teenth century. Then indeed the Anabaptifts of Germany taught, that every Chriflian is invested with a power to preach the Gofpel, and confequently that the Church ftands in no need of minifters or paftors; that in the kingdom of Chrift, civil magiftrates are abfolutely ufelefs; and that God ftill continues to reveal his will to chofen perfons by dreams and vifions; and the confequences of thefe democratical ravings, as well on the peace of fociety as on the progrefs of the refor mation, are well known. Much about the fame time, pr å little afterwards, arofe the Brownifts or Independents in England, whofe notions of Church Government and Church Communion are univerfally known, and feem to have been very generally adopted by thofe who call themfelves rational Diffenters. Yet it feems very extraordinary and very irrational, that the people fhould fuppofe themfeves authorized to conflitute, by their own authority, governors of a society, which was not founded by the people, but by the Son of God; and of which, by the confeffion of all Chriftians, the Son of God is the fupreme Governor, and the word of God the fupreme law! It is ftill more extraordinary, if poffible, that private Chriftians fhould fuppofe themselves authorized, either by their own will or by the election of their brethren, to adminifter ordinances, which derive all their importance, great as it is declared to be, from pofitive inflitution; and of which the adminiftration was by the Divine Inflitutes com mitted, not to Chriftians at large, but to a chofen order fent by him, as he had been fent by his Father. To us nothing can ap pear more unphilofophical, or indeed more abfurd, than this. If there be not in the Chriftian Church an order of minifters who derive, through the medium of the apoftles, authority. from Chrift to act as the ftewards of his myfteries, in the name of confiftency and common fenfe, let all myfteries be banished from our creed, and all pofitive inftitutions from our worship; and let Chriftianity be henceforth taught as a kind of revealed philofophy-a mere republication of what is called natural religion. But," afks this biographer, "Do you really think that, by the rite of ordination, as commonly practited in the Church, any peculiar powers are, by fome fecret or fupernatural interference communicated to the perfon ordained ?" Inftead of directly answering this question, we fhall take the liberty to afk, in our turn, two queftions of the biographer. Does this moft rational Chriftian really believe, that when Lord Ellenborough was by the King conftituted Lord Chief Juftice of England, there was conveyed into his Lordship's mind, by fome fecret and fupernatural interference, a more 9 profound profound knowledge of the laws of England, than he poffef. fed, the moment before when he was only Attorney-General? or that when the Lord Lieutenant of a County, acting by authority derived from the King, grants the commiffion of colonel in the militia to a country gentleman, he communicates to him, by fome fecret and fupernatural interference, a knowledge of the art of war, which he poffeffed not the day before when fuperintending the improvements of his farm? We do not pretend that any new intellectual or moral power, or even a greater degree of theological knowledge is communicated miraculously to the perfon ordained, by the mere impofition of the hands of a bishop or of prefbyters; but we affirm, on the tellimony of fcripture, that he is authorized by that rite to act in a capacity in which he had no authority to act before; juft as the lawyer and fquire were, by the cominiffions of the King and Lord Lieutenant, authorized to act each. in a capacity, in which, until they received those commif fions, they had no authority to act. Unintimidated by the bugbears, Popery and Puritanifm, we have likewife no hefitation to affirm, that as he who defires the office of a bishop defiteth a good work," and as it is "the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jefus--that great Shepherd of the fheep, who maketh any man perfect in good works to do his will, working in him that which is well pleafing in his fight +," fo he who is rightly ordained to the office of a bifhop, of a prefbyter, or of a deacon, may reason. ably expect fuch fecret influence from above, as, if he be not wanting to himfelf, fhall enable him fo to discharge the duties of his office, that when "the Chief Shepherd fhall appear, he fhall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away ‡." 66 As the rational Diffenters neither believe in the influence of the Holy Ghoft on the minds of men, nor think that they ftand in need of fuch influence to enable us to "work out their own falvation with fear and trembling," the biographer will probably laugh at all this as puritanical fanaticifm. It is rot, however, for the fake of him, or fuch as he, that we have faid fo much in defence of the apoftolical rite of ordination by impofition of hands; but for the fake of those members of our own Church, fome of them even Clergymen, who, by their practice, seem to confider it as a matter of no importance, by whom those who minifter at the altar have been ordained, or indeed whether they have been ordained at all, provided they preach what they call the Gospel! If what we have now, * 1 Tim. iii. 1. + Heb. xiii. 20, 21. 1 Peter v. 4. and and on other occafions, written on this fubject, thall induce any one of those men to ftudy the queftion (at iffue between us and the rational or the fanatical Diffenters) in the Holy, Scriptures and genuine records of primitive antiquity, we will cheerfully fubmit to whatever rude railings may be poured out on us by thofe, who, in the Chriftian miniftry, run unfent by the Divine Author of Chriftianity. (To be concluded in another Number.) ART. VII. An Analysis of Hooker's Eight Books of Ecclefiafli cal Polity. By the Rev. J. Collinfun, M.A. Rector of Gateshead, Durham. 8vo. 10s. 6d. Rivingtons. . 1810. IT is $94 PP. [Tis fufficiently well known, that the judicious Hooker was induced to engage in his great work on the Laws of Ecclefiaftical Polity, when he was Mafter of the Temple, and involved in controverfy with Walter Travers on the doctrines and difcipline of the Church. To accomplish this more effectually, he was, on his petition, removed from the Temple to the Rectory of Bofcomb, in Wiltfhire. In this retirement he compofed the firft four books. He was then promoted by Queen Elizabeth to the Rectory of Bishop's Bourne, in Kent, where he wrote his fifth book, and publifhed it by itfelf; at the fame place alfo he afterwards completed the fixth, feventh, and eighth books. On the folid learning, judgment, and general excellence of the work itfelf, it is unneceffary to expatiate, as it has obtained and fecured to the author the higheft rank in the annals of English literature; and it is forcibly obferved by the author of this analyfis, that fhould the English conftitution, in Church and State, be unhappily ruined by fome convulfion of extraordinary times, this book alone probably contains materials fufficient for repairing and rebuilding the fhattered fabric. Mr. Collinfon has undertaken a very arduous work, and has performed it well; indeed, it is not eafy to fpeak in terms of too great commendation of the whole publication; neither can any thing be more pertinent or feasonable than the period in which it has been introduced, when the multiplied and ftill increafing variety of fchifmatics, renders every effort of the true friends of the Church important and neceffary. A Preface of feventy-two pages is judiciously employed in making the reader acquainted with the times in which Hooker Hooker lived; his personal character, and the occafion and defign of his Treatife on Ecclefiaftical Polity. This is done from Camden, Thuanus, and Hume, but more particularly from Walton. Having done this, Mr. Collinfon proceeds in a very excellent, though concife, Commentary, to demonftrate the importance of the prototype upon which he has laboured, and its immediate application to the circumstances of the prefent times. Here we find a fuccinct but fatisfactory. account of the rife and history for Methodifm; and here we must allow the author to speak for himself. The Calvinistic Reformers of Hooker's time, by their energy and violence, threatened the fubverfion of all established authority, civil as well as ecclefiaftical. It is not to be fuppofed that fuch dangerous opinions are attributeable to the Methodists of the prefent day, who are generally perfons of quiet, peaceable demeanour, and profefs to be well affected to the ftate, and in a degree to the Church. Still it behoves us to confider what confequences would enfue, if their influence should increase and greatly predominate through the country. "1. It may be justly feared, whether perfons of high rank and liberal education in the kingdom, would fubmit in matters of re ligion to a number of mean uninformed perfons, and their preachers, "men, though better able to fpeak, yet fometimes of no better judgement than the reft." 2. The decay and overthrow of all learning may be appre hended as a fequel of the complete fuccefs of perfons, who even exceed the Puritans in defpifing and difparaging human attain ments. 3. "An objection lies to the doctrine of spiritual influence, viz. that it caufes men to attend to the feelings within them, to place religion in feelings and obfervations, without coming to real duties and active ufefulnefs: that men of this perfuafion, fit ftill in contemplation and indifference, brooding over what passes in their own hearts, without performing any good action, or well discharging the focial duties *.” "The methodist doctrines have been charged not only with promoting this inattention to the common duties of life, but even with a direct anti-moral tendency. This imputation is not fuffi ciently refuted by the affertion, that their chief preachers have no defign of decrying good works as unneceffary and fuperfluous : for it is a moft ferious objection to their tenets, that they are eafily liable to this abufe and mifinterpretation, particularly as they are often expounded by perfons, who, to fay the leaft, are not noted for information or difcretion. An inftrument that is foon out of "Dr. Paley's third Sermon on the Influence of the Spirit." order order defeats its purpofe. Some of the German Reformers of the 16th century, in their intemperate zeal against Popery, and the doctrine of man's merit in procuring his own falvation, were hur ried to an oppofite pernicious excefs. The Antinomians are faid, though probably with fome exaggeration, " to have maintained. that it was allowable to follow the impulfe of every paffion, and to tranfgrefs without reluctance the divine law, provided the tranf. greffor laid hold on Chrift, and embraced his merits by a lively faith." One follower of Luther was fo transported and infa tuated as to maintain that "good works were an impediment to falvation t." "Such opinions as thefe are too extravagant to be openly propagated; but whoever confiders the filent, and imperceptible progrefs of fuperftition, during thofe times which immediately preceded the establishment of the temporal power of the Bishops of Rome, and the dark ages, will fee great reafon to guard against a fpeculative religion that tends to make men devotees rather than devout," to debafe human nature, and to prevent the generous exertions of goodnefs." Mr. Milner, in giving the hif tory of thofe times, obferves, "that the decline in doctrine had evidently produced a decline in ethics, and that the growth of auf tere fuperftition was unfavourable to truth and integrity." "It was the fundamental maxim, the head theorem of the Geneva Reformers, that Scripture is the only rule of action, which principle not only tended to overthrow ecclefiaftical laws, but alfo to bring on a reformation of the civil government on Jew ith ideas. This was not hid from the penetration of this great man (fays Bifhop Warburton, speaking of Hooker), and therefore to root it out for ever, was the main reafon, I fuppofe, why, in a particular difpute, he goes fo far back as to give a long account of the original of laws in general, their feveral kinds, and their dif tinct and contrary natures." The first book is on this fubje&t, and is the foundation of the whole work, fo that if the first principles are admitted, the remaining pofitions follow of courfe. The author there fhews that nothing is without law, that God has given different laws to different parts of creation, and various laws to man, for example, the laws of nature, reafon, and Scripture. The law of Scripture is revealed immediately from God for a particular purpose, the falvation of fouls: laws devifed by hu man reafon and wifdom, for the public welfare of fociety, are alfo derived from God, who is the fountain of all good; they are authorized and approved by him, and "he who defpifes them, def pifes in them God." "Mofheim, lib. 4. p. 321." "Ibid, p. 328." "Hooker "Hift. of Church of Christ, Cent. 5. ch. 1.” Alliance of Church and State, p. 46, note.” |