On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
himself to be constituted head of the church . If Christianity cannot flourish without a hierarchy it is no doubt necessary both to civil and religious libert y , that it be allowed to exercise
bo authority independently of tlie will of the State-, still the association is not without danger . To what cause was it owing , that , before the reformation all Christendom was trodden
under foot by ecclesiastics ? And how did they contrive to raise themselves above the civil jurisdiction , till they were able to set prince § nd people at defiance ? The priest was first placed on the same bench with the
temporal judge : thence he soon found means to step over the head of his lay-colleague , and the magistrate , who planted him at his side , had his own folly to blame for the consequence . Thus the fable of the hoVse and his
rider was naturally enough exemplified in his experience ; he meant to be the ruler , but his more dextrous coadjutor made him the slave . One step more will take us to the grand source of the usurpation , intolerance
and corruption , that darken the retrospect of the Christian church . The opinion to which I alldde is well expressed in the following extract from a Consecration Sermon , preached by Dr . Graves , in St . Patrick ' s Cathedral , Dublin , July , 1806 . " To sup-Ci
pose , " says he , that when the apostles were removed from their ministry , all authority to govern and direct the church of Christ was to expire
along with them , and that the regulation of that society so extended , so important , so sacred , was to be abandoned to the caprice of individuals , the unruliness of multitudes , the mere
casual exertions of transitory feelings , and undirected efforts , is as contrary to the dictates of reason , the analogy of nature , and the general economy of Provi < jfenee , as to the direct declarations of sci 4 pture , and the clearest records of ecclesiastical history . ' If
the Church has governors , whfo derive their authority either by succession or ordiiiation from the apostles , two things are necessary , fif « # , that the authority shall have been well
defined by the apostles themselves , for the apostolic authority could not survive the ofllCte and theifaen : 2 dly , That the governors of theclitnrcb poa * * e * s together With the authority the Means to make it respectedtmd obeyed .
Untitled Article
As to the first , it would be difficult to produce the passages , or passage , in the New Testament , in which the authority of the rulers of the Churcfi , whether bishops , or councils , jorpretbyteries , is defined either expressly or by implication . Let the
instructions and credentials be fairly made out and established , and the authority shall be acknowledged $ till then it is right to question it . Suppose it , however , established ; what means hsrVe the successors to the episcopal authority of the apostles ( for more than that is not pretended out of the Church of
Rome ) to make their government efficient ? Inspiration has ceased \ miracles are no more , and though personal qualities may be respected , yet , for enforcing obedience in large communities * the homage which is paid to them can never supply the place of that submission which is at xmce
enforced by power and won by rank and splendour . Divested of powers , authority is but a name ; it must have them either absolute or dependent . The Catholic Church had them at first in dependence on the magistrate ; but it soon found means to
convert them into a freehold ; and that , into an impious tyranny . To restore the dependence was the labour of the reformation ; and m Protestant countries this was at Tfettgfti happily effected . If church -authority 1
must exist , the safety of the worldrequires that it be ingrafted upon a civil stock , which may mitigate its sourness , and impart to it the ttarvour of humanity . The compound of the churchman and the man of the world
is less dangerous , both to the civil and religibus interests of mankind , than the mere ecclesiastic $ for tfie participation of sectWar tfistlttcfcioAs , and civil powers may introduce principles of liberality intochnrcli ^ oTetinment , which are not indigenous in
any hierarchy ; hence , less spiritual oppression is to be apprehended ^ iVcAn an Episcopal or lPresbyterian clftircli , incorporated with tile State , than from either of them , invested * wWh independent pdwers . The Radical
mistake in all these matters fcpfceaf s to be , the assumption of a chtirchauthority , tirhith is divine , of a legitimate Christian hierarchy , Whjfcfr Is founded upon the Christian cbde . —• Grant that such a rigtit of rrile exists , and it camiot be detiied , that tffer *
Untitled Article
10 fir , Sforell on Church-Authority .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1816, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2448/page/10/
-