The Prelatical Doctrine of the Apostolical
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE PRELATICAL DOCTRINE APOSTOLIC.\L SUCCESSION EX^OimED WITH A DELINEATION HIGH-CHUECH SYSTEM. c Vj^"^ ^c-K-^^ ^% jlS-^ By H. a. BOARDMAN, Pastor of the te.\tii phesbyterias cuurcu, piiiLADELrniA. PHILADELPHIA: PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM S. MARTIEN. New York : Robert Carter.—Boston : Crocker So Brewster. Pittsburgh: Thomas Carter. 1S44. '^<^ Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1844, by William S. Martien, in the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of tlie Eastern District of Pennsylvania. — CONTENTS. PAOE Preface, . » 5 CHAPTER I. Hk.u-Church Pretensions ... 13 CHAPTER ir. Statement of the Question, ^9 CHAPTER III. The Argument from Scripture, , . 3o CHAPTER IV. The Historical Argument, 99 CHAPTER V. The Succession tested by facts, 170 CHAPTER VI. The True Succession, 182 CHAPTER VII. Characteristics and Tendencies of the High-Church Sys- tem : The Rule of Faith, 224 — 4 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIII. PAGE The Church put in Christ's place, 249 CHAPTER IX. The System at variance with the general tone of the New Testament, 263 CHAPTER X. Tendency of the System to aggrandize the Prelatical Clergy : and to substitute a ritual religion for, true Christianity, 273 CHAPTER XI. Intolerance of the System, 232 CHAPTER XII. The Schismatical tendency' of the System, 321 CHAPTER XIII. Aspect of the System towards iNauiRiNG Sinners,—Conclu- sion, 334 PEEEACE. 1 MAKE no apology for \ATiting a book on the Prelatical controversy. Matters have reached such a pass that Non-Episcopahans must either defend themselves, or submit to be extruded from the house of God. The High-Church party have come into the Church of Christ, where we and our fathers have been for ages, and gravely undertaken to partition it off among themselves and the corrupt Romish and Ori- ental Hierarchies. They say to us, and by us I mean' thirteen out of fourteen of all the evan- gelical ministers, and thirty-three out of thirty- four of all the evangelical Christians, of this country—"You are no ministers, but schismati- cal intruders into the sacred office—You have ' See page 312. 1* 6 PREFACE. no ordinances, no part in the promises, no cove- nanted title to eternal life—You are out of the Church, mere ' sectaries' and ' dissenters,' and if you are saved at all, it must be through ' un- covenanted mercy.' " They must count upon our having at least one Christian grace in per- fection, whether we are in the Church or out of it, if they expect us to bear all this in silence. But we are not at liberty to be silent. If it were a mere personal matter, we could put up with abuse from this quarter as well as from any other. But this is the least import- ant aspect of the movement. We regard it as a systematic and violent attack upon "the faith once delivered to the saints" —as a daring attempt to seize upon "the crown rights of THE REDEEMER," and entail them upon the Bishops. We look upon it as an organized scheme for establishing an exclusive and LORDLY hierarchy in this country. We be- lieve the whole tendency of the system is to substitute a mere ritual religion for true Christianity. We feel called upon, there- fore, by every consideration of patriotism, of fealty to the Great Head of the Church, and of fidelity to the spiritual interests of those around — PREFACE. 7 US, to bring the pretensions of this party to the test of Scripture and History. These remarks will explain the design of the present volume—the substance of which has been laid before my own congregation, in a course of Lectures. The standard works of the Rev. Drs. Miller and Mason, have long been before the public, and are not likely, on the main question between Prelatists and their opposers, to be superseded by any future pub- lications. To the writings of these eminent divines, the author has been largely indebted especially in conducting the first branch of the argument. I have also consulted freely the works of the Rev. Dr. Smyth of Charles- ton, S. C, whose learned and elaborate volumes on the "Apostolical Succession," and "Pres- bytery and Prelacy," with his numerous smaller treatises on kindred" subjects, entitle him to the cordial gratitude of the Non-Prelatical Churches. My object has been to do some- thing towards supplying a deficiency which appeared to me not to have been fully met by any of the able and valuable works I have named, nor, indeed, by any other which has as yet fallen under my observation. I have PREFACE. felt the want, and the inquiries put to me as a Pastor, have convinced me that it was felt by others, of a work comprising within a single portable volume, a concise- discussion of the lead- ing points at issue hetrveen High-Churchmen and ourselves, and adapted to the p)resent stage of the controversij. I cannot flatter myself that I have succeeded in producing the work that is needed to fill this hiatus. But flooded as the country is with High-Church publications, of all grades and dimensions, I trust the present volume may answer a useful purpose /or the time, until some one more competent and with more leisure, shall furnish a work better adapted to meet the exist- ing deficiency. As to the plan of this work, it will be seen it by ' a glance at the table of contents, that comprises two parts, the first of which treats of " THE Apostolical Succession ;" and the second, of " the characteristics and tenden- cies OF the High-Church system." I set out with the intention of discussing the former of these topics only ; but I found it impracticable to do justice to that subject, without sketching the other features of the system to which it belongs. They mutually illustrate each other. PREFACE. I have aimed throughout, not at novelty, but utihty. My book is for the people. Famihar as the scriptural argument against Prelacy is to the learned, there are many intelligent lay- men who have neg^lected to make themselves acquainted with it. In so far as I have gone into that argument, I have presented it in the usual form, — not caring to affect an air of originality where originality was out of the question, nor solicitous to strengthen by new authorities, a position w^hich, though often as- sailed, has thus far proved impregnable. The other sources of argument are still less familiar to the general reader ; but these also have been so well explored of late, that the cliief labour an author has to perform, consists in the mere selection and arrangement of materials. It may, perhaps, be objected to the work, in certain quarters, that it confounds High- Church-ism with Puseyism. I am aware that while all Puseyites are High-Churchmen, all High-Churchmen are not Puseyites. I would not impute to individuals sentiments they do not hold. I am dealing, however, with the High-Church system. No one, I presume, will deny that this system and the system of 10 PREFACE. the Oxford Tracts, are identical»^ in all their essential features. It was the publication of those Tracts, which revived the torpid High- Church-ism of the Episcopal clergy. They are read, quoted, recommended, as the best exposition of the system extant. They are ffie armory from which its champions have furnish- ed themselves for their present attack upon the Non-Prelatical Churches. To allege, there- fore, that there are High-Churchmen who reject a part of the mummeries and a part of the Popery of some of the Oxford writers, while it releases them as individuals from the responsi- bility of those tenets which they disclaim, does not touch the fact that the High-Church and Tractarian systems are substantially one. In- deed, the very circumstance here urged in abatement of the condemnation pronounced upon the High-Church system, to wit, that cer- tain of the leading expounders of it have well- nigh become Papists, furnishes a legitimate ground of argument against the system, as dis- closing its strong affinity for Popery. As to the tone of this book, I have only to say, that I have endeavoured to treat the party whose views I have controverted, with candour, PREFACE. 11 and shall deeply regret it if I have, in any in- stance, done them injustice. I have, however, felt it due to all concerned, '' to call things by their right names." I commit the work to the press, praying that it may please God to use it as an humble in- strument in checking the progress of error and formalism, and promoting the cause of truth and righteousness. Philadelphia, April, 1844. THE HIGH-CHURCH DOCTRINE OF THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION. CHAPTER I. HIGH-CHURCH PRETENSIONS. The controversy which now agitates the Church of England, and its daughter in this country, has a two- fold aspect,—one internal, the other external ; or a domestic and a foreign aspect. Viewed in its domes- tic relations merely, Christian courtesy would forbid, other churches to interfere in it. But regarded in its more general characteristics and tendencies, it is not only their right, but has become their imperative duty to notice it. Owing to causes which need not now be specified, there has always been — as candid and intelligent Episcopalians have admitted—a party in the Church of England, whose doctrinal sentiments and personal sympathies, have had a marked, bias towards the Church of Rome, associated with a corresponding hostility to Protestantism. This party, after placing 2 14 THE IIIGH-CHURCH DOCTRINE OF themselves at the head of the late Oxford -Tract movement, avowed it, in so many words, as their ob- ject, to "Unprotestanize the National Church." "We cannot," is their language, "stand where we are ; we must go backwards or forwards ; and it will surely be the latter.