164 THE CHURCH, THE PILLAR AND GROUND OF THE TRUTH. the mode of these prodigious facts; for they are revealed, not so much to be comprehended, as to be believed and adored. Let, then, this great mystery be "without controversy." Let this remain, as it has ever done, the characteristic of the Christian Church, the glory and the trust of sinners. Men object to the stupendous nature of this manifestation; and it is this very grandeur which is the nourishment of our faith. Men object, that the infinity of the Divine nature cannot unite itself with the human; and it is this very infinity which makes it possible. Men object, that no precise and adequate ideas are attached to the terms employed on this subject; and we reply, "Without controversy, great Is "—and will ever remain, even after the revelation of the fact of it "the MYSTERY of godliness." Let only the practical effect of godliness be produced by our faith in it, and its incomprehensible glory will conduct us to heaven. For, while men dispute against God, the fruits of genuine picty may be looked for in vain; but when, in prostrate humility, they first acknowledge their own ignorance and their guilt, and then how to an abased but exalted Saviour, "and believe on him with the heart unto righteousness," the blessings of pardon and acceptance will fill the mind, and the communications of the Spirit sanctify the whole character. The power of godliness will then begin to appear, the impress of grace, the seal of adoption, the joy of communion, the anticipation and foretaste of heaven, SERMON XVI. THE CHURCH, THE PILLAR AND GROUND OF THE TRUTH. By the Rt. Rev. DANIEL WILSON, D. D., PART II. 1 TIMOTHY, iii. 14-16. These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And, without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. UNDER these words, we have directed your attention, already, to the commendation which is bestowed in them on the Church, which led us to consider the nature of the Church; its dignity, as "the church of the Living God;" and its office, as "the pillar and ground of the truth." We thence proceeded to the magnitude of the truth which is entrusted to the custody of the Church—" the great mystery of godliness;" "God manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of Angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory."* If such then be the magnitude of the truth of which the church is constituted the pillar and ground, and which, forms the distin The division of this Discourse into two parts by the compiler of this volume, made it necessary, that some lines be written by way of a beginning to Part 2d. son. As far, therefore, as the asterisk, is not in the sermon of Bishop Wil guishing glory of the House of God; then the way is now prepared for a consideration, III. Of the inferences which may be drawn from both these topics, as to our conduct, individually, in the present period of the Church. 1. In the first place, then, the sincere Christian, whose mind has imbibed, and been filled with, the spirit of my text, will learn to form a just estimate of the design and importance of the Christian Church. It is impossible to rise from the consideration. of the great mystery of the Son of God, without perceiving that it not only casts into the shade every topic of mere ceremony, but reduces it to comparative insignificance. If we consider only the wonders of the Divine manifestation, we might be disposed never to descend from the mount, but utterly to disregard the perplexities of form and detail, which lie at its base. But on the other hand, when we revert to the feeble state of man, and the appointed office of instruction, in subservience to Holy Scripture, which God has deposited with his ministers, we shall learn, not the less to adore, and magnify the wonders of Redemption, but so unite with this a due regard to that church which is the pillar and stay of it, in a corrupt and fluctuating world. The language, in which the Apostle speaks of the dignity and office of it, is calculated to impress us with a sense of its necessary but subordinate importance. 2. The passage before us furnishes us, I think, in the next place, with the test of a true Church.-So far is it from countenancing the arrogant claims of the Bishop of Rome, that it in fact subverts them. It teaches us to ask, concerning every religious community, is it built on the great mystery of godliness? For if the church is to be the "pillar and ground of the Truth;" and if that Truth be the "Mystery of God manifest in the flesh;" then it necessarily follows from these premises, that that is the true church, and that only, which maintains the Deity, the manifestation, the kingdom of the Son of God; which inculcates those doctrines on the people, which defends them against error, and encircles them with those simple ordinances, and that right administration of the sacraments, which Christ hath prescribed in his word. On the other hand, in proportion as a church is infected with false doctrines, corrupt traditions, superstition, idolatry, and the usurpation of secular dominion and power over the conscience, it ceases to be a pure part of the universal church. And when any nominally Christian body denies the foundation of faith, "God manifest in the flesh," and substitutes heathen ethics, a proud philosophy, and an ostentation of merely human reasoning, and hazardous and unsound criticism; it ceases, not merely from being a pure church, but from being a church of Christ at all. The spirit of the text seems obviously to imply, that religious communities are therefore, and so far, and so long, branches of Christ's holy catholic church, as they are pillars and grounds of SCRIPTURAL Truth. 3. But we may proceed to a further observation, that where the foundations of the faith are firmly laid, the circumstantials of religion will allow of a considerable latitude. The precise method by which Christian Churches are to be pillars and stays of the truth, seem to be left in Scripture, to be deduced from a few great maxims, and from the general scope of the spiritual and universal dispensation of the New Testament. The language of the first verse of our text, leads to this conclusion. "These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly. But, if, I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God." This is surely the language of a person omitting much that he might have urged, because he expected soon to have the opportunity of supplying by his own presence what might be wanting. Now as St. Paul has not left on record the arrangements which he meditated, and as this omission doubtless took place under the superintending providence of God; the fair inference appears to be, that the great Lord of the Church intended to leave many of these minor points to the discretion of the stewards and ministers of his grace. Nor is this the only instance of such language. Almost all the directions of St. Paul are of a general and indefinite nature, with intimations that a spirit of union and order was the principal grace, and a restless and turbulent spirit the chief hindrance of Christian fellowship; that the custom of the churches. was to be esteemed a sufficient guide in matters indifferent, and his own presence to be waited for, in order to adjust a variety of points which he should be best able to determine, when he saw what existing circumstances might, in each case, render expedient. Whether the government of the church by the three distinct orders of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, may be considered as of divine right, is a grave question. That Timothy and Titus were placed by the Apostle over the other ministers of Ephesus and Crete; were directed to ordain prcsbyters in every city; were authorized to apportion maintenance, to receive and adjudge matters of controversy, and to preserve the purity of the faithwhich is what we consider to be the province of the Episcopal office-cannot, as I think, be questioned: whilst, at the same time, the general name of Presbyter, which is frequently assigned them, in common with other ministers, together with the description of their duties in this chapter and elsewhere, and the general spirit of the New Testament dispensation, scem sufficiently to prove that their elevation above their brethren was to be limited and paternal, "not as lords over God's heritage, but ensamples to the flock." It is to be recollected, morcover, that the contemporaries of the Apostles, and the Christian churches, almost without exception, for fifteen centuries, followed the Episcopal form of ecclesiastical order. And at the Reformation, when it was openly departed from for the first time, the great luminaries of that period acknowledged its superior claims, and avowed that it was of necessity, rather than choice, which led them to a different discipline. But were even this question allowed to rest on the broad ground of expediency, the solution of it would be perhaps sufficiently safe. For, in fact, the general maxims of the Apostles, and the very notion of order and decent subordination in the church, seem to require an Episcopal polity. A similar government exists in families, in societics, in states, in kingdoms. Supreme control, under God, must be lodged somewhere, or the selfishness of our nature will soon subvert the security of human intercourse. Above all, then, must it be so in "the house of God," which is to be the "pillar and ground of the truth." A chief point of wisdom is to feel the comparative inferiority of such topics in themselves; and whilst we are fully persuaded in our own minds, not to condemn the judgment of others; and much less to make them occasions of unnecessary division and controversy. I despair of that man's prudence or charity, in his opinion on ecclesiastical matters, who has never entered into the surpassing glories of the incarnation and sacrifice of Christ; and who does not see that the outward forms of religion are as the garments |