CONTENTS.

ESSAY I.

§ 1. CHRIST's own Account of Himself and of his

Kingdom, at his two Trials

2. His Trial and Condemnation by the Jewish

PAGE

11

14

17

3. Jesus, the Son of God, in a peculiar sense

4. Christ charged with blasphemy, as claiming to

be the Son of God, in a sense authorizing

adoration

5. Proofs that He was so understood

==

6. A Divine Messiah not expected by the Jews

7. Proofs that the sense in which He was under-

27

stood, was that which He designed

30

8. His Testimony concerning Himself at his

Trial, must have been true

22

9. His Declarations concerning Himself, at his

Second Trial,-that before Pilate

10. Sense in which his Disclaimer of a Kingdom

of this World is to be understood

11. Impiety of attributing to Him a hidden meaning

12. Spiritual Societies and Secular, not to be con-

32

34

38

43

47

13. Intolerance, a natural accompaniment of In-
sincerity; Tolerance the fruit of Christian
Faith and Knowledge

ESSAY H.

1. CHRISTIANITY designed to be a social Religion

2. Properties of a Community

3. Rights divinely conferred on a Christian Com-

5. How the Disciples would understand the com-

mission given them .

6. Penalties for Ecclesiastical offences

7. Power of the Keys

8. Procedure of the Disciples in conformity with

their Master's directions

9. Christian Churches derived from Synagogues

10. Scanty Records of what relates to Church-

government, and copious, of moral and doc-

12. Internal Evidence of the Gospel resulting

from the above views

98

13. Things enjoined, things excluded, and things

left at large

100

14. Christianity a Religion without Sacrifice, Al-

tar, Priest, or Temple

103

15. The Christian Church Universal has no one

Spiritual Head on Earth

108

18. Church Ordinances removed from a firm

Foundation and placed on one of sand

19. The English Reformers chose the true Foun-

dation

20. Pretended Church-Principles fatal to the

Christian hopes and privileges, even of their

advocates

21. Appeal to the practice of the early Churches,

an argument inaccessible to the great Mass

of Christians

PAGE

121

123

135

22. Pretended decisions of the Catholic Church
23. Appeals to supposed decisions, &c. of the
Catholic Church, as superfluous as they are
unsound

24. The Articles, the Symbol embodying the de-
liberate decisions of our Church

25. Pretended distinction between co-ordinate and

subordinate tradition

139

142

150

156

161

26. Alleged importance of human teaching

27. Use and abuse of human instruction

32. Irregular formations of Christian Communities 191

33. Presumption in favour of the Church to which

35. Supposed case neither an impossible one, nor

useless even if it were

205

36. Cases of a moral necessity for Separation

37. Mistakes to be guarded against by reformers

when compelled to separation

207

211

40. System of traditionists incapable of being

supported by clear argument

224

PREFACE.

THE following Essays contain the substance of some Discourses not originally designed for the Press, but which I was strongly urged to publish by several of the persons to whom the Volume is inscribed.

I have endeavoured to throw the materials into a form more suited for private perusal than that of the Discourses originally delivered. I fear, however, that, in consequence of frequent interruptions during the preparation of the work for the Press, some defects may be found in the arrangement and comparative development of the several topics, and other such imperfections in the composition, which can only