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THE

AND

LITERARY REGISTER. REGISTE

No. 10.]

No. II. FOR MAY, 1818.

The good sense, the pious spirit, and the correct sentiments exhibited in the following address, entitle it to serious attention. It defends those principles of the Protestant Episcopal Church which distinguish her from other Christian societies, and which constitute some of her chief claims to be an apostolic and primitive Church; and exposes, with force, but with mildness, that misguided piety and false liberality which depreciate them as non-essential, and denounces the advocates of them as sectarian bigots. Happy the flock which is guarded from the attacks of heresy and schism by the vigi lance of such a shepherd. The defence of the Episcopal constitution of the ministry, and of Episcopacy as the principle of Christian unity, is certainly not congenial with what is denominated the liberal spirit of the present day. But let those whose peculiar duty it is to watch over the Christian Zion, remember that these principles which it has become popular now to decry, were the characteristics of the apostolic age; and were professed and enforced by IGNATIUS, the disciple of the apostles, and like them a martyr of the cross; by CIPRIAN, the glory of the African Churches; and by CHRISOSTOM and BASIL, the lights of the Churches of the

East. Surrounded by these witnesses, animated by the example of apostles, martyrs, and fathers, let them, with the same dauntless zeal in reliance on the grace of their Master, defend the ark intrusted to them through every difficulty and danger, and at every sacrifice.

FOR THE CHRISTIAN JOURNAL.

An Address, by a Rector of a Church, intended to have been delivered on Sunday, after the dismissal of his VOL. II.

[VOL. II.

Congregation, to the Episcopal Inspectors and Teachers of Sunday Schools, instituted by an Association of Lay Gentlemen, independently of the authority of any Church; and omitted, from finding that it would interfere with the time devoted to these Schools.

Friends, and beloved Children in the Lord,

It has been with the sincerest emotions of pleasure, though mixed with some degree of solicitude, that I have dicates the tender benevolence of your seen you enter upon a service that inhearts, and a lively sense of piety to God; I can, therefore, no longer refrain from expressing to you the cordiality of my feelings with respect to the object of your labours, and wish to suggest some hints that may tend to render you more successful in the prosecution of it.

You have reason to bless God that he has put it into your hearts to use your endeavours to enlighten the darkness of your poor ignorant fellowcreatures; to teach the uninstructed adult the use of letters, that he may, though late, more effectually discover his importance in the scale of being,

and be enabled to imbibe wisdom from that holy Book which alone teaches us the

way of eternal life. And your diligence in searching out, and instructing, children whose parents are unable (and sometimes, alas! unwilling,) to give them the ordinary means of education, may, by suitable intimations to them of the most important object of all learning, the fear of God, be the means of preserving them from vice and misery; of directing them in the paths of piety and virtue; and of thus rendering them happy in life, and blessed in death. These poor adults,

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and these poor children, have immortal souls that must exist to all eternity, either in inconceivable happiness or unspeakable misery; and which are as precious in the sight of God as the souls of the rich and the powerful :they were equally purchased by the blood of Christ. All the care and labour, therefore, bestowed for their benefit will be highly acceptable to God and those who direct their attention to this good purpose, will, by so doing, be laying up treasure in heaven. I hope, therefore, that this is the principal motive that influences you in the benevolent work in which you are engaged. This was the object for which Sunday Schools were originally instituted; and this is the declared object for which they are continued. The day appropriated to them is God's day, reserved for his own immediate use; and we have no right to employ it but in acts of public and private devotion, and in the exercise of works of necessity and mercy. Though teaching letters is not an immediate act of religion; and though it is, in a considerable degree, connected with our temporal concerns; yet teaching those who cannot be taught on other days of the week, is an act of charity. As it may be instrumental in promoting religion, and is necessary to a full acquaintance with the word of God, good and holy men have supposed, that some part of this sacred day can, with great propriety, be devoted to the instruction of unlettered adults and poor children in the rudiments of human learning. Still this mixed inStill this mixed instrument of good should be kept, as far as possible, in subordination to the ordinances of the Church. We should never leave what God hath immediately appointed, under a pretence of serving him better in a way of our own devising, Though mercy is before sacrifice, yet it does not become us to substitute it in its room; but to place it first only when they so interfere that but one can be practised. You must remember that it is on this ground only that Sunday Schools can be justified in time of public worship; and if there is a possibility of prevent

ing their interference with each other, it ought certainly to be done. Sunday Schools, in subordination to the Church, may be greatly instrumental in promoting the cause of religion. The persons and children instructed in them in the rudiments of human learning, and in moral and religious duty, may be led from the information there acquired, to enter into the Church as the ark of their salvation; or if they are so happy as to have been initiated into it, to continue in its unity, there learning the heavenly doctrines of its divine Founder, and submitting themselves to his holy precepts. But if they are led to suppose that Sunday Schools are substituted instead of the Church; that its sacred ordinances must give way to them; then, perhaps, when Sunday Schools shall be no more; at least, when they shall have no further influence upon them, (and their influence, from their very nature, must be short;) then that divinely instituted Society, where the rays of heavenly light continually shine, will be disregarded, and its light, as to them, will shine in vain.

It is with a particular regard to this important consideration that I have been led to make you this address, in which I would wish to speak to you in the spirit of meekness and love.

That you are endeavouring to do the best you possibly can for the souls and bodies of those you have undertaken to instruct, I have no doubt; and, as far especially as the former are concerned, you cannot suppose that the ministers of religion look upon you with indifference. In this they feel the most lively interest, and view you, while thus engaged, with the most tender solicitude. To us is committed the ministry of reconciliation: we are the stewards of God, commissioned to feed his sheep; and with the most careful assiduity to take care of the lambs of his flock. It is our business to oversee the concerns of Christ's Church, and to teach his religion; and we are happy in every real aid that can be afforded us, in the execution of the holy work in which we are engaged. You must, therefore, suppose that your pious labour in

teaching letters to the poor, is highly acceptable to us; and that we most sincerely feel the importance, as far as you undertake to teach them religion, that you teach them right. I cannot suppose, as far as religious instruction is concerned, that to undertake it independently of the ministers of religion, is the best way to secure the most correct information. Knowing, however, as I do, the cause that has led to the adoption of this plan, I highly appreciate the worthy motives on which it is grounded, and sincerely venerate the persons who have promoted it. Good and benevolent men, seeing Christians divided into a variety of distinct communions; and unacquainted, perhaps, with the causes of their separation; knowing, likewise, that the faithful ministers of each would teach the peculiar doctrines of their Church, saw the im possibility of combining them together in the good work they would wish to set on foot-that of instructing the ignorant poor in letters and in duty. They, therefore, conceived it practicable to commence this teaching unconnected with the ministers of God, and the Church of God. The motives that led to this conclusion were, no doubt, of the purest kind. A disposition to harmonize mankind in love; and especially to unite all the professors of religion in the most cordial agreement in the sacred cause in which they are engaged, is certainly a very good one. Though the means which it may adopt for this purpose may not be the most proper, yet the design will always entitle those who

conceive it to our esteem.

It is truly to be lamented that Christians are thus divided into distinct communions; and that the ministers of religion cannot act in concert in the great work in which they are engaged. But this they never can do till they are harmonized into one body; submit to the same government; receive the same essential articles of faith; and live in regular subordination to the same laws, emanating from the same authority, for the promotion of order and discipline. This is the plan of unity designed by the great Head

of the Church; and all other schemes of promoting it are chimerical and vain. "There is one body, one faith, one baptism." This, then, being the case, it becomes both ministers and private Christians to submit to the laws of this one body, to profess this one faith, and to receive this one bap tism. Each distinct Church has its own government and laws, its articles of faith, its baptism, and its mode of wor ship, to which it requires the submis sion of all its members. Here, then, is a plan of unity for each Church; but, being various, certainly not a plan that will give unity to the whole. Still it is not the way to promote harmony for private Christians to undertake to teach religion distinct from the ministers and Church of God. Because there are a variety of Churches claiming to be rightly constituted, and to profess the true faith, it does not, therefore, follow that Christ has no Church instituted by himself to the authority of which we owe obedience. Notwithstanding these various claims, we may yet suppose that rightful authority is in some hands, and that religion is the safest under the direction of those whom God hath authorized to teach it. Though there may be occasional aberrations among them, yet there is no probability of diffusing wider, or of giving more permanency to the true doctrines of Christianity, than by leaving public teaching in the hands of those whom God hath authorized for this purpose. If we, who are the ministers of religion, neglect our duty, lead to a false Church, or to false doctrine, we do it at our peril; and each Church is careful that, in its own view of what is such, it shall not be done by its individual ministers. This work has been committed to our hands, and we should be left to lead in the execution of it. Private Christians, as heads of families and schools, as aged, and pious, and wise, may be, and ought to be, greatly helpful to us in catechising, and in giving good advice to those over whom God hath given them influence. All that I mean is, that they should not undertake to teach religion independently of us, and with no regard to what has been pro

scribed by the authority of the Church to which they belong.

Being myself perfectly satisfied that Christ has instituted a ministry, through the regular succession of which his Church is to continue to the end of the world; and being equally satisfied that the ministry of which I partake, and the Church in which I officiate, are of this description, I feel it my bounden duty to warn all those committed to my care, to render obedience to him in this respect, as well as in all other things he hath commanded. I now look upon you, and all who have by baptism been admitted into the Church, to be, what you are taught in your Catechism you are, "members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven." Being, therefore, the children of God, he has set me, as his servant, to watch over you; to instruct you in your duty; to let you know the important privileges to which you have been admitted; and to remind you of the solemn obligations that lie upon you to be dutiful to your heavenly Father. You can hardly conceive the tender solicitude I feel for you, and for all that are committed to my charge.

You now, as teachers in Sunday Schools, have become a sort of fellowhelpers with me in the holy work in which I am engaged. Some of the lambs of my flock are among the number of those you are instructing in letters and in duty; and those under your care, in this respect, who do not belong to my particular charge, are still of the number of those whom Christ hath redeemed, and to whom, as his minister, I am to afford all the spiritual aid in my power. Though, by the system of instruction adopted for you, I am not called upon to have any agency in the work in which you are engaged; yet, as you are members of the congregation over which I am appointed an overseer, it is my duty to give you advice in this, as well as in all other things in which your religious conduct is concerned. Viewing the Church as I do, and its necessary connexion-with religion, I have supposed that Sunday Schools should

be placed under the direction of its ministers; and that they should superintend, at least, the religious instruction of those who attend them.

The principal good to be expected from these Schools is, by their affording an opportunity for the persons and children instructed in them, to be made acquainted with the relation in which they stand to God and man, and the duties owing to both. To effect this purpose, therefore, they must be taught that these Schools are instituted in subordination to the Church; that through her medium religious benefits are to be attained; that as we are sinners by nature as well as by practice, our salvation is the gift of God, bestowed upon us through the merits of Jesus Christ; that a covenant title to forgiveness through him can be had only by the one baptism he has instituted for the remission of sins; and that grace to fulfil an acceptable obedience can be secured to us only by an adherence to his body, the Church, which is animated by his Spirit.

We find that the Church commences the instruction of her children by informing them of the manner of their adoption into the family of God; and of the privileges and obligations resulting from that adoption; and we have no reason to suppose that a better scheme of instruction can be devised. Salvation being a gift, is not to be attained by the performance of moral duties, but must be received by faith; and God, in his goodness, has been pleased to institute positive rites and sacraments, as the ordinary mode of conveying this gift through that medium. He that is to be instructed in the way of salvation, is, therefore, first taught, that by his baptism he was made a child of God; and that he can continue such only by believing in Jesus Christ, and submitting to his laws and ordinances. This, then, being the way in which we are made the children of God, we see the vast importance of infant baptism, and the danger of teaching religion abstracted from the ordinances of Christianity. Merely to inform children that there is a God, possessed of every possible

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all those who do not prize their privileges and fulfil their obligations.

perfection, and that we owe him undeviating obedience, without telling them how sinful creatures can become It is idle for you to suppose that reconciled to him, and continue in his by avoiding to teach children the pefavour, is only to fill their minds with culiar tenets of any particular Church, terror, and leave them to despair of you will, therefore, leave them to receiving any benefit from their know- choose their religion, unbiased in their ledge. By being informed of the judgment, when they are more capa necessity of obedience, without any ble of determining what is right. Do knowledge of the terms and pledges you suppose that among the multitude of the forgiveness of sin, and of the of proselyters which are compassing assistance of grace in the performance sea and land, to add to the number of of duty, they are left in a state of ig- their disciples, they will be left to weigh norance, from which little or no good the arguments of all, and to judge can be expected. And to teach them and divide without any bias put upon that forgiveness can be had, and grace their understanding by their affecsecured, without a compliance with tions? No; if they ever have any rethe ordinances of religion instituted ligion, it will be that of those in whose for that purpose, is to teach them hands they are first placed, and with what you have no authority to do from whom, in their serious moments, they the word of God. The fruits of such form their connexions: and you must a naked scheme of religion have been remember that they may thus be inifrequently witnessed by the world. tiated into a religion much less perEnthusiasm has at one time gone forth fect than that with which God in his under its unmarked banners, raving providence has now enabled you to with madness and blasphemy; and a imbue their minds. You ought, therespurious kind of philosophy at another, fore, to feel yourselves under a solemn levelling in its march all the barriers obligation to instruct those you have of piety and virtue, and showing, in undertaken to guide, in the true prinevery step, the deadly effects of a ciples of Christianity; and to be exreligion without symbols, priest, or tremely careful to be in no degree inChurch. It has been plainly seen, strumental in detaching any member that the more human learning is pos- from the unity of Christ's Church, or sessed by those who in no sense re- to give countenance to indifference to gard the institutions and ordinances of its worship, its ordinances, and its laws. Christianity, the more vile and mis-The most ardent attachment to your chievous they are. Depraved as we are by nature, goodness can be attained only by grace; and grace we have no right to expect, only in the use of the means appointed for its convey ance. This being the case, you should, therefore, cherish the sentiment in no one who is out of the Church, that he is safe in that situation; nor give countenance to any one who is in it, that he can be secure in any other manner than by continuing his adherence to it, and living in the habitual practice of all the duties required by him who hath purchased it out of the world, at the price of his own blood. In the Church great and important privileges are enjoyed; and the most solemn obligations laid upon all its members to holiness of heart and life: and dreadful will be the condemnation of

own Church, grounded on the full persuasion of its being an institution of God, to which obedience is due, and in which the greatest purity is to be had, need lead you in no degree to suspect the sincerity of others in the profession of their religion, or to doubt of their personal sanctity and holiness. God is not confined to his own ordinances in the communications of his grace; and though we have no right to presume upon receiving it without a compliance with them, yet we should rejoice to find it possessed by those who do not. Being in the Church does not necessarily make a man holy; neither does being out of it necessarily imply that he is not so. Honesty and fidelity, wherever found, are estimable in the sight of God and man; and error in any individual is

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