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danger as from the clergy."* Christianity neither needs nor accepts the puny arts of man to advance her cause or support her interests; yet various methods have been devised by ecclesiastics, in every age of the church, to obviate the offence of the cross, and render themselves respectable in the eyes of the world. The apostles had no such ambition; they were men of another spirit. Recollecting what their divine Master had said, and the example which he had set them for their imitation, their highest ambition was to tread in his steps; they were content to be esteemed the filth of the world and the offscouring of all things. Let us hear one of them speaking in the name of the whole apostolic college: "I think that God hath set forth us, the apostles, last, as it were appointed to death; for we are made a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ: we are weak, but ye are strong: ye are honourable, but we are despised; even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place, and labour, working with our own hands; being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being defamed, we entreat," 1 Cor. iv. 9-15; and this striking appeal is made to a church which was "full, and rich, and reigning as kings," in their own estimation, though this same apostle had begotten them by the Gospel! In a solemn warning, which he found it expedient to give to the elders of the church at Ephesus, we find him saying, "I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel; yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities and to them that were with me. I have showed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” Acts xx. 33-35. I quote these passages from the apostolic writings, because they serve as a criterion whereby to regulate our judgments of the spirit of primitive Christianity compared with all its counterfeits-to discriminate between the disinterested servant of Christ and those who avail themselves of the ministerial office to subserve their own secular interests. Alas! since the decease of the apostles, what a revolution has taken place among

Nunquam periclitatur Religio nisi inter Reverendissimos.

DISSENTING MINISTERS CAN APE THE CLERGY. 361

the professed ministers of the Gospel in this respect! It might do good to some of us to look around us in the present day and ask, where shall we find the men who are making conscience of imitating the apostle's example, in working with their hands in order to supply their own and their family's necessities, and to have wherewith to give to him that needeth. In these observations I have not so much in view the clergy of the national establishment as I have those of our strictest dissenters-men who take credit to themselves for separating from a worldly establishment for conscience' sake, and yet are rendering their ministerial functions a source of temporal grandeur. Numbers of the clerical character, in our national establishment, have indeed deliberately subscribed what they did not believe, solemnly professed their consent to what they could not approve, and frequently practised, as part of their public devotions, what they were constrained to wish had never existed. Nay, as if the ministers of that establishment possessed a righteous monopoly of publishing evangelical truth, and of administering divine ordinances, numbers of them have sworn to persecute their Protestant dissenting neighbours for daring to hold separate assemblies. It is not, therefore, with persons of this class that I have to do at present-I rather turn my attention to those who possess a sounder creed, and take credit to themselves for the virtue of protesting against all departures from apostolic purity: let us examine for a moment how far their conduct justifies their profession.

That they may not be thought, like the fishermen of Galilee, "unlearned and ignorant men," we find them eager after literary titles, and affecting to be called Rabbi, or reverend. To adorn the ministerial office, and to confer a sanction on their administrations, they must, like Jewish priests, appear in canonicals! To prevent the pride of their hearers being disgusted, certain humiliating truths are kept out of sight; and, that the consciences of others may not be pained, softening interpretations of divine precepts have been given. To stand free from all suspicion of bigotry, the importance of capital truths is surrendered; and, to keep fair with something that is termed charity, it has been agreed that human inventions should hold the place of divine institututions.* This, for the most part, is the state of matters among

* Booth's Essay on the Kingdom of Christ.

our modern dissenters of the present day-but surely it becomes us to bring these things to "the law and the testimony," and enquire how far they are found to agree with or to differ from that divine standard.

I took occasion, in a late Lecture, to observe, that the only rule which is given us from heaven to regulate our conduct in the affairs of religion, since the ascension of Christ, is to be found in the New Testament, which contains all that we are required either to believe or practise. It exhibits a complete rule of faith and duty. The character of Christ, as Lord and Head of his church, is clearly set forth, as are also the laws of his Kingdom, and the duties which he requires of his subjects, with the motives by which they are enforced. But these things are not delivered so much in the way of abstract doctrine, as they are in the example of the churches instituted by the apostles in his name, by his authority, and under his inspiration. The things which the first Christians statedly attended to, in their public assemblies, are recorded for the guidance and direction of others to the end of time. But what I would in an especial manner urge upon your consideration, in this place, is, that Christ, who purchased the church with his own blood, claims the honour of being sole legislator in his kingdom, and consequently demands from all his subjects that in all the affairs of religious worship they should hear and obey HIM, and him alone, without any regard to the doctrines and commandments of men. "My sheep hear my voice," said he, “and I know them, and they follow me, and a stranger will they not follow; for they know not the voice of strangers," John x.

The real disciples of Christ, or the true subjects of his kingdom, hear his voice in his institutions, as these relate to the matter and manner of his worship. You know that, to manifest the intimate, endearing, and indissoluble union which subsists between him and the members of his mystical body, he appropriates to himself the endearing title of a "husband,” Isa. liv. with Eph. v. 23, &c. ; 2 Cor. xi. 1-3. Having betrothed his church, and taken it to himself in the marriage relation, he claims the chaste and choicest affections of his bride, and this is expressed in the keeping of his commandments and observing his institutions and worship, according to his own appointment.

CHRISTIANITY INIMICAL TO WILL-WORSHIP.

363

The breach of this is termed "adultery-fornication-whoredom." Thus, in the Apocalypse, the Antichristian apostacy, or declension into false worship, is called "fornication,” and the church that leads others into it is termed "the mother of harlots." Now the inference which I deduce from these passing hints is, that there must be something more in this matter than professors in general are disposed to allow, and I shall therefore make no apology for dwelling a little upon it at this time.

The allegiance which the disciples of Christ owe to him as their Lord, Redeemer, and King, requires that they receive nothing, practise nothing, own nothing, in his worship, but what he has appointed, or comes sanctioned by his authority. From the foundation of the world, and under every dispensation of religion, the Most High never did, nor ever will allow that the will of the creature should be the measure of his honour, or the principle of his worship either as to matter or manner. True Christians know what account is made by the blessed God of all WILL WORSHIP. They cannot forget that he hath expostulated, "Who hath required these things at your hands?" The best reception that it meets with is, "In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the traditions of men." It is an acknowledged principle, in all national establishments of religion, that "the church hath authority to institute and appoint rites and ceremonies belonging to the worship of God." For my own part, I am fully persuaded that this principle lies at the bottom of all the horrible superstition and idolatry, the confusion, bloodshed, persecution, and religious wars that have for so long a period spread themselves over the face of Christendom. What, in fact, is the main design of the book of the Apocalypse, but to make a discovery of this truth? Statesmen and politicians are confounded in their speculations respecting the confusion that every where prevails at this day throughout the kingdoms of modern Europe, and are greatly perplexed to account for it. But the Christian has only to open his Bible, and there he finds the problem unravelled. It is the Lord's controversy with them for the wrongs of his church. Notwithstanding the clear revelation which he hath given of the nature of his kingdom, as contrasted with all secular kingdoms and political bodies, the wills and fancies of men have been employed in imposing upon the

world human inventions, under the pretext of order, decency, and the authority of the church, in the ways and worship of God. What is meant by "the authority of the church," it is not easy to comprehend: it seems to be a chimera that baffles all expla nation; for no one can define it, no one knows what it is, wherein it consists, nor in whom it resides. And as to the pre

text of conferring glory, beauty, comeliness, and conformity on the worship of Christ's house, which is the great thing pleaded for by the patrons of national establishments, you may find in what estimation these things are held by the Lord of glory, if you consult Ezek. xvi. 25, &c. But look at the state of religion in all those communities which are formed after this new model and have received the improving hand of man. Observe how the Spirit of God in prayer is derided, the powerful preaching of the Gospel despised, the sabbath decried, and holiness stigmatized and persecuted!—and to what end? Why, that the Lord Jesus Christ might be deposed from the sole privilege of legislat ing for his church-that the true husband of the church might be put aside, and the adulterers of his spouse embraced—that a ceremonious, pompous, outward show of worship, drawn from Pagan, Jewish, and Antichristian observances, might be introduced, of all of which there is not one word, tittle, or iota in the New Testament. No man or body of men has a particle of authority to legislate for Christ in his kingdom: nor should his servants practise any thing in his worship, either public or private, for which they have not his warrant, either in express precept or in approved example; for unless it come in his name, with "thus saith the Lord Jesus," they are bound to reject it, though it claim the authority of an angel from heaven. Even the apostles themselves had no authority to make laws or enact observances in the Christian church: all that they could do was to teach believers of the Gospel to observe what Christ had commanded them and that alone, Matt. xxviii. 20.

The observations now made will not be without their use, I trust, in enabling you to appreciate the revolution which took place in the state of the Christian profession, at the time Constantine the Great ascended the imperial throne, and established Christianity by law as the religion of the Roman empire. In several of these Lectures I have had occasion to speak of inno

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