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 Stone, John Seely, 1795- 
 
 1882. 
 The living temple, or, 
 ' Scriptural views of the 
 
THE LIVIE^a TEMPLE, 
 
 OB 
 
 SCRIPTURAL VIEWS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN S. STONE, D. D., 
 
 GEISWOLD LECTCRKR IN THB DIVINITY SCHOOL OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL 
 CHUECH IN PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 
 UOLOGIC*!^ 
 
 «^J 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH 
 
 No. 770 BROADWAY. 
 
 1866. 
 
Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by 
 
 The PfiOTESTANT Episcopal Society foe the Promotion of Evangelical Knowledge, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
 Southern District of New York. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 EDWARD 0. JENKINS, PRINTER, 
 
 20 NORTH WILLIAM ST. 
 
,,-Mifij^rAik: 
 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 rr^HB work here offered to the public embodies the 
 -'- substance, carefully revised, slightly enlarged and 
 somewhat modified, of what was some years ago pub- 
 lished under the title of " The Church Universal." No 
 essential change has been made ; but the author ven- 
 tures to hope that suflQcient improvement has been ef- 
 fected to render the work more worthy of the time and 
 thought which may be given to its perusal. 
 
 The book aims, among other things, at two principal 
 points : the Scriptural Idea of the Church ; and the ac- 
 cord with this Idea of our own standards and of the 
 best standard writers on the subject. 
 
 1. In his appeal to Scripture, the Author has been 
 influenced by a conviction that there has been, and still 
 is, among us, a tendency to leave the Bible too much 
 out of view in our controversial and theological discus- 
 sions ; that unless this tendency can be brought within 
 due bounds, we are in danger of reaching a state, in 
 
 (3) 
 
4 PREFACE. - 
 
 which argument from the supreme, all-sufficient authority 
 of the Word of God, in the style of the first Christian 
 writers and apologists, will fall a virtually dead weight 
 on the minds of both our clergy and our laity. He is 
 sincerely desirous of doing what little he can towards 
 lifting the Bible into that peerless honor which is its 
 heaven-born right, as the only infallible rule of faith and 
 practice in matters of religion. To the inspired Word 
 nothing can give either a meaning, or a certainty, which 
 lies not in its own sense ; and from that Word nothing 
 but Inspiration can develop a meaning or a certainty, 
 which the human mind, as addressed therein, and as 
 guided by the ordinary teachings of the Holy Spirit, and 
 by other accessible lights, is unable to discover. This 
 is spoken of doctrines, or truths designed to govern moral 
 and religious faith and practice. Testimony to facts, and 
 determination of doctrines, are different things. So far 
 as testimony may be needed in establishing such facts 
 as the application of Baptism to infants, the change of 
 the Day of Rest, the origin of Episcopacy with the 
 Apostles, and the prevalence of the doctrine of the Trin- 
 ity, or of any other doctrine, as a matter of history, we 
 may receive that testimony, if good and sufficient in kind 
 and amount, just as we receive any other good and suf- 
 ficient human testimony ; regarding it as adequate to the 
 reasonable proof of any fact possible under the govern- 
 
PREFACE. 5 
 
 ment of God. But we cannot receive any exterior doc- 
 uments, or authority, as necessary and sufficient to deter- 
 mine, with infallible certainty, what are the otherwise 
 undiscoverable doctrines of the Bible, without thereby 
 elevating those documents, or that authority, to a cer- 
 tainty and a value above those of the Bible itself. If, 
 in matters of doctrinal truth, the Bible, under the ordi- 
 nary teachings of the Holy Spirit and amid the light 
 with which Divine Providence has surrounded it, cannot 
 disclose its own sense to that mind of man which it 
 addresses, then nothing lower than a new and clearer 
 Revelation can be made an infallible interpreter of that 
 sense. Such a revelation, if given, could never be safely 
 received, unless accredited by miracles ; and, so accred- 
 ited, that Revelation would at once take rank, for cer- 
 tainty of authority and for eminence of value, above the 
 ancient Scriptures. Hence the peril of receiving Tradi- 
 tion in any form, as a necessary and infallible inter- 
 preter of the doctrinal sense of the Bible. To be of 
 any higher authority than ordinary testimony, of any 
 higher value to interpretation than ordinary human helps. 
 Tradition must necessarily take rank with Revelation ; 
 and when used to fix on the doctrinal sense of the Bible 
 an infallible interpretation not otherwise discoverable, it 
 must necessarily take rank above the Bible. And yet, 
 the Tradition of which so much is made can show no 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 diviuely-accrediting seals. The gravest suspicion may 
 well be considered as resting on all pretensions to mir- 
 acle since the Apostolic Age. 
 
 The tendency of the Doctrine of Tradition, as a neces- 
 sary and infallible interpreter of the Bible, may be seen 
 in the celebrated " Essay on the Development of Chris- 
 tian Doctrine," and in the resulting movement of its 
 Author. The starting point of that Doctrine of Tradi- 
 tion cannot be distinctly and intelligently assumed, and 
 the line which flows from that point cannot be logically 
 and honestly followed, without reaching an elevation of 
 Authority and value above the Word of God. The 
 Doctrine develops itself into Romanism, and its advo- 
 cates into Romanists. If either the Church or an indi- 
 vidual start from the point of Tradition, as above de- 
 fined, the line of development, flowing from that point, 
 will certainly lead its follower into Rome. The indi- 
 vidual, indeed, may die before reaching that result, or 
 various strong influences may hold him back, or turn 
 him aside, from the advance of rectilinear logic and sym- 
 pathy ; but nothing else can keep him from reaching 
 and entering the gate that opens into the inclosure both 
 of Romish theology and of Romish superstition. 
 
 2. In his appeal to Standard Writers, the Author 
 feels a confidence inspired by facts too plain to be de- 
 nied. Even the advocates of the ultra-Episcopal theory 
 
PBEFAGE. 7 
 
 of the Cliurch admit that the testimony of the writers 
 of the English Church in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth 
 Centuries is decidedly in favor of the Definition of the 
 Church given in the following pages. Indeed, that tes- 
 timony is too explicit and harmonious to be disputed or 
 set aside. The only way in which it can be met, is by 
 ascribing that testimony to undue sympathy with the 
 Continental Reformers, and to ignorance of the Value 
 of certain Patristic testimony, the credit of which, it is 
 said, has since been established. The plea, in substance, 
 is, that the English and Continental Reformers were 
 fellow-sufferers in the persecutions which Rome waged 
 against her reforming opponents ; and that, therefore, 
 it is no wonder if, in their strong feelings of affection 
 for each other, and of dislike to the common persecutor, 
 the English Writers were led too far in admitting the 
 claims of the Non-Episcopal Reformed bodies on the 
 Continent to the character of Churches, or parts of the 
 one true Church of Christ ; especially since, at the time 
 of the Reformation, and in the Seventeenth Century, the 
 Epistles of Ignatius were not free from a suspicion of 
 their authenticity. This suspicion has since been re- 
 moved, and the Ignatian Epistles are now available to 
 the Episcopal argument in all the explicitness and 
 strength of their testimony. Had those Epistles been 
 in credit at the Reformation, as they are now, the Eng- 
 
8 , PREFACE. 
 
 lish Reformers and their immediate successors would not 
 have admitted, as they did, the Church character of the 
 Continental Reformed Christians. A few words on both 
 parts of this plea. 
 
 (1.) As to the former part : If sympathy under com- 
 mon persecution can make Protestants recognize each 
 other as fellow-members of the Church of Christ, and 
 Protestant Communions acknowledge each others claims 
 to, at least, the substance of Church character, there 
 would be one blessing, if no more, in making such per- 
 secutions perpetual. That the English Reformers sym- 
 pathized tenderly with the Continental Reformed Chris- 
 tians in their trials, there can be no doubt ; but, that 
 their sympathy blinded their judgments, or made them 
 indifferent to the loss of the Episcopacy among their 
 companions in suffering— this is a very slender pretense, 
 opposed by abundant testimony to the contrary. The 
 language of Bp. Hall expressed not his own sentiments 
 alone, but those of others as well, when he thus wrote : 
 •' Oh ! How oft, and with what deep sighs, hath this 
 most flourishing and happy Church of England wished 
 that she might, with some of her own blood, have pur- 
 chased unto her dearest sisters abroad the retention of 
 this most ancient and every way best of Governments ;" 
 that is, the retention of Church Government by the 
 Episcopacy. 
 
PREFACE. 9 
 
 Again : " It is not the variety of by-opinions that 
 can exclude them from their part in the One Catholic 
 Church and their just claim to the Communion of Saints. 
 While they hold the solid and precious foundation, it is 
 not the hay or stubble, which they lay upon it, that can 
 set them off from God and His Church. But, in the 
 meantime, it must be granted, that they have much to 
 answer for to the God of peace and unity who are so 
 addicted to their own conceits, and so indulgent to their 
 own interest, as to raise and maintain new doctrines, 
 and to set up new sects in the " Church of Christ " (in, 
 not out of the Church), " varying from the common and 
 received truths ; laboring to draw disciples after them, 
 to the great distraction of souls and scandal of Chris- 
 tianity." 
 
 The English Reformers and their immediate success- 
 ors were neither blind nor indifferent to the value and 
 the obligation of Episcopacy. All their sympathy with 
 their suffering brethren on the Continent could not have 
 extorted from them an acknowledgment of Church char- 
 acter without Episcopacy, had they not, as students of 
 the Bible and antiquity, been convinced that Episcopacy 
 however valuable and obligatory, is not, in such sense, 
 essential to the being of the Church ; that, without it, 
 the Church cannot exist. 
 
 (2.) As to the latter part of the plea : It is true 
 
lo PREFACE. 
 
 that the Ignatian Epistles are now admitted to be au- 
 thentic ; but it is not universally conceded that they are 
 free from interpolations. Mr. Cureton, a learned Orien- 
 talist in England, some time since published, and, by 
 permission, dedicated to the Primate of the English 
 Church, an interpretation of the Syriac version of three 
 of those Epistles ; which, as there is said to be little 
 reason for considering them abridgments, would show 
 that the expurgated Greek copies in ordinary use, much 
 as their former contents have been reduced, still contain 
 many interpolations ; and, what is remarkable in this 
 shorter Syriac version, almost all the strong passages on 
 the subject of Episcopacy are wanting. Allowing, how- 
 ever, that the common Greek copies are both authentic 
 and genuine, or that Ignatius wrote all the strong pas- 
 sages ascribed to him on the subject of Episcopacy, this 
 makes him not a teacher of the ultra-Episcopal dogma. 
 You search those Epistles in vain for that Idea of the 
 Apostolical Succession which makes Ordination a Sacra- 
 ment, transmitting not merely Office, but a certain mys- 
 terious Sacerdotal Power, on the possession of which, 
 from the Apostles' hands, through the line of Bishops 
 alone, depend the validity and efficacy of all other sacra- 
 ments and ministerial acts. Not one of the strong pas- 
 sages referred to represents Ordination as the exclusive 
 prerogative of Bishops ; not one speaks of Ordination 
 
PREFACE. II 
 
 as conveying that mysterious Sacerdotal power. Allow- 
 ing that he wrote all those passages, Ignatius was evi- 
 dently pressing the Episcopacy as simply the regularly- 
 derived Government of the Church, a Government then 
 universally received, but having no necessary affinity 
 with the Idea of a Sacerdotal power, conveyed in Ordi- 
 nation, and without which there can be no valid or effi- 
 cacious ministerial act. Ignatius looked at Episcopacy 
 as a Government for the Church, and not as a channel 
 of Ordination for the transmission of any such myste- 
 rious power. At least, his epistolary remains furnish no 
 evidence of such ultra-Episcopacy. A single passage will 
 serve to illustrate these remarks. To the Magnesians, 
 he writes : "I exhort that ye study to do all things in 
 a divine concord, your Bishop presiding in the place of 
 God ; your Presbyters in the place of the Council of 
 the Apostles ; and your Deacons, most dear to me, being 
 entrusted with the ministry of Jesus Christ." This, it 
 is needless to say, has nothing to do with Ordination, 
 though it has much to do with Government. It is sim- 
 ply an exhortation to concord in all things under the 
 Presidency of Bishops with their associated Presbyters 
 and Deacons ; that is, to a peaceful and Christian co- 
 operation with their proper ecclesiastical governors in 
 all things pertaining to the welfare of the Church. 
 Similar passages are of frequent occurrence in his Epis- 
 
12 PREFACE. 
 
 ties J and they sliow how little Ignatius had to do with 
 the theory of transmitting Sacerdotal powers through 
 Bishops alone. 
 
 It may be added that the English Reformers and 
 writers of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries were 
 not unlearned in Patristics. Usher, at Oxford, in 1644, 
 as well as Yossius, at Amsterdam, in 1646, was very 
 learnedly engaged in expurgating these very Ignatian 
 Epistles. The sacred scholars of England, in both cen- 
 turies, studied the fathers deeply, and the Bible pro- 
 foundly ; and thus, well versed in both, and, withal, 
 skilled as few have since been in meeting all the turns 
 and foiling all the movements of the Romish Argument 
 on the subject of the Church, they adopted the only 
 Church theory which can stand this side of an admis- 
 sion of the entire claim of Rome. 
 
 The English Reformation theory of the Church, giv- 
 ing Episcopacy its due place of value and of obligation, 
 yet leaving to all Christians an open ground of common 
 membership in the Church of Christ, a ground on which 
 they may all come together in the work of kindly draw- 
 ing all hearts into one feeling of love, and of lovingly 
 uniting all mouths in one profession of faith, has, as 
 the Author believes, the Bible for its base and the mind 
 of God for its origin. It is, peradventure, the only 
 Window in the roof of our Ark through which light 
 
PREFACE. 13 
 
 from Heaven can come in upon the darkness of those 
 confusions and divisions into which the Church has 
 fallen, and make manifest the secret of peace, love, and 
 concord among all who name themselves of Christ. 
 Cheerfully, therefore, and trustingly, does he again bid 
 this little work go forth to do whatever God may make 
 it the instrument of doing in the blessed work of filling 
 the world with the spiritual reign of the Prince of 
 Peace. 
 
 Bow-Mount, 1866. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 •♦« 
 
 PART I. 
 THE CHUKCH AS A SPIRITUAL BODY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Definitions of the Church ly 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 Testimony of Scripture — Metaphors 39 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Testimony of Scripture— Literal Texts 64 
 
 CHAPTER IV^. 
 
 Distinction between Visible and Spiritual Church; with Testimony of 
 
 Standards 96 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Testimony of Standard Writers 123 
 
 PART II. 
 
 THE CHURCH, AS A VISIBLE BODY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Scripture View op the Visible Church 149 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Our Standards, and Standard Writers on the Visible Church 174 
 
 (16) 
 
i6 CONTENTS, 
 
 PART III. 
 
 WELL-BEING OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 On toe Ministrt 199 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Well-Being of the Visible Church— Government 221 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Well-Being op the Visible Church — Worship 251 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Well-Being op the Visible Church— Schism 281 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Well-Being of the Visible Church- Unity 305 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The Church in Heaven 329 
 
PART I 
 
 THE CHURCH, AS A SPIRITUAL BODY 
 
THE LIYII^G TEMPLE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DEFINITIONS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 T"N selecting a subject for my first course of 
 -^ Prelections in this Divinity School, I have en- 
 deavored to find some topic not unrelated to your 
 general course of study ; at the same time, not 
 to trench on any Department, in which you have 
 other and abler teachers ; and yet to light upon 
 some matter, which my own previous pursuits may 
 be supposed to qualify me, in some measure, to 
 discuss. 
 
 These views have, at length, induced me to in- 
 vite your attention to the subject of The Church ; 
 not, however, as seen under the aspect and within 
 the department of Ecclesiastical Polity, nor as 
 viewed amid the lights and affected by the inci- 
 dents of Ecclesiastical History, but as presented to 
 us, mainly, on the pages of the Bible. 
 
 This, so far as the Christian world is concerned, 
 has become one of the great subjects of the age. 
 It is occupying profoundly the thoughts of almost 
 
 (19) 
 
20 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 all thoaghtful Christians ; and, peradventure, of 
 many who are kept by their ponderings on it from 
 becoming Christians. The Church ? What is it, 
 where is it, and how may I know that I belong to 
 it? These are queries which our times have 
 revived with an interest unfelt for ages. After 
 having been long put — not out of sight among 
 Protestants, but — behind the main truths of Chris- 
 tianity, they have been again brought forward, 
 placed in the foreground, and made to demand a 
 distinct answer. Such an answer they need at all 
 times, but especially from the teachers of the pres- 
 ent generation. 
 
 Nor is this question unrelated to your present 
 general course of study. Christ and His Cross are, 
 indeed, what, as preachers of the Gospel, you most 
 need to know ; yet the Church, though not Christ, 
 is His mystical Body ; though it cannot stand in 
 Christ's stead, as a Saviour, yet it exists in the 
 world as His Servant ; though it cannot make the 
 Gospel which it is to preach, yet it can and should 
 preach the Gospel of which He is the center and 
 the subject ; though it cannot give life through the 
 sacraments, yet it does administer the sacraments 
 of Him who giveth life through Himself When, 
 therefore, we speak of the Church, provided we 
 speak right things, we do, in truth, teach Christ ; 
 we teach that in which He is intimately con- 
 
DEFIXITI0F8 OF THE CHURCE. 21 
 
 cerned, tliat which holds intimate relationship with 
 Him. 
 
 Since, then, this question needs an answer, and 
 since a right answer has so close relation to your 
 chief study, let us proceed to seek for some clear, 
 and, should God so favor us, some just conclusions 
 on this great topic of the day. What is the 
 Church, and who belong to it ? The Church, in itr> 
 comprehension, with some thoughts as to what 
 affects its well-being, is the theme on which we 
 enter. 
 
 1. The Romanist, then, defines the Church, in 
 its Catholicism, universality, or comprehension, as 
 that visible Society only, of professing Christians, 
 which holds and submits to its one temporal, 
 human head, the Pope, and which, under this head, 
 has communion in all the so-called Sacraments of 
 that Church. All other bodies called Christian, 
 for whatever reason they may have been cut off, 
 and however they may call themselves Churches, 
 do not, in his view, belong to the One Catholic or 
 Universal Church. To him the Greek, Armenian, 
 Syrian, and Coptic, the English and American 
 Episcopal, with all other Protestant Bodies — 
 planted, as these communities are, with all their 
 millions, from end to end of the earth — though 
 they may retain some portions of Christian truth, 
 and though many of them, as individuals, may 
 
22 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 
 
 peradventure be saved, yet, are not Churches, nor 
 do they belong to the One Catholic Church in the 
 World. They are but heretical or schismatical 
 Sects, and have neither part nor lot in the One 
 true Church. To him, the Roman communion 
 embraces this Church, '' Totus, teres^ . atque 
 rotundusy 
 
 2. Again, the Exclusive Episcopalian, eschew- 
 ing, as far as he may, the name of Protestant, 
 adopts a view of the Church somewhat more com- 
 prehensive. He defines the Church as that visible 
 Society of professing Christians which holds and 
 submits to an Episcopal ministry, and has a com- 
 mon union in Sacraments Episcopally administered. 
 This definition includes, within the Catholic pale, 
 the Romish, Greek, and other Oriental Churches, 
 together with the English, American, and other 
 Episcopal bodies. All these, it is admitted, exist 
 as separate ecclesiastical organizations ; and so 
 long as they neither hold free intercommunion, nor 
 acknowledge one visible unity, their sej^aration, 
 though it leaves them still within the Catholic pale, 
 is yet one of the sorest and most to be deprecated 
 of evils ; and its removal is to be sought as one 
 of the highest attainable blessings. But, at this 
 point, the limit of Catholicism with this class of 
 definers is reached. According to them, all Pro- 
 testant, or other religious bodies, not Episcopally 
 
DEFINITIONS OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 23 
 
 constituted, however numerous, full of spiritual 
 life, and active in spreading the knowledge of 
 Christ and the blessings of Christianity to the ends 
 of the earth, do not belong to the Church. They 
 may hold much Christian truth ; and, as individu- 
 als, many of them may be saved ; but they are not 
 Churches, nor parts of the Church ; they are but 
 heretical or schismatical sects, and their existence 
 as such is an evil of the gravest, most afflictive 
 magnitude. The Church's labor should be to re- 
 absorb them into herself, while, at the same time, 
 seeking to recover her own lost visible unity. Sub- 
 mission to a universal Episcopacy, claiming the 
 supernaturally derived power of conveying the 
 Holy Grhost, and the real Body and blood of Chrjst, 
 in ordination and in sacraments, is, upon this the- 
 ory, the indispensable requisite, not only to the 
 integrity and perfectness, but to the very existence, 
 of the Church. 
 
 3. And now, to those, who cannot adopt, as their 
 own, either of the foregoing definitions of the 
 Church, — and, for one, I acknowledge myself of 
 this class — it remains to seek a third. In seeking 
 this third definition, however, which I hope to make 
 exhaustive, I propose to approach it, not directly, 
 but through some preparatory views, taken from 
 Scriptural points of observation. 
 
 1. And first,— The design of God, in the revela- 
 
24 
 
 TUE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 tion of His will and in the Incarnation of His Son, 
 is to save men from sin, and to make them partak- 
 ers of eternal life. This design, as realized in the 
 sinner, requires a thorough reconciliation to his 
 Heavenly Sovereign, on the simple terms of " Re- 
 pentance toward God and faith toward our Lord 
 Jesus Christ." Acts, 20:21 — an individual and 
 hearty concurrence in the Divine counsel of Ee- 
 demption. Every person thus reconciled, is said 
 to be "justified by faith ; " and hath '' peace with 
 God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.'' Rom. 5 : L 
 Every one, thus justified, is " renewed in the spirit 
 of his mind," lives *' a godly life,'' grows in holi- 
 ness, and has, even on earth, the beginning of the 
 true life eternal. This eternal life now "abideth 
 in him ; " he has already entered on the foretaste 
 of his salvation. Hence the words of Christ : " He 
 that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that 
 sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come 
 into condemnation ; but is passed " — passed already 
 — '' from death unto life." John, 5 : 24. This as- 
 surance, in its original, essential truth, is tied to 
 no observance of outward institutions. It brings 
 to view nothing but the Saviour and the sinner ; 
 the Saviour's word and the sinner's faith ; that faith 
 which is always followed by repentance and holi- 
 ness. It is an assurance, based essentially on an 
 inner transaction between Christ and the true be- 
 
DEFINITIONS OF THE CHURCH. 25 
 
 liever. Wherever the Word goes and is received 
 into the faith of the heart, there is the basis of this 
 Divine assurance, "he is passed from death unto 
 life." This is the reason, not merely why there 
 shall be, but why there "is, joy in the presence of 
 the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." 
 His repentance is the first step out of that faith 
 which taketh hold on eternal life. The angels see 
 in it another victory for Christ ; another soul al- 
 ready " passed from death unto life." 
 
 The Scriptures abound in this peculiar teaching — 
 the assurance of salvation to every one, be his out- 
 ward circumstances what they may ; who truly be- 
 lieves in Christ. " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and thou shalt be saved." Acts, 16 : 31. " Christ 
 is the end of the law for righteousness to every one 
 that believeth." "There is no difference between 
 the Jew and the Greek," the most and the least 
 privileged ; " for the same Lord over all is rich 
 unto all that call upon Him; for whosoever 
 shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be 
 saved." Rom. 10: 4, 12, 13. Whosoever calleth 
 in that faith, which " cometh by hearing," as hear- 
 ing " cometh by the word of God," shall be saved. 
 Whosoever. It is impossible to find a man with 
 this faith under such peculiar circumstances as to 
 invalidate the truth of this assurance — "he shall 
 be saved." The eternal Father hath so bound 
 
26 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 Himself to this, that He would not be ''just'' were 
 He not also '' the justifier of him that believeth in 
 Jesus," wherever and whenever this believer may 
 be found. Both " the Law and the Prophets/' as 
 well as the Gospel, concur in the ''witness'' that 
 " the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ, 
 is unto all and upon all them that believe." Rom. 3 : 
 21, 22, 26. As '^ all have sinned " and are alike in 
 that, so, among those who have this faith, " there 
 is no difference." Nothing can make a difference 
 in favor of one and against another, in whom this 
 faith dwelleth. " Jesus said, I am the Bread of 
 Life ; he that cometh to me " — whoever he may be, 
 and whatever his outward lot — "he that cometh 
 to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth 
 on me shall never thirst." John, 6 : 35. " I am 
 the resurrection and the life : he that believeth in 
 me, though he were dead yet shall he live ; and 
 whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never 
 die." John, 11 : 25, 26. " For God so loved the 
 world that He gave His only begotten Son, that 
 whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but 
 have everlasting life." John, 3 : 16. 
 
 There, Christian student, is the Gospel in 
 element, in its simple, yet all-comprehending base. 
 We must convict the solemn Trinity of falsehood 
 before we can take eternal life from him that truly 
 believes in Jesus Christ. It matters not by what 
 
DEFINITIONS OF THE GHURGE. 27 
 
 name he is called, or in what connection he is 
 found, if he have this faith in his heart, whole and 
 uncorrupt, he hath eternal life ; and no man can 
 take from him that ''gift of God." 
 
 And now, why does the Bible niake so much of 
 this faith ? Is it because this alone constitutes the 
 Christian character ? No : but because this faith 
 cannot be alone in that character. It is, under the 
 Spirit, the parent of all holy graces. This truth, 
 in former times, drew from that ''staunch 
 churchman,'^ Bishop Hall, the exclamation : "0 
 the grace of faith ! justly represented to us by St. 
 Paul, above all other graces, incident unto the soul, 
 as that which, if not alone, chiefly transacts all the 
 main affairs tending to salvation. For faith is the 
 quickening grace, the directing grace, the protecting 
 grace, the establishing grace, the justifying grace, 
 the sanctifying and purifying grace. Faith is the 
 grace which assents to, apprehends, applies, appro- 
 priates Christ ; and, hereupon, it is the uniting 
 grace ; and, which comprehends all, the saving 
 grace.'' 
 
 In the texts thus far cited, we see the simple, 
 essential requisites to salvation under the Gospel ; 
 those without which no man, to whom the Gospel 
 comes, can be saved ; and with which any man will 
 be saved. 
 
 2. We now take another step. Every one, in 
 
28 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 •whom the required faith is found, has a direct and 
 personal union with Christ ; so that he drawls his 
 spiritual life, not by succession, nor by transmis- 
 sion from any other believer, but immediately 
 from the Saviour Himself. Nothing, however thin, 
 intervenes between the two. By faith the believer 
 is "in Christ;" and by the same faith Christ 
 "dwells" in the believer's "heart." Eph. 3 : 17. 
 This mystic union between Christ and each individ- 
 ual Christian is as close and perfect, as though 
 Christ and each individual were the only ones in 
 all the world concerned in that union. As a foun- 
 dation, Christ is as long as the age of grace, and as 
 broad as the realm of sin ; so that every true be- 
 liever touches, immediately and for himself, that on 
 which he is builded. In this peculiar union there 
 is, not a miraculous impartation of the divine sub- 
 stance, but a real derivation of the divine life ; and 
 faith is the grace, by which the heavenly derivation 
 is realized. Faith brings the soul to the spring- 
 head of that life in Christ. Faith drinks of the 
 " living water " which He gives. " Whosoever 
 drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall 
 never thirst, but the water that I shall give him 
 shall be in him a well of water springing up into 
 everlasting life." John, 4: 14. "I am the Vine; 
 ye are the branches ; he that abideth in me and I 
 in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit." John, 
 
DEFmiTIONS OF THE GHVRCH. 29 
 
 15 : 5. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new 
 creature." 2 Cor. 5 : 17. " That Christ may dwell 
 in your hearts by faith." Eph. 3 : 17. " Ye are 
 not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be* that the 
 Spirit of God dwell in you : now if any man have 
 not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.'' Eom. 
 8:9. '' Your life is hid with Christ in God." Col. 
 3:3. He that, with an appropriating faith, " eat- 
 eth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in 
 me and I in him." John, 6 : 56. These are some 
 of the passages in which this sacred union is indi- 
 cated ; and they show that, while Christ holds this 
 union with all who truly believe in Him, He still 
 holds it with each separately and severally. Each 
 single Christian holds this living connection and 
 communion with the Saviour as immediately and 
 as closely, and draws life therefrom as abundantly 
 and as perfectingly, as though himself and the Sa- 
 viour were the only beings concerned in the divine 
 afiinity. 
 
 3. We have thus seen what it is that essentially 
 characterizes the true Christian, and what is the 
 relation which he sustains with Christ. We now 
 take one further step. There are, then, in the 
 world, as there have been from the beginning, and 
 will be to the end, a steadily growing, and at length 
 a very great company of human beings, sustaining 
 the character and the relations which I have just 
 
3c THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 explained ; the character of true believers in Christ, 
 and the relation of a holy, individual union with 
 Christ. These, as represented in the Bible, and as 
 found in fact, are an exceedingly ''peculiar peo- 
 ple." There are none like them in all the world. 
 In some outward respects, they seem like common 
 men ; but in the depths of their being, they are 
 quite unlike all others. They are stamped, with 
 the lineaments and features of quite another char- 
 acter. If what has been wrought within could be 
 laid open to the eye of sense, they would at once 
 be known from other men all over the earth and 
 throughout all heaven. Gathered from whatever 
 nation or kindred, and marked by whatever pecu- 
 liarities or inequalities, they would yet be found in 
 their main characteristics alike ; shaped by the 
 same divine hand, stamped with the same spiritual 
 features, passing through the same general experi- 
 ence, belonging to the same great company, and 
 tending to the same sublime destiny. 
 
 Now, this exceedingly "peculiar people" are 
 found, not exclusively within the lines of any one 
 Christian community, but, in greater or less num- 
 bers, within the limits of all : some, doubtless, even 
 among the most corrupt of those communities ; and 
 multitudes among those which rise nearest to prim- 
 itive purity. Here, then, comes into view a very 
 remarkable fact. A large number of these " pecu- 
 
DEFINITIONS OF TEE CHURCH. , 31 
 
 liar people '^ are found in organized Christian com- 
 munities, whicli neither submit to one supreme, 
 temporal, human head — the Pope, nor receive into 
 their organizations an Episcopal ministry and sac- 
 raments. They are known by various human 
 names • but, in character and relation, they belong 
 to that same " peculiar people " who have been 
 described. They have all the lineaments and fea- 
 tures, all the views and experience, of that people ; 
 everything that can mark them as belonging to the 
 same spiritual race. Of this there.is and can be 
 no question. If the true, though hidden characters 
 and relations of the whole holy company were laid 
 open, this portion of them would be seen, before 
 earth and heaven, to be identical with all the rest. 
 What, then, is the relation, which, as individuals, 
 and as organized bodies, these acknowledged Chris- 
 tians, thus destitute of the Episcopacy, bear to the 
 Church of Christ ? 
 
 This question is important. I have no undue 
 sympathy with those who refuse, or fail, to receive 
 an Episcopal ministry. Still, their existence in 
 such considerable numbers, and with such undeni- 
 able evidences of identity with the " peculiar peo- 
 ple," is a grave and weighty fact, of which we must 
 in some way dispose. Again, therefore, I ask : 
 what relation do these Christians and Christian 
 communities bear to the Church ? This question is 
 
32, THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 important, chiefly, from the consideration that, if 
 they belong to the Church, then a third definition 
 of the Church, different from either of the former, 
 becomes indispensably necessary. Do these Chris- 
 tians, then, individually and in their organizations, 
 belong to the Church? The advocates of both 
 the previous definitions answer. No. I am con- 
 strained to answer. Yes. My reason for this 
 answer however, must, for the present, be brief. 
 
 Either, then, they belong to the Church, or, in 
 so far as they are Christians, they are saved with- 
 out belonging to the Church. Now, whether God 
 ever saves men where Christ is unknown, or when 
 it is impossible to confess Him before men, it is not 
 here necessary to inquire. Of this, however, we 
 may be sure : that, where the Gospel is preached, 
 where the Holy Spirit is given to apply that Gos- 
 pel, where Christ is thus fully made known, and 
 where men have an opportunity to confess Him 
 before their fellow men — there God saves no man 
 but in His one, appointed way, on the terms of His 
 one, unchangeable covenant of grace, and as a mem- 
 ber of His one, true Church. Under the condi- 
 tions here assigned, the doctrine is strictly true, 
 "" Out of the Church is no salvation." It is only when 
 a false conception of the Church is entertained, 
 only when some particular ecclesiastical organiza- 
 tion arrogates to itself exclusively the style and 
 
DEFINITIONS OF THE CHURGU. 33 
 
 prerogatives of the Church, that the doctrine be- 
 comes not only false, but impious. When the word 
 Church is rightly understood, and is used within 
 the conditions just named, the doctrine is both true 
 and precious : " Out of the Church is no salvation." 
 But, the Christians of whom we speak obtain sal- 
 vation ; and they are saved within the specified 
 conditions ; they are saved by means of the Gos- 
 pel, through the knowledge of Christ, by the 
 renewing of the Holy Ghost, and with a confession 
 of Christ and His truth before men. They are 
 saved as all other Christians are saved. They, 
 therefore, belong to the Church. 
 
 If, by the opposite opinion, it be meant, that 
 though saved, yet they are not members of the 
 Church in the sense of either of the two definitions 
 already given, this is but saying that they are 
 neither Romanists nor Episcopalians : but, if it be 
 meant that though saved, j^i they are not mem- 
 bers of the Church in any sense, then we ask : 
 what essential necessity for a Church can be 
 shown? If, from age to age, such myriads are 
 saved, where tlie full light of Christ is shining, and 
 where the rich gifts of the Spirit are bestowed, 
 while yet they belong not to the Church, then the 
 Church, instead of being exalted, and shown to be 
 divinely useful, is degraded and shown to be of no 
 worth. Men may be saved outside as well as with- 
 3 
 
34 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 in its enclosure ; without as well as witli its name. 
 The Olmrch, as to her specific difference, is brought 
 down to the rank of a mere keeper of manuscripts, 
 and regulator of forms. All higher attributes and 
 privileges, all more spiritual functions and influen- 
 ces, she merely shares in common with a body of 
 Christians who belong not to her communion. The 
 moment we say that these higher attributes and 
 privileges, these more spiritual functions and influ- 
 ences, whereby Christian men are saved, are not 
 partially and accidentally, but wholly, and in God's 
 design, enjoyed by the Church (and this is true 
 doctrine) — the moment we take this position we 
 compel ourselves to admit that these other Chris- 
 tians, who share these attributes and privileges, 
 these functions and influences, and are saved there- 
 by, belong to the Church. There is no way of 
 evading this conclusion but by admitting that the 
 Church merely shares the highest and richest 
 means of salvation with individuals and communi- 
 ties who are no part of the Church. 
 
 But, if these Christians belong to the Church, 
 then, clearl}^, so far as its comprehension is con- 
 cerned, neither of the definitions which have been 
 given is right, and we are compelled to seek for a 
 third. What, then, is this third, this exhaustively 
 complete definition of the Church ? 
 
 The answer comes from what has already been 
 
DEFINITIONS OF THE CHURCH. 35 
 
 said. Without denying, but rather distinctly hold- 
 ing, that in one sense the word Church may, 
 with strict propriety, be applied to a particular 
 ecclesiastical organization, and actually is so ap- 
 plied in the Bible, in history, and in common usage, 
 it is nevertheless plain that what has thus far been 
 said leads directly to this definition : the Church, in 
 its largest, highest sense, is that great company of 
 true believers in Christ, who hold His truth, in the 
 inain, whole and uucorrupt, and who, by His sole 
 divine power and agency, are saved from sin and 
 everlasting death. In this its largest, highest sense, 
 the Church is, precisely, the whole company of 
 that "" peculiar people," whose character and rela- 
 tion to Christ have already been described. This 
 great company exists both in heaven and upon 
 earth. It is gathered and to be gathered from the 
 present, from the past, and from all coming ages. 
 This, with Bishop Taylor, I understand to be the 
 sense of that article in the Creed, '' the holy Catho- 
 lic Church, the communion of saints." The body, 
 thus named in the Creed, is not merely in name, 
 but in reality, in the truth of words, and in the 
 sight of God, a holy Church, literally a '' communion 
 of saints." It comprises all, of whatever age or 
 country, of whatever name or connection, who hold 
 the truth of Christ, in the main, whole and uncorrupt, 
 and are saved by Him from sin and everlasting 
 
36 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 death. It is a "communion of saints/^ or of those holy 
 ones, who have a common union with Christ in His 
 truth, His life and His salvation. These alone are 
 His spiritual Body, and He alone is their Head. 
 They only are His true Temple, and this Temple 
 only is filled, always and truly, with His divine 
 and sanctifying presence. 
 
 Nor is this body, thus holy, merely called a 
 Church : as if, by a figure of rhetoric, it were hon- 
 ored with a name really belonging to something 
 else, to which it is related ; but it is the Church in 
 its largest, highest sense. Christ first constituted 
 and has ever since enlarged this Church, by gath- 
 ering and "adding to it those who are saved;" 
 (rovG Gco^oixEvovay Acts, 2 : 47. The Saviour and 
 the saved are the fundamental elements, as well 
 as the finished development, of His Church. 
 
 Whether the Church in this highest sense is the 
 original, and gives its name to the Church, in its 
 lower aspect, as a visible society ; or, whether the 
 latter first received the name, it is not necessary 
 to decide ; although high authorities are not want- 
 ing for the opinion that the name belongs primarily 
 to the higher embodiment. Thus, Bishop Taylor, 
 distinguishing "God's sense " from what he calls 
 "man's sense" of the term Church, says that the 
 former is " the true, proper and primary meaning." 
 The eminent Jackson also declares that this is 
 
DEFmiTTONS OF THE GHURGH. 37 
 
 the prime sense of the term, ' Catholic Church.' '' 
 It is enough, however, for us to know that the 
 grand company- of " the saved " are— not by a fig- 
 ure of speech, but— in verity, a Church ; in its 
 most important sense, the Church of Christ. 
 
 The difference between this idea of the Church 
 and both the previous definitions of it which have 
 been given, will be seen by observing that the 
 Church is not, in itself, an agent in saving men, 
 but the whole company of men saved in union with 
 Christ their Saviour. The difference is essential. 
 The Church doubtless, uses means for saving men. 
 This, however, makes not the Church, in itself, an 
 agent in saving men, any more than medicine, in 
 the hands of a physician, makes the physician him- 
 self a medicine, or constitutes him the power which 
 gives that medicine its effect in healing the sick. 
 To make the Word and sacraments to be ''of the 
 essence '' of the Church, prepares the way for mak- 
 ing the Church itself, in a sense co-ordinate with 
 Christ, an agent in saving men. In its true idea, 
 the Church is just the whole company of ''the 
 saved,'' in union with Christ, the Saviour. Christ 
 and the company of those who live in Him by 
 taith, and in whom He lives through faith— this is 
 the real essence of the Church; that without 
 which no Church can exist ; that, with which the 
 Church cannot but exist. The importance of keep- 
 ing this idea in mind cannot well be overrated. 
 
38 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 Thus far, we have merely been seeking a defini- 
 tion of the Church in its largest comprehension. 
 Hereafter, we hope to show that this definition is 
 sustained by the Scriptures and by our own stand- 
 ards ; after which we will attend to that sense of 
 the term, which brings before us the Church as a 
 visible organized society. 
 
 For the present, I close with a single inquiry : 
 Do we, each for himself, belong to the Church of 
 ''the saved?" This question touches not merely 
 outward relations. It is not settled by mere mem- 
 bership in a visible ecclesiastical organization. Do 
 we belong to that ''peculiar people" described? 
 We must, or we do not belong to Christ, and can- 
 not be saved by Him. We must be in Him by 
 faith, and by faith draw life directly from Him. If 
 His in an external sense only, all the names, 
 badges and privileges of our Christian lot will be 
 but so many aggravations of our guilt when we 
 come to stand before God ; only so many splendid 
 patches on the dark garment of our shame ; like 
 the painted flames on the vesture of victims at an 
 auto dafe ; enhancing by the very strangeness of 
 their contrast, the ignominy and the misery with 
 which we shall be inwardly consumed. 
 
 God give us all a discerning eye, and a believ- 
 ing heart ; that, being " in Christ" here, we may 
 hereafter be " found of Him in peace, without spot 
 and blameless." 
 
CHAPTER IL 
 
 TESTIMONY OF SCEIPTURE. METAPHORS. 
 
 T^HE Church Universal, as described in the lan- 
 -*- guage of the Creed, is " the holy Catholic 
 Church, the communion of saints." It is the great 
 company of those, who have a common union with 
 Christ by faith, who hold to Him as their sole 
 Head, and to His Truth, in the main, whole and 
 uncorrupt ; and who, by His sole power and 
 agency, are saved from sin, and made partakers 
 of eternal life. This idea of the Church, so far as 
 it was brought out in the first chapter, was drawn 
 from the language of the Bible, descriptive of the 
 true Christian and of his individual relation to 
 Christ. 
 
 But, it will be asked, is there any thing in the 
 Bible, which authorizes us to call this great com- 
 pany of '' the saved " by the name of the Church ? 
 Are there any Scriptures, intentionally describing 
 the Church itself, which contain the basis of the 
 idea just presented ? 
 
 (39) 
 
40 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 This question will lead me to an examination of 
 two sets of passages, the true sense of which, as I 
 apprehend, will show that the definition of the 
 Church which I have given, is sustained by the 
 teaching of the inspired Word. Of these passages, 
 the one set presents the Church under certain 
 metaphors ; the other, under its own proper name. 
 
 First, then, passages which present the Church 
 under certain metaphors. 
 
 1. In the tenth chapter of the Gospel according 
 to John, Christ describes the Church under the 
 metaphor of a " fold." In this figure, the relation 
 between Himself and His people, is that of the 
 shepherd and his " flock." The following is some 
 of the language, which He employs in carrying out 
 the figure. "He that entereth not by the door 
 into the sheepfold, the same is a thief and robber." 
 "I am the door : by me if any man enter in he 
 shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find 
 pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal and 
 to kill, and to destroy ; I am come that they might 
 have life, and that they might have it more abund- 
 antly. I am the good Shepherd ; the good Shep- 
 herd giveth his life for the sheep." " And other 
 sheep I have, which are not of this fold ; them also 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 41 
 
 I must bring ; and they shall hear my voice, and 
 there shall be one flock and one shepherd."* " My 
 sheep hear my voice, and I know them^ and they 
 follow me ; and I give unto them eternal life and 
 they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck 
 them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them 
 me, is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck 
 tliem out of my Father's hand. I and my Father 
 are one." John, x. passim. 
 
 Now, here, under this metaphor of a fold, we 
 have a description of the church ; for, that this 
 FOLD and the church are identical is not and can- 
 not be doubted. Analogous metaphors, as we shall 
 see, decide this point. Christ^s fold is the church. 
 Of whom, then, does this fold, or church, consist ? 
 Of none but the Shepherd and His flock ; ^oliivri ^ of 
 those and those only, who " enter in " by Christ 
 and are " saved ; " who '' hear His voice and fol- 
 low Him ;" to whom He " gives eternal life " and 
 who "shall never perish." The Fold, if explained 
 separately, as that which encloses both the Shep- 
 herd and His Flock, may be regarded as the secu- 
 rities of that fixed and unchangeable covenant of 
 
 * There is an ambiguity in our translation of this passage. As we have 
 it, it is — " other sheep I have, which are not of this fold {avlF/a), them also 
 I must bring, etc.," " and there shall be one fold {iroinvri), and one shepherd." 
 Our translators have wrongly rendered two distinct words by one and the 
 same. avTiT] is the fold, which encloses: TroifiVTj is the flock which is en- 
 closed I have removed the ambiguity in my use of the passage. 
 
42 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 grace within which the whole sacred company, in 
 their spiritual union with Christ, are safely held : 
 but the whole figure, interpreted together, the Fold 
 and those whom it contains, represents, simply, the 
 Church of Christ ; both that part which had been 
 saved before His advent, and that which was after- 
 wards to be saved. " Other sheep," says Christ, '*I 
 have, which are not of this fold ; them also I must 
 bring, and they shall hear my voice ; and there 
 shall be one flock and one shepherd.'* That is : 
 " My sheep among the Gentiles, as well as among 
 the Jews, are not yet actually gathered in ; but they 
 are mine, and gathered in they shall be. The Flock 
 is one, and the Shepherd one ; and when the gath- 
 ering is ended, eternity shall receive the whole 
 to the fullness of my salvation." 
 
 In this passage, the metaphoric fold clearly 
 means the whole unfolded flock, who are to be 
 saved from first to last, under the security of the 
 eternal covenant of grace, in union with Christ, 
 their only and divine Head. There is no reason, 
 either in the occasion of Christ's speaking, or in 
 the language which He uses, to show that He is 
 describing a mixed and semi-worldly company of 
 professed believers. On the contrary, though 
 there was such a company, and though He some- 
 times confessedly describes it, yet both the occa- 
 sion and the language here show that. He was 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. ^3 
 
 intentionally describing a different companj^, simply 
 the whole company of " the saved." He was look- 
 ing far above and beyond the imperfect and the 
 temporal condition of His kingdom. Indeed, He 
 expressly distinguishes between this and the fold 
 of which He was speaking. So far as there was 
 then a visible and mixed Church on earth, the 
 Jews with whom He was discoursing belonged to 
 it : and yet, He told them, unequivocally, that they 
 did not belong to His Fold, the Church which He 
 then had in His eye. "But, ye believe not," said 
 He, "because ye are not of my sheep, as I said 
 unto you." This plainly settles the question. 
 Christ was intentionally discriminating between 
 the mixed, visible Church in the world, and that 
 Church, which is His fold ; His Church, in its 
 highest, largest sense. 
 
 2. In the third chapter of his Epistle to the 
 Ephesians, St. Paul presents the Church under the 
 metaphor of a Family. " For this cause I bow my 
 knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 of whom the whole Family in Heaven and earth 
 is named, that He would grant you, according to 
 the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with 
 might by His Spirit in the inner man ; that Christ 
 may dwell in your hearts by faith ; that ye, being 
 rooted and grounded in love, may be able to com- 
 prehend,^ with all saints, what is the breadth, and 
 
4^ THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 length, and depth, and height ; and to know the 
 love of Christ, which passeth knowledge ; tliat ye 
 might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now, 
 unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly, 
 above all that we ask or think, according to the 
 power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in 
 the Church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, 
 world without end^' Eph. 3 : 14-21. 
 
 It needs little or no comment to show that ihe^ 
 Family here mentioned is the Church, in its largest, 
 highest sense. It is the Church, because, in the 
 latter part of the passage, it is expressly called 
 so ; for there is no reason to suppose that, by Fam- 
 ily, in the former part of the passage, the Apostle 
 means one company, and by Church, in the latter 
 part, another and a different. Evidently, the two 
 are one and the same company. This Family, then, 
 is the Church. And it is, as evidently, the Church 
 in its largest, highest sense ; '' the Holy Catholic 
 Church, the Communion of Saints ;" the one spir- 
 itual Household of faith ; the whole company of 
 " the saved," whose only Head is Christ. This 
 appears, not only from the Apostle's pra3^er, "that 
 Christ may dwell in the hearts " of its members 
 '' by faith ;" that, "being rooted and grounded in 
 love, they may be able to comprehend, with all 
 saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, 
 and height ; and to know the love of Christ which 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 45 
 
 passeth knowledge;" and " lliat tliey might be 
 filled with all the fullness of God " — for this prayer 
 might be offered in behalf of any company — but, 
 from the language which he uses in describing the 
 sacred Household. It is not only a Family, but 
 "the whole family" named of Christ, "in 
 Heaven and Earth." The very terms show that 
 he was not speaking of the limited, mixed, semi- 
 worldly Church of this life. He was describing 
 the whole Family of Christ, part in Heaven and 
 part on earth ; and the part on earth homogeneous 
 with the part in Heaven, and finally to become 
 one with the sacred whole. Such being his descrip- 
 tion of this Family, the prayer vfhich he offered 
 for its members becomes most impressively appro- 
 priate. It shows that his mind was lifted far above 
 and beyond the temporal, the imperfect, and the 
 mixed, and was realizing that incomparably 
 grander, purer, and better thing — the whole com- 
 pany "of the saved," from the beginning to the 
 end of time, who are to live together in glory for- 
 ever. And the Idea which thus swelled his mind 
 in describing the Family, continued to fill his 
 thoughts when he came to call it the Church. 
 Hence, he terms it " the Church in Christ Jesus " 
 h-xi EKKATjola ev xpLGTO) I'qoov^ in which God is to be 
 glorified " throughout all ages, world without end," 
 all ages, past, present, and to come. The Family 
 
46 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 and the Church, here, are connatural and com- 
 mensurate ; and neither of them can be identified 
 with, and limited by, the imperfect and mixed 
 company called the Church, in this world. 
 
 3. In the twenty-first chapter of the Book of 
 Revelation, John presents the Church under the 
 metaphor of a Beide. " Come hither,'' says the 
 Angel of the Vision, "and I will show thee the 
 Bkide, the Lamb's wife.'' Rev. 21 : 9. 
 
 This Bride, the Lamb's wife, is confessedly the 
 Church of Christ. Of whom, then, do its mem- 
 bers consist ? This question is answered near the 
 close of the chapter, where, while the sense is the 
 same, the metaphor has been changed for that of a 
 "City." "The nations of them that are saved 
 shall walk in the light of it." "And there shall 
 in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, 
 neither that worketh abomination or a lie ; but 
 they which are written in the Lamb's Book of 
 Life.'' 
 
 This vision is, by many, though not by all, sup- 
 posed to represent the finished state of the Church 
 in Heaven ; inasmuch as " the Bride," or " Great 
 City, the Holy Jerusalem," was shown, "descend- 
 ing out of heaven from God, having the glory of 
 God." Suppose, then, for the sake of the suppo- 
 sition, that the object of the vision was to exhibit 
 the Church in its heavenly state ; this would not 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 47 
 
 destroy the force of the metaphor in its application 
 to our subject ; for the Church becomes " the Bride, 
 the Lamb's wife," on earth ; and it is only because 
 she is espoused to Him on earth that the marriage 
 will finally be solemnized in Heaven. Hence the 
 Apostle says of the marriage union between hus- 
 band and wife, "This is a great mystery, but I 
 speak concerning Christ and the Church." Eph. 5 : 
 32. That is : the ordinance of human marriage is a 
 mystic symbol of the divine union existing between 
 Christ and the Church. This union has existed 
 from the beginning, and the Church has been and 
 will be " the Bride, the Lamb's wife," through all 
 time as well as through all eternity. 
 
 That this relation exists on earth is evident 
 from the close of the chapter quoted. Rev. 21 : 27, 
 where it is said, "none shall enter into it," none 
 shall be recognized as members of this Beide, " but 
 they' which are written in the Lamb's Book of 
 Life." When are they written in that Book ? On 
 Earth and in Time, or nowhere and never? The 
 Seventy rejoiced that "the devils were subject 
 unto them." Christ bade them, " rather rejoice 
 because your names are written in Heaven" — "are 
 written," not "shall be wrtten." Had they not been 
 so written on earth, their names would never have 
 been found on the Register of Life in Heaven. 
 And this is as true of every Christian as it was of 
 
48 TEE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 the Seventy. Even then, on the supposition that 
 the metaphoric Bride means the Church in its 
 finally perfected state, yet none belong to it but 
 those who, while on earth, have their names writ- 
 ten in Heaven. The relation between the Divine 
 Bridegroom and His holy Bride is formed in this 
 world, and is only to be publicly solemnized in the 
 world to come. Still more definitive of the ques- 
 tion is the metaphor on its true construction, that 
 ''the Bride, the Lamb's Wife," is a figure of the 
 Church on earth, as well as in Heaven. In this 
 light, the metaphor solves all doubt. The Bride, 
 the Church of Christ, in its largest, highest sense, 
 is composed exclusively of " the sa-ved," of those 
 who, on earth, have their names ''written in the 
 Lamb's Book of Life ;" His Book of Life. No 
 spiritually dead soul is ever betrothed to the Di- 
 vinely living Saviour. 
 
 To this view it may, indeed, be objected that, in 
 the Old Testament, God is said to have married 
 the whole country and people of Israel — Isa. 62 : 
 4, 5 ; that among them were multitudes of the 
 most ungodly, and that therefore, under the New 
 Testament, the term Bride may be considered as 
 designating the Church in its visible, mixed, and 
 imperfect state. To this, however, I reply : it is 
 by no means certain that the language referred to 
 designates the relation between God and the 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 49 
 
 strangely mixed visible Israel. But, even if we 
 were to allow this, it would make nothing against 
 the interpretation now given of the metaphoric 
 Bride in the Revelation. The relation between 
 God and the mixed visible Israel of old was not a 
 type of the mixed visible Christian Israel. The 
 Church of the Old Testament was not a type of 
 the Church of the New. They were one and the 
 same Church, under different Dispensations ; and 
 both, as visible and mixed, were but signs and 
 means of God's relation to the true spiritual Israel, 
 the true spiritual Church of Christ ; so that the 
 real Bride, the real Church, for which we seek, 
 remains the same, the whole company of " the 
 saved,'' in union with the living Saviour. The 
 Type of a thing may be imperfect, while the Anti- 
 type, the thing typified, is perfect. The typic 
 Bride of the old Testament turned adulteress, and 
 was put away. The typic Bride of the New has 
 too often followed her example and shared her 
 disgrace. The True Bride is never unfaithful. 
 She is betrothed for eternity. 
 
 4. In the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the 
 Ephesians, the Church is presented under the met- 
 aphor of a BODY. Upon this body various gifts 
 were bestowed " for the perfecting of the saints, 
 for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the 
 BODY of Christ ; till we all come, in tlie unity of 
 4 
 
50 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, un- 
 to a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of 
 the fullness of Christ ;" — that — '' speaking the truth 
 in love, we may grow up into Him in all things, 
 which is the head, Christ ; from whom the whole 
 BODY, fitly joined together, and compacted by that 
 which every joint supplieth according to the effect- 
 ual working, in the measure of every part maketh 
 increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in 
 love." Eph. 4 : 12-16. 
 
 This is exceedingly strong language. It speaks 
 of saints who are to grow up into the edified '* body 
 of Christ," unto a divine "unity," unto "a perfect 
 man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness 
 of Christ." They are to grow up into Him "in all 
 things," as their ^'head." From Him, "the whole 
 body," every part and member, is to be "fitly 
 joined and compacted together." In this divinely 
 vital fitting, joining and compacting, " every joint 
 supplieth " its due proportion. In this supply, 
 there is an " effectual working," a divine energy. 
 And, through this effectual working, there is to be 
 made " a proportional increase of the body in 
 every single part." This last expression gives the 
 true force of the language in the original. 
 
 Now, the BODY, described in this passage, is con- 
 fessedly the Church. And it is certainly a Church, 
 every joint, limb, ligament and function of which. 
 
TESTIMON'T OF SCRIPTURE. 51 
 
 without any indicated exception, is to grow iato, 
 and from Clirist by an inward, divine energy, and 
 is to be a spiritually vitalized part of that fitly 
 joined and compacted body, which carries the life of 
 Christ in every portion, from the crown of the head 
 to the soles of the feet. It is that Church, which, 
 when the sacred body is at length completed by 
 the addition of its last member, is to become *'a 
 perfect man,'' in its analogy with a perfect human 
 body and soul ; '' a perfect man ;" its head, Christ ; 
 and its body, all His glorified members ; in short, 
 "the measure of the stature of the fullness of 
 Christ." 
 
 Is it possible, then, to understand, by the Body, 
 thus described and characterized, the merely local, 
 visible Church, organized at Ephesus, to which this 
 Epistle was confessedly addressed, and which, as a 
 locaL organization, doubtless shared in the spiritual 
 gifts shed on the Church in its largest, highest 
 sense ? Is it not manifest, from the language used, 
 from the description elaborated, that St. Paul had 
 risen far above, and passed far beyond, the local 
 and probably mixed organization at Ephesus, and 
 was setting before them that unspeakably diviner 
 thing, the one, universal, glorious Body of Christ, 
 of which Ephesus, if not faithless, hypocritical, or 
 self-deceived, might become, with all saints, glori- 
 fied members ? For one, I feel it would be doing 
 
^2 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 violence to all spiritual understanding to take such 
 language from the lips of an inspired Apostle, and 
 consider it as intentionally describing the locally 
 organized and mixed body, called the visible 
 Church in this world. This body is not, and never 
 will become, the " perfect man ; the measure of 
 the stature of the fullness of Christ." The idea 
 which filled the Apostle's mind, seems manifestly 
 to have been — not that of the mixed visible Church 
 on earth, but — that of the literally one, universal 
 Body of Christ, part growingly sanctified on earth, 
 part already glorified in Heaven, and all to be 
 finally " presented '' by Himself and " to Himself, 
 a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or 
 any such thing, but — ^holy and without blemish.'' 
 
 5. Once more : in Ephesians, 2 : 21, the Church 
 is presented under the metaphor of a temple. 
 Speaking of '* the household of God," gathered 
 from all nations, the Apostle says : "All the build- 
 ing, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy 
 TEMPLE in the Lord." 
 
 This temple, it is confessed, means the Church. 
 In the chapter where the term is used, the Apos- 
 tle tells us that in Christ ''is made, of twain, one 
 new man." Now, what were "the twain" thus 
 made "one" in Christ? Not the whole Jewish 
 nation and the whole Gentile world ; but " the 
 saints " from among the Jews, and the saints from 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 53 
 
 among the Gentiles, who had been and were to 
 be, gathered into Christ. To both of these parts of 
 the human family the blessings of the Gospel were 
 at length equally opened. The coming and work of 
 Christ had '' broken down the middle wall of par- 
 tition," and opened the door to all believers alike, 
 of all nations. Those, thus gathered, constitute 
 the '' one new man " in Christ, whose members are 
 collected from " the twain," the two ancient divi- 
 sions of the human family ; and thus collected, they 
 constitute the Church, or no Church in Christ has 
 ever been gathered. The soundness of this inter- 
 pretation is evinced by what immediately precedes 
 this chapter. Speaking of the same company of 
 "saints," which he here calls a ''Temple," the 
 Apostle says that Christ is "head over all things 
 to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of 
 Him that filleth all in all." On this passage I shall 
 hereafter remark more at length. I cite it now 
 merely to show that by the word temple, the 
 Apostle means the Church. 
 
 It behoves us, then, to look well to the question, 
 of what materials is this temple composed ? Look- 
 ing at the chapter in which the building is des- 
 cribed, we find it built of '' saints," only ; of those 
 who by faith are united to Christ and saved. They 
 are particularly addressed as having been " quick- 
 ened from a death in trespasses and sins ;" " raised 
 
54 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 
 
 up and made to sit together in heavenly places in 
 Christ Jesus; "saved by grace through faith;" 
 '' made nigh by the blood of Christ ; '' and blessed 
 with " access by one Spirit unto the Father." Both 
 the Jewish and the Gentile saints, who constitute 
 this "one new man " in Christ, are represented as 
 reconciled to God in one body by the Cross ; " — 
 terms which cannot be applied to mere saints by 
 courtesy. It is doing gross violence to language to 
 say that unconverted Jews and unconverted Gen- 
 tiles are " reconciled unto God by the Cross," and 
 thus made "one body in Christ." Such terms can 
 comprehend none but true believers, made one in 
 the true Saviour. Hence in this passage, the con- 
 verted Ephesians are called " no more strangers 
 and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints," 
 saints with saints, " and of the household of God ; " 
 " built on the foundation of the Apostles and 
 Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cor- 
 ner stone." In Him, " all the building," all, every 
 stone and timber from foundation to pinnacle, all 
 is "fitly framed together ; " and, thus framed, all 
 "groweth," all, every part and particle, " unto an 
 holy TEMPLE in the Lord ;" a temple, all "holy," 
 and all "in the Lord ;" all "bnilded together for 
 an habitation of God through the Spirit ; " and, 
 through that Spirit, filled by its occupant in every 
 part 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 55 
 
 Sucli is the simple import of tlie passage on 
 which we are now engaged. It describes a Church, 
 every part of which is united to Christ by faith, 
 in a vital and holy union ; and, thus united, is 
 saved by Him from sin and everlasting death. In 
 building this Temple, no account is taken of any 
 other materials ; no other materials are found in 
 any part of the sacred edifice. It is built for 
 God, and "through the Spirit" God dwells in it, 
 vitalizing, sanctifying, and finally glorifying every 
 part. It is that Church which Christ " filleth all 
 in all." 
 
 This view is sustained by reference to the true 
 idea of a Temple. In the sense of the Bible, 
 what constitutes a Temple ? Not a mere pile of 
 hewn stone and cedar, overlaid with gold and 
 silver. We may call such a structure a Temple, 
 and by this customary mode of speech we are too 
 easily led to suppose that, in itself, it is a Temple. 
 This, however, is a low view. Why was that won- 
 derful edifice at Jerusalem a true Temple ? Not 
 because of its materiality, or visibility ; not be- 
 cause of its costliness or splendor ; not because of 
 its curious structure or mj^stic design ; but because 
 of God's indwelling. This indwelling makes any 
 place, any thing, a Temple. This made a Temple 
 of Jacob's solitary night-tent, the stone pillow of 
 Luz, with the one-arched sky-canvas above. 
 
^G rilE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 *' Surely," said tlie patriarch, when he awoke to 
 realities, " surely Jehovah is in this place, and I 
 knew it not." " How dreadful is this place ! This 
 is none other but the House of God, and this is the 
 gate of heaven." He had been in an august Tem- 
 ple because he had been specially with God. This, 
 too, shows why the true believer's body is a Tem- 
 ple. " Know ye not that your Body is the Temple 
 of the Holy Ghost, which is in you ?" And this, 
 emphatically, made a Temple of the perfect Body 
 of Christ. When His hearers understood Him to 
 speak of destroying the Temple at Jerusalem, and 
 building it in three days, we are told " He spake 
 of the Temple of His Body." It was a most per- 
 fect Temple ; for " in Him was God manifest in 
 the flesh." " In Him dwelleth all the fullness of 
 the Godhead bodily." 
 
 This opens for us the meaning of the w^ord Tem- 
 ple, in Eph. 2 : 21. The company there de- 
 scribed are a Temple, because in each and every 
 one " Christ dwelleth by faith." His dwelling in 
 each separately, and thus in all collectively, makes 
 them collectively, what each is individually, a won- 
 drous Temple ; '' the Temple of the living God ;" 
 God '' dwelling in them and walking in them ;" 
 He, "their God," and they " His people;" He, 
 their "Father," and they His "Sons and daugh- 
 ters ;" all builded together and constituting the 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. rj 
 
 one glorious Temple of the saints. 2 Cor. 6 : 
 16, 18. 
 
 This Temple, in every part inhabited, this 
 Church, in every member vitalized, by God, is 
 identical with that '' Spiritual House," which St. 
 Peter describes as built of '' living stones " on the 
 Foundation of Christ, the '' living Stone." This 
 edifice he immediately calls " a peculiar people," 
 designed to ^' show forth the praises of Him who 
 hath called them out of darkness into His marvel- 
 ous light ; which, in time past, were not a people, 
 but are now the people of God ; which had not 
 obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy." 
 1 Pet. 2 : 5, 9, 10. It is eminently ''a Spiritual 
 House," all alive from the Foundation to the top 
 stone, with the life of Christ in every one of His 
 members. 
 
 I have thus shown that the idea of the Church, 
 presented in the first chapter, is evidently found 
 in various places, where the Church is described 
 under the several metaphors of a Fold, a Family, 
 a Bride, a Body, and a Temple. To m}^ interpre- 
 tation of these metaphors I am aware, indeed, that 
 some apparently fair objections may be raised. 
 
 1. It may be said that the epistle from which 
 most of the passages are cited, and other epistles 
 as well, were addressed to local churches, evi- 
 dently visible, mixed, imperfect bodies -, and that, 
 
58 TEE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 therefore, these metaphors must be interpreted in 
 accordance with this idea of the churches ad- 
 dressed. 
 
 But to this I reply : the fact that the Epistles 
 were addressed to local mixed churches necessi- 
 tates no such conclusion. The fact that the Apos- 
 tle was writing to a probably mixed company at 
 Ephesus, for instance, no more restrained him, 
 when he had reached the heart of his subject, from 
 rising above the idea of a local and mixed body 
 into a conception and description of the Church as 
 one, universal and holy, than it restrained him 
 from rising into the sublimity of any other Chris- 
 tian verity with which he wished to fill their 
 thoughts and fire their hearts. In truth, when we 
 come to look at the metaphors which have been 
 explained, a careful study of the context uniformly 
 shows that the inspired writers were conceiving 
 and describing, not the local and the mixed, but 
 the Universal and the Holy Church ; the Church 
 of Christ in its largest, highest comprehension. 
 
 2. Again, it may be said, that the context of 
 some of these metaphors exhorts the members of 
 the Church thus addressed, to fidelity and holi- 
 ness, and warns them against unfaithfulness and sin ; 
 and that we may hence infer that the Church 
 described was a mixed body, composed of true 
 believers and of such as merely professed the true 
 
TESTUIONY OF SCRIPTURE. 59 
 
 faith, while they were really either self-deceived 
 or hypocrites. 
 
 To this, however, I reply : that the exhorta- 
 tions to fidelity and holiness, and the warnings 
 against unfaithfulness and sin, whenever addressed 
 to the Church, as described in these metaphors, do 
 not prove that the Church, thus exhorted and 
 warned, is composed, in part, of impenitent men, 
 of men without faith and with none of the ele- 
 ments of holiness. It proves no more than this : 
 that, in the Church so gloriously described, Chris- 
 tians are not perfect in holiness at the first mo- 
 ment of their union with Christ by faith ; that 
 they are, too often, needlessly imperfect ; and 
 that they are, therefore, proper subjects for the 
 discipline of such grave instructions as have been 
 given. The "Spiritual House" into which they 
 are builded, is, in every part, a live Temple ; 
 Spiritual life goes out of the live Rock into every 
 single stone built thereon j so that what is lacking 
 in each is, not the living principle, but some of its 
 fuller and higher actings ; not the true nature of 
 the holy materials, but some of their more finished 
 and heavenly adornings. 
 
 The point before us, then, may be considered as 
 sufficiently clear. Various metaphors in the Bible 
 describe the Church under the idea of it which I 
 have presented ; an idea, which, in exhibiting the 
 
6c THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 essential marks of the " One Holy Catholic Church," 
 knows nothing of any outward unity in submission 
 to one temporal human head, the Pope ; nor any 
 thing of such unity in subordination to One Epis- 
 copacy with Sacraments Episcopally administered ; 
 an idea, in short, which, in unfolding the essential 
 being of the Church, holds forth Christ and life 
 from Him by faith in the Individual Soul, as the 
 very base and substratum, yea, the very material 
 and superstructure of that Church. This idea of 
 Christ's " Holy Catholic Church '' the Bible cer- 
 tainly gives ; and, doubtless, it is only, because 
 many have been so long familiar with a different, 
 so long wedded to a conflicting notion, that this 
 seems to any mind strange, or otherwise than based 
 on the highest reason. 
 
 The Bible, it is admitted, often uses the word 
 Church in a looser sense : it often speaks of the 
 Church as a thing of external organization, and en- 
 dowed with a ministry and sacraments ; and in 
 this character we shall hereafter be called to study 
 the subject. For the present, it is enough to add 
 that the highest, truest idea of the Church which 
 we find in the Bible, is that in which Christ, and 
 individual union with Him by a true faith, with the 
 result of growing spiritual life, constitute the very 
 soul and body of the Divine Confederacy. The 
 Churcb, in this idea of it, is a thing not of change- 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 6i 
 
 ful and perishable visibilities, but of iDermanent 
 and imperishable spiritualities. It is essentially 
 marked by just such inward relations and affec- 
 tions as are at once suggested to thought by the 
 metaphors under which we have seen it figured. 
 The Fold, the Family, the Bride, tlie Body, the 
 Temple ! What things of life are these ! How 
 full is each of Divine affinities ! What a Fold is 
 that of which Christ is Shepherd ! What a Fam- 
 ily, in which Christ is Father ; what a Bride, to 
 which Christ is Husband ; what a Body, to which 
 Christ is Head ; and what a Temple, of which 
 Christ is both Foundation-Stone and cement ! And 
 whom does the Bible set forth as participants in 
 these holy relationships ? It shows that he is a 
 sheep of Christ's Fold who hears His voice and 
 follows Him ; that he is of Christ's Family who is 
 born unto Him by the Spirit, through the truth ; 
 that he is a part of Christ's Bride who is espoused 
 to Him in faith and holy love ; that he is a member 
 of Christ's Body who draws spiritual life, and feels 
 a living control, from Him as Head : and that he is 
 in Christ's Temple who is built on Him as the only 
 Foundation, and grows, as by a Sacred Cement, to 
 that on which he is builded. He only who enters 
 into these heavenly affinities, and is held by them, 
 comes within the scope of such passages as have 
 been examined ; and all who do thus enter, and 
 
62 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 are thus held, in affinity with Christ, do also come 
 within the scope of those passages, by whatever 
 outward name they may be known, in whatever 
 varying clime they may be found, and under what- 
 ever outward disadvantages they may labor. 
 Nothing but these affinities can make up the Body 
 of the true " Holy Catholic Church," and nothing 
 can cut off from this Bod}' where these affinities 
 really exist. In the Visible Church, as we shall 
 hereafter see, outward institutions of ministry, and 
 sacraments, and discipline, have their proper place, 
 and are invested with due importance. They bind 
 us, as things of order and as means of grace ; but 
 they bind not God, as essentials to Christian life 
 and incorporation into Christ. His one Holy 
 Church is the issue of His vforking, by whatever 
 means ; and when, by his working, it is gath- 
 ered into Christ, nothing can cut off from it 
 that does not at the same time sever from Christ 
 himself. 
 
 As yet, however, I have examined but one of the 
 two sets of passages referred to. Our study of the 
 other must be reserved for the next chapter. Mean- 
 while, I ask two things : that you will not conclude 
 hastily against the view which has been presented, 
 and that you will not write me down as no Church- 
 man because I have attempted to unfold this view. 
 In what I have yet to say, I hope to show that 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 63 
 
 this view of the Church at large is sustained by 
 our own standards, and that the view thus sus- 
 tained is in perfect keeping with all good fidelity 
 and affection to the Church of our own tried 
 loyalty and love. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTUEE. LITEEAL TEXTS. 
 
 XN looking into the Bible for the ground of that 
 -^ definition of the Church, which makes this 
 Body commensurate with the whole company of 
 " the saved/' in union with Christ the Saviour, I 
 have already examined one set of passages which 
 describe the Church under certain metaphors. 
 I am now to examine another, or passages 
 which present the Church under its own proper 
 name. 
 
 This examination is important, because, however 
 clearly the Church, described by those metaphors, 
 may seem to correspond with the idea before us, 
 it is by some contended that, in all cases where the 
 word Church is used, it designates an outward and 
 mixed body, composed, in part, of true believers, 
 and, in part, of those who merely profess the true 
 faith, though they may be self-deceived, hypo- 
 crites, or apostates ; or that, in the Bible, the 
 word Church designates a visible and organized 
 society, with officers, sacraments, and mixed body 
 
 (64) 
 
TESTIMONY OF SGHIPTURE. 65 
 
 of members. Now, if this be true, it will appa- 
 rently invalidate our interpretations of the meta- 
 phors which have been examined. But if it be 
 not true, if there be passages in which the word 
 Church carries the sense of our definition, then 
 will our interpretation of those metaphors be con- 
 iirmed, and the doctrine of the Church, involved 
 therein, be established. 
 
 Now, that the word Church is often used in the 
 Bible to designate a visible, organized and mixed 
 society has already been freely admitted. And 
 yet, this is not the primitive meaning of the word, 
 which is translated by the term Church. In its 
 primitive use, the word Ecclesia means simply an 
 assembly, an aggregate of individuals ; and it has 
 so little to do with visible organization, rules and 
 constitution of government, that it was, in early 
 times, applied to a tumultuous gathering, a very 
 mob ; and that, to designate a lawful, or organized 
 body, it needed an adjective to express the quality 
 of lawfulness, or organization. Thus, we see, that 
 when St. Paul was preaching at Ephesus (Acts 19 : 
 23-41), and when the Ephesians, thinking the honor 
 of their goddess in peril, and being excited to rage 
 by the crafty silversmith, Demetrius, '' rushed," 
 rabble-like, " into the theatre," and for " two 
 hours " shouted, '' Great is Diana of the Ephe- 
 sians ;" though ' ' the whole city was filled with 
 5 
 
66 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 confusion/' and '' the more part knew not where- 
 fore they were come together,'' save to threaten 
 violence to the Christians ; yet, this very mob, the 
 most disorderly of its kind, was called anEcclesia. 
 " TheEcclesia," says the sacred writer, " was con- 
 fused, and the more part knew not wherefore they 
 were come together." And then, when " the Town 
 Clerk " had succeeded in " appeasing the people," 
 he "dismissed the Ecclesia," adding, that if they. 
 Jiad any actionable matter against the Christians it 
 "should be determined in a lawful assembly" — 
 
 ev riQ evvofiG) eKKXrjaia. 
 
 The word itself, therefore, though generally 
 translated Church, yet means simply an assembly, 
 with no reference to organization and government : 
 and, when used to designate an organized body, 
 it originally needed an adjective to express the 
 quality of organization. There is no controlling 
 reason to suppose that, when the word first came 
 to be applied to Christians, it was used to designate 
 an organized, visible Church, in our sense of the 
 term. It meant, I apprehend, simply the unorgan- 
 ized company of Christ's disciples. Afterwards, 
 when the Christian Church had become an organ- 
 ized and visible body, or rather a multitude of such 
 bodies, the word was doubtless adopted as the 
 common name of each ; — yet, not so as to preclude 
 its first use as the name of the one, whole company 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 67 
 
 of Christ's true disciples, in vital union with Him 
 as their one divine head. 
 
 In Acts 7 : 38, the word is applied to the He- 
 brews in the wilderness. " This," Moses, "is he 
 that was with the Church, r?/ eKuXrioLa, in the wilder- 
 ness." But here eKiiX7]Gta means — not the Church 
 of God under the Old Testament dispensation, but — 
 the aggregate of individuals constituting the politi- 
 co-theocratic state of the Hebrew people. An or- 
 ganized visible Church, as distinct from that social 
 theocracy, did not then exist. The Hebrew polity 
 in the wilderness was a theocratic state, carrying 
 among its individuals the elements of the spiritual 
 Church, rather than a visible organized Church, in 
 distinction from the state. Acts, 7: 38, may prop- 
 erly be rendered, '' This is He that was in the con- 
 gregation in the wilderness ; " that congregation 
 being the whole aggregate of the Hebrew people, 
 and not a Church, as we understand the term. 
 
 Again, in Matt. 18 : 17, the word is applied to 
 those who were to hear complaints against offend- 
 ers. " If he shall neglect to hear them,'' the " two 
 or three witnesses" — '' tell it to the Church," rji 
 sKKXTjGca, etc. But to argue that by enKX-qata, here 
 is meant an organized, visible Church, with power 
 to constitute itself a court for the trial and punish- 
 ment of offenders, is to plant the seed of a monster 
 evil. The idea of a Christian Church, with author- 
 
68 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 ity to try offenses, and to punish by the infliction 
 of positive penalty, is anti - Christian and has 
 wrought incalcuhible mischief. The language of 
 Christ implies no more than this : " If thy brother 
 offend thee, and will not listen to personal, pri- 
 vate expostulation, nor to that of two or three 
 witnesses, nor to the assembly of the brethren, 
 withdraw from his company and have no more to 
 do with him than with the rest of an ungodly 
 world." This is all the power of discipline with 
 which Christ has invested His disciples — the power 
 of separating themselves from all approving fellow- 
 ship with incorrigibly unworthy professors of His 
 Gospel. Vide 2 Thess. 3 : 6-15 ; 1 Tim. 6:3-5; 
 1 Cor. 5 : 1 ad fin. The word etcK^7]Gta, Matt. 18 : 
 17, does not, then, imply a visible, organized 
 Church. Such a Christian body had not then come 
 into recognized existence. 
 
 Since, then, the word eKKXrjaia does not, of itself, 
 imply an organized visible Church, let us now pro- 
 ceed to search for passages in which it is used to 
 designate the whole company of Christ^s truly be- 
 lieving disciples — or, the simple aggregate of those 
 who are saved through Him. 
 
TESTIMONY OF 8CEIPTVRE. 69 
 
 II. 
 
 Passages which present the Church under its 
 
 OWN PROPER NAME. 
 
 1. I cite, first, Matt. 16 : 18. "Upon this rock 
 I will build MY Church ; and the gates of hell shall 
 not prevail against it." 
 
 This is the passage on which Rome relies for 
 establishing her claim to be regarded as the one 
 visible Catholic Church, and the claim of her bish- 
 op to universal supremacy, as successor to St. Peter, 
 and sole vicar of Christ on earth. She interprets 
 the passage thus : " Thou art Peter," a rock, " and 
 on this rock I will build my Church ; and the gates 
 of hell shall not prevail against it" {vide Encyc, 
 Am., vol. X., p. 253, art. " Pope, by a Catholic"); 
 making Peter and the rock identical, constituting 
 one head of the Church on earth, and making 
 union with that head necessary. 
 
 Now, though this intcu^pretation were, in princi- 
 ple, correct, it would yield no support to the claims 
 of Rome and her bishop, unless they could prove, 
 what history furnishes no infallible means of prov- 
 ing, that Peter was the first bishop, or ever a 
 bishop, of that Church ; and, what there is no 
 means at all of proving, that Peter's primacy among 
 
70 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 the Apostles made the Bishop of Rome and his suc- 
 cessors supreme temporal head of the whole Chris- 
 tian Church on earth. 
 
 But, is the above interpretation, in principle, 
 correct ? Many able and learned commentators on 
 the passage have answered this question in the 
 negative. Let us, then, look at the passage itself. 
 
 Christ had just asked His disciples — "Who do 
 men say that I am ? '' And, on being answered 
 that some called Him " John the Baptist ; " others, 
 " Elias ; " and others still, " Jeremias," or '' one of 
 the prophets ; " He asked again, '' But who say ye 
 that I am ? " To this question, addressed to them 
 all, Peter, more prompt, as well as pot-sibly more 
 divinely enlightened, than the rest, replied, '*Thou 
 art The Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus 
 immediately added; "Blessed art thou, Simon, 
 Bar-jona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it 
 unto thee ; but my Father who is in heaven.*' Then 
 follows the passage quoted. Let us read the two 
 main words in the original Greek: "I say unto 
 thee thou art ne-pocr,'' (a stone) "and upon ravrxi 
 Txi TTerpa (this rock) I will build my Church ; and the 
 gates of hell shall not prevail against it.'' Upon 
 this reading, the question arises ; is Uerpoo, here, 
 identical with Tai;r^ r^ Tze-pa ? If Christ had intend- 
 ed to constitute Peter the foundation of His Church, 
 would He not have said, "Thou art Ue-poa, and 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 71 
 
 upon rovT(^ TG) TTerpG) I will build my Church ? This 
 He did not say : He changed the main word in the 
 sentence : and the question is pertinent ; why this 
 change of Uerpo^, the proper name given to a disci- 
 ple, to Uerpa, the foundation of the Church ? 
 
 For light on this point, let us remember that 
 Christ was then testing His disciples' enlighten- 
 ment as to His true character : *' Who do men say 
 that I am?" ''Who say ye that I am?"— and 
 that, thus examined, Simon, answering apparently 
 for the rest as well as for himself, had " witnessed 
 a true confession" by replying, ''Thou art the 
 Christ, the Son of the living God." This, then, 
 Jesus, " the anointed, the Son of the living God" — 
 a truth revealed to Simon, and peradventure to 
 others of the disciples, by "the Father in heaven," 
 — this, the most elementary truth of Christianity, 
 the very corner-stone of the Christian faith, the 
 very life of the Church — this was the grand dis- 
 closure which the dialogue had elicited, the weighty 
 theme which then filled all their minds. Is it not, 
 then, in the highest degree improbable that, while 
 His own soul was laboring, and while the minds of 
 His disciples were filled, with the grandest birth 
 of revelation, Jesus dropped the sublime theme, 
 the very starting point and goal of His own inqui- 
 ries, wholly out of His thoughts, brought in Simon, 
 not as a subordinate, but as the chief object of re 
 
72 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 
 
 gard, and sunk the sublime teaching of the occasion 
 to an anti-climax by declaring that He would build 
 His forever immovable Church on the foundation 
 of a weak and unstable man, divinely enlightened 
 indeed in the knowledge of his Master's Messiah- 
 ship, but rash, changeful and naturally destitute of 
 the high moral courage of a great character ? On 
 the contrary, is it not, in a corresponding degree, 
 probable, that Jesus was still full of His main 
 theme, and that he wrought it out, and carried 
 it up to the real climax, not only in a true disclo- 
 sure of His own Messiahship, but also in the asser- 
 tion of the crowning truth that, as the Messiah, He 
 is " the chief corner stone " of the Church, and that 
 " other foundation can no man lay than that is 
 laid?'^ And is it not, in an equal degree, prob- 
 able that His allusion to Simon was but incidental 
 to His main purpose, designed to give him the new 
 proper name, Ue-poo, by way of commemorating his 
 confession of the real nerpa, and dignifying him, as 
 on other occasions He dignified the rest of the 
 Apostles, with the badge of that authorit}^, which 
 they were to exercise as nearest to Himself in His 
 own " glorious Church ? " 
 
 Taking, then, the light thus thrown upon these 
 two words, may we not accept the following as a 
 fair paraphrase of the whole passage? "What 
 think ye of my person and character ? Simon 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 73 
 
 answered, ' We believe that Thou art the Messiah, 
 
 the Only Begotten of the living God/ Jesus said 
 
 unto him, ' Thou art highly favored, Bar-jona ; this 
 
 foundation- truth of Christianity has been revealed 
 
 to thee and thy fellow disciples not by man, but by 
 
 my Father in Heaven. And now I give unto thee 
 
 a new name ; henceforth thou shalt be called nerpoa, 
 
 to commemorate thy confession of me as the true 
 
 lierpa. Upou this lierpa, this Eock, besides which 
 
 no man can lay any other foundation, I will build 
 
 MY Church ; so that, thus founded and thus built, 
 
 no persecutions of men, no subtleties of the Devil, 
 
 and no powers of Death, shall ever prevail, either 
 
 to extinguish or to subvert it. Moreover, in this 
 
 Church, thus divinely founded, and thus immovably 
 
 built, I give to thee, as I shall hereafter give to 
 
 thy fellow Apostles, an office and authority peculiar 
 
 to yourselves, as nearest to me in my evangelical 
 
 kingdom, the power of opening and shutting, with 
 
 the certainty that your acts on earth shall be ratified 
 
 in Heaven.' " ( Vide 1 Cor. 3 : 11 ; Matt. 18 : 18 ; 
 
 John 20 : 23.) 
 
 For one, looking at the passage in this light, I 
 cannot wonder at the comment of Stillingfleet : 
 '' The Rock, spoken of by Christ in his speech to 
 Peter, if taken doctrinally, was St. Peter's confes- 
 sion ; if taken personally, it was none but Christ 
 himself;" nor can I marvel that insubstantial 
 
74 THE LIVING TESTPLE. 
 
 agreement with him are to be found Chrysostom 
 and Augustine, with other fathers, among the 
 ancients, and Jewell, with similar authorities, 
 among the moderns. ( Vide Fathers of the Eng. 
 Ch., vol. 7, p. 302.) 
 
 This, however, is not all the light that may be 
 made to shine on this passage. St. Paul throws on 
 it another powerful ray. " Our fathers," says he, 
 1 Cor. 10 : 1-4, " were all under the cloud, and all 
 passed through the sea ; and were all baptized unto 
 Moses in the cloud and in the sea ; and did all eat 
 of the same spiritual meat, and did all drink of the 
 same spiritual drink ; for they drank of that spir- 
 itual Rock that followed them, and that Rock, 
 iierpa, was Christ." The same inspired pen which 
 wrote this wrote also that other pregnant sentence, 
 " Other Foundation can no man lay than that is 
 laid, which is Jesus Christ.'' 1 Cor. 3 : 11. Here, 
 then, is light indeed, the very Rock, nsrpa, by 
 name, of which Jesus was speaking to Peter, Christ 
 himself, the only Foundation of His Church. This 
 light, too, will shine all the clearer, if we remember 
 that the Prophet who wrote the Gospel for the 
 Jews had predicted Christ under this very idea 
 of a Foundation Rock. " Behold I lay in Zion for 
 a foundation a Stone, a tried Stone, a precious 
 Corner Stone, a Sure Foundation ; he that believ- 
 eth shall not make haste." Isa. 28 : 16 ; comp. 1 
 
TESTIMONT OF SCRIPTURE. 75 
 
 Pet. 2 : 5, 6. Tliese words of Isaiali, applied to 
 Christ by St. Peter himself, embody the very idea 
 of Jesus in Matt. 16 : 18. Whosoever '' belie veth " 
 on this Foundation Pock, says Peter, *' shall not be 
 confounded.'^ The Church thus founded and built 
 shall never be subverted. The disciples to whom 
 Christ spake were, doubtless, familiar with this 
 prophecy of Isaiah, and we may well conclude that 
 this prophecy furnished to their minds the key to 
 the meaning of their Divine Master, when He said : 
 '^On this Pock I will build my Church, and the 
 gates of hell shall not prevail against it." They 
 needed no labored exposition in words to guide 
 them in catching liis meaning when he uttered 
 those living truths, proclaiming Himself alone the 
 eternal Foundation, safeguard and keeper, of His 
 own spiritual, believing Church. 
 
 Let us briefly draw out the argument from what 
 has now been said. Isaiah, speaking by that 
 ^' spirit of prophecy '^ which is "the testimony of 
 Jesus," foretells Christ, as the Foundation of a 
 believing and immovable Church. Christ Himself, 
 whose inspiration spake by that prophet, calls the 
 Foundation of His Church, ner|oa,a Rock. And St. 
 Paul, speaking by revelation from the same In- 
 spirer, declares that this lierpa, Rock, was Christ. 
 This is light from the Bible. The Rock, in Matt. 
 16 : 18, is not Simon, but Christ Himself; and His 
 
76 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 
 
 words to His disciple mean just this : '' I give thee 
 the new name, Jierpoa, because thou hast truly con- 
 fessed me, the predicted ne-pa, the anointed Son of 
 the living God ; and on this Rock I will build my 
 Church, that living Temple of believers, which 
 shall never be moved." 
 
 And now, let us inquire, what kind of a Church 
 is this ? I answer, it is a Church whicli Christ 
 builds, not man. " On this Rock I will build my 
 Church." Christ is Builder here, and only Christ. 
 He is truly a Builder. Not only is He the true 
 Foundation, but He really and ceaselessly works in 
 building on that Foundation. He does all the work 
 in the Building. By His Spirit and His Truth He 
 lays every stone in the edifice. '* On this Rock I 
 will build my Church." Here is no mistake, no 
 fallibility, no human infirmity, in selecting and 
 arranging the materials. All is done with a Divine 
 Master- Workman's science and skill. Christ selects 
 every piece, and builds it into the one sacred 
 Temple ; and he never builds upon Himself and 
 into union with Himself the souls of unbelieving, 
 self-deceived, or hypocritical men. He builds 
 with those only who accept His invitation, " come 
 to Him " by faith, and " find rest unto their souls ; '' 
 those only who live and walk in Him, " rooted and 
 built up in Him, and stablished in the faith." This 
 is what makes His Church immovable. Against 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 77 
 
 the Cliurch, in a merely visible sense, " the gates 
 of hell " have oft prevailed. By the floods which 
 have poured through those open gates, the Churches 
 of Jerusalem, and Antioch, and Africa, and those 
 Seven of the Proconsular Asia, have all been 
 swept away; and the same has virtually happened 
 to all the other and later Churches of the East — 
 mere fragments of them tottering still, to make 
 their desolations the more visible ; while, as to 
 even the great Western Church of the seven-hilled 
 city, though those wasteful floods of hell leave her 
 still standing in imposing magnitude, yet have they 
 filled her with their own deep impurities, and left 
 her thus, the all but deadly enemy of the Gospel. 
 But the true Church of Christ, the Church of all 
 believers, the Church which he has built and is 
 building on Himself, from all nations and all names, 
 this has never been moved ; against this the floods 
 from the gates of hell have beaten and shall for- 
 ever beat in vain. Against this they never have 
 prevailed, and never can prevail. This Church 
 rests on Christ, and He keeps it safe from every 
 storm. 
 
 Such, I venture to conclude, is the sense of this 
 famous passage. In looking for the meaning of 
 such very peculiar language, unquestionably in- 
 tended to draw Christ Himself into view, in His 
 most essential, live-giving office, it is quite below 
 
78 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 the subject to suppose that He ends by founding 
 His Church on a fallible creature, to be built up 
 with the implements of a human ministry, sent 
 forth, in all their infirmity of judgment, to gather 
 into a visible society all sorts of men, the believ- 
 ing and the unbelieving, the holy and the unholy ; 
 united, as such heterogenous elements must neces- 
 sarily be, by merely outward bonds in an external 
 organization. Nothing can come up to the nature 
 of the occasion and the design of the discourse, 
 but that view which considers Christ as presenting 
 Himself, " the anointed Son of the living God,'' 
 the living and the life-giving Saviour, building on 
 Himself His own Spiritual Church ; by His Word 
 and Spirit calling, teaching, and drawing believing 
 souls into vital union with Himself ; and thus con- 
 stituting them, in Himself, an impregnable Church, 
 the vast " assembly '' of those who " have received 
 Christ Jesus the Lord," and who '' walk in Him, 
 rooted and built up in Him and established in the 
 faith." Col. 2 : 6, 7. This is work for the Divine 
 Builder ; and those only on whom He works with 
 effect, are members of that Church which rests on 
 Himself, never to be moved. 
 
 I will only add, that at the time when Christ 
 uttered the words which we have been examining, 
 no distinctly Christian organization existed. Either, 
 therefore, the word Church, in this passage, must 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 79 
 
 mean the Spiritual Church of which I have spoken, 
 or it must signify the then visible Church under 
 the Jewish Dispensation, to be followed by its visi- 
 ble Gentile successor ; the Jewish being about to 
 crucify the Son of God, and the Gentile destined 
 often to " crucify Him afresh, and to put Him to 
 an open shame." Do the occasion, then, and the 
 words which it called forth, point to the Church 
 in this latter sense ? No. The Church, built on 
 Christ, has another character and shares another 
 destiny. 
 
 2. I cite, next, Acts 2 : 47. "And the Lord 
 added daily to the Church such as should be 
 saved ;" literally, added " the saved " (jova au)^oiie- 
 ^ov^) to the Church." The participle here is the 
 present, not the future, as we have it in our 
 translation ; those who " are saved," not those 
 who shall, or should, peradventure, be saved. 
 
 This passage refers to a fact anterior to any 
 distinct development of a visible and organized 
 Christian Church. As a " communion of saints," 
 indeed, the "Ecclesia" had existed from the be- 
 ginning ; and to this " the saved " might be added. 
 The Visible Church, under the Jewish Dispensa- 
 tion, as a sort of Theocratic State, was also still in 
 existence ; but, as it was then passing out of life, it 
 is not supposable that " the saved " were added to 
 that dying organization. Since then the Church, 
 
8o THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 as a distinctly visible Christian organization, can 
 not be said to have more than begun to develop 
 itself, it is the more probable that by " theEccle- 
 sia" here, to which "the saved were added," is 
 meant the enduring " communion of saints " of all 
 ages ; Christ's " One Holy Catholic Church ;" the 
 unfailing, the never transitory Church. To this 
 ''the saved" were a truly fitting addition; and 
 the term fitly indicates the idea of " theEcclesia'' 
 as it probably existed in the mind of the inspired 
 writer. The sense of the passage, then, may be 
 thus expressed: ''The Lord daily increased the 
 Ecclesia, the great company of the saints, by the 
 addition of those who were then saved." The 
 increase was in exact proportion to the number of 
 " the saved.'' No other element seems to have been 
 then in view. The Church here described was, 
 evidently, the simple aggregate of " the saved." 
 And this becomes the more evident, when we look 
 at the language used : " The Lord added," not 
 man. The added were baptized, indeed, but it 
 was by the Holy Ghost, as well as with water. 
 It is true that, as the Christian organization gradu- 
 ally took on its visible development, we begin to 
 find evidence of man's work, not the Lord's. An- 
 nanias and Sapphira, and Simon Magus appear 
 among "the sacramental host," and are cut off; 
 but under that outpouring of the Holy Ghost, dur- 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE, gi 
 
 ing the first sermon of St. Peter, we hear of none 
 but '* the saved," and of nothing but the Lord's 
 work in saving them. The Lord would have His 
 Church to consist of none but " the saved ;" but 
 when '' the saved " began to assume distinctly the 
 forms of a visible organization, the evidences of 
 man's infirmity began to show themselves in the 
 mixing among them of earth's impure and unsaved 
 elements. I doubt not, indeed.that at the time re- 
 ferred to (Acts 2 : 47), the visible Church, under its 
 Christian form, was beginning to develop itself. Its 
 ministry had received their commission, and they 
 were just entering on their labors in preaching 
 the Gospel and baptizing converts. Nevertheless, 
 I think the words, rov^ ou^ofievovg, may be con- 
 sidered as showing what was the true primitive 
 idea of the Church, as the living and holy body of 
 *' the saved " in Christ. 
 
 3. I cite next, Eph. 1: 22, 23: ''And gave 
 Him Head over all to the Church, which is His 
 Body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all." 
 
 In seeking the idea of the Church, of which 
 Christ is here styled the Head, it is important to 
 look at the context. The Apostle prayed for the 
 Ephesian converts, that " the God of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give unto 
 them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the 
 knowledge of Him ; the eyes of their understand- 
 6 
 
82 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 ing being enlightened that they might know what 
 is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of 
 the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and 
 what the exceeding greatness of His power to us- 
 ward who believe, according to the working of His 
 mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when 
 He raised Him from the dead, and' set Him at His 
 own right hand in the heavenly places, far above 
 all principality, and power, and might, and domin- 
 ion, and every name that is named, not only in 
 this world, but also in that which is to come." And 
 then he goes on to address them as those who, hav- 
 ing been "dead in trespasses and sins,'' were at 
 length, unlike all the rest of a dead world, " quick- 
 ened together with Christ, and raised up together, 
 and made to sit together in heavenly places," or 
 relations, in " Christ Jesus." Such is the context, 
 before and after the passage which I have cited ; 
 and it must be allowed that the persons here 
 described, in connection with the word Church, were 
 the renewed subjects of Christ's mighty and saving 
 power. His whole discourse, in this part, teems 
 with the loftiest possible conceptions of the char- 
 acter and privileges of those who belong, in faith 
 and holiness, to Christ. These conceptions lie all 
 round the word Church, as here used. They enter 
 into that word, and embody themselves alone in 
 the idea to which the name Church is given. Glory 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 83 
 
 shines round about it, from the Resurrection mys- 
 tery on earth, and from principalities and powers 
 in Heaven ; from the inward shining of the Holy 
 Ghost, and from the surrounding brightness of 
 divine affinities to Christ. This glorious Church 
 embodies "the Hope of Christ's calling;" it is 
 ''His Inheritance in the Saints." It displays " the 
 exceeding greatness of His power towards them 
 that believe." It constitutes, in the truest sense, 
 " His Body; " and to this, by a divine affinity. He 
 is united as ''Head." It is the fullness of Him 
 thatfilleth "all in all." 
 
 These last words fix the sense of the term Church, 
 in this place : "the fullness of Him that filleth all 
 in all." This Church is the fullness of Christ, 
 because without it He considers Himself incom- 
 plete, wanting the most important of the "prin- 
 cipalities and powers " that are subject unto Him. 
 It is the COMPLEMENT of Himsclf, that which renders 
 Him complete in His spiritual dominion. A King 
 must have a Kingdom, and a Head must have a 
 Body, or neither of them is complete. A kingdom 
 is thus the complement, or "fullness" of a king; 
 and a Body is the complement or " fullness" of a 
 Head. In the same sense the Church is the com- 
 plement or "fullness" of Christ. It is that Body, 
 without which the very idea of His Headship 
 would be incomplete. Hence the Apostle declares. 
 
8^ THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 *' Ye are complete in Him, which is the Head of all 
 priucipality and power." Col. 2 : 10. 
 
 What, then, is the character of that Body, which 
 is thus Christ's "fullness''? Are wicked men, 
 baptized unbelievers and hypocrites, part of Christ's 
 fullness? Is the idea of His Headship incomplete 
 without them ? It is not a suflScient answer to this 
 question to say that the Church, necessary to com- 
 plete the idea of Christ's Headship, may contain 
 some dead or false members, and that, therefore, 
 the mixed, visible Church, may be called " the 
 fullness " of Christ ; for, to show the utter inad- 
 missibility of this construction, the language of the 
 passage before us is made still more peculiar : 
 " The fullness of Him that filleth all in all." This 
 Church is so His fullness that He filleth it "all in 
 all." Taken in its connection, this is not a mere 
 general assertion of Christ's Omnipresence in the 
 world. It is a special declaration of His indwelling 
 in the Church. He fills this Church, " all in all." 
 He fills all the members with all needed grace ; 
 all that is necessary to the perfecting of the divine 
 whole. The Church is His " fullness," and He fills 
 His Church " all in all." There is no member of this 
 Church whom He does not ultimately fill with " all 
 spiritual grace and benediction." This one passage 
 illustrates the sense of all parallel cr analogous 
 passages, and shows that, in the Bible, we are pre- 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 85 
 
 sented with a Church identical with the whole 
 company of '' the saved." 
 
 4. I cite, next, Eph. 3 : 9, 10, 11, 20, 21 : Tn 
 his peculiarly elevated strain iho^ Apostle here de- 
 clares that God '' created all things by Jesus Christ. 
 To the intent that now, unto the principalities and 
 powers in heavenly places might be known by the 
 Church the manifold wisdom of God, according to 
 His eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ 
 Jesus our Lord.'' And then, as a fitting doxology 
 to that most sublime prayer which closes the chap- 
 ter, he adds : '' Now, unto Him that is able to do 
 exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or 
 think, according to the power that worketh in us, 
 unto Him be glory in the Church in Christ Jesus, 
 throughout all ages, world without end." In this 
 last expression, the grammatic turn of the language 
 is similar to that of the passage. Acts, 7 : 38 : ''^^ 
 
 rg eKK/irjata kv ry eprjfKoJ^ Eph. 3 : 21 : '' ^v rri EKKAirjaia 
 
 kv XplGTG).^^ 
 
 "To Him be glory in the Church in Christ 
 Jesus ; " the Church which is in Him truly, by a 
 divine affinity. A visible, mixed Church is not 
 thus in Him. Only a part, the true and sanctilled 
 members, are really in Him. But the whole 
 Church, here mentioned, is really and truly in Him. 
 It is '4he Church in Christ Jesus." It is, there- 
 fore, the spiritual and holy, and not the visible and 
 
86 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 mixed Church, of which the Apostle speaks. This 
 alone comes up, fully and justifyingly to the 
 amazing strength of the language used. This, 
 only is the Church, which "now makes known," 
 and will forever make known, ^' unto the Heavenly 
 principalities and powers, the manifold wisdom of 
 Grod." This only was and is a body fit to be com- 
 prehended in God's "eternal purpose, which He 
 purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." None but the 
 vast assembly of "the saved" were included 
 in that august purpose of the everlasting age. 
 
 5. I cite, next. Col. 1 : 18, 24 : "He is the head 
 of the body, the Church." I "rejoice in m}^ suf- 
 ferings for 3'ou, and fill up that which is behind of 
 the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for His Body's 
 sake, which is the Church." 
 
 In the context, here, the Apostle speaks of those 
 whom God had " made meet to be partakers of the 
 inheritance of the saints in light ;" whom He " had 
 delivered from the power of darkness and trans- 
 lated into the kingdom of His dear son ; " who had 
 been " alienated and enemies in their minds by 
 wicked works," but whom Christ at length, had 
 " reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, 
 to present them holy, and unblamable and unre- 
 provable in His sight ;" and to whom, as " saints," 
 God would " make manifest the riches of the glory 
 of His mystery among the Gentiles, which was — • 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. gy 
 
 Christ in them, the hope of glorj." The company, 
 thus described, are represented as ''reconciled" 
 to God " through the blood of the Cross,'' and as 
 existing, like the spiritual family, formerly describ- 
 ed, " whether in earth or in heaven." In the 
 midst of these strong expressions, so peculiarly 
 descriptive of the saints, and of the Evangelic king- 
 dom of Christ, the Apostle brings in the same idea, 
 as in another place, of Christ's supreme dominion 
 over heavenly principalities and powers ; of His 
 creation of all things ; and of the divine pleasure 
 ''that, in Him should all fullness dwell." And it 
 is while uttering all this, that St. Paul says of 
 Christ, " He is the head of the body, the Church ;" 
 and professes to "rejoice in his sufferings," and in 
 " filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of 
 Christ"— "for His Body's sake, which is the 
 Church." Is it not plain, then, that though speak- 
 ing to the probably mixed company of professed 
 disciples in Colosse, yet he was speaking of a 
 Church of immeasurably larger comprehension, and 
 of truly homogeneous character ; the " one holy 
 Catholic Church, the communion of saints " in all 
 ages, and in both worlds ? 
 
 6. I cite, next, Eph. 5 : 25-27 : " As Christ also 
 loved THE Church, and gave Himself for it ; that 
 He might sanctify and cleause it with the washing 
 of water by the word ; that He might present it to 
 
88 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or 
 wrinkle, or any such thing ; but that it should be 
 holy and without blemish." 
 
 If the Church, here described, be the visible 
 Church, composed of the unexcommunicated sub- 
 jects of baptism, we shall be driven to admit, what 
 indeed a certain class of doctors strenuously main- 
 tain, that all the baptized who die not excommuni- 
 cate, are saved ; and that, in order to their salvation, 
 a purgatory is necessary to purify the countless my- 
 riads of the baptized who die in all the defilement 
 of sin. For, that the Church here described is all 
 saved is manifest from what precedes, as well as 
 from the passage itself The words occur in an 
 exhortation to husbands and wives. "The hus- 
 band," says the Apostle, " is the head of the wife, 
 even as Christ is the head of the Church ; and He 
 is the Saviour of the Body." That is, as I have 
 said in another place, marriage is a sacred symbol 
 of the union between Christ and the Church. With 
 the Church, as here intended, Christ holds a living 
 and spiritual affinity ; and His Union with it is 
 saving: ''He is the Saviour of the Body." The 
 whole Body of which He is the Saviour, is identi- 
 cal with the whole Church of which He is the head. 
 As no part of the Body of which He is the Saviour 
 is lost, so no member of the Church of which He is 
 thus the head perishes. His headship in it is vital, 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 89 
 
 sanctifying, saving. And so it follows, He ''loved 
 this Church " — all of it — " and gave Himself for it, 
 that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the 
 washing of water by the Word," or by the sancti- 
 fying and cleansing power of the Spirit and the 
 Truth, as predicted under the figures of " sprink- 
 ling and pouring clean water " on the true people 
 of God (Ezek. 36 : 25-27 ; Isa. 44 : 3), and " that 
 He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, 
 not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ; 
 but that it should be holy and without blemish." 
 Is it, then, an admissible opinion, that the Apostle 
 is here speaking of the visible Church of all the 
 baptized ? Is Christ the Saviour of this body 
 taken aa a whole ? We cannot receive a proposi- 
 tion so manifestly untrue. And yet, the Church 
 here described is just that Body, of which taken as 
 a whole Christ is the Saviour. Not the visible 
 Church of the baptized, then, but the spiritual 
 Church of "the saved," is the subject of this 
 passage. 
 
 7. I cite, next, 1 Tim. 3:15: " That thou might- 
 est know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the 
 house," or household, "of Grod, which is the 
 Church of the living God, the pillar and ground 
 of the truth." 
 
 Some of the best of the old doctors, like Arch- 
 Bishop Cranmer, understand this well-known pas- 
 
90 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 sage in the sense which I urge. Speaking in their 
 style, we should say, the Church here named is 
 the live Church of the living God. As such, it is 
 really " the pillar and ground of the truth." It re- 
 ceives, exhibits and supports the truth, always in 
 its purity, and in its entireness. Nothing, save its 
 divine Head, is so precious to it as this truth. 
 Nothing, save Christ, is so loftily held up and so 
 unwaveringly maintained by it. Death is sweeter 
 to this Church than treason to the truth. The 
 spirit of this Church is always the martyr spirit. 
 Of the Church, as a visible and mixed body, this 
 cannot be said. In this character, it has often be- 
 trayed, and oftener atill corrupted, or concealed the 
 true and saving Word of God. It is onl}^ the live 
 Church of Christ that always retains, magnifies and 
 preserves the pure Word of His living truth. 
 
 8. I cite, next, Heb. 2 : 10-13 : ''It became 
 Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all 
 things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make 
 the Captain of their salvation perfect through suf- 
 ferings. For^ both He that sanctifieth and they 
 w^ho are sanctified, are all one ; for which cause He 
 is not ashamed to call them brethren : saying, I 
 will declare thy name unto my brethren ; in the 
 midst of THE Church will I sing praise unto 
 thee.'' . . '' Behold ; I, and the children which 
 God hath given me 1 " 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 
 
 9" 
 
 la this passage, the meaning of the word, 
 Church, is uneoueealably manifest. God proposes 
 to Himself a great object, the '* bringing of many 
 sons to glory ;" the salvation of the countless mul- 
 titude of His holy ones. He furnishes the means 
 of securing this great object, by " making the Cap- 
 tain of their salvation perfect through sufferings," 
 the atoning sacrifice of the Lamb of God. He 
 brings forth the result of the whole in the " one '^ 
 sacred family of Him " that sanctifieth and them 
 that are sanctified.'' And then, this sanctifying 
 Saviour appears among them, and calls them 
 "brethren" — His spiritual kin, the "children, 
 whom God hath given Him ;" and having done all 
 this, He names them "the Church," in the midst 
 of which He is to praise the Father of this whole 
 plan and consummation. The word Church, here, is 
 undeniably a synonym of the company whom 
 Christ calls His " bretliren ; " His brethren, not 
 only in that He shared with them their human na- 
 ture, but also, in that they share with Him his 
 spiritual life. And carrying back the thought 
 through the passage ; this company of brethren, 
 with Christ, are identical with that "one " sacred 
 family of the sanctifier and the sanctified ; as these, 
 in their turn, are identical with that bright army 
 of " sons " under the victorious " Captain of their 
 salvation," whom, from age to age, God is " bring- 
 
92 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 ing to glory:" "one" company, under different 
 names : so that, what stands forth in the last as 
 the Church, is simply the ''sons of glory" in the 
 first, of these significant nominations. . 
 
 9. And last, I cite Heb. 12 : 22-24 : "Ye are 
 come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the 
 living God, the Heavenly Jerusalem ; even to an 
 innumerable company of angels ; to the general 
 assembly and Church of the first-born, which are 
 written in Heaven ; and to God, the Judge of all ; 
 and to the spirits of just men made perfect ; and to 
 Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant ; and to 
 the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things 
 than that of Abel." 
 
 Here light shines demonstratively on the point 
 which lam illustrating. The "Mount Zion," "the 
 city of the living God," " the Heavenly Jerusalem, '^ 
 are simply synonyms of the one whole Fellowship 
 of God's holy subjects, consisting, as our hymn 
 expresses it, of "angels, and living saints and 
 dead;" or, as a part of this passage has it, of the 
 "innumerable company of angels," and " the gen- 
 eral assembly and Cliurch of the first-born, which 
 are written in Heaven," and " the spirits of just 
 men made perfect;" the whole in subjection "to 
 God, the Judge of all," and " to Jesus, the Mediator 
 of the new Covenant." With the " angels," as one 
 part of this vast communion, our argument is not 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 93 
 
 specially concerned. Our interest is with the other 
 part, "the general assembly and Church of the 
 first-born;" ''living saints and dead," ''written 
 in Heaven " while living on earth, and becoming, 
 when they enter Heaven, the " spirits of just men 
 made perfect." These " living saints and dead" 
 make up " the general assembly and Church of the 
 first-born," as this and the "innumerable company 
 of angels " make up the entire, grand comprehen- 
 sion, " the city of the Living God, the Heavenly 
 Jerusalem." 
 
 Here, then, we have the Church, in the very 
 idea of it which I am illustrating — the assembly, on 
 earth and in Heaven, of the saved and the glorified. 
 It is not merely the Church as it will be after the 
 Day of Judgment, but the Church as it now is and 
 will be, consisting of saints alive in the flesh, and 
 of saints alive as yet only in the spirit. To this 
 Church every true believer comes, when he comes 
 by a living faith to Christ. " Ye are " (or rather 
 have) " come to the general assembly and Church 
 of the first-born." 
 
 It is, to me, quite surprising that McKnight 
 translates this, "Ye shall come," etc. Hebraisti- 
 cally, he changes a Greek past into an English 
 future tense, on the ground that we cannot be said 
 to come now "to the Heavenly Jerusalem," that 
 coming being a yet future event. Obviously, no 
 
54 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 such strain upon language is needed by the trans- 
 lator of this passage. We may as well say that 
 we do not " come to God, and to Jesus, and to the 
 blood of sprinkling," until after the Day of Judg- 
 ment, as to say that we cannot come to " the 
 Heavenly Jerusalem " until after that Day. Because 
 part of the Universal Communion is already in 
 Heaven, that is no reason why we may not enter 
 it on earth. We must enter it on earth, or we 
 shall never enter it in Heaven. True believers 
 " come now to God ; " they come now " to Jesus, 
 the Mediator of the New Covenant," and to ''the 
 blood of sprinkling." And the}^ come now " to the 
 innumerable company of angels," and to " the 
 spirits of the just made perfect," considered as 
 parts of "the Heavenly Jerusalem," the Universal 
 Fellowship of the holy. They come to all these 
 now, by the faith that makes them one in Christ. 
 They come now, in the realizings of Life eternal, 
 begun already in their souls, and in those inner 
 sealings of the Spirit " whereb}^ they are sealed 
 unto the Day of Redemption." . These are all pres- 
 ent realities ; the earthly privileges of their 
 "citizenship in Heaven;" the seals, in time, of 
 their "joint heirship with Christ" of the full and 
 glorious inheritance of His Kingdom in Eternity. 
 They wait not for these things in dubious gloom 
 till the darkness of the grave be past. The light 
 
TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE. 95 
 
 of them slimes clear on their blessed lot in the land 
 of the living. All these things, however, are no 
 more surely God's truth than is this other : that 
 true Christians come now to this " General Assem- 
 bly and Church of the first-born." The names of 
 all the members of this Church are ''written in 
 Heaven " while they sojourn upon earth ; and the 
 Church to which they thus belong hath a life which, 
 at the same time, touches and animates every saint 
 below and every saint above. 
 
 This, then, is the Church in its essence and in 
 its comprehension. The Bible teaches this doctrine 
 of the Church. Every soul that hath a true faith 
 in Christ is a member of the true Church of Christ ; 
 and this idea of the Church is unspeakably more 
 grand and more important than all that men can 
 conceive of outward splendor and visible unity. 
 
 Here I close my examination of passages in 
 support of that definition of the Church which I 
 have given. All the metaphors and all the literal 
 texts examined are filled with light from this last 
 description of the Church. They all come together, 
 and find their full expression in this one graphic 
 outline of the Church of Christ, as it now exists 
 on earth and in Heaven. 
 
 In the next chapter I propose to enter on some 
 further views of the subject. 
 
CHAPTER lY. 
 
 DISTINCTION BETWEEN VISIBLE AND SPIRITUAL 
 
 "A /TY next step, in the present course of study, 
 ±fX ^ii\ ^^jjg jj^Q Ijj^q g^jn^ examination of the 
 
 standards and standard writers of our Church on 
 the subject before us, in order to show that the 
 view of the Church, which I have presented, is 
 neither novel, nor without the amplest support of 
 human testimony. Before entering on this exami- 
 nation, however, I wish to offer a few preparatory 
 remarks. 
 
 It was one of the strong features of the Protest- 
 ant Reformation that it drew into prominence 
 that long-hidden idea of the Church, which, it is 
 the design of this Treatise to exhibit. ''The 
 Church,'' said one of the teachers of that great age 
 (see, Lambert's Theses in DAubigne's Hist. Ref, 
 vol. iv. p. 34), "The Church is the congregation," 
 the EKKXrioLa, " of those who are united by the same 
 spirit, the same faith, the same God, the same Me- 
 diator, the same Word, by which alone they are 
 
 (96) 
 
TESTIMONY OF STANDARDS. 
 
 97 
 
 governed, and in which alone they have life. 
 D'Aubigne, the historian of that age, observes : 
 '* Undoubtedly, the Lord has left His Church out- 
 ward seals of His grace ; but He has not attached 
 salvation to these signs. The essential point is, 
 the connection of the faithful with the Word, with 
 the Holy Ghost, and with the Head of the Church. 
 This is the great truth, which the Reform proclaims.^' 
 [Hist. Ref , vol. iv, p. 107.] The opposite doctrine 
 has tended to generate, at least in the common 
 mind, the idea that " the Church saves.'' It was 
 the great work of the Reformation to bring out, 
 into proper distinctness, the truth that Christ alone 
 saves, and that the Church in its largest, highest 
 sense, is just the body, or communion, of " the 
 saved.'' 
 
 1. Against this definition of the Church, how- 
 ever, it is objected, that it rests on a distinction be- 
 tween what is called the visible, and what has been 
 termed the invisible Church. This distinction, it 
 is contended, is groundless. To many ecclesiasti- 
 cists the thought of giving the name, Church, to the 
 simple aggregate of those who believe in Christ 
 unto life eternal, and whose hearts are with cer- 
 tainty known to God only, seems positively dis- 
 tasteful. It is not, however, under that distinction, 
 but under this objection and this repugnance to it, 
 that the groundlessness really lies. 
 7 
 
98 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 That there is a vast company, composed exclu- 
 sively of saints, or true believers in Christ ; that 
 He is, in the truest sense, their spiritual or mysti- 
 cal Head ; and that they are, in the truest sense, 
 His spiritual or mystical body ; these things are as 
 certain as that there are a Bible and a Saviour. 
 Why, then, should not the name, Church, be given 
 to what is, in reality, a Church, — the holy company 
 thus constituting one mystical Body in union with 
 its one mystical Head ? Has it not already been 
 shown, that, to this company, the name. Church, is 
 actually given by inspiration itself? The Bible, 
 indeed, speaks of visible and organized bodies as 
 Churches. Such were "the seven Churches" of 
 Asia, and other distinct, outward organizations. 
 But the Bible also speaks of the company of '* the 
 saved,'' of holy believers in Christ, as the Church ; 
 and therefore justifies the distinction between the 
 visible and the spiritual Church. These, indeed, 
 are not two separate, independent bodies, without 
 any mutual relation. In this world, the spiritual, 
 is contained in the visible, as wheaten kernels are 
 contained in the husks and straw : still, the two are 
 distinguishable and ought never to be confounded. 
 A field of the growing grain is called wheat ; and 
 so is a measure of the pure, clean kernel ; and the 
 latter is the true wheat, that for which the whole 
 crop is cultivated. Is this making the chaff and 
 
TESTIMONY OF STANDARDS. gg 
 
 the straw of no value ? By no means. They are 
 temporarily very important. They minister to the 
 protection, growth and ripening of the kernel ; 
 but when the kernel is full grown and ripe, they 
 are separated and set aside, to very inferior uses. 
 In like manner, a visible organization is called a 
 Church ; and so is the spiritual company, '' the 
 communion of saints :" and it is, in the largest, 
 highest sense, the Church, that for which all visible 
 Churches are organized. Nor is this to disparage 
 the Church as a visible organized body. This lat- 
 ter is of great importance. It ministers, or, at 
 least, was designed to minister, to the protection, 
 nurture, and perfecting of the saints in life and 
 godliness. But it is not, in the highest sense, the 
 Church ; and when the saints shall all have been 
 gathered in from the fields of time, the visible or- 
 ganization will be laid aside, as of no longer any 
 use. The true Church, alone, will survive, livins: 
 from the beginning of time through all coming 
 eternity. 
 
 2. It has been objected again, that the very ety- 
 mology of the word, kKKXr]aU, Church, implies the 
 visibility of the company, thus named ; and that, as 
 derived from the verb, KaXeib, " I call," there is the 
 same difference between the ^KfcXrjala, the visible 
 Church, and the peculiar company of the '' saved,'' 
 as there is, in Matt. 20 : 16, between the derivative 
 
100 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 KATjTolj "called," and the knXeKroi, " chosen r' the 
 icXriroi including all to whom the call of the Gospel 
 is brought in the visible Church ; and the eKXeKrol, 
 none but those who are saved. 
 
 This criticism implies that the knXeKroX, by them- 
 selves, are not to be regarded as the Church. As 
 a criticism, however, I think it will not bear ex- 
 amination. In Matt. 20 : 16, indeed, the katitoI and 
 the mXenTol describe the two companies of the pro- 
 miscuously called, and the really saved : and if the 
 word, rendered Church, were simply kXtigU, the 
 criticism would have some weight. But, we find 
 an important addition made to that word. It is not 
 merely kXtigU, but kK-KX'qala ; derived, not merely 
 from mXeC)j " I call,'' but from the compound, ek- 
 KaXew, ''I call out." This makes the sK-fcXTjala, or 
 Church, agree in force with the eKXenrol, and desig- 
 nate, as I have urged, the company of " the saved," 
 and not merely that of " the called," as the Church. 
 So far as mere etymology is concerned, the kKuXriaXa 
 is a company " called out;" as Christ said of His 
 disciples ; " I have chosen you out of the world." 
 The EKKXTjala are called out of the world, as the 
 ekXektoI are chosen out of the world ; the two words 
 are etymological equivalents. Besides, in Eom. 
 8 : 29, kX7]tol^ called, is identical in sense with 
 skXektoI, chosen, in Matt. 20 : 16. 
 
 As to the alleged visibility of the eKKXrjGla, this 
 
TESTIMONY OF STANDARDS. loi 
 
 makes nothing against this sense of the word. The 
 old phrase " Invisible Church/^ may mislead us 
 here. What is meant by this phrase ? In the 
 seventeenth century, a period of intense conflict 
 between the Protestant Church in England and her 
 Eomish opponents, it was a phrase much in use. 
 Whether it was a wisely selected phrase, it may 
 be doubted. But, be this as it may, it meant — not 
 that the Church, in this idea of it, is a mere ab- 
 straction, an invisible notion, but — that the faith in 
 Christ and its resulting holiness, which constitute 
 men members of this Church, are invisible, seen of 
 none but God. God only knows, with absolute cer- 
 taint}^, who belong to this true Church of Christ, 
 His " foundation standeth sure, having this seal ; 
 the Lord knoweth them that are His." 2 Tim. 2 : 
 19. " By their fruits we may know them " reason- 
 ably well ; still, our judgments on this evidence are 
 fallible. God only " knoweth who are His " in 
 such a way as not, by any possibility, to be de- 
 ceived. For this reason the old writers called the 
 whole communion of " the saved," the '' Invisible 
 Church." The persons of those who constitute it, 
 so long as they live, are visible ; but their inward 
 proofs of membership are invisible. Their organi- 
 zation under Christ as Head is spiritual, not an ob- 
 ject of sense. God alone can point out their 
 persons with infallible certainty. Thus under- 
 
102 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 stood, there can be no solid objection to the phrase ; 
 though I have not chosen to adopt it, because, in 
 every respect, save that of the secret of true mem- 
 bership, and organization in Christ, the individuals 
 in this Church are as visible as any others in the 
 world. The fmaX^ala, as equivalent to the kaXEHTol, 
 are visible in person, though each carries within an 
 invisible union with Christ. 
 
 3. In John 10 : 26, occurs a passage, already 
 referred to, which recognizes this distinction be- 
 tween the mixed and the spiritual Church. "Ye 
 believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I 
 said unto you.'' The Jews, here adressed, were 
 natural descendants from Abraham ; they claimed 
 God as their Father ; John 8 : 34-42, and they 
 were members of the then existing visible Church. 
 And yet, Christ tells them that " they were not of 
 His sheep," as He had before told them that " the}^ 
 were of their father, the devil.*" John 8 : 44. Not- 
 withstanding their membership in the visible 
 Church, they were not of Christ's Fold, the true 
 Church. Then, as well as now, the mixed and the 
 spiritual Church existed ; and Christ knew perfect- 
 ly the distinction, as well as the relation, between 
 the two. 
 
 Equally significant is the language of St. Paul, 
 Rom. 2 : 28, 29. "He is not a Jew, who is one 
 outwardly ; neither is that circumcision, which is 
 
TESTIMONY OF STANDARDS. 103 
 
 outward in the fleKsh ; but be is a Jew who is one 
 inwardl}^ ; and circumcision is that of the heart, in 
 the spirit, and not in the letter ; whose praise is 
 not of men, but of God :'' and the sitnilar language, 
 Rom. 9 : 6-8. " They are not all Israel, who are 
 of Israel ; neither because they are the seed of 
 Abraham, are they all children ;" — " that is, they 
 which are the children of the flesh, these are not 
 the children of God ; but the children of the pro- 
 mise are counted for the seed ;" — as also that of 
 Gal. 3:7. " Know ye, therefore, that they which 
 are of faith, the same are the children of Abra- 
 ham." 
 
 In all these passages, the distinctioji between 
 the visible and the spiritual Israel, between the 
 mixed and the spiritual Church, is manifest. Mem- 
 bership in the spiritual company is constituted, not 
 by a mere "" outward " bond, but by a divine, in- 
 ward work ; '' the circumcision of the heart, in the 
 spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of 
 men, but of God." ^' The children of the promise," 
 they who, inheriting Abraham's faith, have the 
 bond of a spiritual kindred with Abraham — these, 
 and only these, ''are counted for the seed." In 
 making up the real Family of Christ, the promised 
 Seed, none but these are "counted," or taken into 
 Heaven's reckoning. The true Israel, of all Dis- 
 pensations, never has been, and never will be, com- 
 
104 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 posed of any but a really believing and holy 
 seed. 
 
 The Bible, then, clearly recognizes the distinction 
 between the Church as a mixed, local and temporal 
 arrangement, and the Church as a spiritual^ uni- 
 versal, and eternal Body in Christ. When we 
 seize and hold up this distinction, therefore, we are 
 not following a mere floating illusion of our own 
 brain, but are grasping one of the settled verities 
 of the Word of God. There is a mixed, and there 
 is a spiritual Church. The two are distinguishable, 
 though related Bodies. The amount of their rela- 
 tion, however, is, in this world, a variable quantity. 
 At times they have been more nearly identical, 
 their distinction approaching the vanishing point. 
 Then, again, they have been immensely unlike, 
 held together by a scarcely perceptible bond. 
 Sometimes, the visible Church has been nearly all 
 pure wheat, almost thoroughly purified by the win- 
 nowing fan of persecution and the hallowing breath 
 of the Spirit. At others, under long, mildewing 
 seasons, it has nearly all run to husks and straw, 
 with but here and there a sound, ripe kernel to be 
 found. Thus, when the fires of pagan persecution 
 kept the outward Body comparatively free from 
 dross, the visible and the spiritual Church were 
 nearly one and the same ; but, in later ages, when 
 the fires were lighted in Christ's name, and turned 
 
TESTIMONY OF STANDARDS, 105 
 
 against the true gold of His own Spiritual Temple, 
 then the visible Church contained little but impure 
 and noisome elements. In its most obtrusive char- 
 acteristics, it became an offensive body of Death, 
 though seated on thrones and chairs of state ; while 
 the spiritual Church, so far as any portion of it 
 lingered on earth, was but a hidden body of Life, 
 concealed among mountains and caves. The one 
 was mainly a gorgeous system of forms and formal 
 persecutors ; the other, a little company of faith 
 and faithful sufferers ; the two being held in rela- 
 tion by some remaining bonds, but scarcely touch- 
 ing each other by the links of a kindred life. In 
 all ages, however, the distinction between the two 
 has never disappeared, nor has there ever been a 
 time when ih^ name. Church, did not as rightfully 
 belong to the spiritual, as distinguished from the 
 visible Body. 
 
 4. Another remark. Not only is this distinction 
 recognized in the Bible, but it is a distinction evi- 
 dently vital. Its importance to sound Christian 
 theology can hardly be overstated. This point 
 deserves a fuller discussion than can now be given. 
 I must, however, at least, glance at three par- 
 ticulars. 
 
 (1.) It is important to a right understanding of 
 the unity of the Church. 
 
 Christ and His Apostles, we know, insist much 
 
io6 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 on the union of Christians, or the unity of the 
 Church. They speak of the benefits of this unity; 
 of its necessity as an evidence to the world of 
 Christ's mission from the Father; and of the evils 
 of violating this unity; and in His last and all- 
 prevalent prayer, Christ virtually prophecies that 
 this unity shall continue unbroken, and that its 
 glorious testimony to the Truth shall be felt and 
 acknowledged by the world. 
 
 But of what Church is this sacred, this Divine 
 unity predicated ? This is one of the most im- 
 portant questions in Christian theology. Yolumes 
 have been written on it. In answer, however, I 
 can afford space for saying no more than this : that 
 the unity on which Christ so fervently insists, that 
 blest and heavenl}^ bond which makes Christians 
 one, even as Christ and the Father are one, resides 
 in the spiritual Church. It is a reality and an 
 actuality in this Church, and in no other. In this 
 Church that unity has never been broken. Injured 
 more or less, through human infirmity, it has been; 
 but broken, never. In the main, it has been pre- 
 served untouched. True disciples of Christ Have 
 disputed, and, while unknown to each other, have 
 indulged harsh and unkind feelings ; but it has 
 never needed more than that they should come 
 together and know each other truly to show them 
 how perfectly, in all essential things, they were 
 
TESTIMONY OF STANDARDS. 107 
 
 one in Christ. This coii)ing together in thorough, 
 mutual knowledge has ever proved the joining of 
 the two ends of that electric chain of spiritual kin- 
 dred, which, starting from the heart of Christ, 
 passes round through the heart of every true 
 Christian, and, returning to Christ again, holds the 
 whole in one sacred brotherhood. That touch of 
 mutual knowledge and intercourse has ever been 
 all that was needed to start the current of their 
 sympathetic life, and put it instantly in warm, 
 glowing and blissful circulation. Yes ! It is no 
 dream; it is true ! This mutual and thorough 
 knowledge of each other has ever been, to true 
 Christians, the sweet though silent voice of Christ 
 in their hearts, speaking their brief tempests into 
 ''a great calm," and making them realize that the 
 vessel in which they are embarked carries Him 
 who carries Heaven! Under the one Divine 
 Headship of Christ, this spiritual Church holds, 
 and will hold forever, unbroken unity. Ecclesias- 
 tical history shows us, on the contrary, that, in the 
 visible Church, unity under one human head and 
 organization has never been more than a baseless, 
 impracticable theory ; and that all efforts to force 
 such a unity have been productive of little else 
 than fightings, bloodshed, and hypocrisy ! 
 
 (2.) The distinction between the Spiritual and 
 the Yisible Church is important to a right under- 
 
io8 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 
 
 standing and use of the Promises of the Gos- 
 pel. 
 
 We know that "exceeding great and precious 
 promises are given " to the followers of Christ ; and 
 that some of these promises seem to apply to them 
 in their social rather than in their individual 
 capacity. "Where two or three are gathered 
 together in my name, there am I in the midst of 
 them." Matt. 18 : 20. " Whatsoever ye shall ask 
 in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." Matt. 21: 
 22. " My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, 
 and they follow me; and I give unto them eternal 
 life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any 
 pluck them out of my hand." John 10 : 27, 28. 
 "No weapon that is formed against thee shall 
 prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against 
 thee in judgment thou shalt utterly condemn." 
 Tsa. 54 : 17. " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto 
 the end of the world." Matt. 28 : 20. Such are a 
 few only of this class of promises. 
 
 Here, then, arises a question, similarly important 
 to sound Christian theology. Are these and similar 
 promises made to professing Christians as a visible, 
 or to actual believers as a spiritual Church ? And 
 the brief but confident reply is, the}^ are made to 
 the latter as a spiritual Church — as the one whole 
 communion of Christ's true followers. To this 
 Church only are these promises appropriate, and 
 
TESTIMONY OF STANDARDS. 109 
 
 to this only have they been fulfilled. This Church 
 has evermore Christ's presence. Against this 
 Church no weapon has ever prospered. In Christ's 
 promises she is virtually omnipotent. In His faith- 
 fulness her final victory is sure. His promises are 
 her heritage, and His grace her possession. His 
 blessings clothe her with the garments of salvation. 
 She is " the King's Daughter, all glorious within," 
 and her mercies ever have been and ever shall be 
 " the sure mercies of David." All this can be said 
 of the Church in no other sense than that in which 
 she is spiritual, truly a " communion of saints." To 
 apply these promises to the Church as a visible, 
 organized, mixed Society, ever has been, and ever 
 must be, a source of perilous delusion to the souls 
 of men. 
 
 (3.) This distinction, finally, is important to a 
 right understanding of the Infallibility of the 
 Church. 
 
 We know that there is a sense in which the 
 Church has been endowed with the attribute of 
 infallibility, or indefectibility. " The Church of 
 the living God" is ''the pillar and ground of the 
 Truth." The Holy Spirit is to " guide her into all 
 Truth." And against her, in her truth as well as 
 in her being, ''the gates of hell" are never to 
 prevail. 
 
 But the question arises, and one more important 
 
no THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 to sound Christian theology can hardly be asked : 
 So far as infallibility is implied in these and similar 
 exjDressions, is it an attribute of the visible or a 
 gift to the spiritual Church ? And we shall be safe 
 in replying, to the latter, and to no other. This, 
 only, has never either fatally or materially erred. 
 By the ver}" terms of its being, in holding to 
 Christ, the Head, it holds to everything essential, 
 and to nothing essentially opposed, to His Truth. 
 The spiritual Church has often bled in defense of 
 the Truth, but it has never turned a traitor to its 
 cause. But not so on the contrary supposition. 
 The visible Church has often and fundamentally 
 erred. Indeed, the theory of an infallibility vested 
 in the visible Church has done little else than to 
 stereotype the most destructive errors. 
 
 The points thus briefly noticed have made Chris- 
 tian theologj^ for ages one wide field of conflict, 
 simply because they have been drawn out of their 
 true connection, and forced into a position for which 
 they were never designed ; and the conflict about 
 them will never cease until Christ has again His 
 own ; until He is acknowledged as the only Centre 
 of Unity in His Church ; until His promises are 
 regarded as the heritage of that Church in her spir- 
 itual oneness only; and until men cease to seek for 
 infallibility anywhere save in her Divine Head, in 
 His own Inspired Word, and in His ''One holy 
 
TESTIMONY OF STA NBARDS. 1 1 1 
 
 Catholic Church," as verily a ** Communion of 
 Saints." 
 
 I proceed now to look at the standards and 
 standard writers of our Church, for the purpose of 
 showing that the definition of the Church, which I 
 have given, is neither novel nor without the amplest 
 support of human testimon}^ 
 
 In doing this, it is evidently proper to look for 
 this idea of the true spiritual Church in the devo- 
 tional, rather than in the dogmatical, standards of 
 our communion. In her devotional standards, our 
 Church bears her part with the whole body of 
 spiritual worshipers, and therefore speaks the 
 language of true catholicity; but in her dogmatical 
 standards she legislates for her own government 
 and discipline, and therefore speaks for herself 
 only, without claiming to bind others in all things 
 to her judgments. It is in her worship, emphat- 
 ically, that she appears as the true Catholic. 
 
 1. In the Collect, then, for '' All Saints' Day," she 
 addresses God as having "knit together His elect 
 in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical 
 body of His Son, Christ our Lord ; " and prays for 
 ''grace so to follow His blessed saints in all virtuous 
 and godly living, that we may come to those un- 
 speakable joys, which he has prepared for those 
 who unfeignedly love Him ; through Jesus Christ 
 our Lord." 
 
,12 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 
 
 This language is strictly evidence m the ease 
 before us. Our Church is here teaching as well as 
 praying. She is uttering her mind on a great and 
 important subject, and, in doing so, she gives a dis- 
 tinct and comprehensive definition of the "one 
 holy Catholic Church." She defines it as God^s 
 *' elect," neither disconnected, nor yet organized 
 under visible constitution, but "knit together in 
 one communion and fellowship, in the mystical 
 body of His Son Christ." Now, this "one com- 
 munion and fellowship, knit together in the mystical 
 body of Christ," is a true Church, or there is no 
 such thing as a Church on earth or in Heaven. Of 
 whom, then, is this Church composed ? 
 
 In answer to this, bear in mind that the Collect 
 is a pra^^er for "all saints." And who are all 
 saints ? Are they Romish saints only, or Episcopal 
 saints exclusively ? No ; but God's saints ; His 
 "blessed saints;" His saints in Patriarchal, in 
 Hebrew, and in Jewish times ; His saints in the 
 days of Christ, of His Apostles, and of all Chris- 
 tian ages ; His saints now and always ; His saints 
 here and everywhere ; His saints alive in the flesh, 
 and alive in " the spirits of just men made perfect." 
 All these, and only these, are the members 
 "elect," the "knit together in one communion and 
 fellowship in the mystical body of Christ ; " in the 
 one truly united and holy Church, of which Christ 
 
TESTIMONY OF STANDARDS. 113 
 
 is the divinely constituted Head ; and the Collect 
 teaches us to pray for "grace so to follow" these 
 recognized saints of God, "in all virtuous and 
 godly living, that we too may come to those un- 
 speakable joys which God has prepared for those 
 who unfeignedly love Him.^' These last words are 
 a Biblical exposition of the term "elect," in the 
 opening of the Collect. The "elect" are they 
 " who unfeignedly love God." " All things," says 
 St. Paul, " work together for good to them that love 
 God, to them that are the called according to His 
 purpose." Here, " they that love God," and the 
 " elect," or " called according to His purpose," are 
 identical in sense. They are mutually explanatory. 
 So, in the Collect before us, they " who unfeignedly 
 love God," and the "elect in one communion and 
 fellowship" are identical in meaning. They are 
 mutually exegetical. The language at the close of 
 the collect, therefore, is equally available with that 
 at the opening and in the middle, for the settlement 
 of the question, Who compose this truly united, 
 this one Holy Church ; this "one communion and 
 fellowship in the mystical body of Christ ? '' They 
 are all those "blessed saints," and only those 
 " who unfeignedly love God." Dare any man take 
 this and kindred language in the Collect, and limit 
 it to a description of the visible Church, or even 
 to those exclusively who are the truly holy mem- 
 8 
 
1,4 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 
 
 bers of our own and of other Episcopal Churches ? 
 Let him attempt so strange an act, and our Zion 
 herself shall rise up from her knees, from the offer- 
 ing of this truly catholic prayer, and forbid such 
 deep violence on her words. She is not here 
 describing the visible Church, nor the saints under 
 Episcopal regimen ; she is teaching us who compose 
 the one, holy communion, the really united Church 
 of Christ, and is praying, if peradventure they 
 who are now her professed members may also be 
 found included, at last, in that great, that Divine 
 ^'knitting together" of all God's "elect.'' 
 
 It is hardly necessary to say, that the language 
 of this Collect is based on some of the very passages 
 in the Bible which I have expounded, and contains 
 a description of the Church in strict harmony 
 with the idea which it has been my purpose to 
 exhibit. Had I explored the whole English lan- 
 guage, I could scarcely have found terms more 
 suited to my purpose than those here furnished ; 
 the precise, luminous teachings of our Zion, as she 
 deliberately, yet devoutly, utters her mind at the 
 footstool of the Throne. 
 
 2. In the prayer at the close of our Communion 
 Service, we thank God that we, "who have duly 
 received these holy mysteries," who are really par- 
 takers of Christ by faith, "are also very members, 
 incorporate in the mystical body of His Son, which 
 
TESTIMONY OF STAND ABDS. .,15 
 
 is the blessed company of all faithful people ; and 
 are also heirs, through hope, of His everlasting 
 Kingdom, by the merits of the most precious death 
 and passion of His dear Son." And to this thanks- 
 giving we add a petition for "grace to continue in 
 that holy fellowship, and to do all such good works 
 as God hath prepared for us to walk in." 
 
 This passage expresses precisely the same idea 
 with the former, and to it the same remarks may 
 be applied. Our Church is here uttering her most 
 solemn teachings, as well as her devoutest worship ; 
 and in doing so she gives a concise, yet still lu- 
 minous, definition of the one and whole Catholic 
 Church. She terms it ^'the mystical body of the 
 Son" of God ; and then, varying her description, 
 she calls it a "holy fellowship." In this, too, as 
 in the former instance, the body described is un- 
 questionably a Church. The phrase, "mystical 
 Body of thy Son," has the same meaning with that 
 in which St. Paul says that God gave Christ to be 
 " Head over all things to the Church, which is His 
 Body." The term Body, as a metaphor for the 
 Church, has an established meaning. 
 
 Of whom, then, according to the teaching here, 
 is this Church composed ? The answer may be 
 given in the simple words of the prayer itself It 
 is composed of "the blessed company of all faith- 
 ful people." These words are a comment, in the 
 
ii6 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 very form of a definition, upon those which precede, 
 "The mystical body of thy Son." The Church 
 here described is expressly declared to consist of 
 " the blessed company of all faithful people." The 
 style of this language belongs to the age in which 
 the Book of Common Prayer was set forth. The 
 phrase, "all faithful people," meant then, just what 
 we understand now, by the words, all true believers. 
 A similar antiquity of style occurs earlier in the 
 prayer, where real partakers of Christ, by faith, 
 are said to be " very members, incorporated in His 
 mystical body." The meaning is, true members ; 
 true, as opposed to false or merely formal ; mem- 
 bers not only by "the outward visible sign," but 
 also by "the inward and spiritual signification ;" 
 members of the body of Christ by the Spirit's in- 
 grafting. The Church, then, described in this 
 prayer, is composed of "all true believers," and 
 of such only. It is not the distracted, but "the 
 blessed company of all faithful people," of all the 
 " very members " of Christ's " mystical body." 
 
 And how fitting it is that, when we use this 
 prayer, our hearts and minds should be filled with 
 this one truly Catholic thought ! Let us remem- 
 ber that, when our Church uses this prayer, she 
 has again gone down upon her knees, and that it is 
 now amid the consecrated memorials, and after 
 gazing by faith on the visible symbols of the bloody 
 
TESTIMONY OF STANDARDS. 1 1 7 
 
 passion of Him, who came into the world to '' taste 
 death for every man." She has gone down upon 
 her knees amid hallowed memories of Gethsemane's 
 bloody sweat and of Calvary's bloodier Cross. And 
 she has gone down upon her knees to thank God 
 for a Saviour to penitent and believing sinners ! 
 Remember all this, and then tell me, has she tak- 
 en that soul-humbling posture, and placed herself 
 amid those heart-melting associations, merely to 
 bless God for salvation through an Episcopacy, or 
 to define the Church as limited to those who enjoy 
 such a rich and long cherished blessing ? To sup- 
 pose this were to do her unspeakable dishonor ; and 
 she would once more rise up from her knees, and, 
 pointing to the sacrament of her crucified Lord, 
 would nobly put away from her the unmerited re- 
 proach. She would say : "I took that lowly pos- 
 ture, and surrounded myself with those touching 
 remembrancers, the better to realize my share in 
 the mercies of Him, who ''suffered for sins, the 
 just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God f 
 the better to realize my fellowship with patriarchs 
 and prophets, with apostles and martyrs, and with 
 all the noble company of saints in every age, from 
 the morning to the eve of time ; the better to real- 
 ize my own privileges in having contributed many 
 from among my own children to that "blessed 
 company of all faithful people ;" the better to real- 
 
iig THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 ize a fitting sympathy with my once suffering, but 
 now rejoicing Lord in every *' broken spirit" and 
 in every " contrite heart," that comes to Him, from 
 this poor, dying world, for pardon, peace and life ; 
 the better to mingle my tuneful song with that of 
 all the redeemed from every land and of every 
 name, — that *'holy fellowship" of "the saved," whom 
 Jesus is gathering out of time and preparing to 
 glorify in eternity ! It was for all this that I knelt 
 there, as if at the foot of the Cross, and amid " the 
 sprinkling of the blood "of '' the Lamb that taketh 
 away the sin of the world." I was seeking to 
 identify myself with the great '' mystical Body of 
 Christ " the living '' Head ; " that Body in which are 
 no dead members ; the one part whereof is already 
 joined with Him in heaven, while the other still 
 walketh with His purifying Spirit upon earth." 
 
 Such are the posture and teaching of our Church 
 in this most Catholic, most teaching prayer ; and 
 thus does she define the one, unbroken and holy 
 Church of her Divine Head ! And who does not 
 delight to see her in such an attitude, and to hear 
 her utter such a teaching ? Who does not delight 
 to see her thus lowly before her exalted Lord, and 
 thus thrilled with her divine theme ; thus covering 
 herself — not with the Apostolic robes of her vener- 
 able Episcopacy, but — with that one ampler robe 
 of salvation through the Crucified ; the robe which 
 
TESTIMONY OF STANDARDS. 
 
 119 
 
 is thrown over the whole of His one " mystical 
 Body/^ which adorns '' the bride, the Lamb's wife," 
 and which clothes the whole sacred "famity," liv- 
 ing with Him in holy union and concord from the 
 first saint that believed to the last believer that 
 shall be saved ! 
 
 The language, which has thus been examined 
 from two of the most expressive forms of the 
 Church, cannot be considered as defining either the 
 visible Church, or the Church as limited by an 
 Episcopacy ; because the visible Church contains a 
 vast multitude of unconverted, and even many 
 most ungodly members ; while the Church, as limi- 
 ted by an Episcopacy, does not contain all the 
 really holy whom Christ is gathering out of the 
 world, and unto Himself. It is language fitted for 
 nothing else in the world but for a faithful and 
 lively description of that spiritual Church, which 
 consists of true believers only, and comprises all 
 true believers, who ever have lived, or ever shall 
 live. 
 
 3. Citations to the same effect from our devo- 
 tional standards may be multiplied. Without at- 
 tempting this, however, in detail, I will merely 
 group together a few of the many that might be 
 adduced. 
 
 The Creed, the Litan^', and the Te Deum are 
 among the most ancient and accredited of Chris- 
 
I20 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 tian compositions ; and they all breathe the true 
 spirit of early Catholicity and devotion, and savor 
 strongly of an age, when Christian fellowship in 
 its generous grasp embraced all who truly held 
 the Head, Christ. Thus, the Creed propounds to us 
 " one holy Catholic Church, as '* the communion of 
 saints.'^ The Litany prays God *' to rule and 
 govern His holy Church universal in the right 
 way ;" and ''to give to all His people increase of 
 grace to hear meekly His Word, to receive it with 
 pure affection, and to bring forth the fruits of the 
 Spirit." And the Te Deum sends up its hymn of 
 praise from " the goodly fellowship of the prophets ;" 
 from " the glorious company of the apostles ;" from 
 "■ the noble army of martyrs ;" and finally, as in- 
 clusive of the whole communion of saints, from 
 ** the holy Church throughout all the world," in all 
 its revolving ages. '' When thou hadst overcome 
 the sharpness of death, Thou didst open the king- 
 dom of heaven to all believers ;" " We therefore 
 pray Thee, help thy servants, whom Thou hast re- 
 deemed with Thy precious blood:" "Make them 
 to be numbered with Thy saints in glory everlast- 
 ing :" " Oh Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine 
 heritage." Here is language fitting the mouths of 
 those who worship Christ. Here is a copious mul- 
 tiplication of terms, for the expression of one single 
 idea : "all believers ;" *' Thy servants y '' Thy 
 
TESTIMONY OF STAKDARDS. 121 
 
 saints ;" '' Thy people ;" '' Thine heritage ;" terms, 
 which refuse any limit to their meaning short of 
 that which bounds the fruit of Christ's bloodily re- 
 deeming sufferings and death ; and all ranged 
 under the one broadly comprehending phrase, 
 ''The holy Church throughout all the world.'' 
 
 Much time might be spent in amplifying these 
 concentrated, yet glowing expressions ; in tracing 
 them up to their origin in the Bible ; and in illus- 
 trating their Christ-like Catholicism of comprehen- 
 sion. But it is needless to pursue even such a 
 pleasing theme. I close, therefore, this point by 
 simply reminding you that, thus far, I have been 
 citing from the devotional Standards of our Church. 
 You have been catching the utterances of her mind, 
 while bowing in worship amid the hosts of the re- 
 deemed at the feet of the Redeemer, and while 
 erect in praises amid the whole countless band of 
 those, who shout, '' Worthy is the Lamb that was 
 slain/' and "hath redeemed us to God by His 
 blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and peo- 
 ple, and nation ; and hath made us unto our God 
 kings and priests ; and we shall reign on the earth." 
 You have, therefore, been listening to her in acts 
 which lift her above all but the loftiest, and expand 
 her beyond all but the broadest conceptions ; and 
 which place her right by the side of Christ, as He 
 looks, with divine satisfaction, over the whole fruit 
 
122 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 of His sufferings, over the whole " travail of His 
 soul." In her worship, she is not sectarian but 
 Christian ; on her knees, she defines Christ's 
 Church as it lives in Christ's heart, and not as it is 
 bounded by visible lines. 
 
 The testimony of our standard writers is reserv- 
 ed for the next Chapter. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITERS. 
 
 TN the last Chapter, after noticing some objec- 
 -^ tions against the distinction between the spirit- 
 ual and the visible Church, and showing the im- 
 portance of this distinction to a right understanding 
 of various points of Christion doctrine, I proceeded 
 to demonstrate, that the definition, which I have 
 given of the Church, as the whole company of " the 
 saved," in union with Christ, the Saviour, His 
 *' mystical Body,'' composed of " all faithful people,'' 
 is sustained by the devotional standards of our 
 communion ; — those venerable forms, in which our 
 Church utters her mind at the foot of the Throne, 
 not as a controversialist, nor as a mere legislator 
 for her own government and discipline, but as a 
 member of that great band of worshippers, who pre- 
 sent their offerings of prayer and praise to one 
 common Father, by faith in the one Saviour of them 
 ALL. We found those standards familiar with the 
 old Catholic idea of Christ, as '' Head over all 
 things to the Church, which^ is His body j the ful- 
 
 (133) 
 
J 24 
 
 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 ness of Him that filleth all in all f that body, 
 whose organization is spiritual, consisting in the 
 inward union of all its members with the Head, by 
 a live and life-giving faith. For the present Chap- 
 ter, I have reserved the labor of showing, by ci- 
 tations from the Standard writers of our own Pro- 
 testant Reformation, that, theologically as well as 
 devotionally, the idea of the Church, which I have 
 presented, has distinct and most abundant sanc- 
 tion. 
 
 These Standard writers of our Church flourished 
 chiefly, in two successive ages ; — that of the Refor- 
 mation itself, and that which followed the Reforma- 
 tion. The former, in the Sixteenth Century, was 
 an age of much controversy, but of more action. 
 Principles were then asserted and defended ; but 
 the main labor of the age lay in building up the 
 Reformed Church on the basis of those principles, 
 and, with martyr- blood, cementing it in the true 
 faith of Christ. The latter, in the Seventeenth 
 Century, may be distinguished as an age of much 
 action, but of more controversy. The " good 
 fight of faith," with all its blood and fires, so far as 
 the Reformation was concerned, was ended ; and 
 the race of those controversial giants, subsequently 
 sprung from the loins of the Reformation, came 
 forth upon a comparatively quiet field, to demon- 
 strate, from the Word of God, the truth of those 
 
TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITERS. 125 
 
 principles, wliicli the preceding age had laid in 
 the foundation of the Reformed Church. 
 
 Upon the main points, taken in this discus- 
 sion the distinction between the spiritual and 
 the visible Church, and the superior title of 
 the former to the name of The Church — the 
 writers of both these ages were distinct and 
 full. 
 
 I. Writers of the Sixteenth Century, or age of 
 the Eeformation. 
 
 1. Cranmer, the martyred Archbishop, whose 
 blood wet the roots of the English Reformed 
 Church, in his explanation of the Apostles' Creed, 
 writes thus : " I believe the ' holy Catholic Church ;' 
 that is to say : that there is ever found some com- 
 pany of men, or some congregation of good people, 
 who believe the gospel and are saved. . . . For 
 this word. Church, signifieth a company of men, 
 lightened with the Sj)irit of Christ, who do receive 
 the Gospel. . . . And this Christian Church is a 
 * communion of saints ;' that is to say, all that be of 
 this communion or company, be holy, and be one 
 holy body under Christ, their Head. And this 
 congregation reeeiveth, of their Lord and Head, all 
 spiritual riches and gifts that pertain to the sanc- 
 tification and making holy of the same body. And 
 these ^ghostly treasures,' or spiritual gifts, 'be 
 
126 TEE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 common to the whole body, and to every member 
 of the same.' " [Catechism of 1548.] 
 
 *' The holy Church is so unknown to the world, 
 that no man can describe it ; but God alone, who 
 searcheth the hearts of all men, and knoweth His 
 true children from others. . . . This Church is 
 'the pillar of the truth,' because it resteth on 
 Grod's Word. . . . But as for the open, known 
 Church, and the outward face thereof, it is not ' the 
 pillar of the truth,' otherwise than it is, as it were, 
 a register, or a treasury, to keep the books of 
 God's holy Will and Testament, and to rest only 
 thereupon." [Answer to Dr. Smith.] 
 
 " What wonder is it, then, that the open Church 
 is now, of late years, fallen into many errors and 
 corruptions ; and the holy Church of Christ is 
 secret and unknown, seeing that Satan, these five 
 hundred years, hath been let loose, and Anti- 
 Christ reigneth, spoiling and devouring the simple 
 flock of Christ ?" [Answer to Dr. Smith.] 
 
 In these passages, bear in mind, the martyr is 
 interpreting the Apostles' Creed, the highest, most 
 authoritative standard of our Church. How, then, 
 does he define '' the holy Catholic Church, the com- 
 munion of saints ? " Precisely as I have defined 
 the one, true Church of Christ ; as the company of 
 "the saved," that body, of which Christ is Head, 
 and "every member" of which is a partaker of 
 
TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITERS. 127 
 
 those "gliostly treasures,*' which are the gifts of 
 the Spirit. This Church, too, he carefully distin- 
 guishes from the visible, or, as he calls it, " the 
 open, known Church ;" declaring the former to be, 
 aud the latter not to be, " the pillar of the truth. '^ 
 The great company of "the saved," of those who 
 believe in Christ and are made holy, in all ages, is 
 the Church, which Cranmer finds in the Apostles' 
 Creed, the most ancient of all Christian Symbols. 
 
 2. His brother martyr, the accomplished Eidley 
 of London, is in full accord with him on this point. 
 
 *' The name. Church/^ says he, ''is taken in 
 Scripture, sometimes, for the whole multitude of 
 them which profess the name of Christ ; of the 
 which they are also named Christians. But, as 
 St. Paul saith of the Jew, "He is not a Jew, who 
 is one outwardly ; neither yet all that be of Israel 
 are counted of the seed ;" even so, not every one 
 which is a Christian outwardly is a Christian in- 
 deed. For, '^ if any man have not the Spirit of 
 Christ, the same is none of His." Therefore, that 
 Church, which is His body, of whom Christ is the 
 Head, standeth only of living stones, and true 
 Christians, not only outwardly in name and title, 
 but inwardly, in heart and truth." [Ridley^s 
 Works, Parker Soc. 7 Ed. p. 126.] 
 
 Here is the same distinction between the visi- 
 ble and the spiritual Church. The Bishop says, — 
 
I2g THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 not tliat the professing Christian, while without 
 the Spirit of Christ, does not belong to the Church, 
 but — that, the name. Church, is sometimes given in 
 Scripture to the whole company of those who profess 
 the name of Christ, though many of them are * ' none of 
 His :" — while the true Church, that * 'of which Christ 
 is Head, standeth only of living stones, true Chris- 
 tians," both " in name and title, and in heart and 
 truth.'^ According to this martyr, there is a sense 
 in which the merely nominal Christian belongs to 
 the Church ; while there is another sense, in which 
 he does not belong to the Church. Of the visible 
 mixed Church he is a member ; but of the Church, 
 as that spiritual, mystical body of which Christ is 
 Head, he is not a member. This Church hath 
 nothing in it but members joined to Christ by a 
 vitalizing faith. 
 
 3. The martyr. Hooper, bears the same testi- 
 mony. Explaining the phrase "Holy Catholic 
 Church," he says : " I believe that this Church is 
 invisible to the eye of man, and is only to Grod 
 known." . . . It " is not set, compassed and limit- 
 ed within a certain place or bounds, but is scattered 
 and spread abroad throughout all the world ; but 
 yet coupled together in heart, will and spirit, by 
 the bond of faith and charity." . . . "This Church 
 containeth in it all the righteous and chosen peo- 
 ple, from the first righteous man, unto the last that 
 
TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITERS. 1 29 
 
 shall be found righteous in the end of the world." 
 . . . ''As touching the visible Church, which is 
 the congregation of the good and the wicked, of the 
 chosen and the reprobate/' . . . *' I do not believe 
 that to be The Church, because that Church is 
 seen of the eye, and the faith thereof is in visible 
 things." . . . The holy Catholic Church '' is the 
 Body of Christ, w^herein there is never a corrupt, 
 or infected member. It is the Spouse of Christ, 
 which is pure and clean, without wrinkle and with- 
 out spot ; it is holy and without blame, cleansed 
 and sanctified in the blood and by the Word of her 
 Head, of her well-beloved Spouse, Jesus Christ," — 
 [Hooper's Works, Yol. II. pp. 40, 41. Parker Soc. 7 
 Ed.] All this is plain testimony, and to the point. 
 4. Nowell's Catechism belongs to the same period, 
 and gives the same teaching. It defines the Church, 
 " the Body of Christ," to be " the universal number 
 and fellowship of all the faithful, whom God, 
 through Christ, hath, before all beginning of time, 
 appointed to everlasting life." . . . And then, as- 
 signing a reason why we are taught in the Creed, 
 to "believe "in this Church, it says: "Because 
 this ' communion of saints ' cannot be perceived by 
 our senses, nor by any natural kind of knowledge 
 or force of understanding, as other civil com- 
 munities and fellowships of men may be, therefore 
 it is here rightly placed among these things that lie 
 9 
 
,30 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 in belief." [NowelFs Catechism, Parker Soc. 7 
 Ed. pp. 172, 174.] That is ; the visible Church is 
 an object of sight ; the spiritual Church is an object 
 of faith. 
 
 5. Becon, also, Cranmer's chaplain, explains the 
 Church mentioned in the Creed, by saying that it 
 is ''Yerily a company of saints, or of holy and 
 godly-disposed persons knit together by one Spirit, 
 in one faith, in one hope, in one love, in one bap- 
 tism, in one doctrine ; having one Head, which is 
 Christ Jesus, and serving one God, which is the 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in holiness and 
 righteousness all the days of their life." ..." And 
 in this company or fellowship of saints, all things 
 appertaining to everlasting salvation are com- 
 mon," that is, enjoyed by each and every one, such 
 '* as the favor of God, remission of sins, quietness 
 of conscience, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and 
 everlasting life." [Becon^s Catechism : Works, 
 Vol. II., p. 43.] This language cannot be used as 
 a description of the mixed, visible Church. 
 
 But I must pass from this first, to what may be 
 termed the second age of the Reformation. 
 
 II. Writers of the Seventeenth Century, or post- 
 Reformation period. 
 
 1. Among the earliest authors of this prolific 
 period, stands Richard Hooker, a name in every 
 
TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITERS. 
 
 131 
 
 churchman's mouth ; as humble and holy as he 
 was learned and wise. 
 
 In his great work, the "Ecclesiastical Polity/^ 
 while expressly distinguishing the visible from the 
 invisible Church, he says : '* The Church of Christ, 
 which we properly term His Body mystical, can 
 be but one, neither can that one be sensibly dis- 
 cerned by any man, inasmuch as the parts thereof 
 are some in heaven already with Christ ; and the 
 rest that are on earth, albeit their natural persons 
 be visible, we do not discern under this property, 
 whereby they are truly and infallibly of that Body. 
 Only our minds, by intellectual conceit, are able 
 to apprehend that such a real Body there is ; a 
 Body collective, because it containeth a huge mul- 
 titude ; a Body mystical, because the mystery of 
 their conjunction is removed altogether from sense." 
 And now, mark what he says of this Church of 
 Christ. " Whatsoever we read in Scripture con- 
 cerning the endless love and saving merc}^ which 
 God showeth towards His Church, the only proper 
 subject thereof is this Church ;'^ this Body mysti- 
 cal, part whereof is in Heaven already with Christ, 
 while the other part is still on earth, being truly 
 and infallibly of that Body, though the mystery 
 of their conjunction with it is removed altogether 
 from sense. '' Concerning this flock it is, that our 
 Lord and Saviour hath promised: "I give unto 
 
132 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 them eternal life, and they shall never perish ; 
 neither shall any pluck them out of my hands." 
 To this mystical Church, he says, " belong the 
 everlasting promises of love, mercy and blessed- 
 ness." ..." Unto that Church, which is His mys- 
 tical Body," it is "not possible" that wicked or 
 merely formal members " should belong ;" " be- 
 cause that Body consisteth of none but only true 
 Israelites, true sons of Abraham, true servants 
 and saints of God." [Eccl. Pol., B. m., Sec. 1, 
 pp. 269-272. Lond., 1825.] 
 
 Again, in his first sermon on the Epistle of Jude, 
 he says : " The multitude of them which truly 
 believe, howsoever they be dispersed far and wide, 
 each from other, is all One Body, whereof the 
 Head is Christ ; One Building, whereof He is 
 Corner-Stone ; in whom they, as the members of 
 the Body, being knit, and, as the stones of the 
 Building, being coupled, grow up to a man of per- 
 fect stature, and rise to an holy Temple in the 
 Lord. That which linketh Christ to us, is His 
 mere love and mercy towards us. That which 
 tieth us to Him, is our faith in the promised sal- 
 vation revealed in the Word of Truth. That 
 which uniteth and joineth us among ourselves in 
 such sort that we are now as if we had but one 
 heart and one soul, is our love." [Serm. I. on St. 
 Jude, Sec. 11.] 
 
TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITERS. 133 
 
 To these beautiful conceptions and just delinea- 
 tions of the true Church of Christ — and Hooker 
 abounds in such — I have, nothing to add, except 
 that every word falls in, in perfect accord, with 
 the view which I have already so largely illus- 
 trated from the Bible and from our devotional 
 standards. Hooker, one of the greatest divines of 
 England, unquestionably held this view of the One 
 Holy Catholic Church. 
 
 2. Perkins, also, another of that great army of 
 reformed divines in the Seventeenth Century, 
 speaks thus : '' This Union to Christ maketh the 
 Church to be the Church ; and by it the members 
 thereof, whether they be in Heaven or in earth, 
 are distinguished from all other companies whatso- 
 ever." [Perkins' Works, Yol. I, p. 277.] He 
 calls "" the Catholic Church militant," '' The num- 
 ber of believers dispersed through the world, who 
 are effectually called, and sanctified and preserved 
 unto life everlasting." Of " two sorts of men, 
 professing religion," one of whom '' do unfeignedly 
 believe and are sanctified," while the other only 
 " make show of faith but believe not ;" he says : 
 '' Of the former doth the Catholic Church consist 
 and not of the latter." These " are no members 
 set into the Head of this Body, though they may 
 seem to be." '' This Catholic Church is invisible, 
 and cannot by the eye of sense be discerned." It 
 
134 ^^^ LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 " caDiiot utterly perisli and be dissolved. All 
 other congregations and particular churches, being 
 mixed, may fail ; yet this cannot be overcome." 
 " To this assembly, and no other, belong all the 
 promises of this life and the life to come. It is 
 the ground and pillar of the truth ; that is, the 
 doctrine of true religion is always safely kept and 
 maintained in it." [Perkins' Works, Vol. III., 
 pp. 482-504.] These passages clearly develop 
 the idea of the Church which I have presented, 
 and the distinction between it and the visible 
 mixed Church : and they also show that to the 
 spiritual Church alone are the promises made, and 
 that in it alone is the true indefectibility found. 
 
 3. The following, from Bishop Hall shows that, 
 in the same Church resides that divine unity on 
 which Christ so earnestly insists. " If from par- 
 ticular visible churches you shall turn your eyes to 
 the true, inward, universal company of God's elect 
 and secret ones, there shall you see more perfectly 
 the One Dove ; for what the other is in profession 
 this is in truth ; that one baptism is here the true 
 laver of regeneration ; that one faith is a saving 
 reposal upon Christ ; that one Lord is ' the Sa- 
 viour of His Body.' No natural body is more 
 ONE than this mystical ; one Head rules it ; one 
 Spirit animates it ; one set of joints moves it j one 
 food nourishes it ; one robe covers it. So is it 
 
TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITERS, 135 
 
 oi^E in itself, so one with Christ, as Christ is One 
 with the Father." [Sermon on the Beauty and 
 Unity of the Church.] " The whole Church is the 
 Spiritual Temple of God. Every believer is a 
 living stone laid in those sacred walls. There 
 is no place for any loose stone in God's edifice ; 
 the whole Church is one entire Body." [Treatise 
 on Christ Mystical, Ch. viii.. Sec. 2.] 
 
 4. Bishop Jeremy Taylor also, that, perhaps, 
 most affluent of Christian orators, is full of the 
 doctrine which I have unfolded. In his ' Dis- 
 suasive from Popery,' he writes thus : '' They 
 who are indeed holy and obedient to Christ's laws 
 of faith and manners, these are truly and perfectly 
 the Church ; ... the Church of God in the eyes 
 and heart of God. For the Church of God are 
 the Body of Christ ; but the mere profession of 
 Christianity makes no man a member of Christ ; 
 nothing but a new creature, nothing but a '' faith 
 working by love," and keeping the commandments 
 of God. . . . Hypocrites are not Christ's servants, 
 and, therefore, not Christ's members, and, there- 
 fore, no part of the Church of God ; but improp- 
 erly and equivocally, as a dead man is a man ; all 
 which is perfectly summed up in these words of 
 St. Augustine, saying that ' the Body of Christ is 
 not {Upartitnm, it is not,) a double Body ; all that 
 are Christ's body shall reign with Him forever/ 
 
136 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 If by a Church we mean that Society which is 
 really joined to Christ, which hath received the 
 Holy Ghost, which is heir of the promises and of 
 the good things of God, which is the Body of 
 which Christ is the Head ; then the invisible part 
 of the visible Church ; that is, the true servants 
 of Christ are the Church ; ... to them only ap- 
 pertain the Spirit and the truth, the promises and 
 the graces, the privileges and advantages of the 
 Gospel. . . . The faithful only and obedient are 
 beloved of God. Others may believe rightly, but 
 so do the devils, who are no parts of the Church ; 
 . . . and it will be a strange proposition which 
 affirms any one to be of the Church, for no other 
 reason but such as qualifies the Devil to be so." 
 ' Those who are condemned by Christ (continues 
 St. Augustine) for their evil and polluted con- 
 sciences, are not of Christ's Body, which is the 
 Church ; for Christ hath no damned members.' 
 Although, when we speak of all the acts and duties, 
 of the judgments and nomenclatures, of outward 
 appearances and accounts of law, we call the mixed 
 society by the name of the Church ; yet, when we 
 consider it in the true, proper and primary mean- 
 ing, all the promises of God, the Spirit of God, the 
 life of God, and all the good things of God, are 
 peculiar to the Church of God in God's sense, in 
 the way in which He owns it j that is, as it is holy,^ 
 
TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITERS. 137 
 
 united to Christ, like to Him, and partaker of the 
 Divine nature. The other are but a heap of men 
 keeping good company, and calling themselves by 
 a good name ; managing the external parts of 
 union and ministry ; but, because they otherwise 
 belong not to God, the promises no otherwise belong 
 to them but as they may, and when they do, return 
 to God. Here, then, are two senses of the word 
 Church ; God's sense and man's sense ; the sense 
 of religion and the sense of government ; common 
 rites and spiritual union.'' [Diss, from Pop., Part 
 IL, B. I., Sect. 1, §§ 1, 2.] 
 
 What Bp. Taylor intends by these distinctions is 
 manifest. In '^ God's sense," the Church is the 
 great company of the saved ; in '' man's sense," it 
 is the aggregate of those who profess the Saviour. 
 In "the sense of religion," it is the Church as seen 
 by the spiritually enlightened religious eye ; in 
 " the sense of government," it is the Church as seen 
 by the legally discerning governmental eye. In 
 "■ common rites," it is the Church as bound together 
 in the communion of outward forms and ceremonies ; 
 in ''spiritual union," it is the Church, as knit 
 together in the inward fellowship of Christ's mys- 
 tical body. Much more from the same exuberant 
 author, and to the same effect, might be cited ; but 
 I must liasten to draw somewhat from other stores. 
 
 5. Archbishop Usher, one of the great lights of 
 
138 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 his age, in his "Body of Divinity," puts this ques- 
 tion : '' What is meant by the Catholic Church ? " 
 And his answer is : " The whole, universal company 
 of the elect, that ever were, are, or shall be, gath- 
 ered together in one body, knit together in one 
 faith, under one Head, Jesus Christ. For God, in 
 all places, and of all sorts of men, had from the 
 beginning, hath dow, and ever will have, an holy 
 Church, which is therefore called the Catholic 
 Church — that is, God's whole or universal assem- 
 bly — because it comprehendeth the multitude of all 
 those that have, do, or shall believe unto the 
 world's end." 
 
 In the same work he asks again : "" Who are the 
 true members of the Church militant on earth ? " 
 And his answer is : "Those alone, who, as living 
 members of the mystical body, are, by the Spirit 
 and faith, secretly and inseparably conjoined unto 
 Christ, their Head ; in which respect the true mil- 
 itant Church is both invincible and invisible." 
 [Bod. Div., 187, 189.] 
 
 "The communion of saints," says he [in his Ser- 
 mon before the House of Commons], "consists in 
 the union, which we all have with one Head. For 
 Christ, our Head, is the main foundation of this 
 heavenly union." 
 
 It is needless to point out the exact coincidence 
 of all this with what I have already stated. Usher 
 
TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITERS. 139 
 
 belongs to the grand Protestant host, who make 
 the Church of God to consist of every true believer, 
 who is gathered into Christ and saved, from the 
 beginning to the end of time. 
 
 6. In the same ranks, and eminent among the 
 eminent, must be cited Dr. Thomas Jackson. In 
 his " Treatise of the Church," which is '* true, holy 
 and Catholic," he says : '' This Church is a true and 
 real body, consisting of many parts, all really, 
 though mystically and spiritually, united unto one 
 Head ; — and, by their real union with one Head, 
 are all truly and really united amongst themselves. 
 . . . That this Church is a true Body, the Apostle 
 hath left registered : " I rejoice in my sufferings for 
 you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflic- 
 tion of Christ in my flesh, for His Body's sake, 
 which is the Church." Every one, then, is so far a 
 member of Christ's Church, as he is a member of 
 Christ's Body. He that is not, in some sense, a 
 member of Christ's Body, can be, in no sort, a mem- 
 ber of His Church. He that is a true, live member 
 of one, is a true, live member of the other. He that 
 is but an equivocal, analogical, hypocritical, or 
 painted member of the one, is but an equivocal, 
 analogical, hypocritical, or painted member of the 
 other." [Treat, on the Holy Cath. Faith and Ch., 
 pp. 18, 19. Phila. 1844.] 
 Arguing from a passage in the Epistle to the 
 
140 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 Ephesians, which I have already explained, he 
 says : " Every member of the Church, or of Christ's 
 Body, is more near, or dear, unto Him than our 
 flesh is unto us, and more His own than our flesh is 
 ours." [Treat, etc. p. 21.] 
 
 Again, expressing himself in the strict form of a 
 definition, he says : " The Catholic Church, in the 
 prime sense, consists only of such as are actual and 
 indissoluble members of Christ's mystical body ; or 
 of such as have the Catholic faith not only sown in 
 their brains, or understandings, but thoroughly 
 rooted in their hearts." [Treat, etc., p. 152.] 
 
 Again, " As He [Christ] is the true Temple, 
 because the God-head dwelleth in Him ; so all they, 
 and only they, in whom He dwelleth by faith, are 
 true temples of God and live members of the Cath- 
 olic Church." [Works, vol. xii. p. 21.] ''This 
 Church is not termed holy, a majori 'parte, from 
 the greater part only ; every member of it is 
 inherently holy." [Works, vol. 12, p. 26.] 
 
 And again, " If the Ark, which Noah built, did 
 save all such from the deluge as entered into it, 
 how much more shall that hoh^ and Catholic 
 Church, which Christ hath built and sanctified by 
 His most precious blood, give eternal life to all 
 such as, in this world, become live members of it ! 
 Such members they are made, not by external 
 baptism, or by becoming members of the visible 
 
TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITERS, 141 
 
 Church, but by iuternal grace, or sauctification.'' 
 [Works, vol. xii. p. 88.] 
 
 7. With this teaching agrees that of the great 
 Dr. Barrow, the champion of England against the 
 Papal supremacy. In his Discourse on the Unity 
 of the Church, he says : *' The invisible or spiritual 
 Church is ' the whole body of God's people, that is, 
 ever hath been, or ever shall be, from the beginning 
 of the world to the consummation thereof, who hav- 
 ing believed in Christ, and sincerely obeyed God's 
 laws, shall finally, by the meritorious performances 
 and sufferings of Christ, be saved." . . . " To this 
 invisible Church, composed only of such as shall 
 finally be saved, belong all the glorious titles and 
 excellent privileges, attributed to the Church in 
 Holy Scripture. This is ' the body of Christ,' the 
 'Spouse of Christ,' 'the House of God built on a 
 rock, against which the gates of hell shall not pre- 
 vail,' ' the elect generation.' This is that one Body, 
 into which we are all baptized by one Spirit ; the 
 members whereof do hold a mutual sympathy and 
 complacence ; which is joined to one Head, deriving 
 sense and motion from it ; which is enlivened and 
 moved by one Spirit. ... To this Church belongs 
 peculiarly that unity, which is so often attributed 
 to the Church. . . . This is the society, for whom 
 Christ did pray ' that they all might be one.' . . . 
 All Christians are united by spiritual cognation and 
 
142 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 
 
 alliance, as being all regenerated by the same cor- 
 ruptible seed ; being alike born, not of blood, nor 
 of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but 
 of God ; whence, as the sons of God and brethren 
 of Christ, they become brethren to one another. 
 ... The whole Christian Church is one by its in- 
 corporation into the mystical body of Christ, or as 
 fellow subjects of that spiritual, heavenly kingdom, 
 whereof Christ is the sovereign Head and Governor; 
 whence they are governed by the same laws, oblig- 
 ed by the same institutions and functions, partake 
 of the same privileges, are entitled to the same pro- 
 mises, and encouraged by the same rewards. So 
 they make but one spiritual corporation, or repub- 
 lic, whereof Christ is the sovereign Lord." [Works, 
 Oxford Ed. Yol. YI. pp. 497-499, and p. 597.] 
 
 8. And, without further addition to this catalogue 
 of witnesses, the " incomparable pen " of Bp. San- 
 derson gives this as the first and most important of 
 four senses in which the word, Church, is used : 
 " The whole company of God's elect, actually made 
 members of Christ by virtue of an inward, effectual 
 calling to faith and godliness. This we commonly 
 call the invisible Church, or the Church of God's 
 elect." [Disc, on Yisibility of the true Church. 
 Hooker's Col. p. 213. Phila. 1844.] 
 
 Such are a few of the many citations which might 
 be made from that noble company of great Chris- 
 
TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WRITERS. 143 
 
 tians and great Divines, who adorned the two prin- 
 cipal periods of our English Protestaat Eeforma- 
 tion. They have made the present Chapter mono- 
 tonous, in that they are but so many repetitions of 
 one simple truth, or cluster of truths. Neverthe- 
 less, these truths are of sufficient importance to 
 justify the attention which they have received, 
 and to relieve the discussion of tediousness with all 
 candid weighers of evidence. I have not thought 
 best often to interrupt the testimony by prolonged 
 comments of my own ; and I now leave them just 
 as they stand, to tell their own story and to give 
 in their own witness. I need to say no more than 
 this : they touch sustainingly every point which I 
 have made in my argument ; and in such a way as 
 to show that the ages to which they belong were 
 exceedingly familiar with the views which they 
 exhibit ; and that they were considered as present- 
 ing cardinal points in the pure Protestant faith, 
 which was then established and defended as well 
 with the blood of the martyrs as with the pen of 
 
 scholars. 
 
 The Seventeenth Century doubtless witnessed 
 
 the maintenance of different views of the Church in 
 
 England ; but they were mostly the views of what 
 
 have been termed the '' Non-jurors ;" a name given 
 
 to those, who, as adherents of the deposed and Popish 
 
 James II., could not honestly take the oath of alleg- 
 
144 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 iance to his Protestant successors on the throne, 
 William and Mary ; views, therefore, suspected 
 in their very source, and weighing nothing with 
 scripturally enlightened Protestants against those 
 of Cranmer and Eidley, Hooper and Nowell, Hook- 
 er and Perkins, Hall and Taylor, Usher and Jack- 
 son, Barrow and Sanderson ; to say nothing of the 
 multitude of others, true and loyal children of the 
 Eeformation, who marched by their side, or fol- 
 lowed in their train. 
 
 In making this appeal to concurrent testimony, 
 however, let me not be misunderstood. It is, in- 
 deed, pleasant to fmd one's self in company which 
 one likes. Nevertheless, the Christian teacher, 
 provided he be sure of having Christ and His Word 
 on his side, might well be content to march alone, 
 with never so great a number of combatants array- 
 ed against him. I have made the foregoing 
 citations, not because they are the infallible 
 authorities on which the argument for the 
 Church, in her highest character, is founded, but 
 because they are credible, or trustworthy witness- 
 es to show that this argument is no novelty ; that I 
 have not been broaching new and rash speculations 
 of my own ; but that I have been moving in the 
 track of a multitude of the soundest and holiest 
 minds of the soundest and purest Churches of 
 Christendom. There are those, who make tradi- 
 
TESTIMONY OF STANDARD WBITERS. 145 
 
 tion an infallible authority in matters of faith and 
 doctrine, and who hold this authority to be a neces- 
 sary interpreter of the Word of the living God. 
 They set up this tradition as an infallible judge on 
 the theological bench, and bow to its oracular de- 
 cisions with implicit faith. Not such, however, is 
 the rank which we have been taught to assign to 
 this speaker. We place it, not as judge on the 
 bench, but as evidence on the witness's stand ; and 
 we receive its statements so far only as they are 
 harmonious with the only infallible rule of faith and 
 doctrine, the everlasting Word of truth. 
 
 Take this Word, then, to which our appeal has 
 been made, and study it thoroughly. Take, also, 
 the witnesses who have been called, and question 
 them carefully. And then say, do these witnesses 
 speak according to that Word in the matter of 
 which they have been called to testify ? If so, 
 give them your credence, not because they can add 
 anything of certainty to that Word, but because 
 they are the unimpeached sons of that Church, to 
 which, as Episcopalians, we belong, and because 
 they speak according "" to the law and the testi- 
 mony,'' which the Holy Spirit hath penned, and 
 which secure to us the priceless heritage of the one 
 true Saviour of *'all faithful people," — of all holy 
 believers. 
 
 10 
 
PART II. 
 
 THE CHURCH, AS A VISIBLE BODY. 
 
THE CHUECH, AS A VISIBLE BODY. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SCRIPTURE VIEW OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 
 
 npO the Church, as, in its largest, highest sense, 
 -■- One and Catholic, we have already directed 
 our attention at considerable length. On the 
 authority of the Bible, with the accordant testimony 
 of our own standards, and of the standard writers 
 of our own Protestant Reformation, we have seen 
 it, in this sense, composed of " all faithful people, '' 
 or true believers ; of all who, by a living faith, 
 " hold the Head " of the Body, which is Christ ; and 
 who, by the Holy Ghost, are, in that faith sancti- 
 fied and saved. This is "the Church of the first- 
 born which are written in heaven " even while so- 
 journing on earth ; and which, in the present life, 
 do " come to God, the Judge of all, and to the 
 spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the 
 mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of 
 sprinkling which speaketh better things than that 
 of Abel.'' To this Church, made up of saints alive, 
 and of the " spirits of the just made perfect," whose 
 mediator and high priest is Christ, and whose 
 
 (149) 
 
,50 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 cleansing is in the precious blood of sprinkling, all 
 true believers ''come" the moment they are true 
 believers ; they wait not for membership in this 
 Church, but enter now into its holy oneness, its 
 heavenly communion, its divine Catholicism. This 
 is the Church, in what I have termed its true, spir- 
 itual character ; or, what the old writers call " the 
 invisible Church," because the bonji of membership, 
 which unites the believer to Christ, is invisible. 
 
 But, I have already said, there is a sense, in 
 which the Church is visible ; and I now add, there 
 is a sense, in which this visible Church is Catholic : 
 and the question, upon which, in this Chapter, I 
 propose to enter, is this : What is this visibly 
 Catholic Church ? What and whom does it com- 
 prehend ? The Comprehension of this Visible 
 Church is the theme now before us. 
 
 I am well aware of the difficulties with which 
 this part of the subject is beset, and of the repug- 
 nance, which, in certain quarters, is felt to the view 
 which I am about to present. Still, as I am con- 
 strained to regard this view as resting on the true 
 sense of Scripture, and as being supported by the 
 testimony of our own standards and standard wri- 
 ters, I shall present it with a consciousness of fidel- 
 ity to the vows which bind me to our own Church ; 
 and hope, ere I close, to satisfy all who will read 
 with candor and with patience, if not of the de- 
 
THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 151 
 
 monstrable certainty of my positions, at least of 
 their credible claim to the character of sound 
 Protestant Episcopacy. 
 
 I begin by distinctly acknowledging, that the 
 view which we take of what is essential to the 
 being of the Church, in its spiritual Catholicism, 
 must be expected to govern the view which we 
 take of what is meant by the comprehension of 
 the Church in its visible Catholicism. In other 
 words, the view which we take of the Church as 
 the Body of " the saved," in spiritual union with 
 Christ the Saviour, naturally determines the view 
 which we take of the Church as a visible organiza- 
 tion of those who profess to believe in Christ. 
 
 All Christians, then, hold undoubtingly, that 
 there are such realities as the gift of the Spirit, 
 union with Christ, and the pardon of sin. These 
 realities make up the infinitely rich legacy of God 
 to man in and through Christ Jesus. Without 
 them there can be neither Church nor Christianity. 
 The Church spiritual is composed exclusively of 
 those who enjoy this legacy as the earnest of their 
 full salvation. The Church visible is organized 
 for the better activity, and as an ordinary means 
 of increasing the number of those for whom this 
 legacy is reserved. The difference among Chris- 
 tians lies, not in admitting or denying this divine 
 verity, but in settling the question how it is to be 
 
152 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 realized or received, by the disciples of Christ ; 
 that is, not whether God ever saves a soul with- 
 out any outward means, but what are the ordinary 
 way and means in and by which He saves ? To 
 recur, then, to the second and third definitions of 
 the Church, which I gave at the opening of this 
 discussion ; if, on the one hand, we hold that an 
 Episcopally constituted ministry is essential to the 
 very being of the Church, indispensably necessary 
 as a " ministerial intervention " between God and 
 man, for the communication or conveyance of the 
 gift of the Spirit, union with Christ, and the pardon 
 of sin, then it will necessarily follow that the Church, 
 as visibly Catholic, can comprehend none but those 
 who are in subjection to an Episcopal ministry ; 
 because, on this supposition, through this ministry 
 alone the gifts requisite to salvation are to be 
 sought and realized ; and because, without these 
 gifts, there will be no members of Christ to be 
 organized into a visible Church. On this theory, 
 the visible Church and the Episcopally organized 
 Body are identical, mutually bounding each other, 
 and excluding all besides. But if, on the other 
 hand, we hold that the gift of the Spirit, union 
 with Christ, and the pardon of sin, are direct 
 bestowments from God upon the individual soul, 
 received by faith in Christ, without any other 
 necessary intervention than that of the Spirit and 
 
THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 
 
 153 
 
 Divinely inspired Truth heard, read, or preached, 
 then it will follow that the Church, as visibly 
 Catholic, comprehends all those professing Chris- 
 tians throughout the world, under whatever form 
 of ministry organized, among whom the Gospel is 
 truly held, Christ truly confessed, and His sacra- 
 ments really administered, and to whom Grod 
 vouchsafes the gift of the Spirit, union with Christ, 
 and the pardon of sin. All such Christian organi- 
 zations will belong to the visible Church Catholic, 
 not because all their visible members are partakers 
 of these unspeakable benefits, but because, among 
 them there may be partakers of these benefits to 
 be embodied in outward, visible organization. The 
 real partakers of these benefits, as we have seen, 
 constitute the one spiritual Church by virtue of their 
 living union with Christ by faith, through the Spirit. 
 The Church, in this sense, is nothing else than the 
 whole Body of members, thus spiritually united 
 with their Divine Head. Wherever, then, these 
 members are embodied in an outward, visible 
 organization, with a true confession of Christ, a 
 true profession of His Gospel, and a common 
 union in His sacraments, there, according to this 
 view, will be a portion of the visible Church 
 Catholic. The main difference between the true 
 spiritual Church Catholic, and the Catholic Church 
 visible or organized, consists in this, that the former 
 
154 
 
 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 is the Church, as God sees it, running through all 
 time into great eternity ; while the latter is the 
 Church, as man sees it, bounded by that little 
 span of time to which he belongs. The organiza- 
 tion of the visible Church is certainly a Divine 
 provision or arrangement, designed to promote 
 the best welfare, and the growing multiplication 
 of spiritually live members of Christ ; but, from 
 its very nature the application of that provision to 
 the nature of man and to human society, results 
 in this difference between the spiritual Church and 
 the Church as made visible among men, that the 
 former hath none but true and living members, 
 while the latter may have, and generally has, 
 many false and dead members. 
 
 Which, then, of the two views thus re-intro- 
 duced, are we to adopt ? To which do the Bible 
 and our own standards bear their testimony ? For 
 myself I am prepared to answer, that they lead, 
 and decidedly, to the adoj^tion of the latter. 
 
 1. As bearing on this point, I think it quite sig- 
 nificant, and, therefore, invite careful attention to 
 the remark, that, when the Bible speaks of what 
 is evidently the true and holy Church universal, 
 " the Communion of saints," in which there are no 
 unholy members, it speaks of this Church as one, 
 without reference to times, places, or outward pecu- 
 liarities, and in the most universal and unqualified 
 
THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 155 
 
 terms, as all holy and all in Christ ; but, when 
 it speaks of the Church as a visible organization, it 
 often speaks of this as many, as bounded by times 
 and places, and as subject to all the diversities, 
 mutations, and imperfections, which grow out of 
 man's mixed and sinful state. Let me illustrate 
 both parts of this remark. 
 
 The texts which I have examined in the former 
 part of this Treatise, will show what I mean by 
 the former part of this remark. In those passages, 
 the Bible speaks of the Church as the "one fold 
 under one Shepherd ;'^ " the whole family which is 
 named in heaven and earth ;" the '' one body " of 
 Christ ; "the Bride, the Lamb's wife ;" the " holy 
 Temple in the Lord," into which all, who are 
 builded upon Christ by faith, do "grow." This is 
 what Christ calls " My Church," against which " the 
 gates of hell shall not prevail ;" the Church, to 
 which "the Lord daily added the saved;" the 
 " Church which is His body, the fullness of Him 
 that filleth all in all;" "the Church in Christ 
 Jesus " in which Grod is to be glorified " through- 
 out all ages ;" " the Church which Christ loved," 
 and for which He "gave Himself;" "the Church 
 of the living God, the pillar and ground of the 
 truth ;" the Church, whose members are all Christ's 
 "brethren;" "the general assembly and Church 
 of the first-born, which are written in heaven." All 
 
156 
 
 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 this language, it will be remembered, is not only 
 thus absolute, and perfectly unrestricted to time, 
 place and outward peculiarity, but constantly in- 
 termingled with the ascription, to all the members 
 of the Church in this sense, of life, and growth, and 
 holiness, and the certain inheritance of eternal 
 glory. 
 
 And what I mean by the latter part of the re- 
 mark will be seen by simply collecting together 
 a few of the very numerous passages, in which the 
 Church, as visible and organized, is mentioned. 
 They will bring before us a very different view. 
 Take the following specimens : 
 
 '' So ordain I in all the Churches." '' Then had 
 the Churches rest throughout all Judea." " If any 
 man seem to be contentious, we have no such cus- 
 tom, neither the Churches of God." "Let your 
 women keep silence in the Churches." "As I have 
 given order to the Churches of Galatia." " The 
 Churches of Asia salute you." " Chosen of the 
 Churches to travel with us." " Messengers of the 
 Churches." " That which cometh upon me daily, 
 the care of all the Churches." " John to the seven 
 Churches which are in Asia." "There was a 
 great persecution against the Church which was at 
 Jerusalem." " When they had ordained them eld- 
 ers in every Church." " The Church at Babylon, 
 elected together with you, saluteth you." " I wrote 
 
THE VISIBLE CHURCH, 157 
 
 unto the Church ; but Diotrephes, who loveth to 
 have the preeminence among them, receiveth us 
 not." "The Church that was at Antioch." "If, 
 then, ye have judgments of things pertaining to this 
 life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in 
 the Church. I speak to jour shame." " Cause 
 that it (this epistle) be read in the Church of the 
 Laodiceans." "In eating, every one taketh before 
 other his own supper ; and one is hungry and an- 
 other is drunken. What ! Have ye not houses to 
 eat and to drink in ? Or despise ye the Church 
 of God, and shame them that have not?" "Unto 
 the Angel of the Church in Sardis write :....! 
 know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou 
 livest, and art dead." And "Unto the Angel of 
 the Church of the Laodiceans write : . . . I know thy 
 works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would 
 thou wert cold or hot. So then, because thou art 
 lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee 
 out of my mouth." [1 Cor. 7 : 17 ; Acts 9 : 31 ; 
 1 Cor. 11 : 16 ; 14 : 34 ; 16 : 1 ; 16 : 19 ; 2 Cor. 8 : 
 19, 23 ; 11 : 28 ; Rev. 1:4; Acts 8 : 1 ; 14 : 23 ; 
 1 Pet. 5 : 13 ; 3 John, ver. 9 ; Acts 13 : 1 ; 1 Cor. 
 6 : 4, 5 ; Col. 4 : 16 ; 1 Cor. 11 : 21, 22 ; Eev. 3 : 
 1 ; 3 : 14-16. 
 
 Now, in reading these, (and a multitude of sim- 
 ilar passages might be cited,) the exclamation 
 instinctively rises : in what a very different at- 
 
158 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 mosphere do we find ourselves from tliat which 
 surrounded us while reading those before quoted ! 
 There, all was absolute, universal, unqualified, in 
 the language used. Here, all this is dropped ; and 
 the language used becomes conditioned, limited, 
 particular. There, we were evidently in the 
 Church as it exists in Christ ; all calm, peaceful, 
 holv, and full of the likeness and the foretastes of 
 "heaven. Here, we are unmistakably in the Church, 
 as it exists in the World, full of mixture and of 
 conflict ; an impure and imperfect, an unresting and 
 disordered, a changing and suffering body. There, 
 we were in the Church as as one, without a shadow 
 of multiplicity. Here, we are in the Church as 
 MANY, with manifold shades of diversity upon it. 
 Here, in short, we find this multiform Church 
 sometimes at rest, at others in persecution ; bound- 
 ed by times and places ; modified by custom and 
 order ; choosing and sending messengers ; writing 
 and reading, sending and receiving epistles ; or- 
 daining elders ; doing things as mixed human 
 bodies are wont to do ; and, withal, affected by the 
 doing of them too much as such bodies usually are 
 affected ; having judgments, or proceedings at law, 
 about the things of this life ; troubled with ambi- 
 tions and contentions ; abusing sacred rites to pur- 
 poses of gluttony and drunkenness ; having, some- 
 times, a name to live though really dead ; frequently 
 
THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 159 
 
 engaged in things beautiful and commendable, but 
 not always clear of things for which they were to 
 be shamed, and on account of which Christ put 
 them loathingly away from Himself ! 
 
 All this, indeed, does not show us what the 
 Church, as visibly Catholic, comprehends ; but it 
 does show us how very different a thing it is from 
 the Church, as spiritually Catliolic, '' the communion 
 of saints,'' one and holy in Christ Jesus ; and it 
 gives us a starting-point in our inquiries, and shows 
 us what, in various respects, we are to look for in 
 the Church as visibly Catholic ; that we may expect 
 to find it existing in many places under separate, 
 independent organizations, divided and corrupted, 
 exposed in parts to extinguishment, and even liable 
 to be utterly rejected of God. 
 
 2. Let us now look at another set of passages, 
 and see whether we can gather any further light 
 on the subject of our present inquiry. I refer to 
 passages which speak of the Church as a " King- 
 dom.'' These passages are numerous, and present 
 the Church, apparently, both as a mixed body and 
 as pure. I select two, which seem to present it in 
 the former character. 
 
 In Matt. 13 : 47, 48, Christ compares '' the king- 
 dom of heaven" to " a net, cast into the sea, and 
 gathering of qn^yj kind ; which, when it was full, 
 they drew to the shore, . . and gathered the good 
 
i6o THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 into vessels, but cast the bad away." For the word 
 " kingdom/' in this passage, we may substitute the 
 word " Church." The Church, then, is here liken- 
 ed unto a net, cast into the sea ; and this net is 
 evidently the visible Church Catholic, the king- 
 dom organized under outward ministry, worship, 
 and sacraments. The sea, into which this Church- 
 net is cast, is this human world, bounded by the 
 shores of time. The "every kind," gathered by 
 this net, are the countless multitudes, of all names, 
 characters and conditions, the precious and the vile, 
 which the visible Church gathers within its wide- 
 sweeping organizations ; and " the shore " to which 
 the net is drawn for the grand, separating process, 
 is the limit, at which this world's time is bordered 
 by eternity, and casts up its millions to the judg- 
 ment — showing, at last, of what a strangely mixed 
 multitude the Church on earth has consisted, and 
 how different it is, as standing before the eye of 
 man, from what it is as it lives ** in the eyes and 
 heart of God," — to use Jeremy Taylor's strong 
 figure. 
 
 Again, in the same chapter, Matt. 13 : 24-30, 
 Christ compares " the kingdom of heaven " to " a 
 man, that sowed good seed in his field ;" adding, 
 "but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed 
 tares among the wheat, and went his way." The 
 wheat and the tares sprang up and grew confusedly 
 
THE VISIBLE CHURCH, i6i 
 
 together until the harvest ; but (hen iho^ reapers 
 gathered the tares into bundles for the burning, 
 but the wheat into the master's barn. 
 
 In sense, this passage is evidently identical with 
 that just explained ; though in dress, it is different. 
 The kingdom is likened unto *' a man who sow. d 
 good seed in his field;" but whose enemy, '' wdiile men 
 slept, came and sowed tares among the wheat.'' 
 The explanation given. Matt. 13 : 37-43, shows 
 that the sower is " the Son of man," the Lord 
 Jesus ; that the field is *' the world," the lost race 
 of men ; that the good seed are *' the children of 
 the kingdom," the saved members of Christ ; that 
 the "tares are the children of the wicked one, "the 
 sinful, unsaved among them ; that the enemy is 
 ''the Devil," the adversary of God and man ; that 
 the harvest is " the end of the world," the day 
 when our race is to be judged : that the reapers are 
 "the angels," ministers, executive of the decision 
 of the Great Judge ; and that the ensuing process is 
 the result of the Judgment, the separation of the 
 unsaved from the saved, and the assignment to 
 each of their fearfully distinct lot in the age of 
 ages. 
 
 From this explanation it is manifest that, in sow- 
 ing none but " good seed," the desire of the Divine 
 Sower is to gather from the world, and preserve 
 in it none but a pure Church, and that the reason 
 11 
 
i52 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 why His Church in this life is not pure is, that 
 through the drowsiness of His watchmen the ene- 
 my gets opportunity to sow tares among the wheat. 
 In other words, the spiritual discernment of the 
 watchmen of the Church was not long to retain 
 the character of that early miraculous gift, the 
 " discerning of spirits ;" and that, under the ordi- 
 nary dispensation of the Christian economy, this 
 discernment is neither so penetrating nor so wake- 
 ful as always to detect the difference between true 
 and false members of Christ. The purpose of the 
 Adversary, therefore, succeeds, and the Church 
 becomes mixed with lifeless members, hypocrites, 
 formalists and self-deceived ; members ** having 
 a name to live while they are dead." The visible 
 Church is found to be a very different Body from 
 that which its Divine Head desires to collect and 
 preserve. The purposes of this Divine Head are 
 not frustrated, but His desires fail in this life of 
 their full realization. " The children of the king- 
 dom " are gathered into the Church, but through 
 the infirmity of our nature, the abuses of society, 
 and the activity of the Adversary, others are gath- 
 ered with them who are not partakers with them, 
 and the Church of " the saved " waits a future life 
 for its full, perfect and separate development. 
 
 Upon both of these parables, then, I remark : 
 they plainly teach that the visible Church Catholic, 
 
THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 
 
 163 
 
 in its true comprehension, must include all, of 
 every name and character, whom the outward 
 agencies of the Christian Dispensation gather out 
 of the great sea of time, and out of the wide field 
 of the world, into an outward profession of the 
 Christian faith. As visible, the Church is a 
 strangely mixed and multitudinous Body. These 
 parables require us to comprehend in it the whole 
 mighty mass surnamed of Christ, and living in a 
 profession of His Gospel and under the regulation 
 of His institutes, from side to side of the earth, 
 ^nd from end to end of time. These parables 
 permit us to leave out none among whom the real 
 " children of the kingdom " are thus visibly pro- 
 fessed and organized. 
 
 3. We shall bring the subject into fuller light if 
 we look a moment at the definition which makes 
 Episcopacy essential to the very being of the 
 Church. This definition rests on the theory that 
 this Episcopacy is " a necessary ministerial interven- 
 tion" between God and man for the conveyance of the 
 gift of the Spirit, union with Christ, and the pardon 
 of sin. The thoroughly unscriptural character of 
 this theory is settled by this one consideration : 
 that it virtually puts two mediators between God 
 and His creatures, while the Bible puts but one. 
 The Bible says, '' There is one God and one Me- 
 diator between God and men, the man Christ 
 
164 
 
 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 Jesus," (1 Tim. 2 : 5,) and when it says " there 
 is one Mediator between Grod and men," it means 
 that there is but one ; just as when it says, 
 ''There is one God," it means that there is but 
 one. Against this text we may as well contend 
 that there are, in any sense, two Gods, as say that 
 there are, in any sense, two Mediators. But this 
 the theory in question does practically say : First, 
 it puts between men and God the one Mediator, 
 Christ Jesus, and then it puts between men and 
 Christ Jesus its second Mediator, the Priesthood 
 of the Church, as a necessary intervention, with- 
 out which there is no authorized way for the con- 
 veyance of the gift of the Spirit, union with Christ, 
 and the pardon of sin. It does not call the indi- 
 vidual who officiates in this Priesthood, a mediator 
 in the full sense in which Christ is the Mediator ; 
 but it does consider this Priesthood itself as a 
 Mediation, offering, for the purpose of conveying, 
 the same sacrifice with Christ, and constituting the 
 only authorized way of dispensing the inestimable 
 blessings which that sacrifice has purchased. If 
 the theory admit that these blessings are ever 
 received without this secondary mediation, it still 
 holds that, without this secondary mediation, men 
 have no right to look for those blessings ; that, to 
 such those blessings come, not by covenant, but 
 without covenant ; that they are, in fact, " uncove- 
 
THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 165 
 
 nanted mercies," such as possibly the heathen may 
 experience. 
 
 This is, probably, one of the most unscriptural, 
 as it is certainly one of the most dangerous tenots, 
 ever held. The Bible everywhere confutes it, and 
 history everywhere shows its perilousness. We 
 might spend hours in showing how the Bible con- 
 tinually holds up Christ alone as the only ''Days- 
 man " between God and His sinful creatures, that 
 needs to " lay His hand upon both ;" how it as 
 continually invites every poor, distressed, and 
 broken-hearted sinner, to come immediately and 
 directly to this Christ, whether in the recesses of 
 the heart, in the stillness of the closet, or in the 
 solitude of the desert ; and how it calls every man 
 to bow his head, by faith, beneath the one pardon- 
 ing and Spirit-giving hand, which this true Media- 
 tor opens and stretches man-ward, while with the 
 other He reaches and touches Grod-ward ; so that 
 thus, the really connecting links being joined, life 
 and all the communicable fullness of the Infinite 
 Father, through the life-giving, mediating Son, 
 may descend and abide upon His repenting and 
 believing child ; they alone, with none and nothing 
 between them ! And, having shown all this from the 
 Bible, we might then go on, and spend other hours 
 in showing how history repeatedly and warningly 
 reveals the perilousness of interposing a mediat- 
 
,66 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 ing priesthood between the sinner and the Saviour, 
 as a necessary, or as the only authorized, channel 
 for the conveyance of spiritual gifts ; how this 
 awfully arrogated power has been most awfully 
 abused, and how, in the hands of such a being as 
 man, it can never fail to be abused to the worst of 
 purposes. We might go into all the details of this 
 large branch of the subject, but it is not neces- 
 sary ; a glance at it is enough. Both the Bible 
 and history are against this theory. This theory 
 erects, as necessary to the being of the Church, 
 an intervention which the Bible does not necessi- 
 tate, and against which history is a Heaven-re- 
 corded warning ; an intervention which, in the 
 prerogatives claimed for it, the Bible sweeps clean 
 away ; and of which, for the evils wrought by it, 
 history will yet write the Heaven-inflicted extinc- 
 tion. The visible Church Catholic cannot be 
 bounded by this theory. All that is necessary 
 to give being to the Church, — the gift of the Spirit, 
 union with Christ, and the pardon of sin, — may be 
 obtained, is obtained, without any such interven- 
 tion as this theory supposes. Wherever profess- 
 ing Christians, holding the true Word and Grospel 
 of Christ, and organized under a visible ministry 
 and sacraments in avowed obedience to Christ its 
 only Head, are foand, there a portion of the visi- 
 ble Church Catholic is present, though it be a 
 
TEE VISIBLE GHURCH. ,67 
 
 mixed society, existing under disadvantages more 
 or less serious, and with the loss of some things 
 in which the well-being of the Church might rea- 
 sonably rejoice. In a word, and in its full com- 
 prehension, the visible Church Catholic may be thus 
 defined : The whole company on earth of those 
 who profess faith in Christ, maintain the preach- 
 ing of His Gospel, are united by the common bond 
 of His sacraments, and are infected with no heresy 
 subversive of the Christian faith. 
 
 The mercy of a Saviour, the mission of the Spirit, 
 and the message of the Word have been given for 
 the great end of saving the souls of men from sin 
 and eternal death. These infinite gifts, through a 
 growingly full and distinct revelation, have been 
 operating in the world from the earliest ages ; and 
 the whole sum of their effects, in any age, the 
 whole company of the saved and of those who pro- 
 fess the faith that saves, when outwardly embodied 
 under necessary forms, constitutes the visible 
 Church Catholic of that age. This Church is that 
 whole company, existing at any particular time, 
 under the forms necessary to their outward mani- 
 festation ; and these forms are, the profession of 
 the true faith, the preaching of the true Word, and 
 a common union in the sacraments, which Christ 
 Himself hath ordained. These are the things in 
 which their visibility, as a Church, consists. Their 
 
,68 THE LlVma TEMPLE. 
 
 persons may be made visible by flesh and blood ; 
 but their Church-character cannot be made visible 
 without these necessary forms. It must be borne 
 in mind, however, that, under this its outward or- 
 ganization, the Church is no longer the one pure 
 and holy Church of Christ, such as He desires it to 
 be, — but the whole congregation of outward pro- 
 fessors of Christ, mixed, imperfect, and more or 
 less defiled with error, worldliness and sin. It is 
 the '' net," filled with " every kind," " the good and 
 the bad :" — the *' kingdom," in a field thick sown 
 and growing both with " wheat" and with "tares." 
 From all this it follows, that no one visible or- 
 ganization can, by itself, and to the exclusion of 
 others, be called the Church, the Catholic Church. 
 The Church of Rome is not the Catholic Church ; 
 nor is that of Greece, or that of England, or all 
 these together, the Catholic Church. This term, as 
 we now seek its comprehension, covers the whole 
 visible company of Christ's professed followers on 
 earth, so far as they hold and proclaim the true 
 faith, and are united by the common bond of 
 Christ's sacraments. The very signification of the 
 word. Catholic, points to this comprehension of the 
 visible Church, and to nothing narrower. " Catho- 
 lic " means, " the whole," not any part or parts, — • 
 " Universal," not particular, — and it is an unwar- 
 rantable assumption in any one organization, or in 
 
THE VISIBLE GHUBGH. i6g 
 
 any number of members, short of " the whole," to 
 call itself, or themselves, ' The Catholic Church." 
 This comprehends the whole, the universal, com- 
 pany of Christ's professed followers, who hold to 
 Him as Head, to His truth, in the main uncorrupt, 
 and to His sacraments, in all things necessary to 
 their being. 
 
 This, we think, is the doctrine of our Nineteenth 
 Article, when rightly understood. That article de- 
 fines "the visible Church" as " a congregation of 
 faithfal men in which the pure Word of God is 
 preached, and the sacraments be duly administered 
 according to Christ's ordinance, in all things that 
 of necessity are requisite to the same." The only 
 difticulty in understanding the definition lies in the 
 word, " FAITHFUL." It is the " visible Church " that 
 is defined ; and yet it is defined as " a congregation 
 of FAITHFUL men ;" which, in the language of the old 
 writers, means, " a congregation of true believers.'' 
 And if the definition ended here, it vfould evident- 
 ly make the visible Church identical with the 
 Church of " the saved." But the definition does not 
 end here. It goes on to say : that this is a congre- 
 gation, " in which the pure Word of Grod is preach- 
 ed, and the sacraments be duly administered ac- 
 cording to Christ's ordinance, in all things that of 
 necessity are requisite to the same." And these, 
 it will be remembered, are the very things in which 
 
,7o THE LIVING TEMPLE, 
 
 the visibility of the Church, as a Church, consists. 
 The article, then, must I think, be explained thus : 
 **The Church," in the desire of her Divine Head, is 
 "a congregation of true believers ;" but when or- 
 ganized and made visible under ministry and sac- 
 raments, then, through the infirmity of our nature 
 and of human society, and through the evil activity 
 of the Adversary, it becomes, as we see it, mixed, 
 imperfect, and defiled with more or less serious 
 errors ; the " bad " with the " good/^ the '* tares " 
 with the *' wheat." The visible Church of any age 
 has in it all " the faithful men" of that age ; and it 
 ought to have none other ; but, through human im- 
 perfection in preaching the Word and applying the 
 sacraments, — an imperfection intensified by the in- 
 sidious malice of the devil, — it contains many 
 others, who belong to it in its outward organiza- 
 tion, while inwardly they are none of Christ's. 
 
 Some, indeed, would avoid the difficulty in this 
 Nineteenth Article by explaining the phrase, " visi- 
 ble Church," as identical with that of the ''commun- 
 ion of saints " in the Creed ; holding that all the 
 members even of the visible Church are really re- 
 generate and sanctified followers of Christ. But to 
 sustain this view they are forced to hold another, viz : 
 that impenitent, unconverted, and ungodly persons, 
 though baptized and partakers of '* the outward and 
 visible sign " in the Lord's supper, are yet, in no 
 
THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 171 
 
 sense, members even of "the visible Church." This 
 Church, they contend, is " a congregation" of exclu- 
 sively '' faithful men ;" — in the sense of the article, 
 godly believers. 
 
 This explanation, however, is opposed to the 
 sense of our great Protestant divines. Even the 
 citations, formerl}^ made from these divines, though 
 made for another purpose, show, nevertheless, that 
 they considered baptized communicants, though 
 impenitent and ungodly, yet as really members of 
 the visible Church ; not, indeed, of the Church " in 
 Grod's sense,'^ — to use Bishop Taylor's language, — 
 but, of the Church "in man's sense." That there 
 is a sense, in which these spiritually dead mem- 
 bers do not belong to the Church, is very true. It 
 is equally true, however, that there is another 
 sense in which they do belong to the Church, at 
 least until cut ofip by discipline. And this sense, 
 according to the writers just referred to, is that of 
 the Church visible. 
 
 Moreover, the explanation in question is evi- 
 dently inconsistent with the teaching of Christ 
 himself in His figure of " the Yine and the branch- 
 es." "I am the vine," says He, "ye are the 
 branches." John 15: 5. "Every branch in mo 
 that beareth not fruit, He taketh away." John 15 : 
 1. In this language Christ and the Vine are evi- 
 dently a figure of the Church. And the teaching 
 
,72 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 of the language can be nothing less than this ; that 
 there is a sense, in which there are lifeless mem- 
 bers of this Church ; dead branches on that Yine ; 
 whose doom is — if they become not living and fruit- 
 bearing — to be cut off and cast away. And this 
 sense, again, can be none other than that of the 
 visible Church. It is important to add, that this 
 brings the teaching from the metaphor of the Vine 
 and its branches into harmony with that already 
 found in the parables of the "net east into the 
 sea,'' and " the tares of the field." 
 
 1 see no good reason, therefore, for giving up 
 the ordinary acceptation of the phrase, ''visible 
 Church ;" understanding by it, the whole mixed 
 company in all the world of those who profess the 
 faith of Christ, and maintain the preaching of His 
 Gospel and the administration of His sacraments, 
 in all things necessary to the same. 
 
 That our Nineteenth Article intends to give the 
 visible Church this comprehension is evident from 
 the fact, that it says nothing of what constitutes the 
 essence of the ministry, or of what is necessary to 
 " the due administration of the sacraments accord- 
 ing to Christ's ordinance." It leaves both these 
 points at large and undetermined j and I suppose 
 it is hazarding nothing to say, that it would be im- 
 possible to bring our Church up to the point of 
 decreeing, through her authoritative councils, that 
 
THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 173 
 
 there can be no Christian ministry at all, other 
 than that Episcopally conLitituted ; and no Christian 
 sacraments at all, other than those Episcopally ad- 
 ministered. Such a decision she has never, in any 
 way, promulged. Such a sentence she can never 
 be made authoritatively to pass. She proclaims 
 herself a true Church, and leaves others to the 
 liberty of proclaiming the same for themselves, and, 
 if they can, of proving what they proclaim. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 OUR STANDARDS AND STANDARD WRITERS ON THE 
 VISIBLE CHURCH. 
 
 THE Christiiin Faith is exactly compreliensive of 
 the Christian Church. The former is the true 
 boundary of the latter. When this faith, true and 
 sound, is received into the heart, and produces a 
 living and holy union with Christ, it constitutes a 
 member of the true, spiritual Church Catholic. 
 And when this faith, in the main whole and uncor- 
 rupt, is received into the understanding, and carried 
 out into profession under appropriate and necessary 
 forms, it constitutes a member of the real visible 
 Church Catholic. And thus, in both senses, the 
 Christian faith is the only true comprehension of 
 the Christian Church. This faith, or the substance 
 of what Christ requires to be believed, is the all- 
 essential thing in this inquiry. A renunciation of 
 this faith is, to all intents and purposes, a renunci- 
 ation of the Church. Hence, near the close of the 
 last Chapter, in defining the Church, in its external 
 Catholicism, it was said to comprehend the whole 
 
 (174) 
 
THE VISIBLE CHURCH. ,75 
 
 visible company on earth, of those who profess the 
 faith in Christ, maintain \\iq preaching of His Gospel, 
 are united by the common bond of sacraments, and 
 are infected with no heresy subversive of the Chris- 
 tian faith. This last mark was added because a 
 heresy, which subverts the Christian faith, may 
 well be regarded as effecting a severance from the 
 Christian Church. In the days of the Apostles, we 
 learn from Acts, 16 : 5, that "The Churches were 
 established in the faith.'' A subversion of the faith 
 is the opposite to establishment in the faith. It is, 
 so far as it extends, a subversion of the Church 
 itself. For the same reason, a corruption of the 
 faith, if it amount not to its subversion, is but a 
 corruption of the Church. It amounts not to its 
 subversion. Save the substance of the faith, in its 
 outward profession, and you save the substance of 
 the Church, in its visible Catholicism. 
 
 This, as I have already remarked, is the view of 
 the visible Church, so far as we can trace it, in the 
 teachings of the Bible. I add, this is the view, 
 taken by our own standards and standard writers : 
 a remark, to the illustration of which I now invite 
 attention. 
 
 I. OUR STANDARDS. 
 
 1. In looking at our standards, then, we may re- 
 fer again, though at the risk of a little repetition, to 
 
176 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 our XTXth Article. It defines " the visible Church'^ 
 to be, as to its essence, '' a congregation of faithful 
 men ; " and then, as to its visibility, a congregation 
 " in which the pure Word of God is preached, and 
 the sacraments be duly administered according to 
 Christ's ordinance, in all those things that, of 
 necessity, are requisite to the same." Wherever 
 the great " congregation " exists in profession, 
 under the preaching of the true Gospel, and a due 
 administration of the sacraments in all things neces- 
 sary thereto, there, according to this article, "the 
 visible Church of Christ " exists. What is neces- 
 sary to the due administration of the sacraments the 
 article, indeed, does not decide. Individual writers 
 may be found, in sufficient numbers, and living 
 men, in numbers more sufficient still, who strenu- 
 ously contend that, to the very essenca of the sac- 
 raments, an Episcopal ministry is necessary ; so 
 that, without this ministry, there can be no such 
 thing as a Christian sacrament. But this decision 
 our Church has not pronounced ; and, I repeat, can- 
 not be made to pronounce. So far is she from the 
 opinion, which such a decision would involve, that 
 her highest authorities in England, as well as in 
 America, following herein the voice of antiquity, 
 have decided that even lay-baptism, however ir- 
 regular, is, nevertheless, valid and not to be repeat- 
 ed. Her article, therefore, does not teach that 
 
THE VISIBLE CHUMCH. 177 
 
 '' the visible Church of Christ " is bounded by the 
 limits of an Episcopal ministry and sacraments. It 
 is one thing to say that non-episcopal bodies, as 
 outward organizations, are, in the full sense, regular 
 Churches ; and quite another to afi&rm that they 
 belong to the one visible, Catholic Church of Christ 
 The former, an Episcopalian needs not to assert 
 The latter it behoves him steadfastly to hold. 
 
 2. But leaving the teachings of the Article, let us 
 adduce other testimony. Following the order ob- 
 served when speaking of the spiritual Church, I cite, 
 first, from 
 
 I. OUR DEVOTIONAL STANDARDS. 
 
 1. In our communion service, is the prayer '' For 
 the whole state of Christ's Church militant" This 
 I understand to mean, the whole Church on earth, 
 visible and invisible, spiritual and mixed ; and I 
 understand it to speak of this Church as militant, 
 or warring, against those leagued foes without, the 
 world, the flesh and the devil, as well as against 
 those deadly enemies within, sin, error and super- 
 stition ; foes, that trouble the Church as spiritual ; 
 and enemies that defile the Church as mixed. Of 
 whom, then, according to this solemn and authori- 
 tative formula, does this " whole state of Christ's: 
 Church militant," so far, at least, as it is to be con- 
 12 
 
178 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 
 
 sidered visible, consist? Hear tlie witness. It 
 
 * 
 
 consists of all ''who do confess His holy name ;" 
 not only of those who really and savingly believe 
 in that holy name, but of all who profess to believe 
 in it ; though, in so many instances, their faith lives 
 no where but in profession. For all these, and 
 none less, the prayer goes up that they may, as '' a 
 consummation most devoutly to be wished," be 
 "inspired with the spirit of truth, unity and con- 
 cord ;" or that they "may agree in the truth of 
 His holy Word, and live in unity and godly love ; " 
 and that their "Bishops and other ministers may, 
 both by their life and doctrine, set forth His true 
 and lively Word, and rightly and duly administer 
 His holy sacraments." This testimony is very 
 emphatic. The "universal Church" of Christ is 
 expressly dehned as consisting of " all who do con- 
 fess His holy name ; " and its visibility is here, as in 
 the Article, considered as consisting in this confes- 
 sion, under the appointed forms of the preaching of 
 the ^' true and lively Word," and of the " right and 
 due administration of the holy sacraments." It is 
 true, indeed, that more is expressed here than in 
 the Article. There is here a distinct intimation that 
 WE, for ourselves, have adopted an Episcopal minis- 
 try, or a ministry of Bishops ; but this is without 
 any claim that such a ministry is indispensably 
 necessary to the being of the sacraments. We ask 
 
THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 179 
 
 grace, not merely for ''all Bisliops, priests and 
 deacons," but for "all Bishops and other ministers ;" 
 and I think that this peculiar turn of the expression 
 must have been intended to include somewhat more 
 than a simply Episcopal ministry. As a petition 
 for "Bishops and other ministers," it must I appre- 
 hend, be considered as a prayer for " Bishops and 
 ALL other ministers," even for all who minister to 
 THE ALL " who do coufcss Christ's holy name ; " to 
 THE ALL who make up " the whole state of Christ's 
 Church militant." This prayer, and the ancient 
 liturgies, in which it stands, were doubtless framed 
 in times, when there was none but an Episcopal 
 ministry to pray for : but the remark is most im- 
 portant, that the prayer was adopted into our 
 communion service, both in England and this coun- 
 try, at a time when our Church authorities had 
 come to the knowledge and to the acknowledgment 
 of the fact, that there were then, in the Church 
 militant, many ministers of Christ, who had never 
 been Episcopally ordained. 
 
 2. Indeed, this freedom of our Prayer-Book lan- 
 guage from all particularizing, its large generalness 
 of expression, is very remarkable. I cite a second 
 instance of it from our last prayer at " The Institu- 
 tion of Ministers." We there pray for " the Church, 
 built upon the foundation of the apostles and 
 prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cor- 
 
i8o THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 ner-stone, that, by the operation of the 
 
 Holy Ghost, all Christians may be so joined 
 together in unity of spirit, and in the bond of peace, 
 that they may be an holy temple, acceptable unto 
 God." This language is broad as possible. It 
 knows no " foundation '' to the Church narrower 
 than "Christ," and no ''temple" for the visible 
 Zion smaller than that which contains " all Chris- 
 tians." In one sense, this is a prayer of sorrows. 
 It looks sadly on this world-wide Church of Christ, 
 and sees it agitated, divided, and, in many things, 
 defiled ; and, at the sight, its petitions go up amid 
 sighs and tears. In another sense, however, it is a 
 prayer of faith. It looks on this Church universal 
 through the sweet light of promise, and, in the 
 power of strong, hopeful entreaty, sees the time 
 when the true " unity," that "of the Spirit," and the 
 true "bond," that of " peace," shall embrace and 
 bind together in love "all Christians," "all who 
 profess Christ's holy name ;" and when thus the 
 Church visible shall, as nearly as earth will allow, 
 become identical with the Church spiritual ; and, at 
 the sight, its petitions go up, if amid sighs and 
 tears, amid smiles and thankfulness as well. It be- 
 comes, truly, a prayer into which every large-heart- 
 ed disciple of Christ delights to put his whole soul 
 of believing, trustful, and fervent intercession. 
 3. A third instance of this same large general- 
 
THE VISIBLE GHUECH. 181 
 
 ness of language when speaking of the visible 
 Church, may be cited from the praj^er ''for all con- 
 ditions of men." We there ''pray for the holy 
 Church universal, that all, who profess and call 
 themselves Christians, may, by the guid- 
 ance and governance of Grod's good Spirit, .... 
 be led into the way of truth and hold the faith in 
 unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in right- 
 eousness of life.'^ This prayer, be it remembered, 
 was never in any of the ancient liturgies. It is of 
 English and Protestant origin. And it was framed, 
 it is alleged, by good Bishop Sanderson of Lincoln. 
 His views of the comprehension of the visible 
 Church are, as we shall presently see, well known ; 
 and there can be no doubt, that, when this formula 
 speaks of " the holy Church universal " as embrac- 
 ing " ALL who profess and call themselves Chris- 
 tians," it means to include not only all the ancient 
 Episcopal communions, but also all the then modern 
 Reformed and Protestant bodies, though many of 
 these were not Episcopally constituted. It means, 
 says our American Bishop Brownell, in his Com- 
 mentary on the Book of Common Prayer, " The 
 Oriental, the Greek, the Latin, the Reformed, with 
 every denomination of Christians." When the 
 English Church, and our American Episcopal after 
 it, adopted this prayer into their solemn liturgy, 
 they not only prayed, (with the heart of every true 
 
l82 
 
 TEE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 follower of Christ saying, "Amen,'') that ''the faith 
 may be held in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, 
 and in righteousness of life,'' but also taught, (with 
 whatever of authority they possess,) that *' the 
 Church Universal " includes, amid whatever of pres- 
 ent agitation, division and corruption, still, in the 
 hope of future peace, unity and purit}', "all who 
 profess and call themselves Christians." The " pro- 
 fession" of the Christian faith ; the " calling them- 
 selves" of Christ ; the putting themselves forth be- 
 fore the world under the accustomed forms of Chris- 
 tian profession, — the preaching of the Gospel and a 
 due reception of Christ's sacraments, are here, by 
 specially Protestant witnessing, set forth as the 
 true comprehending lines of the whole visible body 
 of Christ. 
 
 4. A fourth instance, of this Catholicity of our 
 Book of Common Prayer, is found, not, indeed, in 
 its devotional language, but in its historic preface ; 
 an official document of the highest consideration, 
 set forth by authority of our highest Council, the 
 General Convention of 1789, when publicly sanc- 
 tioning the use of our devotional forms. The pas- 
 sage, to which I refer, is this : " When, in the 
 course of divine Providence, these American States 
 became independent with respect to civil govern- 
 ment, their ecclesiastical independence was neces- 
 sarily included ; and the different religious denom^ 
 
THE VISIBLE GHURGH. 185 
 
 inations of Christians in these States were left at 
 full and equal liberty to model and organize their 
 respective Churches, and forms of worship and 
 discipline, in such manner as they might judge most 
 convenient to their future prosperity, consistently 
 with the laws and constitution of their country." 
 
 Here, the Non-Episcopal denominations of the 
 United States are acknowledged to be ''Churches.'; 
 It is not admissible to say that the word, " Church- 
 es," is here used loosely and by courtesy ; or that, 
 while the term. Church, belongs exclusively to us, 
 the phrase, ''Religious Denominations of Chris- 
 tians," is the appropriate description of all the 
 others. The language quoted, is not that of mere 
 careless politeness ; it is that of strictly serious in- 
 tent ; as might be made abundantly manifest from 
 our Church literature at that period : particularly 
 from the writings of Bishop White, and of Drs. 
 William Smith and Charles H. Wharton, the most 
 eminent divines in the General Convention of 1789. 
 As to the other part of the suggestion, I know it 
 has become fashionable in certain quarters to re- 
 strict the term, Church, to ourselves, and to apply 
 that of "Eeligious Denominations of Christians" 
 to others. But this is trifling with the subject. 
 Our highest Council, that which first gave form to 
 our Church in this land, applies this description to 
 ourselves, as well as to others. When it says,. 
 
1 84 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 
 
 "■ The different Religious Denominations of Chris- 
 tians in these States were left at full and equal lib- 
 erty to model and organize their respective Chur- 
 ches," it includes ourselves among the rest ; it 
 calls us, as well as others, '*a Religious Denomina- 
 tion of Christians." And therefore, when it declares 
 that all these denominations "had full and equal 
 right to model and organize tlieir respective 
 Churches," it admits that they are all Churches ; 
 it asserts the essence of Church-cliaracter to the 
 other denominations as seriously and as strictly as 
 it claims the essence of that character for our- 
 selves. I say, not that it concedes to them the 
 same regularness and fullness of Church- character, 
 which in other documents we claim for ourselves ; 
 but that it asserts to them the essence of that 
 character as seriously and as strictly as it claims 
 the essence of that character for ourselves. Any oth- 
 er inference makes our Church an insincere, equivo- 
 cating courtier, when speaking of the things of God 
 in her highest, most dignified capacity, on one of the 
 greatest, most solemn crises of her history. She 
 hath not thus degraded herself She is erect in 
 high-minded integrity. She has seriously asserted 
 to Non-Episcopal religious denominations of Chris- 
 tians the essence of Church -character. And this 
 is one reason why, at least until she loses her Pro- 
 testantism, she cannot be made to utter the author- 
 
THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 185 
 
 itative decision, that the Episcopacy is essential to 
 the being of a Church, or that the Non-Episcopal 
 denominations are no Churches. 
 
 So far, then, as our standards are concerned, the 
 testimony may be considered sufficient, in favor 
 of the view which I have given of the visible Church 
 Catholic, as comprehending "the whole company 
 on earth of those who profess the Christian faith, 
 maintain the preaching of the Gospel, are united 
 by the common bond of sacraments, and are infect- 
 ed with no heresy subversive of the Christian faith !'' 
 I proceed, therefore, to examine the testimony of 
 
 II. OUR STANDARD WRITERS. 
 
 This will be found luminous on the point, of 
 which I am now treating. The standard writers, 
 now referred to, belong, of course, to the country, 
 in which our Protestant Reformation was effected ; 
 but they flourished, not in the century which wit- 
 nessed that Reformation, but in that which imme- 
 diately followed ; they are the writers of the Seven- 
 teenth Century. 
 
 1. I quote, first from Dr. Thomas Jackson of 
 New Castle, who wrote in the early part of that 
 century, and who has already been mentioned as 
 one of the most eminent divines of that prolific 
 age. In his "Treatise of the Holy Catholic Faith 
 
i86 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 and Church/' after defining "The Church in its 
 prime," or spiritual " sense," he uses this language : 
 *'In a secondary, analogical sense, every present 
 visible Church, which holdeth the holy Catholic 
 faith, without which no man can be saved, pure 
 and undefiled with the traditions or inventions of 
 men, may be termed a holy Catholic Church." 
 "Who they be which profess the unity of that 
 
 faith, is visible and known to all such as 
 
 either hear them profess it, viva voce, or can read 
 and understand their profession of it given in writ- 
 ing." [Treat, on the Holy Cath. Faith and Church, 
 p. 152. Phila. 1844.] And, to show that, by the 
 phrase, " every present visible Church," he does 
 not mean every Episcopally organized Church only, 
 he proceeds to speak of " such a communion" as 
 existed "between the Orthodoxal professors of the 
 English or other Reformed Churches ;" [Treat, etc., 
 p. 154,] and of " Luther, and Christian princes, by 
 God's appointment, uniting the visible members of 
 the holy Catholic Church into visible Churches." 
 [Treat, etc., p. 158.] In those days, indeed, of 
 close searching into the nature of things spiritual 
 and ecclesiastical, this class of eminent divines had 
 no thought of shutting the Reformed Continental 
 Churches, though deprived of the Episcopacy, out 
 of the pale of visible Catholicism. Hence Bishop 
 Hall even while lamenting their want of Episcopal 
 
THE VISIBLE CEUEGH. 187 
 
 order, yet, in view of their holding the true faith 
 of the Gospel, affectionately terms them "The 
 Church of England's dearest sisters abroad ;" [Ser- 
 mon on Noah's Dove;] meaning, by "sisters," 
 sister Churches ; for the sister of a Church must be 
 herself a Church. Jackson's definition, then, of the 
 visible Church spreads itself over the whole ground 
 which we have been surveying. To entitle the 
 visible Church, indeed, to the name, "holy," it 
 must, according to him, hold " the Catholic faith " 
 " pure and undefiled." But, though a particular 
 Church hold this faith more or less corrupted "by 
 traditions and inventions of men," and thus ceases 
 to deserve the name " holy," yet, so long as it does 
 not, by heresy, subvert the foundations of the faith, 
 it does not cease to be a portion of the visible 
 Church Catholic on earth. This Church may and 
 does exist in a state far from pure ; and can be 
 called holy, for no other reason than because it 
 holds the Truth which is holy, and is designed to 
 minister to the spiritual growth of that hidden peo- 
 ple who are holy. 
 
 2. I quote, second. Bishop Sanderson of Lincoln, 
 whom I before cited as the alleged author of our 
 " Prayer for all Conditions of Men," and who fur- 
 nishes a very apposite definition of the visible 
 Church. Having given that, formerly quoted, of 
 the spiritual or invisible Church, he immediately 
 
i88 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 adds : '' The whole company, of all those through- 
 out the world, who, by their doctrine and worship, 
 do outwardly make profession of the Name of 
 Christ ; this we call the universal visible Church, 
 or the Catholic Christian Church." And then to 
 show in what various conditions this universal visi- 
 ble Church may exist, and what utterly subverts 
 it ; he says : '' A total and utter defection from the 
 whole faith of Christ, in doctrine and in worship, 
 destroys the very being of a Church, and maketh 
 it no Church at all. But a defection from the purity 
 of faith doth not take away the being of a Church ; 
 (it remains still a true Church) but only maketh it 
 an impure and corrupt Church, and, so far forth, a 
 
 false Church Corruptions in doctrine and 
 
 worship, as they are greater or lesser, so they 
 make a Church more or less, comparatively, cor- 
 rupt." [Disc, on Visibility of the True Church, 
 pp. 213-215. Phila. 1844.] The same writer 
 speaks repeatedly of '' the Protestant Churches,'^ 
 by which he means that of England and those of 
 the Continent, as standing together on the ''sub- 
 stance of faith," being '' more or less reformed 
 in doctrine and worship," and constituting "par- 
 ticular visible Churches." [Disc, etc., pp. 222- 
 224.] 
 
 It is needless to point out, by extended comment, 
 the entire coincidence of this author with the view 
 
TEE VISIBLE CHURCH. 189 
 
 which I have given of the visible Church Catholic. 
 He makes a clear distinction between what is essen- 
 tial to the being and what is important to the well- 
 being of this Church. 
 
 3. I quote, third, from Dr. Cosin, who became 
 afterwards Bishop of Durham, and who, like Bishop 
 Hall, was ever one of the " staunchest of Church- 
 men." He calls the French Protestants, in the 
 middle of the Seventeenth Century, ''Reformed 
 Churches," and discountenances a refusal of their 
 communion, when the plea urged for such refusal 
 was, that, "for want of Episcopal ordination, they 
 had'no order at all ;" that is, no ministerial orders. 
 " If, upon this ground," says he, "we renounce the 
 French, we must, for the very same reason, re- 
 nounce all the ministers of Germany besides ; . . . 
 and then, what will become of the Protestant 
 party ? .... If the Church and kingdom of Eng- 
 land have acknowledged them," (as they have,) 
 *'why should we, who are but private persons, 
 utterly disclaim their communion?" [Letter to 
 Cordel, Hooker's Collection, p. 234. Phila. 1844.] 
 This, considering the general views of the author 
 from whom it comes, is perhaps one of the most 
 striking testimonies to the truth, that though, in 
 our judgment highly important to the well-being, 
 yet Episcopal ordination is not indispensable to 
 the being of the visible Church. 
 
190 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 
 
 4. I quote, fourth, from '' the judicious Hooker.'^ 
 In his Ecclesiastical Polity, he uses this strong lan- 
 guage : "If, by external profession, they be Chris- 
 tians, then they are the visible Church of Christ ; 
 and Christians, by external profession, they are all, 
 whose mark of recognizance hath in it those things, 
 which we have mentioned, (one Lord, one faith, one 
 baptism) yea, although they be impious idolaters, 
 wicked heretics, persons excommunicable.'^ And 
 then, to the question, whether it be possible for 
 such persons, belonging as they really do ''to the 
 Synagogue of Satan," to belong also '' to the Church 
 of Jesus Christ," he answers, in the very spirit of 
 the present argument, ''Unto that Church which is 
 His mystical Body," it is "not possible " for such 
 persons to belong : " because that Body consisteth 
 of none but only true Israelites, true sons of Abra- 
 ham, true servants and saints of God :" but, " of 
 the visible body and Church of Jesus Christ, those 
 may be and often are " members. [Eccl. Pol., B. 
 III. § 1.] According to this authority, then, 
 and with an emphatic a fortiori^ they belong to the 
 visible Church, who are neither "impious idola- 
 ters" nor "wicked heretics," but who, in their 
 outward profession, hold the Truth in the main un- 
 corrupt, and, in their outward lives, walk in be- 
 coming consistency with their profession ; albeit, in 
 the order of their ministry, they lack somewhat 
 
THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 191 
 
 which we deem requisite to the fullness of the Apos- 
 tolic pattern. 
 
 5. I quote, fifth, from Bishop Hall, whose lan- 
 guage is equally strong. He says : "It is not the 
 variety of by-opinions, that can exclude them from 
 having their part in that one Catholic Church, and 
 their just claim to the ' communion of saints.' 
 While they hold the solid and precious foundation, 
 it is not the hay, or stubble, which they lay upon 
 it, that can cut them off from God and His Church." 
 And then, after lamenting, in the most impassioned 
 strain, the numerous errors and dissentions which 
 have crept in among Christians, he thus proceeds 
 to assert that they do not destroy the real oneness 
 of the visible Church: "Notwithstanding all this 
 hideous variety of vain and heterodoxal concep- 
 tions, He, who is the Truth of God and the Bride- 
 groom of His Church, hath said : "My Dove, my 
 undefiled, is One ;" one in the main, essential, fund- 
 amental verities necessarj' to salvation ; though 
 differing in divers mis-raised corollaries, inconse- 
 quent inferences, unnecessary additions, feigned 
 traditions, unwarrantable practices. The Body is 
 one, though the garments differ ; yea, rather, for 
 most of these, the garment is one, but differs in the 
 dressing ; handsomely and comely set out by some, 
 disguised by another. Neither is it, or ever shall 
 be in the power, of all the fiends of hell, the pro- 
 
1^2 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 fessed make-baits of the world, to make God^s 
 Church other than one ; which were, indeed, utterly 
 to extinguish and reduce it to nothing ; for the 
 unity and entity of the Church can no more be di- 
 vided than itself .... Those that agree in the 
 main principles of religion, Christ is pleased to 
 admit, for matter of doctrine, as members of that 
 body wherof He is the Head, and if they admit not 
 of each other as such the fault is in the uncharita- 
 bleness of the refusers, no less than in the errors 
 of the refused. If any vain and loose stragglers 
 will needs sever themselves, and wilfully choose to 
 go ways of their own, let them know that the union 
 of Christ's Church shall consist entire without them. 
 This great ocean will be one collection of waters, 
 when these drops are lost in the dust." [Treat, of 
 Christ Mystical, chap. vii. § 2.] 
 
 This language, like the prayer in our communion 
 ofiBce, evidently embraces " The whole state of 
 Christ's Church militant" in time, spiritual and 
 mixed ; and it goes on the ground that there is a 
 sense, in which this whole Church is one, notwith- 
 standing its divisions and imperfections. "The 
 Body is one though the garments differ : yea, rather, 
 for the most of these, the garment is one, but dif- 
 fers in the dressing." In other words, even as visi- 
 ble, the Church is one, though it hath many parts, 
 and though the various parts have various external 
 
TEE VISIBLE CHURCH. ip^ 
 
 order and form ; or rather, most, though not all, of 
 the parts have but one garment of outward order 
 and form. Most, though not all, have an Episco- 
 pacy in the ministry, and a liturgy in worship ; 
 an external development more or less beautiful and 
 showy ; most, though not all ; some of \h^ parts 
 wear even a different garment, woven of the warp 
 and woof, not of an Episcopacy and a liturgy, but of 
 parity in order, and the extempore in worship. 
 Nevertheless, all these are but parts of the one 
 Body. These diversities touch not essentials. 
 They ''cut not off from God or His Church." 
 Such is Bishop Hall's figure, turned into literal 
 sense. 
 
 6. I quote, finally, Bishop Jeremy Taylor. De- 
 claring in what sense the word, Church, is applied 
 to the mixed and often rent Body of the visible 
 congregation, he says: "The word, Church. . . . 
 may be and is given to them by way of supposi- 
 tion, and legal presumption ; as a jury of twelve 
 men are called ' good men and true ;' that is, they 
 are not known to be otherwise, and are therefore 
 presumed to be such ; and they are the Church, in 
 all human accounts ; that is, they are the congrega- 
 tion of all that profess the Name of Christ j in which 
 are the wheat and the tares ; and they are bound 
 up in common by the union of sacraments and rites, 
 name and profession ^ but in nothing else." [Dis- 
 13 
 
,94 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 suasive from Popery, Part II., B. i.. Sect. 1, and 
 
 § § 1> 2.] 
 
 To estimate rightly these testimonies from our 
 old writers to the view which I have given of the 
 visible Church Catholic, we must remember that 
 they belong to the age which closely followed that 
 of the Reformation itself ; that they write in pres- 
 ence of the great, outstanding fact that a consider- 
 able portion of the Reformed Body was, as it still 
 continues, without an Episcopal ministry ; and that 
 they were in the habit of speaking of this portion 
 as " the Reformed Churches." 
 
 This whole discussion about the visible Church 
 might, under ordinary circumstances, be deemed un- 
 interesting and even unprofitable. But it cannot be 
 so considered when we remember that the circum- 
 stances of the times in which we live are very ex- 
 traordinary. We live in a day when many are 
 endeavoring to upheave the very foundations of our 
 Protestantism, and to deprive of all claim to the 
 name of a Church those whom our fathers have re- 
 cognized as belonging to the great visible Body of 
 Christ. This effort cannot succeed without putting 
 in jeopardy our own integrity, if not our own ex- 
 istence, as a Church ; nor, what is worse, without 
 undermining all that is most precious in the Gospel 
 of Christ as we receive it from '' the living Oracles'' 
 of God. Under such circumstances, every thing 
 
THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 195 
 
 touching right views of even the visible Church 
 links itself vitally with the Christian teacher's 
 grand theme, "Jesus Christ and Him crucified." 
 We must lose our interest in this all-enlivening 
 heart of the Gospel before we can become indiffer- 
 ent to the question, What is the true comprehension 
 of the visible Church ? or to the efforts which are 
 made to exclude from it some of the deservedly 
 valued portions of the professed followers of 
 Christ. 
 
 I speak, not as an apologist of Non-Episcopalians, 
 but as an advocate of true Church priaciples. That 
 any part of the visible Church is without the Epis- 
 copacy is, to me, a matter of sorrow. But it would 
 be a matter, not merely of sorrow, but of conscious 
 wrong, were I to lay at the base of the visible 
 Church a principle, which, in its operation, cuts off 
 anj^ who, by the laws of truth and right, belong to 
 its great Corporation. 
 
 Other questions, touching the visible Church, re- 
 main for consideration. 
 
PART III 
 
 WELL-BEING OF THE VISIBLE CHURCH. 
 
WELL-BEING OF THE VISIBLE 
 CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 01^ THE MINISTRY. 
 
 ^ I^HE Church Catholic, both in its divine holi- 
 -*- ness, and in its actual visibleness ; what is 
 necessary to the being of each, and what each re- 
 ally comprehends ; this is the subject, upon which 
 the present course of studies hciS, thus far, been 
 engaged. Christ and the members really united 
 with Him by the inworking Spirit, in a living and 
 sanctifying faith, this is the spiritual Church Cath- 
 olic : — Christ and the members professedly united 
 with Him by outward signs, teaching faith and 
 holiness, this is the visible Church Catholic ; each 
 in its essence, or v/hat is necessary to its ex- 
 istence. 
 
 And here, if I were dealing simply with princi- 
 ples, with the truths of God's Word, and the essen- 
 tials of His Church, I might leave the subject ; not 
 because, even in this view", the subject is exhaust- 
 ed, but because enough has been said to clear the 
 one point, at which I have been aiming, the true 
 comprehension of the Church of Christ. 
 
 (199) 
 
200 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 But, siDce it is evident tliat this subject concerns, 
 not only principles, but also men and the working 
 out of principles, it is also evident that we ought to 
 understand not only what is necessary to the being 
 of the Church, but also what is requisite to its well- 
 being J what is designed to secure its order, its 
 permanency, and its prosperity. 
 
 The main requisites to the well-being of the 
 Church are, doubtless, to be. found in a faithful 
 preaching of the Gospel, and in a due administra- 
 tion of the sacraments of Christ. But both of these, 
 as reason may infer, and as the Scriptures teach, 
 imply A MINISTRY, whose office it is both to preach 
 the Gospel and to administer the sacraments. But, 
 besides these functions, the ministry has more or 
 less to do with the Government and Worship of the 
 Church ; while, if we would really grasp all that is 
 requisite to the well-being of the Church, still other 
 things must be taken into our view, such as the 
 Harmony of its parts, and the Unity of the whole. 
 The topics, then, which are yet to occupy our 
 thoughts, are these ; the Ministry, the Government, 
 the Worship, the Harmony, and the Unity of the 
 Church. And after touching upon these, not sys- 
 tematically and exhaustively, but as they relate 
 presently and practically to our own times, and the 
 times that are coming on the earth, it will not be 
 amiss to look upwards, and see in what a divine 
 
ON THE MINISTRY, 201 
 
 consummation all things are to end, when heaven 
 shall have received the whole, and when Jesus and 
 His saints shall show the universe what is meant by 
 a perfect Church. 
 
 1. THE MINISTRY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 1. In entering on this topic, my first inquiry is, 
 What is the relation and connection of the ministry 
 with the Church ? And to this question, if I mis- 
 take not, we have an answer in a passage, which 
 you will find in 1 Cor. 12: 28: ''God hath set 
 some in the Church ; first, apostles ; secondarily, 
 prophets ; thirdly, teachers, etc." 
 
 I refer to this passage, not on account of its nu- 
 merals, ''first, secondarily, and thirdly," but for 
 two other reasons. It shows first, that the ministry 
 is from God : " God hath set it in the Church.^' 
 Whatever name this ministry may, at different 
 times, have borne ; by whatever varying forms it 
 may have been successively modified ; and through 
 whatever outward channel it may, at its first be- 
 ginning, have descended ; it came from God, and 
 not from man. Its authority is divine, and not 
 human. And then, second, it shows that this min- 
 istry is not the Church, but only "some" whom 
 " God hath set in the Church ;" set, doubtless, in 
 peculiar stations, and in special authority ; and yet 
 
20 2 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 
 
 set '^ in the Church." The Church is not, as some 
 writers teach, set in the ministry ; but the ministry 
 is set in the Church. 
 
 This distinction is very important. When cer- 
 tain writers speak of the Church, they speak as if 
 they had nothing in view but the ministry ; as 
 though, in its ministry, the very being of the 
 Church were involved ; insomuch that, without this 
 ministry, the Church itself would cease to exist. 
 But look at the chapter from which the above pas- 
 sage is taken, and see what a very different view is 
 there given. " As the body is one and hath many 
 members, and all the members of that one body, 
 being many, are one body ; so also is Christ. For 
 by one Spirit, we are all baptized into one Body, 
 whether we be Jews or Gentiles ; whether we be 
 bond or free ; and have been all made to drink into 
 one Spirit. For the body is not one member but 
 
 many God hath set the members, every 
 
 one of them, in the body as it hath pleased Him. 
 And if they were all one member, where were the 
 body ? But now are they many members, yet but 
 one body." [1 Cor. 12 : 12-14, 18-20.] Here the 
 Church is presented under the familiar metaphor 
 of a body, with its many members ; all constituting 
 together one body. This Body, not its ministry 
 alone, but this whole Body, with its many mem- 
 bers, in subjection to its ono Head, Christ, const!- 
 
ON THE MINIS TRY. 203 
 
 tutes the Church ; and in this Church '' God hath 
 set some ^' of the members in places of peculiar 
 eminence and importance ; just as, in the human 
 fabric, He hath assigned corresponding stations to 
 the eye, the ear and the hand. Now, we may as 
 well sa}^ that the human body consists in the eye, 
 the ear and the hand ; or that it cannot exist with- 
 out these members, as that the Church, the Body 
 of Christ, consists in its ministry, or that it cannot 
 exist without this ministry. Its ministry, indeed, 
 are important members, whom *' God hath set in 
 the Church ;" but they are not essential to the Be- 
 ing of the Church, any more than the eye, the ear 
 and the hand are essential to the being of a human 
 body. Suppose the eye were gone, or the ear 
 wanting, or the hand left off, or all three absent at 
 once ; still the body would be there. So long as 
 there was a head, thinking, knowing and govern- 
 ing ; and a heart, living, pulsing and feeling ; and 
 animal functions, receiving, digesting and distribut- 
 ing ; so long as head and heart and animal func- 
 tions remain, the body would remain, though it 
 wanted eye, or ear, or hand ; yea, though it wanted 
 all these at once. Under this tripple want, and 
 even under the first, the second, or the third part 
 of this want, it would be, indeed, a maimed imper- 
 fect, suffering body ; still it would be a body with 
 life, and soul, and action, and with more or less 
 
204 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 of enjoyment. So, from the Church, suppose that 
 a part, or even the whole, of its ministry were 
 wanting, still, the Church itself would not cease to 
 exist. So long as Christ, its thinking, knowing, 
 governing Head ; and the Holy Spirit, its living, 
 pulsing, quickening heart ; and the human mem- 
 bers, its receiving, digesting, distributing organism ; 
 so long as all these remained, the Church itself 
 would remain, though deprived of its higher, its 
 middle, or its lower ministries ; yea, though de- 
 prived of all these at once. Under this tripple de- 
 privation, and even under the first, the second, or 
 the third part of this deprivation, it would, indeed, 
 be a maimed, imperfect, suffering Church ; still, it 
 would be a Church ; it would have life, spirit and 
 activity, and somewhat of a divine joy. 
 
 (1.) These remarks show the difference between 
 the ministry as being " set in the Church,'' and the 
 Church as set, or organized, in the ministry. It 
 settles the question whether the members make 
 the ministry, or the ministry the members, of the 
 Church, by showing that the truth lies on neither 
 side. Certainly the ministry do not make the 
 members of the Church ; and as certainly the mem- 
 bers do not make the ministry. Each, indeed, has 
 somewhat to do in recognizino; the other ; but nei- 
 ther makes the other. God makes them both, fits 
 them for each other, and sets them both together in 
 
ON THE MINISTRY. 205 
 
 Christ. Just as in 'the human organism, the eye 
 does not make the ear, nor the ear the hand, nor 
 the hand the foot ; but God makes them all and fits 
 them all to serve and help each other, and sets 
 them all together in the body. Practically, this 
 truth is too often ignored. The whole Church, 
 whether as spiritual or as visible, is God's work, 
 not man's. True, He uses men in this work ; and 
 He uses the common members in making the min- 
 istry, as really as He uses the ministry in making 
 the common members. Still, the Work itself is 
 His. The Church is " His workmanship." He sets 
 
 ''all the members, every one of them" 
 
 in it, the lower as well as the higher. Without His 
 authority and agency, the Church, whether as in- 
 ward or as outward, as spiritual or as visible, 
 would not exist ; and His authority and agency are 
 the only things without which it cannot exist. 
 
 (2.) Moreover, the chapter on which these re- 
 marks are made, shows the distinction between the 
 being of the Church and its well-being ; between 
 what is essential to its existence, and what is need- 
 ful to its fullness, perfectness, and comfort. The 
 eye, ear and hand are certainly needful to the full- 
 ness, perfectness and comfort of the human body ; 
 and yet, if each or every one of these were lost, 
 the essence of the body would remain, so long as 
 the head, heart and animal functions were left un- 
 
2o6 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 touched iu living action. It were folly to lose sight 
 of the difference between what is thus necessary 
 to the being and life of the body, and what is thus 
 needful to its best, most effective, most happy be- 
 ing. It is most important to have a body with all 
 its members, especially its chief members ; a body, 
 full, perfect, strong, and able to do everything for 
 which it was designed ; but, for the purposes of 
 this world, it is better to have a body with the loss 
 of some, even of its most important members, than 
 to have no body at all. So in the things of Christ, 
 a ministry is evidently needful to the fullness, the 
 perfectness, the best welfare, of the Church : and 
 yet, if a part, or even the whole of this ministry, as 
 this term is ordinarily understood, should by pos- 
 sibility be lost, the being, the essence, of the Church 
 would remain so long as Christ, the Spirit and the 
 great organism of members remained in divine life 
 and activity. It were equal folly to lose sight of 
 the difference between what is thus essential to the 
 being and life of the Church, and what is thus need- 
 ful to its best, most effective, most happy being. 
 We cannot overrate the importance of having a 
 Church, with its whole organism of members, min- 
 istry and all, full, perfect, healthy, and able to do 
 everything for which it was constituted ; but for 
 the purposes of both worlds, it is better to have a 
 Church with the loss of some, even of its chief 
 
ON THE MINISTRY. 207 
 
 members ; of a part, or even the whole of its min- 
 istry, than to have no Church at all ; better than 
 to lose Christ, and the Spirit, and the great " Com- 
 munion of Saints " from off the earth and out of 
 heaven ; better than to lose head and heart and 
 the whole living organism from among all the off- 
 spring of the Infinite Father. 
 
 To all this, indeed, it may be objected, that if by 
 possibility the ministry should be lost, though the 
 Church would remain for a time, yet, by the death 
 of its members, and for want of a ministry formally 
 to initiate their successors in membership, it would, 
 in the course of one natural generation, expire. 
 To this objection, however, I reply : So long as 
 Christ, and the Holy Spirit, and "the Lively Ora- 
 cles *' of Truth coming from both are in the world, 
 God can raise up and ingraft a succession of mem- 
 bers into the Body of Christ, which is His Church, 
 even without the hand of a formally ordained min- 
 istry. True, a Church thus perpetuated would, as 
 a visible Body, be esteemed a maimed and im- 
 perfect Church : still, it would be a Church ; and, 
 for God's purposes, unspeakably better than no 
 Church at all. 
 
 However, this objection and reply relate to a 
 mere abstract possibility ; and are intended to give 
 the greater distinctness to the difference between 
 the being of the Church and its well-being. We 
 
2c8 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 
 
 have this to comfort us : 'the ministry is not lost ; 
 nor while Christ's promise lives can it ever be lost. 
 What is thus needful to the well-being of the Church, 
 the Church has and will have, until Christ comes 
 again and puts Himself fmally in the place of all 
 ministries. 
 
 2. Having now seen the relation of the ministry 
 to the Church, we are prepared for a second in- 
 quiry : What is this ministr}^ ? We have already 
 seen that its origin is from Christ ; that God, not 
 man, *' hath set it in the Church," as "some" among 
 the "many members" who are to serve and be 
 served in the weal and working of the whole Body ; 
 and that thus its place of eminence, whatever it 
 may be, has been assigned to it by a Divine and 
 not by any human authority. But, what is this 
 eminence among the members which has been as- 
 signed to the ministry of the Church by its Divine 
 Head? or, what form and development has this 
 ministry taken from the hands of those Apostles, 
 with whom, at its origin, this ministry was lodged ? 
 What shape did they give it when they came to 
 transmit it to the ages of the Church then future ? 
 Tliis questioning leads us into a subject too wide 
 •for full survey in this Treatise; and therefore, I 
 must content myself with a simple confession of my 
 faith, that it may stand as sufficient for my present 
 purpose, instead of any long array of arguments. 
 
ON THE MINISTRY, 209 
 
 I begin this confession, then, in the words which 
 the Preface to our '' Ordinal,'' or form of ordina- 
 tion, puts into my mouth, and which I am pre- 
 pared to utter from my heart. ''It is evident," 
 says this Preface, '' unto all men diligently reading 
 holy Scripture and ancient authors, that from the 
 Apostles' time there have been these orders of 
 ministers in Christ's Church, Bishops, Priests and 
 Deacons. Which ofiQces were evermore had in 
 such reverend estimation, that no man might pre- 
 sume to execute any of them, except he were first 
 called, tried, examined and known to have such 
 qualities as are requisite to the same ; and also, 
 by public prayer, with imposition of hands, were 
 approved and admitted thereunto by lawful au- 
 thority. And therefore, to the intent that these 
 orders may be continued and reverently used and 
 esteemed in this Church, no man shall be accounted 
 or taken to be a lawful bishop, priest, or deacon, 
 in this Church, or suffered to execute any of the 
 said functions, except he be called, tried, exam- 
 ined and admitted thereunto according to the form 
 hereafter following, or hath had Episcopal conse- 
 cration or ordination." 
 
 This Preface, it will be seen, settles for us sev- 
 eral points : 
 
 First : that ''from the Apostles' time there have 
 been in Christ's Church three orders of ministers, 
 14 
 
2IO THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 bishop, presbyters and deacons.'' It says not, 
 "from Christ's time,'' but, "from the Apostles' 
 time." The essential fact and being of a ministry 
 it receives from Christ Himself, as left by Him " in 
 
 His Church." But the distribution of this ministry 
 
 t/ 
 
 into three orders, and three only, it traces no far- 
 ther back than to the Apostles. Christ put His 
 One commission upon them ; and they distributed 
 that commission among three orders of ministers. 
 In what this distribution consisted, what special 
 powers or prerogatives were assigned to each of 
 those three orders, and whether any of those pow- 
 ers or prerogatives were confined exclusively to 
 any one of those three orders — these are points 
 which the Preface does not touch. It merely as- 
 serts the fact of such a distribution, and the exist- 
 ence of this fact in the Church " from the Apostles' 
 time." 
 
 Second : that for the exercise of any office under 
 this three-fold ministry, it was " evermore" neces- 
 sary that the incumbent should be "tried," found 
 possessed of "the requisite qualifications," and 
 "admitted by lawful authority." Where this law- 
 ful authority was primarily lodged, when the min- 
 isterial commission passed from the Apostles' 
 hands, is also a point which the Preface touches 
 not ; it merely decides, inferentially, that any en- 
 trance into this threefold ministry, save by the 
 
ON THE MINISTRY. 2 1 1 
 
 door of such lawful authority, was "evermore" 
 held to be irregular and presumptuous. 
 
 Third: that, "in this Church,'' the three-fold 
 ministry shall be perpetuated, and that the only 
 lawful way of entrance into any of its three orders, 
 shall be through our prescribed forms of trial and 
 of ordination by bishops, or through some other 
 equivalent Episcopal acts. Here Episcopacy comes 
 out as our unalterable regimen. The Preface says, 
 not that a trine ministry must, to the exclusion 
 of every other form, be perpetuated in Christ's 
 Church, or in the Church, as necessary to its being, 
 but that such a ministry shall, as a fact, be per- 
 petuated " in THIS Church ;" not that there is no pos- 
 sible way of entering into the ministry of Christ's 
 Church, or of the Church, save through our forms 
 of trial and ordination, or their equivalents, but, 
 that there shall be no other lawful way of entering 
 into the ministry of " this Church." In both these 
 places that little word " this," is brimful of mean- 
 ing and importance. In the first paragraph of the 
 Preface occurs the phrase " Christ's Church ;" in 
 the second paragraph, twice occurs the phrase 
 " this Church ;" and the question naturally arises, 
 Does the Preface, in its second paragraph, mean 
 by the phrase, " this Church," what it means, in 
 its first paragraph, by the phrase " Christ's 
 Church ?" I answer, it does not, and cannot, mean 
 
2 12 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 the same. If, by '' this Church, '^ the Preface had 
 simply intended to repeat the terms, '' Christ's 
 Church,'^ it would declare, what our Ecclesiastical 
 authority has never elsewhere declared, and what, 
 until we lose our Protestantism, that authority can 
 never be made to declare, viz : that, without an 
 Episcopacy, there can be no ministry in the Church 
 of Christ. Let us, for a moment, put the Preface 
 in this form. ''In Christ's Church there have been 
 always and everywhere, bishops, priests, and dea- 
 cons ; and, therefore, it is decreed that, in this 
 Church, this Church of Christ, no man shall be 
 accounted a lawful bishop, priest, or deacon, or be 
 suffered to execute any of the said functions, unless 
 he be called, tried, examined, and admitted thereto 
 according to our form, or some other Episcopal 
 mode of ordination." We can see at once that 
 this would make our Church declare, authorita- 
 tively, that there is, and ever has been, no Chris- 
 tian ministry, except such as has been Episco- 
 pally ordained ; and that none but such shall 
 be suffered to officiate m the Church of Christ 
 in any part of the world ; a decision which would 
 not only make her, in theory, unchurch a consider- 
 able part of Christendom, but also, in practice, 
 pledge herself to carry out the unchurching edict 
 with a relentless vengeance, and this, too, after 
 having formally acknowledged, in her Preface to 
 
ON THE MimSTRT. 2 1 3 
 
 the " Book of Common Prayer,'^ that Non-Episco- 
 pal ''denominations" are "Churches," and have 
 '' full and equal liberty " with herself " to model 
 and organize their respective Churches and forms 
 of worship and discipline, in such manner as they 
 may judge most convenient for their prosperity." 
 The truth is, that this Preface to the ordinal, after 
 asserting the fact that there ever have been three 
 orders of ministers in the Church, since the Apos- 
 tles' time, goes on to say and to intend, no more 
 than this: that, in this "Protestant Episcopal 
 Church in the United States of America," in this 
 Church, for which the following ordinal has been 
 drawn up — the ministry shall always retain the, 
 three orders of "bishops, presbyters, and dea- 
 cons." Any man may hold, as a matter of private 
 opinion, that there never was, and never can be, 
 any Christian ministry without bishops ; but our 
 Church, in this Preface to her ordinal, teaches no 
 such thing, and never can be made to teach such a 
 thing, so long as she remains Protestant. 
 
 Fourth : that, as a matter of fact, there has, ever 
 since the Apostles' time, been a trine ministry in 
 the Church, the Preface declares it to be " evident 
 to all men diligently reading holy Scripture and 
 ancient authors." And this is a declaration to 
 which I very heartily assent. The fact asserted 
 is, I think, evident to all diligent readers of those 
 
214 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 olden records. The Preface says, not that this 
 evidence runs back unto Christ, but that it runs 
 back to "the Apostles;" and that this evidence 
 lies not in the Scripture alone, but in ''the Scrip- 
 tures and ancient authors." And I confess that I 
 cannot impeach the Preface of a want of reason- 
 ableness in what it says. The fact is reasonabl}^ 
 evident to all who thus read the testimonies cited. 
 Though the Scriptures alone may not " evi- 
 dence " this fact to demonstration, yet, "diligently 
 read," they show, by no equivocal marks, the pro- 
 gress which the Apostles made in the trine dis- 
 tribution of the ministerial office. Taking its full 
 .commission directly from Christ Himself, one of 
 their early acts was, by prayer and the laying on 
 of hands, to ordain a company of deacons, " men 
 of honest report and full of the Holy Ghost and 
 wisdom." Another, of subsequent and more fre- 
 quent occurrence, was the "ordaining of elders," 
 or presbj^ters. And still another was the occa- 
 sional appointment, as in the cases of Timothy and 
 Titus, of general supervisors over territories of 
 greater or less extent, who, whatever the powers 
 or duties of the other orders may have been, cer- 
 tainly had for themselves that of ordaining to the 
 ministry. Thus much is plain on the very face of 
 the Scriptures, Whoever will "diligently read'' 
 them, will see that they make these things " evi- 
 
ON THE MINISTB Y. 215 
 
 dent." There must be a. strange slowness to see, 
 or a stranger dullness to read evidence, if thus 
 much become not patent on a careful perusal 
 of the New Testament. The evidence of what 
 has been stated cannot reasonably be put out 
 of sight or cross-questioned into self-contradic- 
 tion. 
 
 And then, passing from the latest Scriptures, as 
 the Writings of the Apostles, to the earliest of 
 the '' ancient authors," those who began to live 
 before the last of the Apostles died — Clement of 
 Kome, Poly carp of Smyrna, and Ignatius of An- 
 tioch — another thing is evident to all who "dili- 
 gently read " them, which is, that to the three 
 orders which we have seen the Apostles arranging 
 in the distribution of the ministry, these " ancient 
 authors " gave distinctive names. Whatever vary- 
 ing: names had been used before, or however inter- 
 changeably some of those names may, at first, have 
 been applied, these " ancient authors " had, in 
 their day, settled upon three ; and, having done 
 so, used them with fixed and uncha.ngeable appli- 
 cation. They uniformly called those three grades 
 "Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons." They speak 
 of those three grades under these distinctively 
 applied names, as one of the patent, out-standing 
 facts of their time ; and one of them, Ignatius, 
 expressly declares that '' there was no Church 
 
2i6 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 without them ;" [Ep. ad Trail, Apostol. Fath., 
 First Am. Ed., N. Y., 1810, p. 207] in other 
 words, that, in all the Churches then known, there 
 were Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons. Let any 
 candid man "diligently read" the brief epistles 
 of these three "ancient authors," and I think it 
 will be impossible for him to doubt their views of 
 the Christian ministry as apostolically distributed 
 and settled. Manifestly, no shadow of doubt rests 
 on the point. These authors cast the light of a 
 credible testimony back on the Scriptures, render- 
 ing unconcealably "evident" the fact, that the 
 ministry, as arranged by the Apostles, was three- 
 fold, and that its three grades had, in their day, 
 come to be distinctively and fixedly known by the 
 names of "Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons." This 
 is what the Preface to our ordinal asserts ; the 
 " evidentness " of this fact to all "diligent read- 
 ers " of those olden records — an evidentness which 
 needs no argument to make it strike the eye. And 
 this, with the other teachings of the Preface, makes 
 up the confession of faith, on which I am prepared 
 to stand, and which I here present instead of any 
 long array of argument on the subject of the Chris- 
 tian ministry. I abstain from this argument, not 
 because its difficulties would be embarrassing, but 
 because one aim in this whole discussion is to 
 avoid whatever might have the appearance of an 
 
OK THE MINISTRY. 
 
 217 
 
 intrusion within the general department of Eccle- 
 siastical Polity. 
 
 I close the present Chapter by stating and briefly 
 answering two questions, which may arise out of 
 what has been said. 
 
 (1.) If the Apostles distributed the ministry 
 which they received into three orders ; and if their 
 immediate successors received these three orders 
 as the Apostolically arranged model of the ministry ; 
 why do you not admit that this form of ministry is 
 essential to the Being of the Church ; insomuch that 
 bodies, destitute of this form of ministry, do not 
 belong to the Church ? 
 
 To this question I reply ; I do not regard this 
 form of the minitry as esssential to the being of the 
 Church, first : because the Preface to our ordinal 
 does not trace the threefold character of the minis- 
 try to Christ. It traces the distribution no farther 
 back than to the Apostles. Second : because the 
 Apostles themselves do not make it demonstrably 
 certain that this threefold distribution was design- 
 ed, by divine right, to confine the power of or- 
 dination to the FIRST grade, so that ordination by 
 the second should, of itself, be null. And third : 
 because some of the greatest writers, both Roman- 
 ist and Protestant, have conceded that this power 
 was not thus restricted by either Christ or His 
 
2i8 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 
 
 Apostles. On this last point in the answer, a few 
 references will not be out of place. 
 
 Dr. Cosin, then, to whom reference has already 
 been made, as one of the most strenuous advocates 
 of Episcopacy, writes thus: "I conceive that the 
 power of ordination was restrained to Bishops rath- 
 er by Apostolical practice and the perpetual custom 
 and canons of the Church, than by any absolute 
 precept that either Christ or His Apostles gave 
 about it. Nor can I yet meet with any convincing 
 argument to set it upon a more high and divine in- 
 stitution There have been," he adds, "both 
 
 learned and eminent men, as well in former ages as 
 in this, and even among the Roman Catholics as 
 well as Protestants, who have held and maintained 
 it for good and passable divinity, that presbyters 
 have the intrinsical power of ordination in actu pri- 
 ma ;" although, as he proceeds to say, in substance, 
 " for the avoidance of schism, and the preserving 
 of order and discipline in the Church,'^ they have 
 from the tirst "been restrained from exercising 
 their power in actu secundof' ^o that, now, the ex- 
 ercise of their power is irregular and uncanonical, 
 though "not void simply " in itself "and in the 
 nature of the thing." [Letter to Cordel. Hooker's 
 Col. Phila. 1844. Pp. 230, 232, 233.] For this 
 opinion he cites a catalogue of eminent Continen- 
 tal authors, both Romish and Protestant j and, 
 
ON THE MimSTRY. 219 
 
 among the great lights of the English Church, 
 Jewel, Field, Hooker and Mason. 
 
 Such, then, in addition to what runs through my 
 whole argument, are ray reasons for not regarding 
 the Episcopal form of the ministry as essential to 
 the being of the Church. 
 
 (2.) Why, then, do you receive and retain this 
 form of the ministry ? If it be not essential, why 
 do you not relinquish it, and thus be rid of one of 
 the impediments in the way of a wider union 
 among Protestants? 
 
 To this question I reply : I do not relinquish this 
 form of the ministry because the Apostles, in mak- 
 ing this threefold distribution, acted as Christ's 
 chosen agents, and in the exercise of the peculiar 
 wisdom, which, doubtless, they derived from Him. 
 The three orders, therefore, as to the fact of them, 
 have the virtual approval of Christ. The fact of 
 an Episcopacy, though not the extraordinary pow- 
 ers, with which some would invest it, has, ultimate- 
 ly, the approval of the divine Head of the Church. 
 Although, therefore, a real necessit}^ may have de- 
 prived some Christian bodies of the Episcopacy, 
 without thereby putting them out of the visible 
 Church, yet, a needless, voluntary relinquishment 
 of this form of the miaistry constitutes one of the 
 forms of the fearful evil of schism. It breaks the 
 order and discii^line of the Church, and hazards 
 
220 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 deeply much that is precious in the temporal and 
 spiritual well-being of the visible body of Christ. 
 The Episcopac}^, though not essential to the very 
 being of the Church, may yet be demonstrated by 
 facts, as well as by arguments, to be important to 
 the best welfare of the Church. Therefore it is, 
 to say nothing of other reasons, that I do not re- 
 linquish the Episcopacy. Such an act, in me, would 
 be a reckless wounding of the Saviour in the house 
 of His friends. 
 
CHAPEER II. 
 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 IN treating of the wELL-being of the visible 
 Church, the subject of government may, with 
 propriety, be considered as following next to that 
 of the MINISTRY. In entering on this subject of 
 Church government, however, I wish to premise 
 that I hope to discuss it in such a way as not to 
 trench on the labors of those who are, or may be 
 your teachers in the general study of Ecclesiastical 
 Polity. 
 
 That there is such a thing as government in the 
 visible Church, I need not argue. Government is 
 as necessary to the well-being of the Church as it is 
 to that of the State ; and the Word of God recogni- 
 zes the fact, as well as the necessity, of this institute 
 in the former as distinctly as in the latter. The 
 Apostle's words, Heb. 13 : 17 : "Obey them that 
 have the rule over you, and submit yourselves," 
 refer, not to Civil but to Ecclesiastical rule ; for, 
 of those who hold this rule, he immediately adds : 
 " they watch for your souls as they that must give 
 
 (231) 
 
2 22 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 account." Civil rulers watch not for souls ; this 
 watch is peculiar to rulers in the Church. 
 
 The language of the Apostle, moreover, refers to 
 lawful, constituted rule ; not to rule accidentally ac- 
 quired, or arbitrarily assumed. Those who hold this 
 rule, hold it rightly ; as a rule, which the members 
 of the Church may be called upon to "obey." As 
 we saw in the last Chapter, "God hath set'Miis 
 ministry "in the Church." The institution itself 
 of a Christian ministry is divine ; as emphatically 
 so, as that of civil government. If, in the State, 
 " the powers that be are ordained of God," so es- 
 pecially are they in the Church. 
 
 But the rule here mentioned is vested, not in 
 one, but in several. "Obey" — not him, but — 
 "them that have this rule." The plain inference 
 from this is — that, when Paul wrote, there was no 
 one, recognized, temporal head of the Church. Its 
 government was then vested in a greater or less 
 number of rulers. 
 
 When we inquire further, however, whether the 
 rule here recognized was vested in an order of 
 ministers of superior grade, having under them 
 ministers of lower grades, and governing the 
 Churches under their care according to Christ's 
 laws, as in an Episcopacy ; or was vested in a 
 ministry, constituted on the principle of parity, 
 having no inferior grades, and ruling the Churches 
 
GOVERNMENT. 
 
 223 
 
 by their joint counsels ; as in Presbyterianism ; or 
 was vested in each separate and equal pastor, rul- 
 ing his own charge as a virtually independent 
 Church ; as in Congregationalism : the Apostle's 
 words do not decide. They simply decide that 
 there is, in the Church, a divinely constituted gov- 
 ernment ; and that this government was administer- 
 ed — not by one, but — by a plurality of ministers. 
 Our claim is that, "from the Apostles' time," the 
 ruling ministry of the Church has, as a matter of 
 prevailing fact, had its base on an Episcopal plat- 
 form ; and my purpose, in the present Chapter, is, 
 to examine some of the chief advantages of an 
 Episcopacy in the discipline of the Church of 
 Christ, in promoting the WELL-being of this visible 
 Body of our as yet Invisible Head. 
 
 Before entering, however, on this examination, 
 I wish to throw off from the subject certain extra- 
 neous matters, by which it would be embarrassed. 
 
 Connected, then, with the Christian ministry, and 
 originating in some fruitful source, there has, doubt- 
 less, been a tendency to augment its true power, 
 and, at the same time, to diminish the just influence 
 of the popular element in the Church : while, on 
 the contrary, there has been, in connection with 
 the popular element, and originating in some simi- 
 lar source, a tendency to enlarge its proper sphere 
 of activity and to diminish the just influence of the 
 
2 24 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 
 
 ministry. What we have heard of the usurpations 
 of the Priesthood on the one hand, and what we 
 have seen of popular extravagances on the other, 
 render illustrations of this remark needless. It is 
 more important to observe that, as to their fruitful 
 source, both tendencies have sprung — not out of 
 the Christian ministry itself, nor out of the true 
 genius of a Christian people, but out of a corrupt 
 human nature, and the circumstances in which it 
 has been placed : and that, under these circum- 
 stances, those tendencies would have developed 
 themselves under any form which the ministry 
 could have assumed ; and under any type, short 
 of a vastly higher sanctification, into which a Chris- 
 tian people could have been molded. 
 
 Again : looking at Episcopacy, as the Apostolical 
 constitution of the ministry, we see that the later 
 power of the Papacy, on the one hand, has tended 
 to degrade Bishops below their primitive rank of 
 equality with each other ; while, on the other hand, 
 the popular element has tended to annihilate the 
 Episcopal office itself. But, neither with these ten- 
 dencies have I now any concern, save to disembar- 
 rass my subject of them at the outset. They are 
 the tendencies of our corrupt nature under the 
 the circumstances of which History takes note, and 
 not of a true Episcopacy or of a Christian People 
 in themselves considered. In treating the subject, 
 
GOVERNMENT. 225 
 
 I must be allowed to rid myself of everything that 
 belongs not properly and strictly to it. This sub- 
 ject has nothing to do with a Church monarchy as 
 in Italy ; nor with a titled Prelacy as in England ; 
 nor with corrupt and worldly Bishops, as in va- 
 rious countries ; much less with here and there a 
 monster under a mitre, such as has occasionally 
 been seen. These things belong not to Episcopacy 
 itself ; they are but the historic incidents which, 
 amid the changes of human society and out of the 
 workings of a depraved nature, have been super- 
 added to Episcopacy. Any form of the Christian 
 ministry in human hands is liable to abuse. In 
 such hands, Presbyterianism and Congregational- 
 ism may become as ambitious, as oppressive, and 
 as corrupt as any other form of the ministry. 
 
 Why have we heard of such evils in an Episco- 
 pacy, so much more frequently than in any other 
 form of the Christian ministry ? Because, in all 
 ages since the Apostles, and in all countries through- 
 out Christendom, the Church has, for the most part, 
 had an Episcopacy in its ministry. There has been 
 little but an Episcopacy, so far as the ministry is 
 concerned, to meet and endure the deforming and 
 corrupting influences of human society and of his- 
 toric events. Episcopacy has come down to us 
 through the struggles of the ages among the nations 
 of the earth. It has come down through near two- 
 15 
 
226 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 thousand years of terrible experience ; through the 
 disorders which attended the decline of the Roman 
 Empire ; through the devastations which tracked 
 the irruptions of the Barbarian hordes ; through 
 the superstitions, heathen in origin, which sprang 
 up during Mediaeval darkness ; through the strange 
 influences which molded it during the Feudal ages 
 and under the Feudal sj^stem ; through the blood 
 and fires and fearful excitements of the great Ref- 
 ormation ; through the fierce contests in England 
 between a political Church Establishment, and 
 strenuous Puritan Dissent ; and finally, in our own 
 land, through the hot passions and keen prejudices 
 engendered by our severance from foreign rule, as 
 well ecclesiastical as political. As the union of 
 the Church with the State at the conversion of 
 Constantine, the introduction of heathen supersti- 
 tions into the Christian body, the power of the 
 Feudal system, and the influence of the Middle 
 Ages, generally tended to corrupt the ancient 
 Episcopacy ; so the terrible excitements of the 
 Reformation, of the Puritan struggle, and of our 
 American Revolution, have, doubtless, tended to 
 confirm those corruptions, on the principle that 
 what is fiercely and bloodily assailed, seeks, as 
 men are naturally constituted, to defend and pre- 
 serve itself ; and thereby takes deeper root in the 
 soil from which its eradication is sought. Into all 
 
GOVERNMENT. 227 
 
 these dreadful strifes and changes, then, of the ages 
 and nations of Christendom, springing, as they have, 
 out of the all- controlling movements of the world, 
 Episcopacy has been carried by the resistless cur- 
 rent on which all human things have been borne. 
 Those strifes and changes mark the steps in the 
 slow, sublime movements of Christian civilization 
 towards a higher and more perfect ideal. They 
 have, doubtless, stamped on the character and in- 
 stitutions of men some dark lines and features, so 
 deep that centuries have not yet been able entirely 
 to wear them out ; and I think it safe to say that 
 any form of the Christian ministry, coming down 
 through the same long ages, and through the same 
 strange series of changes and of influences, would 
 have developed evils and abuses, if not identical, 
 at least equal with those which have been exhibi- 
 ted in the descent of the ancient Episcopacy to our 
 times. Under any other constitution of the minis- 
 try nothing could have prevented the result but 
 Pentecostal displays of grace, perpetuated from 
 age to age, and making the Church the resistless 
 molder of the world's character, instead of leaving 
 the world to act in reality as a potent modifier of 
 the character of the Church ; and with such Pente- 
 costal displays of grace, had God seen lit to vouch- 
 safe them, the ancient Episcopacy itself would have 
 come down uuabused, unharmed ; and the outcry 
 
228 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 from the mouth of the world, and the record from 
 the pen of history against the abuses to which it 
 has been subject, would have been unheard, un- 
 written. From the close of the Second to that of 
 the Eighteenth Century, Episcopacy has been sub- 
 jected to the severest of tests, and carried through 
 the most pernicious of influences. During the reign 
 of those long ages, it was never, as a whole, in a 
 position favorable to the development of its true 
 character, and to the exertion of its true power, 
 uncorrupt and unfettered. 
 
 We must, therefore, set aside from the subject 
 all the considerations to which I have adverted, 
 and look at Episcopacy in its own proper charac- 
 ter, as a constitution of the Christian ministry on 
 the basis of an imparity of orders, and securing to 
 the highest of those orders — not the whole, but — a 
 high place of rule in the Church. We must look 
 at Episcopacy as it ought to be, as it was designed 
 to be, and as in various times and places it has 
 been ; humble and holy, world-renouncing and la- 
 borious, and amid all, ruling the Church according 
 to Christ's laws. I say, ''according to Christ's 
 laws ;" for, though the Church has power to make 
 other regulations for the outward order of worship, 
 for the transaction of business, and for the man- 
 agement of temporalities, provided these regula- 
 tions are harmonious, or not inconsistent with the 
 
GOVERN'MENT. 229 
 
 Scriptures, yet, any government, whether in Epis- 
 copal or in other hands, which attempts to rule 
 the Church in spiritual matters, on the basis of an}^ 
 other laws than those which Christ has left, is a 
 usurpation and a tyranny, unlawful in the sight of 
 God. I repeat, then, we must look at Episcopacy 
 as it ought to be, as it was designed to be, and as 
 it often has been ; imbued with the mind of Christ, 
 and ruling the Church according to the laws of 
 Christ. It is no more than right to look at a thing 
 in itself, separate from the abuses of which it has 
 incidentally been the subject. When they fall into 
 wicked hands, the best things have the worst abuses. 
 Hence that best of rales, ''do all to the glory of 
 God,'' has been made practically to sanctify the 
 most dreadful enormities ; even to the blood and 
 fires, the racks and brain-destroying tortures of the 
 Inquisition ! 
 
 In proceeding now to the subject of this Chapter, 
 I do not propose to treat it in all its details, but 
 shall confine myself to what I consider the two 
 main functions of the Christian ministry, viz. : to 
 rule the Church by the Discipline of Order, and 
 to guide the Church by the Discipline of Truth. 
 These two, Scriptural Order and Scriptural Teach- 
 ing, are of prime importance to the WELL-being of 
 the Church. 
 
230 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 I. First, then, let us look at Episcopacy as a 
 Discipline of Oeder : 
 
 In the visible Church, government is a necessary 
 function. Although no one form or constitution of 
 government can be used as a mark by which to 
 determine the comprehension of the Church, yet as 
 visible, no part of the Church has ever been without 
 some such form, or constitution. The very fact of 
 an ecclesiastical organization implies the existence, 
 and rests on the necessity, of government in the 
 Church. 
 
 The main advantage of a simple Episcopacy, as 
 a Discipline of Order, becomes manifest in its 
 UNITING power. In his true character, a bishop ap- 
 pears — not as a mere man in the ministry, who, by 
 peculiar personal qualities, or by some accidental 
 circumstances, has acquired superior influence, and 
 is thus, perhaps, an object of jealousy or of envy, 
 but — as the regularly constituted and cheerfully 
 acknowledged superior of the clergy and people 
 under his care. By their own choice he should be, 
 and in our country he is, in an office which they, 
 regard as having come down from the Apostles, 
 and around which, therefore, cluster their best sen- 
 timents of filial reverence and deferential regard. 
 Their submission to his lawful rule is cordial ; free, 
 so far as our earthly lot will admit, from the human 
 feelings of jealousy and envy. In this character 
 
GOVERNMENT. 231 
 
 the Episcopacy tends not to degrade the lower or- 
 ders of the ministry, for they are its main helps in 
 laboring for Christ ; nor to depress the just influ- 
 ence of the popular element, for on that it depends 
 for concurrence and efficiency in those labors ; but 
 simply to act as a uniting bond to both clergy and 
 people ; enforcing the rules of law and administer- 
 ing the discipline of law, fraternally and wisely ; 
 allaying dissentions and composing strifes, with the 
 best prospects of cheerful acquiescence from both, 
 and of keeping the whole body from the extremes 
 of clerical encroachment, on the one hand, and of 
 popular excess on the other. The best interests, 
 as well as the high duty of such an Episcopacy, lie 
 in the harmony, peace and love of the whole body 
 of ministers and people under its care. Ambitions, 
 usurpations, stretches of power, are possible evils : 
 but they are possible under all systems in the 
 hands of men ; and would be as possible in a De- 
 mocracy of the Church as they are found actually 
 to be in a Democracy of the State. They are the 
 evils of our nature ; and no system can be kept 
 wholly safe from their entrance. A simple, primi- 
 tive Episcopacy is doubtless as safe from them as 
 any system, committed to the guardianship of men ; 
 while its power to promote harmony, peace and 
 love in obedience to venerable and constituted 
 *'rule,'' is manifold greater than that of any other. 
 
232 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 The objection to this view, that the testimony 
 of history is adverse to it ; that, according to this 
 testimony, Episcopacy, from its own tendency, 
 developed itself into the ambitions and usurpa- 
 tions and despotism of the Papacy, appears to me 
 without weight. Let us look at this a little further. 
 
 What first transformed a simple, primitive bishop 
 into an archbishop, the archbishop into a patriarch, 
 and, finally, the patriarch into a pope ? Not, as I 
 apprehend, the inherent tendency of the ancient 
 Episcopacy itself, but the adventitious circum- 
 stances with which it became needlessly impli-. 
 cated. It is inconsistent with my plan to enter 
 at large into the history of that development ; 
 but I think it would be easy to demonstrate, from 
 recorded facts, the following brief summar}' : 
 
 The development of the Papacy, it may be ad- 
 mitted, commenced at a ver}^ early period under 
 those worldly and corrupting influences which, 
 flowing in upon the Church from the ancient hea- 
 thenism, and then acting both upon Christian doc- 
 trine and upon ecclesiastical polity, exaggerating 
 the mystery of sacraments, and abusing the prin- 
 ciple of a voluntary support to the ministry into 
 a hoarding of enormous wealth to the Church, 
 prepared the way for all that followed. The 
 process, however, was mightily accelerated by the 
 accession of Constantine the Great to the throne. 
 
GOVERNMENT. 233 
 
 and his real or pre tended, conversion to Christian- 
 ity ; and it was peculiarly favored by his subse- 
 quent transfer of the imperial government from 
 Rome to Constantinople. That transfer was fatal 
 not only to the State but also to the Church. While 
 the imperial head was busy at his new and distant 
 Capital, it left the ecclesiastical aspirant at Rome 
 comparatively free to avail himself of the immense 
 advantages which he found in the old metropolis 
 of the world for pushing, unobserved and unop- 
 posed, his subtle scheme of spiritual despotism. 
 Moreover, at his conversion, Constantine had 
 brought in, not exactly the modern union of 
 Church and State, but a sort of heathen patron- 
 age of the Church by the. State. As was natural 
 in his circumstauces, he adopted Christianity as 
 the religion of his, in the main, still unconverted 
 Empire, and sought to make himself to religion in 
 the State what the bishop was to religion in the 
 Church. That political patronage was, not in the 
 imperial intention, but in its perverted use, the 
 great misfortune of the Christian ages. Yet it 
 was a misfortune, incurred, not from the inherent 
 tendency of the ancient Episcopacy, but from the 
 abused policy of an emperor, hardly disenthralled 
 from his once dark bondage under heathenism. 
 One of the worst evils of the misfortune lay in 
 this, that it gave opportunity to the intensified 
 
2,. THE LIVING TEMPLE, 
 
 working of the corrupting power already in action. 
 Thenceforward, as the long ages rolled by, the 
 political influences of the State, co-operating with 
 those of the Church, both working in all the great 
 cities of Christendom, especially in its powerful 
 metropolis, and both instigated by the supersti- 
 tions which had been previously engendered of 
 heathen darkness, favored the rapid exaggeration 
 of the simple, primitive Episcopacy, and expedited 
 the passage of the once laborious and suffering 
 Bishop of Rome, along his career from one grade 
 and title to another, and from one degree of politi- 
 cal power to a higher ; until, finally, an office, 
 which was at first held by a humble laborer and 
 sufferer for Christ, came to be filled by a triple- 
 crowned MONARCH of the Church, to whom even 
 emperors were fain to pay homage. 
 
 That the corruptions of the Church, to which I 
 have now adverted, were contracted from the lin- 
 gering and scarcely latent heathenism of the Roman 
 Empire, while becoming and after it became, nom- 
 inally Christian, it will not, I suppose, by Protest- 
 ants, be denied ; and that it was through these 
 corraptions that the simple Episcopacy of elder 
 times was gradually perverted, and the Bishop of 
 Rome finally enabled to enforce his claim to uni- 
 versal jurisdiction, is a truth as little likely, in 
 such quarters, to be questioned. It was under 
 
aOVEHNMENT. 235 
 
 favor of those growing corruptions that the am- 
 bitious prelates of that wealthy and powerful city 
 were able stretch prerogative after prerogative, to 
 secure from weaker prelates concession after con- 
 cession, and to take, by the side of temporal 
 princes, step after step, until at last a fortunate 
 successor reached the summit at which his prede- 
 cessors had been aiming, and sate, Pontifex Maxi- 
 Mus, claiming to be acknowledged as temporal and 
 spiritual head of the Christian world ! Against 
 this usurpation many bishops, from first to last, 
 contended. The result was not an Episcopacy 
 naturally, or of its own innate tendency, develop- 
 ing itself into a Papacy, but a pope, finally suc- 
 ceeding, through the power of his position, in lord- 
 ing it over a once simple Episcopacy. 
 
 The early decay of scriptural piety, consequent 
 on the growth of these corruptions, must be re- 
 garded as the true secret of his success. Had the 
 spirit of that piety continued to live, as in the first 
 ages, it would have been impossible either to cor- 
 rupt the ancient Episcopacy, or to place the foot 
 of a Roman bishop on the neck of a subject Chris- 
 tendom. As a strong corroboration of this, it may 
 be remarked that, so soon as the spirit of that 
 piety, intelligent and scriptural, not superstitious 
 and ascetic, began to revive at the dawn and the 
 sunrise of the Reformation, the usurpations and 
 
236 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 prerogatives of the Pope began to be questioned ; 
 that, ultimately, his iron yoke was broken off 
 throughout all Protestant realms ; and that, in 
 England, where the Reformation was conducted 
 with closest reference to primitive precedent, 
 primitive Episcopacy at once came forward, if not 
 wholly in its proper character, at least to its 
 proper post ; abounding once more in wondrous 
 laborers for Christ, and in wondrous martyrs for 
 His Truth. The strength of this remark is in- 
 creased by the fact, that nothing higher than Epis- 
 copacy was, or could be, retained in England, 
 even while settling its ecclesiastical affairs under 
 a royally-favored Protestantism. Had the attempt 
 been made, while reforming the English Church of 
 her doctrinal errors and of her corruptions in cere- 
 mony, to retain even the most modified allegiance 
 or subordination to the Papacy in government, the 
 religious spirit, which awoke and lived in the light 
 of the Bible, would have been aroused to the ex- 
 treme of resistance, and have swept away not only 
 the Papacy, but all traces of the Episcopacy itself. 
 The Episcopacy of England was the highest point, 
 which the waters of that purifying flood could have 
 left standing, so resistlessly does a scripturally en- 
 lightened piety set against everj^ form and modi- 
 fication of the Papal system. 
 Moreover, with all the political and corrupting 
 
GOVERNMENT. 237 
 
 influences, and with all the amazing wealth and 
 power, which I have mentioned, and with which 
 his mighty metropolis surrounded him, the Bishop 
 of Rome did not succeed in fixing himself on that 
 splendid pinnacle of his ambition, till after ages of 
 desperate conflict with other Bishops of Christen- 
 dom, in their resistence to his unscriptural claims. 
 And even when he did finally succeed, in despite 
 of such resistance, it was not because he was Bishop, 
 but because his see was Rome, the metropolis of 
 Christendom,— the central heart of the wealth, and 
 power, and, for a while, of the civil influence, of a 
 fatally corrupted Empire. The idea, that ancient 
 bishops, prompted by an inherent tendency in 
 their office, conspired either openly or secretly, 
 either consciously or unconsciously, to lift, or be 
 the instruments of lifting, one of their own official 
 equals, step by step, and age after age, to a throne 
 and a tiara, is, to my mind, the wildest of chimeras. 
 They struggled long and earnestly against the 
 strides of a mammoth power, in which Christian 
 office had become blended with a strange concen- 
 tration of all the baleful influences of this world. 
 Suppose that the Bishop of Rome had been but a 
 presbyter among presbyters, with no bishops on 
 earth ; yet, by virtue of his position, a kind of suc- 
 cessional moderator over his brethren, a successive 
 '' Primxia inter ^ares,^^ or first among equals; I 
 
238 
 
 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 hold that the mighty influences of the ages, through 
 which his office passed down, would inevitably have 
 made him a Pope, if not in name, yet in fact and 
 effect. The truth is ; in their real, spiritual inde- 
 pendence, as official equals, bishops are, and ever 
 have been, the most strenuous opponents of Pop- 
 ery. If, then, they, with all the authority and in- 
 fluence of their ancient and venerated office, were 
 unable to resist the strides of the Politico-Eccles- 
 iastical giant in Eome, what could a less influential 
 band of Church-officers have done in their struggle 
 with that evil genius of Christianity ? No : this 
 tendency to an augmentation of power, and of the 
 abuses of power, sprang not out of the ancient 
 Episcopacy itself Had the Church never been 
 married to the State ; had political and pecuniary 
 influence, favored by the corruptions of a darkling 
 age, never submerged that simple and primitive 
 institute in the depths of their own dead sea ; the 
 Papacy had never existed. Most of all things, and 
 with the best of reasons, the Popes fear a spiritual, 
 independent Episcopacy, filled with official equals. 
 Hence, that partial approach to such an Episco- 
 pacy, which the restored English Church exhibits, 
 has ever been an object of State-jealousy to the 
 Church monarch at Rome. Were there no such 
 Episcopacy in the world, Rome, I fear, would reign 
 in comparative freedom from solicitude ; and her 
 
GOVERNMENT. 239 
 
 hope would sensibly brighten of once more wield- 
 ing the sceptre of a universal dominion. 
 
 I think it then safe to say : that Episcopacy did 
 not, from its own, original and inherent tendency, 
 develop itself into Popery ; and that it is not now, 
 from itself tending back to that extreme. Enough 
 has been said to make us receive, with confidence, 
 the conclusions ; that unsanctified human nature, 
 under all circumstances, and especially under such 
 as history records, does tend violently to the Papal 
 corruption ; that political influence, when married 
 to the Church, tends most forcibly to the same 
 result ; and that superstition and doctrinal error, 
 as we have seen with our own saddened eyes, may 
 run, with unmatched velocity, along the beaten 
 track both of our straying nature and of a merely 
 baptized political ambition : but, that simple, prim- 
 itive Episcopacy itself is not plagued with this ten- 
 dency more than any other pious and exemplary 
 Christian ministry. In ruling the Church, such an 
 Episcopacy is a happy mean between the Papal 
 tyranny on the one hand, and popular misrule on 
 the other. Its character happily fits it for such a 
 uniting position. Popery accumulates and absorbs 
 power into itself ; the unrestrained popular element 
 disperses and finally destroys it : a simple Episco- 
 pacy represses both extremes, and binds together 
 the body of Christ's members in as much of har- 
 
240 THE LIVma TEMPLE. 
 
 mony, peace and love as are compatible with the 
 lot of Christ's religion in the hands of our common 
 humanity. Both in individuals and in society, our 
 nature tends to extremes ; and when, with an en- 
 larged and enlightened view, we look upon the 
 ruinous character of the extremes, into which, on 
 either hand, it has actually run, it must be evident 
 to all judicious minds, that the Church needs just 
 such a binding influence in its ruling authority as 
 that which resided in the ancient Episcopacy, be- 
 fore blind, worldly policy, aided by the baptized 
 superstitions of heathenism, gathered around it the 
 trappings of earthly power and place and wealth ; 
 and while, like its Master and from simple love to 
 Him and to the souls of men, it was willing to walk 
 on its rounds of labor, and to be, in temporal 
 things, more unprovided than the foxes in their 
 holes and the birds of the air in their nests. Grod 
 hasten the day when the spirit of the ancient insti- 
 tute shall return, not only in here and there a 
 humble, holy bishop, but in all who bear his office ; 
 and when, under their wise and paternal sway, the 
 Church shall be ruled in harmony, peace and love, 
 according to the simple laws of Christ, and in all 
 the prosperousness of spiritual life and growth. 
 
 II. I pass now to the second point in the sub- 
 ject, viz : Episcopacy as a discipline of tkuth. 
 
G VERNMENT. 241 
 
 The influence of tbe ministry in doctrine, preach- 
 ing, and example (for in all these it becomes a 
 TEACHING institute), is the most important which 
 the Christian Church-ruler can exert. It is Christ's 
 chief instrumentality in saving lost men, and, in 
 using this instrumentality for the well-being of the 
 visible Body, a scriptural Bishop occupies a post 
 of special advantage. In his true character, as 
 humble and holy, laborious and Christ-like, a 
 teaching Bishop comes in contact with all classes 
 in the Church, clergy and people, old and young, 
 under most favorable circumstances ; not merely 
 as a good man in the ministry, but clothed with 
 the authority and surrounded with the reverence 
 which attach themselves to his ancient and pecu- 
 liar office ; the recognized and venerated teacher, 
 not of a few. but of the whole flock committed to 
 his care ; the grave and honored expounder of 
 the doctrine of Christ to the widely-spread clergy 
 and people of his charge. Taking the Church as 
 a whole, the comparatively small number of Bish- 
 ops, and the greater publicity of their teachings 
 and example, keep them more strictly in the eye 
 of scrutiny, and render it more easy to compare 
 their doctrine and conduct with the standards of 
 truth and duty, than, in the case of a numerous 
 body of clergy, each confined, ordinarily, within 
 the limits of a narrower and more private sphere, 
 16 
 
242 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 would be practicable. It is true, that even a 
 Bishop may teach error and practice wickedness ; 
 but so, with even greater facility, may any other 
 minister. This, therefore, makes nothing against 
 our view. Take two preachers of the Gospel, 
 equally able and learned, equally holy and exem- 
 plary, in all essential respects alike, save that the 
 one is a Bishop and the other not a Bishop, and 
 it would be impossible so to extend and diversify 
 the labors and influence of the latter as to make 
 them equal in power and efficiency on the spiritual 
 well-being of the flock of Christ, with the equally 
 extended labors and the equally diversified in- 
 fluence of the former. He has not the same point 
 of advantage from which to act. He carries not 
 with him, in the peculiar genius of his office, the 
 same silent but living and deep-felt power for 
 good. And this is said, not by way of depreciat- 
 ing the blessed power of the able and holy man 
 of God in any Non-Episcopal ministry, but to 
 show that it is simply impossible to clothe him 
 with that peculiar power for good, which invests 
 the equally able and equally holy man of God in 
 the office of a Bishop. In his doctrine and in his 
 teaching, in his example and in his active mea- 
 sures for the extension of religion, there is a pe- 
 culiarity of influence in such a Bishop, which no 
 other minister of Christ can attain : a peculiarity 
 
GOVERNMENT. 243 
 
 which grows, not out of the man, but out of his 
 office, and out of the adaptedness with which that 
 office meets certain great and permanent suscepti- 
 bilities of our common uature. Say what we will, 
 we cannot take out of our nature the salutary feel- 
 ings of deference and respect, with which it stands 
 in the presence of just and fitting and rightly-con- 
 stituted superiority of official rank ; " salutary," I 
 say, provided it be a superiority, not so high as 
 to inspire an awful and painful sense of distance, 
 nor yet so low as to seem a mere gift from the 
 people, to be treated with familiarity, if not con- 
 tempt. In spite of theories, our nature dreads the 
 monotony of an unbroken level. A beautiful and 
 harmonious ascent of being and of orders marks all 
 God's works in Heaven and on earth, and it is impos- 
 sible to extinguish the feelings which spontaneously 
 spring up in the manifested presence of this Divine 
 constitution of things. A pure Gospel and the re- 
 ligion which it embodies, spread to the best advan- 
 tage from such a Bishop as I have described. He 
 has the best opportunities for impressing the holy 
 character of Christ and His Gospel on wide masses 
 of men and upon all the living institutes and per- 
 manencies .of the Church. Tuc point of influence 
 from which he acts gives him the best means of 
 *' driving away from the Church all erroneous and 
 strange doctrines contrary to God's Word " He 
 
244. THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 is not SO far from his clergy and people as that he 
 cannot see and measure error and its evils with 
 his own eyes, and remove them by such means as 
 are wisest and best ; nor yet so nearly on an 
 equality with them in point of conceded authority, 
 as to strip his discipline of its just power for effect. 
 Both in teaching the truth and in repressing error, 
 he wields the happiest instrumentality for good. 
 He concentrates confidence, veneration, love ; he 
 awakens respect, reverence, obedience ; he pro- 
 motes harmony, zeal, action ; and he does all with 
 a peculiarity of success, to which no one, under 
 other forms of the ministry, can attain ; to which 
 no one in the lower orders of an episcopally con- 
 stituted ministry can attain ; which springs from 
 the fact that there are lower orders in this minis- 
 try, and which, in truth, is partly but the power 
 of these lower orders working upwards, and be- 
 coming manifest in the results of this benignly 
 effective Presidency. 
 
 It will be well, before closing this Chapter, to 
 notice a modification to the objection against Epis- 
 copacy, which has already occupied so much of 
 our time. It may be thus stated : The office of a 
 Bishop has too much power, too strong attractions, 
 for the mere worldly heart in its love of authority 
 and official consideration ; and, therefore, Bishops 
 are more apt to be worldly in spirit and corrupt 
 
GOVERNMENT. 245 
 
 in doctrine, and hence, more baleful in their in- 
 fluence on the cause of spiritual religion, than a 
 ministry constituted on the basis of official parity. 
 To the objection in this shape I reply : if the 
 Episcopal office were, indeed, and intrinsically, 
 identified with the pomp and circumstance, the 
 wealthy endowment and political power, which, in 
 England, have been associated with it, there might 
 be weight in the objection. But this is not so. 
 These corrupting attractions belong not to the 
 office, but to the circumstances with which a false 
 policy has surrounded it. The love of power is 
 innate, ineradicable, and, unless under the control 
 of divine grace, inordinate. To the human heart 
 office is nothing, save as it is a means of acquiring, 
 and an instrument for exercising, the power, which 
 it loves ; and even as such means and instrument, 
 it is, perhaps, of less importance than many sup- 
 pose. The main sources of power lie within a 
 man, and when the spring is deep and copious, if 
 it do not find, it will force, a channel for its gush- 
 ings ; if it do not meet, it will make, an office, into 
 which it may vault and ride on high among the 
 people. And when human ambition makes an 
 office for itself, it is apt to make it somewhat 
 higher than God, in His wisdom, has seen fit to 
 ordain. As I have already shown, Archbishops, 
 Patriarchs, and Popes, are not naturally developed- 
 
246 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 Episcopacy, but man's aspirings, vaulting above 
 primitive order ; and, had that order been Pres- 
 byterial only, the leap upwards would have been 
 quite as possible, and perhaps somewhat higher. 
 So far as the theory of the Episcopal office is con- 
 cerned, it may be said, that, where no due grada- 
 tion in the ministry is established and conceded, 
 the ambitions which live deep in our nature, and 
 the difficulty of maintaining simple equality among 
 masses of men of varying abilities, tastes and op- 
 portunities, will be more likely to engender strifes 
 after superiority of place and power, than where 
 such gradation in the ministry is established and 
 conceded, and where the very fixedness of institu- 
 tions tends, so far as anything can tend, to gener- 
 ate a spirit of quiet submission and contentment 
 of mind under the reign of lawful and acknowl- 
 edged order. 
 
 The best illustration both of the theory and of 
 the working of true Episcopacy may be gathered 
 from the early ages of the Church. What, then, 
 was a Bishop designed to be ; and what was he in 
 the pristine days of his office ? Why, simply, the 
 most conspicuous follower of Christ, as well in 
 poverty and sufferings, as in the aboundings of his 
 toils for the souls of men ; the very front mark, in 
 the Christian army, to the arrow of the destroyer 
 and the sword of the persecutor ! " Nolo Epimo- 
 
GOVERNMENT. 
 
 24.7 
 
 pari " was then the utterance, not of a counterfeit 
 modesty, but, of an honest heart, speaking out of 
 its deepest sensibilities, and meaning just this : 
 that, ''if the Master would mercifully excuse His 
 servant, he would prefer laboring in some less per- 
 ilous post of duty." The Episcopal office was not 
 sought by the worldly or the ambitious then. It 
 could not be urged successfnlly upon any but those, 
 who were "constrained by the love of Christ" and 
 the souls of men to " count all things but loss," and 
 to be counted but as " the offscouring of all things." 
 Then, the influence of the office was not corrupting 
 but purifying. It drew into that front ministr}^ 
 none but the choicest of the fine gold ; and it drew 
 that gold thither but to refine it still more perfect- 
 ly, even as in a furnace of fire ! Those days will 
 never return ; but the time may come, — God send 
 it soon — when the office of a Bishop shall have 
 nothing to attract the heart but superior opportun- 
 ities for doing good in the salvation of men amid 
 more abounding toils, privations and hardships, 
 endured from love to the dear Saviour of our souls, 
 and to those for whom He so freely shed His own 
 precious blood. The idea that this office must be 
 dignified by surrounding it with an adventitious 
 array of wealth, and titles, and places of honor, 
 seems like an imputation on the lowly Jesus ; a 
 mere earthly conception of the true dignity of a 
 
2^.8 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 Bishop ; as if the work of Christ and the office of 
 one of His chief ambassadors did not shine bright- 
 est and most heavenly when seen, like the stars, at 
 night ; surrounded, if need be, by the darkness of 
 poverty, and of a wicked world's frown ! True 
 Bishops need not court either poverty or persecu- 
 tion ; neither should they ignobly shun them ; and, 
 least of all, should they covet equality with the great 
 of this world in the external circumstances of 
 wealth, place and power. Their influence will be 
 most extended, most benign, when, in character 
 and labors, they are most like Christ ; and when 
 they partake most largely in the spirit of that 
 Apostle, who "' rejoiced in his sufferings for the 
 brethren, and in filling up what was behind of the 
 afflictions of Christ for His body's sake, which is 
 the Church.'' 
 
 Such, then, is the Episcopacy which a scriptural 
 teacher may well dare to advocate ; an Episcopacy 
 separated from what belongs not to it, save in com- 
 mon with other systems ; from what springs out of 
 a corrupt nature and corrupting historic influences. 
 It is as proper to limit our views to such an Epis- 
 copacy, as, in estimating the value of other forms 
 of the ministry, to suppose those who fill them to 
 be good men. In estimating the value of any con- 
 stitution of the ministry, no one would go on the 
 
GOVERNMENT. 249 
 
 supposition that its incumbents were bad men, or 
 needlessly embarrassed by obstacles hostile to 
 their proper usefulness. We have viewed Episco- 
 pacy as it ought to be ; as it was in its pristine 
 age ; as it has been since, in numerous happy in- 
 stances ; as it is now, in many instances not less 
 happy ; and as we doubt not it will be every where, 
 when the abuses of the ages shall have been all 
 swept away, and when the Episcopacy of elder 
 times shall be seen opening its rich stores of spirit- 
 ual blessing and pouring them into the lap of a 
 thankful Church and of a once thankless world ; 
 pre-eminently good in both its offices, that of ruling 
 the Church by the discipline of order, and that of 
 guiding the Church by the discipline of truth ; rul- 
 ing the Church on the middle ground between the 
 two extremes of papal tyranny and popular mis- 
 rule ; and guiding Christians into the way of life 
 both by '' driving away hurtful and strange error," 
 and by giving its best effect to saving, divine 
 Truth. 
 
 We have taken but a partial view of a great sub- 
 ject ; leaving the details of Church government, as 
 distributed between the ministry and the other 
 members, to be treated under the more general 
 head of Ecclesiastical Polity, and confining our- 
 selves to the single topic of the advantages of 
 
250 
 
 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 Episcopacy in ministering to the WELL-being of the 
 Church ; and even on this single topic we have 
 said but little, though, I .would hope, enough to 
 commend this institution to the favorable regards 
 of all spiritually enlightened minds. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 WORSHIP. 
 
 AFTER what was said in the last Chapter of 
 Government, as necessary to the well-being 
 of the visible Church, we may next turn our thoughts 
 to WORSHIP as needful to the same end. 
 
 Worship, in its outward manifestations, like gov- 
 ernment in its various forms, has always and every- 
 where been a function of the visible Church. No 
 one form of worship, indeed, can be used as a mark 
 for ascertaining the true comprehension of the 
 Church ; nevertheless, no part of the Church has 
 ever been without worship in some form ; though 
 it were a form without words. The Church, in 
 truth, is essentially a worshiping Body. 
 
 The requisites to all acceptable worship are 
 stated with admirable precision by Him who spake 
 as "never man spake." "The true worshipers 
 shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." 
 All acceptable worship must unite these two quali- 
 ties. It must be "in spirit," as distiuguished from 
 mere outward form and ceremony, mere external 
 
 (351) 
 
252 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 offerings and sacrifices ; and as implying an inward 
 and spiritual act, an earnest engagement of the 
 mind and heart, the strong spiritual action of the 
 soul itself. It must also be "in truth," as involving 
 sincerity, and as opposed to hypocrisy and to all 
 mistaken or artificial excitement of the mind ; as 
 being aided by the Spirit of truth, and based on 
 right views of Him who is the Truth, and of His 
 Word as a revelation of His truth. All who thus 
 " worship the Father in spirit and in truth/' are 
 accepted of Him, and none others can be. ''He 
 seeketh such to worship Him," and with none 
 others can He be pleased. All outward forms of 
 worship, if vacated of this spirit and this truth, are 
 as smoke in His nostrils, an offense to His eye, 
 and an insult to His ear. He ''is a Spirit," and 
 looketh right through all outward acts and forms, 
 and seeth at a glance whether they are, like Him- 
 self, filled with spirit and with truth ; or whether, 
 like the hypocrite, the formalist, or the visionary, 
 they are full of the empty mockery of the knee, 
 the lip and the eye, or but as the glare of a false, 
 deceitful fire. 
 
 The forms in which worship is offered are not 
 unimportant. The silent worship of the soul is, 
 indeed, a sublime offering, and goes up to God as 
 an "incense of a sweet-smelling savor." Never- 
 theless, in the action of the Church visible, it can 
 
WORSHIP. 253 
 
 never reasonably take the place of a worship ex- 
 pressing itself in some appropriate outward form. 
 It is, therefore, an inquiry of some interest, in what 
 form this worship may best be offered? Unless 
 we adopt the practice of a silent worship, some 
 outward form the Church must necessarily have. 
 Which form, then, conduces most to the well-being 
 of the Church, the Liturgical or the Extempora- 
 neous ? 
 
 I rest the subject on the ground of comparative 
 merit, because the Bible does not, by explicit pre- 
 cept, enjoin either the one or the other of these 
 forms. This absence of binding Scriptural author- 
 ity for any one form of public worship is so mani- 
 fest, that the American— following berein the Eng- 
 lisb— Preface to the Book of Common Prayer, has 
 laid it down as the ground of one of its rules, that 
 '* the particular forms of Divine Worship are things, 
 in their own nature, indifferent and alterable, and 
 so acknowledged.'' Any organized visible Church, 
 in settling the question for itself, may adopt either 
 form-; and, having so done, may alter or change 
 the one for the other, provided, in such alteration 
 or change, it act, as our Preface expresses it, ''by 
 common consent and authority." 
 
 Following general custom, our Church has en- 
 joined worship by a Liturgy : and until, '' by com- 
 mon consent and authority," this form be altered 
 
254 
 
 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 or abolished, it is not admissible for us, as a Church, 
 to use any other form than that prescribed. 
 
 It is needless to say that worship by such a form 
 may be offered, as God requires, ''in spirit and in 
 truth." This no candid mind will deny. The fact 
 that the worship of the Temple and of the Syna- 
 gogue was by such a form, and that the holy Jesus 
 was in the habit of joining it in both places, forever 
 settles this point ; and should satisfy all who object 
 that worship by a prescribed form is opposed or 
 unfriendly to worship "in spirit and in truth.^' 
 Either such a form is congruous with these interior 
 requisites, or Christ has sanctioned by His exam- 
 ple what by His words He has condemned. 
 
 In comparing the two forms now in view, it is 
 not necessary to sympathize in many of the stric- 
 tures w^hich are passed upon Extemporaneous Wor- 
 ship. We may even freely admit that, following 
 simple nature, taught and aided by the Spirit, the 
 heart is strongly inclined to pour forth its emotions 
 and desires, its faith and love, into the bosom and 
 upon the ear of God in the unstudied language of 
 gushing earnestness and affection ; and that wor- 
 ship thus offered is highly acceptable to Him '' that 
 looketh on the heart." We may take this view 
 without touching the real merits of the question 
 whether, in the public worship of the Church, the 
 advantages of a previously enjoined mode prepon- 
 
WORSHIP. 255 
 
 derate over those of an extemporaneous form? 
 This question must be settled — not by reference to 
 what simple nature, influenced by divine grace, 
 would prompt the heart to do by itself, but — by 
 reference to what is demanded by the complex and, 
 in its simplest form, artificial structure of the visi- 
 ble Church ; by the involved and multiform inter- 
 ests and influences of its social organization. 
 
 In examining this point, the view generally 
 taken — as in the treatise of the philosophic Paley— 
 virtually supposes the mind of the Church to be, 
 in the main, at rest ; in a state of religious repose, 
 which renders it a fit subject for the just develop- 
 ment of the comparative excellences of the two 
 modes of worship. And if the mind of the Church 
 could always be, and be kept, in such a state, this 
 would be the true light in which to study iliQ sub- 
 ject. But, the mind of the Church is not always, 
 nor when it is can it always be kept, in such a 
 state. From within itself, and from without, it is 
 often excited, put in motion, and driven, if not into 
 progress, at least towards a change. In these 
 states of mind, too, it may happen that, so far as 
 the majority are affected, theological views are 
 shifting, doctrines are in transition, faith is unset- 
 tled, and customs are upheaved. These, therefore, 
 are the periods most proper for testing the com- 
 parative value of the two modes of public worship 
 
256 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 
 
 in the Church. I shall look at the subject in the 
 light of such a state of things. Such a state now 
 exists, and has long existed ; and it has affected, 
 not one part only, but the whole of Protestant 
 Christendom. We may add, that — except when 
 its spiritual life has either become stagnant amid 
 the corruptions of error, superstition and worldli- 
 ness, or been raised to a point of purity and power 
 seldom if ever realized on earth — the Church is 
 never free from such a state in the agitations and 
 tendencies of what may be termed its general 
 mind. 
 
 In approaching now the point of comparison be- 
 fore us, let us endeavor to get a distinct view of 
 the true attitude of the devotional mind in all pub- 
 lic worship. 
 
 When engaged in such worship, then, the devo- 
 tional mind is — not in the intellectually critical, 
 but — in the spiritually receptive state. In its de- 
 vout longings after heavenly things, it is like a 
 hungry, confiding babe, longing for nourishment 
 and ''opening its mouth wide" that it may be 
 ** filled." In relation to the leader of its devotions, 
 it is not disposed to pause and criticise his utter- 
 ances, but rather inclined to follow and speed them 
 upwards with its heartfelt "Amens." The really 
 praying mind instinctively shrinks from the meta- 
 physical difficulty of carrying on two distinct, simul- 
 
WORSHIP. 257 
 
 taneous trains of thought, the one devotional, the 
 other critical. It cannot stop to question each suc- 
 cessive utterance of its leader, to compare each 
 with the standard of truth, and then to judge 
 whether or not it cover a heresy. It is inclined to 
 repose with confidence on his soundness, to catch 
 his utterances as they flow warm from his heart 
 and his lips, and with a constant and impulsive, 
 though silent, ''Amen," to wing them upwards to 
 the Throne on the swelling importunity of united 
 prayer. This, in all public worship, is the true 
 attitude of the devotional mind. Any other atti- 
 tude is unfitting the occasion. It would turn what 
 should be the offering of a pure worship into a train- 
 ing of the mere critical intellect. I say— not 
 merely that such should be, but— that such is the 
 attitude of the devotional mind ; the attitude which 
 that mind seeks and maintains in public worship. 
 When it changes this attitude for some other, it 
 ceases to be a devotional, and becomes a critical, 
 speculative, or discursive mind ; or a mind in some 
 other attitude, equally foreign from the subject of 
 true worship. 
 
 I. As acting, then, on this attitude of the devo- 
 tional mind, let us look, first, at the tendency of an 
 EXTEMPORANEOUS modc of worship during such a 
 period of movement in the mind of the Church as 
 that which we have been contemplating. 
 17 
 
258 
 
 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 A deep, perhaps a silent and ud noticed current 
 of speculation and threatened change is running 
 through the ecclesiastical mind. The minister of 
 a congregation, worshiping extemporaneously, 
 falls into this current, moves with it, and is, in fact, 
 one of the few who, either intelligently or by sym- 
 pathetic influence, directs its course. If, now, he 
 be conscious of the change which is taking place in 
 the mind of the Church, and in his own mind, and 
 if withal he be an honest and a bold man, he will 
 utter his new convictions in his public devotions ; 
 and thus, if those new convictions belong to what 
 his Church-standards deem heterodoxy, he may be 
 detected ; and, unless his congregation sympathize 
 with him, he may, by an act of discipline, be re- 
 moved from his post of influence. But, if he be 
 at first without any distinct consciousness of the 
 change which is passing in his own mind ; and if, 
 though an honest, he be yet a timid man ; or if, as 
 it may possibly happen, he be a man of unscrupu- 
 lous conscience, who knows what he is doing, and 
 who intends, so far as his influence can go, to lead 
 the Church away from its fixed and ancient land- 
 marks of faith and doctrine ; and who, in the 
 strength and fervor of his new convictions, deems 
 it right to eff'ect his great and, as he regards it, 
 good end by politic and artful means ; in any of 
 these cases a plain and easy way lies open for his 
 
WORSHIP. 259 
 
 entrance. While his people are in the attitude of 
 the devotional mind, looking upon their leader in 
 worship as also their teacher in doctrine, confiding 
 in his guidance of their devotions, unsuspectingly 
 drinking at the stream of worshiping thought as 
 it flows from his lips, appropriating his utterances 
 as their own, and sending them up with their silent 
 ''Amens '' to God ; while they are waiting upon him 
 in this spirit, he at first, either unconsciously or by 
 design, omits, not only in teaching, but especially 
 in worship, all reference to those old and distinct- 
 ive truths of Christianity, in which the ancient 
 doctrinal standards of his Church had been set up. 
 What follows ? In a few years these distinctive 
 truths lose, by simple neglect, their practical im- 
 portance and hold on the mind ; a strange dimness 
 comes over the spiritual perceptions of the flock, 
 and all that once constituted, in their view, the pe- 
 culiarity of the Christian faith, lies, at length, as if 
 under a dense and distant fog. And now, as his 
 own convictions deepen and strengthen, and fill him 
 with the impulses of their new-born power, or, as 
 he observantly finds the way prepared for further 
 movement, he yields to those worshiping convic- 
 tions, and begins to advance the new views to 
 which he had been led ; not, at first, in a full and 
 startling dress, but in a softened and unsuspicious 
 form. The devotional mind has already become 
 
26o THE LIVING TEMPLE, 
 
 accustomed to the absence of the old forms of 
 faith and doctrine : it now becomes familiar with 
 the presence of the new phase of theology, exhib- 
 iting, as yet, much that is plausible and apparentl}^ 
 compatible with accredited views. The way is 
 thus prepared for a still further movement. Under 
 the growing change which has seized it, the mind 
 of the people becomes distinctly conscious of a 
 positive dislike of what it can recall of the old 
 orthoxody. It therefore endures, with something 
 like a relish, the fuller and bolder invectives 
 against that system which began to be hazarded 
 even in teaching, and which, perhaps unconsciously, 
 partake somewhat of the extravagance of carica- 
 ture. In this state of mind, the full result of the 
 movement has approached its birth. The work of 
 change becomes complete, and both minister and 
 people finish their transition by passing, openly 
 and avowedly, into some one of the new, erroneous, 
 and perhaps fatal theologic systems of the day. A 
 minority, it may be, remain steadfast in their old 
 faith ; but, this only insures a new division in the 
 Church, the organization of a new and feeble con- 
 gregation, and, peradventure, an embittered legal 
 contest about the temporalities, which such a di- 
 vision involves. Which way soever this contest 
 ends, the body of the congregation is led off from 
 its former faith ; and if the chano-e be from truth to 
 
WORSHIP. 261 
 
 error, the Christian doctrine is either partially, or 
 totally subverted, and the living efficiency of the 
 Gospel, either seriously, or totally nullified. 
 
 This view makes — not against the private liberty 
 of any man to form, or to alter his personal faith 
 on his personal responsibility to God, but — against 
 the stability of the public and settled faith of the 
 Church. It is intended to show the operation, un- 
 der given circumstances, of the extemporaneous 
 mode of worship ; and it explains a large class of 
 facts, familiar to multitudes of the past and present 
 age. If the faith of Churches, organized on the 
 Congregational or Independent basis, have been 
 more frequently overthrown by the influence, or 
 co-operation, of this mode of worship than that of 
 other bodies worshiping in the same mode, it is, 
 as I infer, simply because the Congregational or 
 Independent system of government makes each or- 
 ganized, worshiping assembly a separate Church, 
 with the powers of government and discipline com- 
 plete in itself, and subject to little or no controlling, 
 or even advisory oversight from other and similar- 
 ly organized bodies. The tendency, or liability, 
 to such a subversion of the faith evidently exists 
 wherever this mode of worship is adopted ; and the 
 results of the tendency, or liability, are exhibited, 
 with more or less distinctness, through all the 
 spreadings of the system. 
 
262 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 11. Ill the second place, let us look at the ten- 
 dency of public worship by a form, previously 
 settled and enjoined, as acting on the devotional 
 mind of the Church, during the same period of ex- 
 citement and threatened change. 
 
 By way of preparation for such a view, it is but 
 right to state the only ground on which an enlight- 
 ened Christian will attempt the defense of such a 
 form. For a form, in the abstract, such a Christian 
 can have no over- weening fondness. His defense 
 must rest on the character of the particular form 
 adopted. He will demand that such a form, be- 
 sides being constructed on just logical principles, 
 and in conformity with those of a simple, pure 
 taste ; besides comprehending all the ordinary 
 wants of a worshiping assembly, and providing 
 reasonably for all special occasions of public peti- 
 tion and thanks to God ; besides being filled with 
 true and ennobling, attractive and inspiring views 
 of the Most High, and with the very spirit of hum- 
 ble and reverential, fervent and affectionate devo- 
 tion from man, shall embody all the great and es- 
 sential, unchanging and saving verities of the 
 Gospel, free from any dangerous admixtures of 
 human error. A Liturgy need not be filled with 
 dogmatic theology, nor be modeled on the ordinary 
 forms of instruction, nor consist of prayers turned 
 into preaching. It need not recognize doubtful, or 
 
WORSHIP. 263 
 
 unessential points in divinity ; nor present even the 
 essential, fundamental verities of the Grospel in a 
 S3"stematic, or controversial dress ; but it should be 
 based on all these great varities as its foundation ; 
 it should use them all devotionallj ; it should work 
 them all into its confessions and petitions, its 
 thanksgivings and intercessions, its ascriptions and 
 adorations, its anthems and hymns ; in the power 
 and savor and prevalency of them all, it should as- 
 cend, and seek to make the worshiping heart 
 ascend, to the throne, and the ear, and the heart 
 of Him who loveth the truth, as well as heareth 
 His true people's prayer. 
 
 A Liturgy, too, should thus embody these living 
 truths, free from all dangerous admixture of human 
 error ; because, if it exclude these truths, or if, 
 while retaining, it overlay them with a covering of 
 such error, the very reasons which commend the 
 use of a Liturgy, rightly constructed, would legis- 
 late against it and banish it utterly from the devo- 
 tions of a redeemed and worshiping flock. A Litur- 
 gy, thus defective, or thus infected, would either 
 want the soul of true Christian worship, or stereo- 
 type error, in its most imperishable forms, on the 
 hearts and the habits, the memory and the mind, of 
 far-reaching generations. Were the use of such 
 Liturgies as might be named to become universal in 
 the Church, it had been better for '' the faith once 
 
264 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 delivered to the saints," had the printing art lain 
 undiscovered, had the pen never traced a prayer 
 beyond those recorded on the inspired page, and 
 had the true servants of Christ been left, with 
 nothing but the Bible and the Spirit to teach, and 
 with nothing but their own hearts and tongues to 
 tell out, their adoring thoughts and their in-felt 
 wants to God. 
 
 Whether the Liturgy, which we use, be construct- 
 ed according to the principles just stated, I cannot 
 stop minutely to inquire. For our form we claim 
 not perfection. We may, however, safely leave 
 the question of 'its character to all fair and candid 
 minds, even among those who prefer, or continue 
 to use, an extemporaneous worship. From many 
 of the most enlightened and pious of evangelical 
 Christians of other names, our Liturgy has received 
 the highest and most eloquent commendations, on 
 the ground of its conformity with the principles, 
 which I have stated ; while some, if not all of the 
 faults, which the eye of Paley detected in the Eng- 
 lish Book, were removed from the American, when 
 we came to adapt it to the altered political condi- 
 tion of our country, as it took its stand among in- 
 dependent nations. With these remarks, then, I 
 assume that our Liturgy is remarkably full and 
 rich in the saving truths of the Gospel ; that it is 
 free — not, as some too idolatrously ween, from all 
 
WORSETP. 265 
 
 human error, but — as we may safely claim, from 
 all dangerous admixtures of such error ; that it is 
 constructed on the justest principles of logic and of 
 taste ; that it is copious in its provisions for all the 
 general and for most of the special wants of a wor- 
 shiping people ; and that it abounds in such lowly 
 and self-abasing acts of confession and supplication, 
 and in such fervent and sublime strains of devotion 
 and praise, that the most broken-hearted penitent 
 may well pour out his heart in the former, while 
 glorified angels, were they visibly present, might 
 cordially utter their loud ''Amens^to the latter. 
 I proceed, now, with the subject. 
 
 Let us, then, suppose that a minister of a par- 
 ticular congregation, worshiping by such a form, is 
 in the same condition of mind as that before instan- 
 ced. He has fallen into the current, which is set- 
 ting so deeply and strongly through the general 
 religious mind ; he moves with that current ; he 
 reaches the result to which it tends ; he becomes 
 an ERRORiST, perhaps of the most dangerous kind. 
 What, then, is the position in v>^hich he finds him- 
 self as one who may wish to change the faith of the 
 Church into a conformity with his newly adopted 
 views ? 
 
 If he be a dishonest man, or a man of unscrupul- 
 ous conscience, who thinks it right to effect what 
 he deems a good end by means which others would 
 
266 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 regard as of questionable morality, he cannot take 
 advantage of the devoutly responding spirit of his 
 worshiping congregation. He cannot make his 
 people drink at the stream of his errors through 
 the contidings of a mind, ready to follow with its 
 impulsive "A mens'' the utterances of a trusted and 
 warmly earnest leader. Though he himself be 
 steeped in heresy, yet that to which they say 
 *'Amen " is full of the richness and life of God's 
 truth. If, therefore, he attempt to disseminate his 
 errors, he can do so nowhere save in the pulpit, or 
 from the press, or by conversation ; and the mo- 
 ment he makes this attempt, whichever medium of 
 influence he adopts, he must pour his doctrine — 
 not into the heart of their worshiping confidence, 
 but — into the ear of his people's critical intel- 
 lect. In this enterprise, he has before him — not a 
 body of trustful, adoring, appropriating minds, 
 but — a congregation who feel that the reason and 
 the understanding which he addresses are their 
 own ; who have a right to judge him by his ac- 
 knowledged and sworn standards ; and who, in 
 their jealous watchfulness over those standards will 
 not be slow either to detect or to arraign the ad- 
 venturous delinquent. Examples of the operation 
 of this principle have not been wanting even with- 
 in the limits of our brief history as an independent 
 ecclesiastical organization. The case of Mfnzies 
 
WORSHIP. 267 
 
 Rajnor, of the diocese of Connecticut, who attempt- 
 ed to teach one of the forms of heresy from his pul- 
 pit, but who, notwithstanding the cautiousness 
 of his attempt, was detected and removed from the 
 ministry, was one in point. And if our Church 
 should ever fail to detect and cut off such errorists, 
 it will be — not because she wants means to detect 
 them, but — because she will have proved unfaith- 
 ful to her Master, and to her work ; an unfaithful- 
 ness for which she would deserve the chastenino- 
 which detected but allowed corruptions can never 
 fail, sooner or later, to ensure. 
 
 But, suppose a case of more frequent occurrence ; 
 that the minister, though an errorist, is yet an 
 honest man ; strong in his convictions, yet with 
 a live conscience in his bosom. As his convic- 
 tions gain strength, we will suppose them to settle 
 in the direction of the rationalistic extreme. It 
 is evident, now, that he cannot continue in the use 
 of our Liturgy. This embodies and is based on 
 truths, or, as he will consider them, errors, which 
 will make his head ache every time he utters them 
 on his knees against his new convictions and amid 
 his people's hearty " Amens.'^ What, then, shall 
 he do ? A hypocrite's part he cannot play, for he 
 is an honest man, and has a conscience whose fair 
 answer is of more value to him than millions of 
 wealth and pinnacles of honor ; and a wound upon 
 
268 TEE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 which he more dreads than poverty, and obscuritv 
 and rags. There is but one thing which he can 
 do. He must retire from his ministry. A resist- 
 less voice within commands the movement. He 
 obeys. And thus, so far as his influence can 
 directly and officially reach her faith, the Church 
 is safe. Examples of the operation of this prin- 
 ciple are familiar to all who are familiar with the 
 recent history of our Church ; and the entire ab- 
 sence of cases, in which an Episcopal congrega- 
 tion has been led away from the faith of their 
 Church, speaks, on this point, a strong language. 
 
 To this remark, the cas3 of ''King's Chapel," 
 Boston, is no exception. In his history of that 
 Chapel, Greenwood says, indeed, that this, " The 
 first Episcopal Church in New England, became 
 the first Unitarian Church in the United States." 
 But this is an incorrect statement. That was not 
 a case in which an Episcopal Church became Uni- 
 tarian ; but a case, in which an edifice, once occu- 
 pied by an Episcopal congregation, subsequently 
 passed into the possession of Unitarians. The 
 building, virtually vacated by the incidents of our 
 Revolutionary War of its Episcopal occupants, 
 passed at length into the hands of a congregation 
 mostly new and Unitarian. No sooner, however, 
 was this transfer of the building efifected, than it 
 was resolved to alter the Liturgy, by striking out 
 
WORSHIP. 269 
 
 all references to the great doctrine of the Trinity. 
 It was equally impossible for the new congrega- 
 tion, as honest men, to worship with the old Prayer 
 Book, and for Dr. Freeman, their lay-reader, as an 
 honest candidate for our ministry, to obtain Epis- 
 copal ordination. Had the original congregation of 
 King's Chapel never been dispersed by the hand 
 of war, and the use of our Liturgy never been in- 
 terrupted by the hand of mutilation, that vener- 
 able edifice and that ancient congregation would 
 doubtless have remained to this day in our com- 
 munion ; the people as sound in the faith as the 
 Prayer Book is loyal to the Truth of the Son of 
 God. 
 
 But, suppose the convictions of the minister to 
 have settled — not in the direction of the rationalist, 
 but — in that of the ritualist extreme. In this case, 
 he is met by an opposite, but scarcely less opera- 
 tive, characteristic of our Liturgy ; its blank va- 
 cancy of all that can minister to the longings of 
 that peculiar taste, which accompanies, perhaps 
 induces, the adoption of Eoraish dogmas and ob- 
 servances ; which accompanies that adoption as 
 uniformly as the shadow follows its substance ; 
 which may induce that adoption as naturally as 
 any cause induces its own effect. In continuing 
 the use of our Liturgy, such a minister finds no 
 penance for the post-baptismal transgressor, no 
 
270 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 mass for the worshiper of transubstantiated ele- 
 ments ; no trace of a confessional, no eulogy upon 
 human merits ; no prayer for the dead, no help 
 for patients under purgatorial discipline ; no note 
 of wonder at the miracles of the Church, no viati- 
 cum for the distressed " in exti^ernis ;^'' no prean to 
 celibacy, no laud to virginity ; no shrine for a con- 
 secrated relic, no receptacle for an anointed pic- 
 ture ; in short, not a single ceremony designed for 
 pomp, nor a solitary contrivance for inspiring awe ; 
 but all plain and decent in posture, all simple and 
 beautiful in order ; all sound and scriptural in sig- 
 nification, all rational yet fervent in devotion ; nor 
 can he introduce into the forms which he uses any- 
 thing to awaken in others the longings which are 
 consuming himself ; not a word of truth can he 
 leave out, nor a syllable of error bring in, while 
 conducting the worship of the Church ; nothing 
 can he do towards the end at which he aims, be- 
 yond a few poor changes of posture and of cos- 
 tume, which, by their very meagreness, fail to 
 satisfy himself, while, by their dim pointing to- 
 wards something more startlingly significant, they 
 displease most others, and betray the secret errors 
 which would beguile them from their faith. His 
 position, in truth, becomes one of serious embar- 
 rassment. The cravings of his secret appetite are 
 left in unfed, painful hunger, and the steps of his 
 
WORSHIP. 27 1 
 
 half-timid movements are watched by a thousand 
 reproving looks, until, even if he succeed in screen- 
 ing his errors from ecclesiastical censure, his con- 
 science, as an honest man, and his feelings as a 
 self-respecting man, compel him to abandon a 
 ministry to which he can no longer be comfort- 
 ably loyal, and thus to deliver the Church from 
 the beguilings of his example and from the in- 
 fluence of his teachings. 
 
 In truth, the pressure of this negative character 
 of our Liturgy, at one time, stimulated the efforts 
 of some in England to restore to credit and use 
 the long discarded Romish Breviary. Amid what 
 it deemed the ceremonial poverty of the Anglican 
 forms, the ritual spirit felt a painful sense of want 
 not easily to be endured. It therefore sought else- 
 where its necessary food ; first, by endeavoring to 
 bring that food to itself in the English Church ; 
 and finally, when that was found impracticable, 
 by going after it to the Church of Rome. Yerily, 
 then, the ritual spirit, so far as it finds entrance 
 into our American Episcopal Church, must be in 
 a most famishing condition amid the more severely 
 simple forms in which its worship is set forth. 
 These forms are, indeed, rich to those who love 
 the manna, and beautiful to those who admire the 
 simplicity of Divine Truth ; but they must be poor 
 to those who long for the splendid ornaments, and 
 
272 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 common to those who sigh for the imposing pomps 
 of Eome's gorgeous ritual. It can be no matter 
 for wonder if such should be incessantly studying 
 change. Our Liturgy cannot satisfy their crav- 
 ings, nor can they ever use it in diffusing through 
 the Church their peculiar theology and their un- 
 satisfied tastes. 
 
 The view now taken, illustrates still further the 
 influence of our scriptural Liturgy, when operating 
 — not only on a single congregation during the 
 ministry of a single man, but also on the whole ec- 
 clesiastical bod}", and through a long succession of 
 ages. In this view, its influence is eminently con- 
 servative of the true faith of the Gospel. Full, as 
 it is, of the marrow of Divine Truth, correct and 
 chaste in style, fervent and often sublime in spirit, 
 it is also a composition, with which we become in- 
 timately faDiiliar. It lives in our earliest and 
 latest, our fondest and holiest associations. It fur- 
 nishes much of our worshiping language, and 
 many of our worshiping thoughts, in social and 
 even in secret prayer ; and though its public use 
 fill not our prayers with sermons, yet its remem- 
 bered strains fill our hearts with doctrines, and 
 that in their most valuable forms ; not laid up as 
 sharp weapons in the armory of our critical intel- 
 lect, but preserved as living truths in the spirit of 
 pure devotion. Thus associated, imbibed, and em- 
 
WORSHIP. 
 
 273 
 
 balmed, the truths of our religion operate on the 
 heart and mind of imitative childhood, of receptive 
 youth, of digestive manhood, and of ruminating 
 age ; and thus become, as it were, inwrought into 
 the substance of the Church, and live and act as 
 elements in her enduring constitution. The pro- 
 cess may give to our ecclesiastical temperament 
 less of the excitable, the impulsive, and the fitfully 
 strenuous ; yet it probably imparts to that temper- 
 ament more of the contemplative, the healthful and 
 the long-lived. 
 
 Thus far, we have been looking at the two modes 
 of worship in their comparative action on the devo- 
 tional mind. If we were to examine that action on 
 the unworshiping mind, we should possibly find 
 the comparison somewhat modified. If the devout 
 mind, by listening to a set form, learn to repeat by 
 rote what it cares not to ponder ; by listening to 
 an extemporaneous form it may learn to listen with 
 incredulity to what it cannot appreciate, or with 
 idle curiosity to what offends its tastes. Under 
 such a set form as ours, if the indevout mind learn 
 anything, it learns nothing but God's truth. Under 
 an extemporaneous form, while it may learn God's 
 truth, it will prove quite as susceptible as the de- 
 vout spirit itself both to the absence of such truth 
 and to the presence of the opposite error. And 
 when the hour of change comes, the indevout and 
 18 
 
274 ^^^ LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 careless mind will be found even more ready than 
 that which has seriously and thoroughly digested 
 its errors, for the deciding movement which is to 
 follow : since, with error, in all its forms, the natu- 
 ral mind has a stronger affinity than the spiritual ; 
 while the spiritual mind has something, but the 
 natural has nothing, to restrain its inborn aver- 
 sion to the self-mortifying strictness of Christi- 
 anity. 
 
 III. The two forms of worship might be compar- 
 ed on a few other points ; but the design of this 
 Treatise does not call me to discuss them fully. It 
 may not, however, be amiss to give them a brief 
 notice. 
 
 The principal objections, then, to worship by a 
 previously enjoined form are two : 1. The use of 
 such a form tends to formalism. The tongue, in its 
 familiarity with the sounds, repeats language, which 
 an un tasked attention fails of carrying significant- 
 ly to the heart. 2. Such a form is incapable of 
 adaptation to many of the most interesting exigen- 
 ces of times, places and circumstances. It is not 
 effective in awakening the religious sensibilities, 
 and in cultivating the religious affections, amid the 
 ceaseless and often impressive providential inci- 
 dents of life. 
 
 In each of these objections we may freely con- 
 
WORSHIP. 275 
 
 cede that there is a certain amount of force ; and 
 yet, I think, the}^ admit of a fair reply. 
 
 1. Though a candid mind will not hesitate to con- 
 cede the tendency of forms to formalism, yet a dis- 
 criminating mind can see that the tendency is 
 stronger in the sound of words than in the experi- 
 ence of Christians. But, whatever be the strength 
 of the tendency, it is not irresistible. The life and 
 spirit of religion, as ordinarily attendant on an 
 earnest and faithful preaching of the Gospel, will 
 keep this tendency within as narrow limits, under 
 the use of set forms of worship, as under that of 
 the extemporaneous mode. We must not forget 
 that the tendency to formalism in worship is not 
 limited to the use of set-forms of worship. It is 
 the tendency of our nature, even when partially 
 sanctified, and worshiping in the least formal way. 
 Safety from it, under all circumstances, is the gra- 
 cious reward of nothing but strict and unsleeping 
 watchfulness over the state of the heart and over 
 the spirit of its devotions ; and, on these conditions, 
 that safety is as well assured to those who worship 
 by a prescribed, as to those who use an extempora- 
 neous mode. And this is as true of those who 
 lead, as it is of those who follovf, in the stated wor- 
 ship of the Church. 
 
 2. While it need not be denied that a prescribed 
 form of worship is incapable of minute and perfect 
 
2/6 
 
 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 adaptation to the ever changing exigences of life ; 
 it may be claimed that this disadvantage is, per- 
 haps, more than counterbalanced by accompan3ing 
 safeguards against the evils to which, through its 
 very capabilities in this respect, extemporaneous 
 worship is exposed. In the use of prescribed 
 forms, the officiating minister cannot make his own 
 feelings and experience, private and often peculiar, 
 jar upon the common and often dissimilar feelings 
 and experiences of his fellow-worshipers ; nor can 
 one minister ever be praying for what another is, 
 at the same time, deprecating. Neither can our 
 officiator ever fall into the painfully embarrassing 
 hesitations, mistakes and improprieties of expres- 
 ion, which so often mar the public devotional exer- 
 cises of ungifted minds : nor can he ever follow the 
 eccentricities of his own genius, or the habits which 
 grow out of custom, and thus be led into irreverent 
 familiarities, rash extravagances, startling expres- 
 sions, flights of oratory, informing narratives before 
 God, or virtual sermonizing before men. Of our 
 forms no one can ever say, what, on a special oc- 
 casion, was once said of the devotional exercise of 
 a popular minister, and what, if intended as a 
 grave compliment, was yet an awful sarcasm, — 
 '* That was the most eloquent prayer ever address- 
 ed to a Boston audience.'' 
 
 When these and like things are considered, it 
 
WORSHIP. 
 
 277 
 
 will be evident that prescribed forms of worship 
 have some peculiar advantages, and are free from 
 some special disadvantages ; and that, if extempo- 
 raneous worship be, at times, and for an occasion, 
 remarkably impressive and effective ; it is, at other 
 times, and on other occasions, embarrassingly lame, 
 or disturbingly eccentric ; often unprofitable in its 
 matter, and more often didactic, rather than devo- 
 tional, in its dress ; while worship by a prescribed, 
 and scriptural form is always decent and dignified, 
 devout and solemn, elevated and edifying ; uniform- 
 ly fit to be offered by sinful and penitent, believing 
 and adoring mortals, at the footstool of that throne, 
 whereon is seated the High and the Holy, the all- 
 knowing and the all-gracioas Immortal. 
 
 It would be easy to enlarge on these and similar 
 points of comparison ; but my purpose leads me no 
 further in this direction. My main object has 
 been to present the subject in what seems to me 
 one of its strong lights ; and, having done so, to 
 leave it for contemplation in the hours of still and 
 quiet thought. The points, thus briefly noticed, 
 show that each of the two modes of worship has its 
 peculiar advantages, and its peculiar disadvanta- 
 ges ; and that, as these advantages and disadvanta- 
 ges are brought before different minds by the 
 forces of education, amid the circumstances of life 
 and the varieties of human temperament, it is not 
 
.278 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 strange that some should strongly lean to the ex- 
 temporaneous, while others as strongly incline to 
 the pre-coniposecl form. Allowing, however, that 
 the general argument on either side were more 
 evenly balanced than it appears to be ; still, the 
 special view which I have presented, comes, in my 
 judgment, with a largely preponderating weight 
 upon the question, and moves the balance decided- 
 ly in favor of public worship by a scriptural, 
 prescribed form. 
 
 Some, I doubt not, would turn vnj argument in 
 favor of an opposite conclusion. The fact that such 
 a form of worship tends to stereotype the faith and 
 doctrines of the Church on the minds of the people, 
 as well as on the parchment of their records, fur- 
 nishes, with them, the very reason why all such 
 forms should be rejected from the worship of the 
 Church. They hold not to this fixedness of faith 
 and doctrine in religion. They are believers in 
 TROGRESS, in development, in this as in other sub- 
 jects. They consider religion, like philosophy, im- 
 provable ; not on]}' capable of more and more 
 perfect comprehension, and tending to improve 
 human character in the individual and in the mass ; 
 but also, admitting of changes and new discoveries 
 in its own elementary principles. They would, 
 therefore, take away forms, creeds, reverence — 
 everything that can stand as a barrier against full 
 
WORSHIP. 279 
 
 and perfect liberty of change and progress. Dn- 
 cliangeableness in the Church's faith and forms is 
 to them an offense. It gives no chance to their im- 
 provements upon what is commonly regarded as 
 the divine plan and wisdom. The argument, there- 
 fore, here urged, instead of convincing, sets them 
 more firmly than ever in their opposition to all 
 prescript worship, even by the best of forms. 
 
 With such minds, of course, I have no hope of 
 prevailing ; but, with those who adopt another view, 
 I may hope the argument will have weight. Those 
 who believe that revealed truth, as it came from 
 God, has in it fixed elements ; that Christianity 
 has a settled and unchangeable base ; that God 
 has spoken all His mind concerning the way of 
 salvation, and distinctly intimated His design to 
 ''add no mora ;" and that the faith of the Church 
 should ever answer to its divine Archetypes, ''as 
 in water face answereth to face ;" — those who be- 
 lieve that the Church's progress and development 
 should be from grace to grace, and from faith to 
 faith, — not by changing one grace for another, or 
 an old faith for a new, but by carrying every grace 
 to its highest attainable perfection, and by devel- 
 oping from the one faith of the Bible its richest 
 fruits in the holy civilization of the individual and 
 of society ; — those who hold that we should seek — 
 not for repeated changes of faith and doctrine, but 
 
2 So THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 — for a better practical as well as intellectual ap- 
 prehension of the one immutable faith and doctrine 
 of God's holy Word ; those who regard the Church 
 — not as a subject upon which this world's spirit of 
 curiosity and love of novelty may make their ex- 
 periments, but — as God's instrument for operating 
 on this world in the blessed work of reclaiming it 
 unto a just allegiance to its Eternal King ; — those 
 who thus believe and hold will, I apprehend, feel 
 a peculiar force in the view which I have taken, 
 and realize somewhat of its weight in deciding the 
 question upon the comparative value of the two 
 great forms of public worship in the Church. The 
 Scriptural and edifying character of a Liturgy be- 
 ing secured, nothing further is essentially needed, 
 save a faithful preaching of " Jesus Christ and Him 
 crucified," and the full effusion, promised to such 
 preaching, of the mighty power of the Holy Ghost, 
 in order to bring into ih^ Church and to perpetu- 
 ate her highest life and her holiest efficiency ; — 
 a life serene as it would be enduring ; and an 
 efficiency blessed as it would be powerful. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SCHISM. 
 
 WE are still engaged in treating of the well- 
 being of the Church. The Church is the 
 Body of Christ. As true, holy and Catholic, it is 
 His spiritual, or mystical Body. As developed 
 under needful forms, it is His visible Body ; so 
 called from analogy and from the serving of the 
 outward to the inward. 
 
 The visible Church, of which we are now treat- 
 ing, has its being and its WELL-being. In its being, 
 it comprehends essentials only ; in its well-being, 
 it comprehends with these essentials what is requi- 
 site to their best condition. Those essentials are — 
 Christ, the Spirit, and the body of m^embers under 
 the true Gospel and Sacraments. What is requi- 
 site to their best condition is — the "setting of all 
 the members in the Body," each in his proper 
 place, the higher and the lower, the ministry and 
 the people ; so that none shall be wanting and none 
 dislocated ; all the parts put rightly together, and 
 all sustaining, helping, and perfecting all in com- 
 
 (381) 
 
282 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 fort, growth and action. This is the visible Church 
 in its well-being ; in its best health as well as in 
 its essential life. 
 
 This distinction between the being and the well- 
 being of the Church, between the Church itself and 
 the ministry of the Church, is, as I have before 
 remarked, all-important. The visible Church is 
 the whole outward Body of Christ. The ministry 
 is but a service of members " set in the Church" to 
 aid in promoting its best health and action. The 
 Church may have this ministry, perfect or imper- 
 fect ; or, so far as the human hand of ordination is 
 concerned, it may, by possibility, have no ministry 
 at all ; and according as it is in one or another of 
 these conditions, it will realize more or less per- 
 fectly its true welfare ; but, in its worst condition, 
 so long as it has Christ, and those who profess the 
 true faith of Christ, it will be still — the Church, 
 the Church of Christ visible in all the earth. This 
 distinction between its being and its well-being, is 
 important in settling the question of the true com- 
 prehension of the visible Church. 
 
 Of the ministry of this Church I have already 
 spoken. For the fullness of this ministry, two 
 things are to be regarded as requisite — the inward 
 gift and the outward commission. The inward gift 
 is always and immediately from the Holy Spirit to 
 the ministering man. Its bestowment needs no 
 
SCHISM. 283 
 
 human hand. No human hand conveys it. It is 
 indispensable in constituting the true minister of 
 Christ. It never fails to reach him to whom it is 
 sent. It never falls by chance on the wrong head. 
 With the outward commission it is somewhat dif- 
 ferent. This came originally from Christ: but 
 mediately, it has passed through the hands of His 
 first Apostles, and of those to whom they commit- 
 ted it ; and coming thus through human hands, and 
 amid human fallibilities, it is not always accompa- 
 nied by the necessary inward gift. The outward 
 commission often falls on the wrong head. Never^ 
 theless, it is Christ's commission in its external 
 sign ; and though many bear it who ought not, yet 
 none bear it rightly but such as bear it lawfully. 
 As it has been committed to the Apostles' hands, 
 it should, as to general practice, be transmitted 
 according to the Apostles' rule. There are, in- 
 deed, those who deny the necessity of any external 
 commission to the ministry, and who claim that the 
 internal gift is common to all true Christians ; or 
 rather, that all on whom it is conferred may and 
 should, even without any outward commission, per- 
 form all ministerial acts whenever and wherever 
 they list. With such theorists, however, the pres- 
 ent argument has no concern. It is addressed to 
 all who, like ourselves, admit the necessity of the 
 outward commission, as well as of the inward 
 
284 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 gift, in order to the fullness of the Christian min- 
 istry. 
 
 In a former Lecture, I professed my faith in the 
 following points, viz : that, in transmitting this 
 outward commission, the Apostles, for order's sake 
 and discipline, distributed it over a ministry of 
 three grades ; that thus Episcopacy became every 
 where, from the Apostles' time, the actual form of 
 the Christian ministry ; that thus, though not of 
 the essence of the Church, yet virtually it hath the 
 approval of Christ, and that, therefore, voluntarily 
 and needlessly to abandon it is rashly to incur the 
 hazard, and insure the fact, of the fearful evils of 
 schism. 
 
 Schism may be defined as the opposite of true 
 Church harmony. It is opposed to the well-being 
 of the Church. Hence, in treating of this well- 
 being, it becomes desirable to know what is meant 
 by this true harmony and what by schism, as a 
 violation of this harmony. This, then, is the topic 
 on which I now enter — Church harmony. What 
 is it ? By what is it violated ? What are the 
 evils of its violation ? And how may these evils 
 best be cured ? We take up these questions in 
 their order. 
 
 1. What is the true harmony of the Church ? 
 
 In the abstract, harmony is a due agreement 
 between all the parts of any whole. In the Church, 
 
SCHISM. 285 
 
 perfect harmony is a perfect agreement of all its 
 parts in the one whole of Christ's Body. In this 
 sense, harmony is an attribute of none but the 
 spiritual Church, and even there can be developed 
 in its perfection no where but in Heaven. In the 
 visible Church on earth, harmony may be defined 
 as an agreement of all the parts, so far, at least, 
 as to avoid all open, organized breach of Christian 
 love and of ecclesiastical order. There may, in- 
 deed, be among the different parts of the Church 
 visible, a stinted measure of Christian love, and 
 a feeble realization of ecclesiastical order, consist- 
 ently with what may be called the general har- 
 mony of the whole. But, when the agreement of 
 the parts is disturbed by an open, organized breach 
 of Christian love and of ecclesiastical order, there 
 Church harmony is lost. The parts are in discord, 
 — not merely by a partial lack of Christian love, 
 and a feeble realization of ecclesiastical order, but — 
 by a positive violation of both. And this suggests 
 the answer to our second question. 
 
 2. By what is the harmony of the Church vio- 
 lated ? 
 
 I reply : It is violated by the open, deliberate, 
 needless act of a body of professed Christians, 
 banding themselves into a separate organization 
 as a visible Church. In other words, it is violated 
 by SCHISM. In this respect, among others, schism 
 
286 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 differs from heresy. Heresy may be the sin of 
 an individual. Schism requires the combined act 
 of a greater or less number of individuals. A 
 single person, unconnected with others in his pecu- 
 liar course, can scarcely be called a schismatic, or 
 said to be guilty of schism. But, when he gathers 
 other persons around him, and proceeds, deliber- 
 ately and without necessity, to organize a separate 
 Church, in violation of the love and order of the 
 whole Body, then each individual in that organiza- 
 tion, as well as the organization itself, becomes a 
 schismatic. There schism exists. 
 
 On this point we need clear ideas. Bad as the 
 evil of schism may be, it embarrasses all inquiry 
 to make it worse than it is. Some write and speak 
 as if they thought that schism cuts off from the 
 Body of Christ, and leaves the excluded part to 
 die, to perish, as something utterly out of the 
 Church. None, indeed, would say that every in- 
 dividual, involved in schism, is necessarily left to 
 perish everlastingly. They mean no more than 
 this : that the mass of individuals, thus involved, 
 is actually left to perish ecclesiastically, as some- 
 thing no longer in, or of, the Church. This idea 
 of schism sometimes comes out ia print. Even 
 Chillingworth, in his immortal work, writes so as, 
 on the whole, to leave the impression that if cer- 
 tain ancient and modern Churches, existing separ- 
 
SCHISM. 287 
 
 ately from that of Rome, could be shown to be 
 actually and really in a state of schism, it would 
 be tantamount to a confession that they thereby 
 ceased to belong, as parts, to the one visible Church 
 Catholic. It seems to me that his great argument 
 amounts mainly to this, that those separate Churches 
 were and are parts of the one Catholic Church, be- 
 cause they were not, and are not in a state of schism. 
 That those Churches were not, and are not all in 
 a state of schism we rejoice to believe. Still, 
 there has been and there is, such a thing as schism, 
 and it is well for us to know clearly what it is. 
 The idea that schism cuts off from the Church, 
 though it sometimes comes out in print, yet, among 
 us, is rather, in general, the practical inference of 
 unthinking minds from the extravagant colors in 
 which their teachers are in the habit of painting 
 the sin of schism. But, in whatever shape it 
 comes, it is a false idea. Schism separates not 
 from the Church. To see the truth of this, let 
 us look at the thing itself. What is schism ? In 
 what are we to find its essence ? 
 
 If possible, this question must be settled by 
 reference to the Scriptures, and not by a search 
 among the doctors of au}^ age, especially not 
 among those who leave the Scriptures out of view. 
 Looking, then, at the Scriptures, I think we shall 
 see that schism is — not a loss of Church essence, 
 
288 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 but — a breach upon Churcli love ; not a severance 
 from the unity of the Church, but a violation of the 
 order of the Church. 
 
 (1.) I refer, first, to 1 Cor. 12 : 25. '' That there 
 should be no schism in the body.^' Schism, then, 
 exists ''in the body," instead of cutting off from 
 the body ; in the Church, instead of putting out of 
 the Church. And what this thiug in the body 
 is, which Christians are to avoid, we may learn 
 from what follows the words just cited : " That 
 there should be no schism in the body ; but, that 
 the members should have the same care, one for 
 another. And whether one member suffer, all the 
 members suffer with it ; or one member be honored, 
 all the members rejoice with it." Schism, then, is 
 the opposite of this mutual care, this loving sympa- 
 thy, of all the members for and with each other. 
 It is a non-intercourse, a lack of mutual care, a loss 
 of loving sympathy, among the members of the 
 same body. It is, as I have said, a breach upon 
 the Church's love, a disturbance of the Church's 
 harmony. As such, it is in and of the Church 
 itself And this is one of its saddest features. It 
 is in the Church, whose highest law should be love ; 
 it is among brethren, between whom all should be 
 harmony. In the Church,/' if one member suffer" 
 by persecution, or otherwise, "all the members 
 should suffer with it " or there is a breach of love : 
 
SCHISM. 289 
 
 ''or if one member be honored," by promotion to 
 higher office, or other distinction, ''all the members 
 should rejoice with it," or there is a violation of 
 harmony. 
 
 This is the essence of schism : and all that can 
 be wanting to make it a fact, cognizable in ecclesi- 
 astical discipline, is, that this spirit of the evil 
 should embody itself in overt organization, as a 
 separate sect in the Church. The spirit of the evil 
 is bad enough as a breach of love and a violation 
 of harmony ; but by organization it becomes an 
 organized sin. I speak, now, of ecclesiastical or- 
 ganizations, properly so called, the formation of 
 separate Churches ; and not of social organizations, 
 the formation of societies for allowable objects in 
 the same Church. Schism becomes a breach of 
 Church love, and a violation of Church harmony, 
 as a cognizable fact, by the voluntary and needless 
 formation of separate Churches ; while yet, the act 
 leaves these separate Churches still parts of the 
 one visible Church Catholic. It is thus that schism 
 is "in the body,'' and that, by schism, no part is 
 cut off from the body. To illustrate this view, let 
 us take a wider survey of Scripture, as bearing on 
 this point. 
 
 (2.) Matt. 27 : 51. Here the word is in its ver- 
 bal form. At the Crucifixion, " the veil of the 
 Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bot- 
 19 
 
290 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 torn." That veil was in a state of physical schism. 
 It was "rent in twain." Or, to make the phrase 
 more Greek, it was "schismed." And yet by 
 that fact, neither of the parts ceased to belong to 
 the one veil. It was still one veil, though in two 
 parts ; and these two parts were capable of being 
 closely reunited. 
 
 (3.) Mark 1 : 10. Here also the word is in its 
 verbal form. At the baptismal scene, Jesus, " com- 
 ing up from the water, saw the heavens opened ;" 
 literally, " schismed ;" rent, like the torn curtain. 
 And yet there were not two heavens. It was bat 
 the one heavens ; schismed for a moment, and in a 
 moment closed again in one ; and not even for that 
 moment, putting either part out of heaven. 
 
 (4.) Matt. 9 : 16. In this passage the word is in 
 its substantive form. " No man putteth a piece of 
 new cloth unto an old garment : for that which is 
 put in to fill it up, taketh from the garment, and 
 the rent is made worse. ^' Literally, '' the schism 
 is made worse." And yet, at the worst, it is but 
 a schism in a garment. It is not a casting off of a 
 part, so that it ceases to be a part, of the garment. 
 The garment may be mended by skilfully sewing 
 the parts together. 
 
 (5.) John 7:43; 9:16; and 10:19. These 
 passages come nearer our subject. On several 
 occasions, Christ and His Discourses had set the 
 
SCHISM. 291 
 
 Jews at fierce reasonings among themselves. Once, 
 they differed about tie place of Christ's birth ; and 
 then it is said, '' there was a division," schism, 
 '' among the people because of Him." Again, they 
 differed about the morality of His healing on the 
 Sabbath day; and then again it is said, "there 
 was a division," schism, "among them." And 
 still again, they differed about His Discourse on 
 the sheepfold, and His laying down His life for the 
 sheep; and still again it is said, "There was a 
 division, therefore, again," another schism, "among 
 the Jews for these sayings." And yet, on all these 
 occasions, the schism was among the Jews ; neither 
 party was cut off from the other, or from the Jew- 
 ish body at large. Their harmony of opinion was 
 broken ; and perhaps their bond of love was for 
 the moment injured by their hot disputings ; but 
 neither party ceased to be Jews, or to belong to 
 the great Jewish commonwealth. 
 
 (6.) 1 Cor. 1:10; 1 Cor. 11 : 18. These pas- 
 sages come still nearer our subject. In the former, 
 St. Paul beseeches his Corinthian "brethren, by 
 the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they all 
 speak the same thing ; that there be no divisions," 
 schisms, " among them ; but that they be perfectly 
 joined together in the same mind and in the same 
 judgment." And in the latter, he says : "I hear 
 that there be divisions," schisms, "among you." 
 
292 THE LIVma TEMPLE. 
 
 Here, the meaning of the word is quite manifest. 
 The Apostle was addressing a part of the Church, 
 which was full of the seeds of schism, and of schism 
 of the worst kind ; schism right under the eye of 
 an Apostle, and in the young heart itself of the 
 Church. He was rebuking those who had already 
 begun to set up, some for Paul, some for Apollos, 
 some for Cephas, and some for Christ ; who were 
 already getting up a non-intercourse, and losing 
 their mutual care and forgetting their loving sym- 
 pathy, for and with each other, in their unhol}^ 
 jealousy and zeal for building up Paul's party, and 
 Apollos 's party, and Peter's party, and Christ's 
 party ; and striving to see which could make their 
 own most popular and most powerful. And yet, 
 he addressed them all as "brethren," and besought 
 them all, by the dearest of names, that they would 
 heal their incipient schisms, and live in the oneness 
 of all-cementing love for the common truth and for 
 their common Lord. He spoke of their young 
 schisms as being " among them," and not as cutting 
 off Paul's party, or Peter's party, from Christ, or 
 from His Church, and leaving the part so cut off 
 as no longer a portion of the Saviour's Body. He 
 treated schism as a thing which was " in the body," 
 which belonged to the body, and in which every 
 part of the body was most tenderly concerned. It 
 was a direful evil, even in its earliest development ; 
 
SCHISM, 2p3 
 
 and, so far as his labors and his prayers could go, 
 he would not have it in the Church of Christ. 
 
 From this examination of various passages, then, 
 we rest with confirmed confidence in our definition 
 of schism. It is a rent, a wound, in the visible 
 body of our Lord, Christ. It is a breach upon 
 Church love, and a rupture of Church harmony. It 
 is one of the ways, in which the one Church has 
 been divided and made many Churches. Separate 
 Churches may, indeed, be formed without schism ; 
 but schism is one of the forms of separation. The 
 spirit of schism may exist where the fact of schism 
 has not become cognizable. It generally arises 
 out of too curious disputes about disputable, per- 
 haps trifling matters of opinion and judgment ; 
 though sometimes out of the heats of personal pre- 
 ferences, and party ambitions ; and it ends in organ- 
 ized non-intercourse, the jealousies and strifes of 
 sects, the internal dissentions of that great Chris- 
 tian family, which ought ever to "■ live in perfect 
 love and peace together." 
 
 Such, when brought out into cognizable fact, is 
 schism ; a melancholy rent, a sore festering wound, 
 in the visible body of Christ. One of its worst 
 characteristics is, that it is " in ih^ body ;" and yet 
 this worst reveals its best ; it is not fatal to the 
 body ; it may be healed. Individuals may, perad- 
 venture, perish everlastingly for fomenting the 
 
294 ^^^ LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 causes and the progress of schism ; but schism 
 itself destroyeth not the body of the Church, or the 
 separated parts of which it is composed. Those 
 melancholy rents in the veil of the outer temple, in 
 the garment of the visible body, may, by the deft 
 skill of Grod's true workmen, under the teaching of 
 God's good Spirit, be mended so as never more to 
 appear. Those deep wounds in Christ's outer flesh 
 may, by divine medicaments, be all healed, so that, 
 in the outei*, as in the inner Church, there shall be 
 nought but soundness, a life in every part, a help- 
 ing for each from all the members. The schismed 
 firmament of the Church's peace may, by the 
 realized power of Her Head, be perfectly closed, 
 so that nothing shall ever rend, or pass it again ; 
 but the dove-like Spirit of God, having entered in 
 olden times, shall once more be felt, in its revived 
 marvels, dropping silently and everywhere, the 
 dews of sweet, gentle, all-baptizing love. Every 
 passage, which has been examined, demonstrates, 
 or favors, the truth that schism may be healed ; 
 and that, therefore, it is and must be, a fact in the 
 body, and not a severance from the body. The 
 disturbed harmony of the parts may be restored, 
 and thus the well-being of the whole made finally 
 complete. 
 
 3. What are the evils of this violation of Church 
 harmony ? 
 
SCHISM. 295 
 
 As we have seen in what this violation consists, 
 we may look at its evils by way of motive to at- 
 tempt its cure, and to bless God that it is curable. 
 
 (1.) And first, something of the evils of schism 
 will be manifest on considering it as a breach of 
 the Church's love. The bond of sacred brother- 
 hood broken ; intestine broils, jealousies, divisions, 
 oppositions ; love starved and dwarfed, and the un- 
 loving spirit nursed to a giant ; and all this among 
 a household of members, who have one Gospel, the 
 living oracles of truth ; who hold one Head, Christ 
 Jesus the Lord ; and who hope to be saved by His 
 death from one hell, and to be raised by His lifa to 
 one heaven ; here is a text for the greatest sermon 
 that man ever preached ! And yet, the text itself 
 is, perhaps, greater than any sermon on it that could 
 be preached. Some things seem lessened by all at- 
 tempts to make their greatness more than self-evi- 
 dent. Look at it, then, and mourn ; that broken 
 bond of brotherhood in the family of Jesus ! 
 
 (2.) Second : another view of the evils of schism 
 presents itself when we regard it as a wound in- 
 flicted on the visible Church. The body of Christ 
 wounded in the house of its friends ! Which of us 
 would like to drag about a wounded, bleeding, al- 
 most fainting body ? Who could do his day's work 
 well, in such a state, lame, weak, tottering ? Life- 
 blood is flowing from the body of Christ. It hath 
 
296 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 not half its proper strength. It moves feebly and 
 slowly. It" doth not well transact Christ's day's 
 work on the world's great harvest-field. It is sad 
 to think of the wonnds in this body of Christ ! 
 
 (3.) Third : we have another view of the evils of 
 schism, when we reflect that it feeds infidelity. 
 This, indeed, is an indirect effect of schism ; still it 
 is certain to follow, as our eyes too often see. The 
 mere natural heart loves not to coin, or to pay, 
 much money for the Gospel. In a single village, 
 one thousand souls feel but lightly the care of one 
 true minister of Christ ; but, if divided and called 
 to care for three or four, of jarring names, the bur- 
 den presses heavily, and the natural heart eases 
 itself by stepping out from under that weight, and 
 leaving it to press more heavily still on those who 
 remain. Thus, in time, many natural hearts, who, 
 might otherwise have been reconciled and saved, 
 ease themselves by stepping aside and walking in 
 none of the ways of the Church. Then steps in 
 among them the specious, covert infidel, who 
 preaches for nothing, poisons them with his nothing- 
 isms, and, at last, gathers and bands them into a 
 synagogue of Satan, and trains them in the inex- 
 pensive ritual of hell ! Behold the source of much 
 of the rampant infidelity of the world and especially 
 of our otherwise favored country ! 
 
 (4.) Fourth : a still further view of the evils of 
 
8GHI8M. 297 
 
 schism meets iis in the fact, that it throws great ad- 
 vantage on the side of religious error and su" 
 perstition. Theological error, in the great, over- 
 shadowing Babel of the seven-hilled city, flourishes 
 while the friends of simple, scriptural truth are 
 rent asunder by divisions ; and her superstitions 
 grow up in open day, while that truth is so nearly 
 hidden amid the dust of sectarian contests. Such 
 is the present condition of the Christian world. 
 Errors thicken and grow rank under the vast shad- 
 ow that shelters them, and superstition, with its 
 serried ranks never broken, draws thousands from 
 our divided hosts. Men love repose ; and naturally 
 feel little horror of either religious error or religi- 
 ous darkness. If, therefore, truth shine not clear 
 and calm ; if there be always dust and strife and 
 separations about it, they indolently seek refuge in 
 notions which are quietly false, or sentimentally 
 shelter themselves under superstitions which are 
 tranquilly dark. The quiet and the tranquillity 
 allure them ; while the falsehood and the darkness 
 are not terrifying. False religion imposingly 
 draped in the pomps of superstition, is more agree- 
 able to the natural heart, than the true, though 
 simply robed in the garments of light ; incompara- 
 bly more so, when ih^ true is disfigured in gar- 
 ments, rent by the hands of division and smeared 
 with the blood of contention. If Christians stay 
 
298 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 not the spirit of their schisms ; if they consent not 
 to live together in love, and in the heart of their 
 great, common truths ; it is manifest that nothing 
 but miracles revived can keep victory from the 
 side of error and superstition ; or save the Church 
 from being covered once again with the double pall 
 of falsehood and of darkness ! 
 
 This is but a glimpse of the evils of schism ; but, 
 it is enough for my purpose. Out of these evils God 
 doubtless brings some good ; perhaps He will yet 
 bring the greatest. Contest and even divisions 
 about the truth certainly show that some minds at 
 least are alive and earnest in their thoughts about 
 it ; and this may be supposed to prognosticate the 
 final victory of truth. And then, the various di- 
 visions in the Church may doubtless be set to guard 
 each other, so that none shall hide, corrupt or mu- 
 tilate the Gospel. Moreover, they do oft "pro- 
 voke one another,'' if not " to love and good works," 
 at least to zeal and great works. Still, let the wise 
 God make what use of them He please, schisms, 
 in themselves, are unspeakably evil, and by the 
 Bible itself we are taught to seek their cure. 
 
 It is not difficult to see the connection of these 
 views of schism not only with the well-being of 
 the Church in general, but aho Avith the ministry 
 and government of the Church in particular. If 
 Episcopacy and its mode of government were the 
 
SCHISM. 299 
 
 models left by the Apostles, and at first every- 
 where received in the Church, and if, having such 
 an origin, they have thereby Christ's virtual ap- 
 proval, then needlessly and voluntarily to abandon 
 those models is rashly to incur the hazard of all 
 the evils of schism. I say — not that the mere 
 lack of Episcopacy and its mode of government 
 is, in and of itself, or independently of its cause, 
 a schism ; but — that the voluntary and needless 
 abandonment of those models endangers, nay, in- 
 evitably produces, schism. Such a setting up of 
 new and diverse models of ministry and govern- 
 ment, unavoidably puts as many diverse masses of 
 members upon saying again, "I am of Paul, and 
 I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ, '^ 
 and, out of these contents, it breeds all that I have 
 spoken of as mischievous and full of evil. A loss 
 of Episcopacy, or of all ministry, so far as the 
 ministry comes b}^ the hand of human ordination, 
 is not a loss of the Church itself, for the ministry 
 is " in the Church," and not the Church in the min- 
 istry ; but. Episcopacy having Apostolic origin, 
 adherence to it where possible consistently with 
 the higher claims of Divine Truth, is not a matter 
 of mere expediency ; it is a matter of duty due to 
 the cause of peace and order and the Church's rule. 
 
 4. How may the evils of schism best be cured ? 
 
 Upon the importance of this question it will not 
 
300 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 be necessary to dwell. Nor will it be necessary 
 to go back with the inquiry, who, or what has made 
 all our schisms ? We may take these evils as 
 facts, and it will be enough to know that they have 
 been made by many hands, and with many motives, 
 and that a departure from Episcopacy is but one 
 among many of this evil's springs ; that, in many, 
 if not most, of the schisms which have happened, 
 both sides have been more or less in fault ; and 
 that, in some cases, the separation has been so far 
 justifiable as it has been forced on the separating 
 party, not only as the less of two evils, but as the 
 only resort this side of a traitorous abandonment 
 of truth, of conscience and of Christ. It is enough 
 for us to know these things. Our main business is 
 with the facts themselves, and not with their causes. 
 The facts exist. They are evils. And yet, they 
 are curable evils. How may they best be cured ? 
 This is the only reasonable question now before 
 us, and to this question I reply : 
 
 (1.) These evils are not to be cured by any at- 
 tempt to obliterate all the dividing lines which 
 have been drawn through the Church. These 
 lines are possibly too deep ever to be obliterated 
 in this world. These evils must be cured by out- 
 living, overcoming and extinguishing the bad spirit 
 in which they were engendered, by which they are 
 still cherished, and from which they draw their 
 
scmsM. 
 
 301 
 
 chief power for mischief In the view which the 
 Bible gives of schism, as a rent, a wound, in that 
 Body of Christ, which is the Church, it is plain 
 that, if we hope for a cure of its evils, we must 
 cease to regard and speak of Non-Episcopal com- 
 munions as not belonging to the visible Church. 
 It is not by pronouncing this decision over them 
 that these deep-seated evils are to be cured. This 
 decision, however fond some may be of uttering it, 
 is unfounded, and does but embitter those whom 
 we ought to win. They are not out of the Church. 
 The very schisms between them and us are in the 
 Church. They are but wounds in this visible Body 
 of our Eedeemer, and the spirit in which some 
 treat these wounds, does but inflame them, and 
 make them bleed more profusely. We must quit 
 this policy, or consent to see the spirit, as well as 
 name. of schism, indelible ! In looking at the visi- 
 ble Body of Christ, all wounded and weakened as 
 it is, some act as if they thought its cure were to 
 be effected by continually thrusting into its wounds 
 the rough and rusty probes of their exclusive and 
 excluding claims. Manifestly this is a fatal course. 
 It can but aggravate the evil and bring on all but 
 death ! 
 
 (2.) Were I required to prescribe a remedy, I 
 should confess my inability to do anything beyond 
 the following brief directions. If these wounds 
 
202 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 
 
 are to be probed at all, let it be witli the Spirit's 
 soft and cleansing ray of Life. For the rest, let 
 a mollifying preparation of kind offices and peace- 
 ful deeds be laid on, to remove all inflammation, 
 and to induce a healing state. Then, lay across 
 the wounds as many as possible of the adhesive 
 bands of love ; draw the parts gently but closely 
 together, and leave the inward, healing life of the 
 Spirit to perfect the blessed work. Then the still 
 remaining scar-lines from the name of schism 
 would not be disfiguringly deep, while the poison 
 virulence from the heart of schism would all be 
 gone ; the Body of Christ whole and sound again ; 
 its many parts and many members, bound in liv- 
 ing harmony, each helping each, and all made one 
 in perfect, generous, holy sympathy. God send 
 His Spirit from on high to speed this divine re- 
 covery of His Church ! 
 
 This mode of cure recommends no indifference 
 to important distinctive truths and principles, even 
 though they be not fundamental ; no blending of 
 other outward institutions with our own, and no 
 breaking down of our own by way of showing our 
 respect for those of others. It means simply this : 
 that every part of the Church should freely ac- 
 knowledge that all the other parts belong, as really 
 as itself, to the visible Body of Christ : that each 
 should then fill its providentially assigned lot with 
 
SVHI8M. 303 
 
 peacefully and toilfully active love ; and that all, 
 with consenting prayer to God, should seek, in its 
 fullness, '' the residue of the Spirit," and labor to 
 "grow up into Christ in all things which is the 
 Head/' This, it may be believed, is God's way 
 of healing the wounds of His Church ; and, in this 
 way alone, we may safely assume, can '' the whole 
 Body, fitly joined together and compacted by that 
 which every joint supplieth, make, in the measure 
 of every single part, an increase of the Body unto 
 the edifying of itself in Love." 
 
 This gracious consummation the Writer may 
 never live to see ; but it is not a chimera — a thing 
 to be talked of, but not hoped for. It is God's 
 purposed blessing to His Church. It waits to de- 
 scend. And we may labor, and should seek to 
 hasten or to realize its down-coming. In doing so, 
 we are drawing in a line with all God's plans and 
 influences, and not at cross-purposes with both His 
 Gospel and His Spirit. In all main, essential 
 truths, all Christians may, as the Apostle expresses 
 the idea in a passage already quoted, '' Speak the 
 same thing, and be perfectly joined together in the 
 same mind and in the same judgment." Perfect 
 uniformity of opinion in all things, especially in 
 all things touching outward institutes, was never 
 intended of God, and can never be enforced or 
 secured by man. The great, vital sun-truths of 
 
304 TEE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 the Gospel, these are the only ones that can be 
 made to shine, in the main, on all minds alike ; 
 and it is by feeling the shining of these alone, 
 made quickening by the Holy One, that all Chris- 
 tians can be melted into the oneness of love, made 
 fruitful in the effects of Truth, and sped on their 
 way to Heaven amid all the blessings of peace. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 UNITY. 
 
 ONE of the most universal definitions of the 
 Church, whether in its inward and spiritual, 
 or in its outward and visible being, is that given 
 by the Apostle Paul, when he calls it " Many 
 members, yet but one body.'' 
 
 In the last Chapter, I spoke of the harmony of 
 the Church, and of schism as a fact, existing in the 
 Church, and sadly disturbing that harmony. It 
 would not be right to dismiss the consideration of 
 the well-being of the Church without speaking of 
 UNITY also, as a blessed and binding fact, co-exist- 
 ing in the Church, and incapable of being destroy- 
 ed by even so bad a thing as heresy. Unity is as 
 easily distinguishable from harmony as heresy is 
 from schism. Harmony, as a due agreement of 
 parts, may be disturbed ; but unity, as the consis- 
 tence of a whole, cannot be destroyed. Schism 
 may disturb the harmony which ought to reign 
 among the parts of the Church ; but heresy cuts off 
 from the Church, so that the excluded member 
 20 (305) 
 
3o6 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 ceases to belon'g to it, leaving the unity of the 
 Church untouched, just as we may cut off a dead 
 limb from a tree and yet leave the unity of that 
 tree unharmed. A thing which is one, cannot, at 
 the same time and in the same sense, be two. 
 Unity is involved in the very idea of the Church. 
 Locally, the Church of Christ is distributed into 
 many Churches ; yet, really, Christ hath but one 
 Church : '* Many members," or parts, " yet but one 
 body.'^ In His great intercessory prayer, Christ 
 prayed for this unit}^, when He asked for His disci- 
 ples, in all places and through all time, that they 
 all may be one ; as Thou, Father, art in me and I 
 in Thee, that they also may be one in us." That 
 prayer has never returned into His bosom void. It 
 went up to be answered, not denied ; and it has 
 been answered, and to the end shall continue unde- 
 nied. This unity belongs to the whole subject, the 
 true comprehension of the Church. In this com- 
 prehension the Church necessarily includes her 
 own unity. 
 
 But, what is this unity ? This is one of the great 
 questions of our age. And it is a question, upon 
 which, as it seems to me, some discussions bring 
 darkness rather than light. I pray God that some 
 one may bring it, if not into perfect light, at least 
 out of the thick darkness. If the present effort 
 should contribute even a little towards such a re- 
 
UNITY. 307 
 
 suit, the Author will not have labored wholly in 
 vain. 
 
 Unity, then, belongs to the Church, both as in- 
 ward and spiritual, and as outward and visible. 
 
 1. It belongs to the spieitual Church ; that true 
 and holy Church Catholic of which I have said so 
 much. And this, we may believe, is, in its highest, 
 fullest sense, the Unity for which Christ prayed on 
 the occasion, to which reference has already been 
 made. It is that unity which, in the one living 
 body, the one '' communion of saints,^' binds every 
 true believer to Christ, the Divine Head, by the 
 bond of one true scriptural faith ; a faith that shows 
 its vitalizing life in one holy, universal love. This 
 blessed unity can never be broken. It lies above 
 the reach, and therefore beyond the touch, of 
 earth's disturbing causes. In its very essence, 
 this unity is indestructible. In the spiritual bond, 
 by which it unites the soul to the Saviour, and the 
 Christian to his brother Christian, it is as intangi- 
 ble to the hand of outward events as the soul her- 
 self is to the hand of death. It is out of the reach 
 of all such disturbing causes. It is linked with the 
 life, that is '' hid with Christ in God." This unity 
 is like the one wide-starred heaven, above the 
 clouds and storms of earth. Get above these mun- 
 dane elements, and what do we see? The one 
 vast ether, thick studded with separate star-worlds, 
 
3o8 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 looking down, in the blendings of one, sweet, noise- 
 less, and most pure brightness, upon our dark 
 state ; that one, shoreless, upper deep, lying calm, 
 silent, moveless, unbroken, above the earth, its 
 clouds and its storms. The winds, and lightnings, 
 and thunders, and volcanic fires, and earthquake 
 throes, which appal our senses, may, at times, agi- 
 tate the airy shallows below that high, blue ether ; 
 but they have no power to roll up and invade that 
 one eternal calm of heaven-light, in which it lies ! 
 Great emblem of the Unity of Christ's ''One holy 
 Catholic Church :" '' many members yet but One 
 Body ;" many lights in but One heaven ; a realm of 
 life, whose clear depths penetrate heavenward unto 
 Grod, and whose earthward aspect can never be 
 more than superficially disturbed by the mistakes, 
 and misunderstandings and consequent unharmon- 
 ies of true Christian brethren ! 
 
 This Unity, because thus spiritual, is not, there- 
 fore, unreal. Every true believer lives in it daily, 
 and daily enjoys its verity. Ask him whether the 
 controversies, agitations and schisms, which make 
 earth so unquiet, ever break or touch the bond 
 which binds him to Christ, or the tie which ties 
 him to any known brother in Christ ? And he 
 will answer : " Thank Grod, this is a thing which 
 no hand can reach but God's hand, and which His 
 hand never reaches but to strengthen and to per- 
 
UNITY. 309 
 
 feet.'' Wherever, and to whomsoever, among the 
 great company of the faithful, that question is 
 asked, this will be the answer ; and in this answer 
 comes a living demonstration of the truth that 
 Christ's great prayer went up to be ansvv^ered, 
 has been answered, and shall be heard and an- 
 swered ever ; " that they all may be one, as Thou, 
 Father, art in me and I in Thee, that they also 
 may be one in us." 
 
 Upon this Unity, however, after what has already 
 been said of that Holy Church, in which it resides, 
 it is not my purpose to dwell. The difficulty of 
 this part of the subject lies elsewhere, as we shall 
 see when I come to illustrate the second re- 
 mark. 
 
 2. Unity, then, belongs to even the visible 
 Church. This unity, however, bears but an an- 
 alogy with that of which I have just spoken. That 
 it exists we may firmly hold. Christ's prayer has 
 been answered to even His visible Church. This 
 Church, too. though it consist, emphatically, of 
 " many members," is " yet but One Body." To 
 see the truth of this, it becomes necessary to ex- 
 plain in what this visible unity does not consist, 
 and then to state in what it does consist. 
 
 I. In what the Unity of the visible Church does 
 not consist. 
 
310 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 (1.) It does not consist, and was never designed 
 to consist, in the subjection of all the parts, or 
 members, to one temporal head. 
 
 The Romanist's plea for unity, here denied, is 
 but one great, baseless assumption. Even if the 
 fiction of St. Peter's primacj^ in the college of the 
 Apostles could be converted into a fact, it would 
 make nothing towards the conclusion that the unity 
 of the visible Church comes out in acknowledging 
 him, or any other human being, as temporal head 
 of that Church. This Church is a Body, and as a 
 Body it has but one head, in heaven or on earth. 
 It is not a two- Headed Body, with one Head in 
 Heaven and the other on earth. The Apostles 
 have eminence among the members of the Body ; 
 but they are themselves in the Church, only be- 
 cause they are members, '' set in the Bod}^" and, 
 with all the other members, similarly ''set," con- 
 stitute one whole, united to its one Head, which 
 Head is Christ. If, therefore, there were such a 
 thing as a primate among the Apostles, this would 
 not constitute him temporal head of the Church, 
 but onty chief of the Apostles. Nor would it make 
 the unity of the Church to consist in being united 
 to him ; for the members of the Body Ecclesias- 
 tical are no more united to the Apostolic eye than 
 they are to the plebeian foot. Its unity consists in 
 this, that it is, in all its members, one Body, under 
 
UNITY. 311 
 
 one Head, Christ. The first Christians, indeed, 
 *' continued in the Apostles' doctrine and fellow- 
 ship," and so must all Christians. To reject the 
 Apostles' " doctrine " is to reject the whole Gospel, 
 and to renounce their " fellowship " is to renounce 
 " the communion of saints ;" and he who does 
 either the one or the other of these is no Christian, 
 and therefore not in the Church. But we may 
 "continue in the Apostles' doctrine," and in their 
 "fellowship," too, without acknowledging any one 
 of them, or any alleged successor of that one, as 
 temporal head of the Church, even on the supposi- 
 tion that that one was Primate over the rest. But 
 there was no such Primate. The Apostles were 
 official equals. Whatever may have been their 
 personal inequalities, officially they were on an 
 equality. The theory, therefore, of a temporal 
 head of the Church is based on a double fallacy ; 
 and the Romanist's idea of unity is a double fiction. 
 Such a visible unity never has been and never will 
 be. The theory on which it is based is irreconcilable 
 with fact no less than with argument. The visible 
 Church never has acknowledged one temporal head, 
 and it never will. Nearly two thousand years of 
 Christian history have put the realization of the 
 idea among impossibilities. Once, indeed, such an 
 external unity came near being realized ; but the 
 nearer it came, the more corrupt and dead grew 
 
312 TEE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 the Church ; until, at length, it became a great 
 kingdom of this world, whose manifested life was 
 but intense spiritual death ! Could such a unity be 
 ever effected, could Rome's dream be ever made a 
 reality, permanently and over all the earth, analogy 
 suggests the fear that it would virtually give " the 
 god of this w^orld " a life-lease of its kingdoms in 
 Christ's name. The worst evils that have ever 
 fallen on the temporal state of the Church, have 
 resulted from Rome's attempts to force an external 
 unity in the form of an universal submission to her 
 one temporal head. Blood and fire and earth-em- 
 broiling contests have certified to the ages that the 
 Church was not made for such submission. Even 
 Christianized humanity, as the best visible hand of 
 God, fights against such a unity, and hath broken 
 its begun fabric in pieces, like a potter's vessel, 
 whereof the sherds cannot be pat together. 
 
 (2.) The Unity of the visible Church does not 
 consist in subjection to one universal form of Church 
 government and ecclesiastical law as administered 
 by men. 
 
 The onlj^ supreme government in the Church is 
 Christ's, and the only supreme law is His Word. 
 All other government and law are not of the 
 Church's being, but only of her greater or less 
 well-being. They may, therefore, be modified or 
 changed, without touching the essential unity of 
 
UNITY, 3,3 
 
 the Church. As a nation may have different forms 
 of government in different ages, or different forms 
 at the same time over its different parts, and yet 
 be all the while one nation, by the acknowledg- 
 ment, in all its parts, of one supreme authority ; 
 so also is it in the Church. The central and 
 supreme authority of Christ and His Word pre- 
 serves its unity, notwithstanding the diversity in 
 the forms of subordinate government which pre- 
 vail. Change of government may amount to revolu- 
 tion, and revolution may be fraught with great 
 evils ; but they destroy not the Body, Avhether 
 secular or religious, civil or ecclesiastical, in which 
 they occur. It remains true, therefore, that what 
 constitutes the Church one, what makes its unity, 
 is not a universal submission to one form of eccle- 
 siastical government and law. 
 
 (3.) The unity of the visible Church does not 
 consist in universal submission to one form of the 
 Christian ministry. 
 
 The ministry itself, as we have seen, is not of 
 the essence, but only of the fullness and order of 
 the Church ; even as the eye, the ear, and the 
 hand are not essential to the being, but only to the 
 completeness and perfectuess of the human body. 
 The universal prevalence, therefore, of one form 
 of the ministry cannot be that in which the unity 
 of the visible Church consists. It cannot be that 
 
314 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 which coustitutes this Church ''One Body." It 
 may be requisite, or desirable, to the harmony and 
 the best welfare of this Body ; to that state in 
 which there shall be ''no schism in the Body ; but 
 not to the existence of the Body itself. The Body 
 may reall}' be one, though in a yqvj wounded and 
 a very weakened state. Rejection of what we 
 believe to have been the Apostolic model of the 
 Christian ministry may possibly prove the severest 
 wound which the visible body of Christ can receive 
 compatibly with its continuance in life ; and yet, 
 that such a wound may be received, compatibly 
 with such continuance, we see by what many re- 
 gard as sad, melancholy experience. The Protes- 
 tant Reformation on the continent of Europe, one 
 of the greatest facts in the history of the Church 
 since the Apostles' days, would be an insoluble 
 enigma on the contrary supposition. By what 
 may be considered an unavoidable necessity, in 
 the order of God's sovereign Providence, that 
 Reformation resulted, among other things, in a 
 local loss of the Episcopacy from the ministry. 
 To say that God was concerned, not merely in 
 permitting, but in producing that Reformation ; 
 that He produced it by the agencies of old sent 
 down to the earth — His Holy Spirit and His Holy 
 Word ; and that He did it to give a new era to the 
 whole Church by reviving her almost extinct spirit- 
 
UNITY. 315 
 
 ual life, and by giving action to causes which may 
 and doubtless must finally throw off all error and 
 all superstition from the heritage of Christ ; to say 
 all this is but to assert what is as plain as that God 
 had an agency in creating the worlds, or that He 
 still has an agency in upholding and governing the 
 worlds. That Reformation was God's own work 
 upon His own Church, and with His own instru- 
 mentalities ; as much His own work as was the 
 first gathering of the Church ; and as truly with 
 His own instrumentalities as when He wrought 
 amid primitive " signs and wonders." And yet, 
 as I have said, that Reformation resulted, among 
 other things, in a local loss of the Episcopacy from 
 the Christian ministry ; and it may result in the 
 loss of some portions of Protestantism even from 
 the visible Church. That is, some portions of 
 Protestantism may yet go so far, if they have not 
 already gone so far, as to reject the whole ''doc- 
 trine and fellowship " both of the Apostles and of 
 Christ ; and thus to die off from the Church, as a 
 branch sometimes dies and drops from the tree on 
 which it grew. But, as a tree may still live, and 
 even grow all the more beautifully, symmetri- 
 cally and luxuriantly, after the dead branch has 
 dropped and mouldered in the soil beneath ; so 
 would it then prove with the live trunk and 
 branches of the great Continental Reform. Non- 
 
3i6 
 
 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 Episcopal Protestantism is already spreading over 
 the wide earth, and carrying with it some of the 
 best life and activities of Christ, His Spirit and 
 His Word ; it is part of the one visible Church 
 and body of Christ ; and it furnishes a living 
 proof that the Oneness, the Unity of this Church 
 cannot consist in a universal subordination of all 
 the members to one form of the Christian ministry. 
 The loss of Episcopacy we consider a great loss ; 
 for what purpose permitted w^e pretend not to 
 divine ; but to say that it has cast Non-Episcopal 
 Protestantism out of the visible Charch, is to be a 
 bold man in charging God, and in overstepping our 
 own highest standards. 
 
 IT. In what the unity of the visible Church does 
 consist. 
 
 Having thus seen in what the Unity of the visi- 
 ble Church docs not consist, we are now ready for 
 the question, in what, then, does this Unity consist? 
 And to this question I reply : 
 
 The Unity of the visible Church consists in its 
 PROFESSED subjection to Christ, the One Divine 
 Head of this Church. It is thus the one universal 
 body, or company, of Christ's professed followers 
 in all the earth. The unity of the visible Church 
 lies in the outward profession and maintenance, 
 everv where, of that which really constitutes the 
 
UNITY. 
 
 unity of the true, spiritual and Iioly Church Cath- 
 olic. The unity of this spiritual Church lies, as 
 we have seen, in truly having ''one Lord, one 
 faith, one baptism:" "one Lord," Christ Jesus, 
 the living Head ; "one faith," the whole revealed 
 word, believed with the heart, the vital bond which 
 unites every believer with that Head; and "one 
 BAPTISM," the baptism of the Holy Ghost, that 
 which puts the breathing of a divine life into the 
 whole body so constituted and so united. The 
 unity of the true spiritual Church lies in really 
 having these divine things. The unity of the visi- 
 ble Church lies in outwardly professing these 
 things, though, in reality, not all the members have 
 them. The visible Church is one body, because it 
 every where professes the "one Lord, one faith, 
 and one baptism," without which there is no Church, 
 either spiritual or visible. Whoever, as an indi- 
 vidual, or as an organized community, utterly casts 
 off this "one Lord, one faith, and one baptism," is 
 in HERESY ; and thereby is cut off from even the 
 visible Church : and whoever, as an individual, or 
 as an organized community, professes this "one 
 Lord, one faith, and one baptism," is thereby in- 
 corporated into this Church, and thus makes a part 
 of the ONE visible body of Christ. The spiritual 
 Church really has and enjoj^s these things, and is 
 thereby one. The visible Church outwardly pro- 
 
31? THE LIVING TE3TPLE. 
 
 Tesses the siirae things, and is there] )y one, though 
 some of its members neither enjoy nor have the 
 reality which they profess. The Unity of each has 
 reference to the same elementary, constituent prin- 
 ciples, v/ithout which there can be no Church, spir- 
 itual or visible. The Unity of the one is divine, 
 and perfect. The Unity of the other is analogical 
 and imperfect. 
 
 With this conception, then, of the oneness of the 
 visible Church, it is obvious that many things may 
 disturb, and even deeply wound, its harmony, or 
 union, without thereby destroying its unity. This 
 is the difference between unity and union. "The 
 unity and entity of the Church," says Bishop Hall, 
 " can no more be divided than itself' To destroy 
 the unity of the body would be to destroy the body 
 itself. But the union of the Church may be broken. 
 This is not infrangible. This may be broken with- 
 out destro^ang the Church. Unity is that which 
 makes a thing one. Unity is that which makes 
 several parts agree in one. Union is the harmony 
 of parts. In the visible Church, therefore, it is easy 
 to see how this union, or harmon}^, may be broken 
 w^ithout thereby destroying that Church's unity, or 
 oneness. By schism it has been broken, sadly 
 broken, until this Church has become like a family, 
 agitated by intestine broils. But its unity remains. 
 It is still the one, great, visible family of Christ 
 
UmTY. 319 
 
 scattered over the earth : and, what is more, its 
 union also — its broken harmony may yet be re- 
 stored. Perhaps, when we consider the passions 
 and interests of men, and the mixture of all things 
 human in this visible Church, the wonder ought to 
 be that its discords have not been greater, rather 
 than that they have been so great. 
 
 And now^, let us gather up a few things from that 
 part of the subject which we have just been discus- 
 sing, and from the subject at large. 
 
 (1.) The view which has been taken throws light 
 on the question of returning to the unity of the 
 Church ; or, as the question should be stated, about 
 returning to the union, the harmony, of the Church. 
 
 Christians are not to return to visible unity— or 
 rather, let us discard the term, once for all, and 
 say they are not to return to visible Union, under 
 one temporal head. There is not and never has 
 been such a union ; not even in Apostolic days. 
 Nor are they necessarily to return to visible union 
 under one form of ecclesiastical government and 
 law. Such subordination is not essential to the 
 oneness of the body ; and, considering the diversi- 
 ties of human character, social condition, and polit- 
 ical institutions, in various parts of the w^orld, and 
 under various influences of education, we may 
 doubtless say, with safety, that such a subordi- 
 nation is not desirable to the best welfare of the 
 
CJ20 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 Church. Nor, however fervently we, as Episcopa- 
 lians, may pray for it, are they necessarily to re- 
 turn to visible union under one form of the Chris- 
 tian ministry. In the good Providence of Grod, 
 this subordination may, or may not be restored. 
 At any rate, this subordination is not likely to be 
 hastened by continuing to insist that Non-Episcopal 
 organizations do not belong to the visible Church. 
 If any thing can retard and finally defeat the uni- 
 versal readoption of an Episcopal ministry, it is 
 likely to be a passionate persistence in such a 
 transparent untruth. As men, and even Christian 
 men, are constituted, they are not strongly at- 
 tracted towards that which perseveringly seeks to 
 fortify itself behind a loveless unreality. 
 
 To what, then, are Christians to return ? If not 
 to union under one temporal head, nor to union 
 under one form of Church government and law, 
 nor, necessarily, to union under even one form of 
 the Christian ministry, then, to what must they 
 return? I reply, in the idea of our "prayer for 
 all conditions of men,'' they must return to the 
 "Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.'' This is 
 the union which has been violated. This is the 
 union which must be restored. It is necessary to 
 the welfare of the Church. Without it, piety will 
 remain stinted, and never grow to half its proper 
 stature. Without it, prayer will continue weak and 
 
UNITY. 321 
 
 never grasp half the divine promises. Without it, 
 the Church itself will live on, a dwarf, and never 
 compass half its destined heritage. The world, in 
 its wants, calls for this return to union. The 
 Church, in her distractions, calls for it. And God, 
 in His Word, calls for it. Aye ! And the three 
 shall yet have what they ask. The gracious power 
 of God, by His Spirit, shall give it to the world, to 
 the Church, to Himself The old world's jeers at 
 the visible Church's broils are beginning to make 
 Christians sick with sadness ; and Jesus inspires 
 the faith that the healing of this sickness will come 
 in the restoration of that sweet harmony-, the viola- 
 tion of which is so painfully felt. 
 
 The questions, What is the Church ? Where is 
 it ? How may I find it ? are often suffered needless- 
 ly to disturb the tender conscience. These ques- 
 tions are often artfully pressed, as though there 
 were a thousand rival claimants to the character of 
 the Church, to one only of which it rightfully be- 
 longs ; and as though, amid their conflicting claims, 
 each individual Christian must decide, or allow 
 others to decide for him, which among them all is 
 the true Church, the only Church, the Church in 
 which alone salvation is to be found. But this, as 
 we have viewed the subject, is an utterly false po- 
 sition. No soul, thank God, has such an awful 
 question as this to answer. The comparative 
 21 
 
322 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 claims to consideration of different Christian de- 
 nominations are far from being unimportant ; but 
 they can never grow to such a tremendous weight 
 as this ! It is a weight, which, were it fully felt, 
 would press unnumbered souls into despair, or into 
 a reckless embrace of the most ruinous errors. The 
 simple, but all-sufficient direction, for every one, is 
 this : find the Bible ; find your own sins ; find 
 Christ ; find the Holy Spirit ) find the baptism of 
 the heart into the life "hid with Christ in God ;" 
 and then, confessing your Saviour before men in 
 the accessible way of His appointment, you have 
 found His Church. His Church covers all Chris- 
 tians. You find that Church in finding Christ by a 
 faith which '' works by love," " purifies the heart," 
 and " overcomes the world." For necessitj^ of sal- 
 vation, you need look no further. 
 
 (2.) The question, however, — what is the true 
 Apostolic ministry of the Church ? is one of a differ- 
 ent order. We believe this ministry to have been 
 Episcopal. Ignorance, unintentional mistake, edu- 
 cation, unavoidable Providences, may render others 
 blameless in living without sucli ministry ; but 
 nothing would make us blameless in renouncing it, 
 so long as this ministry itself, neither renounces 
 Christ and His Gospel, nor imposes on our con- 
 sciences terms of communion which are clearly 
 nn scriptural. If this ministry should ever assume 
 
UNITY. 323 
 
 either of these positions, the duty of submission to it 
 would be lost in the higher duty of loyalty to Christ 
 and His Truth. It is on this ground that our best 
 writers have ever justified the separation of the 
 European Continental Protestants from the Church 
 of Rome, even though, in that separation, they 
 were unable to carry with them a scriptural Epis- 
 copacy. The ministry was ' ' set in the body " for its 
 health and welfare. Subserving these, it must be 
 held. Subverting these it must be renounced ; 
 though it be Episcopal in form ; for the body, with 
 Christ its Head, is more than any member thereof, 
 however eminent in place. If even the eye offend 
 incurably, it must be plucked out. 
 
 (3.) The view which has been taken teaches 
 another thing. While it is our duty as Protestants, 
 to mourn over the evils which rend the harmony 
 of the outer Church, and to seek to enter livingly in- 
 to the sorrows, with which these evils inspire the 
 heart of Christ ; it is also our privilege as Chris- 
 tians, to rejoice in the true and holy unit}', which 
 pervades and binds all Christ's living members in 
 His one spiritual Church Catholic ; to cultivate, 
 moreover, that '• unity of Spirit in the bond of 
 peace,'' which should pervade and unite even His 
 outer Church ; and to live, labor and sacrifice, each 
 in his proper sphere, to spread the pure Gospel, 
 the knowledge of the true Saviour, over all the 
 
324 THE LIVING TEMPLE, 
 
 world. In this way, we shall do our best in bring- 
 ing again the full mind of Christ upon all his fol- 
 lowers ; till, as the light of the sun cometh down 
 and maketh a shining garment for the earth, so 
 that mind, descending, shall enrobe His Church 
 and make even her outer vestments glorious. Al- 
 ready " is the King's daughter all-glorious within ; 
 and it is a cheering thought that we may aid in 
 bringing forward the time, when her very ''cloth- 
 ing shall be wrought gold ;'' shining in the sweet 
 harmonies of peace and love and truth. 
 
 (4.) Finally ; all that has been said from begin- 
 ning to end of this whole subject, comes to this one 
 point, as an enduring lesson to every single soul ; 
 the Church, in her best estate, can save no man. 
 If any man be ever saved, he will, it is true, be 
 saved in the Church, and by the instrumentalities, 
 which Christ hath put into her hands for use. Still, 
 the Church does not, cannot save him. He is 
 saved, and he must be saved, for himself individu- 
 ally, by Christ, His Spirit and His Truth ; with as 
 much of personal responsibility and watchfulness 
 and care, as if he were alone in the world, with 
 nothing but Christ His Spirit and His Truth be- 
 sides him. One of the grand heresies, which the 
 present day has, at times, seemed intent on bring- 
 ing back upon Protestantism, is, that, somewhere 
 in the abstract being of the Church, there is laid 
 
UmTT. 325 
 
 up a deposit of spiritual life and grace, whicli she 
 has power, of her own will, or by her own activity, 
 to dispense ; and that to be a member of the 
 Church is, somehow, wittingly or unwittingly, to 
 become a sharer in her rich treasure. It is a fatal- 
 ly perilous delusion. The Church has just so much 
 spiritual life and grace in her, and no more, as her 
 members, each for himself alone, draw from Christ, 
 the Living Fountain, through the channels, which 
 Christ has opened, or wliich He keeps still hidden 
 with Himself. The spiritual life and grace of i\\Q 
 Church can never be greater, or other, than the 
 simple aggregate of what each member thus brings 
 into it from the Fountain-head of all. Happy 
 would it be, if every man would remember this 
 truth ; if he would carry it with him everywhere, 
 sleep under it, wake with it, live in it. The 
 Church cannot save us. Jesus Christ must save 
 us. Thousands, it must be feared, of the members 
 of the visible Church have perished. We shall 
 perish, if we never attain to more than reputable 
 membership in this Church. 
 
 And now, in dismissing the whole subject of the 
 comprehension of the Church, a word, personal to 
 the Writer, may perhaps be permitted. 
 
 He is not, then, indifferent to what may be said, 
 whether of himself, or of wdiat he has essayed to 
 teach. Yet, has he not been governed herein by 
 
326 ' THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 any reference to such notices. He his spoken be- 
 cause he felt it his duty to exhibit what he believes 
 to be, at all times, and especially at this present, 
 very important truths. Those, to whom, in the 
 course of a ministry not short, it has been his 
 privilege m divers places to preach the Gospel, 
 will bear him witness that it has not been his habit 
 to dwell with much frequency on the special sub- 
 ject of the Church. Ordinaril}^, " Christ and Him 
 crucified " has been and must ever be, so long as a 
 ministry on earth is allowed him, his main theme. 
 The present, however, are no ordinary times. Our 
 Church, both in our own, and in our mother Coun- 
 try, has had, and, it must be feared, still has, in 
 her fold, those who are openly or covertly seeking 
 to put out the light of her Protestantism. Under 
 such circumstances, every minister, within her pale, 
 is bound, in some way, to speak out honestly and 
 fully, and to let his fellow Churchmen know where 
 he stands, and towards what he is driving. If they 
 are to be led away from the Protestant faith of 
 their fathers, it is no more than right that they 
 should be led with their eyes open and with their 
 own consent. Regardfully of these obligations of 
 the clergy and of this right of the people, the Au- 
 thor has acted in what he has now, at some length, 
 propounded. To his Master and to his conscience 
 he could not feel justified in withholding what he has 
 
UNITY. 327 
 
 spoken. Those who have been or may be, to any 
 extent, under his influence, if not the Church at 
 large, have a right to know his mind on this sub- 
 ject. The grave charges, so often urged against 
 those who speak as ho has spoken, may perhaps, 
 justify him in the egotism of saying that he is, by 
 conviction as well as in affection, an Episcopalian. 
 He was born and nurtured in the full discipline of 
 the American Episcopal Church. He loves it, and 
 doubts not that he shall love it until death. But 
 he humbly hopes that, " by the grace of Grod," he 
 bears a still higher designation. He, at least, pro- 
 fesses to be a Christian ; and, as such, he can 
 never sink, in the mere Churchman, the regards 
 which he owes to all who belong to the Saviour of 
 us all. He is also, a Protestant ; and, as such, he 
 can never look, without feelings of unfeigned regret 
 upon every step, which our Protestantism may take 
 in retracing its way, even though it should be an- 
 consciously towards the errors, which were renoun- 
 ced, before heaven and earth, on the morning of 
 the great Reformation. He wages no personal 
 contest. He denies to no man the right of forming 
 and of spreading his own jud]:ment3 on the points 
 discussed. He stands on principle ; and claiming the 
 same rights, which he allows, on his own principles 
 he must stand openly. If others can stand with 
 him in the main, he will rejoice ; but, with many 
 
328 THE LlVma TEMPLE, 
 
 or alone, so he stands ; and, with his best praj^ers 
 and labors for this our Zion upon earth, will hope 
 so to stand till called to share the glory of the trae 
 Zion in heaven. 
 
 Oh the glory of that upper Church ! To all, who 
 are named of Christ, be that the home of their 
 highest, holiest love. In longings for it let all live ; 
 and to the language of one of its sweet, anticipative 
 hymns, let all train the daily utterances of their 
 hearts : 
 
 " Mother of cities ! o'er thy head 
 Bright peace, with healing wings outspread, 
 
 Foreyermore shall dwell ; 
 Let me, blest seat ! my name behold 
 Among thy citizens enrolled, 
 
 And bid the world farewelL" 
 
CHAPTER YI. 
 
 THE CHURCH IN HEAVEN. 
 
 X CLOSED the last Chapter with an allusion to 
 ■^ the Church in Heaven. In the present, I pro- 
 pose no addition to the arguments with which 
 this discussion has been concerned. In bringing 
 the whole to its iinal close, my object is, so far as 
 may be, to give a holier power to what has been 
 said, by carrying the whole subject which has been 
 discussed up to that future and finished result, 
 wherein all that is imperfect in the Church on 
 earth will be swallowed up forever in the perfec- 
 tions of THE Church in Heaven. If, in what has 
 thus far been said, there have been too much of a 
 taint from secular and earthly influences, it will be 
 pleasant to the Writer — and he hopes it will be 
 no less so to the reader — to close the series with 
 something that shall serve to remind both of the 
 purities of a better world. 
 
 We are taught by an Apostle, Heb. 9 : 23, that 
 there were, under the ancient dispensation, "pat- 
 terns of things in the Heavens." Some of these 
 
 (329) 
 
330 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 ''patterns" are enumerated in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews. Thus, the sacrifices and sprinkling of 
 blood, observed by the Church under that dispen- 
 sation, were "patterns'' of the one great offering 
 and of the true " blood of sprinkling," which Christ, 
 our ''High Priest forever," is continually present- 
 ing in heaven, lleb. 9 : 24. Thus, too, the most 
 holy place in the temple of the ancient Church was 
 a " pattern" of the "true" Holy of Holies in heaven 
 into which Christ hath entered with that one per- 
 fect offering of Himself. Heb. 9 : 8, 12. In heaven 
 there is continual Worship, as we learn from the 
 visions of him who spake in the Apocalypse. The 
 elders, who "worship Him that liveth forever and 
 ever" — "rest not day and night, saying: Holy, 
 holy, holy. Lord God Almighty ; which was, and is, 
 and is to come." Rev. 4:10; 8. Worship on 
 earth is one of the acts in which the Church mani- 
 fests her life. This worship on high, therefore, 
 implies the existence of a Church in heaven. More- 
 over, he who had the visions of the Apocalypse 
 saw in heaven " the beide, the Lamb's wife ;" Rev. 
 21 : 9 ; one of the mystic symbols of the Church in 
 her divine Union with Christ her Head ; while the 
 Apostle speaks of "The General Assembly and 
 Church of the first-born, which are written in 
 heaven," as one of the glorious things to which, in 
 the anticipations of a faith, clothed with something 
 
THE CHURCH IX HE A VEK 3 3 1 
 
 of the ubiquity of its Ghostly giver, the true follow- 
 ers of Christ are represented as '' coming" even 
 while yet lingering within the dark confines of the 
 flesh. 
 
 There is, then, a Chuech in Heaven. It is 
 "The General Assembly of the first- 
 born." To this Church, indeed, Christians "come" 
 even while on earth, with something more present 
 than the anticipations of faith. They come to this 
 Church on earth, because a part of it is still here. 
 And yet, the language of the Apostle is most hap- 
 pily descriptive of, and was doubtless intended, in 
 its full sense, to describe, that part of this Church 
 which is already in heaven ; and it is only when 
 the whole shall have been gathered up and glori- 
 fied, in that perfect upper world, that our coming 
 to it will be finally and fully realized. So again, 
 •' Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it 
 that He might present it to Himself a glo- 
 rious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any 
 such thing ; but that it. should be holy and without 
 blemish." The Church, it is true, is presented to 
 Christ on earth ; and it is, even here, "a glorious 
 Church ;" still, not yet " without spot, or wrinkle," 
 —not yet "holy and without blemish." This state 
 of the Church, and this presentation of the Church 
 will never be literally and fully realized, until the 
 whole shall have been gathered up into heaven, 
 
332 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 and the marriage of '* the bride, the Lamb's wife" 
 shall be celebrated in solemn state, and with heav- 
 enly pomp, before the throne of Grod. 
 
 I repeat, then, there is a Church m Heaven. 
 Heaven itself, considered as a state of being and 
 relations, and as made up of those who fill that 
 state, is a Church. In that Church, Jesus Himself 
 is the great Bishop, and "shepherd of souls." Its 
 MEMBERS are '' the first-born," — the choice ones of 
 God, — the first and best fruits of His creatures. 
 Its BAPTISM is the full affusion of " the Holy Ghost 
 and of fire," — the spirit of glowing, heavenly love 
 poured abundantly upon all hearts. The "names" 
 of its baptized "are written in heaven," on the 
 registry of life. And its high sacrament, its eter- 
 nal EUCHARIST, is a feast on more than "Angels' 
 food" — the manna of immortality ; a feast — not on 
 the PLEDGES but — on the possession of that, as yet 
 deep mystery — life everlasting in Christ our 
 Head. 
 
 If, then, there be a Church in Heaven, it much 
 behoves us to become familiar with its character- 
 istics and partakers of its spirit. For, by so doing, 
 blessings from the inner — upper — sanctuary shall 
 be won and shed down most abundantly, both upon 
 ourselves and upon our fellow members in this 
 outer, lower congregation — " the Church in the wil- 
 derness" of time. 
 
THE CHURCH m HE A VEK 3 3 3 
 
 To promote, then, this desired familiarity with 
 things so sacred, so divine, let us proceed to enu- 
 merate, so far as we may be able to learn them, 
 the CHAEACTERiSTics of the Church in Heaven. 
 
 1. It is characterized by Union. 
 
 I say union, rather than unity, oecause of the 
 two, UNION is the higher and more perfect state. 
 There is unity in the senseless rock. There is 
 union only between parts capable of agreement 
 and disagreement. There may be unity where 
 union does not, as a greater, include unity as a less. 
 This is illustrated in the Church. Here, there may 
 be unity, while union is broken ; but there can be 
 no UNION which does not include and presuppose 
 unity. In the Church perfect union is unity ex- 
 alted, GLORIFIED. In the Church, perfect union is 
 the intelligent, voluntary agreement and fitting of 
 parts, once capable of deliberate sinful disagree- 
 ment and discord, but, at last, reconciled into a 
 deliberate, holy harmony for eternity. 
 
 On earth, the uniting principle acts feebly and 
 inconstantly between the parts of the Church. In 
 heaven, it operates powerfully and constantly ; so 
 that the very basis of the Church in glory is — 
 UNION — a perfectly harmonious condition of the in- 
 numerable parts and members of the glorified body. 
 There are no schisms in the Celestial Church. The 
 members of Christ, there, look not at one another 
 
334 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 with the sickly eye of prejudice, till brother learns 
 to hate his brother. They call not one another by 
 odious names there, till at length the very sound 
 of some two-edged epithet, wounding the heart 
 both of him who utters and of him who receives it, 
 stirs to action most unholy tempers. There are no 
 rival SECTS in heaven, each striving to build its 
 own and to pull down the other's house. In that 
 upper Church, are no dividing walls, so high as 
 to hinder Christians from seeing each other, and 
 so thick as to keep them from talking with each 
 other. Nor are there any separate streams of 
 CHARITY there, kept by artificial dikes from flowing 
 into one common channel ; but love, mighty love, 
 melts down all barriers, leaves heart open to heart, 
 and sends the mingling tide around, till, in one 
 vast charity, the harmony becomes divine. Or, to 
 take a similitude from the Bible, love, there, is the 
 true ''bond of perfectness ;" it is a bond never 
 broken ; it leaves not a soul out of its sacred zone ; 
 and it holds all in blest, eternal union. In the 
 upper Church is presented the literal fullness of 
 that for which the Saviour prayed: "That they 
 all may be one ; as Thou, Father, art in me and 
 I in Thee, that they also may be one in us." "And 
 the glory, which Thou gavest me, I have given 
 them 5 that they may be one even as we are one : 
 I in them and Thou in me ; that they may be made 
 
THE CHURCH IN HE A VEK 335 
 
 PERFECT in one." This union is the perfection of 
 the heavenly organization, as love is the perfection 
 of the heavenly individual. 
 
 2. The Church in Heaven is characterized by 
 
 PURITY. 
 
 I use this term now, not as synonymous with 
 holiness in the children of God ; but as opposed to 
 mixture among them of such as belong not to them. 
 Pure wheat is the grain, without any mixture of 
 tares. Heaven is a pure Church because it con- 
 tains no false members ; no hypocrites, or inten- 
 tional deceivers of others ; and no formalists, or 
 careless deceivers of themselves. All who are ad- 
 mitted to membership there are admitted under the 
 inspection of the All-seeing Eye ; an Eye that looks 
 through all outward forms into all secret motives. 
 Membership there is a vital reality. About that 
 Yine there are no dead branches, whose only claim 
 to be called branches lies in the fact, that they are 
 found within the enclosure of the Church Vineyard. 
 All there are living branches, grafted into Christ, 
 "the true Yine," and growing out of Him as the 
 real "Tree of Life." In heaven are no "tares" 
 among the " wheat ;" for no enemy finds the divine 
 Husbandman asleep while he essays to sow them. 
 "The Net," which is "let down" from heaven into 
 the broad sea of time, gathers not good and bad, 
 but good onlV; on the eternal shores. In heaven 
 
33^ 
 
 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 it is never said of professing Christians, "They 
 went out from us because they were not of us f for 
 all there are regenerate in heart as well as in out- 
 ward relation ; all are baptized with the Spirit as 
 well as with water ; and all, not only sit down at 
 His table, but also feast on life with the Living 
 Saviour. 
 
 It is impossible fully to comprehend the difference 
 between the Church in its best estate on earth, 
 and the Church in this state of purity in heaven. 
 Here, fellowship is, at the best, but a feebly-burn- 
 ing fire ; often it is a fire virtually extinguished 
 under the cold reflection that all are not what they 
 profess or appear to be. Each true Christian 
 knows not who, besides himself, is certainly true ; 
 and sometimes he is afraid that even himself may 
 be deceived. Hence, what fears and tremblings, 
 what doubts and distrusts, what damps and chills 
 creep in and trouble Christian fellowship on earth ! 
 Blessed indeed this fellowship often is, but when 
 most blessed it is full of experiences not half-born, 
 and has but here and there something that seems 
 like an experience half grown. But in the Heav- 
 enly Church how different ! Oh, the clear shining 
 of that light in which all is certainty ! in which all 
 are known to be what they profess and appear to 
 be ! where each first knows himself to be true, and 
 then knows all others to be true ; where God's seal 
 
THE CHURCH IN HEA YEN. 337 
 
 is upon every one, certifying that, upon unerring 
 inspection, every one has been found genuine ; and 
 where thus, certainty shines into every heart, and 
 out from every heart ; and all fear is gone, and all 
 tremblings are still, and all doubts are dispelled, 
 and all distrusts are banished, and nothing more is 
 left to damp or to chill the fellowship of the per- 
 fect ! God's Certainty beaming everywhere ; the 
 certainty that I am what, to myself and to others, 
 I appear to be ; and that all others are what, to 
 me, to themselves and to God, they profess to be ! 
 Since the first sin was sinned, earth has never 
 known what such a fellowship means. In heaven 
 that sweetest of mysteries will once more be 
 opened. 
 
 3. The Church in Heaven is characterized by 
 
 SANCTITY. 
 
 All the members of that Church are not only 
 set apart from common and profane uses, but also 
 separated from every form and degree of sin ; not 
 only consecrated as ''vessels of honor-' but also 
 '' meet for the Master's use.'' They have no longer 
 anything wrong in their natures. It is true that 
 they feel not like angels, who can look up to God 
 in the silent consciousness that they have never 
 offended Him. Nevertheless, they feel, as even 
 angels cannot feel, like redeemed ones, who can 
 look up to their Father with the uttered yet unut- 
 22 
 
338 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 terable joy that He has delivered them from all 
 their offenses, and made them once more and for- 
 ever perfect in His sight. They hear when it is 
 said: "These are they which came out of great 
 tribulation, and have washed their robes and made 
 them white in the blood of the Lamb." These 
 were " redeemed from among men, being first- 
 fruits unto Grod and the Lamb. In their mouth 
 was found no guile, for they are without fault be- 
 fore the throne of God." To use the Apostle's 
 phrase, " In the body of His flesh, through death," 
 Christ hath finally " presented " them to the Father 
 "holy, and unblamable, and unreprovable in His 
 sight." 
 
 Here is another marvel of difference between 
 the Church on earth at its best estate, and the 
 Church in Heaven at its final glory. As sinners 
 here, we can know nothing of the bliss of sinless- 
 ness. We can only know the blessedness of pain, 
 and struggle, and chastening, with mingled love, 
 and tenderness, and faithfulness ; giving us expe- 
 rience of alternate defeat and victory, and of deep 
 solicitude and hopeful watching over the begin- 
 nings and the progress of our sanctification ; the 
 whole interspersed with here and there a glimpse, 
 a foretaste of something like the coming fullness ; 
 but, of absolute sinlessness and perfection, of being 
 " holv, unblamable and unreprovable.*' even in 
 
THE GHUBGH IN HEA VEK 339 
 
 the sight of God ; not merely unblamed, but '' un- 
 blamable," not merely unreproved, but '' unre- 
 provable ;" not only fit for use, but ''fit for the 
 Master's use ;" of this state we as yet know no- 
 thing. The difference between being holy and 
 perfect in intent and endeavor — which is the state 
 of all true Christians here — and being sinless and 
 spotless in realized fact and effect — which will be 
 the state of all the saints in heaven — this differ- 
 ence we cannot know until we get among the expe- 
 riences of the upper Church ; not till then can we 
 know what a mystery of blessedness and glory 
 awaits us as flowing from those experiences. I 
 MUCH WONDER what will be the feelings of a sinless 
 soul among sinless souls, and in the presence of 
 God! 
 
 4. The Church in Heaven is characterized by 
 light. 
 
 I speak not of the light which visits these poor, 
 feeble eyes of flesh, but of the true light, the shin- 
 ing of TRUTH, the light of the soul. In heaven 
 there is no error, nor any to teach error, concern- 
 ing either God or His ways, concerning either man 
 or his destiny. There is no ignorance in heaven, 
 as growing out of the disuse of the faculties of the 
 mind ; nor any mistake, as originating in that 
 feebleness, which cannot always use those facul- 
 ties aright. These and all other forms of dark- 
 
340 
 
 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 nessare dispersed, and ''the true light shineth." 
 Heaven is full of truth, of knowledge, and of 
 CERTAINTY. There are no heresies to be cut off 
 from that Church ; no '' seeing through a glass 
 darkly ;" all is '' face to face ;'' no knowing but 
 ''in part;" all "know even as they also are 
 known.'' In heaven, truth is like a great sea ; 
 though shoreless and fathomless, yet transparent 
 throughout ; and the Christian there is like one 
 who, from the cliffs of some beautiful isle, looks 
 down into the clear depths, as they reveal to him 
 all their wonders, and rejoices that there are no 
 limits to his discoveries but those which lie in the 
 very boundlessness of the transparency. Is not 
 this the mystery which John saw in the Revela- 
 tions, when the Heavenly City appeared to him 
 " as pure gold, like unto clear glass ?" Was it not 
 the gold of SIMPLE truth, translucent to the eye of 
 the spiritual man ? And was not a similar mys- 
 tery brought before his mind, when he saw, be- 
 neath the light of the seven mystic lamps burning 
 ''before the Throne, a sea of glass like unto crys- 
 tal ; and in the midst of the Throne, and round 
 about the Throne, four living ones full of eyes ?" 
 Was it not the transparent sea of truth spread 
 out beneath the light of God's all-illuminating 
 Spirit, into whose clear depths the eyes of the 
 holy ones are ever looking to wonder and adore ? 
 
THE GHURGH IN HEA VEK 
 
 341 
 
 And who, as yet, can tell me the gloiy and the 
 blessedness of living in the light of such a life ? 
 The bliss of knowing ! Our nature is brutish, 
 even here, if it taste not something of the joy. 
 And yet, the fullest light, the highest knowledge 
 here is but " in part ;" it is all '' through a glass 
 darkly.*' for perfect truth, perfect light, to 
 show us all that we desire to know, and to stimu- 
 late our desires to know all that an ever-unfolding 
 eternity can reveal, with the certainty that every 
 new step in knowledge will be a new degree in 
 glory and in joy ! 
 
 5. The Church in Heaven is characterized by 
 
 SEPARATENESS. 
 
 This is near of kin to sanctity, and yet, the term 
 brings up a somewhat different train of thought. 
 On earth, even true Christians are more or less 
 " conformed to the world '^ in their tastes, habits 
 and intercourse. In heaven the spirit of such 
 conformity disappears. The Church there is sepa- 
 rate from the world — ^not because walls of ada- 
 mant and gates of brass have been built between 
 them, nor because measureless space has been in- 
 terposed to prevent their association, but — because 
 the desire to associate is unfelt. Moral differences 
 there are seen in the light which reveals all things ; 
 and being seen are also felt ; and the seen and felt 
 difference between the holy and the unholy, be- 
 
2^2 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 tween the worldly and the unworldly, this is the 
 wall that separates their destinies. This consti- 
 tutes the measureless distance which is interposed 
 between their eternal abodes. The voice of God, 
 which separates between the wicked and the right- 
 eous, is not a sound that falls on the ear of sense, 
 but a conviction that is uttered into the heart 
 of conscience. His segregating power lies in the 
 light of His Truth, shining up and showing all 
 moral and spiritual things just as they are, and, 
 with its revealings, sending home into the souls of 
 the holy and of the unhol}" a consciousness of eter- 
 nal dissimilitude. Nowhere but in the world of 
 spirits is that great truth, which Jesus taught, felt 
 in its full power : " Every one that doeth evil 
 hateth the light, neither cometh to the light lest 
 his deeds should be reproved ; but he that doeth 
 truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be 
 made manifest that they are wrought in God.'' 
 
 The mingling, now referred to in the Church on 
 earth, as opposed to separateness in the heavenly 
 Church, is not that of true and false members in 
 the Church, but that of the true members of Christ 
 with an ungodly world. And who can estimate 
 the discount, which is thus forced upon the real 
 dignity and self respect, and upon the true happi- 
 ness and usefulness of the visible body of Christ ? 
 Every one knows, indeed, when he reflects, that 
 
THE CHUli GH IN HE A VEK 343 
 
 this conformity to the world is incompatible with 
 either the real dignity or the proper self-respect 
 of Christians ; and experience, if they would con- 
 sult it, might convince all, as it has convinced 
 myriads, that such conformity is fearfully ruinous 
 both to genuine Christian happiness, and to desired 
 Christian usefulness. Well, blessed be God ! in 
 heaven all this will be unknown. There the saints 
 will be cured, at last, of all their fond longings 
 after the hurtful things which they have left be- 
 hind ; and infinitely, then, will they be satisfied 
 with the new state of separateness, into which they 
 have been introduced. What a felt grandeur will 
 invest their new dignity ! What a taste of sweet- 
 ness will live in their divine self-respect ! What 
 a happiness will they realize in their final and per- 
 fect freedom from all that is incongruous in their 
 associations ! And what an immensity of power 
 will they have acquired for doing, as immortals 
 love to do, the work of Grod through all His 
 worlds ! No pride, or superciliousness at the 
 thought of being greater, or better than others, but 
 a glorious sense of perfect freedom in being and in 
 doing what, as the saints of God, they were de- 
 signed to be and to do ! This, I think, will be a 
 pleasing wonder in the future Church ! 
 
 6. The Church in Heaven will be characterized 
 
 by SOCIAL FELLOWSHIP. 
 
344 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 This fellowship is intended to characterize the 
 Church, even upon earth ; and what is more, it 
 was intended to characterize even the visible 
 Church in this world. It may be o.dded, that, in 
 some poor measure, this intention is actually re- 
 alized ; and that, as realized, this fellowship is in- 
 comparably better and more satisfying than any 
 which the wicked ever know. But how poor is it, 
 at the best, in comparison with what it ought to be ! 
 How unspeakably poor in comparison with what it 
 will be hereafter ! 
 
 In heaven, the members of the Church have 
 "fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Je- 
 sus Christ," in all the perfection of that mystery. 
 "The Communion of the Holy Ghost" also is with 
 them in its divinest fullness. But, what I more 
 particularly intend in this place is — the social fel- 
 lowship which characterizes the Church in Heaven ; 
 the fellowship of the saints with one another. 
 They have fellowship with apostles and prophets, 
 Y/ith martyrs and confessors, with patriarchs and 
 all the holy men of old ; and they have this fellow- 
 ship without alloy. " The Church of the lirst-born, 
 which are written in heaven," is called "the gen- 
 eral ASSEMBLY." It is a company ; and it exhibits 
 the perfection of social life. It admits of no dis- 
 social grades. Diversities of rank, office, and sta- 
 tion may, and doubtless will, exist there ; for heav- 
 
THE CHURCH IN HE A VEK 
 
 345 
 
 en is not a monotonous human level ; its idea is 
 not that of a forced democratic equality ; it is a 
 monarchy, whose monarch is God ; it is an Episco- 
 pacy, whose "Bishop of souls" is Jesus ; and it is 
 full of the diversities of ever varying character and 
 attainments in perfection. Bat, whatever may be 
 its diversities, the wonder of the heavenly state is, 
 that they excite no separating feeling • they oppose 
 no bars to freedom and cordiality of intercourse. 
 That unmasterable difficulty of earth is perfectly 
 mastered in heaven. There are no senseless con- 
 ventionalities, no artificial restraints, no stiff for- 
 malities, no haughty coldnesses, in the society of 
 " the saints in light." The loftiest spirit there 
 feels no embarrassment in holding open fellowship 
 with the lowliest follower of the Lamb ; but delights 
 to sit in sacred converse and corhmunion with him 
 at the feet of Jesus. And why should he not ? 
 Jesus holds fellowship with them all ; Jesus, the 
 Lamb, the lowliest, yet the loftiest, on high! In 
 His presence, in His service, and in His Church, 
 there are and can be no rivalries, no jealousies, no 
 clashing interests, no great families to be built up, 
 and enclosed, and kept guarded from the poor, the 
 obscure, the unknown. Nothing among His fol- 
 lowers represses the indulgence of mutual sympa- 
 thies. They are all as He requires them to be, 
 '' like little children ;" and like little children they 
 
346 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 act just as they feel, and feel just as they act. 
 Mere earthly titles, earthly wealth and earthly 
 prejudices are left down in the grave, side by side 
 with the obscurity, the indigence, and the depres- 
 sion of the once suffering children of God. Differ- 
 ences of race, of color and of clime are unknown ; 
 and the worshippers in the heavenly sanctuary, the 
 guests at the sacrament above, having laid aside 
 these their incumbrances, and dropped all their 
 badges of earthly distinction, stand up, in a nobler 
 fellowship than earth can know, the fellowship, in 
 all their heavenly ranks, of " the spirits of just 
 men made perfect." 
 
 Is there not something in our souls which longs 
 for such a fellowship as that ? And is it not possi- 
 ble for us to do something towards bringing down 
 a little of it to ease and limber the poor, straight- 
 ened, manacled state of our present social Church 
 life? 
 
 7. The Church in Heaven is characterized by 
 
 GLORY. 
 
 When presented in heaven, it is to be presented 
 as " a GLORIOUS Church ;" and its glory will be the 
 clustering around it of all the perfections which 
 have been named, together with the shining on 
 its brow of a crown, made up of the light and the 
 likeness of God and the Lamb. But there is a still 
 further glory in the heavenly Church ; a glory by 
 
THE CHURCH IN HE A YEN. 347 
 
 which our present sympathies may be more easily 
 touched. There is a glory iu the rest, in the joy, 
 and in the actioin^ of that Church. 
 
 There is a glory in its eest. No sorrow, no suf- 
 fering, no tears, no death can darken, or dim its 
 radiance. Its rest, however, is not listlessness, nor 
 dreamy sleep. It is like the calm, which sur- 
 rounds the moveless throne of God ; a living, wak- 
 ing calm ; a repose fearless of interruption, and 
 full of power. 
 
 There is, too, a glory in its joy. It is a beaming 
 of ''all the fullness of Grod" through that living 
 sanctuary. The joy of the Church in heaven is the 
 sunlight of eternal happiness shining into the 
 souls that worship there. It is the everlasting light 
 of God's love in their hearts, streaming out and 
 around, like a forth-shining divinity, upon all in 
 heaven ; till Jesus and His saints seem one in its 
 illimitable brightness. 
 
 And there is glory in its action. All right and 
 good and great action is glorious. In heaven this 
 glory is complete. The action of the Church there 
 combines the strength, the intelligence, and the 
 harmony of one perfect Body, governed by one 
 perfect Head, moved by one perfect Will, and tend- 
 ing to one perfect good. The members of that 
 Body are unfainting spirits. ** They rest not day 
 and night " in their divine employ. No clogs of 
 
348 
 
 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 sense, no burden of the flesh, no dull and weary 
 and earthly affections weigh them down. In their 
 worship they never flag ; in their search for knowl- 
 edge they never tire ; in their " labors of love " 
 they never grow heartless. Energies worthy of 
 the redeemed are alive there. Whether they sing 
 the song of those who have been saved, or study 
 adoringly into the wonders of the Divine Charac- 
 ter and plan of Eedemption ; or wander discur- 
 sive amid the boundless works of God ; or trace 
 the streams of knowledge up to their fountains in 
 the eternal hills ; whether they do one, or another, 
 or all of these things, they alike put forth the 
 activities of free and noble, sinless and mighty 
 spirits. Their activities are all-glorious. 
 
 How little can w^e know on earth of such glorious 
 rest, fllled with such glorious joy, and kindred with 
 such glorious action ! Yet, Lord, send down upon 
 Thy poor Church, even here, somewhat of the rich 
 glory that awaits her ! 
 
 8. And finally, the Church in Heaven is charac- 
 terized by SAFETY. 
 
 She is past all disastrous change. The '' Father's 
 House of many mansions '' is her eternal home ; 
 His Kingdom of exhaustless richness is her eternal 
 heritage ; and His fidelity, of infinite tenderness, is 
 her eternal keeper. In this she has passed quite 
 beyond all present experience of the Church on 
 
THE CHURCH IJST HEAVEK 
 
 349 
 
 earth. This Church is still " militant," and many 
 of the chequered incidents of " the holy war " lie 
 still before her. Through battles and sieges, re- 
 verses and successes, defeats and victories, she still 
 holds her course. Security she may at times peri- 
 lously indulge, but safety she can never really 
 enjoy, until she reaches the home, the heritage and 
 the keeping of her heavenly Head. This safety 
 is the special portion of the Church in Heaven ; 
 and how divinely full it is of blessedness ; what 
 emphasis it gives to '' the peace of God Which pas- 
 seth all understanding !" 
 
 The Church in Heaven, then, is past all disas- 
 trous change. It wades not through the blood and 
 fires of successive Pagan persecutions. It passes 
 through no night of Darkling Ages. It whets no 
 sword, prepares no torture, and contrives no death, 
 for those servants of Grod, who refuse to bow their 
 necks to the yoke of error. It quakes amid the 
 throes of no violent Reformation. It languishes 
 not amid returning slumber, declension and decay. 
 It dips no pen in the gall of controversy to stir up 
 strife and teach- brethren how to hate. It wars not 
 against the Word of God. It cloaks no infidelity 
 and no sensuality under the forms of cumbrous and 
 unmeaning ceremony. It commits no mistakes by 
 attempting to fashion or facilitate the providences 
 supposed to be necessary to the fulfilment of unful- 
 
350 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 filled prophecy. Nor does it lie asleep while the 
 Bridegroom is really coming to that fulfilment. 
 But, past all such historic sadnesses, purified from 
 all defiling mixtures, and made perfect by the dis- 
 cipline of the Ages, it rests on immovable founda- 
 tions a Heavenly Church, full of God, of His light, 
 of His love, and of His praise ! 
 
 Such is the Church in Heaven! "The King's 
 daughter is all-glorious within ; and her clothing 
 is of wrought gold." In describing her, I have 
 dealt in no vain imaginations. The gold of which 
 her vesture is wrought, is dug from the eternal 
 mineS; as laid open in the field of inspired truth ; 
 of truth inspired by Him to whom all secret things 
 in heaven and earth are visible. The characteris- 
 tics of the Church in glory are all characteristics 
 of the Church in humiliation ; only they are but 
 imperfectly manifested in this world, or are seen 
 only in possibilities, as foreshadows of their com- 
 ing reality. Their perfection is seen nowhere but 
 in that world, where God appears unveiled to the 
 eye of His " saints in light." 
 
 And now, could I suppose these thoughts ad- 
 dressed to any who have heretofore been thought- 
 less and careless of their souls, I would ask of 
 them one parting question. Will you go and join 
 that "glorious Church" at which we have been 
 looking ; the Church " without spot or wrinkle ;" 
 
THE CHURCH IN HE A VEK 3 ^ i 
 
 the Church which is '' holy and without blemish f 
 If you hope to live in heaven, you must become 
 willing, nay, fit, to become members of the Church 
 in Heaven. But how is this ? Multitudes hesitate. 
 Multitudes are not ready to join even the Church 
 on earth. They do not feel prepared, or fit, for 
 fellowship with the saints in this their compara- 
 tively imperfect state. How, then, can they go 
 and join that ''glorious Church^' above? And 
 yet, join it they must, if they ar.e ever there. 
 There is not and never will be, a human soul in 
 heaven who is not, at the same time, a member of 
 the Church in Heaven. Would to God men were 
 ready for Church-membership even here, sincere, 
 believing and affectionate membership with the 
 true, though as jQi but partially sanctified disci- 
 ples of Christ! On such a readiness the benig- 
 nant Father, God, would smile, and ripen it, as His 
 sunshine ripens our swelling fruits into a rich 
 and perfect meetness for what awaits His own in 
 heaven ! 
 
 But the subject, thus carried up to its final issues, 
 respects, specially, those who are already members 
 of ih^ Church on earth ; and the principal thought 
 which it should keep alive in their minds is this : 
 the members of the Church on earth ought to regu- 
 late their whole course of life, association, habit, 
 and feeling, with reference to future membership 
 
352 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 in the Church in Heaven. The true Church here 
 is more than a type of the glorified Church there. 
 This earthly is more than a " pattern " of that 
 heavenly thing. They are but parts of one and 
 the same '' communion and fellowship." The 
 earthly passes into the heavenly. The one is a 
 school for education and discipline ; the other, is 
 the society of alumni, graduated into an end- 
 less life of action and enjo3"ment. The one is 
 the porch ; the other, the great temple itself. The 
 one is youth, tender and impressible ; the other, 
 manhood, firm and vigorous. If, then, the child 
 should carefully train and fashion himself for the 
 duties and the destiny of the man, so should the 
 Christian on earth regulate his whole course of 
 life, association, habit and feeling with strict refer- 
 ence to his future standing as a member of the 
 Church in Heaven. He should do everything here 
 which he would approve there, and nothing here 
 which he would there condemn. Imperfect light 
 and knowledge here may prevent his always see- 
 ing what he would there either approve or con- 
 demn ; and the feebleness of nature amid the 
 powers of the world may sometimes render him 
 unable to do or to avoid what he knows he ought 
 to do or to avoid ; but, so far as he can see, or be 
 made to see, what would be either approved or 
 condemned in heaven, and so far as he has, or can 
 
THE CHUIICH IN HE A YEN. 3 
 
 obtain, strength either to do or to avoid the doing 
 of it; he should scrupulously regulate the presen^t 
 with reference to the future. He should habitually 
 live as though his next communion were to be made 
 in '' the Church of the first-born " and at the table 
 in heaven ! And yet, how few, among professing 
 Christians, ever think of making this the rule of 
 their present life ! How few, by this rule, regu- 
 late their intercourse with the world ! How few 
 by this regulate their intercourse even with their 
 fellow-Christians ! How few think of this either 
 in their business or in their devotions, and how 
 few practice according to it either in their plea- 
 sures or in their charities ! 
 
 The cases in which these suggestions will apply 
 themselves, can be known only, or may be known 
 best, by each individual member in the Church of 
 Christ. These thoughts, however, must not have 
 their close without an expression of the deep and 
 solemn conviction that, if there can be tears in 
 that world where '' all tears are wiped away from 
 all faces," Christians will shed them when they 
 come to look down from their seats on high upon 
 •the courses in life which they have been pursuing ; 
 upon the present state of their associations, their 
 habits and their feelings ; so full of conformity to 
 the world, so dull, so languid, so selfish, so slow 
 to good, so little like what they ought to be who 
 23 
 
354 THE LIVING TEMPLE. 
 
 profess to believe that their names are '' weitten 
 
 IN HEAVEN !" 
 
 Let us all listen to the voice vrhich is sounding 
 in our ears : ''Awake, thou that steepest, and arise 
 from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light :" 
 and, as we hear, let us all arouse ourselves, " gird 
 up the loins of our minds," and henceforth live 
 like men who do indeed *' wait for their Lord." 
 
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