SERMON III.

A DISTINCTION OF ORDERS IN THE CHURCH DEFENDED
UPON PRINCIPLES OF PUBLIC UTILITY,

IN A SERMON, PREACHED IN THE CASTLE-CHAPEL, DUBLIN, AT THE CONSECRATION OF JOHN LAW, D. D. LORD BISHOP OF CLONFERT AND KILMACDUAGH, SEPTEMBER 21, 1782

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.-Ephesians iv. 11, 12.

IN our reasoning and discourses upon the rules and nature of the Christian dispensation, there is no distinction which ought to be preserved with greater care, than that which exists between the institution, as it addresses the conscience and regulates the duty of particular Christians, and as it regards the discipline and government of the Christian church. It was our Saviour's design, and the first object of his ministry, to afford to a lost and ignorant world, such discoveries of their Creator's will, of their own interest, and future destination; such assured principles of faith, and rules of practice; such new motives, terms, and means of obedience; as might enable all, and engage many, to enter upon a course of life, which, by rendering the person who pursued it acceptable to God, would conduct him to happiness, in another stage of his existence.

It was a second intention of the Founder of Christianity, but subservient to the former, to associate those who consented to take upon them the profession of his faith and service, into a separate community, for the purpose of united worship and mutual edification, for the better transmission and manifestation of the faith that was delivered to them, but principally to promote the exercise of that fraternal disposition which their new relation to each other, which the visible participation of the same name and hope and calling, was calculated to excite.

cerned to establish consists in this, that whilst the
precepts of Christian morality and the fundamen-
tal articles of the faith, are for the most part, pre-
cise and absolute, are of perpetual, universal, and
unalterable obligation; the laws which respect the
discipline, instruction, and government of the
community, are delivered in terms so general and
indefinite as to admit of an application adapted to
the mutable condition and varying exigencies of
the Christian church. "As my father hath sent
me, so send I you." "Let every thing be done
decently and in order." "Lay hands suddenly on
no man."
." "Let him that ruleth do it with dili-
gence." The things which thou hast heard of
me, the same commit thou to faithful men, who
shall be able to teach others also." "For this
cause left I thee, that thou shouldest set in order
the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in
every city."

These are all general directions, supposing, indeed, the existence of a regular ministry in the church, but describing no specific order of preeminence or distribution of office and authority. If any other instances can be adduced more circumstantial than these, they will be found, like the appointment of the seven deacons, the collections for the saints, the laying by in store upon the first day of the week, to be rules of the society, rather than laws of the religion-recommendations and expedients fitted to the state of the several From a view of these distinct parts of the evan-churches by those who then administered the gelic dispensation, we are led to place a real difference between the religion of particular Christians, and the polity of Christ's church. The one is personal and individual-acknowledges no subjection to human authority-is transacted in the heart is an account between God and our own consciences alone: the other, appertaining to society, (like every thing which relates to the joint interest and requires the co-operation of many persons,) is visible and external-prescribes rules of common order, for the observation of which, we are responsible not only to God, but to the society of which we are members, or, what is the same thing, to those with whom the public authority of the society is deposited.

affairs of them, rather than precepts delivered with a solemn design of fixing a constitution for succeeding ages. The just ends of religious as of civil union are eternally the same; but the means by which these ends may be best promoted and secured, will vary with the vicissitudes of time and occasion, will differ according to the local circumstances, the peculiar situation, the improve. ment, character, or even the prejudices and passions, of the several communities upon whose conduct and edification they are intended to operate.

The apostolic directions which are preserved in the writings of the New Testament, seem to exclude no ecclesiastical constitution which the experience and more instructed judgment of future But the difference which I am principally con-ages might find it expedient to adopt. And this

lastly, the appointment to the clergy of a maintenance independent of the caprice of their congre gation, are measures of ecclesiastical policy which have been adopted by every national establishment of Christianity in the world. Concerning these points there exists no controversy. The chief article of regulation upon which the judgment of some protestant churches dissents from ours is, that whilst they have established a perfect parity among their clergy, we prefer a distinction of orders in the church, not only as recommended by the usage of the purest times, but as better calculated to promote, what all churches must desire, the credit and efficacy of the sacerdotal office.

reserve, if we may so call it, in the legislature of circumstances permits, the example, and what we the Christian church, was wisely suited to its pri-apprehend to be the order, of the apostolic age, mitive condition, compared with its expected pro- our church and ministry are inferior to none in gress and extent. The circumstances of Chris- the great object of their institution, their suitabletianity in the early period of its propagation were ness to promote and uphold the profession, knownecessarily very unlike those which would take ledge, and influence, of pure Christianity. The place when it became the established religion of separation of a particular order of men for the great nations. The rudiments, indeed, of the fu- work of the ministry-the reserving to these exture plant, were involved within the grain of mus- clusively, the conduct of public worship and the tard-seed, but still a different treatment was re- preaching of the word-the distribution of the quired for its sustentation when the birds of the country into districts, and the assigning of each air lodged amongst its branches. A small select district to the care and charge of its proper pastor society under the guidance of inspired teachers, without temporal rights and without property, founded in the midst of enemies, and living in subjection to unbelieving rulers, divided from the rest of the world by many singularities of conduct and persuasion, and adverse to the idolatry which public authority every where supported, differed so much from the Christian church after Christianity prevailed as the religion of the state; when its economy became gradually interwoven with the civil government of the country; when the purity and propagation of its faith were left to the ordinary expedients of human instruction and an authentic Scripture; when persecution and indigence were to be succeeded by legal security and public provision-clandestine and precarious opportunities of hearing the word and communicating in the rites of Christianity, by stationary pastors and appropriated seasons, as well as places, of religious worship and resort: I say, the situation of the Christian community was so different in the infant and adult state of Christianity, that the highest inconvenience would have followed from establishing a precise constitution which was to be obligatory upon both: the same disposition of affairs which was most commodious and conducive to edification in the one, becoming probably impracticable under the circumstances, or altogether inadequate to the wants of the other.

The force and truth of this last consideration I will endeavour to evince.

First, the body of the clergy, in common with every regular society, must necessarily contain some internal provision for the government and correction of its members. Where a distinction of orders is not acknowledged, this government can only be administered by synods and assemblies, because the supposition of equality forbids the delegation of authority to single persons. Now, although it may be requisite to consult and collect the opinions of a community, in the momentous deliberations which ought to precede the establishment of those public laws by which it is to be bound; yet in every society the execution What farther recommends the forbearance ob- of these laws, the current and ordinary affairs of servable in this part of the Christian institution, its government, are better managed by fewer is the consideration, that as Christianity solicited hands. To commit personal questions to public admission into every country in the world, it cau- debate, to refer every case and character which tiously refrained from interfering with the muni- requires animadversion, to the suffrages and exacipal regulations or civil condition of any. Negli-mination of a numerous assembly, what is it, but gent of every view, but what related to the deliverance of mankind from spiritual perdition, the Saviour of the world advanced no pretensions which, by disturbing the arrangements of human polity, might present an obstacle to the reception of his faith. We may ascribe it to this design, that he left the laws of his church so open and indeterminate, that whilst the ends of religious communion were sufficiently declared, the form of the society might be assimilated to the civil constitution of each country, to which it should always communicate strength and support in return for the protection it received. If there be any truth in these observations, they lead to this temperate and charitable conclusion," that Christianity may be professed under any form of church government." But though all things are lawful, all things are not expedient. If we concede to other churches the Christian legality of their constitution, so long as Christian worship and instruction are competently provided for, we may be allowed to maintain the advantage of our own, upon principles which all parties acknowledge-considerations of public utility. We may be allowed to contend, that whilst we imitate, so far as a great disparity of

to feed and perpetuate contention, to supply materials for endless altercation, and opportunities for the indulgence of concealed enmity and private prejudices? The complaint of ages testifies, with how much inflammation, and how little equity, ecclesiastical conventions have conducted their proceedings; how apt intrigue has ever been to pervert inquiry, and clamour to confound discussion. Whatever may be the other benefits of equality, peace is best secured by subordination. And if this be a consideration of moment in every society, it is of peculiar importance to the clergy. Preachers of peace, ministers of charity and of reconciliation to the world, that constitution surely ill befits their office and character which has a tendency to engage them in contests and disputes with one another.

Secondly, the appointment of various orders in the church, may be considered as the stationing of ministers of religion in the various ranks of civil life. The distinctions of the clergy ought, in some measure, to correspond with the distinctions of lay-society, in order to supply each class of the people with a clergy of their own level and description, with whom they may live and

Fourthly, rich and splendid situations in the church have been justly regarded as prizes held out to invite persons of good hopes and ingenuous attainments to enter into its service. The value of the prospect may be the same, but the allurement is much greater, where opulent shares are reserved to reward the success of a few, than where, by a more equal partition of the fund, all indeed are competently provided for, but no one can raise even his hopes beyond a penurious mediocrity of subsistence and situation. It is certainly of consequence that young men of promising abilities be encouraged to engage in the ministry of the church; otherwise, our profession will be composed of the refuse of every other None will be found content to stake the fortune of their lives in this calling, but they whom slow parts, personal defects, or a depressed condition of birth and education, preclude from advancement in any other. The vocation in time comes to be thought mean and uncreditable-study languishes-sacred erudition declines-not only the order is disgraced, but religion itself disparaged in such hands. Some of the most judicious and moderate of the presbyterian clergy have been known to lament this defect in their constitution. They see and deplore the backwardness in youth of active and well cultivated faculties, to enter into the church, and their frequent resolutions to quit it. Again, if a gradation of orders be necessary to invite candidates into the profession, it is still more so to excite diligence and emulation, to promote an attention to character and public opinion when they are in it; especially to guard against that sloth and negligence, into which men are apt to fall, who are arrived too soon at the limits of their expectations. We will not say, that the race is always to the swift, or the prize to the deserving; but we have never known that age of the church in which the advantage was not on the side of

associate upon terms of equality. This reason is
not imaginary nor insignificant. The usefulness
of a virtuous and well-informed clergy consists
neither wholly nor principally in their public
preaching, or the stated functions of their order.
It is from the example and in the society of such
persons, that the requisites which prepare the
mind for the reception of virtue and knowledge,
a taste for serious reflection and discourse, habits
of thought and reasoning, a veneration for the
laws and awful truths of Christianity, a disposi-
tion to inquire, and a solicitude to learn, are best
gained at least, the decency of deportment, the
sobriety of manners and conversation, the learn-
ing, the gravity, which usually accompany the
clerical character, insensibly diffuse their influ-
ence over every company into which they are
admitted. Is it of no importance to provide friends
and companions of this character for the superior
as well as for the middle orders of the cominu-
nity? Is it flattery to say, that the manners and
society of higher life would suffer some deprava-
tion, from the loss of so many men of liberal
habits and education, as at present, by occupying
elevated stations in the church, are entitled to be
received into its number? This intercourse
would cease, if the clergy were reduced to a level
with one another, and, of consequence, with the
inferior part of the community. These distinc-
tions, whilst they prevail, must be complied with.
How much soever the moralist may despise, or
the divine overlook, the discriminations of rank,
which the rules or prejudices of modern life have
introduced into society; when we have the world
to instruct and to deal with, we must take and
treat it as it is, not as the wishes or the specula-
tions of philosophy would represent it to our
view. When we describe the public as peculiarly
interested in every thing which affects, though but
remotely, the character of the great and powerful,
it is not that the soul of the rich man is more pre-learning and decency.
cious than the salvation of the poor, but because
his virtues and his vices have a more considerable
and extensive effect.

rejoiceth.' When pious labours and exemplary virtue, when distinguished learning, or eminent utility, when long or arduous services are repaid with affluence and dignity, when a life of severe and well-directed application to the studies of re

These reasons appear to me to be well founded, and they have this in their favour, that they do not suppose too much; they suppose not any impractiThirdly, they who behold the privileges and cable precision in the reward of merit, or any emoluments of the superior clergy with the most greater degree of disinterestedness, circumspection, unfriendly inclination, profess nevertheless to and propriety in the bestowing of ecclesiastical wish, that the order itself should he respected; preferment, than what actually takes place. They but how is this respect to be procured? It is are, however, much strengthened, and our eccleequally impossible, to invest every clergyman siastical constitution defended with yet greater with the decorations of affluence and rank, and to success, when men of conspicuous and acknowmaintain the credit and reputation of an order ledged merit are called to its superior stations: which is altogether destitute of these distinctions."when it goeth well with the righteous, the city Individuals, by the singularity of their virtue or their talents, may surmount all disadvantages; but the order will be contemned. At present, every member of our ecclesiastical establishment communicates in the dignity which is conferred upon a few-every clergyman shares in the religion, when wasted spirits and declining health, spect which is paid to his superiors-the ministry is honoured in the persons of prelates. Nor is this economy peculiar to our order. The professions of arms and of the law derive their lustre and esteem, not merely from their utility (which is a reason only to the few,) but from the exalted place in the scale of civil life, which hath been wisely assigned to those who fill stations of power and eminence in these great departments. And if this disposition of honours be approved in other kinds of public employment, why should not the credit and liberality of ours be upheld by the same expedient ?

are suffered to repose in honourable leisure, the good and wise applaud a constitution which has provided such things for such men.

Finally, let us reflect that these, after all, are but secondary objects. Christ came not to found an empire upon earth, or to invest his church with temporal immunities. He came "to seek and to save that which was lost;" to purify to himself from amidst the pollutions of a corrupt world, "a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” As far as our establishment conduces to forward and facilitate these ends, so far we are sure it falls in with his design, and is sanctified by his authority.

SERMON IV.

THE USE AND PROPRIETY OF LOCAL AND OCCASIONAL PREACHING :

A CHARGE,

DELIVERED TO THE CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE OF CARLISLE, IN THE YEAR 1790.

REVEREND BRETHREN,-The late Archbishop | and oblique allusions. Now of this scheme, even Secker, whose memory is entitled to public respect, as on many accounts, so especially for the judgment with which he described, and the affecting seriousness with which he recommended the duties of his profession, in one of his charges to the clergy of his diocese,* exhorts them to make their sermons local." I have always considered this advice as founded in a knowledge of human life, but as requiring, in its application, a more than ordinary exercise of Christian prudence. Whilst I repeat therefore the rule itself, with great veneration for the authority by which it was delivered, I think it no unfit employment of the present opportunity, to enlarge so far upon its use and meaning, as to point out some of the instances in which it may be adopted, with the probability of making salutary impressions upon the

minds of our hearers.

But, before I proceed, I would warn you, and that with all the solemnity that can belong to any admonition of mine, against rendering your discourses, so local, as to be pointed and levelled at particular persons in your congregation. This species of address may produce in the party for whom it is intended, confusion perhaps and shame, but not with their proper fruits of penitence and humility. Instead of which, these sensations will be accompanied with bitter resentment against the preacher, and a kind of obstinate and determined opposition to his reproof. He will impute your officiousness to personal enmity, to party spirit, to the pleasure of triumphing over an adversary without interruption or reply, to insult assuming the form of advice, or to any motive rather than a conscientious solicitude for the amendment and salvation of your flock. And as the person himself seldom profits by admonitions conveyed in this way, so are they equally useless, or perhaps noxious, to the rest of the assembly; for the moment the congregation discover to whom the chastisement is directed, from that moment they cease to apply any part of it to themselves. They are not edified, they are not affected; on the contrary, they are diverted, by descriptions of which they see the design, and by invectives of which they think they comprehend the aim. Some who would feel strongly the impropriety of gross and evident personalities, may yet hope to hit their mark by covert

Archbishop of Canterbury's Third Charge to his Clergy.-Abp. Becker's Works, vol. iv.

when conducted with the greatest skill, it may be observed, that the allusions must either be perceived, or not. If they be not perceived, they fail of the effect intended by them; if they be, they are open to the objections which lie against more explicit and undissembled attacks. Whenever we are conscious, in the composition of our discourses, of a view to particular characters in our congregation or parish, we ought to take for granted that our view will be understood. Those applications therefore, which, if they were direct, would produce more bad emotions than good ones, it is better to discard entirely from our sermons; that is to say, it is better to lay aside the design altogether, than to attempt to disguise it by a management which is generally detected, and which, if not seen through, defeats its purpose by its obscurity. The crimes then of individuals let us reserve for opportunities of private and seasonable expostulation. Happy is the clergyman who has the faculty of communicating advice and remonstrance with persuasion and effect, and the virtue to seize and improve every proper occasion of doing it; but in the pulpit, let private characters be no otherwise adverted to, than as they fall in with the delineations of sins and duties which our discourses must necessarily contain, and which, whilst they avoid personalities, can never be too close or circumstantial. For the same reason that I think personal allusions reprehensible, I should condemn any, even the remotest, reference to party or political transactions and disputes. These are at all times unfit subjects not only of discussion in the pulpit, but of hints and surmises. The Christian preacher has no other province than that of religion and morality. He is seldom led out of his way by honourable motives, and, I think, never with a beneficial effect.

Having premised this necessary caution, ! return to the rule itself. By "local" sermons I would understand, what the reverend prelate who used the expression seems principally to have meant by it, sermons adapted to the particular state of thought and opinion which we perceive to prevail in our congregation. A careful attention to this circumstance is of the utmost importance, because, as it varies, the same sermon may do a great deal of good, none at all, or much harm. So that it is not the truth of what we are about to offer which alone we ought to consider, but whether the argument itself be likely to correct or to