the mediator between God and the church can be none but Christ,—­so the clergy began to draw to themselves the attributes of the church, and to call the church by a different name, such as the faithful, or the laity; so that to speak of the church mediating for the people did not sound so shocking, and the doctrine so disguised found ready acceptance.  Thus the evil work was consummated; the great majority of the members of the church, were virtually disfranchised; the minority retained the name, but the character of the institution was utterly corrupted.

To revive Christ’s church, therefore, is to expel the antichrist of priesthood, (which, as it was foretold of him, “as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God,”) and to restore its disfranchised members,—­the laity,—­to the discharge of their proper duties in it, and to the consciousness of their paramount importance.  This is the point which I have dwelt upon in the XXXVIII^{th} Lecture, and which is closely in connection with the point maintained in the XL^{th}; and all who value the inestimable blessings of Christ’s church should labour in arousing the laity to a sense of their great share in them.  In particular, that discipline, which is one of the greatest of those blessings, never can, and, indeed, never ought to be restored, till the Church resumes its lawful authority, and puts an end to the usurpation of its powers by the clergy.  There is a feeling now awakened amongst the lay members of our Church, which, if it can but be rightly directed, may, by God’s blessing, really arrive at something truer and deeper than satisfied the last century, or than satisfied the last seventeen centuries.  Otherwise, whatever else may be improved, the laity will take care that church discipline shall continue to slumber, and they will best serve the church by doing so.  Much may be done to spread the knowledge of Christ’s religion; new churches may be built; new ministers appointed to preach the word and administer the sacraments; those may hear who now cannot hear; many more sick persons may be visited; many more children may receive religious instruction:  all this is good, and to be received with sincere thankfulness; but, with a knowledge revealed to us of a still more excellent power in Christ’s church, and with the abundant promises of prophecy in our hands, can we rest satisfied with the lesser and imperfect good, which strikes thrice and stays?  But, if the zeal of the lay members of our Church be directed by the principles of Mr. Newman, then the result will be, not merely a lesser good, but one fearfully mixed with evil—­Christian religion profaned by anti-christian fables, Christian holiness marred by superstition and uncharitableness; Christian wisdom and Christian sincerity scoffed at, reviled, and persecuted out of sight.  This is declared to us by the sure voice of experience; this was the fruit of the spirit of priestcraft, with its accompaniments of superstitious rites and lying traditions, in the