DIFFICULTY OF ASCERTAINING UNBROKEN SUCCESSION.

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among which they lived; and that no one It is no wonder, therefore, that the adnot duly consecrated or ordained was vocates of this theory studiously disparage admitted to sacred offices. | reasoning, deprecate all exercise of the mind in reflection, decry appeals to evidence, and lament that even the power of reading should be imparted to the People. It is not without cause that they dread and lament "an Age of too much light," and wish to involve religion in "a solemn and awful gloom." It is not without cause that, having removed the Christian's confidence from a rock, to base it on sand, they forbid all prying curiosity to examine their foundation.

Even in later and more civilized and enlightened times, the probability of an irregularity, though very greatly diminished, is yet diminished only, and not absolutely destroyed. Even in the memory of persons living, there existed a Bishop concerning whom there was so much mystery and uncertainty prevailing as to when, where, and by whom he had been ordained, that doubts existed in the mind, of many persons whether he had ever been ordained at all. I do not say that there was good ground for the suspicion but I speak of the fact, that it did prevail; and that the circumstances of the case were such as to make manifest" Apostolical succession" of the particular the possibility of such an irregularity occurring under such circumstances.

Now, let any one proceed on the hypothesis that there are, suppose, but a hundred links connecting any particular minister with the Apostles, and let him even suppose that not above half of this number pass through such periods as admit of any possible irregularity; and then, placing at the lowest estimate the probability of defectiveness in respect of each of the remaining fifty, taken separately, let him consider what amount of probability will result from the multiplying of the whole together.* The ultimate consequence must be, that any one who sincerely believes that his claim to the benefits of the Gospel-Covenant depends on his own Minister's claim to the supposed sacramental virtue of true Ordination, and this again, on perfect Apostolical Succession as above described, must be involved, in proportion as he reads, and inquires, and reflects, and reasons on the subject, in the most distressing doubt and perplexity.

The fallacy, indeed, by which, according to the above principles, the Christian is taught to rest his own personal hopes of salvation on the individual claims to

Minister he is placed under, is one so gross that few are thoughtless enough to be deceived by it in any case where Religion is not concerned ;—where, in short, a man has not been taught to make a virtue of uninquiring, unthinking acquiescence. For the fallacy consists in confounding together the unbroken Apostolical succession of a Christian Ministry generally, and the same succession, in an unbroken line, of this or that individual Minister. The existence of such an Order of Men as Christian Ministers, continuously from the time of the Apostles to this day, is perhaps as complete a moral certainty, as any historical fact can be; because (independently of the various incidental notices by historians, of such a class of persons) it is plain that if, at the present day, or a century ago, or ten centuries ago, a number of men had appeared in the world, professing (as our Clergy do now) to hold a recognized office in a Christian Church, to which they had been regularly appointed as successors to others, whose predecessors, in like manner, had held the same, and so Supposing it to be one hundred to one, in on, from the time of the Apostles,—if, I each separate case, in favour of the legitimacy and say, such a pretence had been put forth regularity of the transmission, and the links to by a set of men assuming an office which amount to fifty, (or any other number) the pro- no one had ever heard of before,-it is bability of the unbroken continuity of the whole plain that they would at once have been chain must be computed as 99-100 of 99-100 refuted and exposed And as this will of 99-100, &c., to the end of the whole fifty. Of course, if different data are assumed, or a different apply equally to each successive generasystem is adopted of computing the rate at which tion of Christian Ministers, till we come the uncertainty increases at each step, the ultimate up to the time when the institution was result will be different as to the degree of uncertainty; but when once it is made apparent that a considerable and continually increasing uncertainty does exist, and that the result must be, in respect of any individual case, a matter of chance, it can be of no great consequence to ascertain precisely what the chances are on each side.

confessedly new, that is, to the time when Christian Ministers were appointed by the Apostles, who professed themselves eye-witnesses of the Resurrection,

Κλέπτῃ δέ τε νυκτὸς ἀμείνων

we have (as Leslie has remarked*) a | ters, they inferred, were void; and hence standing Monument, in the Christian the baptisms administered by those miMinistry, of the fact of that event as nisters were void, and their whole minishaving been proclaimed immediately after the time when it was said to have occurred. This therefore is fairly brought forward as an evidence of its truth.

A most remarkable instance of this is furnished in the celebrated schism of the Donatist, in Africa, in the beginning of the fourth century. They differed in no point of doctrine or Church-discipline from their opponents, the Orthodox, (that is, the predominant party;) but were at issue with them on the question as to an alleged irregularity in the appointment of a cerain Bishop; whose ordinations consequently of other Bishops and Presby-parts of England, and the greatest part of Ireland.

For there were many such unions existing before the Act in question: such as Cork and Ross

See Waddington's Ecclesiastical History, &c. Ferns and Leighlin, and several others.

IRREGULAR FORMATION OF CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES.

In short, there is no imaginable limit to the schisms that may be introduced and kept up through the operation of these principles, advocated especially with a view to the repression of schism.

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and wise, and necessary, that they should regard themselves as constituted, by the very circumstance of their position, a civil Community; and should assemble to enact such laws, and appoint such magistrates, as they might judge most suitable to their circumstances.

And

32. Some have imagined however that since no rule is laid down in Scripture as to the number of persons requisite obedience to those laws and governors, to form a Christian Community, or as to as soon as the Constitution was settled, the mode in which any such Community would become a moral duty to all the is to be set on foot, it must follow that members of the Community: and this, persons left to Scripture as their sole even though some of the enactments decisive authority, will be at liberty,-all, might appear, or might be, (though not and any of them,-to form and dissolve at variance with the immutable laws of religious Communities at their pleasure; morality, yet) considerably short of per-to join and withdraw from any Church, fection. The King, or other Magistrates as freely as if it were a Club or other thus appointed, would be legitimate such institution; and to appoint them-rulers: and the laws framed by them, valid selves or others to any ministerial Office, and binding. The precept of "submitas freely as the members of any Club ting to every ordinance of man, for the elect Presidents, Secretaries, and other Lord's sake," and of "rendering to all functionaries. their due," would apply in this case as completely as in respect of any Civil Community that exists.

And it is true that this license has been assumed by weak and rash men; who have thus given occasion to persons of the class who "mistake reverse of wrong for right," to aim at counteracting one error by advocating another. But so far are these anarchical consequences from being a just result of the principles here maintained, that I doubt whether, on any other subject besides Religion, a man would not be reckoned insane who should so

reason.

To take the analogous case of civil government: hardly any one in his right mind would attempt a universal justification of rebellion, on the ground that men may be placed in circumstances which morally authorize them to do what, in totally different circumstances, would be rebellion.

Suppose, for instance, a number of emigrants, bound for some Colony, to be shipwrecked on a desert island, such as afforded them means of subsistence, but precluded all reasonable hope of their quitting it or suppose them to have taken refuge there as fugitives from intolerable oppression, or from a conquering enemy; (no uncommon case in ancient times) or to be the sole survivors of a pestilence or earthquake which had destroyed the rest of the nation: no one would maintain that these shipwrecked emigrants or fugitives, were bound, or were permitted, to remain-themselves and their posterityin a state of anarchy, on the ground of there being no one among them who could claim hereditary or other right to govern them. It would clearly be right,

And yet these men would have been doing what, in ordinary circumstances, would have been manifest rebellion. For if these same, or any other individuals, subjects of our own, or of any existing Government, were to take upon themselves to throw off their allegiance to it, without any such necessity, and were to pretend to constitute themselves an independent Sovereign State, and proceed to elect a King or Senate,-to frame a Constitution, and to enact laws, all resting on their own self-created authority, no one would doubt that, however wise in themselves those laws might be, and however personally well qualified the magistrates thus appointed, they would not be legitimate governors, or valid laws: and those who had so attempted to established them, would be manifest rebels.

A similar rule will apply to the case of ecclesiastical Communities. If any number of individuals, not having the plea of an express revelation to the purpose, or again, of their deliberate conviction that the Church they separate from is fundamentally erroneous and unscriptural-take upon themselves to constitute a new Church, according to their own fancy, and to appoint themselves or others to ministerial offices, without having any recognized authority to do so, derived from the existing religious Community of which they were members, but mercly on the ground of supposed personal qualifications, then however wise in them

selves the institutions, and however, in arrangements or institutions, &c., which themselves, fit, the persons appointed, would tend to check the free intercourse, there can be no more doubt that the guilt and weaken the ties of brotherhood, of Schism would be incurred in this case, among all Christ's followers throughout than that the other, just mentioned, would the world, should be as much as possible be an act of rebellion. avoided.

Or again, if certain members, lay or This, however, is no exception to the clerical, of any Church, should think fit general rule, but an application of it. to meet together and constitute them- For, those enactments which should tend selves a kind of Synod for deciding some to defeat, without necessity, one of the question of orthodoxy, and should pro- objects which the Apostles proposed, ceed to denounce publicly one of their would (however good in themselves) evibrethren as a heretic, there can be no dently not be the best, for that very reason. doubt that-whether his doctrines were But it would be absurd to maintain right or wrong, these, his self-appointed that men placed in such a situation as judges (whatever abhorrence of Schism has been here supposed, are to be shut they might express, and however strongly out, generation after generation, from the they might put forth their own claim to Christian Ordinances, and the Gospel be emphatically the advocates of Church unity) would be altogether schismatical in their procedure. If the Apostle's censure of those that cause divisions" does not apply to this case, it may fairly be asked what meaning his words can have. On the other hand, men placed in the situation of the supposed shipwrecked emigrants or exiles above spoken of, would be as much authorized, and bound, to aim at the advantages of a Religious, as of a Civil Community; only with this difference, arising out of the essential characters of the two respectively; that they would not be authorized in the one case, as they would in the other, to resort to secular coercion.* Compliance with civil regulations may and must be absolutely enforced; but not so, the profession of a particular Creed, or conformity to a particular mode of Worship.

covenant. Their circumstances would constitute them (as many as could be brought to agree in the essentials of faith and Christian worship) a Christian Community; and would require them to do that which, if done without such necessity, would be schismatical. To make regulations for the Church thus constituted, and to appoint as its ministers the fittest persons that could be found among them, and to celebrate the Christian Rites, would be a proceeding not productive, as in the other case, of division, but of union. And it would be a compliance,

clearly pointed out to them by the Providence which had placed them in that situation,—with the manifest will of our Heavenly Master, that Christians should live in a religious Community, under such Officers and such Regulations as are essential to the existence of every Community.

Another point of distinction between the formation of a Civil and Ecclesias- To say that Christian ministers thus tical Constitution arises out of this cir- appointed would be, to all intents and cumstance, that it was plainly the design purposes, real legitimate Christian minisof the Apostles that there should be as ters, and that the Ordinances of such a much as possible of free intercommunion, Church would be no less valid and effiand facility of interchange of members, cacious (supposing always that they are among Christians Churches. Consequently, when it is said, here and elsewhere, that each of these is bound to make such enactments respecting nonessentials, as its governors may judge best, it is not meant that they have to consider merely what would seem in itself best, and supposing they were the only Christian Community existing; but they must also take care to raise up no unnecessary barrier of separation between the members of their own and of other essentially pure-Churches. Any

* See Appendix, Note (A.)

not in themselves superstitious and unscriptural) than those of any other Church, is merely to say in other words, that it would be a real Christian Church; possessing, consequently, in common with all Communities of whatever kind, the essential rights of a Community to have Officers and By-laws; and possessing also, in common with all Christian Communities, (i. e. Churches) the especial sanction of our Lord, and his promise of ratifying ("binding in Heaven") its enactments.

See in Appendix, Note (N,) a quotation

PRESUMPTION IN FAVOUR OF OUR OWN CHURCH.

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member, has the first claim to his allegiance, supposing there is nothing in its doctrines or practice which he is convinced is unscriptural and wrong. He is of course bound, in deference to the higher authority of Christ and his Apostles, to renounce its communion, if he does feel such a conviction; but not from motives of mere fancy, or worldly advantage.

It really does seem not only absurd, boast the greatest antiquity, or, which is but even impious, to represent it as the established by the Civil Government. Lord's will, that persons who are be- The Church, whatever it is, in which lievers in his Gospel, should, in conse- each man was originally enrolled a quence of the circumstances in which his Providence has placed them, condemn themselves and their posterity to live as Heathens, instead of conforming as closely as those circumstances will allow, to the institutions and directions of Christ and his Apostles, by combining themselves into a Christian Society, regulated and conducted, in the best way they can, on Gospel principles. And if such a Society does enjoy the divine blessing and favour, it follows that its a duty, or a sin.* proceedings, its enactments, its officers, are legitimate and apostolical, as long as they are conformable to the principles which the Apostles have laid down and recorded for our use: even as those (of whatever race "after the flesh") who embraced and faithfully adhered to the Gospel, were called by the Apostle, "Abraham's seed," and "the Israel of God."+

All separation, in short, must be either

And the Christian's obligation to submit to the (not unscriptural) Laws and Officers of his Church, being founded on the principles above explained, is independent of all considerations of the regularity or irregularity of the original formation of that Church; else, indeed, no one could be certain what were his duties as a member of a certain Church, without entering on long and difficult researches into ecclesiastical history: such as are far beyond the reach of ninety-nine persons in

pose, have originated in a rash separation from another Church, on insufficient grounds; but for an individual to separate from it merely for that reason, would

The Ministers of such a Church as I have been supposing, would rightly claim "Apostolical succession," because the hundred. A certain Church may, supthey would rightfully hold the same office which the Apostles conferred on those "Elders whom they ordained in every City.' And it is impossible for any one of sound mind, seriously to believe that the recognition of such claims in a case like the one here supposed, affords a fair precedent for men who should wantonly secede from the Church to which they had belonged, and take upon themselves to ordain Ministers and form a new and independent Church according to their own fancy.

§ 33. I have spoken of seceding from "the Church to which they had belonged," because, in each case the presumption is in favour of that; not, necessarily, in favour of the Church to which a man's ancestors may formerly have belonged, or the one which can

belonged to that; nor would such a reform confer on the Bishop of Rome any power over the Anglican Church.

It may be necessary perhaps here to remind and renouncing, some Church: not of merely the reader that I am speaking of separating from, joining and becoming a member of some other. This latter does not imply the former, except when there is some essential point of difference between the two Churches. When there is none, a man's becoming a member of another Church member of the Anglican Church, on going to reon changing his residence,-as, for instance, a side in Scotland or America, where Churches essentially in agreement with ours exist-this is the very closest conformity to the principles and prac tice of the Apostles. In their days (and it would have been the same, always, and every where, had

from an Appeal of Luther's in 1520, cited in their principles been universally adhered to) a D'Aubigné's" History of the Reformation."

⚫ Rom. v. 16.

† Gal. vi. 16.

+ See Rhetoric, Part I. ch. 3, § 2. Accordingly, if we suppose the case of the Romish Church reforming all its errors, and returning to the state of its greatest purity, although we should with joy "give the right hand of fellowship" to its members, it would be utterly unjustifiable for any member of our Church to throw off his allegiance to it and go over to the Church of Rome, on the ground of his ancestors having

Christian of the Church of Corinth for instance, on taking up his abode, suppose, at Ephesus, where there was a Christian Church, differing perhaps in some non-essential custoins and forms, but agreeing in essentials, was received into that Church as a brother; and this was so far from implying his separation from the former, that he would be received into the Ephesian Church only on letters of recommendation from the Corinthian.

• 'EXISTIRI GUTTATMA). See 2 Cor.