Spiritual despotism

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BY THE AUTHOR OF

NATURAL HISTORY OF ENTHUSIASM.

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NEW-YORK:
LEAVITT, LORD & Co., 180 BROADWAY.

BOSTON :
CROCKER & BREWSTER, 47 WASHINGTON-STREET.

M DCCC XXXV.

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ADVERTISEMENT.

' The Author has seen reason, the grounds of which
it is not important to state, for altering the order of
the volumes he has announced ; and in the stead of
Superstition, offers to the reader Spiritual
Despotism.

CONTENTS.

SECTION I. PAGE.

The Present Crisis of Church Power 5

SECTION IT.
General Conditions of Hierarchical Power , 27

SECTION III.
Sketch of Ancient Hierarchies, and that of the Jews 64

SECTION IV.
Rudiments of Church Polity 92

SECTION V.
First Steps of Spiritual Despotism 144

SECTION VI.
Era of the Balance of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Powers.. 185

SECTION VII.
The Church Ascendant 222

SECTION VIII.

Spiritual Despotism supplanted by Secular Tyranny 262

SECTION IX.
Present Disparagements of the Ministers of Religion 279

SECTION X.
General Inferences 304

Notes and Illustrations .' 319

SPIRITTAL. D£8POTI8]fI.

SECTION L

THE PRESENT CRISIS OF CHURCH POWER.

The alliance between Church and State is loudly
denounced as the source and means of spiritual des-
potism. But history shows that sacerdotal tyranny
may reach its height while the Church is struggling
against a hostile civil power. No practical inference
therefore, professing to be drawn from the testimony
of facts, can be valid, unless what has been incidental
to hierarchical usurpation is clearly distinguished
from what was its essential principle. Otherwise, we
may unwittingly promote the very abuses we wish to
exclude ; and ma}' be led moreover to spurn the most
important of all the axioms that should give law to
the social system.

Again ; the maintenance of the clergy through
the medium of a legal provision has, with as little
regard to the genuine lessons of experience, been as-
signed as a chief cause of the corruption of Christi-
anity. No allegation can stand more fully contra-
dicted by the records of antiquity than does this ; nor
can any thing be more easy than to disprove the as-
sertion.

1

6 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

Once more : the arrogant and encroaching epis-
copacy of the early ages, from which the proper
counterpoise had been removed, has furnished a spe-
cious argument in modern times, bearing against that
form of church government which is strongly in--
ferred to have been sanctioned by apostolic practice,
which is approved by the common sense of mankind
in parallel instances ; and a form too which the spread
of Christianity at once demands, and insensibly in-
troduces. A main intention then of the present
volume is to point out to the candid reader the un-
soundness of certain popular opinions on the above-
named important subjects ; and to show the futility
of the arguments that have had any such assump-
tions as their basis.

While thus, at the threshold of his argument, the
author explicitly declares his purpose and opinion —
an opinion he hopes to substantiate by proper evi-
dence, he must not be misunderstood as wishing to
dogmatise where the wisest, the best, and the most
accomplished men have ranged themselves on oppo-
site sides. Not a little oppressed by the conscious-
ness that he must advance what none of our religious
parties will altogether approve, and what some of
them will vehemently distaste, he throws himself upon
he candour and generous sympathy of all, in every
communion, whose concern for Christianity is serious
and sincere. Disclaiming (as he has endeavoured to
repress) every feeling unbecoming the holy gospel
which he most earnestly desires to promote, he will
not believe that any who entertain the same para-
mount desire, will account him an enemy, even
though he may assail their fondest and their firmest
convictions.

This indeed should be confessed, that, to what-
ever general principle of church polity we turn, pro-
bable dangers present themselves, and serious diffi-
culties attend our course in giving them effect. The

CRISIS OF CHURCH POWER. 7

candid and the well-informed will be always ready to
acknowledge, what they must so often painfully feel
— the many peculiar embarrassments that attach to
every scheme of religious association. Moderation
should spring from this feeling ; nor moderation
alone, but a manly resolution also, and unwearied
diligence in collecting information from all sides, and
in maturing opinions, such as may safely guide us in
the arduous course upon which it is now inevitable
that we should enter.

The religious interests of the British empire are
very unlikely much longer to repose where hitherto
they have rested : the powers of change that are
awake must be met and directed. Nor is it possible
that a greater stake should be at hazard among any
people ; for the welfare of Britain, momentous as we
must think it, is not all that is in question, since, with
the religious and civil well-being of our own country
the moral and spiritual renovation of all countries is
involved. No national vanity is implied in saying
so; for none can look at the course of events during
the last forty years, or anticipate those almost certain
movements of the moral world which await us, with-
out confessing that the brightest and the fondest
hopes we entertain on behalf of mankind at large,
hang upon the auspicious or the ominous aspect of
English Christianity.

In truth it has been the fate — we should rather say
the glory, of the British people, in the course of their
history, to have furnished practical solutions of the
chief questions of political science, for the benefit of
the civilized community. Nor have these problems
been worked at small cost. Let it be granted that,
as the forerunners of civilization in foreign adven-
ture and conquest, or as discoverers on the peaceful
paths of philosophy, or as masters of mechanic im-
provement and trade, the British laurels have been
won with immense and immediate advantage to our*

8 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

selves. But in teaching our neighbours the princi-
ples of civil and religious liberty we have at once
purchased our honours dearly, and reaped the fruits,
if not sparingly, yet incompletely ; or as if with a
secret repugnance.

Nothing seems more probable than that now, once
again, England — the arena of Europe and theatre
of the world, should attract all eyes while she brings
about an amended adjustment of her religious polit}'.
Hitherto no country of the old continent, or of the
new, has placed its church establishments on a foun-
dation we can approve ; nor are we by any means
agreed in approving our own. We are called upon
therefore to exert afresh our ancient prerogative ;
and to furnish, for the imitation of mankind, the
model of a national Christian constitution.

The rights of conscience and the freedom of wor-
ship have already been fully established : none now '
openly call in question those first truths (last learned)
which are the spring and reason of national pros-
perity, and the warranty of the many blessings they
introduce. Yet, and it is a singular fact, the disco-
verers and the masters of axioms so clear and so im-
portant have been more tardy than some of their dis-
ciples in bringing them to bear upon their institu-
tions. While other countries, inferior to ourselves,
if not in general civilization, at least in religious
feeling, have promptly availed themselves of the light
which England has shed, England herself has slowly
recognised her own truths. Thus (as some astrono-
mers suppose) the sun, while pouring from its upper
atmosphere the radiance that enlivens the universe,
itself remains shrouded in a sombre twilight.

What did any European people know of the prin-
ciple or practice of religious liberty until they had
learned the first, and seen something of the second,
in England ? And yet our admirers, or some of
them, have outstripped us, both in the public ac-

I

CRISIS OF CHURCH POWER. 9

knovvledgment, and in the application of the doc-
trine. Until very lately, even if it be not still so,
our profession of this not-controverted truth, has been
made, by one party with an ominous reservation ; and
by another has been so interpreted as to generate
endless divisions. Hence it happens that our insti-
tutions and our practices remain full of anomalies,
which either belie or dishonour our principles. In
like manner often, the field of a battle which, in its
issue, has restored peace and wealth to an empire,
itself long exhibits the desolations of the terrible en-
counter ; and is the last spot to be covered anew
with the harvests that were won there for other
lands.

But it is far from being enough that we under-
stand and enjoy, did we even enjoy it in the com-
pletest manner, religious liberty : this were but a
negative benefit. To be exempt from sacerdotal
usurpations is indeed an inestimable blessing; and to
be free from the terror of ecclesiastical tribunals is a
deliverance worth whatever it may cost. Yet it will
satisfy those only who would not care if left to forget
religion altogether. Such is far from being the mind
of the English people at large. It has not now be-
come, any more than it has ever been, the character-
istic of the British nation, either to rest in a profli-
gate indifferency toward religion, or with a servile
obsequiousness to bow to the childish pomps of a
despised superstition. The mass of the people, and
especially of the middle classes, are serious in their
belief (whether right or wrong in particular opinions)
sincere in their professions, and disposed to pay a
manly and religious respect to whatever in matters
of religion may seem to deserve it. Quite unlike
some of our neighbours, we shall not be found
boasting of atheism in one hour, and bowing to idols
in the next. The English ask for a religion, and it
must be a religion they can honestly cherish : or to

1*

10 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

say all that need be said, in a word — Christianity h
our choice, and the Bible our rule.

This Christianity by the Divine favour we actu-
ally possess ; and this Bible we read and reverence ;
and if our national religion be looked at only in a
broad and indefinite manner, nothing seems wanting
except a continued and increased diligence, on all
hands, in diffusing and enforcing the heavenly
benefit. But if the external profession of Christianity
be regarded under the actual conditions that attach
to it ; or if our national religion be thought of as a
bond of peace, and a prop of social order, it is found
to have become the subject of very serious, and, as it
seems, irreconcilable misunderstandings, such as at
once paralyse its spiritual energies, pervert its moral
influence, forbid its universal diffusion, enhearten its
adversaries, and throw a portentous shade over all
our institutions, civil as well as ecclesiastical. The
divisions — now much exasperated, that exist among
us on questions belonging to the exterior forms and
the profession of religion, are of a kind that affect
the Christian with inexpressible grief, the patriot
with shame and dismay, and the statesman with
hopeless perplexity.

The usual prelude of open hostility has actually
been gone through with ; namely, an exact num-
bering and comparing of forces among the combat-
ants. The muster-rolls of party strength have been
made up and read aloud ; — dismal sound in the ears
of the sons of peace ! Instead of its being inquired,
as it should among a Christian people. What are the
means at our command for making an assault upon
the irreligion of the world, upon its infidelity, and its
polytheism, the cry is. Are WE, of this party, strong
enough to overthrow our brethren of that ? Chris-
tianity has in no age of her history offered a spec-
tacle more humiliating to her friends than the one
she now presents within her home, the British em-

CRISIS OF CHURCH POWER. 11

pire. If the Gospel was disgraced by the supersti-
tions of the tenth century, those errors and follies
were palliated by the general ignorance of the times;
but the guilt and absurdity of the factions of the pre-
sent day are enhanced to a high pitch by the intelli-
gence that surrounds us. The light, the liberty,
the energy, that mark the current era, instead of
being interpretable, as they should, in an auspicious
sense, have of late become only so many omens of
ill ; inasmuch as they immensely aggravate the cri-
minality of our discords.

Shall we never learn to contemplate the religious
divisions of the country with that grasp of under-
standing and breadth of feeling that become vigor-
ous and well-ordered minds ? Both sides, in the
great controversy of the day, exult where they should
lament, and deplore what they should rejoice in ;
blame others for their own faults, and commend them-
selves where the praise, if any, belongs to their op-
ponents. Instead of inveighing, with imbecile petu-
lance, against dissent, and instead of denouncing the
* schismatics' as contemners of heaven, the Church-
man would do better modestly to consider that dis-
sent, widely as it has spread, affords a strong pre-
sumptive evidence of the existence of some capital
flaws, or at least errors of management on the part
of the Establishment. The alleged reasons of dis-
sent the Churchman may think insufficient ; but the
actual causes of dissent assuredly involve a heavy
blame, which must fall, either upon the original con-
stitution, or upon the administration of the Church ;
and probably upon both. The Churchman, there-
fore, if wise, would, without losing a day of irreco-
verable time, inquire concerning these faults, and
apply the painful necessary remedy.

Again, if the Churchman possess the feelings of a
Christian and a patriot, instead of glancing at the
barn-roofed chapel and meeting-house with an evil

12 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

e3'e and a grudge, he should loudly and ingenuously
rejoice that the saving elements of truth are scattered
so widely ; and that the insufficiency of his Church
are in some good degree supplied. What but a tho-
rough illiberality of spirit can prevent a Christian
man, on a Sunday morning, from exulting in the
thought that, instead of ten thousand Christian con-
gregations then assembling in the land, there are
fifteen or twenty thousand f Some men surely have
much to learn, and to unlearn, before they are quali-
fied to join either in the chorus of philanthropy on
earth, or in the anthem of worship in heaven.

On the other side the Dissenter, too often, is not
less wrong in feeling and inference. Instead of re-
torting the accusation of schism upon the schismatic
conditions imposed by the Church, he should cover
himself with sackcloth when he recollects that dis-
sent, within itself, is divided by a dozen frivolous dis-
agreements, and that separation upon separation still
fails to satisfy that self-willed spirit which dissent has
cherished. If dissent were one, the charge brought
against the Church would come with irresistible force.
But it is not ; and there is reason with those who
say, " Although we were to remove the grounds of
nonconformity, we should do nothing that would in-
sure unity, or relieve Christianity from its oppro-
brium. Though there were no Dissenters, there
would yet be, as in America, scores of sects."

Furthermore, the Dissenter, were he accustomed to
entertain comprehensive views of the national wel-
fare, and did he but cherish that modesty which the
especial difficulty of the subject should suggest, in-
stead of boasting the political strength of his party,
and of indulging factious hopes, founded on the em-
barrassments of the national Church, would endeavour
anxiously to avert convulsions whence good could
arise only remotely, and at a tremendous cost ; and
most especially, if ingenuous, and diffident (as a wise

CRISIS OF CHURCH POWER. 13

man alwa3'S is of theoretic principles) he would ab-
stain from urging the popular passions toward demo-
lition ; and on the contrary, would lend all his in-
fluence to those proposed reforms in the Church
which must be fairly and consistently tried before it
can be known whether a church establishment is, in
principle, wrong and impracticable. To assail the
consolidated institutions of the land, and to throw a
brand into a vast machinery, which we might find
ourselves unable to replace, is not a course to which
the dictates of common sense, or of political wisdom,
or the spirit or precepts of the Gospel, give any
sanction.

These reciprocal faults, which, be it remembered,
attach much more to the leaders and organs of the
several parties than to the mass of the people on
either side, take effect especially upon the course of
the controversy as carried on through the press. The
opponents, neither of them deficient in ability, or in
a fair measure of sincere intention, and perhaps
genuine piety, yet, with some exceptions, want the
calmness and candour that considers and admits the
real strength of the adverse argument, and which
reckons at the full the merits of an antagonist. (We
say not here how lamentably both parties fall short
of that enlightened and expansive charity, and that
brotherly love which should recommend the Chris-
tian profession.) But in this controversy, as in so
many others, yet never more than in this, the oppo-
nents do not meet each other either in discussing ab-
stract principles, or in proposing practical measures.
When the former are brought forward, an unfair use
is immediately made of the actual and incidental
faults of the national Establishment ; and when the
latter are to be considered, every specific remedial
proposition is discarded by bringing up some sweep-
ing speculative doctrine, or some untried theory.

14 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

As for example : the abstract question of the pro-
priety and utility of ecclesiastical establishments is
hardly ever left to its simple merits. The Church-
man will not so leave it, because he has an actual
Church to uphold — and this Church hotly assailed.
The Dissenter will not, because he dares not forego
the argumentative advantage he derives from the
abuses or imperfections of our Establishment.
Scarcely knowing how he might maintain his oppo-
sition if deprived of the sinister aid he draws from
this source, abundant as he finds it, and well suited
as it is to irritate popular resentment, he either blinks
the abstract question altogether, or mixes up with it
matters that are extrinsic and accidental : the Dissen-
ter clings to pluralities as tenaciously almost as the
pluralist himself.

Again, the Churchman, doubting whereto the as-
sault of the Church, if yielded to, might proceed, and
having his own prejudices, and perhaps interests, and
those of his friends and patrons to care for, takes his
stand, most inopportunely, upon advanced ground,
which is already sapped, and which must fall in with
him. The Church, with too many who make them-
selves her champions, means the Church untouched.
Thus it is that few, if any, seriously and in good faith,
inquire what our national Establishment, with its high
intrinsic merits, might become in the hands of able,
honest, and cautious reformers. Or, in other words,
few are willing to put the abstract question of a na-
tional establishment to the test of experience, by giving
or restoring every possible advantage to the one we
possess. This momentous problem demands, in truth,
to be referred to some, if they could be found, who
should be far more ingenuous and temperate, as well
as enlightened, than are any Dissenters ; and far more
free and disinterested than are any Churchmen. Be-
tween the factious vehemence of the one, and of the

CRISIS OF CHURCH POWER. 15

timid ephemeral counsels, or the miscalculating pre-
judices of the other, the high welfare of the empire is
not unlikely to be shipwrecked.

The danger of such a catastrophe is not a little en-
hanced by the active interference of those who would
not deny that they are coldly affected, or even ill-
affected toward Christianity itself. The necessity of
applying epithets of opprobrious sound to any set of
men is a most unpleasant necessity ; yet how can an
argument be conducted if apt designations must not
be employed ? Renouncing then all offensive inten-
tion, as well as unkind feeling, it must be said that
there exists among us, and almost in the consolidated
form of a distinct faction, what may fairly be called
the infidel and atheistic party ; — a party powerful by
its intelligence, and by its extensive possession of the
periodic press (not to say its political influence.)
Fine distinctions and nice shades of opinion not
regarded, and amid the urgent affairs of life they can-
not be regarded, those must needs be called infidels
who, notwithstanding a ceremonious bow to the wor-
ship of the land, invariably array themselves against
every mode of positive religious belief : nor again,
can we scruple to call those atheists, who choose, on
every occasion, to display their singular ingenuity in
exhibiting the fallacy of whatever evidence is advanced
in proof of the being and perfections of God. Wri-
ters may say, " far be it from us to deny the existence
of an intelligent first cause; nevertheless this argu-
ment, and this, and this^ usually urged by theologians
in favour of the popular dogma, is manifestly incon-
clusive." A manly ingenuousness would assuredly
exchange so thin a disguise for a candid avowal of
disbelief.

Be this as it may ; the atheistic faction very natu-
rally takes part against the established Church in the
present season of her peril. Political tendencies, ir-
religious instincts, the prospect of triumph over things

16 SPIRITUAL DEPOTISM.

and persons held sacred, the hope of seeing Christi-
anity, in one of her principal forms, levelled with the
dust and exposed to shame ; indefinite expectations of
booty, and a belief that, notwithstanding the zeal of
the sects, religion altogether would not long survive
the overthrow of a learned and respectable hierarchy
interested in its support; these, and other kindred
motives, impel many, as well among the vulgar as the
educated, to mix in a controversy foreign to their
habits of thinking, and into which they bring no pre-
paration, either of knowledge or of sentiment, that
might lead them to a sound conclusion.

This irreligious interference in a religious contro-
versy cannot fail to be in itself pernicious; but it be-
comes more so when caught at and encouraged by
some who should know better how and where to choose
allies. The aid we receive in argument, at any time,
from persons between whom and ourselves there exists
an absolute contrariety of first principles, may well
be suspected, even if it ought not at once to be re-
nounced. Undoubtedly some capital sophism forms
the bond of that accidental connexion which makes us
one with men whom we must think in every sense
wrong. Let the infidel and the Dissenter join hands
in upheaving the Church, and before the ruins have
settled in the dust, the former will turn upon the latter,
as then his sole enemy, and his easy victim.

Those who, in this instance, have fallen into the
snare, would do well to mark the not obscure wishes of
their coadjutors. These, assuming it as probable that
the mass of mankind must always ask for a religion
of some sort, will be well content so long as the reli-
gion of the populace is of a kind which themselves can
easily hold in contempt. They are not forward there-
fore, as once, in the young days of modern scepti-
cism, to assail the fanaticism and sheer extrava-
gance of certain sects ; and moreover, impelled as
it seems by the same motives, they now actually

CRISIS OF CHURCH POWER. 17

spread their shield over the enormities and follies of
Romanism ; and, with surprising eagerness, stept in
to defend the good old superstition against any new
and vigorous assailant. The very same popery that
was furiously run upon by the sceptics of the last age,
is as zealously befriended by the sceptics of this. But,
assured as they are, that the papacy has lost its tusks,
and will never again command the sword of the state,
they would very cheerfully stand by and see the pic-
turesque pomps they may have admired at Brussels,
Antwerp, Madrid, or Rome, restored to our English
Churches, Cathedrals, and Squares.

The summer season of philosophic impiety is just
at that time when some degrading and gorgeous su-
perstition overawes the vulgar, decorates the frivolous
hypocrisy of the opulent, and thickl3' shades from all
eyes the serious verieties of religion. Such, nearly,
was the state of things with the pagan philosophers
when Christianity broke upon the world ; and such
was it with the French Encyclopaedists. Never shall
it be so with English unbelievers ; yet were this pos-
sible, these, more discreet than their predecessors,
would know better than to use any efforts for demo-
lishing the popular folly ; on the contrary, they would
give it the aid of their talents, and the mock homage
of their external reverence. What least of all this
party would promote is a wise Church Reform, which
it foresees would presently turn the balance of public
feeling to the side of rational piety; and so would
throw into contempt that scepticism which is now saved
from it only by the obloquies that attach to our pro-
fession of Christianity. It is a common occurrence
for perverse intentions to bring into conjunction the
most opposite parties; and so it is now that, in decry-
ing, or in denouncing, or in silently obstructing the
necessary revision of our church polity, the enemies
of all religion, and its zealous and most sincere
friends, the Dissenters, and the interested favourers

2

18 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

of corruption within the church, are found conspiring
(though not in conspiracy) to prevent the pubhc
good ; each having his private reason for wishing to
aver what simple-minded and enlightened men most
fervently desire.

We have just said, that those inauspicious exaspe-
rations which at present obstruct the course of our
national religious improvement, attach far more to
the leaders and organs of parties than to the mass of
the people. A distinction like this is to be observed
on most occasions of public excitement ; but in the
present instance a due recollection of it is of peculiar
importance, inasmuch as the press, and especially the
periodic press, has become almost the sole medium of
party warfare. The periodic press not merely governs
public sentiment, but it is from this that the actual
complexion of public sentiment is gathered, though
incorrectly.

Nothing, it must be granted, can seem more impru-
dent than for a writer to call in question those who,
under our present literary economy, sit as the masters
of his destiny. But the author (not, as he hopes, in
the spirit of arrogance) long ago fixed it in his pur-
pose to incur all hazards while discharging what he
thinks his duty. In the present instance he must not
conceal his opinion that what is needed, as prelimi-
nary to wholesome measures, is to disengage the pub-
lic mind (if it might be done) from the despotism of the
Periodic Press, and to loosen the yoke fastened upon
the neck of the people by our Newspapers, Maga-
zines, and Reviews.

The author on this occasion challenges the Pub-
lic ; and he looks too with confidence to the can-
dour and generous feelings of not a few of those to
whom, in their public capacity, what he has to say
may apply. Many there are connected with the pe-
riodic press who distaste their task, who disallow

CRISIS OF CHURCH POWER. 19

much in which they are implicated, and who, in the
freedom of private intercourse, would not hesitate to
encourage the protest which the author is here bold
enough to make. He appeals then to readers ; and
to those writers too whose employment has not
spoiled them as Christians and as men.

To deny, either the eminent ability with which the
periodic press of this country is conducted, or the
general benefits accruing from this modern system of
intellectual circulation, would be purely splenetic.
Our daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly journals,
diflfuse light and life through the community to an ex-
tent that has no parallel. And under ordinary cir-
cumstances, and when political and religious interests
are running on in their wonted channels, and at an
ordinary pace, even the factious constitution of our
journals may perhaps have its convenience, and may
give rise to little mischief. But it is far otherwise
on those signal occasions when measures become
necessary which every faction, for its particular rea-
son, will oppose, and which, although approvable to
the quiet good sense and right feeling of the people,
are sure to be denounced and misrepresented by those
who think the point of honour of higher obligation
than the duty they owe to abstract truth ; and who,
accordingly, make it their rule to look, first to the
interests of their party, which it would be discredita-
ble to betray, and last to the welfare of the country, for
which they are but remotely responsible.

Men whose spirits are hurried and tempers irritated
by constant engagement with antagonists, and who
are called upon to take a part, and to give an opi-
nion, even on the most difficult questions, at the mo-
ment when the Press stands, and into whose habits of
thinking nothing that is cautious, deliberative, or
modest, may enter, how should such lead the public
mind upon new ground, and where every sort of em-
barrassment thickens around us f We must even go

20 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

further, and ask whether the qualities that usually call
men into the service of our periodic literature are, a
genuine intelligence, and a high sense of duty and
principle ; or rather the mere faculty of ready compo-
sition, and the command of a spirited style, together
with that mental vivacity and those inflamed intel-
lectual passions which are seldom combined with
vigorous good sense, or with expansive views, or
with substantial acquirements ; and never with hum-
ble and fervent piety. The very dispositions we
most need in difficult seasons, are those that ought
not in fairness to be looked for in that scene of flutter
and necessity — the editor's room. Our Reformation
from popery was not concocted or carried through in
any such temples of confusion. Great minds, care-
fully nurtured, came out from their retirements to
meet that great occasion. The press did indeed aid
the Reformation ; but the press was not then as now,
in a condition to distract it. The men who thought,
spoke, argued, and suflered, did not spend their
days and nights under the very roofs that shake with
the mighty throes of the printing engine. If the
same Reformation is to be carried forward to its
consummation, the band of editors and contributors
must wheel ofl* from the ground, and give room to
artisans of another order.

Hitherto it has not been found practicable to esta-
blish a journal which should be other than the organ
of a portion of the community. Ruled, either by
immediate considerations of profit, or looked upon
as the means of upholding and furthering particular
interests, a philosophic impartiality can by no means
find place in works of this class. Whatever is great
or sincere, must pass under a censorship of a special
sort, and be questioned in its remotest bearings upon
every prejudice. Individually, the editor and his
coadjutors may have their enlargement of mind, or
their conscience ; but the door-way into their office i^

CRISIS OF CHURCH POWER. 21

narrow. The law and the poh'cy of the journal is
to assail and to defend given interests ; — too often
to assail and to defend individuals.

We have spoken of those circumstances which
render it highly unlikely that, on peculiar and diffi-
cult occasions, the country should be wisely led by
our journals. But there is another, and a not less
important aspect of the subject.

We are too much in the habit, on all sides, of
forming our opinion of other parties, and even of
our own party, from the character and expressions of
the several journals that are the acknowledged
organs of those parties. But this method of judging
of our brethren, and of thinking of ourselves, is at
once illusory, and fraught with pernicious conse-
quences. In doing so we look into a glass that
distorts whatever it reflects. Let us believe it — let
us believe it as well of our neighbours as of ourselves,
that we are much better men, and more wise, and
calm, and more christian-like, than the newspaper or
review that lies on our table represents us. The
violence and the bigotry which we read and sub-
scribe to, we inwardly loathe ; and what other men
undertake to say for us, we should abhor to say for
ourselves. Feeling this, each individually as we do,
we are bound injustice and charity to impute similar
feelings to our brethren of other communions. We
are all, in common, not only misled, but misrepre-
sented, if not slandered by the forward persons who
write in our name. The commencement of every
thing that is happy and good would be a general
and vivid consciousness, on the part of the people at
large, of the wrong done them by the journalists
whom they patronise.

The aim of the paper or the review (exceptions
duly allowed for, and there are exceptions) is not so
much to speak what its party feels, as to work up the

2»

22 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

sentiments of the community to a necessary pitch, to
give those sentiments a special direction, and to
throw a desirable colour of public spirit over factious
proceedings. There is then always a measurable
interval, and often a wide one, between the journal
and its readers ; and nothing can, at the present
moment, be much more important than that this
DIFFERENCE should be understood, and calculated
upon in our projects of amendment.

An appeal is here made to the personal conscious-
ness of every Christian reader, and to his particular
acquaintance with the religious circle in the midst of
which he moves, while this broad affirmation is ad-
vanced— -That the British people, and especially the
religious portion of it, is less factious and perverse,
is more docile, and more ready to approve of reason-
able conciliatory measures, than it appears to be
when judged of by the spirit and temper of our
newspapers, magazines, and reviews. The happy
tranquil intercourse of Christians in the walks of pri-
vate life belies the intemperance of the literary leaders
of party. Hence it will follow that certain schemes
of conciliation, which must seem utterly chimerical,
if looked at in the light reflected from their flushed
pages, and which editors and reviewers will surely
denounce as absurd, may deserve to be seriously
pondered ; and especially so if the means could be
found of bringing them to bear upon the public mind
apart from the intervention of sectarian writers. No
man could stand in a nobler or more auspicious posi-
tion than one who should be able to hold this inter-
ference at bay, and to work directly upon the better
nature of the christian public.

The interval, or moral difference, between readers
and writers to which we refer, is a capital circum-
stance, very necessary to be understood and allowed
for in reference to every age of Christianity. It is a
circumstance that has been far too little considered

CRISIS OF CHURCH POWER. 23

by the compilers of church history ; and a new light
might be shed upon several eras merely by pursuing
those incidental intimations through which the actual
state of the community, as distinguished from the
temper of the authors of the time, may be discerned.
At some moments, no doubt, this difference has been
in favour of the writers ; but more often in favour of
the people. At the present moment, it can hardly
be assumed as probable, that the intense excitements,
of every sort, that have borne upon the literary body,
have operated to turn the scale in the opposite
direction.

A just estimate of the character and influence of
the Periodic Press, considered in relation to those
great measures which the religious well-being of the
empire demands, has, then, in its first bearing, a dis-
couraging aspect; inasmuch as this influence is not
easily toj be stemmed, and runs vehemently against
whatever is not sectarian. But, on the other hand,
the unquestionable fact, that the Press does not truly
represent the religious community, opens an unex-
pected and most cheering prospect of possible im-
provements in our ecclesiastical condition, when once
the means shall be found of coming in contact with
the good sense, and kindhness, and piety of the
people.

The British christian commonwealth is not to be
despaired of. Disabused of illusions, and disen-
gaged from factious guidance, our country would be
great in religion, as she has bden great in arts, arms,
and civil polity. It cannot be that the reason of so
reasonable a people should forever suffer depression ;
or that their sincere and fervent Christianity should
for ever be deformed by frivolous and acrimonious
disagreements.

The present cnsis of ecclesiastical principles ought,
it is true, to be looked at by religious men in a re-

24 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

ligious light ; and it behooves such to be constantly
on their guard against the tendency of controversies
such as these to slide off to the lower ground of po-
litical interests. The best means, perhaps, for pre-
serving in our own minds this necessary distinction,
is to place clearly in view the utmost political bear-
ing of the Church question, that so, being relieved
at once from undefined terrors, we may the more
steadily give attention to what indeed deserves the
highest regard.

The crisis of the Church we hold then to be the
crisis of the Constitution. Renouncing entirely, and
even with contempt, those alarms which are made
a pretext of by the defenders of corruption, who
would fain have us believe that to reform a single
abuse in the Church is the same thing as to draw out
the ties and pins of the framework of the State, it is
yet, as we assume, not to be denied that the feeling
and the principle which now threaten the Church of
England, threaten also, and not very remotely, those
civil institutions that stand as a fence against pure
democracy. The dissenting clergy, without being
theoretic republicans (the contrary is to a great ex-
tent the fact, and in the most decisive sense) have
gradually yielded to a doctrine, however much
softened in practice, that involves untempered de-
mocracy, and have recognised a sovereign power in
the people, over the clerical order, unheard of till of
late, and absolutely incompatible with the necessary
dignity of their office, and the free and efficient dis-
charge of their duties. This false step is not to be
retraced ; — relinquished power is not to be reco-
vered ; the tide is let out, and rolls on, and all that can
be done by the (dissenting) clergy in the way of re-
taining the influence that remains to them, is to ride
on the ridge of the wave, and to be loud and zealous
in favouring popular impulses, and to lead the way
onward still, where to stop is to fall.

CRISIS OF CHURCH POWER. 25

In this very manner the general opinions, political
and ecclesiastical, of the dissenting communities have
already advanced very many paces during the last
few years. The great and accomplished noncon-
formists of the past age would startle at the princi-
ples now maintained in dissenting publications. The
same movement must, by the necessity of the case, go
on. We have not yet heard the whole of the theory
ihat is working itself into the light. The political
tendency of the times favours its developement ; the
Dissenter will find listeners in the crowd, and co-
adjutors in the senate, and will himself be borne on
far beyond his own first intentions. To affirm that
the Dissenters of the present day are either faint in
their loyalty, or loosely attached to the existing con-
stitution, is a calumny, and can never be believed by
any who are personally acquainted with their pre-
vailing sentiments. Rejecting this slander, which
we do in the most peremptory manner ; we yet cal-
culate the elements of the orbit in which thsy are
moving : — we see the velocity, we feel the momentum,
and we well know what point the hyperbolic course
they are on must reach.

On a subject so nice as this no man will readily re-
ceive his opinion from another ; and none ought to
resent the opinion entertained by another. We are
not, be it remembered, imputing designs, or sounding
the alarm of treason and conspiracy ; but are indi-
cating only the natural tendency of principles ; and
we assume it as no extravagant surmise that, what-
ever hitherto the nations of Europe have admired,
and some of them emulated in the British constitu-
tion, will instantly sustain the unbroken impetus of
popular impatience should the English Church be
subverted. If indeed pure repubhcanism be the
highest political good, let us calmly watch the pro-
gress of the assault upon the Church. But if the
British Constitution be good, and if we desire

26

SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

to uphold and to perpetuate that form of the social
system which used to be thought by Britons admi-
rable, and by the world enviable, then must we
anxiously inquire whether the Church of England
can, and will, admit that renovation of her powers
which may enable her to cope with the times, to sur-
vive the agitation of the moment, and to continue, as
she has been, the guardian of our national welfare.
First then for the sake of Christianity, and then
for the sake of the country, we should desire and
promote the restoration of the Church. May He who
in so many signal instances has put honour upon
England, and has sustained her amid the wreck of
nations, and has rescued her peace when it seemed
gone, and has kept ahve within her the cordial pro-
fession of his Gospel ; may He now, in as great an
emergency as has yet befallen her, send the spirit of
wisdom and power, of moderation and charity, upon
some who shall repair her desolations, and build her
up for ever !

CONDITIONS OF CHURCH POWER. 27

SECTION II.

GENERAL CONDITIONS OF HIERARCHICAL POWER.

The position and the claims of the ministers of re-
ligion, as a body in the social system, are not easily
to be determined. Difficulties that may be ex-
changed, sooner than avoided, attend every scheme
of church polity. These embarrassments spring
from the very nature of the interests in question; for
until truth shall attain an ascendency in the world,
religion, as to its exterior forms, must stand as an
anomaly among the affairs of common life ; and the
ministers of religion inevitably sustain, in one manner
or in another, the disadvantages that arise from this
want of harmony between earth and heaven.

Conscious of the instability of their position, and
feeling as if their dues and their authority might at
any moment be brought into dispute, the clergy, in
almost every age, have been tempted to set themselves
at ease by means alike incompatible with their proper
influence and detrimental to the general welfare.
Hence have resulted, in the first place. Spiritual
Despotism, with its superstitions, its hypocrisies, its
fabrications, its follies ; and then those vehement re-
actions, that have ended, not merely in humbling the
priesthood, but in trampling upon religion. The
history of Christianity, from the second century
onward to the present moment, is the story of this
growth and overthrow of church power ; and more-
over, as the overthrow yet remains to be consum-
mated (for the papacy still lives) so does the reaction
wait to be brought back to its just point. Neither
the foundations nor the limits of sacerdotal authority

28 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

have hitherto been satisfactorily ascertained in any
Protestant country ; and in England first principles
on this subject are matters of controversy.

If the ministers of religion are to retain power
enough to enable them to do good, they must be
allowed to wield, in the freest manner, and without
control, an indefinite influence — an influence not to
be circumscribed by statutes. Any attempt to de-
scribe and define this peculiar species of power in the
language of law, is not so much to curtail it, as to
deny its very essence. Again ; as the clergy draw
the motives of their calling (or should do so) from
reasons that are not commensurable with the induce-
ments of worldly conduct, they can hardly consent
to be dealt with on the ground of secular interests,
without some compromise of honour and principle.
At this point it has been found very hard to avoid a
jar and clash of heterogeneous principles.

Furthermore, as the influence of the clergy touches
the public mind at all points, and aflects it in a silent
and intimate manner, such as the magistrate can
neither follow nor countervail, he can scarcely avoid
being troubled with suspicions, from which he natu-
rally seeks relief by tampering with the integrity of
the rival power, and by corruptly buying its favour.
If the Church sternly rejects these adulterous over-
tures, and maintains her high indenendence, she will
never be thought of by the State much otherwise
than as an enemy in the bosom.

It is in vain that we contend for the absolute non-
relationship of ecclesiastical corporations to the civil
power. Even if the Church were willing to maintain
such a refined doctrine, the State has not eyes nice
enough to discern it ; and will always reckon the
religious bodies it has to do with, as in a positive
sense, either its friends or its foes ; and will feel them
to be either its masters, or its subjects. If the
Church, in relation to the State, be co-ordinate and

CONDITIONS OF CHURCH POWER. 29

irresponsible, a counterpoise exists, fraught with
anxiety, and tending always to change. If it be
subservient and obsequious, whatever renders reli-
gion efficacious or venerable is compromised. If it
be transcendent and supreme, a country is converted
into one vast dungeon of ghostly cruelty, of which
the chief magistrate is only the gaoler.

Those who look upon the evolutions of religious
principles solely or chiefly in a secular light, natu-
rally seek to evade difficulties of this sort by political
management. Some, for example, would endeavour
in all possible methods to lower and to divert the re-
ligious feeling of the community. By putting silent
contempt upon the customary public references to the
supreme Being and his providential government, and
by freely opening to the mass of the people those
sources of seductive pleasure which withdraw the po-
pular mind from seriousness and reflection, they would
dry up the springs of Church power, and wither at
the root the tree of piety. Only let the people, high
and low, be imbued with the spirit of sensual gayetv,
and let the public mind admit no other stimulus than
what is drawn from physical science, and from com-
mercial eagerness, and then we shall efl'ectually set
them free from the despotism of the priest ; and stop
too the course of religious agitations. What can be
better than such a method — if all religion be an
illusion ?

Or another, and a less odious means of composing
jarring interests, and of averting religious convul-
sions, would be that of insidiously forcing or tempting
the clerical body, of all communions, into a condition
of absolute dependence upon the State, and then to
treat it, with much liberality of profession and much
impartiality, but with substantial contempt, as the
least esteemed, and the least important class of its
stipendiaries. Such an order of things being eflected,
the public purse might always be trusted to as a cer--

3

30 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

tain means of purchasing for the community just so
much religion as is indispensable for binding together
the social system, and for giving contentment to the
superstitious. This method, like the first, might be
eligible, if Christianity could be proved untrue.

There yet remains a scheme that may recommend
itself to the politician ; and it is that of suffering the
active elements of religious sentiment to work as they
may, only being so managed — now fanned, now
checked, now let loose in one direction, and now in
another, as that the dangerous force of the mass shall
always be consumed within and upon itself. Religious
parties, some ambitious, and therefore obsequious
to the State ; some simply enthusiastic, and there-
fore blind and variable; some fanatical and malig-
nant, and therefore fit for imposing fear upon others,
might, it may be thought, be so played against each
other by skilful hands, as to maintain a general equi-
librium and tranquillity. Find us these skilful hands
in continuous succession, before such a scheme is
talked of as practicable.

It is easy to say, and it would be easy to prove,
that the religion of the Bible, generally diffused, and
sincerely and fervently professed, would at once ob-
viate the difficulties we have mentioned^ as well as any
others we may have forgotten. Under the most faulty
church polity that has ever been devised, or without
any polity, every thing would go on safely and well,
if Christianity took full effect upon most men's minds ;
and if it continued to do so from age to age. Love is
the fulfilling of the law; and Christian love, in its
perfection, would supersede, as well as fulfil, all law.
But we dare not leave the things of earth, even the
best things, upon this ground. Abandoned to the ef-
ficacy of those high sentiments, that are produced only
rarely, religious interests either evaporate, or give
to abuses, worse than the evils of too much legislation.

CONDITIONS OF CHURCH POWER. 31

Civil government, in all its provisions, implies the
activity, and guards against the excesses of malign
and selfish passions. Church government must im-
ply and do the same.

Two opposite errors here take their rise. The first
is that of those who, disdaining, in religious matters,
to consider mankind such as they are, assume vastly
more than is ever realized ; and rearing^ their ecclesi-
astical edifice upon ideal ground, make no provision
against real dangers ; and therefore leave the Church
open to the insidious advance of the worse corruptions.
The second error is that of secular and politic minds ;
and it consists in allowing too little scope to spiritual
motives in spiritual affairs : with overcaution estima-
ting motives of the lowest probable rate, it places re-
ligious offices upon what it deems the firm ground of
ordinary inducements. Under the influence of this
latter error, religion invariably dies away : under the
former it scarcely fails to become extravagant or
corrupt.

The early Church, as was natural, adopted the
lofty hypothesis which assumes that every thing which
is sacred is really pure, and will always continue so ;
and from it sprung, very soon, the system that ripened
into the despotism and dishonesty of the papacy.
Our modern dissentients from establishments place
themselves nearly on the same ground ; but their
progression in the same course is obstructed by exte-
rior causes. The opposite fault, and it is a most serious
one, has too far got ground in every one of those
national establishments which, at the Reformation,
displaced the Romish tyranny. The consequence,
throughout protestant Europe, has been, a general de-
cay of clerical efficiency, and a compromise of legiti-
mate spiritual power for worldly advantages.

At the present moment these same antagonist prin-
ciples are in a state of doubtful counterpoise throughout
Christendom. Among the continental nations the

32 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

old superstition, or the doctrine of the immaculate
spirituality of persons, and infallibility of authorities,
and immediate supernatural efficacy of offices, involv-
ing, as it does, mighty influences over the human mind,
both on the side of hope and fear, and being in a
sense purified by its recent losses of secular power,
combats to advantage as well with the coldness of
Protestanism, as with the frivolity of the prevailing
atheism, and is actually drawing to itself almost every
thing that is genuine, fervent, and vital, around ii.
Kvents more unlikely have come about than would
be the restoration of a refined (not a reformed) Ro-
manism, from end to end of Europe.

In England, the two principles we have mentioned,
stand on very different ground, and indeed are
strangely intermixed among our several parties. For
example ; in her devotions and in her sacramental and
other offices, the Established Church assumes the
highest ground of spirituality : her public worship
breathes the elevation of heaven, and speaks a sub-
limity— simple as sublime, which makes us forget the
imperfections of earth. Those of her services too
that have incurred the most blame, are to be defended
only on this ground, that the Church assumes every
thing within her precincts to be actually holy and
valid. The Church, in these instances, disdains to
suppose that any of her members may be false to their
profession. But on the other hand this same Church,
in lier polity and external constitution, has embodied
far too much of the secular principle ; and is now
greatly endangered through the rude exposure of it
by her enemies.

The two incompatible elements — the hyper -spiritual
and the secular, or simply rational, are, with a like
inconsistency, commingled in the notions and practi-
ces of most of the dissident sects. These parties, in
their doctrine concerning the derivation of the Chris-
tian ministry, and still more so in the practical expo-

CONDITIONS OF CHURCH POWER. 33

sition which the congregational system gives of that
doctrine, take a very low ground — a ground not much
raised above the idea of a teacher, exercising his func-
tion at the pleasure of those who maintain him. And
yet these same persons, in their argument with the Es-
tablished Church, when they roundly deny the lawful-
ness of a national religious polity, and when they
plead for throwing religious interests altogether upon
the variable impulses of the people from year to year,
seem to suppose such a semi-miraculous administra-
tion of the world's affairs, or of the church's affairs,
as excludes or supersedes human forethought, and the
rational employment of ordinary means. In the view
they take of the sacraments, as well as of the priest-
hood, and in their opinions on secondary theological
questions, the Dissenters exhibit a decisive leaning
toward what is most simple and intelligible, and a cor-
responding backwardness to admit any thing that sa-
vours of mystery,* or which may not, in a few words,
be laid open to popular comprehension : a shrewd ra-
tionalism is the taste, if not the avowed principle of
the?e bodies, in all but the higher truths of revelation.
Nevertheless, in what relates to the propagation 6
the Gospel, or to its maintenance where it already ex-
ists, or to its safe transmission to the next age, no
class of Christians have gone so far in calculating
upon immediate interpositions of heaven; or at least
have been so jealous of those prudential arrangements
which secular discretion points to, as proper and ne-
cessary for securing these public interests.

One cannot but notice the fact, that, in those mat-
ters which human reason fails to grasp, and where as
well the means as the end are veiled in some obscu-
rity— to wit, the positive institutions of Christianity,

* The author must not be supposed to call in question the orthodoxy
of the great bodv of Dissenters : none are more steadily Trinitarian than
they.

3*

34 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

the parties spoken of reject, as superstitious and ab-
surd, whatever is not instantly intelligible. But, on
the contrary, in those affairs which, in their nature,
appertain to human agency, and in which the entire
subject lies within our view — for example, the mainte-
nance of public religion, in these they discard the sug-
gestions of secular wisdom, and prefer to rely upon a
succession of supernatural aids; or at least, act as if
the ordinary course of human affairs did not hold in
the history of the Church.

Those who are accustomed to view with calm and
serious impartiality the temper and principles of reli-
gious communities, will not deny that grave inconsist-
encies attach to all sides in the instances above allu-
ded to ; inconsistencies that may readily be traced up
to the events of a past age. The Reformers wrought
a great deliverance for us j but they did not ascertain
principles ; and since their time the Protestant com-
munions, having stumbled in their course over untrod-
den ground, have wrangled one with another about
the way, to little purpose. A season of tranquillity
(should we enjoy one after the existing agitations have
subsided) may probably be employed in a charitable
and rational discussion of the rudiments of church
polity.

The path toward such a discussion might be a lit-
tle cleared by considering the principal extrinsic
causes that have affected hierarchical power, either as
enhancing or repressing it. At any rate, a brief re-
view of these causes belongs to our present subject.

The main circumstances, then, that appear to have
strengthened or modified the influence of the sacerdo-
tal order, are the following, namely, first. The qua-
lity of the religion whch it has had to administer :
secondly. The intellectual and moral character of the
people over whom this influence has been exerted :
thirdly, The position of the hierarchy in relation to

CONDITIONS OF CHURCH POWER. 35

llie ci^il authority : and lastly, though not of least
moment, The source of Church revenues. A word
or two for each.

I. The quality of the religion ; and when this is
spoken of as a cause, operating upon the clergy, we
must not overlook the many instances in which the
Priest has created the Religion, and has made it to
suit his purposes. To some extent, greater or less,
this backward order of causation has taken place
almost every where; — oftener than we may have sup-
posed, we shall find both the dogmas and the usages
of religious bodies bearing the marks of the priest's
moulding finger. Nevertheless, every religion has
had some elements, anterior to, and independent of
sacerdotal control ; and in most cases the clergy have
received their religion, much more than formed it.

It is an obvious fact that Fear holds the first place
among the passions excited by the idea of Unseen
Power. Fear has at once a more extensive opera-
tion, and a stronger power, where it does operate,
than any other religious emotion. Hence it will be
generally true, that the religion which, in its doc-
trines and usages, is the most superstitious, will be
the one that throws the greatest authority into the
hands of the clergy. Other kinds of religious ex-
citement aflect certain tempers only; but there are
very few minds that, while a dark superstition pre-
vails around them, can entirely free themselves from
its terrors. The most profane- and the most sceptical,
the rudest and the most philosophic spirits, have been
seen at times subdued by religious fears, and so
yielding themselves to the guidance of the priest. As
well the mummeries as the solemnities of an elabo-
rate superstition subserve the purposes of spiritual
domination ; and thus the sacerdotal body has held
the people fast, at once by the brazen chains of in-
visible vengeance, and by the cobwebs of frivolous
ceremony.

36 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

An enthusiastic religion, or a fanatical one, may
also become a fit engine of ghostly tyranny ; but yet
in a far less complete manner. Superstition enfee-
bles its victims; Enthusiasm, and still more Fanati-
cism, imparts to them a factitious strength ; and
therefore the priest has something personally to fear
in availing himself of the force they yield : the fa-
naticism of the people can promote his ends only so
long as he has the skill to direct it : his skill failing,
it may rend himself. The priest of superstition rides
an ass ; the priest of fanaticism a tiger ; and hence it
has happened that the leaders of enthusiastic sects
have almost always become proficients in that sort of
guile which their difficult and perilous position de-
mands.

To avoid forestalling the subject of the following
Sections we abstain here from adducing specific in-
stances : but the practical inference should be no-
ticed, that, as a perverted or false religion favours
spiritual despotism ; so, wherever we find spiritual
despotism in fact, we may pretty safely assume that
the religious system it maintains is either false or
corrupt.

II. National temperament, in a very marked
manner, affects the extent of sacerdotal power. This
qualifying influence is to be separately observed in
relation to the clergy themselves, and in relation to
the people. A pertinent example under the former
head is furnished by adverting to the characteristic
difference which very early became apparent between
the Greek and the Latin churches ; for while the
clergy of eastern Christendom displayed the national
propensity of the Grecian mind to theoretic refine-
ment, to logical subtilty, and to boundless specula-
tion, and made Christianity chiefly a matter of intel-
lect ; the clergy of the West, imbued with the Roman
passion for power, looked upon the same Gospel,

CONDITIONS OF CHURCH POWER. 37

mainly, as opening a field of government ; and very
soon found in it, or added to it, whatever they
thought necessary for consolidating a vast spiritual
despotism. With the Greeks, the religion of Christ
came in the place of the spent philosophy of their
ancient schools ; with the Latins, it was a new en-
sign which they might rear on the site of the over-
thrown empire of the Caesars. In the East, clerical
power propped itself, partly upon asceticism, and
partly upon rhetorical accomplishments and learn-
ing; but in the West, the hierarchy moved steadily
forward in their course of usurpation, until they
snatched at, and could firmly grasp, the effective
weapons of secular authority.

The diversities of national temperament, as affect-
ing the people — the subjects of church power, may
be exemplified in tlie instance of Spain, France, and
Kngland, the relations of which with the papacy
have exhibited very strikingly the moral character-
istics of each country. The first, arrogant, gloomy,
yet indolent and acquiescent, has yielded herself
without reluctance, and without making conditions,
to the will of Rome, and has behaved herself as the
darling daughter of the Church. It would hardly
have been known what was in the heart of the
mother, if she had had no such child. But France,
while she has bowed, has stipulated for the national
honour ; and has treated the foreign usurpation with
some becoming spirit. Not strong enough in moral
force to shake off the oppression, she has yet carried
herself gallantly under it. England, from of old,
has been refractory : in every age she has impa-
tiently brooked the insults offered to her strong sense
and high feeling by insolent and rapacious Italian
priests ; and long before she actually broke the yoke,
behaved in a manner that gave Rome itself warning
of the events of the Reformation.

38 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

A due consideration of the settled dissimilarity of
national character might suffice to invalidate those
inferences that are often attempted to be applied to
the institutions of one country from the example of
another. Although related by natural descent, and
in a hundred other ways, no two races of the civilized
world are perhaps more broadly distinguished than
are the English of Britain and the English of Ame-
rica. The very relationship of the two people has
formed a starting point, whence they have diverged.
The people of the United States exist in agitation,
and act from momentary excitement. The people of
England are jealous of excitement ; and though sus-
ceptible of agitation, gladly and quickly return to a
state of rest. The love of order is as strong on this
side the Atlantic, as is the disregard of it on the
other. Here (a party excepted) authority, and those
gradations of rank which are necessary to its stability,
are steadily looked at, and are approved of as good
and beneficial. There, from the domestic circle out-
ward to the political, natural sentiments of deference
are faint, and authority means very little beyond the
limits of actual force. Climate has done something,
the geographical conditions of the country have
done something, and the political circumstances of the
state more, to place the transatlantic English at the
antipodes of Britain. We shall not then draw our
models of government thence. No infatuation could
be more irrational. A certain order of things may
indeed be good in America ; or it may be the best
possible there, which is neither necessary, nor even
practicable, nor in any sense whatever good, for Eng-
land. England will no more import a church polity
from America, than she will import thence domestic
slavery, or the republicanism which favours and en-
dures it. Two very efficient causes preserve Ame-
rican Christianity from passing into some form of spi^

CONDITIONS OF CHURCH POWER. 39

ritual despotism: the first is the spirit of faction,
which breaks the clerical body ; the second is the
spirit of trade, which has always been found in an
especial manner to repel priestly encroachments.
England assuredly may do better than take her les-
sons from those who as yet have so much to learn.

III. The power of a clerical corporation is of
course essentially affected by the relationship in
which it stands to the civil authority. It is a dream
to suppose that a body of clergy can exist in any
country in so quiescent or obscure a condition as to
sustain no relationship whatever, as such, to the ma-
gistrate. He, at least, will never forget the ministers
of religion, even if they are willing to be forgotten.
The Christian ministry has never, not even in the era
of its greatest purity, so floated in the political at-
mosphere as an invisible element ; but has always
stood in a tangible form among, or over-against, the
powers of the state. If indeed all clerical persons
and all private Christians were as child-like and hea-
venly as some few are, the Church need never be
heard of at court; but it is not, nor has it ever been
so : and there is some disingenuousness in propound-
ing schemes which can seem practicable only in idea,
and which the events of a year or a month must show
to have been founded upon illusory notions of human
nature. The only rational question is this, What
shall be the conditions of the alliance between Church
and State — friendly and harmonious, and well con-
certed ; or defensive, and cautionary, and suspi-
cious ?

Some indeed seem to think that those who have the
care of souls need no more be regarded and dealt
with corporately, by the State, than those who have
fhe care of the body; and that the relationship of the
magistrate to the priest need involve nothing more

40 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

than is included in his relation to the physician. But
this comparison is devoid of all real analogy. The
physician has to do with men individually, and apart :
the priest has to do with them in congregation, and
as combined under a system of powerful organiza-
tion. The physician is called upon when the mind
is occupied with the maladies of the body ; but the
minister of religion, both in his public and private
functions, has to do with MIND immediately, and he
treats it too in an excited s^ate, or brings it into such
a state. No function of common life is in fact ana-
logous to that of the clergy, and no other presents it-
self as a counterpoise to the power of the magistrate .
none like this, therefore, demands to be well defined,
or at least well adjusted, within the social system.
The very reason on the ground of which it is alleged
that the state may overlook and leave to itself the
clerical body — namely, the spirituality of their office,
and its independence of secular interests, might bet-
ter be urged as an imperative motive for employing
our best skill in arranging the relationship between
Church and State. It is because religion brings in
a power of a transcendent sort that we are called up-
on to guard against the abuse of it in the hands of
the fanatical or the ambitious.

It cannot be said that the Church, meaning the
clergy and their devoted flocks, has yet in any coun-
try or in any age stood precisely in that relationship
to the civil government which we can think the most
happy and safe. As for example, whatever good
may have resulted from it, none would choose to
place the Church on its primitive fooling of oppres-
sion and persecution : — this may indeed at seasons
be best for it, but it is the Lord who must say when.
The condition which next followed was that of am-
biguous friendship, and doubtful counterpoise ; a
condition which, in the nature of things, could not

CONDITIONS OF CHURCH POWER. 41

be permanent, nor is ever desirable. In fact it gave
way, and very speedily, to a bold usurpation on the
part of the Church, ending in the subversion or de-
gradation of the secular power ; and this was sue*
ceeded by a reaction and rescue, too vehement and
impassioned to observe the line of reason. To each
of these states and stages we shall have occasion here-
after more distinctly to advert. At present we only
name the political relationship of the clergy as a
main condition of the influence they exert, whether
for the better or the worse.

IV. The source of church revenues, the mode of
collection, and the rule of distribution, are circum-
stances not always obtrusive in their influence ; but
always of the very highest moment, and of the great-
est difficulty.

Some general statement of this question is every
way indispensable to our prosecution of the subject
in hand. In truth the point of church revenues
comes little short of being the hinge of the whole ar-
gument.

And let the author here be permitted explicitly to
reject the imputation of entertaining any feeling illi-
beral in itself, or of holding any opinion derogatory
to the clerical character, or implying that this order
is in any peculiar sense interested or eager of lucre.
The candid reader undoubtedly w^ill grant that the
general tendency and intention of the present volume
is not to assail, but to defend ; not to depress or ex-
clude, but to re-instate and corroborate ; not to vilify,
but to honour, the ministers of religion. Believing,
as he firmly does, that the influence of the sacerdotal
body at present labours under serious disadvantages
in all Protestant countries, and requires, for the pub-
lic good, to be brought up to a higher mark, the au-
thor claims to be interpreted, in whatever he may say,

4

42 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

in a sense consistent with his general purpose, and
compatible with his professed feelings.

A peculiarity attaches to the working of those mo-
tives which take their spring from the natural desire
of worldly comfort and competency ; and it is this,
that while these motives are, generally, more steady
and efficient than any others, they are the least ob-
trusive or noticeable of any. It is on this ground
that we are liable to be the most impelled, yet with
the least consciousness of impulsion. Especially
when the conduct of bodies of men is in question, is
it true that the motive which, in the long run, actually
draws all others in its wake, is the one concerning
which the individuals (or most of them) might honest-
ly declare that it was not uppermost in their minds.
Many, through the entire course of their lives, have
followed a leading which has never spoken aloud, or
stood in the light.

In estimating the average influence of financial sys-
tems upon any order of men, it is idle to appeal to
the disinterested and generous sentiments that may
appear among them, or that may in some degree at-
tach to the whole body. Such sentiments afford lit-
tle or no security against a perverting bias of which
few or none are distinctly conscious. Wherever,
either in the material or the moral world, several ac-
tive causes are combined, it is seen that the one which,
though it may appear the feeblest, is the most steady,
and which presses on always in the same direction, at
length gains upon all, and leads the way. So it is
in a crowd, urging their course toward a narrow pass :
some overpower their neighbours for a moment by
convulsive efforts, or by superior strength ; and
others intimidate them by a noisy and arrogant de-
mand of precedence ; meanwhile there is one, per-
haps, short of stature, and silent, who quietly and
constantly presses onward ; husbands his strength,

CONDITIONS OF CHURCH POWER. 43

improves every accidental advantage, slips in when
others give way or stumble; alarms no fears, and in
fact, penetrates the densest mass ; and while his com-
petitors are panting for life in the rear, clears his
passage, and smiles at his own success.

It is somewhat in this manner that considerations
of pecuniary interest take effect in our minds among
other motives, some of which may in fact, as well as
in semblance, sway our conduct, in single instances,
with a more sovereign power. The difficult and
perplexing occasions of life offer many ambiguous
cases, wherein high motives stand opposed : the real
and efficient power rests, in such instances, with that
neuter motive, be it what it may, which is allowed to
have the casting vote. The riddle of a man's histo-
ry might often be opened by this key. In the mild
and reasonable form of a wish for competence, or in
the inflamed state of avarice, the desire of money de-
termines the current of life ; in this channel run the
mighty waters of the world's affairs.

But if this be true of the mass of mankind, is it so
of the ministers of religion ? Yes, true ; but not in
any sense that should throw upon them a peculiar
discredit. Nothing can be more illiberal than to
make those feelings a matter of reproach to any order
of men, which are common to our nature. There is
good room to affirm that the clerical body, take it in
what age we please, compared with other bodies, has
exhibited a fair superiority in disinterestedness and
purity of conduct. It must however be admitted that
the passion of avarice, like every other, is apt to be
sharpened by restraint ; and it will be found that
those who, by the conditions of their office, are de-
barred from the open and healthy pursuit of fortune,
exhibit often a sort of petulent avidity when occasions
of gain are incidentally presented.

And we must advert once more to the important

44 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

troth, that bodies of men, moving in concert, act in
a manner that does not fairly indicate the personal
dispositions of the individuals. Individuals do wrong;
but bodies do mighty wrong; and do it without re-
morse : men singly have consciences ; but a corpo-
ration has no conscience. A rational morality would
indeed teach ns that, although a body is divided in
proportionate parts among the confederates, the guilt
of the wrong perpetrated attaches, undivided and en-
tire, to each of the accessories. But it is not thus
that men are accustomed to think ; and they rise from
a table of iniquitous consultation, calculating that
their share of the advantage is to be the measure of
their share in the blame. Church history, like com-
mon history, illustrates abundantly this sort of ca-
suistry ; nor can we at all reconcile theproceedings of
hierarchies with the personal reputation of the men
who have acted under them, without making very
frequent use of the distinction we have mentioned.
The saints were saints in cloister, but not in con-
clave.

A balance of evils, and a compromise of advanta-
ges, has attached to every scheme of clerical mainte-
nance hitherto devised. If the provision has been at
once ample, and independent of the popular will,
sloth, pride, and secularity, have crept upon those to
whom mankind should look up for patterns of purity
and heavenly-mindedness. On the other hand, it has
always been seen, and the history of early Christianity
affords the most striking exemplification of the truth,
that when church revenues flow from the precarious
liberality of the people, and are altogether undefined,
exaggerations of doctrine, perversions of morality, su-
perstitions, mummeries, hypocrisies, usurpations, cru-
elties, gain ground, not always slowly, until priests
and people — the Church and the State, are thorough-

CONDITIONS OF CHURCH POWER. 45

ly infected with the worst sort of corruption — reli-
gious corruption.

If we wish to see what is now vauntingly termed,
the Voluntary Principle, fully evolved, and ripened
under a summer heat, we have only to turn to the Pa-
pacy— the produce of the voluntary principle, with
its spiritual debauchery and Its tyranny, its lying mira-
cles, its lying mendicity, its lying sanctit}^, such as
we find it in the tenth century: the Gospel utterly
darkened, the civil authority trampled in the dust, the
people bound in fetters of fear and ignorance, and the
clergy transmuted into swine, or into wolves : these
were the fruits of that system which leaves the priest
to set his own price upon the spiritual goods he dis-
penses among the people.

What has happened once, may happen again ; and
will do so under like circumstances. We need not
draw upon imagination in conceiving of the natural
course of events, and the operation of common princi-
ples. The Church, we may suppose, instead of being
befriended by the State, is barely tolerated, or per-
haps oppressed. The clerical bod}^, including as it
may, many high-minded and disinterested individuals,
is yet, as a body (what body is not ?) actuated by the
ordinary motives of our nature, and tends therefore,
w'ith a: silent and steady momentum, toward its corpo-
rate aggrandizement, its wealth, its ease, its credit,
and its secure enjoyment of special prerogatives.
Every corporation shifts itself, if it be possible, from
precarious ground, and moves toward that which is
firm. If then the State does not lend its aid in this
endeavour of the clergy to substantiate their honours
and revenues, a resource will be found of another sort,
and the minds of the people will be worked upon with
a proportionate eagerness, in order to make sure of
their subserviency. Exnggerated doctrines will sup-
ply the place of legal provisions.

4*

46 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

The spontaneous offerings of the people, we may
suppose, do not quite fill the measure of sacerdotal
avidity : nay, perhaps the real wants of the order are
inadequately supplied. Moreover, the church in-
come fluctuates, along with the fluctuations common
to all mundane aflfairs ; and seasons occur in which
the clergy are exposed to vivid anxieties, or endure
actual privations. In such ^ state of things, while
the high-minded few will nobly sufler in patience, and
wiiile perhaps many do so ; there will not be wanting
some of a more politic turn, who, with a mixed inten-
tion— partly honest, partly sordid, will labour to reme-
dy the inconvenience in the mode which naturally sug-
gests itself to such spirits. The claims of ^God's
ministers will be asserted in a hyperbolic, 3^et insidious
style. The merit of the ofiering laid upon the altar
of the Church will be overrated in a manner that at
once enfeebles morality, and corrupts doctrine. Ge-
nuine virtue will be made to give way to fictitious vir-
tue. The just symmetry or relative magnitude of
duties will be enormously distorted. Superstition,
and her handmaid Farce, profiler their aid in this
work, and some accommodated articles of belief, or
certain special usages, which may have had another
origin, and may possess some shadow of reason, will
be converted to the purpose of levying incidental con-
tributions. By newly discovered or newly expanded
terrors, the conscience of the laity will be screwed up
to the necessary pitch in the matter of pecuniary aid ;
and what the designing and the interested had first set
a going, the sincere and fanatical will afterwards eager-
ly push forward as a sheer article of piety. In the
next age learned theologians may be seen wasting
their oil in confirming from Scripture, practices of
which knaves were the inventors.

And yet all this while there is no compulsion ; there
is no tax-gatherer, or farmer of tithes ; no Stale al-

CONDITIONS OF CHURCH POWER. 47

liance. The voluntary principle is in its full trium-
phant course. Nevertheless a system of spiritual des-
potism, as cruel as it is foul, is fastening upon the
necks of the people. The sword of the magistrate
does not enforce the demands of the Church ; but yet
the widow's two mites are snatched from her hand
by pampered priests ; and orphans see their patrimo-
ny gorged by the blojited brotherhood of the monas-
tery. Why do any people submit to an unarmed ty-
ranny of this sort? nothing binds them to obedience
but sentiment and opinion : their goods would not be
distrained were they flatly to refuse their accustomed
quotas. Why do they submit f Ask the Christian
commonalty of the third or fourth century ; ask the
European nations of the ninth ; or, not to go so far,
ask our contemporaries and countrymen, the starving
inmates of Irish hovels.

In truth, what is called voluntary is often, in the
worst sense, compulsory ; while what, in common
parlance, we term compulsory, is, in a rational and
good sense, voluntary. Phrases caught at and ap-
propriated without thought, in the heat of controver-
sy, more often than not convey some gross misappre-
hensions of simple facts ; it is thus in the present
instance. The voluntary principle, as the source of
clerical maintenance, in order to deserve the name,
and to be sound and safe, must take its course under
very peculiar and well guarded conditions ; or it will
inevitably either grind the ministers of religion, or
bring upon the people the worst sort of compulsion.
On the other hand, the compulsory system, as it is
insidiously called, needs only to be conformed, in its
mode of operation, to the analogy of good govern-
ment in civil affairs, and we can wish for nothing
more free or just.

Both the phrases in question, as used in the con-

48 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

troversy of the day, refer to levies of money, made for
the support of the ministers of religion. In the one
case the fund accrues from the unprescribed contri-
butions of those who act, individually, under the
mere impulse of their personal feelings and opinions.
In the other case it flows, in an equable stream, from
the entire community, and at the immediate bidding
of the State ; which, moreover, exacts from each
citizen a sum regulated, as are other taxes, by his
ability, or by the scale of his general expenditure :
and this payment is enforced by the State, without
regard to private inclinations. Under the former
method it is always implied that, whoever chooses to
do so, may relinquish his interest in the common
benefit, and withdraw his contribution ; or he may,
at pleasure, diminish his quota. Under the latter, of
course, relief is to be obtained only in those modes
of legislative address for which room must be left in
all imposts : and under this latter method nothing
else can happen, let the tax be adjusted as it may,
but that individuals will be found who either disallow
the propriety and abstract fitness of the tax; or who,
from peculiar circumstances, are shut out from the
benefits it dispenses ; or who are aggrieved by the
application of the general rule to their particular
case. No ingenuity in framing laws can absolutely
exclude incidental wrongs, or inconveniencies, of
this sort. The inestimable advantages of living in
society are unavoidably burdened with some partial
evils.

Nothing very chimerical is supposed when we
imagine the instance of a country, enjoying to the
full the benefits of a representative system of govern-
ment, and in which every question of polity is deter-
mined by the public will ; — such a country, we say,
great, and free, and wise, having become generally
religious in its opinions and habits, and, moreover,

CONDITIONS OF CHURCH POWER. 49

having learned to worship Almighty God in harmony
and love, has embraced the opinion (whether it be a
just opinion or not) that the support of the clergy is
one of those matters which, from the very peculiar
conditions that attach to it, is more safely and effec-
tively provided for by a public and invariable impost,
than by the capricious liberality of a portion of the
people. Thus thinking, the country taxes itself for
the maintenance of religion ; and, far from grudging
a liberal support to its best friends and worthiest ser-
vants, it sees that its own highest welfare is involved
in the comfort and independence of those who are at
once to teach, and to enforce, morality. The clergy,
tranquil in heart, and secured of a modest and rea-
sonable competency, and protected, each in his pri-
vate sphere, against the insolence of individuals ;
though not exempted from the salutary operation of
public opinion, exercise their functions on the basis
of the motives proper to it ; and, at least, are free
from any temptation to work upon the credulity of
the people, or to pervert religion to sinister ends.
Such is our imagined instance. But it will be
said — " This is COMPULSION : this is a Church and
State alliance : this is religion by act of parliament ;
— and what not." Be it so : nevertheless, it is a
compulsion we should choose, and a bondage we
should gladly sustain. Or, to compare it with the
voluntary system which history has actually realized,
the latter is a spontaneity we should shun, and a
liberty we should dread.

Theories apart, and the lessons of experience duly
regarded ; or, in other words, church history looked
into for practical uses, there appears reason to dis-
trust what is termed the voluntary principle in rela-
tion to church revenues, on the two opposite
grounds, of its inadequacy, and its exuberance ; or

50 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

its sluggishness in some respects, and its extrava-
gance in others. During one and the same period,
and within one and the same circle, this mode of
maintaining the clergy has failed to propagate and
to support Christianity ; and yet has suffocated piety
by its profusion : it has been not less niggardly, than
prodigal.

If we desire, as undoubtedly we ought, to stimu-
late this power in a safe manner, and to turn it into
auspicious channels, we should form a sober and
exact estimate of its real efficiency, and of its neces-
sary limits. This estimate can be formed on no
other ground than that of experience; and if the
hollow cruaklng voice of antiquity will not gain our
ear, we must turn to facts under our eye. These (as
we assume) make it evident that a capital, and, as it
seems, an irremediable defect attaches to the volun-
tary principle, first, in relation to the classes of the
community it affects ; and secondly, in relation to
the purposes to which it may be made to apply.

For the first. The voluntary principle, as hitherto
it has developed its powers, takes effect upon the
several orders of the community in no just propor-
tion ; or rather, in no proportion at all ; for while
the middle and lower ranks yield themselves to its
influence, the opulent and the noble are scarcely
touched by it. On all subjects of public interest, the
former are seen to be vastly more liable to be wrought
upon by natural excitements than the latter ; the
latter, indeed, hardly in any sensible degree, and it
must be confessed that the virtues of self-denying
sympathy, and substantial generosity, expand in a
much more vigorous and healthy manner among
those who themselves are every day contending with
the difficulties of a common lot, than among the
pampered children of pleasure and security. No
motive that has hitherto been brought to bear upon

COxNDITIONS OF CHURCH POWER. 51

human nature has availed to make the rich hberal
after the proportion of the poor.

It hence follows that, if the support of the minis-
ters of religion were left entirely to the spontaneous
feelings of the people, no equitable proportion of
ability would be observed between the wealthy and
the indigent. If the spiritual wants of a country are
to be fully supplied, a burden beyond endurance, and
fatal to the general prosperity, would be thrown upon
the middle classes, and upon the poor. It would be
the noble-spirited artisan, the liberal shopkeeper, the
generous yeoman, who would raise the minister's
fund; while just gold enough to save appearances —
a pepper-corn contribution, would be all that would
come from the heaps of the opulent. In the present
slate of public sentiment, or in any state which the
, world or the Church has hitherto exhibited, or seems
likely to exhibit, nothing less than an impost not to
be evaded, and which should in a fair manner dive
into the rich man's bags, will avail to throw the
maintenance of the clergy, in any just proportion,
upon the public wealth, or prevent its falling, with a
ruinous pressure, upon the industrious and the poor.

If we may take the actual working of this volun-
tary principle among the English Dissenters as our
guide in estimating its merits, we see it resting upon
the communities that use it with every sort of disad-
vantageous inequality. Not here to speak of those
ill consequences of this system which afiect the
clerical mind and temper, we find the salaries of the
ministers (a few cases excepted) to be drawn chiefly
from the pious liberality and aflection of the humble
and necessitous; while the opulent Dissenter satis-
fies his sense of justice by paying for as many inches
of pew-room as he and his family mathematically
have need of; and in doing so, calmly sees his chosen
spiritual guide — a man of piety, and of as much more

52 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

sensibility as learning than himself, broken in heart
by the embarrassments of an insufficient income.
The enormous disparities and disproportions that at-
tach to this method of supporting the ministry, would
be enough to bring its eligibility into suspicion.

But again ; a disproportion of another kind at-
tends this same system ; for, inasmuch as Congrega-
tionalism insulates each chapel-society, and leaves
each to bear its burden as it may, it follows, that,
while the large congregations of great towns and
cities raise the salaries of their ministers with no diffi-
culty on the part of the individual contributors ; the
small congregations of lesser towns and of rural dis-
tricts, groan under a burden, often of the most
afflictive weight ; and yet, with all their generous
efforts, fail to afford to a worthy and esteemed pastor
the ordinary comforts of life. It is indeed by no
means desirable that the salaries of all ministers
should be of the same amount : this equalization could
not be effected without putting constraint upon the
natural course of things ; but unquestionably it is de-
sirable that the rate of contribution should be, at
least in some degree, conformed to a rule of equit}'.
In every way a loss of fiscal power is sustained by a
community when one congregation is taxed at the
rate of only two per cent, upon its resources, and
another at the rate of twenty. The plainest dictate
of common sense would demand that the church
funds of a city or of a district, embracing, for ex-
ample, four or five large congregations, and a dozen
small ones, should be consolidated ; and then that
distribution should be made to the clergy of that dis-
trict according to their wants, their merits, or their
services. The clergy of a district, or diocess, draw-
ing their incomes from a general chest, would be set
at large from their dependence upon the managers
of single congregations ; and, at the same time, none

CONDITIONS OF CHURCH POWER. 53

need be left to suffer in solitude the miseries of in-
digence. On a plan of this sort, the superabundant
wealth of cities would be let out to fertilize the coun-
try. In affairs of this kind, as in so many others,
John Wesley displayed his clear good sense, and
proved that he thought human reason, however at
fault in matters of faith, to be fully applicable to the
arrangement of secular interests : no religious theory
stood in the way to interdict his efficient and eco-
nomic constitutions.

In the second place, the voluntary principle, such
as it is seen in actual operation, fails in relation to the
OBJECTS to which it may be applied. Human nature
involves great and generous impulses ; but they are
far from obeying, ordinarily, the guidance of reason.
What is spontaneous, we may admire oftener than
imitate. The voluntary principle, as a source of reli-
gious funds, is indeed found to meet, and sometimes
to exceed the demand made upon it, where vivid ex-
citements can be brought afresh and afresh, to bear
upon popular feelings ; but in those instances which
yield no such excitements, and which involve a com-
prehensive regard to remote consequences, it almost
entirely fails, or leaves momentous interests to dwin-
dle or perish. The people — not even the elect of the
people, and it is the people we have to do with in re-
ligious affairs, the people will never care vividly and
affectively for what they do not instantly compre-
hend. But the maintenance, the diffusion, and the
safe transmission of religion, involve very many pro-
visions and measures of a sort that appears superflu-
ous, or even perhaps pernicious, to the half-taught
and unthinking mass of mankind. It is extremely disin-
genuous to affect to deny this. The few, and a very
feWf perceive the necessity of this order of means : i
is the few who must devise and arrange these mea-
sures ; and the few who must carry them into effect.

5

54 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

To throw religious interests, of every kind, upon po-
pular impulses, is nothing less than to abandon some
that are of prime irhportance.

The clamour which we now hear in behalf of the
voluntary principle, is in character with that principle
itself; and affords a proper specimen of its qualities ;
— it is unthinking, variable, and reckless of remote
consequences. A short time must suffice to bring
back men of understanding to the mean of common
sense on this subject. The voluntary principle,
or (to drop an ambiguous and ill-chosen phrase)
we should rather say, the generous impulses of the
mass of the people, are admirable in their sphere ;
but they have only their sphere. Let it be ima-
gined that a road were opened across the fields of
space to some planet of our system, more beclouded
than our own ; and that the proposition were made to
the Christian world to send thither the elements of
sacred knowledge. A river of gold would pour into
the treasure-chest of such an enterprise. But, instead
of this animating scheme of benevolence, let us un-
dertake the founding of a college, on a large, rational,
and efficient plan and such as should promise to
supply the Church, through a course of ages, with a
well-trained clergy : — the ear of the religious public
is not to be awakened by this chord. An Alfred, or a
Wolsey, may achieve such a work ; but never the good
folks that fill our chapels, or throng around our
platforms.

Nor is it objects of this unpopular sort merely, that
will be overlooked by the popular mind. While
amazing and highly commendable efforts are making
by the religious community to send the gospel
abroad, nothing like a proportionate exertion is made
to maintain and diffuse it at home. The one object
is rich in excitement ; the other appeals coldly to
conscience. The one, therefore, counts its gold by
thousands, the other by tens.

CONDITIONS OF CHURCH POWER. 55

A degree of intelligence, and of steady consistent
principle, such as never yet has belonged to any
Christian people, must have become prevalent, and
permanently so, before it can be safe, or other than a
sheer infatuation, to throw ourselves altogether upon
popular caprice, for the support of religion and learn-
ing. This would not be wise, even in framing new
constitutions upon new ground ; much less would it
be wise to permit the funds actually devoted by our
predecessors to the support of public worship and edu-
cation, to be invaded. In this country we are not
now called upon to compose afresh the bare elements
of the social system, or to discuss primary and abstract
political doctrines ; but to decide upon the practical
and very intelligible question of upholding our actual
and ancient institutions, and of defending them,
during an unquiet season, against popular restlessness
and factious intentions. We are not to found an Es-
tablishment ; — we possess one. We are not balancing
between untried schemes ; but are intrusted with the
care of institutions commended to us by our fathers,
and which we may not break up, or suffer to be broken
up, without incurring a heavier responsibihty than
we have the means of estimating: it is our sons who
will weigh our imprudence, arraign our treachery,
or contemn our cowardice.

The want of ingenuousness, and of intelhgence,
too, that marks the present advocacy of the voluntary
principle, tends to bring into discredit a mighty
engine of Christian benevolence, indeed, the only
engine that can be relied upon for effecting the vast en-
terprises of charity which our hearts cherish on behalf
of mankind at large.

And let it be remembered that, while we call in
question this method of maintaining the ministers of
religion, and insist upon its insufficiency, its inequali-

56 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

ty, and its unhappy, though concealed influence, a
high praise is, or ought to be secured, for the thou-
sands among us who, from moderate resources, cheer-
fully draw what they draw for the support of their
clergy. Those who feel more as Englishmen than
as Churchmen, and more (may we say it) as philoso-
phers than as religionists, will exult in reflecting upon
the proof which English dissent exhibits of the liberal-
ity and of the generous elastic sentiment that be-
long to the national character. If any attribute these
great pecuniary eflibrts mainly, or in any great pro-
portion, to the impulse of a factious zeal, they are
utterly uninformed of facts, as well as miserably sple-
netic. The church fund, raised yearly by the Dis-
senters of all classes, sheds a splendour upon Britain
brighter than the glitter of her arms : heaven thinks it
so, even if earth has no eye to see it.

Or, to look beyond the circle of dissent, the volun-
tary contributions raised in this country for religious
and benevolent purposes, by the middle and lower
classes, chiefly, may well fill every patriotic breast
with the warmest emotions of pleasure. Who is so
cramped by sectarian jealousies — who is so misan-
thropic— who so cold to the glory of his country, as
not to exult in what the heavily-burdened people of
England have been doing during the past thirty
years, and are doing, with unabated generosity ? No
such mighty river of charity has before rolled upon
earth's surface ; and it swells every year: if hemmed
in or diminished for a moment, it bursts its banks
anon, and deepens its channel. Before God we do
not glory ; for we still do less than is our duty : but
before men — before all other nations, we may modestly
say, " Copy the pattern we set."

If there are those among us who allow themselves
to speak and think with contempt of the generous
religious enterprises and the noble contributions of

CONDITIONS OF CHURCH POWER. 57

our several Christian communities, let them only
transport themselves in idea to a distant futurity, and
consider in what light this large religious benevo-
lence will appear to posterity. The men of that fu-
ture time may be vastly more munificent than our-
selves ; but certainly they will not forget us, their
predecessors, who have broke a path upon this field
of noble and expansive good-will. It is we who have
shown what kindly force there is in human nature
when warmed by Christianity : it is we who have
successfully made the economic experiment which
proves that, let taxation reach what height it may,
and let commercial perplexity lour over a people as
it may, neither the one nor the other, nor both in
conjunction, can repress the elasticity of Christian
benevolence. It is we who have given a lesson of
arithmetic to the world that will never be forgotten —
a new calculus, that will solve all problems of cha-
rity.

Should it be attempted to deduct from this praise,
on the ground of what some may deem the injudi-
cious direction that has been given to our zeal in
certain instances ; we reply, that this is to forget the
substance in the circumstance ; for what is the chafl
to the wheat ? Even if our enterprises had been all
fruitless, they were not the less great in conception,
or sincere in intention. But they have been success-
ful ; and thousands have blessed England, and her
missionaries. Nay, if any portion of our praise is
set off because our success has not been greater, we
claim it back again, as due to us on another plea;
inasmuch as slender success enhances the merit of
: perseverance, if the end be good. There were Greeks
I in the age of Themistocles who had no eye, or ear,
or heart, for the glory of their country, when liberty
and civilization were saved at Thermopylae — Boe-
i tians, born on the soil of Greece, but destitute of its

5*

58 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

soul. Are there English who can fret in sectarian
vexation while their warm-hearted countrymen are,
with a costly zeal, diffusing liberty, and civilization,
and truth, over the world?

These happy and pregnant impulses, then, are
not to be repressed, but encouraged ; and are not to
be regarded with jealousy, but with hopeful exulta-
tion. Yet we must not so doat upon the voluntary
principle as to forget common sense, or to think it
applicable to every thing. No ambiguity, in fact, at-
taches to the course we should pursue ; for, while the
freest scope should be given to popular liberality,
and, while it should be invited to occupy as large a
field as it will ; we are unquestionably bound to hold
entire those more steady resources, actually existing,
the place of which the voluntary principle is not rea-
dy to supply, or for the supplying of which it does
not seem well adapted.

The question of coercive measures, «nd of fiscal
enactments, as opposed to the spontaneous exertions
of the people, presents nearly the same conditions,
to whatever class of public services it relates. Few of
the institutions by which social order is maintained
might not be dispensed with if mankind generally
were good, just, and consistently reasonable. What
so easy or simple as the business of government, if
virtue and moderation were prevalent ? Instances
have occurred, and others may readily be imagined,
in which generous and patriotic sentiments, strongly
excited b}^ peculiar circumstances, have, for a time at
least, superseded the ordinary provisions of govern-
ment, and have remanded its compulsory forces.
Nothing absolutely forbids our looking forward to
an age when prisons shall crumble into ruin, the mi-
litary art be forgotten, the tax-gatherer lose his of-
fice, apd the small residue of public expenditure be

CONDITIONS OF CHURCH POWER. 69

amply and securely provided for by the unprompted
offerings of the people.

None could deplore such a change, or regret the
good old times of the sword and the chain. The vo-
luntary principle, fully expanded, and permanently
brought into action, would leave nothing to be wish-
ed for in our social condition, and little to be done
by senates, councils, or kings. Towards so happy a
state let us tend ; but tend prudently. Need it be
said that prudence does not allow the actual deve-
lopement of the spontaneous principle to be in any
case anticipated, or the existing mechanism of go-
vernment, with its coercive provisions, to be taken
down, until after it has become conspicuous and un-
questionable that they are no longer necessary. Mean-
while, we must endure law and its sanctions.

Nevertheless, long before the age of universal
wisdom and virtue arrives, there may be small cir-
cles within which the substitution of what is volunta-
ry for what is compulsory, may safely and advanta-
geously take place. Indeed there are services and
functions of so peculiar a sort that they must be dis-
charged voluntarily, or not at all. Most of the la-
bours of charity are of this kind ; and, at a first
glance, it would appear that the offices of reli-
gion pre-eminently ask to come under the opera-
tion of the freest sentiments, and must wholly exclude
whatever is not in the highest sense generous and ele-
vated. But in this, as in so many instances, theory
fails to be borne out by experience ; and we are com-
pelled to admit that the infirmity of human nature,
the many inconsistencies that attach to our opinions
and our conduct, and the waywardness and vehe-
mence of the passions, render necessary certain
modes of proceeding, such as our previous specula-
tive notions would never have suggested.

The maintenance of the ministers of religion we

60 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

assume to be a case in which experience and history
give their vote against those lofty schemes which we
might have wished to entertain. Or taking the argu-
ment on the lowest ground, we must at the least affirm
that, where a legal provision for the clergy actually
exists, and has long existed, the voluntary system,
which never yet has been seen to cover any country
with the means of religious instruction, and which is
apt not to work favourably, cannot be allowed to
break up that provision.

Those who are always appealing to the efficacy of
the voluntary principle in the first ages of the Church,
should take care to be informed of the actual arrange-
ments under which it took place. The pecuniary po-
sition of Christian ministers during the first three cen-
turies was, in its essential points, and in its indirect
influence over priests as well as people, as unlike to
the one, as it is to the other of the two modes of cleri-
cal maintenance that prevail in this country. If the
system of tithes, and the legal enforcement of a de-
finite impost was then unknown ; so likewise was the
direct dependence of single ministers upon the will,
taste, and opinion of single congregations. No
such contempt of the sacred office was ever thought
of as is involved in the raising of a stipend for the
support of a particular teacher, elected by the contri-
butors, and removeable at their pleasure. Submission
to terms so humiliating was never asked of primitive
pastors or teachers ; and wherever it is yielded to,
nothing less than a high rate of personal character
suffices to secure a necessary pastoral authority, or
to preserve the integrity of Christian doctrine and
morals.

On the other hand, if a clerical body draws its
support from a legal provision, and is exempted
from pecuniary solicitude, and from immediate de-
pendence upon the people, it is manifest that there is

CONDITIONS OF CHURCH POWER. 61

needed, and every well-informed and unprejudiced
mind will instantly admit it, some strong corrective
influence, some efficient counterpoise, such as shall
check the advance of a secular spirit, and disturb the
drowsiness of worldly tempers. A body of clergy,
at once exonerated of all solicitude, removed from all
dependence, and at the same time sheltered from the
salutary operation of public opinion, or at least so
shielded as to save the inert and negligent from real
alarms, such a body, we say, wants a stay to its vir-
tue which human nature may not safely dispense with.
Ministers of religion so seated under the hedge, may
look down upon others, beating the waves, and bless
their happier lot ; but all such boasting is vain ; the
congratulation of those who are at ease is often, and
assuredly it is so in this instance, a fatal delusion. To
rejoice that we are free from every invigorating ex-
citement, and to be glad that we are not permitted to
breathe the open fresh air, is the pitiable solace of a
crazed hypochondriac.

The Christian ministry, let us remember, may forfet
its dignity and its efficiency in more modes than one ;
and if cashiered of its due influence and honour by
subserviency to democratic insolence ; on the other
side, it surrenders its vital power when what is spirit-
ual, divine, immortal, is treacherously bartered for
what is temporal and earthly.

People and priest ought to be connected by some
sort of eff*ective reciprocity : let not the priest be the
slave of people ; nor stand in an obsequious relation
to a few individuals ; nevertheless, both parties
should feel that there is vitality in the bond of their
union. But we here touch upon matters that must
be more distinctly referred to in a fitter place. It
must now suffice to say that, in consenting to the ab-
solute exclusion of the mass of the people from every
kind of control over church affairs, the clergy inflict

62 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

upon themselves a more serious injury, if it be possi-
ble, than that which is sustained by their flocks. The
clergy will regain a genuine influence on the same
da}^ on which the people are restored to their natural
rights, and their christian privileges. In truth, both
clergy and people are the victims, in our English
Establishment, of LAY USURPATIONS, prescriptive
indeed, and dear to a few, but such as must admit
correction if they are not to work its ruin.

We have thus briefly presented to view the four
main conditions that affect the power of hierarchies ;
namely, the quality of the religion, the national tem-
perament of the people, the political position of the
clergy in the state, and the source of church reve-
nues. Spiritual despotism, to reach its utmost height,
must be favoured by each of these conditions ; that is
to say, the religion which is the vehicle of it must be
fraught with superstition — the people must have sunk
into a servile and sluggish humour — the Church
must have got the better of the civil power, and the
wealth of the country must, without regulation or
control, be at the command of the clergy. Spiritual
despotism is necessarily redressed, or excluded —
when theolog}/ is reformed — when learning and com-
merce restore intelligence and liberty to the people —
when the civil authority resumes its functions and
rights, a friendly reciprocity being established be-
tween Church and State; and lastly, when the nice
matter of revenue is well defined, and is set clear of
the opposite liabilities to disorder that affect it.

But there are evils that attend the reaction by
which spiritual despotisms are overthrown. These
take place — when the dread of church power, and
the jealous resistance of spiritual encroachments,
lead to a rejection, or a virtual exclusion of those po-
tent principles that imparl to religion its practical
efficiency, and that invest it with a solemn and se-

CONDITIONS OF CHURCH POWER. 63

rious dignity ; — when the growth of popular senti-
ments, and the republican feeling, operates to with-
hold from the clergy so much independent authority
as is indispensable to the faithful discharge of their
duties ; — when the magistrate, in his caution against
the insidious advances of clerical ambition, holds the
Church in subserviency to his immediate pleasure,
and gives it no leave to exercise its proper legisla-
tive and administrative functions; and lastly, when
the rapacity of Churchmen is guarded against in
either of those extreme methods of which the one
tightens too much the dependence of the clergy upon
their flocks, and the other snaps it.

64 SPIRITUAL DEPOTISM.

SECTION III.

SKETCH OF ANCIENT HIERARCHIES, AND THAT OF THE JEWS.

The general subject of sacerdotal power, and tlie
abuses to which it is liable, cannot be treated with
reference merely to modern institutions, modern no-
tions, and immediate interests. Neither the guiding
principles which we have to seek for in the New
Testament, nor the real import of the allusions made
therein to the constitutions of the primitive Church,
can be understood without some knowledge of the
notions and usages of the times ; and these involve,
not merely Jewish but heathen opinions and prac-
tices. One cannot read a page of the ecclesias-
tical controversies of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries without feeling that the reasoning, on both
sides, is very often vitiated, either by the want of this
sort of information, or by the misuse of it.

A just conception of the Jewish church polity is,
we say, indispensable to an understanding of the
polity of the Christian Church ; and the former de-
mands at least a hasty glance at the contemporary
pagan systems.

Our modern European institutions, civil as well as
sacred, combine heterogeneous materials, of various
accidental origin, and often not so much composed,
as jumbled together by the revolutions of ages. On
the contrary, the ancient oriental politics suggest the
idea of homogeneous abstract conceptions, the pro-
ducts of single minds, or of a few minds in concert.
The former are accumulations, in the rearing of
which the hand of time is more apparent than the

ANCIENT HIERARCHIES. 65

mind or purpose of man : but the latter are, or seem
to be, digested schemes, whereof the several compo-
nents stand rationally related one to the other. Might
it be said that the freedom of Europe has sprung, in
part at least, from the accidental construction of our
social systems; while the despotism of Asia has been
the fruit (to some extent) of the creative purpose of
primeval autocrats ?

Those, vast Asiatic structures, some of which have
weathered the storms of four thousand years, one
must believe to have been planned by comprehen-
sive minds, and moulded by hands strong enough to
depress or ennoble, ai pleasure, the several classes of
the community. This controlling power appears in
some instances to have been guided by motives of
religion, and in others to have been drawn from the
resources of secular authority. In truth the oriental
governments might well enough be classified ac-
cording as they seem to have sprung from the will of
the soldier, the sage, or the priest. Whenever the
latter was the founder of the state, every thing is
made to bear upon sacerdotal prerogative and dig-
nity: the nation exists for its priests ; not the priests
for the nation : religion, and it must be a religion of
the darkest colours, is the one reason of every law
and usage. The land is the property of the gods ;
the people are the slaves of the gods; and the priests
are the vicegerents of every kind of authority, and
the only absolute possessors of the goods of life ;

-every title except theirs is precarious and conditional.
Such seems to have been the idea of the primitive

• Egyptian polity. We should bear this in mind when
we contemplate the Mosaic institutions. The papacy,
at the height of its pride, went near to realize the
same conception : it was the ideal which the Church

: placed before her, and toward which she pressed.
But happily there is a weakness inherent in this
sort of sacerdotal system. A polity founded upon

6

66 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

religious dogmas does not fail to generate schisms;
then the prince, or the soldier, steps forward, cheer-
fully supported by the least fanatical portion of the
people, to arbitrate between the pope and the ortho-
doxy of Memphis, and the pope and the heterodoxy
of Thebes. The sacerdotal power once broken by
division is never restored ; the natural equilibrium
of society returns with force ; and the priests thence-
forward are left in possession of their bare mumme-
ries and their indolence. Yet the triumphant prince,
in thus gaining the mastery over superstition, still
keeps it in credit as a necessary prop of his own
authority. This seems to have been the course of
events in ancient Egypt.

The social structure of India vs'as better devised
than that of Egypt; and in fact it has been immor-
tal. The Brahminical, like the Egyptian institu-
tions, must have been framed by and for the sacer-
dotal order; but with more skill and moderation.
Whatever might be the relative proportion between
priests and people in India and in Egypt, in this lat-
ter the undistinguished many stood together opposed
to the privileged few ; but in the other, the mass,
being distinctly severed into portions, was internally
balanced, part against part ; and the sacred caste
appeared rather as a mediator among the rest, than
as the obnoxious and exclusive possessors of every
dignity. The lowest caste looked to the one next
above it, rather than to the highest, with malign im-
patience; and the two intermediate orders, having
each its prerogatives to defend against a lower, would
naturally sustain the highest as its protector. The
Egyptian hierarchy was raised aloft as if on the top
of an obelisk; that obelisk received a shock, and
fell ; but the wary Brahmin took his station on the
summit of a broad based pyramid, and there he has
securely reposed while every thing else mundane has
been upturned.

ANClEiNT HIERARCHIES. 67

It is in Thibet that the idea of a hierocracy has
been realized in the most complete manner. When
the Romanist compares his own system with this,
between which and his own the resemblance is too
remarkable to escape notice, he feels how much that
Asiatic despotism has the advantage over the Euro-
pean. For example, the one has had to deal only
with the inert and stupid Mongul and Tartar, while
the other has been contending against the native spi-
rit and energy of the western nations. Again, the
religion of Thibet has commanded, without control,
the boundless resources of error ; but the bane of the
Romish Church, and the occasion of most of its dif-
ficulties and its dangers, has been its connexion with
Christianity, and its possession of books of acknow-
ledged authority, which could neither be destro3^ed,
concealed, nor so interpreted as to consist with its
doctrines and practices. The Grand Lama has slept
upon his sofa, while his brother of Rome has been
racked with anxieties in repressing heresy after he-
resy. Once more, by boldly assuming the doctrine
of an actual indwelling of the divinity in the person
of the sovereign pontiff, and by keeping him close in
his closet, and sealing his lips, the religion of Thibet
has secured a far more profound submission and re-
verence from its votaries than could be challenged
by the mere Vicar of God.

China and Thibet stand opposed as extreme in-
stances in matters of religion : in the former the
secular spirit has gained the ascendency, and religion
is a mere appendage to the machinery of govern-
ment. All that is vital in the religion of China is
embodied in that sentiment of which the emperor is
the object, as the father of his people.

Druidism passed away, not only because it occu-
pied a soil destined to civilization ; but because it
brought sanguinary rites into northern latitudes,
where life bears a far higher value than it does within

68 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

the tropics, and where cruelties are therefore so
much the more horrible. The religion of the um-
brageous wilderness could not but disappear very
soon after industry had begun to trench upon the
skirts of the forest; and the axe that admitted the
light of the sun into sacred glooms frightened away
the murky divinity that had brooded in the shade.
Druidism took shelter under an oak, where it could
make no stand when the force of opinion failed
it ; but Brahniinism — its parent, chose its home in
palaces of marble, and in temples that served it as
fortresses.

But we do not reach the ground of rational com-
parison with things related to ourselves until we
come to those regions where genuine civilization has
taken root. Judaism excepted, nothing Asiatic
carries an inference practically applicable to our
European and modern interests.

Although the early history of Greece presents par-
ticular instances of what has been called codification,
or the entire modelling of the social elements at a
certain time, and by certain persons, yet the Grecian
politics and manners and religious system, taken at
large, were (like those of modern Europe) a various
product of very many accidental causes, modifying
the intellectual and moral character of the race.
This race was far too active and masculine in its
temperament to yield itself to the plastic hand either
of sage or priest, in any such manner as took place
among the Asiatic nations. Tlie Greeks, especially
in the times preceding the Peloponnesian war, were
eminently a religious people : their religion entered
into every part of the economy of life, private and
public : nevertlieless it did not place a despotic
power in the hands of the sacerdotal order. The re-
ligion was not devised or imposed for the sake of the
priests, or with any view to their advantage; — they

ANCIENT HIERARCHIES. 69

were its ministers, not its masters. On all occasions
the religion was more regarded than the priests : the
people preserved that sincere homage which they
paid to the gods, quite clear of any cringing to the
interpreters and servants of the divinity. The
priests — and this is a most important circumstance,
were not all in all, as mediators between heaven and
earth ; for their functions might be discharged by
others without sacrilege : the doctrine of an incom-
municable sacredness, and an inviolable prerogative
was not admitted. On emergencies, at least, the
highest offices of piety were performed by chiefs and
princes ; and thus the chord of spiritual despotism
was cut.

If we look to the period previous to the diffusion
of a sophistical and sophisticating philosophy, and
while genuine sentiments were still prevalent in the
higher as well as the lower classes, we shall find that,
though the priestly order performed duties highly
thought of, and were themselves respected for the sake
of their ofiice, yet the due performance of those duties
was not held to demand any very eminent personal
qualities or talents ; or, at any rate, not those particu-
lar accomplishments or virtues which were the objects
either of popular admiration or of philosophic esteem.
For examples of patriotic magnanimity and self-deny-
ing probity the people did not look to their priests,
any more than they did to their gods : for this pur-
pose their eye was directed not to the temple, but to
the senate or the field. Then, so far as religion was
considered in connexion with abstract truth, it belong-
ed altogether to the province not of the priest, but of
the sage : the servants of the gods were the last men
that were supposed to hold any commerce with great
and sublime principles, or with the precepts of uni-
versal morality. Asjain ; the education of youth
was intrusted not to them, but to the professors of se-
cular arts — rhetoric and gymnastics. Even for fresh

6*

70 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

and animating impressions of the ideality and the poe-
try of their religion, it was not to the ministers of re-
ligion, but to their poets, dramatists, sculptors, and
painters, that the Greeks had recourse. And to sum
up all, that personal sanctity which the ministers of
the gods were expected to possess, was by no means a
quality analogous to the virtues of common life : it
was not a perfection of the same order; nor could it
secure the regards of those among the people who as-
pired to goodness, temperance, and justice. The
sanctity of the priest, even when allowed to be fault-
less, could not recommend itself as exemplary; or it
was exemplary only within the precincts of the temple.
This holiness was symbolical rather than positive ; and
it conferred upon its possessors a distinction neither
envied nor sought after. As the young and emulous
Greek would far rather have shone in glittering arms
and armour than clothe himself, if he could, in the
twinkling splendour of the stars, so would he choose
any praise sooner than covet the mortifying purity of
the ministers of heaven.

Sacerdotal power has ordinarily hinged upon two
functions of interpretation — namely, that of sacred
books, and that of futurity. But the Greeks had no
ancient canonical writings; no written rule of belief
and duty. They were indeed intensely curious of
futurity, and this passion, among no people more
eager or universal, was largely provided for by the
numerous oracular institutions of the mother country,
and ofhellenic Asia. Yet even in this instance the
influence which might have accrued to the priests was
much curtailed: first, by the opinion that the priests
and priestesses of the oracular temples were nothing
more than involuntary subjects of the divine inflation ;
and secondly, by the generally divulged secret of the
corrupt obsequiousness of the oracle to the will of
statesmen on special occasions. Much scepticism at-
tempered the popular infatuation on this subject; and

ANCIENT HIERARCHIES. 71

the luckless priest, whenever a tampering with him
was detected or supposed, sustained the whole of the
obloquy, which injustice should have been shared by
the chief who was the author of the sacrilege, and by
the god who connived at it.

The sacerdotal order, among the Greeks, although
thus circumscribed and shut out from tlie possibility
of effecting spiritual usurpations, was neither tram-
pled upon, nor exposed to humiliations and difficul-
ties of that sort which drives it to pervert religion for
base and selfish purposes. The priests received a
sufficient maintenance ; and in a manner neither pre-
carious to themselves, nor vexatious to the people.

What has been said of the Grecian worship and
priesthood, is, with some modifications, applicable to
the Roman. The religion was substantially the same,
though more serious and stern, and more barbaric,
and far less fraught with beauty and poetry. If the
greater gravity and intentness of the people, and the
strength and depth of their passions, might seem to
render them more fit subjects of ghostly influence than
were the Greeks, yet the greater energy of the race,
their eminent good sense, and constant attachment to
certain fixed principles of political expediency, fully
counterpoised any dispositions which the ministers of
religion might have turned to their advantage. It
was in conformity with the spirit of the political and
military economy of the Roman state, that the chief
magistrate was head of the Church (if we mayborrovr
the phrase.) This arrangement effectively excludes
spiritual despotism ; at least in its indefinite advances,
if not always in its single proceedings.

Yet it must be vain to look for an auspicious sa^
cerdotal institute where there are few elements of
truth in the religion of a people; on the other hand,
if in any quarter we meet with such an institute, we
ought to hold its existence as a strong presumptive

72 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

proof of the excellence and genuineness of the reli-
gion. A full exhibition, in all its bearings, of the
Mosaic hierarchy, and a fair comparison of it with
the several contemporary religious polities of the na-
tions, would yield an argument in favour of the divine
legation of the Jewish legislator, not easily over-
thrown. Such an argument, however, is not to be
condensed within a narrow compass. Our present
subject demands only a brief notice of some main
particulars.

The fallacious and absurd use that has been made
of the instance of the Jewish hierarchy in the contro-
versy on church government, stands in the way of a
legitimate and profitable appeal to it. We must en-
deavour to forget, as well the unsound argument of
the upholders of high clerical pretensions, as the un-
sound reply to that argument, while we contemplate
what surely must at all times be an edifying object —
namely, a national religious polity, springing direct
from Infinite wisdom and beneficence. Grant that an
institution, established for a special purpose, and in a
particular country, must not be taken as a model for
analogous institutions in other ages and countries ;
yet, assuredly, a divinely originated economy must be
held to involve, at the least, some few universal prin-
ciples, convertible, with due modification, to other in-
stances. It will be strange indeed, if a combination
of religious and secular elements, moulded by the
very hand of God, should be found to yield to our
modern eyes no instruction, or none of practical im-
port. Far from admitting so irreverent a supposition,
we should boldly advance the principle that, the Mo-
saic sacerdotal institute, stripped of whatever was
special and temporary, and reduced to its pure ideal,
or abstract value, would furnish the best possible
groundwork of a national religious polity ; and it
may readily be shown, that no permanent or univer-

THE JEWISH CHURCH POLITY, 73

sal rule of ihe Christian dispensation prohibits the use
itmig^ht seem expedient to make of such a pattern.

It is not easy to form an adequate conception of
the happy aspect and actual beneficial operation of
the Mosaic sacerdotal institute. In truth, all our no-
tions of the Jewish commonwealth are received under
a disadvantng-e, from the circumstance of their reach-
ing us through the channel of inspired history. The
inflexible integrity of the record, and its comminative
intention, throws a dark colour over the general
scene. If we knew nothing more of a man than what
we might gather from the lips of his severe friend and
admonitor, we might think some of the most virtuous
of mankind to be the most faulty and unamiable. In
reading the history of other nations, we see the things
of the world in the world's light; but Jewish affairs
we look at in the light of heaven ; and what otherwise
might appear fair, stands forward only as reprehen-
sible.

Not one of the Jewish writers, whether historian or
prophet, is the eulogist of his nation, or speaks of
Israel as the Greeks of Greece, or the Romans of
Rome. How different would be our impressions of
the ancient people of Palestine, if some candid Hero-
dotus had left us a description of them, such as they
must have appeared to a stranger in the bright era
of their history, and when compared with their imme-
diate neighbours. There is good reason to believe
that, for diffused enjoyment and personal liberty, for
elevation of sentiment, and purity of manners, no
contemporary nation could offer any such spectacle
of popular felicity.

The extreme brevity of the inspired historians,
and the prominence given by them to single incidents,
operate to deprive us of what might be called our
rtironological consciousness ; and we forget that,
while running over a few chapters, we have traversed
ages, and have leaped periods exceeding the duration

74 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

of some mighty empires. Certain seasons of calamity
excepted, the Jewish commonwealth rested on the
soil, and diffused among a numerous people a large
measure of such felicity as earth admits of, during a
much longer track of time than has yet been granted
to British greatness ; and longer than can be claimed
for the splendour of Grecian liberties and arts; and
longer than was allowed to the foreign power of
Rome. During at least seven hundred years, Pales-
tine was probably richer in human happiness than
any other spot upon earth has ever been.

Considered in their secular aspect, the character-
istic principle of the Mosaic Institutions was the pri-
vate good of the people. Whatever the form of the
polity might be, the spirit of it was, in the best sense,
popular ; since the security, the competence, and the
personal dignity, and the enjoyments of every son of
Abraham was the ruling intention of every enactment.
Redeemed from the furnaces of Egypt, and led into
a land flowing with milk and honey, the economy of
social life was so constructed, as to yield the greatest
possible amount of plenty and pleasure to every citi-
zen. Every man who had sprung from the loins of
Abraham was noble; and the forfeiture of that patri-
mony which enabled him to support the simple ho-
nours of his birth was a desperate calamity, guarded
against by extraordinary provisions. The motto of
the commonwealth was — " Every man under his vine,
and. under his fig-tree ; none daring to make him
afraid." To eat the fat of the land, to make his heart
merry with the wine, and to render praise to God, du-
ty to the priest, and a generous portion to the father-
less, the widow, and the stranger, was the precept and
privilege of all.

Neither national aggrandizement, or conquest and
foreign empire, nor the accumulation of wealth by
trade, nor the cultivation of arts and philosophy, was
aimed at in the Jewish code ; but rather the tranquil

THE JEWISH CHURCH POLITY. 75

happiness and the domestic integrity of every Israeli-
tish home. The Law was a blessing for the basket
and the store, for the bed and the table. God's po-
lity was Hke God's world, in the constitution of which
the greatest possible enjoyment of the greatest possi-
ble number is the sovereign rule. *' Come and sit at
my table, and taste my dainties," was the invitation
of Jehovah to the people of his choice; and if they
had not perversely turned aside to snatch poisons
from the tables of demons, no happiness would have
been comparable to theirs.

In harmony with this scheme of beneficence, the
sacerdotal institute had altogether a benign aspect
tdward the people. The priests, themselves secured
of the competency, and curtailed of no natural en-
joyment, had no motive, either for grudging the hap-
piness of others, or for trenching upon the common
liberties : on the contrary, their own wealth and ease
expressed, and flowed from, the prosperity of the
state. Among the Asiatic hierarchies, that of the
Jews occupied a middle ground; for it was neither
predominant nor degraded : the nation did not exist
for the priests; nor were the priests the obsequious
dependents, either of the monarch or the people.

In considering the position and influence of the
sacerdotal order in the Hebrew polity, we have, in
the first place, to take notice of the character of the
religion intrusted to its care, which afforded fewer
means of sustaining ghostly power than perhaps any
other system, ancient or modern. No scheme of be-
lief and worship has drawn so little upon the unde-
fined terrors of the invisible world ; none has said less
of futurity — an extra-mundane futurity. The views
it opens, the motives it urges, the hopes it awakens,
the fears it instils, are all terrestrial and temporary.
Whatever the Jewish nation might surmise or know
concerning a future life, and an unseen economy,
their laws and their worship did not rest upon any

76 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

such foundation ; and their priests, as such, were not
empowered to wield the terrible weapons of spiritual
excitement. The priests did not stand before the
people as the privileged holders of impenetrable and
portentous mysteries, of which it was at their discre-
tion to deal out a portion or not. The clergy pos-
sessed no immeasurable superiority of knowledge over
the laity : what the priests knew, the people might
know, and ought to know from the priest. The one
party did not grasp the immortal destinies of the
other. Tiie priest might adjudge to death, but not
to perdition ; and to death only in cases well defined.

Moses spoke of the Almighty as the Creator and
Governor of the visible world ; as the Giver of all
good things; as the righteous administrator of hu-
man affairs, immediately rewarding those who fear
Him and keep his commandments, and as punishing
the refractory, either on the spot, or jn the persons of
their posterity. Every thing was marked out, cir-
cumscribed, and fixed in their theology ; and tl>ere-
fore it was an unfit material of spiritual despotism.
Nor should we fail to notice the singular fact, that
the prescience of future mundane events, a pretence
to which has been so mighty an engine of priestly
power, was (so far as granted at all) conveyed
through the instrumentality of an extra-sacerdotal
class, namely, that of the prophets, who were indis-
criminately of every tribe, and who, even when of
Levitical origin, derived none of their special autho-
rity from the hands of the superiors of their own
order.

On insufficient grounds, and without staying to
consider actual facts, divines have affirmed, what in-
fidels have eagerly caught at, and are still repeating
now the hundredth time — namely, that the religion
of the Jews was severe and gloomy. Severe it could
not be, when temporal felicity was constantly held up
before the people as their portion, and as the imme-

w

THE JEWISH CHURCH POLITY. 77

diate fruit of obedience. Severe it was not, while
the divine placability was proclaimed in every rite,
and while propitiation was the grand purpose of all
worship. Gloomy it could not be, abstaining as it
did from the terrors of the unseen world : yes, but it
was gloomy, as the silvery dawn is gloomy when we
think of its shadows in comparison with the splen-
dours of noon.

Never has there been a religion, ancient or mo-
dern, under which a man might on easier terms live
piously and happily. No religion has afforded so
few excitements to vague despondency. If it has
been a not infrequent case for melancholic minds to

I be seized with the frenzy of religious despair, we
doubt if ever such an instance occurred under primi-
tive Judaism. It was only when he entertained the

I horror-fraught demonology of the Canaanitish tribes,
that the son of Abraham could become the victim
of moody terrors. This Judaism then was not the
system on which to build spiritual despotism.

I Nor did the national temperament favour any such

I usurpations. If we call the Jews — Orientals, we
must first exclude from the term the notions usually
attached to it, of indolent laxity, or of a cringing
servility of disposition. In reading the historical
books of the Old Testament, commencing with the
book of Judges, one gathers from the whole an im-

' pression of a people high spirited and impassioned ;
yet sedate and firm; dignified in manners, vigorous
in action, steady in purpose, rich in axiomatic good
sense, and terse in expression ; and especially warm
and true in domestic sentiment, and keen in every
feeling of honour. They took to themselves a mo-
narchical government; but their usages were demo-

I cratic; they bore the burden of kingly rule, till it
reached a galling weight, and then the cry was al-
ways, "To your tents, O Israel." The antebaby-

i 7

78 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

lonish Jews were not the plastic stuff an ambitious
hierarch would have chosen to work upon.

The position of the Jewish priesthood in relation
to the community, and in relation to the civil autho-
rity, deserves especial regard.

A main circumstance to be set off, in taking ac-
count of the duties, dignities, political influence, and
revenues, of the Levitical tribe, is that combination
of functions, civil and sacred, which they sustained.
The priests and Levites were not ministers of religion
merely. Besides discharging the various and very
laborious services of public worship, and besides im-
parting religious instruction to the mass of the peo-
ple ; the sacerdotal, and semi-sacerdotal orders, per-
formed the duty of an armed force, or garrison of the
temple, and of a body-guard to the monarch. Upon
them also, or upon them chiefly, devolved the admi-
nistration and interpretation of civil and criminal
liaw, and the business of courts of justice. More-
over, as it seems, the priests were originally the pro-
fessors of medicine, and, from a natural extension of
the delicate offices intrusted to them in several medico-
judicial instances, were compelled to acquire a kind
of knowledge which none can possess and remain
idle. The priests too, were the only depositaries of
general learning, and the copiers of books. Now,
if the exercise of so many functions might appear to
place vast power in the hands of a single order, it
will be found, in the actual working of the social
machine, that this very multiplicity of labours, and
this intimate blending of the priests with the people,
in all the occasions of common life, operates much
more to break down and moderate, than to build up
and aggravate ghostly tyranny. The common peo-
ple have never been so thoroughly enslaved by any
priests as by those who affected an utter ignorance
of all mundane affairs, and who spent, or professed
to spend, their days and nights in seraphic abstrac-

THE JEWISH HIERARCHY. 79

tion. The people should not then look with too
much jealousy at those engagements which make
their ministers one with themselves, and which with-
draw them a little from the closet and the conclave.

In calculating, therefore, the proportion borne by
the priests and Levites to the community, or the
amount of their revenues, we must not think of either
as we should if nothing more had been required of
them than to give attendance at the altar. Take
what example we please, of a civilized community,
and reckon all the learned professions in a mass, not
omitting the ministers of state, and the guards of the
palace, and we shall find the number to exceed, in
proportion, that of the Levitical tribe ; and the ag-
gregate revenues and salaries of all these professions,
vastly to surpass those of the Jewish clergy. The
entire instance fails then in applicability to the cir-
cumstances of any modern people. Nothing can be
more preposterous than the argumentative use that
has so often been made of the Mosaic institutions, in
this particular. Let a tenth of the rents and income
of any community be taken, and shared among all
the professions, the clergy taking only their propor-
tion of this tithe, and then the procedure will bear
some analogy to the Jewish tithe system.

No argumentative reference, moreover, to the Mo-
saic sacerdotal institute can fairly be made, until
after we have set off the capital circumstance that
the priesthood was hereditary, and therefore irre-
spective of personal qualities or qualifications (mere
physical integrity excepted.) None would pretend
that", in the case of the Christian ministry, individual
fitness for the office, together with all mental and
moral dispositions, should be so merged as is implied
in adapting the hereditary principle to the clerical
order. This circumstance indicates some essential
dissimilarity between the Jewish and Christian
schemes ; and should make us cautious in carrying

80 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

inferences from the one economy to the other. Ne-
vertheless this dissimilarity must not be thought of
as if it involved a total want of analogy ; for we
ought to recollect that, as a wide circuit of various
employments devolved upon the Levitical tribe, and
the Aaronic family, there would naturally take place
an allotment or distribution of offices, according to
the talents and dispositions of individuals ; the more
intellectual and sedate assuming to themselves the
duties of religious teachers, while the more active
betook themselves to secular employments. To a
certain extent, therefore, it would still be true that
the ministers of rehgion would be such, not merely
by accident of birth, but by fitness of talent and
temper ; though certainly not in any case by popular
election.

Allowance made for the two above-named pecu-
liarities of the Jewish priesthood, the following main
conditions attaching to it seem to deserve attention. —

The first of these conditions is the important one,
that, under this divine economy the ministers of re-
ligion, as related to the people for whom they were
to act on the part of God, and upon whom they were
to enforce the law, stood absolutely independent of
popular will and caprice, as well in regard to pecu-
niary support, as to appointment and removal. If
there be something that is special and accidental in
this arrangement, there is surely something of abstract
principle in it also. The original justice of the tithe
of produce, as an equivalent for a twelfth share of
the land due to the tribe of Levi, does not affect the
sort of inference which we deem it warrantable to draw
from the fact. Used as a rule of proportion ., applicable
to the clergy in Christian countries, nothing (as we
have already said) can be more absurd. This nugatory
inference excluded, we yet seem borne out in assuming
that the abstract principle of a national establishmentj

THE JEWISH HIERARCHY. 81

involving a legal and defined provision for the ministers
of religion, and securing also their independence of po-
pular caprice, must not be spoken of as essentially
immoral, or as universally inexpedient, and incompa-
tible with those relative sentiments that should con-
nect the pastor and his flock. When the difficulties
that attend the general question of a provision for
the clergy are felt, what can be more natural on the
part of religious minds, than to turn toward a hea-
ven-descended economy ; and if restrained by pecu-
liar considerations from a close imitation of this pat-
tern, it will be strange indeed if we do not grant it
to be entitled to the smallest deference, while employ-
ed in working the abstract theorem of a church polity.
But it may be predicted that this divine example will
acquire a much higher authority than hitherto it has
possessed, when, on the one hand, it shall cease to
be any more distorted and abused in vindication of
tithes, and of certain despotic church maxims; and,
on the other hand, when the conceit which has been
entertained, that the Christian system stands posi-
tively opposed to any such arrangement, shall be dis-
sipated. It is surely a singular inconsistency on the
part of some who, while sternly affirming the autho-
rity of Mosaic institutions in certain points, abso-
hitely refuse permission to make any sort of use of the
great principle of the Mosaic economy in relation to
the ministers of religion. In all points ought we not
alike to drop what is special in the Jewish polity, and
to respect, and if practicable, to imitate, what ap-
pears to spring from some universal axiom ?

Secondly. The independence and the compe-
tence of the Jewish priesthood being thus secured by
an endowment of lands and towns, and by imposts,
precisely defined, scope was yet given to the sponta-
neous affection of the people toward their teachers,
and to their zeal also on special occasions, where no
danger was to be expected, and where public spirit

82 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

was likely to meet the demand made upon it. There
was an annual gratuity to the priest, left to the libe-
rality of the people ; and such as might give excite-
ment to pious regard toward them, and open the way
for reciprocal feelings on the part of the clergy. But
beside this, it was the usage of the Jewish Church,
following the example first set by Moses, to appeal
to the religious generosity of the nation whenever
the house of God needed extensive repairs, or was to
be re-edified. Without some such call upon the sen-
timents of devout patriotism, a people can hardly fail
to become indifferent to religion, and to its public of-
fices, which they do not feel to be in any active sense
their own. We may well observe, in the instance be-
fore us, the just appreciation it implies of the ordinary
impulses of human nature. When an object of visi-
ble importance and happy aspect can be suddenly
presented to the public mind, there is no need to be
anxious for the result. A generous enthusiasm is
sure to be enkindled, and will probably overpass
the necessities of the occasion. So it was in repeated
instances with the Jewish people. The erection or
repair of sacred structures might, almost always, be
confidently thrown upon voluntary contributions.
The permanent support of those who are to minister
within them involves greater difficulties.

Thirdly. A circumstance already adverted to is of
so much importance as to demand more explicit men-
tion : we mean that counterpoise of church influence
which sprung from the operation of the Prophetic
Function. It is the exclusive possession and the ir-
responsible control of all kinds of spiritual power
which enables a hierarchy to digest its plans of en-
croachment, and to achieve gradual usurpations. No
such exclusive domination was permitted to the Jew-
ish clergy. An unfailing succession of inspired men,
sometimes members of the Aaronic house, but more
often not, stood up as the immediate ministers of Je-

THE JEWISH HIERARCHY. 83

liovah, dealing rebuke, with high intrepidity, on all
sides ; and assailing the vices or the remissness, as
well of the priests, as of the princes, or the sovereign.
The high-priest could never call himself the VICAR
OF God, or the ultimate authority, from whose deci-
sions there could be no appeal. Whatever scheme
of aggrandizement for his order an ambitious hierarch
might meditate, he could never for a moment secure
himself against the thundering reproof of some extra-
sacerdotal voice, the pealing of which must have
shattered his devices. This counterpoise, or rather
corrective, forming as it did a permanent provision in
the Jewish church polity, deserves to be especially
noticed in its relation to the hereditary tenure of the
pontifical dignity. Into what condition, short of an
intolerable spiritual despotism, could any community
fall, among whom there existed an hereditary ponti-
ficate, not checked in some very efficacious manner ?
Or how much power would be left to the civil magis-
trate who should sway his sceptre under the shade of
an inherited prelacy ? A pope, the lineal descend-
ant of popes, and the progenitor of popes, would be a
despot such as the world has never seen. In this
sense it was well for Europe that the Romish clergy
V condemned themselves to celibacy. It is worthy of
remark, that soon after the prophetic function failed
among the Jews, the pontifical dignity ceased to de-
scend from father to son ; or even to be held for life.
Lastly, we have to take account of that balance of
power, and that reciprocal corrective influence,
which subsisted between the priesthood and the
monarchy, in the Jewish state ; each exerting over
the other a control, beneficial to each, and to the
community. Beside their proper spiritual authority
with the people, which naturally tempered the civil
and military power, the priests and Levites were the
aristocracy — the barons and the knights of the com-
monwealth. It was they who had an interest in the

84 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

institutions of the country of a definite sort, and
which impelled them to resist innovations and en-
croachments, whether attempted by the people or the
monarch. A privileged order, accustomed to meet
in convocation, becomes inevitably, whatever its par-
ticular functions may be, the guardian of the state,
and the vigilant observer of all changes. Several
actual instances are recorded, and others no doubt
occurred, in which the constancy and patriotism of
the priests saved the state, and barred the way of a
tyrant.

On the other hand, the sacerdotal order itself
stood in awe of the monarch ; and on many remark-
able occasions, received from his hand a vigorous
treatment, necessary, and highly beneficial. The
lapse of time never fails to break down the purity
and integrity of a sacerdotal body. Secular motives
insensibly supplant high principles ; the earthly pre-
vails over the heavenly element. But a hierarchy
never reforms itself; — no corporation regenerates by
spontaneous energy ; it must be brought back to
duty and virtue by a hand from without. No pro-
vision of the Mosaic law had authorized this sort of
reform ; yet it had become the salutary usage of the
state for strong-minded and pious sovereigns to do
for the Church, what the Church will not do for her-
self, and what the people either do not care to at-
tempt, or have no means of effecting. A main cha-
racteristic of Jewish history is Church REFORM,
again and again brought about by the civil power.
And never are such reforms recorded otherwise than
in terms of commendation ; never are they reservedly
mentioned, as happy, but illicit intrusions upon things
sacred. The inspired writers do not seem to have
come to the knowledge of the transcendent doctrine,
that corruptions and abuses are sacred, or can ever
deserve reverence.

Why the examples of David, Asa, Jehoshaphat,

THE JEWISH HIERARCHY. 85

Hezekiah, and Josiah, should not be regarded as
imitable, as well as admirable, it is not easy to say.
Our notions of wisdom and public virtue must surely
be distorted when we deny that a monarch, alive to
the highest interests of the state, and to the welfare
of his people, acts laudably when he directs the public
force against glaring church abuses, and calls upon
the ministers of religion, in a tone they dare not
slight, to amend their ways, to forsake covetous-
ness, and to tend their flocks. Except for the piety
and zeal of several kingly reformers, the Mosaic in-
stitutions, and with them the knowledge and worship
of Jehovah, would in an early age have utterly dis-
appeared.

Whatever practical use we may choose to make of
this ancient model of ecclesiastical polity, we surely
cannot refuse it our admiration. Or if its actual
arrangements be adjudged altogether inapplicable
to Christian countries in modern times, at least those
general axioms upon which it was reared must de-
serve regard ; for it is impossible to admit the
divine origination of this scheme, and at the same
time to affirm that its fundamental principles are out
of harmony with human nature, and not in any sense
capable of extension from one people and age to
another. What then were these rudiments of the
Jewish church polity ? We assume that they may
be reduced to the following articles, namely — The
independence of the priests in relation to the people;
— space and excitement for the sentiment of religious
public spirit ; — a partition of religious influence be-
tween the hierarchy and some other party ; or, as
interpreted into a modern sense, a perfect liberty of
animadversion upon clerical conduct, exercised by
persons not of the clerical order ; — an eflTective inde-
pendence of the clergy in relation to the civil
power ; — and lastly, a reciprocal authority in the
magistrate, exercised over the Church on occasions
of manifest necessity. We are bold to conjecture

86 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

that an ecclesiastical polity founded upon these con-
ditions would at once secure a just and necessary
authority to the ministers of religion, and preclude
spiritual usurpations; that it would contain within
itself the springs of periodic renovation, without
which no system, how perfect soever in its original
scheme, can float down the current of time ; and
that it would exert an effective and salutary influence,
not merely like our present systems, over portions of
the community ; but over the whole ; and would im-
part a religious character to public acts, both of the
legislature and the administration.

During the ages that elapsed between the building
of the second temple and its demolition, every thing
in the Jewish state had shifted position. Six hun-
dred years is a period that imparts a new character
to all but the most inert masses. Judaism was not
an inert mass, like the vast despotisms of Asia, nor
did even the sanction of the Divine authority pre-
serve it from change. Whatever has life has eras
and evolutions. Even Christianity has exhibited,
and will probably yet exhibit, this symptom of
vitahtv.

Passing over at a leap the gradual induction of
political, ecclesiastical, and moral changes, we find
firmly established among the Jews, in the time of
Christ and his apostles, what well deserves the appel-
lation of spiritual despotism. The common people
superstitious, fanatical, scrupulous, licentious, were
held in vilifying subservience to the arrogance, the
rapacity, the factious interests, and the whims of
their religious masters. The very people who pre-
posterously aflirm that they had " never been in bon-
dage to any man," were, at that moment, bowing
down under the chains of a foreign domination, and
the yoke of a ghostly tyranny.

Besides other evidences of the fact, which are
abundant, we possess, on this point, the most explicit

THE JEWISH HIERARCHY. 87

and unimpeachable testimony — that of our Lord.
His vehement arraignment of the Jewish rulers con-
veys the very idea of spiritual despotism. The be-
nign law of God was set aside by vain superstitions
and profligate expositions : — a boundless homage was
claimed from the populace by their teachers ; the ra-
pacity and debauchery of the ministers of religion
were cloaked by frivolous austerities : intolerable
burdens were imposed upon the people, and not
shared by the imposers; and a state of fanatical ex-
citement was kept up throughout the community,
such as placed a formidable force at the command of
the chiefs of the factions. Each of these particulars
is distinctly affirmed, or is necessarily implied, in our
Lord's impeachment of the scribes, lawyers, and
priests ; nor has ever a public reprover employed
language more stern and reprobative. The Divine
Speaker, in these instances, does not invite the har-
dened Pharisee to repentance ; but consigns him to
perdition : instead of that under-tone of mercy which
pervades always his addresses to the profligate multi-
tude, we hear only the thunders of the day of wrath.
Well might it be, if whoever stands in the same place
of elevated hypocrisy, converting the solemnities of
religion into a disguise for interested purposes, and
employing the hand of heaven as an instrument of
extortion, would take a timely warning from the ter-
rible denunciation pronounced upon these, their pre-
decessors in sacrilege.

To trace the course of events which had conducted
the Jewish people over so large an interval from the
one condition to the other, would lead us very far.
Briefly we may notice the main circumstances that
appear to have distinguished the one from the other.
They are such as the following. —

The ecclesiastical and civil authorities, instead of
being amicahly related and adjusted, one to the
other, as parts of the same polity, had become severed,

88 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

in consequence of the subjugation of the country;
and not only severed, but placed in jealous opposi-
tion ; and each cherishing towards the other senti-
ments of profound, though repressed hatred. The
natural alliance which should subsist in a religious
community, between Church and State, and which
had formerly subsisted, had given way to such cor-
respondence as belongs to a truce between enemies.
The foreign power, embarrassed by its inability to
understand the principles or the temper of the sanc-
timonious yet profligate hierarchy it had to do with,
and justly holding in contempt men who, while pro-
fessing a purer religion than that of their neighbours,
surpassed all people in atrocity, could not wish to
interfere when they saw the priests and rabbis spend-
ing their malignity upon the luckless multitude.

On the other side, the religious chiefs, liable to
humiliations of national pride, insufl^erable if it had
been possible to avoid them, sought the relief of re-
venge by trampling upon the people ; and yet at the
same time flattered the worst passions of the popu-
lace by dealing out to them an immoral casuistry, as
the means of securing and extending their own pre-
carious power. The doctors and priests stood in
that very position of hostility toward the magistrate,
and of uncertain dependance upon the caprices of
popular feeling which afterwards corrupted the
Christian ministry, and which has proved its ill con-
sequence in the instance of some modern clerical
bodies. The supremacy of the chiefs was on every
side in danger ; and their behaviour naturally exhi-
bited that anxious intolerance, and irritation, which
are always the characteristics of unstable power. In
the primitive times of Judaism, the sacerdotal, the
prophetic, and the kingly authorities, counterpoised
each other ; but now, the prophetic being gone, and
the kingly exchanged for a foreign and idolatrous
power, the sacerdotal body — rabbis, priests, lawyers,
scribes, were in all religious matters, that is to say.

THE JEWISH HIERARCHY. 89

in every affair beneath the notice of the Roman
governor, or not cognizable by him, irresponsible
and absolute; and free to convert the malign reli-
gious sentiments of the nation to the worst purposes.
A special circumstance of the ecclesiastical con-
dition of the Jews, at the time now spoken of, was
this, that a principal portion of the religious influ-
ence and spiritual magistracy had been usurped, or
at least had insensibly passed into the hands of an
irregular order of men, who exercised an authority
not known either to the Mosaic code, or to the ante-
babylonish polity. Whether these men drew reve-
nues from the gratuities of the people is not clear ;
but it is certain that they enjoyed a large share of
' all such honours and powers as the blind obsequious-
ness of the vulgar can confer. The chiefs of the
Pharisaic sect — and this sect commanded the popu-
lar mind, constituted an irresponsible and anomalous
body, the influence of which, not springing from any
definite or legal provisions, was built up and main-
tained by the practice of those unworthy arts to
which despotic demagogues naturally have recourse.
And it is especially to be noticed that this self-consti-
tuted spiritual aristocracy did not act (as it might
perhaps have done beneficially) in the way of a
counterpoise to the hierarchy ; but it seems to have
purchased its lawless authority by lending support to
the priests in all their machinations. A. confederacy
very similar in its elements, and of which the people
were the victims, afterwards took place in the Chris-
tian Church, between the parochial clergy and.
bishops, and the monkish orders. For although, in
later ages, and on particular occasions, the two par-
ties were openly opposed, there was a long period
during which the ascetic bands played one and the
same game with the secular clergy, and both concur-
red in trampling upon those whom they were pleased
to designate the herd of mankind. It has always

8

90 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM. -

been found, as well within the Jewish as the Chris-
tian church, that such volunteers in the spiritual war-
fare have outstripped the main body in every enter-
prise of spoliation and extravagance. Better is it
always to be lawfully, than unlawfully oppressed.

Again : the ancient priesthood enforced and taught
the divine law in the vernacular tongue, and could
find little room for perverse and sinister interpreta-
tions; but the expatriation of the people, and the
consequent change in the national dialect, sealed the
Pentateuch from the commonalty, and threw into the
hands of the learned class an unlimited power of in-
terpretation. But the power to interpret a code of
law, without appeal, is essentiall}' a legislative power ;
and when combined with the personal cure of souls,
it becomes administrative also, and leaves hardly
anj' thing to be added to the faculties of despotism.
It was thus that the Romish hierarchy held the key
of Scripture ; first, as locked up in the Greek lan-
guage, and afterwards in the Latin. This binding
and loosing of Moses by the Rabbi, was probably
the main means of the corrupt tyranny of which the
Jewish nation had become the victims. And it was
thus, afterwards, in the Christian Church. An irre-
sponsible right to interpret, is a right to enslave.

Once more : it must by no means be forgotten,
that the Pharisaic Judaism of the times of Herod had
gradually drawn toitself, or had insensibly developed,
several powerful elements of belief, either not known
to the people in the pristine ages, or not commonly
divulged and spoken of. Esoteric doctrines natu-
rally work themselves out, and get abroad in the
lapse of time : what once was a mystery, whispered in
sacred groves, comes at length into the mouth of the
populace, and is heard every day in the streets of
cities. The seeming deficiency in the Mosaic books
(considered as embodying a system of theology) had
been filled up — it is not easy to say from what

THE JEWISH HIERARCHY. 9l

sources ; but in fact, the future life, and future retri-
bution, formed a part of the popular creed, and
afforded to the doctors and masters of the people aiv
engine of terror, of which they availed themselves in
their own manner.

Thus it was that the Judaism which Christianity
came in to displace, differed in almost every thing but
names, rites, and the visible part of worship, fiom the
Judaism whereof David had gloried. The substance
had fallen away before the form was abrogated. This,
indeed, is the ordinary process of revolution in mat-
ters of opinion. Tlie substance moulders slowly and
insensibly; and then the crust drops in an instant.

To sum up our comparison between tlie ecclesias-
tical polity 'and religious sentiment characteristic of
the first temple and of the second, we may say, that
the religion of the first was gracious, happy, and in-
telligible; that of the second (in later times) was su-
perstitious, harsh, scrupulous, and immoral. The
ministers of the first enjoyed a tranquil and well-
defined competency, removing them at once from
temptations and solicitudes ; those of the second were,
by the position in which they stood, at once the in-
terested flatterers of the people and their cruel mas-
ters. During the continuance of the first temple, the
several powers of the State moved on in amicable
equipoise ; but in the times of the second, the Church
and the State had either no settled alliance or stood
in jealous opposition.

During the pristine era, the Jewish people enjoyed
a religion according to law ; but during later ages,
they were distracted by the uncertainties of religion
according to opinion. The early faith and worship
was a blessing for the people : the later was a benefit
for the priest and the rabbi. The first was liberty
and rule ; the second despotism and license. The
first was God's religion: the second man's.

92 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

SECTION IV.

RUDIMENTS OF CHITRCH POLITY.

It is generally granted, that, in the Mosaic Insti-
tute there was something permanent, as well as much
that was temporary ; or rather, something universal,
as well as a greater mass that was local and national.
Few will deny that the converse is true of Chris-
tianity ; for to insist upon the unchanging univer-
sality and the perpetual obligation of every particle
of the religious economy left to the world by the
apostles, is to plunge into difficulties, both historic
and dogmatic, whence there can be no way of escape.
It is true that certain communions have laboured to
entrench themselves on this ground ; but in doing so
they have staked the entire authority of Christianity
upon the determination of obscure antiquarian ques-
tions. Unless this ill-judged attempt is abandoned,
no hope can be entertained of effecting the peace of
the Church.

Judaism, although in fact it underwent extensive
modifications in the course of ages, had no yielding
property originally imparted to it ; because it was
adapted to the particular spot where it was actually
reared. But Christianity, because intended for all
places and times, was left, so far as relates to its ex-
terior forms and its social constitutions, in a plastic
state. Its doctrine and its morality none can ima-
gine to be variable, since they both spring from eter-
nal truths. But this power of accommodation in
things which, in their own nature are inconstant,
places the Gospel of Christ in contrast with almost

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. 93

every other religious system ; and affords too a for-
cible, though silent proof, of the comprehensive de-
sign of Him who gave it to the world. The ancient
promise, that the Lord's Christ should inherit all na-
tions, is symbolized in what may be called the ap-
plicable quality of the worship and polity which he
consigned to his followers ; for these adjuncts of his
religion are so left at large as to admit of needful
modifications, Christianity takes an elastic grasp of
human nature : Judaism held it as the solid mould
holds the metal that is poured into it.

Judaism is fifteen hundred years older than Chris-
tianity ; and if the ordinary rule of the inverse
amount of historic light, as we recede from our own
times, held good in this instance, much less obscurity
would attach to the circumstantials of the later, than
to those of the more ancient institution. But the
contrary is found to be the fact ; nor can we be sur-
prised that it is so, when we remember that the one
was a system of circumstantials, to each and all of
which religious importance was attached : the other
not so 7 for Christianity challenges the serious re-
gards of men in those things only which conscience
and reason confess to be momentous.

For the most part, it is easy to ascertain the usages
of the tabernacle and temple worship, and the Jew-
ish methods of ecclesiastical management. But no-
thing has been found more difficult than to determine
satisfactorily what were the practices of the apostolic
Churches, even in some of the main articles of disci-
pline, government, or worship. This striking differ-
ence between the Jewish and the Christian econo-
mies speaks plainly enough, one might think, to
common sense, and should have superseded many an
interminable controversy. In relation to certain
points of ritual or government, sound reason does
not ask any thing more to be said than this — namely,
That the primitive practice in such particulars,

8*

94 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

clearly is not clear ; therefore our modern consciences
may be relieved of all solicitude on the subject.
Christianity is not a religion of immovable exterior
constitutions ; but of universal and unchangeable
truths. Because universal in its essential principles,
and universal too in its aspect, therefore plastic in its
forms : variable in its exterior, because invariable in
its substance.

Whatever, in the New Testament, relates to modes
of worship, and to ecclesiastical constitutions, is
couched in general terms. Moreover, those allusions
to matters of fact, whence the apostolic practice might
be gathered, are slight and indistinct, and not seldom
ambiguous. Our inference is plain. — Facts so ob-
scurely conveyed must not be taken as if propounded
to us authoritatively. It is not in any such form
that Law has ever been promulgated ; no legislator
has so tortured the ingenuity of a people. It is true
that, in the lapse of ages, the phraseology of law
may become first obsolete, and then questionable ;
but still there was a time when no obscurity attached
to it. But that which never was formally and dog-
matically expressed, and which, apart from the aid of
traditionary knowledge, could not, even in an early
age, have been precisely determined, we may boldly
say was not inteiided as Law, and can never be so
employed without hurtfully entangling consciences,
•and confounding what is really important in morals
with what is indifferent. To insist upon some sup-
posed primitive usage, known to us only through a
])rocess of ambiguous inferences; and in doing so
trample upon the unchangeable and always intelligi-
ble rules of Christian charity, is to subvert reason
and piety, and to leave no vital force in either.

God does not confer common sense upon mankind
by miracle ; nor did he put in movement the vast
economy of revelation for the purpose of teaching
that which may otherwise be known, or of giving

I

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. 95

decisions upon matters to which human reason is
fully competent. Our Lord's mode of popular in-
struction shows clearly what is supposed and expected
on the part of man, in listening to divine teaching.
He boldly expresses general principles in tropical
terms ; and these, such as convey either no moral
meaning, or none that would not be trite, frivolous,
or even pernicious, unless freely interpreted, as they
were intended, by sound common sense. The literal
version given of some of these instructions by the
fanatic would indeed, if generally prevalent, turn the
world upside down. Our Lord omits entirely those
explanations, cautions, and limitations, which are
superfluous where good sense is in exercise, and
which must be unavailing where it is wanting.

The apostles, in like manner, not only appeal in
particular instances to the good sense of their follow-
ers, but manifestly presuppose its competency to the
management of religious, as well as of secular affairs.
" I speak unto wise men ; judge ye what I say."
" Be not children in understanding." " Is there
not a wise man among you ?" Such is the style of
those who were commissioned to guide mankind, not
to enslave them. But despotism speaks a very dif-
ferent language ; and it is its characteristic to leave
no room for discretion : it will push law and precept
into every corner of life, and obtrude specific direc-
tions where common reason and ordinary motives
need no aid. Despotism grudges to treat men as
men ; but must always deal with them either as chil-
dren, or as wild beasts ; it will alwa3^s prescribe, and
measure cut every movement ; it will pronounce upon
the little as well as upon the great ; and is not con-
tent unless it makes itself felt and heard every mo-
ment, and in every place. Christianity takes its
station upon another ground, and is moved by ano-
ther spirit. Nevertheless, we may make the Apostles
despots, if we will thruct them into the iron chair of

96 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

tyranny, and extort law from their lips, where in fact
they have uttered no decree.

Christians, of every successive age, are solemnly
enjoined to profess, to uphold, and to diffuse the
Gospel. But the discharge of this arduous duty, in
the amplitude of its meaning, involves many and
various measures, adapted to the ever-changing occa-
sions of human affairs, and of a sort not to be pre-
scribed in a code, but which must spring from the
intelligent zeal and discretion of tliose who succes-
sively steer the helm of the Church. Human saga-
cit}' and prudence (exalted and guided by heavenly
wisdom) here find their field. Now, in saying that
such and such courses of action belong to the sphere
of reason, we virtually exclude them from the pecu-
liar circle of revelation. Revelation comes in
wherever revelation is needed ; but it is not needed
where the means and the end lie within the grasp of
the human mind. God, who commands us to employ
the faculties he has given us, will not at the same
time supersede their exercise: this were a glaring in-
consistency. Whatever reason sanctions, in things
appertaining to its domain, God virtually sanctions
by the voice, at once, of natural and of supernatural
theology.

On the ground then of these general principles,
we readily evade the superstition of the zealot, on
the one hand, who will hold no communion with us
unless we understand, as he does, some anjbiguous
allusion to a matter of ritual or polity ; and we reject,
on the other hand, for the same reasons, the arro-
gance of the despot who desires to inflict penalties
and to impose restraints upon those who do not ac-
knowledge liis right to legislate where Christ has
promulgated no law. Furthermore, on the very
same principles, we hold ourselves free to devise, nay,
more than this, bound in duty to devise, and to carry
into effect, whatever schemes or modes of procedure

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. 97

may appear proper for promoting or for upholding
religious truth in the world, and for transmitting it
to posterity; provided always, that such measures
accord with the spirit of Christianity, and do not
trench, either directly or remotely, upon any of its
explicit injunctions. The duty, individually, of con-
curring with any such measures, and of yielding obe-
dience to those who enforce them, must be referred
to the broad principle which enjoins compliance
with, and submission to existing arrangements,
wherever conscience is not invaded. To resist or
obstruct pubhc measures, without necessity, is always
immoral.

But whatever is devised or decreed, within the
Christian Church, or decreed concerning it, must
comport with certain rudiments of polity and wor-
ship which are to be gathered from the New Testa-
ment, and which stand there either explicitly deter-
mined, or reasonably involved in unquestionable
facts. What is most important of this kind may
conveniently be brought under the following articles ;
the first of which relates to the duty of openly pro-
fessing Christianity, and to the consequences of that
profession ; the second, to the exclusiveness of the
Christian profession ; the third, to the distribution
of functions within the Church ; the fourth, to the
allotment of offices to individuals ; the fifth, to those
secular arrangements which this allotment makes ne-
cessary ; the sixth, to the source or derivation of
sacred offices ; the seventh, to the counterpoise of
the authority vested in the officers of the Church ;
and the eighth, to the gradations of rank among its
officers, or to their relative position and respective
spheres.

How much soever of learning and of dialectic
ability may have already been expended upon the
subjects involved in the above-named particulars,

98 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

there may yet be room for a statement of them, in
that light in which they appear to common sense,
when no interests of party, or prejudices of education
are to be saved.

I. As matter of form, we must advance the preli-
minary axiom — That Christianity demands from its
adherents, without exception or evasion, an open
profession of their belief, and frequent public com-
munication, one with another, as well for purposes of
worship, as of mutual aid, instruction, and discipline.
This we assume as granted ; or as not standing in
need of the induction of proof. Christianity is
essentially social, and the public observances which it
enjoins involve, by necessity, not merely a casual in-
tercourse among its adherents; but some system of
organization and government. We had need to bear
it in mind that, as an incidental or occasional pro-
fession of our faith in Christ does not satisfy the
obligations we are under as his disciples ; so neither
does accidental association, prompted by personal
friendship merely, or by taste, fulfil the requirements
of church communion.

This first axiom of church polity is properl^^ in-
sisted upon when we have to refute asceticism, and
mystic or abstracted selfishness ; wlicther in its an-
cient anchoretic garb, or in its modern guise of phi-
losophic eclecticism ; and this is an error not very
unlikely at present to gain some prevalence. Refuted
infidelity may probably take refuge in a mute admis-
sion of the truth of Christianit}^ Again, the same
principle stands opposed to the factious doctrine,
which allows to every Christian the liberty to sepa-
rate himself from his brethren on the pretext of iiis
particular opinions, on any point of belief or ritual.
Christ enjoins his disciples to assemble themselves
together in his name ; and his apostle explicitly for-
bids their parting into little companies, on the ground

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. 99

cither of doubtful questions, or of attachment to in-
dividual teachers and leaders. Sectarism contradicts
the first rudiment of Christian combination.

Moreover, a fair, and indeed an unavoidable ex-
tension of this same first article of church polity, in-
volves the duty of carrying out the Christian social
principle in every direction, and to the utmost extent
to which it will go. If all Christians residing within
a small circle or vicinage, are required to recognise
each other as such, and to institute a public and
visible communion, the Christians of a larger circle,
as of a city, or of a district, cannot be excused from
the same duty, so far as the conditions of that wider
sphere may admit. While Christian communion
within a small circle may be intimate and frequent,
within a large circle it can only be of a more general
sort; but the one is as much demanded as the other;
and both the one and the other must be systematic
and perpetual ; not casual, loose, or merely sponta-
neous. Religious organization finds no reasonable
limit until it has spread itself out, from congregations
to cities, from cities to provinces, from provinces to
empires; nay, until the family of man shall present
itself to the pleased eye of Heaven, in harmony and
concert, as the one Household of Faith. Combina-
tion is the law of Christ: insulation and disunion
are essentially anti-christian ; nothing can more dis-
tinctly be anti-christian ; superstition is less so.

A national Church, well devised, and wisely ad-
ministered, may be considered as nothing else than a
reasonable expansion of the first rudiment of exter-
nal Christianity ; and as a virtual fulfilment of the
command — *' Forsake not the assembling of your-
selves together."

II. Our first axiom, which is comprehensive in its
aspect, demands to be attached to our second, which
is restrictive. Christianity is the belief of certain

100 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

alleged facts ; and it is also a certain line of conduct,
springing from the motives which those facts engen-
der. But all men do not profess this faith ; nor do
all that profess it maintain a course of conduct such
as must be reckoned necessary to the Christian
character. The Gospel therefore, if its peculiarity
and its power are to be preserved, brings in a dis-
tinction between man and man, even among those
who, in no other sense, as members of society, are to
be distinguished. Our alternative is either to lower
Christianity, and to convert the Church into a recep-
tacle of impurity, or to adhere to some rule of dis-
crimination ; nor can we use any other rule than its
own. The Church and the world must needs be
parted, until the Church shall have embraced the
world, and the world have yielded itself to the Church, j
Christianity is a comprehensive combination ; but it
is also a special one. A power of judgment and \
exclusion is therefore essential to the very existence
of a Christian Church. It is an after question, in i
whose hands this power is to be lodged, and by what !
regulations it is to be circumscribed. The two op- j
posite errors that are to be guarded against on this j,
point are, first, that of negligence and license, by
means of which great truths are lost sight of, and
virtue is compromised ; and secondly, that of sancti- i
monious or frivolous rigidity, and which is found, f
seldom or never, to justify itself by a proportionate
internal purity. It is, for the most part, much easier
to live in societies so formed, than to get into them.
In the apostolic Churches, on the contrary, admis-
sion was easy, but the terms of continued fellowship
difficult; or difficult to pretenders. The door of the
primitive Church stood open, but the Church itself
was kept clean. It is an equal fault for a Church
to have an open door, and a promiscuous assem-
blage, like a market; or a door bolted upon an

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. 101

Augean stable. Morals are vitiated in the one
place as fatally as in the other.

III. Christian association does indeed bring to-
gether homogeneous, but yet not undistinguished
constituents. No sort of reciprocity of affection, or
community of feeling and purpose, can be more ab-
solute than that which should be characteristic of a
Christian Church. A Church is a family — a bro-
therhood, intimately blended together and firmly
compacted by immortal love. The welfare of one is
as important and as dear to all, as that of another ;
yet this equality in love, is an equality in nothing
else. The members of a Church are on a level, as
are the members of a family. The one circle, as well
as the other, embraces all degrees of power, of know-
ledge, and of dignity ; and involves subordination,
supremacies, obedience. Broadly classified, the
Church consists of the taught and of the teachers, or
of the governed and the governing; it is at once a
school of knowledge, and a school of virtue; and
those vast disparities, as well in virtue as in know-
ledge, in judgment and in conduct, which actually
present themselves, become the source of confusion
-instead of advantage, unless there be effected and
maintained a sorting of persons, and an assignment
of functions, according to the abilities of individuals.
We assume that any idea of a Church at all ap-
proaching to the notion of a spontaneous club of
independent citizens, combining themselves for the
furtherance of a common interest, and installing and
removing their officers at pleasure, is essentially
at variance with the principle of a Christian Church.
We assume moreover, that a church polity, such as
we here represent it, can be consistently opposed
only by those who rely upon a constant supernatural
influence, imparting to each member, without human

9

102 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

intervention, all the knowledge and virtue which
each is to receive. The practical explication given
of the general principles we are here advancing must
depend directly upon the notion entertained of the
CONSTITUENTS of a Church. For example : we
may think of it (and this is in fact a prevailing
opinion) as a purely voluntary association of adults,
each in full possession of his personal course of
conduct, and liable to no more control than he may
please, from day to day, to submit to. This may .
be termed the political idea of a Church. On the
other hand we may draw our notions of church
polity more from the analogy of the domestic eco-
nomy ; and then a Church is an assemblage of
persons enjoying various decrees of liberty, but none
the absolute liberty proper to the members of a club ;
and some of these persons, namely, the infants of the
Church, and its catechumens, who do, or who
ought to form a large proportion of the entire body,
are in no such sense personally free, nor are they
possessed of a voice and vote in the affairs of the
society. A Church, thus conceived of, implies, of
course, a sort of government, and a principle of
independent authority, such as the first named idea
does not admit. We assume that the latter concep-
tion comes much nearer to the apostolic and early
model of ecclesiastical combination than the former.
Existing controversies hinge, in a great degree, upon
this very point ; and we may be bold to add that,
when the Christian scheme, in its benign and com-
prehensive intention, shall be more fully expanded
than it is at present, and when its outstretched arms
shall be suffered to embrace the social system, the
notion of a Church will necessarily approximate to
the latter idea, and will utterly reject the former :
ihe first being secular and political, the second
spiritual and divine.

f

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. 103

IV. We have said that, as the constituents of a
Church are naturally distinguished by the greatest
possible disparities of knowledge, virtue, and age,
and as the Church is both a school of learning, and
a school of practice, there is implied the existence
and exercise of functions as well of government as
of instruction ; and the possession of an effective
power for carrying forward these various purposes.
We now go on to allege, that these powers are not
to be exercised casually, or spontaneously, or inter-
changeably, by whoever may, from time to time,
assume them ; but that OFFICES are to be assigned
to OFFICERS, permanently (if not irrevocably) in-
stalled.

It has been affirmed, and even lately,* that, as it is
the common privilege of all believers to be " priests
and kings," a Church entire is a sacerdotal and royal
choir, excluding the distinction between clergy and
laity, which distinction contravenes, it is said, the
very essence of the sacred association. It is affirmed,
moreover, that the true ideal of a Church rejects any
sort of supremacy or authority, other than that which
a conclave of independent princes might, for conve-
nience, institute to-day, and abrogate to-morrow%
Do those who insist upon this idea of a universal
hierarchy forget that, in the very contexts where the
priestly dignity of all Christians is affirmed, spiritual
authorities are recognised, and the duty of submis-
si^ to church rulers is affirmed, in unqualified
terms? It has been a frequent error to apply to the
existing orders of common life certain high affirma-
tions of Scripture, intended only, and true only, in
a purely spiritual sense. It was thus that the ancient
ascetics interpreted our Lord's injunctions, which
were meant to elevate natural principles, in a sense

* See Neander's " History of the Christian Religion and Church."
Passim.

104 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

that altogether subverted the social system, and did
violence to God's own laws.

We here take it as a matter of history, not need-
ing formal proof, that apostolic practice and precept
established, in the primitive Church, offices assigned
to individuals, who permanently exercised the specific
functions of their places. If instruction was to be
carried on, there were to be teachers ; and if order
was to be maintained, there must be rulers ; and
these, not casually instated, or removable at pleasure, .
but firmly seated in their chairs, and removable only,
if at all, in extraordinary modes, and on signal
reasons.

Apart from the warrant of apostolic precept and
example, or if left without authoritative guidance in
this instance, a Christian society would reasonably
and necessarily take the course of instituting per-
manent offices, inasmuch as the common sense and
universal usage of mankind demands such a mode
of securing the general welfare. The rule which
requires functions to be assigned to persons, rises
always in importance, and in obligation, in propor-
tion to the difficulty and the value of the services to
be performed. Trivial or facile duties may well be
left to promiscuous agencies ; not so those which, in
a high degree, demand skill, experience, accom-
plishments, energy of mind, and specific qualities of
the temper. Now in these respects there are no
duties, whatever, equal in importance to those "In-
volved in the diffusion and maintenance of religion.
No duties are at once so difficult, and so peculiar in
their conditions. If in any case the division of labour
is necessary and beneficial, it is so in this case. Bet-
ter leave the care of the public health, better leave
the business of civil government, to the promiscuous
ability of any who may offer their services, than so
to leave the care of souls.

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. 105

If a confirmatory argument were needed to esta-
blish this point, we might derive one of a conclusive,
though inferential sort, from our Lord's formal enact-
ment, That *' those who preach the Gospel should
live of the Gospel." In thus exempting the religious
teacher from the ordinary labours of life, and in
throwing upon the people the duty of shielding their
instructors from secular solicitudes, it must follow,
that certain persons are permanently devoted to the
service of the Church ; unless indeed we admit the
great loss and damage, both secular and spiritual,
which are consequent upon the taking up, and the
laying down of labours, barely compatible the one
with the other. Occasional services, remunerated by
an occasional stipend, could never be approved of,
as systematically the best and most economic mode
of obtaining such services. A practice of this kind
may, it is true, be justifiable under peculiar circum-
stances ; but can never be good as a universal
method. The very exception stated by St. Paul in
his own case, establishes the rule ; and with the less
room for mistake, inasmuch as, on this point, he
makes an explicit allusion, in confirmation of his
plea, to the Jewish sacerdotal institute, under which
the ministers of religion, as a permanent body, re-
ceived a revenue that was neither parsimonious nor
precarious.

Our inference may be stated conversely. — As the
preachers of the Gospel, by the express law of Christ,
are entitled to a comfortable maintenance from the
people ; so the people, by implication of rights, may,
so long as they afford this provision, claim the un-
divided services of their teachers. These duties are
correlative ; and the one may be assumed as the con-
dition of the other. If the people fail to support their
ministers in reasonable competency, these ministers

9*

106 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

may hold themselves free to provide for their wants
in what other manner they may be able.

Here again we must say that, if we reject the cle-
rical institute, our alternative is the hypothesis of a
constant supernatural teaching, conveyed to the
Church, either silently, or in so sovereign and casual
a manner as to leave no room for the ordinary exer-
cise of the human faculties. The clerical institute
embodies the great principle, that God operates by
the medium of second causes, always, where such a
medium is naturally adapted to the end in view.
Even in the immediate exertion of his almighty
power, we find some attendant and ordinary instru-
mentality.

V. The train of our inferences leads us next to the
incidental, though very important point, of the mode
and conditions of that maintenance which the clerical •
body may rightfully demand from the people.

This point involves some general principles of
extensive application. Not to go over the ground
touched upon in a preceding section, we have yet
to repeat the assumption, that Christianity implies,
and leaves room for the exercise of common sense in
all those matters which naturally and easily fall under
its cognizance. In things intelligible and secular,
revelation does not supersede reason, or interfere
with its exercise. On this path superstitious and
heated minds have entangled themselves in the most
serious difficulties. Looking for a hand from
Heaven, where Heaven says, "Help thyself," they
have lost at once the benefits of reason, and the aids
of revelation.

Now if there are at all any arrangements, con-
nected with religion, which may be granted to come
within the province of human prudence, pecuniary
arrangements certainly are of that sort. In these.

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. 107

eminently, men are at home, and are competent to
the part assigned them. Again, if there be any por-
tion of the ecclesiastical economy which asks to be
specifically adjusted, in each instance, to places,
times, and popular habits, or if there be any portion
concerning which an irrevocable and universal enact-
ment would have been undesirable, or impracticable,
surely the matter of church revenues is such.
Nothing could more effectually have obstructed the
progress of the Gospel, nothing could have been
more at variance with its spirit, and intention, as a
religion for mankind, than the entailing upon the
Church, by apostolic authority, certain fiscal regula-
tions, every where and always obligatory. A system
may be practicable and beneficial in one age or
country, which is not so in another. Or there may
be a mode of maintaining the ministers of religion
decisively advantageous where Christianity is fully
recognised b}^ a whole people, which could not have
obtained, and which could not even have been sug-
gested, at first, and under those circumstances of
opposition against which, for the accomplishment of
high purposes, the Church was to push its way.

All that ought to be expected from the apostles on
this subject, is precisely what we actually receive;
namely, a very distinct assertion of the general
PRINCIPLE, that those who devote themselves to the
religious instruction of the people, should live by
that means. The duty of the people and the claims
of the clergy, are, by the inspired writers, established
on the firm basis of an explicit enactment, as " from
the Lord ;" and an appeal also, confirmatory of both,
is made at once to common reasons of equity, and to
the pure and generous sentiments which the Gospel
brings into play. On no plea, except that of abso-
lute inability, through extreme poverty, can a Chris-
tian people evade their obligation in this behalf. No

108 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

individual, professing any sort of submission to the
law of Christ, and no community publicly recognising
the Scriptures as divine, can be deemed at liberty to
save himself, or itself, the cost of a clerical institute ;
nor can the indifference of any, or their mistaken ap-
prehensions of what is becoming, excuse them from
bearing their part in this expense. God " commands
all men every where to repent, and believe the Gos-
pel ;" all therefore to whom this message comes are
liable to the charge thence accruing ; nor is there
any injustice in requiring men to fulfil a condition
necessarily connected with their own highest welfare.

In what particular mode the people shall fulfil their
obligation toward their religious teachers, is not
determined by the authority which enjoins it. The
ground here is open, and the subject, in all its
bearings, lies within the compass of common sense ;
we are free therefore to devise schemes, and to try
experiments ; and, for our guidance we may turn to
the lessons of experience. Nothing, in this matter, is
unlawful, which involves no injustice ; and we hold it
a most idle superstition to affirm that nothing is ab-
stractedly good, or Christian like, except that acci-
dental mode, which, from the peculiarity of the case,
was the only one whereby the first promulgators of
the Gospel could be maintained. In truth, no modern
religious community adheres to any such rule ; but on
the contrary, the very parties most vehement in their
advocacy of the voluntary principle, themselves care-
fully retain whatever corporate property may have
fallen into their hands ; and while they inveigh against
endowments, must be understood to mean, any endow-
ments but their own.

The first Christian teachers could be supported in
no other way than by the undefined gratuities of their
converts; nor, during the spring-time of zeal and af-
fection was this revenue likely either to be insufficient,

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. 109

or injurious by its redundancy. The same means of
support must, of course, always be abstractedly
lawful ; and it may indeed be free from objection, so
long as some method of distibution is adhered to (as
in the first age of the Church) which cuts off the de-
pendence of individuals upon individuals. And yet
this simple plan will always tend toward a more com-
plex form. At a very early time it actually reached
such a form; for the Church possessed herself of a
chest ; that is to say, became mistress of a disposable
capital; and availed herself of the powers and advan-
tages thence naturally arising. The stewards of that
chest, and those for whom they acted, were no longer
in an absolute sense dependent upon the people. No
imaginable provisions can exclude the possibility of
such accumulations. Moreover the Church, even in
its infancy, became the inheritress of property, real as
well as personal ; and often to a large amount. Were
these bequests (whether prudent and desirable or not)
were they essentially immoral and unchristian, and
such as should have been invariably renounced ?
They are not so esteemed in our own enlightened
times ; nor are they rejected by the most stern and
self-denying of our sects.

Or we might ask, was it an immoral act, on the
part of Constantine, when he recognised and con-
firmed the then existing property of religious corpo-
rations, and so at once sealed and saved the wealth
of the Church ? we do not so think it. The Church,
therefore, in the gradual, the natural, and the UNA-
VOIDABLE course of events, had moved from her ori-
ginal position, in relation to the people ; and though
no impost was levied, was yet sustained in a mode
essentially unlike the one that had prevailed in the
apostolic age. The voluntary principle was still in
full vigour ; but its bearing upon the clergy had be-
come complicated, and indirect ; and this had hap-

110 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

pened in a manner not at any distinct stage of the
process to be either condemned, or arrested.

When at length the civil authority felt the necessity
of at once setting a bound to the superstitious pro-
fession of the people toward the Church, and of
stretching a controlling hand over the avidity of the
clergy, and when different methods of commutation
were introduced, or a definite impost was granted, in
the place of unbounded gratuities; can we affirm that
the change was from a better method to a worse ; or
that, in any sense, primitive purity was by this means
compromised in behalf of corruption and subserviency?
The very reverse is nearer to the truth. The system
of church taxation, and the restrictive testamentary en-
actments therewith connected, came in as A RELIEF to
the people, and as a check upon the clergy : it was a
dam, thrown across the swollen torrent that had been
Jong drowning the Church, and draining the State.

Nothing could be more natural than for those,
whether churchmen or statesmen, who wished to sub-
stitute a legal provision for the then voluntary prin-
ciple, and its enormous abuses, to look to the Mosaic
Institution, as their guide and sanction. — The in-
spired writers had given no warning that a system
which the Divine wisdom had established in one in-
stance, must be held inexpedient and unlawful in
every other ; nay, they had virtually linked the
Christian to the Jewish clerical scheme by appealing
to the one as affording a reason applicable to the
other. The universal usage of mankind accorded,
in this instance, with that of the Jewish people; nor
did any thing stand opposed to it, but the accidental
practice of the primitive Church, whiph practice had
itself, as was natural, fallen into a disorderly and per-
nicious course.

In truth, to preserve, for any length of time, and
in its absolute simplicity and purity, the principle of

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. Ill

clerical support, by the immediate and undefined
gratuities of the people, is what no communion has
been able to effect : nor can we even imagine the
means of doing so. But when once this pristine
simplicity has given way, as it soon must, in part, or
entirely, to a financial system, and has admitted
accumulations, endowments, and corporate posses-
sions, then a very fair question presents itself, namely,
whether an irregular and anomalous method, open to
undefined abuses, may not, with high advantage, as
well to the people as to the clergy, be exchanged for
a legal provision. To oppose such an exchange on
the pretext of primitive purity and abstract principle,
must be deemed equally disingenuous and illogical,
when the objection comes from those who make no
scruple of accepting bequests, of retaining endow-
ments, of accumulating funds, or of renting the area
of a chapel. To demand payment for so many
square inches of a bench or pew, is a practice as little
apostolic as to demand a tithe.

It is however quite manifest, and ought always to
be in the most explicit manner acknowledged, that
where, unhappily, Christianity has sunk down into
several irreconcilable, or unreconciled forms, and
where faction and political interests have firmly en-
cased theological controversies, there, some special
provisions are called for by bare justice, and by the
principle of religious liberty, to prevent a public
church tax from resting unfairly upon portions of the
community. True indeed it is that no arrangements
which take their necessity from what is abstractedly
evil, 1 can be, in themselves, abstractedly good: —
abstract evil proves itself to be evil, at whatever
point it comes in contact with our welfare : nothing
can avail to make it work well ; and our best inge-
nuity and best intentions still are bafiled. Now re-

112 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

ligious divisions are the greatest of abstract evils ;
and they therefore trouble and distract and disparage
every community that is affected by them. So long
as religious divisions continue, it is vain to hope for
an absolutely prosperous and happy condition, either
of the Church or the State. Meanwhile every pos-
sible endeavour should be made to avert, or to re-
move those occasions of exasperation which keep
alive faction, and put in peril ihe whole frame-work
of society. It may indeed be wise and expedient to.
support, or to abstain from removing, an existing
form of religion ; although it be a form disapproved
of by a portion of the people; but in this case the
acquiescence of the dissidents should be mildly urged
on the general grounds of public utility ; not de-
manded on high and arrogant principles; and in
such a case these dissidents would indeed entitle them-
selves to great praise could they rise to the patriotic,
Christian-like, and generous feeling, of consenting
to a state of things confessedly not abstractedly the
best possible ; but yet the best which can be effected
under the embarrassing circumstances that surround
us. This perhaps is too much to expect from the
infirmity of human nature ; and if so, it will only
remain for us to alleviate, in every practicable man-
ner, the galling burden that rests on some of our
fellow-citizens and Christian brethren.

VI. We have assumed, that the Church, as it has
its offices, must have its officers ; and these a class
of persons permanently devoted to religious services.
We assume moreover, that the particular mode in
which this class is to receive its pecuniary support is
a matter fully open to the determination of the com-
mon sense of mankind ; and that therefore any
method is lawful, which is found to be expedient.

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. 113

But the question which next presents itself is of
the highest moment, and involves almost every other
consideration, connected with church polity. Our
question is this — Whence does the clerical function
and power arise ; or in what manner is it transmitted
from hand to hand; or under whose control does it
rest ?

In simply stating his opinion on this capital point,
the author must not be supposed either unapprized of
the vast controversy of which it has been the subject;
eras presuming to dogmatize where the wise are dif-
fident ; but he yet feels that, as the question has sel-
dom hitherto been treated except by partisans, and
never without an anxious regard to some existing in-
terests, there is room for considering it in the light of
common sense, and as it appears to minds divested of
sectarian predilections.

The clerical function and power may then, in the
first place, be imagined to be derived, in each in-
stance, immediately from Heaven, by impulses and
irresistible convictions on the mind of the individual
who challenges to himself the right to exercise eccle-
siastical authority. Such was the prophetic function
of old; and such, essentially, is the idea of the Chris-
tian ministry entertained by the Quakers ; and in
measure too by some other modern sects. We do
not here deem it necessary to entertain this supposi-
tion, as worthy of argument : in truth, by its very
nature, it exempts itself from the range of reason :
its only ground is that of perpetual miraculous
attestation.

In the second place, sacerdotal authority may be
affirmed to spring, by perpetual derivation and tra-
dition, from itself. That is to say, the clerical body,
in each successive age, may be held to be empowered
to deliver to its successors, called and installed by

10

114 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

itself, the entire authority which, in a like manner, it
received from its predecessors. This doctrine is the
fundamental article of the Romish Church, (yet it is
a doctrine quite separable from the usurpations and
errors of that Church,) and it has been inherited and
embodied by the Church of England, and other
episcopal communions.

In the third place, all powers of government and
instruction, within the Church, may be alleged to
originate with the will of those for whom such powers
are exercised : that is to say, of the people, as dis-
tinguished from their clergy, and who may elect and
remove their teachers and rulers at pleasure.

Or lastly, there may be imagined a sort of com-
promise between clergy and laity, such as shall leave
a power of calling and ordaining with the former,
and of electing and instating with the latter. This
last method prevails among most of our modern
sects, but under circumstances that produce different
practical results. Presbyterianism, attempered in
an effective degree by lay influence, presents this
scheme in perhaps its most favourable aspect, and at
once confers a substantial and necessary power upon
the clergy, while the people have the means of
securing themselves against tyranny and encroach-
ment. The congregational communions, while they
attribute a semblance of special authority to their
clergy, in the instance of ordination, (which however
is now very commonly confessed to amount to nothing
more than a paternal or fraternal recognition of the
people's sovereign act,) do substantially devolve all
power, not indeed upon the Church ; — for a Church,
by universal admission, is a body, consisting of people
and ministers; but upon the laity, as acting apart
from the clergy, and as considered competent to de-
cide in the most important of all affairs, without their

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. 115

rulers, and indeed while they have none.* Moreover,
by the absolute insulation of each chapel society,
and by the immediate dependence of each minister
upon the single congregation which he serves, all
forms and semblances of clerical authority, be they
what they may, are virtually held in abeyance. He
who must depart when those who support him no
longer wish for his services, exercises no power such
as can avail in those very instances where power is
needed — namely, to enforce discipline against sturdy
delinquents, and to maintain truth and morality in
opposition to the caprices or the lax desires of the
people. This is a theory of church government
which, much as it may recommend itself to our
modern republican sentiments, must be denounced as
subversive of all religious authority, (whether for good
or ill,) and as broadly and essentially distinguished
from the apostolic model.

In making a choice among the above-named prin-
ciples, and especially if we were to do so apart from
apostolic precepts or precedents, it would be very
natural to have recourse to the analogy of civil life;
and, as under a free government, all public functions
return, immediately or remotely, to their source — the
will of those for whose benefit they are exercised, the
inference would be, that religious functions should
obey the same rule ; and that the selective and elec-
tive powers, including necessarily the power to revoke,
and to repel pastoral authority, should reside in the
people. This sort of reasoning from secular principles,
acquires peculiar force when applied to religious com-
munities in modern times, breathing as they do the
inspiriting atmosphere of democratic independence.

* Let it be remembered, that though a Congregation may be des-
titute of a minister, a Church, in the primitive sense of the word, is
never destitute of her pastors. The severest persecutions did not reduce
Any ancient Church to absolute widowhood.

116 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

Certain modes of government might, it may be said,
be tolerable or good in times or in countries where the
popular mind had not been kindled, and where silent
submission to irresponsible authority has lonj? been
the settled habit of the people ; but the same modes
become wholly inapplicable to societies unaccustomed
to endure any species of restraint beyond what is felt
by all to be indispensable. It may, we say, seem as
if a scheme of church government which involves sub-
stantial clerical powers, even though proved to be
apostolic, could not find room upon modern ground.

Then again, when the constant tendency of privi-
leged orders, and especially of sacerdotal orders, to
encroach upon the public liberties, is considered, we
must feel strongly the danger of giving place to a self-
derived, and independent religious authority. With
the evidence of history before us, and the common
impulses of human nature in view, every dispassion-
ate mind reluctates to admit a principle that seems
so pregnant with mischief. If at last compelled to
grant that our Lord actually left his Church on this
foundation, we are placed in a position that demands
the most vigilant regard ; nor can we do less than
bestow an extreme care upon the duty of maintaining,
in its full efficiency, that counterpoise to spiritual
despotism, or rather that safeguard against its ad-
vances, which we find to have been in play within the
apostolic societies.

In the present instance argumentative equity re-
quires us to premise a caution of the following kind :
— while speaking of the maintenance of the clergy,
we rebutted an inference too hastily drawn from the
practice of the first Churches, as if it were to be bind-
ing upon ourselves, by saying that, as, in the nature
of the case, no other method of supporting the preach-
ers of the Gospel than that of the free contributions
of the people could then find room, it will not follow

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. 117

that the same method was intended to be every where
adhered to, when the external position of Christianity
in the world should come to be materially altered.
Now the analogy of reasoning demands that we should,
at the least, hesitate a while before we regard the
conduct of the Institutor of a NEW Religion in ap-
pointing his ministers, or even their method of proceed-
ing in naming their successors, as absolutely conclusive
in favour of the same method, in after times; inas-
much as no other plan of appointment can be ima-
gined as proper or practicable, at the commencement
of a new order of things : yet some other plan may
be both possible and elegible when this same economy
has run on through a tract of time. It would be a
solecism to talk of the popular election or installation
of the teachers of a new faith. Let then this preli-
minary caution be kept in mind ; and although it may
be found that we search the Gospels, the Acts, and the
Epistles in vain for any precept, precedent, or fair
inference, such as might warrant the popular creation
of the ministers of religion, or a popular control over
them, when created, in the way of election, removal,
or dispossession of clerical character, nevertheless we
must abstain from positively concluding that no such
democratic control may be lawful in our own times.
In fact, though not to be traced in the canonic writ-
ings, the popular voice and suffrage in the election of
the bishop, unquestionably obtained a very early pre-
valence ; and those who absolutely exclude the will of
the people in the choice of their pastors, although
not reprovable by letter of Scripture, yet oppose one
of the most ancient and universal of ecclesiastical
usages.

A curious inconsistency has attended the modern
controversy on the source or origin of clerical
power, inasmuch as the opponents have mutually
exchanged positions. Those, on the one side, whose

118 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

rule and practice it ordinarily is to pay a profound
regard to ancient authority, and who, not in a few
instances, are accustomed to eke out a scanty scrip-
ture proof by the testimony of the Fathers, and to
lean on the arm of tradition, shut their ears on this
point against the clear and undoubted voice of vene-
rable antiquity, and stiffly adhere to the express
apostolic practice. On the other hand — and we
cannot but note the strange casualties incident to
theological warfare, those who, on almost every
other question, if not on every other, take their
immovable stand upon the explicit authority of
Scri})ture, and who will do neither more nor less
than can be made good by text upon text, these very
persons, in defending the main article of their eccle-
siastical polity, namely the popular call, appoint-
ment, election, and removal, of pastors and teachers,
are left without warranty of Scripture, (some torturing
of terms excepted,) and without the sanction of a
single apostolic instance; and are compelled to sup-
port the practice they adopt on theiower ground of
expedienc}^ or of the natural rights of men, or of
the example of the early Church, as reported by
ecclesiastical writers. Thus does the characteristic
practice of these parties stand contradicted by their
characteristic principle. We would be careful not to
overstate facts, and yet can say nothing less than
this. That the sovereignty of the people in church
affairs, their competency to act without their pastors,
the dependence of single pastors or teachers upon
single congregations, the validity of a popular call
to the work of the ministry, the election of each pas-
tor by his flock, and the power to remove him at
pleasure; or, in one word, the doctrine of unmixed
church democracy, is zealously professed, and reso-
lutely acted upon, by those who affirm that our Lord
left his Church, as well in its polity as its doctrine

RUDIiMENTS OF CHURCH POLirY. 119

and morals, such precisely as he willed that it should
continue ; and that whatever is not of express
Divine appointment is a corruption, and an affront
to his supremacy !

The strangeness of this inconsistency has in fact
imposed upon the Christian world ; for it has been
assumed as incredible that the rigid advocates of the
sufficiency of Scripture in matters of polity and
worship, should themselves have laid, as the founda-
tion-stone of their ecclesiastical structure, a practice
that is destitute of apostolic precept and example. It
is not without some amazement that we find a con-
gregational Church, on the modern scheme, pro-
ceeding in the momentous act of creating, or of
electing to itself a pastor and teacher, without being
able to allege, from the New Testament, any law or
license to that effect, or any example of an unam-
biguous and satisfactory kind. Whether this prac-
tice may now be expedient and lawful, is not the
question ; but is it formally enjoined ? are the people
instructed by the apostles in what manner to acquit
themselves of so difficult and peculiar a duty? or is
any one of the apostolic societies exhibited in delibe-
ration on the occasion of calling one pastor to their
service, and of discharging another ? On secular
principles nothing can be more simple or reasonable
than that those who pay should command ; and in
the present temper of mankind, especially in certain
circles, it may be nearly impracticable to secure sub-
mission to any other law. Nevertheless, the serious
question returns upon us — Is this the law, or this
the principle recognised as the basis of church
polity in the New Testament f We are compelled
to answer — it is not.

That our Lord, in a sovereign manner, elected
and empowered every one of those who were to pro-

120 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

mulgate his religion is not questioned. The apos-
tles assume the same irresponsible authority in re-
lation to such as they acknowledged in the character
of religious teachers ; and while they freely admitted,
and indeed invited, the popular concurrence on all
occasions where common or secular interests were in-
volved, and especially in every pecuniary transac-
tion, yet reserved to themselves the power to create
spiritual officers. For aught that appears in the CA-
NONICAL WRITINGS, no other mode of appointment
found room in the Church; and the assumption that
the apostles exercised this power in virtue of their
extraordinary commission, and on the ground of their
miraculous knowledge of hearts, is purely gratuitous.
So it may have been ; but we have no evidence in
support of the allegation.

The apostolic epistles abound, as well in exhorta-
tions addressed to the people, urging the duty of sub-
mission to their spiritual rulers, as in admonitions
given to the officers of the Church, and pressing upon
them the temper and conduct, the fidelity, the purity,
the impartiality, and the meekness, which become
their station. We find also, in the three clerical
epistles of Paul, addressed to two of the individuals
whom he had empowered to set in order, and to keep
in order the Churches, specific instructions concern-
ing the appointment and government of spiritual
officers, both higher and lower. All this accords well
with the supposition that the clerical authority and
function springs from within itself, and is irrespective
of the popular will. But if the congregational and
democratic theory, or any principle allied to it, be
the true one, or if any such principle had been con-
templated as what was to succeed to the then extraor-
dinary apostolic authority, we cannot but expect, on
so capital and momentous a subject, that necessary

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. 121

instmctions. and a formal warranty too, would have
been very distinctly conveyed to the parties who were
lo exercise powers so extensive, so delicate, and so
difficult. On various questions of discipline, christian
societies, at large, are addressed by St. Paul, and in-
Btructed what course to pursue : the Brotherhood
is told how it should act. But what article of dis-
cipline can be compared in importance with the seri-
ous duty, devolving so often upon our modern con-
gregational Churches, of looking out for themselves
and of instating their bishops 7 Again, can a Church,
at any time, be called to discharge a part so serious
as is that of dismissing, and perhaps of degrading its
bishop? yet, for the acquittal of none of these per-
plexing duties, does a Church receive one word of
guidance, or one syllable of authentication, from the
inspired writings. Let it be affirmed that all neces-
sary instructions on such points may be gathered by
fair inference from the general spirit of Christianity.
Be it so ; only let it then be clearly understood, that
the first principle of modern Congregationalism rests,
not on scripture precept and precedent, but upon ge-
neral and vague inferences.

If the apostolic writings afford a single particle of
evidence, direct or indirect, in favour of the doctrine
of the popular origination, or popular control of the
clerical office, let it be produced. If not, even if we
should admit by accommodation, the propriety of
some sort of popular influence in this behalf, we must
do so manifestly in contradiction to the principle of
the sufficiency, and the sole authority of Scripture

I in matters of church polity. The two principles of

I modern democracy in church affairs, and of an un-
bending adherence to the letter of Scripture in what

|t relates to worship and government, are abhorrent,

I the one of the other.

Meanwhile, calm and well informed men, indif-

11

122 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

ferent to actual interests, must halt on the threshold
when summoned to enter the Church, if the ultimate
power therein is alleged to rest with a sacerdotal or-
der, self-evolved, and irresponsible. Will human
nature well bear to be so far trusted ? Does even
Christianity afford any safeguard against the natural
abuses and encroachments that attend insulated and
undefined spiritual authority? These proper and
anxious inquiries lead the way to our next rudiment
of Church Polity, and which presents an adequate
balance to sacerdotal powers.

VII. Christianity, assuredly, is neither despotic in
its spirit, nor could it generate despotisms, in any
case, if allowed to retain that rudiment which, in the
primitive Churches, operated as a natural counter-
poise to clerical authority. This counterpoise was
the participation of the people — the tta^^o?, in church
deliberations, and church acts ; and especially the
scope allowed to popular agency in every punitive
^exercise of discipline. An effective check is this to
what might otherwise be formidable in sacerdotal
power. So long as it is fully and freely admitted
clerical authority may safely reach a high and salu-
tary point ; but remove or restrict it, and then our
alternative is either to give room to the pride and ar-
rogance of priests, or to cashier the ministers of reli-
gion of all dignity and power (as an order) and to
deny them the greater part of their useful influence.
The presence and active operation of this popular
element in church affairs is not a whit less necessary
as the guarantee of the power of the clergy, than as
the safeguard of the liberties of the people.

As the primitive Churches knew nothing of that
ministerial subserviency which belongs to our modern
congregational communities, so neither did they ad-
mit that fatal separation between clergy and laity

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. 123

which destroys all effective reciprocity between the
two, leaves to the former a perilous, nay ruinous
irresponsibility, and treats the latter as the passive,
or rather the dead subjects of clerical operations. On
this point almost every existing Christian communi-
ty has moved far from the foundation on which alone
the Church can be securely reared : — some, throw-
ing the sovereign power into the hands of the
people ; while others have left it, unbalanced, with
the clergy. Christianity may be expected to regain
its energy when, to the clergy is restored that inde-
pendent authority and dignity, as the ministers of
Heaven, with which they may safely be intrusted,
so long as they yield to the apostolic counterpoise of
popular influence.

In every age it has been by gathering themselves
into clusters, apart from the people, by sitting in
conclave, with the doors barred against the laity, and
by concerting measures, not in the church, but in
chambers and closets, that the ministers of religion
have converted the Gospel into a system of tyranny
and an engine of cruelty. The history of Spiritual
Despotism hinges upon this divulsion of the elements
of Church Power. An impious and fatal divorce of
what God had joined — a divorce craftily effected by
the clergy, was the principal means of introducing
and of establishing all corruptions and all usurpa-
tions.

The people, whether in. mass, or by representa-
tion, being present, and taking a share in church
proceedings, and being allowed a real, not a nominal
agency in church acts — knowing whatever is pro-
posed, and con(uirring in whatever is determined,
there will no longer be danger in granting to the
clergy as high and free an authority as Christian
men could wish to exercise, or safely to themselves
sustain.

The apostolic societies were, in the fullest sense of

124 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

the word, Communities ; not indeed chaotic assem-
blages, liable to the confusions that attend unrestrain-
ed democracy, but organized bodies, constituted of
head, and heart, and members, concurring, accord-
ing to their several powers, in the same acts, and
bound together by a vital sympathy. The principle
of apostolic church polity would, as we assume, have
been violated in an equal degree, either by any at-
tempt of the people to bring their pastors into a sub-
servient condition, as their stipendiaries ; or by any
endeavour of the clergy to sustain and extend* their
prerogatives by secret conspiracy. The two great
rudiments of ecclesiastical polity, namely, the sacer-
dotal origin of sacerdotal powers ; and the presence
and concurrence of the people in acts of discipline,
and in the enactment of regulations, and especially
in the management of pecuniary aflairs, are corre-
lative, and the worst evils arise from pariing them,
or from practically nullifying either. The one is
not worth contending for, apart from the other ; and
the one is essential to the complete operation of the
other. Whichever party aims to compromise the pri-
vileges and rights of the other, is blind to its own.

We have aheady spoken of the first of these two
principles : and nothing is easier than to establish
the second. As matter of history the fact of the con-
currence of the mass ot the Church in deliberations
and decisions stands on the face of the apostolic wri-
tings. The multitude came together, and took their
part in the most important consultations: to the mul-
titude was referred the election of officers charged
with the secondary affairs of the community : the
brethren held up the hand, although they did not lay
the hand : the %f<^oT«v/<« was allowed them, where
the x^ipohc-U was reserved to the presbyters and
bishops. Public business was indeed arranged, pro-
pounded, and carried through by Public Persons ; but
still it was carried as public business. The machi-

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. 125

nation in closets of interests that ought to be openly
discussed, is a treason against the community ; nor
was any such secret management admitted even by
the divinely commissioned apostles.

But the tenor and the terms of the apostolic epistles
afford the most satisfactory evidence on the point of
the liberal and open constitution of the first Churches.
These epistles, fraught With various and specific ad-
vices on questions of discipline and government, are
addressed comprehensively and directly to the mass
of believers ; — not to the people through the medium
of their rulers. The pastors are indeed mentioned,
but this mention of them distinctly implies that the
writer, in each instance, had his eye immediately
fixed upon the people. Were then the people — the
believers at large, the mere subjects of church power 1
did they constitute an inert mass, upon which sacer-
dotal functions were to be exercised ? Common sense
is insulted by any such supposition ; historic evidence
is outraged by affirming it to have been the fact.
The Church, with its teachers and pastors, was one
living body, various in its functions, but full of energy
and action.

The course recommended or enjoined, on various
occasions, by St. Paul, and the pujijic measures which
he advises to be pursued, were plainly supposed to
issue from the breadth of the Church ; and not to
be promulgated from the closet of an oHgarchy. Our
inference in this instance has precisely the same
strength as that which we draw in favour of the in-
dependence of the clerical function from the fact, that
all the instructions bearing directly and explicitly
upon the appointment, investiture, character, and
behaviour of the rulers of the Church, are conveyed
to INDIVIDUALS (uot to Churchcs) and these beings
such as had received an irresponsible authority, from
an irresponsible source.

11*

126 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

There will be no end to the nice distinctions and
the subterfuges resorted to by interested controvertists ;
nor must we expect to convince such persons. But
men who respect themselves, and who have learned
to exercise a vigorous common sense, in common
affairs, will hold it certain, in all cases, that those
who are instructed how to perform particular duties,
are actually the parties looked to for the discharge of
such duties. Exhortations and commands are not
cross-directed by plain and upright men. A and B
are not told in what manner X and Z should acquit
themselves of their parts. But in the apostolic epistles
it is the people at large who are instructed on what
principles to exercise church discipline, and how to
arrange the secular interests of the society. At the
same time it is not the people at large, but two indi-
viduals of high ecclesiastical rank, who are charged
with whatever relates to the selection, investment,
and control of teachers and rulers. Even those offi-
cers in the choice of whom the people exercised a dis-
cretion, are classed with purely clerical persons in
these instructions, inasmuch as it was not without the
^upchTix and approval of the primate that they
were to be instated.

We conclude then, that a cordial and effective
admission of the people — meaning, the members of
congregations, to a participation in the management
of church affairs, and especially in the infliction of
chastisements, and in the control of pecuniary inte-
rests, is an essential and most important rudiment of
church polity.

In relation to the source and derivation of the cleri-
cal function, we have been compelled to charge the
dissenting communities of this country with a capital
and very serious departure from apostolic principle
and practice. We are now bound, in justice to our
argument (and for the approval of our impartiality)

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. 127

to assert the equally important fault of the English
Church, in excluding its members at large from that
just influence which the same apostolic practice and
principle allows to them.

VIII. We have then before us the constituents of
a church, and their reciprocal influence. It only re-
mains to inquire, what should be the relative position
of those who exercise the various public functions of
the body. The following considerations seem pro-
per to be premised to such an inquiry.

1st. It should be admitted that the information
furnished in the writings of the New Testament con-
cerning the forms of government prevailing in the
apostolic Church is scanty, incomplete, informal, to
some extent ambiguous, and such, in a word, as ex-
cludes the supposition that any definite polity was
intended to be authoritatively conveyed to the Church
universal. Or let it be granted that the few who are
fully and familiarly conversant with ecclesiastical
antiquity, may arrive at a clear conviction that such
and such was the economy of the first churches, or
of most of them ; yet the Scripture Evidence
alone, and unaided by learned researches, can never
be so presented to the mass of Christians as to com-
mand their assent to this or that system, as apostolic
and unchangeable.

2dly. The information we gather, in part from the
incidental allusions of the canonical writers, and in
part from the extant remains of early Christian
literature, suggests the belief (in itself probable) that,
under the eye, and with the approbation or permis-
sion of the apostles, different modes of church govern-
ment prevailed in different countries. It is, we say,
perfectly credible, and pretty nearly established as a
fact, that a certain ecclesiastical constitution which
might well accord with the national sentiments and

128 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

civil usages of the Christians of Syria, or Persia, or
the provinces of Hellenic Asia, might be altogether
repugnant to the feeHngs of the Churches of Greece
proper, of Italy, Gaul, or northern Africa. That sort
of superstitious, servile, and despotic inflexibility
which is characteristic of the arrogant churchman of
later ages, assuredly was not the temper of the first
promulgators of the Gospel. St. Paul, especially,
had learned that high wisdom which is at once im-
movable in principle, and compliant in circumstan-
tials. The whole analogy of his behaviour, and of
his sentiments, contradicts the supposition that he
went about, carrying an iron model of ecclesiastical
government, frcm country to country.

3dly. We must be especially aware of those fal-
lacies in argument that arise from placing reliance
upon either the etymological import, or the after-
wards acquired and specific sense of certain terms of
office ; since it is manifest that these terms are used
convertibly throughout the New Testament, and are
interchanged with a latitude and a freedom that does
not at all accord with the definitions and assumptions
of modern controvertists. Modern controversies, on
church government, have been rendered indecisive
by the fault, common to all parties, of contending
for and against names ; instead of inquiring con-
cerning facts. What avails it, for example, to prove
that the pastors of single and small congregations
were called bishops ? The only question of signifi-
cance is this, whether, when there were ten, fifty, or
a hundred congregations in a city, each was an in-
sulated and independent Church, having its bishop,
and its exclusive organization, or whether they did
not, in all such cases, constitute one Church, go-
verned by a single president (call him what we
may) who bare rule over all the clerical persons
ministering to those several congregations ? If we

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITV. 129

find in fact at Jerusalem, at Antioch, at Ephesus, at
Alexandria, at Rome, some such economy as this,
and always one Church, comprising many con-
gregations, directed by one angel, or chief, those who
choose may argue the question — what was his
title 7

The apostles evidently employ terms of office rather
in the power of their abstract meaning, than as the
fixed and conventional designations of established
functionaries. The apostles call themselves presby-
ters and deacons too. Our Lord is declared to be
both Bishop and Deacon. Presbyters are bishops ;
and bishops are teachers and helpers; and a Primate
is exhorted, in one place, to do the worfe of an evan-
gelist, and in another, fully to discharge the office of
a deacon. There can be no conclusiveness in an
argument that assumes a fixed appropriation of titles
when no such appropriation had taken place.

What is highly important to observe, is this, that
the liquid or convertible state in which we find the
designations of office in the New Testament, indi-
cates clearly the yet undefined condition of the func-
tions to which such titles are, in that promiscuous
manner, applied. It is true, in relation to civil, as
well as to sacred dignities, or public duties, that the
interchangeable application of titles, affords a sure
guide to the circumstances of the community within
which it prevails. A steady and exactly defined
constitution of offices never fails to be quickly follow-
ed by a well marked usage, assigning certain desig-
nations to certain functionaries ; to disturb which
becomes an affront to dignities, and is instantly re-
sented. Not even the most heedless writers, in any
age, fail to pay respect to such verbal demarcations
of honour. The name of office is known to be an
important preservative of the prerogatives of office ;
and when once such prerogatives have come to be

130 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

settled and distinctly ascertained, the several nanfies
that mark the gradations of rank cease to be con-
vertible. On this rule we conclude, with some de-
gree of assurance, that, during the apostolic age,
forms of government and the distribution of public
services, were still open to many variations and ano-
malies. No writer of the age of Cyprian uses the
words bishop, presbyter, and deacon, so indetermin-
ately or so abstractedly as do the apostles.

From these premises we draw an inference decisive
against all high and exclusive pretensions, on which
side soever they may be advanced ; and against ar-
rogance and dogmatism, whatever model of polity it
may profess to maintain. Nevertheless, it may be
true that the concurrent testimony of Christian anti-
quity preponderates largely on the side of a certain
system ; and moreover, that this same system proves
itself, if we might so term it, to be the spontaneous
form of external Christianity, whenever the natural
course of things (during a prosperous condition of the
Church) is not interfered with by special opinions or
prejudices.

We have said that a certain model of church go-
vernment presents itself as the spontaneous form of
external Christianity, where Christianity flourishes,
and spreads ; and we trace the development of na-
tural and universal causes in the following man-
ner : —

Christianity is in an enfeebled or a corrupted state,
or it must be labouring under extraordinary external
difficulties, in every case, where it fails to diffuse it-
self on all sides from the centre where it may first be
planted. Wherever it does not so spread, inquiry
ought to be made for the cause of obstruction ; and
doubtless it may be discovered. The Gospel, in the
hands of its first promulgators, did so spread ; and it
may fairly be assumed, that the miraculous powers

RUDIMENTS OP CHURCH POLITY. 131

at the command of the apostles and their colleagues,
did not much more than counterbalance the external
opposition it had to encounter. In all the large cities
of the Roman world tlie converts to Christianity
were numerous, and in some amounted to several
thousand persons ; and even in smaller cities and
towns they were more than could assemble in any
one synagogue, or chamber of a private house. In
all such cities or towns there were therefore several
congregations, statedly assembhng for public worship
in such places as convenience might dictate.

This question then presents itself, and must needs
be determined — What was the rule and principle of
the relationship subsisting among these congrega-
tions, and what the system of organization, if any,
which combined the clergy officiating in these assem-
bhes ? This question, or these two questions, are in
no way to be evaded ; and the determination of them
carries, substantially, the question of ecclesiastical
polity. The spirit and precepts of the Gospel de-
mand, and its diffusion and maintenance as an ex-
ternal constitution 'require, that all Christians within
the walls of a city, or within the circuit of a district,
should recognise each other, as such, and should co-
operate to promote their common welfare. They are

I in fact related by juxta-position ; it is impossible that
they should be ignorant of each other's existence, as
Christians : they are therefore bound to maintain
fellowship ; or if they neglect to do so, nothing can
preserve them from running into rivalry and faction.
Unless molten into one mass, and unless commingled
in every possible manner, by interchange of offices,
the strong natural tendency to jealousy and division

I among separate corporations, will quickly and cer-
tainly come into play, to the infinite damage of all,
and the dishonour of religion.

The span of a roof, or the number of sittings be-

132 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

tween one wall of a chapel and its opposite, are acci-
dental :)nd inconsiderable circumstances, altogether
unworthy to be taken any account of when we are
estimating the force and compass of those motives
which should give life to Christian association. No
- rule can be more whimsical or arbitrary, and none
much more injurious or illiberal, than that which
measures a Church by the size of a chamber or a
chapel. The energy and expansivenesscf Christian
love disdains and resents any such mathematical re-
striction. A Church is the organized Christianity of
a certain circle or district, within which actual com-
bination and intercourse may take place. The tem-
per and the usages generated by Congregationalism
have greatly obscured the glory of the Gospel, as a
principle of extensive fellowship.

Whatever may be the advantages, or the enjoy-
ments, or the duties that attach to religious combina-
tion as subsisting within the walls of a chapel, attach
also to religious combination, such as it may subsist
within the walls of a city ; and again, within the
boundaries of a province. On the other hand, what-
ever evils accrue from the admission of partial inter-
ests and factions within a single society, accrue also,
and even in a more fatal degree, from the rivalry
and insulation of neighbouring societies. Moreover,
as incidental acquaintance and casual friendship is
not church communion among individuals ; so nei-
ther does the unorganized and ungoverned corres-
pondence of neighbouring societies satisfy the condi-
tions, or secure the advantages of church order.
The principle, both of love and of order, which ap-
plies to three hundred Christians, applies, by the
same reason, and with the same force, to three thou-
sand, or to thirty thousand Christians.

Christianity tends always to, and demands, social
organization. Where there is no organization there

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. 133

is no Christianity ; where organization is imperfect
or casual, there Christianity is feeble or factious ; and
if there be good reason for securing a7iy order, or for
instituting any government, on rehgiouc grounds,
there is the same reason ibr effecting the most per-
fect order, and for establishing the most finished
system of goverment possible. Dangers, it i& true,
attend all systems of combination ; but still greater
dangers attach to the want of combination. Evils
are not averted, but only exchanged, by foregoing
the benefits of an extensive economy, or polity.
Christianity is not merely love and peace, but a bond
of love and peace. To profess the love, and to reject
the bond, is deemed, in all cases, a subterfuge.
There are those who say, " May we not have the
affection and the sanctity of marriage without the
knot ?" No such license is permitted in any well
ordered community. Whoever refuses to be bound
to a good and virtuous condition, harbours contempt
of the principle which sanctions the obligation.

We assume then that Christians, near to each
other, are not to constitute many Churches, but one
Church — let the chapels in which they happen to
assemble be five, or five hundred. As a matter of
history, no question can be raised respecting the com-
bination of Christians in cities and districts, during
the primitive ages. We hear little or nothing of the
unimportant circumstance of the particular buildings
or chambers in which congregations met ; but we
know, beyond doubt, that, until^the seamless vesture
of Christ was rent by angry spirits, the brethren of
1 of every city, and its suburbs, formed one communion,
; and ate of one loaf, and were led and ruled by one
staff. There was one centre and one circumference ;
or rather, one fold and one shepherd. Our modern
chapel-economy, which makes each congregation a
church, with its bishop, assuredly was not known at
Jerusalem, at Caesarea, at Antioch, at Carthage, at

12

134 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

Alexandria. There were indeed the Churches of
Galatia ; and there was a Church in a house, where
that house could contain all the faithful of the vici-
nity ; but not so where converts were reckoned by
thousands or myriads. Congregationalism, in the
modern sense of the term, had place wherever Chris-
tianity was hemmed in, or wherever it had become
inert ; but not where the word of the Lord " ran
and was glorified ;" or where '' believers were added
to the Church daily — multitudes, both of men and
women."

But how did the primitive combination of Chris-
tians, within cities and districts, affect the relation-
ship and internal organization of the clergy ? or how
must such a combination, necessary and proper as it
is, affect churcii government in any age? The
clerg}^ are, by such combinations, brought into society
as a body, and nothing can then avert (nor should
we wish it to be averted) the establishment of some
species of hierarchical subordination. An incidental.
And yet highly important consequence of this muni-
cipal organization, in the ancient Church, was the
interchange of the services of teachers among the
congregations of a diocese. It was not imagined that
the talents and accomplishments of a single mind,
even of the most gifted, could supply sufficient move-
ment and instruction to the same people, week after
week, and year after year. Our modern usages, in
this behalf, involve a very serious practical error.
To leave a congregation submerged in the stagnant
pool of a single mind, for half a century, can never
consist with its progress in knowledge, or with its
vitality. Nothing perhaps has more benumbed Chris-
tianity, or prevented its extension.

Again ; this same municipal association of the
people and clergy, effectively cut off the dependence
of the clergy, individually, upon the leaders of single
congregations. The church fund did indeed accrue

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. 135

from voluntary contributions ; but it arose from a
broad surface ; and it reached indirectly those who
received it. The people had no opportunity given
tbem to modify doctrine, to soften morality, or to
avert discipline, by the tacit efficacy of their power as
the paymasters of their teachers.

Once more ; the same economy broke up, in great
degree, that too natural tendency of things, which
places the clergy of a vicinity in opposition, the one
to the other, as chiefs of companies, and as rival can-
didates for popular favour. Wholly to preclude this
most unhappy tendency is indeed impracticable on
any scheme ; yet we should certainly avoid a system
which, in a direct and powerful manner, stimulates
personal ambition. Neighbouring congregations,
founded on the congregational principle, hardly avoid
grudges and disagreements, transmitted often from
one generation to another, like the feuds of Arabian
hordes. Then again, the spirit of this system, irri-
tated by a false jealousy on the subject of the rights
of conscience, impels division and separation, often
on trivial grounds. Dislikes or predilections, per-
gonal bickerings, and family discords, lead to out-
bursts of independency ; and thus a sect propagates
itself, not always by natural growth or offset, like a
tree ; but by bisection or rending, like certain orders
of the animal kingdom.

Congregationalism, a modern scheme altogether,
sprung, as a reaction, from arrogant prelacy, and
the despotism of national churches. It was the in-
evitable product of evil times — the child of oppres-
sion, and the nurseling of persecution. But, desti-
tute as it is of permanent reasons, and unsupported
by ancient autliority, and incompatible, as it must
always be, with the just and necessary influence of
the ministers of religion, it will give way when the
accidental causes to which it owes its origin are re-
i moved. Deprived of the invigorating disadvantages

136 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

of political depression, Congregationalism will slide
into some form of comprehensive polity. When the
mass ceases to be agitated, crytallization will com-
mence. That this system should prevail, and be in
favour, where democratic sentiments and tastes are"
rife, can be no matter of surprise ; but the fact of its
prevalence, under such circumstances, surely must
not be urged abstractedly, in its recommendation, or
as a presumption that it is apostolic.

The historical evidence to the contrary is so
abundant and conclusive, that no advocate is now
likely to take up the argument on the ground of
ancient practice. On any other ground of expedi-
ency, let it be defended, and adhered to by whoever
is so minded.

Excluding then the arbitrary theory which in-
sulates each congregation, and makes it a church ;
and assuming that the communion and organization
of neighbouring congregations necessarily involves
some species of hierarchical combination, we have to
make a choice between those two schemes which
(small distinctions overlooked) embody the only
general principles we can well have recourse to, that
is to say, presbyterianism and episcopacy.

To decide between the two on the ground of the
ancient usage of the Church, might seem an easy
thing to those who are conversant with the Christian
literature of the first three centuries. The broad con-
current evidence which favours the episcopal form of
government may indeed (like every other kind of
evidence on every sort of subject) be excepted against
in particulars, or be evaded, or rendered seemingly
ambiguous, by cross circumstances. But still, those
who read church history purely as history, and
who care little what present interest it may favour,,
will not, we imagine, hesitate to conclude that, nin<
out of ten of the churches of the first century were
episcopal ; or that nineteen out of twenty of those of

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. 137

ihe second century, and almost all of the third, ac-
knowledged this form of government. The ortho-
doxy of the great mass of Christians in those ages,
and their episcopacy, are two prominent facts, that
meet us, directly or implicitly, on almost every page
of the ext,int remains of those times. The same
method of quotation, and the same misrepresentation
of evidence, which enabled the ingenious author of
the "History of Early Opinions" to throw a shade
over the first of these important facts, may enable an
opponent of episcopacy to put us in doubt concerning
the second. But no method sanctioned by truth and
honesty will do it.

On the other hand, if a choice v/ere to be made
between two actual forms of presbyterianism and
of episcopacy, whereof the first admits the laity to a
just and apostolic place in the management and ad-
ministration of the Church, while the second abso-
lutely rejects all such influence, and at the same re-
tains, for its bishops, the baronial dignities, and the
secular splendour, usurped by the insolent hierarchs
of the middle ages ; then indeed the balance would
be one of a difficult sort ; and unless there were room
to hope for a correction and reform of political pre-
lacy, an honest and modest Christian mind would take
refuge in the substantial benefits of presbyterianism.

The two systems may however veiy properly be
put in comparison on abstract ground ; and then the
condition of the two schemes will appear to be very
nearly the same as those which belong, in questions
of civil government, to the monarchical principle, as
compared with any of those oligarchical or republi-
can constitutions that are resorted to as safeguards
against despotism.

Monarchy and episcopacy may be considered as
the forms into which the social system will spon<
taneously subside : republicanism (in any of its
modes) and presbyterianism, are those forms in which

13*

138 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

we stop short, when we do not think it safe to com-
mit ourselves to the former. The latter is a caution-
ary proceeding, in which certain acknowledged ad-
vantages are foregone, on account of the dangers
that attend the enjoyment of them. But could we
find the means of averting those perils, we should
then no longer scruple to embrace the benefits of the
more natural and efficient method. A hmited mon-
archy, and a well counterpoised episcopacy, would
probably engage the suffrages of the majority of
mankind, rather than any modification of the aris-
tocratic, oligarchic, republican, or presbyterian prin-
ciple.

Could the highest wisdom and virtue be found in
individuals, even absolute monarchy might well be
preferred to any of the operose systems that come in
its room. The sternest republican might grant that
monarchy is the ideal of perfection in government ; —
assuming only the competency and the disinterested-
ness of him who is to wield the sceptre. We refrain
from this simple and efficient mode, only because we
can no where find the man to whom so much power
might be confided. Or, if we could find one such
man, we could not hope to secure him a successor.
The cumbrous machiner}'^ of senates, councils, minis-
ters, conventions, representatives, is all so much pre-
caution— not abstractedly good, yet indispensable on
account of the imperfect virtue and the imperfect
wisdom of men, singly.

Those general motives which would lead to a pre-
ference of monarchy, do indeed hardly come into play
where the interests in view are of a very simple kind.
Commercial projects and pecuniary advantages may
be well enough managed by a committee ; but it is
not so where energy, promptitude, and secrecy are
peculiarly demanded ; and still less so, where high,
sentiments are involved. In these instances, mon-
archical government is not to be renounced without

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. 139

incurring some serious, or perhaps fatal disparage-
ment. We may tiiink ourselves safe from despotism
in the hands of a committee ; but we aie safe to no
purpose. An army is confided to the head and hand
of a single captain, not merely that its movements
may have the celerity and the consistency of purpose
which spring from a single mind ; but because the
feeling and the soul that are to propel the mighty
mass, demand a centre, in the person of the chief,
and would never, in an equal degree, converge upon
a council of war, or a directory.

So long as a nation's welfare is held to turn upon
nothing but its sheer arithmetical interests, a com-
mittee, or a senate, may properly have the charge of
them. But if regard is had to those higher and more
impulsive principles of national greatness which are
in no way to be reduced to mathematical computa-
tion, then it is found, and especially so in extensive
empires, that monarchy, with its attendant splen-
dours— monarchy, vivified by the free exercise of large
prerogatives, and reared on the shoulders of an illus-
trious nobility — monarchy, not born yesterday, and
the creature of the populace, but the child of time,
and the favourite of history — such a monarchy forms
a centre of feeling, and imparts movement to senti-
ments of the highest importance, and which have
little play within the dead machinery of a republic.

One class of sentiments being substituted for an-
other, and then the analogy will hold good in relation
to the Church. That system which places a living
centre as the personal object of reverence and love in
the room of a presbytery, or a convocation, secures
an advantage which, so long as human nature re-
mains what it is, ought to be esteemed of the highest
price. It is granted indeed that ecclesiastical busi-
ness may be managed efficiently, and economically,
and equitably, by a presbytery ; but it is affirmed, on
the strength of the known motives of our nature, that

140 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

such a management foregoes benefits of a refined
sortj which spring up around a patriarchal chair. —
Let all the abuses and corruptions belonging to the
history of proud prelacy in all ages be summed
up, and (hey will fail to invalidate the assertion that
a paternal sway vivifies the system over which it is
exercised in a manner not to be attained by the go-
vernment of a corporation. All we have to do is to
place the monarchical power under reasonable limi-
tations.

If sentiments of the higher sort are important in
things secular, they are vastly more so in things
spiritual. Christianity is not a system of palpable
interest, to which cold calculation is applicable ; but
a scheme of elevated emotions. Whatever calls forth
and gives play lo sentiment, is presumptively more
Christian-like than that which, with a dry caution,
merely guards against abuses. But we may go fur-
ther, and affirm, that Christianity, fully brought to
bear upon human nature, and allowed to draw into
its service all gifts, and talents, natural and divine,
will spontaneously tend to the episcopal model.

The current of popular opinion may indeed set
against this or that general principle ; and yet na-
ture (we should say the Divine Providence) goes on
in its course, notwithstanding the temporary infatua-
tions of mankind. Often have the purest enjoyments,
and the most solid advantages, been renounced by
the proud im. patience, or the sheer caprices of com-
munities— by absurd and vicious fashions, or sophis-
tical opinions. Popular distastes then, alTord no pre-
sumption whatever against the system which they
repugnate. Episcopacy may be abstractedly good,
althouii^h all the world were to scout it.

Now any number of religiously gifted persons
being taken promiscuously, we shall not fail to find
among them those marked inequalities of natural
power; and those decisive diversities of temper and

RUDIMENTS OF CHURCH POLITY. 141

accomplishment, which speak loudly (as loudly as
Nature ever speaks) in favour of a corresponding dis-
tribution of services, and gradation of employment
and dignities. To assign to all the same duties, and
to reduce all to the same level, is to affront reason
and nature in an egregious manner. The Church
needs services to be performed, not of one kind, but of
many ; and nature actually provides persons adapted
to that diversity of service. Among fifty or a hun-
dred clerical persons, some will be found whose bold
and ardent* zeal calls them into the field of labour
and danger in carrying the Gospel upon new ground ;
some, whose taste for intellectual pursuits, and whose
faculty of acquisition, mark them for the closet, or
for the chair of catechetical instruction : some, whose
powers of utterance and flow of soul challenge them
for the pulpit ; some, whose gentleness of spirit, and
whose placid skill, fit them for the difficult task of the
personal cure of souls ; some, whose philanthropy and
self-denying love forbid them to be happy any where
but among the poor and wretched ; and some, more-
over, although it be a few, whose calmness of judg-
ment and temper, whose comprehensiveness of un-
derstanding, whose paternal sentiments and personal
dignity, declare them, without mistake, to be destined
to the throne of government. We may decry epis-
copacy ; but the Lord sends us bishopi^, whether or
not we will avail ourselves of the boon.

The Church hasgreat need to use a muchmore wise
economy of the various talents committed to her trust
than any existing rehgious community exercises. On
all sides, there is a most wasteful neglect of diversified
abilities. Systems which, for the saving of some fond
hypothesis, confound all natural distinctions of temper
and power, and enforce an equality of rank, and an
identity of employment upon all oflScial persons, ob-
struct the common benefit, and hinder the progress
of the Gospel, in a degree not to be calculated. The

142 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

economy of poweiSj and the division of labour, is no
where more imperatively needed than within the
Church. The stagnant condition of Christianity in
countries where no external opposition has stood in
its way, may, in great measure, be attributed to this
same prodigal disregard of the dictates of nature and
common sense. To take a band of gifted persons —
gifted in as many different ways as there are persons,
and to compel each to be a bishop, and every thing
else, within his little sphere, is an inf>ituation not
matched in any other department of human affairs.-
The men of this world are indeed wiser than those
children of light who adhere to so marvellous a prac-
tical error.

A youth, for example, whose blooming talents
might, in a proper and subordinate sphere, be highly
serviceable to the Church, and who, after a long
training under his superiors, might rise to greater
things, is snatched from his academic themes, is
made teacher of what he has barely learned, and con-
stituted ruler of affairs he cannot grasp, is pronounced
bishop — and apostolic church order is deemed to have
been realized !

Whatever may be ambiguous in the Pauline
epistles, this surely is prominent, and unquestionable,
that the apostle— always remarkable for his prompt
geod sense, and his respect for the actual constitu-
tions of nature, recognises the diversity of gifts and
powers, and supposes that this diversity, which
springs from the Sovereign Wisdom, is to be turned
to the best account possible in promoting the great
and various purposes of the Gospel. We need ask for no
other argument in favour of episcopacy. Many have
the gifts requisite for the ordinary duties of a Christian
teacher; not a few may beneficially administer the
interests of a small circle ; but it is only a few — yet
there are such, who can sustain the burden of exten-

RUDIMENTS OP CHURCH POLITY. 143

sive government. The several parts of our argument
converge here upon our conclusion. —

If the Christians of a city or district are nume-
rous, and constitute many congregations, these con-
gregations must be combined under some fixed sys-
tem of organization.

An organization of many congregations includes
the association and co-operation of all clerical persons
within such a circle, or diocese.

The combination of clerical persons, their concord,
the distribution of services, and the apportionment to
the highest advantage of their various talents, de-
mands a centre of control, and an efficient adminis-
trative authority.

We may, it is true, stop short in a government by
a council, or committee, or presbytery. But we do
better in following the indication of nature, and the
analogy of civil affairs, and in placing the supreme
administrative power in the hands of a Father and
Shepherd.

Such, as we cannot doubt, was the practice of the
pimitive Churches.

SECTION V.

FIRST STEPS OF SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

After excepting the changes that distinguish the
later from the earlier Judaism (referred to in a pre-
ceding section) it may be affirmed, that Christianity
is the only religion known to history which has un-
dergone and survived extensive and essential altera-
tions. Other systems have had their season, and
then have been swept away, leaving hardly a wreck
behind. But the religion of the New Testament,
after passing, by insensible degrees, into a condition
which scarcely retained a point of resemblance to its
primitive state, has returned upon itself, and has re-
newed its youth like the phoenix.

Four inferences, and each of them important, may
properly be drawn from the fact of the corruption
and renovation of Christianity : the first is an infer-
ence confirmatory of its truth ; inasmuch as it is
truth only that is liable to corruption; and truth only
that possesses an intrinsic vigour, enabling it to re-
gain its pristine purity. The second of these infer-
ences is of a serious sort, and compels us to admit
that the religion of Christ, although true and divine,
has not been exempted, by the interposition of Hea-
ven, from the operation of common causes; but has
been left to be corroded, broken down, and adulterated,
in every way which the passions and folly of man-
kind have prompted. The third, leads us to attribute
the corruption of Christianity to its real causes — the
bad passions and errors of its adherents, which were
at work upon it from the first moment of its birth ;
and should preclude the mistake of fixing upon cer-

ITS FIRST STEPS. 145

tain special events, in the external history of the
Church, or upon the agency of individuals, as in any
high degree efficient in producing tliat corruption.
Our last inference should inspire every Christian mind
with a salutary fear, lest that which has happened
once, and which the great principles of the Divine
government did not prevent, should happen again.
No sympton, perliaps, would be more ominous of the
recurrence of a season of decay arid perversion, than
a prevailing confidence that it is impossible it should
take place, and that it is idle and absurd to suppose it
in any degree probable.

Christianity received upon itself, at length, the full
impression of the evil influences which it came in to
remedy ; — in a word, it became such as human na-
ture would have it. In this perverted condition we
find it at the end of five hundred years, if not earlier.
In attempting to trace the perversion backwards, from
its mature to its incipient state, we meet with no
marked stations, where we might stop short, and say
— at this point truth gave v/ay, and error took its
start. Nothing decisively arrests our progress ; and
it becomes inevitable to conclude, in the language of
Scripture itself, that the hidden mischief did " already
work," while yet the apostles were planting the Gos-
pel.

We hold it then quite impracticable to mark, with
any precision, the eras of the growth of superstition,
and its attendant despotism. In truth, the practice
of apportioning the revolutions of time into epochs,
is very delusive, and always proceeds upon the
ground of some hypothesis, for the elucidation and
establishment of which an arbitrary and artificial
form is imposed upon the course of events. Such
distributions are seldom, if ever, in a just sense philo-
sophical, and ought, if resorted to at all, to be ad-
vanced with due notice, as mere arrangements, made

13

146 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

for convenience' sake, in compiling history, and for
the ease of the reader's memory.

It is in this way only that we now propose to mark
out stages and eras in the history of spiritual des-
potism ; not as if its advances were in fact well de-
fined ; but because, without some sort of classifica-
tion, a subject so vast and various is not to be re-
viewed ; and certainly not to be spoken of in the
cursory manner which our present plan demands.

Our first broad era is that during which church
power was making its preparations, and consolida-
ting its means, and tending towards a position
whence the transition was easy to the acme of un-
bounded despotism. This period commences, it
must be admitted, in the apostolic age ; and may be
carried down, indefinitely, into the fifth century. A
greater error can hardly be fallen into than that of
fixing upon the date of the edict of Milan, as th€
initial point in the history of church power, as i
usurpations and corruptions (hen took their start; or
as if the story of sacerdotal ambition then opened ite
first chapter. Popularly speaking indeed, (he con
version of Constantine, and of (he imperial court
presents itself as an era in the history of the Church
and was no doubt an event of signal importance
Bu( when we look intimately at the state and pro
gress of sentiments, and the condition of the severa
orders within the Church, it is found that the effil
cient causes of the perversion that was going o
were very slightly affected by the political chan
that had happened ; nor can we perceive that th
advance of any corruption was, in consequence, se
sibly accelerated.

The second epoch is that which is characteriz
by the critical oscillation of spiritual power in cou
terpoise with the civil authority ; — the Church, awa
ing to a consciousness of irs strength, yet feeling i
need of support, and alternately crying forsuccou

ITS FIRST STEPS. 147

accepting favours, and making trial of its indepen-
dent power to resist or to subjugate the secular
authority. On the other hand the emperors, em-
barrassed by their fruitless endeavours to compose
the feuds of the Church, and baffled in their attempts
to bring the new and mysterious power into har-
mony with the movements of government, pursued a
devious course, undeterminded by any fixed princi-
ples, and therefore tending, by its very ambiguity, to
favour the steady advances of the Church. This
period may be assigned its termination when the
breaking up of the western empire left the Roman
hierarchy to entrench and extend itself at leisure over
the wide field of desolation.

The third period, commencing with the acknow-
ledged supremacy (or at least independent rights) of
the Church, reaches through a track of seven hun-
dred years, and might well be designated the dog
days of spiritual despotism. The scorching heat
was at its height in the eleventh century.

The fourth period embraces the time through the
course of which a reaction was taking place within
the social system, ending in the expulsion of the old
despotism from several of the European nations, its
mitigation in others, and in the substitution of that
mixed spiritual and political tyranny, which has, at
length, given way before the advance of just and
liberal opinions on the subject of religious liberty.

After taking a hasty view of these several eras, it
will remain to notice certain refined modern forms of
religious intolerance ; and also to make good the
allegation. That the proper and salutary influence of
the ministers of religion is at present labouring under
serious disadvantages, and requires to be restored to
a fiirm foundation, and to be raised to a higher
stage.

A century occupies a small space in a chart of

148 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

three thousand 3^ears ; but it is a long period in re-
lation to human affairs. A century completely sub-
stitutes one set of men for another ; and it may wit-
ness, if not a total change of manners and usages,
yet an opposite direction given to the current of opi-
nion, and a new character imparted[to the sentiments
of mankind. The century commencing with the
death of the apostle John, and ending with that of
Ir^nseus, included great changes in the condition,
temper, and usages of the Christian community. —
These changes we find to have actually taken place ;
but we are destitute of the means of clearly tracing
them to their causes, and of following them in their pro-
gress. It is here that the church historian is at fault;
it is here that we have to regret the loss, or want, of
materials which, did they exist, would probably fur-
nish more practical instruction than is presented in
the history of the five centuries following. It is easy
to understand the march of evils when once in full
course; the mystery is in their rise.

After this first century, the history of the Church *'|
is not obscure ; and it is almost indifferent what date
we fix upon, between the acession of Trajan and the
death of Diocletian, as a point of view, whence to
contemplate the general condition of the Church. —
In truth, if a much later time were included, we
should not find it distinguished from the earlier era by
any such decisive characteristics as might be supposed.

In reviewing this first period, we must have re-
course to the aid of some classification of topics, and
consider — 1st. The relative position of clergy and
laity: 2d. The relative position of the several orders
of the clerical body : 3d. The relation between the
Church and her internal opponents ; or heretics and
schismatics of every name : and 4thly. The relation
between the Church and the world — that is to say,
the mass of mankind, and the civil power speci-
fically.

ITS FIRST STEPS 149

First, then, for the relation which appears to have
subsisted within the Church, between the ministers
of rehgion and the people at large, or, as we say, clergy
and laity.

At a first glance it might seem as if popular influ-
ence had been extended and confirmed rather than
diminished in the interval between the apostolic age
and that (for instance) of Cyprian, inasmuch as the
voice of the people in the election of their bishops and
presbyters was then admitted in a way of which we
hear nothing in the canonical records. But this ad-
vantage was not substantial ; or was more than
balanced in other modes. We do not insist upon
those reasons which may lead us to think that the
popular suffrage had been commonly reduced to a
mere matter of form, or that, like the power of the
mob in our modern elections, it had no existence except
during a few tumultuous days, and was merely the
hurricane of an hour. Be this as it may, it is clear
that religious opinions had undergone an insensible,
though important change, and such as threw into the
hands of the clergy a power not thought of by the
simple minded apostles, or their immediate coadjutors
and successors.

The political usages of a community are of far less
significance than the notions that pervade it ; now
if the usages of Church, in the third century, had
become more democratic, its sentiments and opinions
favoured spiritual tyranny in an immensely greater
proportion. Those great and consolatory truths on
which all stress was laid by Paul, John, Peter, and
James — ^truths of rational import, and of elevating
influence, though not denied or forgotten, had sunk
into a secondary place in favour of notions which
attributed unutterable value, and a mysterious efficacy
to the Christian ceremonies. Here we trace the first
footmarks of clerical encroachment. The adminis-

13*

150 Spiritual despotism.

tration of the sacraments was the inviolable prero
gative of priests ; and these symbols, rather than the
great principles they held forth, were insisted upon
as of vital energy: it was upon touching, tasting,
handling, the material elements, or upon being duly
touched and handled by the dispensers of the " mys-
teries," tfiat eternal life depended. Not to be washed
in the laver of regeneration, not to eat of the divine
flesh, not to drink the blood, not to be anointed with
the oil of remission, was to perish everlastingly. —
Salvation and perdition turned, not upon the condi-
tion of the heart in God's sight ; but upon having
a share of the consecrated fluid or solid matter which
the priest might bestow, or might refuse.

That transition of sentiment, or of doctrine, which
obscured the great and rational truths of the Gospel,
and which magnified the mere symbols of those
truths, we have no satisfactory means of following ;
but the result, after a little while, is most conspicuous,
and its effect operated, all in one direction, to enslave
the spirits of the people and to place the clergy in a
position where every thing was at their command. —
The maturing of spiritual despotism wants little more
of means and instruments, than it finds in this sub-
stitution of superstition and ceremony for vital truth,
which had taken place while yet the Church was
bleeding under the hand of imperial persecutors.

Having many other points in view, our limits for-
bid our prosecuting, what indeed would be an in-
structive inquiry, concerning the rise and advance of
these superstitions ; but it is proper here, in the most
distinct manner, to point them out as the sufficient
springs of that extensive despotism which at length
fastened itself upon the western nations. If there are
those who allow themselves to believe that the politi-
cal triumph of Christianity in the fourth century, and
the alliance between Church and State, then effected,
were the causes, and the initial means of the papal

ITS FIRST STEPS. 151

usurpations, iet them do themselves the justice of
looking into the writers of the third century, among
whom they will find the most abundant evidence of
that corruption of sentiment which, wherever it pre-
vails, plants the foot of the priest upon the neck of the
people. We must in charity impute extreme ignorance
to those who have professed to think that the political
establishment of Christianity was the cause of its
corruption.

In examining the w^riters of the succeeding age,
and at a time when the ministers of the Gospel sat
in tlie high places of worldly power, we meet with
the same superstitions, and in that gradually matu-
ring state which might be expected. But there are
few, if any indications of a ripening or expansion of
them, hastened by the altered external circumstances
of the Church. For aught that appears, Ambrose of
Milan, Cyril of Jerusalem, and Martin of Tours,
would have magnified the superstitions of their
limes with as nuich zeal and success if the emperors
had continued pagans, as they did while court favour
shone upon their heads.

So long as the great duty of Christian ministers
was to teach and enforce principles of belief,
which all are alike to enjoy and to imbibe, and
which, when once received, are (at least so far as the
teacher is concerned) an unalienable possession, these
teachers stand upon a ground e( reasonable equality
with the people. But the relative position of the two
parties is at once, and essentially changed, when the
priest pretends to have something, and something
mysterious, to bestow, from day to day, as well as
something to teach ; and when he may, at discretion,
bestow or withhold the inestimable and indispensable
boon. Tfiis essential change of position we find to
have taken place long before Constantine comes upon
the stage. Spiritual despotism had already laid the
broad foundation of its power when the blood of Cy-

152 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

prian stained the sands without the walls of Car-
thage.

Every superstition, as well as that relating to the
sacraments, liad the same tendency to throw into the
hands of the clergy a power which continually
widened the interval between the people and their
ministers ; and in observing the rapid growth of some
of these errors, it is hard to resist the belief that they
were wittingl}^ promoted, and craftily sustained, by
the clergy, with an express view to the enlargement
and consolidation of their influence. The natural
growth of superstition is like ivy on the wall ; but
the superstitions of the early Church ran like the
gourd upon the ground, and we must needs suppose
that their spread was hastened by artificial means.

Of this sort were — the oblations for the dead —
the festivals of the martyrs — the doctrine (and the
practices consequent upon it) concerning demoniacal
possession, and the principles and spirit of asceticism,
each of which, as might easily be shown, secured for
the priest, in one manner or another, a discretionary
power, and a cringing reverence, altogether unlike
any thing claimed by apostolic pastors. All this
while every thing, within the Church, was purely
spontaneous : the ministers of religion were doing
nothing but what the ministers of the most obscure and
independent sect might do. The tendencies of human
nature were taking their own course.

And yet no scheme of encroachment advances far
without meeting with some cross influence, or unman-
ageable force, that disturbs its measures. So it was
in the early Church. The clergy, by flattering the
spiritual vanity of the ascetics, and by exaggerating,
in the most fulsome terms, the merit of celibacy and
maceration of the flesh, had brought over to their side,
pretty generally, the monkish bands; and these^ non-
sacerdotal as they were, rendered the most important
aid to the clergy, in relation to the people, by impo-

ITS FIRST STEPS. 153

sing upon the latter a humiliating sense of tlieir own
spiritual inferiority, as implicated in the defilements
of common life. So far all went well.

But by a mere accident of the times, there sprung
up another non-sacerdotal class, which was not to be
brought into subserviency to the clergy, and which,
in fact, proved itself refractory to an extent that con-
vulsed the whole fabric of the Church. This class
consisted of the Confessors, or those who, in the re-
current seasons of persecution, had manfully sus-
tained, and had survived, tortures : and who, on the
ground of the incalculable merit they had won as
the Lord's triumphant champions, assumed to them-
selves an irregular and unlimited privilege of contra-
vening the established discipline of the Church, of re-
versing sentences of excommunication, and especially
of restoring to communion those who, under the
same fiery trial, had faUen and renounced the faith.
The authority of the most highly esteemed, the most
politic, and the most powerful prelates, and this au-
thority stretched to the utmost, was, in many instan-
ces, defied and overthrown by the insolence of these
spiritual Athletee. The ascetics were, ordinarily,
men of a sluggish or timid temper, and yielded readi-
ly to the hand of power ; not so the confessors ; for
the very resolution of spirit, and the physical hardi-
hood, and immobility of nerve, which, often, had
enabled them to conquer in the hour of pain, rendered
them afterwards equally sturdy and invincible in as-
serting and maintaining the pernicious influence they
had gained.

Whenever persecution broke out anew, a fresh
band of confessors started up to trouble and beard the
clergy. No provision could be made against these
invasions ; no means taken to avert the mischief they
effected. Nor were these mischiefs temporary ; for
the controversies on the principles and practices of
disciphne which thenc<e aroscj gave birth to schism

154 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

after schism ; and occasioned most of those internal
disorders tliat distracted the western Church through
several centuries.

Clerical power was, we say. at first, obstructed and
thwarted by these means ; and yet the remote conse-
quence was to enhance it. Nothing more eftectually
promoted, after a while, the encioaciiments of the
hierarchy in the west, than the resistance it had had
to encounter from the confessors, and their adherents.
The bishops, feeling on these occasions that they
still wanted much more power than they possessed,
for the purpose of carrying their measures, and of
overruling opposition, set themselves deliberately to
the work — a work which the holders of power easily
persuade tliemselves is a holy and beneficial one, of
consoHdating their authority in every possible mode.
The rapid advances of spiritual despotism we might
date from w hat is termed the seventh persecution, and
the episcopate of Cpyrian.

We should not fiiil to mention the very important
influence which the custom of holding provincial and
general councils had in affecting the relative positioQ
of the clergy and laity. To this subject we must
revert when speaking of the relative dignity of the
several orders of the clergy 5 but the first and most
marked result of the practice of transferring every
considerable controversy, \vhether doctrinal or eccle-
siastical, from the Church where it originated, to a con-
vention of bishops, was, of course, at once to cut off
the people from all control over such discussions, and
virtually to deny them the right of entertaining a free
opinion on the subject of debate. The holding of a
council, or the establishment of a representative sys-
tem, must not be reproved as in itself improper or in-
expedient ; but the spirit and practice of apostolic
Christianity imperatively demanded, in such cases,
that the laity, by their own representatives — that is,
by some of themselves, and in a due proportion of

ITS FIRST STEPS. 165

numbers, should have been called to attend the con-
vention ; and when there, should have been allowed
to exercise some efficient powers. The sending of
the bishop alone, or the bishop and some few of his
clergy, to represent the Church in the council, and
thence to bring home canons and decrees, not to be
discussed, but obeyed, was an innovation and a usur-
pation, fatal as well to the liberties oflhe people, as to
the purify and spirituality of religion. The laity, if
not often qualified, by theological accomplishments,
for taking an active part in debate, are at least quali-
fied for swayinj^ decisions after hearing of arguments,
by that vigorous and untainted good sense, and by
that fervent and simple piet})^, in both which the clergy
are too often lamentably deficient.

If there had been no other cause at work to give
rise to spiritual despotism, this alone would have been
enough : we must assign the commencement of its
operation to as early a time as the middle of the second
century. There can be no security, no liberty, and
scarcely any purity or vitality, in a Church which
t fjays to the laity, in mass, — " You have nothing to do
with theology, but to receive what we teach you ;
and nothing to do with rules of discipHne, or laws of
administration, but to yield them obedience." Under
any such state of things we find the very essence of
spiritual despotism ; whether or not it be fully ex-
panded.

It was only the natural consequence of the several
I causes we have mentioned, that the dignity and pre-
r rogatives of the clerical character should, at the same
time, have been exalted and affirmed in turgid lan-
guage. Nevertheless these exaggerations, and the
measures that attended them, were preparatives only
to that matured state of things which gave to the
J sacerdotal order, at length, an absolute and undefined
I power over the mass of the people. VViiat concerns
i us to observe is not so much the actual progress made

156 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

in the early time of which we are speaking, toward
spiritual despotism, as the fact — unquestionable as it
isj that the preparation was really commenced, and
was carried to a great length, long before the Christian
community, within the Roman Empire, had received
any kind of favour or support, beyond a transient and
precarious indulgence from the State, and before the
chiefs of the Church could have entertained a hope
of the revolution that was at length to occur.

We have next to notice the changes which, during,
the same early period, gradually took place in the
relative position^ dignities, and prerogatives, of the
several orders of the clerical body.

It is easy to mistake the accidental form of a tyran-
nical system, for the substance and principle of it. —
This error has very commonly been fallen into by
those who have reviewed the history of the early
church. True indeed it is, that hierarchical en-
croachments were pushed on by the immediate
agency, and at the impulse of the episcopal order : but
episcopacy was the form only, not the essence of the
spiritual despotism of the times. Oligarchies and
aristocracies have been, to the full, as oppressive as
monarchies. Yet it may be granted that despotism
leans towards the monarchical form, and that under
this form, though not always so, its advances are
likely to be more steady and consistent than under
any other.

The spiritual despotism which had reached a
height in the fourth century was indeed episcopal in
its model ; but it is an illusion to suppose, either that
episcopacy was its cause or reason, or that it would
not have found place, if some other scheme of church
government had prevailed. Episcopacy did prevail,
not because it was selected as more conducive than
any other system to the consolidation of church
power ; but because it had come down, with the

ITS FIRST STEPiS. 157

authority of universal tradition, as the ancient, if not
apostolic constitution of the Church,

No one conversant with the remains of Christian
literature can think of affirming that the clergy, in
tliat age, when it had lost its simplicity and become
ambitious, deliberately formed itself upon the episco-
pal model, with a view to the more effectual and
speedy attainment of its ends. Fix as early a date
as we can, with any reason, for the commencement
of such a machination, and we still find the Churches
every where episcopally governed. Let us imagine
that a stern conviciioii of the divine authority of the

I presbyterian form, and of the absolute equality of
teachers and ruler?, had prevailed among the clergy ;

I or let us suppose that the temper of the times had

' favoured this system, and had excluded any other ;
can we believe that, other things being the same,
and the laity, in the one case as well as the other,
being excluded from conclaves and councils, the
presbyteries of Carthage, of Rome, or of Milan,

I would have shown themselves less arrogant, and less
eager to accumulate honors and vv^enlth, than were
the actual bishops of those sees? We are much
inclined to think the very reverse, and can easily
imagine that, whereas the episcopal authority, in
those places, was mitigated often by the personal
mildness of individual bishops, and so the advance
of usurpations was retarded ; on the contrary, a per-

; petual corporation would have known no iiUermis-
eions of ambitious encroachment, and would, with a
remorseless intensity, have followed up every step, by
a step still more bold.

Ecclesiastical writers, and even those personally
attached to episcopacy, liave. with a view as it seems
to approve their impartiality, been forward to repre-

< sent and to denounce the pride and the secularity of
the bishops of the third and fourth centuries. This

I might be well ; but the exposure of these evils should

14

158 SPIltlTUAL CESi^OTfSM.

surely have been accompanied by the distinction W
which we have adverted ; and soj while bishops were
blamed, episcopacy should have been cleared.

Furtliermore, it is quite necessary, for the purpose
of ridding the argument of all that dofes not belong"
to it, to set off from our account of the hierarchical
changes that took place, such of them, or such of
their attendant circumstances, as followed in the
INEVITABLE COURSE of things, aud which were by
no means in themselves culpable, whatever might be
the consequences that in the end flowed from them.
For example : although it does not certainly appear
that the actual number of offices' distinguished by
specific terms, was much greater at the commence-
ment of the fourth century, than it had been at the
close of the first ; nevertheless these various offices
had, in the lapse of time, naturally settled down into
a permanent form, so that services which, at the
earlier period, had been interchangeably performed,
or at least had not been rigorously assigned to indi-
viduals, had, at the later period, come under a regular
and carefully defined system of distribution ; and had
drawn to themselves severally their specific import-
ance, and their relative dignity. Nothing could have
prevented this sort of systemizing of functions : it
results from the very nature of tilings, and must in
all cases attend the handing down of a social econo-
my from one age to another.

The change therefore from an unfixed to a fixed
constitution of offices and ranks, although its ten-
dency was to favour the advance of the growing
despotism, is in itself no proper object of blame ; and
in any parallel case, instead of indulging a morbid
and fruitless jealousy against the consolidated and
various offices of a hierarchy, the wiser course would
be to bestow our pains upon the proper means of
counteracting, or of balancing the despotic principle
that may be so embodied. It is not five order?, or

ITS FIRST STEPS. 169

4wenty, that makes a Church despotic ; but rather
nhe distribution among those orders, whether few or
many, of irresponsible and uncorrected powers.

Again, the government of the Church being epis-
copal, whether by apostoHc authority or not, nothing
else could happen, under the actual ciicumstances of
the infant and struggling sect, but that powers of all
kinds should gather round each episcopal chair ;
and especially round those in the great cities. Ea-
gerly was the bishop appealed to as arbiter among
the brethren in adjusting their secular differences ;
gladly was he made the depositary of family secrets,
and the guardian of orphans. None so proper as he
to be the treasurer of public funds, and to his hands
was often intrusted private property, in unsettled
times.

Our own circumstances, surrounded as we are by
every sort of legal provision, and public security,
hardly admit of our properly allowing for that un-
avoidable course of affairs which, in the ancient
Church, threw at the feet of bishops much more in-
fluence and wealth than consisted, generally, with
the simplicity, humility, and sanctity becoming their
office. These dignitaries were, in a sense, the victims
of the existing condition of the Christian communi-
ty ; and in fact we find not a few of this order la-
menting the secular embarrassments by which they
were oppressed, and sighing, though in vain, for
liberty to devote themselves, without distraction, to
their spiritual functions. In other instances men,
eminently quahfied by learning and piety for the
government of the Church, earnestly and even pas-
sionately resisted the wishes of the people to raise
them to that dignity, and pronounced the nolo epis-
copari in a tone that could not be thought insincere.
It is extremely inequitable and uncandid to incul-
pate the bishops of the ancient Church, without dis-
crimination, on the ground of that accumulalipn gf

160 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

secular and spiritual influence, and that influx of
wealth, which none of thein could have prevented,
even if so inclined, and which many of them heartily
deplored.

These distinctions and exceptions duly admitted,
it yet remains certain, that the gradual influx of
power and wealth upon a few ecclesiastical centres,
nd the consequent acceleration of the natural growth
of authority, did in fact raise the metropolitans and
patriarchs of the Christian world to r.n elevation not
compatible, human nature being such as it is, with
the meekness and humihty of the Christian temper.
Man has not virtue enough to resist incitements sa
many and so efficacious. The best will probably
become at length insolent, sensual, avaricious, in-
tolerant. Nothing could happen but that corruption
and profligacy, impudent hypocrisy, and knavery,
should spread through the clerical order, when its
chiefs occupied a station beset by every sort of se-
duction.

The wealth and power attached to the principal
gees thoroughly vitiated the Christianity of the times,
fvrst, by widening so far the interval between the
dignitaries of the Church and the mass of the people as
to intercept all reciprocity of feeling between the shep-
herd and the flock ; and secondl}', by so widening the
interval between one order of clerical persons and
another, as imposed upon the lower a servile feeling,
and imparted to them a cringing habit, and dissipa-
ted that sentiment of virtual equality, as brethren in
Christ, which is, in the most absolute sense, neces-
sary and proper among the ministers of the Gospel.
A hierarchy is indeed the bane of piety, and a curse
to a community, when its distinctions of rank are of
such vast compass as to vilify the humbler clerical
orders, and to compel them to shrink in conscious
meanness from before the splendours of ecclesiastical
dignity.

ITS FIRST STEPS. 161

Though it was neither the cause, nor itself the
substance of spiritual despotism, we must yet arraign
the exaggerated greatness of the episcopal order, and
especially of the metropolitans (compared with the
inferior clergy) as a principal accelerating means of
maturing the tyranny that was at length to cover
ihe western world.

The effect of the practice of holding general or
provincial councils has already been mentioned in its
relation to the laity. It should be adverted to also
as it bore upon the several ranks of the clergy.

It appears then, that, although presbyters and dea-
cons attended those occasional synods that were con-
vened by bishops in their particular dioceses ; it was
the bishops only who met their metropolitan in the
stated vernal and autumnal conventions ; and the
bishops only who were summoned to oecumenic
councils. As well the constant as the extraordinary
practice of the Church, therefore, established a broad
distinction between the first and the second orders of
the clergy ; and it was a distinction arbitrary and
impolitic in a high degree, as well as glaringly at
variance with the usage of the apostolic Church.
Churchmen must have renounced all respect for the
example and injunctions of the inspired founders of
Christianity, when they could exclude from deUbera-
tive assemblies, not the people merely, but the minis-
ters of religion, and their colleagues in office.

When the bishops returned from these aristocratic
conventions to their sees, bearing with them autho-
ritative determinations of religious controversies, to-
gether with general rules of conduct, or canons, and
special decisions touching individuals ; what was
Jikely to happen ? Let us suppose that the clergy as
well as the people obsequiously bowed to the wisdom
or the will of their superiors. This acquiescence in
most cases could take place only because clergy as
well as laity had already been so disciplined in ser-

14*

162 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

vile and silent submission, that they knew no other
law, and no other rule of right than the word of their
spiritual masters. Despotism must almost have
reached its height where the decrees of synods met
with no resistance.

But, on the contrary, we may imagine instances —
indeed such frequently occurred, in which freedom of
thought; or refractory impulses, induced some of the
inferior clergy to call in question the theological dog-
mas, or the ecclesiastical regulations, of the prelates.
This contumacy could not be winked at. The dissi-
dents were reported to the next synod ; the bishops
felt their official honour touched ; they of course sus-
tained each other, and defended their common au-
thority. Already all substantial powers were in their
hands : opposition, after a struggle, was overcome,
and the audacious presbyter and his associates were
degraded. Yet this was not enough, for every such
struggle suggested anew the necessity of exalting
still more the divine episcopal prerogatives, of hfting
the throne a step higher, and of providing still more
ample means for preventing, or for crushing similar
revolts.

Thus it is always that despotic practices involve
the necessity of still more arbitrary proceedings. It
is not in the nature of things that any invasion of
the rights of men should stop at a point of compara-
tive moderation : if we wrong men, we must, in self
defence, go on to enslave them. The most horrible
excesses of tyranny are coiled in the egg that is left,
without noise or notice, to hatch in the sand by dra-
gon Pride,

The synodic system then, such as it prevailed both
in the east and in the west, is justly named as a prin-
cipal cause or means of the Spiritual Despotism which
so early grasped the Christian world.

From the extensive subject of the monkery of the
ancient Church we must abstain in the present in-

'M

ITS FIRST STEPS. 163

Stance, except so far as to point out, in passing, (he
initial steps of that intimate and potent ghostly
tyranny which became at length a main stay of the
papal usurpations, and which took its rise from the
rules and practices of the monastery. Within the
religious houses, at a very early period, the doctrine
was generally maintained, that every member of the
fraternity was bound, as he regarded his salvation, to
expose his soul, with its inmost secrets, to the eye of
his superior and spiritual father. Such was the
principle peremptorily insisted upon by Basil, the
great promoter of the monastic life. The usage of
confession, which suited well the habits and senti-
ments of those who had renounced all the ordinary
motives of human nature, was insensibly stretched
beyond the limits of the monastery, and was made to
appl}^, first to the feeble and superstitious — lo women,
and to men of inert and servile temperaments, in the
open world ; and at length to all, without exception.
But long before the time of this consummation of
church power, the clergy had got possession of a most
formidable and efficacious engine of government, by
penetrating into th^, secrets of families, and by having
at their command the alarmed consciences often of
oflficialand prominent personages.

On this invisible ground priestly despotism had
gained a broad fooling before the era of the political
ascendancy of the Church; nor were its advances,
OQ this ground, sensibly accelerated by that event.
For aught that appears, the practice of confession
would have gone on extending its sphere, and deep-
ening its hold of all minds, as rapidly and securely
through another century of persecution, as it did
during the era of security.

The preparations for extending and confirming
this same despotism were again hastened forward by
circumstances that arose out of the controversies car-

164 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

ried on between the Church and the numerous here-
tics and schismatics who assailed her.

There is no doubt that the consciousness of having
at command the force of the State and the terrors of
the sword, tends to inflame the dogmatism of a domi-
nant rehgious body. But it is also true (although
the fact may be less obvious) that the very conscious-
ness of the destitution of any such means of enforcing
submission, naturally operates with the cfiiefs of
such a party to induce them to invent, or to insist
upon abstract and transcendental notions of an in-
tolerant kind ; and thus to lay the foundations of
ghostly power even wider and deeper than otherwise
would have been thought of. So it is that we find
tlie champions of the papacy, in later ages, and when
the secular arm had been brought to be altogether
subservient to the Church, looking back to the pages
of Cyprian, for warranty in support of the lofty doc-
trines which then they had need of. Cyprian and
his colleagues because unbefriended by the State ; and
because they could prop their power only upon opi-
nion, had promulgated that very theory of intole-
rance which gave an appearance of reason and of
venerable authority to the practices of a despotism
that had all means at its beck.

We say the difficult part it had to perform in re-
butting the thousand heresies of the times, drove the
Church, almost involuntarily, upon despotic ground,
at least it must be granted, that nothing less than the
general diffusion of the most enlightened principles —
principles only of late clearly developed, could have
preserved the chiefs of the Church from staying
themselves upon doctrines essentially intolerant. The
apostles indeed (divinely guided as they were) drew
the line straight, between laxity and tyranny ; but
to observe that line, plain as it is, has required more
simplicity of mind than any sect, in any age, iias
hitherto possessed. We must not then severely blame

ITS FIRST STEPS. . 165

the early promulgators of intolerant sentiments.
They seemed to themselves to be pursuing the only
course on which the truili of God could be secured ; nor
could they forecast the horrible and sanguinary inter-
pretation that would in the end be put upon the lan-
guage they used.

The primitive Church, in truth, merits admira-
tion, not merely on account of its constancy in main-
taining the Gospel against its pagan adversaries, and
through a fiery trial ; but on account of its steady,
consistent, and, on tlie w^iole, intelhgent adherence
to the great principles of Christianity, assailed as they
were in turn, sometimes by audacious impieties, and
sometimes by insiduous sophisms. Scarcely had
some impudent and extravagant heresiarch been con-
futed, when a crafty and adroit impugner of the
faith started up, in the east or the west — at Alexan-
dria, or at Carthage, to seduce the unwary, and to
lead away the disaffected.

On lliese occasions, as the great works of the time,
still extant, abundantly testify, ihecliampions of the
Faith did not fail to allege the authority of Scripture
I in opposition to the errors they had to refute. But,
I as supplementary to this main argument, they ap-
pealed, and in a forcible manner, to the manifest and
unquestiotiable fact of a continued derivation of doc-
trines from the apostles, in the principal seats of
I Christianity. This appeal was, in itself, fair and
conclusive; and under parallel circumstances would,
no doubt, be made by modern parties. In the third
and fourtli century the line of tradition from the apos-
tles and their immediate successors was not so far
stretched as to have become attenuated, or unsafe to
be relied upon. The succession of a very few
elders, in each primitive Church, conveyed, orally,
the doctrine of the first age to the third and fourth.
Are we ourselves under any historical uncertainty as
to the doctrines held by the Reformers? and if these

166 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

opinions vveie regarded as of ultimate authority, we
should naturally appeal to the copious traditionary
evidence which makes it certain what those opinions
were. But in this case, the line is much longer than .
that whicli connected Dionysius, Origen, and Cyp-
rian, with Igiiatiu?, Clemens, and John.

The appeal to tradition, in refutation of heretical
novelties, must not then be indiscriminately blamed.
If we had found the early Christian waiters abstaining
entirely from it, the uncomfortable inference would
have forced itself upon us, that they were themselves
conscious of a departure from the apostolic doctrine ;
or at least, that all continuity of opinion had been
broken up. Yet, though allowable and proper, this
appeal to tradition, without the greatest caution in
the use of it, and the clearest distinction always
made between such proof, and that drawn from the
canonical waitings, would inevitably open the way
for a mode of argument essentially despotic. This
argument was much more easily wielded by inferior
minds than the scriptural evidence ; it was, also,
more to the taste of intemperate and dogmatic spirits ;
and it would therefore gradually supplant the other
species of proof. Besides, as it was, even from the
first, indefinite and variable, or at least unfixed ; so
must it have become, in the lapse of time, incessantly
less and less trustworthy, and more and more open
to abuse. The consciousness of this augmenting in-
certitude would, by the principles of human nature,
lead to a more arrogant and noisy assertion of its var
lidity. Thus, w^hile its substance was inwardly
crumbling away, the argument from tradition would
be made to sustain, every year, a greater weight.
But the very temper of despotism is generated, and
its lawless proceedings are extended, whenever a
power comes into the position to prop itself mainly
upon what it knows and feels to be f^ rottea foundar,
tion,

ITS FIRST STEPS. 167

Here again we find a main pillar of the Romish
usurpation, of which the basement at least had been
reared as early as the close of the third century.

Once more : after appealing, first to the Scriptures,
in confutation of heretics, and next to the traditionary
doctrine of the principal Churches, the leading cham-
pions of Christianity laboured strenuously, as well to
sustain the constancy and allegiance of the mass of
the faithful, as to inspire the contumacious with fear,
by insisting upon the Unity of'the True Church,
and by representing, in the strongest language, the
sin and danger of separation from it. In this instance,
as in the preceding, we are called upon to use some
discrimination, and to check our rising censures.

The very expressions, and the identical arguments
which, as employed by the sanguinary champions of
the papacy, under Innocent IJI., excite our abhor-
rence and contempt, may be traced up to the well-
intentioned defenders of the faith in the third cen-
tury ; and if we will only take the pains to transport
ourselves, in ideji, to that time, we shall see reason to
confess, that the position then assumed was one na-
tural for them to take, and not altogether unsubstan-
tial.

Few points, if any, are more strongly insisted upon
by our Lord and his apostles, as specifically charac-
teristic of the Gospel, than the union, communion,
and love, among its adherents, which should be a sign
to the world of its divinity. At the same time the
'sin and peril of those who cause divisions is seriously
asserted. This doctrine therefore, and this commi-
nation could not be overlooked by those who knew
themselves to belong to the general body of the faith-
ful, and who had to deal with refractory parties.
But great care should have been taken in applying
this principle, and its sanction, to particular cases:
as for example. —

The unity of the Church, and the unbroken con-

%

168 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

sent of tlie faithful, in the elementary »mtters of be-
lief, can apply to the Church only so long as the
word of Ciuist is freely diffused among the people^
and his authority fully respected, in contravention of
human <Meeds. Moreover, it can mean only the ge-
neral concurrence of all believers (so respecting the
authority of Christ) in relation to the great principles
of Ciiristian faith ; and must by no means be mistaken
for the decisions of certain assemblies, or synods, or
of particular rulers, arrogating the right to speak in
the name of Christendom. Nor again, must this
doctrine of the unity of the Church be urged in sup-
port of particular interpretations, concerning which
the best informed, and the most upright may differ ;
nor in defence of special usages or ceremonies, not
enjoyed in Scripture, and imposed by those who may
happen to possess influence or power enough to carry
their measures.

St. Paul makes an express provision for granting
indulgence to those who, through weakness of faith,
or excessive sensibiliiy cf conscience, cannot con-
form to the geneial opinion ; and he secures the
substance of church harmony and unity, by leaving
ample room for that liberty of private judgment which
cannot be invaded without crushing the humari
mind, and substituting the chains of despotism for
the bond of peace and love.

But with the early defenders of ecclesiastical
power, those we mean who belong to the pristine
era, now under review, the Unity of tlie Church
meant — that artificial concentration of actual influ-
ence which converged upon Carthage, upon Antiocb,
upon Alexandria, or upon Rome. It was not the
consent of all believers; but the sense of Dionysius,
of Cyprian, or of Cornelius.. The communion of
saints was not the affectionate correspondence and
intercourse of all who held to the Head, and loved
each other as members of Christ ; but rather tha

ITS FIRST STEPS. 169

visible fact of ecclesiastical submission to this or that
metropolitan or patriarch. The form was taken for
the substance ; and those, in many cases, were
treated as aliens and enemies, whose only crime was
the calling in question some arbitrary determina-
tion of a self-constituted and irresponsible authority.

Strange it was that these bishops and reverend
Fathers, removed only by two hundred years from
the apostolic age, should forget the illegality (if we
may use the term) of the pretext on which they de-
manded the submission of their adversaries. The
first Churches received decrees from two sources,
namely — the lips of the apostles, whose absolute
power as the Lord's commissioners was not question-
ed ; or from councils, in which the brethren at large
had their place and vote. But these bishops and
metropolitans, although they still convened the peo-
ple in their parishes, and left them a semblance of
their primitive liberty, yet concerted every important
measure, and discussed all controversies in synods,
from which the greater part of the clergy even, as
well as the people, were excluded. For a few of the
Rulers of the Church to judge between themselves
and their opponents, and to roll thunders over the
heads of whoever resisted their autliority, was nothing
less than an outrageous usurpation. And yet it had
not been by a bold thrust, or a leap, that this point
of despotism had been reached ; but by insensible
degrees ; and especially under favour of an incon-
siderate application of genuine principles to particular
instances.

" Out of the Church there is no salvation." Let
this be granted ; but who is out of the Church ?
Is it those whom Hilderbrand may have excommu-
nicated, or whom Gregory the Great may have
cursed, or whom Syricius may have condemned, or
whom Lucius, or Stephen, or Sixtus, may have de-
nounced as heretics and schismatics? We must

15

170 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

refuse to admit this rule, as well in its earlier, as in
its latter applications ; and the sentence of eternal
damnation, if impiously despotic when pronounced
by a pope that was master of the world, was so, not
the less, when uttered by a pope who the next day
might be called to exchange the mitre for a martyr's
crown.

A man must stand firm indeed who is neither
drawn nor driven from his position by a fierce assail-
ant. The early defenders of the faith did not so
know their proper standing, or so adhere to it, as to
maintain the ground where they might at once have
saved themselves, and the truth, without detriment
to the liberties of mankind. In fact they hastened
to entrench thmselves within the lines of absolute
despotism. The operation of the several controver-
sies, whether doctrinal or ecclesiastical, that were
carried on previously to the holding of the council
of Nice, may very readily be traced, first, in bring-
ing to maturity general arbitrary principles of church
government, and then in inducing Churches of
the west, and of northern Africa, to yield themselves
to the pretensions of the bishop of Rome, as St.
Peter's successor, and the rightful arbiter of Chris-
tendom. The doctrine of the unity of the Church,
so necessary in rebuking schismatics, seemed to
demand a visible concentration of all Churches
upon some one point ; and there was no centre so
naturally looked to as Rome. If the rise of the
papal tyranny is to be sought for, assuredly we must
not stop short either in the acts of Theodosius, or
in the concessions of Justinian ; or in the machina-
tions of this or that holder of the keys ; nor, in fact,
any where, till we reach those bold and ambitious
sentiments of the third century, which may be found
covertly expressed in the tract, " De Unitate Ec-
clesiae," and in the epistles of its author — the fervent

ITS FIRST STEPS. 171

and pious Cyprian, and in those of several of his
episcopal contemporaries and colleagues.

Although there were no evidence of another kind,
we should yet have, on this ground, what is ample
and conclusive in proof of the assertion, that, long
before the era of the political triumph of Christianity,
und while all the movements of the Church were as
purely spontaneous as can be imagined, ecclesiasti-
cal power was condensing itself upon a centre, and
had made great progress in digesting those arrogant
principles, and in establishing those servile and su-
perstitious usages, which the papacy of the twelfth
century brought fully to bear upon the constitution
of society throughout Europe.

It now remains, and in the last place cursorily to
review the position of Christianity, or shall we say,
the Church, in relation to mankind at large, and to
the Roman government, during the early period of

\ which we are speaking.

But, indeed, though concerned in this section with
the first three centures of Christian history, especially,
it is impracticable, in reference to a matter so inde-
finite as is the general temper and the intellectual
and moral condition of mankind, to mark off eras
with any precision, or to say whence a certain dis-
position of the minds of men took its rise, or when
U give place to another. Facts of this class, al-
though in a broad sense conspicuous and unquestion-
able, are not to be traced in lines and colours upon a

I chart of history.

Our present topic, although by no means new to

1 historical inquiry, has not perhaps been duly and
impartially considered. The spiritual power which,
taking its spring from Christianity, availed itself of
those mighty forces which nothing but truth can
eupply, spread its scorching beams over the_world,

I apd rose to the zenith, because the heavens — politi-

172 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

cal as well as intellectual, had been deserted, and
did, as one might say, ask to be again occupied and
ruled : there was a vacuum ; and the Church filled
it. From the age of the Antonines (not to name an
earlier time) and onward, in slow but regular pro-
gression,'as far as to the depth of that night which at
length covered Europe, the human mind, in every
sphere of its exercise, was failing, and decaying, and
collapsing. During the same time, and no doubt
under the influence of many of the same causes, the
life of the vast political system of the western world
sunk apace, and its coherence became every year
more feeble. Church Power, therefore, stepped into
the room of all other kinds of power ; it inherited the
strength and the honours of every expiring supre-
macy ; and in turn, as every authority, and as every
virtue died away intestate, without leaving a natural
successor, the church came forward to administer
to the effects of all ; she grasped all ; and became at
length the sole mistress of whatever she thought
worth possessing.

Now it would be easy to maintain, consistently
with many facts, two or more opposing theories on
this subject ; as for example : one might very plausi-
bly trace the degeneracy of the human mind, and the
decHne of the empire, the extinction of science, the
corruption of manners, and the fall of the state, sever-
ally to those various political and natural causes that
are known to have boine upon the social system dur-
ing this period of universal declension ; and then it
might be alleged that the Church, and we must mean
especially the Romish Church, came in, as well to
rescue, to preserve, and to transmit, no small amount
of intelligence and of learning, and to hold the western
nations in some sort of coherence, and to prevent the
frightful anarchy, and to mitigate the utter barbarism,
that must otherwise have prevailed. It may be said,
and with some reason, nor have the apologists of the

I

ITS FIRST STEPS. 173

papacy forgotten to affirm, that the Church, during a
long era of disorder and general ignorance, stood as
the guardian of manners, the preserver of Hterature,
the just mediatrix between the strong and the weak;
and, in a word, as the stay and refuge of whatever
was salutary and important, and which, without her
aid, must inevitably have perished. All this may
fairly enough be advanced.

On the contrary, those who contemplate the revo-
lutions of opinion from an opposite position, may al-
lege, and may make it appear credible, that the general
decay of intelligence, and the decline and fall of the
empire, although hastened by other causes, were
mainly brought about by the spread of a religious
system that quelled all the active and energetic pas-
sions, that suffused through the social body, an effe-
minate and desponding temper, that overlaid both
business and pleasure with gloom and idle supersti-
tions, and which, in a word, transferred to priests and
monks the influence that heretofore had been exer-
cised by soldiers and statesmen. A great part even
of this allegation may be made good ; but, as those
who have advanced it have generally been impelled
by a feeling more hostile to Christianity than to su-
perstition, the distinction necessary to be observed be-
tween the two they have designedly neglected ; and>
thus have thrown a capital fallacy into their argu-
irient.

The one cf these theories, as well as the other, if
advanced in a categorical manner, is open to serious
[ exception ; or, at least, may so far be confuted as
suffices for despoiling its advocates, severally, of the
inference they would draw from it. Thus the Ro-
manist can by no means make good his apology for
his Church, inasmuch as he cannot disprove th«
charge, standing against her, of using her power for
the worst purposes, and of exercising it in the worst
spirit. If indeed the Papacy were inherently the pro-

15*

174 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

tectress of humanity, and the patroness of know-
ledge, and the guardian of civilhberties, why, when
the nations began to reclaim their liberties, and to
awake to the calls of reason, did she so strenuously
labour to quash both, and to maintain the ancient
empire of ignorance ? We conclude that the benefi-
cial agency she had at one time exerted, was acci-
dental, and altogether foreign to her proper views and
general temper.

On the other hand, in rebutting the inference of
sceptics, we readily grant that the refined superstition
favoured by the Church from the third century, and
onwards, had a very powerful influence in bringing
on the degeneracy of the nations, and in acceleraling
the fall of the Roman empire. But then, we ask —
was this superstition Christianity? When the affirm-
ative is proved, we may feel ourselves interested in
the question.

This subject ought not to be pursued on any sup-
position that assumes a single and exclusive cause.
Fix on what general principle we may, we shall find
it to have been both cause and effect ; or rather it will
appear that causes and effects were intimately blend-
ed, and that they mutually affected one the other, in
a manner that should preclude those simplifications of
which theorists are fond.

To attribute the decline of taste and intelligence,
and the decay of the Roman patriotism and power,
to the influence of Christianity, abstractedly, is a >
calumny easily rebutted, on several distinct grounds.
For, in the first place, this decay and decline, and es-
pecially the disappearance of those high sentiments
upon which national greatness depends, had become
conspicuous long before Christianity had gained any
such ascendency as to enable it, in a visible manner,
to aflect the opinions and behaviour of the mass of
mankind ; and certainly not the upper and the edu-
cated classes. If Grecian and Roman philosophy

^•

ITS FIRST STEPS. 176

and literature, and if the pristine republican energy
and virtue had preserved their force and brightness
to the time of Constantine, and then had suddenly
.waned, there would indeed have been reason to sup-
pose that the new faith was the main cause of such
a revolution. But the scholar well knows that, in
regard to Roman literature, the Augustan splendour
had long before been dimmed, and that, in relation
to that of Greece, false taste, and a nugatory philo-
sophy, had come in the place of Attic vigour and in-
telligence. Moreover, the historian knows equally
well, that public and political virtue had, at the same
time, and on both sides the Adriatic, been succeeded
by the thorough corruption, and by those servile sen-
timetits which are characteristic of extensive military
despotisms. To throw the blame of this moral, men-
tal, and political ruin upon Christianity, is to assign
to it a retrospective influence, and to make the effect
precede the cause by a century and a half !

Furthermore ; in casting the eye over a biogra-
phical chart of literary and scientific men, the fact
presents itself, beyond dispute, that, so far as learn-
ing, philosophy, and genius — eloquence and reason,
survived at all, either among the Greeks or Latins,
the Church might boast them mainly as her own —
Was Christianity indeed the leathern cup that'^brought
upon the human mind its sleep of ages? How hap-
pened it then that pagans were the first, and Chris-
tians the last — the last by two centuries, to exhibit
its stupifying influence? Who are the pagan writers
that can be named as recommending the ancient
polytheism during that age when Chrysostom, Je-
rome, Augustine, Basil, and the Gregories wrote
and spoke ? In admitting the dechne of intelHgence,
we must, in all equity, save the fame of these and
other illustrious men, of whom any age might be
proud : and having done so, may grant that, what-

t

1T6 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

ever was not Christian, in that era, was, indeed
effete.

Besides : when we come down to a later and a still
more degenerate [age, whatever influence the frivo-
lous superstition of the times might have in promo-
ting this decay, Christianity is clearly exempt
from the blame, inasmuch as it was no longer vir-
tually extant, or not so extant as to retain its soul
and power.

It is not then to any one cause, but to many, and
these intimately commingled, that we must trace
(he gradual desolation, the withering, the blight, that
at length overspread the once civihzed world. Most
of these causes have often enough been specifically
mentioned ; nor is it at all necessary to enumerate
them here. Might we add to the list the mere
hypothesis — it can be no more than a conjecture, of
a periodic physical development and wiihdrawment
— a rise and fall, of mental energy within the human
system ? It is at least difficult to review the fortunes
of mankind, either on a great scale, or within par-
ticular spheres, without inclining to the supposition
that there are natural cycles of intelligence, disturbed
indeed by accidental causes ; at one time lengthened,
and at another shortened ; but still returning, at not
very irregular intervals ; and in obedience to which
the great community of nations, and nations indi-
vidually, advance or recede on the course of know-
ledge and virtue.

Be this as it may ; what we have to do with is the
broad fact that those nations that once were bound
together in the bundle of the Roman empire, did at
last fall into a state of anarchy and of degeneracy,
such as allowed and invited the spiritual power to
seize all kinds of authority, and to establish its usur-
pations on the firmest basis. This supervening
church tyranny was, undoubtedly, and in many
senses, a benefit to mankind. During the dismal

ITS FIRST STEPS. 177

nights and days of that general flood, the Church
was the ark in which were conserved the rudiments
of our modern liberties, civilization and learning. —
This granted, we are then free to pass what jijdgment
we think fit upon the spirit and temper of the ascen-
dant power, and upon the conduct of the individuals
who in succession held its sceptre.

But besides the relation of the Church to the
moral and intellectual condition of the nations through
its early era, there was a specific relationship borne
by it to the Roman government ; and we must now
be understood to speak definitely of the second and
third centuries ; or the period during which both par-
lies, that is to say, the Christian community, and the
imperial court, had a distinct consciousness of each
other as hostile powers.

We have already said that, whether persecuted or
tolerated, a religious community, numerous, every
where extant, internally organized, and sensitive
through all its members, can never be looked at with
indiflference by any government. Let it be granted
that principles of peace and subordination pervade
such a body ; and moreover that, to-day^ its feeling
goes along with the government, and that its weight
is thrown into the scale of the existing administra-
tion. But to-morrow changes take place ; measures
are proposed, or effected, which the religious commu-
nity disapproves, or by which it thinks itself aggrieved,
or endangered. Will it abstain then from using its
conscious power? Will it refrain from implicit threats?
Spite of Christian meekness, spite of every motive
to the contrary, nay, on the very ground and pretext
of the highest motives, it will act as human nature,
in such circumstances, impels ; and the government,
seeing things only in a common light, will find that
it has to do with a powerful and an unmanageable
internal enemy. A well-adjusted church-and-state po-

178 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

lity recommends itself, in this special respect; not in-
deed as an infallible means of preventing collisions be-
tween the religious and the secular elements of the
social system ; but as an arrangement which pro-
vides against ordinary occasions of concussion, and
as immensely better than the -.leaving two potent
principles open to every casualty that may throw
them rudely one upon theolher.

The behaviour of the Christian community under
the outrageous violences of which it was so often
the victim, was, in most instances, unexceptionable
and admirable. So much meekness, so much re-
spect for authority, such abstinence from retaliative
conduct and vindictive expressions, on the part of a
body, numerous and physically strong, and not
always destitute of influence at court, affords convin-
cing proof of the divine excellence and efficacy of
the motives which the Gospel conveys.

Yet in their remonstrances with their furious ene-
mies, the Christian apologists make a fair appeal to
the fact of the patience and submissiveness, under in-
tolerable wrongs, of a body of men numerous enough,
if they chose to stand upon the defensive, to convulse
the empire, if not to make their own terms. And
they well said, " If we were impelled by worldly and
common motives, we should certainly judge it better
to die sword in hand, than at the stake."

This quiet, but significant allusion to their physi-
cal force, ar)d to their organized power, naturally be-
came more and more frequent and distinct ; and
whether openly spoken of or not, it was thoroughly
understood, and keenly felt too by I he imperial go-
vernment. Perhaps indeed the political power of
the Christians was rated higher by the court, that
justly feared it, than by the Church that would not
indulge the thought of actually using it. The cir-
cumstances of the Diocletian persecution (not to refer
to any other) afford indication enough of what were

ITS FIRST STEPS. 179

the alarms, and what the desperate resolution of the
imperial cabinet. These fears, and this line of con-
duct, on the one side, must, in the end, have infused
a corresponding feehng into the Church. The two
powers were balancing and mutually measuring their
strength ; and if the conversion of the court itself had
not occurred when it did, nothing else seemed likely
to happen, at length, but an open collision, and a ge-
neral conflict.

How far this probable consequence was foreseen
by Constantine, and how far a regard to it might af-
fect his decision, we must not surmise; but it may
be conjectured that he embraced the unconquerable
doctrine, and bowed to the triumphant cross, only in
lime to prevent a universal convulsion ; and perhaps
an overthrow of the pagan ascendancy.

But what we have here to do with is ihat interior
and unuttered feeling, continually gathering force,
which must have worked in the minds of Christians,
and especially of their chiefs. The meekness of the
Gospel not forgotten, and the express precepts of
Christ and the apostles kept in view, it was yet ine-
vitable that the political weight of the Church should
be pondered, though in silence, and that the possi-
bility of advancing, and of maintaining too, a just
demand of tolerance, should be thought of. " We
will 7iot use our power ; but if we were to use it, jus-
tice must be granted to us." Such was the language
natural to men so cruelly and unwisely maltreated.

Now the meditation of political strength directly pro-
motes its consolidation, and imparts to it a consistent
and nervous energy. The rulers of the Church were
the heads of a body, passive indeed in its principles,
and submissive in its conduct ; but yet conscious of
its powers, and provoked to try them. Let it be
granted that the habits of feeling, the sentiments, and
the schemes, generated by these circumstances, ac-
tually remained in a quiescent state up to the moment

180 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

of the accession of Constantine. But a deeply work-
ing, an intense preparation of feeling had been made,
which would at once expand and breathe, in a new
manner, when the fortunes of the body took a hap-
pier turn. The high tones, the arrogance, and the
intolerance of the Churchmen of the times of Con-
stantine, Jovian, and Theodosius, were the outbursts
of emotions, long pent up, and which had reached a
vigorous maturity when first they made themselves
heard in the open world. The gaudy and winged
creature of the fourth century, had had its long
chrysalis state in the third.

The part acted, the language used, the prerogatives
claimed, by the Church under the first Christian em-
perors, must not be thought of as having sprung up
fresh at the moment : this style was the product of
the anterior season of oppression. In the insolent
behaviour of certain ecclesiastics towards emperors
and persons of high secular rank, one cannot but read
the vindictive sentiment — " Now is our time come
for revenging the Church upon the State." From
its long schooling of persecution, the Church mani-
festly learned the ill lesson of intolerance, and in-
stead of abhorring the usage and principle of cruelty,
in religious matters, too soon desired to try the
force of it in its controversy with heretics. It is a
great illusion to suppose that the Christian commu-
nity, admirable as was its behaviour, came forth from
its three centuries of oppression and suffering, unhurt
and pure in its sentiments, as a political body. If we
will not accept the open and active friendship of the
secular authority, and if we reject a church and state
alliance, we must have, in its stead, an ominous jea-
lousy, and a murky turbulence (though repressed)
which, if it never breaks out in civil convulsions, will
not fail to nurse up a temper that will show itself
internally, as a spirit of rancour and insubordination.

ITS FIRST STEPS. 181

It remains to recapitulate the heads of the present
section.

We have affirmed, and do not anticipate contra-
diction from those who themselves are conversant
with the existing documents of church history, that
the spiritual despotism, afterwards brought to a centre,
and made coherent in the papacy, had developed
every one of its essential principles before the time of
that political revolution which gave to the Church
the aids of imperial patronage; and while every move-
ment was purely spontaneous, or in other words,
while this power stood on the ground of spiritual mo-
tives, and stayed itself altogether on the fulcrum of
opinion.

During, and within the limits of this same pristine
era, we find the clergy to have gained upon the peo-
■ple at large the means of carrying despotism to any
extent, by challenging to themselves the possession
of, and irresponsible control over, certain awful ele-
ments indispensable to salvation, and in no other
manner to be obtained but from the hand of the
priest. The people moreover had been thrust from
iheir place in the deliberative assemblies held by the
rulers of the society. These two important changes,
if there had been none other, were enough to open
the way to whatever actually followed. In this sense
the Church, in the age of Cyprian, was essentially
despotic.

Again ; by the gradual and inevitable aggrandize-
ment of the episcopal order, by the consolidation and
regular distribution of offices, and especially by the
exclusion of the inferior clergy from provincial and
general councils, a distance was interposed between
the several orders of the Church, such as at once
broke up the feeling of substantial equality that
should subsist among the ministers of Christ, and
gave the reins to the few, in a manner that could
issue in nothing else but usurpation and tyranny — a

16

182 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

tyranny always advancing. This power of the su-
periors waSj at the same time, making preparation
for further encroachments, within the monastery.

Furthermore ; the principles engendered, and the
practices resorted to" in consequence of the perpetual
conflicts carried on between the Church and her he-
retical and schismatic opponents, placed her in a po-
sition essentially despotic ; and induced a feeling
which led her to catch at the first means that oc-
curred of sustaining her authority by penal inflic-
tions.

Lastly : these several preparations and advances
of despotism were made during* a course of time in
which the vigour of the human mind was fast failing,
and while the political structure was splitting and
crumbling to its fall. Its ultimate ascendancy, there-
fore, was little less than an inevitable consequence of
the disappearance of whatever might have stood in
its way.

Some few specimens of the evidence that might
be adduced in support of the above positions, will be
found at the end of the volume. But the author
feels confident that his allegations, in the main, will
not be called in question by any who are really qua-
lified to express an opinion on subjects of this kind.
It is indeed not unlikely that, from the pages of our
modern ecclesiastical writers and church historians,
sundry casual admissions and concessions may be
culled, of an import opposite to the author's represen-
tations. But of what weight are such testimonies,
in this instance ? The facts in question are — the
temper and condition of the Christian commonwealth
fifteen and sixteen hundred years ago ; whence then
should we seek our information ? Is it from Tille-
mont, Baronius, Fleury, Cave, Usher, Burnet, Tay-
lor, Bull, Hooker, Mosheim, Gibbon ? These great
writers, or if there be a hundred more of equal cele-
brity, and whatever might be the depth of their erudi-

f

ITS FIRST STEPS. 183

tion, drew their knowledge of ecclesiastical antiquity
from no other sources (there are no other) than those
remainsof christian^ literature which are still extant,
and which now load our shelves, and are under our
hand. Do they quote a single ancient author who
has disappeared during the last two centuries ? If
not, we are to-day as favourably placed as themselves
for acquiring the only information that has in mo-
dern times, been within reach, or that is of any deci-
sive value.

In discussions of this order it should be held a
waste of time and labour, as it is an extreme imper-
tinence, to quote modern authorities at all ; and the
author must protest against every sort of evidence of
a secondary kind. What avails it, in such an argu-
ment, that Bellarmine, or Grotius, or Parker, or Stil-
lingfleet, er Barrow, or Bingham, or Warburton, or
Jortin, while intent upon some other question, or
while seeking a casual illustration of a different posi-
tion, have said and admitted so and so, concerning
the primitive Church ? If such admissions are vague
and general, they are scarcely worth turning aside to
gather. If founded upon specific references to origi-
nal authorities, we have those authorities under our
eye, and do far better to peruse them for ourselves,
than to look at detsiched portions of them through
the chromatic telescope of writers of the seventeenth
century.

The time was when the Fathers were read super-
Btitiously, and were regarded as our masters in the-
ology. They are now read intelligently, and as
authorities simply in questions of history. Our pre-
decessors (or some of them ) followed the Fathers for
guidance ; we follow them for warning. It is in truth
an auspicious omen of the present times, that an ac-
tive and searching inquiry is on foot concerning the
history of Christianity, in its early periods, and that
this inquiry stops short no where, but in the extant

184 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM,

remains of those very ages. Let the ignorant, and
the indolent, and the frivolous, scout this diligence as
idle ; and let those whose opinions have long been
crystallized on every subject, resent it as importunate
or pernicious : but minds ardent and free in the pur-
suit of truth, will not, for a moment, be disheartened
by any such rebukes. Consequences of the most
momentous and extensive kind are not unlikely to
spring from this anxiety to know the real history of
our faith. It is by the aid of this sort of learning
that we are set at large from the thralls of temporary
and sectarian recensions of Christianity : it is from
this source that we draw an enhanced and profound
regard to the infallible authority of Scripture ; and it
is also from studies of this kind that we may derive,
if at all, sound and sober notions of those great prin-
ciples of the Divine Government which bear upon
the revolutions of religious opinion, and upon the rise
and decay, the alternate corruption and renovation^
of the elements of piety.

The author makes an apology to the reader for
this digressive page.

41

^i

IN THE FOURTH CENTURY. 185

SECTION VI.

EUA OF THE BALANCE OF THE CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL

POWERS.

Although it may appear in fact, again and again,
that seasons of external prosperity have favoured the
advance of abuses, and have promoted a worldly and
ambitious spirit among Churchmen, we are by no
means compelled, on that ground, to grant that Chris-
tianity, in the nature of things, can retain its purity
only by the aid of sufferings and persecutions. In
direct contradiction of any such melancholic principle,
it is enough to allege the decisive and pointed in-
stance of the apostolic Churches, of which it is affirm-
ed, at a certain time, " that they had rest," in the
stead of persecution, " and were edified ; and walk-
I iDg in the fear of the Lord, and the comfort of the
Holy Ghost, were multiplied." Worldly ease has had
its evil consequences ; and so has persecution. If
there are certain abuses which we trace to the one,
in the history of the Church, there are abuses also,
and some of the most serious and fatal isind, that are
directly attributable to the other. Neither ease nor
affliction, prosperity nor persecution, is good abstract-
edly, in relation to truth and piety ; but both operate
for the better or the worse, according to the actual
state of the mind that comes under their operation, —
Far from being of opinion that religious prosperity, in
the best sense, is to be looked for only as the product
of storms, we allow ourselves to imagine, as not chi-
merical, a future era of spiritual life, and a general
triumph of truth, which shall take its start from a
smiUng morning of general peace, and mundane fe-
licity.

16*

186 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM,

If indeed in any case, truth has aheady undergone
serious perversion, and if its edge has been turned
aside by immoral interpretations ; if schemes of en-
croachment and extortion have been devised, and put
in course, and if, in a word, the genuine simpUcity
and spirituaUty of the Gospel have disappeared, then
no doubt it must follow that an exemption from
trouble, and a liberty and faciUty in giving effect to
such schemes, will hasten the advance of all that is
mischievous. This is obvious ; and such we find to
have been the effect of each of those seasons of re-
pose that were enjoyed under even the pagan empe-
rors. Rest was injurious to the Church, because
Christianity had lost its integrity.

The pernicious consequences that attended the im-
perfect and precarious prosperity permitted to Chris-
tians from year to year, during the period of poly-
theistic ascendanc)^, were not likely to be precluded,
or to lose their evil efficacy, in that far more settled
and genial summer time which followed the submis-
sion of the Roman Imperial Power to the Cross.
What had happened under Alexander Severus, un-
der Gordian, and under the Philips, would naturally
happen also under Constantine and Theodosius.—
Superstition spread, debauchery among the clergy
became more flagrant, and ambition and venality
more impudent. But what is to be lamented or
blamed in all this, is not that the Church was in-
dulged with an exemption from trouble, but that it
should have been in a state such as made every ces-
sation of suffering dangerous and corrupting.

When we find these errors and unchristian prac-
tices increasing gradually, or even rapidly, after the
political triumph of the Gospel, we are not to incul-
pate the incidental means of those unhappy perver-
sions ; but rather should look to the inner springs and
reasons of (hem. Nor indeed was the growth of su-
perstition, and of corruption, and despotism, in the

IN THE FOURTH CENTURY. 187

age of Constantine, such as appears in certain strong-
ly-coloured statements of it. Or let it have been
what it might, it was balanced by the expansion of
talents and merits of a new and high order. Little
as the moderns may wish to take the divines of the
fourth century as their masters, none who have con-
versed with them in their writings will hesitate to
grant them, in the main, as high a praise as belongs
to any set of theologians, in any age. And in com-
paring the extant Christian literature of the fourth
century with that of the third, the advantage is very
far from being decisively on the side of the earlier
authors, on the ground, either of piety, or of doctrinal
consistency. The very reverse might readily be
maintained.

The illustrious and imperial convert — the first
Christian prince, behaved himself in his new rela-
tionship, as temporal bridegroom of the Church, in a
manner regulated, in part, by the existing usages
and principles of the Roman government ; and in
part by the usages and principles which he found pre-
vailing within the vast and mysterious community
to which he joined himself. He entered the awful
temple of the true God, sceptre in hand, and as
prince, conqueror, and patron ; yet with a becoming
reverence, and a disposition to comply devoutly with
the orders and prescriptive modes of the system and
worship of the sacred precincts. Constantine set his
foot upon the threshold of the Christian Church with
a feehng perhaps, not very unlike that which had
belonged to certain chiefs of the pristine Roman arms,
who, in making their way as proud victors to the
fanes of a conquered nation, bowed to the humiHated
divinit}'' of the place, and hastened to prove that they
approached the foreign altar, not as destroyers, but as
worshippers.

While considering the course. pursued by Constan-

188 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM,

tine, from first to last, in relation to the Church, we
are bound to keep in view, on the one hand, his habits
and maxims as a Caesar ; and on the other hand, the
existing sentiments, and the ecclesiastical economy of
the Christian commonwealth, If we are speaking of
his personal merits, in his public religious capacity,
nothing can be more inequitable than either to judge
him by the rule we should apply to a modern Euro-
pean prince ; or to assume, what is as far as possible
from being true, that the Church was then fresh in
her simplicity ; or that the mass of the people (within
the Church) were in possession of any substantial
liberties ; or that the political rulers of the body were
still in a state to be spoiled, and to be taught the bad
lessons they might learn at court, of ambition, intrigue,
and cupidity.

The abstract justice of the emperor's measures, or
their ultimate expediency, or their compatibility with
the spirit of the Gospel, is one thing ; but his personal
merits, fairly regarded in the light of his age (not in
that of our own) is quite another; and in this latter
view there is reason to admire, as well the vigour and
intelligence, as the moderation and equity of his pub-
lic conduct. In those instances where his general
consistency gave way, or his temper failed, we may al-
most always trace his fault to the insufferable perversi-
ty, or the violence and contumacy, of the parties that
opposed, or of those that advised him. He and his suc-
cessors cordially desired, and laboured to promote, the
universal ascendancy of Christianity, as the only true
religion. He and they, moreover, sought the peace
of the Church, and its good order and unity. They
felt that a religion, more potent in its influence over
the minds of men than any other, and at the same
time generating discords such as no other religion had
presented, and which convulsed and endangered the
state, demanded a watchful control, and needed the

IN THE FOURTH CENTURY. 189

most vigorous measures to prevent its bringing about,
at once, its own destruction, and that of the empire.

To reduce this vast system into a state of analogy
with the machinery of government, to establish a
good understanding between the civil and ecclesias-
tical authorities, and especially to repress, if possible,
tumultuous and violent contentions, must have
seemed to the Christian emperors their manifest
duty, and their interest. Nothing less than the
effecting of these several objects, could consist with
the welfare of the vast society of nations for which
they had to care. A complicated system of spiritual
government they found already matured ; although
it was ill-organized, and in disorder, and a system
essentially despotic. The first Christian princes
(like those of the Lutheian reformation) transferred
powers and authorities from one centre to another ;
but did not despoil the community of any liberties
then actually enjoyed. Constantine, or his sons and
successors, might indeed hold a chain, and tighten
it ; but they did not forge one. The chain of spirit-
ual despotism had been beaten and wreathed upon
the anvil (or altar) of the non-estabhshed, voluntary,
and afflicted Church of the third century.

Duly and equitably weighed, the public measures
of Constantine, and of the more enlightened and up-
right of his successors, are liable to little blame, and
may even challenge much praise. But the question
is altogether of another kind, when we come to in-
quire into the abstract policy, or mere justice and
lawfulness of these same proceedings. It has been
the practice of a certain class of modern writers, first
to assume theoretic principles in relation to external
Christianity (and principles of a very questionable
sort) and then to arraign the conduct of the Roman
prince as amenable to that hypothetic rule ; and
especially have such writers assumed that the Church,
at the moment of his conversion, was in the maiix

190 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM

free, pure, and unsophisticated. What more unfair
or unfounded !

But we have done with the personal merits of
Constantine, and the succeeding Christian emper- '
ors ; and turn for a moment to their measures, ab-
stractedly considered. Now even if it should appear
that these measures, or some of them, were essen-
tially impolitic and pernicious (which is more than
ought to be summarily granted) no such inference
will follow^, as that no public measures, or no state
policy whatever, in relation to the church, can be
good and lawful. What if Constantine, uponground
so new and difficult, failed and went astray l Is it
therefore certain that no safe path may be found
over that ground ? we think not ; and must reject
every general conclusion, drawn from the conduct
and policy of the first Christian princes, against na-
tional ecclesiastical constitutions. If we reasonably
decline to take these inexperienced princes as our
masters and guides, in matters of church polity, we
are, of course, exempted from every inference that
might be drawn from the ill success of their actual
measures. Our own may be better devised, and
may be more conformed to the great and now well
ascertained principles of political and religious liberty.

" The things that happened aforetime, are re-
corded for our learning, upon whom the ends of the
world are come." If the first and the second grand
experiments for the adjustment of the religious inter-
ests of communities, have failed, the course sug-
gested, by such admonitory errors, is not to abandon
so reasonable and necessary a work, or to leave un-
controlled that which must quickly run into confu*
sion, if neglected ; but rather to turn the errors of our
predecessors to advantage, and to do better, what
they did ill. Sixteen]or eighteen hundred years have
not run out, as it were under our eyes, without yield-
ing some definite and practical instructions. There

•I

IN THE FOURTH CENTURY. 191

is now no need that we should err, as our precursors
have done, for want of experience. If the task of
fitting the civil and religious machineries, one to the
other, has hitherto baffled those who have attempted
it, we may succeed better. We see the sources of
failure ; the false routes are laid down in our charts ;
and every kind of necessary information is fully at
our command. Although therefore the entire church
and state system, such as it subsisted in times gone
by, should be adjudged faulty, we do not conclude
that a church' and-state system is either undesirable or
impracticable.

But in what did the first political establishment
of Christianity under Constantine, and his immedi-
ate successors, actually consist ? This subject, mis-
understood and misrepresented as it often is, well
deserves a little analysis. It has not been unusual,
and especially of late, to talk of the Church, estab-
lished under Constantine, as if it were the same
thing, or nearly the same thing, as the Church es-
tablished in these realms, or in other Protstant coun-
tries. No supposition can be more incorrect, not to
say delusive : in truth, all reasoning from the one to
the other of two systems so dissimilar, must be un-
sound. The faults of Constantine's church polity,
be they what they might, are not the faults of ours ;
nor did the precautions and limitations which attach
to ours, belong to his. And again, the peculiar diffi-
culties which, in the present times, and in this coun-
try, attend all ecclesiastical arrangements, had no
existence, and were not to be provided for in that
age. The very measures which, with the emperors,
I were resorted to for the regulation of church power,
and which then must have been regarded as bene-
ficial in their aspect towards the people, would,
among ourselves, be denounced as either ineffica-
cious, or as intolerable. What might be defensible,

192 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM,

or even praiseworthy, in the policy of Constantine,
or Theodosius, we justly condemn when imitated
by our Tudors and Stuarts, and should resolutely
resist if attempted in our own times.

Constantine's establishment of Christianity, in the
first place, consisted in reversing all those prohibitory
edicts of his predecessors which hitherto had armed
its enemies ; and in declaring it to be — a Lawful
Religion.

This preliminary measure of mere justice none
will now condemn ; and yet in ffict, by far the larger
proportion of all the pride, profligacy and ambition,
which spread among the clergy in the fourth century,
may be directly traced to the inevitable influence of
this sudden and complete change of fortune, and this
start in their relative position. A long ten years of
the most cruel su fieri ngs, had almost broken the
hearts of the Christian community. Multitudes had
lost their property, and their place in society ; many
had perished ; pastors and deacons were labouring in
the mines ; congregations were every where disper-
sed, the offices of religion suspended, and the sacred
books destroyed ; or if concealed, were become the
most dangerous sort of possession. It might have
seemed not unlikely that the Church would now
actually fall and be trampled in the dust under the
feet of her determined foes. That happy revolution,
to which the doubtful fortune of arms gave effect,
could not have been distinctly, and perhaps not at all
anticipated. " When the Lord turned again the cap-
tivity of his people," they must have felt hke those
who awake from a horrid dream to a bright reality.

The first emotions of all pious minds were no
doubt of a becoming and fervent sort. Aloud they
offered praise to Him who had "turned their mour-
ning into dancing," and had given them " beauty
for ashes." But other feelings wonld ere long claim

ITS FIRST STEPS. 193

their turn, and especially so with the many whose
pieiy was of a slight, or of a fanatical kind. Tn all
private circles, from side to side of the en)pire, in
every city and town, there would spring up the ex-
ulting- and half-vindictive sentiment, natural to the
wronged, when the tables are turned upon their op-
pressors. The bounds of modesty and meekness
would not always be observed in the triumphant joy
of the now emancipated sect. In fact, we catch dis-
tinctly enough, in the extravagant harangues pro-
nounced at the tombs of the martyrs, tlje couched
resentment of the Church toward her fallen adversa-
ry : the feeling — and how natural- a feeling is it,
and how difficult to repress, which heaves the bosom
•in the recollection of cruel injuries, continues long
to mingle itself intimately with all the sentiments of
religious sutferers ; and is even transmitted from age
to age. Not a few of the pernicious observances of
later times sprung immediately from feelini^s of this
semi-vindictive sort.

Then again, the mere toleration of Ghristianit)^,
and the favour and countenance it of course enjoy-
ed at court, apart from any of those measures \)V
which its pohtical establishment was effected, insta fil-
ly acted, like a sudden breaking forth of a sultry sun
in a humid day, upon all ambitious and secular
spirits. What were the ideas tliat crowded into the
minds of metropolitans and bishops, nay, of the
worldly clergy of every grade, who already had made
great prog^ress in effecting their schenjes of aggran-
dizement ? Such, or at least all whose position
favoured their desires, turned their faces toward the
quarter of sunshine; and at the earliest opportunity
brought themselves individually under the imperial
eye. The most rigid and mortified of our modrru
Beets might perhaps, in parraliel circumstances, be
seen to furnish not a few cleiical persons, equally
ready to enjoy the genial temperaLure of a palace,

17

194 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM,

and to deck themselves in the unwonted finery of a
court.

It could not be otherwise than that the now Chris-
tian emperor should surround himself with Christian,
bishops, and put himself, in religious matters, under .
the tutelage and direction of those whom he might
judge qualified to inform him in what related to the
Church — its doctrine and its government. Without
any positive establishment of Christianity, and while
nothing was done which, in the nature of things, -
could be avoided — if the Gospel was to take the
place of the ancient idolatries, it would yet inevitably
happen, that very powerful excitements should be
put in activity, to stir whatever elements of ambition
might lurk in the bosom of the Christian communi-
t}^ and especially of its clergy. To receive these
excitements well, and to use them moderately, the
Church was not, in its actual state, prepared to do ;
and the sober common-place feeling that belongs to
persons of high ecclesiastical rank, within an old
estabhshment, who in mixing with statesmen and
princes, are conscious of no elation, could not gene-
rally attach to the Christian bishops and clergy who
flocked around the throne, and thronged the impe-
rial court of Constantino.

Instead then of repeating the vague and illusive
allegation, that the political establishment of
Christianity spoiled the spirituality of the Church,
and rendered it ambitious, proud, and secular, let us,
with a more exact regard to facts, be content to say, .
that, so far as ambition, pride, and secularity, really "
appear to have advanced in the Church of the fourth
century, as compared with the Church of the third,
this unhappy deterioration resulted from the sudden
change of its condition, and from those new circum-
stances of ease, security, and favour, which unavoid-
ably attended the revolution of opinion at the impe-
rial court.

IN THE FOURTH CENTURY. 195

If nothing had been attempted by Constantine in
church affairs, beyond what the most rigid modern
advocates of the non-establishment principle might
approve, or in other words, if he had simply tolerated,
and personally favoured Christianity, there is no room
to think that the danger to the simplicity and purity
of the Church would have been much less than ac-
tually it was. The mitred chiefs of Constantinople,
Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome, would not, any the
more, have paused on the course upon which already
they had gone so far. The clerical body, generally,
would not have receded to the point of apostolic hu-
mility and disinterestedness. The church chest would
not have been shut against the further liberality of
the people. No profitable superstition would have
been exploded, no mummery laid aside. The ghostly
temple of tyranny, to which the Gregories, the Ur-
bans, and the Innocents of after times put their mas-
ter hands, would yet have gone on, slowly and se-
curely rising to the heavens, upon the broad founda-
tions laid in tears and blood by the martyr-bishops of
the pristine ages.

The first of Constantine's measures, in regard to
the Church, was, as we see, one of mere justice; and
so was the second ; nor can either be made to bear
the blame of those ill consequences which, in the ac-
tual state of the Christian community, were their na-
tural results. At the time of the issuing of the terri-
ble edict of Nicomedia, the Churches, in all the more
opulent parts of the Roman empire, were in posses-
sion of great wealth — the fruits of the voluntary prin-
ciple, and which consisted, not merely in money,
plate, jewels, spices, and costly vestments, but in
houses and lands. The revenues of this wealth, toge-
ther with the copious and perpetual stream of offer-
ings, laid weekly upon the altar, and which consisted,
as well of mpney, as of provisions of every kind, ena-

196 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM,

bled the bishops and metropolitans not only to sup-
port large establishments, but to retain around (hem,
one might say, swarms of ecclesiastics, of every grade :
and moreover to make distributions among the poor
to an extent thaf, no doubt, had great influence in
swelling the numbers of the Church, and that formed
a silent, but efficacious counterpoise to the occasional
dangers and sufferings incident to a Christian profes-,
sion.

Unlike as were these religious corporations, in
most respects, to any thing heretofore seen in the Ro-
man world, their property would, in the eye of the
law, be at once regarded as analogous to the posses-
sions and revenues of the pagan hierarchies and tem-
ples. Nor could a question arise, on the point of ab-
stract justice, concerning the right of the holders or
trustees of this wealth. The amount of it might in-
deed be highly prejudicial to the religious well-being
of the Church; the motives of those who received,
and the conduct of those who bestowed it, might be
liable to the most serious exceptions ; and no doubt,
in some instances, the worst sort of influence had
been exerted to obtain that, in the granting of which
creditors, orphans^ or relatives, were grievously
wronged. But with considerations of this sort the go-
vernment had nothing to do. Law did not apply to
abuses of this order ; nor could it, on any principle, be
required of the emperor that lie should, in relation to
funds already accumulated, inquire into the particular^
sources whence they had flowed ; or ask whether]
they had most benefited or injured the community.

It was, we say, a measure of mere justice to au-5
thenticate the titles and possessions of religious corpo-
rations; that is to say, of the Christian Clunches.
Nor was it much more than just to insist upon the
restitution of houses and lands which, during the late
years of cruel persecution, had been wrenched from
the hands of the bishops by their rapacious pagan

IN THE FOURTH CENTURY. 197

fellow citizens. This measure, in itself equitable, was
moreover recommended to the approval of all, by the
liberality of the emperor, who met the difficulty that
arose in instances where such properties had passed
into other hands, by fair purchase; and where the
spoliator could not be found, or be made to refund.

On grounds of general equity and the usage of
civilized nations, this main act of Constantine's reli-
gious administration cannot be condemned; nor are
the principles or practices of any existing religious
parties such as may entitle them to blame it. And
yet, this same measure of justice did, in its actual ef-
fect upon the Christian commonwealth, by suddenly
restoring to the Churches large possessions, by secu-
ring to them, in the fullest manner, what they had
preserved, and by opening and fencing, for the clergy,
the broad road of cupidity and spiritual fraud, pro-
duce very ill consequences, and facilitate the advance
of every superstition and every solemn mockery.

The pure voluntary principle, as applied to the
maintenance of the clergy, had, at the close of the
third century, reached a point at which, as well for
the good of the community, as for the preservation
and honour of the Church, it needed some effectual
check". Such a check, drawn from motives of good
sense or piety, was not available ; and nothing could
have taken hold of it but a vigorous interference on
the part of the State ; or in other words, the bringing
to bear upon the abused and superstitious prodigality
of the people, the Church and State principle ; not
indeed by peremptory prohibitions (except in the mat-
ter of bequests) but by substituting a definite and
well regulated, for an indefinite and grossly deranged
system.

There is not a despotic machination, there is not
an encroachment upon the natural or rehgious rights
of mankind, there is not a perversion of doctrine, or
a superstition, or a farcical usage of a later and

17*

198 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM,

darker age, which may not, directly or indirectly, be
traced to the license and encouragement given to the
sacerdotal body to work upon tlie religious prodigality
of the people — as well the dying as the living. It
may indeed be imagined that the Church, in the
time of Constantine, had sunk into a condition past
remedy, or past any remedy which the State had the
power to apply ; yet this is not certain ; and some-
thing remedial might have been attempted : but then
that something must have consisted in bringing for-
ward the Establishment Principle in a way
not then thought of, and which we may well sup-
pose the clear-sighted chiefs of the then voluntary
Church would by no means have submitted 'o. —
Bishops, and tiieir clergy, understood their interests
far too well to have accepted even a munificent de-
finite maintenance, in lieu of the free olferings of
their flocks, and on the condition of declining those^
gratuities.

We are perpetually iiearing from ceitain quarters,
-of the first political establishment of Christianity as
the fatal blow which brought the true Church to the
ground, and laid Iier celestial honours in the dust. —
A mistake indeed ! Beside that Christianity was then
ah'eady deeply stained witli earthly impurities, it
may, on the most substantial grounds be affirmed,
that it was the want of a well-devised church-and-
state system — the want of an Establisiunent, wliich
made the revolution at court in favour of Christianity
extensively and lastingly injurious to the Christian
commonwealth. Adhering still to the line of proba-
bility, we may easily imagine a system which would
luwe given a new turn to the fortunes of the Church
(if the phrase may be allowed) would have arrested
the papal usurpation, would have broken up the con-
centration of spit itual powers, would have starved the-
monastery (a discipline which the professors of ex-
treme abstemiousness ought to have meekly received)

IN THE FOURTH CENTURY. 199

would have destroyed the marketable quality of su-
perstition, and, in a word, would have reduced church
corruption and ambition within some limits of mo-
desty and reason.

The imperial catechumen might indeed be permit-
ted to summon OBCumenic councils; and might be
allowed, when they w^ere convened, to occupy a
humble stool on the floor of the hall, in the midst of
the mitred fathers; and he might find leave too to
utter his opinions on points of theology : but it may
well be doubted if he was at any time so firmly seated
in the chair of ecclesiastical supremacy — although by
his adulators styled " chief bishop of the Church," as
would have enabled him to give effect to reasonable
and necessary restrictive financial measures. But let
it be supposed that so much power was actually at
his command, what then were those measures which
sound policy and a just regard to the interests as well
of the Church as of the empire demanded ?

In the first place, a provision of the most peremp-
tory sort was needed, not less in regard to the ultimate
welfare of the clergy, than for the sake of the com-
munity at large, against the corrupt influence exert-
ed by the former over feeble, and guilty, and alarmed
consciences, in obtaining bequests to the Church. —
On high theoretic grounds, indeed, and if it be
held always an outrage for the magistrate to come in
between the souls of men and the priest, an}' statute
aimed against alienations in mortmain must be con-
demned. A man, w^iether ill informed in theology
or not, is actually of opinion that his soul will fare
the better in the next world, in consequence of his
robbing his children, and bequeathing his estate to
the Church ; is it not then, it may be asked, a grie-
vous infringement of religious liberty to deny him the
opportunity of doing so? The wisest communities.
in modern tiiTies, have thought otherwise; nor have
they scrupled to interdict, at least the worst excesses

200 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM,

of this pernicious superstition. If some such prohibi-
tion could have been effected (and we may well doubt
its practicability) nothing, probably, would have had
a more beneficial and extensive influence in staying
the advance of rehgious abuses. Simply to have
declared null and void every bequesf, whether made
in the article of death, or previously, in favour of
religious corporations, would have given a new aspect
to church history.

Then again a reasonable extension of the very
same legislative principle should have been made to
touch the monastic system in a capital article of its
polity. Had those establishments been forcibly
brought to sland upon the ground of the motives
professed by their inmates, the entire system of far-
sical poverty would instantly and permanently have
been reduced to its natural dimensions : nor could
the folly have gone on, as in fact it did, to swallow
up the wealth of Christendom. The papacy, de-
prived of its monkish champions, could never have
reared its despotism to the skies. Now, be it re-
membered, that the fundamental principle of the
monastic life — the principle stiffly insisted upon, and
boasted of by its earliest promoters, was that of a
'death to the world, to its possessions, its relationship,
its hopes, its pleasures, and its duties. In the eye of
others, and by his own avowal, the monk stepped
into his grave when he entered his cloister : the law
then should have taken him at his word ; and should
have put his lofty professions to the reasonable test
of requiring him to bequeath his goods to his rela-
tives. The statute of mortmain (had such a statute
been in operation) should have attached those who
announced themselves to be civilly and socially
defunct ; and instead of their being allowed to throw
their fortune, whatever it might be, into the chest of
the religious house, which was to be their sepulchre,
they should have been compelled to divide it among

IN THE FOURTH CENTURY. 201

the living. A measure of this sort, though at vari-
ance with the doctrine of religious liberty, as inter-
preied by some, might have saved Europe a thou-
sand years of superstition.

It might seem too bold an assertion to say that
the master-spring of tlie religious system of the
fourth century was, the comiriand which the clergy
had then got of the sources of wealth ; or, in other
words, the play they had contrived to give to the
voluntary principle. INo revision of tlieological dog-
mas, no new canons of discipline, no ecclesiastical
sumptuary laws, would probably have done so much
toward bringing back the purity and disinterested-
ness of Christian practice and principle, as might
the simple establishment of an efficient financial sys-
tem, such as should have superseded, or gradually
have turned off, the unbounded profusion of the peo-
ple toward their clergy, and have introduced a defi-
nite and moderate, yet a sufficient public provision
for their maintenance. From the days of Ireneeus,
the clergy had been making frequent references to
the Levitical institution. They might then fairly
have been required to accept for themselves an ana-
logous system. The then existing property of the
Church being secured to it, would have afforded a
revenue fully adequate to the support of a proper
episcopal splendour, and to the defraying of inciden-
tal charges. Beyond this, an impost, equitably asses-
sed upon real property, might, without being felt as
oppressive, have yielded a reasonable competency to
so many of the ministers of religion as were actually
employed in useful services : and then a vast bene-
fit would have been done to the Church, and to the
community, by turning adrift the hundreds of sur-
pliced idlers that swelled the episcopal pageant in all
the great cities.

Those who please may insist upon abstract doc-
trines. Meanwhile, looking at simple facts, in a

202 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM,

common, and not a theoretic light, we venture to
affirm it as probable, that, if Constantine's Christian
Establishment had indeed been such, in the modern
sense of the term, and had included a just and uni-
form financial system, displacing the abused volun-
tary principle, and leaving the clergy nothing to hope
for, beyond a reasonable competency, and nothing to
think of, but their proper duties ; if this could have
been done, civilization and Christianity might both-
have been saved.

The church economy, modelled by Constantine,.
and his immediate successors, in the next place, in-
cluded certain arrangements, distributions, and con-
centrations of the existing ecclesiastical supremacies,
such as seemed necessary, or at least desirable, for
bringing the newly associated and powerful religious
body into analogy with the civil polity of the empire.
Some authorities, of ancient date, were confirmed j
some transferred ; some were extended, and others
made subordinate, until the one vast machine — the
spiritual, fitted into the movements of the other — the
secular.

These new arrangements, whatever they might
involve in their details, did by no means originate
either the principle or the practices of an extensive
church polity, and of a broad based hierarchy. They
merely induced a new and more regular form upon ,
that great economy of provincial government, and of
oecumenic relationship, which had already spread
itself over the Roman world. The only novelty of
principle^ on this occasion, was this, that such ar-
rangements should be effected by the civil author-
ity. Whoever is so minded may call in question
the abstract lawfulness of this interference of the
magistrate. But here again, as in the preceding
instance, while we w^aive theoretic and interminable
arguments, we are content, on plain and practical

IN THE FOURTH CENTURY. ' 203

grounds, to assume the probability that this new
modelling of the external Church, and the bringing
it into correspondence with the civil mechanism of
the empire; was for the better, rather than the worse ;
and that its tendency was to check, more than to
promote, the excesses of clerical ambition.

Nor can we stop at this point; but must candidly
profess to think, that the error of the imperial regene-
rator and rector of the Church, if any, was, not his
assuming to effect a more regular polity than that
which the accidents of time had brought about; but
that it was, on the contrary, his not carrying these
arrangements considerably further than he did: and
so reducing the osoumenic hierarchy to a counter-
poise, and a harmony, such as should have preclu-
ded the then fast advancing usurpations of the
bishop of Rome. Whether Constantino's power
■was really adequate to any such reform is doubtful,
probably it was not ; for already the opinion that fa-
voured j,he pretensions of St. Peter's successor had
gained great strength, and was widely diffused.

It was not, we say, less of the eslablishment prin-
ciple, but more of it, that was needed when first the
Church came under the wing of the States. AVhether
the superstition that sustained the throne of the Ro-
mish hieraich could then have been sifted and dis-
pelled, is not certain ; but there is little room to doubt
that an easy appeal to natural motives in the minds
I of the Patriarchs of Antioch, Alexandria, and Con-
stantinople, and the bishops of northern Africa, would
kave enabled the emperor to place the several centres
of church government on such a level, and to bring
their correspondence under such regulations, as must
have barred the ambitious course of the papacy.

At the moment of Constantino's conversion, the
relative importance of the eastern, western, and Afri-
[ can Churches, was such as well admitted of a re-
dressing and permanent adjustment of their respec-

204 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM,

live strength: and if human sagacity could have
foreseen the consequences that were to flow from the
withdrawment of the court, and of the imperial vigi-
lance from Italy, and the leaving there a house,
empty, swept and garnished, to be occupied by the
demon of ghostly despotism — the most vigorous
measures would have been adopted for keeping the
Romish prelate ill due subordination. No such pre-
cautions ware used ; and Rome a second time made
herself mistress of Europe.

The modification and belter adjustment of the
ecclesiastical polity of the empire was not etFected by
Oonstantine without some due regard to the distinc-
tion between the external and the internal concerns
of the Churcb. " We ourselves," says his biographer
and friend, " heard the emperor use such expres-
sions as these, one da}'', when entertaining an epis-
copal party at the royal table ; ' To you indeed is
committed by God tlie oversight of whatever belongs
to the inieiior of the Church ; and to me, what re-
lates to its external interests : — by God's appoint-
ment, 1 am bishop of these affairs.'" Oonstantine
was not a Tudor or a Stuart; and if the perversity
of some with whom he had to deal, had not gradu-
all}^ moved him from his position, there is reason to
think he would have restrained his interference in
religious matters within very reasonable bounds.

Even apart from the incidental difficulties that
arose in the course of his administration, it was not
likely, in that age, that tbe due line, which separates
theological and purely spiritual afuxirs from the secular
or poliiicnl interests of the Church, should have been
well understood ; or if understood, consistently re-
garded : in fact, it very soon came to be entirely
overlooked ; and while bishops were allowed still to
exercise jurisdiction of a civil sort, which, now that
the State had become Christian, should have been

IN THE FOURTH CENTURY. 105

altogether removed from their hands, the emperor,
on his part, was importuned by the bishops to arbi-
trate in rehgious controversies, and in questions of
discipline. In this article of the new system, there-
fore, although the rule avowed by Constantine might
be valid, the practice which gained ground is certainly
not to be imitated.

We say the rule was good ; and if expressed
more at large, it amounts to this — That, while re-
ligion, in its primary and more momentous import,
regards the condition of souls, individually, in their
relation to God, and to the future life, it is also,
though in a secondary, yet not an unimportant sense,
an interest of the present life, and a main element
of the social well-being of mankind. In its first
sense, religion comes under the control and direction
of the ministers of religion — the clergy ; and any
intrusion of the magistrate, as such, within this
sacred circle, or any endeavour to bring the senti-
ments proper to it under the constraint of law, is a
usurpation that ought to be resisted, even to death.
But in its second sense, or as a fulcrum of order, and
a cement of public peace, and as a rule of manners,
and a sanction of civil virtue, religion not only may,
but must be cared for, and be upheld, and be regu-
lated by the State. How much soever the magis-
trate, in any instance, may desire to relieve his
hands of this burden, he finds he cannot do so with-
out an abandonment of his duty. What is not sus-
tained, will decay ; what is not kept in order, will
fall into confusion.

On points of this sort, men of the closet — those
who are as fond of theory, as they are inexperienced
in the affairs of real life, and who hold in contempt
any dictates of prudence which they do not know
how to connect with abstract principles, will never
grant us their acquiescence. Meanwhile, if intrust-
\^ ed, directly or indirectly, with the serious interests of

18

206 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM

a commuQity, we must advance, with or without a
theory, on the safe ground of common sense. The
morals of a nation are to be guarded ; sentiments of
awe toward the Divine Majesty are to be cherished ;
the instruction (and, to be efficacious, it must be a
religious instruction) of the people, far from being
abandoned to the efforts of precarious zeal, must be
secured on a broad foundation ; and more than this,
those extensive interests of the Church, and those
modifications and adaptations, made necessary by
the revolutions of time, which no individuals, pri-
vately, are in a position to superintend, and which,
moreover, the Church itself is often tardy in attend-
ing to, demand a vigilant regard ; and must, at in-
tervals, receive a vigorous impulse from the magis-
trate or the legislature.

Certain modern refinements of opinion, which
would restrain a prince, or a legislature, from taking
thought of the most important of all the earthly in-
terests of a people (we say earthly ^ for we here ex-
clude what is strictly spiritual) never, we may be
sure, occurred to the mind of Constantine ; and we
find him, without scruple, legislating and issuing
edicts in conformity with those higher and purer
principles of morality which he had learned from the
Gospel. The expediency, or even the justice of cer-
tain of his measures may be questioned, or may be
denied ; and especially we must condemn his intru-
sions, though they were not frequent, upon purely
theological ground. We must also, and without a
doubt, reprobate those few acts — they were but few,
in which, at the instigation of the clergy, he used
severities against schismatics. But it is an error to
suppose, as some appear to do, that Constantino's
personal temper and conduct, toward the Church,
were dogmatical and cruel ; or that the leading prin-
ciple of his polity was intolerant.

f

I

%

IN THE FOURTH CENTURY. 207

A careful consideration of the circumstances of the
times, and a knowledge of facts, are requisite, before
a sweeping censure should be passed upon the course
pursued by the first Christian emperoi's toward their
pagan subjects. This course was indeed far from
being always consistent with the principle whence
professedly it sprung ; nor was the principle itself
altogether such as our modern notions of religious
liberty will approve. The principle avowed was, that
the worship of false gods, and ail customs therewith
connected, were to be, by all means — not excluding
the most extreme, suppressed, as immoral and impi-
ous. But while severities were resorted to in some
instances, a connivance was admitted in others, which
brouglit into suspicion the imperial sincerity, and
operated to protract the adherence of the upper classes
to the ancient idolatries.

Polytheism has never been otherwise than grossly
impure, and horribly cruel in its practices. Both
these characteristics belonged to it in a high degree,
such as it had come down to the age of the Christian
emperors. The Egyptian rites, perpetrated constant-
ly, and in open day, on the banks of the Nile, were
insufferably obscene : so, though in a less oflfensive
degree, were many of the usages of the Grecian and
Roman worship. Horrid and sanguinary rites pre-
vailed among the less civilized and outskirt nations
of the empire ; and indeed, without looking so far,
the bloody shows of the amphitheatre, although not
strictly a part of the old religion, had become firmly
connected with it, and had come under its patronage,
and their enormity was boundless and shameless. —
These various abominations could not consist with
the public profession, or with the maintenance and
spread of Christianity. Christianity might indeed
endure them while she was herself depressed and
bleeding : but she could no longer bear the offence,

208 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM,

when calmly seated at the right hand of the secular
power.

To talk of the rights of conscience, in relation to
cruelties and obscenities — called religious, is a ridi-
culous affectation. Those who choose so to amuse
themselves, may deny the right of the magistrate to
interfere in any case with the worship and belief of a
people ; but assuredly a sound-minded prince will not
hesitate a moment, when once he finds himself able
to prohibit pious murders, and pious prostitutions ; or
to suppress any system of oppression and knavery,
which may take the mask of devotion. Thus felt
Constantine, and his successors ; and they actually
effected the removal and extinction, throughout the
empire, of many of the worst practices of heathen-
ism : — the reform was great and important.

But it would be unfair to expect that the distinc-
tion between those religious practices which are in-
compatible with the maintenance of public morals, or
with the security of life, and what is strictly matter
of opinion and religious sentiment, should, in that
age, have been understood and respected, either by
emperors or by their clerical advisers. In truth, it is
found, even now, an affair of considerable practical
difficulty to draw the line safely when we have to do
with the usages of a corrupt superstition. If the ad-
ministration of our Indian possessions presents many
perplexing instances of the collision of theoretic prin-
ciples with the maxims of government, it is no wonder
that the first Christian princes often erred, as well in
principle aa in their measures, when called upon to
deal — inexperienced as they were, with the abomi-
nations of polytheism. To have given no check to
the sanguinary rites practised under their eye, and
to have connived at the pollutions of the Phoenician
and Egyptian temples (not to mention others little
less atrocious) would infallibly have brought their
sincerity into question, in the view, as well of their

IN THE FOURTH CENTURY. 209

pagan, as of their Christian subjects ; and must have
rendered nugatory all their endeavours for the fur-
therance of the Gospel.

And yet, in taking the only course which they
could think open to them — namely, that of authori-
tatively proscribing the grosser and the more cruel
usages of Paganism, and in actually employing the
public force for the extermination of these evils, the
emperors advanced upon ground, and brought the
Church with them upon the ground, where nothing
could happen but that both should learn the bad
lessons of religious intolerance. The sword, drawn
against polytheism, would, in the next moment, be
turned upon heretics and schismatics. Considering
the spirit and notions of the age, we ought to wonder
rather that this was done so seldom, than that it was
done at all. In truth, Constantine exhibited an ex-
treme reluctance to the use of compulsory measures,
and ordinarily stopped short in breaking up the con-
venticles of those who separated themselves from the
Church. Nevertheless the fatal precedent of Chris-
tian PERSECUTION w^as formally given, and sanc-
tioned ; and the Church, through a long course of
ages, went on to wade, without remorse, in a path
sodden with Christian tears and Christian blood. —
We should commiserate, as much as condemn, those
whose unfortunate position, in a manner, compelled
them to take steps upon a slippery descent, where the
human foot could hardly secure a standing.

One other article of Constantino's ecclesiastical
polity (already adverted to in passing) remains to be
more distinctly spoken of; and here again, w^hat we
have to blame, is not the carrying the church and
state system, and the establishment principle, too far ;
but the not carrying them far enough. The Church,
or we should now say, the episcopal chief:?, had not
only accumulated great wealth, but had drawn to

18*

210 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM,

themselves very extensive judicial powers, stretched,
by various pretexts, from a narrow circle, until ques-
tions and controversies of almost every sort were
brought within their sphere. The bishops' daily em-
ployments, in the larger sees, were more secular than
spiritual ; and he was seen oftener, and listened to
more eagerly, on the bench, dividing inheritances,
than in the pulpit, teaching piety.

This enormous evil — whence sprung the worst
usurpations, and which furnished occasions to clerical
rapacity, and was the principal means of throwing
into the hands of the Church a power that enabled
her, in the end. to vanquish and trample upon the
civil authority — this great mischief should doubtless
have been altogether removed. The original plea
on which, by the apostolic sanction, secular differ-
ences among the faithful were to be referred to an ar-
bitration within the Church, namely, the shame to
the Gospel implied in exposing the discords of Christ-
ians before the unbelieving world, was nullified when
the bishop's hall had become as public a place as the
courts of civil law: and when the principles of Christ-
ian equity were respected in the one judicature as
much as in the other ; and when, moreover, the cus-
tom of appeal to ecclesiastical authority had reached
an extent absolutely incompatible with the discharge
of the spiritual functions of the bishops.

With the highest advantage to all parties, this ill
practice might have been brought to a close. There
could be no consistenc)^, and little validity, in the pro
ceedings of civil courts, while such an intermingling
of jurisdictions continued : it was at once a rottenness
in the State, and an ulcer in the bosom of the Church.
But hov^ apply the remedy? Notwithstanding the
adulation addressed to the emperors by tonsured and
mitred sycophants, there is little reason to think they
ever possessed power enough over their ambiguous
spiritual consort to effect a reform of this kind. The

M

IN THE FOURTH CENTURY. 211

Church, demure in mien, and abject in tongue, knew
very well what was substantial in the prerogatives
she had acquired during her days of depression ; nor
was she at all likely to surrender, in the summer
time of favour and prosperity, what she had won in
the winter of her sorrow.

Even the people, perhaps, might have come for-
ward to sustain their clergy in resisting the abolition
of the episcopal jurisdiction. A propensity to resort
to vague, rather than to well-defined means of secu-
ring doubtful interests, belongs to human nature, and
especially among the uninformed classes. There
were hopes and chances, attaching to the bishops' de-
cision, which would not seem compensated by the
stern and well-regulated justice of civil courts. Be
this as it may, the dangerous and corrupting influence,
over common interests, over persons, and property,
long before obtained by the ministers of Christian-
ity, instead of being superseded, was confirmed by
the emperors. Here then we find one of the chief
engines of spiritual despotism — an engine constructed
and brought into play during the pristine era of the
Church, left in operation, because the Church had
already become too strong for the State. If the civil
authority had been able to eflfect an establishment, in
the modern sense of the term, and with a firm hand
had put the Church in her place, and had assumed to
itself its proper functions and prerogatives, the former
would have found her path of encroachment barred :
— she must henceforth have minded her duties.

Ill was this fatal dereliction of its rights and func-
tions, on the part of the civil power, compensated by
the prerogative which the emperors reserved to them-
selves of convening oecumenic councils, or by the
right of investiture. The one was a power, the exer-
cise of which might be of doubtful expediency, and of
small practical value; the latter was a usurpation,
not to be justified on abstract principles, and produc-

212 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM,

tiye, in most instances, of fruitless and perilous con-
tentions between princes and prelates. This same
want of a clear and peremptory demarcation between
the spiritual and the temporal elements of power, and
this mutual intrusion of the two authorities upon
each other's duties, was the leading fault of those ar-
rangements that followed the pubhc recognition of
Christianity. Had such a partition been effected by
Constantine, the result must have been the cashier-
ing the clergy of extensive powers and opportunities
of aggrandizement, which they had secured to them-
selves under the voluntary system, and by the means
of it.

But the auspicious season for bringing about a
well-defined national establishment, and for hemming
in spiritual ambition, was lost (that is to say, lost^ if
Constantine actually had the power to curb the
Church, as well as to favour it.) The sinews of the
hierarchical tyranny were left to it; and while it
gained flesh and blood and beauty — corpulence and
complexion, from the nutriment of state patronage, it
did not, in any degree, lose its internal vigour, or be-
come less enterprising, or less bold and assiduous,
with its increase of bulk and marrow. At the era of
Constantine's conversion, Esther bowed and fainted
in the presence of Ahasuerus; but Ahasuerus forgot
his discretion as a prince ; and though he kept his
throne, and spoke as lord and sovereign, he allowed
the fair suppliant, in the end, to make her own terms,
and to secure her future ascendancy.

The several articles of Constantine's religious
polity, to which we have adverted, are chiefly of an
exterior and visible sort ; and in these it is manifest
that, whatever might be the submissive style of ec-
clesiastical leaders, and how magisterial soever might
be the tones of this imperial Rector of the Church,
every substantial advantage was left in her hands,

4

IN THE FOURTH CENTURY. 213

and the civil authority, far from having brought the
spiritual power into subserviency to itself, or even
into a position of permanent equipoise, in the man-
ner which we think of as proper to a national es-
tablishment, confirmed and secured to it the en-
croachments it had already made. All that had got
wrong in the working of the voluntary machine du-
ring the preceding two centuries, was set forward with
a new impetus, instead of being redressed by vigor-
ous enactments ; — enactments such as would have
amounted to what we intend and desire in an Es-
tablished Church.

The progress of Church Power, in regard to its
external conditions, and especially as concentrating
around the see of Rome, has been fully exhibited by
several eminent modern writers, and is a subject
familiar to English ears. To go over this ground
anew, would be here superfluous ; and besides, in the
present volume, we keep our eye rather upon the
substance and occult principle of Spiritual Despotism,
than upon what may be called its political steps or
those circumstances and revolutions of which the
historian takes account.

We have then yet to make inquiry concerning
the not-obtruded spirit and feehng of the Church
(that is to say, of its chiefs) in the era now under
review, and while the open subjugation of the secu-
lar authority was only in preparation : during this
ambiguous period, she visibly bowed before the im-
perial throne, but really was mistress of affairs,
and seems to have conceived the idea of grasping
every sort of authority.

One cannot peruse the orations and epistles of the
time without perceiving that the clergy distinctly felt
their strength, that strength which they drew from
I their intimate influence with a large class of the
I people. No longer in dread of the open hostility

214 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM

which the principles of the Gospel forbade them to
oppose, they threw themselves upon the vast and
undefined means of their power, and spoke in a tone
such as the court could not fail to understand. The
force of Christianity over the popular mind (when
actually affected by it) is indeed incalculable ; and
this force had been rather enhanced than diminished
by the spread of superstition. Then the usage of
preaching, unknown to paganism, had brought the
mass of society under an influence analogous to that
which the orators of ancient Greece and Rome had
exercised. This influence, moreover, was, if we
might use such a simile, pulverized, and applied in
the most pungent and caustic form to the entire sen-
sitive surface of the Christian community, by the
practices of catechetical instruction, and of private
confession, and by that individual cure of souls to
which the clergy assiduously addicted themselves.

The dark cloud that passed over the Church du-
ring the short inimical reign of Julian, served to
bring to view the real temper of the leading men of
the times.— So, amid the dazzling beams of a noon-
day sun, we do not distinguish the fires that have
been kept alive in a camp covering a distant plain ;
but if the heavens become suddenly overcast with
stormy volumes of vapour, we then instantly per-
ceive the smouldering heaps, here and there, which
glow and brighten, and which the huffing gusts of
the coming tempest soon fan into a flame.

The orations of Gregory Nazianzen, and two of
the epistles of Basil, not to look further, afford indi-
cations enough of the feeling, or of the preparation
of feeling, working in episcopal bosoms, when the
christian body found itself again threatened with
hostility. A very great, and we may say, a very
improbable revolution in principles and maxims
must have taken place before Christians could have
thought of opposing force to force ; and happily, the

IN THE FOURTH CENTURY. 215

fall of their adversary very early broke up any me-
ditations (if actually revolved) of an unbecoming
sort. But this unexpected check served to exhibit
a consciousness of power in the Church, and deep-
ened it too. Accustomed as we are, in modern times,
and notwithstanding the spirit of freedom that is
abroad, to respect the courtesies due to royalty de-
funct, our ears are startled by the harsh and rancor-
ous invectives heaped upon the name of the apos-
tate, by the Churchmen of the day. It might have
been supposed that, though the family of Constan-
tine had now no surviving avenger, the wearers of
the purple would have resented these insults to the
dead, as touching their own dignity.

The changing circumstances of the Arian con-
troversy, in its course through the fourth century,
elicited many portentous expressions of church feel-
ing, we do not say of church arrogance, in relation
to the imperial authority. Hilary of Poictiers, Mar-
tin of Tours, and Ambrose of Milan, as appears
from their writings, or from their reported speeches
and conduct, knew themselves to stand in a posi-
sition such as allowed them to measure forces with
the State.

But the spiritual energy of the spiritual despotism
of this period, was shown when at length occasions
arose calling for the application of the wonted disci-
pline of the Church to imperial delinquents. Now,
when these instances meet us, we should by no

I means hastily blame the bold impartiality of the
bishops who dared to reprove sin upon the throne ;
on the contrary, their intrepidity, and especially if
we could think it simple minded, claims admiration.
Yet it is highly improbable that these punitive

I measures would either have been attempted on the
one side, or submitted to on the other, unless church
rulers had well understood the breadth and firmness

216 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM,

of the ground they then occupied, and unless princes
had understood it too.

The well known conduct of Ambrose toward
Theodoaius, which indeed fell little short of that of
the popes of the twelfth century toward the princes
of their time, puts beyond reasonable doubt the asser-
tion that, though the civil and the ecclesiastical au-
thorities were then in a relative position, such as
apparently left the supremacy with the former, pub-
lic opinion had reached a point which allowed the
latter to say and do almost whatever its own discre-
tion might admit. It is well, in any age, when the
high principles of christian morality are so regarded,
and have such force, that the mightiest monarchs
feel themselves compelled to yield obedience to church
censures. But this can happen only under two
conditions ; that is to say, either when genuine
Christian virtue so governs the sentiments of the
mass of mankind, as that discipline takes effect, as it
were, spontaneously; or else, when clerical arro-
gance has reached a height that enables it to indulge
in the gratification of smiting a crowned and anoint-
ed head. Now we cannot contemplate the moral
condition of the Roman world in the age of Ambrose,
and believe that Theodosius bowed to the majesty of
public virtue. What he actually bowed to was, the
terrors and the pride of spiritual despotism.

This single instance, looked at by itself, or as a
scene in a drama, compels our admiration, and we
can do nothing but applaud the holy intrepidity of
the minister of heaven. Had the same courage
always, as in this case, been exerted on the side of
humanity, no reputation would have stood higher
than that of Ambrose. That he himself sincerely
regarded those great principles of religion and virtue,
to which he compelled his sovereign to do homage,
cannot fairly be doubted. But there were other
principles, and there was another object, inseparably

IN THE FOURTH CENTURY. 217

connected in his mind with purer motives, and which
swayed his conduct with at least an equal force.
These principles involved the transcendency of church
power ; and this fond object was the very same,
afterwards so boldly pursued, and at length achieved)
by the papal court, namely, the absolute subjugation
of the secular, to the spiritual power. It is quite im-
possible to doubt the identity of purpose and of prin-
ciple, when the language used by the chiefs of the
hierarchy is traced backward, shall we say, from the
Decretals of Gregory IX. and thence to the epistles of
Innocent III. and thence to those of Gregory VII. ;
and again to the writings of Gregory the Great, and
of St. Leo, and of Ambrose ? Nay, our retrogres-
sive inquiry should not stop there ; for the very same

.style and terms meet us, scarcely disguised, in the
pages of Cyprian.

During this long course of time, though at a first
glance we may think we see the Church, not merely
patronized and favoured, buL governed by the State,
a very little attention to facts, and to the half-utter-
ed sentiments of ecclesiastics, is enough to convince
us that the real relative position of the two powers
was the reverse of what it appeared. On the one
side tliere was a growing consciousness of indepen-
dent authority, and on the other a feeling of virtual
subjection, poorly compensated by the forms of im-
perial rule, or by single exertions of power. The
churcbi-and-state system (if such it can be called)
from tiie time of Tiieodosius, and onward, was, in its

; essence, whether or not in its form, the opposite of

[ our modern national establishments : and if we can
only imagine, what in trulii seems unlikely, that an

: entire community — -its upper and its lower classes,
should come as fully under the power of arbitrary

r religious motives, as did the mass of the Christian
community in the fourth and fifth centuries', a non-
established bishop (or presbyter) of an English or

19

218 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM,

American city, might copy the pattern of an Am-
brose or an Urban, and chastise and humiliate kings
and emperors. What renders the recurrence of any
such acts of clerical arrogance improbable, is not the
present feeble condition of ecclesiastical establish-
ments, but the decay and dispersion of those deep
feelings on which superstition founds its power.

Before we lose sight of the archbishop of Milan,
it may be proper to advert to circumstances which,
though they scarcely attract notice on the page of
history, are yet significant as sliowing the tendency
of church affairs. Again and again it happened,
when Theodosius visited his spiritual lord, coming
fresh from the oriental pomps of his Constantino-
politan court, and being surrounded by obsequious
Greeks, that he had to be schooled anew in the hard
lesson of the nothingness of earthly distinctions, and
the subserviency of the temporal to the spiritual
authority. At home, when attending the celebration
of the "sacred mysteries," courtesy assigned to the
emperor an elevated place, near the altar : but not
so at Milan ; for Ambrose could grant no precedency
to a mere layman, such as might seem to put him
upon an equality with the sacerdotal order. What
was the lustre of the purple when looked at in the
light of consecrated candles ! " My son, stand
among the people, without the rail." " When," re-
plied the childlike master of the world, '■ when shall
I learn that an emperor is not a priest ?" Theo-
dosius in Italy had to forget the Theodosius of the
eastern empire. The behaviour of Martin of Tours
to Maximus is quite in accordance with that of Am-
brose. The Western Church had, at a very early
time after the conversion of Constantine, and the re-
moval of the Court to Byzantium, gained so far
upon the secular power, as to be in fact, if not in
form, on the ascendant side. The two forces, it may
be said, were atill in equipoisCj because a nominal

IN THE FOURTH CENTURY. 219

supremacy -\vas accorded to the emperors; but the
leading prelates of the Latin Church, from the first,
breathed the soul of unborn popes.

The preparations for the papacy — that is to say,
the church ascendency of Italy and of Rome, its
centre, had already been carried very far, and almost
every changing fortune, as well of the eastern as of
the western empire, opened the path to its usurpa-
tions. So, when the waters of a flood are rising,
whether the swelHng torrents are opposed and made
angry by firm embankments, or ingress is given to
them by the fall of barrier after barrier, still the issue
is the same ; — the tide rises, inch by inch ; hill after
hill disappears, and at length nothing but here and
there some signal of ruin breaks the waves of the
universal deluge.

But turning aside from the gradual advance of the
PAPACY, and bestowing our attention rather upon the
real springs of that spiritual despotism which the pa-
pacy inherited and employed, we find, during the
fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, the rules and prac-
tices of church discipline reaching a state which left
almost every sort of encroachment upon the secular
authority open to the discretion of ecclesiastics. The
engine of this discipline was plied, or was stayed, in
particular instances, in accordance with the policy of
the moment, or the temper and courage of pontiffs
and their agents. It was a power — now held in abey-
ance— now produced and moderately worked, to in-
spire a necessary fear; and now brouglit to bear
with all its terrors upon some unfriended delinquent.

The assumed grounds, and the chief points of this
church discipline, will claim to be briefly considered
in the next Section. They were indeed all devised
; and produced, and more or less put in force, during
that preliminary era which has now been under re-
view ; but they will be examined to best advantage,
such as we find them professed without reserve, and

220 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM,

acted upon without scruple, from the pontificate of
Gregory the Great, down to the time of the Luther-
an Reformation.

In the east, the Church, at once patronized and
repressed by the immediate presence of imperial
power, retained, to the last, its servility, and existed
Ooly as a pomp of the court. But in the west, sacer-
dotal ambition took a free course ; the difference of
national temperament favouring those accidental cir-
cumstances of the empire which gave it room. Dur-
ing the later years of this era of counterpoise, it is
manifest, as well in relation to the east as the west,
though far more decisively with the latter, that the
occult motive of concession to secular authority, on
the part of the Church, was the need it still felt of
the imperial arm for the suppression of heresy and
schism. '^ Lend us your sword when we want it, and
we will call you master." This was the language
of patriarchs and popes, and this the reason of moder-
ation and obedience on the one side, and of the con-
tinuance of a nominal supremacy on the other. A
relative bearing not very unlike to this, and which
we must hereafter more distinctly advert to, subsisted
between Church and State in England from the re-
formation to the revolution. Except for giving effect
to its sentences of banishment, confiscation, and death,
the Church wanted nothing which the State had to
bestow. Already it had established its irresponsible
domination over the minds of mankind — it ruled
their hopes — it ruled their fears— it grasped their perr
sons, their wealth, their souls ; it claimed earth, it
disposed of heaven : none could speak or breathe, on
this mortal scene, without its leave ; none go out of
it safely, without its passport. The magistrate yet
held the sword — the public force was under his cout
trol, and for this sole reason, the Church did him
homage.

IN THK FOURTH CENTURY.

221

The era of the counterpoise of the secular and
spiritual powers was not tlie period of a church-and-
state alHance, in the modern, or in any proper sense
of the phrase; but of an ambiguous and changing
contest between two independent forces, never really
adjusted, never in harmony ; a contest marked by
the slow but sure advances of the insidious party,
and terminated by a prouder and more unlimited
triumph than itself had imagined. The moment of
the consummation of this victory we shall not attempt
to fix.

19^

222 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM,

SECTION VII.

THE CHURCH ASCENDANT.

It might tenti, not a little, to dispel some delu^^ive
impressions, common to the protestant world, if a
phrase could be found which, while characteristic of
the superstitious and despotic system that, from the
second and third centuries supervened, and displaced
Christianity, should clearly separate it from its acci-
dental connexion with the papacy, and the Romish
hierarchical tyranny. The popes occupied, and
turned to their particular advantage, this vast and re-
fined system of error and oppression ; but the system
itself has deeper roots, is more recondite, more intel-.
lectual, and is more ancient than the usurpation of
the bishops of Rome. Nor is this all ; for the spiritual
essence of popery has outlived the overthrow of the
papal domination, or the proper power of Rome ; and
(which is a significant truth) it may survive the total
dispersion and final dissolution of that hierarchy of
which the pope is head and organ.

There is, then, some substantial and practical im-
portance in an inquiry concerning those theoretic
axioms to which the Papacy gave visible and audible
expression. What were the grasping princi|)les that
imparted strength and vitality to popery, and which,
without supposing any thing chimerical, may start
forth afresh, and rule the world again, when popery
shall be found no where but on the page of history ?

Instead then of occupying our present narrow space,
as might easily be done, with graphic descriptions of

THE CHURCH ASCENDANT. 22S

that state of society, and of that order of character,
which the despotism of Rome, while at its height, en-
gendered ; and instead of adducing striking instances
of the cruehies and the abominations that attended
its prevalence ; and instead of attempting an histori-
cal synopsis of the steps of its advance and decline :
and instead of giving the reins to our emotions of in-
dignation and abhorrence in the view of its tyranny,
perfidy, and corruption, we shall endeavour calmly,
and as concisely as possible, to set forth, in its several
leading articles, the theory of spiritual despotism,
such as it may be gylhered from the church writers
of the times when it had reached its full proportions.

Some passing hints excepted, the author does not
here assume the task of refuting the principles he has
to exhibit. In truth, the most convincing refutation
of them we have always at hand, in the horrors and
the religious debauchery to which they gave support.

Let it be kept in mind, that, when speaking of
church despotism, as in the plenitude of its power,
we are thinking of the three or four centuries that
date their commencement from the pontificate of Hil-
debrand ; yet always remembering that those dog-
days of spiritual arrogance were distinguished from
the preceding era, more by the firm and digested con-
dition of its maxims, and by the bold avowal of them,
than by any real difference of principle. If the read-
er has been accustomed to think that the popery of
St. Dunstan, St. Becket, and St. Dominic, was the
popery of those times, distinctively, he will do well
to take in hand the bulky folio that contains the De-
cretals of Gregory IX., ^'here he will find the adult
popery of that pontiff's era set out in all its rules and
practices, even to the most minute points, and these,
often sustained by, or expressed in, the very words of
the great writers of the fourth and earlier centuries.
If any are not convinced of it, let them give the ne-
cessary diligence to learn the certainty of this truth —

224 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

that the spiritual despotism which spoke ia the popes,
is now sixteen years old, and rather more. And more-
over, let it be understood, and maturely considered,
that the Lutheran reformation was an assaulr., much
rather upon the Papacy, and upon its special errors
and superstitions, than upon the theory and princi-
ples of the spiritual despotism, of which the papacy
was the accidental form.

A second reformation, and it must be an extensive
one, remains to be attempted and achieved — by our
sons, such as shall bring the Church home to its rest-
ing-place upon the foundation of the '' Apostles and
Prophets."

The THEORY of the spiritual despotism embodied
in the Romish superstition, and fully realized during
the middle ages, may conveniently be exhibited under
five articles, each of which makes itself felt in every
practice and principle of the Church ; and each is a
pillar, the removing of which would have brought
the whole edifice to the ground. These articles we
thus enumerate. —

I. That inasmuch as religion is of supreme im-
portance and of infinite moment, whatever directly
or indirectly promotes or obstructs the spiritual well-
being of mankind, carries a consequence immensely
outweighing even the most important secular interests.
The very least of those duties, or claims, or func-
tions, that are connected with God and eternity, is
therefore to be held greater than the greatest of the
things of earth ; nay, than all these temporal and
terrestrial affairs put together.

II. The spiritual well being of mankind, or, in a
word, the relations of man to God and eternity, are
placed under the control of a visible corporation — the
Church, and under a rectorship — that of its head,
apart from whose jurisdiction there can be no safety
here or hereafter.

THE CHURCH ASCENDANT. 22^

III. This control and rectoisbip is, by the express
appointment of heaven, one ; nor in the nature of
things, can it be divisible : it is moreover unchanging
and perpetual.

IV. Every ordinary act and spiritual office, and
every decision or decree of this one rectorial authori-
ity, is infallibly good, efficacious, and, in the estima-
tion of Heaven, valid; and this notwithstanding

* the frailty, or errors, or peisonal improbity, or impie-
ty, of the individual from whose lips and hands it
m^ at any time proceed.

V. The function of this perpetual rectorial author-
ity includes three charges ; namely, the preservation
of truth, the pre&ervation of morals, and the dispo-
sal of souls in the eternal state.

It will be proper to show the practical exposition
given of these articles severally, by the Romish
Church ; and in that exposition we shall find a
sufficient refutation of them. But let the reader
bear in mind, as we advance, the readiness with
which the principles as here stated, while viewed in
an abstract form, might recommend themselves, even
to tbe most vigorous and iipright minds, as excel-
lent and unexceptionable. Some of the greatest
and the best of men, in surrendering themselves,
body and soul, to the Romish Church, have step-
ped back from the particular practices of that Church,
and have taken their standing, as they thought im-
movably, upon the theory of church power, such, in
substance, as we have now to state it. The
thorough sincerity and virtuous intention of many
of the most zealous champions of the papacy may
well be admitted, Alas, the condition of humanity !
How should we commiserate, and how tenderly
bear with each other, as the unconscious victims of-
ten of illusions ! and how should each bring to the
severest test his own conduct and convictions ! The
lesson of modesty and charity should indeed be

226 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

gathered from the humiliating pages of church his-
tory. The pious and the upright we find ; but
where find those who have been altogether exempt
from infatuations?

The religious theory and polity we have now (o
analyze could never have been imagined by minds of
that inferior class which, with a consciousness of tur-
pitude, pursues base ends by base means ; on the
contrary, spirits of the loftiest order, and these in-
tensely aflfected by the most powerful motives which
human nature can admit, and accustomed to gi^sp
the largest ideas, were the authors of this vast
scheme of government. Nevertheless, it was a scheme
that could not have been brought to bear upon the
social system without the constant co-operation of
the cruel and the false. This indeed is the singu-
larity of the papal superstition (we must still use the
special designation, in want of one more proper and
comprehensive) that it has, in every age, brought
into close alliance the noblest and the most abomina-
ble natures. In the present instance we have to |
think of it such as it has proceeded from the former, '
and intend to review it in that light in which it has
fascinated their regards.

I. The sublimity that attaches to the highest
truths surrounds the fundamental principle of this
mighty system. Christianity has thrown open to
man the portals of eternity : whatever heretofore
had been thought great, and noble, or momentous, '
now shrinks and disappears. The relation of the
human spirit to the Infinite Spirit, and its future
alternative of unbounded good or ill, involve what is
too vast to be placed for a moment in counterpoise
with even the weightiest earthly interests. These
objects, if once they command the soul, and are in-
wardly revolved, and become combined with the
moral sentiments, carry all ordinary motives in their
train; nothing, with reason, can come in to relax

TTE CHURCH ASCENDANT. 227

their energy. It was on the strength of these very
motives that the first Christians "took joyfully the spoil-
ing of tfieir goods," and that they amazed the world
by their readiness to meet tortures and fiery deaths.
On the strength of these same motives the Christian,
individually, and in every age, if he be such in truth,
^^ counts all things as loss," and refuses to think the
sufterings of the present season, even at the worst,
worthy to be set off against the future glory. So
far all is well, and especially while, in each practical
application of this high and just principle, a careful re-
gard is had to the explicit demands of present duty.
The ascetic, though he rightly esteems the world as
lighter than a bubble, if weighed against heaven,
forgets that, although nothing else is substantial in
the present life, its duties are.

We have only now to ascend a few steps higher,
80 as to reach a position whence the eye may com-
mand the spiritual welfare of mankind at large, or
that of great communities. Our individual interests
and relationship to God and eternity being dismis-
sed, or being duly secured, and done with, we go on
to apply to others the rule we have applied to our-
selves. And this we may do, whether or not those
for whom we undertake to care are conscious of
their personal welfare in this behalf : nay, the less
they are themselves alive to what so much imports
them, the more urgent is the call of charity to care
for them. But this sovereign regard to the eternal
well-being of our fellows, involves many indirect, as
well as direct, methods of procedure. Those around
•r US) far and near, whom w^e reckon to be in danger
( of perdition, are not to be reclaimed merely by per-
sonal entreaty and instruction ; but by the working
of a certain instituted machinery of moral and spi-
ritual means. Our philanthropy must take the
course marked out for it, and no other. To depart
from that course, would be at once to spend our ef-

228 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM*

forts in vain^ and to provoke the displeasure of Hira
who alone can render them efficacious.

We reach then, and in a form adapted to practical
application, the prime principle of the system before
us. A scheme of moral and spiritual means for the
benefit of mankind, having been permanently esta-
blished by the Author of Christianity, all the indivi^
dual labours, and desires, and projects, in behalf of
their fellow-men, of those who profess fealty to Christ,
must flow in this one channel ; or to change the
figure, must be made to converge upon this one centre,
and from that centre must again emanate. In othef
words, the well-being of mankind can mean nothing
else but the well-being, the honour, the power, the
efficacy, and the enlargement of the Church » How
circuitous soever may be the track our benevolence
pursues, it must (unless it be worse than useless)
come round to this home— the Church : not so
brought home, it is idle, fruitless, presumptuous,
impious.

Rehgion is granted to be of infinite moment. The
interests of the present life — its wealth, honours,
pains, pleasures, taken at the highest rate, are only
of finite value ; and therefore, according to the sound-
est rule of comparison, the smallest religious interest
immensely outweighs the largest earthly interest 5 or
indeed, all earthly interests in mass. Sum up the
weal and woe of the entire human family, on this
mortal stage, and it is as nothing — lighter than vanity,
when weighed against any single advantage or de-
triment Ihat affects eternity. Translate this sort of
arithmetic into the somewhat less abstract and more
technical symbols of the Church, and then it means
this — That the smallest advantage of the Church
should be held of more importance — immensely sO)
than the highest secular good.

This potent and pregnant doctrine, demonstrably
sound as it appears, may be applied to individual in*

THE CHURCH ASCENDANT. 229

Stances, and it may lead us, with perfect coolness and
an untroubled conscience, to employ the assassin who
removes, without noise, an enemy of the Church ;
or to consign men to dungeons or the stake. We do
not indeed approve these pains and this bloodshed in
itself; but we desire the honour and integrity of the
Church ; and the end being of infinite moment, car-
ries all means, and makes all lawful. The only
doubt that can find any room for discussion in such
cases is this — whether, in the particular instance, the
welfare of the Church does really demand the san-
guinary deed. If it does, then the pang of a million
deaths ought not to affect our decision.

Or to apply this same principle to that control over
the affairs of nations which the papacy, during its
high summer season, claimed to exercise, and did ex-
ercise : — when once the Church had achieved its
supremacy over the entire European community, then
there could be no doubt that its wealth, its dignity,
its means of influence, its permanency, and its pros-
pects of extension, were, in the most direct manner,
connected with the course of national policy, wnth the
upholding of one regal family, the removal of an-
other, and the subserviency of all. The Church,
conceived of on this great principle, could demand
nothing less than to be recognised as the mistress of
the world — the disposer of crowns, and the supreme
authority, as well in secular as spiritual affairs. The
control of the spiritual would be of no avail, apart
from the control of the secular ; for the former could
be secured and promoted only by means of an absolute
command over the latter.

The churchmen and pontiffs of the middle ages
verily believed the world and all its glories to be their
own, as the vicegerents of heaven. And in teaching
this lesson to haughty princes, an arrogance, propor-
tionate to the pride and obduracy of their pupils, be-
came them. The weapons of the spiritual warfare,

20

230 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

when brought to bear upon the carnal weapons of
earthly power, must be wielded with so much the
more energy, to put the combatants on equal terms.

For instaUing spiritual despotism in the seat of
absolute and universal power, nothing, as it is mani-
fest, was needed but to apply the great truth of the
infinite importance of religion, to that visible au-
thority, or corporation, which claimed to be the
organ and depositary of religion. This application
was eflfected by the aid of the general, and almost
universal opinion, that allowed the bishops of Rome
to have inherited the supreme authority of St. Peter.
When once this link in the chain was filled up, and
fastened, the most sincere and ingenuous natures, as
well as the crafty and ambitious, gave themselves up
to promote the cruelties and oppressions of the Church,
and felt that they were sustained in doing so by all
the powers of eternity.

II. Church power rests upon the validity of the
connexion assumed between its first principle and its
second : this point being secured, every thing else
follows as a necessary consequence. The rehgious
welfare of mankind, supremely important as it is, has
not, it is alleged, been abandoned to accidents, or left
to be promoted by casual influences ; nor has it even
been consigned, independently of human instrumen-
tahty, to the invisible operations of the Divine Spirit.
Christianity is not a mere matter of opinion, like
those systems of philosophy which were taught and
talked of one year, and forgotten the next. On the
contrary, there is a visible and perpetual rectorial
power (wherever lodged) to which, by Divine appoint-
ment, is committed the duty of administering, of
preserving, of extending, and of transmitting the faith,
the offices, and the precepts of the Gospel. If the
Church be, in one sense, an invisible body, and if
this body be immortal, it is also, in another sense, a

THE CHURCH ASCENDANT. 231

visible body, and a perpetual one ; and moreover, if
the invisible Church be under the immediate guar-
dianship of the Lord, its Priest and King, so is the
visible Church (in the absence of the Lord) placed '
under the control of an earthly, yet perpetual vicar.
The Lord being personally removed, if his followers,
like sheep without a shepherd, were left to their dis-
cretion, what could happen but that they should wan-
der, each in his own way, and all perish on the
mountains, or become a prey to the wolf? If there
be then a visible institution for conserving the truth,
and if there be a shepherd of the flock, and a rector
of the Church, whose hand and lips may be looked
to, on every occasion, for guidance and instruction,
then it is manifest that the infinite importance of re-
ligion sustains and attaches to that powder, to the care
of which religion is committed.

These two articles involve all that is needed to
serve as a broad foundation for the most absolute
spiritual despotism. What is then wanted, is to
bring them to bear upon some actual centre. In
pursuance of this intention, it is next alleged —

III. That this rectorial power is one and undivi-
ded ; that it is irresponsible to any earthly authority ;
that it is unchangeable, and shall endure while there
is a Church on earth. That it must be so, might be
inferred from the nature of things, inasmuch as a
divided authority, or several independent authorities,
put in trust with one and the same interest, are su-
perfluous so long as they perfectly agree, and de-
structive of each other's claims, if they fall into dis-
cord. Church authority, standing as the visible and
audible organ of the invisible Lord, is at once made
nugatory if it expresses itself ambiguously, or incon-
sistently and variously. Truth is one ; the will of
Heaven is one ; — the oracle of both therefore must
be one.

232 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM,

But apart from the abstract statement of this third
principle of spiritual power, we turn to ihe tenor of
the Gospel, and the express enactments of Christ ;
and on this ground it must be admitted that every
sort of proof, direct and indirect, favours the doctrine
of the unity of the Church, and of its visible integ-
rity, as a manifestation, in the eye of the world, of
heavenly truth and virtue. The passages that bear
on this point need not be here adduced ; but we find
them, from the very first, forcibly urged and per-
petually repeated by the defenders of the general
Church. No communion — no piety : no unity — no
Church. A distracted Church must have forgotten
its glory, and broken its duty, and lost connexion
with its Head ; — in a word, it is no longer what it
calls itself.

If then there be one Church, and one centre and
source of authority, where is it found, and who is it
that rightfully holds the staff of power ? This has
been the trying point in every age with the Papacy ;
and although it has made out a case which may
fairly satisfy all who were willing to be satisfied ; it
has never been able to convict its opponents. The
evidence is defective precisely in that part of the
chain of proof where the firmest coherence is needed.
If the supreme and transmissible authority of St.
Peter, as first Bishop of Rome, and rock of the
Church, had been intended by the Lord, in the sense
affirmed by the Papacy, the proof of so special and
peculiar an appointment, instead of being indistinct
and attenuated, and open to valid exceptions, at its
commencement^ should then have been clear and
uncontroverted. On the contrary, this doctrine,
though generally admitted, and stoutly affirmed in a
later age, is barely perceptible, if at all, in the first
century, but dimly in the second ; and it comes out
in the third and fourth only as the consequence of
those political x^ircumstances which made it the

I

THE CHURCH ASCENDANT. 233

interest of individuals and of Churches to admit and
maintain it.

Nevertheless the concurrence of many traditions,
and the general tendency of opinions and of usages,
was such as to leave the champions of the Romish
Church, from the time of Gregory I. and onw^ards,
in possession of what they felt to be firm ground.
The argument was strong enough for the binding of
willing consciences, if not for the breaking down of
an adversary : and this point being once conceded,
or leapt over, then the path was open for bringing in
all that remains to give to the occupier of St. Peter's
chair a command over the bodies and souls of men,
absolute, irresponsible, unlimited, and altogether un-
paralleled. Such they claimed, and in the boldest
language affirmed, and actually exercised, during a
long course of ages. The power thus assumed being
granted, it was, in the next place, necessary to give
it a specific and clear interpretation, as applicable to
the several departments over which it was to be
stretched. It was therefore a principle of the Romish
despotism —

IV. That every act of the Church, ordinary and
extraordinary, and every decision, in a word, what-
ever the Church did, and whatever it said, was ab-
solutely valid, true, and efficacious, in a divine and
spiritual sense ; and was so, irrespectively of the
merits or defects, the infirmities or the vices, of the
individuals who might administer its offices, or pro-
mulgate its decrees.

We form no consistent idea of the Papacy unless
we distinctly admit into our conception of it this pre-
tension to a perpetual supernatural effecacy,
attending it in every step and act, and vivifying its
whole framework of offices, worship, and adminis-
trations. The very highest profession of spirituality,
and of immediate divine agency, and of continued

20*

234 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

miraculous authentication and support, is the ground
which the Romish despotism assumes ; nor can it
defend itself a moment if this ground be abandoned.
Christianity in the hands of the papacy, is, through
and through, and at every moment, a heavenly
scheme, existing in the world only by the aid of
miracles, and embodying omnipotence and omni-
science.

The infallibility of the Pope-r-the real presence in
the eucharist — the unvarying efficacy of the opus
operatuTnoiih.e Sacraments — the succession of mira-
cles, and powers of healing — the efficacy of the inter-
cession of the saints — the patronage of individuals
and of communities by the saints — the power of mass-
es for the release of souls — the priests' authority to
remit sin and to bind it ; — and indeed every dogma
and practice of the Church, is a portion and proper
consequence of the one doctrine, that the Church is a
divine institution, maintained and administered, from
age to age, by the very same almighty energy that
gave it birth. This doctrine, indefinitely convertible
as it is to all purposesof sacerdotal ambition, delivered
over the bulk of mankind, without relief or reserve,
and body and soul, into the hands of the ministers of
religion ; and we find it, not very obscurely advanced
by the Fathers of the third century, very distinctly
maintained by their successors of the fourth and fifth,
and in the loudest and most peremptory manner
affirmed by all churchmen during the dog-days of the
Romish spiritual despotism.

This doctrine is, in fact, the core of Popery : genu-
ine Protestantism is its opposite. Not indeed that
the reformers, personally, got themselves clear of its
infection. Luther especially, and the founders of the
English Church, while they rejected such portions of
the principle as had become the most offensive, or
were the most flagrantly at variance with the Scrip-
tures, or were the least capable of extenuation on the

f

f

THE CHURCH ASCENDANT. 235

plea of apostolic tradition, yet fondly clung to as
much of it as they were not compelled to relinquish ;
they therefore left their ecclesiastical institutions in a
state that now demands — either some further refor-
mation ; or a candid and childlike return to the bo-
som of the ancient Roman Catholic Church, which
alone is harmonious in theory and practice.

The Church having established its claims to an
unbounded control over whatever may in the remo-
test manner affect the religious welfare of the human
race, and having made profession of its supernatural
power to administer, efficaciously, the absolute go-
vernment of the world, it only remained for it to ap-
ply its principles to the several duties which, in vir-
tue of its commission, it was called upon to discharge.

V. The Church then, through the organ of its su-
preme Rector, and in the exercise of its heaven-de-
rived authority, holds itself bound to take care of —
the preservation and propagation of Truth ; — the
preservation of Morals ; and the disposal of souls in
the future and unseen worlds. What is involved in
these several high functions must be specified.

1st. To the Church, it is said, is intrusted the pre-
servation and propagation of Truth. The word of
Christ and his apostles, as contained in the Scrip-
tures, or as transmitted from age to age traditionally,
is acknowledged to be the ultimate standard of be-
lief and duty in matters of religion. But this w^ord
needs interpretation, and needs it anew, as occasions
arise. The multifarious heresies that have sprung up
around the Church, and the endless diversity of opi-
nions that result from allowing to every Christian the
I ight to be his own interpreter of Scripture, and the
incompetency of by far the greater number of the
faithful to exercise any sound judgment on questions
of theology, are, it is said, enough to demonstrate the

236 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

necessity of a perpetual authoritative decision of points
of religious observance and belief. All difficulties,
and all diversities, and feuds, are summarily super-
seded, if once it is admitted that the Church is sove-
reign arbitress of controversy, and keeper of the
truth.

Now, in discharging her duty in this behalf, the
Romish Church is consistent both in principle and
practice. She professes to be always in immediate
correspondence with Heaven, to enjoy the superna-
tural and plenary aids of the Holy Spirit, and, in
consequence, to be infallible in her judgments. On
the contrary, the power assumed, and the penalties
inflicted, by Protestant Churches, must be deemed
despotic, presumptuous, and barbarous, in the high-
est degree, inasmuch as these communities admit at
the same time their own fallibility. Confessedl}'",
therefore, they might, and no doubt often did, decide
for error, and have inflicted pains, imprisonments,
and death, upon their opponents cruelly, unwarran-
tably, and in despite of truth. Measures of persecu-
tion resorted to by men acknowledging their own
liability to err, are indeed manifestly preposterous
and horrible. Not so when the same severe means
are employed by those who never err, and who
know themselves, in every particular, to be express-
ing the pure will of God.

We say the theory and practice of the Romish
Church are on this ground accordant, the one with
the other. The papal authority is distinguished
from all others on earth by being a supernatural au-
thority ; and therefore it may boldly pursue its ends,
and fulfil its duty, as guardian of truth, without
scruple, hesitation, or any weak and wavering re-
gard to considerations of mercy. Upon all those oc-
casions when the frailty of the human heart might
make the chastising hand of authority to trem-
ble, recurrence is to be had to that prime principle —

THE CHURCH ASCENDANT. 237

the supreme and infinite importance of religion: but
religion cannot exist apart from the truth, which is
its basis. Truth then must be preserved and defen-
ded, at whatever cost. Better, i! necessary, or if no
milder remedy can avail, better that some hundred
thousand heretics should perish in the flames, than
that heresy itself — immortal poison as it is, should
be j;ermitted to infect the souls of men at large.
Belter that an heretical prince should be deposed, his
kingdom placed under an interdict, and wasted, year
after year, by bands of faithful crusaders, than that
Christendom should be exposed to a fast spreading
contagion, which carries eternal death in its train.

Not only may the Church resort to these, or to any
other extreme means for preserving the truth ; but
she is bound to do so : she has no choice : to profess
principles of toleration, in subserviency to the lax no-
tions of modern times, would be, on her part, to for-
feit consistency, and in the most fatal and traitorous
manner to abandon the high ground on which her
authority is reared. Unless indeed it be with a re-
served purpose, and vvitli a faithful falsity^ the
Church can never assent to those liberal political doc-
trines which have got ground of late, even in Catholic
countries. If she does not now actually possess the
power to enforce submission to her will, the least she
can do is loudly to protest against the violence done
her by her contumacious and irreligious sons. She
should revoke the titles of '^ most faithful," " most
catholic," and " most apostolic," wherever those SU'
blime distinctions are not merited by the employment
of the sword for the extermination of heresy.

The duty of using the most extreme means for the
preservation of truth, or in common protestant par-
lance, the practice of persecution, is a necessary ele^
.>ment of this church theory. Without it there is no
longer harmony in the scheme, consistency in the

238 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

professions of its supporters, safety to the institution,
nor any probability of its extension.

In the happy era of its unchecked and universal
domination, the Cliurch very clearly understood what
became it ; and boldly put in movement the proper
engines of its power. While in this mind, and while
possessed of the means of effecting its purposes, the
inquisitorial scheme might be regarded as a mode of
mercy. Was it not an act of paternal tenderness,
and a wise and kind anticipation of evils, to institute
the most searching inquiries that might lead to the
instantaneous discovery of error, and to its removal
at the earliest moment? What faithful physician
would not, if he could, assail disease at its small
commencements, and effect at once a sharp but last-
ing cure ? The severest means are the most merci-
ful if they are efficacious, and if the malady be
mortal.

So thought the Romish Church in her best and
brightest days — the times of Innocent III., and for
giving the fullest effect to her measures she estab-
lished the maxim — a maxim expressed in the very
language of the greatest doctor of the fourth century
— '' that he who only doubts concerning the faith, is to
be reputed an infidel." This rule, promulgated by
the Church, and urged upon all consciences, touched
the inmost recesses of the soul, and left no alternative
to the sincere and devout, but either to reject and
exclude from their hearts, instantly, the first sugges-
tion of scepticism, and never to ask for proof of any
dogma ; — or, to go aver to the ranks of the reprobate,
and to plunge at one leap into perdition. The same
rule, acted upon by the judicial agents of the Church,
allowed them, without remorse, to visit the most
venial instances of aberration from the Catholic doc-
trine, with the severest chastisements. Strictly speak-
ing, there could be no degrees of guilt among those

THE CHURCH ASCENDANT. 239

who disputed, where the Church had decided : there
was no scale of heretical pravity. " He who only
doubts is an infidel ;" and the infidel must recant, or
be consigned to his doom.

But the church was bound to propagate the faith
as well as to preserve it ; and in the performance of
this duty she might choose her means ; that is to
say, she might adopt the simple methods of instruc-
tion, by the agency of missionaries ; and in giving
them their commission, might allow them to make
what compromise they thought fit with pagan usages
and superstitions ; or she might take the more rapid
and glorious course of open conquest by force of
arms. If her warlike sons could be induced to serve
her with their swords, and shed their blood for her
honour and their own salvation, there could be no
doubt of the lawfulness, nay, of the benevolence, of
such enterprises. What philanthropy like that of
conquering empires for the Church? If "he that
winneth souls is wise," how wise are they who, in-
stead of the tedious process of individual conversion
by teaching and preaching, efifect the salvation of
millions in mass, by a few days of bloody combat.
In her extermination of heretics, in her inquisitorial
procedures, in her crusades against infidels, the
Church still preserved consistency with her profes-
sions and her principles. If her theory be sound, her
practice has been good and wise.

2dly. The Church was the guardian of the morals
of the community ; and after taking care that her
children should be nurtured with truth, it was her
next duty to see that they brought forth the fruits of
faith ; or if not, to inflict needful chastisements.
Now, as the entire mass of the people in Christian
countries, those only excepted who impiously broke
away from the fold, were claimed as members of the

240 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

Church, and liable therefore to its censures, and as,
moreover, every violation of law was a sin, every
such act of every individual within the pale of the
Church, came properly under the cognizance of its
ministers. The civil authority did indeed anticipate
the Church in its inquiries concerning certain offen-
ces ; but she nevertheless retained her right of spirit-
ual jurisdiction, in all cases whatsoever. Crimes of
every name were the fit objects of her maternal dis-
cipline : civil suits and controversies also on questions
of right and property appertained to her tribunal, in-
asmuch as the Church should arbitrate in the disa-
greements of her members. Thus it was that canon
law, if not actually stretched over all secular judica-
tures, was held to be capable of being so extended,
and was kept in abeyance only by the concession or
connivance of ecclesiastical rulers.

This universal jurisdiction or judicial right of the
Church, in civil as well as criminal causes, derived
from the acknowledged duty of a Christian society to
exercise discipline over its members, and to prevent
litigation, if possible, by amicably arbitrating between
them in their differences, may, perhaps, under some
future condition of the social system, demand to be
considered and adjusted in a manner not hitherto
thought of. Difficulties of a serious sort may here-
after present themselves on this ground. At present,
no Christian community, actually exercising a vigil- |
ant, impartial, and effective discipline, has spread it-
self widely enough to give rise to those embarrass-
ments that attend the collision of ecclesiastical with
civil law. But we may readily imagine such a state
of things ; nay, we need not imagine it, for we have
only need to recur to the history of the fourth, fifth,
and sixth centuries, to find manifold examples of the
confusion and perplexity, the jealousies and the feuds,
that may spring from this source.

THE CHURCH ASCENDANT. 241

When church power, in the West, became ascend-
•ant, it was clearly perceived that consistently with the
principles on which it rested, no lower ground could
be taken than that of affirming the abstract univer-
^vAky of canon law, and the unrestricted range of ec-
clesiastical jurisdiction. The only question ihat need-
ed to be discussed was one of expediency and policy
in particular instances, and in relation to the usages
of nations, and the personal temper of princes — whe-
ther the Church should stretch her rod as far as she
claimed the right to do, or give way to the resolution
or the obduracy of the secular authority. In her profes-
sions, and to a great extent, in fact, the Papacy, during
its triumphant season, was absolute mistress of Chris-
tendom, in virtue of this her office, as guardian of
public morals.

Yet the Church took care to make her members
feel that her power was of an intimate and refined sort,
as well as public and juridical ; and that it was spiritu-
al more than carnal. The magistrate could inquire
concerning overt acts only, and could punish nothing
but crimes. The Church, on the contrary, penetrat-
ed the bosoms of men, dived into motives, put secret
dispositions to the question, and dealt with men on
the ground of a divine discernment of hearts. She
professed to treat the subjects of her discipline not ac-
cording to evidence^ but according to truth itself.
Auricular confession, therefore, was not an accident
of this system of despotism ; but one of its indispen-
sable elements, and a chief means of its efficiency.
The connexion of inferences by which this engine of
power was compacted was very close ; — pardon is
lodged with the Church ; — the means of remission
by penance are also under the direction of the
Church ; but the priest, who in each instance ad-
ministers this authority, can do so only by knowing
the whole extent of guilt, and all its circumstances, as
well of aggravation as extenuation. To expose the

21

242 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

bo?om to the priest is, therefore, the only way in
which remission of sin can be obtained : whoever then
Would escape punishment, must lay open to the
Church his entire consciousne;?s.

The punishments, or penances, enjoined by the
Church (wherever she was actually in position to
give effect to her rules of discipline) were by no
means of assort to be contemned. The conscience-
stricken culprit, who sought a restoration to hope and
to the consolations of religion, submitted himself often
to five, or ten, or twenty years of public humiliation
and private torture — bodily and mental. As much [
of misery as human nature can sustain, was, as a '
common thing, inflicted by the Church upon her
guilty sons and daughters. The penalties of modern ;
law are trivial, compared with those of the Church.
She was indeed " a terror to evil-doers."

3diy. The Church not only claimed and exercised
all power on earth, but stretched her tremendous hand
over Hades, and dir^posed of destinies in the future
world. She was sovereign of souls. Without this
awful prerogative her authority would have been at
once incomplete and insecure. The wretched objects
of her vengeance might have sought to hide them-
selves in the grave, or might have sighed and com-
forted themselves in expectation of that clemency
which the Divine tribunal admits. But there could
be no escape from the arm of the Church. The fires
of purgatory were blown or quenched at her beck;
her hand even delved into the cold sepulchre, and i
reeked revenge upon the guilty dust of her foes ; the
torments of eternity were heaped upon her enemiea,
and the thrones of glory bestowed upon her friends. ;
Nothing which the human mind can imagine or
rest in, as an ideal solace, was free to be hoped for
without the leave of the Church; there was nothing
terrible which she might not inflict. Instead of its
being said to the faithful at large, as it was by an

THE CHURCH ASCENDANT. 243

aposlle— " all things are yours," the Church, that is
to say, its rulers, turned to the laity, and proclaimed
their own universal lordship; — "all things are ours,
whether life, or death, or things present, or things to

come, ALL ARE OURS."

That complicated system of observances and
superstitious notions which had reference to the con-
dition of souls in the unseen world, was an integral
part of the great scheme of despotism, and was em-
ployed to sustain and extend it, in every way which
the idle or the well-founded fears of the people niade
practicable, or which their corrupt inclinations invited.
The viaticum and extreme unction — the prayers for
the dead, and masses for the delivery of souls —
the intercession of saints — the practice of canoni-
zation, and the pronouncing of anathemas, were all
so many expressions or practical exhibitions of the in-
: visible jurisdiction of the Church. From whatever
source these opinions and usages had at first sprung,
and most of them are of high antiquity, the Church,
of a later time, wrought them into her frame-work,
and they became indispensable to her security.

The power of the Church then, as keeper of truth, as
guardian of morals, and as disposer of souls, embraced

I everything — provided for every thing, and applied itself
to the entire surface of human nature, and of the social
system. This despotism was at once spiritual and
political, visible and invisible ; nothing could be more
refined, nothing could be more substantial : nothing
could better adapt itself to minds of the sensitive and
enthusiastic class; nothing grasp with a stronger arm
the sensual and audacious. In the highest meaning
which the terms will bear, the Romish tyranny was

1 universal and absolute. Men could not think or
inquire even concerning the processes of the material
world, and the laws of matter and motion, without
treading upon ground which the Church had preoccu-

^44 St>lRI'rUAL DESPOTISM.

pied ; — all philosophy was either orthodox or hetero-
dox ; and a man might be burned for an opinion ir>
mechanics, as well as for an opinion in theology.
There could be no possession or enjoyment of the
goods of life, no marrying, no inheriting, no devising^
no ruling, no judging, no speaking, no feeling, no
thinking — there could be no dying without the leave
of the Church, or apart from her favour.

This well-compacted scheme was too complete, if we
might say so, in its theor}'^ and principles to be ever
fully brought to bear, without friction, upon the social
machinery. During the period which we designate
as the dog-days of spiritual despotism, it wanted in-
deed very little to make it practically, as well as theo-
reticallj^ entire. Yet, even then there was always, in
one quarter or in another, a resistance, a remonstrance,
and a voice of reason and humanity, to which it was I
felt something must be conceded. But if the theory
of sacerdotal lyranny could not be absolutely realized
during ages of extreme barbarism, it is manifest that
it could never be maintained along with the expansion
of the human understanding, with the diffusion of
science and literature, or with the establishment of
free political systems. In fact, as every one knows, it
fell from its heisrht at the moment of the revival of the
European mind, and has been sensibly declining from ',
that time to this. Rather than take wing, and leave
the earth for ever, Romanism may adapt itself to those
conditions of subordination and political insignificance
which are at present imposed upon it ; but every one
of these unwilling concessions is a stroke at its life —
an essential inconsistency, a dereliction of its professed
duty, and a surrender of the fundamental axioms upon
which its polity rests.

The intelligent members of the Romish Church will
not, nor can they affirm, that the doctrine, discipline^
polity, and usages of the Papacy, as expounded by
Innocent III. and Gregory IX., were not the genuine

THE CHURCH ASCENDANT. 245

elements of the relig-ious system which had come down
to them from a higher age. It will not be pretended
that those pontiffs were innovators and originators of
a new order of things : on the contrary, they were
eminently faithful stewards of St. Peter's house. And
was not the Church in a condition then more consist-
ent with its theory and with its professed principles
than it has ever been since, or is at present ? This
must surely be granted : — the Church, in the twelfth
century, was herself : but now she can no longer
discharge her duties, or effect her will, or secure the
welfare of her members. To what sort of revolutions
then are the adherents of the Papacy looking, as likely
to bring about its restoration ? Must not the European
commonwealth first forfeit political liberty, extinguish
the light of philosophy, blot out the discoveries of sci-
ence, and, in a word, drink of the cup of universal
forgetfulness ? Is it thus, and at such a cost, that the
apostolic Roman Catholic Church is to regain its em-
pire? Is this what w^e ought to mean and to desire,
when we speak of the future triumph of the Gospel,
and the millennium of human feHcity?

The Papacy of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
prepared its own fall, by openly encouraging, or by
conniving at, flagrant abuses, not warranted by its
maxims, and which roused the indignation of princes,
and excited the contempt and abhorrence of the mass
of the people. It is thus that ancient structures meet
their ruin. Absurdly confiding in the strength which
immemorial prescription, and the steadfastness of po-
pular prejudices impart, their adherents fondly believe
that the most shameless excesses of official profligacy
will be borne with : — they scorn to suppose that any
will dare to assail, or will succeed in assailing, vene-
rable and entrenched corruptions. This illusion is the
last dream of pampered hierarchs. So well compacted,
and so accordant were the abstract principles of the
Romish tyranny, and so firmly and fully was it sanc-

21*

246 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

tioned in every one of its main articles of belief an^
Worship, by the authority of the earlier ages, that it
rnay fairly be questioned whether the Reformation
would have been attempted at all, or could have been
carried forward, if the Church had been provident
enough to remove the grosser scandals that attached
to her practices ; and had brought herself back, or
nearly so, to the ideal of her constitution.

Had not Rome made the yoke she imposed intole-
rable, princes would have been slow to listen to the
argument which called in question the foundations of
the papal authority; and had not the vices and the
knavery of the monks and clergy reached an extreme
that rendered the Church the object of the people's ex-
ecration and derision, the Reformers might have found
it impracticable to disengage the popular mind from
its thraldom.

The authors and supporters of vast schemes of des-
potism are often wise and politic, but not wise enough ;
or not wise enough to arrest the advances of arrogance
within limits of safety. If the Roman pontiffs had
conceded something to the Eastern Church, and to
the principal sees of the West ; if they had believed
that they should stand firmer, propped by the arms of
colleagues and coadjutors, than reared aloft upon the
shoulders of vassals ; — if they had given \vay, with a
good grace, to princes on the question of investiture ; —
if they had drawn in the horns of canon law, and had
modestly declined to exercise any jurisdiction not ma-
nifestly pertaining to the spiri<ual interests of the
Church ; — if they had refused to protect atrocious cle-
rical culprits from the arm of the secular power ; — if
they had enforced the rules of religious houses, and
had brought monkery up to its owns professions ; and
if, moreover, it could have been found practicable to
repress heresy without massacres, crusades, and cruel-
ties ; — if all this had been done, we may imagine it as
at least possible that this mighty scheme of spiritual

THE CHURCH ASCENDANT. 247

empire would have continued, sound and unassailed,
to the present moment.

The want of so much prudence and moderation on
the part of the papal court, brought the system into a
position that demanded a course of procedure continu-
ally tnore and more outrageous and despicable, until
sentiments of indignation were suffused through all
ranks, and in almost all Catholic countries. So vehe-
ment and general was this feeling, that it seemed to
threaten the entire structure of the Church with in-
stantaneous demolition. The Church was however
saved — and saved, not merely through the inveteracy
of the superstitions of the common people, nor by the
. rescuing hand of individual princes ; and certainly
not by the personal merits and virtues of its sacerdotal
champions ; but by the interior strength of its theory;
and by the indisputable antiquity of every main arti-
cle of its faith, worship, and discipline.

As the Church fell (so far as it fell) by the means
of its accidental abuses, so was it saved (so far as it
was saved) by virtue of its abstract principles, and by
the high sanction of its creeds and ceremonies. Intel-
ligent readers of the story of the Reformation have
probably very often wondered why the mighty reform-
ing movement, which spread so far, did not spread
further, and have been amazed that the Papacy, cor-
rupt as it was, should yet actually have withstood so
rude a shock. We must find a solution of the natural
and reasonable question which this perplexing fact
suggests, by duly considering that, while on the one
hand, the Papacy had fallen into a condition which
rendered it vulnerable on every side, it was, at the
same time, strong both in principles, and in authori-
ties, to which the Reformers themselves paid homage.
After three centuries of free inquiry, deliberate reflec-
tion, and Biblical intelligence, it is much more than
• we can say, that we have ourselves got clear of the
' theory of the Papacy in every one of its articles j and

248 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

assuredly we are far from having as yet thrown off all
those superstitions that sprung" up in the second and
third centuries, and which the Romish Church inhe-
rited and expanded.

Let us then candidly admit the serious truth, That
what stayed the downfal of the Papacy, three hun-
dred years ago, and what has given it a lengthened
life, was certain principles, not yet altogether renounced
by ourselves, and the retention of which has turned
aside the weapons of our protestant warfare.

Tlie Lutheran Reformation was a glorious begin-
ning, that waits for its consummation. Had it indeed
been complete and consistent in principle and in prac-
tice, it wouid have been universal in its actual spread.
The Papacy still lives, and it must live, until Pro-
testantism shall be reformed.

Little difficulty would perhaps now be found in
thoroughly dispelling what remains among us of the
theoretic portion of the ancient despotism ; but some
real perplexities attend the clearing away of those
notions and usages that have come down from the
times immediately succeeding the apostolic age. We
are still entangled in the snares woven in the age of
Ireneeus, Justin Martyr, and Cyprian. The argument
for Popery is at present drawn from the authority of
those ancient errors ; and the weakness of Protestant-
ism comes from the same source. Romanism sucks
one breast of the pristine Church, Protestantism ano-
ther ; but the milk which nourishes the stomach of
the iirst, sickens that of the last.

Although the prosecution of our immediate argument
does not demand it, the author feels almost compelled to
turn aside for a moment, to conlemplate the " Great
Wonder" of the Papal Despotism in the light in which
it appears in connexion with the truth of Christianity.

Let it then be calmly considered that the Papacy,
such as we find it in the age of its consummation, was

THE CHURCH ASCENDANT. 249

in no important sense the creation of that same age, nor
the product of the seven preceding centuries, during
which the Roman pontiffs had occupied a clear field for
effecting their project of universal supremacy. Nor
dare we assign its commencement to the ambiguous pe-
riod of rather more than two hundred years, tliat inter-
venes between the conversion of Constantine, and the
pontificate of Gregory the Great. With the remains of
Christian antiquity before usjitis impossible in candour
to deny that the vast scheme of mingled superstition
and despotism which grasped the western nations in
the age of Gregory IX. differed from the Christianity
of the third century more in extent than in quality,
more in form than in substance, more in arrogance of
mouth, than in heart and disposition, more in power,
than in will : or in a word, that the one was like the
other, as the full blown flower is like the bud.

By steps, too insensible and easy to admit of their
being now distinctly traced, the religious system profess-
ed in the Christian Church, had, in the course of two
hundred years, reckoning from the death of the last of
the apostles become capitally distinguished from the
Christianity of the apostles ; and from that time on-
ward continued to move, with a steady and uniform
progress, and always straight forward, until it pre-
sents itself to view in the terrible sublimity of a mon-
strous tyranny unmatched in cruelty, perfidy, and pro-
fligacy.

With the New Testament in our hands, it is no diflS-
cult task to disengage ourselves, in succession from each
lone of the popish superstitions. Taking the words of
Christ and his apostles as our sole and sufficient author-
ity in belief and worship, we spurn, without a doubt,
this long train of pernicious absurdities. — What have
we to do with the " tremendous sacrifice" of the mass,
with the adoration of the mother of God, with prayers
for the dend, or with prayers to them, or with the inter-
:oession of saints, or with the seven sacraments, or with

250

SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

holy water, holy oil, holy vestments, and crossing of the
forehead; with the worship of images, pictures, and
relics; with penance, purgatory, auricular confession, in-
dulgences, and works of supererogation ; with monkery
and celibac)^, or with lying miracles ? The modern
Christian, Bible in hand, throws off these follies and
abominations, as a man would rend from his shoulders
a fool's chequered coat, that had been forced upon him.
But in doing so, how litde does he ordinarily recollect
that he is treating with contempt (a deserved contempt
indeed,) the sense, practice, and persuasion of the Chris-
tian community, almost from the first, and almost uni-
versally ? These very usages, these ceremonies, senti-
ments, opinions, sprung up, we hardly know how, in-
the earliest times, obtained the approval, in long succes-
sion, of every leading and accomplished mind, of all
the Fathers, Doctors, and Rulers of the Church — of
confessors and of martyrs!

Nevertheless, nothing else can he done, but to set at
nought this weight and universality of authority ; — we
must choose between the Scriptures and the Church ;
and we choose the Scriptures. This election is made
without anxiety. The Christianity of the Scriptures is
thus rescued ; and we enjoy and hold it fast ; but then,
when we turn back to think of the Christianity of the
Papacy, and recollect how broadly it was bottomed,
how abundantly it was sanctioned, and especially how
insensibly and involuntarily it became what at length,
it was, and remember too that it has filled a vast space
of time, even while the millions of millions of fifty gen-
erations of men have gone through their term on earth;
when considerations such as these are vividly entertain-
ed, the mind sinks under its own sad and racking re-
flections. What and where has been our Christianity
through these vast cycles of time !

A sound mind, however, does not brood long over
depths it cannot fathom ; but rather turns to what is
certain, and practically clear and palpable. — The inde-

THE CHURCH ASCENDANT. 251

pendent evidences on which our faiih rests are not any
way touched by perplexities of this kind. We may
nevertheless reasonably make search, among these
evidences for some prophetic indications of what was in
fact to happen. How depressing soever may be the
thought of an apostacy of sixteen hundred years, yet
our faith is rather confiiined than weakened, if we find
this '-lalling away" to have been pictured in its great
outlines and colours upon the pages of the inspired wri-
ters.

If the prophetic voice which was heard so often in
the times of the old dispensation speaks also in the new,
and if indeed the Papacy be what Protestants think it,
there will then be the stronsfest imairinable antecedent

' probability that this great apostacy must find a promi-
nent place in the perspective of ages. If not, what are
we to conclude ? That the Papacy, after all, was com-
placently foreknown as the bright consummation of

^'Christianity ? or that, being such as we deem it, cor-
rupt, mischievous, abominable, it nevertheless was light-
ly accounted of by Heaven, and regarded as an incon-
siderable accident of human affairs, and less worthy to
be pointed at by the finger of Omniscience, than the
fortunes of the Roman empire, the fate of battles, the
conquests of Saracens, the triumphs of Turks? This

j is hard to admit. On the contrary, it is with a strong,
and even peremptory expectation that we turn to the in-

. spired pages in search of what, if it stands there at all,

i will doubtless wear no ambiguous colours. The pre-
monition of so mighty an object, and one marked by

' characteristics so broad, will be conveyed in symbols
I that shcdl arrest the eye, and command the convictions

\ of every plain and vigorous understanding. After in-

; genious sophisticated criticism has done its utmost to
put another meaning upon the prophetic passage, its ob-

f vious sense, in all the freshness of truth, shall return

:'i upon our minds ; and the more so, in proportion to the
Kcxactness and familiarity of our acquaintance with the

252 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

system which we assume to have been the antitype of
the prophecy.

These very predicaments we hold to attach to the of-
ten cited passages in the Pauline epistles, and to certain
portions of the Apocalypse. True it is that there is
not a prophecy of the Old Testament, or of the New,
which erudite obliquity, or the affectation of originality
and of superiority to common prejudice, has not at-
tempted to turn aside from its obvious import. But if
every such attenuated criticism is to be respectfully
listened to, we shall do better to close the prophetic
Scriptures at once ; for it is manifest that, if so han-
dled, the study of them can subserve no valuable pur-
pose. Nay, instead of furnishing invincible proof of
the divine origin of the writings that contain them,
these prophetic passages plunge us in difficulties not
to be evaded.

Did the apostles entertain the hope of a speedy and
triumphant spread of Christianity through the world?
It does not appear that they did. Whatever bright
dreams they might have indulged during the term of
their Lord's ministry, no trace of any such expectation
is to be found in their discourses or epistles. The an-
cient promise of the ultimate, but remote prevalence
of truth, does but dimly illumine their pages. Their
immediate prospect, it is manifest, was altogether of a
different kind, and the fact of deliberately entertaining
such a prospect, on the part of the promulgators of
a new religion, has great weight in relation to the
genuineness of their testimony. They expected no-
thing better than bonds, imprisonments, and every
sort of hostility from the world. But this is not all,
for they expected also heresies, corruptions, delusions,
to spring from the bosom of the Church itself. If this
anticipation be regarded as resulting simply from their
owr> sober estimate of human nature, and their know-
ledge of the ordinary course of human affairs, it affords
a niost conclusive evidence of their personal freedom

THE CHURCH ASCENDANT. 253

from extravagance and enthusiasm : or if we attribute
it to the divine prescience specially conveyed to them,
then the history of the Church comes in to illustrate
the prophetic forewarning, and so to establish the
truth of Christianity.

But let us for a moment give attention to the terms
in which these melancholy anticipations are expressed :
we shall find that there is a progression from a style
of general and comprehensive intimation, to language
the most special and determinate.

" I know," says Paul, in addressing the elders of
the Ephesian Church, " I know that, after my depart-
ing, grievous wolves shall enter in, not sparing the
flock:" that is to say, merciless persecutors. And
also that, " from among yourselves, shall some spring
up, who, for the purpose of making themselves the
heads of a party, shall teach a perverted doctrine."
The mischiefs that were to arise from spiritual ambi-
tion are here anticipated ; yet this is only a half of the
caution which the apostle's prescience prompted him
to give. He foresaw what, in foct, proved to be the
main means of corrupting Christianity, namely — the
opportunity which the teachers of this powerful doc-
trine too soon found for converting it into an engine of
extortion ; — not indeed by the aid of statutes, but by
the abuse of that voluntary system upon which, un-
avoidably, the ministers of religion were to be thrown.
He points these elders to the disinterestedness of his
own conduct; "I have coveted no man's silver or
gold ;" and concludes his energetic exhortations by
that maxim of the Lord, which, as he foresaw, the
heads of a voluntary society would most of all need to
keep in mind, namely — " That it is more blessed to
give than to receive." From certain passages of his
epistles it appears that he lived to see his sad expecta-
tion realized, and that while he and his colleagues
were yet present in the Churches, there were those
who " made a gain of godliness," and, with the worst

22

254 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

intentions, tickled the ears of the people with the flat-
tering sounds of a corrupted and corrupting Gospel.
So far, then, it is plain, that the chief occasion of
the early perversion of Christianity, namely, the natu-
ral, and almost inevitable abuse to which the volun-
tary principle is liable, was distinctly anticipated by
St. Paul. Though unable to place the Christian
polity on any other foundation, from the actual circum-
stances of its first promulgation, he was not bhnd to
what would be its consequences.

St. Peter, likewise, we find to have had the same
clear (and no doubt divinely imparted) foresight of
these very evils. The abuses which began to work
in his own time, and which we trace regularly in their
increase from the apostolic age till the Papacy was |
ripened, he depicts in the most specific terms. "There
were false prophets among the (ancient) people ; even,
as there shall be false teachers among you, who shall
insinuate destructive errors, .... and who, in their
rapacity, shall make a merchandize of you.*' The
parallel passage in the Epistle of Jude presents the
same characteristics — the future corru|-ters of truth
would be such as " run greedily in the way of Balaam,
for reward."

Another portraiture of the corrupted Christianity
which was soon to prevail, though not given in pro-
phetic form, occurs in the Epistle to the Colossians ;
nor can we fail to catch the features of its specious
pietism, such as — the enforcement of arbitrary ob-
servances in relation to meats, and drinks, and festi-
vals— an affected demureness — the veneration paid to
celestial beings — the rigid abstinence from things un-
lawful—the multiplication of canons and human con-
stitutions, and the false recommendation these errors
should receive from their apparent tendency to promote
self-denial, lowliness of spirit, and abstracted devotion.
It is remarkable that, in introducing his caution against
these flattering perversions, the apostle employs the

ir

THE CHURCH ASCENDANT. 265

very term, "philosophy" — " vaia deceit" as it was,
which, at a very early time, was adopted, and long
continued to be a cant phrase, and the conventional
designation of the system and the principle of monk-
ery. The meditative, abstemious, and solitary life
was called the " divine philosophy:" so it is perpetually
described by its advocates in the third and fourth
centuries.

We come next to formal predictions : such is to be
reckoned that noted passage in the Second Epistle to
Timothy. In every age and country, mankind at
large have too nearly answered to the description
which the apostle there advances as specially charac-
teristic of a future era. There would therefore be no
significance whatever in a prediction of this sort, un-
derstood as being vaguely applicable to the open
world. But it acquires pertinence by being attached
to the Church, as distinguished from the world. In-
deed, this sense of the prediction is determined by the
closing phrase, in which those spoken of are said to
possess a form or semblance of religion, though they
reject what might render it efficacious.

" This know that (instead of the triumphant spread
of pure religion which might be expected to take place
in these last days) the coming era shall be difficult and
dangerous ; for (the professors of Christianity) shall
{as such) be interested, avaricious, boastful, high-
minded, impious in language, regardless of natural
relationships, ungracious, unholy, insensible to the
common charities of life, violators of their solemn en-
gagements, fabe accusers, intemperate, fierce, con-
temners of the good, treacherous, precipitate, inflated,
lovers of pleasure more than of God" (even while
professing a mode of life which renounces pleasure for
the sake of God.)

Now, whether or not we think these phrases to be
fairly susceptible of a close and specific application to
the church corruptions that were soon to prevail (and

256 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

several of them are remarkably characteristic) yet the
passage, taken in its widest application, is proof that
the apostle distinctly anticipated an exiensive and ex-
treme perversion of the religion he was aiding to set up
in the world. If we met with no other prediction, or
none more definite, this would be enough for our pre-
sent argument, and would alone reconcile the truth
of Christianity with the fact of its general and speedy
perversion.

The first epistle to the same individual contains a
formal prophecy, announced in terms that should
command our most serious regard, when endeavour-
ing to fix their application. To whom then does this
prediction attach ? Among all the parties that have
divided the Christian body, is there one whose cha-
racteristic usages or doctrines are here pointed to? Let
the passage be read as if for the first time, and before
we have heard it applied to one party or to another —
" But the Spirit distinctly announces that, in the latter
seasons (of the Church) some shall apostatize from
the faith ; for they shall give heed to deceitful spirits,
and to the teachings of daemons (or to doctrines con-
cerning daemons) under a false pretence uttering lies ;
having their conscience cauterized ; — forbidding to
marry, and (enjoining) abstinence from meats, which
God haih created for our grateful use."

"When a description, such as this, meets us, divinely
authenticated, we are surely bound to observe a reli-
gious ingenuousness in expounding it on none other
than those broad and intelligible principles of com-
mon sense which are every where assumed in Scrip-
ture as the basis of God's communications with men.
But if a doubt remained, our part is again to compare
Scripture with Scripture.

Is then the fact of a great and fatal apostacy in any
other place predicted ? The noted prophecy which
presents itself in answer to this question should be
examined apart from its assumed application to thft

f

THE CHURCH ASCENDANT. 257

Papacy, and after an independent analysis of its
terms, we should look abroad over the field of history,
as connected with Christianity, and fix where we may,
upon an archetype ; — or if none appears that fairly
corresponds to the prediction, then conclude that the
whole yet remains to be fulfilled.

" Do not," says the apostle, '• so interpret any thing
I may have uttered, either orally or in my letters, as
that your minds should be agitated by an expecta-
tion of the immediate appearance of the Lord, and of
our gathering together to him. Let none delude you,
or distract your spirits, and divert you from your ordi-
nary duties, by any such supposition as that the day
of the Lord is at hand. I now repeat what you must
remember I said when 1 was wi(h you, that it shall
not be until there first come The Apostacy, and
that sinful personage be manifested — who is consigned
to perdition, who places himself in opposition (to the
truth), who exalts himself to the seat of supreme reli-
gious regard, nay, above every other acknowledged
object of reverence, so that seating himself in the tem-
ple of God, he puts himself forth as a god . . . Calling
to mind what I said when with you, you will not need
now to be told what restrains this (arrogant power)
and delays its manifestation, until the destined season.
And yet the mysterious (or now concealed) wicked-
ness, is actually at work, and only waits until the
restraining power shall be removed. Then the law-
less one shall be revealed, whom (at last) the Lord
I Jesus shall destroy by the spiritual efficacy of his word,
I and bring to nothing by the splendour of his appear-
ing ; — shall destroy him, I say, who exhibits himself
I in Satanic energy, with might, and signs, and lying
t wonders, and who, with all the knavery of wicked-
I ness (maintains his influence) over the lost . . . ."

Now among all the persons, or powers, or corpora-
1 tions, hitherto manifested in the world, in connexion
t with Christianity, our part is to choose the one, in

22*

258 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISfRf.

whom, or in which, every characteristic of the predic-
tion is fairly embodied. Is it Judaism ? But Judaism,
as the antagonist of Christianity, was as fully revealed
in the apostle's time, as at any later period ; nor was
it the mark of Judaism to usurp divine honours, or
to profess miraculous powers. Can it be Julian, the
apostate? But Julian did not fall by the efficacy of
the divine word ; nor was his fall followed by the ap-
pearing of Christ ; nor was his adverse influence in
any imaginable sense at work three centuries before
his birth. Is it any noted heresiarch, or any separate
community, that has pretended to divine honours and
appealed to miracles? — we know of none. Is it Mo-
hammed ] But in what sense was Mohammed, or
his system at work, or in preparation to work, in the
apostolic age ? nor did the Arabian prophet pretend to
miraculous powers : on the contrary, he distinctly dis-
claimed them : nor did he ever employ a blasphemous
style, such as should lead his followers to forget that
he was simply human ; — the very characteristic of
Mohammedism is its careful and jealous regard to the
honour of the only God. Is then the apostate or the
apostacy we are in quest of, yet in the womb of futu-
rity ? If so, whenever he, or it, appears, there must
be some ingenious sense in which a connexion may
be traced back from it or from him, to the apostohc
age, and it must be fairly shown that the iniquity,
then at work, was " held back" by some power then
existing, and which has continued to exist, and is
now extant, and in active operation.

Can we be satisfied to search among obscure and
hitherto unnoticed objects, persons, or powers, and to
haul out, by the aid of erudition, from the lumber-
room of antiquity, some long-forgotten personage that
may answer our challenge? This were an idle
industry: no lanthern, we may be assured, can be
needed to find St. Paul's Man of Sin." We conclude
that, after learning has done its utmost, either to clear

r

THE CHURCH ASCENDANT. 259

up the terms, or to turn aside their obvious apphcation,
the common sense of ninty-nine out of a hundred im-
partial persons would lead them, without hesitation,
to name the Papacy as the intended archetype of the
prophecy before us ; and that they would confess the
exactness, and the sp.xial propriety of every one of
the designations which it presents, as so applied.
The spiritual de^^potij^m. and the fraudulent supersti-
tion, afterwards expanded in the Papacy, were ac-
tually making their preparations in the apostolic age;
the corruption, which in the next century stood out to
view, was tlien a cloked but active mischief. The
papal usurpation, which drew to itself, employed, and
patronized, all the superstitions of the earlier ages, was
held in check, and kept in obscurity, so long as
the imperial power retained its seat at Rome;
and it made its triumphant entry upon the world
when the western empire fell. The Papacy usurp-
ed divine prerogatives ; set itself above all law,
human and divine ; claimed worship, and actually
invaded the names and titles of Deity. The Papacy
erected its throne, and sat down in the temple of God —
the Church : it has swayed the nations with a satanic
pride, insolence, and energy, and has sustained itself,
mainly, by an appeal to miracles — miracles impu-
dently false. Finally, the Papacy has given way be-
fore the diffusion of the Scriptures — the spiritual effi-
cacy of the word of Christ ; and by its own confession,
it can never stand where the Bible is allowed to remain
in the hands of the people.

Do we yet want reasons for believing that the Pa-
pacy is the apostacy predicted by Paul ?

It is not necessary to pursue, the argument as affect-
ed by the apocalyptic prophecies ; nor indeed is the
evidence thence resulting susceptible of condensation.
It is enough, in reply to those difficulties that spring
from the melancholy fact of the long-continued per-
version of Christianity, that we are able to say — this

260 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

fact, melancholy as it is, stands predicted and set forth
in its peculiar characteristics, on the pages of the New
Testament. The book then is divine, whatever may
have been, during some centuries, the fate of the re-
ligious system it contains.

The subject of this section must not be dismissed
w^ithout a monitory word. — The error of Protestants
has been the thinking and speaking of Popery as
the creature of the times of the Papacy ; whereas, it
is the creature of almost the earliest times to which our
materials enable us to trace the opinions and usages of
the Church. This mistake has not merely thrown
an advantage into the hands of our opponents, who
have exulted in being able to show the high antiquity:
of their faith and worship, but it has stopped, or rather
precluded, an inquiry, than which none can be much
more important, namely, How far do we retain, or
are infected by the superstitions generated in the se-
cond and third centuries ? We have indeed discarded
the Papacy ; but are we clean escaped from the popery
of Cyprian and Dionysius? A full exhibition of the
superstitions of the primitive ages is now what is per-
culiarly needed as preparatory to a though return to
apostolic Christianity.

In truth, our protestant Christianity of to-day, is
labouring under the inert residues, or lees, of three
grand perversions ; namely, the superstitious corrup-
tions, already mentioned, of the martyr Church — the
metaphysic and dialectic corruptions of the times of
the schoolmen — and the metaphysic and logical cor-
ruptions of the system-making theologians of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is well un-
derstood that our remedy, in each case, lies (under the
Divine guidance) in a diligent and wisely-conducted
process of biblical interpretation. Nevertheless, the
results of this process may be brought more forcibly
to bear upon existing errors, by exhibiting, historically,

f

THE CHURCH ASCENDANT. 261

their rise and growth. Towards this latter necessary
workj the author desires to contribute what aid he
may; and with this view proposes, in another volume,
to convey the substance of his researches concerning
early superstitions, and especially such of them as
have survived in Protestantism.

In these errors all modern sects have, more or less,
been implicated ; — some directly, and others by anti-
thesis, or re-action ; and (he author hazards the con-
jecture that it will be found an easier thing to effect a
disengagement from implications of the former sort,
iban from those of the latter: — or, in plain terms, and
Lo come to specific instances, that the lilnglish Church
— pursuing those ingenuous researches that are on foot
imong her accomplished clergy, will reject certain su-
perstitions of pristine origin, long before our dissidents
will be brought to reconsider the notions and practices
which their opposition to those errors has entailed upon
ihem. How worthy the ambition, should the English
Episcopal Church imbibe it, of taking the lead in a
return to primitive Christianity 1

SECTION VIII.

^1

SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM SUPPLANTED BY SECULAR TYRANNY.

The compass and range of the understanding, and
tlie quality of a man's religious sentiments, might be
judged of, not uncertainly, by the Hght in which he if
accustomed to regard the Lutheran Reformation. The
protestant partizan, controvertist, and zealous polemic
for example, delights to contemplate the giant energy
and moral valour of those champions of Truth, who
in the strength of faith, of right reason, and of Scrip-
ture, '• subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness
stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence
of fire, waxed valiant in fight, and turned to flight th(
armies of the aliens." — The partizan, we say, in hi:
admiration of what was effected by the reformers
regards the reformation as a consummated work
or very nearly so ; and having chosen his patroi
gaint from among the illustrious band, whether i
be Luther, or Calvin, Bucer, Melancthon, Zuingle
Knox, or Cranmer, thinks of nothing beyond wha
he finds in that favourite doctor's theological systen
and polity.

On the other hand, the plain- minded and devou,
Christian thinks, and with great reason, of the Refoi
mation as God's interposition in behalf of his Church an
truth : he thinks of it as a rescue of the Scriptures
as a recovery of the great principles of the Gospel, an(
as the overthrow of satanic power ; — an overthrow tha
will be followed, and in due time, by the uni versa
spread of pure and spiritual Christianity. This feelin;
and view, as it is substantially sound, so is it ahvay
proper.

f

SUPPLANTED BY SECULAR TYHANNY. 263

But there is yet an opinion of the Lutheran Refor-
rmation entertained by those, who, using themselves to
.nstitute impartial comparisons of religious systems, de-
i :line either to accept, or to reject, any particular recen-
iiion of Christianity, in mass ; and especially, who anx-
iously desire to see Christianity freed from the bonds
of every pecuhar version, and given to mankind in its
i primitive energy. These, while they cordially join
'with the devout Christian in his grateful celebration of
that divine goodness to which we owe our deliverance
■from the horrors of the Papacy, are yet compelled to
■grant that the Reformation, on very many points, and
on some of prime importance, was deeply affected by
the errors, ignorance, and vehement prejudices that
commonly attach to humanity. The Reformation
they think of as a mighty convulsion, favourable in the
main to truth and liberty ; but a convulsion which, as
Hi was violent in itself, so likewise subsided long before
necessary forms had been completed. Those who ad-
mit these views, therefore, cheerfully granting, as they
do, the deserved honour to the protestant heroes and
; martyrs, are very far from being content with what was
then effected ; and on the contrary, now direct their
hopes, and bend their endeavours, towards the achieve-
ment of a second reformation, scarcely less important
than the first.

[ With the faults of the theological systems handed
' down to us by the founders of our Protestant Churches,
we have nothing here to do. But of their notions of
church power and church polity it must be said that
they were, in almost every sense, and in an extreme
degree, confused and erroneous. The Reformers
brought into play principles from which, in the end,
the hberties we now enjoy naturally resulted ; but we
owe them few thanks on this behalf; they intended
no such thing as that spiritual despotism, in its sub-
stance, should be dissipated ; they meant indeed to
■. shift it from its old bottom ; yet to build it up anew,

264 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

!
and, as they thouj2^ht, on a better model. The eccle-
siastical consequences of the Reformation have an ana-
logy with what has frequently followed civil contests •
between rival pretenders to a crown, when the one !^
party, and generally the assailant party, having called *
to its aid the middle classes, and having, as a bribe, ' '
conceded large privileges to them, popular rights and ' •
liberties have been permanently secured. Nothing else i"
could happen but that the Reformation should, in the ''^
end, bring about the establishment of religious liber- "
ty ; yet such was not either its purport, or its principle.

Speaking at large, and particular exceptions allow-
ed for, the reformers inherited from the Papacy, and
retained, its intolerance, its gloomy sternness, and very
much of its superstition. But the papal intolerance i'
was a proper element of the theory on which it was
founded ; and however cruel in fact, yet it drew its
reasons from intelligible grounds. The Church being
infallible, never incurred the hazard of inflicting its
chastisements upon the innocent; and being super-
nal urall}^ empowered to maintain and defend the
truth, had nothing to think of but faith full}^ and eflec-
tively to perform its duty. On the contrary, the Re-
formers, by renouncing infallibility, and by disclaiming
miraculous attestations of their ministry, left them-
selves open to the heaviest possible imputation of arro'
gance, and of cruelly, while they employed the sword- ■
and brand against their opponents.

If popish intolerance counts many more victims than
protestant intolerance can pretend to, that of the latter
is, on every ground, less justifiable ; or, we should say,
less susceptible of palliation, than the former : it was
practised under a fuller light of scriptural knowledge,
it was essentially inconsistent with the principles on
which the Reformation proceeded, and it wanted that
specious pretext of supernatural guidance and infalli-
bility, which might appear, even to the most upright
members of the Romish Church, conclusive and suffi-
cient.

StJPPLANTED BY SECVLAR TTVRANNY. 26i|

None who consider the intimate connexion that
binds the various elements of religious systems, can
suppose that the circumstances of our having received
our theology and our poHty from men fatally wrong
on the great question of religious liberty and the rights
of conscience, can have failed to place us in a highly
disadvantageous position ; it has. in fact, entangled us
I in very serious (if not hopeless) embarrassments. To
I this source, in great measure, may be traced the pre-
sent disparagements and perils of our national estab-
I lishment ; and, again, it is to their having stood in op-
I position to a polity embodying the errors of the reform-
ers, that the several classes of Dissenters in England,
owe, at once, their strength, and the exaggeration of
their theoretic principles. Every error repeats itself in
the antagonist opinion to which it gives rise ; and it
usually happens that grievous practical faults generate,
as their reverse, hypothetic principles proportionably
extravagant. If the Dissenters of the present day
would but apply to their own case, with a manly im-
partiality, those general maxims that result from a
wide survey of religious history, they would acknowl-
edge it to be certain, ihat their own ecclesiastical sys-
tem, inasmuch as it sprung by re-action from the intole-
rant notions and practices of the Reformers, has been
thrown far from the centre of truth and reason. What-
ever we hold as an inheritance from ancestors of the
sixteenth century, whether it has come to us directly,
or circuitously, should now be calmly reconsidered and
reformed. Nor is such a revision likely to be less need-
ed on the one side than on the other, of our religious
parties.

The principle of the spiritual despotism maintained

and exercised by the Papacy broke in upon protest ant

establishments, under the most preposterous conditions

ithat could be imagined ; and if the grand corrective of

Ithe diffusion of the Scriptures had not contained an an*-

23

166 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM

tidote for every evil, thechurcb-and-state, or, we ought
rather to say, the king-and-church tyranny that sup-
planted the tyranny of Rome, would have proved itself
by far the more insufferable and cruel of the two.

In the protestants countries, and especially in Eng-
land, the people at large, and the native secular clergy,
at the era of the Reformation, lost a protector, and
found a despot in their sovereign. Heretofore the
kings of England, for their own sakes, and for the
public good, had meditated with Rome ; they had re-
sisted encroachments, and had stood as the guardians \\
of the realm, repelling and excluding so much of the i^
spiritual despotism of the Papacy as could be resisted ;
without openly renouncing allegiance to St. Peter's \
representative. The history of Europe during the
two, or even three centuries, that precede the Lutheran
Reformation, turns very much upon this one point of ■
the struggles — and, to a great extent, the successful
struggles of the civil authority with the spiritual, and of i
its endeavours to reduce the latter within proper limits.

Those very usurpations and encroachments upon
secular affairs, which the Church of the fourth centu-
ry had carried far, and which the series of popes, from i
Gregory I. to Boniface VIII. effected, were, at the pe- >
riod of the Council of Constance, generally felt through- j
out Europe to be insufferable, and seemed likely to be
resisted. The Pragmatic Sanction of the Gallican \
Church, the Statute of Praemunire in England, and i
the opinions boldly maintained abroad, and uttered in
the Councils of Constance, Basic, and Bourges, all in-
dicated a rapid advance of the public mind, such as \
made the ultimate reduction of the Papacy inevitable, i
The intrigues of the cardinals did indeed successfully |
turn aside the direct course of reformation ; but in each j
instance ground was really gained by the vanquished ;
party, and as really lost by the conquerer. Tliis is the
ordinary course of events when the redress of old abu- ^
ses is in progress — the partizans of corruption go on

I

r

SUPPLANTED BY SECULAR TYRANNY. 267

triumphing to their fall. A little more, and that sort
of church-and-state-system, or clear separation of spi-
ritual and secular interests, and well-defined adjust-
ment of the two, which Constantine and his successors
had failed to effect, would have been brought about in
France. Germany, and England, if nowhere else.
' The breaking forth of the Lutheran Reformation
gave a counter direction to this movement within the
Romish Church, and saved the Papacy. The Coun-
cil of Trent sealed Romanism in its actual condition,
and shut out every hope of reform, except that which
open hostility might effect. This new turn of church
affairs none can regret ; for, although external abuses
might probably have been remedied, there was little
probability that the theology or the superstitions of the
Church would have undergone correction at the same
lime. In these latter respects Rome was not to be re-
formed, but overthrown. Yet, so far as relates to the
temporal power of the Papacy, its exactions, and its
cruelty, and its insolent interference with national in-
terests, there was an emancipation in prospect, for all
the European nations, which the Lutheran Reforma-
tion prevented, and which, the secular welfare of man-
kind only being considered, it did but partially com-
pensate.

By a sidelong influence the Reformation set wrong
that which had been getting right. Statesmen and
nobles, and the more enlightened of the clergy, and
even the people at large (we are now thinking espe-
cially of England) were fast coming, or had come, to
a pretty well-defined conception of the important dis-
tinction between secular and spiritual power, and were
prepared for measures which could have reduced the
papal authority, out of Italy, to a thin ether, visible to
none but the clergy. The king, having a foreign in-
terference to repel, would have stood in his natural
place, as the guardian of the wealth of the country,
from the fingers of Italian legates, as the patron of the

268 SPIRITUAL DESFOTrSOT

native clergy, in opposition to Romish intrusions, and
as the proteclor of the persons and property of the peo-
ple against the inquisitorial cruelty of the Church in
matters of imputed heresy^

But the fatal error of throwing into the hands of the
civil authority both species of church power, namely,
the purely spiritual, as well as the secular, at once made
a tyrant of him who just before had stood in front of
his people as guardian and deliverer. Every thing
was confounded, and every thing was lost in the doc-
trine of the royal supremacy in matters of religion.
The advancing tide of opinion was vehemently thrown
back ; and no choice was left to the intelligent portion
of the community but to hold to the Papacy, with all
its superstitions ; or, for the sake of a purer theology
and worship, to cast themselves at the feet of the irre-
sponsible, anomalous, capricious, and fierce tyranny of
kinoes and queens.

Even during the hottest season of papal despotism^
the people had possessed an important advantage, in
well knowing the conditions and the meaning of the
power to which they had to submit. The faiih and
discipline of the Church were fixed, its maxims and
policy were, for the most part, uniform and steadily
adhered to : — one pope indeed was more despotic than
another ; but the differences of personal disposition
did not extensively affect the administration of the
system toward the mass of the people. The severity
of a tyranny is much assuaged by this sort of consis-
tencv and uniformity : only bow to a known, a long
established, and an invariable authority, and you are
safe.

But the inconstancy of the spiritual tyranny exercis-
ed by the Tudors and the Stuarts rendered it not more
oppressive than horrible. Believe and worship with
the monarch to-day, and you might be burned for do-
ing so to-morrow, perhaps by himself, or if not by him-
self, by his successor. The Church, the clergy, and the

f

SUPPLANTED BY SECULAR TYRANNY. 269

people, trembled in suspense from hour to hour, on the
changeful whims of the royal theologue. Christen-
dom hitherto had seen nothing at once so cruel and
so ridiculous as was the usurpation of purely spiritual
authority, by the kings and queens of England. The
persecutions of the pagan Roman emperors tried the
constancy, but did not rack the consciences of the suf-
ferers. The same may be said of the persecutions
carried on by the Papacy. But the capricious barbari-
ties perpetrated by the Enghsh sovereigns of the six-
' teenth and seventeenth centuries, exhibited spiritual fe-
rocity under the most appalling of its forms, that namely
which it puts on them, when, although its savage
i heart may be known well enough, its will and purpose
I none can certainly foretel. Those only could be se-
cure whose determination was, to veer with the royal
faith as steadily as the vane with the wind.

The fault — it might almost be called the treason —
of the Fathers of the English Reformation, in surren-
dering the spiritual portion of Church power, along
with the secular, to the monarch, may be extenuated
' on the plea, that, in the distracted state of the country
on matters of opinion, they had no other fulcrum but
I the throne on which to rest the lever of reform. It
' was also their unhappiness, not their fault, to have to
do, on so difficult an occasion, with a family the char-
acteristic of which was an unbounded wilfulness, match-
ed only by its preposterous pedantry. Constantine and
i his successors had entertained a sincere reverence for
• Christianity, and for its ministers ; and indeed the er-
1 rors of their religious administration resulted, in great
I part, from their superstitious tenderness toward the
i clergy. But our EngUsh monarchs were animated
1 by that worst sort of religious sentiment — the thorough-
1 ly sophisticated pietism which belongs to an old cor-
t rupt worship, and which inspires an immensity of zeal,
! but no virtue, no fear, no modesty, no humanity.
Besides, at the era of the Reformation, princes had been
23*

270 SPIRITtTAL DESPOTISM

long" learning to suspect, to contemn, to hate, and to
oppose, the clergy. Eminently learned, holy, and sin-
cere, as were many of the reforming ministers, they
belonged to a class that, for three centuries, had been
every day more and more the objects of aversion or coa->
tempt. These ministers now approached the throne^
entreating protection and aid, and the peculiar difficul-
ties of their position led them to offer an incense to th«
monarch, which maddened his brain. The mischiev-»
ous influence of this adulation continued to afflict the
country a hundred and seventy years ; and it still
bears upon the Church with a serious disadvantage*
To the present day the English Establishment has
not relieved itself of the humiliations that resulted from
the surrender it had first made of its independence to
the civil magistrate.

" His Majesty's Declaration," prefixed to the Thirty*-
nine Articles, and the thirty-seventh of those Articles^
breathe an anxious ambiguity in every line. There
is no want indeed of despotic purpose ; but there is a
consciousness, poorly concealed, of the utter incompa-
tibility of the several principles assumed as the founda-
tion of the new ecclesiastical government. Popes had
bound consciences, and had forbidden dissent and dis-
cussion : but they had done so on clear ground ; and
they had pursued a course rationally adapted to their
professions and their principles. But the head of the
English Protestant Church, with a cruel liberality, al-
lowed and promoted the diffusion of the Scriptures,
sent abroad zealous preachers, who, in assailing the old
superstitions, constantly stayed themselves upon "God's
word," and urged their hearers to "search and see if
these things were so." And, all this while, the nation
was solemnly told that, although the Church had
power to decree rites and ceremonies, and had authori-
ty in controversies of faith, nevertheless "it was not
lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is con-
trary to God's word written, neither so to expound one

r

SUPPLANTED BY SECULAR TYRANNY. 271

place of Scripture that it be repugrjant to another."
Who, then, was to decide between Scripture and the
Church ; or, what mediate power was to satisfy the
minds of those who might suspect such and such
things to be unlawfully ordained? Was the Church
to be the arbitress in her own cause ? This were ab-
surd indeed. But were the people to judge for them-
selves ? So one might fairly suppose from this an-
nouncement of the limitation of church authority, and
from the implied meaning of the authoritative diffusion
of the Scriptures in the vernacular tongue, and from
the appeals made to them by their new teachers. Yet
this could not be when "the least difference"
from the articles of religion was strictly prohibited,
when " any varying or departing, in the least degree,"
therefrom was not to be '• endured ;" when, more-
over, it was enjoined that " all curious search" concern-
ing the meaning of the articles should be "laid aside;"
and when, to seal religious discussion with the terrors
of absolute power, it was declared that " Christian
men may be punished with death for heinous and
grievous offences."

It was then " His Majesty," or " Her Majesty,"
alone, who was arbiter of truth, and sovereign lord, as
well of the lives and goods, as of the souls and con-
sciences of the people. So far this absolute spiritual
despotism was in harmony with what the Church
had long admitted. The only innovation consisted
in transferring irresponsible church power from spirit-
ual to secular hands. But this important substitution
assumed a character of the most wanton cruelty, and
of the most enormous inconsistency too, when it came
to be conjoined with the Protestant practice of render-
ing the Scriptures into the vernacular tongue, and of
referring the people to them as the rule of faith. The
page of history presents no parallel instance of fright-
ful and ingenious tyranny. Had the framers of this
atrocious anomaly no knowledge of the laws and im-

272 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM

pulses of human nature? You may indeed stupify
the minds of men, and you may shut out every ray of
light, and exclude every stirring excitement ; and,
having done so, then the despotism which forbids
them to think or to speak is at least consistent with
itself, and is in a sense merciful. Such has been the
despotism of Kome. But to bring the minds of the
people under the most intense religious excitements,
wittingly to inflame them, and to inform them, to
urge them, in thunders of eloquence, to think for
themselves, to open upon their consciences all the
powers of the future world ; to tell them they were to
stand singly at the bar of God, as responsible individu-
ally for their opinions and practices in religion, and
then, after completing this mighty preparation, to pro-
hibit, upon pain of death or imprisonment, the ''least
diflference, or varying of belief," and " all curious
search concerning doctrines," and actually to sustain
these prohibitions with the sword, the brand, the pil-
lory, and the rack — this was, indeed, an intensity of
malice never before matched upon earth ; in exchange
for it we must crave the inquisition of St. Dominic, j
and the crusades of Languedoc. *

The despots — one might almost wish their names
to be blotted from the page of English history, — the
Protestant despots who were the authors of this bar-
barity, foresaw, as it appears, the impracticability of
their own measures ; and their language conveys all
the incertitude and alarm that usually belong to the
perpetrators of an atrocity which it is felt may proba-
bly be reflected upon its contrivers and agents. There
is a dignity and calmness in the papal persecuting
edicts, which is not at all found in the ecclesiastical
declarations and the proclamations of the Tudors and
Stuarts. Happily for England, and for the world, the
monstrous inconsistencies involved in the measures of
these princes were such as made the total defeat of
them inevitable j and although at the cost of thou-

SUPPLANTED BY SECULAR TYRANNY. 273

sands of executions and imprisonments, the proper
issue at length came about. The Bible, put into the
hands of the people, took possession of the hearts of
very many; and the horrid tyranny fell into the pit it
had duo^ for the nation. Religious liberty was won for
the British kingdoms, and a family incurably despotic
forfeited a crown.

But (dthough the arbitrary measures of our reforma-

! tion-princes have now been long obsolete, we are far

from having, as yet, escaped from the evil consequences

that have thence accrued. These may readily be

: enumerated ; well were it if they could be spoken of

i as likel}^ soon to be removed !

In the first place, the preposterous despotism out of
the midst of which our English Reformation arose,
' has stained and tainted the EstabHshed Church, ever
since, with an intolerance that lingers in the tempers
and upon the tongues of some of its ministers. True
it is, tliat every clergyman whose good sense entitles
him to any regard, disclaims, with abhorrence, the
practices and principles of persecution. Nevertheless,
so numerous a hierarchy will include more than a few
' whose inferiority of understanding, and whose perver-
sity of spirit, lead them to be blowing the embers of
church pride and cruelty. The fire, therefore, is not
extinguished; and not only are the smouldering fumes
a great present annoyance, but they even trouble our
feeling of security : it is impossible to say what acci-
dent may yet putf them into a flame. It would, in-
deed, be satisfactory if the Church, in a formal man-
: ner, were to step forth before the world, disclaiming,
i in so many words, the maxims of intolerance ; and,
: as an indication of sincerity, expunging every oflensive
i phrase by which her formularies are still blackened.
This purgation concerns the honour of the Established
t Church much more than it concerns the welfare of
[ the nation. The former may indeed talk errors a
; century longer, if she pleases ; but the latter will listen

274

SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM

at ease to such idle thunders. Impotent threats, harm-
less as they are to the objects of them, are really inju-
rious to those who repeat them. When the Established
Church shall become, in fact, the Church of the em-
pire—and God grant this may at length happen — she
must speak another language. If religious liberty is
actually to be enjoyed within these kingdoms, not a
phrase must remain among the offices, or the declara-
tions, or the articles of the Church, which either openly
insults that liberty, or which bears an ambiguous in-
terpretation with respect to it.

In the next place ; the early intolerance of our Eng-
lish Reformation — an intolerance that necessitated and
justified the noble resistance made to it, first by the
Puritans, and then by the Non-conformists — has trans-
mitted to modern dissent a harboured grudge and ex-
asperation of very evil consequence. As the Church
still fans its obsolete intolerance, so does dissent fan
its resentments. Brother against brother ; Christian
against Christian ; such is the shame of our present
religious condition ; nor is it unlikely that the faults
of the Fathers may be visited upon their descendants
of the fifth generation ; for the Established Church
may yet have to regret her backwardness in disclaim-
ing the despotic principles of her founders ; and the
Dissenters, not able to attain Christian greatness of
mind in this behalf, may be impelled by their cherished
recollection of wrongs, to promote measures which, if
effected, themselves would soon repent. A special
motive for an oblivion of past injuries, were it wanted,
might surely be found in a consideration of the fact,
that the intolerance and cruelty of the Episcopal
Church was the intolerance and the cruelty of almost
every sect in the same age.

Again ; the accidental circumstances of political dis-
advantage amid which the English Protestant Church
took its rise, and which led its founders at once to flat-
ter the monarch, and to encourage his despotic endea*

f

SUPPLANTED BY SECULAR TYRANNY. 275

voiirs to secure uniformity, involved a hitherto unheard-
of surrender of each of the most important and pecu-
liar rights of a Christian community. The moment
has atlenorth, though late, arrived for the Church to be
made to feel the error of her founders in this instance.
Too long she has consented to be mocked with the
empty forms of independence ; and is now so placed

' that she must assert and regain her lost prerogatives,
or fall lower still. The assembling in Convocation,
effectively, at her own discretion, and for the exercise of
substantial functions, the unprompted election of her
bishops, and the absolute annulling and exclusion of
lay encroachments upon ecclesiastical property, are ob-
vious points of that Church Reform which the course

t of events demands ; — or we should rather call them,
the necessary preliminaries of Church Reform.

I Lastly, but by no means of least importance, the rise
of the English Church Establishment from the midst
of the atrocious despotisms of the Tudor and Stuart
princes, has operated to throw a misunderstanding and
an obloquy, perhaps not now to be removed, upon the

I notion of a Church-and-State system. We are bold to
mention this as the great disadvantage of our present
position. There seems hardly a hope of dissolving, in
the public mind, the ancient and firm association of
ideas which connects a church, by law estabhshed,
and a church adjusted to the civil institutions of the
country, with an assumption of control over the con-
sciences of men, or with endeavours to compel or to
bribe men to conformity ; in a word, with the desjMDtic
feelings, language, and measures of the seventeenth
century.

All parties seem to concur, although in nothing else,
yet in the unhappy endeavour to strengthen the above-
named association of ideas, and to confuse and con-

i found their own and others conceptions of a Church-

land-State alliance, and here it must be plainly

i; confessed that the clergy of the Establishment, and

276 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM

its leaders and spokesmen, do not appear, as yet, so to
have discharged from their own minds the arrogant
prejudices of the age gone by, as to impel them, in an
ingenuous and explicit manner, to renounce certain
ecclesiastical maxims, theories, and doctrines, now no
longer to be endured. The champions of the Church
are not, as their present interests should prompt, them
to be, zealous in holding up to public view the ideal of ij
a national Church, absolutely purged of the leaven of i
despotism. I

But if the Church does not use perspicuous Ian- ji
guage on this subject, and if the party whose welfare, Ij
nay, existence, is mainly concerned herein, is blind to
its safety, it is not to be expected that any of the oppos-
ing parties should endeavour to set it right. As well j'
the irreligious and atheistic faction, as the dissidents, i
favour the impression that a national Church is neces- i'
sarily a despotism ; and they, one and all, avail them- j'
selves eagerly of every morsel of iUiberality and in- f
tolerance that may happen to be showered from the jj
Church press, in proof of the assumption, that an f
ecclesiastical establishment is, and must always be, ar- J
rogaiit and bigoted. To whom can we look, on any
side, as willing, in good faith, to consider those mea- |
sures which are now requisite for placing the Church |^
in perfect accordance with the great principles of reli-» j*
gious and civil liberty ?

None who are accustomed to think, and are ac-
quainted with history, can need to have it proved to !
them that, in the present condition of the British em- :
pire, and in the actual state of public opinion, in this ^
and other countries, a Church which professes and r
retains, or which does not utterly throw off, the insuf- r'
ferable and preposterous ecclesiastical principles of the *
Reformers, can have any other ffite than that of work- ;
ing itself on to worse and worse ground, and of be-
coming every year and day, feebler and more obnox-
ious. Neither statutes, nor the power of the aristocracy,

SUPPLANTED BY SECULAR TYRANNY. 277

nor the favour of kings — no nor the power of Heaven
itself, can prevent the decay and fall of a Church that
in the present day, advances, as its preliminaries, max-
ims essentially despotic. Whatever communion or
corporation, within the hosom of a free country, takes
its stand upon sectarian ground, although noio it may
be the largest, the most opulent, the most learned, and
the most powerful of all sects, will never be more, or
other than a sect ; and almost certainly will go on
narrowing its circle, until it has become as inconsider-
able as any of its competitors ; and, perhaps the most
inconsiderable of all. JSects may be sectarian, and
yet, in a certain sense, may thrive; but to a nation-
al Church sectarianism must be fatal. At a time
when the free discussion of all opinions, and the agita-
i tion of all interests, tends to bring every thing to find
its real level, a sectarian national Church must suffer
vastly more in the collision of parties than any other
party can do; other bodies may have something to
hope for, and to gain, but the established party has
, every thing to fear, and to lose.

It is easy then to trace that connexion of causes
* which entails upon us, at the present moment, con-
sequences of the most urgent and momentous kind,
from the spiritual despotism of ages long gone by.
; The ghostly tyranny of the Papacy, taking its rise
from almost the earliest age of the Church, reached a
height that made it the dread mistress of the world.
i This tyranny was first resisted and then transferred
[I to another ground, by the Lutheran reformers. Such
i| was the origin of our own national Establishment.
'[Since the age of its foundation, although all reasona-
Ijible men's minds have come to an opinion abhorrent
|;of intolerance, nothing has been done or said by the
f! Church, as such, to disengage herself from the practi-
■ cal and theoretic errors of her polity in this respect.
Parliaments have repealed despotic statutes : but the
Church yet stands liable to all the obloquies and sus-

24

278 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

picions that attach to her history. For aught the na-
tion knows, or can be sure of, the Church, (circum-
stances favouring) would say again^what once she said,
and do again what once she did. No disadvantage
can be more serious than that of lying open to such
jealousies. An intolerant sect may indeed be left to the
contempt and obscurity it deserves ; but a national
Church — intolerant,*^ must be watched, and tied, and
humiliated, if not rejected, by a people reasonably
alive to their liberties and welfare.

If then the national Church is to be maintained,
certain measures are indispensable, which shall place
her at a broad distance, as well from the spiritual des-
potism of the Reformation, as from that of the
Papacy.

SECTION IX.

PRESENT DISPARAGEMENTS OP THE MINISTERS OF RELIGION.

The well-being of a community, and by eminence,
of a religious community, demands two conditions in
relation to those who serve and govern it ; namely,
that they should personally be able and worthy, and
that, for the discharge of their functions, they should
oecupy the most advantageous ground possible.

There have been times when the ministers of reli-
gion, and even the people, have thought of the latter
of these conditions only, and have been almost indif-
ferent concerning the former. No error can be of
•worse consequence than this. To attribute every
thing to the official prerogatives and dignity of the
functionary, while we care little or nothing about the
intellectual and moral qualities of the man, is the last
and lowest illusion of superstition. How frivolous and
degraded must the minds of those have become who
are accustomed to look at nothing in God's ministers
but their frocks ! These absurd notions, we may hope
are nearly obsolete.

But on the other side, it is an error, and it is the
characteristic error of modern times, and of Protestant-
ism, so to regard the personal accomplishments and in-
dividual worth of the christian minister as hardly to in-
quire, or to care, whether the position in which he
stands is such as to give his talents and virtues all the
advantage they ought to command. In ages gone by
the great damage of the church was a general want of
worthiness in its ministers : in the present age, its hurt
comes from the disparagements under which its able
and upright ministers have to labour.

280 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

It is true that brilliant qualities of mind, in single
instances, or an unconquerable energy, or an eminent
degree of faith and holiness, may so surmount every
disadvantage, as that it may be thought there were
none to be encountered. From such instances a very
delusive argument is often drawn, of this sort —
"You find fault with our ecclesiastical economy ; but
look at such and such men, and see how well it
works in able hands ; — we want nothing but many
of the same stamp, and all would be right." No rea-
soning can be more futile than this. Who shall set
forth, in full view, the struggles of these same emi-
nent men with the disadvantages of their position ?
or who tell us what it has cost themselves, and the
Church, to counteract and vanquish those disadvan-
tages? But this is an incidental and inconsiderable
part of the argument ; for it is an extreme folly in
estimating the influence of systems to take rare in-
stances as our rule : we should consider always the
mass and the many. Is it asked, what are the
merits of a certain polity ? ask again, what is its
operation upon ordinary minds ?

The three principal species, or successive develope-
ments of spiritual despotism, have passed away \
namely, that of the pristine Church, that of the Pa-
pacy, and that which supplanted the Romish tyranny
at the Reformation. It might indeed be easy to point
out particular examples of an analagous kind, here
and there around us ; but we regard such instances
as barely worthy either of formal notice ; they are
single instances only, or they are likely to become
every day less and less frequent. The whole ten-
dency of public feehng and opinion, and the current
of affairs, sets in the opposite direction. The re-action
from spiritual despotism has gone very far ; the
clerical order is, in many modes, suffering depression,
and is in danger of still greater humiliations. The
endeavours of every considerate supporter of public

nEPRRSSTOlV OP THF. r.T.F.RinAT. ORDER. 281

religion should therefore be directed toward a contrary
point. Instead, then of hunting out from its corners
the poor and scattered remains of sacerdotal pride,
we propose succinctly to state the most prominent
causes and occasions of those disadvantages that, at
the present moment, depress the ininisters of religion.
This might be done within the compass of a page,
if it were not so often, that what demands to be
named as a serious evil and a humiliation, has come
to be regarded by those who suffer from it in a false
light, as a valuable prerogative, or as an honour. Ex-
planations therefore are necessary for the purpose
of showing the grounds on which it is alleged that
v.hat has been cherished and pertinaciously main-
tained, ought rather to be abandoned and disclaimed,
Of all parties it is more or less true that they cling
to their loss, and glory in their discredit.

Whatever there is that must be named as an ob-
stacle, or as a dishonour, affecting the Christian

i community at large, may properly be pointed to as, in
an emphatic sense, a disparagement to the clerical
order : and it may be such, partly as the misfortune,

s and partly as the fault, of the ministers of religion.
For example ; every private Christian of serious and
ingenuous temper, feels, in an oppressive manner,
the reproach of the enemies of our faith, who ask,
^'Why does not Christianity, now that it is freed from
external opposition, command the assent of all men,

. and universally prevail?" A reply may be given

I to such a taunting question : nevertheless, there re-
mains a certain degree of force in the opprobrious

I question ; and the only way in which it can be turn-

' ed aside, so as not to attach to Christianity itself,
is for Christians to take it upon themselves, and to

■ say, " It is altogether our fault that the religion of
the Bible does not now triumph universally."

If the private Christian should make such a reply

24*

282 gPIRTTUAT. DESPOTISM.

to such a reproachful inquiry, it cannot be denied
that the ministers of religion must do the same in
a special and emphatic manner. That Christianity,
in their hands, does not rapidly spread, and does not
command the reverence and submission of the mass of
mankind, is indeed a humiliation, full of anxiety and
discouragement. While the Gospel was struggling
with external hostilit}^, and contending for its very ex-
istence against power and malice, its ministers acquitted
themselves of all blame in bearing a courageous tes-
timony to its truth, and in enduring extreme suffer-
ings for its sake. But their responsibility reaches
much further, and is of a more serious sort, when, in-
stead of encountering opposition from the civil powers,
or from the world at large, they receive favour and
aid, when the field of labour is opened before them,
and they are invited to occupy the ground ; and when
nothing hardly remains to be done or desired, except
that which they must themselves effect.

At the present moment, and in this country (if no
where else) Christianity stands on open ground, and
may exhibit its proper strength. It has all reason
and argument on its side, it has the voice of con-
science in the bosoms of men to sustain it : it has
no adversary to fear, and no visible obstacle to bar
its progress. Under such favouring circumstances,
merely to maintain its ground is substantially to suffer
defeat. Not to advance with a rapid acceleration,
is to incur dishonour and suspicion. This dishonour,
then, where falls it? — not on Christianity. After
every reasonable palliation has been admitted, there
will remain a weighty discredit, which not merely
impUes some fault on the part of those whose special
duty it is to promote religion ; but which stands in
their way as a disparagement, and as a hindrance;
and it is as such that we here name it.

Two or three periods might be referred to in which
religion, though much mingled with superstition,

DEPRESSION OF THE CLERICAL ORDER. 283

affected tlie mass of society far more extensively, and
more intensely too, than it does at present, and when its
ministers commanded the homage of all classes — the
high as well as the low. In what manner they availed
themselves of this submissiveness of the people is ano-
ther question ; but we ought to desire nothing less than
that,in anage of good sense and reason, those who wield
the powers of Christianity — freed from superstition
and fraud, should possess an influence equally exten-
sive, and equally efficient. Christianity should either
be oppressed and persecuted, or it should be trium-
phant, and universally honoured ; a middle state is,
to a religion so sanctioned, an ambiguous state ; and
while it thus wavers and halts in its course, its official
advocates stand in a false position, aud one of very
peculiar disadvantage. The authority they might
wish to exercise for the maintenance of morals, and
for the enforcement of church discipline, finds no
steady fulcrum in public opinion. The plain rules
of virtue, of temperance, justice, truth, charity, take
effect indeed upon the docile, but possess no restrain-
ing terror in relation to the bold and wilful. The
ministers of religion, unhappily, in protestant coun-
tries, have learned to expect no submission — except
from the submissive ; and hence, naturally reluctant
• to draw upon themselves the expressions of contuma-
cy, they avoid that style of asserting morality which
.would only provoke insults, and fail to produce obe-
. dience. The entire method of teaching morals from
the pulpit betrays a conscious want of power to
carry home tbese principles in ecclesiastical practice.
We hear the letter of Christian morality, but feel
scarcely any thing of its energy. There is little tone
in our church and chapel ethics: and why, but be-
cause the teachers of morals are mere lecturers up-
on abstract principles : as an order, they are not in
authority. The clergy are the instructors of that
quiet minority of the community that is pleased to

284 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

attend public worship; they are not God's ministers to
the people at large. Let this principle be considered
as it deserves, That Christianity can display its pow-
ers, only when it is persecuted ; or when it has be-
come paramount.

Again ; the grand opprobrium of our modern and
Protestant Christianity — that which at once enfeebles
and obscures it, and which bars its progress, namely —
its factious condition, while it presses upon Christians
generally, bears with a peculiar force upon the clerical
body. Why do the ministers of religion enjoy so Httle
honour, and exercise so httle power? — it is because
they are divided among themselves. To a certain
extent only, do they sustain one another, and are
sustained in common, by the broad meaning of Scrip-
ture. To as great an extent they diminish the influ-
ence one of another ; they stand before the world as
the rivals and antagonists one of another ; and they
make their appeals to the word of God, not only for
strengthening their general and salutary power, but
for defending their particular position. All this is ma-
nifestly incompatible with any high degree of spiritual
authority.

Few, if any, seem to have their eyes open to the
immensity of this disadvantage. It is the infatuation
of the times to be bUnd to it, or to labour to palliate it.
Every age has been insensible of its principal and most
glaring fault, and assuredly the present age is no ex-
ception to the rule. Let but the ministers of religion
distinctly imagine what would be their honour, what
their just and beneficial influence, what their means
of pastoral government, what their opportunities for
bringing Christianity to bear upon the outcast portions
of the community, high and low, and for making it
embrace, as it ought, the entire population, were they
themselves one in mind and one in communion.
Hitherto we have not known what Christianity might

I

DEPRESSION OF THE CLERICAL ORDER. 285

effect, because its ministers have never been willing to
combine their strength, or to concur in their measures,
or to agree in faith and counsel. The force of religious
motives is half of it turned in upon the Church, and
there evaporates : let but the whole of it flow forth as
a river from its springs, and nothing could resist it.

The official disparagement that results from this
cause is much aggravated by the use of certain vilify-
ing arguments, resorted to by vulgar and secular minds
for the purpose of excusing, or even of recommending,
religious divisions. Often does it happen with those
who are capitally in fault, that their own apology seals
their condemnation. Thus there are some who do
not blush to assure us that it is only by motives of
rivalry that the ministers of religion can be stimulated
to perform their duties with a necessary zeal ; or that
nothing but division among the clergy can prevent
those dangerous combinations whence hierarchical

' despotism takes its start ; or that, in religion, as well
as in common affairs, the public is the gainer by an
open market, and competition among venders.

All this grossness would be true, if Christianity were
not true ; and, indeed, it is true, while Christianity is
treated and thought of as little better than other sys-
tems of national worship : but each of these pretences

1^ is impiously false when made to altach to the Chris-
tianity of the Scriptures. That is only half believed
which is believed as the alternative in a controversy ;
and at present all our religious convictions are subject

\ to a deduction of this sort. The great principles of

; the Gospel, thought of as the subjects of discord among
the teachers of religion, are not firmly lodged in our
minds ; — nor in their minds. Conscious of this low-
ered or shattered confidence, affecting as well the
teachers as the taught, the deficiency of genuine assu-
rance is supplied whence it may, and various second-
ary motives are admitted to give their aid in sustaining
our profession, and in buoying up our zeal. But no

286 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

such unworthy accessories would be needed, or indeed
tolerated, if the genuine force of faith itself were not
broken down by disputation.

Fully we may grant that those who slenderly be-
lieve the great verities of the Gospel may need to be
provoked to diligence in their spiritual functions by the
rivalries and jealousies of faction ; and certain it is
that where high motives languish, the deficiency may
be supplied by the personal ambition of those who are
striving to outshine competitors. It is also true, while
our church politics on the one side are purely demo-
cratic, and on the other side are purely hierarchical,
that faction among the ministers of religion operates
as a preservative against both popular and clerical
tyranny. But none of these degrading precautions .
or secular and vulgar incentives would find place, if
once the paramount and elevating motives of Chris-
tianity took full effect. It is nothing but faction itself
that renders the impulses derived from faction need-
ful. Faction laid aside, and we should no more want
the artificial stimulus it may supply. Their divisions
among themselves discarded, and the ministers of the
Gospel would instantly stand possessed of an autho-
rity that would neither ask extrinsic aids, nor need
humiliating counteractions. Little can be hoped for
in relation to Christianity, until its ministers remove
from themselves the dishonour of their feuds. '

It ought not perhaps to be deemed proper to look at '
subjects of this serious sort, even for a moment, in the i
light of wordly prudence ; but if this might be per- l
mitted, one must be amazed at that want of discern- • -
ment of their common credit and interest, as an ' -^
ORDER, which allows the ministers of religion so to f
divide and to subdivide their corporate strength. And 1^
never have such divisions been more inexpedient or ^
dangerous than at the present moment, when the ^
democratic element, throughout the social system, is
gaining rapidly upon all powers of government and

r

DEPRESSION OF THE CLERICAL ORDER. 287

principles of authority; when legitimate feelings of
reverence, along with questionable prejudicesj are dis-
appearing ; and when sentiment of almost every
kind is becoming faint and feeble. At such a time
the clerical influence must be regarded as standing
exposed to extreme peril : what then is likely to be its
fate if it be internally broken by disagreements, and
alienated, part from part, by fixed aversions ? How
are those to defend their common prerogatives who
will not recognize each other as claimants of the joint
privilege, or even meet under the same roof?

But let these inferior and secular considerations be
altogether dismissed. Surely those must have a faint
sense of their responsibility who can think themselves
free to indulge their resentments, to entertain their
prejudices, and to adhere to their bigotry — at the peril
of the salvation of mankind. Yet it is the factions, and
the jealousy^ and the animosities, of the ministers of
Christianity, that at the present moment is sealing the
perdition of the world. It is this that is condemning
the millions of our British population to ignorance and
atheism : it is this that is snatching from us the lately
entertained hope of the conversion of Mohammedans
and Pagans : it is this that is scattering the sighs and
prayers of the Church for the prevalence of truth and
goodness : it is this — it is the disgraceful, the ground-
less, and the obstinate discords of the ministers of
religion, that now baffles the benevolence of Heaven,
and throws the wretched human family forward upon
another cycle of satanic illusion. The methods of
the Divine government, inscrutable as they are for the
most part, yet make themselves legible, very often, in
the terrible retributions they involve. So it may prove
in the present instance. Every sort of motive and
incidental advantage has, during the current period,
combined to invite a reconsideration, and an abandon-
ment of our hereditary religious divisions. This has
been the Lord's special call to his ministers of the pre-

288 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

sent age. But it has not been listened to ; it has been
heard — and contemned. Yet the guilty will go ill
peace to their graves, and the public punishment be
reserved to descend with ruin upon the heads of their
less culpable successors. Let it be believed that, in
the actual tendency of opinions throughout Europe,'
and not less so in England, the clerical institute and
order is altogether in jeopardy. Weakened a little
more, and disgraced a little more by internal discords^'
and it may be trampled under foot by its adversaries.

At what cost was it that the clergy of the third cen-
tury promoted superstition, and pursued their selfish
ends? or at what cost did those of the fifth and sixth
centuries bear down, and put to silence, the few re-
monstrants who called upon them to return to apostolic
simplicity? — it was at the cost to the world of the
delusions and corruptions of twelve hundred years.
Heaven did not interpose to stop the natural course of
evil. The Church was left to go on in the path it had
chosen : the clergy enjoyed the fruits of their treason
against their Lord : Judas held his thirty pieces of
silver, and rioted without remorse in his gains. The
treason of our own times is of a different sort ; but we
know not that it is less pernicious ; and assuredly it is
aggravated by a more abundant knowledge of right
and wrong; nor is there any ground of just confidence
that its proper consequences will be averted by extraor-
dinary interpositions of Divine power and mercy.

The part of the junior members of the clerical or*
der (of all communions) is to convince themselves of
the error of their fathers in this behalf, and to resolve
that, so soon as they come upon the stage of public
life, they will remove the unwarrantable and perni-
cious discords that have so long stayed the course of
Christianity, and brought its ministers into contempt.
Union, if once cordially intended and promoted, would
not be obstructed by any serious obstacles : the diffi-
culties that stand in its way would appear to be what

r

DEPRESSIOI* OP THE Cl-ERICAL ORDER. 280

they are, trivial pretexts only, or misunderstandings
which good sense and charity would presently sur-
mount. So far as the present pleas of faction are of a
pDlitical kind, they must at once be condemned as im-
piously criminal : so far as they relate to diversities of
usage or opinion in worship and government, a bet^
ter understood principle of church polity and commu-
nion, together with that sentiment of love and forbear-
ance which the Gospel supplies and demands, would
secure to every man his personal persuasion, without
allowing him to break company with his brethren ]
and so for as our parties take their origin from theo-
logical disagreements, a pious and diligent prosecution
of biblical interpretation, such as is at present in pro-
gress— biblical interpretation opposed to the dialectic
and the metaphysic method of compacting systems,
would soon bring into substantial accordance all sin-
cere men. In one word, a restored manliness of feel-
ing among religious folks— a renovated good sense,
and, above all, an invigorated piety and profound con-
viction of the truth of the religion we profess. Avould
dispel, as in an instant, the shame and folly of our fac-
tions.

The above-named heavy disparagements, under
which the influence of the ministers of religion is at
present labouring, attach in common, and nearly in
equal degrees, to the clergy of all parties. There re-
mains however to be mentioned certain causes of de-
pression which specially alfect the ministers of different
communions. The most considerable of these have,
in the preceding Sections, been cursorily adverted to,
but it is proper here distinctly to bring them forward *
yet a copious argument on subjects so familiar cannot
be necessary ; nor d^es the author intend to take into
account certain minute diversities, that distinguish our
various denominations.

. The Wesley an Methodists and Moravians excepted,
ihe great body of our English Dissenters have fallen

25

290 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

from Presbyterianism to Congregationalism, and in
consequence of renovated party feelings, have been led
of late to defend that form of government with warmth.
At the very same time the evils and impracticability
of this system have been so strongly, though silently,
felt, as that several important deviations from it have
been attempted. In truth, whenever Christianity is
in an expanding state, a polity essentially (though not
by name) episcopal, takes place ; as for example, in
missionary stations, and at home too, where a pastor
is of episcopal character, and is eminently assiduous
and zealous, so as to extend his labours beyond the
walls of his chapel. The very pattern of primitive
episcopacy might be pointed to in some of our rural
districts, where a mother congregational Church has,
under the laborious care of its pastor, surrounded itself
with dependant chapels, scattered over a district of
seven or ten miles diameter. All that is wanting in
such cases is ingenuousness enough not to inveigh
against the name —bishop, while episcopacy is actually
used.

Again ; conscious of the fault of their principles, in-
dividuals among the congregational dissenters have
laboured, time after time, to establish some scrt of or-
ganization of the body, for the management of their
common interests. But neither ministers nor people,
generally, are as yet prepared to yield what is indis-
pensable to the rendering such unions — urtioiis in-
deed, or for making them effective, in any considerable
degree. Beside, it is little more than the political well-
being of the body that could come under the cogni-
zance of a iiietropolitan committee ; and even in rela-
lation to these, wide disagreements prevent the con-
centration of the will of the body. The very princi-
ple of these communities rej)els organization, and so
strong a feeling of jealousy toward every species of <?i;-
tended authority pervades them, that no sooner is any
scheme advanced which might ripen into an efficient

f

DEPRESSION OP THE CLERICAL ORDER. 291

general government, than it draws upon itself univer-
sal dislike.

Considered in its relation to the pastors, individually,
the congregational system is, in one word — the peo-
ple's polity, framed or adhered to, for the purpose of
circumscribing clerical power within the narrowest
possible limits, and of absolutely excluding any exer-
tions of authority, such as the high English temper
could not brook. The minister of the meeting-house
or chapel is — one against all. His neighbouring
brethren may listen in sympathy to his complaints,
but they can seldom yield him succour : to attempt to
interfere might be to dislodge him at once from his po-
sition. No adjustment of ecclesiastical powers can
leave a smaller balance in the hands of the pastor.

The instances that would probably be pointed to in
proof that these averments are only theoretically true,
and not practically so, we should single out as really
confirmatory of them. It is a universal principle that,
to abridge excessively the powers of a ruler, is to place
him under a sort of necessity to become a despot.
Feeling that the prerogatives formerly assigned to him
are altogether insufficient for the free and beneficial
discharge of his functions, no alternative is left to hira,
but either to succumb, and to sustain a mere mockery
of authority, or to usurp (we must call it usurpation)
such powers as he can ; and by personal address, or
by the force of his temper, or the momentum of his
talents and character, to render himself absolute.
Nothing tends so rapidly to despotism as pure democ-
racy. The cases, be they as many as they may, in
which congregational ministers exercise a real and un-
restrained power, concur along with the frequent cases
of an opposite sort, in which the minister is the crea-
ture of the people, and both support the general asser-
tion that, to insulate congregations, and to leave a sin-
gle stipendiary teacher alone^ to manage as he can,
the popular will, is a system that must almost always

292 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM,

end, either in compromising the liberties of the people,
or in annihilating the independence, the salutary
power, and the personal comfort, of the minister.

High-minded and faithful men (we use the terms
in the best sense) and there are many such among
the Congregational Dissenters, may be prompted to
deny with indignation the allegation of their infelici-
tous position. Such should however, as well in jus-
tice to themselves, as to their own and other bodies,
consider, not so much their particular and exclusive
case, but rather that of the many among their breth-
ren, less energetic in temperament, less skilled in the
arts of government, and less advantaged by talents, or
perhaps by property, than themselves. And another,
and a more recondite inquiry should also be made,
concerning the secret, silent, and universal operation of
the popular will, through a course of time, over theo-
logical systems, and over moral principles and senti-
ments, as taught from the pulpit, and as carried into
effect upon the people. Men are not always conscious
of how far they have been carried from their suppos-
ed longitude, by a tranquil current, into the course of
which they have steered.

The eagerness of congregational misisters in de-
fending a system so disparaging to themselves, and
so incompatible with the dignity, security, and sereni-
ty, proper to their office, may seem a riddle to by-stand-
ers : it is however susceptible of some explication.
The events of the time have thrown all parties upon a
partizan-like assertion of their peculiarities ; and it has
been felt that any show of misgiving or doubt, as to
sectarian principles, would be caught at and unfairly
used by opponents. Besides, it is well understood
that the dissenting laity, generally, are as far as possi-
ble from being in a mood to relinquish any portion
of their acquired sovereignty, and would abandon the
most distinguished of their preachers who should open-
ly controvert popular doctrines* Nor ought we to

I

DEPRESSION OF THE CLERICAL ORDER. 293

leave out of the account the unfeigned convictions of
many, perhaps of most, of these respectable men, who
have persuaded themselves, or have been persuaded,
that their poHty is essentially the same as that of the
apostolic churches.* Having had the baronial prelacy
of the middle ages to contend with, and having fallen
into the almost universal error of fighting for and
against names, they have believed themselves to oc-
cupy an impregnable position, because they have seen
their opponents standing in one that is indefensible.
It has been the misfortune moreover of the dissenting
clergy, to derive their knowledge on ecclesiastical ques-
tions much more from our English reformation-writers,
and from their own puritan and non-comformist di-
vines, than from original sources. Very few of them,
and manifestly not those who at present figure in ec-
clesiastical polemics, are familiarly conversant with the
Greek and Latin Church writers. The diffusion
among them of this sort of learning (proper as it is to
a divine) would infallibly lead to some considerable
modifications of opinion. Unhappily, at present, the
prejudice prevails which prevents its being seen that
ancient books, perhaps intrinsically undeserving of pe-
rusal, may nevertheless claim attention, in a perempto-
ry manner, as the sources and materials of history.
Uninformed of the history of Christianity, we are the
creatures of that recension of Christianity which hap-
^pens to be current in our times.

It is al\va3''3 extremely difficult to state the defects of
religious systems without conveying, to those who are
uninformed in such matters, an injurious or an exag^
gerated impression of facts. The author, in this in-
stance, formally cautions the general reader against
the misinterpretations or extensions to which his aver-
ments may be open. He would commit his pages to
the flames, much rather than seem to associate hin^-

* See Appendix*

25*

2f94 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM,

self with the virulent calumniators of the Dissenters,
He well knows the Dissenters ; — he knows that Christi-
anity is among them in an efficacious form ; he knows
their zeal, their abundant labours for the promotion of
the Gospel, their disinterestedness, their liberality (un-
matched and unlimited) and their private and personal
worth and piety ; and although they may scout \m
praise, he will still praise them. But their opposition to .
the Established Church has deeply injured ihem ; — it
has set them wrong, very far, in polity and principles; it
has infected them in no small degree, with a politico- reli-
gious fanaticism ; and especially it has fixed them, al-
most universally, in a blind confidence of being, on all
points, "in the right," a confidence which precludes a
modest and wise consideration of principles, and leaves
scarcely a hope of their entertaining those serious and
momentous inquiries concerning the general condition
of our modern Christianity, which are now called for.
But we must not pass on without noting, and fully
admitting, that material alleviation of the evils of Con-
gregationalism which has incidentally resulted from
modern missionary exertions, of the several dissident
communions. The various evangelic schemes and
labours which have been on foot these last forty years,
and especially the last twenty years, have in fact ope-
rated to give the dissenting clergy a corporate exist-
ence, and to secure for them, in relation to their con-
gregations, strength and importance, both individually
and as an order. The great movements to which
Christie n zeal has given rise, place the ministers be-
fore their flocks in a position of disinterested exertion,
and self-denying labour, such as stimulates affection,
and secures respect ? in a word, augments their proper
influence. These enterprizes, moreover, involve mea-
sures, private and public, which induce habits of busi-
ness and government, habits applicable to other pur-
poses, and highly important to the pastoral character.
Again, (nor is this of least account,) our modern

DEPRESSION OF THE CLERICAL ORDER. 295

evangelic societies bring the pastors into frecjuent con-
sultation among themselves, or in conjunction with
the most respectable of the laity. In some degree,
therefore, Congregationalism is Congregationalism no
longer. Ministers are now a body ; they work in
with extensive organizations ; they are members of
broad systems of government ; they go and come from
their spheres of labour with hearts relieved of the
pressure of private cares, by the excitement of public
cares. They are not, as once they were, the spirit-bro-
ken and deplorable anchorets of the study and the pul-
pit. They are of more importance at home, and of
more importance abroad, than were their predecessors.
They have made proof, in a signal and peculiar man-
ner, of the truth of the axiom — that " Mercy is twice
blessed." The missionary spirit, and its practices and
movements, have redeemed congregational dissent
from decay or extinction ; and have brought to bear
upon it a corrective, so efficacious, as almost to hide its
capital faults. In the beneficial change that has thus
taken place, the congregational laity have not indeed
relinquished any power ; but their clergy from a for-
eign source, have acquired power, and so the balance
is a little righted.

Nevertheless, this incidental remedy falls very short
of those measures that are requisite for placing dissent-
ing ministers in the position which the ministers of
religion ought always to occupy, and in which the
personal merits and accomplishments of many of
them would well fit them to stand. The same men
organized under an episcopal system (wisely balanced
find invigorated by lay influence and set free from im-
mediate dependance upon single congregations, and
upon individuals, would soon draw to themselves the
mass of the population. Did but the several denomi-
nations of orthodox Dissenters understand their inter-
ests, well enough to dismiss their internal disagree-
ments— to renounce Congregationalism, the meeting-

296 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

house economy, in principle and in fact — and to
organize themselves throughout the country, not in-
deed by the medium of precarious and powerless
committees, but under a firm and vigorous ecclesias- •
tical polity — it might then be superfluous to talk about
the reform of the Established Church ; for the Estab-
hshed Church must soon give way before a phalanx
of this sort, even if left in possession of all her endow-
ments. But this will not happen : dissent is not likely
soon to be otherwise than discordant and chaotic.
Our part therefore must be, while careful not to trench
in any manner upon the rights of the sects to look to
the Episcopal Church, ond to strive by all calm and
reasonable means, to redress its most urgent faults,
and to secure for it permancy, and the means of gra-
dual amendment and extension.

John Wesley's Church of-Englandism, and his res-
pect for episcopal orders, involved, incidentally, his ad-
mirable system in an embarrassment which now
threatens the integrity of the whole, and is actually
dividing it. Compelled in the prosecution of his great
objects, to break away from the reach of the crosier,
he nevertheless refused to consider his irregular
preachers as clergy : this dignity belonged onl}^ to
himselfj and the few of his companions who had re-
ceived a university education, and episcopal ordination.
His legislative and admit listrative assembly therefore,
the Conference — was, in his view, a mixed convoca-
tion of clergy and laity; — the latter being predomi-
nant in numbers. But this arbitrary and artificial
distinction — a mere canonical fiction, necessarily grew
fainter and fainter every year; and soon completely dis-
appeared. Yet the silent change was of vital conse-
quence ; for thenceforward the society fell into the des-
potic form of a purely hierarchical polity. The
preachers — the clergy, no longer pretending to call
themselves laymen, managed affairs, apart from, and

?

DEPRESSION OP THE CLERICAL ORDER. 297

to the exclusidh of the people. This might last while
the personal authority of several of the venerated col-
leagues of the founder was at hand to check resistance ;
but the removal of these respected men was the signal
of rebellion. In the temper of the present times, an
unmixed and irresponsible hierarchy will not be en-
dured. The Wesley an leaders should long ago have
discerned the growing danger, and have prevented
the schisms that have actually happened, by render-
ing the Conference \\ hat Wesley intended it to be — a
convocation of clergy and laity. Disinterested specta-
tors cannot but grieve to see a system, so excellent ori-
ginally, and which has effected so much good, break-
uig up, and generating feud upon feud — scandal upon
scandal, the consequence of which must be a loss of
genuine influence over the people, and a lowering of
the ministerial character in that communion. Shall
the Established Church, with a noble and a Christian-
like concession to the circumstances of the times, em-
brace Wesleyan Methodism, leaving to it its vitality
and its independence ; and so, while it loses a formid-
able opponent, gain an efficient ally ?

We do not then find any where, among the dissent-
ing communities, a system susceptible of universality,
or much deserving to be thought of as likely to super-
sede the Episcopal Church. Each of them is attached
to certain prejudices— called "great principles," which
keep them sectarian in practice and feeling. Private
liberty and personal preferences are too often set above
considerations of public utility ; the necessity of conces-
sion, of compromise, and of submission to authori-
ty, is not admitted : especially the Christian duty
and solemn obligation of preserving union, is but
faintly seen. The sin of schism stands indeed in
the catalogue of vices, for the Apostles have placed
it there ; but an instance hardly ever occurs in
which the guilt of schism is allowed to be imputed

298 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

to separatists. Any reason is deemed reason enough
for splitting a society, and for founding a rival
Church under the eaves of the mother Chapel.
Congregationalism puts forth its shoots with a too
ready exuberance ; and our country towns in very
many instances, present, what we are required to
believe, is the apostolic spectacle of Christian societies,
within gun-shot of each other, and differing in no-
thing but their grudges, yet preserving little or no
fellowship. Bodies acting upon principles of this
sort have to learn the rudiments of Christian order.
The Established Church is deformed indeed by
many blemishes, and urgently needs revision ; yet
it may become the national form of Christianity.

This is not the place for treating of Church Reform;
what belongs to the completion of our present argu-
ment is briefly and plainly to state those special dis-
paragements under which the clergy of the Estab-
lished Church are now labouring.

We have already adverted to that fatal surrender
of its spiritual prerogatives to the court, which the
Protestant clergy made in their season of need.
Most of the disparagements we here name are the
consequences of that false step — might we call it trea-
son 7 Combined with the principles and the prac-
tices of lay spoliation, and the shameless abuses that
have grown out of the custom of patronage, the sub-
jugation of the Episcopal Church to secular control
presses upon every clergyman with a weight that ex-
ceedingly diminishes the influence his personal merits
would command.

The people will not, do not see it ; nay, the clergy
themselves do not alvva3^s or generally feel it, that the
English Episcopal Clergy are under the foot of lay
despotism, and are the victims of aristocratic rapacity.
But in the popular eye the clergy bear the opprobrium
of these usurpations. Acquiescing in them, and mv

DEPRESSION OF THE CLERICAL ORDER. 299

mediately benefitted, in single instances, by the exer-
cise of these encroachments, they are regarded as the
prime parlies in the wrong, which, in reahty, is bene-
ficial, not to the clergy at large, but to secular men
in office, and to the aristocracy.

Nothing proper to a churcl\-and-state system de-
mands the subserviency of the Church to the State;
much less an obsequious dependance of the former,
from day to day, upon the ever-changing personages
of the administration. Would the Church lose power,
or ^ai/i it, by resenting this humiliation? Unques-
tionably gain power ; and not merely gain it for the
episcopal order, but for every incumbent and curate,
in his private sphere, throughout the land. The
people w^ould at once see their ministers in a new
light ; and if, at the same time, the glaring abuses of
patronage were corrected, and the whole system
brought under the operation of a gradual amendment,
such as should concede something to the people, and
absolutely exclude the merchandize of souls — the
people would yield to their ministers a cordial leve-
rence and submission, at present hardly granted to the
most eminent personal worth.

Much that is felt and thought by the people, in rela-
tion to their ministers, is never uttered, or is not utteied
by the discreet and moderate, whose opinions deserve
respect ; and of that which is uttered, a very small
portion at any time reaches the ears of the parties con-
cerned. If the heavily beneficed pluralist — we will
suppose him mainly well-intentioned and respectable
(in a low sense of the terms) could but, as he makes
ins way, on a Sunday morning, to the desk, penetrate'
the bosoms of his flock, and read the involuntary
thoughts, not of the profligate and impudent, nor of
the illiberal and vulgar, but of the intelligent and
right-minded of his parishioners, he would hide his
face in his sleeve, or shrink out of view, never again

300 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

to meet the glance of his silent reprovers. While cer*
tain passages of Scripture are on the lips of the minis-
ter, how pungent a feeling of his inconsistency per-
vades all minds ! Even children, if acquainted with
facts, are alive to the enormity of the offence of him,
who, calHng himself Christ's servant, and professing
to deny himself daily, and to take up his cross, and
solemnly renouncing the love of this world, and the
eagerness of gain, nevertheless loads himself, to suffo-
cation, with unearned church emoluments ; and trails
after him, as he goes, a long purse, crammed with the
price of souls.

A minister of the Gospel can labour under no disad-
vantage heavier than that of an imputation of being
mainly impelled by motives of cupidity and worldly
ambition. This disgrace would be fatal to the influ-
ence of the highest talents, and the most laborious
zeal : how fatal then is it to the influence of those who
do not belie it by any zeal, or any spontaneous la-
bours ! But the incalculable injury occasioned by such
instances of sacrilegious selfishness, is by no means
confined to the single cases in which it actually ap-
pears : if it were so, we might bear with some patience
the particular wrong ; but in truth, these flagrant ex-
amples (too numerous, alas) affect the popular mind
toward the Church at large, and weigh against the
clergy in mass. The clergy — at least the beneficed
portion of them, whether or not they be sharers in the
guilty emoluments, are sure to have their part in the
shame and obloquy thence arising. They are sup-
posed to acquiesce in these enormities ; they are known
to associate with their culprit brethren ; and they are
thought to be themselves ready to accept a portion of
these flagitious gains. Who shall calculate the amount
of that deduction from the general salutary influence
of the Established Clergy which is constantly to be
set off on the score of these abuses ?

DElf>RESSION OF THt CLERICAL ORDER. '301

Let interested casuists spend their last grain of wit
in excusing pluralities — the sale of advowsons — epis-
copal translations, and those ecclesiastical customs, of
every sort, which have one simple motive — the love of
money ; — let these apologies be carried a little further^
it can be only a little — for the common sense and
strong feeling of the nation already condemns them :
Heaven will declare itself in anger against them;
and their abettors will sink confounded in perpetual
shame.

The actual constitution of society, the natural diver-
sity of talents and accomplishments, as well as the dif-
ferences of official rank, properly involved in a church
polity, render unavoidable (nor should we think it ab-
stractedly an evil) some considerable inequalities of
dignity and emolument among clerical persons. But
there must be a limit at both extremities of the scale
of ecclesiastical rank ; reason, and the spirit and rules
of the Gospel, demand it. All ministers of Christ are,
spiritually, on a footing ; and they must never so stand
relatively one to the other, as to render the cordial fel-
lowship of brethren impracticable, or iindesired^ as
well by the depressed as by the elevated members of
the order. If alive to her honour and interests, the
Church would take prompt means for rescuing any of
her ministers from the cruel privations and humiliat-
ing embarrassments of absolute poverty. The Church
is even more disgraced by the penury of many of her
worthiest ministers — her poor curates, than she is by
the excessive wealth of some of her dignitaries.

In a country so opulent as this, no minister of
religion should be suffered to want a modest compe-
; tence. This, when it happens among the Dissenters,
. arises partly from the real inability of the people, in
particular stations, to raise the requisite funds ; and
partly from the want of a better contrived system of
collection and distribution. The aggregate wealth

26

302 • SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

of the Dissenters, properly taxed, and equitably shared,
would afford respectable maintenance to all their mi-
nisters. But the poverty of the curates of the Esta-
blished Church is the sheer sin and shame of the
wealthy clergy ; and as it might readily be relieved,
so ought it to be relieved, by the strong hand of the
law. This obviously is an instance to which the
beneficial energy of a church-and-state system should
be made to apply.

The diffusion of Christianity, in this country, and
its hold of the mass of the people, may perhaps be
obstructed by some recondite causes, hitherto not
regarded, or suspected. May these soon (if there are
such) be discovered and removed ! Meantime, are
we not solemnly bound to apply ourselves, with a
religious assiduity, and in good failh, to the removing
of hindrances upon which no obscurity rests, and con-
cerning which it cannot for a moment be doubted
that they are sustained by secondary and immoral
motives ? Do we, indeed, desire to see Christianity
triumph? let then its ministers be placed in a position
to promote it without impediment. The Komish
clergy commanded great advantages ; but they wrought
a corrupt system. The Protestant clergy have in their
hands a far purer doctrine ; but they are themselves
borne upon by various and heavy disparagements.
We possess the " sword of the Spirit ;" but the hilt has
fallen from the blade, and the lieavenly weapon is of
little efficacy in our hands.

Our various evangelizing societies declare our zeal,
and this zeal is unquestionably sincere, as well as libe-
ral; but it wants consistency; it wants reason and
CONSCIENCE. We are prompt to save heathens ; but
will not listen with humility or patience to the re-
hearsal of our own faults. Christianity, we know,
can be promoted with effect, only by those who them-

f

DEPRESSION OP THE CLERICAL ORDER. 303

selves are governed by its motives, who, in a word,
fear God, and hate contention and covetousness, and
who meekly consider their own ways, and turn their
feet into the path of truth. This, then, should be the
beginning of missionary enterprizes. The reform of
our domestic Christianity is the work we are bound to
set about when we would convert the world.

SECTION X.

GENERAL INFERENCES.

Genuine piety has existed under almost the worst
forms of Christianity ; — such is the divine efficacy of
truth, that its vivifying pov^er is hardly to be destroyed
by superincumbent errors. But Christianity does not
spread, except in its purest state, and under the most
favourable conditions. The first of these facts we are
apt to lose sight of when employed in reviewing the
religious corruptions that have prevailed in different
eras. The characters and the sentiments which
occupy the attention while making researches of this
sort, produce upon the mind, unless we carefully and
constantly guard against it, a melancholy impression^
and a false one too, as if virtue and goodness had, at
certain times, entirely forsaken the earth ; the con-
trary might be proved concerning even the darkest
ages, by abundant evidence. The particular course
of inquiry pursued by tlie author, especially demands
a caution on this head : he would not be always re-
peating this necessary hint ; but yet would wish his
readers never to forget it.

This same principle — the existence of genuine piety
amid serious errors, is forgotten, or rather rejected, by
certain illiberal minds — the bigots of exclusive eccle-
siastical hypotheses, who, in maintaining, that, " out of
the Church there can be no salvation," would have us
understand that there is none out of their own, or
apart from thai jure divino pohty to which they ad-
here. This has been the ground taken in every age
by the Romish Church, and hence she has drawn the
reasons of her intolerance. But the same stem theo-

GENERAL INFERENCES. 305

retic pride has passed into our Protestant communions,
and, strange to say, is maintained, sometimes openly,
and often indirectly and insidiously, by staunch
Churchmen, in this enlightened age. "Episcopacy
is a divine institution: — the whole efficacy of the Gos-
pel, and the saving virtue of its sacraments, has been
formally attached to this institution ; those therefore
who reject it, reject the conditions of salvation ; and
we dare not tell them they can be saved." In plain
words, all separatists from the Episcopal Church, what-
ever piety they may seem to possess, are destined to
perdition.

Vulgar and malignant spirits, it is true, must have
their food ; and if we rend from them one venomous
superstition, they will seek and soon find another.
Reason is not to be addressed to beings of this order ;
but there are minds of a middle sort, which get entan-
gled in the same sophisms, and yet are capable of en-
tertaining more charitable views ; and perhaps would
gladly do so. At the present time, if we pass through
the rural, remote, and less enlightened districts of the
country, we shall hear not a httle of this pernicious
bigotry, rung in the ears, Sunday after Sunday, of
clownish farmers and peasants, much to their hurt,
and immensely to the injury of the Established Church,
by men in many senses respectable. In cities and
large towns it is very little understood to how great an
extent the Church, throughout the country, is putting
the whole of her credit and future influence in jeopardy,
by the inconsiderate and ill-timed arrogance of some of
her clergy. As a means of frightening the common
people from the meeting-house, it proves almost entirely
unavailing, wherever dissent actually gets a footing;
for the people quickly learn to treat with the contempt
it deserves so insufferable a want of charity. Episco-
, , pal charges, whatever topics they omit, ought to contain
pointed cautions against this mischievous illiberality.
Let those who entertain this high church intole-

26*

306 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

TT ce, consider that, in the actual application which
they must make of it, the most serious danger imagin-
able is incurred, and the greatest possible violence is
done to the dictates of good sense, and to the genuine
impulses of Christian love. It is no trivial offence, we
may be sure, and no slight peril, to miscall God's
work, and Satan's. This was, in substance, the very
sin of the Pharisees, which our Lord branded with the
mark of unpardonable blasphemy. The bold bigotry
that does not hesitate to assign milHons of Christ's
humble disciples to perdition, makes the pillars of
heaven tremble. Better had it been for the man who
dares to do so. that a millstone should have been hung
around his neck, and he cast into the sea.

We say, let such arrogant Churchmen consider the
Tiolence they do to common sense, as well as to every
genuine sentiment. There are certain affirmations
which, though wholly destitute of evidence, 'inay yet
be accepted as true, without surrendering reason ; but
there are others that are to be entertained only so long
as we can force upon ourselves a sort of temporary in-
sanity. For illustration, let us suppose ourselves stand-
ing in front of a temple or palace ; and that we are as-
sured by one who professes a more than human
knowledge of the invisible constitution of things, that
each of tlie columns of the portico, though apparently
nothing moj*e than marble, and though cold and hard
to the touch, is actually informed with animal and ra-
tional life ; that it sees, hears, feels, and thinks, like
ourselves ; and, in a word, is very man, while to the
eye, a pillar, and to the touch, a stone. This, we sa}'',
marvellous as it is, may be believed ; all we want is a
reason for giving so much credit to our informant.
But now, let this same person, emboldened by our sim-
plicity, in the first instance, go on still further to try
our powers of faith, and to affirm that those whom we
take to be men and women, ascending the steps, and
entering the buildings and whom we fancy we hear

GENERAL INFERENCES. 307

conversing one with another, and with whom we our-
selves have just before conversed, are not, as they seem,
human beings, are not Hving, are not rational ; but
are mere stones or statues, and might, without con-
sciousness of pain, or effusion of blood, be shivered by
the chisel or mallet.

At this point, surely, the most credulous must stop,
leaving the mad only to believe. But now this exam-
ple has a real analogy with the insensate intolerance
of those, who, after conversing with Christian men,
and beholding their good works and consistency, and
after being compelled to admit that they bear all the
semblances of piety, will yet call them children of the
devil, and heirs of perdition, becavise, forsooth, they are
out of the pale of episcopacy ! Transubstantiation is
a credible dogma ; but this enormity insults reason
quite as much as it does despite to pious benevolence,
and actually breaks down the mind that submits to it.
What can a man be worth, either in reason or in feel-
ing, after he has thus been trodden in the dust, and
made sport of by bigotry so preposterous ? It might
indeed seem altogether frivolous to advert seriously to
extravagances of this sort, if it were not very true that
they pervade the Church, and, under different forma
and pretexts, infect the clerical order to a degree that
involves the Establishment in an extreme danger.
Church Reform may help us, but the Church must
look well to herself, and purge out thoroughly the old
leaven of popish intolerance, or no reform will save her.
Let the common people, throughout the country, hear
Methodists and Dissenters spoken of from the pulpit,
frequently and freely, as Christian brethren ; not a hat
the less would be doffed inthe porch on a Sunday : on
the contrary, so much frank truth and charity, utter-
ed by the clergy, would immensely benefit the Church
at the present crisis. Whatever may be the faults or
errors of the Separatists, they themselves, very many
of them, are Christians, and as good Christians as

308 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

Churchmen ; and to deny this, or to be reluctant to
confess it, is not to injure them, but ourselves : nay, it
is an impudent impiety, such as a wise and good man
must shudder to think of, and will never patiently
bear.

A parallel instance of the revolting uncharitableness
that results from a rigid adherance to an ecclesiastical
hypothesis, presents itself among the sects : in truth,
the entire range of church history, whether ancient or
inodern, does not furnish a more surprising example of
the force of perverted reUgious notions in holding
men (often kind-hearted men) to a position where
they can do nothing else but set at naught every
Christian feeling, as well as common sense. A safe
method of trying the validity of any general princi-
ple is to carry it out to its utmost extent, and then to
see to what it leads us. For example, we might
readily judge, in this manner, of the principle which
impels a small party of Christians, by no means out-
shining their brethren in solid Christian virtues, or in
amiable and heavenly dispositions, to shut themselves
up in their little munition and spiritual pride — a city
walled up to heaven, and there to unchristianize, or
at least to unchurch, all Christendom. This sort of
ultra sectarism renders itself absolutely ridiculous, in
the refinement to which it is carried ; for not only will
not these good souls eat of the Lord's loaf in compa-
ny with the unclean and unimmersed commonalty
of professed Christians ; but not even with such of the
immersed as may have contracted defilement, at any
time, by eating with the unimmersed ! nay, they will
not eat with any one who does not bring with him a
clean bill of health, as having never, in the act of
communion, come near the sprinkled ! Instead of
arguing, as St. Peter does, that it is irreligious to call
any man unclean whom God has cleansed, by his
grace and the knowledge of his truth, these immacu-
late anchorets find that, to treat the mass of Christians

€FENERAL INFERENCES. 309

as Christians, would be to break up their own ecclesi-
astical theory; in a word, they could not doso, wiiliout
surrendering the first principle of their polity. Herein
they stand precisely on the ground taken by the
Church of Rome, and by high Church- of-England-
men ; for many of the pious and amiable members of
these communions, when their better nature was upon
them, have sighed to embrace their heretical protes-
tant brethren, and to call Christians, Christians * but
how could it be done? not at all, without excluding
themselves from their Church; and ranging with here-
sy and schism.

Few are more to be pitied than are those whose
consciences have become ensnared by mischievous ab-
surdities of this order. The infatuation scarcely ad-
mits a cure: there is a certain degree of violence
which, if it be once vmdergone by the moral and ra-
tional faculties, destroys (may we so speak ?) the in-
tellectual organization : the mind no more works ac-
cording to its natural mechanism ; it still lives and
heaves ; but is not spontaneous. The first impulse of
Christian feelings is to treat these instances of ecclesi-
astical lunacy with silent pity ; and so assuredly we
should do, if it were not that errors so disgraceful to
Christianity, are perpetuated, and obtruded upon the
world, and are made in some sense important, by the
misplaced indulgence shown them by men of sense.
Apart from this sort of countenance and support, di-
rect or indirect, the "strict communion" sect must long
'1 ago have ceased to be the opprobrium of the respectable
\ body in the bosom of which it takes shelter. But that
1 body, in its opposition to certain superstitions of the age
of Cyprian, has rendered its testimony nugatory by
* the wild intolerance of its ecclesiastical theory. The
doctrine of the liberal party among the Baptists, is a
happy practical inconsistency ^ which still leaves
their theory uncorrected.
Rut at what cost is indulgence shown to the shame-

310 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

less bigotry of zealots ? at the cost of the honour of
Christianity — at the cost of the perdition of thousands
around us. While Christianity is made odious and
ridiculous by some, and while others encourage those
who do so, both parties wonder that their preaching
and teaching, and the distribution of the Scriptures,
produce little effect upon the mass of mankind. The
mass of mankind, let us be assured, are gifted with
common sense ; they would indeed listen to the Gos-
pel, and ever have listened to it, when presented to
them in its genuine dignity ; but they will not be in-
duced to kiss the dust before monstrous superstitions,
and absurd intolerance.

This most momentous principle Christians very im-
perfectly discern, that, although piety will exist under
almost any pressure of errors and follies, Christiani-
ty ITSELF WILL NEVER SPREAD v/hile SO encumbet-
ed. The modern missionary zeal is a strenuous en-
deavour on the part of the spiritual Church — an en-
deavour thoroughly sincere in its primary motive, and
in its substance altogether commendable, to contravene
this principle, and to carry the Gospel out, bearing all
the weight which the prejudices of ages have heaped
upon it. Our various sectarian missionary societies are
now wrestling with Omnipotence on this very point.
The experiment is being tried whether the nations at
large may be converted by the unamended and discor-
dant Christianity which we inherit from the Lutheran
Reformers.

In the privacy of Christian circles, there are mul-
titudes, who, with the utmost intensity of feeling,
and with a zeal that, in Scripture phrase, " eateth
them up," desire the conversion of Popish, Pagan,
and Mohammedan nations, as well as that of their
irreligious countrymen. — Multitudes, we say, who,
with alacrity, would do any thing, and surrender
any thing, the doing or the sacrifice of which might
promote the religious welfare of mankind : genuine

GENERAL INFERENCES. 311

philanthropists, counting all things as dross for Christ.
But these simple-minded persons act only as they are
led, informed, and reined in, by men more politic
and cautious than themselves ; by men, honest, in-
deed, in their endeavours to spread Christianity ; but
too cool and keen-sighted to pursue this great object
at whatever cost. They love the Gospel imfeigned-
ly, but love it under a condition. The form of
things in which they have been trained, and which,
as a point of professional honour, they are pledged
to uphold, and especially in this present season of
unsettled counterpoise of parties, must be silently,
yet eflfectually, taken care of. "Let the Gospel spread
— no damage being done to us or our polity."

The very same half-hidden feeling, on the part
of the foremost men of the Church, we may find
examples of in every age. And it has been this
feeling, and this occult discretion, that have again
and again turned off the current that might have
watered the nations, and made the wilderness to blos-
som as the rose.

Allowance made for the mere tenacity of habits
and tastes, the feeling that has so fatally affected
the minds of ecclesiastical leaders, in every age, and
which now, on all hands, impedes improvement, and
obstructs the progress of Christianity, is this — that cer-
tain necessary reforms would derogate from the honours,
or invade the interests, of the clerical order. Such
a fear may, indeed, have been no illusion when vast
powers and wealth were in the keeping of the
Church ; but, in our own times, the position of the min-
isters of religion, in every communion, is on the op-
posite side, and Church Reform (we now apply the
phrase, without distinction, to all denominations —
for all need it alike) involves, not the reduction, but
the re-instatement of the clerical order; not its diminu-
tion, but its enlargement, its advancement, its honour,
its just power, and its independence of popular con-

312 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM^

tumacy, and of lay rapacity. The natural reluctance,
therefore, which, in the instance of all corporations,
civil and sacred, resists amendment, is, at the present
time, misjudging and impolitic. If we look at re-
ligious communities separately, or at the Protestant
Church at large, it is true that every considerable
alteration we might wish to see effected would in-
volve an augmentation of comfort and of credit to
the ministers of religion.

The fact cannot escape an intelligent spectator
of the present critical struggle of religious parties,
that the crown of pre-eminence hangs at the goal,
ready to be carried off by that party, be it which it
may, that, with a manly ingenuousness, and honest
zeal, and a Christian conscientiousness, shall under-
take ITS OWN REFORM. Its reform in theology, in
modes of worship, and in pohty. There would be
little hazard in saying that this prize might now
be won even by the least considerable of our various
denominations which should resolutely strive for it,
and which, while its several competitors are absurdly
commending their peculiar notions and usages, and
assailing those of others, should unsparingly examine
its own, and apply boldly the remedies which good
sense and scriptural principles suggest. A religious
body thus acting, would quickly outstrip its rivals,
would command the respect of the people at large,
would draw to itself men of sense and talent from
all parties, und soon would imbibe all, and embrace
all.

If conjectures were admitted as to the part}^ most
likely (if any be so) now to awaken itself to this
honourable ambition — the ambition of leading the
way in a return to reason and genuine Chridlianity,
it would be necessary to exclude those vviio distin-
guish themselves by a loudly-uttered confidence of
being in the right and of needing no reform. This,

I

t5El»i^ERAL INFERENCES. 313

we cannot deny, seems to be too much the temper
of the several dissenting bodies. It has so long
been their part to protest against certain glaring
faults in the national Church, that it has grown
upon them to think their neighbours utterly wrong,
and themselves, in the same porportion, faultless.
None so blind to their own defects, as the habitual
reprovers of others. It has become a sort of adage,
among the Dissenters — "no acts of parliament pre-
vent our reforming ourselves, if reform were needed."
This consciousness of liberty has silently generated
the persuasion that a reform, which might at any
time have been eflfected, has never been really need-
ed. But those who so reason, forget that acts of
parliament are much more pliable things than old
prejudices ; and that it is, at any time, easier to ob-
tain either the rescinding of statutes, or the enactment
of statutes, than to dissipate vulgar errors, to dissolve
theological theories, or to recover from the popular
grasp the lost and just prerogatives of authority.

Meantime, it is certain that a modest and hopeful
consciousness of the necessity of various revisions
and reforms is entertained by the intelligent mem-
bers of the Established Church. The cour.^e of
events tends in the same direction, and must speedily
place the national hierarcliy on a path where it will
be much more safe to advance spontaneously and
courageously, than to stand or to be driven forward.
Every thing disastrous may be feared if the Church —
we mean here the clergy, will yield to nothing but to
impulses they cannot resist. Every thing happy
, might be hoped for, if they would anticipate and
- direct the changes that are to take place.

Three questions of practical significance meet us in
connexion with this momentous subject: the first is —
Can the Church, V\Mth safety, be touched at all in the
way of reform ? — the second is (his. Is the present
position of the Church such, that the clergy have

27

314 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

much to lose, and little to hope for, from the changes
that are likely to be effected, or the reverse ? and the
third, Shall these changes, if indeed they are to be
effected, be thrown upon the discretion of the laity^
or be guided and governed by the ministers of re-
ligion, ingenuously giving their hearts and talents to
the work?

Now we must consider the first of these questions
as altogether superseded by the advance of public opin-
ion, and by the avowed opinion and intention of
public men of different parties. It is, we say, su-
perfluous to discuss the problem of Church Reform,
ui)on this preliminary ground. The Church will be
touched — whether it be safe and wise to do so or not.
It would be well, indeed, if the forlorn hope of resist-
ing reform could now be abandoned by those, who,
in clinging to this poor chance, forfeit irretrievably
their own influence over the coming changes.

On the second of the above named questions, it
seems that much illusion — =an illusion natural to the
timid, prevails. The gieat and gradually induced
disparagements under which the prolestant cleigy
of all communions are suffering, are not duly consi-
dered, or it would be seen that a new adjustment of
clerical influence, effected in a country where religion
has so strong a hold upon the people, and where
what is fair and just is sure, at length, to recom-
mend itself, is likely, not to depress, but to elevate
the order. So far as mere secular interests are con-
cerned, the opinion and feeling of the sound part of
the English people has been very distinctly expressed
to this effect — that the aggregate income of the
Church is not excessive, that it shall not be invaded;
and that it wants nothing but a more beneficial and
eqniiable system of distribution. Then again, (he
peculiar and critical position of the Established
Church, in relation to the Separatists, must be very
obscurely perceived by her clergy, or it would be

GENERAL INFERENCES. 315

forcibly felt that the moments ought not to be lost
in which it is yet possible for them to take the lead,
to regain pre-eminence, anel to occupy the only
ground that can be safe to a national Church. If the
Church does not quickly draw toward herself the
faltering hearts of the people, and if she does not
hold out to the country cheering expectations, some
one of the dissenting bodies — or perhaps all combined,
will seize the advantage, step in, and teach the
established Church — too late, a lesson she does not
dream of Separation having reached the bold
height at which now it stands, it would be an unut-
terable imprudence, on the part of the clergy, to show
to the nation a sullen frow^n, or to bid public opinioa
defiance. Most true it is, that Reform, carried by force,
and in resentment against clerical obduracy, would
leave to the clergy a miserable prospect of progressive
humiliations.

But the answer that is to be given to our second
question turns upon the reply that must be made to
the third — namely, who shall guide and govern
Church Reform ? or, who are to be the architects and
the workmen in restoring the ecclesiastical edifice?
The clergy themselves must furnish us with a solu-
tion of this problem. There is not a doubt that, if
men of their own body, wise, accomphshed, and pious
and masters of public esteem, were to stand forward,
and to challenge the work as their own, and were to
give some early and unquestionable evidence, as well
of their sincerity as of their skill— there is we say, no
doubt, that room would instantly be made for them,
deference shown them, and a field left to them as
clear and as ample as they could desire. What is the
alternative ? — that Church Reform should be concert-
ed by secular men, and carried forward, as it may,
amid the distractions, and liable to the interested mo-
tives, that attend political measures. Such a reforra
may perhaps be beneficial to the country ; but rather

316 SPIRITUAL DESPOTISM.

in a civil than a religious sense, and whatever useful
provisions it may contain, it must on the whole, tend
to seal anew that degradation of the hierachy, as the
creature of the State, which, in piotestant countries
has ah'eady gone much too far. It is this very humili-
ation which the clergy should promptly prevent ; and
it can be prevented in one manner only, that is to say,
by themselves leading Reform. — With the clergy it
now rests to save their order, and our Episcopal,
Liturgical and Endowed Church.

Whether it shall please God to connect the preser-
vation and extension of Christianity in this country,
and at large, with the re-establishment of our National
Church, is what none ought to affirm with that con-
fidence which has been too common with Church-
men ; and it is what, assuredly, none should think
themselves at liberty to deny. The purposes and
intentions of Heaven do not come within the range
of our calculations ; but happily the course of duty
is not at all overshadowed by the cloud that rests
upon the ways of the Divine Providence ; or it is so
overshadowed only by our own fault, when we
allow presumptuous anticipations of what we fondly
think God will certainly do, or ought to do, to regu-
late our conduct, in the stead of the plain principles of
ectitude and prudence.

Adhering religiously and modestly to unquestion-
able maxims of good sense and of Christian inte-
grity, we can hardly be in doubt as to the course to
be pursued on the present momentous occasion.
Men free from factious motives will not for a mo-
ment entertain the thought of demolishing, or of
suffering to be demolished, our ecclesiastical institu-
tions, on the ground of any mere hypothesis of
church polity. These institutions must be fairly
tried, and tried for a length of time, freed from abus-
es and perversions, before we can listen to the aver-

GENERAL INiPERENCES. 31T

ment of theorists — that they are essentially perni-
cious.

On the other side, we hold it as certain, that none
but the most infirm, or the most selfish and corrupt,
will plead for stopping the course of all reform. With
such, if there be such, we have nothing to do. Oa
the question, how far shall reform proceed? we again
find relief from pressing perplexities in the safe rule
of following the track of universal public feeling.
What all men exclaim against as flagitious, inequit-
ftble, and unchristian, ought to be removed — for that
reason alone. Can a Church be efficient or prosper-
ous, which is condemned and contemned, in many of
her practices, by the mass of the people ?

Again, in regard to the revision of the forms, arti-
cles, and worship of the Church, an adherence to ac-
knowledged rules of discretion might carry us clear of
difficulties. The question is not — Whether this sys-
tem of theology, or that^ condemns or approves certain
ambiguous phrases? but it is this — Have certain phra-
ses been from ago to age, an occasion of contention
among all, and of offence and distress to pious and
humble spirits? — If so, remove them without a scru-
ple. Nor can it be difficult to fix the finger upon such
obnoxious terms. Let none be expunged but such as
have actually become notorious as the text of contro-
versy. We do not, in these instances, listen to cap-
tious and frivolous objections ; but to the testimony of
history; — a testimony liable to uncertainty.

Once more, we presume that practical and impar-
tial men will not hesitate to give iheir aid in restoring
to the Established Church that Independence, and
those vital functions, which Christianity demands for
her ; and without which she will not be able, hence-
forth, to compete with communions possessing such
functions ; and which are absolutely necessary to pre
vent convulsive and perilous reforms, demanded at

27*

318 SPIRITUAL DESPOTIiyM.

shorter and shorter intervals, and always in a loudef
and still louder tone. Deprived by the progress of just
and liberal opinions, of that power which at first she
exercised, after the example of the Spiritual Despotism
of the Papacy, the English Church is now, in almost
every sense destitute of authority, and lies at the mer-
ey of her foes — -and of her friends. To be qualified
to exert a more general and beneficial influence, the
Church must breathe with her own lungs, speak with
her own mouth, and show the energy of a pulse and
a heart — her own.

This necessary restoration to her just prerogatives
the Church will not expect to receive (nor should she
desire it) without at the same time, admitting that due
leaven of popular influence, without which, in fact,
there can be no vitality in any Church, and apart
from which, church power will never be any thing
else but a Spiritual Despotism.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. •

APPENDIX TO SECTION IV.

Page 94. — Very early it was admitted that the apostolic writings
aiford general principles, rather than formal enactments for the regu-
lation of worship and church government. Thus, Tertullian, little
more than a century after the death of the apostles, after reciting
various religious usages, generally prevalent in his time, says, *Ha-
rum et aliarum ejusmodi disciplinarum si legem exposiules Scriptu-
rarum, nullam invenies; traditio tibi pretendetur auctrix, consuetu-
do confirmatrix, et fides observatrix.' — De Corona. Unhappily the
Church abused the indeterminate constitution of Scripture in mat-
ters of worship, by adding superstition to superstition without end.
This process must certainly have commenced simultaneously with
Christianity itself; otherwise it could not have happened that the
numerous observances mentioned by Tertullian, as generally preva-
lent in his time, and as already established by long custom, should
have come to be so regarded throughout the Eastern, Western, and
African Churches. It is more than matter of curiosity to note what
these ceremonies were: among them we find, the three immersions
in baptism — the milk and honey of peace — oblations for the dead,
and the crossing of the forehead at every moment, on going out, and
on returning home, in dressing, and putting on the shoes, at tlie
bath, at table, at lighting of lamps, at lying down, at sitting, and, in
a word, at every separate act of common life. Those who appeal to
the testimony of these early writers in support of certain observan-
ces, ought to admit it also when urged in favour of other usages equally
prevalent in the same age. Researches into Christian antiquity are
indeed highly important ; but the fair result, we may feel assured,
will not be to afford a triumph to any one existing party over others ;
but rather a conviction, on all sides, of the folly and sin of breaking
communion with our brethren on account of practices or forms never
to be authoritatively determined.

Page 100. — The readiness with which baptism was administered
by the apostles, and admission into the society of the faithful grant-
ed, stands on the face of St. Luke's narrative. A professed desire to
receive baptism, as a believer in the Messiahship of Jesus, was the
sole qualification. Many, no doubt, thus entered the Church, quick-
ly to be expelled from it, on proof of their unwortbiness. "We hear,

320 APPENDIX TO SECTION IV.

in the Acts, of no scrutiny of the heart; how, indeed, should any
such difficult process have been attended to, when thousands were
initiated in a day? It may not be impertinent here to remind the
reader that the clause, which stands in the received text, and is put
into the mouth of Philip, as addressed to the Ethiopian eunuch — "If
thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest," is deemed, on good
reasons, to be an interpolation. As we advance toward the second
and third centuries, we find the process of admission into the Church
to have become continually more and more complicated, until, at
length, all the pomp and mystery, the artificial delays, and the af-
fected tardiness that belonged to the heathen initiations, had been
transferred to the Christian Church. This one point of the terms
and mode of admission might be well taken as a criterion of religious
simplicity, or of sophistication — conjoined always with a reference
to the efficiency of discipline in the same society. Easy adinissionj
along with easy discipline, proves very little in favour of a Church.

Page 103, — Several of those confirmed disagreements that now di-
vide the Christian commonwealth, relate immediately to the much-
obscured question concerning the extension or the restriction of ec-
clesiastical privileges, as intended by the apostles. This difficulty
cleared up, the way would be open for consolidating two or three of
our parties. The Church of England, borne out by the unquestion-
able practice of the earliest times to which existing evidence extends,
lakes the broadest ground ; but the terms in which she does so, in-
volve almost the certainty of serious misunderstandings on the part
of the people; and they demand revision. The testimony borne by
the Baptists against certain superstitions of the age of Cyprian, has
failed to command the respect to which, abstractedly, it was entitled,
in consequence of the offensive dogmatism of that party in relation to
points not now to be decisively determined ; and especially have the
Baptists disgusted men of intelligence, by the absurdity of attaching
prime importance to the sort of ablution which constitutes Christian
baptism, and by the bigotry of the practices resulting from that error.
It is as certain as any thing of the kind can be, that several modes of
performing the rite of baptism were in use in the apostolic age. The
Baptists would not merely serve themselves, but the Christian world
at large, and in an important manner, by frankly giving up their ill-
judged pertinacity on the question of immersion. A copious affu-
sion would abundantly satisfy, not only common sense and every
general principle of analogy, but all the evidence which can now be
adduced on the subject.

Page 103. — St. Peter, who tells Christians that they are universal-
ly the members of a "royal priesthood," recognizes, in the same
breath, the function and authority of the ruling and teaching elders
of the Church ; and in giving to these a ca.ution against the tyrannic
exercise of their power, he plainly implies that power was actually
in their hands. On the same principle, when these elders are warned
not to assume the episcopal office for " filthy hicre's sake," we inevi-
tably infer that these official persons were then receiving a salary of

f

APPENDIX TO SECTION IV. .'^21

Stipend, on account of their services ; even as the Lord had appoint-
ed. If not, what pertinence was there in the admonition? St. Peter
acknowledtres a governing class, or order, supported by the contri-
butions of tlie society. Of what value then, in relation to ecclesiasti-
cal controversies, is that argument against the distinction between
clergy and laity, which has been drawn from the priestly dignity of
aU believers ? Neander's learned book will be read with respectful
attention ; but it is every where indistinct, and unsatisfactory in
argiunent.

Page 105. — Nothing can be more full or conclusive than the in-
ferences resulting from St. Paul's expostulation with the Corinthi-
ans, 1 Cor. ix., on the subject of his own behaviour among them in
pecuniary matters. Impelled by special and personal motives, he
had abstained from using for his own benefit an unquestionable au-
thority, or official right, to demand maintenance, as a person devoted
to the religious public service of the Church. To this maintenance
all such persons were entitled, not merely on grounds of general
equity, but by the Lord's formal enactment ; and this enactment is,
moreover, explicitly referred to the analogy of the Jewish sacerdotal
institute. In latter times, the mode of applying this analogy might
be open to objection ; but how can we consider the employment of it
as altogether unwarrantable, when we find it thus suggested to us
by the inspired apostle? The clerical institution, that is to say, the
Betting apart an order of men as religious teachers and rulers, involv-
ing their right of maintenance, is the best defined and most clearly
established of all the external parts of Christianity.

Page 107. — The silence of the apostles on certain important sub*
jects, such for example as slavery and polygamy, and their indistinct
reference to the observance of a seventh day, is of a piece with theif
leaving the maintenance of the ministers of religion to be adjusted by
communities in the mode which circumstances might render expedi-
ent. That they say nothing of endowmenis, or of national establish-
ments, aflfords no presumption whatever against any such means or
measures, when apparently beneficial. How can those employ such
a presumptive argument who are always telling us that Christ and
the apostles did not forbid slavery, because, in the then actual state
of society, it could not have been abolished? Christianity gives us

Erinciples, which good sense is to apply to the varying occasions of
fe.

Page 109. — The apparent force of the appeals made at present to
the pecuniary economy of the apostolic churches, consists in an ex-
treme misapprehension of ficts relating to those primitive societies.
The Church of a city, as of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, or
Rome, was constituted of many more believers than, on ordinary
occasions, assembled under one roof The Church was served also
by many, or by several clerical persons, ministering among the con-
gregations in rotation. The contributions of the people passed into
a common fund, whence distribution was made, first to the poor, and

In.

322 APPENDIX TO SECTION IV.

then to the officers of the Church, according to the need or merits of
each. The ministers therefore, although dependent, as a body, upon
the gratuities of the people at large, were individually wholly inde-
pendent of single congregations, and of the opulent leaders of such
congregations. Although the community of goods which obtained
in the Church at Jerusalem during the first flow of zeal and affection
was soon discontinued, it served to give apostolic sanction to the
practice of holding a fund, and of accumulating contributions. —
Henceforth no Church could deem this practice to be either unlaAvful
or inexpedient: in fact, it universally prevailed; and when com-
bined with the plurality of clerical persons attached to each Church,
placed them individually in a position essentially unlike that of a
modern congregational minister.

The process by which very considerable funds came into the
hands, and remained under the control of the bishop, in each Church,
was very simple. Apostolic precept, as well as the spirit of the Gos-
pel, impelled the Christian societies to provide for all tlieir poor
members; but to do so was found to demand permanent resources,
and especially in seasons of persecution, when many were stripped
of their property, or were rendered incapable of pursuing their ordi-
nary callings. Moreover, some became chargeable to the Church,
who, on becoming Christians, had abandoned immoral occupations,
and were not able entirely to maintain themselves in any other man-
ner. The leaders of the Church, therefore, soon found themselves
liable to a weighty responsibility, which naturally went on increas-
ing, until, in fact, a large number of the sick, the aged, the young,
and the imbecile and idle, looked to them daily for bread. All thif
was irrespective of the maintenance of the ministers of religion; but
both the poor and the clergy drew from one and the same purse.
The most urgent reasons, and the dictates of common prudence, im-
pelled those who stood liable to these various demands, as well to
accumulate a fund, as to keep alive the liberality of the opulent, and
to encourage the practice of making large occasional donations to the
Church, and of enriching it by bequests. Besides the weekly obla-
tions, from which none but the paupers of the Church were excused,
incidental gifts, sometimes of great value, flowed into the bishop'3
chest. "Honourable women not a few," were, from the first, num-
bered with the faithful ; and these, with thac pious generosity in
which the softer sex has always outshone the other, often bestowed
their entire fortune, or a large part of it, upon the Church. The
established custom of securing treasure — gold, silver, and precious
Btones, by dedicating it in the temples, was adopted substantially by
Christians, (see the sixty-fifth of the Canons of the Apostles; Cote-
lerius, tom. i, p. 446,) and so it happened that the Church plate, in
the principal cities, was frequently of great value, and constituted a
fund available on occasions of distress, and was not seldom employed
for the redemption of captive brethren.

Now, of these large funds the bishop was trustee and distributor,
at discretion. The deacons were his collectors, his accomptants, and
his almoners ; but not, as they should have been, the people's agents
Of representatives, watching over and controllmg it for the cominqp

APPENDIX TO SECTION IV. 323

benefit. Indeed, a gradual transition, highly injurious in its conse-
quences, very early rendered the deacon's office, as tribune of the
people (if we may so style him) nugatory, and made him one with
the clerical body. Inferior as he was, in relation to the presbyters
and the bishop, he was numbered with ecclesiastics — he participated
in their feelings, promoted their interests, and shared in their advan-
tages. It was thus that the real and effective counterbalance of
powers was lost, and lost earlier than we have the means precisely
of ascertaining. It was of little or no avail that the people wer«
allowed to hold up their hands on certain occasions: this suffrage
gave them, indeed, a choice of masters, but no control over their mas-

/ters. The people looked up to a sacerdotal body, including several
gradations of office, and in occupation of large funds, which they
held and distributed irresponsibly. In the apostolic intention and
practice, not only did the people elect those who were to manage the
pecuniary interests of the community, but these officers acted for the
people, and for the ministers, with an independent power. The silent
movement of these officers toward the one party, and away from the
other, was alone enough to annul the liberties of the one, and to spoil
the simplicity and integrity of the other.

It does not require to be formally proved that the position of a
modern minister of a chapel, insulated and dependant upon the will
and wishes of those who raise his salary, and who receives that salary
from deacons — laymen, in fact and in feeling, does not bear compa-
rison, in any sense, with the circumstances of the clergy in the ancient
Churches. Even the smallest society had, hke that of Philippi, its
" bishops and deacons," that is to say, several clerical persons, who
stood together, and consulted for their common welfare ; and this
college, moreover, had the administration of an ample revenue. —
These two positions, instead of being nearly the same, are extremes;
and both must be condemned as faulty. The circumstances of modern
times, which allow of, and indeed demand, the entire separation of
clerical and eleemosynary funds, would make the adjustment of what
relates to the former so much the more simple and easy. Even if the
voluntary principle were adhered to for the maintenance of the minis-
ters of religion, there can be no need that it should be left to operate
in that unpropitious form which Congregationalism gives to it. Let
but a few congregations — whether of a city or district, be molten
together as aChurch, and the funds of all consolidated, and equitably
distributed, and then the general dependence of the clergy upon the
people is rendered so far circuitous :is serves to abate the importance
of the latter, and to relieve the former from personal humiliations,
and cruel anxieties.

There is much involved often in the selection of phrases. The
goods of the Church soon came to be called '^ra^iKee, — the poor's
fund, out of which the bishop was to take the necessary charges of

'the clergy, and his own expenditure: thus the canons of the conncil
of Neo-Ccesarea; Kvpixttu xP'^f^o^T^ 7rr<y;^/«<i xiyercci, and of the
bishop's discretion, in regard to this fund is it said, "oJ" otveKXayiT-

Tfl» i^'iVO'taCV t^UTlV 01 eTTta-KOTTOl . . .

On the important point of the subserviency of the deacons to the

324 APPENDIX TO SECTION IV.

bishops, and the entire abrogation of ihe'ir popular character, abundant
evidence may be produced from all sides. The Apostolic Constitu-
tions are admissible in relation to the prevailing usages of the timea
preceding that in which they were in part collected, and in part fabri-
cated : — the second book contains many passages bearing on this
subject. " Let the deacon report every thing to the bishop, even as
Christ to the Father ; yet himself manage what he can, having
received his authority, to thisetfect, from the bishop, as Christ from
the Father. In a word, let the deacon be the bishop's ear, the bishop's
eye, the bishop's heart, the bishop's soul, so that he maybe lightened
of all cares, but such as are chief." lib. ii. cap. 44. The deacons dis-
tributed the elements to the people (Justin Martyr, Apol. 2) but were
not considered as competent to " preside over the mysteries ;" they
m'ght, however, on occasions of necessity, administer baptism ; in-
deed, we find this rite to have been performed sometimes by persons
altogether secular, and even by military men (see, among other evi-
dence, the mosaics collected by Ciampini). I'hey were also the
receivers of oblations, &c. but not the trustees of church property.
Whatever was substantial, as a means of power, had passed from
the control of the people at a very early period. The usage of speech
in reference to these officers varied, the deacons being sometimes
called clergy, and sometimes not.

Page 115. — As well in relation to the election of presbyters or
bishops, as to the maintenance of both, and their dependence upon
the people, the argument has been rendered nugatory by forgetting
the total dissimilarity of the circumstances of a modern and an ancient
congregation. Useless learning has been employed to prove that
very many of the early Churches were very small, and not more
numerous than might conveniently assemble in one building; and,
moreover, that the pastors of such single congregations were called —
bishops. But let it be proved (rare instances, if indeed there are any
such, excepted) that primitive Churches generally, like our modern
congregations, were served by a solitary clerical person. This can
never be done: the bishop, or the principal pastor, how humble
soever his state, and how narrow soever his circle, had his colleagues —
his presbyters, and his deacons ; not to mention the neighbouring
bishops, and one very important occasion recourse might be had to
a sacerdotal college, wherein affairs were discussed and arranged.
On the death of the bishop himself, or of a presbyter, whatever the
mode of appointing a successor might be, it was not ihe people alone
that acted, but the Church, guided and controlled by its surviving
leaders. Here then is an essential difference between the ancient
church polity, and that of modern Congregationalism.

Page 121. — On general grovmds it is desirable that the argument
concerning the source of the authority vested in the clergy should
first be treated as a purely biblical question ; and then dis inctly, as
a point of ecclesiastical antiquity. But this separation of the two
lines of argument has a peculiar importance in relation to the Prin-

APPENDIX TO SECTION IV.

32fe

ciple professed by some, that the New Testament is the only law,
and the stfficient law, as well in matters of church polity, as in
matters of faith and morality. Let then the whole biblical evidence,
bearing on the subject of the clerical function be reviewed, at thfe
same time dismissing the recollection of facts, the knowledge of which
is drawn from other sources than the Scriptures. Our question then
is this — according to the letter of ihe apostolic writings, or according
to any fair and clear inferences, thence to be derived, are the people
warranted in assuming to themselves the power of calling to the
work of the ministry, er of electing and dismissing their particular
religious teachers?

^ It does not seem equitable, or at least, it cannot be deetned conclu-
sive, to adduce our Lord's appointment of his immediate agents as
pertinent to this inquiry; for it will not follow from his calling and
ordaining Avhom he would, that, after he had left his Church, these
same persons should, in the same sovereign manner, appoint their
successors. It is to the precepts and the practice of the apostles, after
their Lord's ascension, that we must look for our guidance in this, a"s
in other instances. We turn, therefore, at once to St. Luke's narra-
tive of the first years of the Church.

Whether or not it belongs directly to our question, the instance of
the appointment of a successor to the fallen apostle should be ad-
verted to. The part taken by the little company of the Lord's imme«-
diate friends in filling up the number of the twelve, was merely to
look out from among themselves such as were qualified to stand in
the room of Judas, by the fact of their having constantly consorted
with Jesus, from the very commencement of his personal ministry,
until the close of it. Two were found who had done so (beside th-e
eleven) and these, being placed before Him, who "knoweth all
hearts," were solemnly subjected, by lot, to the Lord's decision ; and
having given their lots, the lot fell on Matthias, who thenceforward
was reckoned with the twelve: he thus became the Lord's xAtj^o^,
one of the Lord's clergy. " Nam et cleros et clericos hinc appellatos
puto," says Augustine (referring to the appointment of Matthias).
This instance may be regarded as an extension only of Christ's direct
agency, in constituting the apostolic college ; and, therefore, not con-
<;lusive in relation to our question; but we cannot but think that it
aflPords a natural and simple explanation of the origin of the term
clergy, as applied specially to the ministers of religion.

The transaction reported in the sixth chapter of the Acts, may or
may not be regarded as the origin of the deacon's oflice. In substance,
the duties committed to these seven stewards were the same as those
aftei wards discharged, in all the Churches, by the deacons. The
seven were men commended by their eminent personal piety, and
general good fame, to the confidence of all, and they were entrusted
with the funds of the society, and with the distribution of them. The
several parts of this transaction are very clearly distinguished in the
narrative ; — the proposition to relinquish the secular affairs of the
Church came from the apostles, who had power to retain, if they had
thoufrl'.t proper, that ch;irge. It was the apostles, also, who com-
mitted this trust to the seven ; but it was the muliitude, the mass of

28

326 APPENDIX TO SECTION IV.

believers, who chose these officers, and chose them " from among them-
selves." This instance ought, assuredly, to be considered as indi*
cative of a general principle, and a very important one, or shall
■we say of two principles, namely, that the ministers of religion do
■well to discharge their hands wholly of pecuniary affairs ; and that
the choice of trustees for the management of these interests rests
"with tlie people at large. An eifective adherence to these principles
■would have precluded a very great proportion of all the abuses and
corruptions that stain chui'ch history from the fust age to the present.
The xetpoT6\ic(, of the people, and the x^tpo6e<rioc of the apos-
tles, are plainly exemplified in the appointment of these seven church-
"wardens. That Philip, one of the seven (if the same Phihp) is found
(chap. viii. 5) " preaching the word," does not make him other than
a layman ; for it is manifest that the believers at large, as w^ell
as the deacons, in the first age, used the liberty of preaching and
teaching.

The sending Paul and Barnabas on a special mission, and by the
immediate indication of the Holy Spirit (xiii. 2) does not bear upon
our subject. We refer to it only to exclude it. In passing, we may

note the allusion to John (Mark) who attended Paul and Barnabas,
•* . • /

•we might say as their deacon, w5T;;^eTjj$, the term very early, if not

from the first, employed interchangeably with Sioacovoti : so Cle-
mens Alex. Strom, lib. vii. t^v uTr^ptrtxT^y ^t, el ^tecKOvoi^
speaking of the species of service performed severally by presbyters
and deacons.

Xeiporov^creivTe^ ^e «wTe7$ x.ctT^ (Kx,XtiTtxv Trpeo-fivrtpevgy
(Acts xiv. 23,) " ordaining for them elders in each congregation." But
who was it that stretched forth the hand, in electing and appointing
these elders? the construction leads us without doubt to say, Paul
and Barnabas. Besides ; the democratic sense of the term, as im-
plying the voting of the people, is balanced by its frequent use on
occasions when an absolute appointment by an individual authority
is intended. — " Sed etiam, absque suflfragiis ehgere aliquem." —
Schleusner, and see Suicer, in voc. The word therefore being open
to both meanings, we follow the manifest sense of the passage ; or if
no% some direct evidence must be produced in opposition to that
sense. Apart from such evidence, this passage has no weight on
the side of the popular election of church rulers.

Though relating to another article of church polity, the account of
the Council of Jerusalem (chap, xv.) should be adverted to as proof
of that open and popular constitution of the apostolic societies, apart
from which it can never be safe to grant to the clergy the indepen-
dence and the high prerogative that may justly be claimed for them.
" Then it seemed good to the apostles and to the presbyters, with
THE WHOLE CONGREGATION, to Send men," &c. The decrees decided
upon in this council were sent forth as determined " by the apostles
and presbyters," yet with the knowledge and consent of the multi-
tude.

An allusion to the popular appointment of bishops and presbyters,

APPENDIX TO SECTION IV. 327

if there had been any such usage in the Church of Ephesus, might
naturally have found a place in St. Paul's address to the rulers of that
Church (Acts xx.) We would not however lay stress upon the ab-
sence of it; only observing, that the phrase actually employed, di-
rectly favours the supposition that these officers had received their
authority irrespectively of the popular will. " Look to yourselves,
and to all the flock, in the which the Holy Spirit has set you, bish-
ops, to tend the congregation of the Lord.". . . . Certainly this pas-
sage contains nothing that avails the popular argument.

We have thus reviewed, and it is soon done, the canonical record
of the first years cf the Christian Church, and have found a few inci-
dental phrases, only, that at all relate to the appointment or election.
of teachers and rulers. Of these few phrases, one is etymologically,
of ambiguous import, and therefore abstractedly indecisive ; but it ia
thrown to the side of authoritative ordination by the grammatical
construction of the passage. We are compelled then to say that the
doctrine of the popular creation and election of church officers (dea-
cons excepted) receives no reasonable support, direct or indirect,
from the inspired history of the first promulgation of the Gospel. If,
in fact, presbyters and bishops were, from the commencement, cho-
sen by the people, and were removeable at their pleasure, and if this
popular power be, as it is alleged, the main pillar of church polity,
and the most importantand precious of all the privileges of Christians,
in their social capacity, it is impossible not to feel astounded at find-
ing that it is neither affirmed, nor exemplified, «or alluded- to, by the
Vvriter who has furnished us with almost all we can know of the con-
stitution of the primitive societies. It is next to be inquired, if the
apostolic epistles supply, in this respect, the defleiency of the narra-
tive of St. Luke.

The very structure of the apostolic epistles contradicts the doc-
trine of the Romish Church, that no discretion is left to the laity in
matters of religion ; for it is to the faithful at large that these letters,
appealing to their judgment and conscience, are addressed. Ques-
tions of theology, and of discipline, are laid before the people with*
Out restriction. At the same time, these epistles, rery frequently,
and very distinctly, recognize the authority of church rulers; yet no
where affirm, or suppose that this authority was of popular organiza-
tion, or that it was, in any way, under popular control.

The Epistle of James does not afford evidence bearing on our ques-
tion, unless we so consider the allusion, chap. t. H, to the presbyters
of the Church, and to the efficacy of their official services in restoring
the sick. The First Epistle of Peter goes a little further, yet only a
little. The advice, chap. iv. 10, 1 1, determines nothing, and supports
no inference ; but the direct admonition addressed (chap, v.) to the
presbyters, is pertinent in proving, as we have already said, if it need-
ed to be proved, the existence of a ruling order, possessed of power
ample enough toexpose them to the temptation of using it despotical-
ly ; and also that this governing class received a remuneration for
their services, and had opportunity to enrich themselves in a manner
incompatible with the Christian profession. Mo'-eover, it is implied
that there might be some, called upon to discharge episcopal duties,

328 APPENDIX TO SECTION IVr

who would seek to excuse themselves from the burden, and to escape
the personal danger often attending this distinction in times of perse-
cution. Such are exhorted to perform their parts not reluctantly, or
from compulsion, but with a ready mind. These advices, one might
have thought,, would include some instructions addressed to the peo-
ple, on the important subject of the election of their pastors, or of
their removal when necessary, ifirvdeed any such powers actually rested
•«?ith the people. The subject of the false teachers, predicted in the
Second Epistle, we have had occasion to mention, and here again it
seems natui-al to look for a caution against precipitancy ir> the choice
of teachers.

In the times of St. John, the Christiari societies were open to the
intrusion of false teachers — probably self-constituted, who laboured
to establish another doctrine than that of the apostles. These were
to-be rejected,, according to the rule given chap. iv. 2. This advice
recognizes, therefore, a power of discrimination, lodged with the peo-
ple, and it furnishes a corrective of the abuses that might result frona
the absolute irresponsibility of pastors. In whatever way the people
received their teachers, they were not required to accept from them
doctrines subversive of Christianity itself. It deserves to be noted
that these false prophets appear to have been itinerant preachers,
"who, destitute of credit and authority at home, nevertheless found
the means abroad, and where they were unknown, to recommend
themselves to the simple. We must gather this also from St. John's
Letter to the Elect Lady. "If any one come among you, and does
rot bring with him this doctrine, show him no hospitality, neithef
hail him as a friend ; for whosoever does so, becomes a sharer in his
evil deeds." The Epistle to Gaius affords direct evidence of the early
abuse of church authority. Whether the ambitious and despotie
Diotrephes were bishop, deacon, or merely an opulent manager of
the congregation, cannot be known ; if the former, which is the most
probable, why not advise the Church to remove him from his place ?
This sort of indistinct evidence does not sustain positive conclusion*
on either side; and certainly does not yield what we are in search
of; namely, an indication of the popular creations of bishops and
presbyters, in the time of the apostles.

The Epistle of Jude adds some weight to our conjecture, that the
early Churches were troubled and perverted, chiefly by wandering
teachers, urrepei TrXctv^Txt, men scouted and condemned at home,
yet artful enough to gain a hearing, as they passed from city to city.
St.'Jude seems in haste to overtake some of these pernicious itinerants^
and to caution the Churches against them. He felt himself compell-
ed, he says, to write " with all despatch," to forewarn the brethren of
certain men who were slipping themselves into the Churches, with
the worst intentions, and who, wherever they came, began by revil-
ing or opposing the constituted authorities. Lascivious in their man-
ners, and licentious in their principles, they openly professed to con-
temn the established powers, nor scrupled to blaspheme dignities.
St. Peter says to the presbyters, ft?7<^' ofi KXTecKvptevevra retf
xA»j/'«v. St. Jude, speaking of these contumacious men^ affirms th^

APPENDIX TO SECTION IV. 329

they set at naught Kv^ior'/jTec, There was then a lordship, or
masterly authority in the Churches, which the one apostle forbids to
be abused, and which the other forbids to be despised. In conclusion,
St. Jude gives us another mark of these troublers of the common
peace; they were such as had "distanced themselves," or broke
away from their connections ; oi uToS^topt^ovrt^. It does not seem
that errors and abuses had ordinarily arisen from those whom the
apostles had themselves ordained, in every city ; but from strangers
— from self-constituted teachers, or those whom the people had gath-
ered to themselves : eccvToii tTTtTeu^euTovri h^etTKuMv^.

Copious and various as are the Epistles of St. Paul, and full as
they are of allusions to ecclesiastical proceedings, we may fairly ex-
pect to obtain from them some recognition of the popular appoint-
ment of teachers, if that had actually been the practice of the Church-
es which he founded.

Several of the exhortations that fill the twelfth chapter of the Epistle
to the Romans, bear upon the discharge of public religious functions,
A diversity of offices, founded upon the natural, or supernatural di-
versity of gifts, is implied : including preaching and teaching, minis-
tering, (as the deacons) distributing alms, and presiding over the
Church ; but nothing is added concerning the appomtment of indi-
viduals to such offices. We ought, however, to mark the care with
which the apostle enjoins the general rule of submission to constitut-
ed authorities ; and the caution he gives against the authors of fac-
tion (chap. xvi. 17;) and the teachers of plausible novelties. The
same caution expanded, and still more earnestly enforced, meets us
again and again, in the two Epistles to the faulty and chaotic Corin-
tliian Church ; where, as it is evident, the democratic feeling had a
Strength against which the whole weight of the apostolic authority^
miraculously sustained, had to bear. The formal warrant of minis-
terial maintenance (iCor. ix.) has already been referred to» The
right of the teacher is not, as we see, made to rest upon the claim in-
volved in a popular election, which would have been natural, had
such been the method of appointment to office. " Did you not call
and choose your ministers, and ought you not, therefore, to maintain
them?" The apostle does not thus reason.

The remarkable passage (1 Cor. xii. 28) in which the ranks and
offices of the Christian body are enumerated, including, as it does,
ordinary and permanent, as well as extraordinary and temporary
functions, would have seemed a fit place f )r inserting, or for allud-
ing to, the important principle of the popular election of officers.
The absence of such an allusion is not indeed conclusive; bat it
leaves us still unwarranted in exercising the power. Again a speci-
fic instance presents itself at the close of the epistle, in which the
want of the evidence we are searching for amounts to presumptive
evidence on the other side. The family of Stephanus had given
themselves up to the service of the Church. " I beseech you," says
the apostle, " that ye submit yourselves to such." Yet even an
apostle does not claim a despotic power over the opinions of the peo-
ple. "Not as if we were lords over your faith," (2 Cor. i. 24.)

28*

330 APPENDIX TO SECTION IV.

Thus we find power, and power springing not, as it seems, from
the people ,• but yet not a power which might be carried beyond the
bounds of reason and love.

The instance adverted to, (2 Cor. viii. 19) is one of several, show-
iHg the common practice of the Churches — a practice carefully ad-
hered to by St. Paul, of entrusting contributions to persons chosen
and commissioned by the contributors. This equitable and neces-
sary usage should never be lost sight of. The apostle was highly
sensitive in pecuniary matters, and scrupulously avoided placing
himself in any position which might lay him open to ungenerous im-
putations. In a word, he well understood, and never forgot, the dis-
tinction between spiritual and secular affairs ; it has been by med-
dling with the latter, that church rulers have rendered themselvesr
Knworthy of ihe control they should possess over the former.

Another allusion to false teachers (2 Cor. xi. 4) strengthens the
belief that they were commonly of the travelling sort. ** He that
Cometh unto you, preachirg another Jesus ; " and these itinerai^s, it
appears, behaved themselves, where they came, in the most inso-
lent, despotic, and rapacious manner (verse 20.) These two Epis-
tles then, ecclesiastical as they are in their topics, do not furnish a
particle of evidence, direct or indirect, of the kind we are seeking.

The Epistle to the Galatians touches our question only remotely,
and in one point, where it enjoins the maintenance of the teachers
by the taught (Chap. vi. 6) that to the Ephesians contains a pas-
sage parallel to one already referred to, which enumerates the seve-
ral classes of church officers, of whom it is affirmed, that they were
"given to the church by the Lord himself; " and this list includes,
not merely "apostles, and prophets, and evangelists," but also "pas-
tors and teachers J " through what instrumentality given, we are
not informed. Hitherto therefore, we have made no progress to-
ward the establishment of the popular right, in the appointment of
teachers. The address of the^ Epistle to the Phillippians has been
before adduced, as attesting the important fact of the plurality of
clerical persons, in the apostolic Churches. That those of the upper
class are styled *' bishops," in common, is a circumstance altogether
insignificant, except in relation to the trivial controversy about the
names of office, whether these friFKOTret all ruled with equal
power, or submitted to the guidance of a senior or president, we are
not told.

"Say to Archippus, look to the ministry (the deaconship) which
thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it." This is all we
gather from the Epistle to the Calossians, touching church officers j
except the epithet bestowed upon one and another, of "faithful minis-
ters in the Lord.*' The Epistles to the Church at Thessalonica recog-
nize that right of maintenance which St. Paul and his companions
waived in their own cas€(l Thess. ii. 6, and 2 Thess. iii.9.) "We be-
seech you, brethren, that ye know (recognize in their official cnpacity)
those that labour among you, and preside over you in the Lord, and'
that admonish you ; and that ye render to them the very highest re-
gard and affection, on account of their work." (1 Thess. v. 12. J
Such is the apostofic exhortation ; but it is not qualified by any re"
ference to popular contr©! over these officers. We are still at faalt.

APPENDIX TO SECTION IV. 331

then, and pass to the Epistle to the Hebrews; which contains two
passas;es only, that touch on our subject (chap. xiii. 7, and 17) and the
first very slightly. " Bear in mind your rulers, who have spoken to
you the word of God," &c. There were then governors, and these
were preachers as well as presidents. Yield obedience, fets riyov-
fi.eioii vf^ai, to your governors, and submit yourselves; for
ihey (as those who are to render an account) watch for your souls."
This unqualified advice demands grave consideration. To whom
were these rulers to render their account — to their constituents, or to
the Lord ? assuredly to the latter ; and their independence of th«
people might, not unfairly, be inferred from this reference to their
higher accountability. But, waiving this implied reference, there is
room to ask whether this naked statement of the duty of submission
to pastors and bishops, unaccompanied by any allusion to the sove-
reignty of the people in constituting and removing them, suggests
the belief that such a sovereignity was actually recognized, or in
any way contemplated by the writer ? The contrary must in all
candour, be granted. If the absolute style in which submission to
secular rulers is elsewhere enforced by the apostles is adduced as a
parallel instance, and as showing that the absence of the qualifying
phrase must not be assumed as conclusive in favour of non-resistance
to intolerable despotisms, it should be remembered that it was not
the province of the apostles to teach principles of civil government,
.■which men are to digest for themselves, and that they looked no fur-
ther than to the immediate duty of Christians — as such, and not as
citizens. But the principles of chvrch government came directly
within their sphere ; and in these matters it is to them we must look
for our guidance and warrant. If the apostles, in commanding obe-
dience to pastors, say nothing of the people's sovereignty, we are
not at liberty to assume that they admitted any such sovereignty.
The admonition before us, would naturally have drawn with it the
counter caution ; or, if not, it would somewhere else have found a
place.

It only remains to advert to the three personal and clerical Epis-
tles of St. Paul. If these Epistles, just as they are in substance, had
been addressed to Churches — to "all the faithful in Christ Jesus,"
at Rome, or Ephesus, or Antioch, it would have been strenuously,
and indeed, not unfairly argued, that it was the believers at large
who were to discharge the ecclesiastical duties to which the instruc-
tions they contain relate. But it is not so, and the presumption is
strong that the selection and appointment of Church officers rested
mainly, if not exclusively, with the individuals to whom the general
superintendence of the Churches had been committed. We possess
indeed some direct evidence in favour of the popular election of dea-
cons, at least when these officers acted as the trustees of church re-
venues ; nevertheless, as they were not, in the first instance, (if it be
an instance in point) installed without apostolic ordination, so were
they subject, afterwards, to the approval and control of the primate
— Timothy.

One cannot but forcibly feel that, if the election of pastors by the
people Ixad been an element of primitiire Christianity, or if it had

332 APPENDIX TO SECTION IV.

been prospectively intended by the apostles to take effect after their
own demise, some allusion to it would have found a place in these
ecclesiastical letters, oc, as we may call them, decretals. The so-
lemn charge committed to Timothy was, to repress the insolence of
false teachers, and generally, to preserve order in " the house of
God." That this supremacy was altogether an extraordinary and
temporary extension of apostolic authority, is a gratuitous assump-
tion, not to be admitted until proof is adduced in support of it.

We find it admitted as lawful, nay, praiseworthy, that a man
should "desire the episcopal dignity," nor does St. Paul give any
countenince to the affected reluctance of the nolo episcopari. Yet
none were to be admitted to this office but such as were recommend-
ed by their personal fitness ; and the same of the deacons, in regard
to whom the qualification must include their wives.

"Rebuke not a presbyter" (youth as thou art) but rather "en-
treat him as a father." Timothy then was so placed as to be called
upon to urge the elders to the diligent and faithful discharge of their
duties. He had, moreover, the superintendency of ruling elders,
and of some who were rulers merely, and not teachers and preach-
ers also. These, when they combined both kinds of service, were
to receive " a double stipend, for the labourer is worthy of his re-
ward." "Admit not an accusation against a presbyter, unless sus-
tained by two or three witnesses." Timothy then exercised a high
jurisdiction over the conduct of the presbyters. Do not let us style
him, archbishop; nevertheless his functions were precisely those of
a bishop of bishops ; for presbyters are bishops. If all this be not
" written for our learning," peremptory and conclusive reasons must
be furnished to the contrary. Until they are produced, we shall
calmly conclude that the principle of a hierarchy is recommended
to us by apostolic practice and precept.

" Lay hands suddenly on no man : " the power of ordination then
rested with Timothy. This power, implied in the first Epistle, is
distinctly affirmed in the Second. " That which thou hast heard
from me, among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful
men, who shall be qualified to teach others." This is nothing less
than a formal announcement of the process of ecclesiastical creation
but it includes not the most distant allusion to the part to be taken
therein by the people. How far this omission is to be regarded as
conclusive against popular interference in this matter we shall not
affect to determine. In relation to our present inquiry it cannot es-
cape our notice that the approaching times of religious degeneracy
were, by the apostle, expressly designated by the circumstance of
the wilfulness of the people in spurning the sound doctrine they had
heretofore received, and in " gathering to themselves teachers," who
would consult their licentious tastes. This prophetic indication, at
least, does not favour the practice of the popular election of religious
instructors.

The Epistle to Titus is in harmony with those to Timothy, on
the point before us. Titus had been left in Crete, with supreme
power to regulate church affairs, and to " set up," or appoint, pres*
byters in each city of the Island. Why not add — "such as the
Churches shall select and approve ? " "A bishop," that is, such as

APPENDIX TO SECTION IV. 333

these ruling presbyters, " must be blameless." &c. The authority
of Titus, like that of Timothy, was of no precarious or despicable
■ort ; — it was authority, (chap. ii. 15.)

We have then gone through the apostolic Scriptures, noting every
passage that seems to bear upon the subject of the appointment or
the powers of church teachers and rulers ; and not so much as one
of these passages gives support, directly or indirectly, to the alleged
right of the people to elect, appoint, and remove their pastors. Yet
let it be fully understood that we are not now labouring to over-
throw the popular influence in this instance; but are only showing
that, if admitted in fact, it must be justified on some other ground
than that of scriptural precept and example*

Certain bodies loudly say — "our principle is a strict adherence
to the word of God, as well in matters of polity, as in articles of
faith and rules of duty. What the Bible knows nothing of, we
know nothing of: our Churches are purely apostolic, so far as we
can understand the apostolic writings. Traditions we reject; the
practice of the ancient Churches is not our guide ; the Bible, and
the Bible alone, is the religion of Protestants.'* Yet these very par-
ties maintain the right of the people to choose their ministers, as
the pnme and most precious article of their church poHty. Can
these two professions consist ? and is there not room for calling upoii
those who avow doctrines so incompatible, to reconsider the princi-
pies of their ecclesiastical system ?

Page 123. — It has been common to inveigh against the distinction
made between clergy and laity, which is assumed as having beeii
the origin of spiritual despotism. This misdirected objection ha»
put out of view the real evil, namely, that disjunction of clergy and
laity which the former contrived te effect, and in great measure by
embracing the deacons, as clerical persons, and so depriving the peo
pie of their agents and representatives. The author has already re^
ferred to the Apostolic Constitutions on this point: he would not be
misunderstood in quoting that curious collection. There is little
doubt it embodies a considerable portion of the most ancient tradi*
tions and usages of the Church, mixed up with the compiler's fabri-
cations. Altogether, it affords good evidence concerning that state
of things which was prevalent, or which was becoming so, in thft
third century, or which then needed a little help to give it authority
and universality. These Constitutions every where bear testimony
to the fact of the exclusion of the laity from all real influence in
church affairs. Here we find a most serious departure from apos-
tolic practice, and the learned writers who have so vainly laboured
to show that the distinction between clergy and laity was of late ori-
gin, might better have spent their time in exhibiting the rise and
progress of the abuse which was superadded to the distinction. The
genuine epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, one of the earliest of
the extant uncanonical writings, shows that the terms clergy and laity
were used in his time, as Ave find them in a latter age : '*> AaVxtfj
i^idpMTei Toii y^ciiKoii yrpoTTccyf/LXtrtv S'eS'eTeci. To the same
-effect Ignatius, ad Smyrn.^ and Tertullian in many places : one of

334 APPENDIX TO SECTION IV.

these is so full in the evidence it affords of the fixedness of hierarchi-
cal distinctions in that early age, that it may well be quoted. The
writer, de Prescript. Hcereticonini is inveighing against the disorder-
ly practices of the heretics, and their contempt of that dignity and
authority which the Catholic Church maintained. What the Church
was, we here learn from the contrast implied between it, and the
separatists. In primis quis catechumenus, quis fidelis (who is tni-
tiated and who not) incertum est: pariter adeunt, pariter audiunt,
pariter orant: .... omnes tument, omnes scientiam poUicentur.
Ante sunt perfecti catechumeni, quam edocli, Ipsce mulieres hsere-
ticre, quam procaces! quae audeant docere, contendere, exorcismos
agere, curationes repromittere, forsitan et tingere (baptise). Ordi-
nationes eorum temerarioe, leves, inconstan'es. Nunc neophytos
conlocant, nunc seculo obstrictos, nunc apostatas nostros, ut gloria
eos obligent, quia veritate non possunt. Nusquam facilius proficitur,
quam in castris rebellium, ubi, ipsum esse illic, promereri est. Itaque
alius hodie Episcopus, eras alius: hodie Diaconus, qui eras Lector:
hodie Presbyter, qui eras Laicus, nam et Laicis sacerdotalia munera
injungunt. The contrary of all this was therefore the common and
long-established practice of the Church, at the close of the second
century. Again, the same writer de Fuga in Perseciitione ; Sed quum
ipsi auctores (chiefs) id est, ipsi Diaconi, Presbyteri, et Episcopi fu-
fijiunt, quomodo Laicus, &c. j or again, ubi tres, ecclesia est, licel
Laici. De Exhort. Castitatis.

Page 130. — " No writer of the age of Cyprian ;" in truth the earli*
est of the church writers, now extant, employ the terms of office in a
M^ell-dcfined and technical manner. Probably, before the death of
the apostles, all these designations had been fixed in their artificial
aense, and had ceased to be convertible. So at least we find them in
the writings of the apostolic fathers; and in Irenaeus, often, if no4
tiniformly.

Page 133. — The first Christians attached great importance to th»
circumstance of partaking of one and the same loaf; or of bread con-
secrated at one table, in the celebration of the Eucharist ; and it was
the part of the deacons and deaconesses to carry the elements to
those members of the Church who could not personally attend where
the bishop presided; so we learn from Justin Martyr's Second
Apology.

Page 136. — A treatise, not a note, would be required for bringing
togetlier the evidence which proves, what indeed none can well pro-
fess to doubt, namely — That, in the larger cities the Christians were
numerous enough to constitute several congregations, and that yet
(until divided by heretics) they formed but one Church, subject to
one administrative power, whether episcopal or presbyterian. The
difference between a municipal church polity of this sort, and our
modern Congregationalism, such as we find it in our English cities
Rnd large towns, is essential, and of the highest practical importance.
The reader will not expect, in a volume which touches the question

APPENDIX TO SECTION V. 335

of the different forms of church government only incidentally, the
evidence that bears upon that question. The author's limits barely
admit of his adducing a small sample of instances, pertinent to his
proper subject.

APPENDIX TO SECTION V.

Page 151. — The ancient superstition concerning the sacraments,
and some other observances, may justly be named as the initial point
of Spiritual Despotism. It was on this stone that the hierarchy built
its towering edifice. But who sliall say when this superstition took
the place of apostolic simplicity? The most ambiguous expressions
(if indeed they are ambiguoua) meet us in the earliest writers. These
could not be here introduced with advantage: the author reserves
■what he may have to advance on this difficult and important subject
to its proper place in a work he has in preparation, and which he
will not forestal.

Page 153. — The long-continued and anxious disagreements that
arose in the African Church from the contumacy or the irregular for-
wardness of the confessors in granting bills of reconciliation to the
lapsed, occupy a prominent place in the writings of Cyprian, and ar«
familiar to all readers of church history. These difficulties owed
their origin, in great measure, to the exaggerations that had been in-
dulged in concerning the merits of the martyrs; and then again,
these exaggerations flowed from that sophistication of the Gospel
which had early got ground. To do any damage to principal truths,
is to plunge into unUmited practical errors and inconveniences. In
Mr. Rose's translation of Neander, the English reader may see copi-
ous quotations from Cyprian, relating to this subject. On points of
this sort, often adverted to in Church histories, and well understood,
it could subserve no good purpose here to enlarge.

Page 154. — From the expressions used by Tertullian, in speaking
of the conventions of the Churches of Greece, de Jejuniis, c. 13, we
should gather, that such representative assemblies were not very
prevalent in his time. They grew more and more into use, as they
•were found to facilitate the exercise of irresponsible authority, on the
part of the clergy. Ecclesiastical writers distinguish synods into
four sor s, the first kind being those held by a bishop who summoned
the bishops of the neighbouring cities to assist him on some occasion
of difficulty. The second kind was that of the metropolitans, at stated
times convening all the bishops of their province. The third was
that of patriarchs, assembling, in like maimer, all of the episcopal
order within their jurisdiction ; and the fourth was what has usually

336 APPENDIX TO SECTION V.

been called oecumenic, or universal, in which the chiefs of the Chris*
tian world were drawn together, on extraordinary occasions, for the
■decision of urgent controversies. On some occasions, indeed, presby^
ters, deacons, and many of the people, obtained admission to synods ^
but it was witii the bishops alone that the decision rested. 'Cum in
ununi Carthagini convenissent, Kalend. Septembris, Episcopi plu-
rimi ex provincia Africa, Numidia, Mauritania, cum prcsbytcris et
diaconis, prsesente etiam plebis maxima parte.' .... It was merely
as spectators, or perhaps as serving to give importance to the church
party in the view of the separatists, that the people gained admission
on this occasion. 'Prresente plebe,' is a frequent phi'ase in the epis-
tles of Cyprian ; and it seems that he wished to sustain himself by
the popular concurrence and favour ; in truth, the fierce opposition he
encountered from some of his clergy, was of a kind that rendered it
necessary to court this aid. But we must by no means so mterpret
such expressions as to suppose that any substantial influence was
accorded to the laity ; or any power beyond that which a mob often
exerts under the most absolute governments: the people had no con-
stitutional power. In opening the council of Carthage (An. 256)
Cyprian boldly and clearly affirms the independence of bishops one
of another ; but says nothing of the rights of the inferior clergy, or of
the faithful at large. 'Neque enim quisquam nostrum Episcopura
8e Episcoporum constituit, aut tyrannico terrore ad obsequendi ne-
cessitatem colleges suos adigit ; quando habeat omnis Episcopus pro
licentia libertatis et potestatis suae, arbitrium proprium ; tamque ju-
dicari ab alio non possit, quam nee ipse potest judicare,' This is not
altogether the language of apostles, or of apostolic men. The sen-
tences of these eighty-seven pj-elates might very aptly be adduced in
illustration of the high church style of the times — the times, not of
•tate patronage, but of persecution.

Page 162. — The councils of Ancyra, of Neo-Ccesarea, and of An-
tioch,were, like those of Africa and tho West, episcopal assemblies;
and they exhibit the same practice of exclusion, in regard both to th«
inferior clergy and the people. The thirteenth canon of the council
of Ancyra may be adduced in proof of the breadth of the distinction,
so early made, between the higher and lower clergy; a disiinction
■which excluded even the country bishops from the prerogatives
claimed by the bishops of cities: " It is not permitted to Chorepisco-
pi to ordain presbyters or deacons ; nor indeed to the presbyters of
cities to do so, without a license from their bishop, to that effect."
These canons, throughout, imply a power on the part of the bishops
nearly absolute. The phrase employed by Eusebius, in reference to
the dignitaries, assembled at the council of Nice, well designates the
aristocratic constitution of that convention. "From all the Church-
es," says he, "of Europe, Africa, and Asia, there came together,
rai rou hoo Xetrovpycov ru ux-poSivtet. A bishop, absent
on account of extreme age, was represented by his presbyters. A
very great number of the inferior clergy, and even of the laity, fol-
lowed in the trains of the bishops, and swelled the crowd that
swarmed around the imperial palace, during the session of the coun-

APPENDIX TO SECTION V. 33^

fjil. Socrates tells us that there were in attendance upon the reve-
rend fathers several laymen, o/««Ae»r/«5)5 if^Tsipoiy professionally
employed, or, as we may say, retained^ to plead on difficult points, or
to assist in those incidental disputations that were always going on
Out of doors. It was, as we suppose, at one of these unauthentic
conferences that, as this historian relates, after the learned wranglers
had completely confounded, among themselves, all principles of piety
and common sense, a simple-hearted layman, one of the confessors,
exclaimed, "Christ and the apostles did not deliver to us dialectic
and delusive subtilties, but yvf^v^v yvufcj^v to be kept in its
purity by faith and good works.

Page 1^5. — The uninterrupted transmission of the great ar*
tides of Christian faith in the mother Churches, throughout
Christendom, is an argument that finds a place in almost all
the catholic controversial writings of the early centuries. There
would be no end to adducing the instances. Irenceus especially
insists upon this ground of authority; nor ought his appeal to
the consistent and harmonious traditions of the principal Churches
to be rejected as improper. — Sec contra Hcereses, lib. iii. cap. 3,
and lib. iv. cap. 26. Origen, by no means a favourer of Church
Despotism, calmly asserts the discriminative value of the tradition-
al faith of the apostolic Churches : — "Servetur vero ecclesiastica
prredicatio per successionis ordinem ab apostolis tradita; et usque
ad praesens in ecclesiis permanens : ilia sola credenda est Veritas,
quae in nuUo ab eccfesiasiica et apostolica discordat traditione."
Prof, lie Principiis^ TertuUian strenuously makes the same
appeal to the continued consistency of the mother Churches.
Constat proinde omnem doctrinam, quae cum illis Ecclesiis Apos-
tolicis matricibus et originalibus fidei conspiret, veritati deputan-*-
Uum". . . . and again: "Hoc enim modo Ecclesias Apostolicie census
suos deferunt ; sicut Smyrnceorum ecclesia Poiycarpum ab Jo tnne
conlocatum refert .• sicut Romanorum, Clementem a Petro ordina-
turn itidem, perinde titique et ceterse exhibent quos ab apostolis
in episcopatum constitutes apostolici seminis traduces habeant*
Confingant tale aliquid haeretici," There was reason and force in
this challenge when advanced so early as the close of the second
century, or the commencement of the third.

Page 178. — A substantial defence of Christianity might be
grounded upon the temper exhibited in those admirable tracts
which were addressed to the Roman authorities by the accomplish-
ed apologists of the faith, in the second and third centuries. The
spirit and maxims therein displayed and professed, and not only
professed, but practically adhered to, were immensely superior to
any thing the world had hitherto seen, and ought to have con-
vinced the emperors and tlieir advisers, that the new sect, if fairly
treated, would have formed the best support of the decaying
empire. In reading the learned, tranquil, manly, and yet meek,
Apology of Athenagoras, and in recollecting to whom it was
addressed, it is impossible not to feel that all truth and reason

29

338 APPENDIX TO SECTION VI.

was on the one side, and an infatuated bigotry on the other. In
equity, we should reject the philosophic pretensions of Antoninus;
for what is that philosophy worth which is found to avail nothing
with a prince, mildly entreated to protect thousands of his
suffering and innocent subjects from horrid cruelties? The same
spirit and principles meet us in the apologies of Tatian, Justin,
Clement of Alexandria, Minuiius, FeUx, and Origen ; and indeed
in all the early writers of this class; and manifestly their mode-
ration was not that of individuals merely, but was the charac-
teristic temper of the body. The author will here take leave to
recommend strongly the perusal of these tracts to the intelligent
reader; and especially if his faith in Christianity is unfixed. The
later apologists approach, at times, a more sturdy style, and the
common emotions of resentment are to be traced in many of the
turgid orations pronounced at the tombs of the martyrs, after the
triumph of Christianity. The orations of Gregory fs'yssen, and
of Basil, would furnish examples of this sort ; or it might be enough
to refer to Lactantius, de Mortibus Persecutorum. The exultation
of the Christians over their fallen adversaries is indeed not more
than is natural, but it is somwhat more than is Christian-like. Q,ui
adversati erant Dio, jacent; qui templum sanctum everterant,
ruina majori ceciderunt; qui justos excarnifioaverant, ccelestibus
plagis et cruciatibus mentis nocentes animos profuderunt. Distuler-
at enim poenas eorum Deus, ut ederet in eos magna et mirabiha
exempla

But no evidence more explicit concerning the feeling of Chris-
tians, as a great and potent body in the state, can be adduced, than
that which is contained in an often-quoted passage of TertulJian's
Apology, cap. 37, where he distinctly reminds his fellow-citizens
of the power of the Christians — a power they would not employ,
to right their own cause. There can be little doubt that this elo-
quent and vigorous apology rung in the ears of the Roman authori-
ties, from the moment of its appearance, to the times of Diocletian ;
it might perhaps even serve to aggravate cruelties which were felt
to be, in the highest degree, dangerous to the perpetrators, unless
by such means the utter extinction of the sect could be effected.

To avoid retracing the same ground, or recurring to topics nearly
allied, some references and illustrations which might have been
appended to the fifth Section, are reserved to find a place in those
attached to the sixth.

APPENDIX TO SECTION VI.

Page 187.— The author will not be misunderstood as speaking
literally of the behaviour of Constantine at church. Nothing

APPENDIX TO SECTION VI. J^3D

could be more reverential or decorous than his conduct on all oc-
casions of frequenting public worship, of which Eusebius and
Socrates report many instances.

Page 192, — Christianity had been declared, by Gallienus (An.
259,) a religio licita, and the Church had, in consequence of this
decree, enjoyed a long repose. But Constantine's toleration, as
It sprung from different motives, and was understood to issue from
his personal convictions in favour of Christianity, soon placed
the Christians, throughout the empire, on ground they had never
heretofore occupied. Constantine's decree of universal toleration,
dated from Milan, as reported by Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib.x. cap. 5,
is worthy of the most enlightened times: it is simple in expression,
explicit, and ample. This same decree, which protects all subjects
of the empire from molestation on account of their religion, be it
what it may, naming especially the Christians, requires also a
restitution of the property of the churches, which had been lately
confiscated. "And moreover, as the said Christians are known
to have possessed, not only the buildings in which they ordinarily
assemble, but also other property, and which appertains not to in-
dividuals among them, but to the society, all such possessions, from
the moment of the promulgation of this our decree, you will com-
mand to be restored without question, to each corporation or
church." So much in the true spirit of toleration is this decree,
that the Romanist commentators upon Eusebius, instead of applaud-
ing, resent it, as an insult and an injury to the Church. — "What!
shall the Catholic Church receive its liberties in common with Je\TS,
Samaritans, and heretics?" In fact, this broad indulgence soon ex-
cited the jealousy of the emperor's episcopal advisers, and he was
induced to issue decrees, contrary to his mclination and better
judgment, but more to the taste of arrogant Churchmen. Through-
out the history of Constantine's religious administration, we hare
to notice the distinction between his spontaneous measures, and
tliose acts which sprung fVom the ecclesiastics to whose intemperance
and bigotry he thought himself compelled to give way. In a sub-
sequent decree the property of the churches is incidentally specifi-
ed, as consisting in "gardens and houses," The rnoreable wealth of
which they had been plundered it was not possible to recover; yet
it was, in part, replaced by the libei-al donations of the emperor,
and with these, and their actual funds, the Christians found them-
selves immediately able to construct spacioHS nnd splendid churches,
in the stead of the humbler edifices that had been destroyed during
the late persecutions.

Page 197. — AVe should by no means forget that, although Con-
gtantine went some way toward endowing the ministers of Christi-
anity, by granting them certain parmanent revenues, fruits, and
customs, he left entirely unrestrained their command over the iuper-
stitious liberality of the people. There was, therefore, in this
system, the cost of an establishment without its benefits. The
Church was so much the more enriched ; but the welfare of the
eommunity was not provided for. Beside the restitution of their

340 APPENDIX TO SECTION TI»

corporate property, Constantine exempted the clergy from th^
Kability they had hitherto stood under, as citizens, to discharge putn
lie otiices. Eusebius, hb. x. cap. 7. This sort of exemption has
been approved of as fit and necessary in most civihzied countries.

Page 199. — When first summoned to surround the emperor, and
to sit at the imperial table, many of the bishops, as we infer from
an incidental expression of Eusebius, de Vita Constant, lib, i. cap»42,
were but poorly attired , they very quickly, however, learned to
accoaimodate themselves to the usages of a court, and this, not in
habiliments only, but in behaviour. Indeed, if we are to give
credit to Socrates — esteemed a trustworthy writer, the deference ex-
acted by the bishops from the emperor and his covir tiers was as
great as the most arrogant hierarchs of later ages have demanded :
for example, the emperor, in entering the hall of his own palace,
■ft-^here the Fathers of the Nicene council were convened, did not
presume to sit until he had received a nod from them, giving him
permission to do so : he then meekly took his seat on a golden stool,
as Eusebius tells us, placed in the open space around which the
bishops were arranged. Totocott) t/s evXu^stcc xoti ui^ali ra*

Page 201. — Numberless are the monastic rules and canons directed
lo the important object of securing to religious houses the personal
effects of those who entered them. For a monk to retain possession
even of a shilling, as privat* property, was deemed one of the mos^
strious crimes of which he could be guilty. A curious enactment,
on this subject, is found among the Decretals of Gregory IX. A
monk retaining private property, without the special permission of
his abbot (which was in certain cases granted) was not to receive
Christian burial : or, if the discovery were afterwards made of hig
having died possessed of clandestine effects, exhumation was to take
place — provided it could be done without causing great public scan-
dal ; and his remains cast forth from the sacred precincts : that is to
say, adds the commentator, if the bones of the guilty brother can be
distinguished from those of others. Decret. lib. iii. tit. 35. But the
same practice and principle is met with in the monastic writers of a
much earlier time. The text and profession of the system was,

But though the monk must be a pauper, i\\e, fraternity might become
as wealthy as it pleased ; such are the subterfuges of spurious piety f
The epistles of Gregory I. contain several allusions to the wills of
monks ; and it seems that different usages obtained in the different
orders in this respect ; some demanding the absolute surrender of all
personal property, while others allowed wealthy brethren to retain
and disposeof their fortunes. This same Pope grants express license
to certain abbots to bequeath their private property, Epist. 22, and
in other cases authenticates the surrender of a monk's property to the
monastery, lest the grant should be called in question by his lawful
keirs^ From the Justinian code, it appears that monks, in the sixth

APPENDIX TO SECTION VI. 34l

century, were generally allowed to dispose of their effects by will.
Jerome approves the practice observed in the monasteries of Egypt,
of burying, with a monk, any little savings he might have made
from the product of his labours ; — according to that Scripture, " Thy
money perish with thee." Epist. ad Eustochium. To the same effect
Basil ; Constitutiones JMonasticoi.

Page 202. — Nothing that can be deemed important, either in a
religious or ecclesiastical sense, appears to be connected with those,
hdjustments of Church polity which Constantme effected. He found
the Christian world already meted out under three or four suprema-
cies ; and he only brought these existing governments into conve-
nient conformity with the new arrangements which he established in
the civil constitution of the empire. His error was, the not discern-
ing the dangerous ambition of the Roman pontiff, or not providing
against what he might have foreseen would be the course of events,
when the bishop of Rome was left lord of Italy and the Western
Church. Whether a complex hierarchical system be good or bad, it
was fully established and digested, at the time of the imperial con-
version. This fict there can be no need to support by formal evi-
dence ; the proof of it meets us every where. Let the reader look
through the Apostolic Constitutions.

Page 204. — It is pretty certain that Constantine would gladly have
left to the chiefs of the Church the control of ail spiritual affairs ; but
the endless disagreements that prevailed among them, and in the
course of which he was appealed to, sometimes by the weaker, and
sometimes by the stronger party, involved him unavoidably in con-
troversies and disputes of all kinds, and left him no liberty to observe
that line which at first he had marked out for himself. The feuds of
the clergy, although he could not but see that they threw power into
his hands, gave him sincere uneasiness ; and his earnest remonstrances
with them, on this head, put it beyond reasonable doubt that his de-
sire of concord and unity prevailed altogether over his love of influ-
ence. Gladly would he have embraced the respectable separatists
of the time in the arrangements which he laboured to bring about ;
but his good intentions were frustrated, as well by the unyielding
tempers of the non-conformists, as by the haughtiness of the Catholic
bishops. We learn from Socrates, lib, i. cap, 10, that, with the view
of comprehending, if possible, the existing parties, the emperor sum-
moned Acesius, aNovatian bishop, to the council of Nice, with Avhom
he amicably conferred. " Why," asked the emperor, " do you sepa-
rate yourself from the communion of the Church ?" Acesius replied
by stating the origin and the grounds of the Novatian dissent, upon
hearing which Constantine exclaimed — " Good man, set a ladder
then, and climb up to heaven alone," Again and again, in reading
the history of the times, we have to regret that the imperial nursing
father of the Church did not oftener lean upon his own sound judg-
ment and honest intentions, rather than yield to the wishes of his
ecclesiastical advisers. On one occasion, nothing but the vigorous
ffood sense of a monk — Paphnutius, saved the Church from afanati-

^ 29*

S42 APPENDIX TO SECTION VI,

caI attempt of the bishops to impose celibacy upon the clergy. This
interposition, says the historian^ Socrates, was the more remarkable,
because Paphnutius himself had, from his youth, maintained the
Strictest continence. Whatever opinion we may form, if indeed we
should attempt to form any, of the personal character of Constantine,
or of his religious sentiments, it is unwarrantaele to call in question
the sincerity of his professions, in relation to the religious welfare of
the empire. He regarded, with awe, the Divine Providence, in the
course of public affairs : he devoutly wished to propitiate the Divine
favour on behalf of the State : he felt that Christianity was the reli*
gion of order and humanity, and he earnestly desired to see it every
where prevalent. The candid reader of Eusebius and Socrates,
while he may disallow certain measures, and while he makes a due
deduction from the encomiums of partial writers, will receive, altO"-
gether, a favourable impression of the conduct of this first Christian
prince,

Page 207. — . . . "donee sub Constantino Irnperatore,'* says Jerome,
after mentioning the licentious rites of the Grecian worship, "Christi
evangelio coruscante, et infidelitasuniversarum gentium, et turpetudo
deleta est." Comment, en Esaiam, cap. 2. If this reformation be here
too largely stated, it was nevertheless very great and extensive, and
attended with the highest benefits to the community. So vast a
devolution could not, however, have been effected without the most
vigorous and peremptory measures. Much as the minds of men, in
that age, were inclined to consider visible prosperity, and especially
if it attended a prince or public person through life, as an indication
of the Divine favour to the individual, a strong impi'ession, corrobo-
rative of the Christian doctrine, must have been made upon the Ro-
man world, by the mere fact of the impunity with which the first
Christian emperor suppressed the worship of the gods, and put con-
tempt upon their ministers. It was manifest that the gods were
destitute of power to avenge themselves upon this, their bold enemy.
Nay, in splendour, happy success, and long-continued tranquiihty,
Constantine greatly surpassed any of his predecessors. Augustine,
de Civitate Dei, appeals to the instance, on this very ground. Nam
bonus Deus, ne homines qui eum crederent propter oeternam vitam
colendum, hos sublimitates et regna terrena existimarent posse nc-
minem consequi, nisi dremonibus supplicet, quod hi spirilus in talibus
multum valerent, Constantinum imperatorem non supplicnntem dnc~
monibus, sed ipsum verum Deum colentem, tantis terrenis implevit
muneribus, quanta optare nullus audeiet .... Diu imperavit, uni-
vei-sum orbem Romanum unus Augustus tenuit et defendit ; in
administrandis et gerendis bellis victoriosissimus fuit ; in tyrannis
opprimendis per omnia prosperatus est; grandoevus aigritudine et
senectute defunctus est, filiis imperantes reliquit. Lib. v. cap. 25.
Eusebius more than once advances the same argument, which, from
the frequency with which it was employed, we may infer to have
been found eflicacious. " With loud voice," in the instance of the
emperor, "the true God spake to all men, calling upon theni to
acknowledge bim. as the oiily Gtod^ and to turn aA^ay frofl*. tUW

APPENDIX TO SECTION VI. 343

that were no gods." We may well suppose that Constantine was
himself confirmed in his faith by his own prosperity, and was, per-
haps, in the same manner emboldened to assail the ancient supersti-
tions of the empire with the more -vigour. Sentiments of this sort
appear in several of his epistles and speeches, as reported by Euse-
bius, De Vita Constantin. lib. ii. cap. 24, 25, et passim.

Neque ab idololatriae distare haereses, quum et auctoris el

Operis ejusdem sint, cujus et idololatria, says TertuUian ; and the
church writers of the age of Constantine expressly affirm heresy and
schism to be greater evils than polytheism. It is no wonder, there-
fore, that the severities resorted to for the suppression of the latter,
should, without scruple, have been directed against the former ; yet
it Avas chiefly in the following reigns that extreme coercive measures
against either idolatry or heresy, were employed. Conrtaniine's
mode of proceeding in suppressing the pagan worship is described
by his biographer ; Vita, lib. iii. cap. 54, et seq. Against heretics and
schismatics he issued reproofs, vehement sometimes in style, but he
seldom Avent further than to prohibit their conventicles, and to con-
fiscate their oratories or chapels to the Catholic Church. Vita, lib.
iii. cap. 65. The language attributed to the emperor in these in-
stances indicates, as Ave think, an inward conflict betAveen the mild-
ness and moderation of his personal dispositions, and his sense of
duty, as suggested to him by his episcopal advisers. His successors
were far less scrupulous.

Page 209. — The writings of Augustine andof Chrysostom, not to
mention others, abound in passages attesting the immensity of the
cares and labours of a judicial kind, in Avhich a bishop Avas involved,
as arbitrator of secular interests ; (see especially Chrysostom, de
Sacerdotio, lib. iii.) nor was this evil of recent origin : as a custcm it
takes its date from the apostolic times ; as an evil, from the age in
which worldly ambition had generally tainted the minds of the
clergy ; and this happened long before the political triumph of
Christianity. On the subject of episcopal jurisdiction, Avhat it in-
cluded, and in Avhat manner exercised, in the third and fourth cen-
turies, the Apostolic Constitutions affbrd A'arious information: the
second book relates chiefly to this part of the bishop's duties, and
may be referred to as suflicient evidence of the extent of the authority
vested in him, and of the almost unlimited influence which, as arbi-
trator and judge, he exercised. The fact not being matter of dispute,
to adduce quotations Avould serve no useful purpose. The English
reader may find, in Hallam's Middle Ages, chap. vii. a concise account
of this branch of ecclesiastical poAver.

Page 214. — The third oration of Gregory JSTazianzen, entitled
crTtjXiTsvTtitAi, and the fourth, exhaust the eloquence of that
accomplished churchman, and indeed seem to spend all the resources
of the copious language he employed in the expression of indignant
sentiments. But though the Greeks must bear the palm as orators,
it is to the Latin Fathers we must look for the indications of the real
tacendency of the Church, in the fourth, century. The Greeks wer«

344 APPENDIX TO SECTION VII.

the best preachers, orators, and writers ; but the 'Latins were the
best and the boldest promoters of church authority. Among these,
Ambrose of Milan, holds no mean place ; it is from his writings that
we may the most readily derive an idea of the ecclesiastical system,
practices, and spirit of this time ; and especially from his epistles.

APPENDIX TO SECTION YIL

In seeking for evidence concerning the spirit and practices of the
Romish Despotism, we should observe two rules, both clearly equit-
able and necessary ; the first is to look to the pages of those writers
who have occupied high stations in the Church, and whose decisions
are its law ; and the second is to confine ourselves to those times dur-
ing which the Church was in her prosperity, and enjoyed an unre-
stricted authority. The breaking out of the Reformation gave a
new, and an exasperated character to all the acts and expressions of
the Papacy. From that time forward the Church spoke in refe-
rence to, or in tacit recollection of, her new and formidable adversa-
ries. She was no longer purely spontaneous. The difference of
Style and feeling occasioned by the Lutheran schism, is very clearly
perceptible in the Romanist writers of all classes; for while the bold
and intemperate are far more extravagant and impudent than were
their predecessors of the same s^amp, the reasonable, the conciliato-
ry, and the philosophic, labour with the utmost diligence and ingenu-
ity to soften the features of the Romish tyranny, to excuse his intole-
rance, to recommend, on general grounds, its superstitions, and to
bring it, as far as possible, into accordance with the spirit of Christi-
anity, and with the feelings and usages of modern times. But as
we are bound, in fairness, to reject the exaggerated Romanism of the
one class of modern Avriters, so should we pass by, as unauthentic
and spurious, the novel liberality, and the spirituality of the other.
V/e do not ask Fenelon, or Pascal, or the JcUisenists, or Dr. Doyle,
or Mr. Butler, what Romanism is, any more than we put that ques-
tion to certain infamous Spanish Jesuits of the seventeenth century;
but to turn to the popes and the authentic doctors of the middle ages.
The principles avowed by these high authorities, and the practices
founded upon those principles, are consistent one with another ; are
necessary parts of the great ecclesiastical theory ; and are such as
must, in every age, be professed ond followed by the Romish Church,
where she enjoys full liberty, and is not compelled to adapt herself to
political necessities. Protestantism annihilated, and princes once
more brought down to their place, as the obedient sons and champions
of the Church, and then this Church would be, and must be, the very
same in spirit and in practice that it was in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries. In truth a modern catholic country, as for example, Spain,

-APPENDIX TO SECTION VII. 345

Ireland, or Belgium, would altogether gain, as much as it would lose,
in exchanging i?j/ra-Lutheran, for«*jjra-Lutheran Catholicism. That
which makes modern popery more tolerable, and in some respects
less pernicious to a people than ancient popery was, is precisely that
fidniixture of better notions which it has furtively obtained from PrO"
testantism. But all such mitigations and corrections the consistent
Romanist must regard as adulterations, and must wish to exclude
and repel. The Romish Church can never admit the maxim — *' fas
est ab hoste doceri."

The author will now present to the reader some few promiscuous
passages from authors who, if any, are to be deemed authorities in
Romanism — Romanism in its best times. We take three illustri-
ous chvirchmen, contemporaries, and the most noted and honoured of
the papal champions ; two of them popes, and one the spiritual father
of a pope, namely, Innocent III., Gregory IX., and St. Bernard. (In
quoting the Epistles of Innocent III., the author takes the Paris edi-
tion, 16S2, of S. Baluzius : for Gregory IX. — the Decretals, Leyden,
1584, ud exemplar Romanum diligentur recognitse: for St. Bernard
'— Mabillon's edition, Paris, 1690.)

The expositors of prophetic symbols have ordinarily assumed that
the secular authority was typified by the sun, and the ecclesias-
tical by the moon ; but Innocent III. reverses these emblems. Sicut
universitatis conditor Deus duo magna lummaria in firmamento cceli
constituit, luminare majus, ut prseesset diei, et luminare minus, ul
nocti prceesset ; sic ad firmamentum universalis Ecclesiae, quce cceli
nomine nuncupatur, duas magnas instituit dignitates, majorem, qua
quasi diebus animabus praeesset, et minorem, quie quasi noctibus praa-
es§et corporibus: qu?e sunt pontificalis aucloritas,et regalis potestaa.
Porro sicut luna lumen suum a sole sortitur, quae re vera minor est
illo quantitate simul et qualitate, situ pariter et efiectu ; sic regalis
potestas ab auctoritate, pontificalisuas sortitur dignitatis splendorem;
cujus conspectui qiianto magis inhceret, tanto minori lumine decora-
lur, et quo plus ab ejus elongatur aspectu, eo plus proficit in splen-
dore. Utaque vero protestas sive primatus sedem in Italia meruit
obtinere, quae dispositione divina super universas provincias obtinuit
principatum. Et ideo licet universas provincias nostrae provisionis
aciem extendere debeamus, specialiter tamen Italiae paterna nos con-
venit solicitudine providere, in qua Christianoe religionis fundamen-
tum extitit, et per apostolicne sedis primatum sacardotii simul et regni
praeminet principatus. — Tom. i. p. 235.

This point of the superiority of the sacerdotal and pontifical dig-
nity, as compared with the secular and regal, this pope urges in a
similar style upon the Emperor Alexius, who had imposed certain
liumiliations upon the patriarch and clergy of Constantinople, and
had yjresumed to make clerical persons amenable to the civil au-
thority, duod autem sequitur (I Peter ii. 13) Regi lanquam prcecel-
Unti, non negamus quin prJBcellat in temporalibtis Imperator, illis
dumtaxat qui ab illo recipiunt temporalia. Sed Pontifex in spiritu-
ftlibus antecellit, quae tanto sunt temporalibus digniora quanto corpo-
ri est anima praeferenda. It was thus that, on the ground of the in-
finite superiority of religious interests, the Papacy reared its claim

346 APPENDIX TO SECTION VII.

to exercise a paramount authority on earth, and actually trampled
on the neck of kings. Innocent goes on to convict Alexius of his er-
ror in presuming to touch clerical criminals with the secular sword ;
and his method of expounding Scripture might make one believe that
he had learned theology in the school of the Rabbis. Cluod autem
sequitur ad vindictum malefactorum, laudem vero bonorum, intelligen-
dum non est quod Rex vel imperator super omnes et bonos et malos
potestatem acceperit, sed in eos solummodo qui utentes gladio, ejus
sunt jurisdictioni commissi, juxta quod Veritas ait: omnes qui accepe-
rint gladium, gladio peribunt. Non enim potest aut debet quisquam
servum allerius judicare, cum servus suo domino, secundum Aposto-
lum, stet aut cadat. Ad id etiam induxistiquod licet Moses et Aaron

secundum carnem fratres extiterint, &c Dictum est etinm in

lege divina; Diis non detrahes, et principem popidi tiii non maledices.
Cluae Sacerdotes Regibus anteponens, istos deos et iWos principes ap-
pelavit. Praeterea nosse debueras quod fecit Deus duo ; — and here
follows the same same illustration, as above, drawn from the two ce-
lestial luminiaries .... Hoc autem si prudenter attenderit imperato-
ria celsitudo, non faceret aut permitteret venerabilem fratrem Patri-
archam Constantinopolitanum, magnum quidem et honorabile mem-
brum Ecclesiae, juxta scabellum pedum tuorum in sinistra parte se-
dere, cum alii Reges et Principes Archiepiscopis et Episcopis suis,
sicut debent, reverenter assurgant, et eis juxta se honorabilem seden*
assignent. Nam et piissimus Conslantmus quantum honoris exhi-
buerit Sacerdotibus, tua sicut credimus prudentia non ignorat. Thi«
is much in the style in which Ambrose of Milan was wont to school
Theodosius. We may mention, in illustration of the grievance of
which, as it seems, theConstantinopolitan Patriarch had complained,
that the illuminated Greek codices of the tenth and following centu-
ries, not unfrequenily represent the emperor on his throne, receiving,
with condescension, a copy of the book from a bishop or presbyter,
who reverentially inclines his head in offering it to the imperial hand.
This sort of obeisance and submission, on the part of the clergy to-
"wards monarchs, was found only in the eastern empire; or very
rarely in the west.

Innocent, who thus asserts the rights of his brother of Constanti-
nople, when the general credit of the priesthood is involved, vehe-
mently assails the same brother on the point of the supremacy of
Rome, and calls upon him, as he values his salvation, to submit to
the chair of St. Peter. So in his letter (353) to the Greek Emperor,
and in the one which follows to the patriarcli. Reprobata quondam
propter ingratitudinis vitium perfidia Judreorum, et oblato synagogfe
(quia non cognovit tempusvisitationis suoe) libello repudii, unam sibi
Ecclesiam ex gentibus congregatam, non habentem maculem neque
rugam, Dominus noster elegit, juxta quod legitur in Canticis Canti-

corum, Una est electa mea, sponsamea, imwaculatamea Hoca u-

tcm Grsecorum populus non attendens, aliam sibi confinxit Ecclesiam
(si tamen qune praeter unam est, Ecclesia sit dicenda) et ab Apostoli-
ccesedis unitate recessit,necconstitutonem Domini nee Petri magiste*
rium imitatus, et inconsutilem vestum Domini, cui crucifixorum ma-
SU8 in aliarum vestiura divisione pepercit, scindere usque hodie, lic6l

APPENDIX TO SECTION VJI. 347

frustra, conatur ; non attendens quod una tantum extitit area, intra
quam sub uno rectore quicuaque fuerunt, legunturin cataclismo sal-
vali : qui autem extra ipsam inventi sunt, omnes in deluvio perierunt
duia igitur id in scandalem nostrum et fidei Christianas redundat
dispendium, nee jam possumus vitare clamores Ecclesiae generalis
quv-e noset prredecessores nostros negliagentai ac tarditatis redarguit
monemus tVat. tuam et exlior. in Domino, per Apostolica tibi scripta
mandanies, quatenus omnimodam solicitudinem et efficacem operam
intcrponas, ut Graecorum universitas redeat ad Ecclesiae unitatem,
et ad matrem filia revertata, et fiat juxta verbum Domini unum ovile,
et unus Pastor To all tliis the patriarch replies with spi-
rit and humility : — Et indulge mihi, sacerrime Papa si nunc primo
hunc patriarchalem sacrum ihronum me ascendentem, nondum de
tali hoc dubiataRone diligentum solutionem addiscere accidit ....
But his argument, which indeed exhibits much good sense, is met by
Innocent with manifold reasons, of which the following may serve as
a specimen; — Petro non solum universam Ecclesiam sed lotum reli-
quit seculem gubernandum. Cluod ex eo etiam evidenter apparet,
quia cum Dominus apparuisset in littore discipulis naviganiibus,
scions Petrus quod Dominus esset se misit in mare, ac aliis navigio
venientibus, ipse sine beneficio navis ad Dominum festinavit. Ciirn
enim mare mundum designer,, juxta verbum Psalmistae dicentis. Hoc
mare magnum et spatiosum, illic reptilia quorum non est numeriis ; per
hoc quod Petrus se misit in mare, priviligum expressit pontificii sin-
gularis, per quod universum orbem susceperat gubernandum; cete-
ris Apostolis ut vehiculo nwis contentis, cum nulli eorum universus
fuerit orbis commissus, sed singulus singulre provincise vel Ecclesiae
potiiis deputatfe. Jterum etiam ut se unicum Christi Vicarium de-
signaret, ad Dominum super aquas maris mirabiliter ambulan-
tem et ipse super aquas maris mirabiliter ambulavit. Nam ciim
aquae multae sint populi multi, congregationes que aquarum sint ma-
ria, per lioc quod, Petrus super aquas maris incessit, super universos
populos se potestatem accepiisse monstravit .... Sane cum per
navem Petri Eeclesiafiguretur, tunc Petrus juxta praeceptum domi-
nicum navim duxit in altum, laxans praedicationis retia in capturam,
ciim ibi posuit Ecclesae principatum ubi vigebat secularis potentise
altitudo et imperialis monarchia residebat, cui fere singulae nationes
sicut fiumina mari tributa solvebant certis temporibus constiruta.
Much of the same sort follows; and the paternal epistle ends with a
peremptory and threatening summons, requiring the Constantino-
politan patriarch to attend a general council, to be holden at Rome,
and there to do homage to St Peter's chair.

Frivolous as we must think the arguments of Innocent, his conclu-
sions were full of a tremendous meaning, and while he spoke as a
lamb, he ruled the world as a lion. Indeed, apart from the comment
which history furnishes upon documents of this sort, one might im-
agine some of these haughty and sanguinary Pontiffs to have been
patterns of humihty and gentleness. Even those bulls and edicts
which, in their effect, deluged kingdoms with blood, are moderate in
language, and breathe a placid and scriptural fervour. In making our
acquaintance with certain illustrious and zealous churchmen, ^rsf,

34S APPENDIX TO SECTION Vll.

through the medium of history, and afterwards by consulting theif
extant writings, a lively surprise is felt in finding that men, whose
hands we know to have reeked blood, were, in their Epistles and
their homilies, so honey-mouthed and saint-like. Every reader of
history knows what practical interpretation Innocent put upon the
simple fact of Peter's leaving his fishing tackle and dragging his boat
ashore, and that it meant nothing less than that his successors, turn-
ing away from purely spiritual cares, might make themselves
universal lords of the bodies as well as souls of men. This abso-
lute secular sovereignty is an essential element of the papal theory.
It is only as universal despot that the Vicar of Christ can fulfil his
functions, and effectively rule the household of fixith. Modern con-
cessions on this point are only so many inconsistencies, that must be
redeemed and obliterated when the time comes for building up anew
the tabernacle of St. Peter.

Innocent III. well knew that, although in some of his measures he
might go beyond the line of his predecessors, he did not a whit trans-
gress in principle and doctrine, what they had uniformly professed.
The unbounded and absolutely irresponsible authority of the pope
had centuries before, been maintained in the most explicit terms.
Culpas (Papae) redarguere praesumit mortalium nullus; quia cunc-
tos ipse judicaturus a nemine est judicandus. Boniface the Martyu
Et ex annalibus Francorum, ex Anostasio, et ex sacris ritibus Ro-
mance Ecclest proditum est in concione quam Romoe convocavit
Carolus Magnus, Rex Galliarum, ad examinanda objecta in Leo-
nem Pontificem Maximum, Archiepiscopos, Episcopos, et Abbatea
unanimiter dixisse: nos sedem Apostolicam, quos est caput omnium
Dei Ecclesiarum, judicare non audemus, nam ab ipsa omnes et vica-
rio suo judicamur , ipsa autem a nemine judicatur.

In his procedens, (that is in gems and silks,) says St. Bernard,
addressing his pontifical son and pupil, Eugene III., tectus auro,
vectus equoalbo, stipatusmilite, circumstrependibus septus ministris,
successisti non Petro, sed Constantino. Consulo toleranda pro tem-
pore, non affectanda pro debito. Ad ea te potius incito quorum te
scio debitorem. Etsi purpuratus, etsi deauratus incidens, non est
tamen quod horreas operam curamve pastoralem pastoris, non est
quod erubesces evangel ium. Gluamquam si volens evangelizes, inter
apostolos quidem etiam gloria est tibi. Evangelizare pascere est.
Fac opus evangelistDs et pastoris opus implesti. Dra cones, inquis,
me mones pascere et srcorpiones, non oves ; propter hoc, inquam ma-
gis aggredere eos ; sed verbo, non ferro. Cluid tu denuo usurpare
gladium tentes, quem semel jussus es ponere in vaginam ? Cluem
tamen qui tuum negat, non satis mihi videtur attendere verbum Do-
mini dicentis ; converte gladium tuum in vaginam. Tuus ergo et
ipse, iuo forsitan nutu ; et si non tua manu evaginandus. Alioquin si
nuUo modo ad te pertineret, et is dicentibus apostolis ; ecce gladii
duae hie ; non respondissit Dominus ; Satis est ; sed, nimis est. Uter-
que ergo Ecclesia; et spiriturtlis scilicet gladius, et materialis, sed is
quidem pro Ecclesia ; ille vero et ab Ecclesia exerendus est. Ille
sacerdotis ; is militis manu ; sed sane ad nutum, sacerdotis, &c. —
De Consideratione.

Here was this seraphic monk, and we must believe him to have

At»PENDlX TO SECTIOl^ ^II. S4&

feeen a good man, giving warrant for that nod at which kings and
barons drew their swords — the sword of the Church, and which was
Ttiot to be sheathed until rivers of blood had sodden the soil, both of
the East and the West. The horrors which history has connected with
the pontificate of Innocent being put out of view, one might be
amused with the ingenuity of his perversions of Scripture. The
severities put in force agoinst the French heretics having compelled
them to conceal their Bibles and their meetings, with the utmost care,
this pope enjoins the clergy of the infected districts to beware of such
ioorks of darkness. The study of holy Scripture is, indeed, he says,
in itself commendable ; but not the profanation of Sciiptui'e by its
coming into the hands of the common people ; — *' it was not for beasts
to touch the mount of God." Unde recte fuit olim in lege divina
istatutum ut bestia qune montem tetigerat, lapidetur ; ne videlicet
simplex et ifidoctus prcesumat ad sublimitatem Scripturae sacrce per-
tingere, vel eam aliis praedicare. It appears that certain of these
heretics (Albigenses) having got possession of the Scriptures in their
own tongue, and become familiar with apostolic Christianity, had
presumed to hold disputations with some of the Catholic clergy, and
had confounded these unlearned clerks. This was an evil not to be
endured. Non est tamen simplicibus sacerdotibus etiam a scholastr-
cis detrahendum, cum in eis sacerdotale ministeriura debeathonorari.
Propter quod Dominus in lege praecepit, DiiVnon detrahes, sacer-
dotes intelligens, qui propter excellentiam ordinis et officii dignitatem
deorum nomine nuncupantur. These and other evils having been
mentioned and reproved, Innocent lovingly entreats those to wliom
he writes to forsake all such f\lse ways, and concludes — Cluia nisi
correctionem noslram et admonitionem paternam receperitis humili*
ter et devote, nos, post oleum infundemus et vinum, severitatem
ecclesiasticum apponentes ; ut qui noluerint obedire spontanei,
disc\nt acquiescere vel inviti. — Tom. i. p. 434.

The epistle which follows the one just quoted, exhibits far more
moderation than our historical notion of this pontiff would le^d us to
expect; indeed, this comparative mildness, as we have already said,
pervades most of his letters. It is to the fundamental principle and
theory of the Papacy, rather than to the individual ferocity of popes,
that we are to attribute the sanguinary measures by which, from age
to age, it has been sustained. Very many of these epistles, which,
in fact, carried fire and sword into provinces, contain little but what
might be looked for in the pastoral advices of some mild and enlight-
ened Irish Catholic bishop of the present day. A reference to these
epistles, and to other writings of the same class, is to be made, not
because we may thence draw startling and characteristic specimens
of turgid comminations and thundering anathemas ; but rather on
account of the suavity, the calmness, and the paternnl dignity and
solicitude which they display. Read the melancholy story of Ray-
mond, Count of Toulouse, and then turn to the epistles of Innocent
III., and from a comparison of the one with the other, learn what is
that system which, while it breathes soft whispers of love, slips the
4o^s of cruelty to gorge on human flesh.

Nevertheless, when the occasion was urgent, Innocent so expressed

30

350 APPENDIX TO SECTION VII.

his meaning as to leave no room to doubt what were his intentions.
The reader may take a specimen of this sort; it occurs in the epistle
that was cai-ried by Rainerius and Guido to the bishop and nobles
of Languedoc. Inter quos (hcerelicos) in provincia vesira quosdarn,
qui Valdenses, Catari, et Paterini dicunlur, et alios quoslibet qui-
buscunque nominibus appellatos, in tantum jam accepimus pullu-
lasse, ut innumeros populos sui erroris laqueis inetieiint, et fermento
corruperint falsitatis. Cum igitur ad capiendas hujusmodi vulpes
parvulas, quoe demoliuntur vineam Domini i^'abaoth, species quidem
habenles divcrsas, sed caudas ad invicem colligatas, quia de vanifate
conveniunt in id ipsum, ut verga Moysi maleiicorium phantasmata
devoret, dilectum filium fratrem, Rainerium, virum probaiae viLse et
conversationis honestse, potenicmdivino muncre in opere et sermone,
ac cum eo dilectum filium fratrem Guidonem, virum Deum timen-
tem, et studentem operibus charilatis, ad partes ipsas duxerimus
destinandos ; fraternitati vestrsB per apostolica scripia mandamus,
et disiricte praecipimus quatenus eos benigno recipicntes et iractan-
tes afFect.u, taliter eis contra hsercticos assistatis, ut per ipsos ab er-
rore vise suae revocentur ad Dominuni; et si qui forie converti non
poterant, ne pars syncera trahatur, de vesiris finibus exciudantur ;
ut terra vestra hujusmodi ministris Sathanse penitus effugalis, ver-
bum praedicationis vestrae gratanler recipiat, et erit fructum terapo-
ribus suis .... Ad haec, nobilibus viris Principibus, Comitibus, et
universis Baronibus et Magnatibus in vestra provincia constitutis
praecipiendo mandamus, et in remissionem injungimus peccalorum,
ut ipsos benigne recipientes pariter et devote, eis contra haereticcs
tarn viriliter et potenrer assistant, ut ad vindictam malefactorum,
laudem vero bonorum, potestatem sibi traditam probentur laudabili-
ter, exercere, et si qui haereticorum ab errore suo commoniti nolue-
rint resipiscere, postquam per prsedictum fratrem Rainerium fuerint
excommunicationis senteniia innodati, eorum bona confiscent, et de
terra sua proscribant. Et si post inter dictum ejus in terra ipsorum
praesumpserint commorari, gravius animadvertant in eos, sicut decet
Principes Christianos, ut area foederis pia^cedente cum tubis, ac
Josue sequente cum populis, utrisque pariter conclamantibus, muri
coiTuant Jericho, fiatque perpetuum anathema ; ita quod si quis de
illo vel regulara auream furari prgesumserit, cum Achan filio Carmi
lapidibus obruatur. Dedimus autem dicto fratri R. liberam faculta-
teni ut eos ad id per excommunicationis scntentiam ct intcrdictum
terrae appcllatione remota compellat : nee volumus ipsos aegre ferre
aliquatenus vel moleste si eos ad id exequendum tarn distincte com-
pelli praecipimus, ciim ad nil amplius intendamus uti severitatis judi-
cio, quam ad exterpandos haereticos qui non iiobis substantiam "tem-
poralem sed spiritualem vitam surripere moliuntur. Nam qui fidem
adimit,vitam furatur. Justus enim'ex fide vivit. — Tom, i. p. 51.

This is the genuine logic of the Romish Church, and from Avhich
it can never depart without flagrant inconsistency. " The just shall
live by faith ;" to rob a people, then, of their faith, is to rob them of
life — life eternal ; and these plunderers and destroyers of souls, the
heretic?, ought, without mercy, to be extirpated. Nor the heretics
themselves only, but whoever favours, shelters, or pities them. Con-

APPENDIX TO SECTION VII. 351

tra defensores, receptatores, fautores, et credenteshaeveticorum, Inno-
cent promulgates his edict of excommunication, confiscation, banish-
ment, deprivation ; declaring all such hearers or receivers of heretics
to be incap:\ble of public offices, incompetent to bequeath their effects,
or to inherit, to give evidence in courts, or to sue others for their
right, or to defend themselves from wrong or violence. Pity shown
to such was treason against the Lord ; cum longe sit gravius aeternam
quam temporalem ladere majestatem. The modern apologists of
the Papacy, who pretend that these severities belonged to the times,
not to tlie system, should show that they are inconsistent with that
system, and that the doctrines advanced in the worst ages, in rela-
tion to the enemies of the Church, have not been professed uniformly
by the Church. The contrary is most certainly true j for there is
nothing in the Epistles of Innocent III., which may not be sustained
by the language of all eminent churchmen of the seven or eight pre-
ceding centuries.

The Decretals of Gregory IX. embody the principles of the Pa-
pacy, and the decisions of the most eminent of the pontiffs ; and they
present, in a compact form, as well the spirit as the usages of the
Romish Church, such as it was in its brightest era. The very words
of Augustine, and other distinguished fathers, of Leo I., Gregory I.,
Gregory VI f., and of the Urbans, Adri;\ns, and Innocents, are here
adopted and incorporated, so as to form a consistent mass of autho-
ritative rules, for the guidance of the Church Universal. It is to this
collection, much rather than to the writings of modern Romanists,
that we should look for the idea of the papal superstition. These
Decretals exhibit the Christianity of Europe, such as it was from the
time of the withdrawment of the Imperial court from Italy, until the
breaking out of the Lutheran Reformation ; and such as it is in all
ages and countries, and must be while its fundamental principles are:
adhered to. Romish Christianity has stooped to conquer in India,
it has stooped in China, it has stooped in France, and it stoops in
Ireland ; but Romish Christianity is itself unaltered and unalterable ;
nothing can be more idle than to talk of it as essentially amended.

A very few specimens from the massive volume of the Decretals
may be enough for the reader ; and we may take them promis-
cuously.

Towards Saracens and Jews, the Church often showed a degi-ee
of tenderness; and professed that their error was far less virulent
than that of Christian heretics. The Decretals of Gregory contain
many provisions in favour of the Jews, and in fact secure to them
what might be called — toleration. Heretics were to be dealt with in
a different manner. Excommunicamus itaque, et anathematizamus
omnem hceresim, extollentem se adversus banc sanctam., orthodoxam
etCatholicam fidem, quam superiusexposuimus; condemnantes hae-
reticos universos, quibuscunque nominibus censeantur ; facies qui-
dem diversas habentes, sed caudas ad invicem colligatas, quia de
vanitate conveniunt in id ipsum. This general anathema is, under
the same head (Titulus VII. de Hcereticis) drawn out and expounded,
and applied to various cases and occasions, so as best to secure the
purgation of infected districts. The maxima laid down at the com-

362 APPENDIX TO SECTION VTI,

mencement are such as these — Dubius in fide, infidelis est. Nee efs"
omnino credendum est qui fidera veritatis ignorant : and, Clui alios^
cum potest^ ab errore non revocat, seipsum errore demonstrat : and>.
Clui autem inventi fuerint sola suspicione notabiies, nisi juxta consi-
derationem suspieionis qualitalem personae, propriam innocentiam'
oongrua purgatione monstraverint^ anaihematis gladio ferianlur, et
usque ad satisfactionem condignam ab omnibus evitentur ; ita quod
si per annum in excommianicatione perstilerirrt, ex tunc ^elut hae-
retici condemnentur : it is moreover as a principlo affirmed that,
Z)ominus Papa principem secularem deponere potest, propter
Aaeresim.

1'his power of deposing kings may now be disclaimed , but the ar-
gument by which, in an epistle to the Fvench king. Innocent main-
tains it, involves no assumption whatever which the consistent Ro-
manist can disown. The infinite importance of religious interests,
and the universal pastoral authority of the pope, and the sacred obli-
gation he- is under to uphold and preserve the true faith, at whatever
cost or peril, leave him at no liberty to do otherwise than depose (if
he has the power to do so) an heretical prince. To refrain from ex-
erting this power would be to partake of the sin, and to share the
damnation of the heretic. If popes do not now depose heretical
princes, it is for th€ simple reason that heretical princes will not now
be so deposed.

These Decretals reject indignantly the allegation that popes are-
subject, in any sense, to the decrees of councils : — Cluasi Romanae-
Ecclesiae legem concilia uUa praefixerint : cum omnia concilia per Ro-
manae Ecclesiae auctoritatem et facta sint, et robur acceperint, et in
eorum statutis Romani Pontificis patenter excipiatur auctoritas: and
in the same style they exclude the interference of princes in church
affairs. Porro cum laicis nulla sit de spiritualibus coneedendi vel dis-
ponendi facultas; Imperialis concessio quantumcunque generaliter
fiat, neminem potest a solutione decimarum eximere, quae divina con-
stitutione debentur. After the annointing of bishops at their conse-
cration has been described, and the reasons and the scriptural autho-
rity of every part of the ceremony has been given, it i& added — Unde
in Veteri Testamento non solum ungebatur sacerdos, sed etiam rex

et propheta: sicut in libro Regum, Dominus prsecepit Heli^

Sed ubi Jesus Nazarenus (quem unxit Deus Spiritu Sancto, sicut in
Actibus Apostolorum legitur) unctus est oleo pietatis, prae consorti-
bus suis, qui secundum Apostolum est caput Ecclesije, qu» est cor-
pus ipsius, principis unctio a capite ad brachium est translata; ut
pnnceps extunc ungatur non in capite, sed in brachio, sive humero,
velinarmo: in quibus principatus congrue desigaatur, juxta illud
quod legitur: factus est principatus super humerum ejus, &c. Ad
quod etiam significandum Samuel fecit poni armum ante Saul, cui
dederat locum in capite ante eos, qui fuerunt invitati. In eapite vera
pontificis sacramentalis est delibutio conservata : quia personam ca-
pitis in pontificali officio repraesentat. Refert autem inter pontificis:
et principis unctionem: qui caput pontificis chrismate consecratur,
brachmm vero principis oleo deliniturr ut ostendatur quanta sit dif*
foremia auctoritatem pontificis et principis pot^statejou

APPENDIX TO SECTION VII, 353

The pontifical superiority herein, and in many other of these De-
cretals, claimed over secular princes, is not a prerogative stretched,
or a dignity usurped ; but a necessary consequence of the character-
istic principle of the Papacy, and it is involved in what we have
stated as the first element of its theory, namely, the infinite import-
ance of \Yhatever relates to religion; and by inference, the subordi-
nation of whatever is temporal and earthly. A very large portion
of this collection of decisions lays down the law concerning that con-
trol over persons, property, and civil privileges, vrhich the Church
assumed to exert, on the ground of her cognizance of morals. The
canon law, as here exhibited, touched, directly or remotely, almost
every interest and every transaction of common life; nothing was
actually exempted from sacerdotal interference ; the Church was not
merely the highest authority on earth, but ihe only authority, so far
as she chose to express and exert her will. Of the poAver assumed by
the pontiffs, as guardians of truth, the Decretals concerning heretics
afford evidence enough that it extended to the inmost movements of
the soul, and that it sustained itself by the right to inflict, at discre-
tion, the most extreme penalties, affecting the posterity of the guilty,
as well as themselves, and including the subversion of any govern-
ment that opposed itself to the papal will. Let it be remembered
that this absolute despotism of tlie Church, in the twelfth century,
was nothing more than the digested and fully expressed despotism,
the origin of which we must look for among the records of almost
the earliest times of the Church.

But it remains to adduce a few passages from that eminent and
eloquent champion of the Church, St. Bernard, whose personal in-
fluence, in his times, and whose spirited and impassioned writings,
contributed more tlian the influence or writings, perhaps, of any
other individual whatever to animate, invigorate, and recommend
the papal tyranny and the Romish superstition.

One passage we have already quoted : in quoting another which
m\y properly follow it, we owe to St. Bernard the justice to say that,
though included in his works, its genuineness is questioned by his
leirned editor. Cluamtam dignitatem contulit vobis (pastoribus)
Df'us, quanta est prrerogativa ordinis vesiri! Pra:!tulit vos Deus re-
gibus et imperatoribus ; proitulit ordinem vestrum omnibus ordini-
bus, immo (ut altius loquar) prretulit vos angelis et archangelis,
thronis ct dominationibvs. Sicut enirn non angelos, sed semen Abra-
hx apprehendit ad faciendam redemptionem : sic non angelis, sed
hominibus, solisque sacerd(>tibus, Dominici corporis et sanguinis
commisit consecrationem. Omnes enim, sicut ait Apostolus, &c.
Sed longe excellentius est oflicium vestrum, quod admirabile est, et
non solum in occulis vestris, sed etiam angelorum.

The following is from his undisputed epistles; and is part of a let-
ter of affected surprise and remonstrance, on learning that his pupil
had been elected pope: it is addressed, Ad totam Curiam Romanatrt,
quando elegerunt Abbatem S. Anastasii in P ipam Eugenium.

Cluid igitur rationis seu consilii habuerit, defuncto summo Portti-
fice, repente irruere in hominem rusticanum, latenti injicere manu$,
Ct excussa ^ raanibus securi et ascia vcl ligone, in palatium trihere,

30*

3i54 APPENDIX TO SECTION VII,

levare in cathedram, induere purpura et bysso, accingere gladia adi
faciendam vindictam in nationibus, increpationes in populis, ad alii-
gandos reges eorum in compedibus, et nobiles eorum in manicis fere-
is? Sic non erat inter vos sapiens et exercitatus, cui potius ista con-
venirent? Ridiculum profecto videtur, pannosum homuncionem as-
sumi ad prcesidendum Principibus, ad imperandum Episcopis, ad
Kegna et imperia disponenda» Ridiculum, an miraculum ? Plane
unum horum-. Non nego, non diffido posse fuisse hoc etiam opu»
Dei, qui facit mirabilla magna solus: prnesertim cum audiam usque-
queque ex ore multorum, quoniam a Domino factum est istud . . - . ►
Ita inquam, ita et de nostro Eugenio in beneplacito Domini potuit
contigisse.

In the epistle which follows, to his sp ritual son, and now his
*' Father and Lord," St. Bernard says he had waited,, expecting a
messenger who should have conveyed the authentic tidings of his
elevation, saying — "Joseph,, thy son, liveth,and is become lord of all
the land of Egypt." Congratulations and warnings are added, and
the pious wish ihat his son might fulfil the desires of the Church, in
the plucking up of spurious plants. Ad hoc enim constitutus es super
gentes et regna, ut evellas, et destruas, et sedifices, et plantes. On
what principle the pontifical authority was to be exercised he soon
finds occasion to declare ; Et ut planius quod loquimur fiat, peremp-
toriam dare senientiam ad depositionem Episcoporum, solius Roma-
ni pontificis noscitur esse, pro eo nimirum quod etsi alii multi vocati
sunt in partem solicitudinis, solus ipse plenitudinem habeat polesta-
tis. Solus proinde, si dicere audeam, in culpa est si culpa non feri-
tur, quae ferienda est : et eo impetu, quo fuerit ferienda. duo autera
impetu, non dico ferienda, sed fulminanda fuerit prcedicti Eboracen-
sis culpa, vestroe conscientire derelinquo. Ceierurn quod factum non
lest, vobis credimus rescrvatum, ut in eo experiatur Ecclesia Dei, cui
ipso auctore prreestis, fervorem zeli vestri, potentiam bracliii vestri,
et animi sapientiam : et timeat omnis populus sacerdotem Domini,
audiens sapientiam Dei esse in illo ad faciendum judicium.

In giving various advices to his pontifical son, St. Bernard reminds
him that there is "none on earth greater than himself," and that one
must gaout of the world to find any thing that does not, or that
ought not, to come under his control. Ego enim reor, quod sicut
illic Seraphim et Cherubim, et ceteri quique usque ad angelos et
archangelos, ordinantur sub uno eapite Deo ; ita hie quoque sub uno
summo pontifice primates vel patriarchs, archiepiscopi, episcopi,
presby teres,, vel abbates et reliqui in hune modum. And yet Avhat
was the actual character of the seat and centre of this heaven-de-
scended and spiritual, hierarchy ? Hear St. Bernard, writing to a
pope. Scfo ubi habitas; (is this an allusion to Rev. ii. 13?) incredull
et subversores sunt tecum. Lupi, non oves sunt: talium tamen tu
pastor ; and of the ecclesiastics of the papal court;, Sed nee tuta tibi
lua bonitas obsessa n^alis, non magis qnam sanitas, vicino serpente.
, r . . . Sed sive levent, sive gravent, cui rectius imputandum quani
tibi, qui tales aut elegisti, aut admissisti. Non de omnibus dico f
nam sunt quos non elegisti>, sed ipsi te.. To wit— the college of car-.
dinalst.

APPENDIX TO SECTION VII. 355

St Bernard is always labouring with the rast idea of the Romish
hierarcliy — a supernatural scheme, embracing all things, and stand-
ing as the means of immediate connexion between heaven and earth —
the ch<\in between time and eternity. To bring the reality up to the
ideal, was the fond object of his fervent endeavours. With this view
he aimed at several great purposes, namely ; — to re-animate the
Church generally, by a new infusion of elevated and impassioned
sentiments ; and his writings are indeed admirably adapted to effect
such a renovation : — to reform the pontifical character, and the papal
court; or, as we may say, to cleanse the Augean stable of Rome: —
to recover the Holy Land for Christendom, as a means at once of re-
moving the infidel power from the vicinity of the Church, and of em-
bracing the Greek Church within the arms of that of Rome : and —
to remove from the universal fold the scandal and contagion of here-
sy. In pursuit of this last object, St. Bernard's conviction that, un-
less secured, every other measure was useless, carried him to fright-
ful extremities. While following him on this ground, we lose all
trace of the Christian, and see only the fiery, we might add, the san-
guinary zealot. But his penetrating and politic spirit discerned clear-
ly that there was no alternative: like Ximenes, and many other il-
lustrious Romanists, he felt, in the clearest and most forcible man-
ner, the utter inconsistency of any sort of toleration with the first
principles of the papacy. To stand by inertly, while the souls of
men were catching the contagion of eternal death, or not to arrest
the infinite mischief by the most severe means, was the greatest ima-
ginable sin, on the part of those to whom the spiritual welfare of
mankind was entrusted. Twenty passages from St. Bernard might
soon be adduced in which this sentiment, under different modifica-
tions, is expressed; and it is an inseparable element of the papal
theory. The great Churchmen of the 12th century knew their
ground, and stood upon it boldly: our modern Romanists have sur-
rendered every thing, in disclaiming principles of intolerance.

In addressing Innocent II., concerning the opinions (heresy) of
Peter Ab»lard, St. Bernard thus writes: Verum tu, o successor Pe-
tri, judiciabis, an debeat habere refugium sedem Petri, qui Petri
fidem impugnat. Tu, inquam, amice Sponsi providebis, quomodo
liberes sponsam a labiis iniquis, et a lingua dolosa. Sed ut paulo
audacius loquar cum domino meo, attende etiam tibi ipsi, amantissi-

me Pater, et gratiae De qune in te est Suscitavit Deus furorem

schismaticorum in tuo tempore, ut tuo opere contererentur Et

in schismate quidem jam, ut dictum est, Dominus probavit te, et cog-
novit te. Sed ne quid desit coronae tuae, in haereses surrexerunt.
Itaque ad consumniationem virtutum, et ne quid minus fecisse inve-
niamini a magnis Episcopis antecessoribus vestris; capite nobis Pa-
ter amantissime, vulpes quae demoliuntur vineam Domini donee par-
vulffi sunt; ne, si crescant et multiplicentur, quicquid talium per vos
non fuerit exterminatum, a posteris desperetur. Cluamquam non
jam parvulae nee pauculae, sed certe grandiusculae et multae sint, nee
nisi in manu forti vel a vobis exterminabuntur.

Much of the same sort is scattered through his letters and sermons j
the general principle being this, that schismatics and heretics, aftex

356= APPENDIX TO SECTION VII.

»-esisting: argument and persuasion, were, by the aid of the secular
power, to be pursued to death, in whatever way might seem the
most sure and safe.

We may here quote, as it occurs, a paragraph from an Epistle oi
Innocent II. to St. Bernard, who quotes Marcianus: Licet laicus,
christianissinius tamen Imperator, catholicee fidei amore succensus,
prsedecessori nostro sanctissimo Papae Johanni scribens adversus eoa
qui sacra mysteria profanare contendunt, inter cetera sic loquitur,
dicens; Nemo clericus, vel militaris, vel alterius cujuslibet conditio-
nis, de fide Christiana publice tractare conetur in posterum. Nam
injuriam facit judicio reverendissimae synodi, si quis semel judicata
et recte disposita revolvere, et iterum disputare contendit: et in con-
temptores hujus legis, tanquam in sacrilegos, paena non deerit. Igi-
tur si clericus erit, qui publice tractare de religione ausus fuerit, con-
sortio clericorum removebitur.

AVho is not reminded of a passage in "his Majesty's Declaration,'*
prefixed to the Thirty-nine Articles? It is surely not now too soon
to blot from our national formularies expressions and sentiments pro-
per enough to popery, but a scandal to protestantism, and insulting
to the feelings and practices of the times. What is there that may
be called obsolete, if the arrogant language of spiritual despotism is
not so? Obstinately to adhere to what is obsolete, is ourselves to
become obsolete; and nothing else can follow but that we should be
left in the rear, and forgotten.

Page 260. — "A full exhibition of the superstitions of the primitive
ages."

Vv^hile sending this Appendix to press, the author has receircd a
copy of the learned and very important v/ork of Mr. William Os-
burn, jun., on the "Doctrinal Errors of the Apostolical and Early
Fathers" — a Avork than which none could be much more seasonable,
or possess a stronger claim to the attention of the clergy of the Estab-
lished Church. The author does not take upon him to recommend
a book which may well be left to recommend itself; but he avails
himself of the opportunity thus to mention it to any of his readers
under whose eye it might not otherwise f\\ll. Mr. Osburn and the
auihor have been travelling over the same ground, and each alike
has carried with him, not the solicitudes or the prepossessions of a
theologian, but the free notions of a Christian layman; — they have
moreover reached, on several points, the same general conclusions,
and have even h;ippened to express their opinions, more than once
or twice, in a phraseology remarkably coincident. Mr. Osburn and
the author are alike deeply impressed Avith the melancholy fact of
the early and extensive corruption of Christianity ; both feel the ab-
surdity of talking of the purity and spirituality of the pristine
Church, and the utter error of dating that corruption from the time
of Constantine. Again, both would strongly urge the importance,
at the present moment, of learned and ingenuous inquiries concern-
ing those false notions and superstitions which, having had their
birth in the second century, or sooner, were permitted to live in our
reformed Churches; but which now encumber oar practical Chris*

APPENDIX TO SECTION VII. 357

tianity, confuse our theology, and generate interminable disagree-
ments among the clergy. Finally, Mr. Osburn and the author agree
in fervently desiring the welfare and perpetuity of the Episcopal and
Established Church.

The author finds however that he would have to except against,
or to qualify, some of Mr. Osbum's representations — not indeed a»
altogether unfounded, or substantially erroneous; but as being
either too strongly expressed, or as excluding certain considerations
essential to an impartial apprehension of the subject. It is the ele-
venth chapter only that the author has yet read (on Ecclesiastical
Polity and Persons) and he must profess to think that, in this chap-
ter the clerical authority, as asserted by the apostles, is set at too low
a mark, or is coo vjiguely stated; while the clerical assumptions of
the Apostolical Fathers — Clement and Ignatius especially, are re-
prehended with too little regard to the circumstances of the times.

The passages cited by Mr. Osburn (or most of thevn) have again
and again been adduced in modern controversy, and are perhaps a»
familiar to general readers as any portion of ancient Christian litera-
ture. But what probability has there been that in a controversy
such as the one which has rent the church on the subject of clerical
power, a perfectly fair use should have been made of them? appealed
to on the one side, and the other with a fixed purpose, and with ex-
asperated feelings, the evidence has meant any thing and every thing,
Mr. Osburn has set this evidence free from certain misrep-esenta-
tions, but (as the author thinks,) has not well secured it against per-
versions of another sort.

The author (of Spiritual Despotism) has not made the use which
might have been expected of the epistles of the ApostoUcal Fathers,
in exhibiting the rise of church tyranny ; and the sight of Mr. Os-
burn's book leads him to explain, briefly, the reasons of his not hav-
ing adduced them distinctly, in the fifth Section. In the first place
then he must acknowledge a degree of diffidence in relation to the
text of certain parts of these venerable remains; — a diffidence per-
haps unjustifiable ; but yet such as would make him hesitate in
throwing the stress of an argument upon particular phrases. This
is not the place for critical discussions, and the author simply avows
tlie shade of doubt that rests upon his mind; and he will take occa-
sion to express a wish that some modern scholar, competent to the
task, would employ his leisure in so collating analagous passages
(and there are many) in the Epistles of the Apostolical Fathers, and
in the Apostolic Constitutions, as should serve to render the one as
well as the other available, in a satisfactory way, on questions of
Christian antiquity.

But this suspicion, concerning the text of these Fathers, has not
been the author's principle reason for not adducing their epistles in
illustration of the rise of spiritual despotism. The passages ci'ed by
Mr. Osburn are indeed (like almost every thing else in early church
literature) liable to serious exceptions; but, in the first place, just-
tice demands (justice to these martyr bishops) that we should not
read them in the light of the church history of later times. The au-
thor is bold to say, that the apparent oflfensiveness of the passages in
question results, in a gj-eat degree, from a tacit and involuntary o»-

358 APPENDIX TO SECTION VII.

sociation of ideas, connecting these same unguarded and too lofty
assertions of spiritual authority, with the preposterous sacerdotal
arrogance of the bishops of tiie third and fourth centuries, and of the
pontiffs of the tenth and twelfth. Entirely disjoined from this men-
tal assimilation, the language of Ignatius is at once lowered several
degrees in its import, and is fairly hable only to a moderate repre-
hension. Throughout our researches on the field of Christian an-
tiquily, this same difficulty of setting off from the opinions and senti-
ments of the men of each age, the ill comment or the abuse which
the history of the following times has, in our minds connected there-
with, besets us. The author must frankly confess that it has been
more than he has been able always, or often to effect, to read the
Fathers with the feeling, and in the light of a contemporary, and as
if he knew nothing of the history of the age next following that of
each writer.

Furthermore, the author can by no means go so far as some have
done, or so far as Mr. Osburn goes, in attributing the reprehensible
language of the Apostolic Fathers to sacerdotal ambition. That
this feeling entered into their minds we must not deny ; but yet
should fully consider the circumstances of the times before judg-
ment is given against them. In what position then did these pas-
tors stand? They had received their appointment from the very
hands of the apostles, or the companions of the apostles. There
was no room for them to be diffident of their own personal author-
ity. To maintain this authority, and to exert it (in the spirit, and
with the humility of their predecessors) was not merely lawful, but
was their solemn duty. At the same time, in many of the Grecian
cities, where republican sentiments were rife, the disposition to resist
constituted authorities was vehement. The Churches moreover,
were set upon by itinerant fanatics of every stamp, Jewish zealots,
Platonic dreamers, Gnostics, and philosophists, eastern and western,
and the people were but too prone to give ear to these pestilent dis-
turbers, and to turn away from those who insisted upon the plain
and practical principles of the Gospel. The times predicted by St.
Paul had actually come, when men would no longer endure sound
doctrine ; but would court those who would tickle their ears with mis-
chievous novelties. How should these disorders be composed, or how
this tide be rolled back ? The apostolic pastors must have felt that
every thing was in jeopardy, and the Gospel itself so far as human
means were involved, not unlikely to be overpowered and lost.

In this extremity, for such it must have seemed to them, these pas-
tors, no longer furnished, or not ordinarily so, with the weapons of
miraculous power, leaned upon authority, rather than upon the
direct reasons and motives with which the apostolic writings would
have supplied them. It was not strange that they did so; they
could not foresee that they were by this means laying the first stones
of the papal pandemonium. The terms in which they affirmed their
own powers, and urged the people to implicit submission, though
not to be altogether defended, may fairly be exempt from severe
blame. Our Lord in addressing his ministers says — " Verily I say
unto you whosoever receiveth you, receiveth me ; and he that rc»

APPENDIX TO SECTION VII. 369

ceiveth me, receiveth him that sent mc " — and the converse. St.
Paul had declared that the Church was " built on the foundation of
the apusiles and prophets," &c. — a foundation that was to have a
superstructure. Now these apostolic pastors rested on the founda-
tion as the very next layer of the building ; and they were the men
next to those to whom the highest powers had been assigned by the
highest authority : they were sent by those whom the Lord had sent,
they were those upon whom hands had been laid, in obedience to
Su Paul's instructions — " What thou hast received commit to faith-
ful men, who shall be able to teach others also." In what light then
must they have regarded ihcir own position, and their cause, as op-
posed to the pretensions and the seditious endeavours of the fa'se
teachers? It is easy to see that they must have felt themselves
fully justified in the endeavour to bring back the people to obedience
to rigluful authority. Every thing was at stake — themselves van-
quished by the virulent agitators, and what was likely but that the
truth of God should have f^illen with them?

St. Paul, indeed, rejoiced in the preaching of Christ, even by the
contentious ; but St. P.utl enjoyed the serenity and the assurance
proper to an inspired and a miraculously endowed person. Ignatius
on his way to martyrdom, had no such tranquillity ; and he felt that
he was leaving the field open to wolves and foxes. He Avas racked
by a genuine anxiety for the fate of the Churches. Say, that his no-
tions of sacerdotal power were exaggerated, and say, too, that the
language he employed was of a kind which his less worthy and
more ambitious successors would be sure to abuse. Let all this be
granted, and yet we dare not hale the martyr to the tribunal of mo-
dern notions, as the guilty originator of spiritual despotism.

The author well knows he might have made a great show in the
section on the First Steps of Spiritual Despotism, with the epistles
of Ignatius and Polycarp ; but he has refrained from doing so ; and
must leave it to his intelligent and competent readers to decide whe-
ther he has herein betrayed and impoverished his argument, or only
shown a deserved indulgence to the companions of the apostles, and
the martyr-bishops of the first age.

The author may take this opportunity to state why he has not ad-
duced a specimen of the many striking instances of sacerdotal arro-
gance that might be gathered from the apocryphal writings of the
third and fourth centuries. The Apostolic Constitutions he has,
indeed, referred to reservedly ; but has not brought forward the
Canons of the Apostles, the Recognitions of Clement, or the Clemen-
tine Homilies. It is not that these compositions do not contain an
abundance of available evidence ; but to make use of it safely is an
affair of no small difficulty. Critical and historical inquiries of the
most intricate sort, ought to precede any such appeal to them ; and
the author is fir from professing himself master of this branch of
learning. Moreover he is of opinion that these suspicious works
may be appealed to with more certainty in relation to the theological
opinions and superstitious notions and practices of the times when
they were composed, than in reference to questions of church polity,
and the pi-erogatives of the clergy ; inasmuch as these were the

360 APPENDIX TO SECTION Vlt,

very points most likely to have been distinctly kept in view by the
writers, as the main, though unavowed, objects of their spurious
labours. In following, theretore, the progress of superstition, these
apocryphal remains may lend an aid, which we do not seek for from
them in stating the rise of spiritual despotism. The author,
moreover, begs the reader to remember that not a few facts which
ought to have found a place in tlie present volume, had it stood alone,
are well omitted in a work which is one of a series. Spiritual Des-
potism and Superstition are, indeed, intimately connected, and it
may be doi-ibted which of the two should be regarded as the leading
theme. Perhaps the claims of the two are evenly balanced i but both
have an immediate and highly important bearing upon the religious
movements of our own times: — the first (chiefly) because a mis-
placed jealousy of clerical power is tending to the further depression
of an influence which needs rather to be restored : — and the second
(chiefly) because our modern Christianity is, in more modes than
one, and among all parties, affected by those perversions and cor-
ruptions which we are compelled to assign to the first century. It
may boldly be afiirmed that popery will not be refuted, nor the Re-
formation consummated, until the superstitions of the martyr Church
are thoroughly explored, and popularly understood. Every writer
overrates the importance of the particular theme he undertakes.
This natural and common prejudice allowed for, the author will yet
assert the high practical significance of the line of inquiry in which
he is now engaged, and especially in reference to the present posi-
tion of the Established Chuick Happy will he be to find that, on
the path he pursues — a path not strewed with roses, he has compa-
nions and competitors. The work now to be done needs every ad-
vantage of co-operation, and of generous rivalry ; yes, and of Chris-
tian and mannerly opposition. The author must deem every man a
brother who loves Christianity, and who labours to promote it. In-
terests vastly surmounting all personal considerations are now at
stake ; and whoever presumes to put a hand to the great movements
of the day, should come forward thoroughly prepared to count all
things as dross which have reference simply to himself. To be
known, or to be unknown, on the theatre of literary emulation, of
what importance is it ? To have been inconsiderately lauded, or to
have been illiberally contemned, by this journal, or by that, of what
significance ? Assuredly the motives which would lay a man open,
very sensitively, to influences of this sort, are of a kind that must
fail to bear him through the oppressive labours of remote historical
research. Well would it be if both writers and critics could more.
constantly bear in mind the plain but momentous considerations of
the brevity and precariousnf ss of the season through which, indivi-
dually, our opportunity of doing any good extends, the account to be
rendered of our personal agency, and the infinite consequences, to
our fellows, that attach often to the part we take in religious revolu-
tions. If the author, in his first section, has appealed from the tribu-
nal of our periodic literature, to the better judgment of the public, he
has done so under tlie serious and strong impression that, from the
peculiar circumstances attending this species of writing, it hardly

APPENDIX TO SECTION VIII. 361

ever, if at all, comes under the control of those high motives, apart
from which great religious controversies should never be touched.

To revert for a moment to the point from which he set out, the au-
thor must further anticipate the exceptions of those who may think
that certain flaming affirmations of the dignity of the Christian
Priesthood, made by the florid orators of the fourth century, should
have filled a prominent plate in the present volume : for instance,
the enormities of spiritual inflation that abound in Chrysostom's
Treatise on the Priesthood. Earth trembles under this churchman's
magniloquence ; but the real value of it, in relation to our immediate
subject, entirely turns upon the decision of a preliminary question,
namely, that concerning the sacraments, or " mysteries of the
Church." If Chrysostom's doctrine, on these points, be justifiable
and sound, the pretensions he advances, and the prerogatives and
dignities he challenges, are justifiable also. If popery be Christianity,
Chrysostom spoke only the words of truth and soberness when he
sought to rear the priest to the third heavens. The treatise we have
mentioned is Hable to the charge of promoting spiritual despotism
only when the doctrine it assumes has been disproved. The same
must be said of a hundred pages of the ecclesiastical rhetoric of the
fourth and fifth centuries.

APPENDIX TO SECTION YIII.

Page 263. — " Sed et ut multa alia ille (Lutherus) reliquit, ita
etiam hoc negotium posteris tradidit, ut quos reddiderat fontes, his
uti melius discerent, ipsamque doctrinum, ex illis fontibus haustam,
ab omnibus humanorum opinionum commentis magis magisque libe-
rarent. Gtuod non ab ipso Luthero confectum esse nemo mirabitur;
quanquam in illo tale ingenium fuit, ut, nisi aliorum laborum gravis-
simorum multitudo virum ab eo otio, quod antiquarumliterarum stu-
dium quum maxime exposcit, avocasset ; vera librorum N. T. inter-
pretatione superior omnibus sequalibus futurus fuisse videatur : sed
post tria fere secula, post tantosque virorum summorum labores,
nondum certis legibus compositum esse artem interpretandi N. T. id
tam mirum videri debet omnibus, ut, nisi illius artis difficultates, et
vitiorum, quibus ea etiamnum laborat, causas norint, vix credituri
sint." Titmann,

What is true of the system of interpretation, and the theology of
Luther and his illustrious companions, is true of his ecclesiastical
notions, and of theirs. Every thing we inherit from these great men
demands to be reconsidered.

Page 275. — " A church-and-state system." Even if his proper
subject, and his space, might admit it, the author would be reluctant

31

362 APPENDIX TO SECTION VIII.

to advance any thing upon the abstract question of a church-and-
state polity ; and especially for this reason, that speculative argu-
ments of this sort tend to distract the public mind from those more
important and urgent questions that relate to the renovation and im-
provement of our ACTUAL ESTABLISHMENT. We are not about (it
may be hoped) to melt down the entire mass of our institutions, and
to cast them anew ; but to correct and nmend, to purify and to in-
vigorate, -what we possess. Theories which assume nothing as ex-
isting in fact, are properly entertained, either in neAv countries, where
the rude elements of society have to be combined ; or in old coun-
tries, where every thing that exists is too desperately corrupt to ad-
mit of amendment. England, we presume, is as remote from the one
of these conditions, as it is from the other.

Page 278. — ^Every man of sense and right feeling, who cares for
the Established Church, and desires its welfare, must be penetrated
with sorrow and humiliation in hearing the insufferable language and
doctrines of the times of Charles II. repeated, up to the present hour,
by certain of the clergy. It is more than can well be expected from
human nature that the Dissenters should listen to this outrageous
bigotry in magnanimous silence. On the contrary, it exasperates,
not merely the intemperate and factious, but the moderate and re-
spectable. Does the Church then think herself so strong that she
may, in safety, insult and revile some millions of the people ; and not
the least intelligent or powerful portion of them ? This is an illusion
not unlikely to be dissipated. But where is the Christian temper of
a Church that deals in, or that authenticates calumnies and curses ?
or where is episcopal authority, that dees not visit the offenders with
grave and public rebukes? Clergymen may know what will suit the
taste and temper of their order; but they do not always know (or
appear to know) the taste, temper, and tacit sentiments of the laity.
At the present moment it is not a few of the laity of England whose
good-will and active friendship it would be wise to conciliate: — not
a few there are, well informed, even in matters of religion, temperate
in opinfon, well inclined to sustain our Ecclesiastical Constitutions ;
some of them, perhaps, possessed of influence over the public mind,
and ready to employ this influence, whether more or less extensive,
for the support of the Church: but it is expected from them that, in
doing so, they should join hands with Sacheverels, or with some who
had better have lived in the twelfth century than have disgraced the
nineteenth ? There is a singular want of tact and discretion on the
part of those who, by giving countenance to zealots, fix a deep dis-
gust in the minds of the intelligent laity. It is not a day too soon for
the Established Church to put away from herself a mode of behaviour
which she cannot maintain, and hold at the same time the hearts and
reverence of the better portion of the English people.

363

APPENDIX TO SECTION IX.

Page 292. — The author belieres he shall not go beyond the limits
of his actual knowledge of the state of opinion among the dissenting
clergy, in affirming that, in reference to questions of ecclesiastical
polity, the body is by no means accordant; for while the majority
(perhaps) is actively and warmly attached to extreme principles,
and is thoroughly democratic and congregational (democratic in ec-
clesiastical affairs) there is a considerable and a highly respectable
party among whom the suspicion has been long growing that their
polity is unsound in principle, and inexpedient in fact. This would
be the very moment for these intelligent men ingenuously to avow
their discontents. Dissent would not be weakened but strengthened
by their doing so : — or what is far better, a path would be cleared of
conference and conciliation, which might open at length upon a f\ir
field of Christian peace. May Reaven in its infinite goodness so
lead forw^ard the minds of the wise and sincere among us, as shall
issue in thwarting the designs of the factions, in healing every divi-
sion among those who love the same Lord, and in securing the per-
manent religious prosperity of the empire I

THE END.

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