who was
Dr.
which Bucer had departed.
How little does
all this
Strype's
life
of Parker,
look like doubting whether the " promises'*
of the gospel belong to those
who
t Strype as quoted by Neal,
lf
are out of the Episcopal church
336.
lifc
Loe,
"no
word."
certain form of government is prescribed in the

Bishop Bridges, " God hath not expressed the
"
form of church government."
They who
are pleased
but to consult the third book of the learned and judicious
Mr. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity," adds

11
may
asserted and fully proved."*
The
Stillingfleet,
see the mutability of church government, largely

Iren
Part
II. c. viii. 3.
Cam-
learned Whittaker, professor of divinity in
who was
bridge at the same period, and
employed
chiefly
in the controversy with the papists, declares as the doctrine of the reformed, (in his controversy with
Bellarmin
and Dureus) that "presbyters being by divine right the
same as bishops, they might warrantably

ters over
the
churches."
was on
It
set other presbythis
ground, that
speaking in behalf of the English Church, he defended

the validity of ordination, as performed by Luther,
gle,
Bucer,
etc.
that Protestants
Little did
Zwin-
he or his associates imagine,
would ever unite with Papists, in calling

When this was first done by
that ordination in question.
Dr. Brancroft, in his sermon

close of Elizabeth's reign,
at
it
Paul's cross, towards the
excited so
that Sir Francis Knolls wrote to Dr.
*The
only attempt which
testimonies,
is
have referred
by saying
we have
tha.t
much
ever heard of to evade these
" church government" here,
may
to the different orders of clergy in the church, but
ly to other ecclesiastical constitutions.
But
lish his position, that there is
These declarations
too,
no unalterable divine right
not
mere-
with the
Stillingfleet,
originals before him, did so understand them, and cited
who
surprise
John Reynolds one
them
to estab-
in the clergy.
were made against Cartwright the Puritan,
asserted the exclusive divine right of preshytcrian ordination.
Whitgift and the rest therefore,
if
they spoke to the point
in debate,
meant to deny what Cartwright maintained, viz that the Scriptures

had laid down any one immutable constitution for the orders of th@
clergy, discipline, etc. of the church.
113
of the translators of the Bible, and universally regarded
man
as the most learned
of the age, for his opinion on
Reynolds replied
this subject.
that
even Bellermin ac-
knowledged the weakness of Dr. B's pretension. " It may

be added" he says " that they who for five hundred years
have been industrious in reforming the church, have
thought, that
all
pastors,
whether called bishops or pres-
byters have according to the
word of God
like
power and
authority."
He
ment,
Waldenses. WicklifF and his followers, Huss
to the
then appeals in confirmation of his state-
and his disciples, Luther, Calvin, Brentius, Bullinger and
Musculus
to
many English
bishops as Jewell, author
with Cranmer of the articles and Homilies, Pilkington
and others
and
Lambert, and many more of
to Bradford,
the early confessors of the English church.

that this
was
the
common
He
adds,
doctrine of the reformed church-
Germany, the Netherwas not until forty years
es in Switzerland, Savoy, France,

lands,
Hungary and Poland.
after, in
It
the time of Archbishop Laud, that these high
church principles gained much footing in the English

church, and even long after
acknowledged by the
that, Stillingfleet says,
stoutest
" It
is
champions of episcopacy,
before these late unhappy divisions, that ordination per-
formed by presbyters in case of -necessity,
is
valid
have already shown doth evidently prove that

episcopal government is not founded on any unalterable
which
divine right.'
''*
Authorities from the

tiplied in
Church of England might be mul-
unbroken succession
taining the
same
to the
liberal principles
present time, sus-
and yet nine-tenths
of the Christian clergy throughout the world are declared

* Iren.
Part
II.
Chap. VIII.
10*
$ 7.
114
unministerial,
invalid,
acts
their
and
their
countless
churches excommunicated from the fellowship of Christ,
Where
the
in the ages of primitive Christianity
whole bright era of the Reformation
gospel of God,
gance
We
where in
where, in the
there authority for such an act of arro-
is
adduce in support of our positions the authority of
the principal ecclesiastical dignitary of the
Church
in Ireland, in
a catholic
and
spirit,
Episcopal
whose masterly production we

fully
tian denominations ask.
conceded
all that
find
other Chris-
This work alone ought
to settle
the subject in debate forever.
Dr. Whately, Archbishop of Dublin, writes as follows
" It appears plainly from the sacred narrative, that though

the
many churches which
branches of one
Jesus Christ
Lord, one
is
the
apostles founded
spiritual brotherhood, of
the heavenly head, though there
faith,
one baptism,
for all of
were
which the Lord
was one
them, yet they
were each a distinct, independent community on earth,

united by the common principles on which they were
founded, and by their mutual agreement, affection and
respect,
earth.
general,
but not
He
if
says,
having
it
any one recognized head on
seems
to
have been,
at
least
the
not the universal practice of the apostles, to
appoint over each separate church a single individual as
a chief governor, under the

church and diocese
seem
to
title
of angel or bishop.
have been
for a considerable
time coextensive and identical, and each church or dio-
cese though connected with the
seem
hope and charity,
pendent as
far as
it
rest,
by
ties of faith,
have been perfectly inderegards any power or control." He

to
speaks of distinct and independent communities, each governed by its own single bishop as our independent churches

are
now
115
confirming the fact already alluded
to, that
the
on the banks of the Tiber,
limits of a primitive bishopric
were not ordinarily more extensive than the congrega-
American clergy generally.

Speaking of those who " claim to have what
tions of our
apostolical succession," he says, " they
seem
is
to
called
me, in
proportion as they proceed on these principles, to be in
some degree removing our institutions from a foundation

to place them on sands."
Having decidedly
condemned the " claims of ministers on some supposed
sacramental virtue, transmitted from hand to hand in
on a rock
unbroken succession from the apostles," he adds, " those

who are not satisfied with the foundations thus laid, and
which
tles
is
the very foundation
have prepared
us
for
which Christ and
who seek
to
his apos-
take higher
is, and maintain what are called

modern fashion, church principles, or
Church of England principles,' are in fact subverting the
ground, as the phrase
according
to the
'
principles both of our church in particular, and of every
Christian church that claims the inherent right belonging

to a
community, and confirmed by the sanction of God's
word, as contained in the Holy Scriptures.

cing, but not in the right road.
sound learning but error

stitious
credulity, to
ground on which
It is
It is
not in faith but in
advan-
advancing not in a
a super-
seek for some higher and better
to rest
our doctrines and institutions,
than that on which they are placed by the Author and
He
Finisher of our faith."

curious to observe
how
party to assume a
title
in
very
says in a note to
common
it is
for
this,
" It
is
any sect or
indicative of the very excellence
which they are especially
deficient, or strongly con-
demnatory of the very errors with which they are especially chargeable.
The
phrase Catholic religion,
i.
e.
116
universal, is the most
who
commonly
in the
mouths of those
are the most limited and exclusive in their views,
and who seek
to
shut out the largest
number of Christian
communities from the gopel covenant."

appeals
Speaking of
antiquity in support of claims to
to
the divine
he says, " Everything pertaining
right of succession,
to
this appeal is obscure, uncertain, disputable,
and actually
disputed to such a degree, that even those
who
able to read the original authors

to judge how
The tendency of
may
are not
yet be perfectly
competent
unstable a foundation they fur-
nish.
this
procedure
the
to drive
is
doubting into confirmed though perhaps secret
infidelity,
and
We
fully
agree with the archbishop, and find a result more
fatal
to
still.
fill
with doubts the sincerely pious."
This obscurity and absurdity of claims and suc-
by
cession, united with undefinable securities of grace
mere ordinances, have driven men

avowed infidelity, and the credulous to
working of miracles
Christ.
And even
is
the
A volume
fanaticism,
actually attempted in the
till
to
the
name
of
churchmen of Oxford begin boldly
popish pretensions
to justify faith in the
of intelligence
to this
power.*
has recently been -published at Oxford containing a
revised translation of a portion of Fleury's Ecclesiastical History,

viz.
from A. D. 381, to A. D. 400: introduced by an advertisement
from the pen of the Rev.

Prefixed to the work
acles ;" that
is,
is
J.
H.
Newman, Fellow
a labored "
those miracles recorded as having been wrought in
the early centuries of the church posterior to the
The
writer takes the ground (p.
rejected
" " that
cannot be certain
of Oriel College.
Essay on the Ecclesiastical Mir-
xiii) that,
apostolical age.
these " are not to be at once
some of them were true miracles

how many were not true. After
;"
and "that we
treating of " tho
anticedent probability " of these miracles, their "internal character"
and " the state of the argument " respecting them, the writer goes on
and "sets down the evidence for and against certain miracles as we
117
we have, in some
power of God with us, and the
episcopal and priestly succession have in them something divine, as channels, which convey, as it were, his
They
"In
affirm, that,
the sacraments
special sense, the present
presence
us
to
Balaam, what
and
;"
"
that,
if
Balaam's ass instructed
there fairly to startle us in the church's
is
doctrine, that the water of baptism cleanses from sin, or

that eating the consecrated bread is eating Christ's body."
They
power
say, this
But
meet with them."
is
" constantly conveyed through
the evidence for them, in his mind, far out-
weighs the evidence against them, and
makes the
assertion (p. cix) " that
in
behalf of these at least, he
will be
it
found that the greater
part of the miracles of Revelation are as little evidence for revelation at this day, as the miracles of the church are evidence for the
church."
ing
1.
The miracles which he

The Thundering Legion.
by Narcissus of Jerusalem.
3.
thus sustains are the nine follow2.
The change
the river Lycus by Gregory Thaumaturgus..
minous Cross.
6.
The death
rebuild, the
5.
The
of Arius.
9.
lated by Heneric.
the
oil
4. Constantine's
Lu-
discovery of the Holy Cross by Helena.
The
7.
Jewish Temple.
relics at Milan.
of water into
Miracles wrought on the course of
The
8.
fiery
eruption on Julian's attempt to
The recovery
of the blind
man by
miracle upon the African confessors muti-
That miraculous power
is
actually claimed for
ministry Episcopally ordained, see Tracts for the Times, No,
lxxxv. p. 95.
A recent discourse from the prelate of the Episcopal church in

Maryland, on the " Christian Priesthood," speaks of" the ministerial
may
intervention, that sins

spect,
it is
more
be forgiven,'''' and affirms, that in this re-
clearly claimed and efficient than in a former dispen-
sation.
What Mr. Withingham makes of the sacrifice of Christ, and
what advantage that gives us, over the Jew of old, is not known. The
whole discourse is worthy of attention, only as another indication of
the result to which the principles before us lead.
be mistaken, and
we
are not surprised, that
Maryland revolt from

Reply.
its
conclusions.
Its affinities
some of
cannot
the clergy of
See the Rev. Mr. John's
118
the hands of commissioned persons, authorized according
the outward forms of the church

that the sacraments are a continued miracle " and their "dispensation
by episcopally ordained ministers is equal to the working
to
of miracles
and
baptism be the cleansiug and quick-
if
ening of the dead soul,
to
say nothing of the Lord's sup-
THEY DO WORK MIRACLES."
per,
would appear,
It
by design, every thing had been
that,
omitted in the gospel, by which
we might
and pronounce
ecclesiastical polity,
construct an
divine, or
it
even
scriptural, to the exclusion of all other religious associa-
The most we can
tions.
confidently say of any
is,
that
Of none can we affirm, this is after the pattern seen in the mount or at Jerusalem.
From what we know of the assumptions and
not unscriptural or forbidden.
it is
claims of orders and polity, pretending to divine right and

exclusive scriptural authority,
we
wisdom
see the
of this
omission.
The Redeemer
foresaw, that any settled and express
church organization and service, suited

circumstances, which must,
at the best,
temple, the forms and orderings
of
to all
ages and
be but the outer
external
devotion,
rather than the vital principle of godliness, would
perverted and abused

ing
it
become
and he well knew that men,
find-
easier to observe forms than to cultivate principles
to trust in externals
rather than govern the inner man,
would transfer
minds from the hidden
ness, to
its
their
external symbols
curing and honoring the
would
by a
And
satisfy the
life
that,
spirit of holi-
instead of se-
of Christ in the soul, they
demands of an easy and ruinous
superstitious adherence to
this is
and
its
lamentably true, even now, with
certainties as to ecclesiastical order
religion,
formulas and
all
and services.
rites,
the un-
How
119
much more so, could we settle from the gospel, exactly,

what was the divinely ordered style of the primitive
churches, and what their services.
As it is, the human
mind is ever wandering from the substance and the principle of godliness,
and magnifying the importance of
and contending
the
in Uteris,
for
mere externals of
We
h&ret in cortice.
mode of baptism, and

in the soul.
Much
little
much
hear
about the
vital
about the
energy of
of baptismal regeneration, and
of the renewing and indwelling of the
rites,
H&rct
religion.
God
little
Holy Ghost. More
about the commission of Christ and valid ministrations,

than of justification by
what
ties,
the church
faith,
and Christ formed
The ordinances
hope of glory.
the
in the soul,
of the gospel, and
has added thereto, are like essential veri-
while the gospel
itself,
with
its
foundations of hope,
repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus

Christ, is almost lost, but as
an unseen support
to
the
cumbersome ceremonial that is bound, as a

body of death, upon it, till its very ministers will carry
their formulas, their discipline and prayer books, where
costly and
they have never thought
The
apostle,
it
to leave a Bible.
would seem, early met these
To
and severely rebuked them.

tending about
God
men and
ministrations, he
baptized none of you
for
difficulties,
the Corinthians, conI
thank
me
not to
says,
Christ sent
baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with the
wisdom of
words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none

effect.
We
say,
there
was profound wisdom
in leaving the
question of ecclesiastical order and forms so uncertain,
and throwing men upon the resources of enlightened reason and intelligent piety.
when we contend
for
And we may
mere
externals,
rest assured, that
we have
lost the
120
unction of religion, and are fighting our

not, as the
As we
church
militant, for Christ
by
Israel, saying,
the multitude of your sacrifices
is
and
battles,
whom God reTo what purpose

unto me ? Bring no
revert to the times of Isaiah,
bukes the formalism of
own
and his cause.
more vain oblations when ye spread forth your hands I

will hide mine eyes from you, yea, when ye make many
or when, in later days, we
prayers, I will not hear you
;
hear the Saviour condemn the external and heartless service of the Jews, even to their prayers
and offerings of
who can trust for a moment in forms and

And as we admire the modest carriage
professed piety,
ceremonies
and unadorned simplicity of the Son of God, of his disciples and the learned Paul, mighty in truth, majestic in
holiness, and unaided by adventitious adornments
who
cumbersome ceremonial, liturgic

formalism, and complicated ministry, which, amid growing corruptions and midnight darkness, rose to the mawould expect
that the
jesty of imperial
Romanism and
prelatical
domination,
could claim the exclusive sanction and support of the
word of God
In the primitive, as well as in the apostolical churches,

there
gospel
"
The
was a
beautiful and impressive simplicity, like the
addressed
itself,
to the
understanding and the heart.
minister," says Cyprian, " offered prayer with a
mo-
"
He
dest and a bashful voice."
Modestis precibus orare.
so prayed as did most affect the people, whose mouth he
was
to
God
for
they did not vocally join with him in
prayers, but only testified their assent to what the minister
prayed by saying, Amen."
After speaking of the
Lord's prayer, Tertullian says, " That
we may add
there-
unto and offer up prayers unto God, according to the variety of our circumstances
and condition."
"Now
these

other prayers," says Lord King, " which
part
of divine
were not
service,
121
made up a
stinted
great
and imposed
forms, but the words and expressions of them were left to

the prudence,
and judgment of any particular
choice
"
bishop or minister."
" that the words
say," adds the
same
anthor,
or expressions of the prayers are not
enforced or prescribed, but every one that officiated, delivered himself in such terms as best pleased him, and
varied his petitions according
and emergencies
primitive churches
had no
forms of prayer."
"
them
in
to
present circumstances
be more intelligible, that the
or, if it
is
not the least mention of
any of the primitive writings, nor the least word
or syllable tending thereunto, that
when
imposed
stinted liturgies, or
There
standing
can find."*
Even
sacramental table, the minister or
at the
" bishop sent up his prayers and praises," says Justin

Martyr, " according to his ability, otfyj S6va[ug." With these
simple and hearty ministrations, the people stood, with
eyes closed and hands
lifted
to
simply, as their pastor closed their
the skies, responding
Amen,
so let
it be.
We
its
admire, we venerate the simplicity of the gospel,

love the
spiritual, " direct, symmetrical character."
We
unadorned modesty of
it,
its
services and servants, and find
when unaided by human

* See Lord King, on
Also Cyprian,
De
the
devices, the most impressive
Primitive Church, Part
Orat. Domini, p. 309.
p. 703.
Cyprian, Epist 16,
60, $ 4,
p. 167.
1, p.
II.
Chap.
44. Epist. 58,
<$>
2, p. 163.
Epist.
" Baronius ad An. Christi 58, num. 102-104
treating expressly of the public prayers of the ancient Christians,
wholly silent as to the use of any forms amongst them."

century,
we
II.
Tertul. Apolog. Cap. 30.
find an African council deciding as to
not be used at the Eucharist, at which time,
it
there were no prescribed liturgies for general use.
11
In the
is
fifth
what prayers shall
would appear, that
122
and
efficient.
The honors
of state and the powers of the
arm have only clouded
civil
its
beauty, encumbered and
Living as we do, where mind and merit are

not measured by " ribbons " and " garters ;" where office
enervated.
and station are not symbolized by stars, empty heraldry

and proud armorials, we leave to others all such badges
and emblazonments, incongruous with our government, our
All their correspondencies and
society and the gospel.
counterparts in church arrangements,
we wholly
decline,
not as unessential simply, but as positively unauthorised
and
hurtful.
God gave us
has
but a solitary holy day, and Jesus Christ
but a single prayer and two simple ordinances
left
and even these few
institutions
have been perverted, ob-
scured and desecrated by human auxiliaries and additions,

till
and saint's-days, Christ's-masses, Mi-
feasts, fasts
chael's-masses, Candlemas and Childermas, with almost

countless festivals, are crowding the calendar, like stars
in the firmament of
pagan
deities, to the supplanting of
the spiritual and true worship of God.
One day of rest
is lost amid a multitude equally sacred,

more impressive by the infrequency of their recurrence.* One prayer has become a thousand, all solemnly
if
not
enforced
tered,
ihe simple ordinance of baptism actual regen-
and the Lord's Supper, when rightly adminisand added thereto are confessaving to the soul
eration
Not
less than
one hundred and twenty of these are retained in

as says an American prelate: "The church
the Episcopal church
has marked the calendar of her seasons, by the coming and going of
festivals and holy-days."
These are acknowledged to be without
Scripture authority, partly of Jewish and partly of pagan origin, and
most of them introduced

centuries.
to the
church between the
fifth
and thirteenth
THE CHRISTIAN
and extreme unction,
sionals, confirmations, absolution
with
all
123
CITIZEN.
the purchases of penance, forms and prayers,
till
the saving benefits of an exclusive ministry are every
where forced upon us, and " we have yet to learn," says
an American prelate, " where a promise to fallen man is
be found, that
to
that he is a
not limited on the previous condition,
is
member
of the visible
i.
e.
the Episcopal
church upon earth."

If the
few and simple
apostolical usage for all these
was more than wisdom

and
we had
result if
appended devices
There
in leaving the gospel so simple,
There was
religious forms so few.
its
have
institutions of the gospel
been so perverted, what would be the
positive in-
spiration in the omission of unessential usages, as there
was
in recording of essential verities, ajid enjoining of
specific ordinances.
We
know
these
humanly devised forms of
religion,
are justified and enforced for the edification and spiritual
improvement of the church

ample provision
formulas
we
for this,
but has not Christ
made
without a liturgy and attending
In adopting these, without his authority,
not supercede his
own methods
of grace
may
and while
clinging to a righteousness of our own, forfeit the benefit

of His
Nothing can be more
clear,
than that
all
forms of
prayer and prescribed methods of worship, were utterly
unknown,
for three
hundred years
after Christ.
The
ex-
press declaration of some of the most ancient writers,

that liturgies
were not used, and the
utter
silence of
all,
as to any such usages of the church, are conclusive on

this subject.
" In the course of time,
when
Christianity
was prowas
tected and even adopted by the state, and opportunity
124
thus given of establishing public forms and ceremonies of
worship without fear of danger, and when
it seemed exrecommend it to the favor of half-converted pagans by outward pomp and circumstance, it was thought
to be at once safe and seasonable, to increase the number
pedient to
of sacred solemnities,
many
to restore
Jew-
parts of the
ish ritual, and even to incorporate into the system of
Christian worship various rites and ceremonies from the
customs of the declining pagan superstition."*
The
used
is
when forms began to be

They were born in darkness, and none
precise time, however,
unknown.
have survived,
came
that they
to write
their genealogy.
Form
cessities of unqualified ministers.
ded,
till
It is
into use, almost imperceptibly,

after
probable,
from the ne-
form was ad-
towering liturgies of the
in process of time the
papacy were perfected, whence sprung the more refined

selections of the English Episcopal prayer-book.
Little
did the ignorant preacher of the fourth century dream, that

the brief creations of his professional necessity, would
terminate in such results
pray
in his family,
and
and scarcely
that
no Christian could
in his closet, without the
terms of his petition being dictated by the pleasure of his

diocesan
were to be dissolved at
bowing under the bereave-
that prayer meetings
his pleasure, and a nation
ments of God, would be compelled
announcement of
its spiritual
nize the providence, or pray for
alism
is
now
carried
to
to wait the oracular
head, before
its
it
could recog-
improvement.
Form-
the mercy-seat, where, at
times, the pulsations of the pious soul should beat
natural and free, like the breathings of the heart of

love, into the
bosom of
*
eternal tenderness.
Coleman's Antiquities,
p.
443.
We
all
warm,
filial
would no

more attempt
to define
125
and dictate the universal language
of prayer, thanksgiving and praise, than prescribe to the

child, in its mother's arms, the
the breathings of
its
love,
and
language of
till
then,
its
wants or
deny the
reality
of the one, or refuse the claims of the other.*
The necessary
when
influence of forms in religion
ele-
vated above their place, should be jealously watched, or

the spirit of religion will soon die.
the vital principle of piety,
The Jew,
as he lost
abandoned the precepts of
a scriptural religion, and soon forfeited the securities

of his national existence, and instead of Jerusalem,
temple, and Judea, with
we
find
its
king and conquering armies,
its
Israel in Babylon,
and the
Roman
soldier the
sentinel of the holy city.
And where did the apostacy of the Jew begin ?

gan where he substituted the forms of religion for
rit
and attended more
temple service, than
to his ecclesiastical polity
It beits spi-
and his
to the essential truths of the
Scrip-
and thought more of his high priest and his sacrithan of God and his Messiah. He suddenly became
tures,
fice,
so idolatrous of externals and forms of devotion, that he

lost entirely the spirit of piety,
*
is
The whole
and became the son of
subject of forms and liturgies, as far as their support
derived from the gospel and the primitive churches,
settled.
1.
"Nothing
is
more
clear," says Dr.
may be
easily
Owen, "than
that
they are destitute of any plea or pretence from Scripture or antiquity."
They were unknown

is
in the three first centuries.
2.
"No
account
given," says Archbishop Whately, " of the precise method of
church service, or even of any regular forms of prayer beyond the

3. They were wholly of human device and imposi-
Lord's prayer.
coming
originating,
into the churches by degrees, after the third century, and

no doubt, from the peculiar necesisties of the clergy of
that period.
See Dr. Owen on Liturgies, Lord King, Tertullian and
tion
Cyprian.
11*
126
Abram, and an heir of God, by the simple badge of an HeHis one rite was as much to him as " authorized
baptism" or " immersion" can be to any one now. At
brew.
so religious that Sibboleth
length, he is
is
no longer
Shibboleth, and instead of the weightier matters of the
law, he tithes his annise and his cummin, and thanks
God that he is not as

And for what does
other men.
attention to his soul
for faith in his
all this
prepare him
For careful
promised Messiah
No. He was confident in the safety of the one, because

and though looking, in
he was a circumcised Hebrew
the pride of his birthright, for his promised Deliverer, when
;
he came, he was without the mitre or the sceptre

the Jew, instead of adoring his Deity, is mortified
humble
Son
simplicity,
worshipper of
and
and enters upon the crucifixion of the
He had
of God.
at his
rites
so long been the victim and the
and ceremonies, that he had wholly
He saw
God, not so much

wing of the cherubim.
He found no such faith in the Messiah of the prophets,
as in the philactary and sackcloth, and when Christ came,
lost the idea of their import.
in
the Shekinah, as in the gilded
the Deity, to him,
was not
there.
such was the result of a divinely ordered system of
If
rites,
ceremonies and forms, when perverted, what must
be the result of that system, which without divine authority for
and
its
spiritual
support, comes into the place of a simple

economy, and which proffers salvation only
Redeemer 1 To see the only symbols

economy, baptism and the Lord's Supper, lifted
wholly out of their place, the Holy Ghost separated from
the one, and Christ from the other, so that neither are
upon
faith in the
of this
valid or of virtue, but from the

ters
them
we
say to see
this,
human hand
that adminis-
with the superadded de-
127

vices of fallible men, pushed into the place
of the ex-
pressed conditions of salvation, must be as
fatal to the
ends of the gospel, as
foreign to the delegated rights
is
it
And we wonder
of man.
not at
met the natural influences of

ordinances, he said,
This leads
3.
all,
rejoice that
as Paul early-
that
such perverted
trusting in
baptised none of you.
extend this discussion, and
us, to
to
con-
sider the influence of the principles under review, on the
more important question of evangelical

words,
how
piety
in other
these principles affect the subject of practical
godliness.
We
have spoken of
of religious opinions,
a class
which, in the time of the Reformation, during the persecution
in
England, and through our
worked out the principles of

These same opinions lie at the
civil
own
revolution,
and religious
basis of
all
liberty.
practical piety.
In other words they are essential, as the ultimate facts of

the gospel, to the renewal, the living piety and final sal-
And
vation of men.
ordinary morality of
of
this,
life,
human government,
For
ety.
is
it
only, as
though advancing beyond the
is
not remote from the subject
or the best interests of civil socithe principles of a spiritual reli-
gion are kept alive, that any inferior interests are safe.
Common
tal
and
morality in the world, lives only as experimen-
vital
piety lives in the church.
Here
of the world and the salt of the earth, and

lost its savor,
light
wherewith
be darkness,
how
shall
if
be salted
it
the light
And
great is the darkness
is
the salt have

if
the
Though advancing somewhat beyond the bounds of our

relations, when we remember what these owe to
civil
their
religious associations,
only as
men
exceed the
and
are wise and holy,
limits
that
we
which belong to
they
are
secure,
shall not be found to
us, as christian citizens.
THE CHRISTIAN
128
And more
than
this,
a christian citizen
merely, but he
earthly state
vitiate
to
is
is
such, not for the
such, for the higher and
kingdom of God.
eternal citizenship of the
then tends
CITIZEN.
"Whatever
his faith or his spiritual hopes,
whether of good here or hereafter, belongs
to his
com-
monwealth.
Having already alluded to
a particular class of religious
sentiments, and coming to their immediate bearing on the
questions of personal piety and salvation,
cessary to state more
fully,
becomes ne-
it
what some of these
sentiments are, and what the relations they hold.
have found the high church system opposed

institutions, so
opposed
we
to that
shall find
it,
if
we mistake
evangelical faith,
which
religious
As we
our free
to
not, equally
is
uniformly
friendly to free institutions.
In examining the history of the church in past ages,
we
find but two grand divisions, in respect to the momentous subject of man's salvation. Before the Refor-
mation, these divisions consisted of those

justification
who
held to
through the merits of Christ alone, and those
who mingled
with the doctrines of grace, ecclesiastical
observances, as
sharing in the work of securing our
acceptance with God.
The Waldenses and
the Lollards
once composed the former, and the countless hosts of

the papacy, the
latter.
Protestantism arose
same
order, this
Since the Reformation, when
to the partial extinction
distinction
has
of the papal
appeared, more gen-
nians.
under the denomination of Calvinists and ArmiNot that all who belong to the former class sub-
scribe
to
erally,
every sentiment of Calvin, or that the great
body of the
latter class,
have confined themselves within
the limits prescribed by the cautious policy of Arminius.
The fundamental
principles of a system are one thing,
THE CHRISTIAN CItTzEN.

mode
the
of defending them
is
129
With
quite another.
the
progress of biblical criticism and mental philosophy, the
controversy has repeatedly changed
its
aspect on minor
But the great and fundamental difference be-
points.
tween the friends and the enemies of the doctrines of
The former believe in

human heart from God, and
grace remains unchanged.

of the
utter alienation
entire destitution of holiness, in a state of nature

latter reject this doctrine
that a
imparted
is
individual of our race to restore his
which
effort
and thus
that
this
to
make
each
will
under the
men
to
eternal
life.
life,
certain individuals holy or believers,
prepare them for heaven
choice
it,
and secure eternal
former consider God's choice of
as a choice to
to
lapsed powers,"
and church ordinances ripen
into the maturity of holiness,
The
'
principle of grace, as they term
human
its
the
with indignation, and maintain
portion of divine influence
cultivation of
the
or
the latter contend
determination results
God's foreseeing, that these individuals
solely
will
from
be holy or
believers, and that his gracious purposes are dependent
on
The former
this contingency.
regeneration
Holy
Spirit
is
:
hold, that
spiritual
the result of a special operation of tho
the latter ascribe this change to the ordi-
nary influence of that divine aent. enjoyed in equal

degrees by all, and made effectual, whenever it becomes
so,
by the choice of the individual
ence
thus securing
to yield to that influ-
the favorite point, that
himself, and not God, "
who maketh
it is
the
man
us to differ."
In no part of Christendom has the contest between the

friends and enemies of the doctrines of grace, been main-
more spirit and determination, than in the

Church of England. But from the time of Charles II. to
tained with
the latter part of the last century, the doctrines of the
THE ^CHRISTIAN CITIZEN.
130
loosest
Arminianism were generally prevalent in that
communion, owing
to the
low
state of public morals, the
deadening influence of a religious establishment, and the

natural tendencies, of the
human
Connected with
heart.
these doctrines in the English Church,
we
usually find
high church principles asserting some peculiar and

mysterious efficacy in ordinances performed by an Epis-
The
copal ministry.
instantly
is
"born again
infant
presented for baptism,
is
in this regenerating ordinance,"
translated from a state of nature into a state of grace,
and obtains a
title
to the influences of the
and the forgiveness of sins."*

Lord's Supper the communicant
Savior, in a
these principles, too, where there
Church of
nothing
Christ,
love, nor aspira-
no
is
According
to
prelatical bishop,
which can be acknowledged as a

and no covenant or promise known to
exist, of eternal life.
The
simple want of subjection to
a prelatical priesthood, turns
men
over to the uncove-
nanted mercies of the heathen, with the

guilt
Spirit
brought near to his
is
manner which no ardor of
tions of faith, could in themselves secure.
there is
Holy
In the sacrament of the
of rejecting the
accumulated
means which God has himself
appointed for their salvation.
The
followers of the late
* Grant, the high church historian, states the doctrine thus

" This opinion supposes a charm, a secret virtue, by which, to state
:
an extreme case, a vicious minister of the Church of England can confer
something necessary
office
to salvation, as a
sacrament
is,
while the same
performed by a pious sectary, who has in his heart devoted
himself to God,
is
an absolute
nullity."
Yet, strange as
it
may
seem, after stating the case thus strongly in the form of an objection,
he declares that the fact is so. " Truth is sacred and immutable,
and must be received, whatever inconveniences attend
Grant's English Church,
Vol. II. p.
78.
its
reception."

Dr. Hobatt unite with that gentleman,
"
None
131
who
says that
can possess authority to administer the sacra-
ments, but those
who have
received a commission from
Church"
the bishops of the (Episcopal)
that
the guilt, and imminent the danger of those,
"great
who
is
negli-
gently or wilfully continue in a state of separation from

the authorized ministrations of the church, and participate
of ordinances administered by an irregular and invalid

authority
peace and unity of the
wilfully rending the
by separating from the administration of its

authorized priesthood obstinately contemning the means
church,
which God has prescribed

guilty of rebellion
Judge
who
Some high churchmen
impunity."*
not go the
full
only do
it
but their
negatively.
own
Companion
to exist.
we
in a
and
manner
with
are indeed,
other denominations
They
;
they
They will not admit any church

They see no reason whatever to
for the Altar, edition of 1814, pp.
edition of this work,
one,
all
Since this article was written,
been altered
there
length of these statements.
do not positively unchurch
will not suffer his institu-
be contemned, or his authority violated
tions to
204.
are
they expose themselves to the awful displeasure
of that Almighty Jehovah,
who do
They
for their salvation.
against the Almighty Lawgiver and
find
that
we have
198
200, 203
looked into the last
some of these expressions have

mind less offensively, but no
to strike the
suppose, will contend that Dr. Hobart ever changed his sen-
timents on this subject.
We
have here the plain exposition of his
views always maintained by him, and as now maintained by his foland we are therefore fully authorized to appeal to the statelowers
;
ments quoted above.
If there
were reason
to believe that in soften-
ing or generalizing the expressions, Dr. Hobart meant to give up any

part of the ground taken, the case would be different.
presume, no one will say.
But
this,
we
132
admit any other. They " are yet to learn" in the words of
Bishop Ravenscroft, " where a promise to fallen man is
on the previous condition,
to be found, that is not limited
he be a member of the visible (Episcopal) Church
that
Now
on earth."
this
negative exclusion
this refusal
acknowledge any other communion as a Church of

Christ
though not so presumptuous or offensive as the
to
positive declarations of bolder
the
same thing
no authority
men, amounts
in all its practical results.
for the rites of other denominations,
none
act as if there ^were
and
make
others act so likewise.
all his
endeavors
Indeed, with the final
and perfect revelation of God's will in our hands,
we
own, and we are yet

to
to
say
authority for any church ordinances but our
see no
except
sees
must
which he
in a matter
deems of so much importance, must use

to
precisely
to
He who
where any promise is made

what is it but to say
communion
to learn
those of our
more modest terms, " we do believe there is none ?"

To make any nice distinctions between wn-belief and
in
cZw-belief, in
idle.
far
It is
such a case, does seem
to
us extremely
a subject on which the Scriptures are very
from being
silent,
on which
all
we may
antiquity, if
churchmen, has spoken in the most decisive

and if with all these means of knowledge we
credit high
manner
are yet to learn
man can be
where any covenant or promise
single church,
it
is
vain to hope that a
will disclose anything but
who, under
for fallen
found, except within the boundaries of a
all
this light,
institutions of their
have been walking
for those
have rejected the most sacred
Maker.
we apprehend, than that

man leaves thousands
coming eternity
unmingled wrath,
Here, in a condition worse,
of the heathen, the high church-
of Protestant
in faith
churches,
which
and love from the time of the

Reformation
Rome,
present hour
to .the
while the Church of
mother of abominations,
that
133
is
freely recognized
as a part of Christ's mystical body, a pillar in the temple
And
of the living God.*
candidates
that
for
the
in
England, have
back from ordination,
for venturing to
ministry, as well in this country as

actually been held
the importance
so great is
sentiments,
attached to these
express the contrary opinion.
Far be
it
from us
however, that such are
to intimate,
The church
universally the sentiments of Episcopalians.
of England, our readers are aware, has witnessed a gra-
dual revival of religion, within the last forty years.
mong
A-
the most active promoters of this revival, were the
two Milners, Dr.
Scott,
Mr. Wilberforce, Mrs. H. Moore,
Mr. Gisborne, Mr. Legh Richmond, and the great body
who were associated in support of the ChrisTo these persons, under God, the Eng-
of writers
tian Observer.
church
lish
which now
is
indebted for nearly
exists within her
all
the spiritual religion,
communion
and
for the
share she has taken in the noble efforts of Christian be-
nevolence.
for
them
Actuated by such a
to lay
any
stress
spirit,
on outward
it
was impossible
rites
and ordinan-
ces, as constituting an important part in a title to eternal

life.
"
do believe the Church of Rome," says Archbishop Laud, "
Were
be a true church.
Church
of
it
were hard
to
for the
England, since from her the English bishops derive their
apostolic succession."
valid the orders~of
.that
she not a true church,
we have
its
still
" It
(the
is
obvious from our acknowledging as
Roman
Catholic Church) apostate clergy,
stronger affinity towards that church, than to
other bodies of professing- Christians,
who
hold a doctrine nearly as
pure as our own; thus making the form, rather than the faith, the
constituent and vital principle of a
church.
Grant, to be the high church sentiments.
12
Such
is
Vol. II. p. 7.
admitted by
134
They
modes
were, indeed, strongly attached
of worship
spiritual religion
and
all
were naturally
own
their
to
desirous, that
should be revived, not by the progress
of dissent, but by restoring a decayed establishment to

earlier
its
With
and better principles.
views,
these
while they labored to promote the cause of evangelical

religion in their
own
church, they extended the hand of
Christian fellowship and affection to the pious of every
communion. *
Mr. Gisborne
example, totally dis-
for
claims the jure divino principle affirming that the apostles

" left no command which rendered episcopacy universal:
ly indispensable in future
ages."
In like manner, the
Christian Observer, (speaking undoubtedly for those of
own
its
sentiments,)
" Episcopalians
says,
found not
on any express injunction or
the merits of their cause
delineation of church government in the Scriptures, for

there is none."
It is
are
Vol. III. page 155.
now commonly
were a
sions,
total
associated with
which
preten-
departure from the original doctrine of
the English Church.
were
>
High Church
equally certain, that Arminian principles
first
preached
In the year 1595, these principles
in the University of
The Rev. Legh Richmond, an
Cambridge, by
Episcopalian, computes the nu-
merical hierarchy of the English establishment at 18,000
"of
these,
Mr. Richmond deliberately supposes, that there are perhaps 1,600

truly pious men." This is thought by some " a too liberal allowance."
See Dr. Cox, Theopneuston,
upon the present
p. 123.
Further light
state of the English church,
may be gained
and the prospects of
Protestant piety in Great Britain, by referring to the Letter of the
Rev. C. P. Golightly.
stith's
says, "
The Record
of February last, and Bicker-
remarks on the Dangers of the Church of Christ,

it is
distinctly."
high time for those
who
p. 17,
who
love Protestant truth to speak
133
William Barret, fellow of Gonville and Caius College.
So
great
was
the offense given
by
great severity on the subject.
sermon
his
heads of the colleges, that they resorted
to
to
the
measures of
In reporting their proceed-
ings to the Chancellor of the University, they say, " This
sermon being so offensive
to the
church, and so strongly
savoring of the leaven of popery, and contrary to the doc-
and condition of
trine, nature, quality,
articles of religion,
in the
faith, as
set forth
and homilies appointed
to
be
read in churches, and that hath been taught ever since her
Majesty's reign, in sermons, and defended in public schools*
and open commencements, without contradiction

universities
it
by such means
of doctrine
They
we thought
meet
in
the
to repress these novelties
as our statutes do appoint."
then proceed to state the crime of Barret,
viz. his
"impudent challenging of Calvin, Beza, Peter Martyr,

Zanchius, and others, of error in the doctrines of faith, in
most
bitter terms,
tofore,
whom we
touched in that
never knew in our church here
of Barret a public recantation
made
in
They
matter.''''
;
therefore required
which was accordingly
Mary's church, Cambridge.
St.
He
revoked
what he had preached there, ad clerum, according to the

sense, which was afterwards called Arminianism, about
faith, predestination,
do beseech you
uttered
many
to
bitter
perseverance, &c.
pardon
this
my
And
rashness
added, " I
also that I
words against Peter Martyr, Theo-
dore Beza, Jerome Zanchius, Francis Junius, and the res 1

of the
same
religion, being the lights
and ornaments of our
churchJ"
Nor is it wonderful that these novelties produced so much

excitement
vin," says
for, " during this reign, the Institutes of Cal-
Stapleton, " were so generally esteemed in
England, that the book hath been accurately translated
136
into English,
and even fixed in
the parish churches for the
Moreover
each of the universities,
people to read.
after
in
the students have finished their circuit in philoso-
phy, as
many
cf
them
as are designed for the ministry,
are lectured first of all on that book"
Heylen, an enemy of Calvin, says, of the reign of
upon
its
whom
under
Elizabeth,
the English
present foundation,
Church was
" predestination
settled
and
the
were received as the established doctrines of the Church of England,."

That these were the principles of the early fathers of
points depending thereupon,
that
church during the reign of Henry VIII. and Edward
is equally certain.
Their choice of Peter Martyr
and Bucer, both Calvinists, as the first professors of the-
VI.
ology
at
Cambridge and Oxford, are the strongest possible
demonstrations of this
fact.
doctrine of election, of
jhe
In their writings
we
saints perseverance,
firictthe
and kin-
dred points, continually insisted upon, as cardinal points

of the gospel.
The
following passages
Tindal says
are offered
" God's elect cannot
fall,
Paul preacheth predestination, whence

gether, whether
we
Cranmer, says
whom
as
that
it
specimens.
they rise not."

springeth alto-
shall believe' or not believe."
" This article speaketh of the
elect,
in
no faultbe, but they shall perpetually

We wretched sinners do not precontinue and endure.
vent God or go before him in the work of justification,
but
finally, shall
it is
God
that layeth the first foundajjjon of our sal-
vation."
Bradford the Martyr, says " Faith
is
of God, given to none other than those
the work and gift
whom God
the
Father, before the beginning of the world, hath predestinated in Christ to eternal
life."

Homily
for
"
Whitsunday.
Man
of his
137
own
nature
is
and disobedient, without one spark of goodness in

him. without any virtuous or godly motion."*
sinful
Testimonies of
tent
kind might be swelled to any ex-
this
indeed they already
fill
six large octavo volumes,
by the Rev. Legh Richmond, in his Fathers

of the English Church, from which the above extracts
as collected
No
are taken.
that the
historical fact can be clearer than this,
men, who in these
High Church
latter
days
ship, are chargeable with a departure
of the Episcopal Church.
ciples
deem
their errors, therefore,
ourselves against that spirit
we
denomination, but
adhering
we
on
churchman-
from the early prin-
In exposing what
we
are not only defending
which unchurches every other
are speaking in behalf of those in
who
the Episcopal Church,

for
insist so strongly
principles, as the standard of
to the faith
are reviled and persecuted,
and catholic principles of Cran-
mer, Latimer, Jewell and Ridley.
There are many
who embrace the same

we have no difficulty, even on
in this country
sentiments, and with such
the ground of their ecclesiastical preferences, so long as
they are not made exclusive.
It is natural for
us to feel
modes of worship, in which we

have been educated. Our love for religion itself becomes,
in some degree, identified with an attachment to that with
which it has always been associated. But when we hear
strong attachment to the
the principles and institutions of our churches pointedly

*
The
reader will observe
how
are elected on account of their foreseen faith.
of faith
Men
itself,
they say,
are chosen to be
is
were
careful these writers
resorted to by Arminians, viz
off the evasion afterwards
The very
to cut
that
men
existence
the thing contemplated in predestination.
made
believers, not because they
believers.
12*
will
become
THE '-CHRISTIAN
138
-CITIZEN!.
condemned, as a departure from the ordinances established by Christ
when such
sentiments are zealously in-
culcated, in conversation, from the pulpit, and through
the press
almost every part of our country
in
who would join
those
when
our communion, are repressed with
the most solemn admonitions, that they are departing
from the appointed way of salvation
and when
all this is
associated with the severest reprobation of the doctrinal
sentiments
we
maintained
in our churches,
we
think, that
are called upon to speak in our defense, and to ex-
amine the principles of those who are thus unsparing

their condemnation of ours. ;
not our .intention however, at present, to inquire
It is
farther into
Their
in,
the foundation of these high pretensions.
utter futility
strated.
It is
never put
has been a thousand times demon-
indeed a striking
down with
fact,
that
they were
a stronger hand, or trampled more
triumphantly in the dust, than by Episcopal writers, especially
more
by Bishop
recently,
Stillingfleet and Sir Peter King, and

by Archbishop Whately of Dublin, and
others equally attached to
Leaving
the English Establishment.
this part of the subject in their
hands,
we
shall
some general remarks on the system of high church

and Arminian principles, more especially as maintained
by the followers of the late Bishop Hobart.
offer
4.
The conditions of salvation as
laid
down by
the high
church writers, are in our view, diametrically opposed
Word
of Gad.
The
Scriptures divide the whole
family into two great classes, those
are in a state of
who
are in a state of grace or
The former
are described as "-children
condemnation, and those

favor with God.
who
to the
human
of wrath," the latter as the " children of God-'>
one as "alienated" and " enemies
in
their
The
minds by

wicked works
members
139
the other as " reconciled " to
;"
The one
of Christ's body.
and without God
in the
of the promises " and
world
made
;"
God and
as having " no
hope
the other as " partakers
" heirs of the
kingdom " of
his
dear Son.
The most
important question, that can be asked this
side of the eternal world, is this,
What
man, which translates him from a

into a state
The
change in
of condemnation
of grace or favor with God ?
followers of Dr. Hobart answer,
this sentiment
Baptism
and in
we suppose most high churchmen
coin-
" In this regenerating ordinance (baptism) fallen
cide.
man
is that
state
born again from a state of condemnation into a
is
" Our church," says Dr. Hobart in his

volume of sermons, " in all her services, considers bap-
grace"
state of
tized Christians
(i.
e.
baptized persons) as regenerate
called into a state of salvation;
Christ
children of
Now, we
ask, is
it
God
as
made members
as
of
kingdom of heaven."
affirm more strongly, that
heirs to the
possible to
the simple act of baptism prepares the soul for heaven ?

It makes its subjects " heirs of the kingdom," " children
of God," " in a state of grace or salvation."*
must continue in
this state,
when committed, and

end of
life.
But
must go on
to
True, they
repent of sin
to put their trust in Christ, to
that great
change
in their character
the
and
which no man can see the Lord, is efThis makes them in a moment " children of God," and should any individual among them die
at that moment, he must of course be saved.
Now, we
Can
ask, is this the doctrine of the New Testament ?
the act of a fallible man thus remove the condemning sen-
condition, without
fected by baptism
* See
Companion
for the Altar, p. 186.
140
tence of God, and secure the salvation of

supposition,
trie
soul
will agree, is impious, unless the
all
The
renew-
ing influence of the Spirit, does invariably attend the ad-
But where
ministration of the ordinance of baptism.
the whole Bible have
we any
in
intimation of such a fact
What too, is the testimony of experience on this

Do all baptized persons in the Episcopal church
give evi-
dence of
so entire
which
that great spiritual change,
and absolute, as
to
to
is
them
to
the world, and the
The utmost
Are
be termed "life from the dead?"
they without exception crucified
world crucified
subject
stretch of charity
will not authorize the supposition.*

* In this unscriplural sentiment,
we
are aware that Episcopalians
are sustained by the express terms of their prayer-book, which speaks
of baptism in the following terms
"
guage of prayer.
ther, that
it
We
even
incorporated into the lan-
yield thee hearty thanks,
Spirit; to receive
him
for thine
own child by adoption, and to incorAnd again, Then shall the min'
porate him into thy holy church."

ister say,
erate,
most merciful Fa-
hath pleased thee to regenerate this Infant with thy Holy
Seeing, dearly beloved brethren, that this child
is
regen-
and grafted into the body of Christ's church by baptism," &c.
The Rev. Mr. Melville, of

above expressions, says, "
Camdon
We
Chapel, after referring to the
really think
no
fair,
no straight-forward
dealing can get rid of the conclusion, that the church holds what is
He adds, " So long as I officiate
called baptismal regeneration."
according to the forms of (the) prayer-book,
do not see
how
can
be commonly honest, and yet deny that every baptized person is, on
What he means by this regeneration is
that account, regenerate."
not so clear, for he adds, " the church does not hold that
all
who
are
thus regenerate, can never need any further moral change, in order for
fitness for heaven and yet he says again, " he is born again from above."
;
No wonder
that
feel that the
many
evangelical and consciencious of this church
prayer-book should be "reformed."
and salvation by grace
tion
by the
ally
known, that the prayer-book was compiled
Spirit,
services, morning, evening, and the litany, oi
It is
Is this regenera-
not perhaps gener-
chiefly
the
from the three
Roman
Catholic's
141
The
apostles too
did they act
like
men who believed the
of baptism to be- invariably followed by deliverance
rite
from condemnation, and the renewal of the heart from on

high
Why,
then, all their labors, reasonings, exhorta-
and entreaties
tions,
they had. only
to bring their
them
to baptize
at
hearers to Christ, when

and by " this re-
once
generating ordinance," instantly to place them in a " state
V No
of salvation
In
all
which the
the directions
apostles gave to sinners, as recorded in the Acts, baptism
never alluded
is
to but once,
and then as following, not
leading to faith in Christ.
This outward
formly represented
mere symbol of a
as
the
change which was supposed already

"
Can any man

place them
title to
?"
How
x. 47.
But
the influence of the
dict the
Holy
baptize these
to give
No
Spirit ?"
Holy Ghost
?
Considered in
little
stress
was
was
laid
on bap-
How
&c.
While
wonder
that
it
it is
he had ever imagined,
by renewing
vastly improved from this,
it
either safe, or consistent with the
Archbishop Whately says, "
candor and truth,
if I
inrlu-
needs a further
Word
of God.
should be deficient in
did not acknowledge that
susceptible of improvement."
me
different
____
revision to render
No
if
invariably followed
liturgy,
this
" Christ," says Paul, " sent
would have been his language

that baptism
*
but because
as well as we."
not to baptize, but to preach the gospel."
'-'
think our liturgy
So thought Tenison, Wake, Seeker
and Porteous, and so think thousands more who are compelled

use
it.
mere symbol of a change already experienced^
tism by the apostles.
men
them " a
could the apostle more directly contra-
not surprising that so
it is
why
high church principles
light, as a
spiritual
have taken place.
to
in a " state of grace "
they " have received the
Acts
they uni-
forbid water," says Peter, " that these
should not be baptized
To
rite
to
142
ences from on high

of administering
it,
Regarded
rogative ever conferred on man.
had only
the apostle
to
persuade
power
momentous pre-
in this light, the
the most awful and
is
Armed with such power,

men to receive the wash-
ing of water at his hands, and they were instantly conmade " children of God," and " heirs of the king-
verted,
dom."
But these pretensions reach
we can
obtain a
Others with
farther.
still
Dr. Hobart declare, that " the only
mode through which
those blessings (of the gospel)
title to
is
" Repentance, faith, and obe-
the sacrament of baptism."
dience," he says, " will not of themselves be effectual to
Other high churchmen
our salvation."
nothing
to the
therefore
is
know and
believe
contrary of this, and the practical effect
precisely the same.
Here,
we
apprehend,
is
more direct contradiction of the Word of

" REPENt, that your sins may be blotted out."
God.
" Thy faith hath saved thee."
" Believe on the Lord
" The gospel is
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."
if
possible a
the
still
power of God unto
eth."
salvation to every one that believ-
" In every nation, he that feareth Him, (God,) and
worketh righteousness
is
accepted of Him."
Such
are the
conditions of salvation as pointed out in the Scriptures.
Not one word
is
said of baptism or peculiar church rela-
tionship as indispensable to salvation, and as
if to
silence
pretensions of this kind, in a single sentence, God has

added, " Circumcision (to which baptism succeeds as a
all
different
form of the same
cumcision
is
demonstrably, that the

entirely distinct from
pendent of them.
Word
of
rite,) is
nothing, but a
new
birth is not only
any outward
Such
God involved
nothing, and wra-cir-
new creature
rites,
;"
proving
something
but wholly inde-
are the contradictions to the
in the sentiments in question
We
5.
would now
turn, for a
moment,
143
to consider the
influence of such doctrines, on the spiritual state of those
who are educated in their belief,

Nothing can be more certain than
this, that all
tural representations of the condition
by nature, are deeply humbling and

tendency
is to
alarm the sinner,
to
the scrip-
and character of men

Their direct
painful.
lay him low in the dust
him to utter despair of relief from

any human intervention or aid. They urge him to instantaneous and unreserved submission to God. Even in the
before God, and to drive
most distinguished
bling tendency.
saints,
in dust and ashes."
"
see the evidence of this
was shapen
Psalmist, " and in sin did
wretched man
we
hum-
" I abhor myself," says Job, " and repent
that I
my mother
in iniquity," says the
" Oh,
conceive me."
am," exclaimed Paul, in view of the
Now we
deep depravity of his heart.
ask, is there not
the utmost danger, that impenitent sinners, under the influence of the sentiments in question, will
entirely
fall
short of any such views of their character and condition

Is there
whom
now
no one whose eye
rests
on these pages,
seems
the language just quoted from the scriptures,
strange and unaccountable
Is
it
not the tendency of the
views in which multitudes are educated,

believe that their depravity
only such easy expedients
is
removed, and
its
ple reception of ordinances
feel that
it is
trifling,
remove
to
to
to
since
it ?
make them
requires
it
Do
they not
curse avoided by the sim-
that they
have only
to
be
baptized, confirmed, and to continue in the observance of

stated rites,
and they are regenerated, their sins washed
away, and themselves made children of God, and heirs

They enter on a course of
of the kingdom of heaven 1
religious duty
tism
they have been made christians by bap-
they observe
the
services of the church
they
144
; all
hold a constituent part in divine worship
which, they are
by
that
it,
told, the
God
is
"nourishing
every
man
ed, at
which time,
announced
to
them, that
the- .Holy
rite
firmation,* they are saluted as " children of the
and heirs of heaven."
vows of
reli-
given to
is
At length they are confirm-
to profit withal."
it is
which
that grace
imparted, and as they rise from the
is
along with
connected^ and
they are cultivating their good feelings or
gious natures
Ghost
grace of
of con-
kingdom
Having taken on themselves the
their godfathers
and godmothers, and received
the last ordinance of consecration from one professedly
delegated to open the kingdom of heaven, they are re-assured of " a title to all the privileges and blessings of
Christ's purchase."
Now what
is
the influence of
ing disciples of this system
they are sure of salvation,
if
all this
Do
on the unsuspect-
they not imagine that
they simply persevere in the
course on which they have thus entered
As they have
been baptized, they think of course, and they are taught

to believe
so, that
they " have a
title
to
the
kingdom of
vice,
Every repetition of prescribed devotional serbecomes an advancing step in their sanctification.
The
responses and observances of the sanctuary, rise
heaven.'"
every sabbath, as additional securities of God's-vfavor.
We have
and
had too much experience
in this kind of service
in these sentiments, not to be fully
persuaded of'the
certainty and baneful effects of this influence.
eousness
is
thus created in the soul,
which
is
right-
neither bor-
rowed from the Redeemer's merits, nor perfected by the

Holy Spirit. It is a righteousness wrought out by the
* Where
Where ?
is
there any authority in the Bible for such a
ceremony
!!
145
Here
simple and easy service of church prescription.

the sinner rests his
he has no wish
hope
and
is told
to question, that
on authority which
while repentance, faith
and obedience, will not of themselves be

salvation, this is " the
curing a "
title to
effectual to his
the " only
mode"
of se-
the blessings and privileges of Christ's
Who
purchase."
would not
mode" and
under the belief of such a
system,
feel sure of salvation, in proportion to the
tiplication of prescribed
ordinances?
mul-
pressed with
If
the necessity of a spiritual regeneration, their answer is

ready, " It has already commenced, and we are advancing
cheerfully forward to
its full
such persons
sible for
completion."
to listen
feelings, to pointed statements
as sinners
which men
Where
God,
to
What
violence
that
for
How is
pos-
of their guilt and danger
necessity can there be, in their view,
spoken of in the scriptures,
are to press into the
with
kingdom of heaven?
the need of that armor of Paul, the panoply of

meet and conquer the powers of hell ? Such
is
things they consider as belonging to a different

society,
it
with any but indignant
state
of
and as having no just or natural application to
themselves.
We
appeal
to
every
man who has preached
such persons, with a seriousness and pungency borrowed from the word of God, whether he has not found
to
his instructions fall utterly powerless on their minds,
whether the whole tendency of
up the soul
in a state of fearful insensibility to their real
condition, in the
(a)
and
this system, is not to lock
view of
Him who
We do not wish to say
ly unable to discover
how
it
searcheth the heart?
invidiously, but
the thorough going
we are
utter-
High Church
doctrine on this subject, differs from that of the Papists.
An
is
exclusive divine right to confer
claimed equally by both.
It is
13
a" title
to salvation,"
the opus operatum, the
146
outward
act, which in the view of both secures this title,

There is no salvation out of the Roman Church," is the
axiom of the one and we find much the same in the declarations, " Baptism is the only mode," etc. and, " I have
yet to learn where a promise to fallen man is to be found,
that is not limited on the previous condition, that he be a
member of the visable ( i. e. ) Episcopal Church upon
earth."*
We have no disposition to run the parallel far-
"
ther.
It is with pain that we have alluded, at all, to these
remains of the " old doctrine" amongst any members of a
Protestant church.
Yet we are constrained
to ask, in the nature of the
systems, what is the specific difference

ver but
little
if
may have been
We
two
can disco-
any, save in the extent to which abuses
In the structure of the two sys-
carried.
tems there certainly
is
something like
identity.
Melville,
Romanism, says " That

which made us a part of this church, was the acknowledging the Pope as our ecclesiastical head, and that which
dissolved our union with this church, was the refusing to
while exposing
the errors of
We agree with the
continue such acknowledgment."
ford Episcopalians as to this affinity.

prised, that they
We
Ox-
are not sur-
deny the right of Episcopacy to claim

war against every thing Protes-
the Protestant name, and
" The Churches of

of England and France," they say, " are one and
tant within the pale of the prelacy.
Rome,
the same," and

rate
it is
we
are sepa-
I utterly reject
and anathe-
a matter of regret that
from Rome."f
* Bishop Ravenscroft.
t
One
of the Oxford divines, says
"
matize or curse the principle of protestantism, as a heresy, with

its
all
forms, sects or denominations." See Mr. Ferguson's Lectures p. 10.
Palmer's Letters and Tracts for the Times.
147
review, seem to us to
The opinions and practices under
(b.)
destroy that broad distinction between sin and holiness, the

righteous and the wicked, which enters so deeply into man's
Their advocates
present character and future prospects.
address their hearers alike
presupposing in
fusion of grace or principle of moral goodness,
requires a careful cultivation in
They do
maturity of holiness.
any
all,
all,
that in-
which only
to ripen to
the full
not admit that there
is
among men, which has been created by a change of their moral natures.
They are not
accustomed therefore, to bring home the searching truths
radical distinction
of inspiration, and lay them, with the authority of the
Almighty upon the consciences of men

aware, that the preaching of
this
and
we
are not
class of divines is cal-
culated to disturb the conscience of the sinner, or to create "a belief in that plague of the heart,
which God
nounces
men
sed
to
desperate
wickedness.
All
are
pro-
suppo-
have some goodness from the beginning, and are
all
along treated as the gospel treats those only, who are new
" The preachers of this
creatures in Christ Jesus.
school," says the London Christian Observer, " address
their auditors almost promiscuously as Christians, because
professedly and by the sacrament of baptism they are

such.
Our view, on the other hand,
tion of them,
is,
that a large por-
are not Christians, except in
name
and
should, therefore be addressed, not merely as needing to
be exhorted
to
higher advances in goodness and virtue,
but to become Christians in the spiritual sense of the term."
The'se remarks were called forth by the following passage

from the Sermons of the late Bishop Hobart. " No limit
can be prescribed
gence in pleasure
tion of
human
to all persons,
is sinful.
The
beyond which,
indul-
variety in the constitu-
character, and the difference of strength
148
in the passions of different individuals, places at different
degrees, the point, where indulgence becomes
Well does
ed
at
"
the Christian Observer add,
We
sinfuL"
are alarm-
the oversight, that gave birth to this passage and
the consequences to
volume
which
in
which
it
appears.
it
might lead, especially in the
We
see nothing in
know
Bible warranting allowance in pleasure, (we
what kind) according
to the strength of
all
the
not of
passion in differ-
ent individuals."*
To what
does this want of discrimination in preaching
directly lead
As
in regard to truth
it
want of discrimination
and communion.
It is
wicked
too grossly
want of discrimination
arises from a
and religious experience,
it
leads to a
in respect to Christian character
saying to
to believe
it,
except those
all,
who
are
that they are Christians.
not a fact indeed, that most of the congregation are,
Is
it
at
some period
of their lives, invited and urged to partake
of those ordinances, which are the divinely appointed

seals of experimental piety
lusion,
many
And thus, under
indulge in those pleasures of
the gospel forbids, and in a conformity
wholly inconsistent with the piety

that the preachers of
it
whom we now
to
enjoins.
a fatal delife
We
know
speak, sometimes
lude to a future and endless retribution of misery.

surely the " heirs of the
which
the world,
kingdom of heaven,"
al-
But
" the children
of God," cannot consider themselves as exposed to such

Such are the accustomed address and instruc
a doom.
tions of these preachers, that few, if any, are found suffi-
ciently depraved, within the circle of their ministrations,

to feel that
Review
Observer.
they deserve such tremendous punishment, as
of Bishop Hobart's
Sermons
in
the
London Christian

any
evil
must be,
that is eternal.
If
their congregations as a body, feel as
moving on
149
we mistake not,
common family,
one
together, under the saving culture of their reli-
gious services, and the favor of God, with the assurance
of his everlasting complacency.
This
we
cannot but be-
lieve is destroying the very foundation of the Christian
system, and has less of practical virtue and efficacy, than

is
found in the code of
law
civil
and that bright feature
makes exposure to eternal punof its oaths, is more evangelical than
of our jurisprudence, that
ishment the security
such ministrations.
a belief in native grace, or a remnant of moral
It is
goodness in the heart, together with the supposed efficacy

attached to baptism, which leads to this indiscriminate
treatment of the mixed multitudes of a worshipping as-
And this
sembly.
of necessity destroys the scriptural dis-
between the righteous and the wicked for it will

be remembered, that most, if not all, have adopted " the
mode" and " the anly mode" of securing " a title to the
blessings and privileges of Christ's purchase," and have
tinction
those native and nurtured principles of resemblance to God,
which
How
are said to
natural
expand
is it ,that
into the perfection of holiness.
a confidence and hope should thus
be engeadered, which rest not on any distinct sense of

union of soul to Christ, not on a feeling of unreserved
to the law and government of God, against
were conscious of having stood forth in the
of rebellion, but on a hope built upon man's na-
submission
whom we
attitude
tive
and cherished
fitness for
God's eternal presence and
fa-
once sweeps away the fear of eternal wrath,

from every soul that has been brought under the protec-
vor,
which
tion of
at
High Church ordinances,
(c.) It is
owing to
this fact,we conceive, that
13*
Unitarianism
150
has always made so
little
community where
progress, in a
High Church principles, are prevalent. There is no demand for Unitarianism in such a community. Are any
offended with that kind of preaching which shows man
his utterly depraved and ruined condition, and
him
for
which sends
Savior, they can find a
an almighty
relief to
refuge from such humbling and painful admonitions, un-
who
der the soothing messages of those,
treat all their
hearers as made "heirs of God" in baptism, and as need-
ing only the steady culture of inherent grace,
to
prepare
any great extent, the

speculative question of the Trinity, which makes men
Unitarians
it is a settled dislike of the doctrine of man's
the soul for heaven.
It is
not, to
want of holiness by nature, and his dependence on

special and distinguishing grace for the renewal of the
entire
Where
heart.
few
terms,
these doctrines can be escaped on easier
any inducement
will find
And had
of Arius or Socinus.
it
become followers
to
not been for the deci-
ded piety and evangelical sentiments of that portion of

the Church of England to which we have affectionately
alluded
the
and the
and
Arian
probably have
indomitable
Socinian
of
spirit
classes
of
civil
liberty,
England would
found the thirty-nine barriers of the Es-
tablishment less formidable and her shade more expansive
and refreshing
acter
may
and even now, how many of
be found reposing under
its
this char-
august protection
and ample patronage, with consciences too tender

guilty of the "
upon
to
decide
damning
;
prayers of holy
us that
We
all is
yet
men
sin of schism,"
we have
we
to
be
are not called
our fears, and the'sighs and
in that venerable
communion, assure
not right.
have already intimated,
that the foregoing
are applicable not to the Episcopal
Church as
remarks
such, bat
151
members who have departed from
to a portion of its
catholic principles, and self-abasing doctrines, of
Concerning
ginal founders.
many
this defection,
the
its ori-
of the
most pious and devoted members of that church, both
in
England and America, have publicly spoken in terms far

stronger than any which we have used.
Believing the
principles in question to be unscriptural and dangerous,
we cannot be expected to see them urged industriously

on those of our own communion, without occasionally
expressing our sentiments.
And we speak
It
against
is
spoken
this
principles,
and not men, that
and our earnest prayer
subject,
may
with feelings
whom we
of entire kindness towards those from
is,
differ.
we have
that all parties,
feel with the excellent
on
Hooker, that
" ten words spoken in the spirit of meekness, are better
than volumes of controversy."
never
to
We
In
this
it is
our purpose
engage.
have expressed our convictions, that the principles
before us, with that necessary formalism which attends
them, are subversive of the gospel plan of salvation.

this opinion
we wish
tableness, or to share
not worthy.
nor feel
all.
it
And
There
to
it
is
In
avoid the charge of unchari-
with those of
whom
we
a charity which
the world
is
neither covet,
safe or creditable to Christianity to cherish at

as
we have
relied almost exclusively
firm friends of the Episcopal
other opinions,
we
Church
upon the
for our support of
shall here rest for our vindication at
the present time.
The
respected and learned prelate of the Ohio diocese,
Dr. Mcllvane, viewing the sentiments before us, in the
same
light that
we
do, as utterly subversive of the doc-
trine of justification by grace,
has given
most extended and able work
to the public his
in its vindication against
the attacks of Episcopal writers, and
we can
urge no

152
stronger adverse arguments, than
review of Oxford
that with
We
divinity.
fill
the pages of this
only wonder and regret,
such clear and distinguishing views of
truth,
and of the way of salvation, any man can stop short of

the rejection of the whole system of formalism and ecclesiastical
exclusiveness,
which environs and
with mountains of frost, the catholic
spirit
as
chills,
and tendencies
of a divine Christianity.
We
tions,
close this array of evidence in support of our posi-
and in
of our course in this
justification
brief
review, with the able and Christian expostulations of
Archdeacon Hare, whom we recognize as a bishop of

the Episcopal Church of England.
"I cannot but make mention of a
notion," says he,
" which has been brought forward somewhat prominently
by
certain very amiable and pious
men
in our days,
namely, that our Lord's promise was not made
to
the
body of His church, to that body of which He

the Head, the blessed communion of all faithful peo-
collective
is
ple, in all nations
confined to the
and through
ages,
all
representatives of the Episcopal body,

are
embraced
in
it,
but
exclusively, as the
apostles
none must
flatter
and
that
it
was
supposed
that
none
themselves they
it, except the same Episcopal

body unto the end of the world. You would join with
me, I would fain hope, in the earnest desire to purge
our church from all remains of that Judaizing Romish
superstition, which would wrap up the free spirit of
have the slightest share in
the
gospel in the
swathing bands of forms and cere-
monies, and would tether
it
to a
" That amiable and pious
name."
men
should have taken up
such a notion, which leads straightway

revolting
conclusions,
according
to
to the most
which the chief
THE CHRISTIAN
153
CITIZEN.
by a
part of Protestant Christendom is cast out at once
sweeping
is
from the pale of Christ's Church, nay,
interdict
recklessly declared to stand on a level with the heathen,
and
to
be
the uncovenanted mercies of God,
left to
and pious
that able
men
should not shrink with
such a notion, that they should take

less than the clearest,
demonstration,
most compulsory, most
did not
irresistible
mode
and
of escaping from such
might be deemed unaccountable,

remember how prone we all are to convert
appalling conclusions,
we
awe from
up under anything
that they should not look carefully
anxiously round for some
if
it
every object of our peculiar interest and affection, even
This
the objects of our purest worship, into idols.
is
the
which the selfishness of man

takes refuge and barricades itself and it can hardly be
thrown down altogether, so long as we continue here
last wall of the citadel in
Our form of government must be
below.
form of government, not because
because
it
is ours.
not because
foundations
it
;
is
still
it
is
the only
good
a good one, but
Our church must be the only church,

truth,
few examine its
fewer examine the foundations of other
founded on
churches with patience, and candor, and honesty, and a

righteous self-distrust
fore
it
is
no, our church is ours, and there-
We
the only true one.
still
cannot bear
to
think that the veil of the temple should have been rent
we
still
cannot bear that the Gentiles should have a free
approach
to the
Holy of
holies
neighbors should come to
we
cannot bear that our
by any other road than ours.

*
*
*
I can only express my regret that, where such
strong arguments in favor of Episcopacy may be drawn
it
many
from the history and idea of the church,

advocates, not content with proving that
it
form of church government, have resolved

that
it
is
to
of
its
the best
is
make
the only one, and have tried to rest
it
out
upon
154
grounds, which in fact only
scriptural
For
cause.
weakens
their
cannot discover the shadow of a word in
the gospels to counterbalance the interpretation referred
Feeble and flimsy as are the scriptural arguments,
to.
on which the Romanists maintain the inalienable
macy
pri-
of St. Peter, they are far more specious and plau-
those derived from the same source, on the
sible than
strength of
which
it
has been attempted to establish the
absolute necessity of Episcopacy to the existence of a
Christian Church."
" Let us,
my
brethren, carefully
beware of
that
most
and narrow-minded of monopolies which would

monopolize the grace of God. The way to life is narrow
hurtful
us not throw up any fresh mounds by
enough:
let
side, to
render
the salvation
not tied to
other,
narrower
it
which Christ wrought

any
its
Let us rejoice that
still.
for
his people is
form of church government or
one
man can set up, or that man

Let us rejoice that in Christ Jesus
anything that
to
can pull down.
nether Episcopacy availeth anything, nor anti-Episcopacy,

but a
to
new
creature.
be preached
be baptized
Let us rejoice that the gospel was
to all nations,
in the
name
and
that all nations
were
to
of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost."
The
to the
little
regard which has for some years been paid
principles under review, and the almost uniform
disposition of religious denominations in this country, to
leave each other in the undisturbed enjoyment of their

respective and peculiar preferences, as to
doctrine and
forms, might have justified us, in the view of many, in
passing them unnoticed

joice,
at this time.
And we
should re-
had the advocates of these doctrines and principles,
been contented
to
enjoy them, within their
own commu-
nion, without claiming the right to invalidate the basis of
155
other churches, and to proscribe, as unscriptural and
all
vain, all ministrations but their
These exclusive
own.
pretensions entrench, not alone upon the rights of other
churches, but they corrupt the truth, and counteract the
common
influences of our
war upon
make
And we are
and thus
Christianity,
the dearest rights of mankind.
not alone in feeling the necessity of such a review, as
we have
Many
given.
others
are
deeply feeling the
same, and with their characteristic intelligence and charity are speaking plainly, and admonishing of the evils,
which they apprehend necessarily
result
from the princi-
ples before us.*

It is
not sectarian officiousness, nor desire for contro-
versy that has governed us.
ed in these things,
the
is
common
for
We
are
all
directly interest-
they relate to mind, and mind
property of
man
every where.
is
" Truth
every man's concernment, every man's right and every
These things belong

whose ceaseless pulsation is the electric life
man's most 'necessary possession."

to the heart,
of
No man
world.
the
can entrench himself in his
church or beneath the dignity of

thic antiquity
office or station of
and strength, with
'
Go-
Noli me tangert,' in-
He lives and acts on mind, on

No man lives unto himself. No man
scribed on his portals.

souls immortal.
dies alone.
We
heirs of a
common
warm
charity of
are
members one
of another, and as the
Christianity, are
its
bound
to unite in the
spirit for its universal spread.
* Without concert or interchange of views,
we
find
Dr. Duffield,
M. Smith of S. Car., Dr. Bethune of Philadelphia,

Rev. M. L. R. P. Thompson, of Canandaigua, Rev. N. Murray, of
New Jersey, &c. in connexion with many of the Episcopal Church,
of Detroit, Rev.
vindicating their views of the gospel against the urgency of exclusive

principles
showing that
mind alone
that
is
it is
affected.
not the morbid sensibility of a solitary
156
li
ty
In proportion as the gospel
and
its
power
; in
risible will the
paragement of
its
puri-
to
be a
understood, in
proportion as
it
felt
is
independence of whatever
spiritual religion, (its)
and
is
more appear
visible institutions
of the spiritual reality.
but to the higher glory
seems scarcely
It
local
is
not indeed to the dis-
to
need proof,
any system of opinions, the purport and tendency of

which is to give an unusual prominence and a paramount
that
importance
rically
to visible institutions,
and especially as histo-
and geographically defined, and which with a se-
vere consistency, denies the very
name
of christian to
may
whatever may be found beyond
its
knowledge
such a system, so
it
its
jurisdiction
that
pale, or
takes effect, stands opposed to whatever
auspicious in the present age, and
if
is
not acfar as
the most
work
permitted to
must turn back the current of human affairs a

thousand years, and would confine the blessings of the
its will,
gospel within limits narrower than those of ancient Juda-
These exclusive opinions, so fondly embraced by

ism.
a discipline of the secret,' likely
many, are indeed,
enough to bury the gospel in a cloister, along with the
last hopes of happiness for mankind."
5
Denying the " independence" and

pel
vitality of the
gos-
under whatever forms of "visible maintenance,"
shall find ourselves
ever
whatever
is substantial,
is
benign, whatever
sonable in the Christian system, until
we
prelacy
is
is
rea-
gloomy
find a
home, not in a church, but in a sepulchre."*

We have reluctantly come to the conclusion
we have been
we
driven farther and farther from what-
rather
driven to the conviction, that the English
now, and has been separate from the papacy,
* Taylor's Spiritual Christianity,
Am. Ed.
pp. 223-25.
THE CHRISTIAN
157
CITIZEN".
not from an}* native or original incongruities, but from
the force of private animosities and political alienations.
And
but for geographical distinctions, and the respective
heads of these two hierarchies, we see no insurmountable
way
Hence we perceive
obstacles in the
of their speedy and cordial reunion.

the reasonableness of Puseyism, in
the heart of the Episcopal
communion, warring against
the state affinities of the church, as unnatural and de-
manding
a revulsion arid return to the
whence
cient fraternity,
day,
it
bosom of
the prelacy sprung.
doubtful whether the Reformation
is
that an-
And
to this
would not have
been saved her severest check, and the pious been more
Henry
completely separated from Romish corruption, had
VIII. remained " the defender of the faith," in conflict
with Luther and the Truth, instead of becoming the ene-
my
As
of
Rome, and
itual Christianity
lision
there
ples are
the
head of the Church of England.
and error are so blended
truth
it is,
must, be conflict,
more widely separate.
remonstrating
till
such opposing princiit is the rising and
And
has summoned forth
spirit of the one, that
the redoubled energies of the other.
Two
sey, declared, "
pared
for
Let the issue be joined.

it.
It
and not of arms
may now be
of
Well has Dr. Pu-
systems of doctrine are now, and
probably for the last time, in conflict
Genevan."
formalism and spir-
so closely allied, that there must be col-
the Catholic and

The world
mind redeemed,
free, sanctified.
charity be our spirit, truth our weapons, and
And
it
is
ry
will
if
pre^
Let
God the umpire*
equally true, that a corresponding spirit is
abroad in the world.

are now,
is
the conflict of argument,
Two
classes of civil institutions,
not for the last time, in conflict for the maste-
the free institutions of
law and
and arbitrary distinctions.

14
No
equality,
and those of
one can mistake their
158
respective religious affinities, their influence on the popu*
confidence and support of
lar mind, their claims to the
every Christian citizen.

such, that
It is as
and argument, the
we
bound
feel
meet, in charity
to
lofty sentiments before us.
dence with which they are urged, with
The
all their
confi-
claims to
venerable antiquity, neither intimidate nor overawe us.
And
it
is
more
own
in defense of our
principles, than of
we speak
aggression upon those of others, that
The
at all.
advocates of high church exclusiveness and formal-
ism, are not silent as to the triumphs of their cause, nor

inactive in urging
Their predictions of ad-
claims.
its
vance are clear and confident, and we admit their
more
ness,
in pity to
feat of others.
their increase,
It
them, than in mortification
just-
at the de-
possible, that in the amplitude of
is
and the easy terms of their communion,
the
severer requisitions of the gospel
and
in the
may
enforcement of formalism, or
the conditions of grace, there
may
its
be excluded,
acceptance as
be forfeited the
vital
energies of the atonement, and the spirituality of religion.
The
extension thus gained
parts to the
And
while there
manding our
above
all
is
but the '''extension death im-
body" when the soul has
much
so
is
attention, as
fled.*
in these principles, de-
citizens of a free state,
as probationers for eternity,
it
pected, that under existing circumstances,
them
in silence, or fail to
sity
do
which
their
we
should pass
canvass their claims, and
cessary resist their advances.

advocates have
We
and
cannot be ex-
if
ne-
regret the neces-
imposed upon us
to
so.
In the language of Mr. Ferguson, "

cannot
we
it
is
because
we
dare not concur in such views and senti*
Robert Hall.
THE CHRISTIAN
merits
it
because such doctrines not only insult our
is
reason, but offend our
them
believe
159
CITIZEN.
common
sense
it
be in direct opposition
to
will of God, and injurious
dangerous
is
because
we
word and
to the
to the interests of
men, that we now venture to

are called upon by the advocates
his church and the souls of
We
oppose them."
of these principles, " to choose our side," assured that,
" to remain neuter

part."
much
longer, will be itself to take a
This we have done long before now, and as Pro-
testants,
and as Christians, we are willing
abide the
to
issue.
Recent events, beginning with
that
trogression in England, in our view
most remarkable remore threatening to
her piety and her church, than were the Normans

state securities
in this country,
waking up
that strange
sympathy which
and which seems diffusing
it
to
her
receives
influence,
its
which animated the beast of the

Apocalypse, and which, in the form of the second, would
heal the wound of the first,* and inflict death upon the
sacred interests of truth, freedom and grace lay upon
the friends and advocates of a spiritual religion, and the
" I
civil rights of mankind, a most solemn obligation.
that spirit
speak plainly," says Dr. Bethune, "but the time has
come, when the advocates of a
must speak
out.
Silence
monstrant submission
spiritual
now would
Christianity,
be falsehood, unre-
to opinions, that
would exclude us
from the Church of God, and desecrate our sacraments,

treason to the truth and disloyalty to Christ."
We
come
forward in the name of no party, but speak what every

Christian minister should speak in defense of truth, and
what every Christian
And we
citizen should seriously review.
hope, that the advocates of these principles,
* See Revelations,
xiii.
11
15.
160
ground of their defense,
will themselves re-examine the
and
workings on the
their legitimate
interests of
We
and religious
civil
mankind.
have seen ecclesiastical
modi-
institutions greatly
fying the forms of civil government, and as we have ever

found, " monarchy in the church conducive to monarchy
in the
state
and quite as perilous
our government
to
is
civil
to
freedom,"
if
be regarded in the light of an ex-
periment, or if we have come to the conclusion that the

" oxygenized element of democracy, too pure in itself for
human
respiration,"* cannot be endured
nor the mingled
principles of our " constitutional confederacy," be successfully carried out,
revolution
more
it
is
possible, that in
no way, can a
easily or safely be brought about, than
by inculcating the principles of
prelatical, diocesan
Epis-
copacy, " that more efficient support to monarchy, than a
For the more remote
standing army."f
results,
we
will
not be answerable.
It is certainly a
after
remarkable
fact, that
these principles*
being so ably defended, and so vigorously urged, for
centuries, should have
made
so
little
progress with the
They have
had the patronage and support of the proudest governintelligent portion of the Christian world.
ments on
earth, with professed divine
and yet the prelacy, separate from

the most limited
is
nominal Christians.
communion of
Is
the
heart so unyielding, that
These exclusive
papal associations,
the whole family of
human mind
so dull
the
no arguments can enlighten

the
acknowledgement of
principles,
though urged through
and no motives persuade

truth?
and exclusive rights,
its
to
centuries of darkness, and the Augustan ages of learning,

*
t
down
to the
present hour, reason and conscience
See Mr. Adams' Lecture on the Nature of Government,

Charles II. of England.
p. 3 i.
161

claims.
remonstrate, and reject their

foundation be defective
At
least,
we
Must not
their
think their advo-
cates must despair of securing for them, at this late day,
anything like a permanent basis or a general prevalence.
Other denominations have arisen and
filled
the light of truth and the charity of God.
by
their
own
instinctive vitality,
the world with
Unsustained, but
and the exhaustless
re-
hope and charity, they now advance

in strength and triumph; heathen millions converted,
their trophies, and the light of the promised day, heaven's
sources of their
faith,
attestation to their right
and succession
to the
covenant
mercies of God.
But we
find no>
such proportionate growth
ciples under review, and

tration
anywhere.*
any unusual
to the
no such
And Ave
adminis-
are not aware, that there are
difficulties in their
common
for the prin-
fruits of their
way from
their hostility
principles of our depraved nature.
They
are not singularly hostile to the indulgences of the flesh,
nor at war with the innocent fashions and habits of
life.
Compare the period of the " Commonwealth " and the

two reigns succeeding. The difficulty cannot lie here.
Must it not be found in the cause itself?
We
are free to say, that
we do
not envy the circum*
stances to which the advocates of these principles are

subjected, and
and cramp
we
regret that limits so restricted, confine
They seem entrenched
their greatest minds.
narrow bounds, like Sampson grinding
in
*
The
reputed' extension of the English
Church
at
the mill of
in the
East Indies
and elsewhere, under the patronising auspices of the government,

leaving heathenism to absolute idolatry almost entirely unchecked,
we
cannot receive as evidence of the actual advancement of hicrh
church principles,
in
intelligent
communities.
Nor can we
measure the exact extent of the English hierarchy

affinities to the state
remain.
14*
at
easily
home, while
its
THE CHRISTIAN
162
The world
the Philistines.
strength,
and the
CITIZEN".
losing the aid of their
is
We
light of their genius.
an exclusive system
strong attachment to
primitive Christianity
tions of the church,
unknown
to
which, springing from the corrup-
grew
to eollossal greatness
of night, and lived into the light, only from
with which they fasten
amid ages
identity of
its
And
interests with dynasties of oppression.

at the fondness,
lament their
wonder
v/e
to its
wasting
strength, resolute, like the blinded Nazarite at Gaza, cling-
ing to the pillars of the temple, only to die amid
We are
its
ruins.
constrained to ask the friends and advocates of
High Church
principles, if they are not doing injustice to
themselves, as well as unkindness to others, in such per-
severing exclusiveness and rigid formalism
In excom-
municating every other church, and entrenching themselves in limits so narrow,

violence to
May
the
law of
may
love,
they not also, be doing
and the
of Christ
spirit
they not lose the breathings of that charity, the pul-
sations of that piety, which is the
and the foretaste of

repose in
all
life
communion of
everlasting
the saints,
They may indeed
the complacency of the heirs of the " Celestial
Empire," the robed Mandarins of pre-eminent sun-light
and glory, but
like the walled inmates of that
remote and
exclusive land, they appear dark to surrounding beholders,
and
lost to the rich benefits of this enlightened age, pro-
pitious for doing
We
\o
and getting good.
should esteem
it
the highest honor of a free citizen,
bestow the boon of universal
liberty,
men, the whole brotherhood of man
and hail as
and
it
free-
would be the
richest happiness of our earthly state, cordially to unite
with every follower of God, in instructing and saving the

world from the bondage of error and death,
of our
common Redeemer.
And whatever
to the
honor
obstructs or
163
impairs this union, opposes the purposes of mercy, and
keeps back the millennial
The
enlightened and
state of
man.
commercial community
claim,
upon the principles of national fraternity, that China, shut

out for ages in pride and contempt of the world beside,
shall
if
open her vast
territory to the ingress of nations,
and
necessary, would demolish her wall of separation, for
her
own enlightenment and
the reciprocal benefit of
man-
we have nothing to say.

common Christianity, and the
Of the
kind.
morality of this,
But on the principles of a

mankind
in sin and in the profby Christ, there can be no exclusive ter-
universal brotherhood of
fer of salvation
no separating walls
ritories,
all truth is
we approach
ciples,
gion, in love
expansion
error has
prin-
the advocates of an exclusive reli-
ever believing in the high law of " Christian
the active law of evangelical diffusion ;* in
the duty, charity and union of

to
free
With these
no shelter from discussion and invasion.
all
believers under Christ,
regenerate the world.
And
of this
we
We
are not to despair.
a radical and reckless spirit in religion
know
there
is
a wild " democ-
which in its actings alone upon the state, is u deadly

the uncombined element of oxygen," and in the church,
racy,"
as
kindling the very fires of fanaticism.

in faint
resemblance
to the
may now
It
be seen
burning and bloody terrors of
the Ana-Baptists of the sixteenth century, and thephrensy
of the "
fifth
monarchy men," of the commonwealth of
England.
We
we
in
will say nothing of "
democracy"
in the state
but
we have no fears of an aristocracy here,,

But while we have the wild and levelling
will say, that
any form.
spirit of
ignorant religionists, assuming
wisdom without
learning, superior holiness without practical piety

lent in denunciation
and reckless; we have
also, as
vio-
we
THE CHRISTIAN
164
CITIZEN".
have seen, an aristocracy in the church, feeble indeed in
numbers and influence, but assuming and exclusive.

Not unlike the broken down, emigrating Cavaliers of the
wasted dynasties of the Stuarts, never forgetting their
it would
original alliance to the remnants of royalty
;
look even in
its
weakness, with equal lordliness, on eyery
other denomination, and exclude from the covenant mercies of
God, the whole family of Christ.
But
the sword, and probably never will have.
It
it
has not
may
secure
a species of governmental favor, but this, in whatever
form enjoyed, has never advanced the piety of the church.
What
is
it
in
England, but a curse
the incubus of death
We seek, we
In Scotland, but
would have, no suc-
cession for a spiritual religion to state endowments, nor

take from Caesar any rights or immunities, but such as
Christian citizens,
common
we may
"
citizenship,
the religion of Protestants."
same
sentiments, the
claim upon the ground of our
The
Bible and the Bible only,
And we have
held in check the fiery
and Enthusiasts, and

verities of
Reforma-
principles, that ruled in the
that reigned through the
tion,
English persecution,
spirit of
at the
is
here the same
that,
extravagant Independents
same
time, mitigated the se-
an imperial prelacy, and broke the iron sceptre
of the 'man of sin.'

Under their "expansive" power
and u evangelical diffusion," we would go on "unto perfection."
And though
discordant and jarring elements
fuse the multitude, and darkness long

tried principles
ity, trusting in
ters
con-
of a "simple" and "spiritual" Christian-
the grace of God, and faithful,
the spirit of the
may
reign, with these
Lord moving upon
confusion and night pass
we
shall see
the face of the
away
the
wa-
order, beauty
and glory of a regenerated world, shall usher
in the pro-
mised day ^realizing to the believer the fullness or God.
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X" "

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

OBLIGATIONS OF THE CHRISTIAN CITIZEN,

OF HIGH CHURCH PRINCIPLES IN RELATION TO CIVIL AND

classes of religious opinions are

conflict, the Catholic

now, and probably

for the last time, in

and the Genevan."

Congress, in the year 1843, by

in the Clerk's office of the District Court, of the

Southern District of New-York.

leading sentiments of the following pages were pre-

sented to the congregation of which the author

minister, on the occasion of the last State Thanksgiving.

the business, political and religious aspect of this city, as well

as of the country generally, the author

with which they were received, and the

which they have excited from other

that he should decline the request for their publication, in a

new and more

extended form, sustained by such references

speak in defense of their

though those of others

There are times when

which has been

upon the author of these

so, at this time, is better

necessary or proper, fully to state.

him, a matter of sincere regret

speak in love and

thereby be called in question.

has been his aim and

Dangerous tendency of Party

The Jewish Commonwealth

Religious Principle the chief security of Government.

The American Government founded on

Protestant Christianity, and for the Purposes of Civil and

Discordant Elements and conflicting Interests

Religious Character of the Continental Congress and of the

The subsequent Prevalence

Public Sentiment, and of the

Christian Virtues, to correct the Evils of the Govern-

of Inviolate Faith in the Fulfillment of Contracts.

as Rulers of Intelligence and of

unimpeached Moral Integrity

Organizations, on the Civil Institutions of the Country.

of Religious Principles and Ecclesiatical

Principles hostile to the peculiar Republican

Extraordinary Powers which they confer upon one Man.

" Divine Right" and "Apostolical Succession."

Origin of the distinctions in the Christian Ministry.

Church System a departure

Origin of Liturgies and

High Church Principles on Evangelical

Doctrines of the English Church at the

Conditions of Salvation maintained by

from the original

principles of the English

History of these Principles

Influence of these Principles on those

saving efficacy of the Doctrine of the Trinity.

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN

CHURCH AND CONGREGATION,,