Dr. Jacob's Ecclesiastical Polity of the New Testament [pp. 301-306]

302 1)R. JACOB'S ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY [April~
toms, and bringing it into a closer conformity to the simplicity
of spiritual Christianity.
What M. de Pressens~ said some years ago in the preface
to his Church History, is more true and forcible to-day
"Every religious party feels the need either of fortifying and
rea~ffirming, or of transforming itself. Ml the churches born
of the great movement of the sixteenth centnry are now engaged in this serious crisis."
The High Church party in England has in recent years
assumed ground and urged pretensions which were never recognized by the early English Reformers. John Wycliffe had
a better theory as to the relation of Church and State than
the present bench of Bishops in tile House of Lords. The doctrine of "apostolic succession," as held by so many in our
day, was never the doctrine of the Anglican Church. It has
no place in her articles or prayer book. For a hundred years
after the Reformation had begun in England, not only was
Presbyterian ordination rcco guized as valid, but many who
had received only this, were welcomed to some of the highest
preferments of the English Church. Ritualism and 54' eramentalism, as recently revived in England, would have horrified the souls of Ridlcy and Jewel. The Reformers of the
time of Edward VI. certainly were for adhering more closely
to the Scriptures, than many who have made themselves notorious, through the press and the pulpits of England, in later
times.
-It is a good sign at this crisis, that the scho1ar~J~~ of the
English church is coming to the front, and appealing boldiy
from all patristic opinions to the authority of the inspired
apostles, from all ecclesiastical traditions to an honest interpretation of the New Testament. The services rendered in
this line by Alford, the late Dean of Canterbury, were invaluable; and his untimely decease occasioned mourning to
all friends of leai~ing and religion on both continents. The
recent writings of Lightfoot, the Huisean Professor at Cambridge, paftieuiaAy his essay on the Christian Ministry, appended to his Commentary on the Philippians, are of the
same character. ~Ve have now the pleasure of calling atten