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rest; but there is no good evidence that visiting presbyters were any where appointed to offices similar to those of our archdeacons, until the abolition of the order of chorepiscopi. That the appointment took place then, is rendered unquestionable by the 57th canon of the council of Laodicea, which substitutes visiting presbyters for those village-bishops, of whom it decreed that no more were to be ordained.

Whether the church acted prudently in all these apparent deviations from primitive simplicity, is a question which we are not called upon to answer; but it is certain that in none of them did she exceed that authority, with which, as an independent society to be spread over the whole world, she must have been invested by her divine lawgiver, to adapt her constitution, as much as possible, to the circumstances in which she might be placed. To this authority St. Paul repeatedly alludes; and if her metropolitans and patriarchs, her deans and chapters, her visiting presbyters and archdeacons, &c., contributed in any degree to the maintenance of order and decency, she had an unquestionable right to appoint them. Her patriarchs and metropolitans, however dignified with titles and outward splendor, derived from Christ, by apostolical succession, no authority which was not equally possessed by every other bishop; the visiting presbyters, though the bishop devolved on them such parts of his authority as presbyters were capable of exercising, were still nothing more than mere presbyters; and an archdeacon, although he had precédence among his brethren, could not administer the Lord's supper, and was therefore inferior to the lowest presbyter in the church.

The authority of the church to decree rites or ceremonies and to make such regulations in the mode of administering her discipline, as are best adapted to produce the effects for which her discipline itself was instituted, are facts which cannot indeed be questioned. When incorporated with the state, her governors may certainly be armed by the civil magis

trate with civil rank and civil power; but she has no authority to depart in a single article from the faith which was once delivered to the saints, or to surrender to any man that authority which her bishops derive by succession from the apostles. The church is a kingdom not of this world; and therefore, as she derives not her inherent authority from the potentates of this world, to the potentates of this world she cannot resign that authority. Wherever the faith is maintained in purity, and the episcopal succession preserved, there is a true church, or the elements of a true church: "quando," to use the words of Cyprian, "Ecclesia in episcopo, et clero, et in omnibus stantibus, sit constituta "," and to the efficacious administration of the word and sacraments, it is of no consequence whether the bishop of such a church be a prince, a peer, or an obscure pastor; for, as another ancient writer" observes, " potestas peccatorum remittendorum apostolis data est, et " ecclesiis quas illi a Christo missi constituerunt, et "episcopis qui eis ordinatione vicariâ successerunt."

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Fell,

Epist. 27, edit. Pamel.-33, edit. Fell.

Firmilian. inter Cyp. Epistolas, Ep. 75. edit. Pamėlii et

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Concerning the Spirit and Conduct of the first Reformers, and the Charge of Enthusiasm (i. e. Fanaticism) that has been brought against them by a celebrated Author.

THE candor and impartiality, with which Dr. Mosheim represents the transactions of those who were agents and instruments in bringing about the Reformation, are highly laudable. He acknowleges that imprudence, passion, and even a low self-interest, mingled sometimes their rash proceedings and ignoble motives in this excellent cause; and, in the very nature of things, it could not be otherwise. It is one of the inevitable consequences of the subordination and connexions of civil society, that many improper instruments and agents are set to work in all great and important revolutions, whether of a religious or political nature. When great men appear in these revolutions, they draw after them their dependents; and the unhappy effects of a party spirit are unavoidably displayed in the best cause. The subjects follow their prince; the multitude adopt the system of their leaders, without entering into its true spirit, or being judiciously attentive to the proper methods of promoting it; and thus irregular proceedings are employed in the maintenance of the truth. Thus it happened in the important revolution that delivered a great part of Europe from the ignominious yoke of the Roman pontiff. The sovereigns, the ecclesiastics, the men of weight, piety, and learning, whọ arose to assert the rights of human nature, the cause of genuine Christianity, and the exercise of religious liberty, came forth into the field of contro versy with a multitude of dependents, admirers, and

friends, whose motives and conduct cannot be entirely justified. Besides, when the eyes of whole nations were opened upon the iniquitous absurdities of popery, and upon the tyranny and insolence of the Roman pontiffs, it was scarcely possible to set bounds to the indignation of an incensed and tumultuous multitude, who are naturally prone to extremes, generally pass from blind submission to lawless ferocity, and too rarely distinguish between the use and abuse of their undoubted rights. In a word, many things, which appear to us extremely irregular in the conduct and measures of some of the instruments of our happy reformation, will be entitled to a certain degree of indulgence, if the spirit of the times, the situation of the contending parties, the barbarous provocations of popery, and the infirmities of human nature, be duly and attentively considered.

The question here is, what was the spirit which animated the first and principal reformers, who arose in times of darkness and despair to deliver oppressed kingdoms from the dominion of Rome, and upon what principles a Luther, a Zuingle, a Calvin, a Melanchthon, a Bucer, &c. embarked in the arduous cause of the Reformation? This question, indeed, is not at all necessary to the defence of the Reformation, which rests upon the strong foundations of Scripture and reason, and whose excellence is absolutely independent of the virtues of those who took the lead in promoting it. Bad men may be, and often are, embarked in the best causes, as such causes afford the most specious mask to cover mercenary views, or to disguise ambitious purposes. But until the more than Jesuitical and disingenuous Philips resumed the trumpet of calumnya, even the voice of popery had ceased to attack the moral characters of the leading reformers.

a See the various answers that were made to this biographer by the ingenious Mr. Pye, the learned Dr. Neve, and other com mendable writers who have appeared in this controversy.

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These eminent men were indeed attacked from another quarter, and by a much more respectable writer. The truly ingenious Mr. Hume, so justly celebrated as one of the first favorites of the historic muse, has, in his history of England, and more especially in the history of the houses of Tudor and Stuart, represented the character and temper of the first reformers in a point of view, which undoubtedly shews, that he had not considered them with the close and impartial attention that ought always to precede personal reflexions. He has laid it down as a principle, that superstition and enthusiasm are two species of religion that stand in diametrical opposition to each other; and seems to establish it as a fact, that the former is the genius of popery, and the latter the characteristic of the Reformation. Both the principle and its application must appear ex tremely singular; and three sorts of persons must be more especially surprised at it.

b

In the first place, persons of a philosophical turn, who are accustomed to study human nature, and to describe with precision both its regular and eccentric movements, must be surprised to see superstition and fanaticism represented as opposite and jarring qualities. They have been often seen together, holding with each other a most friendly correspondence; and indeed if we consider their nature and their essential characters, their union will appear, not only possible, but in some cases natural, if not necessary. Superstition, which consists in false and abject notions of the Deity, in the gloomy and groundless fears of invisible beings, and in the absurd rites, that these notions and these fears naturally produce, is certainly

I use the word fanaticism here, instead of enthusiasm, to prevent all ambiguity; because, as shall be shewn presently, Mr. Hume takes enthusiasm in its worse sense when he applies it to the reformers; and in that sense it is not only equivalent to, but is perfectly synonymous with, fanaticism. Besides, the latter term is used indiscriminately with enthusiasm, by this celebrated historian, in characterising the Reformation.

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