[137] Mr. Lupton’s translation of Colet’s Abstract of the Eccl. Hier. p. 92. In a short essay contained in the MSS. Gg. 4, 26, of the Cambridge University Library, entitled ‘De compositione sancti corporis Christi mistici, quæ est ecclesia, quæ sine anima ejus, Spiritu scilicet, dispergitur et dissipatur.’ Colet, after showing how men, if left to themselves, would wander apart and become scattered; and that the purpose of God is, that they should be united in one body the church by the Spirit, as by a magnet, goes on to say, ‘Predestinatum fuit hominem qui decidit a Deo retrahi ad Deum non posse quidem nisi per Deum factum hominem.... Mortuus est ut liberos faceret homines ad talem vitam, ut debita cujusque hominum in illius morte soluta, nunc desinentes peccare deinceps liberi sint justiciæ, ut non amplius maneamus in peccato,’ &c.—Ff. 70b, 71a.
[138] Wilberforce, in his Doctrine of the Incarnation, third edition, 1850, thus expressed the modern sacerdotal theory. In the word Priest, in primitive languages, ‘the notion of the setting apart those who should act on man’s behalf towards God is everywhere visible.’—P. 229.
‘Now if Christ is still maintaining a real intercession (if He still pleads that sacrifice) then is there ample place for that sacerdotal system, by which some actual thing is still to be effected, and in which some agents must still be employed.’—P. 381. ‘We put the Priestly office under the law in a line with the ministerial office under the Gospel; we assert, that if the title of Priest could be given fitly to the first, it belongs also to the second.’—P. 383. ‘Any persons who discharge an office which has reference to God, and who present to Him what is offered by men, may be called Priests.’—P. 384.
[139] See the same views expressed by Colet in his exposition of ‘Corinthians.’—Emmanuel Col. MS. 3, 3, 12, leaf g, 2.
[140] Colet’s Abstract of the Ecc. Hier. ch. ii. s. 2. Mr. Lupton’s translation, pp. 61, 62. Colet writes a little further on:—‘The office of the bishop is, like Christ, to preach constantly and diligently the truth he has received. For he is, as it were, a messenger midway between God and men, to announce to men heavenly things, as Christ did.’—Pp. 63, 64.
[141] ‘Through this bread and this cup, that which is offered as a true sacrifice in heaven is present as a real though immaterial agent in the church’s ministrations. So that what is done by Christ’s ministers below is a constituent part of that general work which the one great High Priest performs in heaven: through the intervention of his heavenly Head, the earthly sacrificer truly exhibits to the Father that body of Christ which is the one only sacrifice for sins; each visible act has its efficacy through those invisible acts of which it is the earthly expression, and things done on earth are one with those done in heaven.’—Wilberforce’s Doctrine of the Incarnation, pp. 372, 373.
[142] Colet’s abstract of the Eccl. Hier. ch. iii. Mr. Lupton’s translation, pp. 78-94. Whilst not disapproving in others daily attendance ‘ad mensam Dominicam,’ Erasmus tells us that Colet did not make a daily habit of it himself.—Eras. Op. iii. p. 459, E.
[143] Eccl. Hier. ch. ii. Colet speaks in his abstract (Mr. Lupton’s translation, p. 65) of the Christian being ‘brought to the captain of the army, the bishop,’ that by the soldier’s oath, &c. ‘he may own himself a soldier of Christ.’ He concludes this section as follows:—
‘Such was the custom and ceremony of baptism and the washing of regeneration in the primitive church, instituted by the holy apostles, whereby the more excellent baptism of the inner man is signified. And this form differs very greatly from the one we make use of in this age. And herein I own that I marvel!... The apostles being fully taught by Jesus Christ, knew well what are convenient symbols and appropriate signs for the mysteries. So that one may suspect either rashness or neglect on the part of their successors in what has been added to or taken from their ordinances.’
Then follows a section on the ‘spiritual contemplation of baptism,’ in which occurs the passage beginning ‘Gracious God!’ &c.—Infra, p. 73. Eccl. Hier. ch. ii. s. 3, pp. 76, 77 of Mr. Lupton’s translation.