On the contrary, he who has a living at his disposal, is often ignorant of the true character of him who seeks a preferment. A thousand sinister motives may bias his judgment. He may be the most unsuitable man possible for such a trust.93 In a word, who does not know that the curse of a graceless ministry has ever rested upon the church, to a greater or less extent, wherever they have not enjoyed the right of electing their own pastors? The rich and quiet livings of an establishment, especially if coupled with the authority, the distinction and emoluments of the Episcopal office, will ever be an object of ambition to worldly men. "Make me a bishop," said an ancient idolater, "make me a bishop, and I will surely be a Christian."

6. The free enjoyment of the elective franchise, is one of the best means of guarding the church against the inroads of

error.

The Puseyism of the day is a delusion of the priesthood. The writer has often been assured in England that few, comparatively, of the common people are led away by it. And in this country we have lately seen the laity nobly struggling to resist diocesan despotism. So it has ever been; the delusions and heresies that have overrun the church, have origi

custom, observed by the African church, and throughout almost all the provinces, that the election is to be performed in the presence of the people of the place, who fully know every man's life, and in their very intimate acquaintance, have carefully observed his habitual conversation. Episcopus deligatur, plebe præsente, quæ singulorum vitam plenissime novit, et uniuscujusque actum de ejus conversatione perspexerit... Coram omni synagoga jubet Deus constitui sacerdotem, id est, instruit atque ostendit ordinationes sacerdotales nonnisi, sub populi assistentis conscientia fieri opportere ut, plebe praesente, vel detegantur malorum crimina, vel bonorum merita praedicentur, ... Quod utique idciro tam diligenter et caute, convocata plebe, tota gerebatur, ne quis ad altaris ministerium, vel ad sacerdotalem locum indignus obreperet-Cyprian, Ep. 68.

93 Tracts for the Times, No. 59. p. 413.

nated with the clergy.94 But in a ministry having no dependence upon the people, will be found, if any where, irreligious and dangerous men, who, caring little for the real interests of their flocks, will substitute their own delusions95 for those simple truths which an intelligent and virtuous people delight to hear, and which a godly ministry would desire to preach. Leave then, the choice of the clergyman in the hands of the people. They will most carefully seek for one who is sound in the faith, and devoted to the sacred work; they will soonest reject one who may seek to pervert the truth of God. Upon the laity alone can we rely to see to it that the church is furnished with ministers who shall be the best defenders of the faith, by the authority of their learning and the piety of their lives.

7. The right of suffrage promotes mutual attachment between pastor and people, and the spiritual edification of the church.

94 "If you were to take the great mass of the people of England, you would find a burst of righteous indignation against them (the Tractarians). They would say, If we are to have popery, let us have honest old popery, at once. If you are right, you do not go far enough; and if you are wrong, you go too far"-Rev. Mr. Stowell, cited in Letters to the Laity, p. 34.

95 When the prerogative and pre-eminence of any single person in the church began to be in esteem, not a few who failed in their attempts of attaining it, to revenge themselves on the church, made it their business to invent and propagate pernicious heresies. So did Thebulis, at Jerusalem, Euseb., lib. 4. cap. 22. and Valentinus, Tertul. ad Val., cap. 4. and Marcion, at Rome, Epiphan. Hæres, 42. Montanus fell into his dotage on the same account; so did Novitianus at Rome, Euseb. lib. 7. cap. 43. and Arius, at Alexandria. Hence is that censure of them by Lactantius, lib. 4. cap. 30. 'li quorum fides fuit lubrica, cum Deum nosse se et colere simularent, augendis opibus et honori studentes, affectabant maximum sacerdotium, et a potioribus victi, secedere cum suffragatoribus maluerunt, quam eos ferre præpositos quibus concupierant ipsi ante præponi."-Owen, Works, Vol. XX. p. 169.

The people receive instruction, with affectionate interest and confidence, from the lips of the preacher whom they have appointed over themselves, from the man of their own choice; while he, in turn, speaks to them in the fulness and confidence of reciprocal love. On the other hand, the ministrations of a priesthood which is imposed upon a people, are felt to be a hireling service, in which neither speaker nor hearer can have equal interest.

Finally. It produces the most efficient ministry.

This is a general conclusion, drawn from the foregoing considerations, and a position established by the whole history of the church. It contradicts all history, and all the principles of human conduct, to suppose, that an independent Establishment, in which the priesthood are settled down at ease in their livings, can have the vigorous efficiency and moral power of a clergy, the tenure of whose office depends upon their activity and usefulness.

CHAPTER V.

DISCIPLINE BY THE CHURCHES.

THE discipline of the apostolical churches was administered by each body of believers collectively; and continued to be under their control until the third or fourth century. About this period the simple and efficient discipline of the primitive church was exchanged for a complicated and oppressive system of penance administered by the clergy. But the church itself possesses the only legitimate authority for the administration of discipline. Its members form a voluntary association. They have the right to enact their own laws, and to prescribe such conditions of membership with themselves, as they may judge expedient and agreeable to the word of God. The right to administer ecclesiastical discipline was guaranteed to the churches from their first organization under the apostles; but was finally lost by the usurpation of the priesthood under the Episcopal hierarchy.

I. The right to administer ecclesiastical discipline was originally vested in the church itself.

The argument in support of this proposition is derived: 1. From the Scriptures.

2. From the early Fathers.

3. From the authority of modern ecclesiastical writers.

4. From the fact, that the entire government of the church was vested in that body itself.

1. The argument from Scripture.

Our Lord himself is generally supposed to teach, in Matt. 18: 15-18, that the public discipline of offenders should be administered by the authority of the church.

These instructions are understood to have been given prospectively, and to contain the rules by which the discipline of the Christian church should be administered. But whether given prospectively, with reference to the Christian church which was about to be established, or designed to exhibit the proper mode of procedure in the discipline of the Jewish synagogue, they doubtless develope the principle on which ecclesiastical censure should be conducted under the Christian dispensation. Vitringa has clearly shown that the directions of our Lord, in this instance, accord with the established usage of the synagogue, which, as we have already seen, was the pattern of the primitive church, both in its government and forms of worship. He has shown, fully, that this sentence was to be pronounced in accordance with a popular vote in public assembly; and that the same course of procedure was to be the rule of the Christian church. The church therefore, like the synagogue,1 is the ecclesiastical court of impeachment for the trial of offences. If private remonstrance proves ineffectual, the case is to be brought before the church convened in public assembly; to be adjudged by a public vote of that body, after the manner of the Jewish synagogue.

This rule of discipline was also established in the Christian church by apostolical authority.

We have on record one instance of a trial before the church which was instituted by the command of the apostle Paul, and conducted throughout agreeably to his instructions. A Christian convert in Corinth, and a member of

1 Vitringa, De Synagoga Vet. Lib. 3. p. 1. c. 9. Augusti, Denkwürd gkeiten, IX. S. 43. seq. Pfaff, De Originibus Juris Eccles.