the right place. The Pharisees had their traditions in their days and these, many of them at least, made void the law of God", for they were in direct opposition to it. Of this evil, as we trust, we have assuredly no cause to be afraid. Our Church's laws are not in opposition to God's laws, but in subordination to them. The judaizing teachers, in the early Church, rested upon their observances as the ground of their salvation. They gloried in circumcision, and put it in the place of Christ. God forbid that we should fall into this error! Better ten thousand times, if we must have so sad an alternative, that we should be without ceremonies altogether, than build upon any other foundation than that on which the whole fabric of the Church is based. There is enough in the services of this day to remind us, that even God's own appointments may be unduly rested in; and that they are then only rightly used, when they are employed, in dependence upon the aid of the Holy Spirit, as means by which we may receive grace, and make increase in holiness.

C

Matt. xv. 3-9. See Homily on Good Works, part ii. c See Micah vi. 6-8. and Gal. ii.

SERMON IV.

THE COUNCIL AT JERUSALEM.

SUBMISSION TO THE CHURCH'S AUTHORITY IN CONTROVERSIES OF FAITH A MEANS OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF HER CHILDREN IN SOUND DOCTRINE, AND OF HER OWN ENLARGEMENT AND EXTENSION.

Preached on the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Jan. 15, 1837.

"The Church hath

authority in controversies of faith; and yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God's word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another." ART. XX.

"Of peace and quietness there is not any way possible, unless the probable voice of every entire society or body politic overrule all private of like nature in the same body. Which thing effectually proveth, that God, being author of peace and not of confusion in the Church, must needs be author of those men's peaceable resolutions, who, concerning these things have determined with themselves to think and do as the Church they are of decreeth, till they see necessary cause enforcing them to the contrary." Hooker, Eccl. Pol. pref. §. 6.

"The simpler sort of men will in effect be always led, not by their own judgment, but by the authority of others; and if they be not fairly guided by those whom God hath constituted and assigned to that end, they will be led by the nose by those who are concerned to seduce them. So reason dictateth that it must be, so experience sheweth it ever to have been; that the people, whenever they have deserted their true guides, have soon been hurried by impostors into most dangerous errors and extravagant follies; being "carried about with divers and strange doctrines;" being "like children tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine." Barrow's Sermons, serm. 59. Works, vol. iii. p. 342. Of obedience to our Spiritual Guides and Governors.

ACTS xvi. 4, 5.

And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep, that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem. And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily.

PERHAPS there never was a time when Pilate's question, What is trutha ?" recurred to men's minds-especially to the minds of those just entering upon life with more frequency, and with more anxious and intense interest, than it now does. A state of things seems to have come upon us, like that which once prevailed among God's ancient people, when there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes." Only there is this difference, that the present anarchy is an anarchy of opinion. Each thinks himself free to believe and to make public whatsoever doctrines shall have approved themselves to his own mind. It is true, indeed, a rule of faith is acknowledged: holy Scripture is appealed to as the ultimate standard, by which orthodoxy is to be tried but it is not less true, that every variety of opinion exists among those, by whom the appeal is made.

:

What has been said applies to the Church at large our own communion is not excluded. We may not deny it: even among the members of the Church of England, a great variety of opinion, and that on many important points, prevails. Who has not, at one time or other, been conscious of thoughts like these springing up within his mind? Here are two men taking opposite views of the same question: each appeals to Scripture in support of his opinion. Each is, to all appearance, a sincere lover of truth: each is respected for his judgment, and revered for his piety. Which is right? Which is wrong?-These are searchings of heart with which many among us must have been familiar. These are questions, which must have been asked again and again, with feelings of anxious and painful perplexity. There are those, it may be, who have almost wished themselves within the bosom of Rome, that they might resign themselves to the entire guidance of one, whom they could regard as an infallible instructor, and be freed for ever from the embarrassment of choosing whom to follow ".

3

But is there no medium between the despotism of Rome, on the one hand, and universal anarchy of opinion, on the other? Is there no place of shelter, to which we may retire, where, while we enjoy as

It may be questioned, indeed, whether some of those who have gone over to the Communion of Rome, have not been induced to do so by these very considerations.