solatory security for his faith in such a guide;who can derive satisfactory confidence from the oracles of a Proteus!

case, nei

possible

useless even

§ 35. Moreover, the supposed case of Chris- Supposed tians deprived of a regular succession of Episco- ther an impally-ordained Ministers, and left to determine one, nor what course they ought, under such circum- if it were. stances, to take, is not inconceivable, or impossible, or unprecedented; nor again, even if it were, would the consideration of such a question be necessarily an unprofitable speculation; because it will often happen that by putting a supposed case (even when such as could not possibly occur) we can the most easily and most clearly ascertain on what principle a person is acting. Thus when Plato° puts the impossible case of

0 66

Atque hoc loco, philosophi quidam, minime mali illi quidem, sed non satis acuti, fictam et commenticiam fabulam prolatam dicunt a Platone: quasi vero ille, aut factum id esse, aut fieri potuisse defendat. Hæc est vis hujus annuli et hujus exempli, si nemo sciturus, nemo ne suspicaturus quidem sit, cum aliquid, divitiarum, potentiæ, dominationis, libidinis, caussa feceris,-si id diis hominibusque futurum sit semper ignotum, sisne facturus. Negant id fieri posse. Quanquam potest id quidem; sed quæro, quod negant posse, id si posset, quidnam facerent? Urgent rustice sane: negant enim posse, et in eo perstant. Hoc verbum quid valeat, non vident. Cum enim quærimus, si possint celare, quid facturi sint, non quærimus, possintne celare," &c.-Cic. de Off. b. iii. c. 9.

200 Supposed Case not useless, even if impossible. [ESSAY II.

your possessing the ring of Gyges, which, according to the legend, could make the bearer invisible, and demands how you would then act, he applies a kind of test, which decomposes, as the chemists say, the complex mass of motives that may influence a man, and calls on you to consider whether you abstain from bad actions through fear of the censure of the world, or from abhorrence of evil in itself.

So again-to take another instance-if any one is asked how men ought to act when living under a Government professing, and enforcing under penalties, a false religion, and requiring of its subjects idolatrous worship, and other practices contrary to Scripture, if he should object to the question, on the ground that there is no prospect of his being so circumstanced, and that he is living, and may calculate on continuing to live, under a Government which inculcates a true religion, it would be justly inferred that he was conscious of something unsound in his principles, from his evading a test that goes to ascertain whether he regards religious truth and the command of God, as things to be adhered to at all events, or merely, when coinciding with the requisitions of Government.

So also, in the present case: when a Church possesses Ministers who are the regularly

P Rhetoric, pt. i. c. 2, § 8.

appointed officers of a Christian Community constituted on evangelical principles, and who are also ordained by persons descended in an unbroken series from those ordained by the Apostles, the two circumstances coincide, on which, according to the two different principles, respectively, above treated of, the legitimacy and apostolical commission of Christian Ministers may be made to depend. Now in order to judge fairly, and to state clearly the decision, which foundation we resolve to rest on, it is requisite to propose a case (even supposingwhich is very far from being the fact that it could not actually occur) in which these two circumstances do not come together; and then to pronounce which it is that we regard as essential.

moral ne

separation.

§ 36. As a matter of fact, there can be no Cases of a reasonable doubt that the Apostles did "ordain cessity for Elders in every city." Even if there had been no record of their doing so, we might have inferred it from the very fact of their instituting Christian Societies; since every Society must have Officers; and the founder of a Society will naturally take upon him to nominate the first Officers; as well as to "set in order the rest" of the appointments. And those Officers, acting

q a 1 Cor.

in the name and on the behalf of the Community, would, of course, appoint others to succeed them; and so on, from generation to generation. As long as every thing went on correctly in each Church, and its doctrines and practices remained sound, there would be nothing to interrupt this orderly course of things. But whenever it happened that the Rulers of any Church departed from the Christian faith and practice which it is their business to preserve,-when, for instance, they corrupted their worship with superstitions, made a traffic of "indulgences,” and “ "taught for doctrines the commandments of men," by

66

blending" human traditions with Scripture, and making them, either wholly or in part, the substitute, as a rule of faith, for the records of inspiration,-in any such case, it became the duty of all those who perceived the inroads of such errors, to aim at the reformation of them: and, when all or any of the Spiritual Pastors of such a Church obstinately stood out against reform, to throw off their subjection to persons so abusing their sacred office, and, at all events, reform themselves as they best could. It is as plain a duty for men so circumstanced to obey their Heavenly Master, and forsake those who have apostatized from Him, as it would be for the loyal portion of a garrison of soldiers to revolt from a general who had turned traitor to

his King, and was betraying the city into the enemy's hands. So far from being rebellious subjects in thus revolting, they would be guilty of rebellion if they did not.

In like manner, the very circumstances in which such a Body of reformers, as I have been alluding to, are placed, confer on them that independence which they would have been unjustifiable in assuming wantonly. The right is bestowed, and the duty imposed on them, of separation from the unreformed, which, under opposite circumstances, would have been schismatical. They are authorized, and bound, by the very nature of their situation, either to subsist as a distinct Community, or to join some other Church; even as the vitality which Nature has conferred on a scion of a tree, enables it, when cut off from the parent-stock, either to push forth fresh roots of its own, or to unite, as a graft, with the stock of some kindred tree.

suitable for

It is for men so circumstanced to do their best Conduct according to their own deliberate judgment, to conscientimeet their difficulties, to supply their deficiencies,

r

An instance of this was very recently afforded by the people of Zillerthal, in the Austrian dominions; who, being deliberately convinced of the errors of the Church in which they had been brought up, underwent, in consequence of their refusal of compliance, a long series of vexatious persecution, and ultimately forsook their home, and found refuge and freedom of conscience in the territory of Prussia.

ous seced

ers.