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SERMONS

THE LATE APOSTACIES,

preached in

it. Soliii's CjimTti, SBartforb,
— JDECEMBER16, 1849,
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A CITY NOT FORSAKEN,

OR

&lje €l)urct) binMcateft axti €onsokb.

A SERMON

PREACHED IN ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, HARTFORD,

Start #rate toiatf,

DECEMBER 16th, 1849.

BY THE RECTOR.

HARTFORD :
PRESS OP CASE, TIFFANY AND COMPANY.
1849.

Qljvzxtxszmtnt.

The Rector of St. John's, Hartford, is accustomed to preach a
sermon, quarterly, on every Ember Sunday, upon Missions, the con
dition of the Church, the want of Ministers, or some kindred subject.
At his request, his friend, the President of Trinity College, was so
good as to unite with him, for the present occasion, in preaching
upon the state of the Church with reference to late events which
have excited painful attention.
Ember Week, December, 1849.

TO THE REVEREND
SAMUEL FARMAR JARVIS, D. D., LL. D.,
AS A
VENERABLE DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH,
AND AS
MY VENERATED FRIEND,
THIS SERMON
IS, BY HIS PERMISSION,
AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.
A. C. C.
Hartford, Dec. 17, 1849.

COLLECT. — 0 Lord Jesus Christ, who at thy first coming didst
send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee ; grant that the
Ministers and Stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare
and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient
to the wisdom of the Just, that, at thy second coming to judge the
world, we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight, who
livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one
God, world without end. Amen.
PRAYER. — Almighty God, who showest to them that are in
error the light of thy truth, to the intent that they may return into
the way of righteousness ; grant unto all those who are admitted
into the fellowship of Christ's religion, that they may avoid those
things that are contrary to their profession, and follow all such
things as are agreeable to the same, through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen.

SERMON.

A City not Foksaken. — Isaiah, Ixii : 13.
The glorious City of God is chartered with all those
promises of a blessed consummation with which the
holy prophets comforted Jerusalem. Her Maker is her
husband, and can never leave her, nor forsake her : but
she that is consoled with the name of Not Forsaken,
must first, by implication, be to all appearance forsa
ken and desolate. And such indeed is her marriage
covenant ; she may be cast down, but never in despair ;
she may go through fire and water, but there remains
for her at last a wealthy place, and a foundation upon
the holy hills. It is a mistake to apply too literally, as
a test of her character, in her Militant State, those glo
rious things which are spoken to pourtray her divine
original, or in prophecy, of her State Triumphant : and
the venerable doctor who has written best of the City
of God, has reminded us that it is vain, amid all the dis
orders of our present state, to look for that glorious
church — not having spot, or wrinkle or any such
thing — which is to be seen, at last, when the Bride
groom cometh, and presents her unto himself.1 To
those who forget this, the Church becomes unsatisfac-
1 Aug. de perfect. Justitiie. Oper. x. p. 183.
1*

6
tory. It cannot be otherwise with those whose yearn
ings for the crown before the cross, and whose imagin
ative ideas of soldiership, are confounded by the mixed
adversaries, and broken ranks, and all the dust and con
fused noise of battle. They look for the perfect order
of parade ; for a march regulated by flutes and soft re
corders ; for banners and waving gonfalons, and palm-
branches, and snow-white raiment, and armour of bur
nished gold ; for troops all loyal, and all moved by one
discipline, and serving without the infirmities of men :
and this they do not find. The Church Militant is not
upon parade, but actually in fight ; and such is her ne
cessary condition that those who cannot endure hard
ship must either give up entirely, or else waste life in
desperate shifts and changes, and in abortive eftbrts to
fill the void, which nothing can fill but a work of faith,
and labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord
Jesus Christ.
The present, therefore, is a day of trial, of blasphemy
and rebuke ; the day in which it must needs be that of
fences come ; the day in which false prophets will de
ceive, if it be possible, the very elect: the day when
iniquity shall abound, and the love of many shall wax
cold : the day when — blessed is he whosoever shall not be
offended in Christ1.
Our Advent Season, and our Ember weeks imply
this condition of the Church ; and are meant to fit us
for enduring it. But it is with more than usual ear
nestness that I say it, for it is not ordinary evils that
I have in mind, but special humiliations. The Servi
ces of this day, declare the awful responsibilities of the
1 Gospel for the Day.

ministers and stewards of Christ's mysteries ; but late ex
periences suggest that even sacramental vows are not al
ways sufficient to keep the anointed priest from putting
a stumbling-block in the way, which it is his duty to
prepare for the Lord, and from setting an example of
frowardness instead of turning the hearts of the disobe
dient to the wisdom of the Just.1 Of the unhappy
brethren who have lately incurred the dreadful guilt of
violated trusts, and involved themselves in that woe
which our Lord pronounced against those by whom
offences come, it is not my purpose to say much : nor
do I mean to upbraid their memory with the shame and
suffering which they have bequeathed to their fellows
in the Priesthood, by thus shaking the foundations of
confidence in their Sacred Order. In similar perils
from false brethren the Apostles themselves were se
verely tried; and their unworthy successors in the
ministry must learn to be made like unto them in silence
and sorrow. But as the defection of leaders must al
ways, more or less, discourage those who look to them
as guides and guards, I feel that a word of comfort is
due to the flock of Christ, when they behold their pas
tors scattering the sheep and fleeing. This is my apol
ogy for adverting to a subject so painful, and for under
taking to show that notwithstanding all the sickening
treacheries of the times, there is no reason to despond ;
that Truth is no less certain ; and our holy Church,
none the less, a City not forsaken.
I. The text must not be narrowed down however,
to the case of any particular branch of the Church,
without the fullest recognition of the great fact, that it
1 Collect for the Day.

primarily respects the whole Church Catholic, which
we confess in the Creeds. It is all important, to those
who daily say that they believe in such a Church, to
understand clearly that in spite of the disunion and es
trangement that exist between its different branches,.
and in spite of the separations which, for Christ's sake,
must exist, till sinful terms of fellowship are no longer
imposed by some of its constituent parts ; Christ has
in the world One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church,
which, although sadly humbled and cast down, is a City
not Forsaken. Of the several Churches which com
pose this holy State, the essential Unity is the Oneness
of their origin ; their common possession of the Apos
tolic Ministry and Creeds ; the abiding Presence of
Christ, in their Sacraments ; and the Communion of
the Holy Ghost. Such were the notes of Catholicity
in that happy day when the Nicene Fathers dispersed
from their august assembly, into every nation under
heaven, warmed with fraternal charity, and proclaiming
with Pentecostal tongues, to divers races of men, One
Lord, One Faith, One Baptism. And now, if that fra
grant charity, which like Aaron's oil, or like the dew of
Hermon, was shed by the Holy Ghost on the Church,
in her first glory, be no more her bond of perfectness,
we are, none the less, bound to believe and assert, that
the essential Unity of the Church has been sacredly
preserved by Him that keepeth Israel, and who never
slumbers, nor sleeps.
The tests of that unity must necessarily be in part
practical, and in part historical. One good Samaritan
did not make Samaria a church, nor would more nu
merous fruits of superabounding grace entitle self-
organized separatists, or enthusiasts, to the name.

But where historical notes concur with visible fruits
of faith, and the practical preservation of Creeds and
Liturgies and Sacraments, there is not only a City, but
also a City not forsaken. To say that all Apostolic
Churches do not recognize such tests as sufficient, is
only to state the fact that they are not now as united as
they were of old, and this is the very ground of my re
mark : for I am stating the doctrine of unity which
is recognized in the Nicene Creed, as illustrated by the
contemporary state of the Church ; and that ancient
rule I propose as the only one which can possibly restore
harmony to Christendom. For, to say nothing of our
selves, what folly it is in the Latins to set up a modern
test which cuts off" the old Church of the Greeks ; and
how foolish in the Greeks to attempt to exclude the
Latins, when a recurrence to the primitive understand
ing of a Common Symbol, would ultimately reunite
Greeks and Latins, and ourselves with both, in reform
ing, restorhsg, and enlarging the City of God ! It is the
honor of our Church that she at least recites the Cath
olic Creeds in the Catholic sense, embracing both East
and West, and proposing Nicene Unity as the only
Unity, Scriptural or Catholic. On the basis of the
Creeds then, I assert that, in spite of appearances, we
have the Unity of great realities, which the Prince of
Peace will in His own good time warm into recognized
brotherhood and love. He is the living bond between
pure churches and corrupt churches ; the purifying Life
that will yet make healthy the whole body ; the Resur
rection that will even quicken those members of the
body which are now to all appearance dead.
Is this too much to say or to believe ? Search
the Scriptures. The Seven Churches of the Apoca-

10
lypse seem to be set as a prophecy and type of the
present state of Christendom ; for they are intro
duced not only as things then present, but as part of
things which were to be thereafter, and in direct con
nection with a prophetic history of the great persecu
tions and calamities of the Church. Let us look then
at our condition in the light of Scripture. The Seven
Churches of Asia had not survived the apostolic age,
when they were visited by reproofs, from Christ
himself, for sad departures from their earlier purity in
doctrine and in practice. The churches of Smyrna
and Philadelphia alone were exceptions to the general
degeneracy. There was Ephesus, planted by St. Paul,
watered by Timothy, and enrichea with an inspired
epistle setting forth the doctrines of Christian unity and
perfection, but so far fallen from first works, as to be
threatened with a final removal of her light. There
was Pergamos, defiled by the doctrine of the Nicolai-
tanes, and by the doctrines of Balaam, fornication and
idolatry. There was Thyatira, in which Jezebel was
suffered to teach the same doctrines of Balaam, and to
claim the authority of a prophetess. There was Sardis,
with a name to live while she was dead, and with only
a few names that had not defiled their garments. Last
of all, there was Laodicea ; described as a vain-glorious
and Pharisaical pauper, deluded with imaginary wealth,
but in fact wretched and miserable andpoor and blind
and naked, and withal compared by her Lord, to
water neither cold nor hot, and fit only to be spued from
the mouth. Such was the Church in Asia ; and as such
it would now be thought to justify every variety of dis
sent. The zealot would cry down with her to the
ground ; the sectarian would rear a new altar against

11
her ; but the Master loved her very dust and stones,
and she was yet a city not forsaken. He was still pres
ent with her flocks ; still owned and upheld her pastors.
St. John, in his rapture beheld seven golden candle
sticks, and in the midst of the seven candlesticks, our
blessed Lord himself, in his pontific robes, holding seven
stars in his right hand. Nor was the meaning of the
vision left to conjecture, for at the same moment our
Great High Priest, proclaimed the interpretation — the
seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the
seven candlesticks are the seven churches.
II. Thus Christ fulfills his promise to be with his
own commissioned ministry, always and until the end.
Wonderful fidelity ! The angel of lukewarm Laodicea
was in the same right hand, that upheld the angel of
patient Philadelphia : the star of dead Sardis shone, side
by side, with the star of faithful Smyrna ! True, there
was a threatened removal and extinction ; but the very
threatening showed that until that final blow, even dead
Sardis might revive, and live. Thus stands our great
Melchizedek, between the living and the dead ; and
from this fact we -derive the consoling principle — that
while an Apostolic Church, which we have already de
fined, is not, as such, destroyed, it is not forsaken by
the Master, and that until an Apostolic Ministry is ex
tinguished, it still burns in his right hand. For we
have seen that with all that argued Sardis, or Laodicea
to be dead, compared with Smyrna and Philadelphia,
Jesus Christ had not withdrawn His presence from
their sacraments, and that his lawful authority was at
the foundation of their ministry. They were cities not
forsaken. Observe too, that among all these Churches, the faith

12
once delivered to ihe saints is recognized as a common
deposit, and as the only standard of purity and unity of
doctrine. First love and first works are prescribed to
Ephesus ; Pergamos was so far praised as she had not
denied the faith ; Thyatira was to holdfast what she
had; Sardis was to strengthen the things that re
mained ; and Laodicea was rebuked for a decay of
primitive zeal. In every instance, primitive faith, prim
itive works, and primitive charity, these are the stand
ard to which each church must be brought back, in
order to be all one, in fellowship, and in purity, and
in labors : so that we arrive at a second great princi
ple ; the principle that the primitive Creeds, and ear
liest customs of the Church, are the rule of orthodoxy,
and the remedy for decline. Nor must we forget that
the Church at Rome was, at this time, in its first glory ;
unsullied yet as Smyrna ; and having for its Apostolic
Head, a bishop who had conversed with Paul, the holy
'Clement, whose name is in the Book of Life, and whose
praise is in an Epistle, throughout all the Churches :
yet is there no reference to Clement as the centre of
unity, nor any allusion to the Roman See as the stand
ard of doctrine ; the latter being referred to the original
deposit of the apostles, and the former being the incom
municable prerogative of the Prince and Head of the
Catholic Church, Jesus Christ himself, who without
Vicar or Representative, abides forever, by His Spirit,
in the midst of the golden candlesticks.
Observe yet another principle, and a practical one.
It is made the duty of the faithful in each particular
church, to strive for the restoration of that church, ac
cording to the standard of Primitive Faith and Customs,
or, at least, for the preservation of its surviving gifts and

13
graces. The faithful in Laodicea were not to gratify
their yearnings by passing over to Ephesus ; nor were
those in dead Sardis, to prefer less inanimate Thyatira,
with all her idols and fornications, and doctrines of Jez
ebel. No, no ! A less summary, but far more effect
ual course is enjoined. Granted that Laodicea is just
ready to be spued from her Master's mouth : the warn
ing to the handful in Laodicea is — As many as I love I
rebuke and chasten ; be zealous therefore and repent.
If their church is lukewarm with indifference, their duty
is to warm it with their own zeal. Or take a worse
case ; and grant that Sardis has a name to live, and is
dead. She is not yet forsaken. She has a primitive
creed which can be maintained with renewed fidelity,
and the message is — Remember how thou hast received
and heard, and hold fast and repent ! She has an
Apostolic ministry, and its attendant means of grace,
and therefore the command is further — Be watchful,
and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready
to die. Precisely similar is the duty of the faithful in
the three other churches. Has Ephesus left her first
love ? Remember therefore from whence thou art
fallen, and repent, and do the first works ! Has the
Lord a few things against Pergamos, because she has
those within her that hold the doctrine of Balaam and
of the Nicolaitanes ? She is encouraged for not having
denied the faith, reminded of Antipas her faithful mar
tyr, and commanded to repent. Finally, is Thyatira
seduced by Jezebel to fornication and idolatry ? There
is a fierce rebuke, and a dreadful threat against her
corrupt members : but unto the rest in Thyatira, says
Christ, I will put upon you none other burden; but that
which ye have already holdfast till I come. And so, I
2

14
Martyrs without number ;" " Who that was but some
what zealous of religion, repaired not to him, from the
farthest parts of the world ? What Christian did not
venerate him as a prophet ? what philosopher did not
honor him as a master ? Yet on all this, great and
miserable error supervened : and " this Origen, so rare
and singular a man, too presumptuously abusing the
grace of God, indulging too much his own wit, trusting
himself as sufficient, little esteeming the old simplicity
of the Christian religion, presuming to be wiser than all
others, contemning the traditions of the Church and
the old Fathers' teaching, expounding certain chapters
of the Scriptures after a new fashion, deserved that unto
the Church of God, it should be said of him, If there
arise among you. a Prophet or a dreamer of dreams,
and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the
wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee say
ing, Let us go after other gods which thou hast not
known, and let us serve them, thou shalt not hearken
unto the words of that Prophet."8
Here is the explanation ; and wonderfully in our own
time has all this come to pass, in the case of one great
name, who has drawn others after him into ways which
they knew not, neither did their fathers know. It is
not indeed for us to search the hearts of others, and it
is our solemn duty to refer all judgment into the hands
of Him who alone can judge unerringly the sons of men.
Still, as regards the chief one among all those who have
gone out from us, the case, so far as what we may
judge of is concerned, is very clear. He, like Origen,
"little esteemed the old simplicity of the Christian
Faith," and loved a newer and more complicated the-
8 Dcut. xiii. 1.

15
ology ; he too, " contemned the true traditions of the
Church and the old Fathers testimony," and took up
with the decisions of that miscalled Council, which sets
them both at naught ; he too, " expounded certain
chapters of Scripture, after a new fashion of his own ;"
and he too, called on his brethren " to go and serve
strange gods ;" to give " to the creature the honor due
unto the Creator ;" and to worship her, whom — being
" Blessed among women," — men have dared to call, the
Queen of Heaven !
This difficulty, thus disposed of, relates to individu
als. There still remains another to be considered,
which has reference to the Church itself. For it may
be said, and it is said, that although in the Church Cath
olic, such instances may be anticipated, still in the case
of individual Churches, they are a scandal, a stumbling
block, and a disgrace. This reproach so far as it bears
on us, under our present circumstances, comes from
those two opposite extremes, between which the old
Primitive path, and therefore the path of our vocation
lies. The one party object that we cannot keep the
Church from the incursions of the Jewish temper ; the
other, that we cannot preserve it from those of the
Greek. Now that, in the communion of any single
Church, or even of the Church Catholic, individuals
never can be completely kept from error, is very cer
tain. To recur to an analogy which has been used be
fore : man's individual moral agency in reference to
error, and his responsibilities also, are nearly parallel
to the same agency and the same responsibilities, con
sidered in reference to sin. Let us then illustrate
the former case, as we very well may do, from the
latter. 4

16
that not content therewith he himself would not receive
the brethren, but forbade them that would, and cast them
out of the Church. What was this but a forerunner and
figure of that spirit that showed its more rabid parox
ysms at Trent? Who but. another Diotrephes would
presume to usurp the High Priest's robes, and enthrone
himself in the midst of the golden candlesticks, and to
counterfeit that two edged sword that proceedeth out
of the mouth of the Church's true and ever present
Head ! Yet thus it is that Rome curses whom God
hath not cursed, and tries to overturn ancient candle
sticks, and to quench burning stars, and to make a par
taking of her sin, the only refuge from her anathemas !
Far be it from us to imitate her usurpations of God's
prerogatives, by calling even Rome, a City quite for
saken ; but if ever a star may be quenched while a
candlestick still stands, doubtless it must be that disas
trous ort, whose ascendant is everywhere marked by
distress of nations, and bitterness, and blood, like the
great star which fell from heaven burning as it were a
lamp ; which fell upon the third part of the rivers, and
upon the fountains of waters ; and the name of the star
is called Wormwood. I speak advisedly, when I regard
Rome as a single star, eclipsing others ; for by Rome,
I mean not the Churches over which she domineers,
but the Roman See itself, for whose sole benefit and by
whose sole art, the creed of Trent was forged ; and un
der pains of whose fire and sword, the Churches of
Spain and France have had it riveted on their limbs, and
worn into their bones. And for what does the Church
of Rome come here ? It is surely out of place in
America : we are not Italians ! But little does she care
for that, if she can find another Apostolic Church, to

17
assault, and if possible enslave or destroy ! It is our
candlestick that she covets ; our star that she would
quench. Will she succeed ? My brethren if every rogue
ry that a Jesuit's morality can extenuate ; if every arti
fice that systematic mendacity can employ ; if every
snare, and pitfall, that indefatigable contrivance can in
vent — are an overmatch for simple, unsuspecting and in
cautious Truth, we are gone already ! Our gates are al
ways open ; we stand upon no ceremonies with those
who hail as friends ; and our enemies are passing
through, unchallenged and unknown ! We are as lambs
among wolves. And yet, for all that, I do not, in the
least, despond. God forbid ! There is that in the plant
ing, and watering of our Apostolic shoot, that forbids
one single doubt in my sure faith, that it is a branch of
God's planting which shall yet overshadow the land.
As such we are shaking off our unripe figs ; but the
root remains ! Why should not our candlestick, have
wandering stars? Alexandria had her Origen, Car
thage her Tertullian ; but their glory departed not with
them. I trust in God, no man will tremble for our
Church, till stars fall that are stars indeed. And even
then, why fear ? Where we lose a presbyter, Rome
loses a Pope ; and while we seek the strayed sheep of
a single parish, she sends forth a decree that all the
world should be taxed to rebuild her mutilated capital,
and keep the immediate flock of her Sovereign Pontiff
from barbarously devouring him ! It is all one with God
to save by many, or by few ; and He has a way to ease
us of our adversary in His own good time. Let us do
our duty and trust Him ; and if here and there a priest
renounces his portion in a ministry which still shines
in the right hand of Christ, let us remember what was
2*

18
said of old, under similar afflictions by St. Vincent of
Lerins. " Understand" he says, " that if at any time,
any teacher of the Church has wandered from the faith,
it is permitted by divine Providence, for our trial
whether we love God or not, with all our heart, and
with all our soul1." And this he says in an immortal
treatise, which seems as if it were written beforehand
to be the warrant of the Church of England, of the
Church in America, and of every christian man, for
abjuring, while she remains as she is, all fellowship with
Rome. IV. We may apply then to our Anglican commun
ion, the consoling title of a City not forsaken. By
some of our brethren we are forsaken: they that did
eat of her bread have lifted up their heel against her ;
and they are gone into captivity. By the waters of
Babylon, there they sit down ; and, my word for it,
there are some of them already who weep when they
remember Zion. The glitter that attracts the silly
moth consumes him ; and the splendour of Romanism is
a cheat which breaks the heart which it allures. A
Latin anthem may sound sweetly in the Sistine chapel,
as it gushes from the throats of manufactured Sopranos,
whose every note cries unto God against the degrada
tion of his image ; but will it do any good to the poor
outcast of the woods, whose hungry and thirsty soul is
mocked all the year by a monotone of mumblings in an
unknown tongue ? Processions and Sepulchres are
pretty ; but shall the mechanical scene-shiftings of a
Romish Passion- Week supply the hollow soul of one
who has foresworn the rich review of his Redeemer's
words and sufferings with which we keep the Pass-
1 S. Vincent. Commonitor. p. 42. Baltimore.

19
over ? The painters have made beautiful fables of the
Virgin ; but is the doll-dressing of Mariolatry to fill
the void of those glorious Advent Lessons, and Gospels,
which are now renewing to us the whole inspired his
tory of the Blessed Mary, and presenting us with all
those scenes of pastoral simplicity, household sympathy,
and prophetic rapture which surround the Nativity
of our Lord ? Ah ! this is the children's bread, for
which Rome gives the captive exile husks, and her
children a stone. The Lord grant that our prodigals'
may come to themselves, and remember where there is
yet enough and to spare ! But what if they have gone
out from us because, indeed, they were not of us ? Are
we then forsaken ? Let us call to mind the wonders
of old time. Where was our Church two hundred
years ago, this very year ? Another foe had over
thrown our candlestick, and Rome exulted that there
was but a spark left, of our ancient star. It is true —
our coal was almost quenched. There was not a par
ish-church in England in which our service could be
performed ; and in huts, and upper rooms, it was
hunted and persecuted unto death. There was laugh
ter in the Vatican, and cries of there, there, so would
we have it. They said the Church of England was
invisible1 ; and they verily believed the last Arch
bishop of Canterbury was lying headless in the coffin
of Laud. And now, that Church of England, where
is she not ? Let Parliaments and Premiers destroy her
ancient seats, at home — she has a hundred lives abroad.
If her one foot is on land, she has another on the sea.
Look at her colonial Missions doubled in the last ten
years. Look at her harvest in India, the honour of
1 See Evelyn's diary.

20
her evangelists and the glory of Christ ! Look at our
American Church rejoicing to be called her offspring,
and aspiring to become her second self! Remember
her marvellous history — and who that has senses would
not be ashamed if he remembered it not ? What no
ble doctors have taught her ; what splendid genius has
adorned her ; what mighty energies have enlarged her ;
what massive intellect has been her bulwark and de
fence ! Yet she bears more fruit in her age ; her last
works are more than her first : and this very year has
proved that from the ranks of Papal and Puritan dis
sent, ten come to us, for one that goes to them ! Are
these the tokens of a house left desolate — of a City
forsaken ? Has not God in every way distinguished
us from bastard slips that thrive not, and trees whose
fruit withereth ? If then our history proves us a City,
and our fruits of faith a City not. forsaken, here will I
dwell, and this shall be my rest forever — says the Lord ;
and so say we his children ! Call us Sardis if you will —
we will strengthen the things that remain. Provoke
us to purity, incite us to unity — we will take first
works as the law of the one, and first love, as the soul
of the other! But who dares call our Church a Sardis ?
If she be not a Smyrna, nor even a Philadelphia — not
even malice, nor envy, can make her less than Ephesus.
Granted— her dear Lord and long-suffering Master,
might say unto her as unto the Church of Paul and
Timothy, / have somewhat against thee because thou
hast left thy first love ; yet would He also give her the
praise of the Ephesians — / know thy works, and thy
labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear
them which are evil ; and thou hast tried them which say
they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars ;

21
and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's
sake hast laboured : and hast not fainted. Surely, this
praise applied to her, in the hearts of those who know her
story, requires no illustration. Let us then hold fast
what she has, and let no man take her crown !
We are part of the Militant Church, and we must
be tried with offences and proved by heresies ; but the
bush that burns with fire, is still the bush that is uncon-
sumed. God is in the midst of her, and that accounts
at once for the brightness and the burning. Only let
us see that from the consoling Scriptures we have re
viewed, we take to ourselves individually all that is said
to the lukewarm and the dead ; and then will our light
so shine before men, that they will not be able to doubt
that we are reared on the true foundation Rock of
Peter, and are indeed a living part of the City of God.
Such is the responsibility involved in our dignity. We
must lead others to our light ; we must attract them to
seek us ; and as we claim, so we must verify, every
word of the prophecy which contains the text — And
they shall call them The holy people, the redeemed of the
Lord ; and thou shalt be called Sought out ; a City Not
Forsaken.

Note. A blameworthy reluctance has been shown, by some, to calling things
by their right names, and branding defections to Rome, as apostacies. The Council
of Trent has so far altered the relations of all Churches to that of Rome, by erect
ing a world-wide schism, and by making fearful errours the essence of her Faith,
that our view of the Seven Churches furnishes no rule for the case of an awakened
papist seeking to profess the Primitive Faith, and to enjoy unmutilated Sacraments.
Such an one is bound, if he can do it, to find an uncorrupted Church, But when
a Christian leaves a pure Church, because of its purity, and cleaves to Rome for the
sake of her corruptions, at the same time joining in her anathemas against the
Church deserted, and perhaps sacrilegiously renouncing orders, and receiving them
again from the Tridentine source, such a man becomes an apostate, and a flagrant
one : and perhaps if it were honestly said so, by all parties, there would be more
horrour of the crime. (II. Thess. ii. 8-15.) A. C. C.

ERRORS AND THEIR USES,
O R
€l)t /uifljftti mflh matrifed,
A SERMON
PREACHED IN ST. JOHN'S, HARTFORD,
ON THE
2tfroent €mb£r Stmbag,

MDCCCXLIX.

BY THE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS, D. D.,
PRESIDENT OP TRINITY COLLEGE.

HARTFORD :
PRESS OF CASE, TIFFANY AND COMPANY.
1849.

TO
THE RIGHT REVEREND
CARLTON CHASE, D. D.
BISHOP OP NEW HAMPSHIRE,
AS A TOKEN OF DEEP RESPECT FOR HIS STEDFAST CHARACTER,
NO LESS THAN OF REVERENCE FOR HI8 SACRED OFFICE ;
THIS SERMON
IS DEDICATED. J. "W.
Trinity College, December 18, 1849.

PRAYERS. — O Almighty God, who into the place of the traitor
Judas, didst choose thy faithful servant Matthias, to be of the num
ber of the twelve Apostles; grant that thy Church, being always
preserved from false Apostles, may be ordered and guided by faithful
and true Pastors, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
O Almighty God, who hast instructed thy holy Church with the
heavenly doctrine of thy Evangelist Saint Mark ; give us grace, that
being not like children carried away with every blast of vain doc
trine, we may be established in the truth of thy holy Gospel, through
Jestjs Christ our Lord. Amen.

SEEMON.

I Cor. xi. 19. For there must be also heresies among you, that they
WHICH ARE APPROVED MAY BE MADE MANIFEST AMONG YOU.
There is probably nothing connected with religion,
in which persons suffer their imaginations to lead them
so completely astray, as in the ideal view which they
form for themselves, of the history and progress of the
Christian Church. It is not perhaps strange that taking
into account the divine character of its Blessed Found
er, and the ends and purposes for which he founded it,
men should be inclined to form for themselves just such
an ideal as they do, of the progress of that Holy Society,
which is His Church, His Body, and His Spouse. In
deed nothing can surpass the ideal of the Church, which
Holy Scripture in all places sets before us, whether in
the words of the Prophets, the declarations of our Lord,
or the teaching of the Apostles. But observe my
Brethren, for in forgetting this, it is, that the main diffi
culty lies, that it is an ideal of the Church as such, and
was never intended to present a picture of her actual
condition and progress. For the very highest and
divinest ideals, are always marred and injured, and in
fact they must of necessity become so, when they are
realized through human agencies, with all their failings
and imperfections. What the great Head designed
His Church to be, and how He planned her in her con
stitution and her work, is one thing. What men have

made her, in her actual workings and expressions, is
quite another.
Now this distinction which I have assumed, between
the ideal of the Church as such, which we gather from
Holy Scripture, and the Church in her history and
dwelling among men, is not a mere new theory, got up
to meet a difficulty, and to explain a contradiction. On
the contrary it lies plainly out to view in Holy Writ,
and is frequently enforced and enlarged upon, not only
by the sacred writers, but by our Lord Himself. A few
words in proof of this, may not be amiss. If we turn to
the writings of the Prophets, and it is not necessary for
our present purposes to go beyond them, we find the
Church and her condition described under such images
as these. She is the Jerusalem of God, into whom
there shall no more come the uncircumcised and the
unclean ; within whose land violence shall no more be
heard, nor wasting within her borders ; whose walls
shall be salvation, and whose gates Praise.1 She is the
way in which no ravenous beast shall be found, nor any
lion, but where the redeemed of the Lord shall walk.2
She is the mountain of the Lord's house, established in
the top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills,
where the nations shall beat their swords into plough
shares, and their spears into pruning hooks, and lifting
up no swords against each other, shall forever cease
from war.3 If on the other hand we recur to the words
of our Lord, we there find that the Church is a net,
filled with fishes good and bad, and a field in which
the tares grow up with the wheat ; that it brings not
peace upon earth but a sword ; that it sets the members
1 Is. ]ii. 1, Ix. 18. 2 Is. xxxv. 8, 9. 3 Is. ii. S, 4.

even* of the same household, one against another ; and
that in it offences must needs come.
Now how are these two sets of statements, thus ap
parently contradictory, to be reconciled ? Not cer
tainly by supposing as some have done, that all these
wonderful announcements of the Prophet, refer to some
future state of terrestrial glory and development. Far
from this. For while we may perhaps look onward to
a coming period here, when these glowing words shall
be more literally fulfilled, whose complete fulfilment will
be witnessed only in the heavenly places, still we are
to remember two things in reference to them. First,
that to a certain degree, and especially in a comparison
of the Church's work on earth with that of worldly
kingdoms and human empires, they have been fulfilled ;
and next, that they present, as has been already said,
rather an ideal of the Church as such, than as men have
realized her and carried her out in history.4 While it
is to the mournful imperfections, the miserable perver
sions, and in some cases the utter destructions of that
history, that our Lord refers, in His sad and woeful an
nouncements. The prophets then, if one may reverently venture so
to speak, beheld the Church, as she was conceived and
planned in the Eternal mind, and as she will repose in
the glory of her final triumph, and in the beatific vision
of her Lord. They saw her as the heavenly Jerusalem,
descending from above in all the glowing freshness of
her celestial beauty, spotless and unwrinkled from the
hand of God. Our Lord was looking at her, as she
toiled along her weary way amidst the nations, and
4 Compare Vitringa, on the various passages from Isaiah quoted above.
3*

gathered stains and evils, from these human agencies
to which she was entrusted ; stains and evils which she
shall cast from her in the day of her final triumph. The
prophets sung their glorious vision therefore, and the
Lord declared His sadder one, in words which are
strictly accordant with each other. And the error into
which men have fallen has been, that they have mis
taken the prophetic vision of the Church as such, for a
complete picture of her history and progress among
men : and so, while dreaming over their own fancies,
have forgotten that it was always, in all time, to be the
case, — and that because the Church was given into the
feeble hands of men, — that offences should arise.
Now one of these offences is indicated in the text of
this discourse : " for there must also be heresies among
you ;" that is, giving the word heresy with St. Chrysos-
tom its widest signification, and not confining it to its
established theological strictness of meaning, there must
be errors among you. And these words the same great
Doctor considered, to have the same reference as our
Lord's declaration, "that offences must needs come."
Which assurance was given he says, " not destroying
the liberty of the will, nor appointing any necessity and
compulsion over man's life, but foretelling what would
certainly ensue, from the evil mind of men ; which
would take place, not because of His prediction, but
because the incurably disposed are so minded. For
not because He foretold them, did these things happen ;
but because they were certainly about to happen, there
fore He foretold them."5
5 St. Chrysostom's xviith Homily on Corinthians. Even Ligbtfoot says, " That is
a sad accent " there must be heresies." And whence comes that must ie, or that
necessity ? Hath God any hand in it, that it must be because He will have it 1 Or

Heresies and errors then, in the Church we must ex
pect to find continually. It is from the very circum
stances of the case, and the nature of man's moral
agency in reference to divine truth, a matter of neces
sity that they should exist. Of necessity that is, not
according to God's will, but man's perversity.
Such then being the fact, let us proceed to inquire
somewhat concerning the causes and characters of
these various and constantly recurring errors. I can
not of course attempt here, to go into any thing like a
detailed account of either. It must suffice to suggest
such general rules of classification, as may be practically
useful, and at the same time brief. And first as to the
causes. Says an old writer, "Heresy is sometimes
bred of ignorance, sometimes of too much knowledge :
sometimes of too much carelessness about the word of
God, sometimes of too much curiosity ; sometimes of
leaning too much to sense, and sometimes too much to
carnal reason; most commonly of pride ; — of men's
seeking themselves, — of crossness, — of boldness about
divine things ; and ever of men's wilfulness to have
their own minds."6 While this however is strictly
true, it yet appears, that as matter of fact and history,
this wilfulness and these other states of mind, have
issued in two distinct tempers, which have also im
pressed their own characters on the various forms of
error to which they have given rise. These tempers
is there any such necessity that it must be, because the Church hath need of here
sies 1 There must be weeds in the garden. Is it because the garden hath need of
weeds ? It hath need of weeding rather than of weeds. But the must be proceed
ed from the corruption of men of evil mindB, that will raise up heresies." Sermon
on Acts xxiii. 8.
6 Compare Geo. Herbert's Church Porch, Stanza iv. It is as true of this matter,
as of that for which he wrote it.

10
are indicated by St. Paul when he says, " The Jews
require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom."
The one temper leads to the fond imaginings of super
stition, and the other to the bold questionings of profane
incredulity. The one temper induces to the accept
ance of every thing which comes recommended by a
fancied sign. The other inclines to the reception of
all, that brings with it the appearance, no matter how
unreal, of wisdom. In the Apostolic times, the several
representatives of these tempers, were, as we have seen,
the Jews and Greeks. And although those classes of
persons outside and within the Church have passed
away, yet have their representatives succeeded them
in an unbroken line, and the identical tempers which
they exhibited, have lived, and are living at this present
moment. It must be observed moreover, that all the heresies
and errors which at any period have infested the
Church, have found their formative principle in the one
or the other of these tempers. And we are thus fur
nished not only with a profound view of their truest
causes, but also with a ready means, and withal a truly
philosophical one, of classifying them. And here, not
to go back to other and earlier periods in Christian His
tory, this view may be readily illustrated from the errors
of our own times. Look at them, my Brethren, in their
principles, and you will find them ranging themselves
according to the tempers of the Jew or of the Greek.
You will find the one coming with its signs, whether
of the monkish miracle, or the mesmeric trance, or the
sudden illumination, or the unburied golden plates, or
any thing else on which the fancy may seize, and to
which unreasoning credulity can cling. You will find

11
the other parading its proofs of wisdom, whether in re
ducing all things to the level of the human comprehen
sion, or refusing to believe what it cannot understand,
or applying to religious truth, and the high things of
revelation, those principles of examination, which only
relate to the phenomena of the physical and the mental
world. Thus, for instance, the temper of the Jew runs
out into the dogmas of Purgatory, Transubstantiation,
and the Immaculate Conception ; and that of the Greek
into profane denials of the Divinity of our Lord, the
Doctrine of the Trinity, and the Sacrifice of the Atone
ment. Thus it has been, thus it is, and thus no doubt
it ever will be.
Now let us still further observe, that the elements of
these two tempers, are found in all persons whatever.
So that while it will scarcely be the case, that all men
will become leaders of others, or will even lead them
selves, in one or the other of these two directions, yet
all men are more or less liable to be so led by circum
stances or persons, with which they may be brought in
contact. Especially will this hold true of those, whose
position and duties lead them to theological studies and
investigations. And thus you find at once the reason,
why in all ages, so many who should be teachers, have
need that one should teach them again. Undesignedly
it may be, and even perhaps unconsciously, they have
indulged themselves in the temper of the Jew or of the
Greek. They have desired signs, or sought for wisdom.
And therefore they have been led to desert the signless
uniformity of the Primitive Faith, or else what they
deem its foolishness of statement, for the sign confirmed
doctrines of popish or sectarian miracle-mongers, or

12
the philosophical elucidations of conceited and self-
instructed meddlers.
But it may be said, — and it certainly presents an im
portant question, — granting all that has been alleged :
granting that on account of human infirmities and fail
ings, there must be errors and even heresies in the
Church, that they spring from and may be classified by
the two tempers of which we have spoken, and that
these tempers are found in all men; granting all this,
still how can it be that really sincere and pious persons,
should be carried away by them ? It might indeed be
readily supposed, that careless, thoughtless persons, who
take little heed to themselves and to their Spiritual con
dition, should be easily led thus astray. But how can
it be that really sincere and pious persons, persons who
are on their guard, and keep over their spirits a contin
ual watch, should let these tempers run thus away with
them, and be borne on to such sad results ?
Now we may reply to this at once, that as matter of
fact these things have ever been : that the facf there
fore cannot be denied ; and that what we have to do is
to show how the two things may be made consistent
with each other. We cannot deny the fact, and the
apparent difficulty we are bound to meet. We cannot
deny the fact; for illustrious names of Fathers, Doctors,
and even Saints, as well as a host of meaner ones,
attest it from the earliest days. We cannot escape the
apparent difficulty ; for it is one which lies up on the
very surface, and is echoed and reechoed in our ears, in
the demand, how his faith can be so very wrong, whose
life appears to be so very right.
But is there really any difficulty, my Brethren, in the

13
matter ? Suppose that in place of the word error, you
substitute sin, in the question just now stated ; and see
to what an absurdity you have reduced it. I say ab
surdity ; for who would not count it absurd to ask, how
a really sincere and pious person could ever fall into
sin ? And the argument from analogy becomes here
more cogent, when we remember, that error, according
to its conditions and circumstances, partakes of the na
ture of sin. Surely then, if St. Thomas could doubt,
and St. Peter could deny, even their blessed Lord, it
need occasion no wonder, if others less privileged and
no doubt less holy, shall wander away from the Faith
once given to the Saints, and accept the additions of
Trent, or the negations of Westminster.
Still I admit, that while these statements account for
the fact under consideration, they do not fully explain
it. And that fuller explanation I will give in the words
of one, who was a venerable authority with our Angli
can Reformers, and whose test of the Faith, is the sure
detector of every error. Vincent of Lerins,' in taking
up this very question, illustrates it by the striking in
stance of Origen. He gives a noble description of his
great powers, and lofty character. " He was a man,"
he says, "of great industry, of great chastity, patience,
and labor ;" " of such universal erudition and learning,
that there were few things in Divinity, in human phi
losophy perhaps almost none, which he had not perfectly
attained ;" one, " than whom there was never any Doc
tor which used more of Holy Scripture ;" one, than
whom, "no living man" wrote " more ;" of whose
"nursing grew up Doctors, Priests, Confessors, and
7 Commonitory,Chap. xvii.

14
Martyrs without number ;" " Who that was but some
what zealous of religion, repaired not to him, from the
farthest parts of the world ? What Christian did not
venerate him as a prophet ? what philosopher did not
honor him as a master ? Yet on all this, great and
miserable error supervened : and " this Origen, so rare
and singular a man, too presumptuously abusing the
grace of God, indulging too much his own wit, trusting
himself as sufficient, little esteeming the old simplicity
of the Christian religion, presuming to be wiser than all
others, contemning the traditions of the Church and
the old Fathers' teaching, expounding certain chapters
of the Scriptures after a new fashion, deserved that unto
the Church of God, it should be said of him, If there
arise among you a Prophet or a dreamer of dreams,
and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the
wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee say
ing, Let us go after other gods which thou hast not
known, and let us serve them, thou shalt not hearken
unto the words of that Prophet."3
Here is the explanation ; and wonderfully in our own
time has all this come to pass, in the case of one great
name, who has drawn others after him into ways which
they knew not, neither did their fathers know. It is
not indeed for us to search the hearts of others, and it
is our solemn duty to refer all judgment into the hands
of Him who alone can judge unerringly the sons of men.
Still, as regards the chief one among all those who have
gone out from us, the case, so far as what we may
judge of is concerned, is very clear. He, like Origen,
"little esteemed the old simplicity of the Christian
Faith," and loved a newer and more complicated the-
8 Dcut. xiii. 1.

15
ology ; he too, " contemned the true traditions of the
Church and the old Fathers testimony," and took up
with the decisions of that miscalled Council, which sets
them both at naught; he too, "expounded certain
chapters of Scripture, after a new fashion of his own ;"
and he too, called on his brethren " to go and serve
strange gods ;" to give " to the creature the honor due
unto the Creator ;" and to worship her, whom — being
" Blessed among women," — men have dared to call, the
Queen of Heaven !
This difficulty, thus disposed of, relates to individu
als. There still remains another to be considered,
which has reference to the Church itself. For it may
be said, and it is said, that although in the Church Cath
olic, such instances may be anticipated, still in the case
of individual Churches, they are a scandal, a stumbling
block, and a disgrace. This reproach so far as it bears
on us, under our present circumstances, comes from
those two opposite extremes, between which the old
Primitive path, and therefore the path of our vocation
lies. The one party object that we cannot keep the
Church from the incursions of the Jewish temper ; the
other, that we cannot preserve it from those of the
Greek. Now that, in the communion of any single
Church, or even of the Church Catholic, individuals
never can be completely kept from error, is very cer
tain. To recur to an analogy which has been used be
fore : man's individual moral agency in reference to
error, and his responsibilities also, are nearly parallel
to the same agency and the same responsibilities, con
sidered in reference to sin. Let us then illustrate
the former case, as we very well may do, from the
latter. 4

16
So long as any Church9 proposes a sufficient rule of
Christian living, sufficiently guarded against excesses
or defects, and so promulgates and propounds it, that it
may be known and understood of all her members,- the
sins and failures of individuals cannot justly be charged
upon her, as marks of disgrace, or proofs that she en
courages men in courses of transgression. This prin
ciple is so exceedingly plain, that it cannot require one
word of defence ; to state it, is enough. By parity of
reasoning, for the analogy is complete and striking, we
may assume the same ground in reference to error.
So long as any Church proposes a sufficient formula of
Christian Faith, and especially guards the commissioned
teachers of that Faith, against excesses or defects in
receiving and declaring it, it is no just reproach, it
proves no tendency one way or another, that Jews may
seek to add to it, and Greeks may strive to take away
from it. Least of all is it a reproach, if finding that
their plans are futile within her fold, they leave her for
other places, and by that very act, proclaim her real
strength, and their powerlessness for abiding evil. If
she had no rule or standard by which to judge them, if
there were no positive life within her to react upon
them and to cast them out, then she would be rebuked
and disgraced indeed. But otherwise she cannot be.
Now I need hardly say, that the Anglican Church,
stands precisely in the position which we have been
supposing. In the two Creeds and in the Liturgy and
Articles, she distinctly and sufficiently propounds the
Catholic Faith. In the same Liturgy and Articles she
9 The word Church is of course used strictly, and without reference to its appro
priation by voluntary and unauthorized associations of men.

17
especially guards her commissioned teachers, from the
excesses of the Papacy, and the defects of mere Prot
estantism. While in the rule of her Reformation as
declared by Cranmer, and Ridley, and Jewel ; the rule
which says " when one part is infected with heresies,
then prefer the whole world before that one part, but if
the greatest part be infected, then prefer antiquity ;" in
this rule I say, she sets forth the all sufficient guard
against additions or defects of whatsoever kind. Ac
cordingly, they who are not of her, have always sooner
or later departed from her, to their reproach not to
hers ; witnesses against themselves, but witnesses too
for her.
I trust that the division of our text, which foretels
the existence of errors and heresies in the Church, has
now been sufficiently illustrated. For we have seen
that the nature of man must needs produce them, and
that Holy Scripture distinctly anticipates them. We
have seen from what two great tempers they spring,
and take their characteristic forms. We have seen
how great and good men may fall into them, even as
they have done. We have seen under what circum
stances they are, and under what they are not a cause
of reproach and shame to the Church ; and that our
own Church in this matter affords no ground for any
just rebuke. Let me now, briefly and in conclusion,
ask your attention to those side issues of good, for which
God's mercy overrules man's wrath. " There must be
heresies among you," says the Apostle, that "they
which are approved may be made manifest."
It is a principle of universal application that the mys
terious and mighty Providence of God, brings good out
of evil. And this is accomplished of course in manifold

18
ways. In the present case, side good is brought out of
the evil of error, under two aspects ; first in reference
to the Faith itself, and next in reference to individuals.
Good then, we say, comes out of error, in reference
to the Faith itself. Not that when divine things are
had in view, we can assent unqualifiedly to that much
perverted principle that discussion as such elicits truth;
for how often have such discussions elicited mainly
profanity and error. But that it is, notwithstanding,
certain as matter of history, that error does confirm
the Faith.10 It does this because it summons around
the truth "a cloud of witnesses," whose testimony
might not otherwise be given ; and compels believers
to speak with a distinctness which before perhaps they
have not used. Thus it was the pestilent heresy of
Arius, which gathered the Nicene Fathers to declare
as one man, that the great Doctrine of the Trinity had
been held all over the world from the very beginning ;
and which brought out those more distinct and search
ing statements of the Nicene Creed, whose force and
cogency exposed the Church's treacherous sons. And
this one instance may suffice to indicate the ways in
which the Faith is manifested and strengthened by the
attacks of error.
So far as individuals are concerned, the good which
God here brings out of evil, seems to be, that they too
are strengthened and built up, by that careful review
and examination of the grounds of their belief which
they are compelled to make. And apart from this, and
this perhaps is what the text more directly alludes to,
they aie themselves "made manifest." Prejudices are
10 See Bandinel's vith Bampton Lecture for 1780 .

19
disabused ; positions once misunderstood, come to be
comprehended ; principles once stigmatized, are found
to be true and safe ; and many who for long and tedious
years, have been suspected, and it may be, almost de
nounced, are approved before men as loving, true, and
loyal. Manifold, then, my Brethren, as are the evils of error,
still in God's mercy it comes not without some com
fort. Not indeed for those who cause it, for against
such the Lord himself denounces only woe ; but for
those who mourning for it and abhorring it, can yet feel
that they are only more firmly settled by it in the Faith
once given to the Saints ; and made more willing and
more earnest, to witness for that Faith through evil re
port and good report, till Faith shall be forever turned
to sight. So let it be with us. We on our part claim,
that we have not declared unto you cunningly devised
fables. Y^ou on yours may say, We know what we
have believed. Therefore, " beloved, building up your
selves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy
Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for
the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal
life."11 And remember with sorrow, and yet without
dismay, that " there mrfst be also heresies among you,
that they which are approved, may be made manifest
among you." 11 St. Jude's Epistle, 20, 21.

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til

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