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« The authority of a Church establishment is founded," we are told, on its utility." The position, thus stated, appears capable of leading into errorThe authority of the establishment of the Christian Church is founded upon the character of the party who established it; that party being Jesus Christ, through the ministry of his Apostles, its utility must, of course, be admitted. No supposed improvements, therefore, to be expected from human "deliberations concerning the form, propriety, of comparative "excellency of different establishments," can balance against the authority of those persons, who were favoured with that competent judgment upon this subject, which is now no longer possessed.

The Archdeacon's arguments upon this subject, if I understand them, may, when brought together, be thus stated: "A religious establishment is no part of Christianity. It cannot be proved, that any form of Church government was ever laid down in the Christian Church. However this be, certain it is, no command was delivered by Christ on the subject. But admitting that the form of government by bishops and presbyters, was established by the Apostles, it must be considered only as a form adapted to the circumstances of the Church at that time, but not with a view to its being a permanent establishment; because no precise constitution could be framed, which would suit the Church in its accommodation to the different arrangements of civil policy. The authority of

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a Church establishment is founded in its utility." The conclusion too which the foregoing premises are designed to lead, seems to be this: That whenever it shall appear to the governing powers that any new Church establishment, different from that in possession, shall be more conducive to utility, h as a scheme of religious instruction, than that set on foot by the Apostles, they are justified in adopting it. inslor ersloiting edi But before this conclusion be admitted, we have a right to be satisfied with respect to the validity of the premises upon which it is built.sq

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In answer to the position, that it cannot be proved that any form of Church government was laid down in the Christian Church, with a view of fixing a constitution for succeeding ages," some !readers will say, that the contrary position has been * abundantly proved. The authority of St. Ignatius and Clement, to pass over later writers, will,ɗin the opinion of many, be deemed sufficient to balance against it. 9) tegltzoge The certainty with respect to our Saviour's having delivered no command on this subject does by no means appear: this certainty stands only on the ground of the Archdeacon's naked assertion ; to establish which it must be proved, that every thing that passed between our Saviour and his Apostles, relative to his Church, has been recorded. This undoubtedly is not the case. The Apostle, for instance, directs his disciples "to obey them that had the rule over them, and to submit themselves."* The commission, then, which the Apos

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*Heb. xiii. 17.

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tles received, invested them with an authority, to which Christians were to be obedient. But there is no positive command of our Saviour's to be produced, upon which such authority is built. To guard, therefore, against the idea of the Apostles assuming to themselves an authority which their commission did not warrant, it must be supposed that the evangelical narrative does not contain all the particulars relative to this subject. Now we reads of four Saviour's being seen alive of his (Apostles during the space of forty days after his passion; and of his giving them commandments, "and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." Is it not, then, most reasonable to conclude, that some of these commandments, and part of the instruction vouchsafed to the Apostles at this time, respected the settlement and government of the Christian Church? and that, although nothing decisive on this subject has been left upon record, the conduct of the Apostles in the discharge of their high commission, was in a great measure regulated by the directions which they had received?

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But, upon the supposition that the Apostles, in their establishment of the Church, were governed by the considerations pointed out by the author here alluded to; before we place the authority of the governors of the Church at any subsequent period upon a level with that of the Apostles in a matter of this kind, it requires that we should be satisfied that the advantages possessed by them are equal with those heretofore possessed by the

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*Acts i. 2, 3.

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Apostles, for the direction of their judgment on this subjectant.. of godleggo mi đo? тo „$79296

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The establishment of the Christian Church being only temporary, to be altered as the future circumstances of society, and the different arrangements of civil policy might require, appears to be a position irreconcileable with the independence of the Christian Church, and calculated only to corrupt it. Before it be therefore admitted, some strong proof should be brought, that the establishment of the Church was designed to be of this accommodating nature. The language and conduct of the Apostles in the discharge of their office, together with the state of the Church for the first three hundred years of its existence, authorize us to draw the contrary conclusion. ( orote&

In fact, the connection of the Church with the state appears to be an accidental circumstance, which may," or may not, exist; and which, consequently, did not constitute a part of the plan upon which it was originally established. The state may come into the Church, as in the days of Constantine; but the Church is not to accommodate itself to the state, to produce this effect: or the state may begin opposition to the Church, as in the days of the Apostles. Its establishment, therefore, as a spiritual society, must respect its permanent condition, as it exists in itself upon the authority of its Divine Founder; not its accidental one, as it is occasionally connected with civil policy. When kings and queens become the nursing fathers and nursing mothers to the Church, the Church is supported and benefited by their protection;

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when those who ought to protect and support it, desert, or act in opposition to it, the Church is no longer in a flourishing condition with respect to temporalities, but its establishment is in both cases the samegeritib sift 308 7900210 #5964w9r9 d When ArchdeaconTM Paley, therefore, talks about To framing an ecclesiastical constitution, adapted to real lifes and to the actual state of religion if the country," he appears (if I understand him righty to be placing the subject in that political point of view, in which it was never designed to stand, and to be giving scope to that innovating spirit, which must be the consequence of establishing the Christian Church upon a human, rather than a Divine, foundation.

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Before Dr. Paley again commits himself on this Important subject, he will do well to consider, what Was so judiciously said upon it a hundred years ago,that in accommodating Church government to the frame and occasion of the state, nothing be disestablished or unsettled, that seems to have been settled by the authority of scripture. Therefore, whereas we see there the government of the Church first settled in the hands of bishops, that is, pastors that had authority over pastors; (see epistles to Timothy and Titus) and we find no other forms of Church government, neither in the scripture, snor in the practice of the universal Church, though the whole form and frame of episcopal government is not so expressly prescribed, but that the Church may, in many things, have power of making therein accommodations to the times and exigencies of the state; yet may not those acts of accommodation

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