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2. In trying to make the members of the Church of England desert and disobey their own bishops and clergy, these men have broken that rule of the Apostle, Heb. xiii. 17, "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they that must give account."

3. In trying to make divisions and separations among us, they are directly thwarting the prayer of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who prayed thus for His people: "That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." John xvii. 21.

4. It is well to consider how St. Paul bids us treat those who would lead men to dissent from the Church, and to make divisions in it. "I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences, contrary to the doctrine you have learned, and avoid them. For they that are such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and with good words and fair speeches, deceive the hearts of the simple." Rom. xvi. 17, 18. Thus it appears how directly contrary to the Bible the Bishop of Rome, and his agents in the British dioceses, are acting.

(D.)

The following rules, a few out of many, will show how absolutely and repeatedly such conduct as is now practised among us by the schismatical Papal Prelates, has been condemned by the Catholic Church.

1. "Let not bishops go out of their dioceses to churches beyond their bounds, nor cause a confusion of churches.

2. "We count those persons to be heretics, who, though they pretend to profess a sound faith, have separated themselves, and made congregations contrary to our canonical bishops."

These rules were agreed upon in a great assembly of bishops at Constantinople in the year 381, and were adopted by the

whole Church of Christ. Hence the assembly is called a general council, because its rules were generally and universally received by the Church.

3. "That no bishop take another province which has not formerly and from the beginning been subject to him. But if any one has taken another, and by force has placed it under his control, he shall restore it; that the rules of the Fathers be not broken, nor the pride of worldly power be introduced under the cloak of the priesthood, nor we by degrees come to lose that liberty which the Lord Jesus Chris hast given us."

This rule was agreed upon in a great assembly of bishops at Ephesus, in the year 438, another of those general councils, the rules of which were adopted by the whole Church of Christ.

4. "Let not a bishop ordain or appoint any clergyman to places subject to another bishop, unless with the consent of the proper bishop of the district. If any do otherwise, let the ordination be invalid, and himself punished.”

This rule, which had been made by some bishops at Antioch, in the year 341, was confirmed by a great assembly at Chalcedon, in the year 451, which is also one of the general councils the rules of which have been received by the whole Catholic Church.

Thus it appears that the bishop of Rome and his agents here are acting directly contrary to the rules of the Catholic Church, and are expressly condemned by no less than three general councils; according to which all his clerical agents here are declared to be "heretics,” and their schismatical “ordination” to be "invalid." Concerning this last term, which has given rise to some discussion, I will observe that ǎkupos and åßéßatos are the words used to express it in the Greek canon, and the notes of the Greek Commentators, which are rendered in the Latin translation by the words invalidus and infirmus.

I am not prepared to contend that it means more than, that the Church refuses to recognise such ordination, until, on the return of the parties to her fold, she shall ratify and confirm the

same: as in the case of heretical baptisms, provided for by the council of Constantinople, Canon VI., where, except in certain specified cases, on the parties' return to the Church, they were received, without repetition of Baptism. Indeed the case seems provided for by the eighth Canon of the First Nicene council, where it is decreed that when the Novatians, who were living in a state of schism similar to that of the Roman party among us, should come over to the Catholic and Apostolic Church, they who were ordained among them, should continue in the clergy. It is observable that the refusal to recognise the validity of orders conferred by those who set up altar against altar, invading the dioceses of other bishops, was a tightening the bonds of discipline. The ante-Nicene Code, Canon XXXVI., had only provided for the deposition of the ordainer and ordained in such circumstances. It should seem that by the first discipline, episcopal ordination, conferred in schism, was held good, until sentence of deposition had passed; but that by the second, such ordination was not held good, until received and allowed by the Church.

SERMON VII.'

ON NATIONAL GUILT.

DANIEL ix. 13, 14.

"All this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy' truth. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us."

THESE words form part of the prophet Daniel's affecting supplication to Almighty God, at Babylon, in behalf of his nation; which, in the just displeasure of the Almighty, had, for their sins, been taken captive, and brought to desolation. He here, as in other passages of it, acknowledges the righteousness of God's judgment; and that his nation. had richly deserved their miserable calamity, by reason of the hard and impenitent neglect which they had shown to God's former warnings, and gentler visitations, with which he had sought to

1 This sermon was printed for private distribution the year in which it was preached.

awaken them from their careless and wicked ways. "All this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth. Therefore hath the Lord watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us."

I have chosen this passage for my text, that I may take occasion to call to mind an important truth on which it rests: a truth which, as a matter of course, we instil into our children's minds with their earliest instruction, but which, if we may judge from men's conduct and conversation, they are wont to think only fit for children; and that it is a mark of manly independence to cast it behind their backs. This truth is, that the affairs of this world are governed by God, no less than the affairs of the next: according to the words of our children's Catechism," nothing can happen in the world but God knows, directs, or suffers it." I say that the conduct of men would lead one to suppose, that they regard this truth as only fit for children, and consider it manly to forget it: and a very little consideration will show the correctness of the observation. Whether the affairs be those of individuals, or of nations, whether they be in a state of prosperity or adversity, it is too certain that we are apt to bestow far too much attention on the secondary and inferior causes, to the partial, and too often total neglect, of the great First Cause, by Whose providence all these things

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