LECTURE I.

NATIONAL CHURCHES

NOT INCONSISTENT WITH REASON OR SCRIPTURE.

JOHN Xviii. 36.

My kingdom is not of this world.

THE great object of the Christian church as a society set apart from the mass of mankind, and administered under the ordinances of Christ, its supreme head, is the rescue of men's souls from the dominion of Satan, their establishment in the faith of the gospel, their preparation for an inheritance in heaven.

The motives whereby it appeals to the human heart refer mainly to the life to come; the walk of its members on earth is directed by their knowledge and belief of things invisible to the eye of sense; its ministry derives authority from no human appointment; its laws are such as no human magistrate has power to alter or annul; it is to all intents and purposes the compact of an assemblage of

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"strangers and pilgrims on earth seeking a better country"-" a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."

Meanwhile, its instructions have the most important bearing on the transactions of its members during their sojourn upon the earth. It bids them seek for glory, honour, and immortality by patient continuance in well doing. It teaches them to love their country, their brethren according to the flesh, and by all means to seek their good. It requires those among them who are invested with human authority to be gentle, courteous, merciful, easily intreated, without partiality, just and upright as in the sight of God, and always mindful that to Him they are accountable for distinctions which are a trust for the good of all. Those who are under authority, it would have obedient, not for wrath or force, but conscience sake; reverentially and affectionately attached to their governors as God's appointed ministers; instant in prayer on their behalf; prompt in rendering to all their dues, tribute, fear, honor, custom. And as to their general intercourse with society," whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, if there be any praise," it bids them think on these things, and do them.

An institution thus constituted, without directly interfering with the arrangements of civil society, must evidently have so powerful an influence in regulating the conduct of those who are subject to

them, as to demand the utmost attention on the part of civil rulers, as such, to the manner in which its reception and progress may affect themselves and those over whose interests they are the acknowledged guardians.-It comes then, in its majestic progress through the earth, to the borders of some favoured nation; it addresses by its divinely commissioned heralds the high and low, the rich and poor together; it offers them a share in its celestial privileges; it unfolds the requirements of faith and duty with which those privileges are inseparably united; it arouses the attention of all to the personal obligation of enrolling themselves among its members, and bringing their hearts and lives under subjection to its laws. The language of Christ's church to the rulers and people of the nations is precisely that of Moses to the Midianite, "We are journeying unto the place of which the Lord hath said I will give it you come with us and we will do you good-for the Lord hath spoken good concerning his people." The message, by God's preventing and assisting grace, is heard and received, first by individuals, at last by the general body. It becomes a matter of universal acknowledgement, that it is a duty, à privilege, to belong to this society, and most desirable to be guided by its distinguishing laws. This is so decidedly the bent of public opinion that even those who swerve farthest from obedience to those laws, profess a respect for them, a conviction that they ought to obey them, that it would be infinitely better for them if they did so, and comparatively few are found who absolutely reject and resist them.

Now what, we ask, should be the conduct of rulers and people in a nation thus circumstanced, of rulers and people, in that reciprocal relationship, as members of a civil community, and united together for civil purposes, with respect to the preservation and extension of this institution? Should they leave it for the future to itself, and trust to the individual zeal and prudence of its members in successive generations for so wide a spread and minute an application of its principles as should completely and permanently leaven the whole mass of society: or should they endeavour, by acts of national legislation, to provide, so far as human foresight can provide, for the continuance among them of so great a blessing; the maintenance of the institution in its original purity; and its free course, unaffected by local and temporary contingencies, as the great instrument of public instruction in that knowledge which is profitable to all things, having the promise both of the present life and of that which is to come?

This, I conceive, divested of all adventitious circumstances, to be the real question at issue, between those who approve, and those, who under every possible modification, impugn a national establishment of Christianity. And as it meets us at the threshhold of every inquiry into the merits or demerits of any particular establishment, I propose in this and the three following lectures, to examine its chief bearings, as introductory to the arguments I have to offer in defence of the Church of England, whether as a national or a spiritual society.

I would, however, approach this question, now so

much controverted amongst us, in no controversial spirit; with no political or merely secular aim; but as one in the determination of which I firmly believe the glory of God, the prevalence of his spiritual kingdom in our land, and by consequence our national prosperity, to be so greatly concerned, that it is of the utmost importance, especially to the members of an established communion, to form a settled opinion upon it, and to have a reason to render for that opinion to those who may be otherwise minded.

It will be my object, therefore, in the present lecture, to shew that the current objections to the principle of establishments are not countenanced either by reason or scripture; and proof will afterwards be adduced that both reason and scripture are strongly in favour of such institutions.

From what has been already said, our definition of a national establishment of Christianity may I think be distinctly understood. It is a public recognition of the claims of Christianity by the acknowledged organs of national legislation and the adoption by their authority of such measures as may tend to give its institutions the most extensive and permanent influence.

We are not at present concerned with the particular form in which Christianity is thus recognized, or the particular measures which may be adopted for its propagation; our immediate inquiry is, whether the civil power, the public and acknowledged authority in a nation, be it what it may, have any right at all to interfere, and endeavour by human laws and ordinances to establish any branch of