Reasons for being a churchman...

Front matter

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Preface

THESE Eeasons for being a Churchman are addressed to English - speaking Christians, because the Angltcan Church is that part of the Catholic Church which has lawful jurisdiction over that part of the earth which is occupied by the English-speaking race. Our Church can lay no just claim to the obedience of Orientals, Italians, Frenchmen, Mexicans, and the like. They owe allegiance to the Dioceses and Provinces of the Church Catholic in their respective countries. Of their peculiar difficulties, of their need of reformation, and of their proper courses of action, it is no part of this book to treat.

The object in view is twofold : —

First, to strengthen those who are already in actual conformity with the Anglo-Catholic Church. It was a profound observation of our great Archbishop, St. Anselm :

This "negligence" among Churchmen is lamentable and appalling — a chief cause of indifferentism and apostacy. The Primate of All England recently declared : " There is perhaps not even now one Churchman in ten who is as well instructed

1. It seems to me the part of negligence if, after we have been confirmed in the Faith, we do not try to understand what we believe.

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Author's Preface

in the reasons why he is a Churchman, as Dissenters or Roman Catholics are instructed in the arguments whereby their position is defended. This should surely be remedied." If the two million nominal adherents of the Church in the United States did but fairly appreciate the history, the claims, and the blessings of American Catholicism, the individual faith and piety and the general influence of our Church, would be increased an hundredfold.

The second object in view is to call the attention of our non-conforming brethren —Roman and Protestant alike— to the historic continuity, the divine authority, the lawful jurisdiction, the true Catholicity, and the practical advantages of the venerable Church of their ancestors and ours, the Mother-Church of the English-speaking race. Those who have of late conformed to the Church (and they are a numerous company) agree in saying that the reason they did not " come home " sooner, was because they were ignorant of their 11 Father's House," Surely the claims of the Reformed Catholic Church of our race — reformed indeed, but Catholic still — are worth considering.

The argument is stated frankly and from the Catholic standpoint. It first took shape in a course of Sunday evening lectures in the Parish Church of St, Paul, Portland, Maine. It next appeared as a series of thirty-six articles in a leading Church weekly. 2 It is now, at the request of many readers — Bishops, Priests, and laymen — sent forth in book form, with the prayer that it may contribute something to tLe glory of Incarnate God and the upbuilding of His Kingdom of Grace.

A. W. L.

Portland, Maine, St. Matthew's Daj% 1885.

2 "The Living Church,*' Dec. 13th, 1884, to Aug. 22d, 1885.

Chapter I. Page

The Question Stated.

The Three Divisions of English-speaking Christians — Churchmen — Recusants — ( The essence of the Reformation — The Italian Schism in England and Ireland) — Dissenters — (Their origin and position) — Plan of Argument — Authority — Expediency — Future Prospects, - 1-6

CHAPTER II. Did God Found a Church which Still Exists?

The raison d'etre of Man-made Churches — Church in Eden — Covenant of Redemption — Patriarchal Dispensation — Mosaic — Jewish Church a type and promise of the Catholic Church — "The Kingdom of God" at hand, - 7-14

CHAPTER III, Did Christ Found a Catholic Church which Still Exists ?

Christianity not an " Idea," hut an Organism — Christ's Parables — His Promises — He founds His Kingdom on Earth — Appoints a permanent self-perpetuating Ministry — Apostolic Succession in a single clause, - - - - - - - 15-21

CHAPTER IY.

The Pentecostal Church.

Christ's Commands carried out by the Apostles — The Descent of the Holy Ghost — Picture of the Apostolic Church — No Romanism — No Protestantism — Both Inconceivable in the Early Church, - 22-31

X

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER Y.

PAGE.

Marks of the Holy Catholic Church.

Baptism — The Doctrine of the Apostles — The Fellowship of the

Apostles — The Breaking of the Bread — The Prayers, - 32-35

CHAPTER VI.

The Anglican Church and Holy Baptism.

Continuity of the Anglican Church — What is Baptism? — Regeneration not Conversion — Teaching of the Bihle — Of the Fathers — Infant Baptism — Uninterrupted theory and practice of the Anglican Church — Importance of the Sacrament of the New Birth, - - - 36-44

CHAPTER VII.

The Anglican Church and " The Apostles' Doctrine."

Episcopacy not everything — Anglican Church not Roman, and not Protestant — The Primitive Faith — Holy Scripture — The Apostolic Creed — Eastern form, Western form — Nicsea and Constantinople — The Athanasian Creed — The XXXIX. Articles not a Creed — The Anglican Church always Orthodox — "Infallible" Bishops of Rome sometimes heretical — Greek, Anglican, and Roman Churches have the same Creed — Roman Additions — Relation of Dissenters to the Apostolic Faith, - - 45-57

CHAPTER VIII.

The Apostles' Fellowship : What Saith the Scripture ?

Apostolic Episcopacy necessary to the unity, continuity and authority of the Church — The Apostolic Office permanent — The Three Orders — The Perennial Ivy — St. Matthias the 13th Apostle — St. James the 14th — Evidence that He was Bishop of Jerusalem— Twenty-three Men called Apostles in the N. T.— Timothy Bp. of Ephesus — Titus Bp. of Crete — Eighteen others, 58-66

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IX.

PAGE.

Primitive Episcopacy and its Official Titles.

Three Orders — Apparent Confusion of Names — No Confusion of Orders — Priests sometimes called "Bishops" in the sense of Pastors or Overseers — Apostoli sunt Epixcopi — Evidence that the Apostles who Succeeded the Twelve gradually Appropriated the title of Bishop — The title of Apostle lingered in some places — The Didache, ...... 57-71

CHAPTER X.

Primitive Episcopacy and. the Testimony of the Apostolic Fathers.

Episcopacy not defended in the Early Church because not an open question — Apostolic Order Universal — Early rhurch Presbyterial only, if you leave out the A pasties — Diaconal, if you leave out both Apostles and Presbyters — Episcopacy not Necessarily Diocesan — Earliest Witnesses— St. Clement— St. Polycarp— St. Ignatius— His Epistles to theEphesians, Magnesians, Trallians, Romans, Philadeiphians, Smyrnseans, and to Polycarp, - - - -

CHAPTER XI.

The Witness of the Fathers — Continued.

Admissions of Gibbon, Guizot, Qrotius — Strength of our Position — Churchmen "No Fools "— Unanswered Challenge of Hooker— "Epistle to Diognetus" — Testimony of Dionysius; of St. Irenceu<; of Polycrates; of St. Clement, of Alex.; of Tertullian; of Origen; of St. Cyprian, etc.— " Study the Fathers, 1 ' - 85-97

CHAPTER XII.

If the Primitive Catholic Church was not Episcopal. What was It ?

Experiment of a learned Presbyterian Minister — The Historic Church Episcopal because it started so — If not, when and how did it become so ? — No instance of a non-Episcopal Church — A Camel larger than the wooden Horse of Troy — While the Apostles lived the Church undeniably Episcopal — The post- Apostolic Episcopate dove-tailed into the Episcopate of the Apostles — No room for a radical change of polity — Could such a change take place in a Protestant denomination? — A "tempest in a tea-pot 1 ' — How revolutions occur — Rise of the Papacy an example, - 98-104 xii

CONTENTS.

APPEXDIX TO CHAPTER XII.

PAGE,

Desperate Expedients to get Rid of the Bishops of the Early Church.

The assumption that a Bishop was only a Pastor of one Congregation

— How about Titus ? — One hundred Cities in his Parish — St. James, the over-worked Pastor !— 41 Tens of thousands" of parishoners, at least fifty Churches — Ignatius in Antioch, 200,000 inhabitants, calls himself the Bishop of Syria — Ostesemtts; one Parish in Ephesus simply preposter@us — Case of St. Mark in Alexandria — S£. Cyprian in Carthage: great multitude of clergy (not " ruling elders " but " Glorious Priests ") ; Cathedral and

Ten Churches —The " Moderator Hypothesis," - - 105-108

CHAPTER XIII.

A Few Fragments that Remain Touching Apostolic Succession".

Evidence of Canons — Apostolic Succession not a Chain but a set

— Illustrations — Quotations from Dr. Hopkins — From Bishop Neely — Evidence from Early Schismatics, Novatian and Fortunatas — From Pagan Writers — From Would-be-bishops, Colluthus, Aerius, his "dogma furiosum et stolidum " — The Six General Councils — Archbp. Potter and Lord Macaulay on the Fact of Apos. Success, 109-116

CHAPTER XIV.

The Anglican Church and the ''Fellowship of the Apostles."

Importance of the Catholic Episcopate — Auglican Church Never Without It — Early Origin of Christianity in Britain— First Bishop of Rome a Britain— Did Sr. Paul Preach in Britain? — Testimony of Gildas, Fortunatus the Poet; Theodoret, St. Jerome, Eusebius, Origen, Tertullian, Justin Martyr, St. Clement — Church at Glastonbury — St. Alban, our Proto- martyr — Constantine — British Bishops at Councils of Aries, Nictea, Sardica, Riniine — The Anglo-Saxon Conquest, - - - 117-124

CONTENTS.

xiii

CHAPTER XV.

PAGE.

Anglo-Catholicism ; or, the Making and Establishing of the Present National Church of England.

The Celtic Churches, Catholic, independent — Queen Bertha and Bishop Luidhard — The Italian Mission — Romish errors then unknown — Gregory and the title of " Universal Bishop " — Augustine ordained in France — Saxons converted mainly by the Celtic Christians — Canterbury — Two schools of thought — Theodore — The unification and establishment of the Anglo- Catholic Church long before the State, - - - 125-131

CHAPTER XVI.

The English Church never the Roman Church.

The Ecclesia Anglicana — Lease of Church property for 999 years

— Mediaeval corruptions — Usurpation of the Bishop of Rome, illustrated by Napoleon, Sinbad, etc. — Roman influence slight before the Norman Conquest — Wilfrid — Cuthbert — Imageworship — Offa — The " Forged Decretals ' ' — Robert and Stigand

— William and Lanfranc defy the Bishop of Rome — The Archbishop of Canterbury called "the Pope and Patriarch of another world"— Anti-Roman legislation — King John — Magna Charta

— Two reforms necessary : to free the State ; to free the Church

— The legal freeing of the Church in the Fourteenth Century — The prestige of Rome broken — " Rival Popes " — " Reforming Councils " — Greek Churchmen — Henry VIII. — The " Gordian Knot " — The Bishop of Rome no more than any other " foreign Bishop" — Queen Mary and the second subjugation of our Church — Accession of Elizabeth, - - 132-144

CHAPTER XVII.

Anglican Orders.

True Catholics — Elizabeth and the Papal usurpation — Vacant Bishoprics — Election, confirmation, and consecration of Archbishop Parker — Overwhelming evidence of the fact — The " Nag's Head Fable " — Marc Antonio de Dominis — Irish succession— R. C. admissions — American and Colonial succession, 145-159

Appendix To Chapter XVII

Pius IV. and the English Reformation.

Hore — Jennings — Cutts — Blunt —Van Antwerp — Butler, - 160-163 xiv

CONTENTS.

chapter xyni.

PAGE.

Anglican Jurisdiction and Catholicity.

Declaration of Lambeth Council — Novelty of the lltramontane Theory of Jurisdiction — Inherent Jurisdiction of Provincial and Autocephalous Churches -Early English Church Complete in Itself — Our Reformers did not Commit the Sin of Schism — English Romanists Schismatic — Pius IX. and Westminster — English Church never claimed to be Anything but Catholic — Quotations from Dr. Coit, and Dr. Seabury — The " Golden Rule of Faith," - - 164-176

CHAPTER XIX.

The Attitude of Dissent Towards Episcopacy.

Difference Between the Catholic Reformation in England and the Protectant Revolutions on the Continent— Changing Attitude of Protestants toward Episcopacy — (1) They Believed in It, and Regretted their Loss of It; Luther, Melancthon, Beza, Calvin, etc.— 2) They Blindly and Ignorantly Assailed It: Drs. Miller and McCloud — (3- Scholarly Protestant Reaction in Favor of It; Drs. Schaff and Fisher; the Concessions of Mosheim, Gieseler, etc.— An important consideration, - - - 177-183

CHAPTER XX.

The Anglican Church and Confirmation.

Definition of Confirmation — Practiced by the Apostles — Scriptural evidence — Patristic — Retained in the Greek, Roman, and Anglican Churches — Confirmation not "joining the Church" — Protestants feel the need of it, - - - ... 184-193

CHAPTER XXL

The Anglican Church and " The Breaking of the Bread."

One true Sacrifice; prefigured in the Jewish Church, commemorated in the Christian Church — The Altar — The Eucharist also a Communion — What the N. T. says of it — The Fathers — Two parts of the Sacrament — Traruuhs! art tiation denies the real presence of the Bread and Wine — Zwinglianism denies the real presence of Christ's Body and Blot.d — Growth of Transubstantiation — Forced on the English Church in the thirteenth century — The Catholic Doctrine restored in the sixteenth century — Rise of "Half Communion 11 — Declared heresy by three Bishops of Rome — Received unwillingly in the English < hurch in fifteenth century — The Chalice restored in the sixteenth — Growth of the Zwinglian impiety — Nevtr sanctioned in the Anglo-Catholic Church, ... - - 194-205 i

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXII.

PAGE.

" The Prayers."

Liturgical Worship a Mark of the Church — Jewish Worship: Tern pie, Synagogue — The Apostles Trained to Liturgical Worship — Endorsed by Christ — Glimpses of Liturgical Worship in the N. T.— The Liturgy of the Passover — Oral Liturgy of the Apostles — Four Great Types — Parts Common to Each — Worship of the Early Church — Pliny, Justin Martyr — Specimen of the Oldest Extant Liturgy — Remarkable Agreement of Our Liturgy, - 206-220

CHAPTER XXIII.

The Anglican Church and "The Prayers."

Our Church Inherited Catholic Worship — Liturgy of St. John — British Liturgy — Influence of Augustine ~ The Roman Breviary and Missal never Used in England — Latin Services — Creature-worship — Devotional and Liturgical Reform— The Prayer Book of 1549 — Subsequent Revisions — Anglican P. B. dear to outsiders — Luther, Calvin, Knox, etc., Believed in Liturgical Worship — Amazing Devotions of English and American Dissenters — " Sam. Lawson's" Philosophy of Prayer — Dr. Mines — Extemporary Prayer the Work of Jesuits in England — Protestant Reaction in Favor of Liturgical Worship — Thank God for the Prayer Book, 221-229

CHAPTER XXIY.

Close of the Argument for the Church's Authority Based on Historic Continuity.

Our Church has retained the accessories of Catholic worship — Bodily reverence — Scriptural warrant — Usage of Early Church — Bowing at the Sacred Name — The Christian Year — Jewish Feasts and Fasts — Origin of the Church's Calendar — Retained in the Anglo-Catholic Church — So with other things: Ordination, Absolution, Church Architecture, Vestments, etc. — Special defense of Vestments — Continuity, the key-note of the Anglo- Catholic position — Summary of the Historic Argument — Charity to non-conformists, - 230-240 xvi

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXV.

PAGE.

The Argument from Expediency.

Authority ought to be sufficient — " Prcescriptio in limine" — Comparison of the three Systems — The Anglican holds to the Past and adapts itself to the Present — All the Elements of true Catholicity not only authoritative but practically advantageous — Protestant Dissenters adopting the Church's Ways — Two noted Tributes to the Church by disinterested Observers — The Power of the Historic Church to evoke enthusiastic Love — "The Bride of Christ *' — The Catholic Idea, - - - 241-251

CBAPTEB XXYL The Argument from Futurity.

(I.) Which System has the Brightest Outlook? — Anglican Prospects Last Century — Revival of Church-life — The Wesleys, the •'Evangelical Movement,'" The " Oxford "— Church Growth in England and the United States — Prospects of the Anglo-Saxon Race and the English Language— An unfair Comparison — Anglican Prospects Brighter than Roman — Roman Schism losing Ground in England — Dependent on Immigration in the United States — The United States the Paradise of Protestantism — Elements of Disintegration and Decay — Protestantism about to Pass through a Fearful Ordeal — Protestant Paralogism — The Churchman has Nothing to Fear. (II.) The Anglican Church Surest to Keep the Fa ith —Roman Additions to the Faith Driving Men to Infidelity — " Infallibility,' 1 What Next'? — Protestantism Losing the Faith (Unitarianism) — Lacks the Conservative Orthodoxy of the Church. (III.) Which System Offers the Best Basis for the Reunion of Christendom?— Not the Roman, Unless it Gives Up the Papacy, etc.— The Anglican Church a Medium of Reunion — So Acknowledged by French Roman Catholics — Catholic and Reformed — Let Eomanists Lay Aside Novel Additions, and Protestants Restore Omitted Essentials, and they will find themselves Catholics — Nothing L'nreasonable is Asked — Summary and Conclusion, 252-266

bishop jeremy taylor's Prayer for the Whole Catholic Church.

I

Chapter I. The Question Stated

"Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in yon." — 1. St. Peter, iii. 15.

T^NGLISH speaking Christians are divided into three J. j great classes — -Churchmen, Recusants, and Dissenters. These terms have established themselves in literature ; and without implying any opprobrium, stand for important historical facts.

Churchmen are those who adhere to that old Catholic and Apostolic Church which, after sundry deformations, and reformations, but without losing its corporate identity, its historic continuity, or its divine authority, still maintains primitive faith, order, and worship, and exercises lawful jurisdiction throughout the British Empire and the American Republic. Churchmen are variously called Anglicans, Anglo-Catholics, or Episcopalians. They number about 225 Bishops, 30,000 priests, 1 and some 25,000,- 000 adherents.

Recusant means Refuser. The term was originally applied to those members of the English Church who, after the Reformation, refused the Church's ministrations ; and,

1. Including a small number of Deacons.

2 REASONS FOE BEING A CHURCHjIAy.

at the instigation of the Bishop of Rome, formed the first English schism.

The essence of the Reformation in our ilother Church was the assertion of her ancient independence of the Bishop of Rome, together with the correction of certain abuses. The English Bishops, clergy, and laity, as a body, acquiesced in the change which was a mere episode in the chequered history of Anglo- Catholicism. Out of 9.400 clergy only 189 refused to accept the new order of things. The laity, including those vrho really believed in the Papacy, were quietly settling down in the freed ancL purified Church of England ;' 2 when in the year 1570, the Bishop of Rome, Pius V., lost his temper, and commanded the " faithful " to withdraw from the English Church. A mere handful obeyed his mandate ; and leaving the ancient Catholic Church of their country, formed the Roman Schism or Italian Mission in England. That they were conscientious in so doing we cannot doubt. They have borne up bravely against civil persecutions, and manifold difficulties ; but have made almost no impression on the nation at large, and are now relatively losing ground. It was only as late as 1850 that they effected a regular organization in England with diocesan Bishops and a full Roman hierarchy. In Ireland, however, owing mainly to political causes, the Italian Mission was more successful and drew away a large majority of the laity,

2. "For diverse years in Queen Elizabeth's reign there was no Recusant known in England; but even they who were most addicted to Roman opinions, yet frequented our Churches and public assemblies, and did join with us in the use of the same prayers and divine offices, without any scruple, till they were prohibited by a papal bull for the interest of the Roman Court."— Archbishop Bhamhall. I. 248.

AUTHORITY.

but not many of the clergy, of the venerable Church of St. Patrick's planting. 3

Such is the position of the Kecusants or Refusers of Anglo-Catholic reform. They are variously styled Romanists, Roman Catholics or Papists. They have intruded also into the jurisdiction of the American Church, and have many adherents, mainly Irish and Germans.

The third division of English-speaking Christians comprises the Dissenters. As Romanists objected to the English Reformation because they thought it had gone too far, so certain others, who had imbibed the novelties of German Protestants and French Calvinists, objected because, forsooth, they fancied it had not been sweeping enough. At first they were few in number, and for the most part remained in communion with the Church — which even to this day shelters in her bosom many whose real sympathies lie with those who went out from her.

Recusants and Dissenters alike left their Mother Church, but with this distinction: the former in seceding placed themselves under the jurisdiction of a foreign Bishop, the Italian Pontiff ; while the latter broke altogether with the Church of the past, cast aside all ecclesiastical authority, organized themselves into new voluntary societies — not at first calling them churches, though they have since come to do so — and ordained their ministers by the authority of the congregation. The action of the Recusants was schism; that of the Dissenters, sectarianism.

3. Of all the Irish Bishops (and there were a great many of thern for the size of the country), only two, Walsh, Bishop of JVleath, and Leverous, Bishop of Kildare, refused to accept the Reformation, and left the "Church of Ireland. 11 The rest remained in the old Church, and the Bishops of the present " Church of Ireland 1 ' are their successors.

It is not my purpose to describe the different dissenting communions. The principle of sectism once introduced is fruitful of sub-division — like a fresh-water Poly-pus it multiplies by u fission " in a geometrical ratio. The Presbyterians left us in 1573. The Brownists or Independents, afterward called Congregationalists, began to secede ten years later. They were followed by the Baptists, the Quakers, the Methodists, etc., etc., for their name is legion, There are now nearly 150 dissenting bodies in England, and while the actual number of Dissenters is diminishing, the number of sects into which they are splitting up is constantly on the increase. 4 Even the Methodist body which began but a century ago has already broken up into at least 25 distinct denominations. In the United States the fragmentary and disintegrated character of Christianity is simply appalling.

All these denominations, of course, differ among themselves ; but from a Church standpoint they may be classified together as having certain general characteristics, viz: the breaking away from the historic Church, the rejection of the Apostolic Ministry — with a special disbelief both in the Episcopate and the Christian Priesthood — a lowering or distortion or even abolition of the Sacraments, a rejection of Common Prayer and impressive seiwices in place of which are substituted much preaching and the extemporaneous devotions of a leader, the abandonment of the Christian Year which is so precious and profitable to us, and finally a great confusion in doctrine occasioned sometimes by elevating philosophical systems to the place

4. See ft Cutt's Turning Points in Eng. Ch. Hist., ,, p. 317.

AUTHORITY.

of dogma, and again, as in the case of the Unitarians, by actual apostacy from the fundamentals of the Christian religion.

The Dissenters are variously styled Nonconformists, Separatists, Sectarians, or, from an Anglo-Catholic standpoint, Protestants, as protesting against the old historic Church. They number about one-fourth of the English, the major part of the Scotch among whom Presbyterianism is established by law, a small proportion of the Irish, and a vast majority of American Christians.

To one or other of these three great classes of Christians we all belong, many of us perhaps without being able to justify our position or to give a reason for the hope that is in us. It is my purpose to state as simply, clearly, and accurately as I can, the chief reasons for being Churchmen instead of being Romanists, or Dissenters — and this I do with the prayer for divine guidance, " with charity for all, with malice toward none"

The first question is : Did God found an universal Church which claims the allegiance of mankind? Does that Church anywhere exist in its essential purity, and if so, does the Anglican Church fulfill the requirements? This may be called the argument from authority, and is based on an appeal to history. 5

The second consideration is that of present expediency, based on the comparative merits of the three systems so far as their practical methods of worship, teaching and work are concerned.

5. "It may be asserted without fear of contradiction that the whole case of the Romanising movement on the one side and of popular Protestantism on the other, rests upon perversions of history.' 1 — (English) Ch. Times.

REASONS FOB BEING A CHURCHMAN.

The third argument, or argument from futurity, will be drawn from a consideration of future prospects. Which system is likeliest to be the basis for restoring the broken unity of Christendom, and likeliest to hold the Faith till the Master comes ?

Our theme then is : The Church, her authority derived from the past, her present advantages, and her future prospects.

Chapter II

DID GOD FOUND A CHURCH WHICH STILL EXISTS ? ["Ab origine mundi incipiens."]

TT ought not to be necessary to ask this question. But it is. The raison d'etre of man-made churches, the only possible justification of dissent, must logically be the assumption either that God did not found a Church, or else that the Church He founded has perished from the earth. Now, if it can be shown that God did found a Church which still exists, surely no one can fail to see his personal duty with reference to it.

Our first parents, even before they fell into sin, were admitted into covenant relation with God, which was the germ of all subsequent ecclesiastical dispensations. " Eden was an enclosure from the outside world, the Church where the Son of God personally met man and told him of his duty of faith and obedience, and of the penalty that would follow unbelief and disobedience. That Church was the root of Christianity, and it was designed to pass through several stages of development before it attained its maturity." 1

After the fall of man God continued that Church, but

1. Dr. C C. Adams in Am. Ch. Rev., Oct., 1884.

S REASONS FOR BEING A CHURCHMAN.

altered its character to suit the changed relation between Him and His now disobedient children. Sin had destroyed the sweet communion of Eden, and in its place God appointed a Covenant of Redemption, based on the sacrificial death of the promised Seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent's head, the Lamb of God who, in the knowledge and purpose of the Almighty, was "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." 2 All history, ancient or modern, centres in the Incarnation and sacrifice of the Son of God ; and so, from the offering of righteous Abel to the latest Eucharistic Oblation upon the Table of the Lord, Sacrifice has ever been the chief characteristic of God's Church ; while even the heathen who left the worship of the true God, never entirely lost the God-given conviction that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.

Thus the Church of the Patriarchal Dispensation was ushered in, and as we read in Gen. iv. 3 26, " Then began men to call on the name of the Lord." Before the flood, however, dissent in its worst form, as utter apostasy, prevailed to a greater extent than at any subsequent period. The " Sons of Men " so far outnumbered the " Sons of God," that the Church was narrowed down to one family of but eight souls. After the flood God renewed His Covenant with man in the person of Noah ; and again in the case of Abraham, at which time He appointed an additional rite for the initiation of infants and of adult converts into His Church, viz : Circumcision. At the same time he cut off the apostate races, so that the Church was

AUTHORITY.

continued in the family of Abraham, whose descendants in the line of his grandson, Jacob, became the tl chosen people," whose great work in history was the keeping alive the worship of Jehovah in the midst of an idolatrous World, in order that there might be one orthodox nation of which, according to the flesh, the Son of God should be born, and which should form the nucleous of anew, higher, world-wide and eternal Dispensation which God was about to introduce.

God's revelation of Himself and the building up of His Kingdom of Grace on the earth have been progressive. We have seen something of the Patriarchal Dispensation in which the priesthood was vested in the eldest son. A great step was made in the development of revealed religion, when God through Moses gave Israel the Decalogue and the Ceremonial Law. From that time to the coming of Christ no Christian can deny that there has existed on the earth an organization fully entitled to be called the Church of God. As under the previous Dispensation, so here, sacrifices typifying the one great Sacrifice to come, were the most notable feature of the Church. u Gather my saints together unto me," saith the Lord, " those that have made a covenant with me with sacrifice." 3 God, moreover, gave explicit directions as to the polity and worship of the Jewish Church. " See thou make ail things according to the pattern showed thee in the mount." 4 Instead of the Patriarchal Priesthood there was now established a Ministerial Succession in three orders in the tribe of Levi — the High Priest, the Priests and the Levites. And when once God had ordained this ministry,