BISHOP WHITE'S OPINIONS.
** Angels and living saints, and dead,
But one communion make :
All join in CHRIST, their vital Head,
And of his love partake."
Hymn 26 : 5.
BISHOP WHITE'S OPINIONS
Certain Si)eoIo£[fcal anti JEccIesiastCcal ^otntsf
A COMPILATION FROM THE WRITINGS AND IN THB
WORDS OF
The Rt. Rev. WM. WHITE, D.D.,
SOMSTIUS BISHOP UF FKNN3YLVANIA.
33s 3 Protestant lEpfscojpaltan.
He beins dead, yet speaketh."— Heb. xi. 4.
NEW YORK:
HENRY M. ONDERDONK & CO.,
CHURCH PUBLISHING AND BOOKSELLING ESTABLISHMEHt.
25 JOHN STREET.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846,
by Hknry M. ONDERDOjfK., in the Clerk's Office
of the District Court for the Southern District of New
York.
•TO
THE YOUNGER
OF
THE MEMBERS, CLERICAL AND LAY,
OF
THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
THIS COMPILATION
J-ROM THE WRITINGS OF THAT GODLY KAJi
AND BISHOP,
DOCTOR WILLIAM AM^IITE,
IS
INSCRIBED,
« A respectable old iViend of WASHINGTON, wlio-^e
patriotic prayers and blessings have, in this Congress
Hall, been associated with the most important events of
the Revolution." — Gen. Lafayette's description of
Bishop White. — Vide Reply to Address. S,'c.
ADVERTISEMENT.
This compilation seeks, among other ends, the good of
a generation which has grown up since our Right
Rev. Fathers in God, the earher Bishops of the Ame-
rican Church, have gone to their rest. They Uved in
troublous days, and did the work of God right man-
fully : it is not meet to forget them, or the times when,
as the venerable Bishop Moore, ol Virginia* says, •' The
Altars around which our fathers kneeled, were destitute
of sacerdotal aid ; our baptismal fonts were levelled with
the dust : there was no priest to receive our little inno-
cents into covenant with God, or to break to their
disconsolate parents the bread of Hfe."
That the present generation of Churchmen may
study, in the very words of one of the most revered of
these sainted Prelates, certain points of Church prin-
ciples and opinions, and may learn, by God's help, to
emulate the purity of his character, and to attain to
the charity of his life, so that, at the last, they may
come to eternal joy, through JESUS CHRIST OUR
LORD,
Is the humble desire
Of their brother,
THE COMPILER.
July, 1846.
* Conv. Ser. p. 13.
AMERICAN EPISCOPACY.
Patriots informed with Apostolic light
Were they, who, when their country had been freed,
Bowing with reverence to the ancient creed,
Fixed on the frame of England's Church their sight.
And strove in filial love to re-unite
What force had severed. Thence they fetched the
seed
Of Christian unity, and won a meed
Of praise from Heaven. To thee, O saintly White !
Patriarch of a wide-spreading family,
Remotest lands and unborn times shall turn.
Whether they would restore or build — to thee,
As one who rightly taught how zeal should bum,
As one who drew from out faith's holiest urn
The purest stream of patient energy,
Wm. Wordsworth.
Section I.
©rijinal Sin.
" Behold I was shapen in iniquity ; and in sin did
my mother conceive me.'' — Psalmli. 5.
" Man is very far gone from original righteousness."
--From Art. IX.
" The Churchman lays at the foundation of his faith
and practice the doctrine of the corruption of human
nature, leading to those actual transgressions which
render man guilty in the sight of God, and rendering
unworthy of divine acceptance his best works." — Bf.
Hohart. 2d charge, p. 6.
Q. What is the ground-work of the
scheme of Redemption ?
A. Bishop White says,* " The ground-
work of the whole scheme is man's loss
of his original righteousness ; that, hy
way of remedy of this, the mediatorial
character of Christ involving the sacri-
fice which he made for sin, in the strict
* Con. Ser. 1801, p, 16.
10 BISHOP white's opinions.
and proper meaning of the expressions ;
as connected with every branch of the
subject, his divinity, and his existence
before all ages ; and, as stamping a cha-
racter on the entire design, its being a
dispensation of grace, meaning of grace
or favor as the operating motive of the
divine mind, and of grace or aid as co-
essential to man's performance of the
conditions of the gospel covenants, are
points not dependent on detached pas-
sages of holy writ, but pervading all its
books."
Q. What is man's state by nature ?
A. Bishop White says,* " By nature,
he is ignorant of God and of his perfec-
tions; and without ability to acquire
right conceptions of that only source of
religious and moral obligation. This is
not the worst ; for although his faculties,
Sermon on Festival of H. Innocents, p. 7.
H
his affections, and his appetites are
wisely suited to their respective ends,
and in the right direction, would consti-
tute him a perfect being ; yet, in conse-
quence of the weakness of intellect, of
the strength of passion, and of the ex-
citements of temptations, originating in
his wants ; being all the effects of the
apostacy ; we have within us the ope-
rating cause of every irregular desire,
which may be kept within limits by
prudential considerations, but can no
otherwise be subdued, than by the pow-
erful influence of divine grace."
Q. What is the effect of the fall ?
A, Bishop White says,* " As the effect
of the fall we are to acknowledge and
teach constantly, that all right to im-
mortality was lost in Adam ; and that,
by our descent from him, our under-
* Comment, p. 81.
12 BISHOP white's opnions.
standings become darkened, and our
wills depraved ; or, as the 9th article
speaks, " We are far gone from original
righteousness ;" so that, without the
mercy of God, through Christ, we are
amenable to his justice for the punish-
ment of sin in a future liie, from which
nothing in or of ourselves can rescue us."
Section II.
©f i\)t plan of Sabation.
" Neither is their salvation in any other ; for there is
none other name under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved." — The Acts, iv. 12.
" Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the name
of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved." — From
Art. XVIII.
'•It is this doctrine of justification and salvation only
through the free grace of God in Jesus Christ, his
divine Lord and Redeemer, which the Churchman
daily and constantly cherishes as the only solace of his
wounded conscience, and the only ground on which he
can hope for acceptance at the tribunal of his Almighty
Judge, and for advancement to the celestial glories
BISHOP white's opinions. 13
which infinitely transcend the merit of his best worKS."
— Bp. Hobart, 3d charge, p. 6.
Q. State the scheme of salvation,
guarding it from erroneous statements ?
A. BishopWhite says,* "Every scheme
of religion, which denies the divine
character, or the propitiatory sacrifice
of the Redeemer ; or which represents
man in any other character than that of
a sinner, needing pardon ; or which ex-
alts human reason, to the lowering of
the estimation of divine illumination in
the Scriptures ; or which creates a de-
pendence on our own strength, to the
undervaluing of the aids of the Holy
Spirit; or which arrogates merit to
works, to the detriment of the merits of
the great sacrifice of the cross ; is so
far wdde of the leading sense of revela-
tion, that w^e may consider it as " a fall
from grace."
* Ordination Ser. 1826, p. 10.
14 BISHOP white's opinions.
Q. May the righteousness of the Re-
deemer be exhibited in a false form ?
A, Bishop White says,* '' By men,
who were incapable of intending the re-
laxation of moral obligation, the righte-
ousness of the Redeemer has been exhi-
bited in such a form, as that other men,
corrupt in their views, have, by strict
deduction from the premises of the for-
mer, denied the necessity of any right-
eousness, either in heart or in practice.
Their loud cry is of a finished salvation,
without such a sequence. This is the
ground of the strong hold of the Anti-
nomians : strong, on the admission of
the sufficiency of the ground ; but other-
wise, as unreal as the " baseless fabric
of a vision."
Q. What is the true and only ground
of acceptance with God ?^
* Ord. Ser. 1825, p. 21.
BISHOP white's opinions. 15
A. Bishop White says,* " The true
and only ground of acceptance with
God, is the merits of our Lord and Sa-
viour Jesus Christ, through the sacrifice
on the Cross ; ah merit, on the part of
man, being utterly excluded and de-
nied."
Section III.
(Df ©ootr tDorks.
"Who ^ve himself for tis, that he might redeem
us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar
people, zealous of good works." — Titus i. 14.
" By them a hvely faith may be as evidently known,
as a tree discerned by the fruit." — From Art, XII.
" The Churchman insists on the necessity of that
spiritual change denoted in Scripture by the terms sanc-
tification, renewing of the mind, renewing of the Holy
Ghost." He employs no other standard to ascertain the
sanctifying presence of the divine Spirit in his soul,
than the holy tempers which are produced there, and
which exhibit the fruits of godliness and righteousness
of life." — Bp. Hobart, 3d charge, p. 9.
* Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 96.
16 BISHOP white's opinions.
Q. What is the end of the Gospel ?
A, Bishop White says,* " The whole
end of the Gospel is satisfied, in its
bringing of men to " live soberly, reli-
giously, and godly, in this present
world." But to accomplish this, it
must be taken in connexion w4th " the
grace of God, that bringeth salvation."
Thus, the whole body of divine truth is
addressed to us as sinful beings, who
have need of the mercy of God ; and, as
frail beings, dependent on his aids;
and who, therefore, will not be mate-
rially benefitted by a scheme of instruc-
tion, accommodated to a grade of cha-
racter of which they feel themselves un-
conscious."
Q. By what test shall we know that
we are under the guidance of the spirit ?
A. Bishop White says,t " We may
* Genl. Semy. Address, 1822, p. 7.
+ Sem. Address, 1823, p. 7,
BISHOP white's opinions. 17
know it exactly in proportion as it is
discoverable in holy habits, manifesting
themselves in holy actions."
Q. What obligation lies on every one
Avho looks for salvation through Christ ?
A Bishop White says,* '' There lies
on every one, who looks for salvation
throygh Christ, the obligation of making
a profession of his name ; which can be
done only in the ordinances of his ap-
pointment."
Section IV.
(Df (EtJangcllsm U (EDangelical Prcadjlng.
" But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do
the work of an Evangelist, make full proof of thy
ministry." — 2 Tim. iv. 6.
" It (EvangeHcal) properly denotes those who preach
in all respects the doctrines of the gospel, which are
emphatically ' good tidings.' " — B-p. Hobart, 4th charge,
p. 9.
* Cons. Ser. 1809, p. 33.
18 BISHOP white's opinions.
Q. What are the various meanings at-
tached to " Evangelism" or Evangelical
doctrines ?
A. Bishop White says,* " With some
it comprehends such views of the sove-
reignty of God, as are inconsistent with
what our Church affirms of, 'the obla-
tion of Christ for the sins of the whole
world.' ' In the notions of others, it is
connected with such an excitement of
animal sensibility, as we have no in-
stance of in the Bible, except in what is
recorded of the issue joined between Eli-
jah and the Priests of Baal. And, in
some instances, there has been a subser-
viency to the purposes of party, for the
making of inroads on the institutions of
our Church. So far as the present
speaker can judge from his own observa-
tion, and from his reading in the eccle-
* Genl. Sem. Address, 1822, p. 6,
19
siastical histories of the Church of Eng-
land, however honorable the epithet of
evangelical in the proper sense of the
word, yet, when applied to the pufposes
of party, it has a tendency to reconcile
the conscience to any expedients, how-
ever contrary to good morals, which
may seem conducive to what may per-
haps be esteemed the cause of gospel
truth.' Whatever may be the degree of
weight to w^hich this expression of opi-
nion may be thought entitled, it is the
more solicitously delivered, in conse-
quence of having known some who have
begun with upright views in the path
now cautioned against, and have gra-
dually settled down, if not in known hy-
pocrisy, yet in a cast of conversation
and conduct, necessary for the main-
taining of consistency, but not suffici-
ently distant from the pharisaical cha-
20 BISHOP white's opinions,
racter held out to our disapprobation in
the Gospel."
Q. Are there false definitions of evan-
gelical preaching ?
A. Bishop White says,* " That with
some the idea of evangelical preaching
comprehends much abstract speculation ;
so that let there be acknowledged, ever
so explicitly, man's unworthiness in
himself, and his entire dependence on
divine grace, yet shall he be deemed a
denier of it ; unless he acknowledge a
series of metaphysical refinements, not
found in the Scriptures, but engrafted on
the stock of Christianity, by the over-
curious inventions ol men. In this re-
spect, professed zeal for evangelical
preaching is merely specious and im-
posing; confounding it with some sys-
* Con. Ser. 1811, p. 21.
BISHOP white's OPINIONS. 21
tern that has more in it of philosophy
than of Christianity ; there being here
understood, by the former term, what St.
Paul understood when he used it with the
explanatory addition, ' falsely so called.' "
Again : Bishop White says, '* To some
ears, nothing short of Calvinism comes
under the character of evangelical preach-
ing ; w^hile again to some, a sermon ap-
proaches to the proper standard in this
respect, in proportion as it has a ten-
dency to excite animal sensibility."
Q. Is there another erroneous defini-
tion of evangelical preaching ?
A. Bishop White says,* " There are
some persons who entertain the opinion,
that to render a sermon truly evangeli-
cal, it should exhibit the whole Chris-
tian doctrine in epitome. It is easy to
perceive, that, according to the last the-
* Commentaries, p. 157.
22 BISHOP white's opinions.
ory, there is not in Scripture a single
apostolic address which answers to the
character of a preaching of Christ."
Q. Are there " various fancies which
set reason and reyelation in contrariety ?"
A. Bishop White* says, " Of that de-
scription we may consider means of
conversion, which agitate the pas-
sions without conveying any information
to the understanding ; and according to
which there are supposed assurances of
salvation, without the possession of a
particle of knowledge, either of the
truths of our holy religion, or of the
grounds on which it rests. Under the
same class is the sentiment avowed by
some that the proper way of communi-
cating the Gospel to those who are
strangers to it, is by merely preaching
Christ to them, in the offices in which
* Comment, p. 31.
BISHOP white's opinions. 23
he is designated in Scripture; leaving
the issue to the operation of divine
grace. It ought to be a subject of grief,
when, in reading accounts of the labors
of pious men, for the converting of
heathen nations, we find this the only
ground on which the desired conversion
was either attempted or expected. There
is here no hesitation to express the opi-
nion that it in some measure accounts
lor the almost absolute inefficacy of their
zeal and pains."
Q, Give an instance of Bishop White's
use of the term " evangelical V
A, Bishop White* speaks of " The
evangelical services of the Book of Com-
mon Prayer."
Q. Do different theories attach dif-
ferent senses to the term '^evangeli-
cal ?"
* Address to Genl. Theol. fc3em. July, 1822.
24 BISHOP white's opinions.
A. Bishop White says,* " In theories
as diverse as possible from the one men-
tioned, there are those who acknow-
ledge no signs of evangelical preaching,
except as it tends to agitate the feelings
of our animal mechanism, having no
connexion with the gracious affections
known in Scripture as a new creation,
and a vesting within properties which are
a renewal of the image in which our
race was originally created; but spend-'
ing their forces in a variety of extrava-
gances as diverse from one another as
from Scriptural and rational devotion."
Q. Is the term ''evangelical" some-
times used for party purposes ?
A. Bishop White says,t " It is some-
times used for the casting of unmerited
reproach, and with a view to very un-
worthy purposes ; especially when it is so
* Genl. Theol. »Sem. Address, 1829, p. 5.
t Genl. Theol. Sem. Address, 1829, p. 6.
25
applied as to cover an agency in party,
it will not be checked by any dictates of
moral obligation." '^
Q. How is the claim of evangelical
preaching often made ?
A. Bishop White says,* " The claim
of evangelical preaching is often made,
either in the way of denying that any
thing short of Calvinism is Gospel doc-
trine; or else, as resolving all religion
into animal sensibility. The name in
question (evangelical,) when assumed
with a view to the making of a distinc-
tion on such grounds, has a tendency to
slander many faithful ministers, who
make a conscience of opening to their
flocks the whole counsel of God ; but do
not consider the opinions here alluded
to, or any practices connected with
them, as comprehended within the de-
//
* Comp. Views, vol. ii. p. 229.
26 BISHOP white's opinions.
sign. On this account it is here sup-
posed, that a clergyman may be truly
evangelical in his preaching, and yet,
not wish to be characterized by a name,
so far as it is abused to an unworthy
purpose."
Section V.
©f i\)t Bible; antr t\)t Hdation of tijt
CljttrrI) to il)t WMt, ^^
" The Church hath power to decree rites or cere-
monies, and authority in controversies of faith." — From
Art. XX.
" Great evils and unhappy divisions among Christ-
ians have arisen from construing particular passages
in a sense different from the general tenor and design
of the sacred volume." — Bishop Griswold, Discourses,
p. 470.
Q. How has the Divine Being im-
parted to us his Revelation ?
A, Bishop White says,* " The Divine
* Charge 1807, p. 29.
27
Being has been pleased to impart to us
a revelation of his will, under a form, in
which it cannot be applied to edification
without a knowledge, to be possessed at
least by some, of various branches of li-
terature, which contribute to the ascer-
taining of the true sense of Scripture."
Q. On what authority does our Church
rest the authority of the books of Scrip-
ture ?
Q. Bishop White says,* " She rests
the authority of the books alleged to be
Scripture, on the testimony of the
Church ; affirming in her 20th article,
that this body is a 'witness and a
keeper of holy writ ;' and she has not,
in any of her institutions, given a hint
of any other ground on which we are to
believe one book or another to have
been given by inspiration.'
* Comp. Views, vol. ii. p. 24
28 BISHOP white's opinions
Q. On what testimony does the ge-
nuineness of the canonical hooks of
Scripture rest ?
A. Bishop White says,* "It will
therefore be perceived, that their (the
canonical book of Scripture) genuineness
rests 'on the testimony of the Church ;
and the stating of this must be under-
stood to the exclusion of other standards
of authenticity, imagined by different
descriptions of persons."
Q. Is thft internal evidence of itself
{Sufficient ?
A. Bishop White sa5^s,t " There are
some who think we need no other evi-
dence than the stamp of divinity, which
may be traced in the excellent matter
contained ; which, by the way, is pre-
cisely the argument alleged by the Mus-
* Comment, p. 22, vide p. 24.
f Comment, p. 22.
BISHOP white's opinions. 29
sulmans, to prove the divine authority
of their Koran.'*
Q. When was the canon of the New
Testament^complete ?
A. Bishop White says,* ''These (the
written records of the Apostles' doc-
trine) were not in existence until long
after the formation of the Church, and a
very large extension of it."
Q. Of what use is Tradition ?
A, Bishop White says,t *' We trust to
tradition for the genuineness of every
one of the sacred books."
* Of the Testimony of the Church to the Books of
Scriptural and Church Reg., March, 1827.
f Primitive Facts in Church Reg., Jan. 1826.
30 BISHOP white's opinions.
Section VI.
"Diligently reading Holy Scripture and ancient
authors." — From the Preface to the Ordinal.
" The Primitive Church, which is specially to be
followed, as most incorrupt and pure." — The Homilies^
p. 207.
" And I protest and openly confess, that in all my
doctrine and preaching, both of the sacrament and of
other my doctrine, whatsoever it be, not only I mean
and judge those things as the Catholic Church and the
most holy fathers of old, with one accord, have meant
and judged, but also I would gladly use the same words
that they used, and not use any other words but to set
my hand to all and singular their speeches, phrases,
ways, and forms of speech, which they do use in their
treatises upon the sacrament, and to keep still their in-
terpretation."— A ri/). Cranmer's Appeal, Rem. vol. iv.
p. 121, 127.
Q. What is the relation of the Early
Fathers to Holy Scripture ?
A. Bishop White says,* " taking the
Holy Scriptures for our principal instruc-
tion in this matter, and next to them,
* Con. Ser. 1786, p. 28.
BISHOP white's opinions, 31
the writings of those who w^ere nearest
to the times of the Apostles, There is
an unhappy prospensity in mankind to
run from any extreme into its opposite.
Hence the infallibility claimed by a late
claimed by a later human authority hath,
in part, prevented the reverence in rea-
son due to the earlier : and I cannot think
that if ever the church in general should
return to the happy medium, we shall
be furnished with such faithful expositors
as will effectually overthrow as well the
gross errors of the middle ages, as the
many fanciful systems which are the
abuses of the free speculation of modern
times.*
Q. How does Bishop White style the
Early Fathers ?
A. Bishop White speaks* of "the
army of martyrs, by whose blood we
* Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 425.
32 BISHOP white's opinions.
have supposed the Church to have been
watered, during at least the first three
centuries of the Christian era?
Q. How does Bishop White style'the
remains of the Apostolic Fathers, viz :
vSt. Barnabus, St. Clement, St. Ignatius;
St. Poly carp ?
A. Bishop White speaks* of them as
" the scanty though golden remains of
these holy men."
Q. How does Bishop White speak of
St. Barnabas ?
Bishop White says,t " The epistle as-
cribed to St. Barnabas is admitted by
the best critics to have been his, and
is cited by some of the Fathers, who
were judges of its traditionary reputa-
tion in their times. That companion of
the twelve apostles, and bearing the
* Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 403,
t Lectures, p. 264,
BISHOP white's opinions. 33
name of an apostle himself in the New
Testament," &c.
Q. How does Bishop White style St.
Clement ?
A. Bishop White calls* him '' The
apostolic and blessed writer." Again,
*' The Roman Clement,! undoubtedly
the person referred to in Philipp. iv. 3,
as having ' his name written in the
book of life,' in his admirable Epistle
to the Corinthians."
Q. How does Bishop White speak of
St. Ignatius ?
A. Bishop White callsj him ^^The
venerable Father."
Q. How does Bishop White speak of
Justin Martyr ?
A. Bishop White says§ " Sustin Mar-
* Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 406.
f Lectures, p, 235.
I Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 409.
f Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 421.
34
tyr, a man celebrated in his own and in
every succeeding age ; and constantly
appealed to, in proof of the worship and
the discipline of the primitive Church."
Again, Bishop White calls* Justin
*' This blessed Martyr."
Q. How does Bishop White speak of
Irenaeus ?
A. Bishop White says,t "the good
bishop of Lyons." He calls him also
"celebrated" and "venerable," and
says, " it's (his memory's) fragrance is
still fresh to all those who have not
adopted the maxim of — no Calvinist, no
Christian."
Q. How does Bishop White speak of
Tertullian ?
A. Bishop White says,t " No man is
considered as better acquainted with the
* Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 423.
t Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 426 — 9.
j Comp. Views, vol. i. p 430.
BiHOP white's opinions. 35
state of the Church in his own day, or as
more faithful in reporting it " " It is a
known fact that he was never thought
heterodox, any further than as relates to
the latter part of his life, and to the
error of Montanism, into which he
then fell. His admirable apology, ad-
dressed to the Roman Senate, is, of it-
self, sufficient to render his name res-
pectable in the Christian Church. This
celebrated work was written long before
his fall."
Q. How does Bishop White style
Clemens of Alexandria ?
A, Bishop White says,* "It will
hardly be said that in the writings of
this learned man, there is to be met
with anything favorable to Calvinism."
Q. What does Bishop White say of
Origan ?
* Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 431.
36 BISHOP white's opinions. V
A. Bishop White says,* "Notwith-
standing all the intemperate abuse of
Origen after his death, succeeding to the
honor in which he had been held during
his life, it is here supposed that his tes-
timony would at all times have been
held good, except where his peculiar
fancies were concerned."
Q. What does Bishop White say of
St. Cyprian ?
A. Bishop White says,t "Cyprian,
whose orthodoxy has escaped impeach-
ment."
Q. How does Bishop White speak of
Athanasius ?
A. Bishop White calls himi " The
celebrated Athanasius."
Q. How does Bishop White speak of
Gregory, of Nazianzum ?
* Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 435. See also p. 462.
f Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 430.
j Com, Views, vol. i. p. 465.
BISHOP white's opinions. 37
A. Bishop White says,* " Gregory, of
Nezianzum, so much celebrated as a
model of Christian piety and humility."
Q. How does Bishop White style
Basil?
A. Bishop White says,t " Basil, who
acquired the title of " the great." This
" eminent man."
Q What does Bishop White say of
Jerome ?
A. Bishop White says, J "Jerome,
whose high rank in the list of Christian
writers, there can be no occasion to
establish."
Q. What does Bishop White say of
St. Chrysostom ?
A. Bishop White says,§ ''The name of
Chrysostom deserves to have an especial
* Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 464.
•f- Comp, Views, vol. i. p. 444.
i Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 441.
I Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 447.
38 BISHOP white's opinions.
stress laid on it, because of his fervent
piety and his eminent reputation
throughout the Christian world ; for a
time, indeed, under a cloud, in conse-
quence of a party made against him by
the Empress Eudocia; but abundantly
cleared,and an object of universal homage
after his decease."
Q. What comes next to the import-
ance of holy scripture, and the proper
application of it ?
A. Bishop White says,* " Next to the
importance of Holy Scripture, and the
proper application of it, is that of the
history of the early ages of the Church;
it being especially understood of the
first three centuries."
Q. Should careful attention be paid to
the early Fathers ?
A. Bishop White says,t " It should be
* Sem. Address, 1823, p. 10.
f Comment, p. 72.
BISHOP white's opinions. 39
recommended to every candidate to pay
a careful attention to the records of the
first three centuries of the church, at
least to those of them which are prin-
cipally illustrative of the faith and the
discipline of their respective times.
This is here recommended with a view
to various theological notions of modern
times ; for when it shall appear, con-
cerning any of these, that, during the
ages mentioned, they were not known
either in the character of truth or in
that of error; there seems the highest
evidence admitted of by the subject, that
they cannot have had any place among the
truths delivered to us in the gospel."
Q. How does Bishop White describe
the first three centuries ?
A. Bishop White says,* " when we
come down to the fourth century, it is
* Comp. Views, vol, i. p. 438.
40 BISHOP white's opinions.
natural to make a pause, and to look
back on the preceding centuries, under
the light furnished by the records of
their transactions, as they stand in Euse-
bius. The amazing successes of the
heralds of the religion of Jesus, in dif-
rerent quarters of the globe ; the perse-
cutions brought on Christians, and the
fortitude with which they sustained
them; the notices of Christian apolo-
gists, since lost, generally giving details
of the subjects of their compositions;
the accounts of Bishops who had filled
the most popular Sees, not without de-
lineations of the most conspicuous pro-
perties of their characters; these and
many other subjects are parts of the his-
tory of Eusebius."
Q. How do we use tradition ?
A. Bishop White says,* " As testi-
* Charge, 1807, p. 42.
41
mony extraneous to Scripture is the
standard for the trying of the authenti-
city of any of its books; so, in ascer-
taining the sense of any passage of^an
acknowledged book, we are not to shut
our eyes against the light which beams
on us from the same source."
Q. Does our Church use antiquity to
explain Scripture in any important
points ?
A. Bishop White says,* " On this
ground of Scripture, as explained by an-
tiquity, our Church retains the succes-
sion of the Episcopacy."
Q. Would there be fewer differences
among professing Christians, were a
proper respect had for the testimony of
the early Fathers ?
A, Bishop White says,t "It is here
* Charge, 1807, p. 42.
f Corap. Views, vol. i. p. 508.
42 BISHOP white's opinions.
conceived that the difference would be
much less in this respect (of interpreta-
tion of the Bible,) if, agreeably to the
medium intended to be observed in this
division of the work, due deference were
paid to the testimonies of the writers of
the Church, in the first three centuries ;
yet, not without making a considerable
distinction between those who were
near the source of inspiration, and those
who were more remote from it."
Q. Is the Protestant Episcopal Church's
respect for the early Fathers a distin-
guishing feature in her institutions ?
A. Bishop White says,* "It is a cir-
cumstance in the institutions of the
Episcopal Church, distinguishing her
from other Protestant communions, that
while with her, and with them, the
Holy Scriptures are acknowledged to be
* Of Prim. Facts, &c. in Church Register, Jan. 1826.
BISHOP white's opinions. 43
the only rule of faith, great respect is
paid by her to what was held by the
early Fathers, and has been handed down
to us in their writings, and in other au-
thentic documents ; not as adding to the
Scriptures, but as helping to the inter-
pretation of them. It is not here recol-
lected that the same deference has been
paid to them by any other Protestant
communion, which, in addition to the
importance of the subject in itself, is a
reason for our forming of distinct appre-
hensions of this feature on the face of
our economy."
Q, Did the faith of the early Fathers
vary from that of the Apostles ?
A. Bishop White says,*' " Nor yet are
there any of fault found with early
Fathers, for alleged variation from the
faith handed down to them by the Apo-
* Comp. Views, vol. ii. p. 435.
44 BISHOP white's opinions.
sties ; but, on the contrary, the honor-
able notices of them in the fourth cen-
tury, especially in the history of Euse-
bius, are lasting monuments of their
having left behind them the reputation
of an orthodoxy that had never been im-
peached."
Q. What are some of the advantages
to be derived from the records of the
first three centuries ?
A. Bishop White says,* " Of the ad-
vantages to be derived from the records
of the first three centuries, it is not the
least that they afford unanswerable proof
of the absence of what are exclu-
sively the tenets of the Roman Catholic
Church."
Q. Do the early Fathers afford con-
siderable aid in interpreting Scrip-
ture?
* Genl. TheoL Sem. Address, 1823, p. 11,
BISHOP white's opinions. 45
A. Bishop White says,* " It is con-
ceived that the sense of the times im-
medialely following the Apostles, must,
as a fact, be a strong testimony on the
question of what was the faith which
the Apostles handed to them ; and, in
that point of view, may give consider-
able aid in the interpreting of Scrip-
ture."
* Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 398.
46 BISHOP white's opinions.
Section VII.
®f ttje amn " 01 ttjoUc,"
AND OF THE FIRST FOUR GENERAL COUNCILS, AND OF THE
" QUOD SE3IPER UBIQUE AB OMNIBUs" OF VINCENTIUS.
" And I believe one CaihoUc and Apostolic Church."
— Nicene Creed.
" Note, that by St. Augustin, such as worshipped
the dead, or creatures, be not Catholic Christians." —
Homilies, p. 183.
Q. What is involved in the term
"Catholic?"
A. Bishop White says* " In propor-
tion as any church, in the present day,
comes up to the original idea of Catho-
licism, that of teaching what was then*
of universality as to time and place ;
without teaching any thing else, as of
* Lectures, p. 37.
BISHOP white's opinions. 47
necessity to eternal salvation, althougti
there may still be considerable variety
in what relates to discipline and order ,
such a church deserves the name of 'Ca-
tholic,' and stands in no need of the
superaddition of the late name of Ro-
man."
Q. Is it right to speak of the Catho-
lic interpretation of any text of Scrip-
ture ?
A. Bishop White says,* remarking on
Titus ii. 13, " The text must be consi-
dered as one of the places demonstrative
of the divinity of the Son ; although,
doubtless, under the Catholic interpre-
tation of the derivation of the divine at-
tributes from the Father."
Q. Is the Protestant Episcopal Church
guided as to what is heresy by the^first
four General Councils ?
* Con. Ser. 1811, p. 7,8.
48 BISHOP white's opinions.
A. Eishop White says,* "In the Church
of England, it is provided that nothing
shall be adjudged heresy, besides what
has been pronounced such by some one
of the first four General Councils ; and
although this rests on the authority of
an Act of Parliament, which is of no
force in the Church of the United States,
it is historic evidence of the sense of
the ^Church of England, and of course
ours, which has inherited from her all
the principles of our ecclesiastical sys-
tem. In that point of view^, it remains
in proof of the respect for the sense of
the early ages of the church, which has
descended to us."
Q. Who w^as Vincent of Lerins, and
what his test of orthodoxy ?
A. Bishop White says,t " Vincent of
* Primitive Facts in Church Reg., Jan. 1826.
f Lectures, p, 225.
49
Lerins, who wrote in the beginning of
the fifth century, and ranks as a saint in
the Roman Martyrology. Certainly this
sensible author could not have known
anything of a test of orthodoxy, in an
agreement with the ^Church of Rome in
particular, since, in opposition to here-
ticks, he insists all along on another
test — that of agreement with the church
in general, in what has been held al-
ways and every where."
Q. Can any well-informed churchman
object to Vincent's test ?
A. Bishop White says,* " It is here
supposed that no well-informed member
of the Church of England, or of this
Church, would object to Vincent's test
of Catholicism."
* Lectures, p. 226.
50
Section VIII.
ef t!)e CljurrI).
" O Almighty God, who hast built thy Church upon
the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus
Christ himself being the head comer stone." — From
Collect for 8. 8. Simon and Jude.
" It (tlie Church) hath always three notes or marks,
whereby it is known ; pure and sound doctrine, the
Sacraments ministered according to Christ's holy in-
stitution, and the right use of ecclesiastical disciphne."
— Homilies, p. 421.
Q. Is the Church Spiritual, to the
exclusion of its being visible 1
A, Bishop White says* "At the close
of his^( Christ's) ministry, various insti-
tutions show, that however spiritual
his religion, it is not in such sort spiri-
tual, as to exclude the idea of an out-
ward and visible society."
* Sermon at the opening of Coiwention on the 21st
of June, 1786, p, 7.
BISHOP white's opinions. 5 1
Q. How were the Churches united in
the early ages ?
A. Bishop White says,* " In the early
ages, when the different churches of
Christendom, knowing no other com-
mon head than Christ, lived in an happy
agreement in the same faith under their
respective Bishops, and in a delightful
communion founded on that agreement."
How important, then, is the preserva-
tion of a faith thus maintained hy the
Catholic Christian world!
Q. Is the existence of the Church a
point of Christian doctrine ?
^.^Bishop White says,t " It is also no
small point of Christian doctrine, that
there is held out to us, as of divine in-
stitution, a social body, elsewhere known
under the name of 'the Church,' and
* Con. Ser. 1786, p. 15.
t Con. Ser. 1786, p. 13.
52
other descriptive terms ; but here (Titus
ii. 1 1, 14,) mentioned as a people pe-
culiarly owned by the divine founder of
their communion. Accordingly, who-
ever supposes that he may discharge his
Christian obligations, as an individual,
without conducting himself as a com-
ponent part of that professing body, does
not work out his salvation, in the way
which has been authoritatively pre-
scribed to him."
Q. Is the Church, • whether we use
the word in a comprehensive or national
sense, a divine institution ?
A. Bishop White says,* "The Church
of Christ, whether considered in the
comprehensive sense, embracing all the
faithful, or as existing in different bodies,
according to their respective countries,
is not an association resting on the will
* Con. Ser. 1809, p. 13.
BISHOP white's opinions. 53
of man, but was instituted under sacra-
ments and a ministry of divine origin."
Q. What is the bond of union among
the widely extended members of the
Church ?
A. Bishop White says,* " There is still
a bond of union among the widely ex-
tended members of his (Christ's) fa-
mily ; in the acknowledgment of the
same Scripture doctrine ; in the use of
the same sacraments ; in a ministry ori-
ginating from the same source ; and in
the exercise of the same Christian cha-
rity."
Q. Is the Protestant Episcopal Church
a branch of the Catholic Church ?
A. Bishop White callsf it " A branch
of that Catholic Church which is 'built
on the foundation of the Apostles and
* Charge 1807, p. 13, 14.
* Con. Ser. 1808, p. 20.
54 BISHOP white's opinions.
Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief corner stone.' "
Q. What is meant by the expression
" faithful men," as used in our Prayer
Book ?
A. Bishop White says,* " The expres-
sion means the professors of the Chris-
tian faith; not implying that all are
what their profession requires ; since
our Lord has announced that there
would be tares among the wheat, and in
other ways has described a difference of
character within his Church."
Section IX.
" It is evident unto all men, diligently reading Holy
Scripture and ancient authors, that from the Apostles'
time there have been these Orders of Ministers in
* Catec. in Ep. Mag. p. 145, (1820.)
BISHOP white's opinions. 55
Christ's Church — Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.'' —
From the Preface to the Ordinal.
" Wherefore let us not fear to be herein bold and
peremptory, that if any thing in the Church's govern-
mentj surely the first institution of Bishops was from
Heaven, was even of God : the Holy Ghost was the
author of it." — Hooker, Ecc. Pol. b. vii. 5.
Q. What does the Christian ministry
imply ?
A. Bishop White says,* " The whole
scheme of the Christian ministry, as
framed by the Apostles, and handed
down to us in succession, implies the
intervention of an ecclesiastical order,
designated for the purpose."
Q. How was ordination conveyed in
Apostolic times ?
A. Bishop White says,t " With the
exception of those appointed by our
Lord in person, not an instance can be
produced of ordination in any other
* Comment, p. 13, 14.
t Charge 1807, p. 39.
56 BISHOP white's opinions.
way than by imposition of the hands of
those duly authorized under a commis-
sion given by him to that effect."
Q. What does the P. E. Churchman
say of the Ministry ?
A, Bishop White says,* " These or-
ders (of the Ministry) say we, three in
number, were of apostolic institution,
and existed universally in the Church,
as now among us, until within a few
ages of these later times."
Q. Is the ministerial succession a di-
vine institution?
A. Bishop White says,t " It appears
that a succession in the Ministry was
provided by the same high autho-
rity which first declared the Gospel
itself."
Q. What three positions must be estab-
* Con. Ser. 1801, p. 22.
+ Con. Ser. 1808, p. 8. Vide also p. 17.
BISHOP white's opinions. 57
lished concerning the Ministry of the
Christian Church ?
A. Bishop White says,* " First, it is
of divine institution : Secondly, in every
local Church, it is of right independent
on all foreign authority or jurisdiction :
and, Thirdly, as instituted by Jesus
Christ and his Apostles, it includes the
three orders of Bishops, Priests, and
Deacons."
Q. Should the Clergy hesitate to
claim for their office a heavenly ori-
gin?
A. Bishop White says,t " Let there
be no hesitation in any Clergyman to
claim to his office the title of heavenly
origin, which v^ill the more impress him
with the sense of the account he is to
render of his stewardship."
* Lectures, p. 158.
t Con. Ser. 1808, p. 18.
58
Q. Is Episcopacy a constituent part of
our Church ?
A. Bishop White says,* "But you
think the Episcopal Church might have
continued to have the three orders, al-
though giving up the succession; and
that this would have led to her union
with other Churches ; that is, she might
have given up what she conceives to he a
constituent part of her institutions, and
coeval with her holy religion: in the
mere doing of which I see little ground
of union with others ; hut much ground
of disunion with herself."
Q. What does Bishop White say of
Milton's hatred of Episcopacy ?
A. Bishop White says,t "The im-
mortal Milton, whose rage against Epis-
copacy w^as too great to permit the ex-
* Bishop White's Essay, signed " An Episcopalianj"
No. III.
f Lectures, p. 437. **
BISHOP white's opinions. 59
ercise of his judgment on any point con-
nected with it."
Q. Did Bishop White, in his pam-
phlet, entitled '• The case of the Epis-
copal Churches in the United States
considered," consent with those who
were adverse to the apostolic origin of
Episcopacy ?
A. Bishop White says,* " To those
who, being adverse to the apostolic
origin of Episcopacy, have considered
him (Bishop White) as having con-
sented with them in opinion ; he
(Bishop White) is ready to declare, on
every suitable opportunity, that the con-
trary was intended to be implied, and
that it is obvious, according to his con-
ceptions, on the face of the perform-
ance."
Q. Is it arrogant for the Ministry to
* Appendix to Charge of 1807, p. 56.
60 BISHOP white's opinions.
assert the divine institution of their
office?
A. Bishop White says,* " Is it arro-
gant, is it unreasonable, in the Ministers
of the Gospel, to assert the divine insti-
tution of their office, as handed dow^n
from the Apostles ; and to deny the pro-
priety of every door to the Ministry of
man's workmanship ; whether it be that
of popular ordination, or the plea of an
inward call ? It cannot 6e."
Q. Is immoderate power necessarily
connected with Episcopacy ?
A. Bishop White says,t "In the
minds of some, the idea of Episcopacy
will be connected with that of immo-
derate power ; to which it may be an-
swered, that power becomes dangerous,
not from the precedency of one man,
* Ord. Ser. 1825, p. 13, 14.
t The Case of the Ep. Church, p. 18.
BISHOP white's opinions. 6 1
but from his being independent. Had
Rome been governed by a Presbytery,
instead of a Bishop, and had that Pres-
bytery been invested with the independ-
ent riches and dominion of the Papal
See, it is easy to conceive of their ac-
quiring as much power over the Chris-
tian world, as was ever known in a Gre-
gory or a Paul."
Q- How should we act in regard to
the Episcopacy ?
A. Bishop White says,* '^ In regard
to the constitution and the government
of the Christian Church, we affirm, that
that *from the beginning there have
been the three orders of Bishops,
Priests, and Deacons ;' and that this is
'evident from Scripture, and from an-
cient authors,' meaning the writings of
the early Fathers. If the fact be as is
* Genl. Theo. Sem. Address, 1828, p. 8.
62 BISHOP white's opinions.
stated — and we ought to be supposed
sincere in the profession of it — is it
not sufficiently important to induce us to
adhere to, and not by any act to imply
the nullity of, what claims so high an
origin ?"
Section X.
©f apostolical Succession.
" And lo ! I am with yoii alway, even unto the end
of the world." — iSt. Matt, xxviii. 20.
" O holy Jesus, who hast purchased to thyself an
universal Church, and hast promised to be with the
Ministers of apostolic succession to the end of the
world." — From the Prayer in the Office of Institution.
Q. Is Apostolical succession essen-
tial?
A. Bishop White says,* " To justify
the candidate in believinor that he is
Comment, p. 19.
BISHOP white's opinions. 63
called according to the will of Christ, he
should be convinced, after due enquiry,
that the Church to which he looks for
ordination, is a true Apostolic Church,
deriving its authority from that founded
by the Apostles. For since they did
confessedly found a communion, and
since it did confessedly transmit its mi-
nistries, there seems no possible right to
the name of a Christian Church at pre-
sent, but in succession from the origi-
nally established body."
Q. Is it important that the Protestant
Episcopal Churchman's principles on
this point should be settled ?
A. Bishop White* says " It is of im-
portance to every candidate, and much
more so to the Church, that he should
have his principles settled on the pre-
sent point (Apostolical succession,) since
* Comment, p. 19.
64 BISHOP white's opinions.
otherwise he will be in continual danger
of setting up his own opinion in con-
trariety to what the Church has de-
cided or ordained."
Q. By what is our Church distin-
guished ?
A. Bishop White says,* "By the
apostolic succession of her Ministry,
and by the evangelical and rational con-
struction of her worship."
Q. From whom do we derive the
principles on which are grounded the
doctrines, worship, and constitution of
our Church ?
A. Bishop White says,t " The prin-
ciples which w^e believe to have been
transmitted to us from the churches
founded by the blessed Apostles, through
the channel of the Church of England."
* Charge 1807, p. 24.
f Address at Bishop Onderdonk's Consecration,
p. 16.
65
Q. Is Apostolical Succession essential
to the peace of the Church ?
A. Bishop White says,* " We hold
up the succession of the Ministry, as a
principle clearly deducible from Scrip-
ture, and essential to the peace and the
good government of the Church."
Again,! " We affirm the necessity of
succession from the Apostles."
Section XI.
m jS£t)i0m.
" That there should be no schism in the body." —
1 Corinth, xii. 25.
" From all false doctrine, heresy, and schism. Good
Lord deliver us.'^ — Litany.
Q. Is there an authorized Ministry
which cannot be violated with im-
punity ?
* Lectures, p. 116.
t lectures, p. 138.
66
A. Bishop White says,* "It has
pleased the great Head of the Church to
commit the preaching of the word and
the administration of the Sacraments to
an authorized Ministry. Accordingly,
all violation of this order may be consi-
dered as figured by ' the wood, the hay,
and the stubble.' Where this is done
under knowledge of what the Scriptures
enjoin, and from disregard of that high
authority, the indulgence in the text
(1 Cor. iii. 11.) does not extend; and
it can have no place except in the case
of involuntary error and unperceived
frailty."
Q. What would be the result to our
Church of not sustaining her distinctive
principles ?
A Bishop White says,t " Principles
=^Ord. Ser. 1825, p. 12.
f Advanct. Ser. lS13,p. 28,
I BISHOP white's opinions. 67
(of our Church, in discipline and in
worship,) which we believe to be the
most agreeable to primitive antiquity ;
and without which we shall be like ' a
kingdom divided against itself,' full of
' confusion and every evil work.' "
Q. Can the Church be voluntarily left
without sin ?
A. Bishop White says,* " That the
membership of a divinely instituted so-
ciety cannot be voluntarily abandoned
without sin, is a proposition which can
hardly stand in need of proof."
Q. Is the expression, " the Church
that is in his house," which occurs in
the New Testament, sometimes impro-
perly quoted ?
A. Bishop White says,t " As this is
sometimes quoted in defence of separate
* Charge 1807, p. 35.
t Con. Ser. 1809, p. 13,
68 BISHOP white's opinions.
and exclusive and even of schismatical
meetings for devotion, it is proper that
I should guard against such a construc-
tion, by remarking, that the churches
there mentioned were assemblies of all
professing Christians within their re-
spective districts, and under the mi-
nistry of their proper pastors."
Q. What is it not imnatural to con-
ceive of the societies who have sepa-
rated from the Church ?
A. Eishop White says,* " Concerning
all these societies, it is not unnatural to
conceive, as to what may be deemed
error in their systems, that the continu-
ance of it has been in a great measure
owing to the dropping of the reading of
the Scriptures, or else to the reading of
them in a very scanty measure. Were
there shown any one of them which has
* Comment, p. 33-4.
BISHOP white's opinions. 69
returned to primitive integrity in this
particular, it would be a temptation to
predict, that before long such a society
would abandon the extravagancies of its
original separation."
Section XII.
®f «II)arit2.
" That most excellent gift of Charity, the very bond
of peace, and of all virtue. — Quinquagesima Collect,
" Difference of opinion on important religious topics
ought not to break the ties of harmony between child-
ren of the same common Parent and subjects of the
grace of the same Redeemer." — Bp. Hohart, Pref. to
ApoL p. V. vi.
Q. What should be our action towards
those exterior to our Communion ?
A, Bishop White says,* "While we
avoid the spurious liberality which af-
* Sem. Address, 1823, p. 18.
70 BISHOP white's opinions.
fects to consider all opinions as on a
level, and which generally betrays its
unsoundness, by an inconsistency of
practice with profession, let us be aware,
how much diversity of opinion is the
result of a different understanding of
words ; what a variety of character is
seen in human nature, as constituted by
the all-wise Creator ; what allowances
are to be made on account of the influ-
ence of education and early habit ; and
if there were nothing else, what a strong
tendency there is in the contrary of the
grace of charity, rather to confirm pre-
judice than to correct it."
Q. Whilst we have kindly feelings to-
wards those who differ from us, state
what is our only way of being useful in
spreading the Gospel ?
A. Bishop White says,* " In the por-
* Advancemt. Ser. 1813, p. 28.
71
tion of Christendom in which Provi-
dence has cast our lot, we see no way of
being useful to the common cause, hut
on the ground of that Apostolic Church
of which we are members ; and which
we believe to have been acted on during
those early ages, wherein Christianity
was the most adorned by the lives and
by the deaths of its professors."
Q. What should be our sentiments
towards those not of the Church ?
A. Bishop White says,* " Under the
diversity of religious sentiment which
God has suffered to take place among
those who expect salvation through the
same Redeemer, there is a debt of cha-
rity from us towards all of this descrip-
tion, which should make us rejoice in
any good accomplished by their labors.
Even if, in some instances, evangelical
* Advancemt. Ser. p. 9^
72 BISHOP white's opinions.
doctrine should be intermixed with
error, we have a better prospect of the
issue, as to the temporal and the eter-
nal happiness of our fellow-men, than
from their being entangled in the snares
of infidelity, or from their being aban-
doned to entire ^norance of religious
truth and duty.:
Q. Should tliv^e who differ from the
Church think us uncharitable in our
testifying against their principles ?
A. Bishop White says*, " There are
around us sundry communions of pro-
fessing Christians, whose peculiar tenets
are contradicted by our articles, with an
explicitness not permitting mistake;
and it is to be hoped, that no religious
and virtuous members of such bodies
will suppose us possessed of the less
esteem for their persons, on account of
' * Comment, p. 78.
BISHOP white's opinions. 73
the testimonies which we hold our-
selves bound to bear against their opi-
nions."
Q. Does Christian charity to all
who differ, involve any yielding of con-
scientious points of difference 1
A. Bishop White ays,* " There are
some, indeed, who t show how much
they soar above illib^^iality of religious
sentiment, would throw down every
barrier dividing our communion from
some others in visible administration,
because they think the existing differ-
ences are of no importance. Among
the objections to such a plan, it is not
the least, that it tends to the disturbance
of peace and charity ; whilst the secu-
ring of these is its professed object.
And such must be the effect, unless
these mistaken promoters of unity can
* Comment, p. 119.
3
74 BISHOP white's opinions.
persuade' one of two parties, ^vhom
they may at any time aim to reconcile,
to give up points which they think in-
volved in Christian verity. So far as
there have been attempts to draw the
Episcopal Church into this plan, liberal
as some conceive, the design has uni-
formly exacted the sacrifice of the prom-
inent characteristics of our system."
Q. Should our charity lead to the
giving up of our distinctive principles ?
A. Bishop White says*, " Whatever
has a tendency to shake the constitution
of the Christian ministry, believed by
us to have been handed dow^n from the
Apostles, or to obtrude on us any mode
of worship diverse from the forms con-
sidered by us as agreeable to Scripture
and primitive antiquity, or either to dis-
pense with our doctrinal articles on the
* Genl. Theo. Sem. Address, 1822, p. 4.
BISHOP white's opinions. 75
one hand, or to enlarge them by dogmas
not clearly comprehended in them on
the other, is not the latitude here
pleaded for."
Q. May pride be connected with
zeal?
A. Bishop White says*, " It may
happen that pride, like a poisonous
weed, shall entwine itself with the plant
of a holy zeal, and the zealot may be as-
sured of a fact, now declared to him
from the experience of many years, that
the case is not unfrequent, when faulty
passion being permitted to intrude into
the cause of God, there have been con-
tracted habits of depreciating the char-
acters of brethren in the ministry, not
only contrary to the demands of charity
and of justice, but ensnaring to the con-
sciences of the censurers, and rendering
* Genl. Theol. Sem. Address, 1823, p. 19,
76
them the more liable to a great variety
of temptation."
Q. Should differences in religious sen-
timent be accommodated, to the destruc-
tion of order ?
A. Bishop White says*, " And even
in regard to difference of religious senti-
ment, it is better manifested by respect
and candor ; and especially by the pre-
venting of the intrusion of our angry
passions within the sacred sphere of the
discussion of religious truth, than by an
accommodation which destroys order.
And indeed this, while its professed ob-
ject is love and peace, is frequently the
occasion of divisions, more and worse
than those which it is solicitous to re-
move."
Q. Should charity lead to a yielding
of our distinctive claims ?
* Charge 1807, p. 46.
BISHOP white's opinions. 77
A. Bishop White says*, " If these
claims (of charity) are to set aside what-
ever distinguishes us from many whom
we cannot but esteem and love ; and of
whose Christian temper and conduct we
must have had ample evidence ; there is
not any one of our services, or either of
our sacraments, which we shall retain."
Q. Is every difference of opinion ma-
terial ?
A. Bishop White saysf, " It is not
every shade of difference in opinion that
will warrant the minister to throw on it
the odium of material error; and the
danger of confounding the two is an ad-
ditional reason for requiring a sufficiency
of intellectual information as a qualifi-
cation for the ministry ; because this
cannot fail to operate as a counterpoise
to pride and passion, in their tendency
* Charge 1807, p. 45.
t Comment, p. 93.
78 BISHOP white's opinions.
to intolerance; not indeed eradicating
those principles where they have taken
possession of the heart, but restraining
them from the excesses which are the
result of ignorance."
Q. Does charity demand a sacrifice
of principle, from tenderness to the feel-
ings of others ?
A. Bishop White says*, " Does it fol-
low, that a minister of our Church ought
to hesitate, either in the pulpit or in his
private intercourse, to advocate any of
her distinctive doctrines, as occasion
may requii'e ; by a sacrifice of them to
what, in his judgment, are the errors of
opposing sects, and from a tender-
ness to their feelings ? No such matter
is intended."
Q. What are the requisitions of evan-
gelical charity?
*Gen. Theol. Sem. Address, 1827, p. 12.
BISHOP white's opinions. 79
A. Bishop White says*, " The requi-
sitions of this grace (of charity) are con-
sidered by him (Bishop White) as so
imperious in dictating the forbearance
of every species of violence of language
or of passion, in reference to diversity
of opinion, that he has no hesitation in
counselling you, to extend to the illib-
eral, a liberality consistent with a regard
for sacred truth : or, by the substitution
of a word more definite and more con-
sistent with the law of language, to
make even the intolerant the subjects of
your toleration."
Q. Should not courtesy ever accompany
the presentation of truth ?
A. Bishop White says*, " In the dis-
cussion of controverted points, even in
reference to infidels, and still more when
there is a bearing on those who profess
* Gen. Theol. Sem., Address, 1828, p. 16.
t Gen. Theol. Sem., Address, 1829, p. 10.
80 BISHOP white's opinions.
to worship the same God, through the
same Mediator Jesus Christ; while
there should be no hesitation to an-
nounce explicitly the truth as it is con-
ceived to be declared in Scripture, it
should be exempt from indecorous anc^
from reproachful language."
Section XIII.
®f Spurious Clb^ralitg.
" Saying, peace, peace ; when there is no peace.'' —
Jerem. vi. 14.
" And this I say, lest any man should begiiile you
with enticing words.'' — Coloss. ii. 4.
Q. Is there a specious plea of liber-
ality ?
A. Bishop White says*, "There is
set up a specious but delusive plea of
* Genl. Sem. Address, 1827, p. 12.
BISHOP white's opinions. 81
liberality, occasionally inviting us to
join in religious exercises, in which all
distinctive principles are to be lost sight
of, and there is to be the sole object of
inculcating the truths on which the par-
ties are agreed. In the profession of
the principle, there is the varnish of ap-
parent philanthropy, reconciling to it
some well intentioned persons ; while it
is perceived by others to be an expedi-
ent for the introducing of an extraneous
influence within the sphere of our com-
munion. The ground thus taken has
never been acted on consistently, so far
as the present speaker is informed, for
any considerable length of time ; and
there has soon been betrayed the undis-
guised spirit of proselytism, and of the
bearing of an exterior influence on our
concerns. The consequence has been, in
various places, that among neighbors
and professors of a common Christianity,
82 BISHOP white's opinions.
there have been induced controversies
and hostile feelings not known before."
Q. Should we comply with a spurious
liberality ?
A. Bishop White says"^, "Let not this
be understood as countenancing the set-
ting loose to any material requisition in
faith or in discipline, or in worship :
much less the relinquishing of it, from
compliance with the spurious liberality,
which would draw us into a course of
conduct, that must end in prostrating our
communion to the domination of some
other, now conceived of by us as less
rational and less evangelical than our
own."
Q. May there be an affectation of lib-
erality ?
A. Bishop White saysf, " There have
been some ministers of our communion
* Charge 1825, p. 21.
t Comment, p. 87.
BISHOP white's opinions. 83
who, from affectation of liberality, have
encouraged under their superintendence
ministerial doings implying an entire
disregard of episcopal sanction. Even
in regard to the professed charity of
such a practice, it is in appearance only ;
because charity will always be best
manifested in forbearance towards those
who differ from us; and in thinking
well of their motives and of their per-
sons, so far a3 circumstances may war-
rant, rather than in sacrificing our prin-
ciples to theirs."
Q. Is there a danger of being too sen-
sitive to the feelings of those who dis-
sent from us ?
A. Bishop White says,* " There is the
opposite danger, of being so sensitive to
the feelings of those who dissent from
the distinctive principles of our Church,
* Gen. Theol. Sem. Address, 1829, p. 11.
84 BISHOP white's opinions.
that such, their discrepancies, ought
never to be presented to congregational
view; which, we are told, ^should be
limited to what are contended to be the
only essential doctrines of Christianity-
assented to by all who deserve the name
of Christians, In contrariety to this it
is here maintained to be inconsistent
with ministerial fidelity, to keep back
purposely, any truth believed to be con-
tained in Scripture ; although the time
of propounding it, and the question of
its pertinency are points subjected to
the determinations of Christian pru-
dence."
Section XIV.
®f i\)t Sacraments.
Q. What meanest thou by this word Sacrament ?
A. I mean an outward and visible sign of an inward
and spiritual grace, given unto us ; ordained by Chrisl
BISHOP white's opinions, ^5
himself ; as a means whereby we receive the same,
and a pledge to assure us thereof." — Church Cate-
chism.
"And pecuHarly, what due reverence is to be used
in the ministering of the Sacraments in the Temple,
the same St. Paul teacheth to the Corinthians, rebuking
such as did unreverently use themselves in that behalf."
The Homilies, p. 161.
" Pardon, salvation, and grace, the inestimable bless-
ings of this sacred ordinance, are conveyed only to the
TRUE Believer." — Bp. Hohart. Companion for the
Altar, p. 111.
" ' My body,' says the Redeemer, ' is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed ;' our souls are strength-
ened and refreshed by the body and blood of Christ,
precisely in the same way, as our bodies are by bread
and wine. It forms the aliment of our immortal prin-
ciple — aliment provided by the Lord Jesus to strengthen
the way-faring man on his journey to the eternal
world." — Bp. Moore, of Virginia. Conv. Ser. pp. 9, 10.
Q. Why was the word "generally"
inserted in the answer in the Catechism
on the subject of the Sacraments ?
A. Bishop White says,* " The word
" generally" was inserted, with a refer-
ence to the want of opportunity. It
would have been inconsistent and unau-
* Lectures, p. 1 12.
86 BISHOP white's opinions.
thorized to have said this, for the dis-
pensing with observation of the ordi-
nances, in regard to any. But it was
well to guard against the uneasiness
which might be occasioned to sincere
persons, who are not favored with the
means. Under such circumstances, God
dispenses by the course of his provi-
dence, with an obligation which man
cannot abrogate or lessen, in any in-
stance."
Section XV.
®f JJapt'iamd He^etuTatlon.
" Baptism is not only a sign of professsion, and marK
of difference, whereby Christian men are discerned
from others that be not christened ; but it is also a sign
of regeneration, or mw birth." — F7-077i Art. XXVII.
" He hath also ordained one visible Sacrament of
spiritual regeneration in water/' — Arhp. Cranmer.
vol. ii, p. 302.
BISHOP white's opinions. 87
" The Church teaches us to believe, a^eeably to the
promise of Christ, that he will give his holy spirit to
those who ask it. Vv^'e are consequently instructed
to supplicate a God of mercy, that ' the child now to
be baptized, may receive the fulness of his grace, and
ever remain in the number of his faithful children.'
And again, ' We call upon thee for this infant, that he,
coming to thy holy baptism, may receive remission of
sin, by spiritual regeneration.' After the performance
of the sacramental duty, the Church Keeping in view
the petitions which have been offered up in behalf of
the disciple, and confiding in the fulfilment of the pro-
mised aid, calls upon us to return thanks to the Al-
mighty, that ' it hath pleased him to regenerate the
infant with his Holy Spirit, to receive him for his own
child by adoption, and to incorporate him into his holy
Church." — Bp. Moore, of Virginia. Con. Ser. |>. 8.
Q. Is baptismal regeneration a Church
doctrine ?
A. Bishop White says*, " So far as
the duty of a conventional preacher is
concerned, the author is of opinion that
there should be carefully avoided all
questions on which the sense of the
Episcopal Church is doubtful : but it is
to be lamented, that there should be
* MemoirSj p. 236.
88 BISHOP white's opinions.
brought under this head a doctrine, i. e.
Baptismal Regeneration, which we have
been taught to lisp in the earliest repe-
titions of our Catechism; which per-
vades sundry of our devotional services,
especially the baptismal ; which is af-
firmed in our articles also ; which was
confessedly held and taught during the
ages of the martyrs ; and the belief of
which was universal in the Church until
it was perceived to be inconsistent with
a religious theory, the beginning and
the progress of which can be as dis-
tinctly traced, as those of any error of
popery."
Q. Why does the Church retain the
term " regeneration" in connexion with
baptism ?
A. Bishop White says,* "The phrase-
ology of the Church, in this particular,
* Comment, p. 207.
BISHOP white's opinions. 89
is nothing but a continuation of that of
all Christendom, until the compiling of
the Liturgy, and for some time after,"
Q. How does our Church consider
baptism ?
A. Bishop White says,* " Our Church
considers this ordinance as an actual
grafting into the Church, without any
such distinction as the one invented be-
tween a visible and an invisible society
under that name."
Q. Who are the legitimate children
of the Church?
A. Bishop White says,t "She (the
Church) considers as her legitimate
children all who, having been brought
within her communion by the regenera-
ting rite of baptism, have not swerved,
in conduct, from the profession therein
made by them, or in their name."
* Comment, p. 83.
t Con. Ser. 1801, p. 20.
90 BISHOP white's opinions.
Q. Give another quotation from Bishop
White.
A. Bishop White says,* " To the in-
sertion of this prayer (a prayer proposed
to be inserted instead of the one in the
confirmation service) — there have been
made two objections — the first is, that it
would add to the sanction given to the
doctrine of baptismal regeneration con-
fessedly contained in the original prayer.
But ! what a purgation must there be
of our articles, of our services, and of our
homilies, if this prejudice is to be com-
plied with!"
Q. What blessing does baptism con-
fer on infants ?
A. Bishop White says,t "Their na-
ture is sanctified by the possession of
grace bestowed in baptism : a grace
which if improved, is sufficient for the
* Memoirs, p. 254.
f Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 254.
91
exigencies of future life ; and therefore
sufficient to prepare them for early-
death."
Again, Bishop White says,* " Con-
cerning infants brought to Christ by
baptism, it is a Scriptural truth, not con-
tradicted within the first fifteen hundred
years of the Christian era, that they are
made His by baptismal regeneration :
under which term there is here included
not a moral change, but partly the being
begotten again to immortality, spoken of
in 1 Peter, i. 3 ; and partly the new
character assured to them in a federal in-
stitution, in which the aids of the Holy
Spirit are stipulated to them on the part
of God."
Q. Is "baptismal regeneration" an
error ?
A. Bishop White says,t " If there be
* Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 270, 271.
f Comp. Views, vol. ii. p. 161.
92 BISHOP white's opinions.
error in what she (the Church) affirms
concerning baptismal regeneration ; it is
an error which has shed its baneful in-
fluence throughout her system. On such
a supposition, the baptismal services are
a gross deception on the parents and the
sponsors. Nor is this the worst. As
soon as the infant becomes capable of
lisping his catechism, he is taught to
say, that he receives his name in bap-
tism, adding, ' Wherein I was made a
member of Christ, the child of God, and
an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.'
How full of delusion to the youthful mind;
if there be a moral certainty in regard to
the great mass of those for whom the
answer w^as intended, that they are the
children of the devil and the apparent
inheritors of his kingdom ; until rescued
from him by a conversion, for which
they are not yet ripe !"
Q. Is the denial of baptismal re-
93
generation the source of many er-
rors ?
A. Eishop White says,* " he is free to
declare that he knows of no one error,
into which so many errors of modern
times resolve themselves, as that of
quitting the ground of baptismal regen-
eration; which, as is here conceived,
and of which proof will be endeavored,
was not only delivered by Christ and
his Apostles, but reigned in the Church
without contradiction, until within three
centuries of the present time."
Q. Are the benefits of baptism im-
portant ?
A. Bishop White says,t "It would
seem, that the Church contemplated the
benefit of baptism as so important, and
was so desirous of conveying her sense
of the nature of the institution, that she
* Comp, Views, vol. ii. p. 276.
f Lectures, p. 7.
94 BISHOP white's opinions.
designedly varied her phrases, in order
that no room should be left to doubt of
the Christian state of any person, duly
entered by baptism into the visible pro-
fession of Christianity."
Section XVI.
®f Ixtqnmi €ommtinion.
" It is an easy matter for a man to say, I will not
communicate, because I am otherwise hindered with
worldly business. But such excuses are not so easily
accepted and allowed before God." — From the Exhor-
tation in the Holy Communion Office.
" The primitive Christians viewed it (the Lord's
Supper) as replete with the greatest blessings. By its
frequent use their minds were strengthened and re-
freshed. It prepared them for the conflicts they had to
endure. It nerved their arm, it animated their hearts ;
and should we -live to see it as duly appreciated as it
was by them, and as frequently observed as ft was in
primitive times, that coldness and apathy which distin-
guishes Christians of the present day, would give place
to a spirit of the most subUmating devotion ; and the
life and power of religion warm every heart. It is a
fountain of spiritual life ; let us use the medicated
means. It is a well of salvation opened in the bosom
95
of the Redeemer ; let us drink of the salutary stream
and live for ever." — Bishop Moore of Virginia, Conv.
Ser., p. 10.
Q. Of what is the mere occasional
celebration of the Holy Communion
proof?
A. Bishop White says,* " Its being
attended to in our Churches only
monthly, and on the three principal fes-
tivals, is one of the many proofs exist-
ing, that the piety of Christians is not
so ardent as in the beginning. There
are few facts more satisfactorily proved,
than that of the eucharist having been
administered in the primitive Church
every Lord's day. Accordingly, it seems
unaccountable, that in some religious
societies, in w^hich it is administered
seldomer than among us, they even cen-
sure the administration of it more fre-
* Comment, p. 195.
96 BISHOP white's opinions.
quently than is customary among them-
selves ; and hold it to be contrary to
Godly discipline."
Section XVII.
®f i\)t Ust of a |)rotl)e0is or Sik Sable
for i\)t (Bkmtnis.
" And the Priest shall then place upon the Table
so much Bread and Wine as he shall think sufficient.''
— Rubric in the Holy Communion Office.
'' Let all things be done decently and in order." —
1 Corinth, xiv. 40,
Q. Is a Prothesis or side table for the
Elements in the Lord's Supper, re-
quired ?
A. Bishop White says,* " This (the
Rubric directing the elements to be
placed on the altar just before the prayer
* Comment, p 201, 202,
BISHOP white's opinions. 97
for Christ's Church militant) must have
been in imitation of the primitive
Church; in which there was a prothe-
sis or side table, for the previous recep-
tion of the Elements. The priest's re-
moving of them to the Lord's table was
considered as an official act. It is not
agreeable to the present writer's habits
of thinking, to lay too much stress on
matters of order ; but as the provision
now noticed was designed to be an act
of devotion, although not accompanied
by words, he wishes for the restoration
of it, by the reducing of practice to the
existing rule."
Section XVIII.
®f dlataljising.
" The Minister of every Parish shall diligently, upon
Sundays and Holy Days, or on some other convenient
occasions, openly in the Churchy instruct or examine
98 BISHOP white's opinions.
so many children of his Parish, sent unto him, as he
shall think convenient, in some part of this Catechism."
— First Rubric after Catechism-
" The Ministers of this Church who have charge of
parishes or cures, shall not only be diligent in instruct-
ing the children in the Catechism, but shall also, by
stated catechetical lectures and instruction, be diligent
in informing the young and others in the Doctrines,
Constitution, and Liturgy of the Church." — Canon
xxviii. of 1832.
Q. Is Catechising one of the most im-
portant duties ?
A. Bishop White says,* " The house
of Bishops thought it expedient to make
a solemn call on the attention of the
clergy in relation to the 22d (now 28th
of 1832) Canon, which enjoins on them
diligence in catechetical instruction and
lectures. The Bishops consider these
as among the most important duties of
clergymen, and among the most effectual
means of promoting religious knowledge
and practical piety."
♦Memoirs, p. 41.
99
Q. What is the meaning assigned by
'judicious divines' to the term catecheti-
cal instruction ?
A. Bishop White says,* "By this
term, they mean the repeating over and
over of the same primary truths of reli-
gion, until they are made familiar to the
minds of the instructed : a work much
more useful to them than what is under-
stood under the name of preaching : al-
though not opening a like field for the
ingenuity or for the eloquence of the
teacher.'
Section XIX
®f Jrorm5 of Jprager.
" And He said unto them, When ye pray, say, " Our
.Vather which art in Heaven." — St. Luke, xi. 2.
" It (a form of Prayer) prevents that pride of feeling
* Lectures, p. 3.
100 BISHOP white's opinions.
from contaminating our devotion, which often arises from
individual effort ; it animates the humble suppliant in
his addresses to the Almighty ; it helps him in his ap-
proaches to a throne of grace. The mind of a worship-
ping assembly, instead of hanging upon the lips of a
public teacher, waiting for his expressions, and sitting
in judgment upon the doctrines those expressions con-
tain ; ' instead of admiring the ornaments of the ves-
sels, through which the waters of healing flow, bend
down their heads in humility to drink of the life-giving
stream ;' instead of depending upon the production of
the moment, they have the collective wisdom and piety
of ages, to assist them. Thus blessed, their attention is
fixed upon God alone, and a system of devotion secured,
dignified and solemn in its expression. Scriptural, and
agreeable to the truth.*' — Bishop Moore, of Virginia^
Con. Ser., p. 5, 6.
Q. Does our Church think herself
warranted in prescribing a form of
prayer ?
A. Bishop White says,* " She thinks
it warranted by the practice of the
Church in the earliest ages, as far back
as any remains of that practice are to be
traced; and not by that only, but by the
attendance of our Lord, on the prescribed
* Charge 1807, p. 28.
BISHOP white's opinions. 10 1
devotions of the temple and of the syna-
gogue ; the evidences that they were
established forms being equally authen-
tic with those of the four books, con-
taining the history of his blessed life."
Q. Are forms of prayer useful ?
A. Bishop White says,* " There can
hardly be a more effectual way of hold-
ing up to the minds of a congregation
the truths of Christianity, than through
the medium of their being comprehended
in rational and evangelical services of
devotion."
Q. What is our defence against at-
tacks on our forms ?
A. Bishop White says,t " But, when
it is alleged, that we advocate forms of
devotion in preference to the spirit of it,
we recollect, that without prescribed
words, not less than with them, there
* Commment., p. 176.
t Ch. Con. Ser. 1825, p. 11.
102 BISHOP white's opinions.
may be the form without the spirit of
prayer, and that to either or to both of
them there may be applied the passage
of Scripture, which speaks of ' having a
form of Godliness and denying the
power thereof;' the form, that is the
show, or the appearance ; for such is
strictly the meaning of the original ;
and not forms of prayer, on which the
passage has no bearing."
Q. Are forms of prayer a safeguard ?
A. Bishop White says,t "Of the
many advantages of an authoritative form
(of prayer) this is not the least, that it
preaches the Gospel to the people, when
they would look for it in vain from the
officiating Minister."
Q. Is the charge of formality justly
made against us ?
A. Bishop White says,t " We ought
* Commentaries, p. 176, 177.
t Gen. Theo. Sem. Address, 1828, p. 9,
BISHOP white's opinions. 103
not to be charged with formality, when
we have for our sanction divine institu-
tion under the law ; and the attendance
of our Saviour and of his Apostles, as
well on the worship of the synagogue as
on that of the temple."
Section XX.
m tlje Jpraticr i3ook,
" Next to the Bible, it is the book of my understand-
ing and of my heart." — Dr. Adam Clarke.
i' The Liturgy forms a system of devotion, which
commands the approbation of those who differ from us
in other things. It is the Scriptures condensed into a
smaller volume ; its classic elegance gives it a claim to
the attention of the scholar, and the fervent breathings
of its piety warm the heart and inspire the mind with
sensations the most animating and consoling. It forms
an effectual barrier against errors in doctrine; no he-
retical principles can pollute the sanctuary, while we
are surrounded by such a bulwark, and defended by
such a shield." — Bishop Moore, of Virginia, Con. Ser.
p. 5.
Q. What was the English Reform-
104
ers' favorite object as respects the Lit-
urgy?
A. Bishop White says% " It was a
favorite object with those who reformed
the worship of the Church of England,
to distinguish between the seraphic de-
votions of the purer times and the cor-
ruptions mixed with them: and to pre-
sent the former to the Church with
others of their own inditing ; the effu-
sions of a piety, which conducted some
of them through a glorious martyrdom."
Q. May the Liturgy be disparaged by
a certain kind of preaching ?
A. Bishop White says,t ''Nothing
can be more true, or more worthy of be-
ing taught, than that forms of prayer,
without the spirit of it, are of no avail
in the sight of God Yet, if a minister
make this a favorite theme, and always
* Con. Ser.,1786,p. 24.
f Sem. Address, 1822. p. 7.
BISHOP white's opinions. 105
with a bearing on the prescribed service ;
not guarded by the intimation, that for-
mality may attach to devotions of any
description; it is impossible, but that in
the minds of hearers whose attention is
chained to his instructions, and with
whom he is perhaps a sort of oracle,
there will ensue an ideal association be-
tween our Liturgy and deadness to the
life and power of Godliness."
Q. Should the Liturgy be carefully
guarded ?
A. Bishop White says,* " Every se-
rious Clergyman of our Church, inde-
pendently of the promises made by him
of conformity to the Liturgy, ought to
be careful not to contribute to the pulling
down of this venerable enclosure of our
orthodoxy, by substituting any of the
* Commentaries, p. 177,
106 BISHOP white's opinions.
practices with which that sacred pro-
perty of it may seem unconnected."
Q. Are the responses requisite to the
full efficacy of our services ?
A. Bishop White says,* "The ser-
vice is such as no wise men would have
prepared, except with the expectation
that the people would perform their
part by being responsive to the Minister."
Q. Should kneeling be practised in our
service ?
A. Bishop White says,t "If any
should hesitate to kneel in prayer, not-
withstanding the examples in Scripture
to the effect, let them be aware how lit-
tle they appear to feel their character
of sinners, in their approaches to the
mercy seat of a holy God."
Q. Should we reject a matter merely
* Considerations, p. 3.
f Considerations, p. 3.
BISHOP white's opinions. 107
because it occurs in the Roman Catholic
Ritual ?
A. Bishop White says,* " I am sorry
that our Reformers did not make use of
the other term (first day of the week) in
our 4 Liturgy; especially as it is con-
stantly used in the Roman Catholic
ritual; from which it was a professed
object not to deviate unnecessarily."
Section XXI
®f ?I)ails H^va^tv m tljc (Iljnrrl).
" The Psalter shall be read through once every month,
as it is there appointed, both for Morning and Evening
Prayer." — From the Prayer Book.
" Now Peter and John went up together into the tem-
ple, at the hour of prayer, being tlie ninth hour." — The
Acts, iii. 1.
" So far is it from a great many of us to come early,
in the morning, or give attendance without, who disdain
to come into the temple : and yet we abhor the very
* Three letters to Ed. A. Q. Rev., p. 4.
108 BISHOP white's opinions.
name of the Jews, when we hear it, as if a most v/icked
and ungodly people. But it is to be feared, that in this
point we be far worse than the Jews, and that they shall
rise at the day of Judgment to our condemnation, who
in comparison of them, shew such slackness and con-
tempt in resorting to the house of the Lord, there to
serve him, according as we are of duty most bound." —
The Homilies, p. 156.
Q. Is it notorious that the Calendar
was constructed with a view to the
daily Morning and Evening Service ?
A. Bishop White uses the following
expression,* "The notoriety that the
Calendar was constructed with a view to
a daily morning and evening service."
Q. Do our, and our mother Church, ap-
prove of services on other days than
Sunday ?
A. Bishop White says,t " The said
Churches keep up the practice of the
primitive Church, in regard to what
were called her stationary days, in which
* Memoirs, p. 53.
t Lectures, p. 489, 490.
109
her assemblies were held within the
compass of the week. It is certainly
the case, that there are a considerable
proportion of Christian people, who can-
not conveniently, and who ought not to
leave their worldly occupations, for a
compliance with these intermediate oc-
casions of devotion. On the other hand,
there are in every populous vicinity, not
a few who may profit by this means of
keeping alive the flame of devout affec-
tion."
Q. What does Bishop White say of
the Litany or " Prayer" days ?
A. Bishop White says,* "The obser-
vance of them in the Episcopal Church,
is a continuation of what was known in
the primitive ages, under the name of
" Stationary Days." As they come to
us through the channel of our mother
* Considerations, p. 3.
4
1 10 BISHOP white's opinions.
Church, the intended extent of the ob-
servance of them should be learned
from her Canons. The fifteenth ex-
presses the wish, that every householder,
living within half a mile of the Church,
would come or send one at least of his
household, to join with the minister in
prayers."
'' There are few families, who may
not spare a member for the purpose;
and of heads of families possessing
leisure, it would be an edifying example
if they were to give encouragement to
a practice which has been dear to many
godly persons, from the earliest ages to
the present."
Bishop White,* speaking of the sub-
ject of Church psalmody, notices with-
out disapprobation the daily prayer in
an English Church. " The author is
* Thoughts on the Singing of Psalms, p. 3. note.
BISHOP white's opinions. Ill
strengthened in his opinion by inspec-
tion of a small book in his possession,
containing selections of psalms and tunes
purporting to be sung in the Parish
Church of St. James, Westminster. In
that Church there is morning and eve-
ning service daily throughout the year,
and yet the number of tunes is twenty."
Q. What is " no slender evidence of
a devotional spirit?"
A. Bishop White says,* " It will pro-
bably be no slender evidence of a devo-
tional spirit, if it cause an habitual
attendance on the service of the Church,
when it is performed in a severance
from the instructions and the exhorta-
tions of the pulpit : a practice which we
have inherited from the Church of Eng-
land, and which will always be cherished
by many devout people, whose duties of
* Gen. Theo. Sem. Address, 1829, p. 16.
1 12 BISHOP white's opinions.
life permit their withdrawing of a small
portion of their time from their worldly
occupations, for an attendance on the
strictly speaking devotional services of
the sanctuary."
Section XXIL
'' The memory of the just is blessed." — Prov. x. 7.
" Then the Minister shall declare unto the people
what Holy days, or Fasting days, are in the week fol-
lowing to be observed." — Rubric in the Prayer Book.
^ There appeareth at these days great slackness and
negligence of a great sort of people, in resorting to the
Church, there to sen^e God their Heavenly Father, ac-
cording to their most bounden duty." — Homilies, p. 151.
Q. Is there superstition in the obser-
vance of our Church's festival days ?
A. Bishop White, in a sermon on the
festival of the Holy Innocents, says,*
*P. 3, 4,
113
" Although there is danger in the laying
of undue stress on any ohservances
which religious discretion has pre-
scribed ; yet if there be wisdom in the
appointment of occasional days for the
acknowledging of local and temporal
benefits, there cannot be superstition in
the annual commemoration of events, in
which the whole Christian world is in-
terested, and which are connected with
all our spiritual interests and hopes."
Q. Does the Church provide that the
holy days shall be cele])rated ?
A. Bishop White says,* " The Church
has provided, that the slaughter of the
babes of Bethlehem shall be annually
recollected in our devotions."
Q. Are the Epistles and Gospels,
especially those for the holy days, most
valuable ?
A. Bishop White says,t " It may be
* Sermon on the Festival of the Holy Innocents, p. 1.
t Memoirs, p. 246.
1 14 BISHOP white's opinions. '
questioned, whether their judicious se-
lection had not the effect, in the middle
ages, in preventing the corruptions of
Christianity from being greater than we
find them to have been; for when it
was rare to find a Bible in the hands even
of men of education, those precious por-
tions of it must have had some effect,
although in Latin. At the Reformation,
they were retained by the most respect-
able of the Protestant Churches; the
English, the Lutheran in Sweden, Den-
mark, Germany and America ; all which,
with the addition of the American, con-
tinue the use of them to the present
day ; and with so high an esteem of
them, that in some of these Churches,
the preacher is expected to take his sub-
ject from this selection."
Q. Can the observance of the principal
Holy Days be safely omitted 1
A. Bishop White saysf, "They can
* Commentaries, p. 159.
BISHOP white's opinions. 1 15
hardly be overlooked by any minister,
without his giving of cause to suspect
the soundness of his faith.
Section XXIII.
®f i\}t ©bjert of KeUgious ^00^mblk0,
anir of Jfot)!:!!^ in Sermons.
" It is written, My House is the House of Prayer."
— St. Luke,x\x. 46.
" But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exer-
cise thyself rather unto godliness."' — 1 Tim. iv. 7.
" For all the Athenians and strangers which were
there, spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell
or to hear some new thing."' — The Acts, xvii. 21.
Q. What is the consistent Church-
man's view of religious assemblies ?
A. Bishop White says,* "It is a re-
mark frequent in the mouths of con-
sistent members of our communion.
* Comment, p. 135,
1 16 BISHOP white's opinions.
that the chief design of holding reli-
gious assemblies, should be the engaging
in the exercises of worship," (as dis-
tinguished from preaching.)
Q. What is the end of religious as-
sembling ?
A. Bishop White says,* " The end of
religious assembling, is for the worship
of Almighty God, which is proof that
the due ordering of this, ought to be the
principal concern of those who have the
conducting of it, and the principal ob-
ject of the attendants."
Q. May "the principal object" of
religious assembling be lost sight of by
an incorrect view of preaching ?
A. Bishop White says,t " There are
many, however, who are ardent in their
desires for the hearing of sermons;
while by their late coming to the pray-
* Gen, Theol. Sem. Address, 1829, p. 14.
t Gen. Theo. Sera. Address, 1829, p. 15.
BISHOP white's OPINIONS. 117
ers, by the little interest manifested in
them, and by contriving, in proportion
to any influence which they may pos-
sess, to dispense with as much of the
prayers and of the reading of the Scrip-
tures, as shall be thought consistent
with decorum, they manifest an une-
quivocal symptom of incorrect views of
religion generally."
Q. What are the principal objects for
which Christians should assemble ?
A. Bishop White says,* " This Church
like the Church from which she is de-
scended, lays the greater stress on a ju-
dicious arrangement of forms of prayer ;
from the opinion entertained, that joint
devotion, and the reading and the hear-
ing of the Scriptures, are the principal
object for which Christians should as-
semble. By the same track of senti-
* Lectures, p. 490.
1 18 BISHOP white's opinions.
ment, they have been led to accommo-
date their offices, to the being used with
or without the accompaniment of a ser-
mon. It is not from the want of due
esteem of the benefit of the latter, but
from respect to the prominent import-
ance of the other."
Q. Is novelty possible in religious
subjects ?
A. Bishop White says,* " On reli-
gious subjects, it is difficult to find out,
for persons habitually attendant in the
House of God, either general arguments
or appropriate remarks, which shall
be entirely new to them. Besides, it
may be affirmed of any preacher, with
whom the doing so is a favorite object,
that he will be less likely to feed them
with the solid and wholesome food of
evangelical instruction, than with the
* Comment p. 137.
1&ISH0P white's opinions. 1 19
frothy garnish of some empty conceits ;
or perhaps with the deadly poison of
some dangerous errors."
Q. What was the character of primi-
tive preaching ?
A, Bishop White says,* ''It is said,
that within the first two or three centu-
ries, the usual practice of the Christian
clergy was, after the prayers, to make
a discourse in explanation of some part
of Scripture, with an improvement of it,
all in the utmost simplicity of style."
Q. Is " an extraordinary appetite" for
sermons a certain test of a "well di-
gested theory of religion ?"
A. Bishop White says,t "It would,
however, be a mistake to infer that the
use of the pulpit will be in proportion
to the number of sermons from it. This
is so far from being the case, that an
extraordinary appetite for them, espe-
* Comment, p. 164,
t Gen. Sem. Address, 1829, p. 16.
120 BISHOP white's opinions.
cially when it carries in quest of great
variety, is seldom found in alliance
either with an eminent adorning of the
profession, or with a consistent and well
digested theory of religion."
Q. Is reading the Holy Scriptures
'•' preaching ?"
A. Bishop White says,* "He (the
Minister) may be said more strictly and
authoritatively to preach, when he deliv-
ers the same truths (of Holy Writ) in the
form in which the Holy Ghost has been
pleased to indite them. Accordingly,
that reading of the Scriptures in Churches
is preaching, may be gathered from what
we find said by St. James, in his speech
to the Apostles and Elders assembled in
Jerusalem — ' Moses of old time hath in
every city them that preach him, being
read in the synagogues ^every Sabbath-
day.'"
* Lectures, p. 499.
BISHOP white's opinions. 12 1
Section XXIV,
®f Jnsuborirmatlon anir Irregtilaritg.
" Obey them that have the rule over you, and sub-
mit yourselves.'' — Hebi-ew s xiii. 17.
" Q. Will you reverently obey your Bishop, and
other chief ministers, who, according to the Canons of
the Church, may have the charge and government over
you ; following, with a glad mind and will, their godly
admonitions, and submitting yourselves to their godly
judgments V
" A. I will so do, the Lord being my helper." — From
the Ordinal.
" For where there is no right order, there reigneth
all abuse, carnal liberty, enormity, sin, and Babylonical
confusion." — Homilies, p. 104.
Q. What evil must be guarded against
in connexion with the Church's laws ?
A. Bishop White says,* " It is that
of a man's entering the Church, not
contemplating the being subject to the
Canons, and conducting his subsequent
ministry in defiance of them, and of the
authority by which they were ordained."
* Comment, p. 21.
122
Q. Is the abbreviating of the Liturgy
a fault ?
A, Bishop AVhite says,* " When we
hear of a minister's abbreviating of the
appointed service, and of his being co-
pious in that unappointed, if permitted
part, in which his own conceptions are
brought forward; we may perceive
plainly enough, that he considers the
whole of the former as needless tram-
mels on him, however he may partially
conform to it for the sake of decorum to
his engagements ; or perhaps from being
aware, that a proportion of his hearers
entertain a predilection for the Church
into which he has intruded."
Q. Should there not be a due regard
to the discipline of our Church, and to
the order of its services ?
* Commment.. p. 178.
BISHOP white's opinions. 123
A. Bishop White says,* " With some,
the requisitions of the Church have had
little weight in this matter, although
consented to by their voluntary promi-
ses, in the act of their admission to -the
ministry. What aggravates the guilt of
such conduct, is the godly zeal which
has been professed as its cause, and the
apology for it. Strange perversion ! to
suppose that Godliness can, in any way,
supersede the eternal maxims of moral
obligation ; or justify men in making
stipulations, which they have no inten-
tion of complying with. But as the
end, if it had been good, would not
have justified the means ; so the general
tendency of such a zeal, is to confusion
and every evil work."
Q. Has the Church ever had a cause
* Ord. Ser., 1825, p. 17, 18.
124
of regret in the deviations from her pre-
scribed services ?
A. Bishop White says,* " The other
cause of regret was, in some ministers'
deviations from the clear senses of these
answers in the services, which give the
pledge of adherence to our Liturgy ; and
of submission to an authority recognized
by our system of ecclesiastical govern-
ment, and by the Canons. It is impos-
sible, that this conduct can be vindicated
by any professions of piety, supposing
them to be sincere ; but I must declare
the opinion, that it has been chiefly
owing either to vanity or, under the
most favorable circumstances, to views
of the dispensations of grace, differing
from those sustained in the Church of
England, and in this Church. The most
favorable interpretation to be put on
^ CommentarieSj Pref. add. p. 12.
BISHOP white's opinions. 125
such cases, is that the parties, perhaps
insensibly to themselves, have no pre-
ference of our ministry, otherwise than
as it is a door to our Churches, not oth-
erwise to be entered."
Q. Should we resist any deterioration
of the Church's institutions ?
A. Bishop White says,* " Against
every thing of this sort, of possible in-
jury to the Church, by any threatened
deterioration of her institutions, it is his
design, under Divine permission, to bear
his testimony; and, so far as it may be
in his power, to put forth his best en-
deavors, to the latest period of his life."
Q. Is " unauthorized authority" more
arbitrary than legal ?
A. Bishop White says,t " Any inva-
sion of his (the Bishop's) just rights,
will have a tendency to the placing of
* Address'at Consec. of Bp. H. U. 0., p. 18.
f Add. at Bishop O's. Consec. p. 17.
126 BISHOP white's opinions.
power in the hands of persons, whose
'little finger' of unauthorized author-
ity, will be heavier than 'the loins'
of an authority made legal by the
Constitution and the Canons of the
Church."
Q. What is the plea for departing
from this order ?
A. Bishop White says,* "The plea
for departing from this order, is the
greater increase of piety. But may not
men be under the government of a piety,
mixed with much error ? They may ;
and, in this instance of the violation of
order, they surely are. I mean, where
piety of any sort .is the motive ; for, in
the greater number of the instances fall-
ing under my observation, I have been
compelled to ascribe it to mere vanity
and the exaltation of self."
* Charge 1807, p. 28,
BISHOP white's opinions. 127
Q, What will be the result of lax dis-
cipline on the part of a Pastor ?
A. Bishop White says,* " If the pas-
tor be lax in the administration of eccle-
siastical discipline, he can hardly blame
even a greater degree of laxity among
his parishioners ; and, particularly, in
points in which his individual interests
may be concerned. There is the
greater reason to notice this, because of
the readiness of those prone to violate
institutions, to make loud complaints,
when they are violated to their own dis-
advantage. But such ought to be aware,
that if they set the example of an eman-
cipation from discipline, it is in the ec-
clesiastical line as in the civil, that the
leaders in such license are not the com-
petent judges, as to the lengths to which
it may be extended."
* Comment, p. 90.
128
Q. How may the 34th Article be
considered ?
A. Bishop White says,* " Then fol-
lows a censure on those, who wantonly
oifend against the public provisions of
the Church : which is a useful admoni-
tion to all her members, and especially
to her ministers ; who, w^hen they break
loose from the ties of the Rubrics and
of the Canons, may find a condemnation
of their conduct in this Article ; which
they had solemnly promised to conform
to, before they were admitted to the
ministry, and thereby became furnished
with an opportunity of violating its
order,"
* Lectures, p. 183.
129
Section XXV.
®f (fbucatton on Cljurcl} JPrlntipUs.
" And that he may know these things the better, ye
shall call upon him to hear sermons ; and chiefly ye
shall provide, that he may learn the Creed, the Lord's
Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, and all other
things which a Christian ought to know and believe to
his soul's health." — From the Baptismal Office.
" And their children spake half in the speech of
Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language,
but according to the language of each people.'' — Nehe-
miah J xiii. 24.
Q. Can we consistently adopt the
principle in education, of indifference to
the peculiar tenets of the Church ?
A, Bishop White says*, " The prin-
ciple cannot be acted on in the work of
education, consistently with fidelity to
the Gospel Ministry."
* Ser. on Holy Innocents' Day, p. 10.
130 BISHOP white's opinions.
Section XXVI.
®f tf)e eiljirtg-HS'me '2xt\dt5.
" And the next day he shewed himself unto them as
they strove, and would have set them at one again, say-
ing, Sirs, ye are brethren." — The Acts, vii. 26.
Q. What is the design of the Arti-
cles ?
A. Bishop White says*, " he further
believes, that the Articles were framed
to avoid, not indeed all possible differ-
ence of opinion, on questions which
may be raised on religious subjects ; but
difference as to the points, on which
the framers of the Articles thought it
necessary to determine."
Q. Were the Thirty-Nine Articles
drawn up with an accommodation to
Calvinism ?
f Comp. Views, vol. ii. p. 239.
BISHOP white's opinions. 13 1
A. Bishop White says*, "He*is free
to confess, that there was a time, when
he thought the Articles in particular to
have been drawn up with an accommo-
dation to the opposite opinions treated
of in this work. Further inquiry con-
vinced him, that in part he was mista-
ken ; that the Reformers of the Church
of England did indeed accommodate to
an opposition of opinion, existing as
early as the fifth century of the Chris-
tian Church ; but that subsequently to
the period of the Reformation, there
arose on one of the sides referred to
(Calvinism) very important superaddi-
tions ; which could not have been con-
templated in the institutions of the
Church of England, and to which they
are directly in opposition.^'
Q. Had the Thirty-Nine Articles of
* Comp. Views, vol. i. p. xi.
132 BISHOP white's opinions,
the Church of England been Calvinistic,
would the Protestant Episcopal Church
have ever recognized them as part of
her system ?
A. Bishop White says,* " It is not to
be wondered at, that after the confident
assertions which have been made, and
after the great zeal which has been dis-
played, to prove the Articles of the
Church of England Calvinistic ; the
Protestant Episcopal Church in the Uni-
ted States, should for some time have
hesitated, as to the expressly recog-
nizing of them to be a part of their sys-
tem. Whatever hazards might have
been run in the editing of a confession
materially new ; the danger ought cer-
tainly to have been encountered in pre-
ference to the establishing of a standard,
from which the sentiments of the Epis-
*Comp. Views, vol. ii. p. 189, 190.
133
copal Clergy, and of Episcopalians gen-
erally, would have been diverse ; for
that this incongruity v^ould have been
the consequence, can hardly be doubted
of by any who know the state of the
communion in question. It has contri-
buted much to the union of that Church,
and, as may reasonably be hoped, will
operate to her perpetuity ; that, on ma-
ture consideration, there has taken place
the conviction, that while the Articles
contain all the necessary truths distin-
guishing the Christian system, they do-
not embrace the superstructure of Cal-
vinism, unnecessarily laid on their foun-
dation."
Q. Whence has arisen the opinion
of the Calvinistic description of our Ar-
ticles ?
A. Bishop White says*, " The opin-
* Comment, p. 79.
134
ion of the Calvinistic description of the
Articles, seems to have arisen from the
tendency to Calvinism in the Clergy of
the Church of England, after the san-
guinary reign of Mary. And yet it does
not appear that in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth, the favorers of the system
were so apt to plead the authority ot
the Articles, as the example of what they
thought the best reformed Churches."
Q. Were not "the Lambeth Arti-
cles" Calvinistic ?
A. Bishop White says,* " The Cal-
vinism of the Lambeth Articles, is not
to be denied ; but what occasion was
there for them, if their sense had been
already declared in the Thirty-Nine (Ar-
ticles) ?"
Q. To what reign must we look for
ascertaining the meaning of the Articles?
* Comp. Views J vol. 2. p. 181.
BISHOP white's opinions. 135
A. Bishop White says,* " That (the
reign of Edward VI.) is the period, to
which we should look for the consent-
ing testimonies of individuals, in order
to ascertain the meaning of the Arti-
cles."
Section XXVII. /
®f dabinxsm.
" Will you be ready, with all faithful diligence, to
banish and drive away from the Church, all erroneous
and strange doctrines contrary to God's Word?" —
From the Ordinal.
"In our doings, that will of God is to be followed,
which we have expressly declared unto us in the Word
of God." — From Art. xvii.
Q. What is the Scripture view of pre-
destination ?
A. Bishop White says,t " It is agree-
* Comp. Views, vol. 2. p. 237.
t Comment, p. 80.
136 BISHOP white's opinions.
able to Scripture also, if, as is conceived
to be the case, the predestination of
which it speaks, be of the collective
body of a Church, and in reference to
their state of covenant with God, in the
present life."
Q. Are the peculiarities of Calvinism
of human invention ?
A. Bishop White says,* "he con-
ceives of the peculiarities of Calvinism;
that they are human inventions ; intro-
duced, at no very early period, into Chris-
tian theology."
Q. Are the doctrines of Calvinism un-
reasonable ?
A. Bishop Whitef speaks of them as
"doctrines so shocking as those of
Calvinism are here conceived to be to
the reason of mankind."
Q. Is Calvinism unscriptural ?
* Comp, Views, vol. i. p. 121.
f Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 125.
BISHOP white's opinions. 137
A. Bishop White says*, "The hope
is indulged of their having been shown,
that there is no ground in Scripture for
the doctrine of predestination, in the
sense in which the word is commonly
used ; nor for the tenets which are its
usual accompaniments. If so, they rest
on human conjecture and human rea-
sonings ; and the belief of this will be
the more confirmed, if it should be
proved, as may be done, that they began
to be introduced about four hundred
years after the promulgation of Chris-
tianity."
Q. Do not some of the Homilies of the
Second Book go further in describing
the sin of man, than the Homily on
that subject in the First Book ?
A. Bishop White says,t " It is not to
be denied, that some of the Homilies of
* Com. Views, vol. i. p. 349.
f Com. Views, vol. ii. p. 117.
138 BISHOP white's opinions.
the Second Book, go further than the
aforesaid Homily of the first. But this
circumstance, is not decisive as to the
sense of the Reformers. The Second
Book, although composed in the reign of
Edward, was not established until after
the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth :
and there is internal evidence of its hav-
ing undergone a review. It must be
confessed of some of the Homilies of the
Second Book, that they contain sen-
tences which go to the extent of the
imputation of the sin of Adam. If this
were designed, it is at the expense of
incongruity with the Anti-Calvinistic
sentiments of some of the homilies of
the same Book."
Q. Is there any Homily on predesti-
nation ?
A. Bishop White says,* " There is
* Lectures, p. 268.
139
indeed no Homily on predestination or
on election : and this is a proof, that the
sense of the compilers was not in unison
with those confessions and systems,
which enjoin and maintain the propriety
of preaching on this point."
Q. Should any one wish to prove the
Church Calvinistic ?
A. Bishop White says,* *' Why should
there be a wish to prove the Church
Calvinistic, at the expense of ascribing
to her a defect, which throws an air of
inconsistency over all her institutions."
Q, "How has it happened, that so
many have confidently affirmed the
Calvinism of the Church of Eng-
land ?"
A. Bishop White says,t " The answer
is — :It has not been by adducing, with
even a plausible appearance, any direct
* Comp. Views, vol. ii. p. 169.
f Comp. Views, vol. ii. p. 80.
140 BISHOP white's opinions.
evidences from her institutions ; but by
confidently affirming, that they who
framed them were Calvinistic in their
opinions."
Q. Is it true that the compilers of the
Liturgy were Calvinistic ?
A. Bishop White says,* " The opin-
ions of these good men must have been
in direct contrariety to the standard on
the present point (Calvinism) establish-
ed by the Synod of Dort."
Q. When was the doctrine of final
perseverance set up ?
A. Bishop White says,t " After that
time, (viz : above fifteen hundred years
after the commencement of the Chris-
tian era,) there was set up the doctrine,
that those once in grace cannot finally
fall from it."
Q. What is Bishop White's testimony
* Comp. Views, vol. ii. p. 80.
f Lectures, p, 17.
BISHOP white's opinions. 141
on the effects of the system of " Assur-
ance ?"
A. Bishop White says,* " He has
known sincere and virtuous persons dis-
posed to tolerate in professors very great
delinquencies, believing them to be com-
patible v^ith grace; merely on the
credit of occasional influences of the
same animal sensibility; whereas in
others, a much higher grade of inward
and outward rectitude, and a regular dis-
charge of devotional duties, would pass
with the same pious persons for mere
legal righteousness ; or a splendid spe-
cies of sinfulness, not at all consistent
with a state of acceptance with God."
Q. Is the Epistle to the Romans Cal-
vinistic ?
A. Bishop White says,t "Had the
Epistle consisted of such a series of sub-
* Lectures, p. 244, 245.
f Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 47, 48.
142 BISHOP white's opinions.
jects as Calvinism supposes, a writer
disclosing them to the world under the
influence of inspiration, might fitly bow
in submission under a sense of the fear-
ful sovereignty, illustrating its glory in
the damnation of millions of intelligent
creatures, appointed to them before
their being called into existence, and
without any undeservings of their own,
further than as these were the contem-
plated means by which the last awful
issue should be brought about. But
that, in such a writer, the theme should
awaken feelings, like those which seem
to have possesed the mind of the Apos-
tle, is surely one of the most extraordi-
nary associations that can be imagined.
Accordingly, we do not find, in the Cal-
vinistic authors generally read, anything
expressive of the same sensibilities, on
the same subjects."
Q. What is the design of St. Paul's
BISHOP white's opinions. 143
Epistle to the Romans, (the first eleven
chapters ?)
A. Bishop White says,* " There is a
unity of design in the argument of it ;
the Apostle laboring to prove, from the
Jewish economy, that the Gentiles were
to be partakers with the Jews of the
benefits of the Christian covenant, with-
out submitting to the ordinances of the
Levitical Law."
Again :
" Is intended of them (Jews and Gen-
tiles) in their collective, and not in their
individual capacities."
Again :
" Its speaking of their respective pri-
vileges, as belonging to a state of coven-
ant with God in this world ; and not to
a state of reward and punishment here-
after."
* Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 4—11.
144 BISHOP white's opinions.
Section XXVIII.
®f places of lUorsljip ; i\)civ JDesign,
tl]e Hse of ilTuslc, anir ©rnanunt.
" Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and
wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the
House of my God, and for the offices thereof."' — Nehe-
midh xiii. 14.
" If a man's private house, wherein he dwelleth, be
decayed, he will never cease till it be restored up
again. Yea, if his barn, where he keepeth his com,
be out of reparations, what diligence useth he to make
it in perfect state again ? If his stable for his horse,
yea, the sty for his swine, be not able to hold out water
and wind, how careful is he to do cost thereon ! And
shall we be so mindful of our common base houses,
deputed to so vile employment, and be forgetful to-
wards that House of God, wherein be intreated the
words of our eternal salvation, wherein be ministered
the sacraments and mysteries of our redemption ? The
fountain of our regeneration is there presented unto us,
the partaking of the body and blood of our Saviour
Christ is there offered unto us ; and shall we not esteem
the place, where so heavenly things are handled ?" —
The Homilies, p. 252.
" The convenient cleanness and ornaments thereof.''
— The Homilies, p. 239.
Q. What is our Church's judgment of
the design of places of public worship ?
BISHOP white's opinions. 145
A. Bishop White says,* " Such cases
(of urgent necessity or the accomplish-
ment of some great good) out of the
question, our Church judges it unsuitable
to the design of a place of public wor-
ship, and unfavorable to the affections
which the being present in it should ex-
cite and cherish, to make use of it for
the transacting of public business, as for
literary exhibitions, or for any other
transactions of a secular nature."
Q. Is Religion so abstracted as to
have no connection with the senses ?
A. Bishop White says,* " Not, how-
ever, that religion is so abstracted as to
have no connection with the senses.
Whatever charms the eye and ear ac-
quireth by means of them an influence
over the mind : and God forbid, that
these avenues should be shut against
* Con. Ser. 1809, p. 17.
t Conv. Ser, 1786, p. 17.
5
146
such subjects only, as are the most wor-
thy to take entire possession of the
soul."
Q. In the exercises of religion should
we consult ornament as well as purity?
A. Bishop White says,* " in the ex-
ercises of religion, we should consult, not
purity only, but also ornament."
Q. In the service of the Church
should we disdain any proper assistance ?
A. Bishop White says,t " She (the
Church) should disdain no assistance
which can be taken from the experience
and judgment of past ages, or from the
progress of literature, or even from the
cultivation of the finer arts."
Q. Is Music proper to aid devotion ?
A, Bishop White says,J '' Music, not
only in its simplest forms, but as aided
* Con. Ser. 1786, p. 21.
t Con. Ser. 1786, p. 22.
t Ch. Con. Ser. 1825, p. 20.
BISHOP white's opinions. 147
by mechanism, cannot be improperly
employed, when it is for the exercising
of devout affections."
Section XXIX.
®f i\)t HXdovmaixon, anb of tljt €l)tirrl) of
ffinglanlr PltJims since tlje Hcformation.
" And if ye will not be reformed by me by these
things, but will walk contrary unto me ; then will I also
walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven
times for your sins."— Ler. xxvi. 23, 24.
" And in these our doings we condemn no other na-
tions, nor prescribe any thing but to our own people
only ; for we think it convenient that every country
should use such ceremonies as they think best to the
setting forth of God's honor and glory, and to the re-
ducing of the people to a most perfect and godly living,
without error or superstition." — Pref. to Ch.of Eng.
Prayer Book.
" He left not himself without witness," — The Acts.
xiv. 17.
Q. The documents of which reign
during the Reformation, claim a prefer-
ence ? ■
148
A. Bishop White says*, " The present
speaker never looks back on these pe-
riods, without admiration of the wisdom
displayed in the documents handed
down from them. Those of the former
period (Edward VI.) he considers as*
claiming a preference, in an enquiry
into the sense of the eminent men who
took the lead in the Reformation of the
Church of England ; and consequently
into that of the institutions framed by
them."
Q. Were the English Reformers Cal-
vinists ?
A. Bishop White says,t " The sup-
position of the Calvinism of the Re-
formers of the Church of England is
very often taken for granted, without
evidence of the fact."
Q. What is the characteristic of the
* Sem. Address, 1823, p. 14,
f Comp. Views, vol. 2. p. 20.
149
most approved sermons of the Divines
of the Church of England from the Re-
formation ?
A. Bishop White says,* ''In these ser-
mons, as in the Articles, in the Prayers
and Homilies of that Church itself, there
is an happy union of Christian doctrine
and Christian morality ; equally unlike
to some sermons in modern times, as
well from the press as from the pulpit ;
naked of the former property and desti-
tute of the true spirit of the latter ; and
on the other hand, to some vapid and
short-lived productions, boasting of an
exclusive claim to gospel preaching;
but rather calculated for the excitement
of animal sensibility, than for a lasting
influence over the consciences and the
affections."
* Con. Ser.,1811,p. 25.
150 BISHOP white's opinions.
Section XXX.
®f tl)e l^iau of S^parhir Spirits.
" And these all, having obtained a good report
through faith, received not the promise : God having
provided some better thing for us, that they without us
should not be made perfect." — Hebrews xi. 39, 40.
" And we beseech thee, that we, with all those who
are departed in the true faith of thy holy Name, may
have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body
and soul, in thy eternal and everlasting glory, through
Jesus Christ our Lord." — Fii'st Prayer in " Burial
of the Dead:'
Q. Mention a very common error on
the state of the soul immediately after
death.
A. Bishop White says,* " It comes in
the way in this place, to notice a very
common error, which has even crept
into the public confessions of some
Churches ; as if the beatific vision of
holy persons, or their being in heaven,
* Lectures, p. 35.
BISHOP white's opinions. 151
took place on the dissolution of the
body. This is not Scriptural. Doubt-
less such persons are in peace; in some
state answering to the figurative terms
of * Paradise/ and ' Abraham's bosom,'
with a measure of bliss, answering to
what St. Paul must have implied, when
he spoke of ' the spirits of just men
made perfect.' Still, they have not yet
reached the state intimated by the same
Apostle, where he speaks of being
' clothed upon with our house which is
from heaven.' And the sentiment here
expressed is sustained by our Church, as
in many places, so especially when she
prays, in the burial service, for ' perfect
consummation and bliss, both in body
and in soul.' But she nowhere speaks
of passing immediately from this world
to heaven."
152 BISHOP white's opinions.
Section XXXI.
®f -KuUmg tDitl) Professing €!)ristmn0
(Bxitvm to tlje Protestant
(Episcopal Cljitrcl).
^- Can two walk together, except they be agreed." —
Amos iii. 3.
Q. Is not disunion the result of acting
with spurious liberality ?
A. Bishop White says,* " Of all mis-
taken expedients for the increase of
union, there cannot be any one of them
more delusive than the prospect here
contemplated; professed to be for the
combining in worship of bodies of Chris-
tians, now disjoined. Instead of this,
it tends to the opposite effect of dividing
our Church, as existing in its present
forms ; and, into how many separate
* Gen. Theol. Sem., Address, 1828, p. 10.
163
and perhaps hostile communions, it is
impossible to foresee."
Q. Is it true liberality for Churchmen
to join in religious exercises, when all
distinctive principles are lost sight of?
A Bishop White says*, " It was ex-
pressed to be a specious but delusive
profession of liberality, inviting us to
join in religious exercises, and in reli-
gious instruction whether delivered
orally, or through the channel of the
press ; in which it is understood, that
all distinctive principles are to be lost
sight of; and there is to be the sole ob-
ject of regarding truths, on which the
members of the different communions
are agreed."
Q. What is Bishop White's opinion
as to the authority or consistency of
* Gen. Theol. Sem., Address, 1828, p. 4.
154 BISHOP white's opinions.
such as give their patronage to schis-
matical bodies ?
A. Bishop White, speaking of Dr.
Haweis, says*, "There is propriety in
informing such readers, that Dr. Haweis
although an ordained and beneficed
minister of said Church, (of England)
was in the habit of openly giving his
patronage to societies, withdrawing from
its communion and rejecting the obli-
gation of its institutions. By what
process of reasoning he may have recon-
ciled such conduct to consistency of
character and fidelity to engagements,
is here unknown. The only reason for
recording the fact, is that it may be a
protest against any use of his authority,
as that of a clergyman of the Church of
England."
* Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 408.
BISHOP white's opinions. 155
Section XXXII.
®f H^tJbab, (ilrue anb j^alsc.
*' And after the earthquake a fire ; but the Lord was
not in the fire : and after the fire a still small voice." —
1 Kings xix. 12.
" That they may truly please thee, pour upon them
the continual dew of thy blessing." — From the Prayer
Book.
Q. Give Bishop White's view on the
subject of Revivals.
A. Bishop White says*, "The ex-
pression 'revival/ applied to religion,
being rendered indefinite by the variety
of forms in v^hich it appears ; there
may be propriety, in the author's de-
claring of his sense of the distinction
between the use and the abuse of it.
" Exercises professedly religious, but,
manifesting less either of the operation
of the intellectual faculty, or of affections
marked by the acknowledged graces of
* Gen. Theo. Sem. Address, 1828, p. 18, 19, note.
156 BISHOP white's opinions.
the Gospel, than of the excitement ot
animal organization, and extended prin-
cipally by the power of sympathy, are
not here understood under the term in
question.
*'In the New Testament, there are
records of occasions, when, from the
concurrence of favorable circumstances,
there issued excitements of religious
sensibility and of disposition to religious
inquiry, without the notice of any such
accompanyment : as when the Baptist
addressed the crowds attendant on his
ministry: as when our Saviour delivered
to a concourse of people his Sermon on
the Mount ; as when he worked a mi-
raculous provision for the five thousand ;
and, as when on the preaching of St.
Peter, there were added to the Church
about three thousand souls. If, in exer-
cises so different from any thing found
in these instances there are to be con-
BISHOP white's opinions. 157
fessed the outpourings of the Spirit ; the
Christian Church must surrender the
Ministry and the Sacraments; which
have been denied under such displays
as those referred to, and must be dis-
tracted by contrary views of the doc-
trines of grace ; each of opposite sides
setting up the plea of an outpouring of
the Spirit ; so different from the effusion
noticed in Scripture, which was to guide
to all truth. Further, if, under such in-
fluences, there be disregard of the doing
of all things decently and in order ; es-
pecially, in the Episcopal Church, if
there be the introduction of self-consti-
tuted Ministers, in violation of her pro-
hibition ; or if, in congregations under
her own Ministers, whether in Churches
or elsewhere, her services are superse-
ded by devotions not recognized in her
institutions, to the neglect of those pre-
158 BISHOP white's opinions.
scribed by her ; these are cases, which
the address was not designed to favor.
" Independently on these and on all
other disorders, there arises, sometimes
in a particular neighborhood, and some-
times pervading a community, increased
attention to those spiritual interests,
which ought at all times to be the near-
est to the affection. In the excitement
of this, there is to be confessed the
operation of the Spirit of grace, and, so
far as religious affections and holy con-
duct may be the result, they are what
the Scriptures call his fruit ; while any
extravagances which may accompany
them are resolvable into human weak-
ness ; and are in danger, from the ne-
glect of prayer, and of watchfulness over
the movements of the mind, of resulting
in a species of profession, which is not
an adorning of the doctrines of our God
BISHOP white's opinions. 159
and Saviour ; and which even v^eakens
the hold of moral obligation on the con-
science.
"The improvement of any such seasons
of grace as these referred to, was in-
tended to be impressed on the minds of
the graduates and pupils."
Section XXXIII.
®f t\)t Sol^mm^atlon of iHarnage.
" This is a great mystery ; but I speak concerning
Christ and the ChmchJ^—Eph. v. 32.
Q. What was Bishop White's opinion
as to the duty of a Minister in solemni-
zing a marriage, under given circum-
stances ?
A. Bishop White says,* " The sup-
position is as follows : there exists no
* An Opinion, Sic, p. 13.
160 BISHOP white's opinions.
legal impediment to the marriage : one
of the parties at least, belongs to the
congregation of the Minister applied to
for solemnization: also, one of them
labors under the apparently just imputa-
tion of very faulty conduct ; while the
other has respectable connexions, who
must be supposed to be greatly distressed
by the proposed alliance. It is further
supposed, that neither of the parties is
either intoxicated or insane; and that
there is no reason to suspect the latter
in any such sense, as is a disqualification
for civil contracts generally. The ques-
tion is — should the Minister applied to
solemnize the marriage ? In the above,
the degree of misconduct in one of the
parties is not defined. The reason is,
that in the ensuing discussion, the argu-
ment will apply whatever the degree
may be.
" There appears to me — and if a mis-
BISHOP white's opinions. 161
take, it has attended me through the
long course of my ministry — that under
the circumstances stated, the Minister
is not left to his discretion, but is bound
to join the parties in marriage."
Section XXXIV
®f *' anboBoming of tl)e illinb" to a
iHinist^r.
" If there be any of you, who by these means cannot
quiet his own conscience herein, but requireth further
comfort or counsel ; let him come to me, or to some
other Minister of God's word, and open his grief." —
From the Exhortation in the Holy Communion Office.
" Confess your faults one to another." — St. James
V. 16.
Q. Does the Protestant Episcopal
Church esteem " the unbosoming of the
mind" to a Minister disallowable ?
A. Eishop White says,* "The pro-
* Remarks on Experience, fee, for Chris. Jour,, 1819.
162
priety of it, where occasion may require,
is involved in the nature of the Gospel
ministry; and is recognized in one of
the exhortations to the Communion to-
wards the end. It is also implicit in the
examination prescribed to the Minister
in the Visitation of the Sick."
Q. Ought such " unbosoming" be kept
secret by the Clergy ?
A. Bishop White says,* " The expe-
riences of the inward man may be some-
times profitably disclosed, with a view
to counsel or to comfort ; but it should
be under the veil of secrecy."
Q. Should the Minister be qualified
for such disclosures ?
A, Bishop White says,t " A Minister
of the Gospel ought to be so qualified,
as that the mind may be unburdened to
him.."
* Remarks on Experience, 1819.
I Remarks on Experience, 1819.
BISHOP white's opinions. 163
Q. Do we deny the utility of " re-
course" to Pastors by their people for
the easing of conscience ?
A. Bishop White says,* " While the
Protestant Churches deny the duty of
confession, as maintained by the Church
of Rome, they do not deny the utility
of recourse to be had by believers to
their pastors, for the easing of the con-
science of any pressing burdens, and for
the clearing of doubts and difficulties;
and hence an invitation to that effect in
one of the exhortations to the commu-
nion, in the Liturgy of this Church. It
is indeed one of the most important uses
of the ministerial office."
* Lectures, p. 45,
164 BISHOP white's opinions.
Section XXXV.
®f tl]e terms '' l)ital pietg," an^ " tlital
©oblines0," ani " (louDersion."
"Avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions
of science falsely so called." — 1 Tim. vi. 20.
Q. Is the phrase " vital piety" tauto -
logical ?
A, Bishop White says,* "There is
tautology in the phrase ' vital godli-
ness.' "
Q. Is the phrase evangelical ?
A, Bishop White saysf, " What can
have been the origin of the nnevangelical
term in question ?"
Q, Is there an erroneous notion some-
times attached to the term "conver-
sion ?"
A. Bishop White says,t "Nothing
* Remarks in Chris. Jour., 1820.
t Ibid.
J Comp. Views, vol. ii. p. 113.
BISHOP white's opinions. 165
can be wider of the sentiment intended
(in the 13th Article,) than the fancy
entertained by many, relative to bap-
tized persons of a Christian education,
that in succeeding life, there must be a
critical moment of conversion; previ-
ously to which, all they do, not except-
ing their very prayers, are strictly speak-
ing sins. If this be a correct idea, the
whole system of the Church must be
radically erroneous, as will be shown in
the proper place. But if, as the Church
presumes, all who are fit subjects of
baptism, and have received it, are therein
made Christ's, by a grace given to them
in the transaction ; all works done by
them, as the Gospel has commanded,
are good, not only formally, but as to
their principle."
Q. What is the origin of the " un-
evangelical term" vital godliness ?
166 BISHOP white's opinions.
A. Bishop White says*, "With all
due allowance for those who use it from
habit, begun they know not how; and
for others, who use it without thought
as to its precise meaning ; the avowed
patrons of it have something to incul-
cate, extraneous to any state of mind
included in Scripture under the simple
term ' godliness.' Hence they are led,
perhaps unconsciously, to fill up the
phrase answerably to their own ideas.
What is this extraneous matter ? It is
a species of animal sensibility, of which
a man may possess much without reli-
gious affections ; although doubtless, the
principles may be associated in the
same mind."
Q. May not such sentiments as those
contained in the foregoing answers
be considered wanting in spirituality ?
* Remarks in Chris. Jour., 1820.
BISHOP white's opinions. 167
A. Bishop White says,* " It is not
here unattended to, that the sentiments
delivered would be considered by some
estimable persons, as indicative of reli-
gious views void of spirituality. There
would be a breach of duty in declining,
on that account, to speak agreeably to
the Word of Truth ; and it ought to be
held 'a light thing, to be judged of
man's judgment.' Of the kind of animal
sensibility faulted, there is no example
in the New Testament ; nor in the Old ;
unless in the devotions of those wor-
shippers of Baal, whom the prophet
Elijah ridiculed ; counselling them to
' cry aloud,' lest their God should be
' journeying? or pursuing, or asleep and
to be awaked."
Q. What is the meaning of " con-
vert," and " conversion ?"
* Remarks in Chris. Jour., 1820.
168 BISHOP white's opinions.
A. Bishop White says,* " The words
^ convert/ ' converted,' and ' convert-
ing,' are used, altogether, four times in
the New Testament, and never to ex-
press any other sentiments, than the
retrieving or the being retrieved from
sin fallen into, in violation of the dis-
pensation under which the parties were."
Q. What does our Church demand
from baptized persons ?
A. Bishop White says,t " From bap-
tized persons, our Church demands no
other conversion, than that which is
from a state of sin, if they have unhap-
pily fallen into it."
Q. Does the Church avoid calling the
Lord's day the Sahhath ?
A. Bishop White says,i " Here (Col.
ii. 16) the Sabbath is considered as
* Comp. Views, vol. ii. p. 304.
j- Lectures, p. 14.
X Lectures, p. 64.
BISHOP white's opinions. 169
falling with the whole body of the ritual
law of Moses. And this may show the
reason, on which our Church avoids
the calling of her day of public worship
— ' the Sabbath.' It is never so called
in the New Testament: and in the prim-
itive Church, the term ' Sabbatizing,'
carried with it the reproach of a leaning
to the abrogated observances of the law."
Section XXXVI.
®f tl)e ©mcral Sljelogical Si:mtnara.
" And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord ;
and great shall be the peace of thy children.'' — Isaiah
liv. 13.
Q. Give Bishop White's opinion of
the General Theological Seminary.
A. Bishop White says,* "To what-
* Gen. Theol. Sem. Address, 1829, p. 17.
170 BISHOP white's opinions.
ever further period there may be a
lengthening of his life, he believes that
the end of it, happen when it may, will
find him cherishing this Institution (the
General Theological Seminary) in his
regards ; and in proportion to what
may remain of strength of mind and of
body, zealously laboring for its success."
Section XXXVIL
Bisljop Qob^t-t, axxb of ^r:ljbisl)op fiauir.
" Being destitude afflicted, tormented ; of whom the
world was not worthy." — Heb. xi. 37, 38.
Q. What was Bishop White's opin-
ion of Bishop Hobart ?
A. Bishop White says,* "There is
expressed peculiar satisfaction in the
admission to the Episcopacy of a Bro-
* Con. Ser., 1811, p. 30, 31.
171
ther (Rev. J. H. Hobart, D.D.,) known
in his infancy, in his boyhood, in his
youth, and in his past labors in the
ministry, to him who is to be the prin-
cipal agent i^i the reception of him to
the Episcopacy.
" There are not likely to be any with-
in these walls, who have had such am-
ple opportunity of judging of the rever-
end person now referred to, as to real
character and disposition. And his or-
dainer can with truth declare, that he
shall discharge the duty on which he is
soon to enter, with the most sanguine
prospects as to the issue. This is said,
without the remotest idea of a compari-
son with any other ; but merely on ac-
count of a longer and more intimate ac-
quaintance. And perhaps, what is now
announced, may not be altogether with-
out a reference to self ; although — it is
trusted — not operating in a faulty line.
172
For whether it be the infirmity of an ad-
vance in years, or, as is rather hoped,
an interest taken in the future prosperity
of the Church ; there is cherished a
satisfaction in the recollection of coun-
sels formerly given to one who is in
future to be a colleague ; who may, in
the common course of affairs, be expect-
ed to survive ; and through whom, there
may accordingly be hoped, to be some
small measure of usefulness, when he who
gave those counsels shall be no more."
Again, Bishop White says,* '' To one
who has been a witness of his merits in
his boyhood, in his youth, and in his
maturity, there could not but be caused
sympathy, by the sickness which has
carried him from his family, from the
Seminary, and from his Church. To all
these relations we hope in a gracious
* Gen. Theo. Sera. Address, 1824, p. 14.
BISHOP white's opinions. 173
Providence for his restoration ; and, in
no one is this desire more sincere than in
him who, in consequence of the request
of the learned Professors of the Institu-
tion, has been delivering an address on
this occasion."
Again, Bishop White says,* " It will
easily be believed, that the duty of the
day cannot have been discharged with-
out the tenderest recollection of a friend
for whom there has been cherished an
affection from his very early years.
With the grief occasioned by his de-
cease, there is the consoling recollec-
tion of the virtues, and of the services
which embalm his memory in the esti-
mation of his friends, of the Churches
which have been under his superinten-
dence, of our Church generally, through-
out the Union, and of that large portion
* Add. at Bishop B. T.O^s. Consec. p. 26,
174 BISHOP white's opinions.
of society who knew him only as a man,
as a fellow-citizen, and as a Christian
minister, exterior to their respective
pales."
Q, Was it Bishop White's opinion
that Archbishop Laud was likely to be-
come a Roman Catholic ?
A. Bishop White says,* " The writer
of this is convinced, that no man in
England was less likely to become a
Roman Catholic, than Archbishop
Laud."
Q. What does Bishop White say of
his " lenient censure " on Archbishop
Laud?
A. Bishop White says,t " The author
is aware, that this lenient censure on
the Archbishop will be thought far
short of his demerits, by persons adopt-
ing the opinions of those writers, who re-
* Com. Views, vol. ii. p. 186.
t Com. Views, vol.'ii. p. 188.
BISHOP white's opinions. 175
present as an high crime in this prelate,
what they hold venial — perhaps a duty —
in Cranmer, in Calvin, and in the , very
enemies of Archbishop Laud, as soon as
they got a taste of the sweets of power,"
Section XXXVIII.
®f fctaiir Books;
NEAL'S HISTORY OF THE PURITANS, MOSHEIM'S
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, SCOTT'S COMMEN-
TARY, AND D'OYLY & MANT'S COMMEN-
TARY, MILNER'S HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN
CHURCH, DR. HAWEIS' HISTORY OF THE
CHRISTIAN CHURCH, AND OF MR. TOPLADY.
" Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits
whether they are of God : because many false prophets
are gone out into the world." — 1 John, iv. 1.
Q. What is the character of Dr,
Neil's History?
A. Bishop White says,* " The His-
tory of Daniel Neal has been especially
* Gen. Theo. Sem. Address, 1823, note, p. 15.
176 BISHOP
instrumental in giving erroneous views
of the transactions of which he WTote.
The corrections of it are by Bishop
Maddox, as regards the reign of Queen
Elizabeth; and by Dr. Zachary Grey,
for the succeeding times."
Again Bishop White says,* " Daniel
Neale's History of the Puritans — a popu-
lar work among Anti-Episcopalians in
the United States ; it will be to the pur-
pose to give a few specimens of his in-
numerable misrepresentations."
Q. What is the character of Dr. Mo-
sheim's Ecclesiastical History ?
A. Bishop White says,t " The cele-
brated work of Dr. Mosheim, is among
the books recommended by the House
of Bishops, to those who are preparing
for Holy Orders ; hut with the direction,
to take along with it certain other histo-
* Essay in Christian Journal, April 3. 1818.
flbid.
BISHOP white's opinions. 177
rical books, relatively to the Church of
England. It is proposed to show the
ground of this qualification.^^
Q. What is Bishop White's opinion
of Scott's Commentary ?
A. Bishop White says,* "Another
Commentary, that of the Rev. Thomas
Scott, has been received by many of the
members of the Episcopal Church, under
the impression, that it is agreeable to
her views of the leading doctrines of
Christianity. To prove, that in regard
to some of them this is not a fact, is the
design of the present address."
Again Bishop White says,t " It is in-
tended to prove, concerning the Rev. T.
Scott that under every one of the points
contained in what is called the Quin-
quarticular (i. e. Calvinistic) contro-
versy, he has taught what is either be-
* Remarks on the Com. in Ch. Register, Feb. 1826.
t Ibid.
178 BISHOP white's opinions.
yond or in contrariety to the Doctrines
of the Church, of which he was a minis-
ter."
Q. What is Bishop White's opinion
of D'Oyly and Mant's Commentary ?
A. Bishop White says,* "In that
work the notes are not the suggestions
of the editors, but are generally taken
from the writings of the most celebrat-
ed Divines of their Church, from the re-
formation to the present time."
Q. Give Bishop White's opinion of
Dr. Haweis, a Calvinistic clergymen of
the Church of England, and author of a
work called " An History of the Chris-
tion Church ?"
A. Bishop White says,t " It has been
remarked of Dr. Haweis, that how^ever
prejudiced against some Fathers of the
Church, celebrated by her in all the
* Remarks on the Com. in Ch. Register, Feb, 1826.
f Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 417.
BISHOP white's opinions. 179
ages succeeding them, he possessed
abundance of a singular kind of charity,
in supposing piety to abound in hereti-
cal and schismatical communions, even
where there were no documents in his
support."
Q. What is Bishop White's opinion
of Rev. Mr. Toplady (the author of His-
tory of Calvinism ?)
A. Bishop White says,* " Mr. Top-
lady' zeal, however, is supposed by the
writer of this, to have carried him to a
length of torture of the scraps taken
from these Fathers, which is not here
recollected to have been found in any
other author."
Q. What is Bishop White's opinion
of Rev. Joseph Milner's History of the
Christian Church?
A. Bishop White says,t " Like the two
* Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 403.
fComp. Views, vol. i. p. 416.
180 BISHOP white's opinions.
authors above mentioned (viz. Toplady
and Haweis,) he (Milner) is a Calvinist;
and although not so intolerant as they
in reference to opposite opinion, never
finds Christian doctrine in its integrity,
except in alliance with Calvinism, or in
what he thinks he perceives the com-
plexion of that theory."
Section XXXIX.
©f tl)e j^catljcn.
" For when the Gentiles, which have not the law,
do by nature the things contained in the law, these
having not the law, are a law unto themselves.'' — Ro-
mans ii. 14.
Q. Is any part of the human race
placed, by the condition of their birth,
beyond the reach of the mercy of God,
through Christ ?
A. Bishop White says,* " It is here
* Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 120.
BISHOP white's opinions. 181
thought a reasonahle conclusion from
the premises, that no part of the human
race are placed, by the condition of
their birth, beyond the reach of the
mercy of God, through Christ. In re-
gard to the heathen we may properly
speak of them, as being left to the un-
covenanted mercies of God."
Q. Is the hope that God extends his
mercy to the virtuous heathen Scrip-
tural ?
A. Bishop White says,* "It is a con-
spicuous truth of Holy Scripture."
* Comp. Views, vol. i. p. 106.
" These properties of our system, in
Doctrine, in Discipline and in Worship,
which in the Sixteenth Century were
cleared from superstition by the Leaders
in the English Reformation, were brought
to the Colonies by the early emigrants
pf the Church of England, were recog-
nized by us in the organization of our
American Church, and, under the influ-
ence of the grace of God, have been
persevered in by us to the present day."
— Extract from Bishop Whitens Address on laying
the corner stone of the Gen. Theo. Sem., 1825.
CONTENTS.
Dedication,
Page
5
Advertisement,
7
Sectio]>
i I.
Of Original Sin,
9
i(
II.
Of the Plan of Salvation,
12
K
III.
Of Good Works,
15
((
IV.
Of Evangelism, and Evan-
gelical Preaching, -
17
11
V.
Of the Bible, and the relation
ofthe Church to the Bible,
26
te
VI.
Of the Early Fathers and
Tradition,
30
((
VII.
Of the term Catholic ; and
of the first four General
Councils, and ofthe "Quod
semper tobique omnibus"
of Vincentius.
46
((
VIII.
Ofthe Church, -
50
IX.
X.
XL
Of Episcopacy,
Of Apostolical Succession,
Of Schism,
54
62
65
((
XII.
Of Charity,
69
184 CONTENTS.
Page
Section XIII. Of Spurious Liberality, 80
" XIV. Of the Sacraments, - 84
" XV. Of Baptismal Regenera-
tion, - - 86
" XVI. Of Frequent Communion, 94
" XVII. OftheuseofaProthesis,
or Side Table, for the
Eucharistic Elements, 96
XVIII. Of Catechising, - 97
" XIX. Of Forms of Prayer, 99
" XX. Of the Prayer Book. 103
« XXI. Of Daily^ Prftyer in the
Church, - - 107
« XXII. Of Holy Days and their
Observance, - 112
« XXIII. Of the Object of Reli-
gious Assemblies, and
of Novelty in Sermons, 115
*' XXIV, Of Insubordination and
Irregularity, - 121
«' XXV. Of Education on Church
Principles, - - 129
XXVI. Ofthe XXXIX Articles, 130
XXVII. Of Calvinism, - 135
'* XXVIII. Of Places of Worship ;
their Design, the use of
Music, and Ornament, 144
CONTENTS. 185
Page
Section XXIX. Of the Reformation, and
the Church of England
Divines since the Re-
formation, - 147
XXX. Ofthe Place of Departed
Spirits, - . 150
" XXXI. Of Uniting with Profess,
ing Christians Exte-
rior to the Protestant
Episcopal Church, - 152
" XXXII. Of Revivals, True and
False, - 155
XXXIII. Of the Solemnization of
Marriage, - - 159
XXXIV. Of " Unbosoming ofthe
Mind" to a Minister, 161
XXXV. Of the Terms " Vital Pi-
ety,'* "Vital Godli-
ness," " Conversion,"
and the *' Sabbath," 164
" XXXVI. Of the General Theologi-
cal Seminary, - 169
« XXXVII. Of Archbishop Laud : of
Bishop Hobart, 170
186 CONTENTS.
Page
Section XXXVIII. Of Certain Books, e. g.,
Neale's History of the
Puritans, Mosheim's
Ecclesiastical History,
Scott's Commentary,
and D'Oyly & Mant's
^ Commentary, Milner's
History of the Christian
'Church, Dr. Haweis'
History of theChristian
Church, and of Mr-
Toplady, - 175
« XXXIX Of the Heathen, 180
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