Twelve months ago, in calling the attention of our readers to one of the latest volumes of Mr. Lynch's sermons, we ventured to predict that when it was too late, the world would find out that a prophet had lifted up his voice in the heart of modern London, comparatively disregarded; and now a ministry exercising transcendent influence over a few sympathetic minds, the spiritual work of a great poet and philosopher, the subtle wit, and delicate humour, and piercing satire of a gifted man are things of the past. We have lost him. We, and many others beside ourselves, are by this volume made to feel how incalculable that loss is. Hundreds of busy men, and hasty critics, will, we are satisfied, feel a species of pang when they discover the realities and the significance of this volume. Here was a man suffering from the agonies of angina pectoris, precluded by dire necessity from conducting two services on the Sunday, and out of the sheer love which he bore to his little flock, in the course of three months of bitter suffering, producing for their use and advantage a series of services, each including two prayers and a discourse which, to say the least, no one but Thomas Lynch could have originated. Mr. Cox's preface is painfully affecting. We might have expected, if he had not forewarned us to the contrary, that these pages would have shivered in sympathy with the intense agony under which they were penned. On the contrary, they sparkle with life and beauty, with cheerfulness and Christian hope. There is less of their author's well-known quaintness, less abundant illustration; he seems more intent upon the pure thought, and the logical concatenation of idea than had been customary with him. There is much sweet reasoning with despondency; there is an absence of all controversial atmosphere; there is not a trace of bitterness, nor a morbid thought about either God or man, but there is great fulness of heart and gentleness of soul; and these are the only signs the printed page reveals of the almost unutterable physical distress in which they were produced. Although neither these nor others of Mr. Lynch's published sermons can be called doctrinal deliverances, and though they deal with the life of faith, rather than with its essence or its object, yet they will be singularly valuable, and even indispensable to one who wishes to understand the doctrinal position of their author. Produced in the manner to which we have referred, they are above and beyond criticism. We accept them reverently; we commend them heartily and tenderly to our readers.
The Ecclesiastical Polity of the New Testament: A Study for the Present Crisis in the Church of England. By the Rev. G. A. Jacob, D.D., late Head Master of Christ's Hospital. Strahan and Co.
Churches and their Creeds. By the Rev. Sir Philip Perring, Bart. Longmans, Green, and Co.
Few things in modern controversy are more astounding, and cause more scandal to Nonconformists than the unwarrantable assumptions and unscholarly arguments of their Anglican opponents. We scarcely hesitate to say that such a work as Mr. Blunt's 'Ecclesiastical Dictionary—while evincing most patient research and abundant knowledge—contains more arbitrary assumptions and illogical conclusions than all the works on ecclesiastical controversy which Nonconformists have published during the present century. Had a Nonconformist been guilty of a tithe of such, every ecclesiastical newspaper in the land would have poured out upon him its jubilant ridicule. In any other science than theology such a treatment of facts would be simply impossible. We are sadly forced to the conclusion, that in the judgment of certain Churchmen, Sacramentarianism, and even an Episcopal Establishment, are religious truths so vital, that the very investigation of evidence is presumption of a reprobate mind, and no testimony of history or conclusion of reason is valid against them. It seems, at any rate, as if it were the first of religious duties so to manipulate facts and reconstruct history as to compel testimony in their support. For ourselves, we sorrowfully affirm that, speaking generally, we have lost all confidence in the conclusions of Anglican scholarship, and feel it imperative to test every citation and every assertion before we can attach the slightest argumentative value to it.
It is refreshing, therefore, to meet with the work of an Episcopalian clergyman equally conspicuous for its learning and for its fearless honesty. Dr. Jacob's work is one of those productions, rare, alas! which impress the reader from the beginning that he is in the hands of a man whose supreme solicitude is to ascertain truth—who permits no ecclesiastical prepossessions or interests to influence his conclusions; who however much he may love Plato, loves truth more. Dr. Jacob is an Episcopalian by conviction and preference—he does not utter a word that either questions the one or impugns the other; and yet he has written a book which is a patient, scholarly, and dispassionate investigation into the Ecclesiastical Polity of the New Testament, from the conclusions of which only men who contend for the divine right of Presbyterianism or Congregationalism, and possibly of Episcopalianism, will dissent. Since Archbishop Whately's 'Kingdom of Christ,' no such thorough treatment, and candid an examination of Church questions has appeared. To the fearless candour and acuteness of Whately, Dr. Jacob adds a habit of minute and patient scholarly investigation, which supplies the evidence upon which his important conclusions are reached. Had all ecclesiastical controversy been conducted in his spirit there would still be—as there ever will be—Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists; but these would have regarded their Church differences as preferential modes rather than as divine rights; and Christendom would have presented an aspect of harmonious diversity instead of one of sectarian assumptions and animosity. For ourselves, we most heartily thank him for his book, which, if there were any hope at all from the fanatical sectarianism of what is known as Anglicanism, would be the best eirenicon of these latter days. We cannot do better than try briefly to indicate a few of Dr. Jacob's conclusions, the more especially as our general accord with them calls for little criticism. 'In the apostolic writings, the word ἐκκλησία is never said of a country or nation. It is always the church in a city or town. Neither is it ever said to be the church of any given town, but always in or at the place.' 'Whenever the Christians of a country or nation are spoken of collectively, the word is always in the plural number, as "The churches of Galatia," &c. 'Hence national churches, however justifiable and desirable in certain periods of national life, are not divine nor apostolic institutions—their propriety rests altogether on the ground of general expediency and public advantage; and to attempt to furnish them with a higher sanction by arguments drawn from the theocratic government of the Jewish people seems to me to savour but little of sound reasoning, and to confound together some of the distinctive characteristics of two widely different dispensations.' 'Neither is the word ever applied to a building or a place of worship,' 'nor does it ever mean Christian ministers as distinguished from the general body of Christians.' The Catholic Church in its visible form includes any number of Christian societies, which, as far as human authority is concerned, are independent of each other.'
'The Episcopate, in the modern acceptation of the term, and as a distinct clerical order, does not appear in the New Testament, but was gradually introduced and extended throughout the Church at a later period.' 'Timothy at Ephesus, and Titus in Crete, are never called "bishops," or any other name which might indicate a special order or ecclesiastical office; their commission was evidently an exceptional and temporary charge, to meet some peculiar wants in those places during the necessary absence of St. Paul.' 'There is evidence of the most satisfactory kind, because unintentional, to the effect that Episcopacy was established in different churches after the decease of the apostles who founded them, and at different times.' 'The custom of the Church, rather than any ordinance of the Lord, made bishops greater than the rest.' Dr. Jacob attributes the idea of a priesthood in the Christian Church to the combined leaven of Jewish and of Pagan influences; and in this he differs from Professor Lightfoot, who attributes it exclusively to Pagan influence. 'Tertullian is the first Christian author by whom the Church ministry is directly asserted to be a priesthood.' Dr. Jacob undertakes to prove the proposition—'That, according to Scripture truth, the Christian ministry is not a priesthood, and Christian ministers are not priests, are not invested with any sacerdotal powers, and have no sacerdotal functions to perform.' The proof is wrought out in detail, with great amplitude of evidence, acuteness of argument, and to an irresistible conclusion. We should deal unfairly with it were we to attempt either citation or summary. The points of the argument are: 1. That the Christian Church was moulded upon the form of the synagogue, which had no altar; and not upon that of the temple, which had no pulpit. 2. The equality of privilege or standing-ground in Christ which Christians of all orders or degrees possessed. 3. The position and argument of the Epistle to the Hebrews. 4. The remarkable omissions concerning a priesthood of the New Testament, which Dr. Jacob contends is 'an insuperable bar to all sacerdotal assumptions, inasmuch as a positive and express appointment of divine authority is imperative.' A further argument is derived from the nature of New Testament ordination, which is fully discussed, and shown to confer, not power, but authority quoad hoc. 'Authority it gives according to the order and constitution of each church, but no other power than was possessed before, or afterwards, by whatever means obtained.' 'Those, therefore, amongst ourselves who contend that spiritual power is given by the act of ordaining, if they are not merely misunderstanding the word and using it in a sense which does not belong to it, are brought to the assumption, that it is not a power producing effects which are seen and felt in the hearts and lives of men, but one much more secret and unappreciable in its working;—the power, as it is alleged, of conferring divine grace through the sacraments, thus making the effect of the sacraments to depend upon something in the administrator, instead of the ordinance of Christ.'
'The authority to appoint Church officers was inherent in every duly constituted church, as the natural right of a lawful and well organized society.' Hence presbyters were competent to ordain, which Hooker also admits ('Eccl. Pol.,' vii. 14). 'The government and ordinations of Presbyterian churches are just as valid, Scriptural, and apostolic, as our own.' 'A priest, indeed, whose office is to stand between God and man must be specially called by God; but a pastor and teacher and administrator of sacred things in a congregation of Christian men who have access to God through the priesthood of Jesus Christ, whatever inward call he may require, needs no other outward appointment to his office than the authority of the church in which he ministers.' 'Neither apostle nor presbyter in the primitive church, so far as we know, pronounced absolution upon those who had confessed their sins for the purpose of conveying to them a grace from God, which otherwise they would not have had; nor is there anything in the New Testament to show that the declaration of God's forgiveness has any greater efficacy from the mouth of an ordained presbyter, than from that of any ordinary Christian.' 'The clergy, not being a priestly caste, or a mediating, sacrificing, absolving order, but Church officers appointed for the maintenance of due religious solemnity, the devout exercise of Christian worship, the instruction of the people in Divine truth, and their general edification in righteous living, are the acting representatives of the church to which they belong, and derive their ministerial authority from it.' 'The Christian ministry was requisite, not on account of any spiritual functions which could not otherwise have been lawfully discharged; but for the sake of the solemnity and regularity which are essential in a religious and permanent society. There was no spiritual act which in itself was of such a nature that it might not have been done by every individual Christian.' Hence Dr. Jacob concludes that neither of the sacraments demand imperatively the administration of a minister. 'As at the Jewish Passover any person might preside, usually the master of the house—this was probably the case in the earliest times in the Christian Church.' At the celebration of the Eucharist, 'Church members,' moreover, 'might depose their presbyters.' 'It is evident from the New Testament that questions of dogmatic theology are to be considered by lay members of the church, as well as by the clergy; and that no Christian man is to resign his reason or apprehensions of religious truth, any more than his conscience, to the judgment of his pastor.' When ministers teach false doctrine 'it would necessarily be the duty of every Christian to refuse their teaching.' 'In the apostolic age, and during the time when Christian worshippers met in private rooms, or in edifices of a simple style, there was no distinction made between different portions of the building, men and women were not separated in the congregation; neither was any form of consecration then used, or any particular sanctity or reverence attached to the place. The sanctity was in the worshippers who met together in the Saviour's name, and the reverence was given to His spiritual presence, which had been promised to those who should be thus assembled.' 'The consecration of churches with formal solemnities, which were supposed to impart a sacredness to the place and building, does not appear until the fourth century.' 'As no forms of prayer of apostolic authority are given in the sacred record, nor any command from the apostles as to the use or non-use of such forms, this is an open question to be decided by every church for itself; each church having a full right to act according to its discretion and deliberate judgment; but no right at all to condemn or disparage the opposite practice which another Christian community may prefer.' 'I think it is perfectly certain that in the earliest period of the apostolic age a fixed and prescribed liturgy could not have been used.' 'All the evidence directly deducible from the New Testament is against the use of such formularies in the apostolic age.' 'This, very briefly expressed, is the sum and substance of the contemporary patristic testimony; and it points us conclusively to the third and fourth centuries, and not to the apostolic age for the distinct appearance and growth to maturity of formal liturgies in Christian churches.' 'There is in the New Testament no trace whatever of any one of the annual days of hallowed commemoration which are now celebrated in Christian churches.' Equally decisive are Dr. Jacob's arguments and conclusions against anything like sacramental grace in the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 'There is not the slightest intimation that the validity of the Sacrament (of the Lord's Supper) depended upon any ministerial power or act, or that any Christian minister had the power of conferring sacramental grace through his administration of it.' 'There is not the slightest intimation that any change whatever was effected in the bread and wine, or that any power or virtue, natural or supernatural, was infused into them. They are not even said to be "consecrated," but only to have a blessing or thanksgiving offered over them. There is not the slightest intimation that our Lord Jesus Christ is in any sense present in, or in conjunction with the consecrated elements; or that His presence in the believer's heart at this service is different in kind from His presence in him at prayer, or in any other spiritual communion.'
The conclusions which Dr. Jacob has reached are those which every severe and impartial historical student must come to—which any legal testing of evidence must necessarily compel. They have our hearty concurrence. Dr. Jacob, as we have said, is, by conviction and preference, an Episcopalian; our convictions and preferences induce us to reject Episcopacy as having been almost uniformily and inevitably inimical to the freedom and spirituality of the Church. On some minor points, moreover, which are not important enough for remark here, we differ from his conclusions; but as a vade mecum of the Ecclesiastical Polity of the New Testament we are well contented to accept his book—we know of none, indeed, comparable with it; and we cordially commend it, not only to the Anglicans, Evangelicals, and Broad Churchmen of his own ecclesiastical body, with a strong desire to know what replies they will give to it, but we recommend it to all Congregational and Presbyterian ministers, as equally full of learned fidelity to truth, of just recognitions of the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and of broad, loving charities, which alone can secure, and which are sufficient to secure, the unity of the Church of God.
Sir Philip Perring's book is of a very different character—loose, garrulous, and impetuous; but yet it contains many good things. It is the production of one of those men of restless ingenuity—not unfrequently found in all Churches—whose impulses are good, whose intentions are true, whose utterance is fearless, but who yet want the closeness, self-control, and exact logic which give opinions their just influence. The book is a hotchpotch, made up of papers on miscellaneous subjects—an 'Address to Conformists and to Nonconformists,' on their respective faults and differences; 'A Hint to Bishops,' urging them to call a council, and agree with their Nonconformist brethren; 'Regulations of Public Worship,' advocating liberty for Congregational gifts; 'Expenses of Public Worship,' condemning pew rents and the offertory alike, and advocating occasional collections; 'Episcopal Ordination;' 'Non-Episcopal Ordination,' condemning the dogma of apostolical succession; 'The Baptismal Service,' 'Everlasting Damnation,' 'Biblical Revision,' 'Passages in the Gospels revised,' 'Gospel accounts of the Resurrection harmonized,' 'Silver Filings,'—a Collection of Aphorisms and Sentences. Nonconformists have but little reason to complain of Sir Philip's volume; his chief adjurations are directed against his own Church, and he denounces in it assumptions, errors, and abuses which have been the raison d'être of Nonconformity. We are not let off without rebuke; but our sins are light in comparison. On some points we plead guilty. Nonconformity is, no doubt, amenable to the reproach of undue sectarianism and unnecessary division. We are too prone to party shibboleths; it is the characteristic sin which our necessary nonconformity has generated. The evils which Sir P. Perring rebukes, however, some of which he exaggerates, are evils of human nature, not of Nonconformity as such. By God's grace we trust to amend them. He is in error, however, when he says 'we wage a continual warfare for participation in endowments,' to a fair share of which he is just enough to say we are entitled. We may forgive a State Churchman for failing to understand that we really have a strong objection to endowments, and should deem them a spiritual injury to our Churches; and yet, if he would look at Nonconformist history, especially at the history of Regium Donum, he might be assured of the fact. Our contention is not for a share of endowments; but that endowments of one particular Church or of any number of Churches, out of the property of the entire nation should, as an essential injustice and as practically a prolific source of mischief, altogether cease. We object to national endowments for religion per se, whoever may participate in them, as being necessarily inequitable and inexpedient; neither can we see the religious right or wisdom of acquiescing in the wrong which the Established Church is doing. We are under religious obligations to put an end to all wrong done to ourselves and others. We do not interfere with the Episcopal Church as such—we concede to it all the liberty we claim ourselves; we object to the National Establishment as a wrong to all Nonconformists—that is, to one half of the nation; and as citizens, we feel that we have the civil right, and are under religious obligations to seek at the hands of the Legislature the redress of this wrong. Can Sir P. Perring understand the difference between finding fault with others, and seeking to emancipate ourselves? Righteousness must come before peace is possible, and it is consistent with the highest religiousness and the most perfect charity to seek it.
Ante-Nicene Christian Library:—