Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

churches." Those mischievous errors must be corrected. Believers should learn to discriminate between the authorized institutions of the gospel, and the "doctrines of men, with the tradition of the elders ;" and not to "lay aside the commandment of God" for that churchcraft which flows from "philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."

I.-A CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

THE nineteenth of the Episcopalian "Articles of Religion" presents an accurate and comprehensive definition of the term Church.-"The visible church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure word of God is preached, and the sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance." To which I subjoin the perspicuous exposition of John Newton, because his bias was in favor of the hierarchical interpretation.

"The several senses in which the word church may be understood agreeable to the Scripture:-1. It denotes in the aggregate, the mystical church; the whole body of that spiritual kingdom, of which the Redeemer is the living and life-giving head. Col. i. 18; Acts xx. 28. 2. The visible church; all those who bear and acknowledge the name of Christians, and who admit and enjoy the gospel revelation. 3. The catholic church; all who agree in the fundamental truths of the gospel, and whose conversation is regulated by its precepts. Eph. vi. 24. 4. The word church is applied to particular societies of Christians, who are connected by a participation in the same ordinances of the gospel, and who maintain a scriptural separation froin the sinful spirit and customs of the world."--Messiah: Sermon 36.

The preceding description is confirmed by George Campbell. Both those expositors in fact affirm, that the

word church means two things only-either the whole body of believers; or each separate congregation, who assemble in one place, and with one accord, for the enjoyment of "fellowship one with another, and with the Father, and with his son Jesus Christ."

The delusions invented by churchcraft, and which the Rabbis propagate are these. That the title church means an assembly of delegates selected from each society; to whom is committed the control and government of the whole body who are thus represented—and that the authority thus assumed by ambition, and permitted through blindness or intimidation, is according to the appointment of Christ, and sanctioned by apostolic example.

Man is amenable to the Judge of conscience only for the improvement or neglect of his privileges. He cannot transfer to another his own inalienable rights, or the performance of his own imperative duties. He is subject to "the Lord of the servants ;" and must "give an account of himself to God," and of his use of the talents committed to his charge, when he shall "stand before the judgment seat of Christ."

Divine revelation teaches nothing of delegated Christian immunities, obligations or responsibility. Every steward of the Lord must act for himself, equally as if he were the only inhabitant of the world. The final destiny of the faithful and of the slothful servant will not be determined by the principle of substitution.

The sacred canon gives no sanction to those representative confederacies which insult the King in Zion by their pompous titles, "Ecclesiastical Judicatures, and Church

Courts." Not a vestige of that antichristian ladder, by which “that man of sin, the son of perdition, exalted himself above all that is called God," can be traced through the primitive records of ecclesiastical history, during several generations after the gracious Redeemer poured out the Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

The Apostle Paul,in his epistle to the Ephesians, enumerated those "gifts unto men" which the Lord gave to his church after" he ascended on high." Those donations he declared are sufficient to render the disciples "perfect men." But he specifies not "Church Courts!" The "holy men of God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" never heard of an "Ecclesiastical Judicature," except the Jewish Sanhedrim or Council, of whom the Lord commanded them to beware! They never possessed any notion of such an arrogant interference with the exclusive supremacy of the King of kings and Lord of lords;" unless the Apostle Paul beheld them in the temple of God encircling "that Wicked;" or the Apostle John saw them on the Beast's crowns and horns, when he was at Patmos, "in the Spirit on the Lord's day." Until two hundred years and more after the last of Immanuel's chosen witnesses had given his infallible testimony, the followers of the Lamb knew no more of a "Church Court," than they did of the Spanish Inquisition.

66

In the New Testament, each company of Christians is addressed as a distinct church. There is no intimation of a federative compact among the different societies governed by a delegated legislative judiciary. We read

concerning "the churches in Judea; the churches of
Syria; all the churches of the Gentiles; the churches of
Christ; the churches of God; the churches of Galatia ;
the churches of Asia; and the churches of Macedonia;"
but not the
church in Judea, etc. Either,
therefore, the Apostles were mistaken, or our nomencla-
ture is not evangelical; for we write the
church

in the United States, meaning fifty, seventy, or five hun-
dred isolated congregations. The title church thus ap-
plied to designate large consociations composed of many
small separate communities, is a heretical misnomer; and
equally erroneous and deceptive, as those creatures of
the civil government, commonly called-" the church of
Rome; the church of England; of Ireland; of Holland;
and of Scotland."

1

ORIGIN OF COUNCILS.

The ensuing paragraph from Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History directly corroborates the preceding definition of a Christian church.

66

During a great part of the second century" and of course the former period, which is denominated the apostolic age," the churches were independent of each other; nor were they joined together by association, confederacy, or any other bonds than those of charity. Each assembly was a little state, governed by its own laws, which were enacted or approved by the society. In process of time, all the Christian churches in a province were formed into one large ecclesiastical body; which like confederated states assembled at certain times, in order to de

« AnteriorContinuar »