Part 3 (1/2)

The formation of human society, and the institution of priesthood, must be referred to the same causes and the same date The earliest coin and their cearious instinct, nor in ard to the advantages of co-operation, but in a binding religious senti itself in the sa, so is nonewhat is holy and divine In sis of veneration had not been set aside by analysis into a little corner of the character, but spread themselves over the whole of life, and mixed it up with daily wonder, this bond comprised all the forces that can suppress the selfish and disorganizing passions, and coether It was not, as at present, to have sirowth, the brood of scepticism); but to have the same fathers, the same tradition, the same speech, the same land, the sa did , by some affinity, to his faith Nor had he any book to keep the precious deposit for hiht of so frail a vehicle for so great a treasure It was more natural to put it into structures hollowed in the fast e could stir; and to tenant these with uard their sanctity, and, by an undying memory, make their mysteries eternal Hence, the first humanizer of men was their worshi+p; the first leaders of nations, the sacerdotal caste; the first triumph of art, the colossal temple; the first effort to preserve an idea produced a record of so sacred; and the first civilization was, as the last will be, the birth of religion

The primitive aim of worshi+p undoubtedly was, to act upon the sentiible means as produce favorable impressions on the mind of a fellow-man,--by presents and persuasion, and whatever is expressive of grateful and reverential affections Abel, the first shepherd, offered the produce of his flock; Cain, the first farmer, the fruits of his land; and while devotion was so simple in its modes, every one would be his own pontiff, and have his own altar But soon, the parent would inevitably officiate for his family; the patriarch, for his tribe With the natural fors, traditional le their contributions froestures and localities, once indifferent, would becoin was unforgotten, they would add to the significance, while they lessened the sirowth of ti coinally natural, then sy, except to the initiated; yet, if connected with religion, so sanctified by the association, that it appears sacrilege to desist fro is lost, they assu the ns by which earth co of the early worshi+p, filled with living attitudes, and sketched in the freshest colors of emotion, explained itself to every eye, and was open to every hand To this succeeded a piety, which expressed itself in syers, but intelligible and impressive still to the soul of national tradition

This, however, passed again into a language of arbitrary characters, in which the herd of ; and the use of which ned to a class separated for its study Hence the origin of the priest and his profession; the conservator of a worshi+p no longer natural, but legendary and esticulation to the heavens; interpreter of the wants of e of the Gods

Not till the powers above had ceased to hold familiar converse with the earth, and in their distance had becoue ofpriest arise;--needed then to conduct the finger-speech of ceremony, whereby the desire of the creature took shape before the eye of the Creator

Observe, then, the true idea of PRIEST and RITUAL The Priest is the representative of men before God; commissioned on behalf of hue _upwards_, fro below, his influence above He takes the fears of the weak, and the cries of the perishi+ng, and sets the supplication before Hiuilty, and leaves the tribute at the feet of the averted Deity He guards the avenues that lead from the mortal to the immortal, and without his interposition the creature is cut off from his Creator Without his mediation no transaction between them can take place, and the spirit of a man must live as an outlaw from the world invisible and holy

There are means of propitiation which he alone has authority to employ; powers of persuasion conceded to no other; a nity, by outward rites which his manipulation must consecrate, or forms of speech which his lips must recommend These ceremonies are the iic by which he is thought to gain admission to the will above, and really wins rule over hue the relation of God to man, not by visible or natural operation, not (for exahts, and excitement of new dispositions in the worshi+pper, but by secret and nified order Were we then to speak with severe exactitude, we should say, a Ritual is a systeician who dispenses the as any idea is retained of ned solely and authoritatively to certain hands, this definition cannot be escaped The ceremonies may have rational instruction and natural worshi+p appended to theive them a title to true respect The order of men appointed to administer them may have other offices and nobler duties to perfor them, if faithful, worthy of a just and reverential attachment But _in so far_ as, by an exclusive and unnatural efficacy, they bring about a changed relation between God and man, the Ritual is an incantation, and the Priest is an enchanter

To this sacerdotal devotion there necessarily attach certain characteristic sentiive it a distinctive influence on hues of civilization It clearly severs the worshi+ppers by one re, external to them, distant froht hty; they must look afar for the Most Holy; they dwell then introduction to the Infinite

He is not with theuide, but in the remoter watch-towers of creation, as the public inspector of their life; not present for perpetual coes of form and prayer And that God dwells in this cold and royal separation induces the feeling, that man is too mean to touch him; that a consecrated intervention is required, in order to part Deity fro contact of humanity Why else am I restricted from unlimited personal access to my Creator, and driven to another in my transactions with him? And so, in this system, our nature appears in contrast, not in alliance, with the divine, and those views of it are favored which ; its puny dimensions, its swift decadence, its poor self-flatteries, its degenerate virtues, its giant guilt, becoht and lips; and life, cut off from sympathy with the Godlike, falls towards the level of melancholy, or the sink of epicurism, or the abjectness of vicarious reliance on the priest

Worshi+p, too, must have for its chief aim, to throw off the load of ill; to rid the mind of sin and shame, and the lot of hardshi+p and sorrow; for principally to these disburdening offices do priests and rituals profess themselves adapted;--and who, indeed, could pour forth the privacy of love, and peace, and trust, through the cumbrousness of ceremonies, and the poion is thus a refuge for the weakness, not an outpouring of the strength, of the soul: it takes away the incubus of darkness, without shedding the light of heaven; lifts off the night the vision of angels and of God Nay, for the spiritual bonds which connect enealogy of sacred fires, a succession of hallowed buildings, or of priests having consecration by pedigree or byto the soul alone are likened to forces mechanical or chemical; sanctity becomes a physical property; divine acceptance coraded into a species of electric shock, which one only method of experiment, and the links of but one conductor, can convey And, in fine, a priestly systeher perfection; boasts of being ies no ambition, breathes no desire

It holds the appointedHeaven, on which none may presume to innovate; and its functions are ever the saendary spells committed to its trust

Hence all its veneration is antiquarian, not sy, and looks straight into departed ages, bowing the head and bending the knee; as if all objects of love and devotion were _there_, not here; in history, not in life; as if its God were dead, or otherwise i such relics as ht yield a perpetual benediction Thus does the adion, in proportion as it possesses a sacerdotal character, involve a distant Deity, a mean humanity, a servile worshi+p, a physical sanctity, and a retrospective reverence

Let no one, however, iion than this; that the priest is the only person aiven to stand between heaven and earth Even the Hebrew Scriptures introduce us to another class of quite different order; to whom, indeed, those Scriptures owe their own truth and power, and perpetuity of beauty: I mean the PROPHETS; e shall very imperfectly understand, if we suppose them mere historians, for whom God had turned tis future as if past, and grew so dizzy in their use of tenses, as greatly to incos as scrap-books of Providence, with miscellaneous contributions from various parts of duration, sketches taken indifferently froether at randoical memories to identify; first, a picture of an assyrian battle, next, a holy fa by Euphrates, then, of Paul preaching to the Gentiles; here, a flight of devouring locusts, and there, the escape of the Christians from the destruction of Jerusalem; a portrait of Hezekiah, and a view of Calvary; a h the desert, and John the Baptist by the Jordan; the day of Pentecost, and the French Revolution; Nebuchadnezzar and Maho each other with picturesque neglect of every relation of time and place No, the Prophet and his work always indeed belong to the future; but far otherwise than thus Meanwhile, let us notice how, in Israel, as elsewhere, he takes his natural station above the priest It was Moses the prophet who even _made_ Aaron the priest And who cares now for the sacerdotal books of the Old Testa the strains of David, would pore over Leviticus, or would weary hiht catch the inspiration of Isaiah? It was no priest that wrote, ”Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it; thou delightest not in burnt-offering: the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise” It was no pontifical spirit that exclai no more vain oblations; incense is an abo of assemblies, I cannot aith; it is iniquity, even the sole: your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them” ”Wash you, make you clean” Whatever in these venerable Scriptures awes us by its grandeur and pierces us by its truth, comes of the prophets, not the priests; and fros, too, in which they are not concerned with historical prediction, but with soift of occasional intellectual foresight of events And doubtless it was an honor to be permitted to speak thus to a portion of the future, and of local occurrences unrevealed to seers less privileged But it is a glory far higher to speak that which belongs to all time, and finds its interpretation in every place; to penetrate to the everlasting realities of things; to disclose, not when this or that man will appear, but how and wherefore all men appear and quickly disappear; to make it felt, not in what nook of duration such an incident will happen, but froe and are sed up In this highest faculty the Hebrew seers belong to a class scattered over every nation and every period; which Providence keeps ever extant for huion quite anti-sacerdotal This class we must proceed to characterize

The Prophet is the representative of God before men, commissioned froe _doards_, fro above, his influence below He takes of the holiness of God, enters with it into the souls of men, and heals therewith the wounds, and purifies the taint, of sin He is charged with the peace of God, and gives froriefs ofthe foulness of life to be cleansed in heaven, he brings the purity of heaven tohimself and his mediation between humanity and Deity, he destroys the whole distance between thes the finitecontact, and leaves the creature consciously alone with the Creator He is one to who relations between God and uise, and bared of all that is conventional; who is possessed by their simplicity, mastered by their sole the Holy Spirit within, rather than without; and knows, but cannot tell, how, in the strife of genuine duty, or in moments of true meditation, the Divine immensity and love have touched and filled his naked soul; and taught him by what fathomless Godhead he is folded round, and on what ada others from the heavenly communion vouchsafed to himself, he necessarily believes that all may have the same Godlike consciousness; burns to iht of his own faith speedily creates it in those who feel his influence, drawing out and freshening the faded colors of the Divine ie in their souls, till they too become visibly the seers and the sons of God His instruments, like the objects of his mission, are hus, by which others uage which interprets itself at once to every genuinepoint of every heart An earnest speech, a brave and holy life, truth of sympathy, severity of conscience, freshness and loftiness of faith,--these natural sanctities are his impleifts, still are they weapons all,--not the ed in the inner workshop of our nature, where the fire glows beneath the breath of God, fra siege to the world's conscience; tears down every outwork of pretence; forces its strong-holds of delusion; humbles the vanities at its centre, and proclaie is no believer in the temple, but in the temple's Deity; trusts, not rites and institutions, but the heart and soul that fill or ought to fill them; if they speak the truth, no one so reveres them; if a lie, they meet with no contempt like his He sees no indestructible sanctuary but the mind itself, wherein the Divine Spirit ever loves to dwell; and whence it will be sure to go forth and build such outward temple as may suit the season of Providence He is conscious that there is no devotion like that which comes spontaneously from the secret places of our humanity, no orisons so true as those which rise from the common platform of our life He desires only to throw himself in faith on the natural piety of the heart Give hi worshi+p, and raise for God a cathedral worthy of his infinitude

It is evident that one thoroughly possessed with this spirit could never be, and could never make, a priest; nor frame a ritual for priests already made He is destitute of the ideas out of which alone these things can be created His mission is in the opposite direction: he interprets and reveals God tofor men with God In this office sacerdotal rites have no function and no place I do not say that he must necessarily disapprove and abjure them, or deny that he may directly sanction them If he does, however, it is not in his capacity of prophet, but in confors which his proper office has left untouched His tendency will be against ceree and position will depend the extent to which this tendency takes effect Usually he will construct nothing ritual, will destroyideas, destructive of eneral conception of a prophet, let us notice soious, which naturally connect the to the sacerdotal influence

In this faith, God is separated by nothing from his worshi+ppers He is not simply in contact with them, but truly in the interior of their nature; so that they may not only meet him in the outward providences of life, but bear his spirit with theo to toil and conflict, and find it still, when they sit alone to think and pray He is not the far observer, but the very present help, of the faithful will No structure made with hands, nay, not even his own architecture of the heaven of heavens, contains and confines his presence: were there any dark recess whence these were hid, the blessed access would be without hinderance still; and the soul would discern hinoble conception can be entertained of a mind which is thus the residence of Deity;--the shrine of the Infinite must have somewhat that is infinite itself Thus, in this system, does our nature appear in alliance with the Divine, not in contrast with it; inspired with a portion of its holiness, and free to help forward the best issues of its providence Human life, blessed by this spirit, becoreat Ruler: its responsibilities, its difficulties, its telorious theatre whereon we strive, by and with the good Spirit of God, for thefro off of guilt and terror, but the glad unburdening of love, and trust, and aspiration, the si forth, of the divine within us; not the prostration of the slave, but the embrace of the child; not the plaint of the abject, but the anthem of the free Is it not private, individual? And may it not by silence say what it will, and inti, and that only, which is at heart?--whence there grows insensibly that firm root of excellence, truth with one's own self The priestly fancy of an hereditary or lineal sacredness can have no place here The soul and God stand directly related, mind with mind, spirit with spirit: from our moral fidelity to this relation, frolect, does the only sanctity arise; and herein there is none to help us, or give a vicarious consecration And, finally, the spirit of God's true prophet is earnestly prospective; more filled with the conception of what the Creator _will_ make his world, than of what he _has_ already reat hopes; knowing that God lives, and will live, it turns from the past, venerable as that may be, and reverences rather the prolories of the future It estee unimprovable, is replete with vast desires; and amid the shadows and across the wilds of existence chases, not vainly, a bright ie, which priests with their tradition put into the past, the prophet, with his faith and truth, transfers into the future; and while the former pines and muses, the latter toils and prays Thus does the adion, in proportion as it partakes of the prophetic or anti-sacerdotal character, involve the ideas of an interior Deity, a noble hu worshi+p, an individual holiness, and a prospective veneration

We have found, then, two opposite views of religion: that of the Priest with his Ritual, and that of the Prophet with his Faith I propose to show that the Church of England, in its doctrine of sacraments, coincides with the former of these, and sanctions all its objectionable sentiments; and that Christianity, in every relation, even with respect to its reputed rites, coincides with the latter

The general conforland with the ritual conception of religion will not be denied by her own members Their denial will be limited to one point: they will protest that her formulas of doctrine do not ascribe a _charmed efficacy_, or any operation upon God, to the two sacraments To avoid verbal disputes, let us consider e are to understand by a spell or charm The name, I apprehend, denotes any material object or outward act, the possession or use of which is thought to confer safety or blessing, not by natural operation, but by occult virtues inherent in it, or n, therefore, is not a charm, nor need there be any superstition in its employment: it simply stands for certain ideas and memories in our minds; re-excites and freshens them, not otherwise than speech audibly records theht and touch, instead of sound The effect, whatever it ht, till the coed, and haply suffused with a noble glow

But in truth it is not fit to speak of co efficacy at all; as desirable observances, under whose action we should put ourselves, in order to get up certain good dispositions in the heart As soon as we see them acquiesced in, with this dutiful submission to a kind of spiritual operation, we may be sure they are already empty and dead An _expedient_ commemoration, deliberatelycold affections by artificial heat, is one of the foolish conceptions of this e It is quite true, that such influence is found to belong to rites of re as it is not privately looked into, or greedily conte eye of prudence, but simply and unconsciously received No; commemorations must be the spontaneous fruit and outburst of a love already kindled in the soul, not the factitious contrivance for forcing it into existence They are not the lighted match applied to the fuel on an altar cold; but the shapes in which the living flahts thrown by that central love on the dark temple-walls of this material life

It is not pretended that the sacra, I submit, remains, but that they should be pronounced chare, in denial of this, that the Church insists upon the necessity of faith on the part of the recipient, without which no benefit, but rather peril, will accrue

This only limits the use of the charm to a certain class, and establishes a prerequisite to its proper efficacy It simply conjoins the outward forives to each of these a participation in the effect If the faith be insufficient without the cere neither the natural operation of the estion of ideas and feelings to the mind, but mystical and preternatural, is no other than a charmed efficacy

Nor will the statement, that the effect is not upon God, but upon man, bear examination It is very true, that the _ultimate_ benefit of these rites is a result reputed to fall upon the worshi+pper;--regeneration, in the case of baptism; participation in the atonement, in the case of the Lord's Supper But by what steps do these blessings descend? Not by those of visible or perceived causation; but through an express and extraordinary volition of God, induced by the cere occasion froed, that, whenever the priest dispenses the water at the font, the Holy Spirit follows, as in instantaneous coestion; and whenever he spreads his hands over the elements at the communion, God im the moment before, between the substances on the table and the souls of the faithful communicants: so that every partaker receives, either directly or through supernatural increase of faith, some new share in the e then may be employed, it is evidently conceived that the first consequence of these forms takes place in heaven; and that on this depends whatever benediction theyframe any other idea of the to the mind of God, who then sends down an influence on the ures of speech, no ingenious analogies, can deliver us

Do you call the sacrae means a promise; and how a voluntary act of ours, or the priest's, can be a pro, it is not easy to understand Do you call theages to nature and co an estate? It still perplexes us to think of a service of our own as an assurance received by us froine that the Divine pro by periodical legalities If it be said, ”The renewal of the obligation is needful for us, and not for him”; then call the rites at once and simply, our service of self-dedication, the solemn memorial of our vows And in spite of all metaphors, the question recurs, Does the covenant stand without these seals, or are they essential _to give possession_ of the privileges conveyed? Are they, by means preternatural, procurers of salvation? Have they a mystical action towards this end? If so, we return to the same point; they have a charmed efficacy on the hu e of the Articles and Liturgical services of the Church respecting Baptishout the Book of Coeneration: not sin, of which the actual descent of the Holy Spirit is independent; but as itself and essentially theaway of sin That this is regarded as a ical, not a natural and spiritual effect, is evident froed fact of its occurrence in infants, to who, and on whom, in the course of nature, it can leave no impression Yet it is declared of the infant, after the use of the water, ”Seeing now, dearly beloved brethren, that _this child is regenerate_,” &c: at the commencerant to this child that thing which by nature he cannot have,”--”would wash him and sanctify him with the Holy Ghost,” that he , indeed, is so striking in this office of the national Church, as its audacious trifling with sole qualities of the soul and will; the ascription of spiritual and moral attributes, not only to the child in whom they can yet have no development, but even to ements with God are made by deputy, and without the consent or even existence of the engaging will Water is said to possess _sanctity_, for ”theaway of sin” Infants, destitute of any idea of duty or obligation to be resisted or obeyed, are said to obtain ”_remission of their sins_”;--to ”renounce the Devil and all his works, the vain polory of the world”; ”steadfastly to believe” in the Apostles' Creed, and to be desirous of ”baptism into this faith” Belief, desire, resolve, are acts of soe of this service attributes them to the personality of the infant (_I_ renounce, _I_ believe, _I_ desire); yet there they cannot possibly exist If they are to be understood as affirmed by the Godfathers and Godmothers of themselves, the case is not improved: for how can one person's state of faith and conscience be eneration of another? What intelligiblecan be attached to these phrases of sanctity applied to an age not responsible? In what sense, and by what indication, are these children _holier_ than others? And hat reason, if all this be Christianity, can we bla holy water on the horses? The service appears little better than a profane sacerdotal jugglery, by which nated with divine virtues, moral and spiritual qualities of the mind are sported with, the holy spirit of God is turned into a physical mystery, and the solemnity of personal responsibility is insulted

That a superstitious value is attributed to the details of the baptisland, appears from certain parts of the service for the private ministration of the rite If a child has been baptized by any other lawful minister than the minister of the parish, strict inquiries are to be instituted by the latter respecting the correctness hich the ceremony has been perforlected, the baptisreat solicitude is er should be incurred by an unnecessary repetition of the sacraive the following conditional invitation to the Holy Spirit; saying, in his address to the child, ”_If_ thou art not already baptized, I baptize thee,” &c It is worthy of remark, that the Church mentions as one of the _essentials_ of the service, the omission of which necessitates its repetition, the use of the formula, ”In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” By this rule, every one of the apostolic baptisms recorded in Scripture land, were it possible, would perforain: for in no instance does it appear that the Apostles employed either this or even any equivalent forarded as an indispensable channel of grace, and positively necessary to salvation, is clear from the provision of a short and private forer The prayers, and faith, and obedience, and patient love, of parents and friends,--the dedication and heart-felt surrender of their child to God, the profound application of their anxieties and grief to their conscience and inward life,--all this, we are told, will be of no avail, without the water and the priest Archbishop Laud says: ”That baptism is necessary to the salvation of infants (in the ordinary way of the Church, without binding God to the use and means of that sacrament, to which he hath bound us), is expressed in St John iii, 'Except a man be born of water,' &c So, no baptism, no entrance; nor can infants creep in, any other ordinary way”[3] Bishop Brae to be a damnable sin; and, without repentance and God's extraordinary mercy, to exclude a man from all hope of salvation But yet, if such a person, before his death, shall repent and deplore his neglect of the race, from his heart, and desire with all his soul to be baptized, but is debarred from it invincibly, we do not, we dare not, pass sentence of condemnation upon him; not yet the Roman Catholics themselves The question then is, whether the want of baptism, upon invincible necessity, do everle here, between thespirit of the er marks of the sa the Protestant horror entertained of the enuity can exhibit thehbors, are known to quarrelin solid and liquid substances, is encouraged by this service The priest _consecrates_ the ele his hand upon all the bread, and upon every flagon containing the wine about to be dispensed If an additional quantity is required, this too must be consecrated before its distribution And the sacredness thus i the celebration of the Supper, and residing in the substances as a permanent quality: for in the disposal of the bread and wine that may remain at the close of the sacramental feast, a distinction is made between the consecrated and the unconsecrated portion of the elements; the former is not permitted to quit the altar, but is to be reverently consuiven to the curate What the particular change may be, which the prayer and ht to induce, it is by no means easy to determine; nor would the discovery, perhaps, reward our pains It is certainly conceived, that they cease to be any longer mere bread and wine, and that with them thenceforth co-exist, really and substantially, the body and blood of Christ Respecting this _Real Presence_ with the elelish Church; both unequivocallythe _Real Absence_ of the original and culinary bread and wine; the Ro that these substantially vanish, and are replaced by the body and blood of Christ; the English Protestant conceiving that they remain, but are united with the latter The Lutheran, no less than the British Refor tenaciously to the doctrine of the real presence in the Eucharist, Luther himself declares: ”I would rather retain, with the Romanists, _only_ the body and blood, than adopt, with the Swiss, the bread and wine, _without_ the real body and blood of Christ” The catechism of our Church affirms that ”the body and blood of Christ are _verily and indeed_ taken and received by the faithful in the Lord's Supper” And this was not intended to be figuratively understood, of the spiritual use and appropriation to which the faith and piety of the receiver would h here the body of Christ is only said to be ”_taken_” ( it the _act of the coiven_” ( the real presence _before participation_ However anxious, indeed, the clergy of the ”Evangelical” school uise the fact, it cannot be doubted that their Church has always e in the elements themselves, as well as in the mind of the receiver

Cosin, Bishop of Durham, says, ”We own the union between the body and blood of Christ, and the eleed from what it was before”; ”we confess the necessity of a supernatural and heavenly change, and that the signs cannot become sacraments but by the infinite power of God”[5]

In consistency with this preparatory change, a charmed efficacy is attributed to the subsequent participation in the elements Even the _body_ of the communicant is said to be under their influence: ”Grant us to eat the flesh of thy dear Son, and drink his blood, that our sinful _bodies_ h his body, and our _souls_ washed through his most precious blood”; and the unworthy recipients are said ”to provoke God to plague them with divers diseases and sundry kinds of death” Lest the worshi+pper, by presenting hi else than increase his damnation,” the unquiet conscience is directed to resort to the priest, and receive the benefit of absolution before co

Can we deny to the Oxford divines the y of their Church, when they applaud and recommend, as they do, the ad and insensible? Indeed, it is difficult to discover why infant Coht more irrational than infant Baptism If, as I have endeavored to show, the primary action of these ceremonies is conceived to be on God, not on thebe induced upon the young and the unconscious, as well as on the mature and capable soul?