Tract No. 10
Heads of a Weekday Lecture,
Delivered to a Country Congregation in —shire
{1} BEFORE
we meet again, we shall have celebrated the least of St. Simon and St.
Jude, the Apostles. You will be at your daily work, and will not have
the opportunity to attend the Service in Church. For that reason, it may
be as well, you should lay up some good thoughts against that day; and
such, by GOD'S
blessing, I will now attempt to give you.
As you well know, there were twelve Apostles; St.
Simon and St. Jude were two of them. They preached the Gospel of CHRIST; and they were like CHRIST,
as far as sinful man may be accounted like the Blessed SON of GOD. They were like CHRIST in their deeds and in their
sufferings. The Gospel for the festival [John xv. 17.] shows us this.
They were like CHRIST
in their works, because CHRIST was a witness of the FATHER, and they were witnesses of CHRIST.
CHRIST
came in the name of GOD
the FATHER
ALMIGHTY;
He "came and spoke," and "did works which none other man did." In like
manner, the Apostles were sent to bear witness of CHRIST, to declare His power, His great mercy, His sufferings on
the cross for the sins of all men, His willingness to save all who come
to Him.
But again, they were like CHRIST in their sufferings. "If the
world hate you," He says to them, "you know that it hated Me, before it
hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but
because ye are not of the world, but {2} I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said
unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have
persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My
saying, they will keep yours also."
Thus, they were like CHRIST in office. I do not speak of
their holiness, their faith, and all their other high excellencies,
which GOD
the HOLY
GHOST
gave them. I speak now, not of their personal graces, but of their office,
of preaching, of witnessing CHRIST,
of suffering for being His servants. Men ought to have listened to them,
and honoured them; some did: but the many, the world, did not,—they hated
them; they hated them, for their office-sake; not because they were
Paul, and Peter, and Simon, and Jude, but because they bore witness to
the SON
of GOD,
and were chosen to be His Ministers.
Here is a useful lesson for us at this day. The
Apostles indeed are dead; yet it is quite as possible for men still to
hate their preaching and to persecute them, as when they were alive. For
in one sense they are still alive; I mean, they did not leave the world
without appointing persons to take their place: and these persons
represent them, and may be considered with reference to us, as if they
were the Apostles. When a man dies, his son takes his property and
represents him; that is, in a manner he still lives in the person of his
son. Well, this explains how the Apostles may be said to be still among
us; they did not indeed leave their sons to succeed them as Apostles,
but they left spiritual sons; they did not leave this life,
without first solemnly laying their hands on the heads of certain of
their brethren, and these took their place, and represented them after
their death.
But it may be asked, are these spiritual sons of
the Apostles still alive? no:—all this took place many hundred years
ago. These sons and heirs of the Apostles died long since. But then they
in turn did not leave the world without committing their sacred office
to a fresh set of Ministers, and they in turn to another, and so on even
to this day. Thus the Apostles had, first, spiritual {3} sons; then
spiritual grandsons; then great grandsons; and so on, from one age to
another, down to the present time.
Again, it may be asked, who are at this time
the successors and spiritual descendants of the Apostles? I shall
surprise some people by the answer I shall give, though it is very
clear, and there is no doubt about it; THE
BISHOPS. They stand in the place of the Apostles, as far as the
office of ruling is concerned [Note];
and, whatever we ought to do, had we lived when the Apostles were alive,
the same ought we to do for the Bishops. He that despiseth them,
despiseth the Apostles. It is our duty to reverence them for their
office-sake; they are the shepherds of CHRIST'S flock. If we knew them well, we should
love them for the many excellent graces they possess, for their piety,
loving-kindness, and other virtues. But we do not know them; yet still,
for all this, we may honour them as the Ministers of CHRIST, without going so far as to consider
their private worth; and we may keep to their "fellowship", [Acts
ii. 42.] as we should to that of the Apostles. I say, we may all thus
honour them even without knowing them in private, because of their high
office; for they have the marks of CHRIST'S
presence upon them, in that they witness for CHRIST, and suffer for Him, as
the Apostles did. I will explain to you how this is.
There is a temptation which comes on many men to
honour no one, except such as they themselves know, such as have done a
favour or kindness to them personally. Thus sometimes people speak
against those who are put over them in this world's matters, as the
King. They say, "What is the King to me? he never did me any good." Now,
I answer, whether he did or not, is nothing to the purpose. We are
bound, for CHRIST'S sake, to honour him, because he
is King, though he lives far from us; and this all well-disposed,
right-minded people do. And so, in just the same {4} way, though for
much higher reasons, we must honour the Bishop, because he is the
Bishop;—for his office-sake;—because he is CHRIST'S Minister, stands in the place of the
Apostles, is the Shepherd of our souls on earth, while CHRIST is away. This is FAITH,
to look at things not as seen, but as unseen; to be as sure that the
Bishop is CHRIST'S
appointed Representative, as if we actually saw him work miracles as St.
Peter and St. Paul did, as you may read in the book of the Acts of the
Apostles.
But you will say, how do we know this, since we do
not see it? I repeat, the Bishops are Apostles to us, from their witnessing
CHRIST,
and suffering for Him.
1. They witness our LORD in
their very name, for He is the true Bishop of our souls, as St.
Peter says, and they are Bishops. They witness CHRIST
in their station;—there is but one LORD to save us, and there is but one Bishop in
each place. The meetingers have no head, they are all of them mixed
together in a confused way; but we of CHRIST'S Holy Church (blessed, be GOD!) have one Bishop over us, and our Bishop
is the Bishop of ——. Many of you have seen him lately, when he
confirmed in our Church. That very confirmation is another
ordinance, in which the Bishop witnesses CHRIST.
Our LORD
and SAVIOUR
confirms us with the SPIRIT
in all goodness; the Bishop is His figure and likeness, when he lays his
hands on the heads of children. Then CHRIST, (as we trust) comes to them, to confirm in them the grace
of Baptism. Moreover, the Bishop rules the whole Church here
below, as CHRIST,
the true and eternal Sovereign, rules it above; and here again the
Bishop is a figure or witness of our LORD.
And further, it is the Bishop who is commissioned to make us Clergymen GOD'S
Ministers. He is CHRIST'S
instrument; and he visibly chooses those whom CHRIST vouchsafes to choose invisibly, to serve
in the Word and Sacraments of the Church. And thus, in one sense, it is
from the Bishop that the news of redemption and the means of grace
have come to all men; this again is a witnessing CHRIST. I, who speak to you concerning CHRIST,
was ordained to do so by the Bishop; lie speaks in me,—as CHRIST wrought in him, and as GOD
sent CHRIST.
Thus the whole plan of salvation hangs together.—CHRIST the True Mediator {5} above; His servant, the Bishop, His
earthly likeness; mankind, the subjects of His teaching; GOD
the Author of Salvation.
2. But I must now mention the more painful part of
the subject, i.e. the sufferings of the Bishops, which is the
second mark of their being our living Apostles. I may say, Bishops have
undergone this trial in every age. As the first Apostles were hated and
opposed by the world, so have they ever been. I do not say they have
been always opposed in the same way. In these latter times, they have
experienced the lesser sufferings of bearing slander, reproach, threats,
vexations, and thwartings in their efforts to do good. Time was, when
they were even persecuted, cruelly slain by fire and sword. That time,
(though GOD avert it!) may come again. But, whether or not Satan is
permitted so openly to rage, certainly some kinds of persecution are to
be expected in our day; nay, such have begun. It is not so very long
since the great men of the earth told them to prepare for persecution;
it is not so very long since the mad people answered the summons, and
furiously attacked them, and seemed bent on destroying them, in all
parts of the country.
Yes! the day may come, even in this generation,
when the Representatives of CHRIST
are spoiled of their sacred possessions, and degraded from their civil
dignities. The day may come, when each of us inferior Ministers—when I
myself, whom you know—may have to give up our Churches, and be among
you, in no better temporal circumstances than yourselves; with no larger
dwelling, no finer clothing, no other fare, with nothing different
beyond those gifts, which I trust we received from the All-gracious GOD when we were made Ministers; and those
again, which have been vouchsafed to us before and after that time, for
the due fulfilment of our Ministry. Then you will look at us, not as
gentlemen, as now; not as your superiors in worldly station; but still,
nay, more strikingly so than now, still as messengers from Him, who
seeth and worketh in secret, and who judgeth not by outward appearance.
Then you will honour us, with a purer honour than many men do now,
namely, as those (if I may say so) who are intrusted with the keys of
heaven and hell, as the heralds of mercy, as the denouncers of woe to
wicked men, as {6} intrusted with the awful and mysterious privilege of
dispensing CHRIST'S
Body and Blood, as far greater than the most powerful and the wealthiest
of men in our unseen strength and our heavenly riches. This may all come
in our day; we must do our duty; go straight forward, looking
neither to the right hand nor the left, "in patience possessing our
souls," watching and praying, and so preparing for the evil day. And
after all, if GOD'S loving kindness spares both us and you
the trial, still it will have been useful to have steadily thought about
it beforehand, and to have prepared our hearts to meet it.
OXFORD,
Nov. 4, 1833.
[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,
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1840.
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Note
As far as the office of ruling, not as far
as the office of teaching is concerned. The Apostles were both inspired
teachers (Acts ii. 3, 4), and Bishops (John xx. 21-23). Their
successors are Bishops only, not inspired teachers; and rule according
to the Apostles' teaching,—not absolutely, as the Apostles may be said
to have done.
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