*^. 
 
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 O PRINCETON, N. J. '^^ 
 
 BV 600 .M67 1885 c.l 
 Morris, Edward D. 1825-1915 
 Ecclesiology 
 
 SAel/.. 
 
THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE IN OUTLINE 
 
 ECCLESIOLOGY 
 
 A TREATISE ON 
 
 the chueoh a^d kingdom of god 
 oint earth 
 
 EDWARD d/mORRIS, D.D. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY IN LANE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 EiS fxiav, dyiav, Ka^oX-LHrjv xai ditodToXixrjv EHH\rj6iav. 
 
 — Symbolum Nicaeno Const. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 1885 
 
Copyright, 1885, 
 
 BY 
 
 Edward D, Morris. 
 
 ELECTROTYPED AT 
 THE FRANKLIN TYPE FOUNDRY, 
 
 CINCINNATI. 
 
PKEFATOPvY, 
 
 The following pages contain a condensed summary of a series of 
 Lectures delivered during the past seventeen years to the students of 
 this Institution, in this department of Christian Doctrine. In the 
 effort to prepare a succinct treatise, available for practical uses, rather 
 than an elaborate dissertation, it has been deemed desirable to omit 
 all extended discussion of controverted points, and simply to incor- 
 porate, with the briefest statement of grounds and reasons, such con- 
 clusions as have justified themselves to the author after careful inves- 
 tigation. INIinor divisions and notations, employed in the class-room, 
 have for the most part been omitted ; only such authorities as are 
 easily accessible, are mentioned by way of reference. 
 
 Prepared originally for the benefit of theological students, this brief 
 volume — the fruit of many happy studies in this interesting field — is 
 now, with some hesitation, sent forth from its seclusion here, in the 
 hope that it may prove useful in wider circles. The fact that there 
 is in present circulation, hardly any work of the same class, and cov- 
 ering the same ground, seems in part at least to justify such hope. 
 And if the perusal of this treatise should help any single mind into 
 clearer, broader, more ireuic conceptions of the Church, or should 
 contribute in the slightest measure toward the harmonizing of opinion 
 and action among Christian men around this one divine Institution on 
 whose growth and efficiency the interests of spiritual Christianity, the 
 world over, seem now so vitally dependent, that hope will have gained 
 its largest realization. 
 
 E. D. M. 
 Lane Theological Seminary : 
 January, 1885. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 5-13 
 
 I. Ecc;ij:.siology: The Term Defined, 
 
 II. Relation to other Divisions of Do(;trine, 
 
 III. Biblical Basis of the Doctrine, 
 
 IV. Sketch of Opinions in Ecclesiolooy, 
 
 V. Importance of the Proposed Inquiry, 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 11 
 
 CIIAPTEIi FIRST. 
 
 THE CHURCH ix thh divine plan. 
 
 the idea, the IHSTOItY, AND TIIi: .lUHTIFICATION. 13-41 
 
 I. Definition OF THE Term, Ciivrcai: Various Uses, . . . i;{ 
 
 II. Analysis of the Term : 
 
 Association, Piety, (Joiistitiitioii, ()l)jcct, IV'rmuncnce, . .10 
 HI. Historic Uxfoldinu of this Conception, . . . .11) 
 
 IV. Thic Church Patriarchal: First Division, . . . .20 
 
 V. The Church Patriarchal; Second Division : 
 
 Tiu! Al)riiliiiinic Cliurcli, 22 
 
 VI. The Chup.ch Herrak;: Preliminary Remarks, . . .23 
 
 VII. The Church ITefsraic: Special CiiARACTEKisTrcs : 
 
 Doctrine, L'lw, Ritual, Prieslliood, Seal, . . . .24 
 Vni. The Church Hebraic: Historic Development: 
 
 The Theocratic, the Royal, the Prophetic Eras, . . .27 
 
 IX. The Church AS Constituted BY Christ: Preliminary,. . 2!) 
 
 X. Its Identity with Patriarch a r. and Hebraic Churches: 
 
 In Foundation, in Conditions, in Aim and Destiny, . . ?,] 
 
 XI. Important Points of Contrast Noted, 82 
 
 XII. General Argument For The Church : G.*] 
 
 1. It lies constructively in the Rclij.MouH Nature, . . .34 
 
 2. Required by Relij^ion as an Experience, .... .30 
 
 3. Religion perpetuated and advanced throudi the Church, -''H 
 
 4. The Divine Glory manifested tlirou Ai it, ... '■'>'■) 
 
 (i) 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER SECOND. 
 THE IMPERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CHURCH 
 
 ITS DOCTRINES, ITS SACRAMENTS, ITS ORDINANCES. 41-79 
 
 I. Doctrines Defined : Chubcii Creeds Described, . . .42 
 
 II. Church Creeds : Reasons for their Existence, . . .43 
 
 III. Objections to Creeds : Limitations of Creeds, . . .44 
 
 IV. Sacraments Defined : Number of Sacraments, . . .40 
 
 V. Baptism Defined : General Scriptural Warrant, . . 48 
 
 VI. Baptism : Its Nature and Design, 50 
 
 VII. Baptism : Modes of Administration : 
 
 Further Questions as to U.sage, 52 
 
 VIII. Baptism : Subjects or Recipients, . ■ . . . . .56 
 
 IX. Scripture Witness to Infant Baptism, 59 
 
 X. The Lord's Supper : Warrant and Nature, . . . . G2 
 XL The Lord's Supper : Design and Participants, . . .65 
 
 XII. The Lord's Supper : Infuence and Worth : 
 
 Other kindred Observances, 67 
 
 XIII. Ordinances Defined : Positive Institutions, . . .70 
 
 XIV. The Sabbath— a Sacred Time : 
 
 1. Its triple Institution, 71 
 
 2. Its threefold Design 72 
 
 3. Its perpetual Obligation, 73 
 
 4. The Change of Day justified, 74 
 
 5. Manner and Spirit of Observance, 74 
 
 XV. Three Associated Ordinances : 
 
 1. The Sanctuary— a Sacred Place, 75 
 
 2. The Means of Grace— a Sacred Cultus, . . . .77 
 
 3. The Ministry- a Sacred Service, . . . .78 
 
 CHAPTER THIRD. 
 THE PERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CHURCH : 
 
 its members, its OFFICERS. 80-111 
 
 I. The Personal Element Supreme, . 
 
 IL Church Membership: Preliminary View, 
 
 III. Membership in the Primitive Church, . 
 
 80 
 82 
 83 
 
CONTENTS. iii 
 
 IV. Gkeek and Papal View of Membership, 85 
 
 V. Protestant View after the Reformation, . . . .87 
 
 VI. Current Protestant Opinion: The Formal View, . . 89 
 
 VII. Current Protestant Opinion : The Spiritual View, . . 91 
 
 VIII. Membership in the Particular Church : 
 
 Four specific Conditions requisite, ...... 94 
 
 IX. Membership of the Children of Believers, . . . .96 
 
 X. The Church an Organization : 
 
 Offices and Officers requisite, 98 
 
 XI. Temporary Church Offices : 
 
 1. The Prophetical Office 100 
 
 2. The Apostolical Office, 100 
 
 3. The Evangelistic Office, 102 
 
 XII. Permanent Church Offices : 
 
 1. The Office of Instruction, 104 
 
 2. The Office of Government, 105 
 
 3. The Office of Administration, 106 
 
 XIII. Officers Requisite in the Church : 
 
 Tiie Ministry — call and functions, ...... 107 
 
 XIV. Church Officers : Further Questions : 
 
 Inyestiture, Authority, Limitations in Tenure, . . . 110 
 
 CHAPTER FOURTH. 
 
 THE CHURCH AS A DIVINE KINGDOM: 
 
 government, polities, discipline. 
 
 112-151 
 
 I. The Church as a Structure : General Conception, 
 
 II. Church Government Defined AND .Iustified, . 
 
 in. Church Government IN Scripture, .... 
 
 IV. Varieties in Church Government : Diverse Polities, 
 
 V. The Papal Polity : Its Position and Claim, . 
 
 VI. The Papal Polity Considered, 
 
 VII. The Prelatic Polity • l;rs Claim Outlined, . 
 
 VIII. Prelatism Examined, 
 
 IX. Independency: Its General Position, . 
 
 X. The Claim of Independency Reviewed, . 
 
 XI. The Representative Polity Stated and Justified : 
 
 1. Derived from the Jewish synagogue system. 
 
 112 
 114 
 117 
 118 
 121 
 124 
 127 
 129 
 132 
 135 
 137 
 139 
 
IV CONTEXTS. 
 
 2. Developed gradually under apostolic guidance, , . . 140 
 
 ;!. Designed to secure etlicieney in government . . .141 
 
 4. Represented eliureli (cllowsliii) and unity, . . . . 142 
 
 .">. J uslilied by Scripture and ex])erience, .... 143 
 
 XII. ("AllDIXAL PillXCIPl.ES IX ADMIXISTRATIOX : 
 
 Headship of Christ : Supremacy of Scripture, . . . 143 
 
 XIII. Practical Admixistratiox : 
 
 Authority and Obedience, 146 
 
 XIV. Discipline as a Church Function : 
 
 Warrant, Aims, Spirit, Methods, Extent, .... 148 
 
 CHAPTER FIFTH. 
 THE CHURCH IN HUMAN SOCIETY: 
 its unity, its (jkowtii, its relations. 
 
 I. Present Church Divisions : Forms and Causes, . . . 151 
 
 II. Church Divisions : Good and Evil Fruits, . . . .154 
 
 III. Organic Oneness: The Papal View 156 
 
 IV. Spiritual Unity : The Protestant View, .... 158 
 
 V. The Christian Church a Growth : General Conception, . 160 
 
 VI. Internal Law of Church Growth : 
 
 Spiritual Propagation, 162 
 
 VII. External Law of Church Growth: 
 
 Spiritual Conquest, 165 
 
 VIIL Illicit Processes of Church Growth, 167 
 
 IX. The Church in Human Society : General View, . . .169 
 
 X. The Church and Human Sin, 171 
 
 XI. The Church and Human Institutions : 
 
 Church and the Family : Church and State, .... 174 
 
 XII. The Church and Education : Church and Culture, . . 177 
 
 XIII. The Church and Morality : Church and Reform, . . 1 81 
 
 XIV. The Church and Civilization : 
 
 Consummation of Humanity through the Church, . . 188 
 
ECCLESIOLOGY: 
 
 THE CHURCH AND KmGDO]M OF GOD ON EARTH. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I. EccLESiOLOGY : The Term Defined. — The work of Salvation 
 begins with the individual soul. In its exterior form, it is a redemp- 
 tion of the sinner from the judicial grasp of divine law, and from 
 the penal issues of his sin. In its interior substance, it is a spiritual 
 deliverance from sin itself, and a restoration of the sinner to holi- 
 ness, and to everlasting life. This personal salvation, wrought out 
 externally through the redemptive work of the Son of God, and in- 
 ternally through the regenerative and sanctifying ministries of the 
 Spirit of God, must antedate in time and become the substantial basis 
 of all social or generic changes effected among mankind through the 
 Gospel. The personal result is always and of necessity primary. The 
 general aim and methods of the Gospel, the historic labors of our 
 Lord for individual souls, the registered activities of the Holy Ghost, 
 the peculiar type of character developed in and through these divine 
 instrumentalities, all illustrate this great antecedent and most prac- 
 tical truth: Salvation must begin with the individual man. 
 
 Yet Christianity is also social and generic in both its idea and its 
 manifestation. It contemplates man in the aggregate ; it seeks the res- 
 toration of human society: its gracious purpose can be consummated 
 only in the salvation of Humanity. As sin has passed through the 
 individual man into the family, corrupting and destroying the house- 
 hold life, the salutary power of the Gospel must enter into the family 
 circle to transform it by the same gracious processes through which 
 the individual is both justified and sanctified before God. As sin has 
 passed in like manner into the state, this divine religion must also enter 
 into the political life of man, to arrest the sway of evil, purify social 
 principle and practice, restore true civil order, and in a word rencAV 
 the state as well as the family. More broadly still, as sin has penetrated 
 and infected our humanity in the aggregate, working everywhere or- 
 ganic as well as particular devastation, Christianity must aim at noth- 
 ing less than the regenei'ation of that humanity in every aspect and 
 
 (5) 
 
b ECCLESIOLOGY : INTRODUCTION. 
 
 every relation, — the restoration on tlie earth of that social as ^vell as 
 individual Paradise which sin has Ixitli forfeited and destroyed. The 
 failure to recognize these generic aims and issues of Christianity, 
 originating in a false or defective Anthropology, leads on directly to 
 much narrow or erroneous teaching resjjecting the sublime ministry of 
 the Christian faith in the world. The i)urely individualistic view of 
 salvation is one against which, therefore, the devout student should he 
 ever on his guard : Our Gospel is a Gospel for humanity as well as 
 for the individual man. 
 
 In this comprehensive social work, the chief agent or instrument 
 em2)loyed is the Church, — a divine organism set up among men for 
 the purpose of affecting humanity savingly through the Gospel, and 
 endoAved with all the capabilities requisite to this high function. Ke- 
 garded as an organism, the Church receives and enjoys the same gra- 
 cious influences which produce and develop the Christian life in the 
 individual soul. It is established by Christ, founded on His AVord, 
 sustained by His Sj^tirit, quickened through grace, and divinely commis- 
 sioned for its special work. Regarded as an instrumentality, the 
 Church is vested Avith divine efficiency adequate to this peculiar mis- 
 sion : the power of Christianity to penetrate and restore human society 
 is specially embodied in it. It is true that this gracious mission is en- 
 trusted immediately to each and every disciple, — in virtue of his 
 renewed nature each believer is directly sent forth by Christ to do his 
 specific part in the restoration of our lost humanity to holiness abd 
 to God. It is true that God also utilizes the family and the state, in 
 the consummation of His gracious purpose ; for wdienever salvation en- 
 ters a family, renewing the inmates individually through His Word 
 and Spirit, He not only raises the family inwardly into a new life, 
 but transforms it at once into a new regenerative force in human so- 
 ciety, — as truly an agent in the spiritual restoration of humanity, 
 though in a subordinate sphere, as the Church itself. So when the 
 world comes somewhere in the future to see the sublime spectacle of 
 a thoroughly Christianized state, it will be made to realize as we can 
 not now realize, what a mighty instrumentality for the diffusion and 
 perpetuation of the true religion such a state may be. Yet it is to 
 the Church, as at once the family of God and the kingdom of God 
 among men, that this great task is primarily entrusted : it is through 
 the Church as a divine organism and instrumentality that these re- 
 sults are mainly to be attained. ^ 
 
 ' "What is given objectively in Christ, is to be appropriated by Ilumanitj'. ' 
 But Humanity is designed, by such appropriation, to become the Cliurch, oi 
 Community of Faitli. As the center of the Kingdom of God, the Cliurch is the 
 final aim wliich Christ projjoses to His activity." Dokner, TheoL, Vol. IV: 154 
 Also, Neandek, Planting and Training, etc., pp. 417, scq. 
 
RELATION TO OTHER DIVISIONS OF DOCTRINE. 7 
 
 Hence Ecclesiology, which may be defined as tJie doctrine of Scrip- 
 ture respecting the Church, in the broadest sense of this phrase, is an 
 essential and conspicuous division of Christian Theology. As a com- 
 plete theological system can not pause with the contemplation of the 
 work of grace wrought in the individual man, but must proceed to 
 consider that work as wrought out more extensively in the heart of 
 humanity, such a system must include a full account of that divine 
 agency through which this broader work is mainly accomplished. It 
 must thoughtfully study and describe the Church, not merely in its his- 
 toric manifestations, but also in its nature and constituents, in its con- 
 stitution and spirit and capabilities, and in its authorized relations to 
 the salvation of mankind. To such an investigation, conducted on 
 the simple basis of Scripture, in loyalty to the divine Word, and in 
 the temper of loving appreciation, attention will here be given. 
 
 II. Relation to other Divisions of Christian Doctrine. — 
 It is important at the outset, that this division of sacred doctrine 
 should be set in proper relations to the other main departments of 
 Christian theology. Clear and sound views of Revelation, for ex- 
 ample, alone can furnish adequate protection against the error of re- 
 garding the Church, with its organization and ordinances, as a human 
 institution merely; or against the equally mischievous error of going 
 beyond what the Bible teaches, and claiming divine warrant for what 
 are mei'ely the churchly contrivances or appointments of men. In 
 like manner, an erroneous Anthropology, especially on the point of 
 human sinfulness and guilt and peril, will lead on at once to pernicious 
 theories resj^ecting the real need or the proper field and functions of 
 this divine organism. Nor can any sound conception of the Church, 
 especially in its great providential mission in the world, be gained by 
 one who cherishes serious error respecting the divine Paternity, — the 
 being and providence and moral administration and gracious purpose 
 of God the Father, as related to human life and human destiny. Still 
 more obvious is it, that just and deep views of the person and work 
 of Christ and of tlie Holy Spirit (Soteriology and Pneumatology) and 
 especially of salvation itself contemplated as a personal experience and 
 possession, must furnish an essential basis for sound teaching as to that 
 peculiar instrumentality through which salvation is primarily to be 
 diffused and perpetuated among men. And finally, no small part of 
 the error into which many fall, respecting the future of humanity on 
 earth, the coming and reign of Christ among men, the ultimate su- 
 ])remacy of true religion, the article of death, the intermediate estate, 
 and even the resurrection and judgment and the life to come, has its 
 origin in the failure to appreciate the essential elements, the true sig- 
 nificance, of a thoroughly biblical Ecclesiology. 
 
8 ECCLESIOLOGY : INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Two general tciulcucies to error are especially recognizable here. 
 The first is the tendency so disastrously illustrated in the Papal, and in 
 some affiliated communions, — the tendency to lift the doctrine of the 
 Church out of its proper relation to other departments of doctrine, 
 and to give it an undue prominence in the Christian scheme : to exalt 
 sacraments and ordinances unduly, to carry legitimate authority out 
 into tyrannical api)lications, and even to make the Church an agent 
 coordinate with Christ himself in the bestowment of salvation. The 
 second is the tendency, almost equally disastrous among Protestants, to 
 decry churchly authority, to undervalue churchly teaching, to regard 
 sacraments and ordinances and constitutions as insignificant, and even 
 to pronounce the Church a human organization merely, void of super- 
 natural efficiency, and without distinctive mission among men. Against 
 all such })erversion a comprehensive Ecclesiology, constructed j)urely 
 from the Scripture and received and maintained in its proper relations, 
 in the temjier of true faith, furnishes the only adequate protection. 
 
 in. Biblical Basis of the Doctrine. — The cardinal jirinciple in 
 construction here is to be found in strict adherence to the teaching and 
 warrants of the Word of God respecting the Church. For the obvious 
 fact is that the Church in its idea is a purely bil)lical conception — as 
 supernatural as the scheme of salvation itself. Analogies may be de- 
 rived from other sources: the family or the state, for exaaiple, may 
 furnish illustrations with which to make this conception more vivid or 
 more practical. Men may legitimately reason in detail from the prin- 
 ciples biblically given: applying these more specifically, or drawing 
 inferences from them for use in ecclesiastical organization or adminis- 
 tration. But the idea of the Church is found in the Bible alone: 
 nature does not furnish, nor did human wisdom produce it. All the 
 essential principles, all the main elements, all the r^al authority in the 
 case must be derived from the written Word, and be accepted because 
 the written Word declares them. 
 
 That this bil^lical conception is clear, extensive, adequate, will be- 
 come fully ai)parent on closer examination. How large a place the 
 Church has occupied from the beginning in the economy of grace, 
 every student of the Old Testament readily perceives. The construc- 
 tion and organizing and government of the Church, and the utilizing 
 of the Church as a factor in the development of piety even in the 
 Patriarchal, and still more distinctly throughout the Mosaic or He- 
 braic era, constitute in fact a very large part of the revealed accounts 
 of that introductory dispensation. In a way still more marked, the 
 New Testament, after its biographic records concerning our Lord him- 
 self, is occupied very largely Avith the origin and formation, the con- 
 stitution and laws and practice, the prerogatives and duties, and the 
 
 1 
 
BIBLICAL BASIS OF ECCLESIOLOGY. 9 
 
 historic deyelopment and final victory of the Church. We see the divine 
 idea, introduced in the earlier dispensation, further expanded and jus- 
 tified by our Lord and by His apostles, until at length, as in a vision, 
 we discern the living Church standing in the very center of the Chris- 
 tion scheme, — the explaining and consummating element in a vital, 
 progressive, conquering Gospel. Nor is this conqeption to be viewed 
 as Pauline simply : for while the apostle to the Gentiles gave form and 
 method largely to the earlier churches, especially on Gentile ground, 
 yet the j)roi5er warrant for such construction, and the essential prin- 
 ciples to be regarded in it, Avere first carefully defined by Christ Him- 
 self. It is also obvious from the narrative in the Acts, and fi'om his 
 own epistles, that Peter shared conspicuously with Paul in the task of 
 primitive church organization. Other apostles, as is evident, were as- 
 sociated with these leaders in that great task ; and in fact, under apos- 
 tolic direction the Church went as an essential product wherever the 
 Gospel went, whether on Gentile or on Jewish soil, until it came 
 finally to be regarded everywhere as the representative institution of 
 Christianity. Throughout the New Testament, and increasing in prom- 
 inence as this later volume of Kevelation progresses, the doctrine of the 
 Church is thus extensively and adequately revealed. While the minor 
 applications, details of organization and administration, are not given, 
 the Holy Spirit has thus taken pains to set forth every essential ele- 
 ment, — to place the Divine Idea distinctly and impressively before the 
 eye of faith. 
 
 It is obvious, therefore, that this biblical disclosure should thoroughly 
 regulate all inquiry in this department. There is indeed always room 
 for the question Avhether any given sacrament or ordinance, any sj^ecific 
 ofl[ice or form of constitution, is clearly revealed in Scripture. There 
 is always room for the further question, whether any particular church 
 rules or usages or judgments, not directly prescribed in the AVord of God, 
 are sustained by the more general principles laid down in that Word. 
 But the cardinal j)rinciple to be insisted upon in all ecclesiastical in- 
 quiry, broad or minute, is the supremacy of Scripture, — a principle 
 involving prime obligation not merely to receive all that the Scripture 
 teaches, but also to pause where the Scripture pauses, and to claim 
 divine warrant for nothing beyond what the Scripture, faithfully inter- 
 preted, makes clear. 
 
 IV. Sketch OF Opinions in Ecclesiology.— Departure from this 
 principle has manifestly been the chief occasion of those numerous con- 
 troversies and conflicts, running through the centuries, which have made 
 the history of Ecclesiology one of the saddest sections in the history of 
 Christian Doctrine. From the first deviation from the biblical simplic- 
 ity of the Apostolic Age down to our own time, Christendom has been 
 
10 ECCLESIOLOGY : IXTHODLXTION. 
 
 incessantly c(mvul.<cd by antagonistic theories of the Church, — divided 
 into contiicting organizations severally claiming on serij)tural authority 
 to be the authorized household of faith. During the three or four cen- 
 turies succeeding the Apostolic, we discern the j)rogressive growth of a 
 tendency, earthly and human rather than biblical, to materialize the 
 Church, especially under the form of the episcopate. Discontent with 
 the simple principles and methods laid down in the Bible combined 
 easily with a natural longing for a religious organism that should re- 
 semble more closely such a vast, massive, regnant structure as the 
 Roman State. Hence offices were gradually multiplied; official dis- 
 tinctions and prerogatives were pressed into prominence; the clergy 
 became not only a separate, but a dominating class ; the structure of the 
 Church throughout grew to be more elaborate, and its worship more 
 stately and spectacular, and its authority more imperial. The entire 
 process, beautiful in some aspects, but in its spiritual influence Avidely 
 disastrous, must be regarded as a departure throughout from the writ- 
 ten Word, and its result was a dislocation of the Church from its true 
 position in the Christian scheme, and the introduction of the more ex- 
 tensive errors, the grosser corruptions, of the Papacy. 
 
 For ten or twelve centuries we find this unscrij^tural development 
 maintaining its control, and subordinating the l)iblical doctrine to the 
 opinions and ambitions of men. The Church becomes less and less a 
 divine family — grow's to be more and more a spiritual empire. With 
 one infallible head as king, with a vast array of princely cardinals, 
 bishops and minor ecclesiastics, with a superinduced mass of precedents 
 and usages unwarranted by the divine Word, the simple institution 
 which Christ and His apostles founded, changes into an organism wholly 
 at variance with both the letter and spirit of Scripture. That organ- 
 ism becomes at length the central and the controlling factor in Chris- 
 tianity. Doctrines become authoritative only as it annoimces them ; 
 sacraments are transmuted into gaudy and spiritless forms ; the priest- 
 hood grow more arrogant and more corrupt as their prominence is in- 
 creased. Even Christ and His grace become at length subordinate to 
 the control of the Church, and salvation is as truly its gift as His. Such 
 were some of the results of that process of departure from the clear 
 teaching of Scripture, which it was one of the primary aims of the Ref- 
 ormation to arrest. 
 
 But while the Reformation was largely effectual in uprooting this 
 false conception on which the Church of Rome was founded. Protestant- 
 ism was unable to jirovide a substitute in which all could be agreed. 
 Breaking off violently from the Papal system, the Reformers were pre- 
 vented by many differences, doctrinal and otherwise, from framing to 
 their own satisfaction any antithetic conception of the Church. Old 
 
IIISTOEY OF OPINIONS. 11 
 
 views, usages, standards, stood in the way : questions respecting the sac- 
 raments, respecting the divine right of government, respecting the 
 proper interpretation of certain texts of Scripture, impeded their 
 course. Presbyterianism of various types and shades shared the field 
 Avith Episcopacy on one side, and Independency on the other. Hence 
 by degrees arose those divergent and antagonistic organizations, which 
 gave point to the famous taunt of Bossuet, ^ and which still furnish to 
 both the papist and the skeptic their chief weapon of assault upon evan- 
 gelical Protestantism. Hence it is that Ecclesiology is even now, as it 
 has been called, the undeveloped and obscure element in the Christian 
 scheme of doctrine. Like the correlative department of Pneumatology, 
 this lies as yet largely in the shadow of those great truths respecting 
 Christ and His objective Avork in human redemj^tion, Avhich it was the 
 providential mission of the Eeformation to bring into the foreground of 
 Christian belief. What the Protestantism of our time clearly needs, 
 next to a deeper insight into the personality and work of the Holy 
 Spirit, is substantial agreement concerning Avhat the Bible teaches as 
 to the Church, and a concurrent purpose to pause Avhere the Bible 
 pauses, and to rest all church organization on its authority alone. 
 
 V. iMrORTANCE OF THE PROPOSED IXQUIEY : MeTHOD OF DISCUS- 
 SION. — These historic glimpses make obvious the importance of careful 
 study of this department in Christian Doctrine. As an eminent Avriter 
 has recently declared, there is in this domain still far too often a per- 
 fect Babel of tongues. After generations, even centuries, of fierce 
 conflict, many grave questions in that domain are still unsolved. Even 
 the proper conception of the Church has hardly yet been framed ; its an- 
 tiquity and historic unity and justifying grounds have not been made 
 clear; its coming development and its final future are still matter of 
 strenuous debate. Neither the meaning nor the numbers nor the rela- 
 tions of the sacraments have been satisfactorily determined : the Sab- 
 bath, the various means of grace, the right conception of Avorship, the 
 orders of the ministry, are still in issue. The A^arious sects and schools 
 of Christendom are still very far from agreement respecting polity, gov- 
 ernment, discipline ; and the final unification of that Christendom in the 
 one holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Avhich the earliest creeds 
 speak in such gloAving terms, seems to human A'icAV rather a fabled 
 dream than even a remote possibility. And yet such church questions 
 
 'Bossuet: Variations of the Protestant Churches. "Let them therefore do what 
 they think fit, and whatsoever God shall suffer them to do— in respect to these 
 vain projects of agreement: they will be eternally the mntiial punishment and 
 grievance of each other ; they will bear eternal testimony against each other, how 
 unhappily they usurped the title of Reformers: and that the method they took 
 £or the correction of abuses, could tend to nothing but the subversion of Chris- 
 tianity." — Appendix to Book XIV. 
 
15 ecclesiology: intkoduction. 
 
 are in our afro continually pres.sing to the front for solution. Vatican- 
 ism, foiled in the effort to retain temporal power, is endeavoring all the 
 more urgently to secure spiritual sui)remacy through its theory of the 
 Church, and to make it clear to the world that Protestantism is a vast, 
 mischievous, guilty schism. Meanwhile Protestants, although naturally 
 less affected by church questions, are Ix'ing led to see how mutually de- 
 structive their positions are, and to blush in view of the painful contradic- 
 tions as to the Church within their various communions. Urgent as 
 the demand of the age is for the immediate proclamation of the Gospel 
 to all mankind, and urgent as is the kindred demand for closer and 
 higher application of the principles of that Gospel to human life in 
 lands already Christianized, yet thoughtful Protestants are more and 
 more realizing that one essential preliminary to the attainment of these 
 ends must be found in deeper, broader, more harmonious and more in- 
 spiring views of what the Church of Christ is, as the divinely chosen 
 instrument to be employed in securing such results. Moreover, at the 
 other extreme from Romanism, stands a thoughtless indifferentism, 
 which neither appreciates what the Bible teaches concerning the Church, 
 nor contributes in any way to make that Church the incomparable so- 
 cial and evangelizing force it ought to be. Eationalism generally 
 goes still further, regarding the Church as a human organization 
 merely, which came into existence at a certain stage in the development 
 of Christianity, and is destined at a more mature stage in that develop- 
 ment to pass away. What is needful on all sides as a corrective to such 
 tendencies, is a thoughtful return to the biblical conception of this di- 
 vine and gi'acious organism, with full purpose to know and appropriate 
 all that God has taught us respecting it in His unerring Word. 
 
 In the endeavor to unfold this biblical conception, the first aim will be 
 to set forth the divine idea of the Church as given in Scripture, — to sketch 
 in outline the historic manifestation of this idea, and to suggest the gen- 
 eral argument for the existence of such an organization as a factor in the 
 scheme of redemption. The next aim will be to present with some de- 
 gree of fullness what maybe styled the impersonal elements or constit- 
 uents of the Church ; its doctrines and confessions, its sacraments, and 
 ■ its ordinances. An examination of the personal constituents or factors 
 'in the Church will follow, including especially the proper theory of 
 church membership, and the true view respecting church officers, and 
 the nature and scope of church authority. The Church as organized 
 under some visible form of government will next be considered, with some 
 reference to the existing varieties of such government, and to the gen- 
 eral principles to be recognized in church administration and especially 
 in church discipline. The whole discussion will be concluded with some 
 consideration of practical topics bearing upon the internal unity of the 
 
THE CHURCH IN THE DIVINE PLAN. 13 
 
 Church, and upon its vital relations to human society and to human , 
 progress, as the true kingdom of God among men. 
 
 In these investigations the supreme purpose will be to state simply 
 what is plainly taught in the Divine Word, and to maintain nothing 
 which is not by direct inference clearly deducible from this biblical 
 teaching. Against an irreverent indiflerence, which regards ecclesi- 
 ological inquiry as of small import, and counts the Church as chiefly a 
 human construction, no one who enters on such studies, can too care- 
 fully guard himself. And on the other hand, the student should be 
 carefully protected against the influences of an insidious ecclesiasticism 
 which too often confounds with divine truth the fancies and command- 
 ments of men, and which inevitably, if indulged, transforms the disciple 
 into an ecclesiastical partizan, alike unwilling and unable to discern 
 just what and only what God in His Word has set forth as of final au- 
 thority on this great theme. If both of these errors be sedulously 
 shunned, diligent and prayerful study will surely find enough in this 
 broad field both to compensate for toil and to guide in duty and in ser- 
 vice within that Holy Church, whose shelter and whose privilege all be- 
 lievers are alike entitled to share. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE CHURCH IN THE DIVINE PLAN: 
 
 THE IDEA, THE HISTORY, AND THE JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 The first step in the attaining of a truly biblical Ecclesi- 
 ology, is to define the term Church, and to ascertain analytic- 
 ally the contents of that term, as these are indicated in Scrip- 
 ture. This may properly be followed by a brief sketch of 
 the historic unfolding of this conception in the economy 
 of grace, as seen in the Patriarchal, the Hebraic and the 
 Christian dispensations. The chapter will be concluded with 
 a succinct account of the general argument for such an or- 
 ganization, as an essential factor in the scheme of human 
 salvation. 
 
 I. Definition OF the Term, Church: Various Uses. — The term 
 Church, (German, hirelie; Scotch, kirk; and the Teutonic and Scandi- 
 navian languages generally) is derived from the Greek word, KvpcuKdg, — 
 
14 THE CIIUKCII IN THE DIVINE PLAN. 
 
 a derivative from Ki'pmr. It was soniotinies applied in the earlier 
 English to the Jewish, or even to a pagan place of worship. It signi- 
 fied primarily a house in which the Lord especially dwelt — more 
 broadly, a building consecrated to religion. The Greek derivative Avas 
 in some cases used (Liddcll, Robinson, m loe) with reference to the 
 Sabbath, or to other periods of time consecrated specially to the Lord 
 and His service. It came, however, to be employed at an early date 
 to designate the religious organization inhabiting such a building, and 
 engaging stirtedly in such joint devotions; and this is the use and mean- 
 ing here to be retained. The term eiai?T/ala (Welsh, eglunjs; French, 
 eglise; Italian, chiesa; and the other Romanic languages) illustrates the 
 same transition in signification. A])plicd in classic Greek to any assem- 
 bly of persons called out, or called together, for any specific purpose 
 (in which sense it is employed in the New Test. : Acts 19: 32, 39), this 
 term came early to designate a religious or a Christian assembly, and 
 such an assembly, not as convened on a single occasion, but rather as 
 in some way organized and having permanent existence. The same 
 transition appears in the parallel word, cwayuy//, often employed in the 
 Sept. like eKKh/aln, to describe not merely the place of assembling, but a 
 company of persons brought together for religious, and even in some 
 instances for secular purposes, — thus gradually coming to indicate a 
 permanent religious congregation. It is applied by our Lord to the 
 Jewish synagogue, Matt. 18: 17; and in two instances. Acts 7: 38, Heb. 
 2: 12, to the Israelites, regarded as a religious body. The Hebrew 
 terms, nijr (assembly in general) and ^i^p, (assembly for worship; see 
 Lev. 4: 13-14, where both words are used), convey essentially the 
 same meaning; they find their nearest parallel under the Gospel in 
 the term Church. It is to the New Test, however, rather than the 
 Old, that we are to look for complete definition and for more precise 
 terminology. The Church at first lived chiefly in the family, or dwelt 
 in and with the state ; it was the special work of Christ and His apostles 
 both to disengage it from such connections, and to give it distinct place 
 and form, and, therefore, more exact appellatives. 
 
 This primary signification gradually broadens out in the New Test, 
 into three separate meanings, which need to be carefully noted in both 
 their affiliations and their contrasts. The first of these refers to a par- 
 ticular congregation, assembling in any consecrated place for worship 
 and fellowship, such as the church at Rome or Colosse, or the church in 
 the house of Philemou; Rom. 16: 5, Coll. 4: 15, Philemon 1: 2. 
 These were individual companies of believers, convened habitually in 
 certain private residences or places for religious service and commun- 
 ion. The second of these meanings refers to a group, more or less ex- 
 tensive, of such particular churches located in a given district or region, 
 
DEFINITIONS OF THE TERM. 15 
 
 and drawn together through the consciousness of a common faith into 
 some form of voluntary compact ; as the churches of Galatia or of Asia, 
 1 Cor. 16: 1, 19. If there were several congregations in such cities as 
 Jerusalem or Antioch or Ephesus or Rome, they are in most cases de- 
 scribed in apostolic usage as the church in each of those cities, — a fact 
 which strongly suggests the existence of some form of organization 
 binding together particular congregations in given localities even from 
 the earliest times. The third meaning refers to the collective body of 
 those who professed to receive the Gospel, or to the complete company 
 of those who were truly united in heart to Christ, as their Lord and 
 Master; Eph. 5 : 25, 1 Tim. 3: 15. In this general sense, the term 
 sometimes included, not merely those who had received the historic 
 Christ, but also all those who from the earliest periods, and in the 
 dim light of the Mosaic or the Patriarchal dispensation, had seen and 
 trusted in Him as their promised Redeemer; Col. 1: 18. It compre- 
 hended in some cases the whole family of God, not only on earth, but 
 also in heaven, nor merely those who had lived or Avere then living, but 
 all who to the end of time should believe in Him ; Eph. 1 : 10-12. The 
 distinction between a visible profession of such faith, and its actual ex- 
 ercise as manifested in a truly Christian life, — between the church 
 actual and the church ideal, is expressed by the theological rather than 
 biblical terms, visible and invisible. ^ 
 
 The metaphors employed, especially in the New Test, to describe the 
 Church, are worthy of notice in this connection. The Church in what- 
 ever form is the house or habitation of God, 1 Peter 2: 5; the temple 
 of God, or of the Holy Ghost, 1 Cor. 3: 16; the city of God, Rev. 21: 
 2. The Church is the flesh of Christ, Eph. 5: 30; the body of Christ, 
 1 Cor. 12: 27; the bride of Christ, Eph. 5: 31-2. The Church em- 
 bodies in itself the fullness of its divine Redeemer, Eph. 1 : 22 ; repre- 
 sents His grace and His glory, Eph. 5: 27; is the j^illar and ground of 
 His saving truth, 1 Tim. 3: 15; and is in its membership, the salt of 
 the earth, and the light of the world, Matt. 5: 13-14. And what is 
 thus declared to be true respecting the Church as organized under the 
 Gospel, may be seen to be true from the Old Test, delineations of the 
 Church, under the Hebraic dispensation, and even in the Patriarchal 
 ages. Dear as the apple of His eye, graven as a holy name on the 
 palms of His hands, infinitely precious in His sight, embodying always 
 His loVe and His grace, the Church under whatever form is to the Tri- 
 une Deity ever an object of fathomless interest. Subordinately to the 
 Lord Himself, it may justly be viewed as the embodied brightness of 
 
 ' On the various uses of the term, Church, see Smith. J. Pye. First Lines of 
 Chrisi, TheoL, p. 617 seq. 
 
16 THE CHURCH IN THE DIVINE PLAN. 
 
 the divine glory, and the express image or representation of the divine 
 personality among men, 
 
 II. Analysis of the Term. — Pjissing from this general view to the 
 analysis of the term, church, wc may discover five distinct elements or 
 characteristics. Of these, the first is association; a church is always a 
 community or an organization. This association is not based on nat- 
 ural relationship, or instituted through involuntary connections, like the 
 family or the state. The relationship is voluntary rather than natural ; 
 those wlio enter into it step out in a manner more or less marked from 
 their natural connections, and are joined together on a distinctively 
 spiritual basis. This is true even where the church rests within a 
 single household, like that of Noah, or in affiliation with a single nation 
 like the Hebrews. Still more obviously is this true under the Gospel, 
 where the ties of kindred or of nationality are entirely ignored by 
 those Avho come together within the communion of the church. Here 
 the community or organization is simply and wholly religious. ^ 
 
 More distinctively, the inward principle and bond by which the 
 church is held together is pietij. Every such association is a company 
 of j5ersons who believe in God, and, under the Christian economy, in 
 Christ, and who are devoted to the divine service. There may be per- 
 sons within its visible communion who have no such qualification for 
 membership, — who merely profess such piety. There are .entire 
 churches, or even extensive sections of nominal Christendom, in which 
 this qualification is hardly apparent, and to which we can not properly 
 apply the honorable phrase of ScrijDture, the church of the living God. 
 We recognize also a species of inherited connection — a constructive 
 membership by anticipation — enjoyed by the children of believers, be- 
 fore they have attained to what is termed personal religion. Yet the 
 general fact remains that the uniting bond in the church, under all dis- 
 pensations, is a spiritual bond, instituted and sustained through the ex- 
 ercise of personal faith. The degree and the forms of such faith doubt- 
 less vary in different stages and eras, but the essential principle is ever 
 one and the same. Piety, piety alone, is the conclusive test of mem- 
 bership ; all other tests and qualifications are at best subordinate. 
 
 The third element in the conception is a definite form of constitution, — 
 certain rules of fellowship, involving responsibility to a common author- 
 ity, and controlling within prescribed limits the individual life and ac- 
 tivity. A church may indeed exist in some sense without a written 
 code — without formal regulations, visibly administered and visibly 
 shaping the organization. The beautiful picture given in the earlier 
 
 * " Where tlie Holy Spirit unites the hearts, there a community must exist, from 
 which will soon proceed a communion distinct from every other." — Van OosTEBr 
 zee: Dofjm. Sec. 128. 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CHURCH. 17 
 
 chapters of the Acts of the Apostles — where simple piety manifested in 
 peculiar forms of faith and love and devotion pervades the entire com- 
 munity as a celestial inspii'ation, higher than all written or visible law- 
 exhibits the church in such comparatively unorganized condition. 
 During the millenial era, a similar elevation of the church may be en- 
 joyed, superseding all formal laws and constitutions through the sov- 
 ereign potencies of a perfected spiritual life. But these are excep- 
 tional conditions rather than the normal and permanent state of the 
 church on earth. As we read on in the history, we soon discover in 
 the apostolic church the growth of more definite organization, the ex- 
 hibition of recognized authority, an administration of law, which shows 
 us more exactly what is the divine purpose as to the permanent estate. 
 This characteristic is certainly less distinct at times, as in the Patriarchal 
 era: the form of constitution divinely prescribed is not always the 
 same. But the Church of God is at all times and everywhere a 
 kingdom, existing under law. 
 
 As this divine communion has in all ages a distinct constitution, and 
 one animating principle, so it has in all ages but one appointed and defi- 
 nite eml, — an end in harmony with the divine idea and purpose. This 
 end is embodied in the two words, worship and testimony. Worship 
 is the expression before God, in suitable forms, such as praise or prayer, 
 of the holy sentiments which dwell habitually in the breasts of all who 
 truly know and believe in Him. Such expression is due to Him, in 
 virtue even of the primary or natural relations which we discover our- 
 selves to sustain towards Him as His creatures, and His subjects and 
 children. It is more eminently due to Him, in virtue of the spiritual 
 relations into which He permits us through faith to enter; it is the 
 spontaneous manifestation of the truly filial and loving spirit here, as it 
 is an instinctive occupation and joy of angels in the heavenly state. But 
 God desires not merely individual worship, or the adoration of the con- 
 secrated household ; He desires also the public, organized, swelling cho- 
 rus of praise ascending from the great congregation of those who love 
 Him. Hence the culture of believers in the sacred art of worship is 
 one of the distinctive functions of the church, and the oflfering of such 
 worship before God in times and ways appointed by Him, is her pri- 
 mary, her highest work. —Kindred to this is the function of testi- 
 mony, — the bearing of organized and permanent witness to the divine 
 existence and character, to spiritual truth however revealed, and es- 
 pecially to the love and grace of God as manifested in the plan of sal- 
 vation. He designs His church to be in this sense a reflection of Him- 
 self; the expositor of His law, and the representative of His grace. 
 The church reveals and exhibits His glory, as no individual, or aggre- 
 gate of individual believers standing apart, could ever do. — Nor are 
 
18 THE CHURCH IN THE DIVINE PLAN. 
 
 these two fuuctious conflicting or separate. The church testifies most 
 impressively while engaged in truly spiritual worship ; in a deep sense, 
 it worships while it is engaged in bearing witness before men. 
 
 The final characteristic of the church of God on earth is permanence ; 
 it is endowed with an enduring life. As an association or community, 
 it has the crownmg element of perpetuity : though voluntary rather than 
 natural, it is not temporary, but abiding as an organization. Its piety 
 may be exhibited under various forms, and in various measures, but the 
 inward spirit will abide, unchanged and unchangeable. The forms of 
 its constitution may vary, and its laAvs be from time to time modified ; 
 but it will never cease to be a noltreia. Its methods of worship or of 
 testimony may change with the ages, but its testimony is to be as en- 
 during as the sun, and the flames of its worship are to ascend as long 
 as the earth endures. Particular churches may dwindle or pass into 
 decay ; the whole church may appear at certain stages in its peculiar 
 history to be well nigh extinguished. Yet an enduring life is the dis- 
 tinguishing feature of the Church of God through all ages, all dispen- 
 sations. It is so rooted in the religious nature of men, as well as in the 
 divine purpose — is so adjusted to the abiding needs and instincts of 
 holy souls, and to the permanent necessities of mankind, and sustains 
 SD vital a place in the great scheme of salvation, that it can not per- 
 ish while the Avork of saving men goes on. It began with the first 
 crude groupings of human society ; it has lived on through all subse- 
 quent variations in the condition or experience of humanity ; it still re- 
 tains in undiminished volume its essential life and vigor. We may 
 justly infer that an enduring life, continuing while the world lasts, is 
 one of its essential qualities. 
 
 Bringing together the five characteristics named, and ignoring what 
 is peculiar to any given age or dispensation, we may in general define 
 a church as an organization of those who love God, existing permanently 
 under some prescribed constitution, for the purpose of worship and tes- 
 timony concerning Him. More broadly, the Church of God on earth is 
 the company or community of the pious, separated si^iritually from the 
 rest of mankind, and existing organically through all time, in order to bear 
 witness to His person, authority, truth and grace, and to worship and 
 glorify Him before the world. If the definition be limited to the church 
 as visible, still the association can be composed only of those who pro- 
 fess piety, and who avow themselves to be consecrated to these spiritual 
 ends. The question respecting the constructive or anticipatory connec- 
 tion of the children of believers with the church, will be considered at 
 a later stage. AVhat is desired here is simply to supply a general defi- 
 nition, which shall include the Church of the Old Testament, as well 
 
HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCH. 19 
 
 as the Church of Christ under the Gospel. See definition, Westmin- 
 ster Couf., Chap. XXV: Form of Gov., Chap. II. ^ 
 
 III. Historic Unfolding of this Generic Conception. — Accept- 
 ing this general definition and analysis of the term, we may next note 
 in brief the historic development of the remarkable institution thus de- 
 scribed. For, the introduction of this spiritual organism was coeval 
 with the earliest manifestations of the religious nature in man; it was 
 imbedded in that nature as truly as the family was imbedded in the do- 
 mestic, or the state in the political nature of humanity. The formal 
 structure which all varieties of natural religion, even the crudest, as- 
 sume at certain stages in their development, is evidence that such a 
 tendency exists in the religious nature of man. So far as the true faith 
 is concerned, the evidence is conclusive. Not merely in the New Tes- 
 tament, under the Christian dispensation, but just as truly in the Old 
 Testament, under the Hebraic dispensation, do we find this divine or- 
 ganism springing into existence. Nor did the Church assume its first 
 definite form under the shaping hand of Moses, or grow into distinctness 
 and power in the succeeding age of Samuel or David, or the prophets. 
 We may go back to the patriarchal period, and in the families of Jacob 
 and Isaac and Abraham, and in the primitive household of Noah, find 
 traces of its presence. AVe may follow up still further the earlier lines 
 of this gracious development, and obtain proofs that, as soon as men 
 even before the deluge became conscious of their spiritual life and rela- 
 tions, they began to be associated together in what were the primeval 
 forms of the Church of God on earth. While these introductory rev- 
 elations are of necessity too brief to be made the basis of much specu- 
 lative reasoning, it still is interesting and important to discern this 
 divine institution appearing thus at the very origin of the religious life 
 in humanity. 
 
 What we are to sketch is therefore not a series of churches following 
 one another in a divinely ordered succession, each tributary to its suc- 
 cessor, yet substantially independent of it, but rather a single organism 
 assuming a variety of outward form and existing under diversified 
 
 ' The marks or notes of the Church Invisible, according to the New Test., are 
 catholicitj'^ or universality, sanctity or piety, and infallibility— in the sense of a 
 continuous and supreme guidance through the Holy Spirit, such as befits the 
 earthly body of Christ. Romanism rejects the conception of an invisible, as dis- 
 tinct from the visible Church; and demands for the latter, as its distinguishing 
 marks or notes.— to quote from Bellarmine— profession of the true faith, com- 
 munion in the sacraments, and submission to a legitimate head, the Roman 
 pontiff. Calvin, for all the Reformers, held that any church is a true church in 
 which are found belief in the Gospel, the preaching of the Word, and due ad- 
 ministration of the sacraments : Institutes, Book IV : Chap. 1. So the Reformed 
 Confessions generally : for summary, see Hodge, TheoL, I: 135-137. 
 
20 THE CHURCH IN THE DIVINE PLAN. 
 
 earthly conditions, still retaining in all dispensations the same essential 
 characteristics, and aiming to subserve always one and the same spiritual 
 end. This true, interior, indestructible unity is to be held as an indis- 
 pensable element in our investigation. Protestantism has sometimes 
 surrendered this cardinal doctrine of unity, under the pressure of some 
 specific inference as to sacrament or belief or order, but always at far 
 greater cost than advantage. That the Church of God on earth has 
 from the beginning been, is now, and is to be until the close of the 
 Gos})el economy, one Church, is a fundamental projiosition in the 
 Christian scheme.^ We may, however, trace at least three distinct 
 forms under which this one Church has existed, three varieties of con- 
 dition in which it has been set, three types of relation Avhich it has sus- 
 tained to humanity. These may be classed as the Patriarchal, the He- 
 braic, and the Christian. 
 
 IV. The Church Patriarchal: First Division. — In tracing the 
 course of the Church Patriarchal, we may i:)roperly consider the subject 
 under two main divisions: the Church prior to Abraham, and the 
 Church Abraharaic. — It is not without reason that the historic allusions 
 in Gen. 4: 26, and Gen. 6: 2, are viewed as descriptive of a religious 
 distinction already established among men. Thus early the pious 
 called upon the name of the Lord, and were — as many commentators 
 suggest — called by the name of the Lord; they were the recognized 
 sons of God in contrast with the sous and daughters of men. ^ Have 
 we not warrant for believing also that the institution of sacrifices which 
 existed as a personal rite in the age of Abel, became early a jiublic 
 as well as private mode of worship? Was not the Sabbath, even from 
 the creation, a time consecrated to associated as well as individual devo- 
 tion? May not the first Messianic promise (Gen. 3: 14-19), brief and 
 indistinct though it may have appeared, have been from the beginning 
 a sufficient basis, not merely for personal laith, but also for religious 
 combination and fellowship, in the presence of a world extensively 
 verging toward unbelief? It is also to be remembered that while the 
 first of these historic references relates to a time comparatively contig- 
 uous to the Fall, the second follows a period of fourteen centuries 
 during which the earth was rapidly filling with population, and human 
 society had, at least in other respects, assumed definite and permanent 
 form. Moreover, it is certain that during this long period God com- 
 
 ' On the Unity and Perpeiuity of the Church, Hodge, Church Polity, p. 67-88. 
 
 * "The religious thought it necessary to attach to themselves the title of Sons 
 or Worshipers of God, in distinction from the sons of men."— Jahn, Archseology, 
 p. 378. "They took upon themselves the title of the Sons of God ; considering 
 themselves as His children by adoption, in distinction from wicked men, who 
 were the children of God by creation only."— Dwight, Senn., 149. See Delitzsch 
 is JLajscijc, Genesis, in he ; especially the Dissertation, Bene Elohim. 
 
THE CHUECH PATRIARCHAL. 21 
 
 muned habitually ■svitli individual saints, sucli as Enoch and Lamech 
 (Gen. 5: 22, 29), and that household piety existed in primitive sim- 
 plicity at many points, in the presence of abounding sin. And surely 
 it is no unwarrantable inference from such premises that, although we 
 may learn nothing respecting its actual structure, a living and visible 
 Church had existence among men from century to century, down to 
 the diluvian age. 
 
 It was a fearful declension among the sons of God thus set apart, as 
 well as the outbreaking wickedness among the sons and daughters of 
 men, which brought on the retribution of the deluge. The Church had 
 apparently been compressed by surrounding sin within the narrow lim- 
 its of a single family ; Gen. 6 : 8-9. The general condition of the race 
 is fearfully sketched by our Lord Himself; Matt. 24: 36-39. But 
 household religion still survived. Notwithstanding the offense of Noah, 
 the narrative concerning him, studied in the light of later allusions, 
 justifies the belief that he possessed the piety requisite to true church 
 membership, and that he had trained his family, prior to the great ca- 
 tastrophe, to the exercise of like faith, and to the forms of public wor- 
 ship. His first act after the deluge (Gen. 8 : 20-22) was to erect an 
 altar, and to offer sacrifices thereon, in the presence of his household — 
 a religious usage doubtless derived from his devout ancestry, and indi- 
 cating of itself an established mode of social devotion. The gift to him 
 of the second Messianic promise (Gen. 9 : 25-27) is further assurance 
 that he was a sincere believer in the first promise ; and we are assured 
 that this second promise became to him, and to his family, the basis of 
 an enlarged spiritual union and fellowship. Is it too much to assume 
 on these evidences that the Church of God really existed within this 
 sanctified household, and that this Church in the form it assumed after 
 the deluge, with altar and sacrifice, was the fit reproduction and succes- 
 sion of the Church which God had instituted in the very beginning 
 of human history? From the deluge to the calling of Abrahaln — a 
 period of four centuries — no distinct record of the Church remains. 
 The story of the attempt to rear the tower of Babel (Gen. 11: 1-9) 
 shows us how disastrously sin had become diffused among the teeming 
 populations which sprang from the three-fold stock of Noah, exhibiting 
 itself at length in open rebellion against God, and in guilty fear of His 
 providence and of His wrath. Cities had meanwhile been builded; 
 nations had been founded; lands and territories had been divided. 
 Humanity had grown a second time into maturity ; and of that matur- 
 ity, as in the earlier era, sin was the crowning characteristic. Yet 
 there are evidences that religion still survived, as a social element as 
 well as a personal experience. There were still devout households like 
 those of Terah and Haran, in which the deposit of grace yet dwelt in 
 
22 THE CHURCH IN THE DIVINE PLAN. 
 
 safety; Gen. 11: 27-29. The traditions of an earlier age, especially 
 the Messianic promises, were preserved in memory; tlie traditional 
 modes of worship survived, and the Church still lived. 
 
 V, The Church Patriarchal: Second Division. — Descending in 
 tlic order of time to the Church Abrahamic, we find that, in the plirase 
 of Luther, God for the third time begins the history of the Church 
 with a new family. That history opens with the third Messianic prom- 
 ise (Gen. 12: 1-3), in which the salvation to come was directly associ- 
 ated with the household of Abraham, as in the second it had been as- 
 sociated with the name of Shem, his ancestor. The special covenant 
 with Abraham recorded in Gen. 17: with its specific ordinance of cir- 
 cumcision, and its special assurances as to the land of Canaan, must 
 be interpreted in the light of this antecedent promise. The spiritual 
 experience of the earlier patriarchs was also reproduced in Abraham, 
 with clearer recognition of the divine will as the law of life, with higher 
 phases of feeling and purpose, and with a more distinct engrafting of 
 religion upon his household, and through him upon the family life of 
 mankind. Especially on its material side, this third promise was re- 
 peated successively to Isaac and to Jacob, among the posterity of Ab- 
 raham (Gen. 26: 24, 28: 13-16, 35: 9-12), with such exactness of 
 language, and such carefulness of application, as to leave no room for 
 doubt that they were the lineal inheritors of the Church, with aU its 
 attendant blessings. Religion flourished iu their households, in the 
 same forms, under the same spiritual conditions, and distinguished by 
 the same initiatory and typical rite, as before in the family of Abraham. 
 Notwithstanding the degeneracy and idolatry prevalent around them, 
 and even among their own kindred iu the country of Haran, these re- 
 ligious families thus became repositories of the true faith, — the home 
 and refuge of the divinely constituted Church. 
 
 This association of the churchly with the domestic life of man — this 
 combination of the church with the family, preparatory to its assump- 
 tion of the tribal type, is further illustrated in conjunction with the 
 fourth Messianic promise, referring to Judah, among the sons of Jacob, 
 as the elect ancestor of the Savior to come; Gen. 49: 8-12. ^ Though 
 Judah was made chief, there can be no question that all of the sons of 
 Jacob shared in the spiritual hope which sprang directly from that 
 promise, or that their households were drawn and held together by the 
 consciousness of religious life which that promise justified. The anti- 
 cipated Shiloh shed his unifying influence on all alike; inspiring them 
 to a common worship, leading them to observe the same religious cere- 
 monial, and giving to each a recognized place and name within the one 
 household of faith. 
 
 : Hengstenbekg, Christology : Vol. I. Messianic Prophecies in the Pentateuch. 
 
THE HEBRAIC CHURCH. 23 
 
 From the descent of the twelve consecrated families into Egypt to the 
 deliverance under Moses — a period of two centuries, or more — we are 
 left to incidental allusions, such as the one recorded in Ex. 2 : 23-25, 
 in which the traditional preservation of the ancestral religion and the 
 continued trust of the Hebrews in the ancient promises are made mani- 
 fest. The descendants of Abraham unquestionably bore with them into 
 their Egyptian exile the cardinal elements of the patriarchal faith, and 
 continued to observe the religious rites in Avhich they had been trained 
 in Canaan. As they clung to the covenant of their fathers, we may 
 believe that they endeavored to comply with the spiritual conditions 
 which that covenant imposed. One interesting reference (Ex. 16: 22- 
 30) to their recognition of the Sabbath, after the Exodus but prior to the 
 Sinaitic command, may be regarded, notwithstanding the objection urged 
 by Paley, as clearly revealing not merely a tradition, but also an habit- 
 ual observance. But a Sabbath as clearly presupposes public sacrifices, 
 and other acts of social worship, and is strongly suggestive of a recog- 
 nized church life, as existing throughout this disciplinary period in the 
 Hebraic history. It is no empty presumption therefore that the an- 
 cestral faith still survived, and that Moses, in the reconstruction that 
 followed, was mainly enunciating afresh and with more direct author- 
 ity from God, religious institutions and forms of organization whose 
 fruitful germs had thus been graciously preserved in the heart of the 
 chosen people. 
 
 VI. The Church Hebraic: Two PRELUvmsrARY Remarks. — Fol- 
 lowing the exodus, occurs not merely the organization of a more strictly 
 national life — the twelve tribes passing consciously and freely into the 
 one Hebrew state, but also the constituting of the Church in a corres- 
 ponding form as representative not of family devotion or tribal faith, 
 but of the religion of the nation. We may glance first at the specific 
 modifications which that transformation induced, and then at the his- 
 tory of the organization thus instituted. Two introductory considera- 
 tions should be noted at the outset : 
 
 The divine selection of the Hebrew nation to be for fifteen centuries 
 the particular home and safeguard of the Church, is often misappre- 
 hended by those who suppose themselves to see in this selection an in- 
 justice to other tribes and races of men. But was it not inevitable that 
 religion, beginning as it must with individual souls, should pass first 
 into the household, and from the family into the tribe, by a natural 
 and healthful process of diffiision, until the time came when it could 
 pass further, as it did, from the tribe into the nation, and so become 
 at length a corporate factor in the national life? And was it not as in- 
 evitable that the true religion should tarry awhile in the nation, as it 
 had before done in the pious household, until the appointed day when 
 
24 THE CHURCH IN THE DIVINE PLAN. 
 
 it might successfully pass beyond all national boundaries, and enter as 
 a controlling power into the life of mankind, — pervading all countries 
 and races with its hallowing influences, and sanctifying our humanity 
 in the aggregate ? In fact, the divine election of individuals or fam- 
 ilies, tribes or nations, has always l)een the introductory step to a 
 larger good, in which others were finally to share equally with the first 
 recipients. And properly vicAved, the Hebraic Church, like the Patri- 
 archal, will be seen to be but a temporary, yet indispensable preparation 
 for the Church Universal. 
 
 The other explanatory remark relates to the peculiar com1)ination 
 between the Church Hebraic and the Hebrew state. The reasons for 
 that combination are largely of the class just suggested. Was not a 
 political organization indispensable to the safety and growth of the 
 spiritual organism so intimately associated with it? As the state uni- 
 fied the twelve tribes, retiring their differences in the presence of one 
 national constitution, and binding them together by the consciousness 
 of common interests and destiny, so it tended to consolidate their re- 
 ligious beliefs, to harmonize their spiritual experiences, and to make 
 their worship one and the same. Moreover, the state was itself a the- 
 ocracy, controlled mainly by religious rule and obligation, and there- 
 fore in many of its appointments a species of religious culture. While 
 the state gave form and strength to the Church, the Church in turn 
 penetrated, ruled, sanctified the state. This fact was esi:)ecially obvi- 
 ous after the entrance into Canaan, during the period of the Judges, 
 and eminently in the royal era before the national rupture. The rea- 
 son for the combination doubtless lay in the stage of development 
 which the Church at that juncture had attained; when the reason 
 ceased, the relationship ceased also, and the Church lived on in higher 
 form, while the nation as a nation died. A proper understanding of 
 these relations between the Hebrew Church and the Hebrew state, it 
 should be added, is of vital importance in the solution of numerous ec- 
 clesiastical issues, — such as some of those between Romanism and Prot- 
 estantism, — which the Christian thought of our time is especially called 
 upon to consider. ^ 
 
 Vn. The Church Hebraic: Its Special Characteristics. — As 
 compared wath its predecessor, the Hebrew Church Avas marked by the 
 following distinctive features. First of all, Ave find a marked develop- 
 ment of doctrine, — an enlargement in both the quantity of religious 
 truth known, and the degree of clearness Avith Avhich truth Avas appre- 
 
 * Authors to be consulted on the general subject: Michaet^is, Commentaries on 
 the Laws of Moses: AVarburton, Divine Legation of Moses: Book IV, especially. 
 Hengsten'berg, Kingdom of God in the Old Test. Kurtz, Hist, of Old Covenant. 
 Also, Oehlee, Theol. of Old Test. 
 
FEATURES OF THE HEBRAIC CHURCH. 25 
 
 hended. The existence and general attributes of God, recognized and 
 believed in from the first, were made far more distinct ; the power and 
 sovereignty of God were greatly emphasized by the experiences in 
 Egypt and at Sinai, and through the providential interpositions of the 
 wilderness, and the triumphal advent into the promised land ; the 
 moral qualities of the Deity, such as justice and purity and holiness and 
 grace, were brought out into peculiar light. The divine grace, revealed 
 before in promises, was now shadowed forth in new suggestive cere- 
 monies, and affirmed by further direct revelations. In the aggregate 
 this larger treasure of sacred doctrine constituted a marked peculiarity 
 of the Hebraic, as distinguished from the Patriarchal Church. — A 
 more definite and comprehensive law was another of these distinguish- 
 ing features. It is not important here to consider the question whether, 
 in the economy of grace, there was any divine provision for what has 
 been termed a progressive morality. But the fact should be noted that 
 the great principles of morality, stamped on the moral constitution of 
 man and obligatory on men in all anterior ages, were here explained, 
 expanded, applied, and made as never before the recognized basis of 
 church life. The substance of the Decalogue, for illustration, had al- 
 ways been obligatory : the shedding of blood was murder, slander was 
 sinful, even from the days of Abel. The enactments at Sinai Avere but 
 fresh declarations, in more distinct and impressive form, of what men 
 had known and had been bound always to observe. Yet this Sinaitic 
 law, with its wider and closer application, marked a new era in the 
 moral history of mankind, and especially in the career of the Church 
 on which its requisitions were, amid such awful demonstrations of di- 
 vine authority, specifically imposed. Henceforth, that authority was 
 to be more directly acknowledged ; both the outward life and the dispo- 
 sition and the heart of believers Avere to be more closely regulated and 
 tested. Law was to enter in more impressive aspect into the religious 
 life of the Church, in order that at length grace might the more 
 abound. ^ 
 
 In conjunction with an expanded doctrine and a more definite law, 
 we discover a prescribed ritual. Whether we regard sacrifices as orig- 
 inating in some profound instinct of human nature, or as already di- 
 rectly enjoined by Jehovah upon the patriarchs, we discover the insti- 
 tution here assuming complete form, and becoming the type and 
 vehicle of a scheme of redemptive grace. The prescribed ceremonials 
 of the Hebrew Church were far in advance of the observances that had 
 preceded them, in respect to their variety and elaborateness, their 
 power to impress the soul, and their authoritativeness. They were not 
 only fitted to induce and cultivate a new, better type of religious ex- 
 
 * Wines. Laws of the Ancient Hebrews, especially, Book I ; Chai). I : II. 
 
26 THE CHURCH in the divine plan. 
 
 perience ; they Avcre also fitted to prepare the way peculiarly for the 
 advent of a still higher economy of redemption. Both of these ends 
 were sought in that remarkable ritual ; and the degree of spiritual 
 vitality attained under its influence is conclusive proof of its value as 
 a feature in the Hebrew Church. — With this should be associated the 
 tributary institution of the priesthood, the construction of the sanctuary, 
 and the direct regulations as to the Sabbath, — all designed to assist in 
 the culture of such an enlarged type of religious experience among the 
 chosen people. Aforetime, the head of each household, the patriarch 
 of each tribe, had filled the priestly office. In that mysterious person- 
 age, Melchisedcc, priest and king at once in a Avider relation (Gen. 14: 
 18-20, Heb. 7: 1-lG), we discern the first hint of that broader official 
 priesthood afterwards realized in Aaron and his descendants, and more 
 remotely in our Lord himself. Such a consecrated order needed a taber- 
 nacle or temple, with its ark and tables and altars, as a suitable place, 
 and also the Sabbath and an ordained series of holy occasions as suit- 
 able times wherein they might adequately discharge their priestly 
 functions in behalf of the people. The relation of these persons, 
 places, times, as accessories to the Church into which they were author- 
 itatively introduced, can not be too carefully studied, especially in the 
 light of their subsequent reproduction, in more spiritual forms, under 
 the higher economy of the Gospel. 
 
 It should also be observed that the patriarchal seal of membership was 
 preserved and made obligatory under the new dispensation. The de- 
 vout Hebrew was not only to believe in the larger truth revealed, to 
 submit himself to the more comprehensive and spiritual law, to con- 
 form to the elaborated ritual with its special observances and adjuncts, 
 but also to signify his full acceptance and submission by receiving in 
 his own person and in his offspring the distinguishing mark by which 
 the true Hebrew was to be set apart perpetually from all other men. 
 This was not a national mark merely ; it was a religious seal also, ex- 
 pressing the same spiritual truths as when it was first imposed upon 
 Abraham (Gen. 17: 9-14), and assuring its recipients of the same cov- 
 enanted grace. And in the instituting of this sacramental observance, 
 the constitution of the Hebraic Church became complete. — In closing 
 this survey, it is important to note here both the resemblances to the 
 Church of the patriarchs, and the contrasts apparent at each of these 
 five points. While we see essentially the same doctrine, rule, cere- 
 mony and seal, we see these set always in fresh relations, and invested 
 with added meaning and dignity. The contrast becomes as marked 
 almost as the resemblance ; it is sometimes so misapprehended as to lead 
 to the false notion of another and different Church. But closer exam- 
 ination reveals an essential identity, in which the Church Patriarchal 
 
DEVELOPMENT OF THE HEBRAIC CHURCH. 27 
 
 is the living germ aud the Church Hebraic the developed plant, fra- 
 grant with larger grace aud larger blessing. 
 
 VIII. The Hebraic Church : Its Historic Development : Three 
 Eras. — From this cursory view of the essential features or character- 
 istics of the Hebraic Church, we may turn to note its history in brief, 
 with special reference to its preparatory relation to the more glorious 
 Church afterwards to be established under Christ. ^ For twenty-five 
 centuries from the Fall, and nearly fifteen centui'ies from the new or- 
 ganization of mankind in the household of Noah, the Church had lived 
 substantially within the family. For fifteen centuries more it was to 
 exist in this national form, dwelling Avithin the territory of a single 
 people, and separated by certain broad lines from contact with the rest 
 of the race. Both the first and the second of these remarkable arrange- 
 ments should be interpreted in the light of the principle already stated : 
 the seclusion and segregation were always in order to and suggestive 
 of an ultimate expansion and universality. The families of the earth 
 were to be blessed through the family of faithful Abraham ; the nations 
 of the earth were to be blessed through the Hebrew nation, thus ele- 
 vated and sanctified through the presence of this indwelling faith and 
 this organized Church. Three distinct eras are traceable in its career: 
 the theocratic, the royal, the prophetic. 
 
 The theocratic era extends from the Exodus to the crowning of Saul ; 
 B. C. 1491 — B. C. 1095, according to the received chronology. It in- 
 cludes the final formulation of the Mosaic ceremonial, the settlement 
 aud unification of the nation in the promised land, the irregular dom- 
 ination of the Judges, and the peculiar viceroyalty of Samuel, — a 
 period in which the people were governed by direct theocratic revela- 
 tions, coming chiefly through the priesthood. We behold the singular 
 spectacle of a nation among Avhom the Church and the state seem co- 
 terminous, and civil and religious law are identical in their claim: 
 among whom divine authority is recognized as supreme, and religion is 
 enthroned as the chief social principle. The people are seen to move 
 and act as a manifested Providence directs them; God is enthroned 
 as their chosen and only King, and His revealed will is their only ac- 
 cepted rule, whether in tlife state, the household, or the individual soul. 
 Far as they seem often to fall below this ideal, especially during the 
 confused era of the Judges, the ideal survives, and continues to be 
 as truly their guide and inspiration as was the pillar of cloud and of 
 fire during the Exodus. Yet this condition Avas designed to be tempo- 
 rary rather than permanent. As the tabernacle so carefully constructed 
 
 ' BoNSEN : Hist, of the people of Israel. Stanley : Ilist. of the Jewish Church. 
 See also, references to Hengstenberg, Kurtz, Oehler. 
 
28 THE CHURCH IN THE DIVINE PLAN. 
 
 in the wilderness, and so faithfully carried with them during their 
 wanderings, was to give way at lengtli to the more glorious temple, 
 so this introductory stage in the national cxi)erience was to be succeeded 
 by another of greater volume and of higher significance. 
 
 The royal era, extending from the crowning of Saul to the downfall 
 of the .Jewish monarchy (B. C. 1095 — B. C. 588) was such a period. 
 It was not simply the selection of a human king, and the introduction 
 of the splendid age of David and Solomon, which distinguished this era. 
 The human element becomes indeed more prominent, but the divine 
 supremacy survives in undiminished force. The tabernacle disappears 
 in order that the temple may rise into view on INIount Zion. Jerusa- 
 lem becomes both the political and the religious capital. The Mosaic 
 ritual, which had fallen partly into disuse during the troublous times 
 preceding, is revived and enforced, with far greater elaborateness and 
 splendor. As the nation rose into power and influence, the Church 
 rose with it — still the controlling factor in the Hebrew life. Visions 
 of the salvation to come became more distinct Avith the advancing cen- 
 turies, and the Messianic promises inherited from patriarchal times 
 found fit succession in the Messianic predictions of men like David and 
 Isaiah, and some among the minor prophets. Even after the fatal rup- 
 ture between the tribes, and the withdrawal of Ephraim from Judah, 
 the national faith and Avorship remained ; the church lived still as the 
 oro-anizino: center of both the northern and the southern confedera- 
 tion. 
 
 The prophetic era, reaching from the captivities to the birth of Christ, 
 presents the singular phenomenon of a religion surviving amid the de- 
 cline of all other elements in the Hebrew life — of a Church abiding, 
 and even increasing in spiritual quality and influence, while the state 
 that had hitherto nourished and protected it was passing into decay. 
 For some centuries prior to the carrying of Zedekiah and his people to 
 Babylon, Avhile the power of the ritual and the priest were waning, 
 God had been raising up a succession of prophets to whom the care of 
 this church was to be specially entrusted, and by Avhom the church Avas 
 to be trained into higher ethical experiences, and prepared for the 
 more spiritual economy that was to folloAV. It Avas not the divine plan 
 that the church should die out with the nation ; rather AA'as it planned 
 that the nation as a containing vessel should be broken into fragments, 
 in order that the church might strike out its roots into surrounding 
 soil, and might grow into its predestined universality. The peculiar 
 function of the prophets Avas not merely to enforce the ritualistic cultus 
 rejiresented by the priesthood ; it was to bring out more fully the spir- 
 itual truths and duties Avhich that cultus typified. It was to preserve 
 and mature the religious principle in a better form ; to enforce obliga- 
 
THE CHURCH AS CONSTITUTED BY CHRIST. 29 
 
 tion more thoroughly and widely — to bring the soul nearer to God 
 through deeper experience. They were also to reveal more distinctly 
 the coming redemption, and to describe in clearer terms the approach- 
 ing Iledeemer; and thus to bring in, amid the overthrow of earthly in- 
 terests and hopes, the strong inspiration to be derived from this new 
 manifestation of the Christ by whom life and immortality were to be 
 brought to light. It is an error therefore to regard the prophetic era 
 as a descent from the elevation which the Hebrew faith had attained 
 under David and Solomon. The Hebraic dispensation was in no sense 
 a failure. Closer study reveals the interesting fact of a steady advance, 
 along the lines of a truly spiritual development, from Mount Sinai to 
 Mount Zion, from the tabernacle to the temple, from the splendors of 
 an external worship to the better experiences flowing from a deepened 
 religious life, and from the priestly and the kingly down to and through 
 the prophetic discipline. The theocratic era prepared the way for the 
 royal, and this in turn prepared the way for the period during which 
 the outer shell of faith fell oft", and the essential principle of faith ger- 
 minated into form and beauty, by way of preparation for the advent 
 of a Savior and a religion wherein the Patriarchal and the Hebraic 
 churches were to find their final and perfect realization. 
 
 IX. The Church as Constituted by Christ : Preliminary Re- 
 marks. — As the religious life flows gradually through the individual 
 into the family, the tribe and the nation — as the discipline of the the- 
 ocracy introduces the further development of the royal era, and pre- 
 pares the Avay for the riper experience of prophetical times, so the entire 
 history of the Church from its earliest beginnings, and during all its 
 varied forms, must be regarded as a vast divine preparation for the 
 church that was to follow,— the Church Universal, constituted by our 
 Lord Himself. The rites and ceremonies, regulations and duties im- 
 posed during these antecedent stages were not only fitted to develop 
 true piety in those who observed them ; they were also designed to be 
 typical of the more thorough spiritual culture which the Gospel was to 
 introduce. They were so many seeds divinely planted, that in due 
 season they might spring forth into maturity under the fairer light of 
 the new economy — the economy of the Immanuel. As every thing that 
 was permanently valuable in the patriarchal period was carried over 
 into the Hebrew discipline, so all of permanent spiritual value in He- 
 braism passed naturally, after a sanctifying process, into the better, 
 broader, spiritual organism that was to succeed it. 
 
 The comparative silence of Christ respecting the constitution, the 
 forms and usages, of the Church which it was a part of His mission to 
 found, is significant. While He announces the fact that such a Church 
 was to be a direct outgrowth of His redemptive work, its particular 
 
30 THE CHURCH in thi: divine plan. 
 
 construction seems to be to his view incidental. He indeed endorses or 
 institutes the two great Christian sacraments ; He points out certain es- 
 sential principles in church fellowship and church disci})line ; He indi- 
 cates the foundations of divine doctrine on which the Church must be 
 built — Himself the chief corner-stone. Beyond this He is silent. How- 
 is that sacred silence to be explained, excepting on the hypothesis that 
 He foresaw on one side, that mere forms or constitutions, however rig- 
 idly enjcMued, would avail nothing apart from true piety dwelling in 
 the heart; and on the other side, that such piety, awakened and ma- 
 tured through Him, would be sure to lead the Church into appropriate 
 rules and usages, and would make it prosperous and fruitful under 
 whatever mode of organization ? To introduce such a gracious economy 
 as He came to establish, by planting everywhere another Church in 
 avowed rivalry with the existing Judaism, would have frustrated His 
 supreme purpose ; to bring in His Church through the antecedent pro- 
 cesses involved in the new life He imparted, letting the organization 
 follow after the piety that required it, was both profoundly philosojihic 
 in itself, and a sure pledge of ultimate success. 
 
 The same divine principle clearly regulates the Apostolic teaching. 
 In the minds of those Avho organized the new Church under the guid- 
 ance of the Spirit, particular rules and usages, methods of organization, 
 varieties of constitution, seem to have had but secondary place. They, 
 like their Master, dwelt most upon individual piety ; they sought most 
 the cultivation of those holy graces, of which Christian fellowship, 
 Christian communion, were to be the certain outgrowth. Religion was 
 first, and the Church was in order to religion ; the Church never be- 
 came prior in their scheme of development. Nor did they organize the 
 Church according to their own opinions ; every thing was carefully sub- 
 ordinated to the teaching of Christ, and to the supreme direction of 
 His Spirit. The impression that Paul rather than Christ was the 
 founder of the Christian Church, and the kindred impression that Paul 
 and Peter or James were at variance in their theories of organization, 
 and therefore founded Pauline churches on Gentile, and Petrine or 
 Jacobean churches on Jewish soil — thus introducing antagonism into 
 the very structure of primitive Christianity, can not be justified by any 
 clear evidence drawn either from the apostolic writings or from the 
 records of the apostolic age. Nor can it be affirmed that one rigid form 
 was agreed upon by those who laid the foundations of the Church, to 
 be exactly followed through the long and complex process, continued 
 during the first century, of planting particular organizations of believ- 
 ers in the various portions of the known world. What degree of 
 special Avarrant for any variety of such organization above another, can 
 be derived from the New Testament, may be shown hereafter ; for the 
 
IDENTITY WITH PATRIARCHAL AND HEBRAIC CHURCHES. 31 
 
 present, it is important simply to recognize the general fact here 
 stated. 
 
 X. Its Identity avith the Patriarchal and Hebraic Chltiches. 
 — It is essential to note in brief the several points of identity between 
 the Church thus founded by Christ and His apostles, and the Churches 
 Patriarchal and Hebraic — especially the latter. To regard these as in- 
 dependent organizations, having only certain general relations and re- 
 semblances, is to misapprehend entirely their true affinity — to ignore 
 their essential oneness. This oneness is repeatedly declared in the New 
 Testament ; both by our Lord, as in Luke 1 : 32-^3, Matt. 22 : 43-45 ; 
 and by the apostles, as in Rom. 11: 17-26, Eph. 2: 11-22, 3: 4-6. To 
 use the metaphor of Paul, the Christian Church was grafted upon the 
 Jewish, in such a sense that both the original stock and the growing 
 graft became one and the same tree. This oneness is further indicated 
 in the fact that prophecies given to the Church in its earlier stages are 
 realized only under the Gospel, such as those Avhich brighten so singu- 
 larly the latest chapters of Isaiah. And by the kindred fact that prom- 
 ises made to the people of God under the earlier dispensation are ful- 
 filled only after Christ had wrought out His redemptive work ; illustra- 
 tions maybe seen in Acts 2 : 16-18, 39, Gal. 3: 7-9, 28-29. The O. 
 T. prophecies nowhere suggested the ultimate destruction of the He- 
 braic Church, but rather its expansion through the admission of the 
 Gentiles, in exact harmony with the event. We have also abundant 
 evidence that the Hebrew Church rested, like the Christian, on Christ 
 Himself as its true corner-stone ; Rom, 4: 9-25, Gal. 3: 16. The Mes- 
 sianic assurances Avhich had sustained believers even from the times of 
 Noah or of Adam, and which had been inherited by the children of 
 Israel, and interpreted through the Mosaic ceremonial system, all found 
 their final key and fulfillment in Him. Moreover, as the foundation was 
 essentially the same, the uniting bond of faith, loyalty, devotion, was sub- 
 stantially one in the antediluvian patriarch, in the Jewish saint, and in 
 the Christian disciple. Piety is but one divine growth, under whatever 
 sky; and piety varying in grade and manifestation, but the same in sub- 
 stance, was in all dispensations the one animating principle. More 
 specifically, there are many constitutional as well as spiritual lineaments, 
 wherein this essential unity may be traced and illustrated ; studying the 
 old, we see the new imbedded in it — studying the new, we discern at 
 many points the familiar features of the old. 
 
 This identity is sometimes urged and sometimes questioned, for the 
 special reason that it is supposed to justify — if it be established — the 
 baptism of children under the Gospel, as a counterpart to circumcision 
 under the Mosaic economy. The same tendency is manifested in con- 
 nection with certain questions at issue between Romanists and Protest- 
 
32 THE CHURCH IN THE BIVIXE PLAN. 
 
 ants, and anion:; Protestants themselves, respecting church organiza- 
 tion. But \\ liatever may be judged to be the bearings of the general 
 fact on any particular issue such as these, is it not clear that no Christian 
 can afford to deny or to disparage this sacred oneness? The practical 
 alternative is to regard the first and second forms of church life as 
 failures, whereas in fact both are taken up and spiritualized, and made 
 essential parts of the perfected Church under the Gospel. The economy 
 of redemi)tion is successful at each stage, and the transition from stage 
 to stage is to be viewed only as a gracious development, — first the blade, 
 then the ear, and finally the full corn in the ear. All believers are 
 alike bound to hold and teach, whatever its bearing on specific issues, 
 that the Church of God on earth is but One Church ; the Bible justifies 
 no other judgment. 
 
 XL Important Points of Contrast Noted. — But while Scrip- 
 ture teaches this essential oneness, it also brings into view some coun- 
 terbalancing contrasts by which the Christian organization is forever 
 broadly distinguished from its predecessors. First of all, we behold in 
 Christ and His mediatorial work the fulfillment of the types, promises, 
 prophecies, given to the earlier Church, — a fulfillment which involves 
 th& retirement forever of what was typical and introductory in these 
 antecedent dispensations. There was no longer a Savior to come, to be 
 contemplated through the glass of prophecy, and to be hoped for and 
 prayed for by believing souls. Type and prediction were gloriously 
 fulfilled in a present Shiloh, a present Christ. — In like manner, the sac- 
 rifices of patriarchs, the entire ceremonial cultus of the Hebrews, 
 precious though they had been as aids to personal faith, were of no 
 further spiritual value, since the great offering had once for all been 
 made. In the presence of the Gospel, Mosaism Avas no longer needful, 
 and was therefore finally retired ; the schoolmaster had led men to the 
 historic Christ, and his mission was therefore ended. Law was not to 
 be abrogated ; it was rather to be taken up into the higher economy of 
 grace, and to become a law of life rather than a commandment unto 
 death. In every prominent aspect, the peculiarities of the antecedent 
 discipline of the people of God were thus to be transmuted by the 
 touch of Christ, and made available and efficacious in conjunction with 
 His scheme of saving grace. 
 
 It is obvious also that personal religion, in forms more spiritual and 
 exalted — a t}'pe or measure of piety such as the Hebrew had but 
 dimly known, and such as our Lord himself came in part to illustrate, 
 was to be a distinguishing feature of the Christian Cliurch. It was in- 
 deed the faith of Abraham which the disciple of Christ was to cherish ; 
 but it was the Abrahamic faith, broadened in its range, for more pow- 
 erful in its action, and more controlling and spiritualizing in its eflfect 
 
IMPORTANT POINTS OF CONTRAST, 33 
 
 on character. While the same principle of obedience was to be recog- 
 nized, that obedience was to be ennobled throughout by the mighty 
 impulses of holy love enkindled by personal contact with a living Re- 
 deemer. The Christian manhood Avas to be of a higher type, having 
 a completer structure and efficiency, than the patriarchal or the Jewish. 
 And in conjunction with this fresh development of gracious character, 
 all domestic, tribal, national barriers were to be broken down, and the 
 Church of God, thus endowed inwardly, was to go forth on a mission to 
 all tribes and races — to preach this perfected Gospel to every creature. 
 The set time had now come for a world-wide development. The Mes- 
 siah had come to humanity; and His Church w^as to be made universal. 
 The restrictions of Judaism were no longer needful, and Avere therefore 
 thrown aside. The true religion had now taken on its final form ; and 
 the way was open for its implantation in all lands. 
 
 The student of Ecclesiology can not too carefully consider this gra- 
 cious evolution, as it goes on from stage to stage until it attains its 
 present degree of completeness. Close examination will show him how 
 compactly joined together the divine process is at each historic transi- 
 tion ; — it will reveal to him the true relationship of much that may 
 otherwise seem fragmentary or extraneous ; it will give new meaning to 
 the older Scriptures at a thousand points, and serve to bind the Old 
 Testament and the New, the various ceremonies, the complex aggregate 
 of type and ritual and promise, into one superhuman and sublime unity. 
 He will find the incarnate Christ not only explaining and illuminating 
 all the past, even from the antediluvian or the Mosaic era, but giving 
 meaning and grandeur to all that the Christian Church is, or is to be- 
 come. That Church is the complete Body, of which this historic Christ 
 is ever the divine and glorious Head. ^ 
 
 XII. General Argument for the Church : Several Sections. 
 — This brief outline of the divine idea of the Church, as that idea has 
 been unfolded in history, furnishes of itself a distinct justification of 
 the remarkable organism thus sketched. The simple existence of such 
 an organism, through so long a period, in such varied and impressive 
 forms, and in such relations to religion, becomes a sufficient explana- 
 tion and defence. Yet it may be of service to note, at this stage, the 
 general lines of argument by which such a divine construction as this 
 is justified. Let it be observed that the question here suggested has 
 no reference to the inquiry whether any specific church or denomina- 
 tion has a right to exist, or whether either of these three economic forms 
 described as Patriarchal or Hebraic or Christian, can show just grounds 
 for its particular existence. The present inquiry relates only to the one 
 
 'Van Oosteezee: Theol. of the New Test., Sect. 41. Bernard, Progress of Doct. 
 
 in N. T. : pp. 203-207. 
 
34 THE CHURCH IN THE DIVINE PLAN. 
 
 Church of God on earth, whether past or present or future. Is this 
 singular organism a liuman or a divine construction — does it exist by 
 human or divine authority?^ Is it some temporary adjunct of religion, 
 of relatively slight importance, and likely to be outgrown with time; 
 or has it a permanent place in the very structure of the true religion, 
 and therefore an enduring life, and a full justification both in the 
 human needs to which it ministers, and in the nature of the divine 
 faith to which it is made accessory? 
 
 In asking Avhether the Church of God ought to be, we contemplate 
 something more than the Church invisible — the spiritual body of 
 Christ, made up of all who have ever believed on Him, and unified by 
 the possession of religious life through Him, yet held together by no 
 external constitutiou. This invisible Church has always tended to as- 
 sume visible forms, and has existed in the world at every stage within 
 some species of outward organization. It is therefore the visible Church 
 as thus organized, standing out in the life of humanity as distinctly as 
 the family or the state, — the Church of God, clad in these visibilities, 
 and acting organically under divine commission upon the religious na- 
 ture and destinies of man — concerning which the present inquiry is 
 proposed. Four lines of evidence, separate in form, but cumulative in 
 their pressure and result, may be considered : 
 
 1. The Church constructively in the religious Nature. — The Church, as 
 thus defined, lies constructively in the very nature of man as a religious 
 being. We recognize it as a valid plea for the existence of the family 
 and the state, that the nature of man, domestic on the one side and 
 social or political on the other, demands them. These two primordial 
 institutions have their foundations in the universal needs of the race ; 
 man can not reach the proper consummation of his being and his hap- 
 piness without their aid. There may be defects or blemishes in the do- 
 mestic life of individual men, which render the particular household 
 inadequate to satisfy this personal want ; there may be communities or 
 tribes in which the fixmily tie is not duly honored or enjoyed ; yet the 
 family as an institution survives through all such adverse experiences, 
 as something no less enduring than humanity. In like manner, though 
 governments often fail to meet their appointed ends, and though revo- 
 lutions sometimes subvert constitutions or dynasties, still the state 
 survives, the world over, as an indispensable adjunct of healthful civ- 
 ilization. Like the family, it lives on through all changes of form, 
 
 ' " I define a Church to be a company of men, professing the Cliristian religion, 
 united in the person of one sovereign, at whose command they ought to assem- 
 ble, and without whoso aiithority they ought not to assemble." Hobbes, Levi- 
 athan, Part III. Of a Christian Commonwealth j Ch. XXIX. 
 
OUR EELIGIOUS NATURE EEQUFRES THE CHURCH. 35 
 
 because it is demanded by one of the deepest, most pervasive and most 
 powerful instincts of mankind. 
 
 That man has a religious as well as a domestic or a social or political 
 nature, will not be questioned by any thoughtful student. The uni- 
 versality of religion in the world, the number and variety of the nat- 
 ural faiths, the multiplied modes of worship, the costly sacrifices and 
 temjiles, the priestly orders, the struggles of sects and schools, the 
 rivalries of beliefs, the conflicts of men and nations around religious 
 issues, and other like phenomena, leave no room for doubt on this 
 point. Nor can it be questioned that the religious instinct in mankind 
 is as powerful as it is universal ; in fact, it stands well-nigh first among 
 the most potential impulses at work in the experience and life of the 
 race. But religion, even in its natural forms, is always a social and 
 associating instinct. Though faiths visibly opposite sometimes lead men 
 into bitter antagonism, adherents of the same faith are always spon- 
 taneously drawn together by their conscious unity in belief. While 
 nothing segregates more quickly than religion, nothing more quickly 
 associates, aflSliates, unifies. Even where geographic or other natural 
 lines of distinction would keep men separate, this sense of oneness in 
 the gratification of so profound a principle brings them together above 
 all differences, in conscious and even loviug communion. And this is 
 eminently true of that type of religious life which God Himself has 
 directly implanted among men. There are defective conceptions or 
 modes of piety which lead individuals to separate themselves from their 
 fellows, as in monastic seclusion ; but a healthful piety of the biblical 
 type tends spontaneously to fellowship — it finds its best nutrition and 
 strength and blessedness in communion. The history of the true peoj^le 
 of God in all ages illustrates this proposition. 
 
 Hence the existence in all lands and times of religious associations, 
 representing this deep yearning of human nature. In connection Avith 
 even the lowest types of natural religion, we discern what may properly 
 be described as crude suggestions or imitations of what we behold in its 
 fullness in the Church. Family union, tribal fellowship, even national 
 organization of this sort, spring up freely as by some universal law 
 wherever religion in any form exists. As these faiths become more 
 complex and elaborate, and are more widely diffused, this power to 
 combine their adherents in visible association becomes more and more 
 effective. And wherever biblical piety exists, this tendency manifests 
 itself with peculiar intensity. Family altars are builded ; households 
 and tribes are welded together by spiritual as well as natural affinities ; 
 organizations spring into being, and visible membership becomes a per- 
 sonal badge and privilege. The sense of religious affiliation becomes * 
 an informing principle, a controlling law, expressing itself in visible 
 
36 TIIK CHURCH IN TIIIC DIVINE PLAN. 
 
 communion and in enduring association. The Church, in a word, is 
 the direct outgrowth of this vital tendency ; it lies constructively in the 
 very nature of man as a religious being. And wherever .scrii)tural 
 piety prevails, the Church springs consequently into existence by a 
 necessity as real as that which creates everywhere the state or the 
 family. ^ 
 
 2. lieUgion as an experience requires the Church. — The nature of re- 
 ligion, viewed as an experience, requires such an organization in order 
 to its proper development. As an experience, religion in the biblical 
 sense may be contemplated in tliis connection as l)oth an inspiration 
 and a discipline or cultus. On the one side, piety enters into the soul 
 of man as a sublime force, awakening new thoughts and convictions, 
 stirring the spiritual sensibilities into action, impelling the will to fresh 
 activity along higher lines, and filling the moral nature throughout 
 with a nobler, grander life. The true religion infuses another spirit 
 into him Avho receives it, makes him a new man in respect to all moral 
 quality and relation, is enthroned in him henceforth as a heavenly in- 
 spiration. And in that inspiration the central element is love, — love 
 to God, and love to man, supplanting all selfish isolation or discord, and 
 uniting its possessor in dear and everlasting union with all who truly 
 cherish the same holy feeling. — On the other side, piety comes into the 
 soul as a new and higher law — a more effective moral regimen or cultus. 
 The inspiration it first imparts, it immediately begins to regulate and 
 control for useful ends. It sets itself up as a holy principle, to be hence- 
 forth obeyed — obeyed absolutely and for evermore. It enters at once 
 into the practical life of man; it places an intelligent, rectified will on 
 the throne, and aims to bring all the spii'itualized activities into con. 
 formity Avith the behests of duty. As love is the inspiring principle, 
 obedience is the regulating rule. Hence religion becomes a holy cultus, 
 a blessed discipline througliout, whereby the soul is brought at length 
 into that perfect union with God which the very term so hapi:)ily 
 suggests. 
 
 Is it not easy to see how essential at many points the Church is, as a 
 help iu the development and culture of a true religious inspiration? 
 AVe may take the central element of love as an illustration here. It 
 is a familiar law of our emotional nature, that positive sensibility can 
 thrive Avithin the soul only through the aid of appropriate spheres and 
 modes of expression. The affection of the mother requires a child, on 
 which it can grow strong by lavishing itself; the sentiment of patriot- 
 ism can not exist in one who was born and lives solely on the ocean. 
 
 * "Tlic religious principle, when sound and living, has in itself an assimilat- 
 ing and associating character (quality). It binds not merely man to God; but 
 also men to each other." — Van Oosterzee, Christian Dogm., Sec. 128. 
 
THE CHURCH AND RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 87 
 
 Thus, pious love, as cherished toward God, both recognizes Him as its 
 object, aud grows into vigor only as it expresses itself in affectionate 
 allegiance and worship. Holy devotion, loyal service, are the primary 
 forms in which such love finds voice and volume. But the disposition 
 to worship and to serve is not an isolating tendency. It blooms most 
 freely under the stimulations of holy example and holy fellowship. 
 Herein lies the value of family religion, of social religious activities, 
 and of the combined and swelling chorus of adoration in the sanctuary. 
 And the Church, in a word, fills just here a special, an indispensable 
 place in the religious life ; it furnishes a broad sphere in which this sen- 
 timent of love toward God, expressed in both worship and service, can 
 act itself out most effectively. 
 
 In like manner the Church supplies the external conditions essential 
 to the full development of love toward man. Viewed in relation to 
 the world, this divine organism becomes the living embodiment of the 
 sentiment of brotherhood — the fine sense of humanity. It is the chief 
 agency through Avhich Christian love can reach and help the sinful, the 
 suffering, the lost. It is the appropriate center of all holy activities 
 which have for their object the spiritual, and even the temporal wel- 
 fare of mankind. Considering on the other hand, the relation of be- 
 lievers to each other, we see at once that the sacred Caritas of the Gos- 
 pel could not well exist without such provision, sphere, opportunity, as 
 the Church supplies. If there were no such thing as practical fellow- 
 ship within this hallowed circle — no mutual friendships, no compan- 
 ionship in labor, no sympathy in trial or sorrow, — how dw'arfed the 
 sentiment of brotherhood in Christ would become, and how much 
 narrower would be the range alike of Christian enjoyment, and of 
 Christian growth ! 
 
 What is true respecting religion as an inspiration, is no less apparent 
 if we regard it as a holy cultus or discipline. How obviously does the 
 principle of obedience, like the sentiment of love, need just such sphere 
 and occasion as the Church supplies! In how many beautiful ways 
 Avithin the household of faith, is the soul trained to service and drilled 
 in duty ! What higher, more practical incentives are brought to bear 
 upon it there, to make it more pi'ompt, more ardent, more effective, in 
 the discharge of religious obligation ! Plow much are the sense of loy- 
 alty, the principle of service, the capacity and disposition of the disciple 
 to be useful, increased through the influence of such examples as the 
 Church produces ! In a word, we have abundant evidence that religion 
 as an experience could not be matured either as a glowing inspiration or 
 as a divine discipline, if there were no such organism as this to supply 
 it sphere and culture. And while the Church answers, as Ave have 
 seen, to the instinctive demands of human nature viewed as religious, it 
 
38 THE CriUECfl IN THE DIVINE I'EAN. 
 
 also justifies its peculiar place in history by these unique ministrations 
 to the religious life. What the devout nature needs, the holy life in 
 the pious soul still further demands. 
 
 3. ReUijion perpetuated and advanced thwiujh the Church. — Contemplat- 
 ing the Church more broadly as the representative of piety in human 
 society, wc discover still further reason for its continuous existence. — 
 First of all, it is through this divine organism that religion is chiefly 
 perpetuated in the world. Believers die out from life ; and so far as 
 they are concerned, apart from the memory of their faith, religion dies 
 with them. Generations perish ; and the piety of one generation can 
 live in the next only as it is by some appropriate means transmitted. 
 And in such transmission the force of parental example, the influence 
 of a godly ancestry, though inestimably precious, are not sufficient. 
 God therefore does not rely exclusively on the law of perpetuation 
 through personal or through social influence. In order that religion 
 may abide permanently in the earth. He prefers to crystallize it in in- 
 stitutions, such as the pious family and eminently the devout Church. 
 In other words, He organizes piety within His chosen household of 
 faith, and thus enables it to maintain its place and power imperishably 
 among men. In His great purpose, the Church thus stands forth, age 
 after age, as one of the indestructible things in human life; and 
 while the Church thus stands, the religion which the Church represents, 
 must survive, even down to millennial times. ^ 
 
 This divine organism sustains a like relation to the diffusion and 
 advancement of piety among men. If the true faith is yet to be re- 
 ceived by all mankind — if the world is to become holy, as Scripture 
 definitely teaches, we readily perceive that this mighty task must be 
 carried forward through the most effective agencies which God Him- 
 self can command. Such a work can not be safely left to individual 
 effort, or to the joint activities of any single generation, even under the 
 impulse of an inspiring, comprehensive charity. It is a work which 
 transient individuals, evanescent generations, left to themselves, could 
 never prosecute efficiently ; it is a work which God only can properly 
 conduct and consummate, through such instrumentalities as He only 
 can provide. To this end therefore He has constituted and endowed 
 the Church; assigning to it directly this vast task of discipling the 
 nations. The commission is not given to His people individually or 
 
 * "If religion had not some external institution, it would not liave a manifes- 
 tation among men as a distinct, substantive, all-important thing, — it would 
 appear like a matter of private opinion, — its nature and evidence could scarcely 
 be made sensible, still loss prominent, in the eyes of mankind at large ; and the 
 grand benefits to he derived from social instruction and worship would be lost." 
 —Smith J. Pye, Christ. Theol, p. 616. 
 
DIVINE GLORY MANIFEST THROUGH THE CHURCH. 39 
 
 eveu collectively ; it is given to them organically, as one which can be 
 fulfilled only through their compacted endeavor. And it is not diffi- 
 cult to see in how many ways the organized Church is specially fitted ■ 
 for such service. Its ordinances and worship, its creeds and testimonies, 
 its spiritual vitalities, its capacities for aggressive operation, all qualify 
 it peculiarly for such diffusion as well as preservation of the Gospel. Is 
 it not difficult indeed to see how eveu divine wisdom could have de- 
 vised a more effective method — a more capable instrumentality? Is it 
 not obvious also that the great end in view is actually secured, in ever 
 enlarging measure, through the efiiciencies of this peculiar organism? 
 And have we not clear testimony in Scripture, that as the world is 
 finally brought to Christ, the relations of the Church to that glorious 
 consummation, Avill become more and more sublimely apparent? 
 
 4. The Divine Glory revealed through the Church. — Still further argu- 
 ment may be derived from the supreme relations of the Church, as the 
 accredited representative of the divine glory in the earth. — It is a 
 familiar fact that even pagan altars and temples were erected, not 
 merely as convenient places for sacrifice or worship, but rather as per- 
 manent memorials, ever witnessing to the deities to whom they were 
 devoted. The grand temple at Ephesus was an enduring monument to 
 that Diana whom the Ephesians and the world were agreed in worship- 
 ing. The Jewish«tabernacle, and afterward the temple, were erected 
 largely for a like purpose. They stood enduringly befoi-e the people 
 as places Avhere God especially dwelt, and in which His glory was 
 especially revealed. So, from the earliest times, has the Church been 
 erected and set up on high among men, not only that it might afford 
 quickening and culture to the religious principle, and contribute to the 
 preservation and advancement of that principle in the world, but also 
 that it might be through all ages an organic witness and memorial for 
 God. There are two forms in which the Church thus becomes a rep- 
 resentative of the divine glory, worship and testimony : 
 
 God is glorified in the assembly of His saints in a form and degree 
 beyond what is possible in the single life or within the pious household. 
 The single life indeed glorifies Him in its own especial measure ; and 
 it is the highest attainment and privilege of the believer to *be thus 
 known and read of all as one who bears the image of God. The pious 
 household glorifies God in its sphere, as often as the flames of devotion 
 are seen to arise from the family altar, and men catch the passing fra- 
 grance of domestic sacrifice and consecration. But there is something 
 in the worship of the sanctuary, in the joint adoration of the Church, 
 higher and even more precious in the sight of heaven. The spectacle 
 of the whole vast household of faith throughout the world, turned 
 toward God, and expressing its trust and love in the forms peculiar to 
 
40 Tin: ciiuiicii i\ Tin: divine plan. 
 
 itiielf, is the .sublimcst image of heaven which our cartii produces ; it 
 is the representative here, under narrower measures and yet in essen- 
 tial likeness, of that unending adoration which John in his vision 
 describes as the crowning glory of the heavenly state. — God is also 
 glorified by the testimony which His Church is ever bearing, not only 
 to the intrinsic worth and blessedness of religion, but also to the infinite 
 glory of llim in whom true religion finds l)oth its source and its con- 
 summation. The individual disciple and the pious house alike testify 
 to God, and alike make His glory manifest. Blessed be His grace for 
 the convincing witness which is thus continually uttering itself in holy 
 lives, in consecrated homes! But the testimony of a devout Church 
 is both more diffusive in its quality, and more enduring in its effect. 
 It is more than the aggregated declaration of the saints who compose 
 that witnessing household. An added strength, a reverberating con- 
 clusiveness, comes from the combination of so many concurrent voices 
 within the one organism ; and what the Church thus declares, through 
 its creeds, its sacraments, its teaching and life, the world can not well 
 refrain from hearing. And is not this one among the special consider- 
 ations which combine to justify the existence of that Church ; — must 
 not an organization which secures such an end so efficiently, have 
 divine warrant, and be entitled to an enduring place in the world? 
 
 5. Conclusion: The Church is of God. — Grouping .these lines of evi- 
 dence around the common conclusion toward which they point, we are 
 led to believe that the Church is not a fabric originating in human 
 superstition, or a contrivance of the priesthood, or a construction of 
 the state, as Hobbes affirmed. As an historic problem simply, it is 
 impossible to account for its existence on any such hypothesis. Nor is 
 it an accident or incident in the development of piety in the world — 
 some temporary expedient divinely introduced for a specific end, but 
 destined to pass away with the particular exigency that gave it birth. 
 The ends which the Churcli was appointed to secure are as universal 
 and enduring as are the demands of the religious nature — as enduring 
 and universal as religious experience. The Church exists also, as we 
 have seen, because the perpetuation and advancement of religion in 
 human society require such an instrumentality, and because the de- 
 clarative glory of God is made through its devotion and its testimony 
 more luminous and more convincing. On these grounds the place 
 which the Church holds in the Bible is fully explained, and the long 
 and intricate history of the Church is made clear as the day. Un- 
 belief can not question the right of such an organism to be. ^ 
 
 The obligation to sustain this divine institution holds therefore a high 
 place among religious duties. The right of the Church to claim visible 
 
 'LuTHARDT, The Church, p. G6. Also Palmer, Church of Christ, Vol. 1 : p. 7. 
 
THE IMPERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CHURCH. 41 
 
 and hearty allegiance from all jiious souls, and to command their sup- 
 port in every practicable way, is placed beyond question. The opposi- 
 tion in which inconsiderate or willful minds indulge, is sinful. Indiffer- 
 ence to this fundamental claim, or to any of the particular services 
 implied in it, is hardly less sinful in the sight of Him by whom the 
 Church has been in every age and dispensation maintained as one of 
 the three primordial institutions in human life. The special dtity of 
 sustaining this sacred institution by our gifts as well as by active effort 
 in its behalf, is clearly enjoined in Scripture. The contributions 
 received from the Israelites for the erection of the tabernacle (Ex. 35: 
 20-30, Numb. 7:) and afterwards of the temple (1 Chron. 29: 6-9) 
 and the tithing required for the support of the priesthood (Numb. 18 r 
 20-24, Heb. 7 : 5,) in addition to the large expenditures involved in 
 the maintenance of the sacrificial system, as illustrated in 1 Kings 8 : 
 62-66, 2 Chron. 7 : 5-7, all show how decisively this duty was enforced 
 under the Mosaic economy. Under the Gospel the same obligation is 
 enjoined in many ways ; not only in contributions to the needy saints, 
 or in the sharing of goods in common, and the devotion of property 
 to the benefit of the Church, but also in the special support of those 
 called to fill the ministerial, or any other kindred office. The earnest 
 claim of Paul, as to his support of himself at a certain period in his 
 apostolate (1 Cor. 9: 7-18) is itself strong proof of the recognition 
 among the churches of this general obligation. Furthermore, we may 
 see in the vast expenditure for temples, sacrifices, priests, required by 
 some of the great natural religions, a distinct though it be erroneous 
 illustration of the broad principle incorporated thus in the true faith; 
 that the maintenance of the Church, in the discharge of its vital func- 
 tions in the sphere of religion, is a duty as distinct, comprehensive, 
 vital, as the diligent support of the family or loyal devotion to the 
 state. 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 THE IMPERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CHURCH : 
 
 ITS DOCTRINES, ITS SACRAMENTS, ITS ORDINANCES. 
 
 Having gained analytically and historically a distinct con- 
 ception of the Church of God on earth, and having discovered 
 a proper justification of the existence of this remarkable 
 organization, we are now prepared to enter upon closer 
 
42 THE IMrERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF TUE CHURCH. 
 
 examination of its constituents — its component elements. 
 These are of two classes, the impersonal and the personal. 
 The impersonal elements, to be considered in the present 
 chapter, are three: Doctrines, Sacraments and Ordinances. 
 
 I, JDocTRiNE Defined : Church Creeds Described. — A doctrine 
 may he dcfiucd as any truth derived from Scripture, and essential to 
 the Christian system, so expressed and described as to guard against 
 unscriptural error. ^ Doctrines are to be carefully distinguished from 
 both opinion and dogma. An opinion is the judgment of an individ- 
 ual, or of a class or school, on some element or aspect of revealed 
 truth, — a judgment only probable in itself, obligatory upon no one 
 beyond the holder, and liable to frequent fluctuation. A dogma is an 
 opinion which has acquired some species of external authority, and is 
 enforced upon others, without adequate justification in the judgment 
 or conviction of those Avho receive it. Doctrines are rather those 
 truths which stand forth as central in the Scripture, Avhich become 
 authoritative through their own inherent evidence and force, and 
 which are widely accepted by believers as essential, elements in the 
 Christian scheme. The doctrines of grace are the cardinal truths di- 
 rectly declared and taught in the Bible, in order to human salvation, 
 expressed in words so as to be understood, and commending themselves 
 authoritatively to our faith. 
 
 When such cardinal truths are brought together under some unify- 
 ing principle into a system — especially when they are thrown into au- 
 thoritative form by the Cluirch, and imposed upon its members as 
 articles of belief, the term Doctrine assumes a new significance. A 
 fresh investiture of authority, drawn not from that Scripture which 
 declares, but from the organized Church which aflSrms it, then sur- 
 rounds such doctrine. The truths so grouped become at once a Creed 
 or Confession, representing the common conviction of the body that 
 proclaims it, whether for edification or for defence. The statements 
 given contain the authorized teaching of the body, and constitute a 
 Rule of Faith, or in ancient phrase, a Canon of Belief. 
 
 Apart from all question respecting doctrine in the form of creeds, 
 there can be no real debate as to the need of doctrine within the Church. 
 If it be said that the simple language of Scripture is sufiicient, without 
 such additional human statements, it may be replied that since truth is 
 not definitively described at any point in the Bible, but is spread 
 diflTusively through it, it becomes both a necessity and a privilege for 
 the sanctified mind to gather up this scattered teaching, and to bring 
 
 'Smith, H. B., Introduction to Christ. Theol., p. 56. 
 
CHURCH CREEDS JUSTIFIED. 43 
 
 it into (lefiuite form, and into logical coherence. This is indispensable 
 also to that function of the Cbiirch as a teacher of men — to that 
 mission of the Church as a messenger of truth to mankind, on which 
 Protestantism insists as one of the essential marks of the true household 
 of faith. Moreover, such transmutation of Scripture into doctrine is a 
 healthful and invigorating exercise : the Church has ahvays been both 
 most vigorous in itself, and most zealous as a public teacher, wheu it 
 has thus held the cardinal truths of the Gospel in most distinct, col- 
 lected, potential form. In a word, doctrine in some shape seems in- 
 dispensable to spiritual Christianity; it sets forth that Christianity, 
 apart from all formalized perversions of it such as the Papacy has intro- 
 duced, and exalts it immeasurably above the great natural faiths such 
 as the Asiatic, in which no such invigorating and inspiriting element 
 appears. ^ 
 
 II. Church Creeds : Reasons for their Existence. — Reverting 
 to the question whether Christian doctrine should ever assume the 
 form of creed or confession, we may observe that the Church has ex- 
 isted, as it did in the apostolic age, or may exist again as in the millen- 
 nial age, without any such authoritative symbol. Wherever there is 
 known agreement respecting the truth held, or wherever there is no 
 error or heresy at work subverting the truth, the embodiment of 
 doctrine in a creed may be a needless task. Such, for illustration, 
 were the convictions and belief of the early disciples, and so free was 
 the Gospel at that stage from the encroachments of false opinion, or 
 the assaults of opposing faiths, that believers were not impelled to do 
 more than verbally to testify to what they believed. But the general 
 position of the Church is different, and in its ordinary estate more 
 formal creeds are born of a distinct necessity, and are obviously essen- 
 tial to its most effectual life and Avork. This necessity is twofold — ex- 
 ternal and internal : 
 
 The external necessity may be seen in the various relations which 
 the several divisions of the Church sustain to each other, or which the 
 Church as a whole sustains to opposing heresies or false faiths, or to the 
 unbelieving world. It is obvious that in the divided state into which 
 Protestantism has fallen, suspicions may often be quieted, discords 
 healed, unity and confidence secured, and the general interest promoted, 
 by the enunciation of a clear, strong, spiritual creed. The symbols of 
 
 ' "The doctrines that center in Him, are not mere theories, abstract opinions, 
 but they express the essential facts about His person and worlc. The Church 
 can no more tlirive witliout them, than morality can prosper without precepts 
 and ijroliibitions. The attemj^t to separate Christian doctrine trom the Christian 
 life is vain. The two are as vitally connected as are the principle of life and the 
 formative principle in the case of every seed or embryo." — Smith, H. B., Christ. 
 Theology, p. 593. 
 
44 THE IMPERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CIIUIICII. 
 
 the Refonnalioii originated chiefly in sucli ii demand; they were largely 
 the voices of cliurch calling to church, in attestation of what each 
 maintained as essential trutli. The presence of heresy respecting car- 
 dinal doctrine, has been another irerjuent occasion for such attestation. 
 The ecumenical creeds of the fourth and fifth centuries had their rise 
 primarily in exigencies of this class ; it is to Arius and Pelagius and 
 their disciples, that we owe these monumental declarations of Christian 
 belief. To Romanism, to the Greek Church, to J\Iohammedanism, and 
 even to those great natural religions which from the beginning have 
 stood over against s])iritual Christianity, a similar debt is due. Even 
 the great varieties of unbelief, especially the modern forms of skepti- 
 cism, have suggested the need of earnest, united declaration by the 
 Church of those great doctrines to which these types of error have been 
 opposed. In a word, is it not manifest that, were such confessions in 
 no sense essential to the Church inwardly, their existence is fully jus- 
 tified by these great exterior uses to which history shows them to have 
 been so decisively subservient? 
 
 But the Church needs such creeds to meet its own interior needs; 
 they sustain many important relations to its inward condition, experi- 
 ence and growth. As a bond of union, the Westminster Symbols, for 
 illustration, have been of incalculable value not merely to the par- 
 ticular churches associated together under the Presbyterian order, 
 but to the general interests of Presbyterian ism throughout the world. 
 As regulative guides to those who teach or who hold office within the 
 Church, such statements of belief are vastly helpful, on one side as a 
 confirmation of their teaching, and on the other as a guarantee against 
 error in such teaching. As helps in the indoctrination of believers, 
 they are — especially in the catechetical form — of possibly greater service. 
 They supply clear definitions, explain Avhat is obscure, guide and stimu- 
 late inquiry, and in the aggregate furnish to the private member a 
 special and effectual education in the doctrines of grace. In the aggre- 
 gate, the influence which such confessions exert on the thought and 
 conduct of those who are brought under their training, though often 
 silent and unobserved, is far more effective than most persons supjDOse. 
 A comparistjn of creedless denominations with those that possess strong, 
 positive creeds, will abundantly confirm this estimate. 
 
 III. Objections to Creeds: Proper Limitations. — Most of the 
 objections urged against this doctrinal or confessional constituent of the 
 Church, rest rather on the deficiencies of creeds, or on the perversion of 
 them for wrong ends, than on either doctrines or confessions in them- 
 selves. To object that the Bible is sufficient as it stands, or that Chris- 
 tian life is something higher and more conclusive than all creeds, or 
 that such doctrinal or confessional constructions are human merely, and 
 
OBJECTIONS TO CREEDS. 45 
 
 therefore unimportant, is really to say but little to the purpose. To 
 object that creeds are too voluminous or too minute, as they sometimes 
 are ; or that they represent rather the differences than the agreements of 
 believers, as is too frequently the case, is simply to suggest, not their 
 abrogation, but their improvement. It is indeed quite obvious that the 
 primary function of a Christian confession is not to incorporate all 
 minor points of belief, as might be done in a system of theology, but 
 rather to embody in definite form those central elements of faith which 
 lie at the basis of all true church life. No less obvious is it, that it 
 can never be the main oflice of such a confession to spread out differ- 
 ences, and stand forth as divisive standards around Avhich partisans may 
 rally, but rather to draw together and so far as possible to unify all who 
 hold to the common Gospel. Most of all is it obvious that the great 
 historic confessions, Avhether of the earlier Church, or of the era of the 
 Reformation, Avere never intended primarily to be used tyrannically by 
 churchly authorities as instruments to arrest freedom of inquiry, or to 
 bind the household of faith in unwilling allegiance to opinion or dogma. 
 This objection might in like manner be urged against all theology, or 
 even the Gospel itself, since now as in the age of Paul there are those 
 who pervert that Gospel to illicit and injurious uses. As a further 
 answer, it should be held constantly in view that the Church Avhich 
 frames a creed, has the right at any moment to revise it wherever it is 
 defective — to modify, expand, abbreviate, change the document itself, 
 and also to regulate at all times the use or abuse made of it by eccle- 
 siastical authorities. Such a prerogative is certainly to be exercised 
 with great caution, but the right to exercise it, like the right to inter- 
 pret Scripture, is cardinal in Protestantism, and is inherent in every 
 Protestant Church. 
 
 In general, therefore, it may jus.tly be maintained that a solid 
 foundation of doctrine, which may be embodied legitimately in author- 
 ized symbols, is one among the essential constituents of the Church of 
 God. Even in the earliest stages in the life of that Church, we dis- 
 cover this doctrinal element at the basis of all religious experience ; 
 and as the household of faith expands into its later and larger forms, 
 we find this element steadily enlarging in volume and becoming more 
 conspicuous in its influence. It Avas one of those great characteristics of 
 the apostolic Church, which set it apart altogether from the existing 
 pagan faiths, that it possessed such a system of truth, and aimed to 
 secure adherents only through such education and persuasion as that 
 system of truth d.emanded. In all later times, the special strength of 
 Christianity in opposition to all false philosophies or teachings, has 
 been largely in the body of doctrine it has held and promulgated ; in 
 our time, the power of the Gospel, next to the central fact of a divine 
 
46 Till: IMrEUSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Person who i.s its Life, lies in what it is as a harmonious, demonstrable, 
 profound, and most effectual scheme of Truth. And is it not an ob- 
 vious lesson of history that those branches of the Church which have 
 rested less on the priesthood or the sacraments, or on liturgies or polity 
 or other externalities — which have made much rather of doctrine, and 
 have held tlieniselves most strenuously to the task of teaching the 
 world what the Christian doctrine is, have attained the largest growth, 
 the most enduring position, the widest influence?^ 
 
 IV. Sacmament Defined: Number of the Sacraments. — The 
 second impersonal constituent of the Church is seen in the sacraments. 
 Here the first inquiry relates to the nature of a sacrament, and to the 
 number of the sacraments as enjoined in Scripture. According to the 
 familiar Scholastic definition, which lies at the basis of the Ilomish 
 view, a sacrament is sacrum signuni vel significatio sacrae rei invisibilis. 
 According to the Catechism of Westminster, Avhich follows substan- 
 tially the earlier Protestant creeds, a sacrament is a holy ordinance in- 
 stituted by Christ, wherein by sensible signs Christ and the benefits of 
 the new covenant are represented, sealed and applied to believers. 
 The scholastic definition is expanded, in the Catechism of the Council 
 of Trent, so as to make a sacrament an outward sign — rem esse sensilms 
 svbjectam — by which, in virtue of a divine institution or appointment, 
 holiness and righteousness are both signified, and effectually implanted. ^ 
 Both the Roman and the Protestant definitions agree on the following 
 points: that a sacrament is an institution, of divine ajipointment and 
 authority, given not to individual believers separately, but to the 
 Church ; that in every sacrament there is primarily an external sign 
 or symbol, simple, definite, unchangeable; that there is also a gracious 
 truth, or series of truths, symbolized in the external rite, and suitably 
 expressed by it; and finally that there exists a divinely ordained con- 
 nection between the s'tgnum and the res sacra represented, which it is 
 incumbent upon the Church at all times to maintain, and in due form 
 to commemorate. So far forth all branches of nominal Christendom 
 are agreed in their conception of a sacrament ; all unite in recognizing 
 the cardinal fact, that sacraments are ordinances or institutions directly 
 imposed upon the Church by God, and have their interpretation and 
 warrant directly from His revealed Word. It is also a matter of gen- 
 eral conviction that the sacrament, as thus described, belongs to the 
 Christian rather than the Hebraic or Patriarchal church. In other 
 words, while all discern the germs of these peculiar institutions in cer- 
 
 1 On the significance and worth of Church Creeds, see \VixVer, Confessions of 
 Cliristendom : Preliniinary essay. Also Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, Vol. 1 : pp. 
 3-9. Bannerman, Church of Christ, Part III : Div. 1 : Chap. 2, 3. 
 
 * MoEHLER, Symbolism, p. 197. 
 
SACEAMENTS DEFINED. 47 
 
 tain ordinances enjoined especially upon the Hebrews under Moses, 
 the sacrament proper is admitted to be a distinctive characteristic of 
 the Gospel dispensation. 
 
 Protestantism differs from the Church of Rome, first of all, in main- 
 taining that the authority of a sacrament must be derived, not merely 
 from general biblical allusion or recognition, but from the immediate 
 command of Christ Himself. The Eucharist, for example, rests on 
 such a definite, imperative command: Do this in remembrance of Me. 
 Baptism in like manner rests on a direct recognition by our Lord, and 
 on His final commission : Baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. These two ordinances, as we 
 maintain, thus repose on a direct divine warrrant, which makes them 
 obligatory in all ages upon the Church. To set them aside as human 
 ceremonies, or to refuse the observance of them on any natural ground, 
 becomes impossible. Romanism admits the peculiar claim of these two 
 ordinances by placing them above all others as the sacramenta majora, 
 and enjoining them especially on its adherents. Following rigidly 
 this test, Protestantism rejects the five ordinances regarded by the 
 Romish Church as a minor species of sacrament, — confirmation, pen- 
 ance, ordination, matrimony, and extreme unction. Churchly penance 
 as a substitute for evangelical repentance is not only without biblical 
 warrant, but is directly contrary to the teaching of our Lord. Ex- 
 treme unction is a practice of very doubtful authority, and is often 
 made an instrument of spiritual mischief. Matrimony is properly 
 viewed as a religious no less than a civil contract, but clearly has no 
 place among the sacraments, as instituted by Christ. Confirmation 
 and ordination are merely modes of full reception into the Church, or 
 of official investiture within it ; and while proper, are in no sense sac- 
 ramental. The symbolical element, and the direct appointment, are 
 wanting in them all. To regard them as sacraments, therefore, both 
 lowers the proper conception of a sacrament, and assigns to these sub- 
 ordinate ordinances or usages a spiritual value Avhich the New Testa- 
 ment nowhere justifies.^ 
 
 Protestantism also adheres rigidly to the doctrine that the value of 
 the sacraments lies in their representative quality — not in any mystical 
 eflficacy embodied in the observance, and transmitted through it to the 
 recipient. It refuses to dissociate the outward sign from the specific 
 truth symbolized, or to admit that the administration of the sign can 
 be of any spiritual avail excepting in conjunction with and through the 
 truth it represents. The declaration of the Westminster Catechism 
 that the sacraments became effectual, not from any virtue in them, or 
 
 ' On the number and variety of the usages so regarded by the Papal Church 
 at various periods in its history, see Hodge, Theol. Ill : 492-497. 
 
48 THE IMPERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 in liim that doth administer tlieni, l)ut only by the blessing of Christ, 
 and the working of His Spirit in those who by faith receive these sac- 
 raments — only in virtue, in other words, of the gracious verities they 
 represent, and of the faith by which these verities, as seen in the ont- 
 ward rite, arc approj)riated by the soul — is the universal doctrine of 
 Protestantism: see Heidelberg Cat., Answer 66. Lutheranism indeed 
 has claimed on the authority of Matt. 26: 26, that Christ is in some 
 way embodied in, with and under the elements in these sacraments; 
 yet the Lutheran Church regards the benefit to be derived from par- 
 ticipation in them, not as a mystical transfusion of Christ Himself into 
 the soul, but as an act of spiritual trust in Him and His salvation. 
 For the Romish supposition that the sacrament is an «p<.s opaxdwn, — 
 a process by which, through the priestly administration under churchly 
 authority, grace flows immediately from the Church as a reservoir into 
 the recipient, no true warrant can be found in the Word of God. The 
 mischiefs consequent upon the admission of this error, are to be seen 
 on every page in the later history of the Papal Church.^ 
 
 V. Baptism Defined: Its cexeral Scriptural Warrant. — 
 Without entering u^ion any further enumeration of the grounds on 
 which the Protestant doctrine of the sacraments rests, we may i^ass to 
 the consideration of those two great sacraments which even the Papal 
 Church recognizes as standing far above all other churchly rites: Baj)- 
 tism, and the Lord's Supper. Of these Baptism is to be viewed as the 
 external or introducing sacrament, to be observed but once, and in con- 
 nection with admission to the Church, while the Supper is the internal 
 and nutritive sacrament, to be received at intervals, throughout the 
 life of the believer, in remembrance or commemoration of Him who 
 appointed it. Setting forth symbolically different elements or aspects 
 of the Gospel, and ministering to different classes of need in the be- 
 liever, these two sacraments are essentially one in the authority on 
 which they repose, in the high spiritual blessing they incorporate, and 
 in their harmonious expression of what is most central and precious in 
 the Christian scheme. 
 
 Baptism is sufficiently defined as the application of water to the 
 person, under the name of the Trinity, in confession of spiritual pollu- 
 tion, and of the need of regenerative grace, and in affirmation of an 
 engrafting into Christ, and of holy covenant with Him and His people. 
 In this general definition, and in the general validity of the ordinance 
 as thus defined, all sections of Christendom are substantially agreed. 
 The attempt to maintain, on biblical testimonies, such as are seen in 
 Matt. 3: 11, 1 Peter 3: 21, Heb. 9: 10, and a few other passages, that 
 the only baptism justified under the Gospel is spiritual baptism, is 
 
 ^Halley: The Hucrainci.ts, Tart I: Sect. I. 
 
BAPTISM DEFINED AND JUSTIFIED. 49 
 
 clearly vain.^ The baptism of the Spirit unto repentance, and the 
 making of the conscience clear in the spiritual sense, are real results, 
 and results of inestimable moment. But the manner Jn which such 
 references are introduced shows that they are not exclusive ; it rather 
 implies the presence and authoritati-veness of the formal, symbolic bap- 
 tism, which is so often directly described elsewhere. Equally invalid 
 is the Socinian position (Racov. Cat. : 345) that symbolic baptism was 
 not designed to be perpetual, but Avas employed by the apostles only 
 in the case of persons passing over in that age from the world into the 
 Christian faith, as a temporary sign of allegiance. If it be true that 
 our Lord did not Himself at any time baptize (John 4: 2), still His 
 recognition of the ordinance was distinct, and His final command to 
 baptize must be viewed as obligatory, not merely upon the apostles in 
 that era, but upon the Church to the end of time. Hence, while 
 much diversity of judgment exists among believers on points of mode 
 and the like, the Greek, the Roman, and the Protestant (with the 
 minor exceptions just noted) are agreed in regarding this as an ordi- 
 nance abundantly enjoined in Scripture on all believers, and therefore 
 of perpetual obligation within the household of faith. 
 
 The germs of this sacrament are unquestionably to be found in the 
 religious use of Avater even in patriarchal times, and especially in the 
 washings and purifications of the Mosaic economy ; .such as appear, for 
 example, in Ex. 30: 17-21, Lev. 8: 6, 16: 24-26, referring to the 
 priesthood; in Ex. 19: 10-14, Numbers 31 : 19-24, referring to the 
 people ; and in various passages in Leviticus referring to the cleansing 
 of utensils used in religious ceremonies. For the significance of such 
 lustrations, in connection Avith the idea of spiritual purification, see 
 Isaiah 1: 16, Zech. 14: 1, Ezek. 34: 25, and many other allusions. If 
 the strong, though not conclusive evidence in proof of the baptism of 
 proselytes into the Hebraic communion prior to the time of Christ be 
 admitted here, Ave are justified in regarding the further idea of spiritual 
 relation or privilege as also incorporated in the Old Test, doctrine. It 
 is at least a suggestive fact that John baptized his converts in this 
 double sense, — the ordinance both typifying their iuAvard cleansing by 
 the Spirit, and exhibiting their outward state as his avoAved folloAvers. 
 Inasmuch as neither the people nor the Pharisees seemed to regard the 
 rite as a novelty, and since all classes interpreted it as, in the case of 
 the disciples of Christ also, a mode or sign of proselytism, it is not 
 unreasonable to infer that proselytic baptism Avas already known in 
 JcAvish circles as a mark of religious status as Avell as of spiritual ex- 
 perience. The question Avhether the baptism of John Avas identical 
 with Christian baptism may be determined by its intermediate position 
 
 'Gurney: Lectures on t!ie Evidences of Christianitij, pp. 1G2-1GG. 
 
50 THE IMPERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE ClIUKCII. 
 
 betweeu the two ecoiioinies, iiud by the spiritual teaching it conveyed; 
 Luke 3: ti-18. Though the new economy had not been formally 
 announced, or the Holy Spirit formally conferred, or the doctrine of 
 the Trinity formally stated, yet the repentance which John awakened 
 was repentance in view of moral impurity confessed, and the new life 
 to which he summoned his followers was in substance, though not in 
 form, the new life in Christ. The submission of our Lord to this bap- 
 tism (Matt. 3: 13-17) is well-nigh conclusive here. Preparatory and 
 introductory though the (ybservance was in the hands of John, it was 
 still a true budding forth or unfolding of that gracious flower which 
 was to be twined for evermore around the brow of the Church of 
 Christ. 
 
 The warrant for Christian baptism starts from the direct institution 
 by our Lord ; Matt. 28 : 19. Prior to this formal act, the apostles had 
 baptized those who believed on Him ; John 3 : 22, 26 ; but from this 
 time baptism was to be a holy institution, associated indissolubly with 
 His Church, and typical both of the indwelling grace that regenerates, 
 and of the elective grace that sets the disciple among the truly re- 
 deemed, within the consecrated family and kingdom of God. That 
 from this significant hour, the apostles continued to require obedience 
 to this rite, and themselves to baptize both privately and in the 
 family, and within the churches wdierever they went, is abundantly 
 manifest. Note the following instances of individual ba})tism : the 
 Eunuch by Philip, Saul by Ananias, Crispus and Gains, and also the 
 twelve disciples of John by Paul: — instances of baptism in the house- 
 hold ; Cornelius and his company by Peter, Lydia and her family, the 
 jailer and all his, the household of Stei^hanas, by Paul: — instances of 
 baptism, more extensively, within the Church; the multitude on the 
 Day of Pentecost, and a like multitude in Samaria. To these historic 
 accounts may be added the abundant references to baptism in the 
 apostolic letters of Paul and Peter, — references which leave no room 
 for doubt as to the full enthronement of this significant ordinance as 
 one of the sacred and perpetual institutions of the Christian Church. 
 
 VI. Baptism: Its Nature and Design. — Recognizing this general 
 warrant for baptism, we may turn to consider more specifically its na- 
 ture and design. Here it is essential to exclude at the outset the 
 theory of sacramental grace, whether in the papal or in the prelatic 
 form. The place which the sacraments hold in the economy of re- 
 demption indeed justifies the expectation that in the faithful use of 
 them divine grace will be bestowed, even in special measure ; and 
 Christian experience testifies abundantly to the spiritual blessings that 
 accompany such observance. In this sense the sacraments are appointed 
 channels of spiritual vitality ; the blessing of Christ attending them, 
 
NATURE AND DESIGN OF BAPTISM. 51 
 
 and the working of the Spirit being enjoyed in conjunction with them 
 by every true 1)eliever. But no biblical warrant can be found for the 
 declaration either that grace lies in the ordinance jxr se, or ki the ele- 
 ments used, or that grace necessarily accompanies or directly follows 
 the formal observance. To assert that the sacraments directly or of 
 themselves convey a divine power or grace, which is independent of any 
 spiritual effort or condition on the part of man, and which in the name 
 of Christ is immediately conferred through them as means, under the 
 forms of administration directly provided by the Church as the author- 
 ized medium of impartation, is to make them, as sources of spiritual 
 blessing, well-nigh coordinate with the Spirit and with our Lord Him- 
 self ^ Nor does it relieve the error to say Avith Moehler that the relig- 
 ious energies of the soul are set in new motion by the sacrament, since 
 he adds; Its divine matter impregnates the soul of man, vivifies her 
 anew, establishes her in most intimate connection with God, and con- 
 tinues so to work in all who do not show themselves incapable of its 
 graces. In like manner, the kindred error of baptismal regeneration, 
 or the actual renewing of the spiritual nature of the infant at the time 
 when the external rite is administered, must be rejected as devoid of 
 biblical warrant. As applied to such infants, the sacrament indeed 
 signifies their need of the atoning lustration of the Cross, and of the 
 washing of regeneration through the Holy Ghost ; Titus 3 : 5. ^ It 
 also justifies the hope of their participation, through the pai'ental cov- 
 enant, in the spiritual birthright awarded through grace to all believ- 
 ers. Yet the sacrament does not of itself necessarily convey blessings 
 of either class; since it maybe administered as a formal rite merely, 
 without any appreciation of its spiritual meaning or relations. The 
 regeneration of a child at the moment of baptism can not on scriptural 
 grounds be either affirmed or denied, inasmuch as such regeneration is 
 a process of the Spirit, who worketh when and where and how He 
 listeth. His eflSciency here as elsewhere is sovereign; and the claim 
 (Jf the Church to be the authorized distributor of His grace, or to de- 
 termine where and how it shall be imparted, is contrary to the teaching 
 of Scripture, and is fraught as a dogma with vast spiritual mischiefs : 
 See Heidelberg Cat., Answers 69-73. 
 
 It has already been stated that bai:)tism includes two distinct, and 
 yet closely associated elements: spiritual pollution and purification on 
 the one side, and religious status or privilege within the Church on the 
 
 * Moehler, Symbolism, p. 198. Catechism Trident. 
 
 'See also Mark IG: 16, John 3: 5, Epli. 5: 2G, wliicli are sometimes quoted in 
 support of the opinion tliat baptism is regenerative. But tlie incorrectness of 
 such application is clearly obvious from, 1 Peter 3: 21, 1 Cor. 1 : 14-17, and other 
 passages named in the following paragraphs. 
 
i)2 Tin: iJirERSONAL constituents of the church, 
 
 other. In the former sense, it represents what is the grand peculiarity 
 of the Gospel as a religious system founded on the second birth. 
 AVhile it does not convey regeneration, the ordinance fitly symbolizes 
 it. It shadows forth tlie change of heart, John 3: 5; points to spirit- 
 ual union Avith (Jhrist through faith, Gal. 3:27; illustrates repentance 
 a-s the essential condition of such union, Acts 2: 38; and sets forth the 
 spiritual resurrection which His grace confers, Rom. G: 4-5. The ex- 
 ternal element in the sacrament is manifest in the case of every adult 
 recipient ; since baptism is associated always with personal confession of 
 Christ, and actual union with His visible Church: Acts 2: 41, 47, and 
 other passages. The inward regeneration is here presupposed, as the 
 proper justification of the outward confession. Baptism, irrespective 
 of a renewed character in such recipient, can signify nothing in the 
 way of spiritual right or privilege ; it confex'S no title, de jure, to 
 membership in the church invisible. In the case of an infant, the or- 
 dinance must carry the same general meaning, though the membership 
 attained must from the nature of the case be constructive and provis- 
 ional only, — a membership which becomes complete only -when the 
 baptismal covenant is voluntarily owned, and the personal renewing 
 through Christ is sincerely confessed. Some advocates of baptismal 
 regeneration use the phrase in this external sense only, to signify not 
 the second birth, but simply this church relationship pledged and 
 typified in the formal rite. 
 
 Comprehensively, the sacrament of baptism thus stands at the 
 threshold of the Christian Church, certifying before the world its belief 
 in the spiritual depravation of all, even of the infants of believers, and 
 in the need and the certainty of complete restoration from this deprav- 
 ity through the grace of Christ, and the agency of His Spirit ; certify- 
 ing also to the forfeited estate and spiritual orphanage of all, even 
 children of disciples, and to the divine assurance of spiritual adoption 
 and kinship conferred on every one who by faith receives Him whom 
 this holy rite so impressively portrays in His vast redemptive work? 
 It is thus justified, as an institute of the Church, not only by the di- 
 rect command which enjoins it. Matt. 28: 19; but also by the funda- 
 mental truths it represents, and by its vital relations to all profound 
 spiritual experience. See West. Conf, Ch. xxviii : i. 
 
 VII. Baptism: Modes of Administration. — Two serious questions 
 here confront us, which require distinct, though it be brief considera- 
 tion ; the question of mode,^ and the question of subject or recipient. 
 
 'The following works may be consulted on the question of Mode: Dale, 
 Classic, Judaic, Johannic, Christie and Patristic Baptism, 4 Vols: Stuart, M., 
 Mode of Christian Baptism ; Beecher, E., Baptism, Its Import and Modes; Car- 
 son, A. (Baptist), Baptism in its Modes and Subjects; Wall, W. (Baptist), Infant 
 Baptism, etc. 
 
MODES OF ADMINISTRATION. 53 
 
 Three distinct methods of administering baptism are recognizable in 
 Christendom: sprinkling, affusion and immersion. It is difficult to 
 account either for the gradual rise of such variety in method within 
 the Church, or for the gradual disappearance of affusion, if it be sup- 
 posed that one strict, inexorable, universal mode was clearly enjoined 
 by our Lord or His apostles. These facts lead rather to the conclusion 
 — quite in harmony with the nature of Christianity as a sj)iritual 
 faith — that while Christ carefully instituted the sacrament as an endur- 
 ing element in His Church, He intentionally left this subordinate 
 question of method largely to the judgment of the Church in the di- 
 versified conditions in which it was, as He foresaw, to be placed in the 
 earth. It is at least presumable that, so long as the essential truths 
 embodied in the sacrament are spiritually held, the matter of ritualistic 
 expx'cssion must be incidental in His sight, — freedom and variety in 
 the latter direction being entirely in harmony with loyalty to the doc- 
 trine taught, and in some respects even helpful in the fuller elucida- 
 tion and enforcemeyit of that doctrine. It is obvious, further, that 
 tenacious adhesion to any specified mode, unless it is directly enjoined 
 in the New Testament, must be regarded by Him with disapproval 
 rather than favor, especially if it be accompanied by the condemnation 
 of other modes as departures from the requisitions of essential Christi- 
 anity, or by the disfranchising of other communions as insufficient and 
 unworthy of fellowship at His table. On the hypothesis, assumed for 
 the moment, that no such direct injunction putting the question for- 
 ever at rest, is found in the Bible, it is clear that uniformity in admin- 
 istration, in all countries and in all ages, can not be insisted upon, 
 even though uniformity prevailed in apostolic times, — especially if the 
 mode insisted upon be one which can not be suitably, safely, and 
 without liability to perversion, employed at all times and under all 
 circumstances.^ Such general considerations certainly go far both 
 toward explaining the existence of the variety in administration actually 
 feurrent in the Church, and toward justifying the position here main- 
 tained, that no adequate warrant for the use of either of the current 
 modes, to the absolute exclusion of the other as contrary to the Word 
 of God, can be derived from that Word. To these suggestions may 
 be added the broad historical fact that, whatever may have been the 
 usage of the apostolic era, the Church of the first three centuries did 
 not always or even habitually observe one mode ; that from this period 
 down to the Reformation the mode which is regarded by some as alone 
 
 ' " Whether the person who is baptized, be wholly immersed, and whether 
 thrice or once, or whether water be only poured or sprinkled upon him, is of no 
 importance ; Churches ought to be left at liberty in this respect, to act according 
 to the difference of countries " — Calvin, Inst, Book IV: Ch. 15: 19. 
 
54 THE IMPERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 possessing (liviii(> warrant, almost entirely (lisap])care(l ; and that f^inee 
 the Reformation, this mode, notwithstanding the most strenuous efforts 
 of its advocates, has never been al)le to win the suffrages of evangel- 
 ical Protestantism, but remains at this day the opinion of a relatively 
 small minoi-ity in the household of foith. But it is freely admitted 
 here that no general or historical considerations, however cogent, can 
 be conclusive upon an issue which turns directly on the voice, not of 
 the Church, but of the Scripture itself. 
 
 It is admitted by all that the biblical question rests primarily on tlie 
 verbs, (id-nrru and (ia~Ti:,o), and their derivatives. Passages in which 
 these words are used tropically, (such as baptizing with the Holy 
 Ghost, Mark 1:8; Avith spiritual fire, Matt. 3: 11 ; with physical suf- 
 fering, or personal trial, Mark 10 : 38; or finally with etei'nal torments, 
 Luke 3: 16-17,) shed but indirect and inadequate light on the specific 
 issues here to be considered. "We also discover many instances of di- 
 rect reference, (such as the general allusions to the baptism of John in 
 Luke 7: 29-30, John 3: 26, Acts 19: 3-5,) where no clear suggestion 
 in regard to mode can be discovered. Careful examination of all the 
 passages, in which these words occur with any reference to the manner 
 of the sacrament, brings to light a considerable latitude of meaning, 
 ranging broadly from cleansing or washing, to dipping or submersion. 
 That there are texts which suggest immersion rather than other modes, 
 may be freely admitted; instances may be seen in Matt. 3: 6, 16, 
 Mark 1: 9, John 3 : 22-23, Acts 8 : 38-39, Rom. 6: 3-4, Col. 2: 12, 
 Heb. 10: 22; also Mark 14: 20, John 13:, 26. Upon these passages, 
 it should be remarked that in the last three, if not in others, the 
 idea of washing or dipping rather than full immersion clearly predom- 
 inates; that tlie attempt to run too close an analogy between l)ap- 
 tism and burial, based on the references in the Pauline letters, brings 
 in far greater perplexities than it removes; and that in all of the 
 historic instances given, simple affusion applied to one standing in a 
 running stream — as our Lord has often been pictured — answers as well 
 as immersion to the statements made. A second class of texts is 
 found, in which other modes are the more probable ; as Mark 7 : 4, 8, 
 and Luke 11 : 38-40, applied to the cleansing of the person, and the 
 purifying of the sacred vessels; as also Heb. 9: 10, Acts 2: 41, 4: 4, 
 10: 47-48, 1 Cor. 10: 2. In these historic instances, the probability 
 against immersion must be regarded as very strong ; and in the last, 
 the reference is clearly to sprinkling or affusion rather than submersion, 
 in either cloud or sea. A third class may be named in Avhich immer- 
 sion seems altogether improbable ; such as Acts 9 : 18, 16 : 15, 32-33, 
 18: 8, and others. The apparently insuperable difiiculty in the in- 
 stances where thousands were received into the Church by baptism in 
 
VARIETY OF MODE ADHOSSIBLE. 55 
 
 a single day, which Robinson (Lex. art. paTrn^u) urges so cogently, is 
 greatly enhanced in at least some other of these instances. The bap- 
 tism of Paul at Damascus, of Crispus and othei's at Corinth, and of 
 the households of Cornelius by Peter, and of Lydia and especially of 
 the jailer by Paul at night and within the prison walls, by immersion 
 in every case, is in the highest degree doubtful, if indeed it be not 
 quite impossible. Passages referring directly to sprinkling as a relig- 
 ious rite, based on certain Mosaic observances (Heb. 9: 13-14, 10: 
 19-22, 1 Peter 1:2), may properly be quoted here in confirmation of 
 this direct evidence as to other modes than submersion. 
 
 What the Isew Testament yields to thorough and candid inquiry is 
 certainly not uniformity of allusion or usage in favor of immersion, 
 but rather a clear suggestion of that variety, produced by the varying 
 circumstances under which the sacrament was administered, which 
 seems to have grown afterwards into a law or habit in the primitive 
 Church. The most ardent advocate of immersion can establish no 
 higher claim than this, and such a claim those who on general grounds 
 prefer other modes of administration as equally biblical and more con- 
 venient, freely admit: see West. Conf., Ch. xxvin: iii ; also, West. 
 Direct, for Worship, Ch. vii : v, where allusion as well as sprinkling 
 is recognized as valid. So far as we can ascertain from Scripture, the 
 cardinal fact thus is, that our Lord and His apostles never determined 
 conclusively the question of mode, but rather granted to the Church 
 that freedom of judgment, that liberty of adjustment to its varying 
 circumstances and conditions, Avhich the vast majority of the churches, 
 ancient and modern, have in fact allowed. The exclusive enforcing 
 of sprinkling by the Papal communion, and the equally exclusive en- 
 forcing of immersion by the Baptist communion, are alike unwarranted 
 by the Bible itself and by the history of primitive Christianity, and 
 alike are at variance with that spiritual freedom which is the funda- 
 mental law in the Christian Church. 
 
 Further questions in regard to the mode of baptism may be consid- 
 ered more briefly. The question whether any administration is valid 
 in which the doctrine of the Trinity is not expressed or implied, must 
 be answered in the negative, as no organization can be a true Church 
 of Christ which refuses to recognize His divinity, and the divine per- 
 sonality of the Holy Spirit, as cardinal elements in Christianity. Bap- 
 tism by open errorists who cast aside the fundamental doctrines of our 
 faith, is no less invalid than the same ordinance would be, if adminis- 
 tered in sport, or in order to excite ridicule or contempt ; yet Protest- 
 antism agrees with Romanism in holding that the ordinance is not 
 necessarily rendered invalid by the discovered unworthiness of the 
 person administering. The validity of Romish baptism will be deter- 
 
56 Tin: impersonal constituents of the ciiur.cii. 
 
 milled by tlie answer given to the question whether the papal commun- 
 ion is, notwithstanding its heresies, a part of the one Church of tliat 
 Christ whom it professes to receive as the true Savior of men. On this 
 point the French Confession (Conf. Fidci Gall, 1551)), says: Never- 
 theless, as some trace of the Church is left in the Papacy, and the vir- 
 tue and substance of baptism remain, and as the efficacy of ba])tism does 
 not depend upon the person who administers it, we confess that those 
 baptized in it (the papal Church) do not need a second baptism. Bap- 
 tism with milk or oil, or any other material than water, can hardly be 
 counted true baptism ; and on the other hand, no previous consecration 
 of the water, or any like preparatory cleansing or disrobing or anoint- 
 ing of the person, can be viewed as essential. Triple baptism in the 
 name of each of the three Persons in the Godhead and repeated bap- 
 tism, as in cases where the person baptized has fallen into further sin, 
 are alike without biblical warrant. Neither has the ordinance any 
 scrij)tural connection Avith the naming or christening of the recipient. 
 Neither is the question of place or agent vital, though bai)tism as a 
 sacrament of the Church should ordinarily be administered within the 
 sanctuary, and by an ordained administrant. All ceremonies super- 
 added to the observance, such as giving honey or salt to the baptized 
 person, touching his mouth or ears *vith spittle, breathing upon him by 
 the administrant, or making the sign of the cross upon him, the kiss 
 of peace, the lighted taper, and the like, are superstitious departures 
 from the proper meaning and purpose of the ordinance. Exorcisms 
 and adjurations, such as are practiced in the Greek and Roman com- 
 munions, have no proper connection with the sacrament. The baptism 
 of bells, altars, sanctuaries, and other objects for the purpose of puri- 
 fication, is a practice wholly diverse from the teaching of ►Scrii)ture; 
 all such perversions corrupt our estimate of the ordinance, and are ob- 
 viously at variance Avith the spirit of Christianity. 
 
 VIII. Baptism: Proper Subjects oPv Recipients. — The other im- 
 portant question to be considered relates to the proper subjects or recip- 
 ients of this sacrament.^ So far as adult recipients are concerned, 
 this question will be variously answered according to the view taken of 
 the Church, and of church connection. It is maintained here that 
 the Church is not a visible society merely, to whose rights and priv- 
 ileges baptism gives the subject a formal title, but rather that every 
 true Church must be composed of persons who make at least credible 
 profession of piety; and therefore that baptism becomes properly a 
 sign and seal of grace already enjoyed — not a promise of grace to come 
 
 * In addition to the authorities already cited see Wardlaw, Script. Authority 
 of Infant Baptism; Woods, L., Infant Baptism ; Hai,l, Law of Baptism; Rice, 
 N. L., Baptism, Mode and Subjects; Halley, on the Sacraments, Vol. II. 
 
SUBJECTS OR RECIPIENTS OF BAPTISM. 57 
 
 through the observance, or a i-ign of ecclesiastical place or privilege 
 secured through the formal rite. Waiving the special question as to 
 the qualities of this credible i^rofessiou, and to the proper judges of 
 such j^rofessiou when made, it must be held that baptism is not an ap- 
 pointed method of transfusing or of procuring grace, but is simply an 
 emblem of corruption confessed and of sjiiritual cleansing gained, and 
 that on this ground, and on no other, can the baptized j)erson become 
 entitled to a place within the visible Church. This is the general posi- 
 tion of evangelical Protestantism, in contrast with the sacramentariau 
 theory on the one hand, and the papal perversion on the other. We 
 can not accept, without limitation, the striking declaration of Cyprian: 
 He who has not the Church for his Mother, has not God for his Father. 
 In our view, adults are not to come to Christ through the Church, or 
 through outward ordinances, but are rather to come to the Church, and 
 into the enjoyment of the sacraments, through antecedent union with 
 Christ. Protestantism therefore does not baptize all adults who seek 
 its chrism, but only those who seek first, and first find, salvation in and 
 through a personal Eedeemer. 
 
 But the main question here relates to the propriety of bai)tizing those 
 who are as yet incajDable of exercising such personal faith. The Church 
 of Rome, regarding baptism as necessary to the removal of original 
 sin, and therefore to salvation, administers the rite to all children 
 whom it can reach, Avithout regard to the relation of the parents to the 
 Gospel. The general Protestant jjosition is, that, while it is a sin to 
 contemn the ordinance, yet grace and salvation are not inseparably an^ 
 nexed to it (West. Couf. , Ch. xxix: v), and that therefore even adults, 
 and, a fortiori, infants may be regenerated and saved without it. The 
 Scotch Confession denounces as cruel and of Antichrist, the doctrine 
 that unbaptized infants are lost. Yet Protestants vary as to the degree 
 of freedom with which the ordinance is applied, — some granting the 
 privilege to all who seek it, and some to the children of baptized per- 
 sons only, while others limit the application strictly to the children of 
 believers. This variation in practice seems to be determined chiefly by 
 the view cherished by these parties respecting the amount or measure 
 of grace, to be regarded as flowing into the soul with or through the 
 observance. Over against both the Church of Rome, and the vast 
 majority of Protestant bodies, stands the doctrine strongly maintained 
 by immersionists, that all infant baptism is unauthorized by the AVord 
 of God, — personal faith and personal confession being deemed indispen- 
 sable conditions and concomitants of the external rite. Hero the 
 burden of proof rests clearly on those who claim, not that all children, 
 but that the children of believing parents may receive the sacrament, 
 
58 THE IMPERSONAL CONSTITUEXTS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 and may 'j;iun ihroujih it a ])lacc and name within tlio Clinrch of 
 Chri.st. 
 
 The general grounds on which the latter belief is based, may be 
 stated briefly under the following heads. First: it has already been 
 made clear that the Church of God in all dispensations is but one 
 Church. While forms of organization have been changed, while cere- 
 monies and usages have varied in different ages, the unity of the 
 Churcli as a spiritual organism has never been lost. It is only on the 
 basis of this fundamental truth, that such a question as the i)rc.sent 
 can be successfully considered. tSccondly: within this one and indi- 
 visible Church, the family as a unit, has always held a recognized 
 place. ^ It is true that God deals in grace jjrimarily with men as indi- 
 viduals, — that the experiences of religion arc primarily personal, and 
 that the promises and privileges of the Gospel are given, for the most 
 part, to independent persons. And yet, almost from the earliest man- 
 ifestations of the Church among men, avc find the household sharing 
 with the individual in the blessings of redemption. For many cen- 
 turies the Church dwelt almost exclusively Avithin the family; and 
 after passing into the tribal, and then into the national form, it still 
 embraced children with their parents within its hallowing circle. 
 Under the Christian economy, whether the baptism of such children be 
 legitimate or otherwise, their place within that circle, and their title 
 to the blessings flowing from such a i-elationship, can not well be ques- 
 tioned. Thirdly : that God condescended to specialize this connection 
 by entering into formal covenant, if not with Noah or his predeces- 
 sors, then with Abraham, and with the patriarchs after him, in behalf 
 of their households, and through them with the heads of families 
 throughout the Hebraic dispensation, is also a significant and an un- 
 questioned fact. The primal covenant with Abraham (Gen. 17), can 
 be regarded as nothing else than a holy compact in Avhich, in answer to 
 his parental faith and consecration, the posterity of the patriarch was 
 even through many ages to be blessed spiritually as well as in temporal 
 estate. In its religious quality and aim, in the domestic duties it im- 
 posed and in the spiritual benefits it conferred, this covenant was not 
 limited to Abraham alone, but rather was set up as an illustrious ex- 
 ample of a like compact into which succeeding pati'iarchs and indeed 
 
 ' "The grand peculiarity of humanity is that, while each individual is a free, 
 responsible moral agent, yet we constitute a race, reproduced under the law of 
 generation ; and each new-born agent is educated, and his character formed 
 under social conditions. Hence results the representative character of progen- 
 itors, and the inherited character and destiny of all races, nations and fami- 
 lies. . . This principle runs through the dealing of God with the human race 
 under the economy of redemption. The family . . is the unit embraced in 
 all covenants and dispensations." — Hodge, A. A., Outlines of Theol., p. 616. 
 
BAPTISMAL COVENANT EXPLAINED. 59 
 
 all devout parents under the Mosaic economy might through grace 
 enter. Nor was this privilege limited to parents living under that pre- 
 paratory dispensation. The same covenant may be entered into under 
 the Gospel, and with even higher warrant, by all believing parents. 
 God still as of old is willing to pledge His grace and favor to the im- 
 mediate offspring, and even to the remote posterity, of those who, 
 themselves entering into holy relations with Him, desire also to train 
 up their households for His service and glory. As the family regarded 
 as a unit holds a real place Avithin the Church, so the children of 
 faithful Abraham, and the offspring of all who exercise Abrahamic 
 trust, are properly embraced within this covenant of grace. 
 
 Fourthly: it is also obvious that the basis of this compact is parental 
 faith. As it was not faith personally exercised at the outset by each 
 member of the Abrahamic family, but simply the holy trust and con- 
 secration shown by the patriarch himself, which was the foundation of 
 the original covenant, so God condescends still to accept like parental 
 trust and consecration, — not indeed as a full substitute for personal 
 piety in the child, but as the ground of spiritual privilege conferred upon 
 the child, and tlie basis of a pledge that through His grace the child 
 shall at length be brought willingly into a personal experience of the 
 same spiritual life. Fifthly : as God has iu all dispensations instituted 
 certain visible marks and institutions by which the spiritual relations 
 existing between Him and believers are made known, and as in the 
 case of Abraham He instituted such a visible seal of this gracious 
 family covenant, so it is reasonable to anticipate that such a seal, in 
 some form, would be instituted under the Gospel. In this higher econ- 
 omy, Christ has at least set up the Supper in place of the Passover, and 
 Baptism as the distinctive sign of admission to His fold in the case of 
 adults; and we may therefore well presume that some kindred mark 
 or institution will be given by Him to signalize this gracious relation- 
 ship of the household within the one great family of grace. — From 
 such general propositions as these, it must be difficult for any thought- 
 ful mind in the light of Scripture to withhold assent. There are 
 doubtless many among those refusing to regard infant baptism as the 
 proper conclusion from these propositions, who still cordially recognize 
 the grand and precious facts which such propositions are framed to 
 describe. Were there no ordinance to mark the household covenant — 
 wei'e there even no formal covenant to represent the underlying verity 
 that the family is treated largely as a unit in the economy of grace, 
 that underlying fact must still be one of untold value in the sight of 
 believing parents under all dispensations. 
 
 IX. Scripture Witness to Infant Baptism: Historic Testi- 
 monies. — It is certainly a strong confirmation of such presumption, 
 
60 THE IMrEKSOXAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CIIUIICII. 
 
 that Christ and His apostles do so distinctly recognize the claim of 
 infancy to tiie blessings which He came to confer, When our Lord 
 laid His hands on little children, and i)raycd for them, and declared 
 their title to a place in the kingdom of heaven, which is none other 
 than His own Church on earth (Matt. 19: 13-15), He laid down 
 afresh, in more spiritual form, what had been the immemorial doctrine 
 of the Hebrews as to the nature both of the Church and of the pa- 
 rental covenant, as already defined. And again, when He commanded 
 Peter to feed the lambs as well as tlie sheep in that vast fold into 
 which His chosen were to be gathered tliroughout the world (John 21 : 
 15-17), He laid down a rule of duty which all ministers, all churches, 
 all believing parents to the end of time, are bound to recognize in the 
 training of the young for His service. Nor can we contemplate His 
 significant setting of a little child before His apostles, in order through 
 the vision of its innocent simplicity and trust to rebuke their ambitious 
 strivings, without regarding the act as suggestive of His estimate of 
 the corresponding duty to train up such little ones within His fold, and 
 for His service. And with what our Lord thus suggests, we may fitly 
 associate the declaration of Peter concerning the scope of the Old Test, 
 promise of grace, as including the posterity of believers. Acts 2 : 39 ; 
 the view of the apostles is seen in their counsels to children and 
 parents respectively (Eph. 6: 1-4, Col. 3: 20-21), and the Pauline 
 declaration (1 Cor. 7: 14) that the children even of one believing 
 parent in any given household are to be viewed by the Church as holy, 
 or sanctified, in virtue of such jiareutal faith. In this striking passage, 
 it can not be claimed that the children thus viewed are in all instances 
 capable of exercising personal faith, and are to be regarded as holy on 
 that account; the belief of the parent, and this only, is the specified 
 ground for the position which the apostle counseled the Church at Cor- 
 inth to take. Even the unbelieving husband or wife is said to be set 
 in better spiritual relations, as a consequence of such belief; and how 
 much more the ofl^spring of a saint standing within the domestic re- 
 lation ! 
 
 Sevei'al instances of household baptism, more or less fully mentioned, 
 serve to confirm these inferential evidences. Of these the most obvi- 
 ous are the cases of Lydia and her household at Thyatira, of the Phi- 
 lippian jailer and his family (Acts 16: 15, 33), and of the family of 
 Stephanas at Corinth, 1 Cor. 1: 16. Paul puts on record his baptism 
 of Crisj^us also, of Avhom it is said (Acts 18 : 8) that he believed on 
 the Lord, with all his house. The additional case of Cornelius, who 
 Avith other inmates of his house was baptized by Peter at Csesarea 
 (Acts 10: 48), is on probable grounds to be classed Avith those already 
 cited, as an instance of family baptism, including old and young 
 
THE ARGUMENT FOR INFANT BAPTISM. 61 
 
 within the domestic circle. In all of these instances, both the i^rompt- 
 ness of the baptismal observance, at the very time and place where the 
 associated conversions occurred, and the direct including in each in- 
 stance of the flimily of the l^elieving parent, are to be carefully noted. 
 To assert that in each and all ftf these cases none but adults capable 
 of exercising personal faith were present, and that the sacred rite was 
 applied in every instance to such persons only, is to go very much 
 farther than the laws of sound interpretation permit. There can 
 hardly be reasonable ground for refusing to believe that in at least 
 some one or two of these examples the family was contemplated in its 
 divine unity, and the children of believing parents were, on inspired 
 authority, counted in the holy covenant then and there made by such 
 parents with Christ. It should be added that the strong presumption 
 derived from such recorded instances, as well as from the general sug- 
 gestions previously considered, is confirmed at many points by the apos- 
 tolic, and especially the Pauline conception of the Church, viewed as 
 an aggregated household or family of grace. That none but adult be- 
 lievers were in any way counted as members of that divine fold, — that 
 the domestic unit was altogether disregarded, and the children of 
 saints were viewed as having neither place or claim within that sacred 
 fellowship, can hardly be believed by one who studies in its essence and 
 purpose the New Testament Church. 
 
 While it is freely to be admitted that these are probable considera- 
 tions only, and that no direct warrant exists for applying the ordinance 
 of baptism to infants, such as that which enforces the Eucharist upon 
 all believers, still the observance may safely be rested, like the observ- 
 ance of the first day of the week as a Sabbath, on the historic approval 
 and usage of the apostolic Church as here described. The two cases 
 are closely parallel : and in both, the biblical inferences are strongly 
 sustained by the convictions and the practice of believers, after the 
 apostolic age with its peculiar characteristics had passed away. It is a 
 clearly established fact, that if the Church of the second and third and 
 fourth centuries did not enjoin infant baptism, it extensively admitted 
 the ceremony, giving to it the place and significance which circumci- 
 sion had held in the Hebraic dispensation. ^ That the usage came by 
 degrees to be regarded with greater favor, and was at length clothed 
 with full ecclesiastical authority as one form of the general sacrament, 
 is abundantly evident. Of its position during the long period between 
 
 ■See Hagf.nbach: Hist. Doct, ?? 72, 137, for the various (and c(^ntlicting) judg- 
 ment of the Fathers from TertuUian in the second to Augustine in the fifth 
 century. " Ecclesia ah Apostolis traditionem accepit etiam parvulis baptismum 
 dare ; " Orioen.— Kurtz, Chnrch. Hist., I ; g? 32, 58 ; and other church historians. 
 For modified view, see Neander ; Christian Dogmas, I ; 228. 
 
62 TUE IMPERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 Augustine and the Reformation there is no serious question, — a rite 
 indeed toriuallzed and overloaded with priestly accretions, and there- 
 fore void of much spiritual value, yet representing in substance those 
 great docti'iues of grace which it was originally appointed to symbolize. 
 The general verdict of Protestantism in its favor is shown by its almost 
 universal observance, outside of the circle of those who hold to immer- 
 sion as the only admissible mode of administration. Protestants do 
 not agree with the Church of Rome in regarding baptism as essential 
 to the salvation of infants, and therefore make no such extraordinary 
 provision as that Church for the very early administration of the rite, 
 or for lay baptism iu special emergency as by midwives or other unor- 
 daincd persons. Yet they agree in emphasizing the importance of the 
 ordinance, as constituting a special form of covenant iu which the 
 parents and the church on the one side, and Christ as the Head of 
 the household of faith on the other, bind themselves by mutual vows 
 to train up the baptized infant for the divine service. As to the value 
 of the parental side of this covenant, in the way of stimulating to 
 faithful endeavor and to believing prayer in behalf of the baptized 
 child, there can be no question ; the experience of multitudes of pious 
 parents is adequate evidence here. And where churches have been 
 faithful to their part in this sacred transaction, and have become 
 spiritual homes to such children, in the biblical sense, the actual re- 
 sults in the increase of visible membership from this class have been 
 such as to justify the strongest affirmations respecting the salvatory 
 value of the sacrament when thus interpreted. Christ Himself in in- 
 stances beyond number has set His seal upon the ordinance, — has ac- 
 cepted and approved the covenant instituted through it, by drawing 
 feuch children into His arms as He did of old, and declaring through 
 the regenerative ministries of His Spirit that of such is the kingdom 
 of heaven. — The precise relation of such baptized children to the vis- 
 ible Church, will be considered at a later stage. It is only to be 
 remembered here that baptism does not create that relation, but simply 
 embodies or expresses it; the covenant then entered into in form, must 
 have existed in substance from the moment when the parental relation 
 to the child Avas established, 
 
 X. The Lord's Supper: Warrant and Nature. — Associated 
 with Baptism as a fundamental constituent iu the conception of the 
 Christian Church, stands the Lord's Supper. The direct and formal 
 institution of this sacrament by the Messiah, is carefully recorded by 
 three of the evangelists: Matt. 26: 20-29, Mark 14: 22-25, Luke 22: 
 17-20. The purport and spirit of the observance are as carefully re- 
 gistered by John also in the final discourse and prayer of Christ, before 
 He led his disciples out to the Mount of Olives and to Calvary. Paul 
 
THE EUCHARIST: WARRANT AND NATURE. 63 
 
 also was inspired to put on record an account of the institution, in 
 order that the Church through all time might the more fully apprecb 
 ate its significance; 1 Cor. 11 : 23-25. The direct connection of the 
 sacrament with the Hebrew Passover, as is indicated by the evangel- 
 ists in their story of the original appointment, brings that historical 
 event (Ex. 12 : 3-20) before us as its type and proper explanation. 
 The great deliverance Avhich the Passover commemorated was, at every 
 stage in the history of the chosen people (2 Chron. 30 and 35: passi'm), 
 the recognized emblem of the far greater deliverance which our Lord 
 through His redemptive sacrifice Avas to bring, not to the Hebrew 
 only, but to humanity. Hence Christ suggestively connected the new 
 ceremony with the old at the outset, and at the same time took pains 
 to set the two forever apart, as the shadow is forever separate from the 
 reflected reality. So clear is this relationship, and so definite and im- 
 pressive was the first institution in accordance Avith it, that all who bear 
 the Christian name in all ages, with few exceptions, have confessed the 
 obligation to observe the sacrament perpetually in remembrance of an 
 atoning Savior, — just as the Hebrews felt themselves perpetually 
 bound to observe the Passover. The disposition to regard the ordi- 
 nance as a temjDorary feast merely, arranged by our Lord for His first 
 disciples only, and the disposition to view it as a purely spiritual act 
 of communion in which the formal observance may be entirely dis- 
 pensed with, are alike at variance with the direct, conclusive, perma- 
 nent mandate of the Messiah : Do this in remembrance of Me. ^ 
 
 Over against the tendency to view this sacred obervance as tempo- 
 rary or as informal, stands the tendency, so manifest in the Church of 
 Rome, and in oriental Christianity also, to materialize or formalize the 
 ordinance by overloading it with ceremonial accretions wholly at vari- 
 ance with its divine intent. This may be seen in the opinion that the 
 sacrament is an actual oblation, in which Christ is really offered up 
 afresh as a sacrifice for the sins of His people. From this view, 
 which has no recognizable basis in the Scripture, has largely sprung the 
 disposition current among Romanists to decorate the Supper with a 
 multitude of unwarranted formalities. In like manner, the kindred 
 theory that the sacrament, like baptism, carries grace in itself, and 
 is to be administered as an opiis operatum, is altogether without scrip- 
 tural Avarrant, and inevitably leads on to just such corruptions as are 
 aggregated together in the Romish Mass. Resting on a false and gross 
 interpretation of the phrase. This is my Body, and maintaining an 
 actual presence of Christ corporeally in the elements employed — they 
 
 ' GuRNEY : Evidences of CItristlnnify, pp. 1G7-169. The Society of Friends re- 
 gard the Supper as well as Baptism, as a spiritual observance merely, notwith- 
 standing the explicit command of the Master, and the example of the Apostles. 
 
64 THE IMPERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CIIURCII. 
 
 being actually transmuted into Ills Hosh and His blood, — that theory 
 may easily be used to justify each and all of the grotesque absurdities, 
 which everywhere deface the eucharistic service in the papal commun- 
 ion. Difficulties of a like nature, though less serious, must always 
 beset the observance, on the Lutheran theory that our Lord is ubiqui- 
 tously present in, with and under the elements, though these are not 
 actually changed into His body an(' His blood. While we arc to 
 guard against the bald notion which Lutheranism justly oj)poses, that 
 the sacrament is commemorative or historical only — while we are bound 
 to recognize the other gracious relations which it sustains to religious 
 experience, we are still to reject even in its mildest forms the opinion 
 that grace is somehow incorporated in the elements, and is therefore 
 to be received orally by the believer. To say nothing here of the 
 speculative questions involved, such as the corporeal ubiquity of Christ 
 on earth and His presence corporeally wherever His people arc assem- 
 bled to conmiemorate His death, we are bound to maintain that the 
 benefits of the sacrament are spiritual only, and that such spiritual 
 benefits can in no way be transmitted through any physical process, 
 such as the assimilation of the consecrated elements corporeally. ^ 
 
 The essential features in the sacrament are, the use of bread and 
 wine as the elements, the act of consecration and distribution accord- 
 ing to the original observance, and the participation in both elements 
 by the Church, in compliance with the precept and example of Christ. 
 To substitute another element for either of those first employed, or to 
 depart radically from the original manner of administration, or to add 
 ceremonial features to it, must be regarded as an unlawful deviation 
 from the divine command. The denial of the cup to the laity, on 
 whatever ground of convenience, is a still more serious departure. 
 The Council of Trent pronounces this a matter of discipline or method, 
 rather than of doctrine; and the usage is justified by Catholic writers, 
 on the ground that the distribution of the cup is liable to special forms 
 of desecration, against which the Church deems it wise to guard. Yet 
 the mandate of our Lord, Drink ye all of it, was addressed not to the 
 priesthood, but to the Church ; and the assumed right to do this rep- 
 resentatively, in the place of the body of lielievers, can be regarded as 
 nothing else than a priestly usurpation. The indifference of the papal 
 communion to a point so vital as this is in marked contrast with its 
 strenuous requisitions as to the kind of bread used, the manner of the 
 
 ' "They differed from the Reformed only in this, that while the latter were 
 content with the Word and the Symbols as pledges of prevenient grace in the Sac- 
 rament, they added to these the real presence and oral communication of the 
 body and blood of Christ, as a most gracious pledge of the forgiveness of sins."— 
 Sprechek, Erang. Luthernn Theol, p. 457-460. The author does not regard this 
 view as fundamental, or indispensable, in the Lutheran system. 
 
DESIGN OF THE SACRAMENT. 65 
 
 participation, and other minor points in the observance. These minor 
 matters, such as the degree of frequency witli Avhich the sacrament 
 shall be observed, or the exact number partaking, or the precise place 
 or posture of the recipient, or the explicit form of prayer or of address, 
 or the singing of a hymn at the close, are left largely to the judgment 
 or to the convenience of each congregation of disciples. The elements 
 may be received at the altar or communion table, or distributed through 
 the sanctuary ; the distribution may be made by the person administer- 
 ing, or with the aid of proper assistants ; the participants may sit or 
 stand or kneel in the act of receiving the emblems ; the bread may be 
 leavened or unleavened, and the wine may be that in common use or 
 the unfermented juice of the grape, and may or may not be mingled 
 with water. So long as there is appropriate adherence to the three 
 essential features already named, these subordinate questions may 
 safely be committed to the spiritual discernment and devout feeling of 
 the household of faith. The spirit of charity finds nowhere a finer 
 field for beneficent exercise ; and the autonomy of the individual con- 
 science properly subordinates itself at the table of our Lord to the 
 aggregated judgment of the Christian body. As a practical rule, the 
 usage of any particular denomination is a sufficient guide to personal 
 duty, on all questions not involving the proper substance of the sacra- 
 ment, as Christ himself has instituted it. 
 
 XL The Lord's Supper: Its Design and Participants. — Rest- 
 ing in the general position that the Eucharist is not a mystical mode 
 of transmitting grace through the Church or priesthood to each parti- 
 cipant, but is rather a sublime act of faith and devotion in commemo- 
 ration of the dying Redeemer who instituted it, we may proceed to 
 consider its object or design more specifically. Five distinct ends are 
 obviously gained through it. Of these the first is discerned in its his- 
 toric or commemorative quality. For the Supper is an enduring wit- 
 ness by the Church to the transcendent fact, which is central in the 
 Christian scheme — the death of the Redeemer on Calvary. It is a 
 continuous creed or confession proclaimed by His people, respecting 
 their belief that He did actually die according to the evangelical nar- 
 rative, and that His dying was all that He declared it to be as an 
 atoning and redemptive act. While it would be an error to assert that 
 this commemorative testimony was the only end sought by our Lord 
 in the institution, there can be little room for doubt that this was a 
 primary object. In His purpose this ordinance was to be a perpetual 
 sign that the Passover, and with it the entire economy of which it was 
 representative, had passed away ; and that a new economy, resting on a 
 divine sacrifice and conveying spiritual life through a higher form of 
 faith, had come in.»« It was to call the Church, and even the world, 
 
66 THE IMPERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 back from time to time to the romeml)rauce of a fact, which otherwise the 
 world, and even the Church, might soon forget; — a fact wliich consti- 
 tutes the grand peculiarity of the Christian dispensation, as a sdiemc 
 of atonement through sacrifice, and of justification through faith. — 
 But while the ordinance was thus historical in its aim, it was also in 
 the second place specifically confessional and sacramental. It implied 
 from the first a declaration of personal trust in the crucified Savior, — 
 au acknowledgment of Him as the true Lord and Redeemer. It im- 
 plied also a personal covenant or pledge of discipleship, as the term, 
 sacrament, in a military connection suggests. It was in essence an 
 avowal of willing separation from the sinful world, and of honest de- 
 votion to the cause of Christ; 1 Cor. 10: 21. To remember and com- 
 memorate Him duly, was impossible to one Avho still retained his con- 
 nections with the AVorldlyUfe; to accept Him, in this sacred act, Avas 
 equivalent to a solemn purpose to renounce all else for Him. 
 
 It is also obvious, thirdly, that this sacrament was designed to bring 
 together in closer, warmer fellowship all who shared in it: — not merely 
 binding them into unity by the consciousness of common convictions 
 and purposes, but also setting before them all the vision of a common 
 home and family of grace. Its form as a feast was itself suggestive of 
 this associating and uniting function ; and its place within the Church 
 clearly indicated its design, as a bond of union in the household of 
 faith. As all partake of the bread together, each professes his faith 
 anew to all the rest; and as they drink together the wine, each 
 assures the rest of fraternal affection, and all agree in exalting together 
 that law of love which is the cardinal principle within the Church, 
 And while the communion thus becomes to the individual Christiaii 
 a holy compact and pledge to be loyal to Him whose dying it so ten- 
 derly represents, it also is in these ways a poAverful stimulant to Chris- 
 tian union : it binds believer to believer and church to church : it draws 
 into blessed fellowship at the point most vital, all throughout the world 
 who hold to Christ as their Divine Head. — The fourth function of the 
 sacrament lies in what may be termed itsauticipatory or prophetic quality. 
 While it points backward to the past, it points forward steadily to a 
 heavenly future: while it brings to view historically the old Jerusalem, 
 it also brings into view the new and free Jerusalem which is above, 
 the Mother of us all. Calvary is its point of departure : Mount Zion 
 is its point of culminating splendor. As a feast, it is typical of the 
 perpetual feast of 'the redeemed in glory: its bread and wine are 
 emblems of tlie bread of heaven, and of that new -wine which Our 
 Lord pledges himself to drink with His chosen in the kingdom of His 
 Father. Like so many other elements in our holy faith, it has but 
 partial realization here, and is brightly prophetic of much higher ies- 
 
INFLUENCE AND WORTH OF THE SUPPER. 67 
 
 tivity, of much nobler fellowship, in that future toward which the 
 Church on earth is ever hastening. 
 
 The law of participation in the Supper is sufficiently indicated by 
 these glimpses of its general nature, and of the specific objects sought 
 in its institution. Like Baptism, it belongs as an institution to the 
 Church, and participation in it is a voluntary declaration, not merely 
 of union with Christ, but also of connection with His visible people. 
 And as Baptism presupposes personal faith, at least in the adult recip- 
 ient, so is the presence of faith the only proper requisite and qualifica- 
 tion here. To baptize without regard to character all who are willing 
 to receive such chrism, and then to admit such persons, though unsanc- 
 tified, to the table of the Lord in the hope that they may somehow 
 receive a mystical grace through a merely formal observance, is a 
 fearful mistake. All the qualifications which are requisite to full mem- 
 bership in any visible Church, are indispensable to this act of com- 
 memoration. A gracious state secured beforehand is the invariable 
 condition, 1 Cor. 11: 27-30: all other participants can only eat and 
 drink to themselves damnation. On the other hand, all who con- 
 sciously belong to Christ, and are by profession within His visible 
 Church, and upon whom no ecclesiastical censures rest, may receive 
 this sacrament worthily. Instances may indeed arise in which the priv- 
 ilege may be granted to persons connected with no organized Church, 
 but in whom the grace of the Gospel obviously appears. But the ob- 
 servance, like Baptism, is churchly in its nature : and it may be pre- 
 sumed that those who openly reject the fellowship of the Church in 
 other respects, are hardly prepared spiritually for this signal act of 
 communion with the people of God. It is to open believers, and to 
 all open believers, that such privilege is to be granted : this is the 
 comprehensive law. It must therefore be regarded as a clear violation 
 of the spirit of the ordinance to shut out from it any true disciple, on 
 account of difierences respecting the three orders in the ministry, or 
 the mode of baptism, or the use of other than inspired psalmody in 
 worship, or any like peculiarity not essential to salvation. That com- 
 munion of saints, which is declared to be cardinal in the first Christian 
 creed,— a phrase which, as Calvin says, excellently expresses the true 
 character of the Church, is at once the legitimate and the only legiti- 
 mate basis for fellowship at the table of the Lord. ^ 
 
 XII. The Lord's Supper: Its Influence and Worth: Other 
 Kindred Observances. — What has been said respecting the benefi- 
 cent influence of Baptism as the introductory sacrament, applies with 
 even larger force to the Eucharist. The fact that, while Baptism is to 
 be apphed but once, at the outset, this is to be repeated at intervals 
 
 ^Egbert Hall, Terms of Communion. West. Directory, viii: iv. 
 
68 THE IMPERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CTIURCn. 
 
 throughout tlio earthly life of the believer, and may be administered 
 even to the dying saint, shows how great value is placed upon it by the 
 Head of the Church. As a unique and impressive mode of setting 
 forth the cardinal truths of grace, from the rise and fall of man onward 
 to his completetl restoration in glory, it is full of precious signilicance. 
 Hardly any essential doctrine fails to be symbolized in it ; it is a jjictur- 
 esquo sermon, in which the whole Gos})el is incor])orate(l. Those who 
 share iu it intelligently, in effect recite again the old Christian creeds, 
 and nuike again their profession of belief in all the substantial ele- 
 ments of the system of grace. It is also a silent and most effectual 
 monitor as to personal duty; it summons the recipient to careful and 
 honest examination of himself, not merely as to belief, but equally as 
 to his loyalty, his zeal, his devotion. That great law of self-examina- 
 tion Avhich is in so many forms laid upon every disciple, comes to its 
 culmination here ; Let a man examine himself, is the divine command, 
 and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup; 1 Cor. 11 : 27- 
 30, 1 Cor. 5: 7-8, 2 Cor. 13: 5, Gal. 6: 3-4. He who comes to this 
 consecrated table, and goes away from it, without deepened conceptions 
 of himscilf as a sinner, and of himself as a discij^le also, has failed to 
 derive from it some of the most precious benefits it was divinely in- 
 tended to impart. 
 
 Viewed iu its relations to the Church, this sacrament possesses values 
 equally great. As a feast, it becomes the basis of a holy and happy 
 fellowship, such as the company of the faithful could iu no other form 
 secure. It is the great Christian festival which supersedes the Pass- 
 over, and all other Hebraic feasts, because it embodies higher truths, 
 and symbolizes a more glorious union. It tends to break down all lines 
 of separation, to silence discords and heal divisions, to develop the sense 
 of mutual dependence and mutual benefit, to harmonize purpose and 
 combine iu effort and sacrifice. It thus makes each Church in a more 
 vital sense a holy brotherhood, in virtue of the communion of the 
 membership, each and all, with the one divine and gracious Lord. — 
 In like manner this sacrament becomes a most effective testimony, on 
 the part of the Church, before the world. It certifies in a graphic way 
 to what the Church believes, and is a tender and telling invitation to 
 all who witness it, to accept the dying Savior whose love it commemo- 
 rates. It presents religion itself, not iu a forbidding, but in a winning 
 aspect ; the yoke of discipleship which it holds up to view, is an easy 
 yoke; the Gospel which it preaches, sanctified by such divine sorrow, 
 and brought home to the soul by a process deeper than any formal 
 demonstration, has peculiar power. At no hour in its history is the 
 Church more truly or more effectively proclaiming Christ to a sinful 
 world, than when in the true spirit of the Gospel, it gathers thus 
 
NO OTHER SACRAMENTS NEEDFUL. 69 
 
 around the cucharistic table. — Contemplated finally as an expression 
 by the Church of its love and gratitude and loyalty toward Christ 
 Himself, this festival reveals its supreme value. It is indeed an Eu- 
 charist — a hymn of gratitude to Him who instituted it, and whom it con- 
 tinually maguifies in His redemptive work. It is also a sacred cove- 
 nant, forever binding the Church afresh in the bonds of loyalty, and 
 becoming forever a fresh stimulus to duty and sacrifice in His cause. 
 How much the Church owes to these holy stimulations, and how much 
 the kingdom of God among men is dependent for its advances upon the 
 often recurring impulse to activity Avhich this sacrament brings, the 
 experience of the Church in all ages bears ample witness.^ 
 
 With such a holy festival as this, standing in the center, and supply- 
 ing to it such various benefits, the Church needs no other associated 
 ordinances. The minor sacraments of Eome, however desirable in 
 certain relations, become insignificant in the contrast. This is true 
 also of the washing of feet (John 13: 1-15), of the kiss of charity, or 
 the holy kiss (Rom. 16: 16, 1 Pet. 5: 14), and of the Agape, or feast 
 of brotherly love, which made its appearance in conjunction with the 
 Supper at an early date in the history of the Apostolic Church, 
 (Acts 2 : 46) and which seemed at one period likely even to rival the 
 Supper in its place in Christian esteem. Chrysostom describes the 
 Agape in glowing terms as a custom most beautiful and most beneficial, 
 for it was a supporter of law, a solace of poverty, a moderator of wealth, 
 and a discipline of humility. Other Fathers speak of the Agape in 
 similar strains. But we have distinct evidence that even in the days 
 of Paul, this usage was becoming a source of spiritual mischiefs within 
 the Church: 1 Cor. 11: 20-22. Jude also calls attention to those 
 who were foul spots in these feasts of charity, feasting themselves with- 
 out fear, while wholly opposed at heart to the spirit and aim of the 
 true faith. Peter also, according to some authorities, makes a like 
 criticism: 2 Pet. 2: 13. While the sacred Supper was by degrees 
 perverted in the following centuries into a gorgeous ceremonial, void 
 of quickening power, this revealed rapidly a tendency to degenerate 
 into a worldly feast, quite at variance with the fraternal oneness that 
 expressed itself so strikingly through the community of goods and in 
 breaking of bread from house to house, just after the Pentecost. De- 
 signed at first to show forth the equality of believers, and the unity of 
 the Christian household, it became by degrees a luxurious entertain- 
 ment for the rich in some cases, and in others a species of charity to 
 the poor. Losing its original quality, it came to be in several ways 
 
 'Calvin, Inst., Book IV: Ch. 17, on the Lord's Sapper, and its Advantages; 
 DwiGHT, Sermon 160 ; Hodge, Syst. Theol. Ill : G47-650. Also, Van Oosterzee, 
 DoRNER, in loc; Nevin, M>js(ical Presence ; Stanley, Christian Institutions. 
 
70 THE IMPERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE ClIURCTT. 
 
 a source of diversity and disorder within the Church, and at Icngtli fell 
 deservedly into disuse, as an institution unwarranted l)y the Scriptures, 
 and unfriendly to religion.^ 
 
 XIII. OiiDiNANCES Defined : Positive Institutions. — The third 
 impersonal constituent of the Church, closely associated with the 
 Sacraments, yet in several particulars distinguishable from them, 
 may be seen in the Christian Ordinances. These may be defined as 
 religious institutions or appointments, imposed by divine authority, 
 and designed to aid both the believer and the Church in the cultiva- 
 tion of i^iety, and in the discharge of various Christian duties. The 
 cognate phrase, means of grace, is sometimes employed so broadly as 
 to include the sacraments, or the Scriptures, or prayer, as well as these 
 subordinate institutes of the Gosjiel : — it is sometimes used to describe 
 merely such of these institutes as are combined together in social wor- 
 ship, as preaching, or the singing of hymns. The word, ordinance, is 
 also occasionally used as the equivalent of sacrament. But what is in- 
 tended here by the term is that series of positive appointments pre- 
 scribed in the Scriptures, which are associated with the sacraments as 
 elements in Christian culture and service, such as the Sabbath or the 
 Sanctuary. These tributary institutions are not so directly enforced 
 as are the sacraments, by the formal command of Christ himself: 
 neither are they so vitally related to religious experience, or so 
 clearly indicative of the relation of believers to the Church. Yet these 
 statutory regulations are important in many ways as adjuncts to the 
 maintenance of Christianity in the world. They supply an invaluable 
 array of conditions and helps in Christian living : they furnish time, 
 and place, and form for religion : they give meaning and volume to per- 
 sonal and social devotion. Though they are not so immediately asso- 
 ciated Avith the Church, they are still of inestimable value to it : with- 
 out their aid, the Church could not adequately sustain its interior life, 
 or fulfill its peculiar mission in the economy of redemption. Even in 
 the Hebraic dispensation, we see such tributary institutes standing 
 on every side as aids in religious culture : the altar, the tabernacle, 
 the holy times, the modes of worship, the prescribed ritual, each and 
 all positively enjoined, in order that through them the devout Hebrew 
 might be brought into a deeper, richer experience. Under the Gospel, 
 w'hile Avhat was merely typical is laid aside, and while the formal ele- 
 ments were reduced in numbers and prominence, yet the most essential 
 among these institutes w^ere carefully preserved for the benefit of the 
 
 ' " The growth of the churches, and the rise of manifold abuses led to the 
 gradual disuse, and in the fourth century even to the formal prohibition, of the 
 Agape, which belonged in fact only to the childhood and first love of the 
 Church." ScHAFF. Hist. Christ. Church, I : 395. 
 
CHUECHLY ordinances: THE SABBATH. 71 
 
 Church and of the believer. It is a serious error to suppose that such 
 positive ordinances are wholly set aside in this later dispensation. 
 Christianity like Hebraism both possesses and cherishes them as being, 
 if not essential to salvation, still indispensable to the healthiest growth, 
 the finest culture and development of the people of God. These pos- 
 itive institutions are four in number: The Sabbath, a sacred time : the 
 Sanctuary, a sacred place : the Means of Grace, a sacred cultus ; the 
 Ministry, a sacred form of service. A brief glance at each of these 
 must suffice : 
 
 XIV. The Sabbath — A Sacred Time, divinely appointed, is seen 
 at once to sustain most vital relations to the life and growth of the 
 Church. The following particulars concerning it may be briefly noted : 
 
 1. It was instituted primarily at the Creation, when God at the close 
 of the sixth day, or the sixth geologic period, rested or ceased from His 
 creative labor ; Gen. 2 : 2-3. This passage can not be regarded as an- 
 ticipatory merely, by those who accept the general record as in any true 
 sense historic. Traces of the Sabbath as a sacred institute, jjrobably in 
 conjunction with the primal institution of sacrifice, appear during the 
 antediluvian era; Gen. 4: 3, in the end of the days. References to 
 periods of seven days occur repeatedly, as in Gen. 7 : 10, 8 : 10, 29 : 
 27-28. The Week, finding its origin and model in the example of 
 God, was even at that period a recognized unit in time, sustained by 
 universal consent, on the basis of such divine warrant. ^ It is hardly 
 possible to account for the observance of this period among ancient na- 
 tions, as originating wholly in natural causes, such as the lunar 
 changes. It is obvious, especially, that the Israelites regarded the 
 seventh day as sacred, before its formal appointment a second time at 
 Sinai; Ex. 16: 22-26. The fact of such antecedent observance both 
 explains the form of the Sinaitic command, Remembei', and sheds 
 light on the specific methods in Avhich such remembrance was to be 
 shown. At Sinai the law of the Sabbath became obligatory in a 
 special sense (Ex. 20: 8-11, 31: 13-17), as commemorating also the 
 specific deliverance of the chosen people. They Avere never to forget 
 the natal day in their national existence, but were to regard it as the 
 fundamental institution on Avhich their civil organization, and also their 
 entire sacrificial system rested ; Deut. 5 : 12-15, Neh. 9 : 14, Ezek. 20 : 
 10-12. The second enactment, specific and national in form, by no 
 means disproves or supplants the original apjjointment in Paradise. It 
 is a frequent process in the scheme of grace to select existing things, 
 such as the rainbow, and to set them apart for sacred uses ; and also 
 to utilize for a further and more specific purpose, what at first existed 
 in a general and anticipatory form. To the devout Hebrew the Sab- 
 
 '■ Eight Studies on the Lord' s Day: Study III: The Week. 
 
72 THIC LMPEUSOXAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CHURCH, 
 
 bath was none the loss coninieniorative of the stupendous work of erc- 
 ation, because it was the day ou which he was also solemnly and grate- 
 fully to call to mind his marvelous deliverance from the Egyptian 
 bondage. We sec the same process illustrated in the third enactment 
 of the Sabbatli under the Gospel, to commemorate the completion of 
 the redemptive work of Christ, and the still more wonderful deliver- 
 ance of the soul from guilt and sin through His grace. As creation 
 suggested and involved redemption, so the rescue of the Israelites was 
 designed to stand as a grand historic type of the salvation which our 
 Lord lived and died and rose again to introduce. In its commemora- 
 tive relations to that salvation, the day receives its final endorsement 
 and coronation. 
 
 2. This threefold instituting of the Sabbath, occurring historically 
 at such signal epf)ehs, sufficiently indicates the divine design in its ap- 
 pointment. It was the day, first of all, in which man should call to 
 mind the Creator, the Preserver, the Father and Sovereign, from whom 
 his being and his blessings flowed, and to whom his service and homage 
 were ever to be rendei-ed. It was therefore to be, in a holy sense, the 
 day of rest from earthly avocations and engrossments, — a day in which 
 even the physical man might gain needful repose, and in which his so- 
 cial and moral nature might attain aj^propriatc development. To the 
 Israelite, it was also to be a day fraught with grateful memories of 
 the Providence that had so favored the Jewish people, and of that 
 entire series of divine revelations which had in such signal manner 
 attended the nation, through its supernatural history. It was to the 
 Hebrews a perpetual sermon, full of doctrine and no less full of relig- 
 ious training and stimulation. To the Christian, while it carried along 
 with it most of its preceding significance, it became still more instruct- 
 ive and stimulating, as the day when the Messiah rose from the grave 
 in confirmation of the Gospel He had introduced among men, — when 
 salvation through atoning grace was fully introduced, and the Avay of 
 life Avas published to the world. The centuries that have passed since 
 the morning of the resurrection, have only widened the purpose and 
 enlarged the benefits of this holy time. Especially, in the more com- 
 plex life and movement of the period since the Reformation, the ne- 
 cessity for such a positive provision as this, and the values flowing from 
 it, have become more and more apparent. The design of the Sabbath 
 has broadened steadily, as the ability to use it rightly has increased. 
 To the Church of this age it is seen to be indispensable in a degree 
 never before so distinctly realized. The Avorship, the work, the relig- 
 ious growth and spiritual influence of the Church, are turning more 
 and more upon the Sabbath; and Ave may anticipate, that as the 
 Church groAVS more and more into its true place in the Christian sys- 
 
THE SABBATH, AN ENDURING INSTITUTE. 73 
 
 tern, the Sabbath will become more and more precious in its uses and 
 iu its blessings, even until the end of time. 
 
 3. That the Sabbath is to be an enduring institution under the Gos- 
 pel, is apparent not only from these glimpses of its value, but from what 
 we may learn respecting the divine institution in its appointment. 
 Those who hold that as a direct injunction or law, the Sabbath was 
 Jewish only, and that in this aspect it passed away Avith the other cer- 
 emonial functions of that dispensation, lose sight both of its original 
 enactment at the creation, and also of the permanent values it pos- 
 sesses as a time for reverential commemoration of the Creator, who is 
 also the providential Preserver and Ruler of all men. They also lose 
 sight of the solemn significance of the Sabbath as the day that cele- 
 brates that redemptive work which, as a revelation of Deity, far tran- 
 scends creation itself. It is certainly erroneous to regard the day as 
 obligatory Avith reference only to the minor, intermediate event cele- 
 brated at Sinai, while these two far greater events are sustained in 
 remembrance by no statutory provision. The sparse passages some- 
 times quoted by the earliest Reformers, and also by later advocates of 
 this-lower view (Coll. 2: 16, Rom. 14: 5-6, Gal. 4: 10: and others), 
 fall very far short of sustaining thein opinion.^ They are abundantly 
 offset by many passages showing clearly that the obligation to observe 
 the day was intended to be, and is in fact, perpetual : Isa. 56 : 6-8, 
 66: 23: in conjunction with Mark 2: 27, John 5: 16-17, and others. 
 The place of the fourth commandment in the Decalogue is well-nigh 
 conclusive here. That the Decalogue in general was designed to be a 
 moral code for humanity — a species of divine basis for all right and 
 just legislation, the world over, through all time, is clear from the 
 nature of the specific precepts announced, from the manner and form 
 in which they were given, from the teaching of our Lord and the 
 Apostles respecting them, and from their vital relations to the Gospel 
 as a scheme of grace for those who had violated them. No just ex- 
 ception can be made as to the Sabbath : like the prohibition of idolatry, 
 or the law against theft, it was intended to be a law for humanity. It 
 is true that the manner of observing the day has changed ; and our 
 Lord himself regards such change as admissible, on the broad princi- 
 ple that the day was made for man: Matt. 12 : 1-13. This passage 
 confirms rather than controverts the general view here given. Our 
 Lord himself observed the Sabbath, and sanctified it by such observ- 
 ance: when He allowed works of mercy to be wrought, He by impli- 
 cation forbade all other labor. To interpret His teaching or that of 
 Paul (Col. 2; 16, 22) as involving an abrogation of the fourth com- 
 
 * For a full i)rcsentation of this view, see Hessey, Bampton Lectures, 1860. 
 
74 THE IMPERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 maiulinent, is ii serious departure from his owu de('liiriition lluit He 
 came not to destroy, but to fulfill. 
 
 4. The change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day of the 
 week, though resting on no explicit (command, is justified by the grand, 
 consummating event of the resurrection of our Lord, Avhich it thus 
 commemorates. As the institution jjointed primarily to the divine act 
 of creation, and secondarily to that divine act of preservation Avhich 
 stands out so signally in history as a type of providence overruling all 
 created things in the interest of grace, so it now points to that divine 
 act of salvation, of which the dying and the rising again of Jesus 
 Christ were the most signal incidents. It is significant that our Lord 
 himself introduces the change by His repeated manifestations of Him- 
 self on the first day of the week, during the forty days prior to His 
 ascension. The Mosaic Sabbath, as has been said, was not extensible : 
 it could not well be carried beyond the Jewish boundaries, neither 
 could it well express the universal scope, the world-wide relations, of 
 the Gospel economy. The great fact of a new kingdom of grace, com- 
 prehending believers in all lands and ages, and made forever glorious 
 by the perpetual presence of a divine King, could not be adequately 
 set forth through it. It pointed too much to the past, and to a past 
 which the Hebrew alone could appreciate, while the day of the resur- 
 rection pointed forward to a millennial future in which humanity might 
 share together. Hence our Lord himself, by his gracious appearings 
 again and again on the first rather than the seventh day, not only 
 suggested the observance of the new, but authorized the quiet sup- 
 planting and withdrawal of the old, — following here precisely the same 
 method as in the introduction of the Christian, as a substitute for the 
 Hebraic Church. In harmony with this divine purpose, we find the 
 disciples, even before the ascension (John 20: 19, 26) and regularly 
 afterward (Acts 2: 1, 20: 7, 1 Cor. 16: 2, Rev. 1: 10), assembled 
 together as by a divine Avarrant, to celebrate the day on which the 
 Savior arose. The peculiar title applied to it, the Lord's Day, is in- 
 dicative of their estimate, and of the justifying ground on Avhich they 
 made the change. On this general warrant, which the Church in all 
 subsequent ages has pronounced sufficient, the Christian Sabbath now 
 stands,— justified by considerations hardly less clear or strong than 
 those on Avhich the Church itself is established as a permanent institu- 
 tion in the Gospel scheme. 
 
 5. Respecting the manner of observance, common usage is adequate 
 to determine the external question whether that observ^ance shall begin 
 with the evening of the seventh, or the morning of the first day. 
 Other external questions, such as the proportion of worship, public or 
 private, the administration of the family life, the measure of social 
 
THE SANCTUARY, A SACEED PLACE. 75 
 
 fellowship, the amount of personal enjoyment or of travel admissible, are 
 also to be determined by the individual conscience, or by the judgment 
 of the household of faith at any given time. Works of necessity, and 
 woi-ks of mercy also, are warranted by the -example of Christ himself; 
 Luke 13: 14-16, Luke 6: 7-9. But all labor for purposes of gain, 
 and all employment inconsistent with the supreme design of the day, 
 as Avell as all forms of personal or social pleasure which tend to pre- 
 vent the soul from gaining the spiritual benefits which the day was de- 
 signed to secure, are by clear implication forbidden. The question 
 respecting the validity or the extent of legislation, whether by the 
 church or by the state, in support of the Sabbath — whether by speci- 
 fying acts forbidden, or by enjoining special duties, is one in which 
 only a general warrant of Scripture can be invoked. The main rule 
 here is, that this holy time is not to be observed in a ritualistic or 
 pharisaic spirit, in a rigid or technical temper, but in a mood entirely 
 in harmony with the great facts of grace, to whose reality it so beauti- 
 fully certifies. If the Sabbath is for man, the Sabbath is still more 
 obviously for the Christian and the Church, and its observance is but 
 one aspect or condition of that holy devotion, that joyous and unAvea- 
 ried service, which the Church is ever offering to her ascended Lord. ^ 
 It may be added here, that the Sabbath is the only sacred time di- 
 rectly warranted by Scripture. The various feasts and fasts of Roman- 
 ism, and the kindred observances instituted by some sections of Prot- 
 estantism, may have sprung from a right desire to increase the religious, 
 in contrast with the secular elements in human life. But their ten- 
 dency, like that of the Agape, has been downward habitually, and 
 what at first was holy time, has too often become at last a holiday. 
 Christmas itself, with its holy associations, has come to be, even in 
 Protestant circles, more a gay carnival than a holy feast. 
 
 XV. Three Associated Ordinances Described. — The other di- 
 vine institutions which stand in a relation to the Church not unlike 
 that of the Sabbath, are the Sanctuary as a sacred place, the Means of 
 Grace as a sacred cultus, and the Ministry as a sacred form of service. 
 These may be considered still more briefly : 
 
 1. The Sanctuary, as a place sacred to the worship of God, existed 
 in some form from the earliest ages. We indeed see religion first re- 
 vealed in the individual life ; the closet, or its equivalent, was the first 
 temple. Enoch walking Avith God, Abraham alone in his tent, Isaac 
 meditating at eventide, Jacob at Bethel, are historic illustrations of 
 this primary fact. Yet community in faith led early to community in 
 worship ; and around the rude altars which were the first places of holy 
 convocation, the pious met and shared in the appointed forms of de- 
 
 ' GiLFiLLAN, J., The Sabbath; a good practical treatise. 
 
76 Tin: lmpersonal constituents of the ciiuitcii. 
 
 votiou ; Geu. 8 : 20, Noah; Gen. 12: 8, Abraham. Suggestions of 
 such social worship in places provided for the purpose are found in the 
 history of the Israelites prior to the Exodus. In conjunction with 
 that event, God made direct provision for the Tabernacle, as such a 
 place for religious assembling; Ex. 25: 8-9 : and the elaborateness of 
 this provision shows His estimate of the importance of such a tribu- 
 tary institution. The history of this Tabernacle, during the Sinaitic 
 wanderings, and afterward at Gilgal and Shiloh and Gibeah, until its 
 final transfer by David to Mount Ziou (2 Sam. 6), constitutes a most 
 interesting chapter in the history of the Hebraic Church. During this 
 long period, the conception of such a place in which God should espe- 
 cially dwell and be adored, was wrought permanently into the Jewish 
 mind ; the tabernacle became an indispensable accessory to the Jewish 
 worship. In process of time this conception was further realized in 
 the Temple, which took the place of the Tabernacle as the recognized 
 center of the national devotions — the material embodiment, in its 
 amazing splendor and beauty, of the religious life of the people; 1 
 Kings, 6 and 8. The second temple erected in the days of Ezra, 
 though less magnificent, sustained the same relations. So also, even 
 from the age of Samuel, synagogues arose in Hebrew cities and villages, 
 as accessories on a smaller scale, subservient to the same spiritual end. 
 In the time of Christ, we find the national faith, though corrupted and 
 formalized, still erecting appropriate sanctuaries in which it might 
 abide as in a home, and where the ancient worship it still loved might 
 receive appropriate expression ; Luke 7 : 5. 
 
 Under the Gospel, the sanctuary sustains a still more intimate rela- 
 tion to the social life and activity of the Church. That deep religious 
 instinct which we thus trace in the history ol the people of Israel, and 
 which in its cruder forms leads men even under the impulses of natural 
 religion to erect altars, to consecrate groves, to rear splendid temples, 
 in honor of the deities they worship, rises to its culmination in Chris- 
 tianity. The disciples indeed worshiped privately at first, and after- 
 Avard for a time in whatever suitable places might be procured; but at 
 length the sanctuary begun to be reared everywhere as an enduring 
 representative, from Jerusalem and Antioch to Corinth and Rome, of 
 the faith whose adherents it sheltered. Such places are as essential 
 adjuncts to church life as is the Sabbath. They bring believers to- 
 gether as in a common home : they stand forth in society as a perpetual 
 invitation to the unbelieving Avorld to come in and hear the truth ; they 
 constitute a silent, but most effectual witness to the reality of the re- 
 ligion which they represent. And the obligation of each Church of 
 Christ to provide itself with such a habitation — one which in its 
 structure shall be conformed to the spirit of Christianity, and which 
 
THE MEANS OF GRACE, A SACRED CULTUS. 77 
 
 shall worthily commend the Gospel to the interest of all who observe 
 it — is one of the most urgent among the duties which any such organ- 
 ization owes to itself, or to the holy cause it maintains, 
 
 2. The Means of Grace, as the phrase is frequently employed, 
 are certain forms or methods of worship, imposed by divine authority, 
 and together constituting a species of sacred cultus in devotion. These 
 are sometimes called distinctively The Ordinances; Presb. Form of 
 Gov. : Chap. vii. At the first they consisted simply of sacrifice and 
 prayer ; after the Exodus, the offering of praise and the reading of the 
 law were added ; at a later date the exposition of the law was intro- 
 duced; and as the Sacred Books increased in number, history and 
 prophecy were also read and expounded in connection with the law. 
 Vocal praise especially grew into prominence in the age of David, 
 in conjunction with the costlier and more elaborate sacrifices then 
 offered. The simple ritual of the tabernacle was, by successive mod- 
 ifications, transmuted into the gorgeous ceremonial of the temple; 
 and this ceremonial was observed, so far as practicable, through the 
 succeeding centuries down to the era of our Lord. Not merely on 
 special occasions, but in the ordinary Sabbath Avorship, whether in the 
 temple or in the humble synagogue, these elements of devotion were 
 essentially the same. Numerous illustrations of these statements may 
 be gathered from the historical portions of the Old Testament. 
 
 While the early Christians ceased from sacrifices, the one great Sac- 
 rifice having been offered, they retained substantially the other elements 
 in the Hebraic religious cultus, suflJusing them throughout with the 
 nobler truth and the higher temper of the Gospel. To the reading 
 of the law and the prophets, they added the testimony concerning 
 Christ, and concerning salvation through Him. As the evangelical 
 narratives and the apostolical letters Avere prepared, the reading and 
 exposition of these became an important feature in their social devo- 
 tions. While prayer and praise were retained in accordance with 
 Jewish usage, the basis and scope of prayer, the substance and the 
 tone of praise, were vastly enhanced. The functions of the priest and 
 the scribe gave way by degrees to those of the Christian preacher. So 
 throughout, while the worship of the Church sprang as the Church 
 itself had done from Hebraism, yet like the Church it assumed from 
 the first a broadened form, a higher quality, in harmony with the 
 larger faith to which it was subservient. ^ In the Papal communion 
 we see these sacred institutes of devotion, like the sacraments, overlaid 
 with showy formalisms wholly at variance with the New Test, concep- 
 tion of worship. We find a vast, pompous, splendid but unscriptural 
 liturgy coming into existence, incorporating indeed these simpler ele- 
 
 'Schaff: Ancient Christianity, I; 118. Mosheim : First Three Centuries, I; 185. 
 
78 THE IMPERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 raents, but destroying in large degree their spiritual n)eaning and 
 effect, — a liturgy in great measure Judaistic in form, and capable as a 
 spectacular observance of making deep inn)ressi()us on the beholder, 
 but with relatively small power to spiritualize or to edify. I'rotestant- 
 ism agrees rather in regarding worship as consisting of prayer, praise, 
 and the reading and exposition of the Word, in addition to the sacra- 
 ments. The offering of gifts for church uses or for charity, and occa- 
 sional fasting or thanksgiving, and the administration of discipline, are 
 sometimes added to the list, as secondary forms of devotion. The pro- 
 portion of these elements varies in different communions, and at difler- 
 ent periods; and the matter of proportion, like the matter of written 
 or unwritten forms, is to be determined in each instance by the judg- 
 ment of the i)articular body. Such matters as standing or kneeling 
 or bowing in prayer, the use of Christian hymns, or of versions of the 
 Psalms only, and the like, may safely be referred to the same court for 
 decision. What is vital, as Protestants affirm, is to maintain the right 
 of each and all of these elements as authorized and obligatory forms in 
 worship, and to set them all iu their proper adjunctive relation to the 
 spiritual culture of the Household of Faith. 
 
 3. The Ministry, regarded simply as a sacred form of service, may 
 be classed among these impersonal constituents of the Church. The 
 conception of a series of divinely appointed modes of offering to God 
 social worship, carries with it the conception of an ordained leadership, 
 through which the Church may be aided in such joint devotions. The 
 historic foundations for such ministerial service are laid — if we go back 
 no further — in the appointment of Aaron and his sons, and also of the 
 Levitical order, as helps to the Hebrew Church in this holy task of 
 worship. The priestly office especially Avas an indispensable assistant 
 in such a cultus as that provided in the Mosaic economy. During the 
 theocratic and particularly the royal era, we see this ministerial adjunct 
 growing into greater prominence, and being more and more widely 
 utilized. The subsequent rise of the prophetic body, as accessory in 
 the task of educating, training, rearing the Church, is another fact of 
 the same class. Without such a ministry as this, viewed simply as a 
 divine ordinance, not only would the Hebrew worship have fallen to 
 the ground ; the Sanctuary and the Sabbath would have lost their prac- 
 tical value; the national faith itself would have ceased to be the con- 
 trolling power we find it to have been throughout the national history. 
 
 Without anticipating the consideration of the minister of Christ in 
 his personal qualities and relations to the Church, we may here observe 
 that the Christian ministry, as a service, stands properly among those 
 ordinances which in the divine economy are made tributary to the 
 proper organization, and even the healthful existence of the household of 
 
THE MINISTRY, A SACRED SERVICE. 79 
 
 faith. This ministry is in the new dispensation all that the priesthood 
 was in the old. The mode of election to it varies; — the service is no 
 longer hereditary. The call to that service is more distinctly spirit- 
 ual; it involves a deeper experience of religion, higher natural endow- 
 ments, clearer providential indications, and profounder spiritual mov- 
 ings toward the service. No anointing Avith oil by the hand of some 
 antecedent priest is essential ; it is the Church itself which bestows the 
 requisite endorsement. So the functions united together in this con- 
 crete ministry are higher. None but spiritual sacrifices are now to be 
 offered; prayer and praise are to be presented, not for the people, but 
 with the people ; the law is to be enforced from a different plane of 
 authority, and the Gospel is a message to be announced in a spirit and 
 method in harmony with its own nature. But such a ministry is no 
 less essential to the Christian than the priesthood was to the Hebraic 
 Church, but rather infinitely more. The sanctuary is of less moment; 
 the Sabbath is hardly more vital. Even the sacraments, contemplated 
 in their peculiarly close relations to the church life, are dependent on 
 the existing of such an office as this. A church without such a form 
 of service within it, can be in only a very inadequate sense a Church 
 of Christ. 
 
 With these glimpses of the Ministry and the Means of Grace, of the 
 Sanctuary and the Sabbath, viewed as so many adjunctive institutes or 
 ordinances, our review of the impersonal constituents of the Church 
 may be terminated. No other kindred ordinances or institutions can 
 be added to the list. The tendency to question the authoritativeness or 
 sacredness of these, and the disposition to add to their number any 
 human contrivances in the interest of religion, are alike to be con- 
 demned. The Church needs no other sacred time or place — no other 
 sacred worship or service. Equipped with such tributary institutes, 
 and blessed as we have seen Avith its two great sacraments, and 
 with a compact and adequate array of inspired doctrines, the Church 
 is beyond doubt abundantly qualified of God for that sacred mission 
 to which it is appointed — a mission of grace, Avide as the Avorld in 
 scope, and extending in time doAvn to the millennial age. 
 
80 THE I'EKSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER ni. 
 THE PERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CHURCH: 
 
 ITS ME>IBERS, ITS OFFICERS. 
 
 The impersonal constituents of the Church, considered in 
 the previous chapter, exist only for the sake of, and in tribu- 
 tary connection with, its personal constituents. Doctrines, 
 Sacraments, Ordinances, find their value solely in the relations 
 they sustain to the persons who compose the Church. "What- 
 ever in that divine organization is external and formal, must 
 be viewed always as accessory merely to what is interior and 
 vital. The Personal Element is of necessity supreme and 
 controlling. This element may properly be divided into the 
 two classes, the Members and the Officers, associated together 
 in the Church. 
 
 I. The Personal Element Supreme. — The natural tendency to 
 exalt the Church as a great external organism, at the expense of the 
 persons associated in it — to set the institution above the individual, and 
 to subordinate his convictions, his interests, and even his rights to its 
 domination, is one frequently appearing in ecclesiastical history. Church 
 doctrines, for illustration, especially when moulded into confessional 
 form, are often imposed upon believers to an extent for which there is no 
 warrant whatever, either in the Scriptures, or in the nature of the or- 
 ganization that imposes them. Church sacraments and ordinances 
 have in like manner been often robed with assumed authoritativeness, 
 and pressed as obligatory, in ways equally unwarranted, and equally 
 hurtful to the souls of men. The Church is regarded by virtue of a cer- 
 tain divine right as prescribing faith, ceremony, service ; and obedience 
 and submission, constant and absolute, are declared to be the supreme 
 duty of all who dwell within its communion. In the Church of Rome 
 we find this tendency embodying itself in a dominating priesthood, to 
 whose rule all private members are supposed to be made subject by 
 divine arrangement, and whose great function it is supposed to be to 
 enforce the prerogatives and prescripts of the Church as absolute, on 
 every one who owns allegiance to it. In some branches of Protestant- 
 ism we see this tendency manifesting itself in milder, but equally un- 
 warranted forms : we see the organization exalted into an undue place 
 
THE PERSONAL ELEMENT SUPREME. 81 
 
 in the Christian scheme, invested with an undue measure of authorita- 
 tiveness, and thus transformed sometimes into an instrument of tyran- 
 nical usurpation. The institution is set far above the person, and even 
 above the whole body of persons who are united in it; the organism 
 is made superior to the life that vitalizes it ; and the result is too often 
 a sj^ecies of Vaticanism hardly less unworthy than that of Rome itself. 
 A slight consideration of the question will be sufficient to make 
 clear the dangerous errors underlying all such ecclesiasticism, whether 
 Roman or Protestant. The relative estimate which our Lord himself 
 placed upon what is impersonal and what is personal in Christianity, 
 is an adequate guide at this point. His declarations concerning the 
 value of the soul, His sedulous ministries to the souls of men. His 
 plan of salvation for souls through personal union with Himself, all 
 conspire to show that in His view the exterior elements of the Gospel 
 derived whatever worth they possessed from their perceived relations 
 to this, the supreme aim and end of His redemptive scheme. The 
 Soul was always held by Him far above the Church, viewed as an in- 
 stitution merely. And as the Sabbath was made for man, so in His esti- 
 mate all other ordinances, each of the sacraments, and every doctrine 
 He proclaimed, were made for man, and found their supi'eme use in the 
 influence they exerted upon his spiritual life. There can be little ques- 
 tion that the Apostles held the same view, and acted on the same high 
 principle, in their organizing of the Church, and in their enforcement 
 of the several institutes and observances incorporated with it. While 
 they taught on the one hand a due subordination of the individual 
 believer to his brethren in the Lord, and while they maintained 
 absolutely the right of the Church to administer the Christian sac- 
 raments, and to enforce obedience to right law, even to the exclu- 
 sion of the unworthy, they never exalted the Church unduly : they 
 never enforced its claims or prerogatives in a dominating spirit. In 
 their view, the disciple was higher than the institution, — the personal 
 element rose above, and properly subordinated to itself, all that was 
 impersonal merely. And in the teaching and course of Christ, and 
 of those who, under His guidance, gave shape to the primitive Church, 
 we may easily learn the universal and the perpetual law. That Church 
 is not a mechanism or a crystallization, but rather a vital organism 
 instinct with personal life. Within its sacred enclosure, and under 
 its gracious influence, the human soul is to hear and accept divine 
 truth, to be anointed and sealed through the sacraments, to be cultured 
 and stimulated through the means of grace into vigorous spiritual life. 
 In a word, it is the Personal Element which renders all impersonal 
 elements worthy, and which above all else should make the Church 
 itself glorious in our eyes. 
 
82 THE I'EIISONAL CONSTITUENTS OE THE CIILT.CII. 
 
 II. Ciiuncn iMEMBEnsiiip : PnELiMiNAnv View. — AVhat has been 
 said already respecting the true conception of the Church, will .«crvc 
 to show that membership in it must be obtained by methods in har- 
 mony with the nature of the organization. Individuals arc not to be 
 born into it 2:)reciscly as they are born into the family, or made mem- 
 bers iu it precisely as they come into connection with the state within 
 whose territory they have their birth. The connection in this instance 
 is not natural but spiritual, — piety is its essential basis and justifica- 
 tion. And as fiiith is an active principle iu the soul, the connection 
 which faith establishes, must be voluntary, — the outgrowth, not of 
 nature, but of gracious choice. The Church is built essentially on this 
 foundation. The chosen generation, the royal priesthood, the holy 
 nation, the peculiar people, to whom Peter refers in such glowing 
 terms, are persons who have been called out of the darkness of nature 
 into the marvelous light of grace — called out also from the darkness 
 of their natural relations into the light and glory of the household of 
 faith, in order that they might through such attained piety show forth 
 the praises of Him who has granted them this spiritual calling. The 
 same conclusion is reached, if we contemplate the end or design of the 
 Church, whether toward God as iu worship, or toward man as in testi- 
 mony. These imply a voluntai-y and active connection, based on moral 
 predispositions, as their proper condition. True worship is indeed spon- 
 taneous, but not in the sense in which the singing of birds is: it is 
 rather the spontaneous outflow of a will thoroughly absorbed in God, 
 and inwardly devoted t;) His glory. And the only testimony to which 
 the world listens receptively, is the testimony which breaks forth from 
 hearts that are freely surrendered to Christ, and that find supreme 
 delight in witnessing to Him. 
 
 Hence all notions of church membership which ignore the active, 
 voluntary, holy personality that must pervade it — which find analo- 
 gies rather in those merely natural relations into which without choice 
 or purpose of our own we are born, must be set aside as inadequate. 
 It is impossible that the administration of baptism, whether to an infant 
 or to an adult, or the mere manducation of the sacred emblems in the 
 Eucharist, can entitle the recipient to a j)lace in this divine household. 
 Nor can any enactment of the state, or any payment of tithes imposed 
 by law, or any ecclesiastical declarations, however comprehensive, in- 
 stitute such a connection. Even in the Hebraic dispensation, the dis- 
 tinction between membership in the nation and membership in the 
 church inevitably worked itself into prominence, and in the latter 
 portion of the period became still more prominent. Under the Gospel, 
 the maintenance of such a distinction, is vital to the entire conception 
 of the Church; to deny it would be to Judaize our Christianity. In 
 
MEMBERSHIP IN THE PEIMITIVE CHURCH. 80 
 
 holding this view, it is not needful to ignore the peculiar place which 
 the pious household sustains in the plan of grace, or to refuse to the 
 children of believers any manner of connection with the Church. But 
 the general law of niembershiiD remains undisturbed; the bond of union 
 must ever be spiritual. What disastrous consequences follow every 
 deviation from this principle, on whatever side, will be apparent from 
 a brief survey of the theories of membership which have been held 
 within the various sections of Christendom. 
 
 III. Membership in the Primitive Church. — Reverting first to 
 the Church Apostolic, wc see at once that, just as the disciples found 
 the proper norm or form of the new organization in the Jewish syna- 
 gogue, so they found the spiritual basis of that organization in the 
 piety, or the faith, which had been the recognized foundation of both 
 the Patriarchal and the Hebrew Church. They knew already that all 
 were not the true Israel Avho were of Israel externally, but only those 
 who by the possession of a kindred experience had become in heart the 
 children of faithful Abraham. The transient organization which John 
 the Baptist had set up on the basis of sincere repentance, and of obe- 
 dience to righteous law, had doubtless emphasized the lesson which both 
 the teaching of the prophets, and the course of the national history, had 
 enforced. What our Lord had taught them respecting religion as a 
 matter of heart and spirit primarily, respecting the true nature of 
 repentance and conversion, respecting the quickening influence of 
 faith, and its power to transform the whole man into likeness to Him- 
 self, had rendered it impossible that they should contemplate church 
 membership as having any other than a spiritual foundation. And 
 when they came to contemplate the great truth, that the Church they 
 were organizing was to include Gentile as well as Hebrew, — all men 
 of all nations who would heartily receive and follow the Messiah— this 
 impossibility became a thousand fold more distinct and more decisive. 
 In such an organism, none other than the religious qualifications of which 
 the faith of Abraham was both forerunner and symbol, could have 
 been introduced. 
 
 Hence we find the recognized basis of membership in the Apostolic 
 Church, to be simply an avowed and authenticated belief in, and ac- 
 ceptance of Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of men. The record fur- 
 nished in the earlier chapters of the Book of Acts is decisive on this 
 point. The message of Peter at the Pentecost was the message of 
 the whole body of disciples : Repent, believe, be baptized for the re- 
 mission of sins, receive the Holy Ghost, and enter heartily on the new 
 life He imparts. Those who received his word, and they only, were 
 baptized ; those who were baptized, continued in the doctrine and fel- 
 lowship of the new organization ; and the Lord added to it day by 
 
84 THE PERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 (lay those that were being saved. From the rule tluis estahlislied at 
 the outset, the apostles never swerved. Whatever disposition naturally 
 -remained to cling to the old national test, and to give the Hebrew, if 
 not an exclusive right, still a special eminence within the household of 
 faith, seems to have disappeared almost wholly after the experience of 
 Peter at Samaria, and the introduction of the Gentile into full mem- 
 bership. That parties should have arisen, either from the natural as- 
 sumption of supremacy by the Jewish converts, or from the natural 
 jealousy of converts from other nationalities, is certainly not surprising. 
 But the obvious fact is, that no serious attempt was made in any 
 quarter to reduce the standard and test of membership which the 
 miraculous events of the Pentecost had set up, or to exclude any 
 persons of any class in whom the evidence of true disciplcship appeared. 
 That unconverted persons sometimes became members, on their pro- 
 fession of faith and acceptance, is made clear by the instance of Ananias 
 and Sapphira, and of Simon of Samaria; Acts 5: 1-10, 8: 13-24. 
 But we have abundant proof in the letters of both Paul and John, 
 and of Peter and James also, that such instances were viewed as 
 wholly exceptional ; and that the young Church was made by such ter- 
 rible illustrations still more strenuous in insisting upon the spiritual 
 standard already described. It is needless to refer to specific evi- 
 dences of this fact. The frequent warnings against hypocrisy and 
 delusion, the strong injunctions to the exercise of faith, and 4;o the 
 culture of a genuine Christian life, the assertion of the right of the 
 Church to administer discipline, and the actual expulsion of persons 
 found to fall short of the standard prescribed, show decisively the 
 spiritual principle on which the apostolic churches were planted. 
 
 It is a familiar fact in ecclesiastical history, that this standard 
 remained without challenge, until the persecutions of the second and 
 third centuries on one side, and the rapid development of worldliness 
 within the Church on the other, gave occasion for a more exact analy- 
 sis and exposition of the primitive terms of membership. It was per- 
 haps inevitable that, under these two adverse influences, the simple 
 but searching test of the apostolic age should give way to more exter- 
 nal or formal conceptions of church connection. As an offset to this 
 downward tendency, INIontanism appeared in the latter part of the 
 second century, not merely insisting upon such thorough application 
 of the biblical rule as would exclude any and all w'ho might be un- 
 believers, but also setting up an extraordinary standard of holiness, to 
 which but few" among genuine disciples could attain. The tw'o noted 
 schisms of Felicissimus at Carthage, and of Novatian at Rome, in the 
 third century, originating in the endeavor to exclude finally from the 
 Church all who had lapsed under persecution, were also movements in 
 
MEIVIBERSHIP : GREEK AKD PAPAL VIEW. 85 
 
 the interest of stricter adherence to the apostolic standard. Donatism, 
 rising into prominence in the fourth century as a further protest 
 against the looseness and the imperialism current in the Church, in 
 like manner took high ground not merely against those who had proven 
 unworthy, but also in favor of the most rigid scrutiny of the spiritual 
 state and the personal confession of all who sought church membership. 
 Amid many extravagances, and even serious errors as to the real nature 
 of the Christian life, these parties were striving to maintain, in the pres- 
 ence of prevailing downward tendencies, the doctrine and practice of 
 the early disciples. But these tendencies Avere too strong to be re- 
 sisted. Even Augustine took ground against Donatism as a fanatical 
 and impracticable extreme : and became the representative advocate 
 of the more formal, less searching view of discipleship. To him we 
 probably owe the first special emphasizing of the distinction between 
 the visible Church and the Church invisible, with its natural conse- 
 quent in the more definite exaltation of the outward profession, as dis- 
 tinguished from the spiritual faith professed. ^ Under such advocacy, 
 the Church came to be contemplated more and more as an external 
 society, and connection with it involved little more than a declaration 
 of belief in Christianity. In resisting the teaching of the stricter 
 school, which indeed was often extreme and impractical, and some- 
 times wildly fanatical, the Church gradually lost its hold of the New 
 Testament doctrine, and fell away into a grosser view — the precursor 
 of that still more serious departure, whose historical outcome was the 
 Church of Rome. 
 
 IV. Greek and Papal View of Ciiuech Membership. — From 
 the fifth to the sixteenth century, this superficial theory of membership, 
 harmonizing so well with other formal tendencies in both the Eastern 
 and the Western Churches, excluded almost entirely the primitive 
 doctrine. As the Church came to be regarded more and more as a 
 visible organism, with a fixed geographic center, whether at Constanti- 
 nople or Rome, and with an authoritative head, Avhether patriarch or 
 pope, — as the ministry came to be viewed as a priesthood through 
 whose touch all grace must flow, and the sacraments were esteemed as 
 mystical instrumentalities for the conferring of that grace which the 
 Church was supposed to contain, much as a goblet contains wine, it 
 was inevitable that saving faith in Christ, as exercised prior to all ex- 
 ternal profession, should sink gradually out of sight. Men came to 
 
 ' "There are many reprobates mingled with the good, and both are gathered 
 togetlier by the Gospel as in a drag-net : and in this world, as in a sea, both swim 
 enclosed without distinction in the net, until it is brought ashore, when the 
 wicked must be separated from the good, that in the good, as in His temple, God 
 may be all in all." Civitas Dei: Book 18: 49. For the history of these strug- 
 gles, see Mosheim, Neander, Gieseler, Hase, in loc. 
 
86 TiiK ncnsoxAL constituents of the ciiuncii. 
 
 tlic Church, ^vithout relicjious oxporienco of any sort, to receive a 
 blcs:?ing which the Church alone couUl confer. Ciiildron came into 
 the fold through baptism, and the membership thus instituted was never 
 dissolved, except in cases of grievous heresy or of extraordinary crime. 
 The outward confession was the only requisite needful : the inward 
 basis and justification of such confession, as defined in the New Testa- 
 ment, was no longer required ; and the Church was consequently filled 
 with those who merely received its formal chrism, and were content 
 with proclaiming before men their formal allegiance, not to Christ, but 
 to Christianity. 
 
 As the Greek and the Romish teachings differ but slightly, we may 
 find sufficient illustration of the error common to both, in the author- 
 ized declarations of the latter communion. The Komau Catechism of 
 1566, (I: 10, 7-8) recognizes the distinction between the good and the 
 unworthy, by describing the former class as bound and joined together 
 within the Church, not only by the profession of faith and communion 
 in the sacraments, but also by the spirit of grace, and the tie of charity. 
 But it also declares that both classes are properly included within the 
 Church, and are to be allo^ved there, as the chaff is permitted to grow 
 among the wheat. Bellarmine, Ecdes. JlfnYfY. , Chap, ii, defines the church 
 as a company of men, Avho profess the Christian ftiith, and are bound 
 together by participation in the sacraments, under the government of 
 authorized pastors, the Roman Pontiff as vicar of Christ on earth being 
 supreme. The first of these three qualificatious in his view excludes 
 all infidels, all Jew^s, Turks and Pagans, and all heretics and apostates ; 
 the second excludes all catechumens who have not received the eucha- 
 rist, and all excommunicated persons ; and the third shuts out all schis- 
 matics who may possess the true faith and the sacraments, but still are 
 not under the divinely ordained government of the priesthood. He 
 emphasizes these qualifications as external and visible — setting them 
 over against the Protestant demand, as he defines it, that internal vir- 
 tues are requisite to constitute church membership ; and finally declares 
 that the Church is a body of men as visible and palpable as the assem- 
 bly of the Roman people, or the kingdom of Fj-ance, or the reiDublic 
 .of Venice. 
 
 That this is a wide and disastrous departure from the doctrine of the 
 Apostolic age, will be obvious at a glance. The sources of the error 
 are easily seen in the deceptive notion of organic visibility, in the 
 false conception of the priesthood, in the kindred error concerning the 
 sacraments as elements of grace, and in the crude and low views of 
 Christian character, accepted everywhere in the Papal Church. Its 
 harmful consequences are seen as easily in the merely external profes- 
 sions allowed, and in the wholly unspiritual relationship sustained by 
 
MEMBERSHIP AT THE REFORMATION. 87 
 
 multitudes within that communion. And no ai'gument more conclusive 
 or crushing against this theory can be needful than that which is fur- 
 nished directly in the history of Romanism since the Keformation, and 
 in the present spiritual condition of the Papal Church. Oriental Chris- 
 tianity, misled in the same way, opening its doors to all who will ac- 
 knowledge its ecclesiastical authority and submit themselves to its sacra- 
 mental discipline, shows still more painfully in its multii^lied formalisms 
 and in its utter deadness spiritually, how disastrous, how fatal this 
 error as to the law of church membership is. Certainly, it is impos- 
 sible to build up a true Church of Christ on such foundations; if the 
 external tests of admission have no profound spiritual basis, no vital 
 experience of saving grace to rest upon, they became of necessity a 
 mischievous formality, a deadly snare. 
 
 V. Protestant Doctrine op Membership after the Refor- 
 mation. — Passing over from the view current in the Greek and Roman 
 communions, to the general teaching of Protestantism, especially 
 during the century following the Reformation, we fail to find in that 
 teaching any really adequate recognition of the primitive doctrine. 
 The comprehensive declaration of Hugo, that the true Church is the 
 Multitudo Fidelium, and of Savonarola, that the true Church is com- 
 posed of all those who are united in the bonds of love and of truth by 
 the grace of the Spirit, were indeed accej^ted, and incorporated sub- 
 stantially into the newly formed Protestant Creeds. The French Con- 
 fession of 1559, for example, defines the Church (Art. xxvii) as the 
 company of the faithful who agree to follow the Word of God, and 
 the pure religion which it teaches : who grow in grace all their lives, 
 believing and becoming more and more confirmed in the fear of God. 
 This Confession admits that there may be hypocrites and re2:)robates 
 among the faithful, but declares that their wickedness can not destroy 
 the title of the Church, — a title which rests on the spiritual reception 
 of the Word and of the holy Sacraments. The Confession of Augsburg 
 in like manner describes the Church (Art. vii) as the congregation or 
 assembly of the saints, or of believers ; in which the Gospel is rightly 
 preached, and tlie sacraments are rightly administered. ^ Most of the 
 Symbols of the period make similar declarations, yet there was evident 
 shrinking, in many cases, from the full application of the spiritual and 
 searching principle avowed. Various influences conspired to prevent 
 such application. IMany persons doubtless united with the several 
 Protestant bodies, merely as a form of declaration against the Church 
 of Rome, or as an expression of their adherence to the general princi- 
 ples, such as the right of religious freedom and of the private inter- 
 
 ' In the edition of 1540 : Congregatio membrorum Christ!, hoc est, Sanctorum, 
 qui vcre crcdnnt ct ohcdiunt Christo. Schaff. Vol. ill : 13. Sec also Conf. Basle, Art. 5. 
 
88 THK TERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 pretatioii of Scripture, on uliich rrote.^tanti^m rested. Agalu, in 
 many luinils an intelloctual acceptance of tlie doctrine of justification 
 by faith, iu contrast with tiic Romisli theory of justification througli 
 works imposed by the priesthood, was regarded as a sort of substitute 
 for liearty faith in Christ Himself as a personal Ivedeemer. Moreover, 
 the dialectic disputations among the Keformers on questions largely 
 speculative, and the multiplication of creeds to express slight differ- 
 ences, turned the thoughts of many away from the more vital matter 
 of belief and trust in the Savior. To these causes may be added the 
 entangling alliance everywhere existing between the Church and the 
 State, — an alliance which divided widely the provinces of Central 
 Europe into Catholic and Protestant, and which tended everywhere to 
 obliterate the distinction between political citizenship and church 
 membership. 
 
 In addition to these general hindrances to a full return to the New 
 Testament doctrine, Ave may note the special influence of the views 
 then current with respect to infant baptism, to the jilace and rights 
 of children within the Church, and to the spiritual efficacy of the 
 sacraments. The Eomish usage of confirmation was substantially 
 retained by both the Lutheran and the Reformed bodies : the recitation 
 of the Commandments, and of the Creeds and Catechisms, Avas widely 
 accepted as a sufficient qualification for communion. Though Christ 
 Himself was regarded as the source and giver of salvation, yet con- 
 nection with the Church and participation in the sacraments Avere too 
 often contemplated as steps toAvard rather than signs of sah'ation ; and 
 if such connection Avas accompanied by general propriety in conduct, 
 or the absence of heinous sin, it Avas too often held to be sufficient. 
 Among the Lutheran bodies little more than this Avas insisted upon : 
 and even the Reformed, uotAvithstanding their general inclination 
 tOAvard greater stringency in such directions, Avere disposed to condemn 
 those advocates of a more stringent A'ieAv, Avhom the Augsburg Con- 
 fession stigmatizes as Donatists and such like. Cah'in himself regards 
 all as entitled to membership Avho, by confession of faith, regularity in 
 conduct, and participation iu the sacraments, acknoAvledge God and 
 Jesus Christ. He indeed pronounces it a disgrace, if persons of im- 
 moral life occupy a place among the people of God, and declares that 
 if churches are Avell regulated, they Avill not suffer persons of abandoned 
 character among them, or admit the Avorthy and nuAvorthy promis- 
 cuously to the table of the Lord. Yet he lays large stress on Avhat he 
 styles the judgment of charity in regard to all such persons, and laments 
 the imperfection of the times, as shown in the inability of the churches 
 to exercise discipline, even in the case of gross offenders. ^ 
 
 * Calvin, Inst. Book iv : Chap. 1 : 15. 
 
membership: formal PROTESTANT VIEW. 89 
 
 VI, Current Opinion among Protestants: The Formal 
 View. — Without dwelling upon the multiplied illustrations of the 
 Protestant doctrine of church membership during the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries, or on the defective usages which sprang np in 
 consequence within the various Protestant communions, we may turn 
 at once to consider existing opinions among those who together Avear 
 the Protestant name. These opinions may with sufficient exactness be 
 thrown into two main classes : those which lay stress chiefly on the ex- 
 ternal or formal relationship, and those which emphasize especially a 
 change of heart through grace, and a conscious Christian experience and 
 life, as the essential condition of membership. Of these the formal or 
 external view may first be considered : 
 
 The Church is contemplated, according to this view, as a visible so- 
 ciety simply, having a prescribed system of administration and ordi- 
 nances, and an ecclesiastical right of discipline, — existing in virtue of a 
 formal covenant, and capable as an organization of conferring certain 
 external privileges, apart Avholly from the spiritual state or desert of 
 the recipient. This visible society sustains only an external relation- 
 ship to Christ, and is made up merely of professing adherents, and 
 held together simply by the possession of these outward rights and pre- 
 rogatives. Into this visible society any one may be introduced who 
 submits to the ordinance of baptism, and who avows his general faith 
 in Christianity. Of its external privileges, such as participation in the 
 Supper, he may by such formal connection become partaker, though 
 he be conscious of no real union of soul with Christ as his personal Re- 
 deemer. From the visible fellowship thus established, nothing but an 
 authoritative separation, through excommunication on account of de- 
 monstrated sin, can expel him. The entire connection is an outward and 
 formal one ; the possession of grace in the heart is not presupposed or 
 implied in it. The conditions are, the declaration of what may be 
 termed historical or intellectual belief in Christianity as a religion, and 
 an outward conformity with the prescribed rules of the visible body. 
 The adherent professes to be, not an infidel or scoffer, but in an exter- 
 nal sense a believer ; and as such seeks for himself and his children the 
 outward advantages, which connection with such an organization con- 
 fers. 1 
 
 This wholly formal conception of membership is based on a very 
 broad, and indeed unwarrantable distinction between the Church vis- 
 ible and the Church invisible. It is supposed to be justified by what 
 our Lord teaches, in several parables and elsewhere, respecting His 
 Church on earth as a mixed society, containing good fish and bad, tares 
 and wheat, within the one visible organization. It assumes the ex- 
 
 'Banneeman, D. D., Presbyt. Alliance Proceedings; 1880, p. 525. 
 
90 THE PERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF TUE CIIURCH. 
 
 istence of a certain outward covenant, and of a series of merely ex- 
 ternal privileges, of which those who are not true believers may pro])- 
 crly avail themselves. It sets forth the sacraments, not as the signs 
 and seals of regenerative grace enjoyed, but rather as the appointed 
 marks of an external union, and consequently as advantages or bene- 
 fits which those who are not Christians may share. It reduces the 
 standard of admission to a simple application, and makes membership 
 a mere form ; surrendering the question of qualification Avholly to the 
 applicant, unless he be a notoriously profligate person. And wherever 
 the connection between Church aud State exists, this union is consti- 
 tuted even without formal action by eitlier party — the inhabitant <jf a 
 given territory becoming, de facto, a member of the legal Church. So, 
 wherever baptism is regarded as conferring not a constructive, but an 
 actual aud complete membership, the baptized child, submitting at a 
 given age to the ceremony of confirmation, becomes, or is, without 
 further inquiry, an authorized member in the visible society that baj)- 
 tized it. Thus Blunt, ^ representing the high Anglican view, defines 
 the visible Church as the whole body of those who have been baptized, 
 and who have not been authoritatively separated from the Church by 
 excommunication. That this is a departure from the doctrine of the 
 Thirty-nine Articles is obvious, but it is a departure to Avhich the 
 theoiy of one comprehensive state church, and the theory of baptismal 
 regeneration, inevitably compel their advocates. The state churches 
 of Northern Europe, and extensive sections of European Lutheranism, 
 are based on substantially the same misconception. 
 
 A modified or intermediate theory, retaining many of the character- 
 istics of the preceding, appears in the view held in certain sections of 
 British Presbyterianism. This opinion recognizes on the one side the 
 insuflaciency of the Romish test, and demands something more than a 
 surrender of the understanding to the dictates of the Church in 
 matters of faith, and a formal submission to its ordinances. But on 
 the other side, it maintains that an intelligent j^rofession of belief in 
 the Gospel, coupled with conduct and life in harmony Avith such pro- 
 fession, is all that the Church may properly requii'c. It denies that 
 a saving belief in Christ is the only title of admission to the Christian 
 society, and questions the right of that society to require from the 
 applicant credible proof that he has any such title. In the language 
 of one of its advocates, this theory holds that the Church stands 
 revealed before the eyes of men, embodied as an outward system of 
 administration and ordinances and discipine : and that men are called 
 upon to enter within this Church, and are promised that, if they do 
 so, they shall enjoy certain advantages even outwardly, and distinct 
 
 ^ Dictionary of Doct. and Hist. Theolofjy : Art. Church. 
 
MEMBERSHIP; SPIRITUAL VIEW. 91 
 
 from any saving benefits in this clinrch state. This position is justified 
 on the ground that the biblical conception of the Church as visible 
 demands it, and on the further ground that any closer test than this 
 cannot be applied without assuming for the Church an unwarrantable 
 degree both of authority and of spiritual insight.^ 
 
 The serious error in all such teachings lies primarily in the ignor- 
 ing of the cardinal principle, that the only legitimate membership 
 possible is that which rests upon repentance and faith and a holy life ; 
 and secondarily, in the assumption that the visible church is something 
 other, more external and formal, and altogether less comprehensive 
 and spiritual in its demands, than the true Church of Christ on earth. 
 The distinction between the visible and the invisible household of 
 faith is indeed justifiable, and is in certain directions important. But 
 clearly no warrant exists in Scripture, or in the perceived nature of 
 Christianity, for such an application of that distinction ; and the con- 
 sequences following such application are themselves abundant proof of 
 its unlawfulness. To those who are familiar with the history of the 
 conflict in New England during the last century over the Half-Way 
 Covenant, as it was termed, no further evidence of such unlawfulness 
 is needful. The practical result everywhere, as in that historic illus- 
 tration, can only be to fill the Church with an unregenerate member- 
 ship, to the irreparable injury alike of its true spiritual quality, of its 
 standing before the world, and of its power to discharge adequately 
 its great commission to disciple the nations. 
 
 Vn. Current Opinion among Protestants : The Spiritual 
 View. — This view may be defined in general as a closer return to the 
 doctrine and usages of the Apostolic Church. It may be well described 
 by a brief reference to the historic illustration just named. Prior to 
 the middle of the eighteenth century, the churches of New England, 
 in their attempt to establish a theocracy both ecclesiastical and civil, 
 had received multitudes of j)ersons who indeed accepted Christianity as 
 a system, and believed in such sound standards of doctrine as the 
 Westminster Confession, and who were also for the most part moral 
 in life, and practically beyond the I'each of church discipline, but who 
 still Avere not Christians at heart, and therefore were only an enfeebling 
 and demoralizing element within the church. That such a condition 
 of things could not exist permanently^ is apparent from the nature of 
 the case : an element like this must either be excluded from the spiritual 
 body, or press that body down to its own unsgiritual level. With the 
 purifying process that finally wrought out that exclusion, the name 
 of Jonathan Edwards is indissolubly associated. His earnest and 
 powerful presentation of the proper qualifications for church fellow- 
 
 * Banneeman, James. Church of Christ : Vol. I, p. 75, seq. 
 
92 THE rcnsoNAL constituents of the ciiuRai. 
 
 ship and communion, based as it was on his high and strong scheme 
 of Christian doctrine, prepared the way for the introduction of better, 
 more evangelical tests of n.cnibershij). In his memorable treatise, 
 Edwards shows with convincing power what saving faith truly is as a 
 profound, vital, regenerating experience, — what it really is to receive 
 Christ in His jierson and His offices as a personal Redeemer, and to 
 attain and possess the sjjiritual life, of which such a reception of Christ 
 is both the beginning and the permanent source. He also examines the 
 profession of such faith ; showing what it involves as a personal cove- 
 nant with the tSavior, and to what vast changes of thought, feeling, 
 conduct, it commits the soul that intelligently makes it. He empha- 
 sizes also the public and visible element in such profession, as some- 
 thing done before the Church, and before the world, — the organized 
 church being not merely a witness, like the world, but also a party to 
 the compact thus made by the professing disciple })rimarily with Christ 
 Himself. Against all connection with the Church through baptism, 
 or by virtue of civil position, or any similar external process — against 
 all mere profession of adherence to Christianity as a system, or mere 
 submission to sacramental grace, or mere pledges of external morality, 
 he enters strong, effectual protest. In a word, he brings out afresh, 
 with great vividness, the simple and searching tests applied by the 
 apostles, and demands for these full recognition, cordial acquiescence. ^ 
 
 The views of Edwards, made conspicuous as they Avere by the sad 
 conflict through which he was compelled to pass in maintaining them, 
 and made still more conspicuous by the revivals that were showered 
 upon New England largely in consequence of their promulgation, have 
 been extensively accepted in America, and within evangelical circles 
 in Protestant Europe, as expressing the substantial doctrine of Scrip- 
 ture on this vital subject. Postponing here the subsidiary question as 
 to the relative responsibility of the individual making a visible pro- 
 fession, and of the Church that receives him to membership on that 
 profession, we may safely hold with Edwards that nothing less than 
 such a spiritual state as has been described, can constitute any person 
 a worthy candidate for admission to the organized household of faith. 
 It is true that the visible Church is set forth in the Bible as a net en- 
 closing good fish and bad, as a field containing wheat and tares grow- 
 ing together unto the harvest, as a companionship in which men like 
 Ananias, and Simon the sorcerer of Samaria, are found. It is true 
 that even in the apostolic circle Judas had a place; and that no insight 
 of man is able always to detect hypocrisy, and no power vested in the 
 
 •Edwards, Qualifications for Full Communion. Also, Thoughts on the Revival of 
 Religion in New England. Consult also his treatise on the Religious Affections: 
 and Bellamy, Tnie Religion Delineated. 
 
MEMBERSHIP IN THE PARTICULAR CHURCH. 93 
 
 Church is adequate to the task of its own entire purification. There 
 is some force also in the conception of the visible Church as an exter- 
 nal society, having certain rights and prerogatives vested in it, while 
 in that position. But all this furnishes no justification for the inference, 
 that the Church as visible is to lower its standard from a saving belief 
 in Christ credibly evidenced to the body, to a general declaration of 
 adherence to Christianity, and an outward submission to the sacra- 
 ments, even though these be accompanied by a commendable morality 
 in the person seeking admission. At this point the modified view ad- 
 vocated by Bannerman is hardly less defective theoretically, while in 
 practice it is far more dangerous, than the purely formal theory allowed 
 largely in the Anglican, and practically followed in many of the Con- 
 tinental communions. A glance at the New Test, teaching will con- 
 vince any one that the apostolic Church never admitted any one to its 
 fellowship in order that he might enjoy certain outward advantages 
 wholly apart from his spiritual estate — without any preestablished re- 
 lation to Christ within the Church invisible. Its invariable requisite 
 was nothing less than a saving belief in the Savior Himself, consciously 
 possessed and duly authenticated, not by a moral, but by a distinct- 
 ively holy life. 
 
 VIII. Membership in the Particular Church. — Reducing this 
 conception of saving belief to its several elements, we discover four 
 definite qualifications for church membership — each and all of which 
 are indispensable. These qualifications are, first, a spiritual know- 
 ledge of God, especially as revealed in the Gospel, as Father and Son 
 and Holy Ghost : second, repentance for sin as committed against God, 
 and trust in the divine mercy, especially as that mercy is manifested 
 in and through Christ as a Redeemer: third, obedience to God, and 
 cordial devotion to His interests and kingdom, culminating under the 
 Christian dispensation in personal conformity with Christ, and loyal 
 consecration to His service: fourth, a public declaration of such faith 
 and devotion, and a holy covenant with God to be His servant, followed 
 and confirmed by voluntary union and communion with His people, 
 and, under the Gospel, with some branch of the Christian Church. It 
 will be obvious that these four elements are essential expressions of true 
 piety under all dispensations, and that they consequently have always 
 been, in greater or less degree, the indispensable prerequisites to true 
 church membership, even in the Hebraic or the Patriarchal era. It 
 will also be obvious that, while all are essential to membership in the 
 Church invisible, they are all, and especially the last, essential to a 
 just connection with any visible household of faith. From the nature 
 of the case the latter connection must presuppose their existence, and 
 assume it throughout, or the connection established must be throughout 
 
94 TlIE PERSONAX, CONSTITUENTS OF THE CIIUIICII. 
 
 formal, meaningless, dangerous to all spiritual interests, whether of the 
 Church or of the individual soul. 
 
 Hence, in the particular church, it is indispensable that great care 
 , should be taken at this most vital point. The following conditions are 
 'requisite here. First: there must be an open profession or confession, 
 not merely of general adherence to Christianity or general belief in 
 the Gospel, but of personal piety, — individual faith and trust in Christ 
 Himself for salvation. Secondly: this profession or confession must 
 be credibly evidenced, not merely by a moral life, but by the possession 
 and manifestation of those spiritual experiences and graces, which are 
 the direct outgrowth of a living piety within the breast. Thirdly : 
 this evidence must be I'eceived and considered by the particular church, 
 through some suitable and appointed method — the profession must be 
 believed by that church to be genuine, and to represent a regenerate 
 state in the applicant. As the household of faith must share Avith him 
 in the issue of his act, so it is bound to form some just estimate of the 
 spiritual condition which the act symbolizes. Fourthly : there must 
 also be in every such case a voluntary acceptance of the covenant and 
 creed of the organization, and a cordial submission to its legitimate 
 regulations and authority. Loyalty not merely to the Church at large, 
 but to the particular body, is of necessity implied in such a step ; 
 otherwise, the connection becomes little more than an abstract declara- 
 tion, having but slight influence on any of the parties, and of small 
 value as a contribution to the general cause of Christ. 
 
 Some who admit the need of the first and second of these specific 
 qualifications, question the propriety of requiring the third, on the 
 ground that the particular church is in fact incapable of forming an 
 accurate judgment respecting the spiritual state of any applicant, and 
 that the assumption of the right, or the acknowledgment of the ob- 
 ligation to do this, is consequently improjDer and mischievous. It is 
 said that the visible Church is and must always be a mixed society; 
 that the effort to expel all unworthy members, or to keep the Church 
 absolutely pure, has always been a failure ; that Christ intended that 
 His Church should, even until the day of harvest contain tares, as 
 well as wheat ready for His garner; and that the responsibility for 
 connection with the Church must not be assumed by the body, but 
 ' must be thrown entirely upon the person applying for admission. It 
 is broadly affirmed that this responsibility can not i:)roperly be in any 
 degree shared by the chui'ch or its appointed officers, and that they 
 ought never to be understood as passing judgment upon, or as endorsing 
 the validity of the evidences of a gracious state, furnished by the ap- 
 plicant. No such judgment, it is said, is expressed or implied in 
 . receiving any one into the fellowship of the Church : all that is requi- 
 
PIETY THE REQUISITE CONDITION. 95 
 
 site is, that there be no positive grounds for pronouncing him not 
 to be a Christian. 1 
 
 The answer of Edwards to this intermediate jiosition is the just and 
 conclusive answer. He maintains that the particular church must 
 share Avith the professing disciple in the solemn act in which he is en- 
 gaging ; and that it is sacredly bound to settle for itself, no less than 
 for him, the question whether his profession is credible, — may be ac- 
 cepted as the outward evidence of a truly regenerate nature. He 
 holds that while there is always some liability to error in such judg- 
 ment, yet the church should reduce such liability to the lowest possible 
 degree, and should be satisfied Avith nothing less than substantial assur- 
 ance as to the spiritual state of the aj^plicant. He defines the element 
 of credibility in the case, not simply as what may in a negative way 
 be believed, but rather as a positive judgment founded on outward 
 manifestations that ordinarily render the judgment probable. Can 
 there be any doubt that this is the wise and scriptural position? How 
 can any church refuse to step in with its counsel and oversight, at such 
 a juncture in the spiritual experience of those who seek its fellowship? 
 When Avc bear in mind how many such persons are young or ignorant, 
 or are in a variety of ways exposed to serious delusions respecting their 
 religious purposes and estate, how can we justify a church in simply 
 opening its doors, and allowing them to enter in, upon their own unchal- 
 lenged declaration, provided they are not openly unworthy ? The 
 credible evidence in such cases must be, not negatively that which may 
 be believed, but positively that which convinces. Those who are ap- 
 pointed by the church as judges, must inquire respecting piety as well 
 as knowledge {Pres. Directory: Ch. ix: 3-4), and the duty of inquiry 
 clearly carries Avith it the duty of guidance and of judgment. They 
 must be convinced, as far as ascertainable indications go, that the ap- 
 plicant is indeed, as he professes to be, already a child of God. This 
 is a reponsibility Avhich no particular church can evade or transfer: it 
 belongs essentially to every organized household of faith. As the 
 
 ' Mason, John M., CIntrch of God, p. 52-58, seq ; Hodge, Charles, ThcoL, Vol. 
 hi: 544-G: 5G9-78 : Hodge, A. A., Ontlnies of Tlicol, C4G. Tlic first author goes 
 on to argue that there are positive advantages to be gained bj' the Cliurch through 
 the admission of unregenerate persons, and tlirough the mixed condition of 
 things resulting. And the second, in arguing for the admission of baptized persons 
 to the communion and to church fellowship, adds the remark that it is to be feared 
 that many such have come short of eternal life who, had they been received into 
 the bosom of the Church, and enjoyed its guardian and fostering care, might 
 have been saved: iir, 57G. For another statement, see Dorner, Christ. Thcol. iv : 
 3.37-9. While he holds that the Church must not identify its judgment with 
 the judgment of Christ as absolute and final, he maintains that the Church can 
 not gram admission where impenitence is seen to exist, — the Church judging 
 the applicant thus far. 
 
96 THE PERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 grounds of exclusion from the Church must be the same as the grounds 
 of exclusion from heaven, so the terms of admission must be the same 
 essentially as those of admission to heaven : and for the requiring of 
 these terms, and the decision respecting their existence, every such 
 church must be directly accountable to Christ. 
 
 IX. Membership of Children of Believers. — One further ques- 
 tion remains, — the question respecting the relation to the Christian 
 Church of the children of believing parents, and especially of those 
 who through the sacrament of baptism have been visibly associated in 
 covenant with the particular church. It has already been shown that, 
 in the economy of grace, the pious household, as well as the individ- 
 ual believer, has a legitimate j^lace and claim, and that the believing 
 family^may properly be contemplated as, in some important senses, a 
 unit within the Church. It has been shown that in the Christian as in 
 the two antecedent periods in the history of that Church, the Abra- 
 hamic covenant stands as a great fact in the scheme of grace, full of 
 promise and of blessing. It has been shown that the baptism of the 
 children of pious parents, as a sign of this covenant relation, is war- 
 ranted by Scripture, and is justified in the experience of the Church 
 of Christ. It follows from these propositions that such children are in 
 a true sense, born within the pale of the visible Church, may properly 
 be baptized, are entitled to its continuous nurture and care, and do 
 even inherit a certain species and measure of membership within its 
 sacred inclosure. To this general view even those who regard infant 
 baptism as an unauthorized mode of expressing this covenant relation, 
 might easily give assent. 
 
 At this point we come upon a wide variety of opinion and usage. 
 The Papal Church at one extreme regards this membership as conferred 
 in and through such baptism, and therefore claims as its lambs all bap- 
 tized children, whatever may have been the spiritual state of the 
 parents. At the other extreme, we find persons who hold that church 
 membership can exist only in and through personal faith, and who 
 therefore regard the children of believers as standing, prior to conver- 
 sion, in the same place essentially with the children of unbelievers, — 
 wholly outside of the visible Church. The rite of confirmation, accord- 
 ing to the papal view, does not establish, but simply confirms or rati- 
 fies an antecedent membership. Hence the Romish communion can 
 set up no spiritual standard of admission, and is consequently con- 
 strained to suffer the disastrous issues of its error in the strange mixture 
 of good and bad, wheat and tares, in its multitudinous membership. 
 Of the antithetic error of denying to such children any covenanted 
 relation to the visible Church, nothing further need be said ; it is suf- 
 ficient to note its disastrous influence in many ways on church life and 
 
MEMBERSHIP OF CHILDREN OP BELIEVERS. 97 
 
 growth. The general Protestant position lies between these two ex- 
 tremes ; yet neither the doctrine nor the practice of Protestant bodies 
 can be said to be in any sense uniform. As in respect to the mem- 
 bership of adults, so here the formal and the spiritual theorieo stand 
 in wide contrast. 
 
 The formal theory exalts the merely external relation, at the ex- 
 pense of the spiritual experience and life which that relation at least 
 anticipates. Tt tends decidedly, as in the Churches of the Reformation, 
 and as in current Prelatism and Lutheranism in Europe, toward the 
 Papal view ; contemplating the connection as substantially one of form 
 and of outward privilege. Accordingly, access to the tabic of the 
 Lord is made to turn chiefly on the capacity to recite the Command- 
 ments and the Apostolic Creed ; fellowship in the Church is assumed 
 as a species of natural right, under these external conditions ; and the 
 membership thus gained stands rather as a social mark, than as the 
 sign of a gracious state. The Westminster Symbols expressing the 
 general doctrine of the seventeenth century, emj^hasize strongly this 
 external aspect of the connection, while they also bring out more dis- 
 tinctly than any antecedent Confession, the more spiritual view implied 
 in their emphatic phrase, knowledge and piety. On the one side they 
 introduce, or at least give currency to, the doubtful distinction between 
 member and communicant, and thus furnish foundation for such de- 
 fective conceptions of adult membership as were expressed in the 
 Half-way Covenant of New England. On the other they directly im- 
 pose upon the Church not merely the obligation to care for such infant 
 members spiritually, but also the further duty to discipline them when 
 they become adults, for their failure to come to the table of Christ, or 
 to lead a truly Christian life. 
 
 The spiritual theory affirms the fact of a real connection established 
 at birth and ratified in baptism, and accepts in full the obligation of the 
 Church to train up in knowledge and piety those who througli parental 
 faith stand in that connection. It regards this as an anticipatory or 
 constructive species of membership; it views the connection as. pro- 
 spective and prophetic. It maintains also the obligation of parents to 
 bring up such children as within the Church rather than without; — to 
 educate them directly and zealously, with reference to their assumption 
 in due season of such duties as devolve upon converted adults within 
 the household of faith. It asserts the duty of the Church to contem- 
 plate such pious offspring as its own, — to make ample provision for 
 their training in divine things, to instruct them in all Christian duty, 
 and to guide their young feet into the way of peace. But on the other 
 hand it regards full membership as involving something more than 
 this ; it demands a higher qualification than the mere rite of confirm- 
 
98 Tin: personal constituents of the cnuRCn. 
 
 ation, or any general profession of adherence to Christianity, or even 
 blaraelessness in life ; it calls for a true change of heart in the baptized 
 child, no less than in tlie unbaptized adult who has lived long in sin, 
 wholly without the fold of grace. In a word, it holds to the existence 
 of J^ genuine and most blessed relation, which has in it large spiritual 
 possibilities, and which may be expected to issue, if all parties are 
 faithful to their covenant, in a complete and perfect union at once with 
 the visible Church, and with the Church invisible. This relation is the 
 historic antecedent to full membership; it is merabershiji in the germ, 
 and might therefore be called by that name. But it is not a connec- 
 tion which properly brings the child under the executive government 
 of the Church, or which exposes it to ecclesiastical discipline for its 
 failure to discharge religious duties. The assumption by the Church 
 of a derived right, for example, to excommunicate such a baptized 
 child, on its coming to mature years, for the neglect of religion, or even 
 for immorality, is unwarranted by the nature of the relation, as thus 
 described. ^ 
 
 X. The Church an Organization: Offices and Officers Re- 
 quisite. — Besides the membershiji who constitute its personal material, 
 the Church, in order to the proper execution of its functions, requires — 
 as we have already noted — an organization of this material into unity 
 under some definite form of constitution. Without such orgiinization 
 the life of the body can not be adequately sustained, nor can the ends 
 contemplated in its existence be effectively secured. The Bible there- 
 fore not only sets forth the qualifications requisite in the members of 
 this divine body, but describes that body as a living organism , in which 
 each member has an appointed place, and in which all the members 
 are fitly joined and compacted together by that Avliich every joint sup- 
 plieth, Eph. 4: 16. The two metaphors by which the Church is habit- 
 ually described in the New Testament, will sufficiently illustrate this 
 statement. Viewed on one hand as a family or household of faith, 
 every particular church is a unit, animated by Avhat may be termed a 
 common life, and regulated by distinctive principles which are higher 
 than individual impulse or aim. Viewed on the other as a state or 
 kingdom, the particular church still more obviously requires organiza- 
 tion, a constitution and laws, a real and effective government. All 
 that is requisite to the full equipment of the two inferior institutions, 
 the family and the state, for the full performance of their respective 
 functions in human life, must be in like manner requisite to the exist- 
 
 'Masox, J. M., Church of God, pp. 106-173. The author affirms the right of 
 the particular Church to inspect conduct, and to exercise authority, but does not 
 claim the right to administer discipline. See on this point, Preshyt. Digest, 
 pp. 671-2. HoDfiE, Church Polity, p. 21.3. 
 
OFFICES AND OFFICERS ESSENTIAL. 99 
 
 ence and efficiency of the Church. It is especially obvious that such 
 organization is an essential element under the latter conception ; — if the 
 Church is to be in any sense a kingdom, it must have organization, 
 laws, offices and officers, such as its nature and its aims demand. 
 
 Without anticipating the full consideration of the nature of church 
 government, we may note here the necessity for officers — representa- 
 tives of such government— as well as members to be governed, within 
 the organized family and kingdom of grace. Various illustrations of 
 this necessity might be derived from the constitution of the Hebraic, 
 and even of the Patriarchal Church. Under the (xospel the evidence 
 is still more distinct and conclusive. The Messiah in constituting His 
 Church, clearly made provision for the official investiture and the ad- 
 ministrative functions, first of the apostles, and then of those who should 
 succeed them in the discharge of this spiritual trust. The perfecting 
 of the saints individually, and the perfecting of the organized body for 
 its great mission, required that long before His ascension He should be 
 training special men for such administration, and then that at the as- 
 cension He should give to His Church apostles and prophets, evangelists 
 and pastors and teacliers, by whom the composite organization should 
 be guided, edified and governed; Eph. 4 : 11-13. These official per- 
 sons were not to be a class separate from the Church, and vested with 
 an inherent right to control it, and with authority to transmit that right 
 to others, independently of the choice of the body to be governed. 
 They were rather members of the Church, divinely chosen and set 
 apart from their brethren for this service ; and were to act under full 
 responsibility to the Church as well as to Christ for the manner in 
 which they should discharge their difficult commission. In the full 
 sense, no company of believers can be regarded as a Church which is 
 not thus organized and officered ; even where this is denied in form, it 
 is not excluded in fact. An unorganized body of disciples, without a 
 constitution, without rules, without leaders, may enjoy a degree of 
 temporary fellowship, but they can not declare themselves a church 
 according to the New Testament standard. They may wear the name, 
 but certainly they can attain no distinct view or experience of the di- 
 vine reality. 
 
 Contemplating the officers of the Church simply as among its per- 
 sonal constituents, antithetic to its membership as already considered, 
 we may briefly examine the names and functions, the position and 
 authority, of those who are called to sustain this relation :— meanwhile 
 postponing the broader question respecting the nature of the govern- 
 ment to be administered through such official instruments. Distin- 
 guishing for the moment between the officer and the office, we may 
 observe in general that all of the offices mentioned in the New Testa- 
 
100 THE PERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF TIIE CHURCH. 
 
 meat may be divided into two classes, the temporary and the per- 
 manent. 
 
 XL Temporary Church Offices. — The first chnss of ofiices to be 
 considered in this connection are those which by their nature were 
 limited to particular epochs or exigencies in the history of Christianity, 
 or those which are essential occasionally, but not permanently, in its 
 progressive career. The prophetical and apostolic offices belong to the 
 first division ; the office of the evangelist and of the deaconess to the 
 second : 
 
 1. The prophetical office appeared prominently in the Christian 
 Church during the first century, as it had existed during a large por- 
 tion of the preceding period. Its appearance was probably included 
 in the promise in Joel, quoted in conjunction with the mii-aculous 
 events of the Pentecost, Acts 2 : 17. The warnings of our Lord 
 with regard to false prophets, show that such an order was to exist 
 under the Gospel: Matt. 7: 15, Mark 13: 22. Examples of true 
 prophesying may be found in Luke 1: 67, Acts 11 : 27-8, 13: 1, 
 21: 10-11: various references to the prophetic order occur in the 
 epistles, as 1 Cor. 12: 28-9, 14: 1-3, Eph. 4: 11. Like the Jewish 
 seers, these New Test, prophets taught as well as foretold future events. 
 Acts 15: 32, 1 Cor. 14: 29-32. It may be that the poAver of speak- 
 ing in unknown tongues, and the kindred power of interpretation and 
 of discerning spirits, dwelt largely in them. Obviously their pres- 
 ence and their work were both a prominent and a peculiar feature 
 in the life of the primitive Church. — Yet their mission clearly ended 
 with the first century. The claim of ability to foresee the future 
 through divine aid was indeed occasionally made, during the second 
 and third centuries, as the same claim has been made in modern times. 
 But facts have never verified the claim. The office evidently belonged, 
 like the other charisms, to that particular period in the career of the 
 Church,— it was supernatural altogether, and as such was just then 
 needed as a confirmatory witness to the divinity of the Gospel. But 
 the necessity for it ceased Avhen the Church had once obtained an 
 assured position, and the function therefore passed away. AVhile we 
 can not on Scriptural grounds affirm, that no exigency will ever arise 
 in which the gift of prophecy will again be conferred, before the final 
 consummation, we are Avarranted in affirming that no such endowment 
 exists now, or has existed at any period since the decease of John, the 
 last and greatest of the historic prophets : Kev. 10: 11, 22: 6.^ 
 
 2. The apostolic office also ceased Avith the death of John. The 
 peculiarity of this office clearly lay in the function of Avitnessing to 
 
 ' On the Prophetical Office and Teaching, see Alexander, on Isaiah, Introduc- 
 tion. Also Stanley, Hist, of the Jewish Church, Lect. xix : xx. 
 
THE APOSTOLIC OFFICE TEMPORARY. 101 
 
 the person and mission of Christ, — a function wliich from the nature 
 of the case could liave been imparted to none but those Avho had actu- 
 ally seen and heard Him, and which in fact could have been exercised 
 by none even among such competent witnesses, but those to whom a 
 divine commission had been directly given. The apostles, in other 
 words, were a body of men selected by our Lord as His disciples in a 
 special sense, to accompany Him during His earthly ministry, in order 
 that they might be qualified, as only such a body could be, to certify 
 before men after His decease to what they had personally seen and 
 heard ; Acts 1 : 2, 8, 1 John 1 : 1-3. The introductory commission 
 given to them (Matt. 10: 2)«s8m), and the full commission described 
 in Luke 24 : 4-4-48, show that, while they were to become also bishops 
 and teachers permanently caring for the Church which was to be or- 
 ganized by their eflTorts, this peculiar and inalienable function of bearing 
 personal witness, was to be their more immediate duty. Their own 
 declarations as to this apostolic function, especially in connection Avith 
 the election of Matthias to the apostolate (Acts 1 : 21-22), are de- 
 cisive on this point: Acts 3; 15, 5: 32, 10: 39-41, 13: 31, and 
 many others. If it be maintained on what seem to be reasonable 
 grounds that the election of Matthias was divinely directed, and that 
 his election shows that the function of witnessing might properly be 
 transmitted beyond the original circle of the twelve, it should also be 
 granted that the description of the qualifications requisite in this 
 instance, shows conclusively that such transmission could have been 
 justified only so far as these untransmissible qualifications might be 
 found. As witnesses, in the sense here described, the apostles could 
 have had no successors, at least beyond the small circle of those who, 
 with them, had companied with the Lord Jesus all the time that He 
 went in and out among men, in His mediatorial mission. No command 
 to transmit their function of witnessing beyond this limited range any- 
 where appears; no aflfirmation that this would occur, can be found in 
 the New Testament ; by the natui'c of the case such transmission was 
 impracticable. 
 
 The attempt to prove that the apostolate, in this sense of the 
 terra, Avas in fact transmitted not only to Matthias and Paul, but also 
 to Barnabas, Apollos and Epaphroditus, and was thus made a perma- 
 nent office within the Church, rests on very slender foundations. In 
 the case of Paul, we find his claim to the apostolic office based directly 
 on his possession of supernatural qualifications kindred to those pos- 
 sessed by the original group ; he had personally seen the Lord, and had 
 been miraculously commisioned to testify to what he had seen : 1 Cor. 15 : 
 8-10, Gal. 1: 12. In respect to the others named, the terra, apostle, 
 is clearly used in the same general sense in which we find it applied, 
 
102 THE PERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CIIi:RCH. 
 
 probably, by Paul to Andronicus and Juuias (Rom. IG: 7), and el.se- 
 where to other persons who were me.ssengers or helpers of the chiirehes. 
 The rcferenee in Kev. 21 : 14, to the twelve apostles of the Lamb^ — a 
 reference dating nearly two generations after the death of our Lord — 
 implies that the original number had never been exceeded. The allu- 
 sions by Paul and Johu to persons whom he styled false apostles — who say 
 they are apostles and are not, are also suggestive in this connection : 2 
 Cor, 11; 13, Rev. 2: 2. That- the real apostles filled other functions, 
 and sustained wider relations to these churches, is obvious from the case 
 of Paul himself who, though he styled himself an apostle, 1 Tim, 2 : 7, 
 was also called a prophet. Acts 13: 1, a bishop or elder, Eph. 3: 7, 
 8, and an evangelist or teacher. Acts 13; '2-4. Naturally the apos- 
 tolic group continued while they lived, to be not merely witnesses to 
 the great facts touching the Mcssiahship, but also leaders in the 
 entire process of planting and edifying the Church, wherever it was 
 established. This general office of leadership and ministration was of 
 course transmissible, though even here the supernatural charisms 
 which in their case accompanied the office, and the inspiration wdiich 
 sustained and aided them in it, could not be conferred by them on 
 their successors in this task. ^ 
 
 3, The evangelistic office makes its appearance rather as an occa- 
 sional form of ministration, or a temporary function, than as a per- 
 manent equipment of the early Church, It finds an illustration in the 
 mission given by our Lord (Luke 10: j'^'^^sivi) to the seventy who, in 
 addition to the twelve, were to go forth for a season as His messengers 
 to the lost multitudes of Israel, Apostles and others seem at times 
 to have assumed such a special service, as Philip in the desert toward 
 Gaza, Acts 8 : 26-40; Peter going down to Ca^sarea, Acts 10: 23-48: 
 Paul and Barnabas laboring in Cyprus and in Western Asia, Acts 13 : 
 2-14. The more genei-al biblical references (Eph 4: 11, and else- 
 where) show that this type of Christian work Avas extensively assumed 
 under some sort of commission, by numbers in the primitive Church, 
 and was continued throughout the apostolic century. The disciples 
 who went forth preaching the Word, or heralding the good news of the 
 Gospel, even to the uttermost parts of the earth, were filling this evan- 
 gelistic office. Like John the Baptist, they were forerunners of the 
 more permanent work of organization and edifying that was to follow, 
 under the blessing of the Spirit, wherever they successfully proclaimed 
 
 * Neander, Planting and Training, etc., p. 150; Mosheim, i: 91: Note: "By its 
 very idea as the primitive, authentic body of witnesses the apostolate is unrepeat- 
 able, because it rests on tlie uniqueness of the relation of the first generation to 
 Christ, and on tlieir immediate selection and education by Christ." Doenee, 
 Christ. Boot, iv : p. 334. 
 
OTHER TEMPORARY OFFICES. 103 
 
 the great salvation. We find their successors in those who in the cen- 
 turies following bore the Gospel to the farthest East, and to the tribes 
 of northern Egrope; or in the missionaries of modern times, as they 
 traverse the globe on the same errand of mercy to lost humanity. 
 Apparently, they were never intended to become a separate, independ- 
 ent class, existing within the organized Church, by the side of others 
 who sustain the ministerial office, and assuming to themselves some 
 special class of ministerial functions. The application of the title to 
 those Avho are called to no evangelistic work such as has just been 
 sketched, but who labor occasionally in aid of Christian pastors, as in 
 seasons of revival, is one Avhich the New Testament nowhere suggests. 
 4. To complete this review of church offices which are temporary or 
 occasional rather than permanent, a glimpse at the office or function 
 of the deaconess may be taken here. The instance of Phoebe, 
 deaconess or servant of the Cenchrean Church, gracefully alluded to 
 by Paul as the succorer of himself and of many, and also his reference 
 to Mary, and to Tryphena and Tryphosa, at Rome, are quoted as indi- 
 cating the existence of such an order of persons in other households of 
 faith; Rom. 16: 16, 12. His allusion to a certain class of godly 
 women (1 Tim. 5: 10), and to the wives of deacons (1 Tim. 3: 11), 
 and a like allusion in Titus 2 : 3, are regarded as confirming this indi- 
 cation. The place which holy Avomen evidently occupied in the circle 
 of grace, even during the life-time of Christ (Luke 8 : 2-3, for illus- 
 tration), and also the peculiar type of social life Avhich was developed 
 at the Pentecost, and in which women shared as freely as men, have 
 seemed still further to confirm the belief that official position was early 
 conferred on woman within the Church. Such a step would certainly 
 be in harmony with the spirit of a religion, which from the outset aimed 
 at the emancipation and exaltation of woman, as one of its immediate 
 results. It is also certain that the office of deaconess, with the special 
 function of caring for the sick and needy, instructing the young, 
 watching over certain church interests, and ministering to martyrs and 
 confessors for the truth, existed early in both tlie Eastern and the 
 Western Church. In the Apostolical Constitutions, a form for the ordi- 
 nation of women to this service was explicitly prescribed. A substitute 
 for such a class of church servants is provided in the Romish commun- 
 ion, and in some sections of Protestantism, through the appointment 
 of special orders of nuns and sisterhoods, devoted through life to the 
 interests of religion. Yet the office, if any such existed at the be- 
 ginning, must have been but occasional and partial ; it can not be said 
 to have held its place broadly in the conviction and favor of the 
 Church. In some communions it is still in some degree and form re- 
 tained. The current tendency in the most spiritual sections of Protest- 
 
104 Tin: PERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE ClIUKCU. 
 
 antism to supply women with appropriate spheres and opportunit'es 
 for useful service in the Church, though it may result in no such offi- 
 cial investiture, is a fact in which all true friends of an active, fruitful 
 Christianity may well rejoice. ^ 
 
 XII. Permanent Church Offices. — Contemplating still the office 
 rather than the officer, and inquiring simply respecting those official 
 functions whose existence and exercise are indispensable to the proper 
 organization and effi3Ctive work of the Church, we may note three 
 distinct spheres of such activity which demand careful consideration. 
 
 1. The office of instruction, including both the enlightening and edi- 
 fying of the Church, and the education of society in the Christian 
 faith, stands first in this series. That such a function is essential to 
 the healthful development of organic Christianity is obvious. It is 
 just at this point that we discover one of the marked contrasts between 
 Christianity and the great natural faiths, — in the appeal which the 
 former constantly makes, not to superstition or to the esthetic taste, 
 but to the reason and the capacity for rational trust. It lays before the 
 mind a system of truth to be apprehended and believed, as the basis of 
 all the further experiences it awakens in the heart or in the life. And 
 in order to the proper presentation of such a system of truth, it needs 
 competent agents and representatives, — persons to whom this task of 
 instruction may properly be entrusted, and by whose effort the body 
 of believers may be edified, and the Gospel effectively commended 
 to men. Even during the apostolic age, and while the Holy Ghost 
 was miraculously poured out on many, and the disciples in general 
 enjoyed peculiar opportunities for knowing the truth for themselves, 
 such teachers were appointed, as we know, to aid the Church in this 
 primary task of edification. The presence of inspired prophets, of holy 
 evangelists, of progressive inspiration, did not obviate the necessity 
 for such a class of qualified instructors. Various titles besides that of 
 teacher were given to those filling this function: pastor or shepherd, 
 Jer. 3: 15, compared with Eph. 4. 11, 1 Peter 5 : 2-4: minister or 
 steward, 1 Cor. 4: 1, 12: 28: bishop or overseer. Acts 20: 28: pres- 
 byter or elder, 1 Peter 5: 1. Other functions are indeed included in 
 such titles, for the reason that those Avho Avere primarily called to be 
 teachers, were also, for the most part, empowered to assist the Church 
 in other official relations — especially in government. Yet any one 
 who studies carefully the Pastoral Letters, will see at a glance how 
 primary and how vital, in the judgment of the apostles and their asso- 
 ciates, this work of instruction was. Nor has time rendered this 
 
 ' ScHAFF, Hist, of Apostolic ChuTch, i: 1^; Bingham, Antiquities of the Christian 
 Church, Book ii: Ch. 22. For a valuable Art. in favor of tlie office of deaconess 
 as permanent, see Preshyt. Review, Vol. i; No. ii. A. T. McGill, D. D 
 
PERMANENT CHURCH OFFICES. 105 
 
 office less important. As the Christian scheme of doctrine has devel- 
 oped into theologies and creeds, as the antagonisms between this divine 
 system and human heresy and unbelief have become more distinct and 
 complex, as the sum of saving faith has grown into more extended 
 form during the ages since the New Testament was written and compiled, 
 the need of such teaching and such teachers has the rather steadily 
 increased. Not merely or mainly the unfolding of new aspects of 
 divine truth, but rather the more careful explication and defence of 
 that truth against all error, and the general education of believers 
 and their children, and of all who are willing to hear the Word, con- 
 stitute the chief vocation of those on w'hom this office rests. Neither 
 do any indications appear that such a vocation will ever be needless. 
 The Church of Christ will have such teachers, at least until millennial 
 times: and those sections of the Church which appreciate this need 
 most fully, and most thoroughly provide for it, are most certain to 
 grow into progressive influence, into millennial maturity. 
 
 2. The office of government stands second in this series of permanent 
 church functions. Without entering here on the general consideration 
 of the Church as a kingdom, administering a system of laws under di- 
 vine guidance, we may simply note the fact already adverted to, that 
 government has in reality existed within the Church in all- ages, and 
 that the task of administering such government has always been com- 
 mitted to men chosen and ordained for this purpose. Postponing all 
 questions as to the biblical form of church polity, or to the proper mode 
 of administration, we may still recognize the existence and prominence 
 of this governmental function. Especially are such existence and 
 prominence apparent under the Gospel economy. That the apostolic 
 Church had rulers, is a fact as unquestionable as the kindred fact that 
 it had teachers. Some of the titles already named, such as bishop or 
 pastor or elder, indicate this as an undoubted feature of the primitive 
 Church. Ruling was as essential as instruction in an organism so con- 
 stituted, and sent forth on such a mission ; and provision was therefore 
 divinely made for this necessity, in the selection of persons qualified to 
 rule, and in their official investiture within the Church. We see the 
 apostles and other chosen brethren acting officially in this way, as early 
 as the Council at Jerusalem ; Acts 15: 22-23. More general allusions 
 to such a class of rulei-s appear in Acts 20: 28, Rom. 12: 6-8, 1 Cor. 
 12: 28, Heb. 13: 7, 17, 24, and other passages. But it is quite ap- 
 parent that the function of teaching and the function of ruling were 
 not ahvays vested in the same person. While the distinction is not 
 formally drawn out, as it would probably have been, if the two func- 
 tions were always assigned to different persons, it still is clear that the 
 distinction was sometimes recognized; 1 Tim. 5: 17, 1 Peter 5: 2-3, 
 
lOG THE PERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 That rulers existed as a class under divine -warrant in the apostolic 
 Church is thus evident, whatever may he held as to the precise duties 
 devolving upon them, or the extent of the authority wielded by thera. 
 And what was necessary in the apostolic Church, may be presumed to 
 be all the more necessary since the gift of inspiration has ceased, and 
 since the miraculous manifestations of a divine i)resence and control have 
 been withdrawn. In all countries and ages this function has in fact been 
 found to be indispensable to the proper constituting and full efficiency 
 of the visible household of faith. Even where such organization is 
 regarded as wholly spiritual, and where all formal official investiture 
 is condemned as incompatible with the nature of the family of grace, 
 the essential fact in the case remains ; the official function still finds 
 recognition. 
 
 3. In connection Avith the two primary offices of instruction and 
 government, we may note a third office which appeared very early in 
 the primitive Church, and which, like the two preceding, seems essential 
 to the full constituting of the Church for its great mission among men, 
 — the office of administration. The sphere for such an office lies out- 
 side of both teaching and ruling, — it includes the general care of the 
 organized body, in what may be described as its external work and rela- 
 tions. The germ of the office appears in the j^rovision made for daily 
 ministration to the saints, during the peculiar experiences following the 
 Pentecost ; Acts 6 : 1-6. The line of distinction between the spiritual 
 and the temporal in church life was there clearly drawn by Peter ; and 
 the provision then made, continued to exist long after the special need 
 which he so tersely describes, had passed away. There was seen to be 
 a large sphere of oversight and administration, not merely in the dis- 
 tribution of church charities, but in many other directions, in Avhich 
 the teacher or ruler could not so effectively act, — which required a 
 separate class of official jDersons. Without referring to general allu- 
 sions to the diaconate, found in the Pauline epistles (Phil. 1:1), Ave 
 may note the careful description of the Christian deacon in 1 Tim. 
 3: 8-13, as proving beyond question the existence of such a class, and 
 the importance of their functions in the apostolic age. Nor Avas this an 
 office Avhich existed for a season only. The need Avhich created it at 
 the first still exists, — is in fact as extensi\"e and as enduring as the 
 Church. While the special call which first pi'oduced the office has 
 passed away, other and broader aspects of that call have become 
 equally apparent and equally urgent. Rather is it true that Avith the 
 more complex development of the Church, — Avith the Avidening variety 
 of needs, and the multiplication and more elaborate classification of 
 official duties, the necessity in the case has been greatly enhanced. 
 May it not even be affirmed that this office of administration, though 
 
OFFICERS REQUISITE IX THE CHURCH. 107 
 
 perhaps inferior in sphere, fills a place in the permanent life of the 
 Church, no less vital than that of government or instruction, and 
 must therefore be as legitimate and enduring a constituent in its organ- 
 ization as they ? 
 
 In the three offices thus sketched, all the great primal needs of the 
 Church of Christ are fully met. Wherever provision is properly made 
 for instruction, for government, and for administration, in the broad 
 sense just defined, any church organization may regard itself as fully 
 equipped alike for inward efficiency and for outward growth. No 
 other official functions are needful ; under these three terms all legiti- 
 mate church functions and services may be classed. 
 
 XIII. Officers Requisite in the Church. — The consideration 
 of these three offices, or classes of official service, suggests at once the 
 further fact, that every such office requires a person in whom its func- 
 tions are for the time embodied, and by whose active services these 
 church needs are efficiently supplied. Respecting this personal ele- 
 ment, some further suggestions may here be introduced : 
 
 The conspicuous place of the ministry within the Church will, under 
 this general view, be apparent at a glance. Whether that ministry be 
 regarded as essentially one order, or as divided into three distinct 
 classes — whatever the theory as to the way in which this order becomes 
 possessed of its high functions, or to the measure of accountability to 
 the Church for the use of its official position, there can be no question 
 as to the underlying truth, that a church Avithout a minister is not in 
 the full scrijDtural sense a church. In forming our conceptions of the 
 minister in this relation, we are indeed carefully to distinguish between 
 the biblical germ in Avhich the office originated, and the ecclesiastical 
 development that has followed with the ages. For, it is quite obvious 
 that the simple servant of the Church, who at first, as bishop or pastor 
 or elder, had general charge of the flock of Christ under apostolic 
 warrant, had his lines of labor and of duty much less closely defined, 
 and was himself much less consciously and distinctively an official 
 person, than his successors are under any existing form of church 
 polity. The three classes of function which have been described, were 
 also far less obviously separate, and flowed together within the grasp 
 of one and the same person much more freely. For the elaborate 
 division of this holy order into a succession of officers, invested with 
 varying grades of service and prerogative, and for all the formalities 
 and dignities with which this order is now decorated, even in the simpler 
 forms of current ecclesiastical organization, one looks in vain to find 
 any definite provision in the constitution of the primitive Church. 
 The minister of Christ, as sketched in the New Testament, was on the 
 one side a simple pastor or teacher of his brethren, and on the other 
 
108 Tin: j'i:nsoNAL constituents of the church. 
 
 an overseer or rule.' inspired by love, and animated in all his adminis- 
 tration Avitli the henignant temper of service, but without special title, 
 or any high official prerogatives. The sketches which Paul has given 
 in his letters to Timothy and Titus show us, as no uninspired descrij)- 
 tion could do, just wdiat the minister was designed to be, and what 
 during the apostolic age he doubtless was: shepherd and bishop, pastor 
 and overseer and ruler, and robed in these functions with a saintly 
 grace peculiarly his own, still in every station the servant, even the 
 slave, of his brethren for the s.ike of Christ, his Lord; 2 Cor. 4: 5. 
 
 The call to this sacred office was peculiar. It was not an inherited 
 vocation like that of the Jewish priest : it was not a special investiture 
 transmitted from apostolic hands, without the action or approbation 
 of the Church. The glimpse of church method given in the election 
 of Matthias, doubtless became an example largely and reverently fol- 
 lowed. While we see the apostles, and others under their sanction, 
 officially appointing elders in every city (Titus 1 : 5), and thus organ- 
 izing the Churches as by divine warrant, we have clear, concurrent 
 indications that the call of God habitually verified and approved itself 
 in the estimate of the Christian flock. No one assumed the sacred 
 office for himself: the summons of the Spirit, the acquiescing judg- 
 ment of His people, were its recognized ground and basis, Heb. 5 : 4. 
 The essential elements of this call remain the same at all periods: 
 first, such natural endowments and such a measure of culture as will 
 enable their possessor to fill the office adequately : secondly, personal 
 experience of religion, and a supreme willingness to be exclusively 
 devoted to this service: thirdly, providential indications pointing 
 toward that service as a life vocation: and fourthly and supremely, 
 the movings of the Holy Spirit in the soul, intelligently apprehended, 
 and the concurrent judgment of the visible Church. Undoubtedly 
 such a call should not be a single or a casual experience : it should be 
 heard again and again, and should become the controlling impulse and 
 motive in the life. ^ 
 
 The functions of the Christian minister are easily apprehended. 
 While they include primarily all that is implied in the term, instruc- 
 tion, they also include some prominent share in the government, and 
 even in the general administration of the household of faith. Though 
 he is not to assume the exercise of such administration or government to 
 the exclusion of others, or to claim a right to such exercise apart from 
 the judgment or determination of the church, as Romanism affirms, 
 yet there is a certain concentration of offices in his person, such as 
 
 'ViNET, Pas<. TAcoL- Introduction, sec. 7. Also, Bkidges, Christian Ministnj : 
 BuKNET, Pastoral Care: Baxter, Reformed Pastor, Tarti: Wayland, Ministry of 
 the Gospel : Letter 2. 
 
CHURCH OFFICEKS: CALL AND FUNCTIONS. 109 
 
 makes him of necessity a central ageut or factor in all departments of 
 the church life. It is his sacred vocation, in the highest sense of that 
 term, to edify those who are divinely committed to his charge ; Iniild- 
 ing them up not merely on their most holy faith, but equally in all 
 the diversified aspects of their religious experience and calling. It is 
 no less his high task to represent the Gospel, and to proclaim it by 
 every available method to all persons of whatever class, whom he may 
 be able to reach. Like the Church itself, or the sanctuary within 
 whose walls he chiefly ministers, he is to stand forth in the community 
 as a visible, permanent representative of the divine faith which he 
 proclaims; ever bending his energies to the one business of leading 
 mankind to salvation, and to this end laying aside all other vocations 
 and interests in life. Of the inherent worth, of the peculiar privileges 
 and dignities, of the sublime rewards of such a ministry, when ani- 
 mated by the apostolic spirit, and conducted according to scriptural 
 principles and methods, volumes might be written. 
 
 Nor is this sketch peculiar to the Christian minister. At the first, 
 he shared even the primary function of instruction, and eminently the 
 functions of administration and of government, Avith others whom the 
 church recognized as qualified to discharge these high trusts ; and their 
 activities were hai'dly less essential than his to the healthfid condition 
 of the visible body of believers. Doubtless the two latter functions 
 were not always separated by broad lines; as the teacher governed, the 
 ruler also instructed, nor is it unlikely that those holding the diaconate 
 sometimes taught, or even ruled, in churches where abundant materials 
 for filling such official positions were not easily found. The Stephen 
 whose name stands at the head of the list of deacons, was full of faith 
 and power ; he wrought miracles and wonders among the people, and 
 so testified to the truth in disputations in the synagogue, that liis oppo- 
 nents Avere not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit with wliicli he 
 spake, — finally attesting his faith and loyalty to the truth in martyr- 
 dom. And from the apostolic usage, we may learn the universal law ; 
 that as in that age, so in all ages there should be other official persons 
 as well as the minister in the visible Church ; that to these persons no 
 less than to him, are the tasks of government and administration and 
 even of instruction assigned ; and that upon those who fill such offices, 
 special honor and privilege as well as responsil)ility do fitly rest. 
 Without adverting here to any particular questions suggested at this 
 point, such as the separation or blending of these functions, or the cre- 
 ation of one or two classes of such adjunctive oflScers, or the manner 
 in which they shall severally receive their appointment and authority, 
 \ve may rest for the present in the general facts and principles just 
 given. It is specially incumbent upon Protestantism to emphasize 
 
110 THE TERSONAL CONSTITUENTS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 these related offices and officers, since the Papal Church has so largely 
 ignored them ; and to give to those who administer and to those who 
 rule, the just share of both the dignity and the control which the 
 Papacy confers on the priesthood alone. 
 
 XIV. Church Officers: Further Questions Noted. — The gen- 
 eral doctrine here presented, sheds light on the specific question of offi- 
 cial investiture. It is one of the fundamental errors of the Church 
 of Rome, that the priesthood is an office transmitted from generation to 
 generation through the priestly orders, and without the voice or appro- 
 bation of the Church. It is the priesthood, not the congregation, which 
 selects and constitutes the priest; it is the clerical body in conclave as- 
 sembled, not the Church, which chooses and officially crowns the pope. 
 Protestantism admits the existence of no such prerogative. It refers 
 all official investiture on the one side directly to Christ, and on the 
 other immediately to the Church. No minister, for example, becomes 
 such without authority of the JNIaster, authenticated by the judgment 
 of His people ; no person however qualified can receive or hold office 
 of any class in any other way. The right to transmit official preroga- 
 tives independently of the Church was not claimed even by the apos- 
 tles, neither did the leaders of the primitive Church act in any instance 
 as if such right were vested in them. Christ and His Church alone 
 can create even the humblest among the official servants in that divine 
 household. 
 
 It follow^s also that the authority vested in church officers is not 
 native in the person, but belongs to the office — is not inherent but 
 delegated : and is therefore to be exercised under a due sense of re- 
 sponsibility to those who confer it. This authority is also limited 
 rather than comprehensive: it includes just such functions and duties 
 as the Scriptures and the chui'ch assign to the person holding it ; it con- 
 veys no warrant for official administration beyond the bounds thus 
 described. All attempts to intermeddle Avith whatever lies outside of 
 such boundaries, all effort to lord it over the heritage of (lod in direc- 
 tions Avhere the individual conscience or the claim of the body of be- 
 lievers is by divine right supreme, all assertion of dignities or enrob- 
 ing in the purple and pomp of hierarchy, are both treason to the 
 Church and disloyalty to Christ, its divine Head and Lord. 
 
 As official authority is limited in sphere, so it is in many ways 
 limited in time and opportunity. It is indeed a common Protestant 
 view, and one which has some measure of biblical Avarrant, that all 
 official investiture in the Church is for life. Yet many sections of 
 Protestantism limit the sweep of this principle by affirming a distinction 
 between the office itself and the exercise of its functions, and by re- 
 garding the latter as temporary and occasional, though the former be 
 
SPIKIT OF OFFICIAL SERVICE. Ill 
 
 permanent. These practical limitations are often extended so far, on 
 account of mental inadequacy or advancing ag" or spiritual incom- 
 petency, or the failure to command church support, that the official title 
 becomes a fiction, — ceases to be anything beyond a name. And it may 
 well be questioned, whether an office, which for any such cause can 
 never be exercised ])y the incumbent, might not, for the welfare of all 
 the parties, and in the interest of Christian sincerity, be formally sur- 
 rendered. It would probably be a decided gain to the common Prot- 
 estantism, if the length of time during which any church oflfice should 
 be held, were in all cases distinctly bounded, if not by some periodic 
 limitation in time, still by the manifested competency of the person 
 appointed to fill it. 
 
 It may finally be suggested here that no peril more subtle, no evil 
 more disastrous, attends the Church of Christ on earth, than those 
 which in various ways accompany this problem of office and official 
 function. More than all external causes, and possibly more than all 
 internal heresies and controversies, has this problem agitated, convulsed, 
 divided Christendom, from the apostolic age down to our own. It lies 
 at the foundation of most of those conflictiug conceptions of polity 
 and order, which have so often rent the one Church into a series of sep- 
 arate denominations, not merely at variance in opinion, but antagonis- 
 tic in spirit and action. In the particular church, it is easily recognized 
 as first among those divisive influences by which the household is torn 
 into sections and embittered by factious conflicts, inimical if not fatal 
 to the spiritual life of all the members. Here personal ambitions, 
 partisan feelings, intestinal strifes, sectarian narrowness and bitterness, 
 find their chief sphere and opportunity. Here the best affections of 
 disciples are arrested in their action, the purest purposes are frustrated, 
 and the noblest elements in Christian manhood are crippled in their 
 action and influence. In a word, the spirit of hierarchy is the ever 
 threatening peril, the chiefest evil, of organic Christianity. And the 
 only possible antidote lies in the broadest, most continuous and urgent 
 enunciation of the holy precept of our Lord, embodied for His Church 
 through all time in the golden sentence, Avhich to every one holding 
 official station within that Church is a supreme commission : I am 
 
 AMONG YOU AS ONE THAT SEKVETH. 
 
112 THE CHURCH as a divine kingdom. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE CHURCH AS A DIVINE KINGDOM: 
 
 GOVERNMENT, POLITIES, DISCIPLINE. 
 
 The impersonal and also the personal constituents of the 
 Church have now been passed in brief review. The next 
 question to be considered relates to the peculiar organization 
 in which these various elements are embodied, — to that 
 Church viewed as a divine structure, vested witli the right 
 to govern and discipline itself, and qualified to stand forth 
 in human society as an independent and enduring kingdom 
 of grace. Three topics here present themselves for inves- 
 tigation : Church Government in general, Polities in the 
 Church, and Church Order and Discipline. 
 
 I. The Church as a Structure: General Conception. — Even 
 in the patriarclial age, the Church is seen to he, not an aggregate of 
 dissimilar elements, but a living organism, bound together in every 
 part by the common principle of piety. In the Hebraic Church, for- 
 mal and external as the uniting tie appears in conjunction with the 
 Hebrew connnonwealth, tlie same spiritual structure is still apparent; 
 the Church is an organized institution within the State, and as such 
 maintains its vitality and efficiency even while the State is passing into 
 decay. Under the Gospel this self-organizing capacity, and this inde- 
 pendent life, are still more manifest. While our Lord lays hroad and 
 sure foundations for His Church, and makes adequate provision for 
 its organization under the guidance of His apostles. He commits the 
 task of specific construction to the spiritual body itself He jirovides 
 doctrines, sacraments, ordinances ; He brings together the company of 
 those who believe, and defines their mutual relations and their conunon 
 work; He lays down the fundamental principles of Church govern- 
 ment. But He leaves them to organize themselves, according to such 
 models as the Jewish Church, and poabibly the Hebrew or the Eoman 
 state, placed before them. While in Tlis appointment of the twelve, 
 and of the seventy, and in some 6ther specific provisions. He makes 
 place for government and for offices and officers. He chooses to lay 
 the work of organization upon His disciples, under the direction of 
 His Spirit, and of His commissioned representatives. The reasons for 
 
THE CHURCH, A SPIRITUAL STRUCTURi:. 113 
 
 such a procedure have been noticed ah-eady; the fact is unquestionable, 
 and in many ways is one of deep significance. 
 
 Thus the Christian Church, at the Pentecost a simple aggregation 
 of disciples, soon became by virtue of such inherent capabilities, and 
 under such guidance, a spiritual structure, more complete and beauti- 
 ful than the Patriarchal or the Hebraic Church had ever been. The 
 New Testament was its constitution, and whatever laws it needed from 
 time to time, were framed by it on this divine basis. Apostolic in- 
 spiration indeed guided it, but in such manner as left free room for the 
 exercise of a sanctified judgment on all points of detail, whether in 
 enactment or in administration. The oflices of the bishop, the pastor, 
 the elder, the ruler, the deacon, sprang into being as they were need- 
 ful ; government grew progressively into shape and power. Before the 
 close of the apostolic century, we see the Church standing forth every- 
 Avhere, from Jerusalem to Rome, not always in the same form, or 
 always under the same regulative conditions, but in all varieties a liv- 
 ing institution, — as firmly built up on constitutional foundations as the 
 Roman State. It was no longer an aggregate or accumulation ; it was 
 an organism, a spiritual kingdom. 
 
 As such, the power of the keys — as it is termed — was fully vested in 
 the Church. Granted at first to Peter, and to the other apostles as in 
 trust, this power Avas not to be transmitted by them to a hierarchal 
 body of their own construction, and acting independently of the 
 Church, but was to be transferred to the household of faith and 
 wielded by it. Such hierarchal investiture with the right to govern 
 the Church, from age to age, without the choice or option of the flock, 
 is simply a prelatic fiction, never suggested in Scripture and fraught — 
 as the history of the Papacy has shown — with immeasurable mischief. 
 It is the Church, and the Church alone, which through such agencies 
 or instruments as it selects, wields this sacred dominion in full respon- 
 sibility to its ascended Lord. Among the forms in Avhich this power 
 of the keys is to be exercised by the Church, the first is the right to 
 determine, under the direction of Scripture, the terms of admission to 
 its circle ; the second, is the right to make and to enforce all laws and 
 regulations needful to the completeness of its organization, or to its 
 full efiiciency as an organized body; the third is the right to discipline 
 unfaithful members, as by admonition or by withholding from them 
 certain privileges, sacramental or otherwise, entrusted to its keeping ; 
 and the fourth is the right to purify itself whenever needful, by the 
 expulsion of errorists or grossly unworthy persons. In general, every 
 church has an inherent right under the guidance of the Word of God, 
 to take whatever steps are necessary to its strengthening, its develop- 
 ment, its perfection, as a branch of the Church of Chiist among men. 
 
114 THE CIIUUCII AS A DlVIXi: KINGDOM. 
 
 And this right is vested, not in any grouj) of officials appointed by 
 foreign authority to act for the body, but in the body of believers them- 
 selves. Within biblical warrant they may indeed commit the exercise 
 of this right to persons chosen for the purpose, but they can not alien- 
 ate that right, or free themselves from final responsibility for tlic 
 manner in which it may be wielded by their representatives. In a 
 word, the Church is a self-governing organism ; official persons, acting 
 for it, are agents oidy.^ 
 
 Hence the Church is in a true sense the Kingdom of God on earth. 
 This phrase is variously used, both in Scripture and elsewhere. It 
 refers .sometimes to the general providence of God, as exercised in 
 sovereignty over His earthly creation, and sometimes to His moral 
 government as wielded over men or nations. In the sphere of grace, 
 the phrase points sometimes to the holy sway of religion within the 
 individual soul, or to the progressive influence of the Gospel as a sov- 
 ereign force in human life, or to the ultimate triumph of God over all 
 enemies, in the complete establisment of His gracious dominion. It 
 is thus obvious that the Kingdom of God and the Church of Christ, 
 whether visible or invisible, are not always synonymous in meaning 
 or coterminous in extent. Yet in its essence the Kingdom is gracious 
 rather than providential, and the Church is ever the central sphere 
 within which the Kingdom becomes specially manifest. And as the 
 sway of grace progresses in the earth, it may be anticijjated that the 
 bounding lines of the two conceptions will draw together more and 
 more closely, until finally in the fullest sense the Kingdom and the 
 Church will become one, with Christ as the recognized Head in prov- 
 idence and in moral administration, as well as in grace. 
 
 II. Criuucii Government Defined and Justified. — The term, 
 government, may be defined as the regulation or constraint of indi- 
 vidual action, by proper authority administering law in the interest 
 of human society. It implies first of all, the existence of a commu- 
 nity of individuals, who are to be brought into subservience to somo 
 common control. Such community involves more than casual or occa- 
 sional association: government never springs into existence through 
 transient contact, but is rather an outgrowth of fixed, enduring fellow- 
 ship. There must be a society in the true sense, with recognized rights 
 and interests, and with power to regulate individual freedom within 
 such limits as these interests and rights may prescribe. 
 
 The existence of law, and of an authority empowered and adequate 
 
 ' CuNxiXGiiAM ; Church Principles, Cliap. xi : Church Power. Luther, Articles 
 of Smnlaild. "The keys belong not to any man, but to the Churcli. Wlierever 
 the (Mnirch is, there is tlie riglit of administration, under tlie Gospel." — IIodgk, 
 Church Polity, p. 142. Lytton ; Church of Christ, Book in, Chap. ii. 
 
CHURCH GOVERNMENT DEFINED. 115 
 
 to enforce law, is also implied in the idea of government. Whatever 
 the source from which such law may have been originally derived, or 
 whatever the inherent qualities of the law as announced, the control 
 exercised over the individual will and life must be a control under 
 law. No private person becomes a law unto himself, or is a source 
 of law to others in this connection : it is society which prescribes the 
 principles and rules by Avhich its members are to be controlled for its 
 welfare. It is society also which gives form and efficiency to the au- 
 thority by which law is administered and enforced. Such authority 
 stands forth in the community as the representative both of law, and 
 of the social force through which law is to be applied to individual 
 life. 
 
 This general definition of government is applicable to the Church, 
 and eminently to the Christian Church, at each of these three points. 
 That Church is not a casual fellowship, a transient association, but a 
 settled community, held together by a common life, and having interests 
 and rights which it is bound to protect and to foster. It is a commu- 
 nity existing under law, — law derived primarily from the Scripture as 
 an authoritative source, and enjoined through the personal command of 
 Christ as its Head, but defined and ajiplied to each member, in the 
 interest of all, by the community itself. It is a community divinely 
 invested with authority to enforce its own regulations,— possessing the 
 right to require obedience, or within certain limits to visit disobedience 
 with discipline or punishment. Its exercise of such authority is de- 
 clarative and ministerial only, but is on this account none the less 
 significant or effective. The Church is thus, in its constitution, a gov- 
 ernment, — a spiritual community controlling its members, through 
 the administration of scriptural law by ajipropriate authorities, for 
 the furtherance of those great ends in whose interest it was divinely 
 established. 
 
 Such church goverment is plainly justified by many practical consid- 
 erations. It might be argued from analogy that, since government Is 
 essential to the welfare of both communities and individuals in other 
 spheres — since both the family and the state depend largely upon it 
 for their comfort and their usefulness, the Church needs to be organ- 
 ized in this form, in order to accomplish most efficiently its own spir- 
 itual ends. These ends indeed differ Avidely from those sought in the 
 state or the family, and from their own nature must be diflTerently 
 secured. It is also obvious that in the household of faith, the prin- 
 ciple of self-government has far wider field for action: the several 
 members may be expected, under the consciousness of immediate re- 
 sponsibility to Christ as well as to His people, to control their private 
 action with closer reference to the common good. Yet Christians do 
 
116 THE CIIURCir AS A DIVINE KINGDOM. 
 
 not always govern themselves wisely, or properly shape their conduct so 
 as to secure the best interests of all : and so far as they are defective 
 in such respects, as children in a family, they obviously need the just 
 constraint, the regulative guidance, of the common body. What we 
 observe in this direction in all other deparments of life, is seen to exist 
 at least in some measure within this si:)iritual sphere. — This argument 
 is strengthened by what we know respecting the social constitution of 
 the Church, as a company of persons varying widely in sex, age, 
 social condition, varieties of temperament, natural types of character; 
 and therefore needing on many sides such organizing and regulating 
 power at the center, as will transform tlieir association into a permanent 
 blessing to each and to all. The peculiar nature of the fellowship into 
 which such diversitied individuals and classes are introduced, adds em- 
 phasis to the demand for such governmental control. If the multiplied 
 impulses, tastes, desires, plans of such an aggregate are to be turned 
 to good account — if all are to be drawn into unity around the great 
 verities of grace, and animated by the same holy aflectious and pur- 
 poses, and fully utilized for the furtherance of the Church itself, viewed 
 as a community, that community must assume the form of a kingdom 
 as Avell as that of a family, and must robe itself as such with all rules 
 and authorities adequate to secure these vital ends. 
 
 Contemplating government in its relations to the purity, and to the 
 spiritual unity of the Church, the argument for its existence is still 
 further strengthened. It is of course admitted that the chief agency 
 in this respect lies in the purifying power of grace in the believing 
 heart — in the hallowing and unifying influence of holy love, throbbing 
 in the breast of each believer, and drawing all spontaneously into one- 
 ness, and into loyalty to the truth and to the common organization. 
 Yet experience has shown that some external regulation is needed in 
 addition to these inward forces; — that law and authority are needful to 
 guide these inward sentiments into right and useful expression, and 
 that the sentiments themselves grow into strength and perfectness only 
 when they are thus trained by the experienced hand of the Christian 
 community. The history of church organizations is conckisive here: 
 for those which are best governed, are precisely those in which these 
 results appear in most satisfactory form and measure. — That govern- 
 ment is essential also to the growth of the Church, and to its success 
 in the accomplishment of its divine mission, is another practical argu- 
 ment for its existence. Whether we contemplate the Church at large, 
 or any particular church, we see at a glance that the sublime ends for 
 which these are established, can not be effectively attained Avithout 
 organization — Avithout law and authority directing the movements of 
 each member for the general good. And on this, as on the preceding 
 
CIIUKCII GOVERNMENT IN SCRIPTURE. 117 
 
 f^rounds, it may justly be argued tliat government is indispensable, as 
 an organizing, controlling, inspiring, productive factor in church life. 
 
 III. CiiuRCu Government in Scripture. — These general consid- 
 erations in support of the right of Church government to exist, are 
 abundantly confirmed by what we actually see of this element in the 
 history of the Church, as recorded in the Bible. Recurring to the 
 patriarchal period, when the Church dwelt chiefly in the family, we 
 find Xoah, Abraham, Jacob, exercising spiritual as well as natural au- 
 thority in their families; Gen 18: 19. In the Hebraic Church, we 
 find at first a strictly theocratic rule, determining both the duties of 
 the body and the obligations of the individual, and in all cases requir- 
 ing loyal obedience as a condition of membership. By degrees this 
 right to govern is transmitted to the priesthood, and still later to the 
 prophetic order, under a double sense of accountability, first to Jeho- 
 vah, and then to His people. The law by which all were to be guided, 
 was divinely revealed: and the functions of the religious ruler were 
 limited to the promulgation and enforcement of that law. At length 
 we observe the singular phenomenon of church government as thus 
 constituted, surviving and even increasing in vigor, while the civil 
 government first associated with it is broken down, and passes out of 
 sight. 
 
 Under the Gospel, the fact of government is distinctly stated by 
 our Lord, though its full realization, as we have seen, belongs to the 
 apostolic age. While Christ more often adverts to His spiritual king- 
 dom as a dominion within the soul (Luke 17: 20-1), or as a holy 
 force working in human society (Matt. 13: 33), He sometimes uses the 
 phrase with evident reference to the relation of believer to believer 
 within the Church, and to the Church itself as a spiritual empire. We 
 may also note here the marked passage, Matt. 18 : 15-18, Avhich as to 
 both principle and manner, lies at the basis of all legitimate church dis- 
 cipline. The corresponding passage. Matt. 16 : 19, illustrated by the 
 more specific reference in John 20 : 23, if we substitute the true, in- 
 stead of the false or papal interpretation of the words, is a plain investi- 
 ture, not of Peter as primate, or of the apostles generally, but of the 
 Church itself with the right of government. And Avhile, for reasons 
 already stated, the Messiah did not proceed to organize His Church 
 formally, with complete law, and with adequate authorities appointed 
 by Himself, we still find church government resting essentially and 
 firmly on what He said and did. 
 
 The apostolic teaching, based on that of our Lord, is specific and 
 abundant. Thus we see the Christian Church, at the very outset of 
 its career, taking on a governmental as well as a domestic form ; Ave 
 see it meeting in council at Jerusalem, in order to consider and deter- 
 
118 THE CHURCH as a divine kingdom. 
 
 mine doubtful questions ; we see it in several ways exercising adminis- 
 trative authority, enacting laws and rules for the guidance of disciples, 
 and assuming executive control over the movements of those who were 
 going forth among men as its representatives. The Book of Acts is a 
 record of spiritual administration on the part of the Church, as well 
 as of personal activity on the part of the apostles and their associates. 
 At a later stage, Ave find Paul not merely inculcating the principles by 
 which judicial administration should be controlled, but also command- 
 ing the church at Corinth to exercise discipline, and himself assisting 
 it in such exercise ; 1 Cor. 5 and 6 : 2 Cor. 2 seq. Both James and 
 Peter, John and Jude, in various passages affirm the right of the 
 Church to protect itself against the unworthy, even by disciplinary 
 processes. Not only were saints to separate themselves from the evil; 
 they were also authoritatively to separate the evil from them — to jHirify 
 the body of Christ even by the expulsion of vicious or heretical mem- 
 bers. Government is also indicated as a right inherent in the Church, 
 by the numerous injunctions in the apostolic writings with regard to 
 church Avork — injunctions which could not well be carried into effect 
 without such government as a bond of organization, and as an essential 
 condition of efficiency in service. 
 
 Two mistakes are to be guarded against, at this point. The first is 
 the error of indifference to government, — an indifference too often ex- 
 hibited in disastrous forms, especially in Protestant communions. One 
 of these forms appears in the prevalent disregard for church disci- 
 pline, with its natural consequence in the weakening and corrupting 
 of the household of faith. Another is seen in that spirit of individ- 
 ualism, which is habitually regardless of prescribed modes of activity 
 or service, and which refuses oa the slightest grounds to submit to 
 legitimate regulation and restraint. The second error appears in the 
 assumption, so often at least implied, that government is an end in 
 itself, rather than a divine means to the better accomplishment of 
 other and higher ends. Thus in the papal view the Church is often 
 regarded as existing for the sake of government — rather than govern- 
 ment as an instrument employed by and for the Church. The natural 
 relations are thus subverted, and what was divinely appointed as a 
 blessing, is changed into an agent of tyrannical usurpation. 
 
 IV. Varieties IN Church Government : Diverse Polities.— At 
 this point we are confronted by the fact that, while church govern- 
 ment is thus clearly warranted by Scripture, and while the main prin- 
 ciples in government and the general rules for construction are so 
 definitely laid down by our Lord, and so corroborated by both the 
 teaching and the example of His Apostles, such government exists 
 in the world in very wide and even antagonistic varieties. We are 
 
VARIETIES IX CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 119 
 
 confronted by the further foot, that each of these varieties has claimed 
 and is still claiming for itself special and even exclusive biblical war- 
 rant: and that the struggle between these antagonistic types on this 
 ground, has been and still is one of the most prolific sources of conflict, 
 schism, disaster, to the common Christianity. The question whether 
 such a state of rupture is ever to be brought to an end — whether the 
 divided and contesting organizations of Christendom, are ever to be 
 harmonized and unified around this issue of government, is also one 
 which forces itself, in many ways, upon the attention of those who 
 believe at heart in the one, holy, catholic and apostolical Church of 
 the Nicene Creed. 
 
 It would be a shallow and unjust view to attribute these diversities 
 wholly to evil causes, such as the ignorance or weakness or wickedness 
 of men. Every student of ecclesiastical history indeed knows how 
 large a part human ambitions, human jealousies, human selfishness and 
 sin, have played in the development of these diverse polities within 
 the one Church of Christ on earth. Protestants point to the shameful 
 career of the Papacy at various stages, as an illustration of this gen- 
 eral fact ; and the adherents of the primacy of Peter in turn point for 
 like illustration to the conflicts, the disruptions, the persistent antag- 
 onisms, which have so painfully iippeared in the history of Protestant- 
 ism since the Keformation. But no great and permanent type of 
 Church organization can justly be said to be a product of human sin- 
 fulness, wholly and alone. — It is also true that human ignorance, 
 showing itself in the entire failure to see, or in the partial or distorted 
 view of, what the Scriptures clearly reveal on this grave question, has 
 had much to do, if not with the formation of these diverse polities, 
 still with their development and application. Passing beyond what the 
 Bible has plainly taught, and theorizing for themselves on what they 
 suppose to be scriptural indications, men have often gone widely, dis- 
 astrously astray, even where the desire and the purpose were not un- 
 worthy. Human weakness, likewise, as well as human ignorance, 
 has had at times much to do with these ecclesiastical growths: it 
 has yielded too often where resistance Avas needful : it has too often 
 suffered human ambition, or a misguided zeal, to introduce what stronger 
 convictions, firmer religious principle, would have constrained it to 
 resist. 
 
 Yet broader and higher causes must be recognized in conjunction with 
 these, in order to the adequate explanation of these remarkable diver- 
 sities. Some of these causes are natural, social, political. There are 
 men, for illustration, whose mental tendencies incline them strongly 
 toward a monarchal, or toward a democratic form of government, first 
 in the state and then in the church ; and whose preferences, readily 
 
120 THE CHURCH AS A DIVINE KINGDOM. 
 
 seizing ui^on Avhatcvcr biblical material may be found to justify these 
 natural tcndeuoics, lead them to frame church constitutions and regu- 
 lations according to such jicrsonal predilections. There arc also social 
 influences and usages, as seen in the general arrangements of society, 
 which jjredisposc men toward corresponding arrangements, so far as 
 the Scripture permits, within the household and kingdom of grace. 
 Especially is it true that political principles and institutions, — the forms 
 of civil government, the theory and jn-actice of legal administration, 
 the varieties of public oflice and station — have had much to do with 
 a corresponding construction of the Church. That the lioman State, 
 for example, Avith its multiplied officials, its elaborate rulings, its legal 
 pomp and domination, allected largely the shaping of the Church 
 long before Leo I. became the imperial Pope of Rome, and still more 
 decisively fj-om the date of his accession down to the Reformation, is 
 a fact too obvious to be questioned. The general rule which ecclesi- 
 astical history at many points suggests, is that, wherever monarchy 
 pi'cvails in the state, a monarchal development appears in the Church, 
 and wherever a democracy exists, the Church tends to become demo- 
 cratic. Is it not just to recognize deeper causes of this class as con- 
 spiring Avith human ignorance, weakness, sin, in producing the varieties 
 of government we are contemplating? 
 
 Is it not possible also, that some reasons for such variety may be 
 found in the Scripture itself, and in the nature of Chi'istianity, viewed 
 as a free and expansive faith, having the world as its area, and des- 
 tined to include all classes and degrees of humanity within its govern- 
 mental control? In one aspect, Christianity is obviously a monarchal 
 system — a purely royal religion ; in another it is essentially democratic 
 — a spiritual republic. But the kingship of Christ, and the brother- 
 hood of believers, are to some extent antithetic i)rinciples; and their 
 practical a})i)lication, as regulative guides in ecclesiastical construction, 
 may result in either a monarchy or a republic, or in a blending of 
 both in varying proportions. Moreover, the Hebraic Church, though 
 it was the natural model of the Christian, and though it gave definite 
 form to the earlier Jewish churches at the outset, could not well have 
 been carried in its original type, and with its marked Jewish features, 
 into Gentile countries, and made tlie autlioritative norm of the numer- 
 ous churches springing up in AVestcrn Asia and Eastern Europe, in 
 states of society wholly unlike that in which it originated. It is at 
 least certain that such a process could not have been carried on, with- 
 out either a direct and positive command from our Lord Himself, or 
 the inspired and authoritative Avord of His apostles. But no such 
 command or AVord, clear, imperative, sovereign, appears in the New 
 Testament. As has been intimated already, our Lord seems to have 
 
THE PAPAL rOIJTY: POSITION AND CLAIM. 121 
 
 left the matter of organization very nuicii in abeyance. Neither have 
 the aj)ostles so fully defined their concei)ti()n, as to make imi)erative 
 one unvarying and fully authoritative mode of construction for all lands 
 and times. Are wc not therefore justified in the general conclusion, 
 that as in the mode of baptism, and in some other particulars, some 
 variety of usage existed under the apostolic warrant, and is therefore 
 still admissible under the authority of the common Gospel? And 
 would it not be a vast advance toward the peaceful settlement of many 
 controverted questions in church polity, if such a measure of freedom 
 were recognized as vested in each and every church, under the supreme 
 action of those general principles of organization which are plainly 
 stated in the revealed Word? 
 
 Without discussing the questions thus raised, or attempting any full 
 solution of this difficult problem of diversity, we may pass on to a very 
 brief consideration of the particular varieties of polity exhibited in the 
 history of the Christian Church. These maybe thrown broadly into 
 two general classes: government by the priestly orders, government by 
 the church. (Government by the priestly orders exists in two leading 
 varieties, the hierarchal and the prelatic. Government by the church 
 also exists in two leading varieties, the democratic and the rejjresenta- 
 tive. Four distinct conceptions of church government thus make their 
 appearance historically in Christendom, though rarely without some 
 degree of admixture with antithetic elements. A brief glance at each 
 of these, as they present themselves historically, may now be taken. 
 
 V. The Papal Polity : Its Position and Claim. — This hierarchal 
 variety of government by the priestly orders, as distinguished from the 
 body of believers, may be briefly described. ^ It maintains in general 
 that the Church of Christ on earth was intended to be one and indivisi- 
 ble, — a visible organization having a recognized center, a central 
 power, one code of laws, one belief, and one mode of worship. It 
 maintains that this one Catholic Church was authoritatively established 
 by Christ and His apostles, has survived and flourished from the apos- 
 tolic age down to our own time, and is destined thus to live and pros- 
 per till all oppositions are overthrown, and the Christian world is 
 brought into tributary allegiance. It maintains that Eome is the di- 
 vinely chosen center and seat of this Church ; that the Pope of Rome 
 is its proper head and sovereign, acting as vicegerent of Christ on 
 earth ; that it is given to him to determine its doctrine, worship, and 
 laws, and that obedience is to be paid to him by the faithful through- 
 out the world. It maintains that beneath the Pope, in whose hands 
 
 ^The following Catholic authorities may be consulted: Moehler, on Symbol- 
 ism; Keniuck, on The Primacy : Dollingek, The Church and the Churches. Also 
 Newman and Manning. 
 
122 TiiK CHURCH as a divine kingdom. 
 
 the scepter of spiritual sovereignty is thus jilaced, there arc inferior 
 orders and ehisses of clergy, existing by scriptural warrant, to ulioin 
 spiritual grace is entrusted, and by whom, under accountability to the 
 supreme pontitf, the Church is to be instructed and governed. It 
 maintains that the government of the Church has from the beginning 
 been vested in these priestly orders, and is legitimately ^Yieldcd by 
 them ; and that this is the polity directly and exclusively prescribed in 
 the AVord of God. No other mode of government has any scriptural 
 basis or justification, and all churches organized on any other basis 
 are not churches in the biblical sense, but are schismatical, revolution- 
 ary, and worthy of condemnation. AVide diversities of opinion exist 
 within this general definition, as witb reference to the degree of au- 
 thority vested in popes and councils respectively, and the rights and 
 prerogatives of inferior and superior clergy. But all agree in the 
 fundamental position, that government as to spiritual things belongs, 
 not to the private Christian, or to the particular congregation, but to 
 the hierarchy, and in the last resort to the reigning pontiff sitting as 
 supreme ruler over the entire household and kingdom of grace. 
 
 The arguments advanced in support of this theory of church gov- 
 ernment are of three classes: scriptural, historical and philosophical. — 
 The scriptural argument starts with the promise of the primacy, said 
 to be found in John 1: 42, as explained in Matt. 16: 17-19, and 
 further illusti'ated in Luke 22 : 31-32. In these passages, Ave find, it 
 is alleged, a marked prominence given to Peter at the time of his 
 selection to be an apostle : we find in his name and in his personal de- 
 claration of faith, evidence that in his own person as a believer he was 
 to be the rock on Avhich the Church should afterAvard be built : we 
 find in the investiture Avith the keys of church authority, an indica- 
 tion that such authority Avas to be entrusted to him and to his successors 
 to the end of time : Ave find in the further commission to strengthen 
 his brethren, direct proof that he AAas to be set above them as their 
 teacher and guide, and in like manner Avas to be ultimately the teacher 
 and guide of the A^hole Church. The promise thus gi\'en AAas verified, 
 after the resurrection of the Lord, in the formal appointment of Peter, 
 John 21 : 15-17, Avith a supreme commission to feed, protect and keep 
 the flock of Christ. Corroborating evidence is supposed to be found 
 in the general place held by Peter, sometimes AA'ith James and John as 
 associates, at the head of the apostolic circle. The actual exercise of 
 this primacy began at once, after the ascension, as is CA'ident in the 
 first, and the succeeding chapters in the Acts of the Apostles: Acts 1 : 
 15, 2: 14, 3: 1, 15: 7, and other illustrations. Further evidence as 
 to the primacy appears in Gal. 1: 18, 1 Peter 5:1: and in verse 13, 
 Avhere Peter speaks as bishop of the Church at Rome, the mystical 
 
ARGUMENTS FOR THE PAPACY. 123 
 
 Babylon. It is furtlier alleged that these evidences that Peter was 
 set at the head of the apostolic group, aud was made the central per- 
 sonage and head of the Church, with full authority to wield the power 
 of the keys, and to transmit that power at his decease to others, are 
 conclusive as to the intention of the great Head of the Church. And 
 further, that this primacy was never questioned either by the other 
 apostles or by the primitive Church, but remained as an unchallenged 
 institute at the very origin of Christianity, and became a law of con- 
 struction by which the Church is to be forever bound. In further 
 illustration, it is said that the Catholic Church folloAvs exactly the 
 model furnished by the Jewish Church; — that the pope is in the latter 
 substantially what the high priest was in the former : that the inferior 
 clergy correspond with the IMosaic orders of j^riest and Levite : and 
 that the authority vested in the clergy under the Gospel, is essentially 
 the same authority which was exercised by the Old Testament priest- 
 hood. On these scriptural grounds it is maintained that the Roman 
 Catholic is the only truly biblical Church. 
 
 The historical and philosophical arguments adduced in support of 
 this conclusion may be briefly summarized. It is alleged, that the 
 early Fathers iuteriireted these passages concerning the promise and 
 institution of the primacy as the Church of Eome now interprets them, 
 and that Peter was always, in fact, held in special reverence by the 
 primitive Church as chief among the Apostles: — that reliable tradition, 
 as well as the reference in 1 Peter 5: 13, shows the apostle to have 
 been the first bishop of Rome : — that the Roman see was regarded on 
 this account, even from the first century, as having special authority 
 on all questions of faith and order : — that, as the field of Christendom 
 extended, this supremacy was more and more freely accorded, until we 
 find at length the papal authority fully and freely exercised wherever 
 the Church was planted : and that, with the exception of the Eastern 
 and of the Protestant schism, this sway has actually been wielded, by 
 universal consent, from the earliest centuries down to our own time. 
 Such are the main lines of historical evidence adduced. — The philo- 
 sophical argument rests chiefly on certain considerations relating to 
 the historic continuity, to the compact and elaborate adjustments, to 
 the peculiar solidarity, and to the efficiency and majestic sway of the 
 Papal Church, — especially as noted in contrast with the opposite 
 weaknesses alleged to exist in the multiplied and antagonistic forms 
 of Protestantism. That Church, it is affirmed, approaches much more 
 nearly than these Protestant organizations to the ideal set forth in the 
 Bible, and corresponds more exactly to our highest dreams as to the 
 Church of the future. While Protestantism reveals only a fragmentary 
 and desultory life, the Church of Rome, which is none other than the 
 
124 THE CHURCH AS A DIVINE KINGDOM. 
 
 Church Catholic or Universal, reveals a degree of unity, of strength, 
 of capability, which on philosophical grounds justifies the conclusion 
 that it is the Churcli, the only Church, of Christ among men. It;; 
 claim to universal allegiance is therefore unquestionable, imperative, 
 supreme: all refusal to yield such allegiance is schismatical and sinful, 
 and must luring the soul into condemnation. 
 
 VI. The Papal Polity Considered. — The answer of evangelical 
 Protestantism to these claims is clear and strong. Reverting to the 
 scriptural argument, we may note, first, the incorrect interpretation of 
 the crucial passages named, with reference to the promise of the j)ri- 
 macy. Thus, when Peter was styled the rock, in connection Avith 
 his notable confession, our Lord clearly referred to the confession itself, 
 and to the spirit of trust which led to it, and commended these, rather 
 than the personality of Peter, as the basis on Avhich His Church was 
 to be established. He praised the firmness, the endurance, the sublime 
 confidence shown by the Apostle, and declared that all acceptable 
 belief in Him must exhibit these qualities. This is illustrated in the 
 place given to such loyal confession in the apostolic letters: Rom. 10: 
 9-10, EiDh. 2: 20, 1 Cor. 3: 10: also Acts 4: 10-12, 8: 37, as ex- 
 amples. Again, so far as the power of the keys, or of ecclesiastical 
 authority, is concerned, we find that what was entrusted to Peter in 
 Matt. 16 : 19, was in like terms entrusted to all the apostles in John 
 20 ; 23, and to the Church as a body, INIatt. 18 : 18. It is also ob- 
 vious that the other apostles were shepherds of the flock as truly as 
 Peter, through authority derived not from him, but directly from 
 Christ himself: Peter recognizes this in his exhortation to all elders of 
 the Church, whether apostles or otherwise, 1 Peter 5:1. Again, his 
 commission to strengthen his brethren, after he had passed through the 
 painful experiences connected with his denial of Christ, is nothing 
 more than an injunction to fraternal fidelity, such as frequently appear 
 in more general form in the Epistles. Nor can anything more be 
 made of the prominence assumed by Peter, either while Christ lived, 
 or afterward, as described in the earlier portions of the Book of Acts, 
 than an exhibition of those qualities of temperament and age which 
 made him a leader in the apostolic group even while our Lord lived, — 
 a leadership which, however conspicuous, nowhere presents itself in 
 the aspect of an ofiicial primacy. 
 
 Very much may be quoted from the New Testament in direct an- 
 tagonism to the papal claim. Thus, our Lord, on various occasions, 
 plainly discountenanced the idea of gradation among the apostles 
 (Mark 9 : 33-37), and rebuked the desire for eminence which He dis- 
 covered among them: Matt. 20: 20-27. His rebukes to Peter, for 
 his inconsiderate forwardness, are especially frequent : as in immediate 
 
ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE PAPACY. 125 
 
 conjunctiou with the alleged promise of the priraac}', Matt. 16: 23, 
 and again in connection with the washing of the feet of the disciples, 
 John 13 : 6-10, and again Avith the rash affirmation of fidelity, just 
 before the denial, Luke 22 ; 31-34. The denial itself, as faithfully- 
 recorded by the other three evangelists, and referred to by John, 
 stands out in very strange contrast with the papal assumption ; and 
 the relations of this event to the subsequent history, and especially to 
 the noted interview at the Sea of Galilee, lead us to a very different 
 conclusion from that which Romanism has drawn from the inspired 
 narratives. We search in vain through the records of the Acts for 
 any clear sign of an official primacy, either claimed by Peter, or assigned 
 to him by either the apostles or the Church. His place in the events 
 of the period is habitually that of an equal among equals: while ho 
 leads in the proclamation of the Gospel outside of the circle of Judaism, 
 he shares this work almost from the first with Paul, Avho finally becomes 
 the chief apostle to the Gentiles : among the Jewish churches, he in 
 like manner shares the control Avith James, and indeed with the apos- 
 tles generally; Acts 15: 22, Gal. 1: 18-19. We should also note 
 here the conflict in judgment and authority between Paul and Peter, 
 recorded in Gal. 2 : 11-14: and in which Peter was to be blamed, for 
 the manifestation of the same moral weakness which had appeared so 
 painfully in the denial itself. Setting all these glimpses of the career 
 of the apostle over against those quoted in proof of his primacy, we can 
 be led to no other conclusion than that this alleged primacy, and the 
 vast fabric of priestly usurpation which has been built upon it, arc 
 without adequate warrant in the Word of God. 
 
 Protestantism rejects as inadequate both the biblical and the tradi- 
 tional evidence with regard to the asserted bishopric of Peter at Rome. 
 Whether the obscure passage, 1 Peter 5: 13, refers to the literal Bab- 
 ylon in Chaldea, or to Jerusalem as the spiritual Babylon, or to some 
 smaller place bearing this name, or to Rome itself viewed as the mys- 
 tical Babylon, it affords no distinct evidence that Peter had given up 
 his apostolic function, and assumed that of a Christian bishoj^, at Rome 
 or elsewhere. The tradition that he was martyred there rests on foun- 
 dations equally slight. Nor is the testimony of the Fathers as to this 
 point, or as to the primacy in general, or to the apostolic eminence of 
 Peter, either harmonious in itself, or in the aggregate in any high sense 
 conclusive. It is freely admitted that, after a long period of progres- 
 sive departure from the simplicity of the primitive era, and after pro- 
 tracted struggle among rival bishops claiming supremacy in Christen- 
 dom, Rome Avon the victory, and became and remained in the West, 
 the visible center and seat of supreme ecclesiastical power. But this 
 development, as Protestantism maintains, was unscriptural, abnormal, 
 
126 THE CHURCH AS A DIVINE KIXGDOM. 
 
 and injurious to the best interests of Christianity, and is on these 
 grounds to be rejected as illicit. The claim of Romanists to an un- 
 broken oneness is far from being warranted by facta ; both the violent 
 separation from the Eastern Church, the revolutionary schisms within 
 the Papacy, and the later revolt of Protestantism, disprove the claim. 
 We set the Ileformed doctrine of a spiritual unity, at least partially 
 verified among the Protestant communions, over against this concep- 
 tion of uu outward organic oneness, and claim that the highest illus- 
 trations of true biblical unity, are found in such communions even in 
 their present disparted condition, rather than within the fold of 
 Rome. What is claimed for the completeness in organization, the effi- 
 ciency, the power and majesty of the Catholic Church, however true, 
 by no means proves that the polity of that Church is either scriptural 
 or on philosophic grounds desirable. Deeper insight leads to (|uite the 
 opposite conclusion; and the present attitude of the Papacy toward 
 personal rights, toward civil liberty, toward progress in thought and in 
 spiritual experience, is painful evidence against both the polity and the 
 priestly despotism planted upon it. On these grounds, evangelical 
 Protestantism, in all its varieties, rejects the hierarchy as, if not an 
 unbiblical excrescence upon Christianity, still a type of government in 
 which human elements, subtle and corrupting, have too largely per- 
 verted an institution of God into an instrumentality of man. While 
 its polity is not the woi'si feature in the Papal communion, that polity, 
 taking away from the iieo2:)le their prescriptive rights, and setting 
 up instead a government of the priesthood, and for the priesthood, 
 must ever be condemned at the tribunal of a free and spiritual Chris- 
 tianity. ^ 
 
 ' The question whether the papal polity is uiiscriptural, sliould never be con- 
 founded with the broader and more complicated question, whether the Roman 
 Catholic Church is to be regarded as a branch of the Church of Christ. For it is 
 conceivable that a true Church may be organized upon a false ecclesiastical 
 basis, and that such a Church may retain its essential faith, its spiritual qiiality, 
 even though it be iniquitously governed. It is conceivable also that a true 
 Church may exist, even where its essential faith lias been overlaid with many 
 human accretions, and where formalizing tendencies, corrupting usages, and the 
 like, have seriously burdened or impaired its spiritual life. On the ground of 
 sucli distinctions, Protestant writers have largely abandoned the older position, 
 that the Church of Rome is a synagogue of Satan — in head and members an em- 
 bodied Antichrist, and have simply condemned the papal polity, and the embod- 
 ied papacy, as being a conspicuous form of that Antichrist to which Paul in his 
 letters to the Thcssalonians so vividly refers. When it is remembered liow 
 much of saving truth is retained in tlie Romish conminnion, and what measure 
 of religious influence that communion wields in the world, and what multitudes 
 of sincere believers are embraced within it, utter condemnation of the body, 
 capitc et membris, seems a serious departure from the crowning law of Christian 
 charity. See HoncE, Ch., Theol. Ill ; 822. Church PuHhj, 205-210. Smith, H. B., 
 Life; appendix A. 
 
PRELATIC POLITY DESCRIBED. 127 
 
 VII. The Prelatic Polity : Its Claim Outlined. — Viewing Pre- 
 latisni in general, without reference to specific varieties or shadings, we 
 may observe tliat, Avhile it rejects the Romish conception of the papacy 
 as unwarranted by Scripture, and injurious to the Church, it still retains 
 in substance the papal view as to the inherent right of the clergy to 
 govern the household of faith. It harmonizes, in other words, with tlie 
 hierarchal rather than w'ith the democratic or representative theory of 
 government of the Church, by and for the Church. It holds, with 
 the papist, that the apostolate was designed to be a permanent office, 
 and was in fact perpetuated from the apostolic age, under the title of 
 bishop, and wath the apostolic functions and prerogatives essentially 
 embodied in it. It ckims that this transmitted oversight and control 
 of the churches, in particular districts or dioceses, was a characteristic 
 feature in church management from the beginning, and that it stands 
 forth, under direct apostolic sanction, as the only authorized mode of 
 ecclesiastical administration, for all succeeding times. It also joins 
 substantially with the papist in affirming the existence, by scriptural 
 warrant, of two subordinate orders of clergy, priests and deacons, to 
 whom certain powers and duties are assigned, and who possess, under 
 the episcopal jurisdiction, the right to share in church government. 
 With the papacy, it maintains further that these three orders, existing 
 by divine right as revealed in the Bible, are essential to the proper 
 constitution of the Christian Church, and consequently that no relig- 
 ious organization can be regarded as a church in the full sense, unless 
 it is thus constituted. In some of its varieties, Prelatism admits that 
 certain prerogatives, such as the choice of those who may hold position 
 in the particular church, are properly vested in the laity : but as a 
 rule, it reserves the function of government essentially to the clergy, 
 as of divine right, independently of the people. In some varieties, it 
 also admits the right of the laity to a voice in respect to church doc- 
 trine and canon, and to general administration, but still strenuously 
 exalts the clergy into special prominence as an independent order, with 
 a threefold classification, with prescriptive rights and a special investi- 
 ture of dignities, not accorded to them by the people, but conferred 
 on them in the New Testament, and by apostolic decision and prece- 
 dent. In some varieties of prelatic polity these claims as to those 
 holding the office of bishop are greatly modified, and that office is 
 viewed as little more than a judicious mode of oversight and adminis- 
 tration, — the authority reverting chiefly to the two remaining orders, 
 or to the body of believers. 
 
 Prelatism, as thus outlined, claims for itself a distinct biblical and 
 historical warrant. This warrant is derived partly from the analogy 
 of the Mosaic priesthood, with its three distinctive classes, severally 
 
128 THE CllUnClI as a DIVIXE KIX(iDOM. 
 
 invested by divine appointment witli certain inherent rights and pre- 
 rogatives. It is held that this arrangement was intended to typify 
 and introduce the form of government, which God designed to estab- 
 lish in the Christian Church. It is held also that, when Christ organ- 
 ized that Church during His own life, the three orders were preserved 
 by Him, He being Himself the great High Priest, while the apostles 
 and the seventy corresjDouded to the priests and the Levites respect- 
 ively. It is further held that, when our Lord ascended. He made 
 provision for a continued triplicity by the advancement of the second 
 and third classes to fill the vacancies made by His departure, and by 
 the appointment of the diaconate as a third body of subordinate clergy. 
 And as the apostles thus became primates in the Church, vested with 
 peculiar jurisdiction and oversight in the place of the Master Himself, 
 they were authorized to fill vacancies in their own number, or to in- 
 crease that number, as occasion should arise. As Paul was supernat- 
 urally commissioned, and as Matthias was supernaturally selected 
 under apostolic direction, to serve in this bishoi^ric, so Timothy and 
 Titus and others were chosen and set apart by the apostles themselves 
 for like service; and thus abundant provision was made for the pre- 
 servation of this apostolic office in the Church to the end of time. It 
 is maintained that such preservation has in fact occurred, and that 
 bishops as a class, separated by certain vested peculiarities from all 
 other ministers, and empowered supremely to rule within and over the 
 Church, are an essential requisite to a scriptural organization of the 
 body of Christ. It is held also that this interpretation of Scripture was 
 generally accepted and endorsed by the early Fathers : and that, as the 
 primitive Church took on maturer form, the episcopate, if not at first 
 universally established, came to be the universal feature of organized 
 Christianity. Both the Eastern and the Western Church, it is alleged, 
 wei'e thus prelatic in structure, long before the struggle among lead- 
 ing bishops — the metropolitans and archbishops and patriarchs, each 
 jealous for his own dignities — eventuated in the supremacy of the 
 papacy at Rome. It is maintained that the institution of the papacy, 
 being a departure from the scriptural model, did not annul the ante- 
 cedent episcopacy, and that the latter, being faithfidly transmitted 
 from century to century, remained, and continues to be, the authorized 
 mode of polity for the Church throughout the world. By some advo- 
 cates, it is admitted that the distinction between bishops and presby- 
 ters, or the ordinary clergy, did not exist at first, and was not universal 
 during the apostolic age, but gradually came into existence as an au- 
 thoritative development from the biblical germ. It is admitted by 
 others that no such distinction exists now, in the nature of the office; 
 and that the administration of government by bishops is in large de- 
 
PRELATISM EXAMINED. 129 
 
 grec a provisional arrangement for the better guidance and control of 
 the Church, and is therefore prelatic ia form, but representative and 
 democratic in substance. ^ On the latter basis, this polity is strongly 
 defended on philosophic grounds, as furnishing a wise and just and ef- 
 fective form of government, — one Avhich protects the Church against 
 the agitations and disruptions to which bodies not thus organized are 
 subject, — one which harmonizes Avell with the best existing varieties 
 of civil rule, and which naturally attracts to itself the finest elements 
 in society, and is in close affinity with the highest types of Christian 
 civilization. 
 
 VIII. Prelatism Examined. — With the modified forms of the 
 prelatic polity just described, no broad scriptural or historical issue is 
 requisite. It is the Prelatism which allies itself with the Papacy and 
 with oriental Christianity, in holding that goverment is a function of 
 
 'The fiction of a direct apostolical succession, verified by historic records, 
 with no gap at any point, is now abandoned by most Anglican authorities, 
 though long maintained as the only ground on which the prelatic polity can 
 stand. More moderate advocates liold that such a demonstrated transmission is 
 not essential : that the episcopal office justifies itself rather on general grounds 
 as an ancient and biblical institution : that it has been widely and happily rec- 
 ognized during the progress of Christianity: and that, although the polity 
 based upon it may not be the only one authorized in Scripture, it is still the 
 polity best adapted to secure the interests and advancement of the Church. It 
 is admitted by most authorities of this class that there was originallj' no distinc- 
 tion in office indicated by tlie terms, bishoji and i^resbyter, and that the distinc- 
 tion which appeared later was rather an outgrowth of experience, than the car- 
 rying out of a strict biblical injunction : Lightfoot, Camnientary on PhUipplans: 
 Essay on the Cliristian Ministry. Stanley, Christian lustihitions : Chap. x. 
 Essentially tlie same general view is advocated by Jacob, Eccl. Polity of the New 
 Test: and Hatch, Orjanization of the Early Christian Churches. This is a signifi- 
 cant departure from the Romish and the Oriental dogma, which maintains, not 
 only the original distinction in office, but also the historic transmission, the 
 transfusion of apostolic grace, and the original and supreme jurisdiction, as es- 
 sential features of tlie episcopate. The Church is in the Bishop, is the apothegm 
 of Cyprian, and substantially this is the doctrine of the hierarchal school gen- 
 erally. On this basis the ordination of ministers otherwise than through the 
 bishop, is invalid, and persons so ordained have no jjroper claim to the minis- 
 terial office in any grade, neither can any church constituted in any other way 
 be a true Cliurch of Christ : Palmer, Church of Christ, Part vi: The Episcopate. 
 Lytton, Church of Christ : Origin of tlie Ministerial Function. Blunt, Diet, of 
 Doct. and Hist. Theol: art. Apostolical Succe!<sion, and others. In the Methodist 
 Episcopal communions, the office is regarded as neither hierarchal nor in a 
 strict sense diocesan, but rather as a ministerial function or mode of service, 
 justified by the uses it subserves, and not contrary to Scripture: Pope, Chrh- 
 tian Theolwjy: Vol. ill : p. 358. Such is essentially the position of .several. other 
 Protestant communions, organized more or less fully on the prelatic basis. The 
 Reformed Episcopal Church, for illustration, adheres to the episcopate, not as 
 an institution of divine right, but as a very ancient and desirable form of Church 
 ]>oIity: see Declaration of Principles. 
 
130 Tin: CHURCH as a divini: kingdom. 
 
 the clergy rather than a prerogative of tlie peo})k\ — which chiims that 
 the episcopate is the only form of pohty revealed in the Bible, and is 
 the only legitimate basis of Cluirch organization, — which regards all 
 ordinatio!! other than episcopal as invalid, and pronounces .schi.smatical 
 and sectarian all other varieties of administration, against which on 
 many grounds, biblical and otherwise, earnest protest must be made by 
 the adherents of free, po2)ular, eficctive Christianity. 
 
 While it is admitted that the Jewish Church stood forth everywhere 
 within the bounds of Judaism as the natural norm of the new Church 
 to be organized in Christ, we find no suggestion in Scripture of any 
 such close imitation of the offices and methods of the former, as is 
 implied in the parallel on which Prelacy so largely rests its claim, 
 Christ was to be, not merely during His earthly life, but perpetually, 
 the Head of His Church ; nor have we any evidence in His own 
 words that He intended at His decease to set up a body of repre- 
 sentative men, Avho should be authorized to act henceforth as His 
 vicars on earth, above and over His Church. If there were any such 
 evidence, it would be an inevitable conclusion from it, that He who 
 had chosen the twelve to this distinction, had also chosen one among 
 the twelve to be their ruler — the high priest and vicegerent of the 
 whole Church in His stead. Neither is there any proof of a transfu- 
 sion of apostolic grace, or of a supernatural investiture of jiriestly 
 dignities, which were in turn, by a process quite outside of the Church 
 as an organism, to be transmitted to certain chosen successors, and by 
 them to others, who were to be high priests and apostles at once to 
 the Church for all coming time. The biblical proof that such trans- 
 mission actually occurred, as in the case of Timothy and Titus, and 
 others who are called apostles or bishops or overseers, is wholly inade- 
 quate. The apostolate of Paul, and that of Matthias — if he actually 
 filled the apostolic office — supjjly no projier parallel. It is doubtful 
 whether Timothy ever resided permanently at Ephcsus, where he is 
 presumed to have been bishop : he apjiears far more often in other 
 places and relations: Acts 17: 15, 18 : 5, 19: 22, 20: 4, in connection 
 with 1 Tim. 1: 3, 2 Tim. 4: 9, 13. In respect to Titus, asserted to be 
 first bishop of Crete, a similar vmcertainty exists: Titus 3: 12. As 
 to Barnabas, styled an apostle, in Acts 14: 14 : to Epaphroditus re- 
 ferred to in Phil. 2 : 25 : to Silvanus, associated with Paul and Timothy 
 as an apostle, in 1 Thess. 2: G: r.id to Andronicus and Junia, or 
 Junias, called apostles in Rom. l(i: 7 : or to the angels, or apostles, 
 of the seven Asiatic churches, we really find nothing that warrants in 
 any high degree the conclusion that any one of these persons was 
 ever ordained to a special apostolic service, or was ever recognized by 
 the Church as a legitimate successor of the original TAvelve, The 
 
OBJECTIONS TO STEICT PEELATISM. 131 
 
 special function of the original group, as witnesses to the great facts 
 of the Messiahship was, as we have already seen, an untrausniissible 
 function : by the nature of the case these later converts could not have 
 discharged it. And so far as the general oversight of the Church was 
 concerned, we have on the one side no clear evidence that the apostles 
 were one and all bishops, and on the other side abundant proof that 
 not merely the jDcrsons named, but others also, shared with the twelve 
 in the great tiisk of organizing and governing the nascent Church. 
 In this work the bishop and the presbyter were one and the same ; 
 and as bishops or presbyters, the apostles stood on entire equality with 
 their official brethren, except so far as the possession of supei'uatural 
 charisms, and especially the gift of inspiration, gave them peculiar, 
 though temporary eminence. In the New Testament, as candid and 
 competent scholarship jiow admits, no distinction such as is claimed for 
 prelacy, appears at any point. It is needful only to add that the 
 inspired record of the institution of the diaconate conclusively shows 
 this to have been in no sense a priestly, but rather an administrative 
 office, such as a layman might fill : and on this side also, the dogma of 
 a threefold ministry fails to justify itself at the bar of Scripture. The 
 analogy sometimes drawn from the appointment of the seventy (Luke 
 10: 1) in no degree justifies the counter claim. ^ 
 
 It is freely admitted that as we pass beyond the apostolic period, 
 traces of defined episcopacy begin to make their appearance : that 
 during the second and third centuries these traces still increase in 
 number and prominence, and that this increase continues in both the 
 East and the West, until in the fifth century the long evolutionary 
 process culminates in the patriarchate at Constantinople, and in the 
 papacy at Rome. But we may justly ask whether this was a legitimate 
 and healthful outgrowth from the germs planted, the principles pre- 
 scribed, the spirit inculcated by our Lord and registered in the in- 
 spired Word? The argument for the prelacy, like that for the pri- 
 macy, fails disastrously at this point. The process described has in it 
 too many human elements, is too much a growth of pride and ambi- 
 tion rather than of grace, and is too obviously a movement away from 
 the cardinal law of Christian equality, and from the doctrine of church 
 right and church power laid down in the Epistles, to be contemplated 
 with favor. What we really see in it is a humauiziug tendency — a- 
 disposition to bring the Church into closer affiliation with the imperial 
 Roman state : a tendency and disposition repressed at first by the teach- 
 ing of Christ and the apostles, — repressed also by the prevalent spirit 
 of the early Christians, by the outward condition of the Church, and 
 
 'For a full, and effective, argument on these biblical questions, see Coleman, 
 Manual on Prelacy and Ritualism: Ch. vr, especially. Also, Barnes, AjMstolic Church. 
 
132 Tin: CHURCH as a divine kingdom. 
 
 by the i)ersecutions often raging; but at length breaking forth, es- 
 pecially in the great nuuiicipal ceuterri, and affecting more and more 
 the general feeling, until it reached itrf acme at last, not in diocesan 
 prelacy, but in a hierarchal papacy, wholly at variance with both the 
 letter and the s[)int of the New Testament. 
 
 Nor is the historical argument for prelacy improved, but rather 
 weakened, by every further trace of its development, down through 
 medieval into modern life. Even where the prevalent tendencies in- 
 spired by the Reformation, and native to the mind of Northern Eu- 
 rope, have kept it largely in check, the prelatic spirit has not justified 
 itself in the deepest convictions of that multitude of the faithful who, 
 in the })linise of Savanarola, constitute the true Church. Though sus- 
 tained by state authorities, and affiliating by a natural impulse with 
 the monarchal rather than the democratic principle, it can not be said 
 U) have held its own, when tried at the bar of Christian intelligence 
 and experience. The admissions made by many of its most eminent 
 advocates as to its lack of distinct biblical warrant, are suggestive at 
 this point ; and their general plea for it on the ground of its benefi- 
 cent working and influence as an ancient and efficient scheme of church 
 organization, is one which requires large modification. Yet these ob- 
 jections are not to be urged too strongly, in view of all that a mod- 
 ified and liberal episcopacy, sympathizing spiritually Avith the people, 
 has wrought — especially in English history. And where such episcopacy 
 is regarded, not as an order with hierarchal powers, but as a mode of 
 ecclesiastical organization, having the good of the people as its aim; 
 and where the propriety of other modes of organization are admitted, 
 and other Christian communions are acknowledged to be true Churches 
 of Jesus Christ, opposition to this system may well yield its strenuous- 
 ness, and may even be changed into cordial esteem, 
 
 IX. Independency: Its General Position. — We pass at this 
 point from the hierarchal to the popular type, — from government by 
 the clergy in their own right, to government of the people, by and for 
 the people. And as in the former type two varieties appeared, the 
 papal and the prelatic, so in the latter we find two distinct varieties, 
 the democratic and the representative. It is not to be assumed that 
 these two varieties exist always in jDure or unmixed form ; they are 
 often interblended practically, for the obvious reason that as to their 
 underlying and regulative principles, they belong to one and the same 
 class. Of these two varieties, we may consider first the purely demo- 
 cratic, under the title of Independency. ^ 
 
 'Authorities to be consulted here: Robinson, J., Works; Mathek, C, Ratio 
 Disci'plhice, and MagnaUa; Punchard, View of ConfjregationaUsm ; Dexter, H. M., 
 Congregationalism ; Hyde, J. T., New Catechism, 42. 
 
THE INDEPENDENT POLITY STATED. 133 
 
 In tills form of polity, the autonomy of tlie particular church or con- 
 gregation is affirmed as the fundamental principle in church govern- 
 ment. It maintains that only true believers, Avith their families, have 
 any right to a place in the household of faith : and that this divine 
 household is fully empowered to judge of the qualifications of all per- 
 sons seeking fellowship with it. It holds that every company of be- 
 lievers, in such number as can conveniently assemble together, and are 
 by mutual consent organized for this purpose, is an independent Church, 
 vested with absolute right and held under inalienable obligation to 
 govern itself, under a supreme responsibility to Christ alone. It af- 
 firms that the principles to be regarded in such government are fully 
 laid down in the Scriptures; that the interpretation and application of 
 these principles belong to the particular organization ; and that in the 
 act of governing itself on this basis, every such organization is to be 
 controlled by no human authority outside of itself, whether ecclesias- 
 tical or political. It further affirms that but two classes of officers are 
 described in the Xew Testament, the minister and the deacon ; it re- 
 gards the diaconate as essentially an administrative office, concerned 
 with the charities and external interests of the church chiefly ; it re- 
 pudiates the doctrine of more than a single order or class of ministers, 
 and refuses to the clergy any influence or control in government beyond 
 what may belong to them as members in the particular church. In 
 general, it defines a church as a voluntary association of persons pro- 
 fessing godliness, and bound together in holy covenant, to which full 
 ecclesiastical power is directly committed, exclusive of all foreign juris- 
 diction — an organization wholly free and independent in itself. 
 
 Such was the original doctrine of the Brownist or strictly Inde- 
 pendent party in England with whom this type of polity, in its modern 
 form, may be said to have originated. Two important modifications 
 have appeared in more recent times : the first recognizing the propriety 
 of committing the government of the church, in part at least, to rep- 
 resentative persons chosen from the body for this purpose : the second, 
 affirming the duty of fellowship among the churches, in conjunction 
 with this autonomy of the particular church. The worth of the former 
 modification will be considered in another connection. To the latter, 
 the system of Congregationalism, as distinguished from strict Inde- 
 pendency, owes its origin. The fundamental position is well defined 
 in the Cambridge Platform : Although churches be distinct, and may 
 not be confounded one with another ; and equal, and therefore have 
 not dominion one over another ; yet all churches ought to preserve 
 church communion, one with another, because they are all united unto 
 Christ, not only as a mystical, but as a political Head, whence is de- 
 rived a communion suitable thereto. The modes in which this correl- 
 
134 THE CHURCH AS A DIVINE KINGDOM. 
 
 ative duty of fellowship finds expression, arc ecclesiastical councils for 
 the solution of specific questions, local or jirovincial conferences meet- 
 ing statedly for the consideration of common interests, and general or 
 ecumenical assemblages, convened for the contemplation of issues, doc- 
 trinal and ecclesiastical, in which all the churches organized on this 
 basis are alike concerned. The action of such associated bodies is held 
 to be strictly advisory or declarative, and therefore may not directly 
 control the administration of any particular church : still the important 
 pi'inciple is here admitted, that all particular churclics are in fact one 
 Church, because they are sj)iritually united together' in Christ, as their 
 mystical and their political Head. 
 
 This variety of polity claims for itself a definite, if not an exclusive, 
 biblical warrant. The Cambridge Platform, following the Brownist 
 leading, and the spirit of the age, declared that the j^arts of church 
 government are all of them exactly described in the Word of God, 
 andthat it is not the province of man to add or diminish or alter any- 
 thing in the least measure therein. The Scriptural argument as gen- 
 erally presented, may be condensed in the following propositions : 
 that the matter, or material, of a church is saints only, Rom. 1 : 7, 
 1 Cor. 1 : 2, Phil. 1 : 1-7 : that the form is one organized body politic, 
 1 Cor. 12: 12, 20, 27, Eph. 2: 20-22: that the quantity to be in- 
 cluded is as many as can meet in any one place, Acts 2 : 1, 5 : 12, 14: 
 27, 1 Coi*. 14 : 28 : that the power of government is vested wholly in the 
 church itself. Matt. 18: 17-19, 1 Cor. 5: 4-7, Rev. 2 and 3: that the 
 only officei'S authorized arc ministers and deacons. Acts 6 : 1-6, 15: 
 23, Phil. 1: 1, Eph. 4: 11-12: and that the choice of officers rests 
 exclusively with the church itself, Acts 1: 15-26, 6: 2-7, 14: 23, and 
 other passages. It is held that this was the constitution of the apostolic 
 churches ; that the term, church, is nowhere used except with refer- 
 ence to the single congregation; and that the plural, churches, is in- 
 variably employed to describe the congregations of a*given region. It 
 is held that the only fellowship recognized among these churches in the 
 apostolic age, was by advisory councils such as that convened at Jeru- 
 salem; and that these councils were never empowered to exercise 
 formal j urisdiction in any way over the particular household of faith. 
 It is also held that, in the earlier history of Christianity, after the apos- 
 tolic century, this was the authorized and exclusive mode of church 
 organization: and that the later modes, as the episcopal and papal, 
 were unwarrantable departures from the scriptural model, in the in- 
 terest of human pride and ambition. Independency thus claims his- 
 toric as well as biblical warrant, and on this ground asserts its right 
 to be regarded as the only proper mode of church organization. 
 Many of its advocates lay great stress on its intrinsic equity, on its 
 
IXDEPENDENCY CONSIDERED. 135 
 
 harmony with human rights and with free and just government, on its 
 influence as an element in spiritual culture, and on its efficiency in 
 producing an intelligent, active, earnest, useful church life. With a 
 large proportion of its adherents in our time, considerations of this 
 class have greater weight than the biblical argument itself, — especially 
 where the legitimacy of other modes is admitted, by the recognition 
 of churches so organized as being true parts or divisions of the one 
 Church of Christ. 
 
 X. The Claims of Independency Eeview^ed. — Many of the gen- 
 eral positions hei-e taken, may be accepted in substance by those who 
 are opposed to what has been denominated the hierarchal type of church 
 government. All who are neither papist nor prelatist, agree in reject- 
 ing the fiction of the three orders, and in maintaining the absolute 
 parity of the Christian ministry. They agree in ascribing to the 
 Church, and even to each congregation, the right to govern itself, so 
 far as this is set over against the assumed right of the clergy to govern, 
 in virtue of a divine appointment and independently of responsibility 
 to the household of faith. They also agree in affirming the duty of 
 every member in that household to share either personally or represen- 
 tatively in its administration, and to associate himself responsibly with 
 the church life and work. In a word, all who are neither papist nor 
 prelatist, agree substantially in regarding the Church of God on 
 earth, not as an empire or an oligarchy, but rather as a spiritual de- 
 mocracy, — a holy brotherhood of saints, in which the principle of 
 equality is the fundamental law, and in which those who rule, in 
 whatever station, are still the servants of all, in the name of Christ. 
 
 Yet most who hold these general positions, fail to find, either in 
 history or in Scripture, sufficient basis for the claim of Independency 
 in the exclusive form urged by many of its adherents. It is admitted 
 that, if we go back beyond the period when the papacy rose into su- 
 premacy, or the earlier period when episcopacy was the prevalent pol- 
 ity, we find simpler modes of church organization in existence, con- 
 forming at some points to this purely democratic conception. It may 
 also be admitted that, especially among the Gentile congregations, exact 
 uniformity did not prevail, and that in some of them clear approaches 
 to strict democracy are apparent. Some of the allusions in the Book 
 of Acts, and also in the Epistles, certainly justify this admission. But 
 beyond this it is clearly impossible to go. The presumption that a 
 pure democracy was at once established, in every instance where a 
 church was organized, whether on Gentile or on Jewish soil — that one 
 uniform mode was inflexibly followed, in Avhatever form of civil society, 
 and without regard to the antecedent experience or culture of those 
 uniting in the organization ; and especially that a type of government 
 
136 THE CHURCH AS A DIVINE KINGDOM. 
 
 \vhich had literally no representative, or even suggestion among the 
 civil governments then existing, and which neither the Jewish believer 
 trained in the synagogue system, nor the Gentile believer disciplined 
 under the inij)erial sway of Rome, could possibly have comj)reliendcd 
 at the outset, was invariably instituted wherever Christianity was 
 carried, is certainly one wdiicli it is difficult for any mind that appre- 
 ciates these conditions even to entertain. To assume that such a pure 
 democracy was thus everywhere introduced, and enforced as the fun- 
 damental law of church construction, is a step which nothing but the 
 clearest, most positive and unquestionable affirmations of the New 
 Testament could warrant. 
 
 More specifically, the following objections to the claim of Independ- 
 ency may justly be urged: First, if we set aside so much of the biblical 
 teaching as is held by the adherents of the representative, in common 
 with the adherents of this democratic theory, the remainder is found to 
 be too casual and too slight to sustain the extensive fabric of inferences 
 based upon it. The assertion of the Cambridge Platform as to the fullness 
 and exactness of the inspired testimonies, is far from being verified by 
 facts. That the particular churches in Jerusalem, in Antioch, in Eph- 
 esus, in Rome, and wherever else the Gospel was embraced, were in 
 each and every case organized on this purely independent basis, with 
 ministei'S and deacons set in their respective places, and assigned to a 
 specific work of teaching and administration* while in each and every 
 case the church literally governed itself, without exterior counsel or 
 control of any sort, except the apostolic, is a supposition for which, 
 be it true or otherwise, no distinct evidence can be found in the New 
 Testament. The claim is at the best inferential, and the inference is 
 at the best doubtful. — Secondly, there is conveyed in this theory an 
 inadequate conception of the true province and worth of government, 
 as a central feature in all church organization. That the apostles refer 
 (1 Cor. 12 : 28, 2 Peter 2: 10) to governments as among the charisms 
 and prerogatives bestowed on the primitive Church, — that the function 
 of ruling was under such divine guidance entrusted by the particular con- 
 gregation (Rom. 12 : 8, Heb. 13 : 7) to certain persons among its mem- 
 bers, — that these Avere not always ministers or deacons, but in some 
 cases at least (1 Tim. 5 : 17, Heb. 13; 17), w^ere a distinct class or order 
 of church servants, and that this representative administration occasion- 
 ally, if not frequently, took the place of that exercised democratically 
 by the w'hole body of believers (Acts 20: 17, 22), may be affirmed, if 
 not positively, still at least with considerable basis of probability. 
 What is said also, especially in the Corinthian Epistles, respecting the 
 administration of discipline, strongly suggests the presence of an ex- 
 
THE REPRESENTATIVE POLITY DESCRIBED. 137 
 
 ecutive force, composed of repi-esentative persons, and adequate to 
 carry into effect the decisions of the Christian household. 
 
 Thirdly, strict Independency clearly fails to give just prominence to 
 the scriptural doctiine of the fellowship of the churches, and the 
 sacred unity of all in the one great Church of God on earth. It is 
 a strained interpretation of the use of the singular term, church, 
 which leads to the affirmation that the disciples at Jerusalem, at 
 Antioch, and other points where they were quite certainly counted by 
 hundreds or thousands, were in every case compressed within one and 
 the same church organization. A much more natural inference is 
 that, however many the congregations were, they were united together, 
 by some species of confederation, as the one Church of Christ, in the 
 several cities named. What current Congregationalism recognizes in 
 councils and conferences, if not some more compact and effective form 
 of fellowship, doubtless existed in the apostolic age, both within and 
 without the bounds of Palestine. The doctrine of the essential unity 
 of all churches in the One Church, with all its vast practical sugges- 
 tions and consequences, was also familiar to every one who had ever 
 listened to the Pauline letters to the Ej^hesian and Colossian disciples : 
 Eph. 1 : 22, 5 : 23, Col. 1 : 18. The epistles of Peter and John in- 
 culcated the same vital lesson : they taught believers, Jew and Gentile, 
 their essential oneness in Christ, and on that foundation urged habit- 
 ually the duty of Christian fellowship, saiirt Avith saint, and church 
 with church. Hardly credible is it that, in the presence of such teach- 
 ing, a strict independency or even a form of association merely casual 
 or occasional, should have come to be the accepted and the uniform 
 mode of organization for the Household of Faith. 
 
 XI. The Representative Polity Stated and Justified. ^ — The 
 remaining species of polity of the popular or democratic tyjje, bearing 
 the general name of Presbyterianism, but existing wherever Protest- 
 antism has extended, under wide varieties in both title and construc- 
 tion, agrees in principle with much that is found in the other polities 
 considered. Historically it had its modern genesis, like the two pre- 
 ceding Protestant varieties, in the investigations and the struggles of 
 the Reformation. While all the reformers were agreed in rejecting 
 the papal theory and practice, they still were unable to harmonize 
 upon one adequate substitute. Some among them went back to the 
 Fathers of the second and third centuries, and there found and 
 
 ' Authorities to be consulted : Presbyterian Forms of Government, British 
 and American: Gillespie, Aaron's Rod Blossom! nr/ ; Rutherford, Peaceable Plea 
 for PauVs Preshytcri/ ; Cuxxixgham, Hist. Theol. Chaps, ii: xxvi; Bannerman, J., 
 Church of Christ : Part iv ; Miller, S., Presbyterianism, etc.; Smyth, T., Treatises 
 on Presbi/tcrianism. 
 
138 THE CnURCII AS A DIVINE KINGDOM. 
 
 ailoptcJ the scheme of dioccsau Episcopacy, ^vhilc others, going back 
 still further to the apostolic age, found and embraced the scheme of 
 absolute Independency, — both classes claiming scriptural as well as ec- 
 clesiastical warrant for their respective j^ositions. Prior to both in the 
 order of time, and claiming like biblical justification, arose the Pres- 
 byterian scheme of government, both in the particular church and 
 among the churches, through a system of representative or delegated 
 authorities, set apart specially for this purpose. This form of polity 
 agrees with Independency in maintaining the parity of the ministry, 
 and in denying their right to rule over the church without its consent; 
 and also in regarding the diaconate as an administrative and charitable, 
 rather than a ministerial or judicial office. It agrees with Congrega- 
 tionalism in affirming the proper affiliation of contiguous churches, 
 and the importance of a practical, administrative iellowship among 
 these several households of faith. It agrees with Prelacy and Papacy 
 in maintaining the doctrine of the unity of the whole Church of Christ 
 on earth, but rejects entirely the papal and prelatic explanations and 
 applications of this doctrine. It affiliates in general with the demo- 
 cratic or poj^ular, rather than the hierarchal conception of the Church, 
 yet emphasizes the kingly authority of Christ and His supreme head- 
 ship, and exalts the ministry to a special place of honor as an order 
 within the Church, and as being eminently His representatives in all 
 church activities. It holds to the separate responsibility and even 
 the full autonomy of the particular church, but maintains the right of 
 every such organization to govern itself through elect rejDresentatives, 
 or to associate itself with other like organizations in one system of judi- 
 cial and general administration, adjusted with mutual obligations and 
 mutual rights, for the better securing not merely of justice to indi- 
 viduals, but also of the highest welfare and growth of all. The elder- 
 ship, or session, and the higher judicatories thus constituted, are not 
 bodies existing in any sense independently of the Church, and having 
 primary or independent authority: the primary source of authority is 
 always the Church, and it is the Church which confers jurisdiction on 
 the official representatives collectively. The immediate objects sought 
 in the creation of these administrative bodies, beyond the expression 
 of the general princi])le of unity among the churches thus affiliated, 
 are the better preservation of soundness in doctrine, regularity in dis- 
 cipline, and purity in life, through such mutual counsel and assistance 
 as may in these ways be secured. The more general objects contem- 
 plated are the promotion of knowledge and religion, the prevention 
 of infidelity, error and immorality, and the furtherance of all great 
 Christian interests. The action of these judicatories is ministerial or 
 declarative only, and their poAver is altogether moral or spiritual. 
 
PRESBYTERIANISM JUSTIFIED. 139 
 
 Such in brief are the essential elements of the reiDresentative or Pres- 
 byterian polity. And for the system thus outlined it presents, if not 
 as to minor features, which are largely left to human wisdom, still as 
 to essential principles and general construction, ample warrant from 
 the Word of God. ^ 
 
 In explaining and justifying this polity on scriptural grounds, noth- 
 ing more than such general warrant will be affirmed. Pre.sbyterianism, 
 jure divbw — a system directly prescribed and enjoined as to details in 
 the New Testament — can no more be j^roven than a jure divino Prelacy 
 or Independency. The attempt to find in the Bible a full, exact, in- 
 variable mode of government, adjusted to the needs of the Church in 
 all varieties of condition, and so enjoined upon it that all dejiartures 
 or deviations become unscriptural and schismatical, has often been made 
 in the interest of each of the three Protestant varieties of church 
 polity, but has always been made in vain. And well will it be for 
 Protestantism, if it surrenders this futile effort in future to the Papacy, 
 and plants itself on the broad principle, that any polity is legitimate, 
 which stands substantially on biblical foundations, and which justifies 
 itself practically in the judgment and experience of the household of 
 faith. That the Presbyterian or representative polity meets these tests 
 in a high degree, and in the aggregate more fully than any other, will 
 be apparent from the following considerations : 
 
 1. While the synagogue system, established among the Jews in the 
 age of Christ, can not be urged by either Prelacy or Presbyterianism 
 as an authoritative model for the Christian Church, it still is reasonable 
 to presume that the churches formed among Jewish converts would 
 spontaneously assume the structure of the synagogue, and would cre- 
 ate offices which would be parallel to those found wherever a Jewish 
 congregation was organized. That a body of official persons called 
 elders, and elders of the people, and charged with the oversight of the 
 spiritual interests of the synagogue, existed universally in the age of 
 Christ; and that both He and his disciples were familiar with this ar- 
 
 ' "Not that we think that any policie, and ane ordour in ceremonies, can be 
 appoynted for al ages, times and places : for as ceremonies sik as men have devised, 
 ar hot temporall, so may and aucht they to be changed, when tliey rather foster 
 superstition then that they cdifie the Kirk using the same." Scotch Covf., Art. xx. 
 
 " There are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and govern- 
 ment of the Church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be 
 ordered by the light of nature and Christian prudence, according to the general 
 rules of tlie Word, which are always to be observed." West. Covf., Chap. i. 
 
 " We believe the general i)latform of our government to be agreeable to the 
 sacred Scriptures , but we do not believe that God has been pleased so to reveal 
 and enjoin every minute circumstance of ecclesiastical government and dis- 
 cipline as not to leave room for orthodox churches of Christ, in the.sc minutiae, 
 to differ with charily from one another." Synod of N. Y. and Phila., 178G. 
 
140 THE ClIUllClI AS A DIVINE KINGDOM. 
 
 rangement, and recognized its historic validity and its religious value, 
 as appears from various refereuccs, ■will not be questioned. It would 
 naturally follow, under these conditions, that the Jewish converts at 
 Jerusalem, in the absence of any divine instructions to the contrary, 
 would organize themselves into what may be termed a Christian syn- 
 agogue (James 2 : 2) with its presbytery or central group of elders, to 
 whom, in conjunction with the apostles, the care of the organization 
 should be entrusted. Such a process would not transpire immediately 
 at the first assembling in Jerusalem after the ascension, or at once upon 
 the extraordinary experiences of the Pentecost, but at the first mo- 
 ment when the necessity for closer organization became apjiarent. And 
 as these converts met originally at the times already made sacred by 
 religious use, and as their worship took on naturally the forms and the 
 order familiar to the Hebrews, so it may be inferred that, when the 
 moment of need arrived, they appropriated also that mode of organi- 
 zation for which their Hebrew training had so well prejiared them.^ 
 The form of the special account given of the institution of the diacon- 
 ate (Acts C) implies that the process just described had already taken 
 place, and that the diaconate was in fact an added office rendered 
 needful by the unexampled combination of Jews and Gentiles within 
 the one communion of saints. 
 
 2. Starting with this Hebraic germ at Jerusalem and elsewhere, it is 
 not surprising that the apostles, guided by such venerated usage 
 rather than by direct commandment, proceeded to ordain them elders 
 in every city (Titus 1:5), and in every church (Acts 14: 23) where 
 like antecedent conditions existed, and the converts were chiefly of 
 Jewish origin. It is not needful to suppose that exact, unvarying 
 uniformity obtained in this process, — especially where churches were 
 formed largely from Gentile converts, to whom a distinctively Jewish 
 usage such as this would be both unfamiliar and unattractive. A 
 large degree of freedom developed itself also in respect to the func- 
 tions of both the elder and the deacon, as is apparent from the graphic 
 sketches of both by Paul in the Pastoral Epistles. The Hebrew 
 presbyter thus introduced became, by a natural change of name, the 
 Gentile bishop ; and in many cases was teacher and pastor as well as 
 overseer of the church. Thus the process of organizing churches on 
 
 * "It is likely that several of the earliest Christian churches were converted 
 synagogues, which became Christian churches as soon as the members, or as soon 
 as-the main part of their members, acknowledged Jesus as tlio ]\Ie?siali. 
 The apostles did not there so much form a Christian church, as make an existing 
 congregation Christian by introduchig the Christian sacraments and worsliip, 
 and establishing wliatever regulations were necessary for the newly adopted 
 faith, leaving the machinery, if I may so speak, of government unchanged."— 
 WuATELY, Kingdom of Christ Delineated, p. SI, seq. 
 
THE AEGUMENT FOR PKESBYTERIANISM. 141 
 
 this model obviously weut on from year to year, witli local variations, 
 until the elder or bishop, invested with the right to govern and the 
 function of teaching, became a characteristic official, if we may judge 
 from the numerous references in the Acts and Epistles, in almost 
 every region where the Gospel had gained foothold. At Lystra and 
 Iconiura and Antioch (Acts 14: 21-23), at Ephesus (Acts 20: 17, 
 28), at Philippi (Phil. 1: 1), and more generally (1 Peter 5:1, James 
 5: 14), we find such ordained elders, bishops, overseers, pastors, sev- 
 eral in each church apparently, engaged in teaching, in governing and 
 in general oversight, under what had become, not merely a venerable 
 usage, but a recognized and approved law of organization for the 
 body of Christ. The passage (1 Tim. 5: 17), quoted to show that a 
 distinction existed from the first between ihe teacher and the ruler, 
 really exhibits no distinction in office, but simply a recognition of su- 
 periority in the primary function of instruction. The more general 
 references bring to view but a single class, bearing these names indif- 
 ferently, and doubtless varying widely in the scope and authoritative- 
 ness of their official functions. ^ 
 
 3. AVe may observe a like growth in the conception of government, 
 as a distinct characteristic of the Church. At first the body of Christ 
 appears as an unorganized company, taking on gradually the form of 
 a household, and then the structure and character of a state, with a 
 defined constitution and laws, and controlled by recognized authorities. 
 As the necessity for government became evident, government itself 
 appeared, first as a species of charism (1 Cor. 12 : 28), but afterward 
 more generally, as an ordinary office : Rom. 12: 8. At first the in- 
 spired leaders ruled largely in virtue of their inspiration ; then came 
 the charismatic ruling ; finally each church, under apostolic or other 
 like guidance, supplied itself with representative rulers as well as with 
 adequate teachers. Supernatural government disappeai'ed with proph- 
 ecy and the gifts of healing and of tongues, yet government remained 
 as an enduring feature of the Church. This is apparent from numer- 
 ous references in the epistles to church authority and church adminis- 
 tration. Nor is there any reference to such administration as exercised 
 directly by the multitude of communicants : what we see habituaUy 
 
 * Gibbon, referring to the organization of the Church as late as the beginning 
 of the fourtli century, says: 
 
 "The iiublic functions of religion were solely entrusted to the established 
 ministers of the Church, bishops and the presbyters, two appellations which, in 
 their first origin, appear to have distinguished the same office, and the same 
 order of persons. The name of presbyter was expressive of their age, or rather 
 of their gravity and wisdom. The title of bishop denoted their inspection over 
 the faith and manners of tlie Christians who were committed to their pastoral 
 care." Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chap. XV. 
 
142 THE CHURCH AS A DIVINE KINGDOM. 
 
 is goveruinent through chosen representatives acting as a body. The 
 autonomy of the Church is indeed preserved ; these representatives are 
 not imposed upon it, without its own consent, neither do they appear 
 to rule as in their own right; it is the Church which rules in and 
 through them. The ordinations of elders, bishops, overseers, by Paul 
 and Barnabas, by Titus, and by the presbytery (1 Tim. 4: J.4) indi- 
 cate no assumed prolatical supremacy on their part, but only wise and 
 right action in and for the churches which they thus supplied with 
 proper official representatives. And what becomes thus apparent as 
 the primitive process of church construction, stands forth as a rule 
 which in all ordinary conditions ought still to be regarded as safe and 
 wise, and in some real sense authoritative. Certainly, no inferior 
 place can properly be assigned to government among the functions of 
 a Christian church, nor is it likely that the representative principle 
 thus introduced can wisely be altogether abandoned, 
 
 4. A fourth principle which the Presbyterian polity specially incor- 
 porates is the fellowship of the churches, and the unity of the Church, 
 as well in government as in more general forms of administrative 
 association. Against that false notion of unity, which destroys the 
 autonomy of the particular church, and subjects all churches to the 
 sway and domination of a priestly class, this polity is altogether op- 
 posed : the imperial unity of the papacy, the formal and political unity 
 of prelacy, it strenuously resists as contrary to the supreme law of 
 Christian liberty. In like manner, it opposes the antithetic idea that 
 the unity of the Church inculcated in the New Testament, is rathei' 
 an invisible, imperceptible ideal than a practical and useful fact, or at 
 best an occasional and limited rather than a comprehensive, structural 
 basis of church fellowship. It points to the Council at Jerusalem, not 
 indeed as presenting an inspired model to be exactly followed in all 
 coming time, but as indicating a great scriptural principle by which 
 the churches of Christ were to be habitually guided in their organic 
 association. Nothing could be stronger than the teachings of Paul re- 
 specting that unity of faith, order, constitution, which was so well ex- 
 emplified in this primitive Council: Eph. 4: 1-16, Rom. 12: 4-9, 
 1 Cor, 12 : 4-27, Traces of the actual recognition of this principle 
 of fellowship, and even of confederation, appear in various passages in 
 the Acts and in the Epistles, Nor can any just reason be urged why 
 this unity should not express itself in governmental administration as 
 well as in more general fellowship, — why church should not be asso- 
 ciated with church, as well as saint with saint, in the exposition and 
 applying of the law of Christ to the life and conduct of the disciple. 
 What we actually see, in the way of discipline, involves the particular 
 church only, 1 Cor, 5 : 1-7 : and it may be doubted whether any 
 
THE PRESBYTERIAN SYSTEM : FURTHER REMARKS. 14-3 
 
 instance occurred, during the first decade of organized Christianity, in 
 which a case of discipline was carried beyond the individual congre- 
 gation. Yet, the doctrine of cliurcli unity doubtless grew more and 
 more into favor, under apostolic instruction, as the contribution of the 
 churches of Macedonia and Achaia to the needy saints at Jerusalem 
 beautifully shows, Rom. 15: 26 ; nor do we need to descend very far 
 beyond the apostolic century to find this doctrine assuming even an 
 unwarranted place and influence, and finally to see the autonomy and 
 jurisdiction of the particular church wholly prostrate at the feet of an 
 assuming hierarchy. 
 
 5. Such in outline are the scriptural foundations on which the Pres- 
 byterian polity claims to rest. In the aggregate they justify the con- 
 clusions, that the right of government like the right of organization 
 was vested, not in the ministry as an order, but in the church, — that, 
 in accordance with antecedent usage, the exercise of this right was 
 committed by the church to representative men, who both ruled and 
 taught within the household of faith, — that the administration of gov- 
 ernment passed by degrees into the hands of a specific class chosen for 
 the purpose, but under final responsibility to the church itself, — and 
 that under this general system, with many variations such as circum- 
 stances demanded, the Church at large came at length to be substan- 
 tially Presbyterian, rather than either Prelatic or Independent in its 
 structure and administration. — It is admitted that this type of polity, 
 planted thus on the popular or democratic principle, did not long main- 
 tain its place against the imperialism which possessed the life of the 
 times at all other points, and which even before the death of John, had 
 invaded and infected the Church: 3 John 9-10. That imperialism 
 found its incarnation first in prelacy, and then by a natural develop- 
 ment in that papal usurpation which for twelve centuries, as a species 
 of Antichrist, lorded it over the heritage of God. Yet the growth 
 of this more primitive polity since the Reformation, and in close con- 
 junction with the cardinal and scriptural doctrines then enunciated, 
 and its extensive acceptance in all countries where those doctrines have 
 been carried, furnish striking evidence both of its scriptural quality 
 and of its practical worth. And to this might be added much con- 
 vincing evidence derived from its historic career, from its afiiliations 
 with strong doctrine and with high religious culture, from its deep 
 sympathy with human liberty and human rights, and from its vast 
 propagative force as a missionary agency, both in Christian and in 
 heathen lands. ^ 
 
 XII. Cardinal Principles in Administration. — Turning at this 
 
 ' Baknes, Albert, Affinities of Presbyterlanism ; Hodge, Charles, What is Pves- 
 byterianism ? 
 
144 THE CHURCH as a divine kingdom. 
 
 point from these inquiries respecting tiie law of cliurch organization, 
 to the further question relating to the practical administration of 
 church government, we may note at the outset certain regulative 
 principles which are to be borne carefully in mind, in such admin- 
 istration : 
 
 First, Christ as the Divine Head of the Church is the supreme 
 Judge and Lord in all ecclesiastical administration. Viewed in its re- 
 lation to Him, the Church is essentially theocratic, — it is a sacred 
 monarchy. In the Old Testament, the supremacy of the Jehovah 
 was a cardinal fact; in the Gospel economy, the supremacy of the 
 Messiah is no less cardinal. And with this divine headship there 
 must be nothing in the constitution or administration of the Church 
 to interfere; no jierson or collection of persons, uo polity or govern- 
 ment, can assume the place Avhich rightfully belongs to Him. All 
 human jiowers and prerogatives are to be wielded in loyal subservi- 
 ence to His will ; final responsibility to Him is the bond by which both 
 the Church, and they who rule within it, are to be held. Against all 
 assumption of independent control, whether by pope or prelate or pres- 
 byter, or by the household of faith itself. His most solemn sentence is 
 pronounced; 2 Thess. 2: 4-8. 
 
 Secondly : the Scriptures are the supreme and binding law. In the 
 Mosaic dispensation, as in the Patriarchal, the divine Law was of ne- 
 cessity supplemented by miraculous manifestations — such as the She- 
 kinah and the Urim and Thummim ; but under the Gospel, the 
 Written Word is sufficient and final. That Word is ample in its 
 scope; no church has occasion to add any thing to its comprehensive 
 requisitions. Whatever is appended to this divine constitution, in the 
 way of requirement or prohibition, whether by individual authority or 
 by the prescripts of councils, or in any other way, is in no sense obli- 
 gatory upon the disciple. This Word is also plain in its directions, 
 and is in little need of explanatory legislation by the Church. It is 
 indeed left to the household of faith, to define the reach of its provi- 
 sions, and to indicate specific applications of its generic precepts; but 
 every such process must ever be conducted in the clear light shining 
 immediately from the Scripture itself. This Word is also in the high- 
 est measure authoritative, and is entitled to the implicit respect and 
 reverence of the Church, always and everywhere. It is the common 
 law, the statutory volume, of Christianity ; and as such remains per- 
 petually the regulative guide in all ecclesiastical administration. Its 
 place and seat in the Church are no less supreme or absolute, than 
 those of Christ Himself. The guidance of the Spirit is indeed to be 
 invoked in all exercise of church authority ; but as an inspiring rule in 
 such exercise, the Spirit and the Word will ever be one. 
 
 i 
 
CARDINAL PRINCIPLES IN ADMINISTRATION. 145 
 
 Thirdly : the hmits of ecclesiastical administration are also divinely 
 prescribed. One of the most serious errors in such administration, 
 lies in the extension of church control beyond its legitimate bounda- 
 ries, — the assumption of the right to rule in spheres into which it is 
 not competent for the Church to enter. On the basis of the headship 
 of Christ above all earthly authorities, and of the supremacy of the 
 Scripture above all human laws or constitutions, the sway of the 
 Church has often been carried intrusively, and even tyrannically, 
 into the family and into the state, as well as into the life of the indi- 
 vidual Christian. A spiritual despotism, thus usurping authority over 
 man in every relation, has more than once made its appearance in 
 Christendom, to the irreparable injury both of religion and of the 
 souls of men. In like manner, the Church has often penetrated un- 
 justifiably into the sphere of the individual conscience, either forbid- 
 ding the believer to do what the Bible clearly allows, or commanding 
 him to do what the Word of God does not require. Abundant illus- 
 trations of such error in administration will at once present themselves; 
 the records of organized Christianity, under Protestant varieties in 
 polity, as well as under the domination of the Papacy, continually 
 reveal them. 
 
 The cardinal rule to be observed, is the strict limitation of church 
 control within the sphere and under the conditions divinely prescribed, 
 Christ is indeed the Lord of providence and of human life, as well as 
 Lord over His own j^eople: but His kingdom is not of this world, 
 neither is His law to be asserted authoritatively, or His supremacy au- 
 thoritatively maintained by the Church, over human kingdoms or 
 authorities, as by a species of force. The State is as supreme within 
 its own sphere as the Church is, and the attempt of the Church to 
 control the State, through any other agency than that of spiritual in- 
 fluence, is a plain usurpation. Christ is also Lord of the believer, 
 and the soul saved by His grace is bound to be loyal to Him in all 
 its life ; but there is a vast sphere of personal experience, privilege, 
 duty, with which it would be sacrilege on the part ot the Church, as 
 the appointed representative of Christ, to intermeddle. Its adminis- 
 trative functions must be limited chiefly to the outward life and actions 
 of those who are associated in it ; and to their life and actions mainly 
 as these stand in some relation to the great ends for which the Church 
 is constituted, and to its standing and efliciency as a representative of 
 the Gospel among men. It ought also to be added that, within the 
 limited sphere thus defined, the jurisdiction of the Church must ever 
 be exercised under numerous limitations; and like other instrumentali- 
 ties wielded by man, must often fail in practice to gain the high results 
 at which it aims. 
 
146 THE CHURCH AS A DIVINE KINGDOM. 
 
 XIII, Practical Administration : Authority and Obedi- 
 ence. — One marked feature in the exercise of these churcli functions 
 under the Gospel, should be noted at this point. In the Mosaic econ- 
 omy, though human instruments such as priests and prophets were 
 always employed in this task of administration, the theocratic element 
 was so constant, so conspicuous, and so controlling, as to leave little 
 room for the play or exhibition of this human element. Jehovah 
 Himself governed almost visibly ; the authority was always His, and 
 the obedience was always rendered directly to Him. Under the Gos- 
 pel, Avhile the Messiah sacrifices nothing in supremacy or authoritative- 
 ness, the human factors or agents appear much more prominent, — the 
 part which man performs is much more distinct and more responsible. 
 Hence the necessity for careful consideration of both the authority 
 vested in those who rule, and the obedience required from those who 
 are governed within the Church. 
 
 The authority vested in those who rule, as we have already seen in 
 contemplating the ministerial office, is never inherent in the officer, 
 but is delegated to him by the Church. It is true that this power is 
 entrusted to the official by Christ Himself also, and is therefore to be 
 wielded under a supreme sense of responsibility to him. Yet the 
 assumption of any official power is justifiable only when the Church 
 approves, — when the voice of the Master and the voice of His people 
 are heard, in holy harmony one with the other, commissioning the per- 
 son chosen. As delegated, such authority is never personal, but always 
 functional — an adjunct of the office, rather than an endowment of the 
 man. Although Christ and His people ordinarily associate the pos- 
 session of appropriate gifts w'ith the formal investiture with official pre- 
 rogatives, yet it is never the gifted man, but the qualified official who 
 rules. And as this authority is thus delegated and functional, it is of 
 necessity limited in its scope within the scriptural and constitutional 
 boundaries pi-escribed. It is limited first of all. by the supreme au- 
 thority of our Lord, and by the instructions clearly contained in His 
 Word as the supreme law. It is limited further to the Church, — is 
 never to be exercised outside of the Christian fold. And within this 
 general sphere, it is limited still further to those specific duties and 
 functions which the Church has assigned to the office. No church 
 official is authorized to interfere either with the functions or preroga- 
 tives of any official of another class, or with the private life, the per- 
 sonal conscience, of the individual member. Exercised beyond its 
 appointed boundaries, even the worthiest office becomes an usurpation 
 aud a curse, both to the holder and to the body over which he pre- 
 sides. 
 
 It is especially important to emphasize afresh at this point the doc- 
 
AUTHORITY AND OBEDIENCE, 147 
 
 trine of Scripture with regard to the spirit, the temper, in which all 
 such authority is to be wielded. For it is evident that, far within the 
 sphere assigned to him, and in the legitimate exercise of his powers, a 
 church officer may rule in such a temper as makes him a tyrant rather 
 than a servant. The best polity is no certain safeguard here. The 
 disposition to enforce just law in a legalistic spirit is itself an infringe- 
 ment of the higher law of love. Cold indifference to the feelings or 
 claims of those governed, ambitious desire to control where control is 
 not demanded, the disposition to make or to carry issues which are 
 personal rather than generic or abstract, are all at variance with the 
 biblical injunctions to those who rule within the household of faith. 
 The spirit of service, the temper of charity, the mood of meekness 
 and unselfish consecration, the supreme sense of allegiance to the Gos- 
 pel law, and loyalty to Him who is Lord over all, are indispensable 
 here. If the church officer possesses not these traits in high degree — 
 if he be not free essentially from these faults and defects, he can only 
 offend the little ones whom he aspires to govern and train for the 
 Master : and better were it for him that a millstone were hanged about 
 his neck, and he were drowned in the depths of the sea. 
 
 But church administration presupposes obedience as well as author- 
 ity. The mood of disobedience, the spirit of transgression, the man- 
 ifestation of revolt and rebellion, are all alien to the conception of the 
 Church as a divine kingdom. AVhere there are rulers appointed of 
 God, there must be subjects in whom appropriate submission, fidelity 
 in conforming to law, fealty to the body of Christ, should find a just 
 manifestation. Such obedience must, first of all, be intelligent, — 
 based upon proper recognition by the subject of the nature of the 
 Church as an organism, of the constitution and laws to be obeyed, 
 and of the authority exercised over him. A blind or thoughtless sub- 
 mission are not sufficient : the sway of Christ in His Church has its 
 foundation in the educated intelligence of His people. This obedi- 
 ence must also be cordial, — carrying with it the heart and the will, as 
 truly as the understanding. As the household of faith rests essentially 
 on the voluntary principle, no one entering it or remaining in it 
 except by choice, so all force, compulsion, obedience secured by sever- 
 ities or constraints, are at variance with the nature of the connection 
 assumed. Nor is it mere surrendery of the will, a passive obedience 
 such as Romanism requires, that is demanded here : the loving soul 
 must cordially acquiesce both in the law and in the authority that 
 enforces it. 
 
 Church obedience, by the nature of the case, should be both complete 
 and perpetual. It implies more than an observance of some requisi- 
 tions to the exclusion of others, — the judgment or wish of the subject 
 
148 THE CHURCH AS A DIVINE KINGDOM. 
 
 overruling, wherever it is inclined, the will and law of the body. It 
 implies more than an occasional observance, followed by neglect or by 
 transgression, at the option of the disciple. True obedience submits 
 to every demand of rightful authority, and submits at all times, and 
 amid whatever difficulties. The vital figure which Paul employs in 
 his first letter to the Corinthians — the figure of the body made up of 
 many living members, each filling its own office, and making its benefi- 
 cent contribution to the efficiency and welfare of the whole structure — 
 beautifully illustrates that great duty of spiritual obedience on which 
 the Apostle in other passages so frequently dwells; Rom. 12: 5-6. 
 Such biblical obedience properly culminates in that noble loyalty to 
 the Church, which in the list of Christian virtues may well rank next 
 to loyalty to Christ Himself; — not merely personal submission, how- 
 ever hearty or complete, but positive fealty which stands fearlessly by 
 the church authority, however imperilled in the discharge of its legiti- 
 mate functions, and which defends and supports the Church at all 
 hazards with knightly ardor, as the true Bride of Christ among men. 
 XIV. Discipline as a Church Function. — It only remains, 
 under the general topic here considered, to sketch briefly the discipline 
 which the Church of Christ is constrained to administer to those who 
 may prove to be disobedient.^ In the broadest sense, discipline im- 
 plies training, regulation, culture of those who are loyal at heart, as 
 well as the correction of transgressors. More specifically, the term re- 
 lates to the latter process in its various forms and stages. In this 
 sense, it has been well defined as the exercise of that authority, and 
 the application of that system of laws, which the Lord Jesus Christ 
 hatli appointed in His Church, with reference to all visible dej^artures 
 from the principle of loyalty. Discipline was recognized in the Prot- 
 estant Symbols generally, as a legitimate and necessary function of 
 the Church, though in practice the Protestant bodies of the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth centuries often departed very Avidely from their own 
 doctrine as to the obligation of the churches to exercise such discipline. 
 While the right to such exercise was theoretically maintained, on the 
 general ground that the household of faith is also a divine and author- 
 itative kingdom, the duty was, as Calvin confesses, far too widely neg- 
 lected. The right itself was also in many instances sadly perverted, 
 — especially where the civil authorities were, as in Geneva, admitted 
 as administrative functionaries within the Church, and discipline was 
 
 ' References on Church Discipline ; General Principles : Cai,vin, Institutes, Book 
 IV: 12; DwiGHT, Sermon 102; Dick, TAeo/., Lect. 101; Watson, Theol. Inst., Part 
 IV, Chap. II; Van Oosterzee, Practical TAeoi.— Practical Rules: Scotch First 
 and Second Books of Discipline; Presbyt. Book of Discipline, and other denom- 
 inational Manuals. 
 
discipline: general definition. 149 
 
 enforced by civil as well as ecclesiastical penalties. Lutheran princes 
 in like manner commanded tlieir subjects to attend religious service 
 three times on the Sabbath, and for failure punished the rich with 
 fines, and the poor with scourging and imprisonment. It was not 
 strange that a function thus perverted should fall, as it did in most 
 continental communions, into general disrepute. The revival in more 
 recent times, of both the doctrine and the practice, may be regarded 
 as one of the pleasing indications of progress in both spirituality and 
 effectiveness, among the Protestant churches. Under the papal concep- 
 tion of the Church, discipline can only be an occasional punitive pro- 
 cess, conducted by the priesthood, and of comjjaratively little signifi- 
 cance, excepting where it may be invoked as an infliction upon civil 
 rulers or heretical bodies, whom the Church seeks to coerce. 
 
 Protestantism differs from the Church of Rome in regarding disci- 
 pline as a power vested, not in the priesthood, but in the church as a 
 Christian body. Both the injunction of our Lord (Matt. 18 : 17), and 
 the historic example recorded in the epistles to the Corinthian church, 
 show that the collective group of believers, and they only, possess dis- 
 ciplinary power. It has sometimes been argued on doubtful grounds, 
 that this power is vested solely in the male members of the particular 
 church — in fact, it pertains to the body in its totality. Yet, as we 
 have seen, it is consistent with ancient Jewish usage, and with sound 
 principle, to commit the administration of this trust to persons specially 
 competent to discharge it, — not merely to those who may fill the office 
 of instruction, but also to others chosen for their fitness to act for the 
 body, in this delicate relation. 
 
 Protestantism differs also from Romanism in its general definition of 
 disciplinable offences. An offence has been very broadly defined as 
 anything in the principles or practice of a church member which is 
 contrary to the Word of God, or which, if it be not in its own nature 
 sinful, may tempt others to sin, or mar their spiritual edification: 
 Presbyt. Book of Discipline, Chap. I. More specifically, such offences 
 may be classified as follows : overt, and especially, flagrant sins, 1 Cor. 
 5 : 1-5 ; gross indulgences, inconsistent with the Christian life, 1 Cor. 
 5: 11; maintaining, and especially, inculcating, heretical or mischiev- 
 ous doctrines, Titus 3: 10-11, Gal. 1: 8-9; serious neglect of clear 
 personal duty, to the dishonor of Christ and His Church, 1 Tim. 5: 
 7-8 ; plain violation of the precepts of Christian brotherhood, Matt. 
 18; 15 ; leading others astray from the path of obedience, 2 Thess. 3: 
 6, 14 ; exciting divisions and schism in the Church, Rom. 16: 17-19. 
 The primary and main tests of an offence are always to be found in 
 the Scripture : whatever is not directly or by clear implication con- 
 demned in the Word of God, can not expose the disciple to just dis- 
 
150 TILE CIIUKCII AS A DIVINE KINGDOM. 
 
 cipline. Subordiunto tests may apj^eai', as in the definition given, in 
 the demonstrated relations of an act to other disciples, or to the church 
 as a body. It is also requisite, as a rule of equity and of prudence, 
 that the alleged offence should be carefully estimated both in the light 
 of the Bible, and in view of "what may be known of its flagrancy or 
 its mischievous influence. The evils Avhich discipline is divinely de- 
 signed to prevent, must be obvious, and all milder jireliminary processes 
 must have been tried, before the offender can be scrijiturally arraigned. 
 
 The ends to be sought in church discipline arc, in general, the vin- 
 dication of the honor of Christ, and the j^romotion of the purity and 
 edification of the Church ; — more specifically, the removal of offences 
 which are injurious to the church life, and to the social influence of 
 Christianity. The benefit of the offender himself is to be sought, so 
 far as this is consistent with these more general ends. A disciplinary 
 process may sometimes avail to bring such a person to repentance and 
 return to duty, when all milder measures have failed. Disci2:)line is 
 often of value in deterring those who might be misled by evil example, 
 or who if unwarned would be liable to fall into like evil courses. — 
 The spirit in Avhich discipline is to be administered is sufficiently in- 
 dicated in the strong apostolic cautions respecting it ; Gal. G : 1-2, 
 1 Cor. 4: 21, 1 Thess. 3: 15, and others. The offending disciple is 
 not to be counted as an enemy, but admonished as a brother : it is not 
 the rod, as a symbol of authority, but the temjoer of love and of meek- 
 ness, that is to govern. It is not so much the function of the Church 
 to punish, as to correct and to improve and edify ; the restoration of 
 the wanderer is to be sought, from love to Christ and to the souls of 
 men. In the royal passage. Matt. 18: 15-18, our Lord has Himself 
 indicated the spirit as well as the method to be pursued, in aU cases 
 of offence. Unquestionably there is great need for most careful recog- 
 nition of such injunctions, since no function of the Church or of its 
 officers carries with it greater exposures, or subjects the sanctified char- 
 acter to severer tests. 
 
 Respecting the modes of instituting discipline, and the extent to 
 which disciplinary processes may be carried, the Scriptures lay down 
 none but general rules, leaving particular steps and measures to the 
 judgment of the household of faith. The law of Christ, just referred 
 to, is regarded by all Protestant communions as the prescribed basis of 
 all judicial procedure. It is also recognized by them, that all church 
 action is ministerial and declarative only, — that the imposition of 
 penalties bearing upon the person or property, or on the social or civil 
 position of an offender, does not belong to the Church. Most Prot- 
 estant churches admit that the civil power can not properly be in any 
 way invoked, to assist in the enforcement of ecclesiastical jurisdiction 
 
THE CHURCH IN HUMAN SOCIETY. 151 
 
 or infliction. The Church prescribes its own penalties, which may end 
 in private confession and proper reparation to a party aggrieved, or in 
 public confession or admonition ; or may proceed to a suspension of 
 the offender, for a period more or less prolonged, from the enjoyment 
 of church privileges, or to an actual and open excommunication of 
 the guilty party from the household of faith.* This right is vested in 
 every church organization, and no external power, civil or otherwise, 
 can justly arrest its exercise. The right of restoring offending per- 
 sons to fellowship, upon adequate evidence of repentance and return 
 to Christian duty, is also vested in the Church : its doors should be no 
 more closed against a penitent backslider, than against the repenting 
 sinner for the first time consecrating himself to Christ. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE CHURCH IN HUMAN SOCIETY 
 ITS UNITY, ITS GROWTH, ITS RELATIONS. 
 
 The Church has thus far been contemplated as an institu- 
 tion, standing at the outset in the divine plan of salvation, 
 and historically manifested in accordance with that plan, — 
 an institution composed of certain constituents, impersonal 
 and personal, and organized permanently under a definite 
 constitution, as a divine structure or kingdom, endowed with 
 every requisite to complete organization and to enduring 
 efficiency. But this may be regarded as wholly an interior 
 view ; it portrays the Church as it exists inwardly, but does 
 not indicate the character of this unique institution as a 
 spiritual agency acting extensively and vitally on the world 
 of humanity. These external aspects and services will now 
 be considered. Three general topics successively demand, at- 
 tention ; the question of Church Unity, the Laws of Church 
 Growth, and the generic Relations sustained by the Church 
 in Human Life. 
 
 I. Present Church Divisions : Forms and Causes. — In the pre- 
 ceding discussions, the Church has always been contemplated as essen- 
 
152 THE CHURCH IN HUMAN SOCIETY. 
 
 tially one. In the three great epochs of its history, it has indeed pre- 
 sented itself in three corresponding forms: but these have appeared 
 only as successive stages in the development of one and the same di- 
 vine organism. Extensive divisions of view have also become ajiparent, 
 in respect to creeds and sacraments and ordinances, to the doctrine of 
 membership and of offices and officers, and to the modes of polity 
 upon which the Church should be constructed. But these divisions, 
 however extensive or serious, have not furnished decisive proof that 
 the Church is not in essence and substance one. We have found 
 rather that this principle of unity is in fact as essential to the very 
 conception of the Church, notwithstanding such divisions, as it is to 
 the conception of the human body with which the Church is so often 
 compared in Scripture ; we have found that if the Church is not, be- 
 neath all varieties and antagonisms, thus one and single, no adequate 
 account can be given, either of its existence, or of its place and offices 
 in the scheme of salvation. 
 
 Yet ecclesiastical history is a record of innumerable conflicts, diver- 
 sities, separations, schisms, within this holy and gracious organism. 
 The one Church of God presents itself before us in fact as an exten- 
 sive series of churches, widely unlike in faith and order and worship, 
 and often in the attitude of distrust or aversion, or of open antagonism. 
 Nominal Christendom is divided into the three great sections: the 
 Greek, the Roman, and the Protestant. The Roman communion, and 
 in great degree the Greek communion also, have each maintained an ex- 
 ternal unity, in the presence of many inward differences and confficts. 
 Protestantism exists in a large number of sects, divided not merely by 
 geographic lines, but by multiplied differences in construction, method 
 and faith. Within its main divisions, w'e discover an extensive array 
 of minor organizations, whose differences are apparently more influen- 
 tial in practice than their agreements, and whose real unity in Christ 
 hardly finds any distinct form of expression. Even within the domain 
 of particular denominations, we further discover schools, parties, ten- 
 dencies, often actively at war with each other, and struggling for su- 
 premacy at whatever cost to the common faith. The actual attitude 
 of the Christian Church is thus one of multiplicity, division, antago- 
 nism, rather than of that unity which the apostles so steadfastly enjoined ; 
 and the pathetic prayer of Christ that His people might all be one, 
 suggests to the student of the Church only a remote, apparently an 
 unattainable, ideal. 
 
 Turning to consider briefly the causes of such multiplicity, we dis- 
 cover first of all the simple and just law of geographic division, conse- 
 quent upon the distribution of the Church in many lands, and among 
 widely varying nations. It is indeed a recognizable fact of Scripture, 
 
CAUSES OF CHUECH DIVISION. 153 
 
 that the disciples at Jerusalem, aud in other cities also, however great 
 their numbers grew to be, were associated habitually in what was 
 termed the one local church : at least, no evidence of local separation, 
 as to organization, appears in the record; Acts 11 : 22, 13: 1, 1 Cor. 
 1:2. It is also probable that the plural term, churches, was employed 
 only in describing groups composed of the local organizations of a given 
 region, more or less extensive ; and that the law of unity still predom- 
 inated, even under the sense of separation thus occasioned by distance; 
 Rom. 16: 1-2: and the apostolic letters to churches. But at length 
 the growth of the common Christianity in Western Asia and in Eastern 
 Europe compelled a completer separation. The believers in each lo- 
 cality formed a church for themselves ; churches thus formed were 
 largely independent of one another; and steadily extending division 
 on the geographic basis became the general law. — This law is still 
 active, aud still both legitimate and universal. Wherever the number 
 of believers becomes too great for convenience in assembling together 
 for worship, or wherever they are too widely scattered to assemble in 
 any given place, the estabhshment of another center of religious life 
 and work becomes a duty as well as a necessity. It is no schism, to 
 multiply churches on this basis: either geographic distribution or 
 numerical magnitude amply justifies the process. It is on this general 
 ground that a large proportion of the divisions of Protestantism, in 
 both Europe and America, are to be explained. It was natural and 
 just, that the churches in any given province or state should associate 
 themselves in a form of unity, bounded by the courses of rivers or the 
 lines of civil government. And, had the taunt of Bossuet had no 
 other foundation than this, the Reformers might have smiled at its 
 impoteucy, even though their provincial organizations exhibited less 
 of prestige and power than the Church of Rome, scattered through 
 many lands, yet preserving through all distribution its formal unity. 
 It needs only to be noted here that such a principle suggests its own 
 limitations: and that any excessive multiplication of churches along 
 such lines, either local or provincial, is a schismatical departure from 
 the proper unity of the Gospel. 
 
 But at this point another law of distribution comes in, — the law of 
 diversity. Three general types of such diversity appear, in connection 
 with polity, Avith modes of worship, and Avith systems of doctrine. 
 Thus, each of the four varieties of ecclesiastical organization has its 
 advocates and adherents; and Christendom is consequently divided into 
 four great classes of churches, existing under these several schemes of 
 organization. The Greek Christian and the Romanist agree in their 
 conception of a hierarchal administration, but differ as to its proper 
 center and its rightful head. The prelatical communions agree with 
 
154 THE CHURCII IN IIU?IAN SOCIETY. 
 
 botli in locating' authority in the hands of the clergy, but strenuously 
 resi.^t l)oth tlic j)atriarclial and the papal assumptions of supremacy.^ 
 Popular varieties of government difier from all of these in locating 
 church power in the people, but also differ widely among themselves 
 as to the extent in which such power may be entrusted by the people 
 to certain representative rulers, and as to the proper relations of church 
 to church in judicial administration. — Modes of Avorship furnish a 
 second ground of diversity. Two great classes of churches here come 
 into view. Those which adhere rigidly to liturgical forms, or to a pre- 
 scribed administration of the sacraments, or to certain modes of praise, 
 and which comi:)el church organization on their specific basis, constitute 
 the first class: and those which regard written liturgies with disfavor, 
 rebel against formal limitations in worship, and allow variations in sac- 
 ramental usage, constitute the second. A third class of denominations 
 might be described as occupying an intermediate position, or possibly 
 one of indifference, to such liturgical issues, and as being organized 
 rather on the basis of distinctions which are either governmental or 
 doctrinal. — Varieties in belief constitute a still deeper ground of church 
 division. Each, of the main types of theology — the Lutheran, the 
 Arminian, the Calvinistic — furnishes a general basis for denomina- 
 tional distribution : and within these general lines there is room, as 
 the history of Protestant theology has abundantly shown, for still 
 further distribution of the same class. While all are agreed in the 
 essential facts of faith, and for the most part in the central aspects of 
 the truth believed, theories and explanations differ widely; certain 
 aspects of the truth are emphasized, while others are retired ; historical 
 contentions and controversies arise, and organic divisions are created. 
 It is hardly needful to mention here the segregations of this class which 
 serious heresies, such as the denial of the deity of Christ, have occa- 
 sioned: these are rather separations from the common Christianity, 
 than organized forms of belief Avithin it. In many ways, this law of 
 distribution on the basis of doctrine makes itself apparent in history : 
 Christendom is in fact almost as widely separate and disparted here, as 
 in respect to worship or to polity. 
 
 II. Church Divisions: Good and Evil Fruits. — The general fact 
 is thus confessed, that the Church of (xod on earth exists under wide 
 varieties of name and organization. The main causes, and the more 
 conspicuous forms of such variety, have just been noted. Of the issues, 
 good and evil, of such a complex process of distribution, there is much 
 to be said : 
 
 Postponing for the moment the question of organic unity among all 
 believers throughout the Avorld, we may note here the suggestive fact 
 that, while Judaism was struggling to preserve an external unity even 
 
division: good and evil fruits. 155 
 
 though it was perishing spiritually, the Christian Church planted itself 
 from the first on the broader platform, — the platform of spiritual unity, 
 notwithstanding local distribution and geographic expansion. Even 
 wide variety, such as appeared between Jewish and Gentile converts, 
 or between the schools of Apollos and Cephas at Corinth, was not de- 
 structive of this fundamental sense of spiritual unity. And, were the 
 multiplication of churches to be conducted in our time as it was in the 
 apostoUc age, with no characteristic lines of separation in belief or 
 order, there would be nothing in the process in any degree adverse to 
 the most complete fellowship on the part of contiguous organizations. 
 The law of spiritual unity would still hold the Church together as 
 one, though its congregations were counted by millions. 
 
 Nor is segregation on the basis of recognized differences, such as 
 have been named, necessarily a departure from this cardinal law. If 
 as Protestants, we agree for example in the position that there is no 
 complete form of polity absolutely imposed in Scripture, and that 
 Christian congregations, organized on the basis of either of the exist- 
 ing types of polity, are true churches of Christ, we may then peace- 
 ably divide according to our individual belief as to the degree of 
 scripturalness, or of general value and desirableness in any one of these 
 admissible types. If we agree that liturgical worship is Christian 
 worship, and that the less formal worship of most Protestant commun- 
 ions is also Christian worship ,we may, without being schismatical, 
 follow individual preferences, and legitimately seek fellowship with 
 those in any Christian community who hold like preferences in the 
 matter of devotion. If we are agreed that the Lutheran, the Armin- 
 ian, and the Calvinistic varieties of theology are alike evangelical — 
 that they contain, amid many circumstantial differences in arrange- 
 ment and emphasis and real teaching, the essential doctrines of grace, 
 we violate no law of the Gospel if we choose one rather than the 
 others, or associate ourselves ecclesiastically with those who make the 
 same choice. The existence of such tendencies to difference is an un- 
 questionable fact, and decided justification of these tendencies may be 
 found in the very nature of Christianity; and it is therefore no 
 schism if such differences are allowed, within proper limits, to affect 
 Christian fellowship or church organization. 
 
 There are indeed some advantages naturally suggesting themselves 
 to our thought, which may result to the general cause from such dis- 
 tribution. The principle of spiritual unity, for example, may receive 
 one of its most imi:)ressive exemplifications in immediate conjunction 
 with the organizing of churches and denominations on these subsidiary 
 bases. "While the Calvinist and the Arminian strongly emi^hasize 
 their respective conceptions of doctrine, and enter into organization 
 
156 THE CIIURCU IN HUMAN SOCIETY. 
 
 with Other Calvinists or other Armiuians in order to defend, exalt, 
 promul.uate their several systems, they may not be crowding out of 
 sight the underlying verities in which as Christians they are agreed, 
 but may rather be bringing out even the more fully, in and through 
 their theologic contrasts, the one blessed Gospel which is the foundation 
 of their belief and of their hope of salvation. In many directions it 
 might be shown that denominational divisions, in their true place and 
 office, are not injurious, but are even beneficial to the common cause 
 of Christ. The popular comparison of these distributed varieties of 
 Christianity to the divisions of an army, moving by diverse processes, 
 and under different array, toward a common consummation, is accurate 
 as well as trite. 
 
 Schism thus enters into these segregating processes, not in every 
 stage or form, but simply at the point Avhere division changes into an- 
 tagonism, — where the devotion to a specific theology, or polity, or mode 
 of worship, brings in deviation from that cardinal law of love Avhich 
 binds all such divisions together in holy oneness, within the single and 
 indivisible Household of Faith. ^ No one can be blind to the exist- 
 ence of this liability, in various forms. It is discernible in the dispo- 
 sition to insist on some given denominational peculiarity, such as the 
 episcopate, or baptism by immersion, or the singing of psalms only, as 
 indispensable to the constitution of a Christian church, and conse- 
 quently to refuse the name of a church to any Christian body organ- 
 ized on a different basis. It is hardly less discernible in the sectarian 
 temper which emphasizes unduly any such peculiarity, and is inclined 
 to enter into active hostility in its behalf, or to look coldly or con- 
 temptuously on those brethren in Christ who refuse to receive it. It 
 is discernible also in the inclination to multiply sects upon comj^ara- 
 tively trivial issues, or to build up higher walls of separation around 
 existing sects, or to oppose such movements as the body of Christ is 
 more or less consciously making toward closer visible union. And, 
 Avhile a temperate, generous denominationalism may be justified at the 
 high tribunal of Christian love, all true disciples of Christ are bound 
 to resist, in whatever form it may appear, this schismatical and secta- 
 rian spirit, as essentially contrary to the common Gospel. Certain it 
 is that the Church can never assume its proper place, or wield its full 
 measure of influence in human society, Avhile such a spirit prevails in 
 Christendom. 
 
 III. Organic Oneness: The Papal View. — The Church of Kome 
 
 ' See the two impressive sermons of John Howe on the Carnality of Rclir/ioiia 
 Contention: and also tliat on the question, appropriate to tlie present age, Whdt 
 may most hopefully be attempted among Protestants, that our Divisions may not be our 
 Ruin. 
 
ROMISH DOCTRINE OF ORGANIC ONENESS. 157 
 
 claims to have found a solution of this perplexing problem of unity in 
 its doctrine of organic oneness, — in a unificatian of Christendom which 
 is formal and external, rather than inward or vital. The elements of 
 this organic oneness are, first, a uniform polity, with its fixed orders 
 of clergy, with its pontifical head, with its established rules and can- 
 ons, to be accepted as authoritative in all Christian congregations 
 throughout the world : secondly, a uniform liturgy, with like fixedness 
 and elaborateness in detail, to be followed exactly, and according to 
 pontifical regulation, by all believers in all lands: and thirdly, a uni- 
 form creed, clear and full, and invested with authoritative sacreduess, 
 to which every assembly of disciples, wherever located, should give 
 implicit credence. In order to the securing of such threefold uni- 
 formity, the Church of Rome maintains that there must be to this one 
 Church a geographic center, a continuous history, and a single supreme 
 head, in whose person the unity of Christendom is represented. Such 
 in brief is the papal dogma, and such is the papal scheme of Christian 
 unification. It is at least conceivable that such a scheme and doctrine 
 should be carried out in history, and that the Church of Christ, on 
 the basis of such unity in polity, worship and faith, should attach itself 
 universally and loyally to the Roman see, as its proper center and 
 representative. The dream is a grand one, though it be a dream. 
 
 The attempt at realization has been far from successful. On exter- 
 nal grounds, relating to the geographic location and the papal headship, 
 the Greek Church, and certain Prelatic communions also, have refused 
 the formal union proposed. On internal grounds. Protestantism gen- 
 erally has broken away from the Romish fellowship, and sought unifi- 
 cation on a deeper principle, a broader basis. The proposal of uni- 
 formity in government, worship, belief, has not commended itself to 
 Protestant thought. The Papal polity has exhibited too slight biblical 
 warrant, and has proven itself in practice to be too fraught with peril 
 to Christian liberty. The liturgy of Rome has diverged too far from 
 the teaching and models of Scripture, and is too heavily overloaded 
 with sensuous and corrupting accretions, to be accepted as a guide and 
 rule in devotion. The Romish creed, though containing much that 
 is biblical, falls away from sound doctrine at too many points, and is 
 too much infected with human elements, to be believed by all Christian 
 men, as the final canon and norm of faith. Moreover, it is manifest 
 historically that the oneness secured in this external way, has been 
 formal, ecclesiastical, and partial, rather than spiritual or complete. 
 The uniform polity proposed, has tended steadily to hierarchy, and to 
 religious despotism : the uniform worship has resulted in the grossest 
 formalism and superstition : and the uniformity in creed has issued 
 extensively in the destruction of rational faith, and in much positive 
 
158 TIIR CIIUKCU IN HUMAN SOCIETY. 
 
 unbelief, even within the bosom of the Church. "With such results in 
 full view, Protestantism can never accept the solution of the problem 
 of Christian unity which Romanism has proposed. 
 
 Nor is there just reason for belief, that any present efforts at organic 
 union among Protestants would bring a larger measure of success. 
 Illustrations of such effort may be seen on one side in those struggles 
 after one comprehensive state church, which have appeared so conspic- 
 uously in the history of Protestantism in Europe, and on the other in 
 the earnest endeavors of those earnest souls who see in such organic 
 oneness the proper cure for the current evils of denominational divis- 
 ion. But liistory bears steadily increasing testimony to the futility of 
 the attempt to make the church in any country coterminous with the 
 state. Nor does history encourage the hope of universal agreement 
 through moral influence, on any given basis of organic union. No 
 uniform mode of organization or worship could be proposed at present, 
 •without creating new and fiercer divisions; no uniform standard of be- 
 lief, without developing larger, intenser diversities. Protestants may 
 amicably agree to regard their differences in these respects as relatively 
 indifferent; but amicable agreement of this sort is not union, nor 
 would union on the basis of such indifferentism possess any high de- 
 gree of worth or of effectiveness. A temperate denominationalism, 
 with all its exposures, is a better practical basis than indifferent union- 
 ism, or a dead uniformity. It may well be maintained that, wherever 
 the followers of Christ are few in number, and remote in position, the 
 organization of a single church on whatever evangelical basis and 
 under Avhatever rulings, is to be sought as the best attainable expres- 
 sion of the holy tie which draws such disciples tegether. But wherever 
 other conditions exist, such an obligation loses much of its force ; the 
 influence of secondary considerations enters in legitimately to modify 
 the primary law, and churches which represent the varieties as well as 
 the unities of the common faith, come justly into existence. Nor is 
 there sufficient reason to believe that such varieties will cease to ex- 
 ist, or to affect ecclesiastical organization, and denominational develop- 
 ment, even down to millennial times. 
 
 IV. Spiritual Unity : The Protestant View. — Setting aside as 
 impracticable the dream of organic union, whether in the form of a 
 state church, or as the expression of a controlling Christian charity. 
 Protestantism still strongly emphasizes, as a cardinal element, the un- 
 derlying principle of spiritual unity. The invisible Church in whose 
 existence all Protestants believe, is always one and indivisible ; and all 
 visible churches, built on evangelical doctrine, and however organized, 
 have a legitimate place within that one divine household. That 
 household can not indeed be said to include these various churches 
 
PROTESTANT DOCTRINE OF SPIRITUAL UNITY. 159 
 
 corporeally, since there are members in them who are Christians in 
 form only ; nor is it limited by them, since it doubtless contains some 
 who belong to no visible church. Yet Protestantism places this sub- 
 lime conception over against the papal dogma of organic oneness, and 
 affirms that, in the spiritual sense here indicated, all believers, however 
 far apart geographically or denominationally, have a place and name 
 within this one holy family — the Coetiis Fidelium, which indeed in- 
 cludes no less the heavenly than the earthly disciples of the Messiah. 
 This was the response of the Reformers to the claim of Rome, and 
 also their fraternal response and greeting to one another, in view of the 
 external divisions which were holding them asunder. It is indeed a 
 matter of history that many leading minds among them longed for 
 some closer bond; the conception of a great confederation, in which 
 all the Protestant communions might in some way be visibly joined to- 
 gether, found many earnest advocates, especially in the Reformed 
 circles. But events proved such a confederation impracticable; and all 
 rested at last in the incorporation in their Confessions of the broad 
 Christian principle, that the Church of God on earth, despite all vari- 
 eties, is forever and indissolubly One. ^ 
 
 It must be confessed that Prosestantism has witnessed many serious 
 departures from its avowed doctrine. It has seen sect springing up 
 after sect, on the basis of slight diversities in belief or order or mode 
 of devotion, in strange indifference to this fundamental law. It has 
 seen the spirit of sect inciting these divided communions not merely to 
 seclusion from one another, or to suspicion or alienation, but even 
 to bitter rivalries and strenuous warfare. It has seen denominations, 
 Prelatic and Presbyterian and Independent, striving after political su- 
 premacy, and as state churches making intolerant assaults upon the 
 Christian rights of other churches. For two centuries or more 
 after Protestantism had gained its position in the northern half of 
 Europe, we find it still failing to carry out even the negative princi- 
 ple of toleration ; and even yet, after more than three centuries of ex- 
 perience, we see the positive principle of brotherhood in Christ 
 struggling in vain for adequate recognition. The history of Protest- 
 ant Christianity contains many a sad chapter, illustrative of such 
 fiilures to put into practice what all have agreed to hold as cardinal 
 doctrine. And the taunt of the papist and the jeer of the unbeliever 
 
 ' DuRY, John, Earnest Plea for Gospel Communion, A. D. 1654. Also, his Pe- 
 tition to the British Parliament for the calling of a "General Synod of Protest- 
 tants in due time, for the better settling of weighty matters in the Church which 
 now trouble not only the consciences of most men, but disturb the tranquillity 
 of publick states, and divide the churches one from another, to the great hind- 
 rance of Christianity, and the dishonor of Religion." See also Correspondence 
 on the subject between Cranmer, Calvin, and others : Zurich Letters. 
 
160 THE CHUKCH IN HUMAN SOCIETY. 
 
 are still sharp as arrows, in the breast of its disunited and fragmentary 
 comniuuions. 
 
 Can it be questioned that one of the primal duties of Protestantism 
 in our time is to seek after the deeper, purer unity which belongs es- 
 sentially, according to the scriptural delineation, to the Household of 
 Faith ? The apparent arrest of the tendency toward segregation around 
 minor issues, and the movements toward organic union on the part of 
 denominations separated by only slight <lifferences, are encouraging in- 
 dications that tliis obligation is coming to be more largely realized. 
 Such also is tiie closer confederatiou of bodies essentially alike in faith 
 and order, but Avidely separated in locality and in respect to their par- 
 ticular mission. ^ The multiplied forms of practical fellowship and 
 union in Christian. service, are further indications in the same direc- 
 tion. The spirit of unity, as inculcated in the New Testament, has at 
 least begun to manifest itself effectively along such lines, — as if in 
 introductory answer to the intercession of the Redeemer. But these 
 are preliminary indications merely : their value lies largely in the sug- 
 gestion they convey of possibilities incomparably greater. How much 
 these possibilities may yet include, a thoughtful student of that media- 
 torial prayer would find it difficult to define. Certain it is that the 
 unification of evangelical Protestantism, in essence if not in organic 
 form, to such an extent that the deepest impression it shall make upon 
 all its members and on the world at large will be one, not of diversity, 
 but of true union, is a result not only possible in itself, but intrin- 
 sically of incalculable moment to the common Christianity, — a result 
 for Avhich all true disciples, in imitation of Christ, should ever pray. 
 
 V. The Christian Church A Growth : General Conception. — 
 In his letter to the Ephesian Church, Paul introduces, and skillfully 
 blends together, two familiar images, alike descriptive of the Church 
 of Christ: Eph. 2: 21. The first represents that Church as a build- 
 ing in process of construction, — a building resting on divine founda- 
 tions, and fitly framed together, gradually rising stage by stage into 
 the magnificent proportions of an holy temple in the Lord. The second 
 describes it rather as a vital growth, a living tree, starting from a 
 divine germ, and developing by healthful processes, until it reaches 
 finally its consummation as a matured and fruitful organism of grace. 
 
 * " In forming this Alliance, the Presbyterian Churches do not mean to change 
 their fraternal relations to other Churches, but will be ready, as licretofore, to 
 join with them in Christian fellowship, and in advancing the cause of the Re- 
 deemer, on the general principle, maintained and taught in the Reformed Con- 
 fessions, that the Church of God on earth, thonr/h composed of many members, is one 
 body In the communion of the Holy Ghost, of which body Christ is the Supreme Head, 
 •and the Scriptures alone are the infallible luw.^' Const. Presbyterian Alliance; Pre- 
 amble. 
 
TIIE CilURCH A DIVINE GROWTH. 161 
 
 The truth common to both metaphors, and one often inculcated else- 
 where in the New Testament, is that the Church is not something acci- 
 dentally thrown together, or spontaneously produced, or shaped by no 
 organizing principles, but is rather, as truly as a tree or a temple, a 
 structural growth — the living issue of a divine process of development, 
 according to laws and principles divinely prescribed. The Pauline 
 description of the Church as a body, the Body of Christ, with parts 
 and members each in place, and all instinct with one and the same 
 gracious life, conveys essentially the same conception. 
 
 It is specially to be noted that the Church as thus contemplated, is 
 not a human, but a divine construction. All attempts to explain the 
 existence and growth of this gracious organism on natural principles, 
 after the manner of Gibbon, are signal failures. Human elements 
 have indeed been blended with the divine at many points in the de- 
 velopment of the Church: we see society, general and civil, philoso- 
 phies of various types, human usages and sentiments, and multiplied 
 other earthly influences, flowing in to affect both its outward manifes- 
 tations and its inward life. But the Church is not an evolution from 
 such germs; they have affected, but they did not create it. Higher 
 forces than the religious sentiment in man, or the impulse to fellow- 
 ship which this sentiment gives, or the agency of fashions or tendencies 
 in life, must be introduced in order to explain either its existence or 
 its growth. God is as truly the Creator of the Church, as He was the 
 Creator of nature: back of forces, laws, germs, atoms, Ave find Him 
 in the former process as truly as in the latter. His fiat made the worlds 
 and man: His fiat gave form and life to the Church. 
 
 As a diviue rather than human construction, the Church through- 
 out its long history reveals a sublime process of development, stage 
 after stage, dispensation after dispensation. While its essential prin- 
 ciples never change, and many of its institutions and provisions stand 
 from epoch to epoch unaltered, the Church is still in many other 
 aspects a living, growing organism. Even the revelation on Avhich it 
 reposes as a sure foundation, rose by long gradations into its final form : 
 so the plan of redemption required many centuries of preparation, 
 before it could announce its culminating provisions. In like manner, 
 the beliefs, the creeds and theologies, of the Church reveal a process 
 of both intellectual and spiritual development: its experience and its 
 capacities expand with the ages : and its mission to humanity steadily 
 widens in both extent and significance. The history of other iustitu- 
 tions, the rise and progress of empires, the upspringing even of the 
 great natural faiths of the world, furnish no parallel to this gracious 
 development. Nor can the result be accounted for on any other hy- 
 pothesis than that God i3 in the Church, — that the Holy Ghost is ,its 
 
162 THE CIIURCn IN HUMAN SOCIETY. 
 
 aiiiniatin«x i^rinciple, iind that its growth is as supernatural as was its 
 first creation. The crowning fact is that the God of providence is also 
 here, as in tlie exjierience of the individual believer, the God of grace, 
 Lord and Giver of life. 
 
 Hence arises an interesting inquiry respecting what may be termed 
 the laws, the regulative principle;^, tlie divinely ordained methods, of 
 church growth. For, while we may not know just how the divine vi- 
 tality flows in upon this spiritual organism, producing such vigor and 
 development as have been described, we may reverently study those 
 laws, principles, methods, according to which the gracious result is 
 made to appear. In such directions the growth of the Church in its 
 totality, or the growth of any particular church, may be as readily ap- 
 prehended as the pi'ocess of erecting a temple, or the broad and grand 
 outspreading of an oak. 
 
 VI. The Internal Law of Church Growth : Spiritual Propa- 
 gation. — What is contemplated here is an increase and enlargement 
 from within, resembling that through which the family broadens into 
 the tribe, or the tribe is multii^lied into the state or the nation. We 
 may find a primary illustration of this in the Christian household, 
 viewed as a divinely ordained instrumentality for the perpetuation and 
 difflisiou of religion. God has in all dispensations utilized the pious 
 family in this way, availing Himself of all its wondrous potencies as 
 aids in preserving and multi2:)lying among men the influence of His 
 truth and grace. Three times, says Luther, did Jehovah introduce 
 His scheme of mercy in and with a single family, — as if one such 
 household, thoroughly sanctified by the indwelling presence of relig- 
 ion, would become an expanding germ through whose holy vitalities 
 all the families of the earth should be blessed. What has been aptly 
 described as the outpropagating power of the Christian stock, ^ has 
 thus abundantly verified itself at all periods in the experience of the 
 people of God. By parental instruction and nurture, by the careful 
 training of children in divine truth and law, by faithful observance 
 of the appointed sacraments and ordinances of the Gospel, the pious 
 household has ever proven itself thus the primary agency employed 
 of God in extending the sphere and influence of piety in the world. 
 It is indeed in this view of the spiritual capabilities embodied in the 
 Christian home, that we find one of the supreme reasons for that or- 
 dinance of nature which setteth the solitary in families : Ps. 68 : 6, 
 Mai. 2: 15. 
 
 On a broader scale, each Christian church is thus a family, brought 
 
 ' BusHNELL, H., Christian Nurture : p. 195. "God is from the first looking for a 
 godly seed; or, what is nowise different, inserting such laws of population, that 
 piety itself shall finally overpopulate the world." 
 
GROWTH BY SPIRITUAL PROPAGATION. 163 
 
 together by spiritual attractions, and welded and unified through 
 love, in order that it may become, in the spiritual sense, a propagativo 
 agency in the interest of religion, — an agency not merely preserving, 
 as if it were an inherited estate, the grace it has received, but also by 
 more active processes diffusing and perpetuating that grace among 
 men. In the economy of the Gospel it seems not only a fixed, but 
 also a primary principle, that vital religion should be spread abroad 
 through this unique instrumentality. To this end such a sacrament as 
 infant baptism is introduced into the constitution of the church, Jp be 
 a visible emblem and pledge of spiritual life yet to be impai-ted. To 
 this end various methods of instruction and culture are provided, in 
 order that from the outset youthful minds may be habituated, within 
 the household of faith, to the teachings and the tempers of religion. 
 To this end the children of believing parents are even counted as con- 
 structively within the church from their birth, and at proper age are 
 invited to contemplate it as their privilege to enter into full commun- 
 ion, by participation in that interior sacrament whose ofiice it is to ex- 
 press in most affecting form the unity of each and all believers in the 
 one family of Christ. In such ways, every Christian Church is thus 
 set upon the task of providing from age to age for its own permanence 
 and expansion, by the training within its own hallowed circle of suc- 
 cessive generations of disciples. It was chiefly by this process that 
 the Abrahamic was expanded into the Jewish, and this again into the 
 Christian Church. It was largely by these methods that the church 
 of the Pentecost at Jerusalem has, by its outpropagating power, be- 
 come the church of humanity, — represented by tens of thousands of 
 particular churches, inheriting its mission and spirit, and continuing 
 the same gracious development in many lauds. 
 
 On a scale still broader, the Church of Christ on the earth is to in- 
 crease primarily by the same inward process to the end of time. It 
 is worthy of note that the Papal Church has availed itself of this grand 
 principle of development, in a grosser form : steadily aiming to per- 
 petuate itself not so much by aggression upon the outer world of un- 
 belief, as by the careful infolding within its ever broadening circle, of 
 each new generation of adherents, — claiming as its own every child 
 born within its pale, and on which its baptismal consecration has been 
 bestowed. It is also to be noted that the churches of the Reformation 
 were administered largely on this principle, growing and expecting to 
 grow, not so much by captures from the world, as by the introduction 
 of each successive generation of children into the experience and the 
 inheritance of grace. Many of the Protestant Confessions, and emi- 
 nently the Symbols of Westminster, are strongly characterized by this 
 principle : and so far as the communions planted on such Confessions 
 
164 TIIE CHURCH IN HUMAN SOCinTY. 
 
 have been true to their own doetrinal atlirmiiti()n.s, they liavc enjoyed 
 a large degree of growth along these interior lines. May it not he re- 
 garded a.' one of the most propitious faets of our time tliat evaiigi'lical 
 Protestantism, of every variety, is becoming so extensively ind)ued 
 with a sense of the values of this inward mode of development; — that 
 the hearts of the fathers arc turning so tenderly toward the children 
 in the spiritual household, — that instrumentalities and methods aiming 
 at the instruction and conversion of the young are so remarkably 
 midtiplying, — and that the increase of particular churches from year 
 to year is coming to be measured chicHy by the fidelity Avith which 
 they thus believe in, and thus employ this primary law of church 
 growth ? 
 
 The biblical basis for this view of church development by interior 
 propagation, may be briefly stated. Its germs clearly lie in the pro- 
 visions of the Abrahamic economy and covenant; Gen. 18: 18-19. 
 Illustrations of it appear at various points in the Hebraic dispensa- 
 tion ; Deut. 6 : 7, Ps. 78 : 4-8. Nor did it belong to the seclusive 
 stages or eras of the true religion only. It is suggestive that our 
 Lord lays down in so many ways His view of the relations of children 
 to the kingdom of heaven, and of their right to the recognition and 
 aid of Ilis Church. It is suggestive also that, at the outset of the new 
 dispensation, Peter at the Pentecost should lay such stress on the full- 
 ness of the promise both to believers and to their children ; Acts 2 : 
 39. The duties of parents and children respectively are often urged 
 in the Pauline Epistles, Col. 3 : 20-21 : and especially the obligation 
 of devout parents to train up their offspring in the nurture and admo- 
 nition of the Lord : Eph. 6 : 1-4. So also, the descriptions of the 
 Church as a family, and of Christianity as the religion of the house- 
 hold and the home, inculcate forcibly the same lesson, — that the largest 
 and richest gi-owth of this divine organism, will be enjoyed when this 
 domestic type of religion is most fully appreciated and put into 
 practice. 
 
 A single remark is needful here respecting the specific peril involved 
 in the application of this law. The Christian Church is not national 
 like the Jewish, or formal and ceremonial like the Papal communion. 
 It must therefore guard itself against the Jewish and Romish error of 
 supposing that true membership in the Church can be obtained by 
 birth or inheritance, or by submission to outward rites or the observance 
 of Christian oi-dinances. Some forms of Protestantism have fallen 
 into this error by accepting, under certain outward conditions, as 
 actual members those who at best are only constructively such, — mul- 
 tiplying numbers Avithout sufficient regard for regenerate character as 
 the only adequate qualification. Regenerative baptisms, catechetical 
 
GROWTH BY SPIRITUAL CONQUEST, 1G5 
 
 admissions, half-way covenants, and other like processes, may increase 
 the numerical aggregate of the Church, but can only diminish its true 
 strength, its spiritual efficiency. Such methods can only Judaize our 
 Christianity. It is in such directions that this primary law of church 
 development confronts its gravest peril: formalism does its most de- 
 structive work at just this point. The growth we are contemplating 
 must be spiritual throughout, or it will prove corrupting and fatal. 
 And the only adequate protection lies in loyal adherence to the scrip- 
 tural princijjle that saving faith in Christ, is the sole, universal, essen- 
 tial and perpetual condition of complete church membership, — as truly 
 in the child nurtured within the Christian home and in the family of 
 grace, as in the adult transgressor, convicted and penitent before the 
 Lord. 
 
 VIL The External Law of Church Growth : Spiritual Con- 
 quest. — Here we pass beyond the conception of the Church as a 
 divine household, growing and multiplying from within, to contemplate 
 that Church rather as a grand missionary agency, sent forth to conquer 
 and possess the world of humanity for Christ. Among the primary 
 Christian beliefs stands the belief in the possibility of converting the 
 world to Christianity. Tiiis belief rests on the revealed plan and will 
 of the Father, on the direct commands and assurances of our Lord, 
 and on the pledged and verified gift and presence of the Holy Spirit. 
 It is confirmed l)y what we have seen and known of the inherent effi- 
 ciencies of Gospel truth, of the vital power of religion in the human 
 heart, of the potential influences exerted by the Church, and of the 
 glorious triumphs already w^on by spiritual Christianity among the 
 most enlightened nations and races of men. To reject this cardinal 
 belief, — to rest rather in the opinion that the Christian religion is 
 merely local or temporal in its range — a type of faith incapable of 
 being carried into all lands, or of subduing unto Christ the entire 
 world of humanity — would be equivalent to a confession that the 
 Gospel itself is au illusion, most disappointing at the point whfere its 
 capabilities were to be most fully tested, and where its promises ap- 
 peared to be brightest: Ps. 72, Isa. 40: 3-5, Matt. 28: 18-20, Acts 
 3: 19-26. 
 
 As the agent of God in the execution of this sublime purpose, the 
 Church becomes of necessity a missionary organization, endowed and 
 authorized to bear this Gospel to every creature. The world is its 
 field, and the entire race are the objects of its thought and labor. 
 Into all the earth it is sent, to subdue all the earth unto Christ, John 
 1: 9-10, Rom. 1 : 16. And each particular church, in its own meas- 
 ure, is thus a missionary body as well as a consecrated household, — 
 designed under the divine economy to grow as well by drawing into its 
 
166 THE CHURCH IN HUMAN SOCIETY. 
 
 hallowed circle those who are Avithout, as by nurturing unto holiness 
 those who are within its fold. Every such church has a specific mis- 
 sion to humanity,— it is a messenger of glad tidings to every simier, 
 however far astray, whom it can by any means invite into the marriage 
 supper of the Lamb, Luke 14: 15-24. This is a cardinal obligation, 
 Avrought into tlic constitution of the Christian Church at large, and 
 of each particular organization ; and any deviation from it, even in 
 thought, is infidelity to the great commission given to His earthly 
 body by the ascended Head. 
 
 It should also be borne in mind, that the one, sole, universal method 
 of fulfilling that commission, must be found in the instruction, the 
 persuasion, the conviction and conversion of individual souls. Not 
 baptismal rites, or formal professions, or merely external memberships 
 of any sort, are to be sought, in this sublime process of conquering the 
 world for our Immanuel. The warnings against reliance on such 
 methods, — against attempting to secure increase rather than growth, 
 by enrollment rather than through regeneration, stand in Scripture 
 side by side with the great commission itself. The conversion of souls 
 is the one and only process by which the Church is to win and save 
 lost humanity. What does conversion involve? It involves intelligent 
 acquaintance Avith the truth and grace of the Gospel: it involves 
 honest recognition of personal sin and guilt and need : it involves true 
 repentance and true faith in the divine Christ as a perfect Redeemer. 
 In a word, conversion is nothing else than the instant, hearty, com- 
 plete tui-ning of the sinner, under divine influence and with the aid 
 of the Spirit, away from all sin, unto Christ as his personal Savior, 
 with absolute recognition of His claims, and Avith irrevocable purpose 
 to serve Him, cordially, supremely and forever. For such conversion 
 there can be in the scheme of grace no possible substitute. And should 
 the Church come to depend on any merely outward adherence, any 
 formal or ceremonial enrollment, in lieu of this spiritual experience, 
 the in^dtable result would be an increase which bore with it no true 
 enlargement, — an organization in Avhich ceremony had supplanted 
 piety, and in which external show and glitter had both obscured the 
 proper glory of iuAvard holiness, and induced indifference to all effect- 
 ual outward activities. 
 
 Growth by spiritual conquest, through the instruction and conver- 
 sion of the outlying world of humanity, is therefore the great external 
 law or method in all church development. It has been the peculiar 
 privilege of Protestantism, even from the period of the Reformation, 
 but more distinctly in these later times, to see and utilize this law, as 
 the Church of Rome, both mediaeval and modern, has failed to do. 
 Though Protestant communions have adhered too closely to the papal 
 
ILLICIT PROCESSES OF GEOWTH. 167 
 
 theory of church growth — though the formal conception of the Church 
 as an external society, or an organization coterminous with the state, 
 into which men may come as an outward privilege, apart from the 
 matter of conversion, has too largely pervaded Protestant thought, yet 
 in the main evangelical Protestantism has cordially seen and accepted 
 the higher, more scriptural view. The full discovery through Luther 
 of the doctrine of justification by faith Avas hardly more important 
 than this consequent discovery of the sublime commission of the Church 
 to save the Avorld. It is at this point that Protestant have shown their 
 vast superiority to Papal missions, — in the fact that they have aimed 
 primarily, not at church enlargement through ceremonial enrollments, 
 but at the conversion and ingathering of souls. And it is a most 
 suggestive fact that those Christian bodies which have seen this pri- 
 mary obligation most distinctly, and have given themselves most zeal- 
 ously to its fulfillment, are precisely those which are increasing most 
 rapidly, and whose future seems brightest with spiritual promise. 
 
 It may be anticipated that this method of growth will reveal its 
 worth more and more distinctly as the great process of subduing the 
 world unto Christ draws nearer to its culmination. Thus far, the task 
 of pushing the lines of Christian occupation into hostile territory, has 
 been carried on with incessant diflficulty : in the apprehension of many, 
 the result, if not doubtful, is very remote. But God often hurries on 
 His gracious processes, especially in their maturing stages, — the fields 
 of salvation whiten rapidly at the last. I^or is it unlikely that a time 
 will come when, instead of the toilsome efl^ort of the present, a nation 
 shall be born as in a day — when an impenitent world will come flock- 
 ing into the Church, as doves to their windows: Isa. 60. While the 
 household of faith illustrates inwardly the principle of family develop- 
 ment, and at a steadily increasing ratio adds to its volume through the 
 nurture of its own oflTspring, we may expect that its function as an 
 army of conquest will exhibit like advance in efficiency, and in the 
 measure of success. To this high end its powers and resources will be 
 more and more fully consecrated ; its methods Avill be improved, and 
 its influence widened, and its courage increased, until its adequacy to 
 the task will be no longer questioned. Then, with startling rapidity, 
 the great harvest of humanity will ripen, and will be triumphantly 
 gathered: Rev. 5: 13. 
 
 Vin. Illicit Processes of Church Growth. — These two laws or 
 methods of church growth, by spiritual propagation and spiritual con- 
 quest, indicate the only and the sufficient modes whereby the consum- 
 mation of the Church and Kingdom of God on earth is to be reached. 
 Nothing more is needful than the diligent application of these divine 
 methods, in their multiplied varieties of form and action, to secure the 
 
1G8 THE CHURCH IN HUMAN SOCIETY. 
 
 liuiil euthroncincut of spiritual Christianity as the religion of mankind. 
 It remains to note the fact that illicit processes have often been intro- 
 duced in api)arent conjunction with, or in open opposition to, these 
 gracious modes of growth. Human aml)itions, uusanctified zoal, im- 
 patience in view of the slow developments of grace, and other earthly 
 influences, are constantly breaking in at many points ujion this divine 
 unfolding. A glimpse at some of these unauthorized methods, born 
 of the wish of man rather than of the revealed will of God, may be 
 of service here. 
 
 Passing by the obvious mistakes of the Papacy, and of ritualistic 
 Christianity already adverted to, Ave shall find within the circle of 
 positive Protestantism a series of such illicit processes, against which 
 the Church of Christ should ever be carefully protected. The first 
 of these is the substitution of false and narrowing notions of the 
 Church itself in the place of the broad biblical conception, — especially 
 the regarding of the Church as an external, material, political or social 
 organization, rather than such a spiritual organism as it is divinely in- 
 tended to be. A second error may be seen in the disposition to com- 
 promise the divine foundations of doctrine on which the Church is 
 builded, — especially at the points where such doctrine is most unpal- 
 atable to unbelieving minds, or awakens the greatest opposition in 
 human society. A third appears in the inclination to lower the stand- 
 ard or the terms of admission, so as to make access to the Church less 
 offensive or trying to those who are not thoroughly surrendered to the 
 claim and sway of Christ. Kindred to this is the still more serious 
 error of reducing the standard of character and attainment in those 
 who are already members within this divine household, — such as allow- 
 ing extensive conformity with the world, failing to forbid doubtful or 
 pernicious practices, loosening the avowed bonds of discipleship or 
 fellowship, or accepting as sufficient a low grade of spiritual manhood 
 or womanhood. Still another illicit process appears in the disposition 
 to secure growth by spectacular arrangements, such as attract the natu- 
 ral interest of men merely, — splendor in architecture, pompous cere- 
 monies, official dignities and display, artistic music, and other like in- 
 strumentalities, whose object is rather to draw and please, than to 
 awaken or convict or edify. These may be taken as the more obvious 
 illustrations of an insidious tendency to allure the mind of believers 
 away from those great primal conditions of growth on which the 
 Church is in fact dependent, — a tendency revealed in a thousand 
 ways, but fraught in every form with irreparable mischiefs. 
 
 Is it not manifest that the introduction of such methods can, at the 
 best, only interrupt the action of those diviner modes of growth which 
 have been already considered? Is it not obvious that these lower 
 
POSITION OF THE CHURCH IN SOCIETY. 169 
 
 modes, though they may apparently succeed in filling the Church with 
 numbers, will tend steadily to produce just such a pitiful result as the 
 church in Laodicea presented? Rich and increased in goods and 
 having need of nothing, in an external sense, that church was to the 
 vision of faith, wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked indeed ; splendid 
 in its visibilities, but weak and fruitless and decaying at the heart. 
 The warning to Laodicea, conveyed by John (Rev. 3: 17), is of uni- 
 versal application. • Growth unlawfully secured is not true growth ; it 
 may appear as increase, expansion, outward success, but inwardly it is 
 always corrupting, if not fatal. The teaching of the Scripture is 
 clear, solemn, conclusive here. There must be no compromising of es- 
 sential truth — there must be no abj uring of the vital principle of con- 
 version — there must be no lowering of the Gospel standard of holiness 
 — there must be no surrender at any point of any thing that belongs 
 to the Church as a supernatural, spiritual organization, planted on 
 Christ as the sure foundation, and vivified and moulded throughout by 
 His Spirit and His grace. There may be value in wealth, learning 
 position — in architecture or music or official dignity, as mere accesso- 
 ries : but no church truly grows through such helps, or can live by 
 them. From every experiment of this class, thoughtful minds will ever 
 return to the two simple, spiritual methods of growth divinely indicated, 
 to find in these rather than in any and all inventions of men, the 
 means by which the Church of Christ, fitly framed together, groweth 
 unto an holy temple in the Lord. And well will it be for spiritual 
 Protestantism, and especially for the more wealthy and cultured and 
 conspicuous sections of that Protestantism, if they abjure all papal or 
 ritualistic or formal dreams of advancement, and act upon the high 
 principle that the Church liveth not by bread alone, but by the word 
 of God, the spirit of God, and the methods of God only. 
 
 IX. The Church in Human Society: General View. — Thus 
 far, the Church has been contemplated as an institution, divinely 
 planted, developing historically, and justifying itself by its perceived 
 relations to the nature of man as a religious being, and to religion as 
 a divine force in human life; — an institution having certain impersonal 
 constituents such as doctrines, sacraments, ordinances, and composed 
 of persons sustaining various connections with it as members and as 
 officers; — an institution planted on the general basis of government, 
 and taking on the form of a gracious kingdom, with some definite type 
 of constitution and polity, and revealing its quality as such in ad- 
 ministration and in discipline. We have seen the Church, separated 
 widely in form and usage, and existing in a state of division, yet hold- 
 ing to the fundamental conception of unity, and presenting itself 
 ))efore the world notwithstanding such diversities as in essence and 
 
170 THE CHURCH IN HUMAN SOCIETY. 
 
 substance One Church of God amoug meu. AVc have also beheld this 
 one Church as a living growth — the vital Body of Christ, developing 
 steadily from age to age, under certain authoritative laws, by certain 
 fixed processes, toward a future as extensive as humanity — a future of 
 gracious and glorious supremacy in all the earth. It now remains to 
 inquire more specifically, in brief, respecting the position of the Church 
 in human society, the place it properly holds or should seek to hold in 
 human life, the relations it sustains or should sustain to the other great 
 institutions and interests of men. 
 
 Two false impressions should be noted at the outset. On one side, 
 it is affirmed that the Church is an artificial and abnormal institute in 
 the world — the creation of priests or enthusiasts, or at best the archi- 
 tectural efflorescence of a type of religion, which is living out its brief 
 day in the career of humanity, and which, as it is outgrown and dies 
 out of life, will carry the Church with it into decay and oblivion. It 
 is true, it is said, that Christianity differs from the other natural faiths, 
 in the fact that, wherever it goes, it expresses or embodies itself in 
 this peculiar institution : but when this faith declines, as other faiths 
 have declined in history, the institution will crumble and perish with it. 
 The relations of the Church to human society are therefore but casual, 
 temporary, unimportant. — On another side, the Church is viewed as 
 an institution wholly divine in structure, aiming at ends peculiar to 
 itself, planted in the world but in no sense of the world — a temporary 
 tabernacle for the ingathering of the elect, and a place wherein re- 
 ligion may be sheltered from the influences of life, blit standing in no 
 divinely ordered relationship to humanity as a whole, or to human so- 
 ciety as a surrounding element. In the former view, the Church is 
 simply a temporary construction or institute framed by the religious 
 nature : in this it is an organization Avholly supernatural in structure 
 and mission — as widely separate from ordinary life or experience, as 
 was that mystical sheet which Peter beheld in sacred vision only. 
 
 Clearly such is far from being the biblical conception. While the 
 Church is not of the world as to its origin, its faith, its spirit and ten- 
 dency — while in such aspects it is as widely separated from all other 
 institutions and interests and movements of our fallen humanity as if 
 it were organized on another planet, yet it is as truly sent into the 
 world as Avere the Apostles for whom the Savior prayed before His 
 passion — as was that Savior Himself. It has a mission, as distinctively 
 as they severally had a mission: it inherits their mission, and finds one 
 of the primal reasons for its existence in the gracious relations which 
 it is thus called to sustain to the world of humanity. The Church 
 is in human society in order that it may instruct, awaken, spiritualize, 
 regenerate society, in virtue of its own diviner life. While it is at many 
 
MISSION OF THE CHUECH TO SOCIETY. 171 
 
 points affected, sometimes disastrously, by these social connections 
 which its great commission constrains it to assume — while human so- 
 ciety reacts upon it at a thousand points, shaping its organization, in- 
 fluencing its teaching, determining even the quality and measure of 
 its religious vitalities, still the Church is the embodied presence of 
 Christ in the world — the representative of His grace, and His chief 
 agent in the restoration of lost men to Himself. Considered apart from 
 this redemptive mission, which is consequent upon and analogous to 
 the mediatorial mission of our Lord, the Church would become as 
 great an enigma to us, as a vessel would be to one who had never 
 known Avhat the ocean is. If we comprehend what human society is, 
 in its varied institutions and laws and interests — in its grand control- 
 ling forces and tendencies, and especially in its myriad phases of sin 
 and need, we may also knoAv why God created, endowed, and commis- 
 sioned His Church as He did ; and why He set it up in the world, to 
 stand through all the ages, as the one indestructible thing, the one 
 dominating institution, in human life. 
 
 It is true that we at first behold the Churclf secluded within the 
 family, hidden as a treasure Avithin the tribe, holden strictly within the 
 domain of a single nation, as if it sustained no such ecumenical of- 
 fice or relations. But the reasons for such preparatory discipline 
 through seclusion have already been noted ; the seclusion itself was a 
 prophecy of the universality in connection and mission, that was to 
 follow it. Even in the Old Testament, as in the Messianic Psalms, 
 and in the culminating predictions of Isaiah and Daniel, this world- 
 wide relationship was clearly foretold. The stone cut without hands out 
 of the mountain was to roll on irresistibly, until it had crushed down 
 all oppositions; the kingdom which Daniel foresaw, established in 
 narrowness and privacy, Avas to overthroAV all hostile dominions, and 
 to rule in majesty from the rising to the setting of the sun. In the 
 New Testament, Avhile our Lord and the apostles were first of all en- , 
 gaged in planting the kingdom of heaven in human hearts, and in es- 
 tablishing Christian churches wherever converts could be found, stiU 
 Christ Himself clearly contemplated a time when the groAving mustard 
 seed should fill the lands Avith its verdure, and the apostles looked for- 
 Avard to a day when Jew and Gentile, men of all nations and all na- 
 tions of men, should be folded Avithin the circle of this outspreading, 
 beneficent faith. 
 
 X. The Church and Human Sin. — Contemplating this relation- 
 ship of the Church to human society, first in more generic, than in 
 more specific forms, aa'c are confronted at the outset by that which 
 constitutes the central feature in the position of the Church in the 
 world — its mission to human sin. — Here, as at many other points in the 
 
172 Tin: ciiuRcn in iitoian society. 
 
 Christian scheme of doctrine, the one C'hurch is sadly divided in its 
 faith and teacliing ; and one of the sorest hindrances to its success in 
 this universal mission is revealed in such divisions. Yet on many of 
 the essential elements in the scriptural doctrine of sin, the Church is 
 already substantially one. That sin exists in man, and exists univer- 
 sally, — that it is more than a mere conflict between matter and spirit, 
 or between the body and the soul, and more than a trivial incident or 
 accident in human experience, — that it lies deeper than action, and in 
 some sense possesses the nature, and flows in a turbid current through 
 the entire life, — that it involves responsibility at every stage in its 
 dark development, and brings guilt and condemnation, and the possi- 
 bility of spiritual and even everlasting death, on every sinning soul; 
 these are propositions in which evangelical churches may be said to be 
 essentially agreed. It is also a fact of great significance, that the pro- 
 foundest movements of Christian thought in our time are toward 
 closer unity around the more fundamental elements in this doctrine ; 
 and it may be anticipated that, as the Church thus reaches deeper 
 agreement in conviction, and consequently in feeling, its sublime 
 mission to the sin of the world will become more grandly significant, 
 more transcendently glorious. 
 
 As sin is universal, this mission is a mission to humanity; and as 
 sin is multiplex in manifestation and profound in influence, revealing 
 itself in ten thousand subtle ways in the individual life, and permeat- 
 ing and controlling society in every moral aspect, this restorative mis- 
 sion must assume like variety, penetrativeness, efficiency. As the 
 representative of Christ in the world, it is the high task of the Church 
 to take the sin of the world in its heart, as did the Savior Himself; 
 and to minister to it in all its deformities and corruptions, in His 
 spirit, and by the complex methods which His Gosj^el supplies. Here 
 we are led at once to contemplate the multiplicity of this mission, and 
 the vastness as well as variety of the services which the Church is 
 called, in the name of Christ, to render to a sinful world. Human 
 methods of improvement which contemplate only the cultivation of 
 some single virtue, specific reforms which aim at the correction of 
 some single vice, philanthropic movements looking toward the advance- 
 ment of mankind in some particular social interest, grow trivial in 
 comparison Avith the gigantic task to which the Church of God ad- 
 dresses itself. In like manner do the organizations and machineries of 
 men, designed to secure such ends through joint endeavor, fade into 
 insignificance when compared with that array of resources, agencies, 
 powers, which are divinely concentrated in the Christian Church. And 
 surely no commission that man could obtain from his own convictions, 
 or from the combined sympathies of his fellows, can equal in impres- 
 
MINISTRIES OF THE CHURCH TO" SIN, 173 
 
 siveness the commandment of the Lord to bear His saving message to 
 every creature; — as no fervors of benevolence, no inspirations of just 
 wrath against evil, can equal the gracious potencies that flow into the 
 soul of the commissioned Church, through the indwelling Spirit of 
 God. 
 
 The temper in which this redemptive mission is to be prosecuted, is 
 sufficiently indicated in the career of Him from whom the commission 
 came. On the one side, the Church of Clirist is to set itself in irre- 
 vocabloi o])})osition to sin, in every form, of every grade. Not only is 
 it to grant no countenance to sin within its own circle : it is to be the 
 unyielding foe of sin in human life. History reveals the pregnant 
 fact, that the times of signal peril to the Church — the times when its 
 work and influence among men were least productive, and when cor- 
 ruption most easily crept like miasma into the secret sources and 
 currents of its own life, were those in which low views of sin, compro- 
 mises with sin, wicked yielding to sin, were widely prevalent. On the 
 contrary, it has always been the fact that deepened convictions concern- 
 ing sin, both within the Church and without, and especially an unswerv- 
 ing hatred of all sin in the world, have invariably been the harbinger of 
 augmented power, of more glorious fruitage. The Avickcd world itself 
 despises a compromising, but fears and admires, and even yields to, a 
 resolute and holy Church. The testimony of Christianity against sin 
 is never so powerful as when it finds expression through the Church : 
 compared with its deep, reverberating protests, the eloquence of the 
 most effective preacher, the earnest endeavor of the private believer, 
 seem insignificant. 
 
 On the other side, the temper of the Church must ever be one of 
 Christlike love. Righteous hostility to sin and tender compassion for 
 the sinner are convertible terms in Christian experience. The happy 
 paradox reveals itself supremely in the heart and life of our Lord 
 Himself: it is verified abundantly in apostolic instructions and exam- 
 ple. And in this respect, as in the former, it is the peculiar function 
 of this spiritual organization to express to the world the pitying com- 
 passion of the Father, the redemptive mercy of the Son, the consum- 
 mating grace of the Spirit. For, nothing but the revelation of this 
 triune Love can ever draw humanity away from sin, into the true life 
 of responsive love and holiness. A Church itself unmoved by such 
 transcendent emotions, is a Church without power : it may hold ortho- 
 dox views respecting sin, and may be stirred up to resistance to sin, 
 but it can not overcome sin. Hence the value of a ministry suffused 
 in all its purpose and efl!brt with holy love: hence the value ol 
 churches, organized under the inspirations of brotherhood, and filled 
 with tender yearnings for the spiritual welfare of all within their 
 
174 THE CHURCH ix human society. 
 
 reach: hence the value of benevolent institutions, evangelical char- 
 ities, beneficent movements in society, designed to express church feel- 
 ing, and to win all classes and conditions of men into church fellow- 
 ship. Until the world is thus made to see and believe that the Church 
 of God is a loving Church, — that while it hates and resists the sin, it 
 ever pities and tries to help the sinner, the great nu.«sion of the 
 Church as a savior of humanity from sin, must remain essentially un- 
 fulfilled. 
 
 Such in brief is the most generic relation of the Christian Church 
 to humanity — a relation resting on the demonstrated basis of universal 
 sin, and on the primal function of the Church as the commissioned 
 agent of God in the deliverance of humanity from sin. 'No narrower 
 view of its commission, — contemplating that commission as elective 
 and partial rather than universal, or regarding it as confined to t'csti- 
 mony against sin, or to witnessing against the Avorld as evil, — can be 
 admitted here. Christ for the world, and the world for Christ, is rather 
 at once the broad and tender teaching of the Word, and the inspiring 
 motto of all who truly apprehend the "Gospel. 
 
 XI. Tim Church and Hutvian Institutions: Church and 
 State. — Two coordinate institutions, both of divine appointment in 
 their respective spheres, both universal as mankind and alike essential 
 to the well-being of men, stand side by side with the Christian Church, 
 wherever it is established, — the Family and the State. What are the 
 relations of the Church, and what is its mission, to these two primor- 
 dial institutions ? 
 
 The relations of the Church to the Family have already l)een noted 
 in substance. We have seen how large a place the sanctified house- 
 hold has always held in the developing economy of redemption, and 
 what j)eculiar ties forever bind in one the Christian Home and the 
 Christian Church. We have noted the tender responsibilities sus- 
 tained by the household of faith toward the children of believers, and 
 recognized the gracious and l^eautiful ministries due from the larger 
 to this smaller family circle, in virtue of the divine covenant with 
 both. It remains only to note the obligation of the Church of God 
 to emphasize the biblical doctrine of the family, and to protect this 
 divine institution against the insidious influences combining on many 
 sides to corrupt and destroy it. The Church is bound to enforce by 
 every available method the scriptural doctrine, even against civil 
 usages, in the matter of divorte. ^ It is bound also to utter its most 
 solemn condemnation upon all sins against the purity, the peaceful- 
 ness, the holy unity of the household, contemplated as first among the 
 beneficent gifts of God to men. It is bound, further, to bring the 
 
 ^ Woolsey: Divorce and Divorce Legislation, Hovey, A., Scriptural Law, etc. 
 
THE CHURCH AND THE STATE. 175 
 
 light and the sanctifying grace of the Gospel into every home which 
 it can penetrate, and to do whatever it may toward making every such 
 home itself a veritable house of God — a true gate of heaven to all 
 who dwell beneath its roof. For the Christianized Home is at once 
 the most impressive witness to the saving efficacy of the Gospel, and 
 the most effective adjunct which spiritual Christianity can command, 
 in the discharge of its gracious mission to mankind. 
 
 The question respecting the relations of the Church to the State is 
 much more complex, and in many aspects more difficult. A few sug- 
 gestions pointing towards a comprehensive answer, may here be intro- 
 duced; the answer itself would require an extensive survey of the- 
 ories, and a complicated discussion of the nature and functions of 
 each of these closely affiliated and related, yet widely differing institu- 
 tions. ^ The peculiar blending of the church, first with the family, 
 then with the tribe and the nation, prior to the Christian dispensjition, 
 and later the progressive unifying of the Church with the Roman 
 State under the Papacy, and still later the varieties of combination es- 
 tablished between the Church and the civil powers in Europe, Prot- 
 estant as well as Papal, at and after the Reformation, have already 
 been briefly mentioned. We have also noted certain evil influences 
 of such combinations upon the spiritual vigor of the Church, upon its 
 doctrine of membership and its-conception of religious character, and 
 upon its voluntary and missionary zeal, as a regenerative force in 
 human life. History suggests, if it does not clearly prove, the con- 
 clusion that the greatest mistake of Protestantism after the Reforma- 
 tion appears in its illusive theories respecting the union of Church and 
 State, and in the embarrassing and weakening complications which 
 everywhere attended the attempts to turn such theories into practice. 
 These attempts have, in numberless instances, resulted in strenuous 
 conflicts between civil and ecclesiastical powers, in which the state 
 has sometimes been prostrated at the feet of an assuming church, and the 
 church has more often been constrained to submit to the jurisdiction 
 of an ambitious and unsanctified state. They have also borne their 
 natural fruitage in many intestinal disturbances within the household 
 of faith, and in division after division among those who on all other 
 questions were essentially one in belief and purpose. Nor is there a 
 more painful chapter in the history of modern Christianity than that 
 which describes the jealousies, the antagonisms, the scheming of differ- 
 
 ' References : Palmer, Church af Christ, Part V ; Cunningham, Church Princi- 
 ples, Chap. VI-VIII; Hodge, Cliurch Polity, Chap. VII; Baird. R., Religion in 
 America; Thompson, J. F., Church and State in the United States : Spear, S. T., Re- 
 ligion and the State. Also Hooker, Eccl. Polity, Book VIII,, Chap. IV, and Wah- 
 BURTON, Works, Alliance of Church and State. 
 
176 THE CIIUKCn IN HUMAN SOCIETY. 
 
 ent Protestant bodies to secure for themselves the endorsement and the 
 patronage of civil power. ^ 
 
 Dorner (II : 469) describes what he regards as a better tendency, in 
 the recent effort in Germany, " to separate the law of the Protestant 
 Church from canon law, by the development and realization of Prot- 
 estant ideas concerning the form and government of the Chun^h in its 
 intrinsic independence of the state." Still he maintains that thi.^) must 
 be accum])li.she(l " in unison with the spirit of a national or congrega- 
 tional church." But the question at once arises wliether the Church 
 can assert such intrinsic independence, and develop without hindrance 
 its own free conceptions of law, while retaining the illusion of a 
 national organization — while resting for sup^iort on civil i>atronage, 
 and looking to the state for endorsement and j)osition. The only broad 
 and permanent answer to this question, must be found ultimately in 
 the abandonment of all direct state connection. The only law with 
 which the Church of Christ has any occasion to conform itself, is His 
 law given in His own Word, and standing forth in entire independence 
 of political endorsement. And the only support on whi(di the Church 
 can rely, or has any clear right to rely, is the free and loving sujiport 
 of those who voluntarily seek its shelter, and enjoy the life and fellow- 
 ship which it embodies. Civil establishments, in which the bestow- 
 ment of patronage carries necessarily Avith it a correlative right to con- 
 trol, have proven in the past, and can prove in the future, only a 
 hindrance to a spiritual, aggressive Protestantism. It is certainly 
 both a significant and a hopeful fact, that this view is coming to be 
 recognized by more thoughtful leaders in Church and State, and that 
 the problem of disestablishment is already urging itself upon European 
 Protestantism as one of the vital issues in a rapidly advancing future. 
 Such formal separation Avould by no means result in setting these 
 two divine institutions in an attitude of entire independence or isolation. 
 For, while their spheres are almost wholly separate, and while the 
 heavenly kingdom has laws, purposes, a spirit and life, with which 
 the earthly kingdom may not intermeddle, yet as alike divine in ori- 
 gin, both institutions are sacredly pledged to each other in the support 
 of those great interests of humanity which they are alike ordained of 
 God to subserve. The Church on the one side is bound to uphold just 
 law, to sustain constituted authority, to throw the whole weight of its 
 influence in support of right government. It can not justly assume 
 an attitude of indifference in the presence of threatened anarchy : it 
 can not refuse to stand by the State, in the exercise of its legitimate 
 
 'See the liistories of the conflicts and disruptions in British rresbyterianism : 
 Ne.vl, Stoughton, McCrie, Hetheringtox, and others. Doener, Hist. Prot. 
 Theology, II: 50 — 60; Coleridge, Constitution of Church and State. 
 
TnE CHURCH AND THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE. 177 
 
 powers. To do otherwise, would not only be a consent to the reckless 
 imperilling- of the interests of human society; it would also involve 
 dangerous exposure of the Church itself, since pure Christianity thrives 
 only or thrives best in times of civil peace. The value of this posi- 
 tion is abundantly attested by the history of modern governments 
 wherever such Christianity prevails. At this moment, the strongest 
 influence anywhere upholding rightful and beneficent government, is 
 the influence flowing silently but pervasively forth from the Christian 
 Church: and this influence, it may be noted, is most powerful and 
 most effectual in those lands where the Church exists in comj^letest 
 independence of the civil power. 
 
 On the other hand, there are services of vast significance which the 
 State may render, and is bound to render, to the Church. Regarding 
 that Church as a beneficent organization merely, founded in an un* 
 selfish temper for the inculcation of sound morals and the enforcement 
 of mutual duties among men, the State may properly grant it those 
 immunities and privileges which all wise governments accede to char- 
 itable associations and enterprises. Viewing the Church as a vast 
 educational agency only, accumulating immense resources and instru- 
 mentalities for the instruction of those Avho are to be citizens, the 
 State should openly protect and foster this agency, so far as this is 
 consistent with its own relations to the human society for Avhose wel- 
 fare the Church is thus laboring. And in the discharge of its more 
 distinctive mission to the spiritual life in man, the Church may legiti- 
 mately ask for the protecting sympathy of the State, so far as this 
 may insure its peaceable assembling and fellowship, and the support of 
 law in sustaining before men its religious jiosition and ofiice. Civil 
 government can not regard Christianity and atheism with equal favor, 
 as is sometimes claimed, since Christianity is the sure ally of good 
 government, while atheism tends always to anarchy, and to the destruc- 
 tion of human society. In the light of these general propositions, many 
 subordinate questions, such as the obligation of oaths, the enforcement 
 of the Christian Sabbath, the repression of profanity, the taxation of 
 church property, the civil support of ecclesiastical discipline, may be 
 at least approximately settled. ^ 
 
 XII. The Church and Education: Church and Culture. — Ac 
 the Church sustains direct relations to the other two primordial insti- 
 tutions of humanity, the family and the state, so it carries on two 
 specific and adjunctive ministries to humanity itself, in conjunction 
 
 \Scc Lt'TiiARDT, Moral Truths of Clirit!tianiti/, Lecture vii, and notes, for valu- 
 able suggestions respecting the moral ties binding the State and Church in unity, 
 and the reciprocal duties of the two institutions. Whewell, Elements of Moral- 
 ity : Book V : Ch. xvi-xvii. 
 
178 THE CIIUECII IN IIU.MAX SOCIETY. 
 
 with its chief central ministration to the soul. These adjunctive 
 ministries may be broadly classified as the intellectual and the ethical: 
 to each of these some passing reference should be made. 
 
 The dogma that ignorance is the mother of devotion, attributed to 
 an eminent Koman pontiff, is entirely at variance with both the genius 
 and the history of the Christian religion. Looking back upon the in- 
 tellectual life, even of the Hebrew, we discover at once the suggestive 
 fact that the Church, with its laws, its ordinances, its constituted 
 teachers, its household training, was in reality the divinely ordained 
 school in which the Israelitic mind gained that remarkable develop- 
 ment which gave it, even on natural grounds, such liX'ominence in 
 ancient history. If we contemplate Christianity as an educating 
 force — if we consider the Church of Christ a.s a school, in which 
 knowledge is to be conveyed, the intellect of men quickened, the ca- 
 pacity to apprehend and utilize all other truth developed into effective 
 vigor, Ave see the same lesson inculcated in far higher, grander form. 
 Thus, when Guizot styles the Reformation a great insurrection of 
 human intelligence,^ he simply expresses a sublime fact respecting the 
 effective ministries of the Gospel and the Church, even from the 
 twelfth century onward, through the entire period of the revival of 
 learning, to the awakened mind of Euroj^e. For it was not an intelli- 
 gence lying back of Christianity and sustaining it, but an intelligence 
 which Christianity had itself brought into activity, which in that su- 
 pi'eme hour rose up against the attempts even of a tyrannizing Church 
 to repress free thought, and in a mighty insurrection gave to the world 
 at once a purer purpose and a broadened mind. 80 the world owes 
 first to Luther, then to Calvin, the suggestion of the common school; 
 but both Calvin and Luther derived the conception from their own 
 Christianized intelligence, and from the doctrine and usage of the 
 Church long before the Reformation, and the schools which they 
 planted stood always, by a natural law, in an adjunctive relation to 
 the churches which they organized. 
 
 Nor is this connection between the Church and the intellectual life 
 in man limited to a specific era such as the sixteenth century, or 
 to the development of mind which accompanied that great spiritual 
 and social as well as mental insurrection, which we style the Refor- 
 mation. Wherever Protestantism in later times has gone, it has 
 carried with it like improvement in the intellectual, no less than the 
 religious experience of mankind. Using the term, education, in the 
 broadest sense, as the intelligent development of the community rather 
 than the technical training of a class, we see it originating largely in 
 the Christian Church, or at least receiving from the Church its chief 
 
 ^History of Civilization in Europe, Lect. xii : alsu elsewhere. 
 
RELATIONS OF THE CHURCH TO EDUCATION, ' 179 
 
 protection and iuvigoration. If it be not literally true that where 
 there are no churches, there are no schools, it still is true that the 
 school and the church prosper most when standing side by side, — the 
 church planting and endowing and ntilizing the school, and in turn 
 receiving from the school that strengthened support which an improved 
 intellectual life supplies to rational faith. Many specific questions 
 arise at this point, — such as the relation between the religious and the 
 secular elements in education, the respective provinces of the church 
 and the state, the place of the Bible and of religions teaching in the 
 school — which may be solved in the light of the general principle just 
 defined. — In respect to the higher forms of education, the law thus 
 stated receives still finer illustration. It is a suggestive fact of history 
 that, as it was the Church that preserved classical learning during the 
 long medieval obscuration, so it was the Church which finally gave 
 back the treasure it had held in trust, and which laid the foundations 
 of those great universities where art and learning and science have 
 found for centuries their safe and enduring home. What the Church 
 during the past four hundred years, and especially since the Reforma- 
 tion, has done for art in the specific sense, — for sculpture and painting 
 and ]nusic ; — what the Church has done for higher learning, for classic 
 scholarship, for literature in its varieties, for poetry and eloquence and 
 history; — what the Church has done for philosophy and ethics, for law, 
 for medicine, and even for those physical sciences whose advocates now 
 so often repudiate the historic relationship, it would require volumes 
 adequately to describe. If from these multiplex forms of higher edu- 
 cation, as they now stand forth among the chief glories of our modern 
 life, all that the Christian Church has been instrumental in contribut- 
 ing, were obliterated, the residuum would be too small for measure- 
 ment: the breadth, the sweetness, the dignity of our culture would be 
 almost wholly lost. ^ 
 
 It constitutes no adequate objection to this position, that the world 
 has seen true intellectual life, as in Greece, where neither the Church 
 nor Christianity was present as a producing force; or that there 
 have been, and now are, intelligent and cultivated minds who reject 
 Christianity, and despise the Church. Isor is it an adequate objection, 
 though one often urged, that Christianity as a system of truth seems 
 sometimes to fetter the mind rather than to expand or broaden it ; or 
 further that the Church has sometimes, as during the fifteenth century, 
 proven rather to be a prison-house in which free thought has been con- 
 fined — ^a prejudiced and tyrannical court where the intellect has been 
 savagely condemned to the rack and the stake. These must be con- 
 fessed to be exceptional or abnormal conditions rather than a general 
 
 ' Brace, C. L.,Gcsta Christl— Humane Progress under Christianity. 
 
180 THE CHURCH IX IIUMAX SOCIETY. 
 
 state. jMay it not be that the culture of Greece was so powerless to 
 affect practical life, and so evanescent, because it never received such 
 added scope and volume, such moral stimulations, as the Christian 
 faith and the Clnistian Church "would have supplied? May it not also 
 be, that those educated minds who in time past have rejected, or who 
 arc now rejecting the Church and the Gospel, owe their mental devcl- 
 oiiment, their scientific bias and capability, and the very knowledge in 
 which they rest, to that organized Christianity which surrounds them 
 as a quickening atmosphere Avhithersoever they go in the prosecution 
 of their scientific investigations? Is it not true, furthermore, tliat the 
 Chi-istiaii faith is in its nature stimulating and expanding rather than 
 repressive ; and that it indicates certain boundaries which the human 
 mind may not traverse, only because the laws of that mind, as well 
 as the nature of religion, require just such limitations? And cer- 
 tainly it is not a departure from candid reasoning to draw a line be- 
 tween Jesuitism and Christianity — to claim a distinction between the 
 Inquisition and the Christian Church, and to protest against the ar- 
 raignment of the latter for the stupidities, the malevolence, the cru- 
 elties of the former. If fearful mistakes, horrid crimes, have been 
 committed in the name of liberty, mistakes much more fearful, crimes 
 more horrid and inexcusable by far, have been wrought by wicked 
 men in the name of the Omrch and of religion. 
 
 Nor do the questions now under discussion in the realm of the phys- 
 ical sciences, or of philosophy or sociology or ethics, furnish any just 
 ground of objection to this asserted relation between the Church of 
 Christ and the intellectual life of Christendom. The apprehensions 
 of Christian men lest the facts or the doctrines of Eevelatiou should 
 be undermined as the result of such debate, and the hopeful boastings 
 of unbelief in view of some apparent antagonisms between these facts 
 and doctrines and the deductions of science, are alike without founda- 
 tion. We have seen such antagonisms too often disappearing in the 
 light of broader, deeper unities; we have too often witnessed such 
 assaults coming to naught, and foiled unbelief confessing its failure. 
 It is true that the oppositions between Christianity and such unbelief 
 were never more broad or vital than during the present age ; and also 
 that unbelief, like ftiith, exists under a continuous law of progress, and 
 may therefore be expected to assume darker, deadlier forms in coming 
 ages, even to the end. But as Christianity has withstood all past 
 assault, and is withstanding triumphantly all present assault, so we 
 may expect it to triumph more and more gloriously, from age to age. 
 And the Church, as the representative of the intellectual influences 
 incorporated in the Christian faith, may be expected, so long as it 
 remains true to its own nature and its beneficent mission, to stand 
 
THE CHURCH AND THE MORAL LIFE. 181 
 
 forth iu liumau society, through all the future as "the superlative 
 educational force of the world. "^ 
 
 XIII. The Church and Morality: Church and Reforms. — 
 These ministries of Christianity to the intellectual life in man, precious 
 though they are, become incidental when compared with its contribu- 
 tions to his moral life. And as in the former direction, so here the 
 Church, next to the Bible itself, is the ordained seat and source of 
 these moral ministrations. 
 
 The question whether scriptural is superior to natural morality, may 
 readily be answered. The argument in the negative, urged by English 
 Deists from Herbert and Shaftesbury to Toland and Matthew Tindal, 
 though conducted with great skill, has signally failed. Not only has 
 the objection to the morality of the Bible, based on certain Old Testa- 
 ment facts and injunctions, been abundantly met: the position that 
 nature supplies a sufficient basis for sound morality, and that the 
 moral precepts of Scripture are consequently needless, has been fully 
 shown to be invalid. ^ While it is true that natural and biblical mor- 
 ality are essentially one and the same, as to principle, it is also true 
 that the latter goes far beyond the former in the extent of its range, 
 and in the spiritual thoroughness of its applications. While natural 
 morality concerns itself chiefly with external relations, and with out- 
 ward acts, the morality of the Bible deals more with purposes, feelings, 
 and even the transient impulses of the soul. Especially is it true that 
 the latter excels in the type and measure of authority with which its 
 precepts are enforced. When the calm demands of reason, the plead- 
 ings of conscience, the discovered relations of action as right or wrong, 
 and the judgment of human society, and the will of God as seen in 
 nature, have all been invoked to enforce the claim of duty, the po- 
 tency of natural morality to secure obedience is wholly exhausted. 
 It can go no further in urging its own right to rule the soul; and if 
 the will be not affected by these incentives, it can do nothing but 
 give way at last to the furious impulses of passion, or to the fierce 
 clamors of selfish interest. 
 
 But scriptural morality, just at this point, brings to bear upon the 
 soul a far higher range of incentives. It reveals the God of nature 
 
 'Stores, R. S., Divine Origin of Christianity, Lect. vir. "Skeptics themselves, 
 with whatever learning, eloquence or wit, appear to me but involuntary wit- 
 nesses to the underlying and impenetrating influence of this religion, which has 
 given possibility to even their hostile culture and force." See also Shaikp, 
 Culture and Religion; Luthaedt, Moral Truths, Lect. ix. 
 
 ''Leland, View of the Principal Deistical Writers; Farkae, History of Free 
 Thought; Cairns, Unbelief in the Eighteenth Century. Also, on the deistic side, 
 Herbert, De Eeligione GentiUum; Shaftesbury, Characteristics, etc.; Tindal, 
 Chnstianity as old as the Creation. 
 
182 Tin: ciiuKCii IX human society. 
 
 iu more impressive form, as the moral Governor and final Judge of 
 all mankind. It reveals this Divine Being in (Christ, as a perfect ex- 
 ample of pure ethical living, and as an inspiring stimulus toward 
 righteous action. It reveals the same Being in the Holy Spirit, mak- 
 ing the luoral law manifest in the heart, si)iritualizing its every pre- 
 cept, and at the same time encouraging and enabling the soul to obey. 
 In like manner, it reveals in the Gospel a vast series of invitations, 
 promises, warnings, hopes, all teaching men to estimate their actions 
 in the light of eternity — with supreme reference to the ultimate and 
 everlasting issues of their conduct. In a word, the morality of the 
 Scri2:)ture concentrates around the ethical life of man the entire force 
 of the Divine Personality and of the Divine Relations, in a Avay which 
 is wholly impracticable to the morality of nature ; and by this higher 
 method aims to make, and actually does make, the best moralist a 
 better man by making him a Christian. It both develops more ex- 
 tensively the ethical capabilities, and works out a far higher class of 
 results in the practical life. A completer manhood, with broadened 
 views of duty, and with more vigorous and effective impulses toward 
 spiritual obedience, — with stricter discipline of self, with a loftier type 
 of nature and life, and with closer affiliation with God and all divine 
 things, must be the certain and the blessed outcome. 
 
 But the Christian Church is by its very nature an ordained teacher 
 of biblical morality, and within its appointed sphere it is the most ef- 
 fective instrument of God in enthroning such morality iu the heart 
 and in the life of mankind. All attempts to separate the ethical ele- 
 ment of Scripture from its scheme of grace — all attempts to emphasize 
 the inculcation of doctrine, or submission to ceremonies, or the exer- 
 cise of faith in Christ as an atoning Savior, as if these constituted the 
 whole of the plan of salvation, apart from the faithful and loving 
 observance of the law of God revealed iu His AVord, are fraught Avith 
 error, and with peril to the soul. It is indeed the function of the 
 Church to proclaim the essential doctrines of the Gospel, and to invite 
 all men to believe the truth which God has spoken ; it is its function 
 to exalt the sacraments, and commend to men the Christian ordinances 
 and the appointed means of grace ; it is eminently its function to lift 
 up the Cross, and to magnify the atoning love thereon exhibited, and 
 to invite a Inirdened and sinful world to the great Redeemer. But it 
 is no less the function of the Church to exalt the divine law, to set 
 forth the moral precepts of the Scripture, to press the claims of duty 
 upon the conscience, to present Christ as an example in righteous liv- 
 ing, and to control the world by all the forces inherent in true biblical 
 morality. The Church is as truly a teacher of ethics as of doctrine — 
 as truly a messenger of holiness as a messenger of grace. Love and 
 
THE CHURCH AND MORAL REFORM. 183 
 
 duty, acceptance and obedience, faith and righteousness, are the kin- 
 dred obligations with which it is ever to deal. 
 
 This general view of the ministry of the Church to the moral life 
 of humanity brings out its special mission with respect to human sin, 
 and to the specific sins of any given man or period. If a church 
 which contents itself with announcing doctrines, offering the sacra- 
 ments, or holding up the Cross in an abstract Avay, is insufficient and 
 culpable, hardly less so is that church which merely enunciates mo- 
 rality in general, but never applies moral rules to the actual life of 
 the world. The Church of any age inust have courage enough to see 
 and deal with the sins of that age, — to hold up before the times, with 
 utmost plainness and fidelity, the law of God for the times. What 
 the world needs to know is the claim of righteousness, in order that it 
 may the better heed that call to grace, Avhich is in essence a summons 
 to salvation in and through regenerate, sanctified character. The 
 blood of Christ is effectual in salvation only in so far as it also cleans- 
 eth from all sin ; and they only are saved, who are thus rescued from 
 their sins, through those purifying processes which the gracious moral- 
 ity of Scripture undertakes. Hence the peculiar mission of the 
 Church of Christ to the moral life ; — a mission which is not to be 
 carried out by the right living of the private member, or by occasional 
 proclamations from the pulpit, but by a grand movement of the 
 Church itself as a sanctified organization along the loftiest lines of 
 biblical morality — a holy host leading the world, through the efficacies 
 of sacred precept and holy example upward steadfastly toward right 
 and godly living. It can hardly be questioned that such was the vision 
 of His Church which filled the mind of Christ, as He saw that Church 
 moving onward through the ages toward its predestined place at the 
 head of humanity. That glimpses of such a comprehensive ethical 
 as well as spiritual mission, lingered as a holy dream in the mind of 
 Paul, some of his epistles seem distinctly to suggest. The consumma- 
 tion of our humanity of which the apostle dreams, is one in which 
 morality and holiness, duty and grace, obedience and love, are indisso- 
 lubly blended. 
 
 XIV. The Church and Civilization. — Such in brief are the 
 specific relations of the Church to the intellectual and to the moral 
 nature of man respectively. It now remains to inquire finally respect- 
 ing its comprehensive relation and ministry to our aggregated human 
 life, as indicated in the term, civilization. 
 
 Even in the narrowest sense of that term, as including the inter- 
 change of graceful civilities, the prevalence of social order, the refine- 
 ments of education, and the like, it remains true that, in the phrase 
 of Burke, these results have flowed in upon society mainly through the 
 
184 THE CHURCH IN HUMAN SOCILTY. 
 
 action of two influences, the spirit of a gcntlenmii and the spirit of 
 religion. In the full sense the latter term embraces the former; religion 
 is ever the source and fount of true gentlemanliuess. Guizot defines 
 civilization more broadly as the progress of both society and the indi- 
 vidual in all that goes to constitute comfort and elevation in human 
 existence ; yet Guizot regards the spirit of religion, or Christianity, as 
 first among the social forces through whose agency such progress 
 comes. In the broadest sense, civilization may be described as the sum 
 total of human development in any given age, — the vast aggregate of 
 those material, social, political and religious conditions in any specified 
 land and period, on which this progressive maturing of individuals and 
 of society is found to depend. A proper comprehension of the term 
 must include not merely the specific state of things, with all of com- 
 fort, blessing, advance included in it, but also the causes of which that 
 social state is the perceived effect. Nor can the definition be restricted, 
 after the manner of Buckle and his school, to physical or material 
 conditions, or even to mental aptitudes, or political organization, or 
 ethical bias. It is impossible to account for the existence of any high 
 and enduring type of civilization, without admitting the presence and 
 influence of what Burke styles the spirit of religion, and eminently in 
 modern life of the presence and influence of the Christian religion. 
 No theory of civilization can be truly comprehensive Avhich does not 
 fitly recognize the agency of this supreme factor, — which does not find, 
 back of and beneath all other influences, the truth and temper of 
 vital Christianity, and the effective ministrations of the Christian 
 Church. 
 
 The ministry of the Church to modern civilization may be said to 
 commence "with its enforcement of the doctrine of human progress — 
 the capabilities of humanity in the direction of progress, and the 
 grounds of hope that such progress is to be realized. Against the 
 pessimism of Schopenhauer — against the dark notion that the career 
 of the human race is to be downward rather than upward, and that 
 the final issue of life will be a catastrophe rather than a consumma- 
 tion, the Church of God, surviving and growing with the centuries, 
 and steadily becoming more and more beneficent in teaching and in- 
 fluence, is a perpetual and a convincing protest. In like manner, 
 over against all dreams of a civilization, perfected through soil and 
 climate, through machineries, through political constitutions, through 
 education and art and culture only, the Church stands as a steadfast 
 witness, — lifting up the sublime antithesis of a civilization to be gained 
 through character, character regenerated by the power of God, and 
 perfected through grace and fiiith in Christ Jesus. It is a sound propo- 
 sition, that the progress of society in respect to merely material con- 
 
THE CHURCH AND HUMAN PEOGKESS. 185 
 
 ditions or physical comforts, must always be limited by its equal 
 progress aloug those higher ranges of experience and advantage which 
 the term, civilization, most centrally represents. It is a proposition 
 no less sound, that this higher social progress is vitally dependent on 
 the progress of the individuals who compose such society, in all the 
 elements of true manhood, and eminently in those elements which ap- 
 pertain to elevated, sanctified character. But Christianity aims to 
 advance society by just this inward process upon individual personality 
 and manhood ; and the outward and general advances wdiich the civil- 
 ized world is making, are found historically to be turning more and 
 more upon the success of the Gospel in thus renovating, restoring 
 human character. Christianity is thus the supreme factor in all true, 
 enduring civilization : and the Church as its representative is, there- 
 fore, even more than all inventions, all industries, all education and 
 art and civil policy, the great civilizer of men. In a Avord, the pro- 
 gress which the world most needs, is progress which Christianity, which 
 the Church, alone supplies. 
 
 More specifically, it is one of the functions of the Christian Church 
 to correct the strong tendencies of civilization itself toward wrong or 
 false developments, — to protest, for example, against the materialism 
 Avhich, in the midst of specious api^earances of advance, is surely lead- 
 ing humanity down to lower experiences, and ultimately to a barbaric 
 condition, — to strive against the illusive sway of a merely intellectual 
 or esthetic theory of progress, since education without morality and 
 culture without religion, as modern history abundantly shows, can give 
 no guarantee of healthful and permanent advance, against the deteri- 
 oration and corruptions of universal sin. The Church is rather stead- 
 fastly to turn the eyes of men toward the true secret of advance, and 
 to exhort humanity to make progress first of all and above all by 
 becoming holy. It is also the blessed function of the Church, to asso- 
 ciate the idea of civilization with righteousness, with benevolence, with 
 the sense of brotherhood, with the consciousness of the supreme account- 
 ability of both men and society to God, — thus suffusing and dignifying 
 all movements in the interest of civilization, witli Christian graces and 
 Christian virtues. It is also one of its functions to supply right incen- 
 tives, adequate inspirations, in the direction of social advancement. 
 The ordinary impulses that move men on in such civilizing processes 
 often prove inadequate. Selfishness, seeking merely the advantage of 
 the individual, is not a motive on which society can permanently rely 
 as a force to raise it, age after age, into better conditions. Nor wull the 
 sense of need, the craving of awakened desires, the demands of taste, 
 prove any more reliable : these may engender spontaneous and strong 
 movements for a time, but when the day tf gratification comes, the 
 
186 THE CHURCH in human society. 
 
 impulse dies away, and lethar<;y and decadence surely follow. Neither 
 can mankind rely on the incentives of l)enev()l('nee, the impulses of 
 patriotism or of phiUinthroi)y, however true or pure, to sustain endur- 
 ingly the civilization of the world : such forces have too often revealed 
 their inadequacy in the i)resence of the clamors of interest, the seduc- 
 tions of passion, the downward <lrift of luinian nature. It is Chris- 
 tianity alone which can sujjply the incentives essential to sound ad- 
 vance : it is the Christian Church alone which preserves in the heart 
 of humanity those finer, those divine insj)iralions which alone can 
 either enahle man to appreciate true progress, or (jualify him to strive 
 after and to gain it. ^ 
 
 The position of the Church with reference to current social ques- 
 tions and issues, is therefore one of vital interest. No graver mistake 
 can be made than that of supposing that the Church is to stand aloof 
 from such practical concerns, and to content itself with the positive 
 proclamation of the Gospel. For the Gospel itself is a fire in the 
 earth ; and there is no living interest of humanity which that Gospel 
 is not designed to reach and benefit. No true reform, as we have seen, 
 can be carried forward successfully on other than Christian principles ; 
 and the Church of God owes it both to the Master whom it rei)resents 
 and to the humanity whom it is sent to save, to be in the very center 
 of all wise and pure reform — its regulator and its inspiration. In like 
 manner, all movements in the direction of charity — all institutions for 
 the benefit of suffering classes, and all efforts to sujoply special need in 
 any part of the Avorld, may justly claim the support of the Church. 
 Most of these institutions and efforts are indeed the off*spriug of Chris- 
 tianity ; their presence in Christianized rather than heathen lands is 
 proof of their origin. And one of the most convincing evidences of 
 its divine quality which the Church can supply, will be found in its 
 steadfast maintenance of every agency, every movement, which has 
 the temper of humanity as its indwelling impulse. Nor can the Church 
 be indifferent to any of those numerous questions respecting the rights 
 of property, the claims of labor and capital, the needs and demands 
 of the laboring classes, the distribution of political power, the organi- 
 zation of society in the interest of the poor rather than the rich, 
 which lie at the basis of so much political and social agitation in this 
 age. For, is it not already apparent that no proposition of capitalists 
 or laborers as classes, no merely political scheme of adjustment, no 
 
 ' "Religion controls the forces which mould and refine the soul and society. 
 It is the main-spring or the governing wheel which gives motion, and it also 
 regulates and harmonizes all movements. » ••■• Its glory lies in making all 
 things new, not without other agencies, but through its control over them, and 
 through its sway over the individual soul." Woolsey, Rdujion of the Future, 
 p. 397-400. • 
 
THE CHURCH AND THE CONSUMMATION. 187 
 
 philanthropic plan of amelioration, can really solve the grave problems 
 here suggested? And is it not the growing conviction that no voice 
 but the voice of Christ, uttered through His Church, can speak the 
 word which will calm these social agitations, and give to society ade- 
 quate guarantee of a civilization in which the rights of all and the in- 
 terests of all shall be harmoniously blended in one ? 
 
 It is thus the peculiar privilege of the Church of Christ to take the 
 great interests of humanity, of the world, on its heart, and to apply 
 the Gospel whose messenger it is, to every human need, in order to 
 the ultimate production of a truly Christian civilization. Not only is 
 the Church to solve the spiritual problems of human life ; it is to min- 
 ister, as an angel of mercy, to that life in even its lowest forms of 
 need, and by the power of love to lift it out of every degradation, 
 every deformity, every antagonism, into the strength, beauty, peace, 
 which spiritual Christianity imparts. The Bible is the Book of the 
 Future — the future of earth as well as the future of heaven ; and the 
 Church of the Bible, one in spirit and beautified by grace, has the 
 future of the earth, the future of mankind, in its hands. The Bible 
 reveals, and the Church believes in, a glorious consummation for hu- 
 manity, and for the earth — a consummation to be secured through the 
 Gospel. No other forces than truth and love, and the Holy Ghost, 
 are requisite to that consummation : no other agent than the Church 
 is needful to bring it to pass. And as the Church grows inwardly in 
 character, and is multiplied outwardly from continent to continent, 
 civilization will surely follow, in grander and still grander forms, until 
 in the completed development of the Church, humanity shall reach 
 its glorious maturity. Then will come to pass the ancient prophecy, 
 that the Mountain of the Lord shall be established in the top of the 
 mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills ; and all nations 
 
 SHALL FLOW UNTO IT. 
 

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