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TO THE

FIRST EDITION.

It is recorded by Strype', that in the reign of King James I. the disposition to treat of Church discipline in Sermons was so strong and so general, that it was at length publicly censured in the University pulpit. So constant a recurrence to the topic must have been highly mischievous in those days, as it kept alive the flame of controversy, which it was then particularly desirable to extinguish; and it is objectionable at all times, as it excludes those higher subjects of Christian faith and practice which are the proper topics of the Christian preacher. In the present

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2 By a Mr. Greenham, a zealous preacher,' according to Strype.

day we have

gone

into the opposite extreme,

and Church discipline is a matter rarely or never mentioned in the pulpit'.

There can

What from the loose writing of some of the Clergy, and the general silence of the body, upon the constitution of the Christian Church, the subject is so grown out of knowledge, as to have lost almost universally its influence upon the mind. Ask an ignorant man, why he separates from the Church, hist answer will probably be, that he lives in a land of liberty, where he has a right to worship God in the way he thinks proper. Ask a man of reading and understanding, and he will quote respectable authority for the same opinion; whereas, both one and the other might, it is probable, have continued members of the Church, had they been taught to form a correct notion of it. But when they have been led to consider the Church, as a word of general and indiscriminate application, and religion itself as a subject of mere private opinion, independent of all authority: it is not to be expected that they should feel disposed to restrain a licence, of which, from the latitudinarian way of thinking and acting in which they have been educated, they conceive themselves born in rightful possession.

'The minister of the Church, however, who prays constantly against schism, should in consequence think it his duty to prevent Christians, as far as may be, from falling into so dangerous a sin. And whilst he remembers of what spirit a Christian ought to be, the means made use of by him for the purpose will be no other than what a Christian ought to employ. "Following (to make use of the words of the celebrated Mr. Locke,) the example of the Prince of Peace, who sent out his soldiers to the subduing of nations, and gathering them into his Church,

be no question that of the two our course is the wisest; yet it would be advisable in this,

not armed with the sword, or other instruments of force, but accoutred in that best armour, the Gospel of Peace, and the exemplary holiness of Christian conversation."

'Without pronouncing sentence, therefore, upon, or disturbing, those who are without the Church, his object will be to preserve those that still remain in it. This he will do by enabling them to form correct notions of the nature and constitution of the Christian Church; and by giving them such an explanation from time to time of its services, as may produce in them a rational attachment for its communion. Considering the Church as a society which has God for its founder, and Christian faith as the offspring of Divine revelation, he will regard the varying opinions of mankind upon those subjects rather as proofs of the weakness and incapacity of the human mind, than as illustrations of the truth. At the same time, therefore, that he is desirous of laying no unnecessary restraint upon human judgment in religious subjects, he will take care to point out the standard by which it should be regulated; a standard which draws the line between faith and credulity; between a sober inquiry after truth, accompanied with a proper respect for authority; and that licentiousness of opinion which knows no authority but its own: in a word, between that liberty with which Christ has made us free, and the liberty which the natural man is at all times disposed to make for himself. But the Clergy, some individuals of the body at least, have still more to answer for on this subject. A freedom of opinion on Church matters has led, as it might be expected, to a freedom of practice, while some, by their writings, have put the establishment of the Church, as it were, quite out of sight; others, by their conduct, have openly withdrawn.

as in other matters, to avoid either extreme. The subject of discipline will be allowed by every one who knows the history of Protestantism, and by every one who is well acquainted with the human mind, to deserve more attention than it obtains. The importance of forms will be at once acknowledged by both classes of observers; but, to. waive that topic, we may say with certainty that many unhappy differences would never have arisen; much schism, and much that is unseemly in the conduct of the inferior clergy to their superiors, and to one another, would have been avoided, if this subject had always

Christians from it, by becoming, in some cases, officiating ministers in places of public worship independent of Episcopal jurisdiction in others, by their attendance at places of worship which are in an actual state of separation from the Church of their country. How such conduct agrees with the established government of the Church; how the circumstance of a minister of the Church taking upon himself to preach in a place of worship unlicensed by the bishop, is to be reconciled with canonical obligation; with what propriety such a minister can, in the liturgy of the Church pray against schism in that place where he is in the actual commission of the sin; are points upon which I feel myself at a loss to determine."—See Daubeny's Guide to the Church, pp. 341–344.

obtained due consideration in clerical studies. And on yet higher grounds may full attention be claimed for that especial point which is treated in the following Discourses. If we are really ambassadors for Christ, and have a due commission from his Church, it were well that a remembrance of these truths were deeply imprinted on our hearts; well, I mean, for the Church, that we may not despise that authority to which we owe our own; well for those to whom we are sent, that we may not be slack in delivering our message; well for ourselves, that being the appointed servants of a Master, who, to the worldly eye, may seem to gather where he hath not strewn, we may not be found sleeping when he comes to account with us.

It was under a deep sense of the importance of the subject that I ventured to introduce it to those among my audience who were about to become ministers of the Church of Christ. It was also, I can say sincerely, with unfeigned humility. I had no hope of doing justice to the subject, but I thought it

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