Priestly usurpation, its cause and consequences : a sermon preached in St. Thomas's, Birmingham, February 11th, 1845 ; on behalf of the Church Pastoral Aid Society, and published at the request of the clergy and others of the congregation assembled on that occasion ; also preached in the parish church, Cheltenham, on Sunday, March 30th, 1845

PRIESTLY U S U R PA T I O N,

ITS CAUSE AND CONSEQUENCES :

A SERMON

PREACHED IN ST. THOMAS S, BIRMINGHAM,

FEBRUARY HTH, 1845,

ON BEHALF OF THE

CHURCH PASTORAL-AID SOCIETY,

AND PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF

THE CLERGY AND OTHERS OF THE CONGREGATION

ASSEMBLED ON THAT OCCASION.

ALSO PREACHED IN THE PARISH CHURCH, CHELTENHAM,
ON SUNDAY, MARCH 30TH, 1845.

BY REV. F. CLOSE, A. M.

LONDON :

HATCHARD AND SON, PICCADILLY ;
HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. PATERNOSTER ROAV.

1845.

PRINTED BY J. J. HADLEY,

Journal Office, Cheltenham.

THE following Sermon was in substance preached at St.
Thomas s, Birmingham, on the evening of the llth of February,
1845, on behalf of the Funds of the Church Pastoral- Aid Society.
It would not have been given to the public in the present shape
but at the special request of the Clergy and others who formed
the Congregation on that occasion.

The Author feels that it is due to those who have thus so
kindly expressed their wish to see in print what they heard from
the pulpit that he should state most explicitly that he can
by no means certify that the following pages are identical, except
in principle, with what he then preached ; and consequently those
who have requested it to be published cannot be held responsible
for its contents. It was quite impossible for him to attempt to
prepare this Sermon for the press until Easter was passed and
even now he has been constrained to write under many dis
advantages arising from parochial cares and public duties.

Anxious however for the truth only he commits this Sermon
to GOD, in the full conviction that the subject matter of it is
agreeable to His revealed word humbly praying that it may be
" accepted of Him" and that He may bless it to the souls of
His people, and make it in some small degree tributary to His
glory !

CHELTENHAM, April 6th, 1840.

PRIESTLY USURPATION,

ITS CAUSE AND CONSEQUENCES.

JEREMIAH v. 30, 31.

"A WONDERFUL AND HORRIBLE THING IS COMMITTED IN THE LAND:
" THE PROPHETS PROPHECY FALSELY, AND THE PRIESTS BEAR
" RULE BY THEIR MEANS, AND MY PEOPLE LOVE TO HAVE IT SO :
" AND WHAT WILL YE DO IN THE END THEREOF."

THESE words form a remarkable climax at the con
clusion of a very fervid prophecy. Jeremiah had been
upbraiding the people in the name of the LORD, and
urging many heavy and grievous charges against them.
" Not a man could be found among them, that executed
judgment, or sought the truth," one such person
should have saved the city ! But they were hardened
under chastisement (v. 2.) " refused to receive cor
rection, and made their faces harder than a rock."
The poor were " foolish," " the rich had broken the
yoke and burst the bond," they were all idolaters,
and many were adulterers ; (v. 7 9.) " they had
dealt treacherously," " belied the LORD," rejected the
faithful prophets were without understanding they
had eyes and saw not, ears and heard not ; " this
people, hath a revolting and rebellious heart they
are revolted and gone ;" (v. 23.) they had " over
passed the deeds of the wicked" nations around them,
so that the LORD exclaimed respecting them (v. 29.)

s

" Shall I not visit for these things I Shall not my

/

soul be avenged on such a nation as this ?" And yet,
after reviewing all the atrocious crimes of the nation,
and the abominations of the people here is something
adduced even more apalling, more deplorable, more
fatal " A WONDERFUL THING," calculated to excite
the deepest astonishment " An HORRIBLE THING,"
one that must call down especial vengeance from on
High and what can this be ? Can any thing be more
dreadful than idolatry, rebellion, treachery, falsehood,
adultery ? "A wonderful and horrible thing is com
mitted in the land the Prophets prophecy falsely,
and the priests bear rule by their means, and my
people love to have it so ; and what will ye do in
the end thereof?"

The fountains of instruction were polluted no
wonder the streams were foul ! The sources of know
ledge were darkened, it was not surprising that igno
rance prevailed ,* lying prophets taught error arrogant
priests lorded over the minds of the people, who will
ingly submitted to the degradation, and what result
could be expected ?

The condition of Judah was lamentable indeed at
this period ; but similar evils are deplored by men of
GOD in successive ages of that Church. The prophets,
it should be remembered, were the principal instruc
tors of the people their office was not merely to
predict things future, but to guide the minds of the
people into the truth. The sacerdotal office under
that dispensation, was chiefly sacrificial, and inter
cessory ; that is, the priests performed the offices of
the temple worship, offered sacrifices interceded for
the peopleand occasionally read the law : but oral
instruction appears to have devolved on prophets,

and seers, and men of GOD, sent from time to time
to the people. And hence it was Satan s policy to
imitate this sacred mission not so much by sending
prophets of Baal, or those who openly attempted to
draw the people to worship false Gods, as by com
missioning men who should profess to speak in the
name of the LORD,, and wear the garb of his servants,
while they prophecied lies, taught falsehood and error,
and hardened the hearts of the people against the
messages of the true prophets.

This device of the wicked-one is complained of
by almost all the inspired men in successive ages,
throughout that dispensation. " Oh ! my people,"
exclaimed the Lord by the prophet Isaiah/ " they
which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the
way of thy paths." And again, " The leaders of
the people cause them to err, and they that are led of
them are destroyed."! " Woe to the foolish prophets,"
saith Ezekiel,+ " that follow their own spirit, and have
seen nothing ; they have seen vanity and lying divi
nation :" &c., and Zephaniah declares that in his day
(( the prophets were light and treacherous persons. "
The character of the teachers of the people in the times

of the Messiah has been fixed by himself " they were

J

blind leaders of the blind." Thus was DOCTRINE cor
rupted by the false prophets, and the priests availed
themselves of the ignorance and error which conse
quently prevailed, to establish their own influence ;
priestly domination naturally springing out of false
doctrine and the spiritual degradation of the people.
The priesthood being then partly a civil and partly a
religious institution, absolute power was thus thrown

* Isaiah iii. 12. t Isaiah ix. 16. : Exckiel xiii. 1-fl. 3 Zephaniah iii. 4.

10

into the hands of this body ; and how grievously they
abused it, and how they trampled on the rights, con
sciences, and liberties of the people, every page of
Jewish history declares. Thus the degradation of
this people became complete" they loved to have it
so" both false doctrine and priestly domination agreed
with a carnal and worldly heart they pursued their
gains, and followed their pleasures, glad to leave others
to think for them ; and to be the keepers of their con
sciences and of their souls.

These things, however, conspired on two occasions
to overthrow the Jewish polity their religion, and their
independence as a nation. " What will ye do in the
end thereof?" Let the Babylonish captivity, and the
second and more terrible destruction of their temple,
city and country, yield the sorrowful reply. False
prophets arrogant priests and the popidar degradation
twice contributed to overwhelm them with calamities !

Although idolatrous crimes committed many years
before, were declared of GOD to be the remote cause of
the first destruction of Jerusalem, the proximate occasion
of that calamity was just this that the people, instigated
by the false prophets and the priests, would not listen
to the faithful warnings of Jeremiah and the LORD S
messengers but obstinately rejected them and perished
accordingly. And all who are in the least acquainted
with the deplorable events connected with the destruction
of Jerusalem by the Romans, know how eminently these
same causes conspired to produce the same effects, and
aggravated the unparalleled sufferings of the inhabitants
of Zion : the fanaticism of false prophets, and the
intrigues of arrogant and ambitious priests, combined to
madden the people, until they provoked retaliation from
their besiegers, appalling to contemplate.

11

The baneful operation of these principles, so solemnly
denounced by the LORD S prophet, might easily be
illustrated at length, by carefully perusing the History
of GOD S ancient people but it is believed that this
would be greatly to narrow the subject. Students of the
universal history of GOD S church and people in all ages,
and under different dispensations, pursuing their enquiry
by the light of Holy Scripture, will discover here the
development of great general principles the exhibition
of errors which are continually appearing as the wheels
of time revolve : discovering themselves, it may be, in a
diversity of forms, assuming a variety of shapes, but
easily identified in their operations. Not in Jewry, nor
under the mosaic economv only, did these causes produce

*/ %/ 7

these effects, but under the Christian dispensation, in all
countries where the Gospel has come, the order of
decay, and the progress of error has been identical THE
CORRUPTION OF DOCTRINE, preceding and making way for

PRIESTLY DOMINATION the PROSTRATION OF THE MINDS

OF THE LAITY following and these united causes bringing
about national, ecclesiastical, and popular degradation,
until wrath comes upon the guilty church or nation !

These are subjects worthy of all consideration in the
present crisis of our own church : let us earnestly pray
that they may now be so handled that slumbering minds
may be aroused the indifferent, awakened and honest
and conscientious persons guided into the path of present
dutv.

B

I. Let us examine this question, whether THK

CORRUPTION OF DOCTRINE HAS NOT GENERALLY BEEN
THE PRECURSOR OF PRIESTLY USURPATION.

It is surprising that any persons with the Holy Scrip
tures in their hands, should either doubt the early intro
duction and diffusion of error in the primitive Christian

12

church, or that they should think it necessary to have
recourse to the doubtful and conflicting testimony of tra
dition on the subject. While yet the spirit of inspiration
lingered in the bosoms of the holy men who were them
selves among the " foundation stones " of the Christian
church, erroneous principles were extensively advocated
and both our LORD himself and his Apostles predicted
that immediately after their departure false and soul
destroying doctrines would be taught and believed. It
would be easy to establish this assertion by almost
innumerable references. Let the testimony of St. Paul,
of St. John, and of the risen and glorified LORD himself,
suffice. " I know," said St. Paul, in his farewell address to
the Elders of Ephesus " I know this, that after my
departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not
sparing the flock. Also of your ownselves shall men
arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples
after them." And the venerable St. John, viewing the
condition of the church universal, not long before he
terminated his pilgrimage on earth, testifies, " Little
children, it is the last time : and as ye have heard that
Antichrist shall come, EVEN NOW THERE ARE MANY ANTI
CHRISTS, whereby we may know that it is the last time
they went out from us but they were not of us,"f &c.
And again he warns the Church " Beloved, believe not
every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of GOD

BECAUSE MANY FALSE PROPHETS ARE GONE OUT INTO THE

WORLD. "{ The solemn addresses of the glorified head
of the church to the angels, or pastors of the seven
churches of Asia, as recorded in the book of Revelation,
afford the most affecting proof of the fearful progress of
false doctrine and the early departure from the truth in

* Acts xx. 29, 30. t 1 John ii. 1820, 22. { I J hn iv 1-

13

some of the most distinguished congregations of the great
Christian community.

And here it is most important to observe, that the
errors denounced in all inspired scripture are chiefly
DOCTRINAL,, and have reference to the very fundamentals of
the faith affecting the person and offices of CHRIST, and
the mode of a sinner s acceptance with GOD. I am not
aware of any new-testament evidence which proves that
the ministers of JESUS or the pastors of the flock had
arrogated to themselves any sacerdotal dignities, or
assumed the qualifications of Jewish Priests : it may be
PREDICTED that they would do so, but they are no where
charged with having done so : no, DOCTRINE must first be
corrupted error must be widely disseminated the
popular ear must become familiar with departures from
the simplicity of the faith, before the great mystery of
iniquity can be developed the very essence of the
superstitious principle the USURPATION OF THE PRIEST
HOOD.

After the departure of the blessed Apostles, and the
cessation of inspiration doctrinal errors multiplied sur
prisingly and ere long church history records the
gradual rise of that ecclesiastical despotism which ulti
mately settled down upon the Christian world. The
student may discover, if he will, the contemporaneous and
coincident growth of false doctrine and the obscuration of
scriptural truth and knowledge along with the successful
aspirations after power in the order of the Priesthood.
The incipient principle of Judaism denounced by the
Apostle Paul soon gathered strength ; " THE CHURCH
THE CHURCH," by which men were soon taught to
understand the CLERGY placed herself on the throne
of CHRIST, and superseded the authority of the Holy
Scriptures extravagant notions of the sanctity of places

14

of vestments and of church furniture, became preva
lent Christian FAKIRS, impostors, and workers of lying
wonders abounded until the PRIESTLY USURPATION chose
for itself a visible head, and presented itself to Christen
dom the very personification of the superstitious and
sacerdotal principle in the person of the Pope ! This
could not take place until doctrine had been effectually
corrupted until the minds of the people had been
blinded, and truth had well nigh been extinguished.
Thus the " CORRUPTION OF DOCTRINE," introduced the

" USURPATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD."

This was fully illustrated at the time of the blessed
and glorious Reformation. No sooner had the circula
tion of the Book of GOD and the faithful preaching of
the Gospel, diffused sound doctrine, dissipated the
delusions of ages and taught men that they were respon
sible beings and must answer for themselves at the bar
of GOD then the whole system of priestly domination
was dissipated as the dew of the morning ! The doctrine
of justification by faith, exploded the priest s doctrine of
justification by baptism stripped of the confessional,
intercession, sacrifice, penance, &c., the office of the
ministry of the word was reduced to its scriptural
character and dimensions : and for a time at least, the
superstitious principle almost disappeared.

That this baneful influence has again revived and
widely extended itself through our beloved Church in
these last days can hardly be denied. It is a mysterious,
undefined, romantic and rapidly progressive influence,
which seems by some unconscious process to affect

in A MEASURE AND DEGREE ALMOST EVERY MIND. Its

uniform and manifest tendency being to restore the

USURPATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD !

15

It is important then to trace the origin und rise of
this principle. As in all other cases, it has been pre
ceded by a WIDE CORRUPTION OF DOCTRINE. Fifteen
or twenty years ago such a feeling had no existence,
certainly no perceptible influence amongst us : the public
mind seemed to be strongly biassed by the very opposite
tendency to incredulity, liberalism in church matters,
and contempt for all established religious customs. Then
it was that the Oxford Tractarians commenced their
baneful labours : they assailed one fundamental doctrine
of GOD S truth after another they laid the axe at the
root of the tree when they attempted to deny or pervert
THE RULE or FAITH : teaching that the Scriptures alone
were not a sufficient guide or authority ; and associating*
tradition, or the Church as of equal authority with the
inspired Word of GOD. The present design will not
allow space for an enumeration of the particular links
in the great chain of corrupt doctrine that was forged in
this foundry of error : but it is well known that those
tracts are prolific in unscriptural statements that bap
tismal justification the authority of tradition the
duty of confession to a priest the doctrine of
reserve the depreciation of oral instruction and many
other collateral and dependant errors issued forth
from this source ; until the maximum of sophistry
was displayed in Tract 90, a theory since practically
illustrated in the open avowal of Popish tenets by
persons still holding orders and preferment in the
Protestant Church of England.

These opinions have been diffused with a zeal,
and ability, and at a eost, worthy of a better cause;
and to their wide diffusion alone can be traced not
only the Romanizing tendencies of some, and the
actual apostacy of others, but what is most to be

16

deplored and dreaded that air of SUPERSTITION which
more or less affects nearly all persons !

A careful perusal of any or all of the writings
of the Tractarians, will discover that as surely as all
the lines in a picture, by the laws of perspective,, must
tend to one point, so the speculations and practices
of these men all conspire to one result, THE SUPER
STITIOUS AND UNSCRIPTURAL EXALTATION OF THE

PRIESTHOOD. Witness the revival of the system of
medieval architecture and church decoration ! Their
holy of holies the sacrariumthe sedilia the exclusion
of the laity from the chancel the elevation of the altar
and its adoring priests above the people sacred garni
ture in all the abundance of its Popish details, to which
of late the public mind, has been specially directed : all
these and such like practices and theories only tend to
one object, the extravagant, and popish exaltation of THE
HOLY CASTE ! Hence the attempted exclusion of the
Laity from the exercise of private judgment in church
matters the haughty tone assumed by some ecclesiastics
respecting them, as though divine knowledge, wisdom,
intelligence, and understanding, were monopolized in the
sacred line, and were the heir -loom of those who had
received " the laying on of hands !" The distinct and
avowed inculcation of the dogma that the clergy with
the bisnops are the Church that they and they alone
are to decide upon matters both doctrinal and ceremonial
and that the very utterance of the lay voice is schis-
matical, and a guilty intrusion into things holy such are
some of the theories now propagated. The bare fact that
such monstrous clerical presumption as this is not put
down at once by the indignant voice of public opinion, is
a proof of the wide-extended influence of the spirit
of superstition. It might be expected that a system that

17

APPEARED to aggrandize the Clergy, and to inculcate
passive submission to episcopal authority, might offer
a too flattering temptation to human nature in the clerical
garb to be immediately put down by the spiritual power-
although the hollo wness of such abject professions of
clerical obedience has since been sufficiently exposed by
the refractory conduct of certain popishly inclined malig-
nants. But we shoidd have expected that the childish
absurdities of the decorative parts of the system, and the
obvious popish tendency of the whole, would have
awakened alarm in the breasts of all Protestant laymen,
as soon as its tendencies were developed : but no the
religious atmosphere had become so gradually tainted, the
poison was diffused with such subtlety truth was so
ingeniously mingled with error, right and wrong were so
confounded, that the result has been a far more general
reception of the real VIRUS of the system than com
mon observers perceive, or will be persuaded to admit.
But all this could not have been, EXCEPT DOCTRINE

HAD FIRST BEEN CORRUPTED ! The SUPERSTITIOUS PRIN
CIPLE vegetates only in proportion to the corruption of
the soil in which it grows the aggrandizement and in
tolerance of the priesthood can be borne only by a
people from whose eyes the truth has been withdrawn
or who have, at least in a measure,, departed from the
guidance and supreme authority of the written word.
And just in proportion as the mind is stored with scrip
tural truth feels its power, and is enlightened,
sanctified and taught by the Spirit of God, just in
that proportion will it be enabled to discover the
falsehoods that lie beneath this deceitful surface just
so much will it detect truth from error, the precious
from the vile light from darkness, and like the giver
of that spirit himself" it will know how to refuse
the evil and choose the good."

B

18

It is no part of my present purpose to shew the
divine origin of a Christian ministry nor to mark the
just limits which scripture and the Reformed Church
appear to put to the exercise of its authority :---!
am not now called to vindicate an enlightened and
scriptural episcopacy. I am contending against the
exaggerated opinions so generally held on these sub
jects on the present day endeavouring to prove that
this is the real evil to be apprehended, and tracing it
to the previous departure from doctrinal truth. And
allowing me a personal allusion for a moment, I would
apply to those who would represent me as op
posed to the principles of the Church of England
as they were universally received and adopted when
I entered her holy precincts, the language of
the Apostle when opposing very similar errors
" Are they Hebrews ? So am I ! Are they Israel
ites ? So am I ! Are they ministers of CHRIST ?
So am I !" Born and nurtured in the bosom of our
scriptural Church, devotedly attached alike to her sound
confession of faith, to her scriptural orders, and to the
simplicity of her ceremonial I hope to live and die \
within her pale : but if the loyalty of my attachment
to her is to be questioned because I protest against those
who would take from her the simple garments in which
she has ministered for three nundred years, and cover
her again with the meretricious decorations which she
then renounced who would again rivet the chains of
priestly tyranny upon the hands of the Laity, and trans
form her ministering servants into Popish or Jewish,
sacrificing and interceding priests then am I content to
bear the odium ! yea, I would rather glory in it ! I
will only add that the MINISTRY which St. Paul committed
to Timothy and Titus, from all we can find in Holy
Scripture, is as little like the pretended figment claimed

19

by the Tractarians, as k is to the order that issues from
the Vatican, or the rites of the ambitious school of the
Jesuits themselves !

But we hasten now to consider II. That PROSTRA
TION OF THE MIND OF THE LAITY, which is the natural
result of the corruption of doctrine and the usurpation of
power by the priesthood. In the middle ages of the
church this prostration was almost universal haughty
churchmen placed their feet on the necks of kings ! Rome
Pagan never obtained a wider sway, nor ever exercised
such despotic power as did Rome Papal ! Men dared
not think for themselves the Clergy monopolized what
learning was suffered to exist and the mass of the
people were the victims of a degraded, superstitious,
corrupt and absolute ecclesiastical despotism ! Mind
became entombed in superstition and the energies of
men were fettered and palsied by the mysterious
invisible power that had gathered around them and
settled down upon them. Ages of corrupt doctrine,
prepared the way for centuries of superstition ; a state
of things which nothing but the revival, and restoration
of sound doctrine could interrupt. " The people loved
to have it so" they were content to be saved by proxy
to hand over to the priesthood their consciences and
their souls in life, and in the intermediate state, which
they were taught to believe was purgatorial. The grand
spectacles of a pompous and gorgeous ceremonial pleased
the eye and the occasional austerities enjoined were
compensated for by the preceding or subsequent indul-
gencies in all the pleasures of the world.

In this state do those parts of the Romish world still
continue which have not been visited or purified by
Protestant truth. In Spain, in Portugal of course in
the dominions of the Pope in South America and as

B 2

grossly as anywhere else, IN IRELAND itself, the super
stitious principle the domination of the spiritual power
the absolutism of the priesthood is still fully and
perfectly displayed. Mind is prostrate before the
Church ! The will of the priesthood is the law of the
people passive, unreasoning, unmurmuring obedience
to the infallible injunctions of their spiritual guides, is
exacted and obtained from a population into whose minds
a ray of scriptural truth is not allowed to enter ; doctrine
is effectually corrupted the mind of the Laity is pro-
portionably enslaved !

That a state of things approximating to this could
ever occur again in this country or that principles
in the least degree akin to these should ever again take
hold of the mind of the people of Great Britain, would
a few years since have been deemed chimerical and
impossible. That infidelity and liberalism might have
assumed a bold front, and carried away many converts
after them, might not have been deemed improbable
but that in this s^reat countrv, celebrated for the intelli-

* J

gence, activity and independance of its inhabitants
where learning, science, intellectual cultivation, and the
pursuit of natural philosophy and the liberal arts have
greatly revived that in such a country as this, and at
such a period in her history as ours, any considerable
portion of the people should show favour to a system so
foreign to our laws, our constitution, our habits and our
religion, appears to be a thing wholly incredible ! But
we have not calculated upon the congeniality of false
doctrine with the natural heart of man in all ages we
have not remembered that the religion of sensation and
of visible and tangible objects has always had affinity
with the unconverted heart. The very austerities of
such a system are welcomed if they be connected with

21

worldly indulgence. The leiiteii fast, however rigid,
will be observed by thousands, if you will give them
a carnival before it, and a maypole festival after it :
" THE ROYAL BOOK or SPORTS" and " the temptations
of St. Anthony," are more nearly connected than
superficial thinkers imagine.

There is much too that is captivating to the youthful
mind, especially in the adjuncts of the system, its
subordinate decorations, and in the method of its diffusion.
Poetry, music, painting, architecture, romance, fiction,
legend, genius, learning imagination everything but
TRUTH has lent its aid to bewilder and fascinate the
minds of too many who were ill instructed in the faith
of their Protestant forefathers, and little acquainted with
the word of GOD. An education chiefly conversant with
heathen mythology formed a poor barrier against the
Christian mythology of the early Church : as the
transition in those days from the worship of Jupiter and
Venus, to that of the Virgin Mary and St. Peter,
was not found difficult or rare so neither does imagina
tion find it difficult in these days to pass from the fables
of heathen poets and historians to those of men wearing
the mask of Christianity. However this may be, certain
and lamentable it is that the spirit of superstition has
again enthralled the minds of many, and those by no
means the uneducated and the ignorant. Laymen may
be found of birth, and station of fair talents, and much
cultivation of mind, whose spirits are to an extraordinary
degree bowed down by credulity and superstition. Some
even in professions in which the free operation of the
intellectual faculty is especially required and who
display its power in ordinary and secular affairs, appear
in religion to be palsied, and rendered mentally imbecile !
not venturing to think, or to reason but blindly

22

surrendering themselves to the guidance of the Church
THAT is TO THE CLERGY guidance which upon all
other matters they would probably utterly repudiate, if
not despise. That this prostration of the mind of the
laity is the very object and design of the section of
the clergy whose tendency is Homeward cannot be
doubted but that any educated laymen should be
weak enough to submit to it, is surprising.

It is however matter of profound thankfulness to
Almighty GOD, that this disposition has not as yet
appeared in the great body of the Laity of this
country : it cannot yet be said by the GOD of this

land " MY PEOPLE LOVE TO HAVE IT SO !" It IS

confidently hoped that there is among the people at
large a great body of sound, intelligent, scriptural
Protestants not a few who are imbued with those
scriptural doctrines of evangelical truth from which
they will not be easily diverted.

It has pleased GOD that before "this pestilence
which walketh in darkness," was let loose among
us, many holy men and faithful teachers should
have been raised up our Scotts and Venns, and
Simeons, and such as these, who for the last fifty
years have been inoculating the public mind with
spiritual truth the people have appreciated their
labours, and thousands have laid hold of the hope
of the gospel, received the truth in the love and
power of it " know the joyful sound," and these
men having fed on bread, will not be satisfied with
a stone having possessed the wheat, they will not
be satisfied with the chaff, having drank deep of
the old wine of gospel grace, they will not be
satisfied with the new wine of Romanism nor will
they submit to see their Christian teachers meta-

23

morphosed into popish priests : neither in doctrine
nor in ceremony will they submit to alteration, nor
to the introduction of ancient novelties.

Had this poisonous Upas Tree been planted in our
land fifty years sooner, when priests and people were
too much alike indifferent, careless, and lukewarm, the
results would have been far more terrible but now the
antidote is more widely diffused than the poison and
as far as the great body of the people are concerned,
little fear of the prevalence of the superstitious principle
need be entertained. Far be it from any good man
to countenance popular commotion, or to sanction the
ebullition of ungovernable, riotous, and disorderly
feelings but all who believe in the dangerous cha
racter of the evil in question, and who perceive how
feeble an opposition is offered to it by the Clerical
body at large, must rejoice in witnessing the calm,
dignified, and determined aspect which LAY PROTES
TANTISM has assumed. Woe be unto us, if this spirit
be restrained or bridled ! Woe be unto us if the Clergy
range themselves in an attitude of hostility against the
people an instructed, intelligent, pious, and protestant
Laity who are awaking to a sense of their religious
rights and privileges ; and who have been driven by the
intolerance of a few to examine into these things, and
have discovered that they A are an integral part of the
body of CHRIST S church: and they are now respectfully
teaching the Clergy that though they may be the head,
or the more honourable members, yet they are not
the body, but only a PART of the body, which is CHRIST S
holy universal church. Upon the wisdom, firmness,
discernment, and consistency of the pious Laity, the
safety of the Church of England, chiefly, under GOD
at this moment depends. Every shade of superstition

24

is discoverable in the minds of the Clergy in some
the obscuration is already complete, they have sub
merged under the Romish apostacy many others are
more or less clouded in their views on the subject
of sacraments and sacerdotal authority the value of
apostolical dissent, and the efficacy of the episcopate
the faithful and enlightened feel themselves hampered
in many ways by difficulties unknoAvn even to con
scientious laymen ; and therefore upon Christian laymen
the chief responsibility must practically be thrown by
the peculiarities of the times. This however will be
further manifest by considering the stirring question
of the text " WHAT WILL YE DO IN THE END

THEREOF ?"

III. THE PERILS OF THE CHURCH AND NATION

IN CONSEQUENCE OF THESE THINGS. And who shall

venture to give an answer to this question ? Who
can calculate the issue of that strife of principle which
is now maintained in the bosom of the Church of
England itself? The prophetic spirit alone could say
ee what shall be done in the end thereof?" But this
much we may argue that what has been, may be again.
Such causes have produced such effects similar causes
will produce similar results ! Look, we then, at the
past. Gaze for a moment on the land of the nativity of
Christianity ! Cast your eyes eastward, to the shores
of the Levant let them wander northward and south
ward. Contemplate the once fair surface of Asia Minor
from Antioch in Syria, along the travels of St. Paul
to the Hellespont where are the famous Churches
of Smyrna Ephesus Laodicea, and their sister towns ?
Where are those of Northern Africa, celebrated for
their pious and venerable bishops ? Mouldering amidst
the dust of Islamism ! Decayed, faded away, destroyed !

35

The sun-light of truth has set on them, and rising upon
us, has left them in total obscuration ! and whence was
all this ? It was nought but the corruption of doctrine
making way for the usurpation of the Priesthood,
accomplishing together the prostration of the minds of
the people, until error and wickedness so prevailed that
GOD withdrew from them took away his truth and
there is the result which speaks to all who have ears
to hear !

Why should not the same process ultimately
produce the same results in modern times ? Is there
not a general expectation among prophetical students
of all classes that something of this kind is predicted
in the latter days ? However this may be, we may
teach with the authority of inspiration and of in
fallibility, that any Christian State or Church, which
throws itself into the arms of Popery, must perish
ultimately in the horrible embrace ! If Great Britain
descend from her high vantage ground, and bit by bit
deserting her Protestant principles, endow, cherish,
foster, and by her Government uphold Popery she
is doomed there is no escape she is implicated in
the " Plagues," recorded against that anti-Christian
power, and must share its destiny ! If our Church,
purified with the blood of martyrs, who were de
voured in flames kindled by the Roman tyrant, again
pollute herself with its abominations she too will
be involved in the destined calamities ! These truths
may seem as the raving of fanaticism to those who
are as little acquainted with the Word of GOD, and
with the abominations of Popery, as we are with the
mysteries of state intrigue ; but their ignorance, in
difference, or contempt, will not alter GOD S truth,
which has ever been despised and neglected by the

26

world against which it testifies ! May GOD in mercy
avert from our highly-favoured church and nation
the judgments which they most righteously have
deserved : and may He show to us our duty in
this important crisis !

Passing therefore from speculations of the future,
to the urgent responsibilities of the present we may
change the words of the text a little, and give them
a more practical turn. To GOD alone belongs the
future He alone can tell what shall be done in the
END thereof: but it is for us to ask what shall we
do now ? What can we, each one of us do, according
to our station and ability to avert the coming dangers.

OUR FIRST GREAT DUTY IS TO LOOK WELL TO OUR

OWN SOULS : no man will ultimately withstand this
sweeping torrent of superstition except he be strength
ened from on high, unless his own heart be fortified
by sound Christian principle. It is not the mere adop- ^
tion of scriptural doctrine, nor a quick perception of
error that will save us, we must be personally, indi
vidually imbued with the effectual grace of GOD we
must each and all of us be the subjects of true and deep
repentance we must have a personal interest in the
finished work of CHRIST, by faith we must walk with
him in love, in secret prayer, in holy affections, drawing
out of his fulness grace for grace daily evincing by the
conformity of our life and conversation to his holy law,
that it is indeed written in our hearts such, and such
only will be able " to stand in the evil day !" Their \
feet are on the rock even CHRIST and firmly planted on
him, they shall not be removed though heaven and
earth pass away.

But while our first and most important duty now, as
at all times, is to make our calling and election sure

21

and to look well to the foundations of our own faith and
hope in CHRIST the peculiar lesson of the times appears
to be this, " that no man must live to himself and
no man must die to himself." The selfish principle is
our great enemy engendering sloth and indifference to
the interests of others, and of the country at large. Men
forget that they are citizens as well as Christians and
that they owe something more than passive duties to the
state that by petitioning the legislature, and influencing
their representatives in every lawful and honourable
way they are bound to show themselves for the truth,
and to rescue their country from being sold to Antichrist.
Many are hindered from discharging these pressing
duties by the cry of moderation and expediency. Let
it never be forgotten that there is the moderation of
timidity the moderation of indecision the moderation
of indiscrimination aye, and the moderation of TREA
CHERY too and that not all are to be trusted who cry
out " be cautious, be prudent, don t go too far"
which often means nothing more nor less than yielding
the vantage ground to the world, or to the emissaries
of the great enemy of souls : false prophets " crying
peace, peace, when there is no peace."

But there is yet another, and still more urgent class
of duties which press upon us all in times like these viz :

THE VIGOROUS SUPPORT OF ALL THOSE INSTITUTIONS FOR
THE SPIRITUAL BENEFIT OF OUR FELLOW CREATURES
WHICH ARE PLEDGED TO CONDUCT THEIR PROCEEDINGS

UPON SOUND PRINCIPLES. In the time of war, any ship
which will not show her colours is dealt with as an enemy
or a pirate so in critical times like the present, it behoves
all religious societies to let their principles be honestly
known, otherwise they will be regarded as a " suspicious
sail." Now the Institution which we are this evening met

28

to support, has nobly unfolded her banner, and honestly
fought under it for the truth. The CHURCH PASTORAL
AID SOCIETY is simple and scriptural in her object, and
consistent in her mode of accomplishing it. She remem
bers the distinctive characteristic of Christianity as given
by its divine founder " TO THE POOR THE GOSPEL is
PREACHED." All her efforts are directed to benefit the
poor the thousands and tens of thousands of poor, who
by reason of the Church s deficiency and inadequacy,
have no pastor to tend them. Her object is to multiply
pastors, under the guidance and direction of existing
parish clergymen, who shall " preach the Gospel to the
poor" but her chief care is, THAT WHAT THEY PREACH
SHALL BE THE GOSPEL. She is not, nor can she be
satisfied in times like these, with the ordinary guarantee
afforded by the discipline of our Church ; how can she be,
when avowed Papists with all their Protestant oaths upon
them, lurk in her bosom ? The least she can do is to take
care that those whose salary she supplies " preach none
other doctrine" " contend earnestly for the truth" and
" know nothing among the people but JESUS CHRIST and
him crucified." If any of her servants fail in this, she
simply withdraws her pecuniary support did she do
otherwise she would be faithless to her sacred trust, and
to those subscribers who support her entirely on this
ground, that they feel secure of the principles of the
agents whom she employs.

Nor is the Pastoral Aid Society unimportant for
another consideration : it has honestly upheld the LAY
principle in the Church : in strict accordance with the
apostolic customs, it has from the first employed certain
carefully chosen persons (not however SELECTED, but
only APPROVED by the society) who have filled the office
of scripture readers and district visitors, under the direc-

29

tion of the clergyman of the parish, assisting him in such
duties as a layman can properly perform. These pious
persons have been found useful and efficient auxiliaries
to pastors who are overwhelmed with the pressure of their
spiritual charge. It need only be added that the funds
of this admirable, scriptural, and truly Church of England
Society, are not equal to the demands which are made on
them several grants are at this moment withheld from
some most neglected districts, simply for this reason :
20,000 per annum, is necessary in order to keep up the
present staff of labourers, and there is now a deficiency of
NEARLY 3,000.

If then we value our civil and religious liberties
if we love the scriptural doctrines, and primitive customs
of our Church if we dread the inroads of scarcely
concealed Popery if we would save our beloved Church
out of the hands of those who would betray her to Rome,
then let us cheerfully and liberally give of our substance,
our influence, and our prayers, towards the support of
a Society so truly biblical, Protestant, and eminently
useful as that which this day solicits our bounty. And
may GOD effectually bless " our work of faith and labour
of love !"

FINIS.

BY THE SAME AUTHOR.

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