Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

by our LORD and His Apostles in word and writing, was received by their disciples in the primitive Churches, was transmitted and confirmed by general tradition, was sealed by the blood of the blessed martyrs, and propagated by the labours of the holy fathers: the which also manifestly recommendeth and promoteth true reverence and piety towards GOD, justice and charity towards men, order and quiet in human societies, purity and sobriety in each man's private conversation.

"Those who celebrate the true worship of God, and administer the holy mysteries of our religion, in a serious, grave, and decent manner, purely and without any notorious corruption, either by hurtful error, or superstitious foppery, or irreverent rudeness, to the advancement of God's honour, and edification of the participants in virtue and piety.

"Those who derive their authority by a continued succession from the Apostles, who are called unto and constituted in their office in a regular and peaceable way, agreeable to the institution of God, and the constant practice of His Church, according to rules approved in the best and purest ages; who are prepared to the exercise of their functions by the best education, that ordinarily can be provided under sober discipline, in the schools of the prophets; who thence, by competent endowment of mind and useful furniture of good learning, acquired by painful study, become qualified to guide and instruct the people; who, after previous examination of their abilities, and probable testimonies concerning their manners (with regard to the qualifications of incorrupt doctrine and sober conversation, prescribed by the Apostles), are adjudged fit for the office; who, also in a pious, grave, solemn manner, with invocation of God's blessing, by laying on of the hands of the presbytery, are admitted thereunto.

"Those whose practice in guiding and governing the people of GOD, is not managed by arbitrary, uncertain, fickle, private fancies or humours, but regulated by standing laws; framed (according to general directions extant in holy Scripture) by pious and wise persons, with mature advice, in accommodation to the seasons and circumstances of things, for common edification, order, and peace.

66

Those, who, by virtue of their good principles, in their dispositions and demeanour appear sober, orderly, peaceable, yielding meek submission to government, tendering the Church's peace. upholding the communion of the saints, abstaining from all schismatical, turbulent, and factious practices.

"Those, also, who are acknowledged by the laws of our country, an obligation to obey whom is part of that human constitution unto which we are in all things (not evidently repugnant to God's law) indispensably bound to submit ; whom our Sovereign, God's vicegerent, and the nursing father of His Church among us, (unto whom in all things high respect, in all lawful things entire obedience, is due) doth command and encourage us to obey.

"Those, I say, to whom this character plainly doth agree, we may reasonably be assured, that they are our true guides and governors whom we are obliged to follow and obey; for what better assurance can we in reason desire? what more proper marks can be assigned to discern them by? what methods of constituting such needful officers can be settled more answerable to their design and use? how can it be evil or unsafe to follow guides authorized by such warrants, conformed to such patterns, endowed with such dispositions, acting by such principles and rules? Can we mistake or miscarry, by complying with the great body of Gon's Church through all ages, and particularly with those great lights of the primitive Church, who, by the excellency of their knowledge, and the integrity of their virtue, have so illustrated our holy religion?"

OXFORD,

(Barrow, Serm. LVI. p. 284-287. vol. iii.)

The Feast of the Epiphany.

[FIFTH EDITION.]

These Tracts are continued in Numbers, and sold at the price of

2d. for each sheet, or 7s. for 50 copies.

LONDON: PRINTED for J. G. F. & J. RIVINGTON,

ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE.

1840.

GILBERT & RIVINGTON, Printers, St. John's Square, London.

TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.

SERMONS FOR SAINTS' DAYS AND HOLIDAYS. (No. 1. ST. MATTHIAS.)

"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain."-St. John xv. 16.

THE service of this day invites us to consider the nature and commission of that ministry, by which Christians all over the world are made partakers of heavenly and spiritual blessings.

On this point, as on most others, it is obvious that the New Testament does no where furnish a regular and orderly course of instruction, such as on many great subjects we find in our Creeds, Articles, and Catechisms. But the mind and will of our Divine Master may be gathered plainly enough, at least by those who are willing to show a reasonable respect to the witness of the early Church.

St. Luke, in the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles, informs us, that our LORD was not taken up, until "after that He, through the HOLY GHOST, had given commandments unto the Apostles whom He had chosen ;-being seen of them" at various times during as much as "forty days," and "speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." Then, doubtless, He gave them instruction in what method and order to proceed, what kind of ministry to settle in His Church. Who would not wish to know what was the tenor of those conversations? But the HOLY GHOST, in His unsearchable wisdom, has not seen fit directly to put them on record: an omission which appears very significant, when compared with the minute register which the Gospels supply of many former discourses. So it is, that on the occasion which would seem to promise most information concerning the nature of CHRIST's kingdom, instead of finding any report of what our blessed SAVIOUR said, we find a report of what His Apostles did. Their Acts and Letters take place of the desired memorial VOL. II.-52.

A

of His parting instructions. Is not this a hint to us all, on authority which cannot safely be despised, that we must look to the actual conduct and system of the early Church for a true notion of the things pertaining to "the kingdom of God," of which our LORD then spake to His Apostles. However early, on minute points, partial errors may have crept in, is it not evident to common sense, that the system which we trace back in the Church to the very generation next following the Apostles, must be in all great points the very system enjoined by our LORD, and partially disclosed in the subsequent history of His servants?

It follows, that in order to make out our SAVIOUR'S will on any point relating to the discipline and proceedings of His Church, the first portion of Scripture to which our attention is directed is the Acts of the holy Apostles.

Now, the very first Act of the Apostles, after CHRIST was gone out of their sight, was that commemorated this day; the ordination of Matthias in the room of the traitor Judas. That ordination is related very minutely. Every particular of it is full of instruction; but at present I wish to draw attention to one circumstance more especially; namely, the time when it occurred. It was contrived (if one may say so) exactly to fall within the very short interval which elapsed between the departure of our LORD and the arrival of the Comforter in His place: on that "little while," during which the Church was comparatively left alone in the world. Then it was that St. Peter rose and declared with authority, that the time was come for supplying the vacancy which Judas had made. "One," said he, "must be ordained;" and without delay they proceeded to the ordination. Of course, St. Peter must have had from our LORD express authority for this step. Otherwise it would seem most natural to defer a transaction so important until the unerring Guide, the HOLY GHOST, should have come among them, as they knew He would in a few days. On the other hand, since the Apostles were eminently Apostles of our Incarnate LORD, since their very being, as Apostles, depended entirely on their personal mission from Him (which is the reason why catalogues are given of them, with such scrupulous care, in so many of the holy books):-in that regard one should naturally have expected that He Himself, before His departure, would have supplied the vacancy by personal designation. But we see it was not His pleasure to do so. As the Apostles

afterwards brought on the ordination sooner, so He had deferred it longer than might have been expected. Both ways it should seem as if there were a purpose of bringing the event within those ten days, during which, as I said, the Church was left to herself; left to exercise her faith and hope, much as Christians are left now, without any miraculous aid or extraordinary illumination from above. Then, at that moment of the New Testament history, in which the circumstances of believers corresponded most nearly to what they have been since miracles and inspiration ceased-just at that time it pleased our LORD that a fresh Apostle should be consecrated, with authority and commission as ample as the former enjoyed. In a word, it was His will that the eleven Disciples alone, not Himself personally, should name the successor of Judas; and that they chose the right person, He gave testimony very soon after, by sending His HOLY SPIRIT on St. Matthias, as richly as on St. John, St. James, or St. Peter.

Thus the simple consideration of the time when Matthias was ordained, confirms two points of no small importance to the wellbeing of CHRIST's kingdom on earth. First, it shows that whoever are regularly commissioned by the Apostles, our LORD will consider those persons as commissioned and ordained by Himself. Secondly, it proves that such power to ordain is independent of those apostolical functions, which may be properly called extraordinary and miraculous. It existed before those functions began; why then may it not still continue, however entirely they have passed away?

We must not pretend to be wise above what is written; but there is, I trust, nothing presumptuous or unscriptural in supposing that JESUS CHRIST, the great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, purposely abstained from nominating St. Matthias in His life-time, in order that Christians in all times might understand that the ordained successors of the Apostles are as truly Bishops under Him, as ever the Apostles were themselves.

For this is the constant doctrine of the ancient Church, delivered in express terms by our LORD in the text, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain."

It may seem strange that our LORD should deem it necessary to guard His Disciples against such a notion as that they had chosen

« AnteriorContinuar »