LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. limp, ^ §o|njriglji Ifn. . Shelf UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. r THE GREAT MISNOMER, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. A DISSERTATION BY TIBERIUS GRACCHUS JONES, D. D. AUTHOR OF "DUTIES OF PASTORS TO CHURCHES," "ORIGIN AND CONTINUITY OF THE BAPTISTS," ETC " Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil ; that put dark- ness for light, and light for darkness ; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter."— Isaiah. (f No. 5^6^/C y 1879. "T" NASHVILLE, TENN. MAYFIELD, JROO-ERS &c CO., 18-78. 7T 2 i{i^ To One who is gone, and to One who is now with me — in grateful memory and recognition of the sweetest sympathy and the most effective help— this little work is lovingly inscribed ; hoping that their Grod and mine will graciously accept and bless it, as an honest and earnest, however slight, contribution to His Cause. T. G, J. CONTENTS. i. AN AXIOM. II. DEFINITION OF COMMUNION. III. SIGNIFICATION OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. IV. APPLICATION OF THE AXIOM. V. A PURELY MEMORIAL ORDINANCE. VI. COMMUNION BETWEEN BELIEVERS. VI CONTENTS. VII. COMMUNION WITH CHRIST. PAKT I. VIII. COMMUNION WITH CHRIST. PART II. IX. GRAND OBJECT OF THE RITE. X. THE GRAND OBJECT SUPERSEDED. XL CAUSES OF THE SUPERSEDURE. PART I. XII. CAUSES OF THE SUPERSEDURE. PART II. XIII. CAUSES OF THE SUPERSEDURE, PART in. XIV. ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE SUPERSEDURE. CONTENTS. Vll XV. LAW OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. PART T. XVL LAW OF THE LORD'S SUPPER, PART II. XVII. LAW OF THE LORD'S SUPPER, PART Til. XVIII. LAW OF THE LORD'S SUPPER, PART IV. XIX. LAW OF THE LORD'S SUPPER, PART V. XX. CORRECTION OF THE MISNOMER. XXI. DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY. XXII. CONCLUDING REMARKS. THE GREAT MISNOMER. AN AXIOM. J% AMES should be, so far as is possible, sig- H nificant of the things named. They should express, represent, describe, define them. Not more naturally, than logically, in the beginning of language, did the first names do this. All appreciate the importance of rightly naming substances and their properties, in the physical world; and of also properly naming— by the employment of appropriate terms — thoughts, ideas, facts, principles, in the mental realm. The name should neither signify too ?nuch, nor IO THE GREAT MISNOMER. too little. Above all, it should not signify any thing different from the thing named. Upon this dictum — we may call it axiom — depend the justness of all science, the soundness of all philosophy, the progress and stability of .all knowledge. Nay, intimately connected with it are all right conduct, pure morality, true reli- gion. Disregard it, and falsehood takes the place of truth; vice, the place of virtue ; discord and confusion, the place of harmony and order. II. DEFINITION OF COMMUNION. O the blessed Supper of our Lord, many different appellations have been given. It were tedious and unprofitable to mention them. The most striking of these, however, and that most generally used among the Pro- testant churches, and non-Romish, ( as the Baptist,) is the sweet-sounding and beautiful one, "Communion." What is its meaning? To commune, is — to converse, talk together familiarly, impart sentiments mutually; to have intercourse in contemplation or meditation. Com- munion, is— -fellowship, concord, agreement, inter- course between persons; interchange of thought, feeling, and good offices; giving and receiving. As used, ecclesiastically, to express joint par- ticipation of the Lord's Supper, and, by metony- my, the Lord's Supper itself it is regarded THE GREAT MISNOM.ER. as a pledge of mutual confidence, a demonstra- tion of mutual fraternal love, by those who to- gether celebrate the sacred feast. III. SIGNIFICATION OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. J|| HAT is the Lord's Supper? What are its &T essential character and grand design? The brief words of Jesus at its institution, and of Paul subsequently, clearly show the nature and design of the holy rite, and sufficiently define it. "He took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you : this do in remembrance of me: Likewise also, the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you." 1 "The Lord Jesus," says Paul, "the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat; this is my body which is broken for you : this do in remembrance of me. Luke xxii., 19-20. 14 THE GREAT MISNOMER. After the same manner, also, he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood : this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come." 1 Simple, yet sublime, rite ! Full of divine beauty and significance ! "Nothing could have been more properly chosen, to signify the efficacy of our Saviour's atonement in giving life and joy to our souls, than bread, the staff of life, and wine, the exhilarating and strength- ening quality of which was expressed in an ancient parable, where it is said 'to cheer God and men.'" 2 1 1 Cor. xi., 53-26. - Dick's Lectures on Theology, vol. 2, p. 356. IV. APPLICATION OF THE AXIOM. fOW, in the light of the foregoing definition of the term Communion, and of the inspired statement of the signification of the sacred Supper, applying the axiom laid down at the commencement of this discussion, we inquire, — Is the former, the proper appellation of the latter ? This famous theological and ecclesiastical name, sounding and resounding every where, pronounced with sympathy and love and deep- est reverence by every tongue, is very beau- tiful. It is beautiful in Greek — Kmvwvia • beautiful in Latin — Communio\ not less beau- tiful in English — Communion. Admired and reverenced it was by the Greeks, and equally by the Romans. Admired and reverenced it is, too, by every Anglo-Saxon heart. And yet 1 6 THE GREAT MISNOMER. that name, as widely applied by the later Greek and Roman, by their successors, by the whole English-speaking people of the world, and by others — however beautiful and sweet-sounding, however in itself significant— is a false name, a misnomer. As we at once per- ceive, and shall yet more fully see, it cannot bear the axiomatic test proposed. It is not significant of the thing named. It does not properly represent or define it. It expresses both too much and too little. It not only signi- fies something different from the main idea of the rite to which it is applied, but it obscures^ instead of illustrating, that idea. c V. A PURELY MEMORIAL ORDINANCE. ROM those declarations of our Lord, and of his apostles, which we have quoted in a preceding section, it is clear that the holy Supper was designed to be a purely memorial ordinance. It is a feast in commemoration of Christ, not a feast of communion with each other, on the part of those who participate in it. This is both theologically and practically a distinction of much moment. For the apos- tles to have regarded the Supper as a feast of fellowship and communion among them- selves, rather than of commemoration of the dying love of Christ, would have been deeply to disparage and dishonor their Lord. It would have been to put themselves before and above him. This had been the grossest and most selfish perversion. But at such a time, and by such men, in the immediate 1 8 THE GREAT MISNOMER, presence of their adored Lord, whose eye was dimmed, whose head was bowed, whose breast was heaving with anguish, at the im- mediate prospect of being taken from them, by a violent and bloody death, such an un- natural and monstrous perversion would have been altogether impossible. Thinking only of Christ, they forgot themselves. When, therefore, any of the professed fol- lowers of Jesus, make the sacred Supper a boasted feast 'of fellowship and mutual communion, rather than of commemoration of their dying Lord, they are guilty of the perversion which we have said was impossible to the high-hearted and gen- erous men, inflexibly faithful to Christ and his cause, who first observed the blessed rite. AVhen, too, they make its joint observance an ultimate test of Christian recognition and fel- lowship between professed believers, they are guilty of a deeper perversion still. Yet more do they violate the high and holy design of this heavenly rite — this rite of pure, disinter- ested love — when they prostitute it to the un- worthy purposes of a carnal and selfish paitizan- ship. The Supper of our Lord was instituted THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. I 9 for no such purposes as these, and cannot sub- serve them, without utter disregard of its grand design, and violence to its whole spirit. VI. COMMUNION BETWEEN BELIEVERS M, OT having been primarily instituted to effect q* personal communion between those who- observe it, this sacred rite has no peculiar or special adaptation to such an end. In fact, it does not effect it at all, except incidentally, and in subordination to its main design. As we have already intimated, there is no reason to believe that Peter, and James, and John, or any of the other apostles, had any personal and vividly conscious communion with each other, when they first partook of the sacred Supper. Certainly, it is not to be believed that the loyal eleven had any real fellowship or communion with the traitor, Judas; if indeed, as is doubtful, he participated with them in the observance of the rite. Communion be- tween belivers, is an active, intelligent, and THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 21 voluntary exercise of the soul; a matter of mental and spiritual consciousness. But, at the Lord's Supper, one may not, for obvious reasons, at all think of his fellow-participant. He may not even be aware of his presence in the house of the Lord. They may occu- py positions widely apart, or, if they sit side by side, they may have no acquaintance, con- geniality, or personal sympathy, with each other. No reason is there, then, drawn either from the word of God, or from the nature and fit- ness of things, as we shall yet more fully see, in the course of our discussion, for regarding the Supper of the Lord, as a rite of ■ mu- tual communion, a pledge of fellowship, and demonstration of fraternal love and confidence? among those who together celebrate it — though, as we freely admit, there may be, in individual instances, and doubtless often is, a sweet and beautiful communion of heart with heart, as in all other acts of united spiritual ser- vice. Of such communion, however, there is unquestionably far more, in social prayer and praise, in loving converse and companionship, 22 THE GREAT MISNOMER, in a thousand acts of united work and wor- ship, among those who, upon principle, never sit down together at the sacred board, than is ordinarily enjoyed at that board itself, by those, even, whose views are in full accord respecting its character and requisitions. Cer- tainly, infinitely more of such communion be- tween God's people is there, in the social and fraternal exercises which we have mentioned, than they could possibly enjoy, if, compromis- ing conscience, and sacrificing principle, they were together to partake of the Supper of the Lord. " In former ages of the church, that is, from the close of the second century down- ward, until heathenism was obliterated, it was generally, but erroneously supposed, by almost all, that Christian fellowship, or communion, consisted chiefly in praying together. Christians would never unite in saying 'Our Father who art in heaven,' would not even pray in the same house of worship, with those whom they did not consider othodox Christians, Hea- thens, unbelievers, heretics, persons suspended or excommunicated ; even catechumens, or can : THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 23 didates for baptism, and members of other sects, were admitted to hear the psalmody, and reading of the scriptures, and the dis- courses, but were invariably excluded from the building, before the prayers of the church were offered. Oar views of prayer are much more just than these." 1 So far from there being, in the language which we have quoted from the scriptures re- specting the institution, nature, and design of the Lord's Supper, or in that of any New Testament writer concerning it, anything to warrant our regarding it as the rite of mutu- al communion among those who partake of it together, there is nothing to suggest such a conception of the holy ordinance. And as there is nothing in the language of Christ, when he instituted the Supper, nor in that of any of the New Testament writers re- specting it, to justify the designation of it, in this sense, as the Communion, so is there nothing to sanction it, in the language employed, when the passover, which prefigured the Christian Curtis on Communion, pp. 80-81. 24 THE GREAT MISNOMER, ordinance, was appointed. In instituting that ancient Jewish rite, God said, "And this day shall be unto you for a memorial ; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations : ye shall keep it a feast by ordi- nance forever." 1 Not the slightest intimation have we here, or elsewhere, that the pass- over was to be observed as a feast of com- munion by the Israelites — a feast of mutual recognition and fellowship — or that they ever celebrated it as such. Presumptive evidence of great value, certainly this is, that the Chris- tian passover, the Supper of the Lord, to which the former feast constantly referred, and in which it has been merged, is to be re- garded as a rite, not of communion, but of commemoration, 'Ex. xi., 14, VII. COMMUNION WITH CHRIST. PART I. 1 HE only passage in the Bible, which might ^[ seem, in any degree, to favor the naming of the Lord's Supper, "the Communion," is that in which the apostle, writing to the Co- rinthians, twice, in close connection, employs that term, (xov/mvia^) He says, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the com- munion, (zmvcwta), of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the commun- ion, (xotvwvta), of the body of Christ?" 1 But this passage, in which, the word is used in argument upon another subject, for the pur- pose of illustration, and we think without the slightest intention of giving name to the Sup- l l Cor. x., 16. 2 6 THE GREAT MISNOMER, per — as it was never before, or afterwards, employed by its author, or other inspired wri- ter, in connection with it — by no means war- rants the fixed and universal designation in question. If such an employment of a term, be enough to fix a name upon that to which it is applied, then is there much more reason for calling the contributions for the poor, (as, indeed, they were, for some time, often called,) as well as other acts of Christian benevolence, "the Communion, than for so calling the Lord's Supper. For the term zovju>via, {communion,) is, with its cognates often applied to them, 1 while it is used in connection with that, only in the single instance which we have mentioned. Turrettine, the celebrated Genevese theolo- gian, while accepting the appellation to which we object, admits that the apostle, in the pas- sage under consideration, did not design to give name to the ordinance. He says, "Ubi Paulus Coence" etc., — "Where Paul does not properly give this name to the Supper; but ^vom. xv., 26; 2 Cor. viii., 4; ix., 13; Heb. xiii.i 16.; Rom. xii., 13; Gal. vi., 6; Phil, iv., 4. THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 27 he explains the nature and end of that mys- tery, whilst he says, that the sacred symbols are the communion of the body and blood of Christ; that is, are appointed to seal to us the communion of the body and blood of Christ". 1 The language of the Apostle, in the passage specially referred to, simply implies, that partici- pants of the Supper, in receiving the elements symbolic of his body and blood, are brought into intimate spiritual union and fellowship with Christ, being assimilated to his nature, by spirit- ually partaking, as it were, of the very life and substance of his divine being. The idea of their being joint participants in this union and fellowship with Christ, if at all involved, is still entirely subordinate to the main idea. The com- munion spoken of by Paul, is communion' with Christ, in the cup which represents his blood, and in the bread which represents his body — a reception, a partaking of him spiritually, in his body and blood. Though believers drink of the cup, and break the bread together, and thus there is a joint participation of them, ^urrettini Opera, torn, iii., De Sacra Ooena, Qurest xxi. Edinburgh Edition. 2 8 THE GREAT MISNOMER, this joint n ess of participation, is not a fact which the apostle intends to emphasize. We think it was not at all prominent in his thought, if, indeed, he was distinctly con- scious of its presence. The great idea in the apostle's mind, to which, as the whole scope and spirit of his argument shows, he wished to give all possible prominence, was, doubtless, not that persons partaking of the Lord's Supper, had fellow shp with each other, but that, as they, in partaking of it had fel- lowship with their divine Lord, so persons feasting in heathen temples, had fellowship with their false divinities. He wished strongly to state this fact, and impressively to illustrate it, by a striking and tender allusion to the observance of the Lord's Supper, and thus effectually to guard his brethren against the idolatrous practice, in which some had indulged, and which he so deeply deplored. In the term zotvtoria, as here employed by Paul, the idea of appropriation, is essentially involved. Now, participants of the Supper do not appropriate each other. But they do appro- priate Christ, in his body and blood, or rather, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL, 29 in what his body and blood represent. In the conception of the apostle, then, the fel- lowship and communion enjoyed by partici- pants in the sacred rite, are fellowship and communion with Christ, with whom they are brought into such close and intimate relations, as that they partake of and appropriate him, spiritually, as one partakes of and appropri- ates to his own nourishment and support, physically, the meat and drink upon which he feeds. Paul was too nicely analytical and clear a thinker, and too practically logical, to so mix and confuse distinct ideas, as, when obviously endeavoring to make prominent, the fact of communion 7vith v Christ, to introduce, and give prominence to, the different and divert- ing idea, of communion with others. The renowned Dr. Dick, for many years professor of theology, in Glasgow, after quot- ing the apostle's language, says, "The mani- fest import of these words, is, that by par- taking of the symbols of his body and blood, we have fellowship with him, in his atoning sacrifice, and all its precious fruits." 1 1 Lectures on Theology, vol. 2., p. 306. 30 THE GREAT MISNOMER, The late Dr. Curtis, at one time professor of theology in Howard College, and subse- quently in the Lewisburg University, speak- ing of this celebrated passage, as specially indicating ^communion with Christ" says, "The apostle was exhorting Christians not to partake of meats offered to idols in thei temples. Why ? Because the idol was any- thing, or the meat offered to idols capable of communicating spiritual taint or infection? No, but because, by partaking, they would seem as if seeking and symbolizing a spirit- ual communion with the idols, by giving the accustomed token of so doing. This he illustrates in vs. 18 — ' Behold Israel after the flesh; are not they which eat of the sacrifices, partakers of the altar ?' As if he had said, do not they who eat together of the sacrifices offered to Jehovah, betoken to the world their joint worship of the God of Israel? In vs. 16, 17, he similarly illustrates his argument, by the Lord's Supper; 'the cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?' Is it not a token by which we show to the THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 3 1 world our communion with Jesus? that we are partakers of the precious fruits of his death for our sins?' The bread that we break, is it not a token that we are not ashamed to be considered as having imbibed the prin- ciples and spirit of the Crucified One ? * * Idol altars and temples have crumbled into ruins before the power of the Cross, and we have happily no use for the apostle's argu- ment against partaking of idol's food, but only for his illustration." 1 The statement, (vs. 17,) "For we being many, are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread, is simply intended to convey the idea that believers, though many or diverse, partaking spiritually, (with a true and living faith), of one or the same bread, are made one, that is, spiritually homogeneous; being assimilated to Christ, and therefore, to each other; all alike feeding upon the same spiritual food. With more reason might the Lord's Supper be named the Communion, if communion with Christ alone, or mainly, were intended— be- 1 Coinmunion, p. 74, 75. 32 THE GREAT MISNOMER, cause, when properly observed, the rite always involves communion with him; communion inti- mate, deep, and vital. Communion with Christ, however, is enjoyed by his people, not only in the celebration of the Supper, but in the performance of many other acts of devotion, such as the prayer of faith — in which there is the sweetest converse with the Lord, they humbly and trustingly speaking to him, and he making loving re- sponse to them — the praise of adoring grati- tude, reverent study of the truth, and holy meditation on its teachings ; all involving a mental and spiritual exercise of the intelligent, conscious agent, without which, the observ- ance of the Lord's Supper, as well as all other outward acts, is but a barren, inert, and nuga- tory thing. Surely, then, the Supper, however sacred, should not usurp and monopolize the character and title which rightly belong to all. But, while so many other things share with the Supper, communion with Christ, none share with the sacred rite, its grand prescribed pur- pose, the commemoration of him, in his suf- ferings and death. This, alone, was ordained THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 33 to be a remembrancer of him, and his mighty passion, throughout all lands, and among all generations of men. No other is so adapted to subserve this high and glorious end, as no other, ( not excepting baptism itself), is of such a nature as at once to embody the most important and precious truths of the gospel, and, in the most tender and affecting manner, to impress them upon the minds and hearts of men. For the holy rite is to be viewed both subjectively and objectively. Subjectively, it is representative of the actual personal sufferings and death of our Lord, and thus of all that they import, the great essential truths of the whole gospel. Objectively, it is commemorative of him, and of all that he, as the embodi- ment of the entire system of salvation, did, and said, and suffered on behalf of his people. VIII. COMMUNION WITH CHRIST. PAET II. II O nourish and strengthen the spiritual life of ^f the believer, through his participation of the bread and wine, symbolic of the body and blood of Jesus, is, doubtless, an important end of the Lord's Supper. As baptism, the ordi- nance of initiation into the church, and out- wardly the beginning of the new life, has some- times been spoken of as symbolically the rite of regeneration, and therefore only once to be administered; so, not inappropriately, has the Lord's Supper, administered only after baptism, and often and regularly repeated, sometimes been called the rite of nutrition. "It is a holy feast, a spiritual repast, a divine entertainment," says the celebrated Isaac THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 35 Barrow, somewhat quaintly, "to which God in kindness invites us; to which, if we come with well-disposed minds,- he there feeds us with most holy and delicious viands, with heavenly manna, with most reviving and cherish- ing liquor. Bread is the staff of life, the most common, most necessary, and most whole- some and savory meat; wine is the most pleasant and wholesome also, the most spright- ly and cordial drink: by them, therefore, our Lord chose to represent that body and blood, by the obligation of which a capacity of life and health was procured to mankind; the taking in which by right apprehension, tasting it by hearty faith, digesting it by careful at- tention and meditation, converting it into our substance by devout, grateful and holy affec- tions, joined with serious and steady resolu- tions of living answerable thereto, will certain- ly support and maintain our spiritual life in a vigorous health and happy growth of grace; refreshing our hearts with comfort and satis- faction unspeakable." 1 Harrow's works, vol. 3, p. 48. $6 THE GREAT JMISNOMEK, That the spiritual nourishment and support of his people, is an important purpose of the Lord's Supper, is manifest from the words of Christ, at the institution of the sacred feast — "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat : this is my body. And he took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins/ 71 Further evidence still we have in those re- markable words of our Lord, in the sixth chapter of John, in which, (even if there be no direct and special reference by Christ to the holy rite, afterward to be instituted, but only to himself in his whole sacrificial and redeeming work,) the principle under consider- ation is clearly involved. Olshausen, commenting on these words of our Lord, and their relation to the sacred Supper, says — "It would indeed undoubtedly ^fatt., xx vi., 26-28. THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 37 seem inappropriate that the Saviour should speak of a rite before its institution, so that no one could understand the subject of his discourse ; but it may be safely concluded, that Christ had at an earlier period touched upon the idea from which the rite afterward arose. That idea is no other than this, that Jesus is the principle of life and nourishment to the new regenerated man, not merely for his soul and his spirit, but also for his glori- fied body. As this principle of life, he offers himself, and gives himself, especially in his death; hence the mention here, verse 51, (as in the institution of the Supper,) of his death; although this is by no means to be deemed the main point of the whole passage." 1 But let us read the words of Christ. Al- though highly figurative, their real spiritual import, when taken in their whole scope, is readily apprehended by every intelligent and discriminating mind : ' 'Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the ^omra., vol. 2, pp. 416-417. 38 THE GREAT MISNOMER, Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you Whoso eateth my flesh, and drin'ceth my blood hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live v(a™ in an er- roneous sense, early became stereotyped as the fixed and unfortunate appellation of our Lord's m e mo rial rite ? But we are not yet done with our authorties. decline and Fall, vol. 2, p. 260— Note. XII. CAUSES OF THE SUPERSEDURE. PART II. ^PEAKING of Tertullian as having "given *j the clue, (which may, indeed, elsewhere be found clearly enough), to the institution of celibacy, as a permanent order in the church," the learned author of the valuable work on "Ancient Christianity and the Doc- trines of the Oxford Tracts," says- — "Satan had his devoted widows, and his virgin priest- esses, and should not Christ have the like ? The well known heathen practices, in this respect, were looked upon with a sort of jealousy, by the ill-judging leaders of the church, who deemed it a point of honor not to be outdone in any extravagant act or prac- tice of devotion by the Gentiles, over whom they might have been content to claim the genuine superiority of real virtue. The same 8o THE GREAT MISNOMER, fatal ambition, as we shall see hereafter, ope- rated as a principal means of perverting the ritual and system of worship, and of spoiling, in all its parts, the simplicity of the gospel." 1 Tertullian, ' : the most vigorous, as well as one of the earliest of the Christian writers, and the contemporary of men who had con- versed with the immediate successors of the apostles," was a man of culture, a lawyer of ability and position, and had been a pagan. In the passage referred to by Taylor, as "giving the clue to the institution of celibacy," Tertullian says---- 4 'Among the heathen, a strict- ness of discipline, in this respect, is observed, which ours do not submit to. But these re- straints the devil imposes on his servants, and he is obeyed ; and hereby stimulates the ser- vants of God to reach an equal virtue. The priests of Gehenna retain their continence; for the devil knows how to destroy men, even in the practice of the virtues; and he cares not, so that he does but slay them, whether it be by the indulging of the flesh, 1 Taylor's Anc. Christ, p. 138. THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 8 1 or by mortifying it." To which Taylor adds — 6i Well would it have been for the church, had this double-dealing of the adversary been thoroughly understood, and so those devices resisted, which were as fatal to the serious and fervent, as the common baits of sensu- ality are to the mass of mankind. A false principle, once assumed, under strong excite- ment, has the power to infatuate even the strongest and the best informed minds, and to lead them to any extent of extravagance." 1 "Deep-rooted superstition," says Warbur- ton, ''is always spreading wide and more wide." And it is hard to eradicate. It seems, indeed, well-nigh immortal. How did that of the early Christian fathers, with wondrous celerity, overspread the world! How long has it endured ! How long does it promise still to endure ! What a huge crop of incredible errors, of unspeakable evils to mankind, has it brought forth, and does it promise still to bring forth! "The imitation of paganism," as Gibbon, (in common with the other authors l Anc. Christ, pp. 138, 139. 82 . THE GREAT MISNOMER, whom we have quoted), phrases it, was, in great part, its product, with its whole "hier- archy of saints and angels, of imperfect and subordinate deities," its "images and relics," its "visions and miracles," and all the other innumerable perversions and abominations of popery 1 Even " after the conversion of the imperial city, the Christians," says Gibbon, "still con- tinued, in the month of February, the annual celebration of the Lupercalia ; to which they ascribed a secret and mysterious influence on the genial powers of the animal and vege- table world." The popish "Jubilees," of a later date, the same author further tells us, were the copy of the "Secular Games," which had been instituted or revived by the pagan emperor Augustus." 1 The puthor of the well-known work on the "Variatioiis of Popery," the distinguished Dr. Edgar, speaking of that great theological fig- ment, Purgatory, first hinted at by Augustine, and subsequently made a fixed and capital 2 See Decline and Fall, vol. 3, p. 493, and vol. 1, p. 293, with Note. THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 83 dogma of the papal church, says — "The ab- surdity has, with some modifications adapting it to another system, been stolen, without be- ing acknowledged, from heathenism ; and appended like a useless and deforming wen, to the fair form of Christianity." 1 As it was in respect to the institutions of celibacy and monachism, the festivals of the Lupercalia, the lustrations and processions, the jubilees, purgatory, and innumerable other unscriptural and baleful things, gradually in- troduced ; the worship of the Virgin, the saints., angels, images, etc., conceived and de- veloped amongst a corrupt and paganized people, so was it respecting the Lord's Sup- per- perverted views of it, at first, and the application to it of erroneous terms, all cul- minating, at last, in paying divine homage to the "consecrated host." There were strong influences leading to this deep and wide-spread defection from truth. On the one hand, a disposition, as has been said, to rival aiid outvie the heathen, in some of 1 Variations of Popery, p. 516. 84 - THE GREAT MISNOMER, their most noted customs and institutions. On the other, a worthier desire to propitiate and concilitate them, and thus to win them to Christianity. Referring to the corruption of the pagan mysteries, Warburton says — "A like corrup- tion, from the same cause, crept even into the church, during the purest ages of it. The primi- tive Christians, in imitation, perhaps, of these pagan rites, or from the same kind of spirit, had a custom of celebrating vigils in the night ; which at first were performed with all becom- ing sancity, but in a little time they were so overrun with abuses, that it was necessary to abolish them." 1 Alluding to the denunciation of the pagan mysteries, by some of the early fathers, the same celebrated author says — "But here comes in the strange part of the story; that after this, they should so studiously and formally transfer the terms, phrases, rites, ceremonies, and discipline of these odious mysteries into our holy religion ; and thereby very early MMvine Legation, vol. 1, p. 225. THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 85 vitiate and deprave what a pagan writer. (Ami- anus Marcellinus, ) could see and acknowl- edge to be absohtta et simplex, as it came out of the hands of its author. Sure, then, it w T as for some more than ordinary veneration the people had for all these mysteries, that could incline the fathers r-f the church to so fatal a counsel ; however, the thing is notorious, and the effects have been severely felt.' 1 It was under the influence of this extra- ordinary "veneration which the people had for the mysteries," as well as, perhaps, from their own secret learnings, in sympathy with the popular mind, that the early fathers, as Casaubon, (cited by Warburton, ) tells us, largely appropriated terms, doctrines, and rites, derived from those mysteries, and applied them to the gospel. They not only called the plain and simple ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, "mysteries," but they also designated them by many other pagan appellations, some- times, as he says, even calling them "orgies.'' The Priests, (as they early began, from Juda- ^ivine Legation, vol. 1, p. 230. 86 THE GREAT MISNOMER, istic and pagan influences combined, to call the humble ministers of Jesus,) bore a variety of pagan titles, such as fmardt^ iwaTapbyoi, leporeXstrrdt, ( initiators into sacred myste- ries J) So, too, did Christians, generally, bear such titles. They were called fjLe/iurj/jJvot, fiuffrdt, fio(7rayd>pjToc : (the initiated into sacred mys- teries. ) And as there were " grades" in the pagan rites, so the enthusiastic and ambitious fathers formed, in accordance with them, grades in the simple Christian rites— the grades of "purification," of "initiation," and of "consummation.'* Cicero, a little before, had spoken of the "better hope," with which the Attic mysteries inspired the dying. So the fathers and leaders of the church, more than matched the high claim of the great philosopher and orator on behalf of those cele- brated rites; teaching that the "mysteries of Christ" — the "sacraments" — gave "health and everlasting life." to all who participated in them; while, for those who neglected them, hope, beyond the grave, there was none. The authors of the vain superstitions of the heathen mysteries, presumed to claim for THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 87 their most favored votaries, the honors of deification. So the Christian leaders, deter- mining not to be outdone, claimed, too, for their mysteries, the same divine power ; main- taining that they who rightly observed them, would rise to the dignity and glory of gods, in the future world ! As the heathen had their tesserce, (pass-words, or tokens, for mu- tual recognition at their secret assemblages and feasts,) so the early Christians had their " tesserae,'' too, for a like purpose. The heathen, dismissing from their sacred assem- blies the uninitiated, employed a fixed formula, and cried out, [we omit the Greek of simi- lar sense with the Latin,] " Procul este Pro- fani !" — Away, ye Profane Ones! So, too, the Christians had their formula of dismission; and before their "secret and terror-striking w mysteries" opened, cried out, through their herald, the "Levite" or Deacon^ " Omnes catechumeni, foras discedite, omnes possessi, omnes non initiati!" — All ye catechumens, all within the sacred precincts, all ye uninitiated ones, go forth! The pagans performed their secret rites by night. So, following them, did the Chris- 88 THE GREAT MISNOMER, tians perform theirs, too, nocturnally. Some of them spoke glowingly of "the most splendid night of vigils." The solemn silence and re- serve maintained with respect to the deeper secrets of their mysteries, by the pagan hiero- phants, were closely imitated by the Chris- tian teachers of the early church. The more sacred of the holy things of the heathen, the incommunicable things, {to. aizoppr^a^) were made known to the more advanced votaries alone ; while the communicable (rd az(popa,) might be taught to others. So the fathers of the church had their communicable and their incommunica- ble things — their to. h.d><>;>a. and their rd d-opp'fjTa" 1 Warburton, having quoted from Casau- bon's Sixteenth Exercitation on the Annals of Baronius, the passage from which the foregoing statements are substantially derived, proceeds to say — "But the worst part of the story is still behind, which the concluding words of the quotation will not suffer me to pass over in silence. These fathers used so 'Div. Leg., vol. 1, pp. 390, 391. THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 59 strange a language in speaking of the Last Supper, that it gave occasion to a corrupt and barbarous church, in after times to in- graft upon it a doctrine more stupendously absurd and blasphemous than ever issued from the mouth of a pagan priest. What is fur- ther to be lamented in the affair is this, that the fathers who so complaisantly suffered themselves to be misled by these mysteries, in their representation of the Christian faith, would not suffer the mysteries to set them right, in the meaning of a term frequently found in the New Testament, and borrowed from those rites, namely, the very word itself, mystery ; which, amongst the men from whom it was taken, did not signify the revealing of a thing incomprehensible to human reason; but the revealing of a thing kept hid, and , secreted, which yet, in its nature, was very plain and intelligible/' 1 In addition to all this, it may be proper to say that the heathen had, in connection with their mysteries, not only, as we have 'Div. Leg., vol. I, p. 891. 90 THE GREAT MISNOMER, seen, ' 'Vigils," but "the Confessional" and "Penance," and " Probation" preparatory to imitation into the greater mysteries — a proba- tion strikingly resembling that of the cate- chumens, or candidates for baptism and ini- tiation into the church and its mysteries. Is it an accidental coincidence that the post- apostolic Christians had all these things in com- mon with the pagans 2 Hardly! That this coincidence was designed, and delib- erately effected, by the early Christians, has been, perhaps, already sufficiently shown; but "to make assurance doubly sure," we give additional testimony, equally learned and un- impeachable. "We have already mentioned," says Dean Waddington, "the copious transfusion of heathen ceremonies into the Christian 7C>orship, which had taken place before the end of the fourth century, and to a certain extent paganized, (if we may so express it), the outward form and aspect of religion; those ceremonies became more general, and more numerous, and so far as the calamities of the times would per- mit, more splendid, in the age which followed. THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 9 1 To console the convert for the loss of his favor ite festivals, others, of a different name, but similar description, were introduced." 1 Mosheim, speaking of the church in the fourth century, says that there was "a pre- posterous desire of imitating the pagan rites, and of blending them with the Christian wor- ship. The public processions and supplica- tions," continues he, "by which the pagans endeavored to appease their gods were now adopted into the Christian worship and cele- brated with great pomp and magnificence in several places The virtues which had for- merly been ascribed to the heathen tempos, to their lustrations, to the statues of their gods and heroes, were now attributed to Christian churches, to water consecrated by certain forms of prayer, and to the images of holy men. And the same privileges that the former enjoyed under the darkness of paganism, were conferred upon the latter, under the light of the gospel, or rather under that cloud of superstition that was obscuring its glory. It is true that as yet Church History, p. 118. 92 THE GREAT MISNOMER, images were not very common; nor were there any statues at all. But it is at the same time as undoubtedly certain, as it is ex- travagant and monstrous, that the worship of the martyrs was modelled by degrees, according to the religious services that were, paid to the gods before the coming of Christ. m Recurring to this subject, in another con- nection, the same distinguished historian says — "The rites and institutions by which the Greeks, Romans, and other nations, had for- merly testified their religious veneration for fictitious deities, were now adopted, with some slight alterations, by Christian bishops, and employed in the service of the true God. We have already mentioned the rea- sons alleged for this imitation, so proper to disgust all who have a just sense of the native beauty of genuine Christianity. These fervent heralds of the gospel, whose zeal outran their candor and ingenuity, imagined that the nations would receive Christianity with more facility, when they saw the rites Ecclesiastical History, vol. 1, p. 282. Maclaine's Edition. THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 93 and ceremonies to which they were accus- tomed, adopted in the church, and the same worship paid to Christ and his martyrs, which they had formerly offered to their idol dei- ties. Hence it happened, that in these times, [but little more than two hundred years after the apostles], the religion of the Greeks and Romans differed very little in its external appearance, from that of the Christians. Both had a most pompous and splendid ritual. Gorgeous robes, mitres, tiaras, wax tapers, crosiers, processions, lustrations, images, gold and silver vases, and many such circum- stances of pageantry, were equally to be seen in the heathen temples and the Christian churches." 1 Edgar, having spoken of "the use and wor- ship of images adopted from gnosticism or gen- tilistn" as an " ugly excrescence," an "adventi- tious appendage of Christianity," briefly indi- cates the stages, under the ever-intensifying spirit of paganism, of that idolatrous practice. "The veneration of the cross, and of relics," he Ecclesiastical History, vol. 1, pp. 301, 302. 94 THE GREAT MISNOMER, says, "was first introduced. The emblem of re- demption, or the remains of a saint, were pre- served with a superstitious devotion. The portrait or the statue of the saint or the Saviour succeeded, as more striking memorials of holiness or salvation. The painted or sculptured effigy, introduced, indeed, with cau- tion, was allowed to adorn the oratory, instruct the ignorant, warm the frigid, or gratify the prepossessions of the convert from gentilism. The new portraits and statues, though execu- ted in defiance of taste, spread from east to west, gratified the imagination of the supersti- tious, ornamented the Grecian temple, or Ro- man basilic, and finally received the adoration of the delighted and degraded votary. m Neander, though he never fails, with his sweet and generous charity, to make out the best case possible for the early Christians, evincing no sympathy with any who might be inclined, in questionable cases, to find evi- dence of their conformity with paganism — the light of his own pure and loving spirit Variations of Popery, pp. 470, 471. THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 95 constantly softening and relieving the dark- est shades of their character and con- duct — is yet constrained by his superior re- gard for truth, to add the weight of his great name, to the overwhelming proof of that un- wise, (to use no harsher term,) emulation and imitation of the pagans, which so signally marked the worship of the post-apostolic church. Discussing the Lord's Supper, he speaks of "the comparison that was made between the Christian worship and the Grecian mysteries" and of "the transference of the conception of the mysteries to the holy Stepper" and of the opinion thus engendered and widely prevalent, that "one ought not to speak of those holy things before the uninitiated." 1 Speaking of the confession of faith of the early Christians as made orally, rather than in writing, he says — "In later times, a disposition to dip into mysteries quite alien from the spirit of the simple gospel, which disposition had first found entrance into the Alexandrian church, from her leaning to an accommodation with the pagan mysteries, and from 'Hist. Ch. Rel. and Ch., vol. 1, pp. 327, (note,) 328, 329. g6 THE GREAT MISNOMER, the influence of the Neo-Platonic mysticism, gave to this custom the meaning that the most sacred things ought not to be entrusted to writing — [a hint at the rationale and the source of the papal doctrine of ' 'tradition"] — lest they should be produced among the uninitiated, and thereby become profaned, — while yet the scripture, the holiest tradition of the divine, might come into the hands of every heathen, while the apologist felt no scruples in presenting before the heathen, the inmost mysteries of Christian doctrine !" In a note upon the passage last cited, the great historian further remarks — "The like play and parade about mysteries, to which more importance came to be at- tached tlian they originally possessed, after- wards led to the invention of the obscure, vague, and unhistorical idea of a disciplina arcani, (regimen of mystery,) of which, from its very vagueness and want of foundation, men could make whatever they pleased." 1 Now, if the post-apostolic Christians were so deeply imbued with the spirit of paganism, l Hist. Oh. Eel. andCh., vol. 1., p. 308, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 97 and so readily adopted the heathen ideas, doctrines, institutions, terms, rites and prac- tices, which we have mentioned, with many- others which it were tedious to name, is it to be at all wondered at, if they de- rived the idea of the Kotwawia 3 (the Fellow- ship and its Communion^) as it was applied to the Lord's Supper, from the same source? We are persuaded that no dispassionate and candid mind can for a moment think so, seeing that such an instance of their adop- tion of pagan ideas, and a pagan form of expression, is as nothing, when compared with other instances of pagan conformity, which we have given. But, let us look at this matter a little more closely. XIII. CAUSES OF THE SUPERSEDURE. PART III. H HERE were, among the ancient heathen, ^f certain societies or brotherhoods, referred to by Catullus, Cicero. Tacitus, and others, which were called by the Greeks Kovjotviai 7 and by the Romans Sodalitia, (Fellowships ) Cicero, viewing some of them chiefly in their social aspect, has called them banquet- ing clubs, though he also speaks of their feasts in honor of the gods. Tacitus, regard- ing them rather in their religious than in their social character, or, perhaps, alluding to others, has represented them as composed of "a sort of priests who formed together a college." Many of those fellowships had rites and ceremonies similar to, if they were not iden- tified with, the more august and wide-spread THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 99 mysteries of which we have already spoken. In honor of their particular divinities, they celebrated rich and splendid feasts, and per- formed other solemn and imposing services. Paul and John are supposed by some ex- positors to have had in mind~ those fellow- ships, when they wrote several striking passages of their epistles. 1 Macknight, after speaking of the use of the term Kowwvia, in the New Testament, says, — "Kovjwvia also signifies a fellowship or company of men, joined together by some common bond, for the purpose of obtaining certain advantages by means of their union. Among the heathen, there were a variety of such fellowships, called by the Latins Soda- litia. And because many of them were in- stituted for celebrating the mysteries or se- cret worship of their gods, the particular god in honor of whom the fellowship was insti- tuted, was considered as the head of it; and the author of the benefits which the associated expected to derive from their fellow- T 8ee 1 Cor. i. 9; 2 Cor. vi. 14-18 ; 1 Jno. i. 3-7. 100 THE GREAT MISNOMER, ship in his worship." The same writer also says — "In this sense the word fellowship is with great propriety applied to the disciples of Christ, united by their common faith into one society or church, for worshiping the only true God, through the mediation of His Son Jesus Christ; and for receiving from him, through the same mediation, the great blessings of protection and direction in the present life, and of pardon and eternal happiness in the life to come. 7 ' He further says, that, "agreeably to this account of the Christian fellowship, the apostle contrasts the heads thereof with the heads of the heathen fellowships." 1 The feast of the xotvatvta and its accom- panying rites, or at least participation in them, according to Chandler, took the name of the xotvwvia itself "The Greeks likewise," says he, in his note on Eph. v. 11, "used the word xotvwvta to denote a participation in their religious rites and mysteries, and in the bene- fits supposed to be procured by them." 2 J an the Epistles, 1 Jno. i. 3— note 3. 2 Ib., Jno. i. 3 -note 3; Eph. v. 11— note 1. THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. IOI, Admission to these "rites and mysteries" was regarded as a most distinguished privi- lege; and only the initiated, as in the case of the more general and famous mysteries, were permitted to be present at their ob- servance. Multitudes of their pagan votaries became Christians. Many of their old ideas and old sympathies still remained, and clung tenaciously to them. Waddington, alluding to this rapid influx of heathen converts into the church, says — " These naturally sought in the new religion, for any resemblance to the popular ceremonies of the old. nx They felt, when they gave in their adhesion to Christ, that they must have their Christian as they had had their pagan xowwvia, and conform the feast in honor of Jesus, the head and divinity of their new "fellowship," to that in honor of their former divinities. Now, they found in the church, a ready-made "fellowship," and in the Lord's Supper, its appropriate feast. And as they had called their heathen rites, mysteries, and invested l History of the Church, p. 154. 102 THE GREAT MISNOMER, them with the utmost sacredness, and had excluded from participation in them and the feasts with which they were connected, all but the initiated; so, after becoming Chris- tians, they, and all under their influence, rivalling and outdoing the unconverted heathen, even in their "greater mysteries," called the Lord's Supper, and its "concomitants," not only mysteries, but mysteries "terrible," "as- tounding," "ineffable" — upon which even the hierarchies of heaven could not loo'< with- out fear and trembling — and, with an austere and rigorous strictness, excluded all but "the initiated," (the members of the church,) from participation in them. They preached before others, sang and read the scriptures before them, and gave various instructions to the catechumens, or probationers; but the house was cleared, with the imperative formula al- ready noticed, when they commenced the mysterious preliminaries and awful adjuncts of the "dreadful feast" of the Church, their new xotvwvta, or fellowship. Then, those ini- tiated into the "tremendous mysteries" of the new religion, the Christian zoiva/vta, after va- THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 103 rious mystic and magical manipulations, broke bread, and drank wine, together. And the feast which they thus celebrated, after the manner of the pagan xw»(ov{a, readily took the name, as before, of the zowwvia itself and was called the zoivtovfa, or the Communion. And thus the Supper of the Lord came to be regarded, in the language of the devout and erudite Isaac Taylor, 1 as "a communion with the Church" or, "the rite tvhich sealed and sig- nified thai communion " rather than as the sacred and divine rite which commemorated Christ, and the great salvation wrought by him for man- kind. Now, in view of the instances adduced, of emulation and imitation of the heathen, by the early Christians, their adoption of pagan ideas, terms, doctrines, rites, and ceremonies innu- merable ; in view of the usus loquendi of the New Testament writers respecting our Lord's great commemorative rite, according to which, while that rite is called the Lord's Supper,' 1 the *Anc. Christ., p. 139. H Cor. xi. !» 104 THE GREAT MISNOMER, "breaking of bread, ' n and "the Lord's table"' 1 it is never, as a rite, called the communion — ^the single instance of the use, in connection with the Supper, of a term importing communion, having been shown to furnish no warrant for the naming of the rite); in view of the fact, that the idea of fellowship between believers, not prominent, if involved at all, in 1 Cor. x. 16, 17, is not elsewhere prominent, in connec- tion with the ordinance, but that, on the other hand, another idea is conspicnously so ; in view of the prevalent spirit of self exag- geration, of which we have spoken, and from which, certainly, the early Christians not more than others, were exempt ; in view of all this, we respectfully submit, that it is extremely im- probable^ if not impossible, that the name in ques- tion, the great theological and ecclesiastical mis- nomer, as we are constrained to regard it, should have corrre from the New Testament, or from apostolic usage ; and that it is, therefore, natu- rally and logically, (as we think we have shown that it is historically), to be traced to the source indicated above. ^cts ii. 42, 46 ; xx. 7, 11. a l Cor. x. 21. THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 105 These views being just, all those who accept the renowned declaration of the great Chilling- worth,— " The Bible, I say, the Bible only, is the religion of Protestants ! m — will consistently give its true designation to our Lord's great memorial rite, and discourage its supersedure, with that of the great object of the rite, by an inappropriate and unscriptural appellation, against which are so many cogent reasons, already to some extent indicated, but which we now proceed, a little more formally, yet briefly, to state. ^hilliugworth's Works, vol. 2, p. 410. Oxford Ed. ^^><^3^^><^_5? XIV. ARGUMENTS AGAINST SUPERSEDURE. jJJHILE, as we have so fully seen, in pre- JIP vious sections of this treatise, there is no sufficient reason for regarding the Lord's Sup- per as the rite of mutual fellowship between believers, and of therefore naming it the com- munion, there are not wanting reasons, and rea- sons of great weight, against it. 1. The word is ambiguous. In the apos- tolic age, it was applied to the contributions made by Christians in aid of their poorer brethren. "It hath pleased them of Macedo- nia and Achaia," says Paul, "to make a certain contribution, {v.oivwvia^) for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem." 1 It was likewise applied to contributions for other purposes. In the third and fourth centuries, it was employed to desig- nate union in prayer. 1 It was also used to desig- 1 Rom. xv. 26. 2 C'irtis on Communion, pp. 79, 80. THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 107 nate the performance of ecclesiastical functions} And it is still constantly applied to other things besides the sacred Supper. We have commu- nion with Christ, and with his people, in the proper observance of the ordinance of Baptism. Why, then, might not that divine rite, as well as the Supper, be called the Communion ? The breadth and pliability of import and of applica- tion which pertain to this term, constitute, of themselves, a sufficient reason against the em- ployment of it as the fixed and special appellation of the Supper, or, indeed, of any single rite or service. Such an unwise and illogical as well as unscriptural use of it, has caused the utmost confusion of ideas in the Christian world, and produced an incalculable amount of profitless and damaging discussion. 2. This term, as applied to the Lord's Sup- per, cannot, as we have seen, stand the test of the axiom laid down at the beginning of this discussion. It is not, as a name, strictly significant of the thing named. It does not properly represent and define it. Instead of ^Hammond on the Canons, pp. 50, 51. 108 THE GREAT MISNOMER, clearly expressing the one essential idea of the sacred rite, as a commemoration of Christ, his sufferings and death, and the great salvation achieved through them for his peo- ple, it obscures that idea. Nay, it substitutes for it another and totally different idea. 3. It involves the error of putting the in- cidental and the accidental, for the necessary and the essential — the error of putting the special for the general, the particular for the universal — the error of regarding the celebration together, by believers, of the Lord's Supper, which is, at best, but a particular act of fraternal love and mutual recognition, as the one great all- embracing demonstration of Christian fellowship and sympathy. 4. Exalting the united celebration of the Supper above all other exhibitions of such fellowship and sympathy, it most unreason- ably, as well as unscripturally, makes it the test of their value. The sweetest and the noblest communion, is, as we have said, an active, intelligent, and voluntary exercise of the soul, — a matter of mental and spiritual THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 109 consciousness. Such communion is enjoyed in loving converse and companionship, and in a thousand acts of united work and worship. But all these, it appears, must go for nothing, if there be no united celebration of the Lord's Supper, no so-called "communion" at the table of the Lord. 5. While the partaking together of the holy feast, by those who celebrate it, is only one of the many things in which communion with Christ and with his people may be en- joyed, and by no means the chief, it is made, by the error in question, to usurp and monop- olize the character and appellation properly per- taining to all the modes and forms of Chris- tian communion. 6. The offspring of error, it has been itself fruitful of errors. It has led to grave mis- takes respecting the nature, the administration., and the proper participants of the sacred Supper. (a) Giving, as we have seen, in one aspect of the rite, exaggerated views of its observ- ance, as a mysterious and inexplicably benefi- cial communion with Christ, the false name it 110 THE GREAT MISNOMER, bears has led to administrations of the Supper, for which there is neither apostolic precept nor example. Representing it as possessed of essential intrinsic efficacy, and as being, in some sort, even necessary to salvation, that potent but erroneous appellation has led to private administrations of the ordinance to the aged and infirm, to the sick and the dying, who could not observe it publicly with the church, and to both public and private ad- minstrations of it, as a means of saving grace to the unregenerate and the unbelieving. In the early ages, the error which has en- shrined itself in that false name, even led to the practice of a private self -administration of the rite. Basil the Great, living and writing in the fourth century, said that in emergen- cies, it was lawful for one to administer to himself the sacred elements — "to take the communion with his own hand." 1 As we have also seen, it has led, in con- nection with other hurtful influences, to greater M&isil, IV., 485 — " 7V y v y.mvuwiav Xafifidvstv ry ifiia y set))." THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. Ill evils still, — to the most monstrous extrava- gances and superstitions that could be con- ceived; to the Romish dogma of transubstan- tiation, with all the ridiculous and shocking mummeries and deadly errors of the "mass;" to the Lutheran dogma of "consubstantiation;" to the scarcely less absurd and preposterous conceits of Puseyism; as well as to all the errors of those, of whatever party, who sup- pose the simple rite to possess, in itself, a divine and saving efficacy. (b) Regarding the rite, in another aspect of it, as essentially an intercommunion of be- lievers, it has led, along with erronous con- ceptions of the nature of the church, to a generally loose and lawless practice respecting it, which cannot, we think, be too deeply deprecated. It has been assumed that all who love the Lord, and who love each other, have the right to manifest their love at his table, without regard to any other supposed scriptural qualification. Hence, persons of all the Christian sects, and of no sect at all, have been often brought together promiscuously 112 THE GREAT MISNOMER, to celebrate the holy ordinance. Thus has the rite which Christ bequeathed as a precious heritage to his church alone, been taken out of the church, and administered indiscriminately to heterogeneous masses of men without any proper ecclesiastical organization, to the sub- version of order, and the sacrifice of the purity of the church. (c) Combining and exaggerating both the classes of views just indicated, the error in- volved in the false appellation of the Supper, has sometimes led to extraordinary celebrations of it by convocations of men and women of various nationalities and sects, for which there is no scriptural warrant. Great mixed multitudes, without any proper church organization, improvise or elaborately arrange the most imposing observances of the simple church rite, as if they were actual churches of Christ, and even entitled to more than ordi- nary church privileges and honors. To many, all this may seem broad, beauti- ful, * and eminently Christian; but whatever of beauty there may be about it, is a false beauty— that of error rather than truth, of dis- THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 113 order rather than order ; its breadth, liber- ality, large-hearted charity, the product rather of human sentiment and conventional usage, than the fruit of the holy truth and the Holy Spirit of God, which, all-consistent and har- monious, can never be at issue with them- selves. 7. The error under consideration, while as- suming to exalt, really degrades the holy or- dinance — while claiming to honor, it dishonors our Lord. 8. Inciting to unworthy clamors for the exhi- bition of a spurious liberality, it often leads to cruel misrepresentation of many of the most conscientious and faithful of the follow- ers of Christ 9. Ostensibly inspired by desire for har- mony and peace, for love and sympathy, it often excites antipathies, and stirs up bitter- ness and strife, between those who are breth- ren, and should, at least, be friends. 10. In fine, failing to realize practically, the promised benefits of its theory, this great 114 THE GREAT MISNOMER, error causes the world to scoff and gainsay obstructs the propagation of the truth, retards the progress of the Redeemer's kingdom, and hinders the salvation of perishing souls. Thus have we shown, by numerous and weighty reasons, that, the prime object of the Lord's Supper being to commemorate the suffer- ings and death of Christ on behalf of his pet 'pie, and not to testify their fellowship with each other, the holy rite is improperly called, the Com- munion. If it be said that the establishment of this position, effects nothing in favor of those who advocate a restricted observance of the Sup- per, and nothing in the interest of an enlarged Christian charity, inasmuch as it only substi- tutes a restricted commemoration for a resfricted communion^ we reply — First, that we are neither arguing particu- larly in the interest of a party, nor in that of a universal charity among the followers of Christ, whatever may be our own personal views and sympathies in those regards; but we are arguing specially in the interest of THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 1 1 5 what we esteem the truth, being fully as- sured that if the truth be vindicated and established, neither the interests of any party that deserves to be supported, nor those of universal Christian charity can be harmed, but that they will rather be strengthened and supported; for they all alike rest upon the truth. Secondly, and specially, we reply that, as we have seen, the enjoyment of Christian fellowship, and the commemoration of Christ, are different things, and by no means co-extensive; that the former is vastly broader than the latter, and does not necessarily involve it; that one is a general internal condition and state of the soul, while the other is only a particular outward action) not different, as such, from a thousand other outward actions of believers, which are never thought of as tests of mutual recogni- tion and fellowship, each one being performed under the dictates of private judgment according to ITS OWN LAW. But this matter will be still clearer, and more satisfactory, when we consider, as we n6 THE GREAT MISNOMER. now proceed to do, in the light of what has already been established, the law governing the celebration of the sacred Supper. XV. LAW OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. PART I. J*' ROM the facts and principles set forth in ^1 the foregoing discussion, in which the Lord's Supper has been constantly regarded as pri- marily and essentially a feast in commemora- tion of Christ and his passion, and subordi- nately a feast of spiritual nutrition to those who worthily partake of it, the law of the Lord's Supper, may be readily determined. In the light of those facts and principles, we clearly see for whom the sacred feast was provided, and who, therefore, are — 1. Its proper participants. Having for its grand object, the commemoration by his people of their adored Lord, in his sufferings and death, as well as their own spiritual nourishment and support, it is obvious that they only can properly partake of it. They alone, enjoy Il8 THE GREAT MTSNOMEK, the supreme benefits of Christ's great sacri- fice. They alone have a true appreciation of it, a genuine and abiding interest in it. For these reasons, they only are qualified intelli- gently and heartily to celebrate it. With all others, its observance is necessarily nothing more than an outward and lifeless formality, a heartless ceremonial. But, to be a little more specific and par- ticular, we remark, in view of the conclusions reached in the preceding discussion, that the proper participants of the Lord's Supper, are (a) Those who love the Lord. Only such can sincerely and becomingly commemorate him and his great redeeming work. Such were the constituents of his first church, the church of the apostles, by whom the holy rite was first celebrated. (b) Those who loyally obey him —striving, hon- estly and habitually, to ' • walk in all his or- di nances and commandments blameless." (c) Those ivho are truly spiritual. Such were those who first partook of the Lord's Supper. They were those, who, having been "born of THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 119 the Spirit," were "new creatures in Christ Jesus," and "partakers of the divine nature," Only such really love and loyally obey him. *' The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." 1 Moreover, only spiritual persons can appropriate and receive profit from the spirit- ual nutriment furnished at the sacred feast. To all others, it would be unsuited and inju- rious. "The blood, which goes into the lungs a dark inert mass, poisoned with car- bonic acid, comes from them of a bright scarlet, having parted with its poison,, and absorbed the oxygen of the atmosphere. It Is thus vitalized, and made capable of sus- taining life. So in the gospel the sacraments need to be vitalized by a living faith, in the experience of each professor, without which they only carry with them poison and death into every ramification of the spiritual system to which they extend." 2 As we have in another place intimated, some have recommended the holy rite as a means of grace to the unregenerate and the unbe- l Eom. viii., 7. 2 Curtis' Prog. Bap. Prine., p. 74. 120 THE GREAT MISNOMER, lieving. Others have administered it, we have also said, as the means of salvation to the sick and the dying. Both these classes of teachers, misapprehend the real nature and design of the ordinance, and egregiously per- vert it. Neither reason nor scripture sanctions their teachings. Such teachings may be prompted by zeal, but it is "zeal without knowledge.' 7 They may be inspired by hu- mane and generous feeling, but it is feeling neither produced nor guided by a just appre- ciation of divine truth, or by a proper esti- mate of man's essential character and real condition. Though in another place he teaches, with strange inconsistency, a different doctrine, Knapp, after speaking of the Supper as "a significant sermon on the death of Jesus" is con- strained, .by the force of truth, which he manifestly loves, and which, for the most part, he ably advocates, to say that the Supper "requires, in order to a proper celebration of it, a personal experience of the benefits of this death." 1 Christ. Theol., p. 499 THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 121 The Lord's Supper, though involving the use of physical elements, is a symbolic spirit- ual rite. What congeniality, then, can the carnal heart have with it? What susceptibility of impression by it? What power of appre- ciation and appropriation of its benefits ? Can the mere material substances of bread and wine, received by the dying unbeliever, alter his spiritual character or state ? Can these sub- stances, received by the carnal man, whether sick or in health, inspire the heart that is enmity against God, with a true and supreme love for him? What talismanic power of matter over mind, surpassing all the wonders of Greek or Arabian fiction, were this! What a mighty and marvelous opus operatum! XVI. LAW OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. PART II. j[jERSONS having the qualities above indi- 4f cated, in order to be rightful participants of the Lord's Supper, must also be - (d) Members of the visible church. Whilst it is clear, from the essential nature and design of the Lord's Supper, as we have considered it, that only the real followers • of Christ are entitled to the privileges of the sacred feast, it is also clear, from the simple scriptural ac- count which we have given of its first cele- bration, that it is designed for them, even, only in an organized or church capacity. Jesus instituted the Supper with his twelve apostles. As a sort of close corporation, they have sometimes been called the college of apostles. We have no objection to the term. They were a college. But that college was also THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 1 23 a church. It was the first church — the church instituted by Christ himself, and over which he personally presided. Its constituents were his hxXrjfTca, his little but divinely honored assembly, called out by himself from the rest of men, to be about him, devoutly to worship him, to observe his ordinances, to transact the business of his kingdom, to establish it, and to extend it throughout the world. Having adduced weighty and conclusive evidence to prove that the apostles had been previously baptized, Wiberg says — "That the eleven at the institution of the Supper, com- posed a Christian church, is also certain. By a church of Christ is meant, according to the Augsburg Confession, Art. 7th., 'a congrega- tion of holy persons, in which the gospel is rightly taught, and the sacraments rightly ad- ministered.' Now we ask, Was not the gospel rightly taught by our Lord and Master ? Were not the disciples rightly baptized, and did they not receive the true Supper from its Institutor? As this cannot be denied, it fol- lows that the Supper, even on this occasion, 124 THE GREAT MISNOMER, was celebrated in common by a regular church of Christ." 1 There were other disciples besides the apos- tles; ' 'above five hundred," Paul tells us. 2 But they were not formally connected with the apostles as a body, a church. Those disci- ples loved their Lord. Many of them would have died for him. But they were, as yet, unorganized, and without the pale of the church visible. Hence they were not at the Supper. Not even Mary, the mother of Jesus, nor the other holy women who so devoutly and lovingly ministered to him, nor the sera- phic Stephen, probably already a believer, 3 and soon — after sealing his glorious testimony with his blood --to follow his divine Lord into his heavenly kingdom. Subsequently, these disciples were organized, by union with the church of the apostles, which constituted with them the church at Jerusalem. Then, at once, as formal and Christ. Bap., pp. 295, 296. 2 1 Cor., xv., 6. 3 Epiphanius, it is said, with whom Fleming, in his Christology, agrees, regarded him as one of the "Seventy." THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. I 25 regular members of the church, they partook of the Supper of the Lord, commemorating, with the apostles, his sufferings and death, in the manner, and for the purpose, which he had prescribed. They assembled on the first day of the week, and on other occasions — daily, indeed, at first — to worship him, and to break the bread which represented his body broken for them, and to drink the wine which symbolized his blood shed on their behalf. We never, however, read of a portion of them, whether large or small, coming together apart from the organized body, the church proper, to solemnize the Supper. It was not then, nor is it now, competent for two, or ten, half a hundred, or more, professed believers, casually coming together, to improvise, if we may so speak, a celebration of the holy rite. Neither was it then, nor is it now, compe- tent for the administrators of the rite, to give the holy Supper to individuals or companies of their brethren, apart from the church. Referring to the account given of the Lord's Supper, by those early fathers, Justin and Irenaeus, and to the origin of the practice I 26 THE GREAT MISNOMER. by private parties, and by individuals absent from the formal celebration of the rite by the church, of partaking of "elements pre- viously consecrated" in the church, Neander says — "The idea at bottom, was, that a com- munion could properly have its right signifi- cance, only in the midst of a church; the com- munion of persons absent, of individuals, was to be considered, therefore, as only a continu- ation of that communion of the whole body of the church : n Christ, Creator and upholder of all things, has established perfect system and order throughout his vast material rea'm, and they are always maintained. Can anything less be expected in his more glorious spiritual realm ? Having established a sublime, however simple and outwardly humble rite, to be observed by his people, throughout all generations, in loving memory of himself, he left it not with- out fixed and clearly defined law, to protect it from neglect and corruption, irregularity and disorder. 'Hist. Ch. Rel. and Ch., vol. 1, p. 332— note. . XVII LAW OF THE LORD'S SUPPER, PART III. JjAVING seen that in consonance with the Sff nature and design of the Lord's Supper, as we have viewed it, the true people of God are the only rightful participants of it; and that even they, as isolated individuals, or loose, unorganized, promiscuous companies, cannot properly partake of it, but can do so, in an orderly and decorous manner, accord ing to the teachings of Christ and his apos- tles, only as an organized body or church, we see, in the light of the same divine teaching, who are the proper constituents of such a body, and therefore qualified and entitled to par- ticipate of the sacred Supper. They are — (e) Baptized believers — those who, having believed in Christ, have publicly confessed him, and taken the outward as well as inward 128 THE GREAT MISNOMER, posture and character of his friends and follow- ers ; those who, assuming the badge of the Chris- tian brotherhood, the uniform of the soldiery of the great Captain, have "put him on in baptism" — those, in a word, who, upon a credible profession of justifying faith, have been baptized into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Such were the first participants of the rite ; the constituents of the first church, the church of the apostles. The church of Christ is spoken of in the New Testament as a body, of which he is the head, and of which he is also the informing soul. Indeed, the union between him and his people is regarded as so close and intimate, that they are constantly represented as one. They are assimilated to him, spiritually homo- geneous with him, have his mind, breathe his spirit. Having been "accepted in the Beloved," they are loyal to him as their King, obedient to him as their Master, faith- ful to him as their Friend. Such were those who composed the church personally consti- tuted by Christ himself, and of which he was the divine Pastor. They gave every THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. I'2g '-evidence that was possible, of their devotion and consecration to him. They left all and followed him; they encountered hardship and toil for him; they did lovingly and loyally aM that he bade them do; they braved persecu- tion, peril and death for him. John, the harbinger of Jesus, had bidden men repent and be baptized, believing on him who was to come. Multitudes obeyed -him. Some of the apostles, as is generally conceded, were of the number, and there is reason for believing that others, if not all. were. Robert Hall, speaking of the apostles, in connection with this matter, but denying that John's and Christian baptism were iden- tical, says— ci It is almost certain that some, probably most of them, had been baptized by John." 1 But, if any of them immediately obeyed not John, there is still no reason to question the fact of their baptism. We know that Christ preached substantially as John preach ed^ and like him baptized; that he everywhere a HalPs Works, vol. 1, \\ 303. I30 THE GREAT MISNOMER, commanded men not only to repent and be- lieve the gospel, but also to be baptized; and that he, through his disciples, actually admin- istered the rite to great multitudes — to more even than did John, Would he fail to urge upon his chosen and most highly favored ones, the sacred duties he so strenuously enjoined upon others? Or, would they, who had shown, as we have seen, such wondrous devotion, resist his will in respect to any of his in- junctions; and, especially, while so earnestly pressing those injunctions upon others, as they all unquestionably did. No one can believe it. He bade all men repent, believe, and be baptized. He said to his apostles, in giving them the great commission — "Go ye, there- fore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen." 1 Or, as it is* rendered by Mark — " Go ye into all the IMatt, xxviii., 19, 20. THEOLOGICAL ANT> ECCLESIASTICAL. 131 world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be damned." 1 Now, the principle of the commision, as it re- spects baptism, was ever the same. It applied before the formal annunciation of that great -charter, as well as after it; at the beginning of Christ's ministry, as well as at its close. It -bound the earlier disciples of Jesus, as well as those of a later day. None accepted and •submitted to the will of their divine Lord, whether formally or informally expressed, with with greater alacrity than did the apostles. None were wiser than they. And they would not fail to add to the force of their precepts -respecting baptism, the weight of their own example. ' 'When our Lord himself," says Wiberg, ''submitted to baptism in order to 'fulfill all righteousness;' when he at the same time de- clared that his followers, together with him, ought to fulfill the same righteousness, or all the several appomtments of the heavenly Father; when he, too, declared t n at baptism was a 1 Mark, xvL, 15, 16. 1^2 THE GREAT MISNOMER, part of the 'counsel of God, 7 and expressed his sore displeasure with such as 'rejected this counsel of God against themselves, being: not baptized f of John, (Luke viii. 30); when John the Baptist 'was sent from God, ta make ready a people prepared for the Lord/ (Luke L 17, John i. 6), and for this pur- pose 'baptized with the baptism of repentance,' (Acts xix. 4); when the first disciples of Christ also had been the disciples of John. (John i. 37, Acts i. 22); and when they themselves, on the command of our Saviour,, baptized others — is it indeed conceivable that they would have neglected or refused to be baptized: 11 The objection sometimes urged, that the baptism of John, and even that of Christ himself, (through his disciples), was not Chris- tian baptism, has always seemed to us most singular and unreasonable, and utterly without weight. Dagg, speaking of this matter, says — "The first Supper was administered to the apostles, Some of these had been baptized l Christ. Bap., pp. 294, 295. THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 1 33 by John ; and since the disciples made by Jesus in his personal ministry, were also bap- tized, we are warranted to conclude that all the apostles had been baptized. If it be denied that John's baptism, and the baptism admin- istered under the immediate direction of Christ, during his personal ministry, were Christian baptism, we call for proof. * * When Paul was made an apostle, before he entered on his work, he was commanded to be baptized. From some cause, the other apostles were not under this obligation. We account for the difference, by the supposition that they had already received what was substantially the same as the baptism administered to Paul." 1 To the same purport is the language of the distinguished German theologian, Knapp, whom we have already, in other connections, sev- eral times cited. "The practice of the first Christian church, " says he, "confirms the point that the baptism of John was consid- ered essentially the same with Christian bap- tism. For those who acknowledged that they had professed, by the baptism of John, to be- ^anual of Theology, Part II, pp. 214, 215, r^4 THE GREAT MISNOMER, lieve in Jesus as the Christ, and who m consequence of this had become, in fact, his disciples, and had believed in him, were not, in a single instance, baptized again into Christ, because this was considered as having been 1 already done. Hence we do not find that any apostle, or any other disciple of Jesus, was the second time baptized; not even that. Apollos mentioned in Acts xviii. 25, because he had before believed in Jesus as Christ, although he had received only the baptism of John." 1 To the above cited authorities, of the highest class, which might be increased in- definitely, we add the great name of Turrettin, whose works are amongst the ablest of the learned productions of the seventeenth cen- tury, and a standard in some of our best theological institutions. He maintains, with great learning and force of argument, that "the baptism of John was the same essential- ly with that of Christ," or Christian baptism. 2 ' Christ. Theol. r p. 485. 2 Op., torn. III., DeBap.,Qu8est^xvi.,jx/ss/w. Ed- inburgh Ed, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 135 Thus we see that the members of Christ's first church, as constituted by Himself, were all baptized believers. The later members of that church were like their -elder brethren. So were those of all the other churches con-^ stituted by the apostles and their coadjutors-. The divine record assures us that they re- pented, believed, and were baptized; then were added to the company of the disciples, that is, were received into the church; then broke bread with their brethren, in the regular and formal observance of the Lord's Supper. That this was the invariable order of proce- dure, is so clear to every earnest and thought- ful reader of the New Testament, that we think it wholly unnecessary to attempt any formal proof, or to fortify our statement by quotations from the sacred record. Now, the apostolic churches are the ac- knowledged models of all properly constituted churches. Such churches, therefore, whenever or wherever established, are composed of bap- tized believers. From the very nature and design of the 136 THE GREAT MISNOMER. Lord's Supper, then, as understood by those 1 among whom it was first established, and by whom it was first observed, it is clear that none can, in an orderly and scriptural man- ner, celebrate the holy rite, but the true fol- lowers of Christ, constituted into regular churches. And it is equally clear that none can be con- stituted into such churches, but those who- have been baptized, upon a profession of faith,, by a duly qualified administrator of the rite. From all which, it is obvious, that none but baptized believers, formally connected with the church, can properly partake of the Supper of the Lord. "To every man, who contents himself with a plain view of the subject," says- that eminent Presbyterian theologian, Dr. Dick, "and has no purpose to serve by subtleties and refinements, it will appear that baptism is as much the initiating ordinance of the Christian, as circumcision was of the Jewish dispensation. An uncircumcised man was not permitted to eat the passover, and an unbaptized man should not be permitted to partake of the eucharist.'* 1 ^Lecture* on Theology, vol. 2, p. 42L THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 1 37 Baptism, thus going before the celebration of the sacred Supper, according to scriptural order, also precedes it, in the wry nature of things. Baptism symbolizes regeneration, the new birth, the beginning of the new spiritual life. The Lord's Supper symbolizes the continued nourishment and support of that life. As, there- fore, birth naturally precedes the nourishment and support of life, so baptism naturally pre- cedes participation of the Lord's Supper. That the baptism which the first followers of Christ received, was immersion, is clear from the force of the Greek terms expressive of the rite, and of its administration; from the circumstances, clearly implying immersion, attending its observance in the apostolic age; from the symbolic import of the rite, as a death, burial, and resurrection; from the practice of all Christendom for many ages; from that of the Greek church of our own times, whose language, though much modified by time, is substantially that in which the New Testa- ment was written; and, finally, from the common consent of the ablest and most learned men, of both ancient and modern times. XVIII. LAW OF THE LORD'S SUPPER, PART IV. N the light of our discussion we further see what are— 2. The essential circumstances, of a true scrip- tural observance of the rite. Such observance is the simple reception, by baptized believers, of bread and wine — fittingly representing the body of Jesus broken, and his blood shed for them — the reception not of bread alone, as by the popish laity, in the unworthy ob- servance of a sacrilegiously mutilated rite; but the reception of both the blessed symbols, the bread and the wine, representing, in their united and divine significance, the very sub- stance and vital principle of the whole Christ, the whole human and Divine Being. THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 1 39 The reception of these significant and strik- ing symbols — - (a) In the church publicly assembled. And where else than among those who constitute the church, which is his body ; and by whom else than by those who are the very members of his body, and for whom his life was of- fered up, should they be received? (b) Not in private houses by individual be- lievers, or by companies of Christians apart from the churchy even though they be mem- bers of it. The Christian pastor may not administer the sacred elements, privately, to one or more members of his flock, even though they be aged or invalid believers, unable to attend upon the public ministra- tions of the sanctuary; to one in imminent danger of death; or to a few Christian in- dividuals transiently sojourning, or perma- nently residing, in a private family, unless they there constitute a church, like that in Aquila and Priscilla's, or Nymphas' house. Christ will, himself, visit the poor, and the sick, and the dying, and the strangers within 140 THE GREAT MISNOMER, his gates, when they call upon him ; and succor, and solace, and save them. He will come to them, and "sup with them," in their own homes, and bless them with as sweet and rich a feast as any which they could enjoy, formally, with their brethren, "in the midst of the great congregation." But the observance of Christ's ordinances is to be regarded, not so much as a matter of personal gratification, as of personal obliga- tion; not so much as a spiritual luxury fur- nished for our enjoyment, as a spiritual ali- ment, prescribed and prepared, under proper conditions, for our nourishment. If one is un- able, from the force of circumstances which he cannot control, to receive the rite of baptism in the manner in which it has been divinely appointed to be received, he is free from its obligation altogether, and may dis- pense even with its benefits. He is not re- quired to submit to some modification of it, that may be more convenient. "After bap- tism, in itself considered, and simply as an opus operatum," says Knapp, "came to be re- garded as essential to salvation, the question THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 141 was started — Whether, in the want of water, baptism could be performed with any other material; e. g., wine, milk, or sand? The question must be answered in the negative, since to do this would be contrary to the institution of Christ. For any one to be prevented, necessarily, from being baptized, does not subject him to condemnation, but only the wilful and criminal refusal of this rite." 1 The same law holds in respect to the Lord's Supper. Nothing can be substituted for the bread that appropriately represents Christ's body, nothing for the wine that sym- bolizes his blood. When these cannot be obtained, the obligation to observe the ordi- nance ceases, so long as the insuperable dif- ficulty remains. And so, too, if from en- forced absence, through sickness, the infirmities of age, or any other cause, a member of the church be unable to participate, with the church, in the observance of the sacred rite, he incurs no guilt from its non-observance. And though he may suffer some loss of per- 1 Christ. Theol., p. 486. 142 THE GREAT MISNOMER, sonal enjoyment, and perhaps of substantial profit, through the disability that deprives him of participation, with his brethren, in the joyous feast, he may not indemnify himself for the loss, by a violation of the law and order of God's house, in privately and irregularly par- taking of the sacred elements. Although ''the obligation of keeping the passover — the type of the Lord's Supper— was so strict, that whoever should neglect it was condemned to death, (Numb, ix., 13)," yet 4 i those who had any lawful impediment, as & journey, sickness, or uncleanness, voluntary or involuntary," might "defer its celebration till the second month of the ecclesiastical year;" when they might be able to observe it, according to its prescribed conditions. 1 The first Supper, we have seen, was cele- brated in the churchy and by its members alone — not even the mother of Jesus, or the other holy women who so loved and served him, or the seventy evangelists whom he had sent forth to propagate his gospel, being invited to it. And, as we have also seen, there is 1 Enc. Rel. Knbwl., Art. Passover, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 1 43 no instance, in the apostolic age, of its being observed by others than members of the church; or by them, apart from the church. For any different practice, there is neither apostolic precept nor example. Such practice rests, in so far as it prevails at all, upon nothing better than mere human theories' and sym- pathies, inspired by misconception of the na- ture and design of the blessed ordinance ; mingled, in many instances, with a mislead- ing and deeply harmful superstition. (c) Not — apart from the church, as such— in public convocations, made up of mixed mul- titudes from all quarters of the land, even though they love the Lord Jesus, and have assembled to concert measures for the ad- vancement of the interests of his kingdom in the world. The Lord's Supper is not to be carried out of the church. Beyond its sacred precincts, his table is not to be spread. Such a convocation, though it may be very august and imposing, though it may consist of members of the churches, and include their greatest and most illustrious leaders, is not 544 THE GREAT MISNOMER, itself a church^ And there is no more dis- paragement of those who compose such a body, in withholding the Lord's Supper from them, than there was disparagement of the "Seventy," when Christ withheld from them, (as not formal members of the church which he had organized), the sacred symbols of his body and blood. Doubtless it might sometimes have been agreeable to the ancient Israelites, in some of their more warmly patriotic, and fraternal, and festive moods, to celebrate the feast of the passover, (especially on extraordinary oc- casions,) in larger and more promiscuous companies than those of the private families, to which its observance was confined, and in a more public and imposing way than that prescribed by the law of Moses, But, loyal to the divine authority under which they were placed, they never felt justified in tak- ing such a liberty with the holy rite. They never so perverted it as to carry it out of the family, (beautiful image of the church,) or otherwise materially departed from its di- vinely-appointed conditions. Shall Christians, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 1 45 professing a heartier and more intelligent loyalty towards their Lord, than his ancient people usually displayed, be less submissive to divine law, less observant of divine order, in respect to the Lord's Supper, than were those "stiff-necked" ancient people, in respect to the feast which was but the shadoiv of the richer one ordained by Christ? XIX. LAW OF THE LORD'S SUPPER, PART V- I UST views of the Lord's Supper, enabling $\ us to determine its proper participants, and the essential circumstances of its adminis- tration, enable us also to determine — 3. The rightful custodians and administrators of the* rite. There are those who think that Christ left his church without a fixed and deter- minate polity. But we cannot suppose that he, who is the wisest of law-givers and rulers, would set up the most important establishment ever erected on the earth, and leave the conservation of its character, the preservation of its integrity, and the ad~ ministration of its affairs, to be deter- mined, without welhdefined law, and clearly THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 1 47 designated administrators of that law, by the infirmities of human character and temper, and by the ever-fluctuating states and conditions of human society. Human governors are wiser than that. The wisdom of the Divine Governor surely does not fall below the human standard. Immutable law, perfect or- der, as we have said, in another connection, reign throughout Jehovah's natural kingdom. There is perfect adjustment of means to ends. Every necessary agent is appointed, its place fixed, its functions defined, the proper relations, gradations, and inter-depen- dencies, all determined. A wise system of supremacy on the one hand, and of subor- dination on the other, is established and uniformly maintained. x\nd so, whether it be always recognized or not, is it in his spiritual kingdom. The church is a body constituted and governed upon well estab- lished and ascertainable principles, though, like those of the natural world, some of them may, at times, elude the view of those who do not diligently search for them. The character of the constituent elements of the 148 THE GREAT MISNOMER, church, the position, duties, and qualifications of its officers, are defined; its true sphere assigned, its functions determined, the law of its life fixed, the spirit and the modes of its operation indicated, and the rules, by which it is to be guided and controlled, au- thoritatively announced. Christ having made his church the pillar and ground of his truth, has committed that truth, with all the ordinances of his house, to her charge. She is its depositary and custodian. For fidelity to her precious trust, he holds her to a high and solemn account- ability. He gave her, at the first, his holy Supper; saying to those, who, as her proper constituents, partook of the divine repast, Do this, in remembrance of me; for as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death, //// he come. Thus did he give the rite to them and their rightful successors, in perpetuity. Theirs at the first, it is theirs still, a sacred charge, an inalienable possession. Having said that "baptism and the Lord's Supper are committed to the custody and THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 1 49 guardianship of the visible churches of Christ, as such, which are the trustees, the admin- istrators of these ordinances, by a divine ap- pointment," Prof. Curtis proceeds further to remark — "It must be quite evident that they are committed to the care of some agents. They are not simply enjoined in the Bible, and left without any to defend them against abuses and attacks, or to exhibit their divine authority, and the duty of submitting to them, none being responsible for adminis- tering them to proper subjects, and to those alone. On whom does this responsibility of- ficially devolve? We know that one import- ant duty of the visible churches of Christ is to uphold the doctrines of the gospel, and to spread them before the whole world. It is thus that they exhibit their character, as the golden candlesticks supporting the light of divine truth in the world, trimmed and filled with the oil of grace by the hand of Christ himself. But is it only doctrines that give light? Is there nothing luminous in the ordinances of the gospel ? To whom, then, is the maintenance of these institutions to be 150 THE GREAT MISNOMER, committed? Whose duty is it to uphold and to administer them but- those churches of Christ regularly constituted, according to the insti- tutions of the gospel?" 1 But the church has divinely-appointed offi- cers, through whom she act's. The chief of these are her bishops or pastors. They are her ministers. It is their function, as the servants of Christ, and the servants of his church, to dispense the truth, and to ad- minister the ordinances. To them, as the representatives of Christ, the exponents of his character and offices, the expounders of his word, and the administrators of the rites which he has instituted, is assigned the honor of presiding at the sacred Supper, and of dispensing to their brethren, the heavenly viands of their Master's board; as, to them, and to them only, is assigned the duty and the honor of administering the kindred rite of baptism. "In the ancient Christian church, the Lord's Supper was as regularly admin- istered by the teachers, as baptism. Justin l Progress of Baptist Principles, pp. 296, 297. THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. X 5 I the martyr, (Apol. 1. 85, s-eq.,) says that the x t o<>z. THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. l8t rose triumphant over them, so also shall all his people. Thus beautiful, yet solemn, sim- ple, yet significant, no rite so impresses the popular heart. Its administration draws to- gether great multitudes of earnest spectators. And, however the irreverent, and the pro- fane, and the sacrilegious, may sometimes affect to ridicule it, the conviction is wrought upon all candid and dispassionate beholders, that it is divine—that it is the true and proper form of that heavenly rite to which -Christ himself submitted, and which he requires of all, who, as his professed followers, would rightly "put Him on," assume the appropriate outward insignia of discipleship, and enter by the proper portal, his visible church. God, in our day, endorses it as effectively, if not with the same outward demonstrations, as when, on the banks of the sacred river, thronged with the masses of "Jerusalem and all Judea," his Spirit, in the form of a dove, descended upon Jesus, as he came up, all radiant and glorious,- out of the baptismal waters, whilst the voice of the Father sub- limely sounded out from Heaven — "This is 182 THE GREAT MISNOMER, my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 1 13. Believers ihe only Proper Subjects of the Baptismal Rite. This is another doctrine that carries the unbiased and unsophisticated pop- ular mind. Men feel that it would be a profanation to administer this holy rite to fhe professedly unbelieving. And they equally feel that it is an absurdtiy to administer it to those who are incapable of faith, unable to comprehend the import of the ordinance, or intelligently and conscientiously to assume the duties and responsibilities which it imposes. All this they perceive and feel without any high degree of scriptural intelligence on their own part, or any elaborate argument on the part of their religious teachers. All that is requisite to carry their convictions is the statement of a few simple scriptural facts, the enforcement of a few simple scriptural principles, readily apprehended by all classes of mind, in connection with the simple scrip- tural administration of the heavenly rite. *Matt. iii. 16, 17. THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL, 183 These are the great and divine doctrines, which, in whole, need only to be announced, to unbiased and dispassionate men, in order to be acknowledged as divine. These are the doctrines whose heavenly principles and spirit alone can enfranchise the human mind and the human heart. They are the base on which rests the higher civilization, the purer morality, the fuller freedom of modern times. Having already effected so much, they are destined to effect yet vastly more, in emancipating the nations, as well as individ- ual men, and in endowing them with all the blessings of the truest and the largest liberty. The great body of the honest, truth-lov- ing people, with a sure, unerring instinct of the true and the good, are quick to see and recognize their value. God, in revealing them, has adjusted them to those for whom they were designed. The people, in receiving them, do but make natural as well as grate- ful response to His wisdom and His love. Surely, one would think that such princi- ples, with their intrinsic worth and outward 184 THE GREAT MISNOMER, power, should long since have swept id triumph through the world; and that those who have so firmly held and gallantly de- fended them throughout all the ages-, should be the honored of the earth. Ah, no! Jesus* held them. And He was crucified. The apostles held them. And they, too, were mar- tyred. De Bruys, Lollard, Hubmeier and Tauber held them. And theirs was a simi- lar fate. Like many of the chief benefactors of their species, in other lines of life, the noblest witnesses for religious truth, have generally failed, (however appreciated by the humbler ranks of men,) of a true appreciation by the dominant powers of the world, and have often encountered from them the bitterest preju- dice, and the crudest persecution. In our own day, and especially in our own country, thanks to the prevalence of these principles themselves, opposition to their most zealous and consistent advocates has been relieved of much of its harshness and severity. But, however modified and softened,, it is still maintained on the part of many THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL, 1 85 from whom a far nobler spirit and policy might have been expected. For this continued opposition to those who have deserved the highest commendation rather than censure, many reasons might be assigned. One of great weight, if it may not be ranked as the chief, is, misapprehen- sion of the principle and spirit of their ad- ministration of the Christian ordinances, par- ticularly that of the Lord's Supper. Through this misapprehension, a wide-spread and bitter outcry is raised against what is called their "close-communion" — (incongruous and distaste- ful compound, distilling drops of bitterness into the cup of sweets!) — an outcry utterly ungenerous and unjust. Their communion may be strict, but it is not close. It has a truly evangelic breadth and openness. They commune widely and freely, as we have seen, with all the followers of Jesus, in prayer, in praise, in efforts for the salva- tion of the perishing, in every lawful and laudable enterprise for the propagation of divine truth, and for the promotion of the divine glory. But their very love of the 1 86 THE GREAT MISNOMER. truth, and of the ordinances, their very zeal for God's glory and for the spiritual welfare of men, as evinced by their unswerving de- votion to such principles as we have men- tioned, is a bar to their communion with anything and everything which they regard as inimical to those high and holy ends. In other ages, and in less highly favored lands, as we have said, the strong hand of power was laid heavily upon them. They braved the cross, and the block, and the sword, and the gibbet, the dungeon, the rack, the wheel, the stake. Now, however, where sheer power and persecution cannot be brought to bear, other methods, prompted by a seem- ingly opposite spirit, have sometimes been adopted. The general mind aspires to great breadth of view, the general heart to great breadth of sympathy. The age, as has been said, is "in love with liberality" — and every- thing that affects its tones, or wears its guise, is appreciated and applauded; whilst every- thing, however true, and honest, and noble, that seems to differ from it, is reproached. Hence som^, having, we fear, no true breadth THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. T87 of view, no real breadth of sympathy, how ever much they may affect them, taking acL vantage of the scriptural strictness of admin_ istration of the ordinances of the gospel, particularly that of the sacred Supper, on the part of these Strict Constructionists of the Divine Constitution, seem anxious to fix upon them the odium of illiberality; and thus, by dis- paraging them, to retard the progress of their peculiar principles. Failing to carry the day in fair and open conflict, these partizans of error resort to stratagem. Everybody knows that the true issue, the real point of con- flict, between them and their opponents, is Baptism. But these redoubtable warriors raise the siege of that stronghold, and strive by adroit manoeuvres and skillful strategy to accomplish what could not be effected in the open field by main strength and actual prow- ess. Changing the seat of war, shifting the scenes of battle, they make feints against points of little or no importance, in the hope, by a covert attack, a disguised system of sap- ping and mining, of ultimately carrying the citadel itself. t88 the great misnomer, And it must be confessed that these in- genious tactics have not been without effect. The general mind has been greatly confused and perverted. Many sincere lovers of truth have been led unwittingly into error. And many generous and magnanimous spirits have been so influenced as to withhold sympathy from those worthiest of it, while bestowing it upon the undeserving. Hence it is, in part, at least, that while the advocates of the great principles just now under review, have carried the argument from Scripture, and his- tory, and scholarship, and constrained at least the partial acceptance of their doctrines, by not a few who once rejected them, they have not made the general and triumphant advance, in all directions, which they have de- served. Nay, while their true and rightful policy is the aggressive, they have often been led to assume the defensive. Nothing, to-day, more interferes with their doctrinal and denominational success, nothing more obstructs the progress of their princi- ples, than the. unreasonable clamors so per- sistently raised against their proper scriptural THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 1 89 strictness of administration of our Lord's Memorial rite, as an unjust and illiberal ' ' CLOSE-COMMUNION. " Unscriptural views of this great Memorial Ordinance of our Lord, have more min- istered to those unreasonable clamors, more stimulated and strengthened them, than al- most any other cause whatever. Noth- ing, then, would more help to retrieve what has been lost, and to insure future progress, than to impress the popular mind with just conceptions of the real nature and design of the sacred Supper, and the proper position and true spirit to be assumed in respect to its administra- tion. And we think it clear, in the light of all that we have said, that a most important advance, in that direction, would be made, by correcting the misapprehensions engendered and fostered by the common designation of the rite, as — the Communion. And now, as the way to overcome evil, is to oppose good to it; the way to dispel darkness, to pour light upon it; the way to supplant error, to bring the truth against it; I90 THE GREAT MISNOMER, we take occasion, seriously and earnestly to propose, that, if the Lord's Supper be not name enough for our Lord's Memorial ordi- nance; if we must have another name by which to designate it, that it be not, the Com- munion; but, a name equally beautiful and far more just, that of — the Co?nmemoration. In favor of this, rather than the other ap- pellation, are, as we have seen, both reason and the word of God, as well as practical considerations of the highest value. XXL DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY. O effect the substitution which we suggest will, we know, be difficult, if not im- possible. Some will smile at our simplicity, wonder at our temerity, in making the propo- sition. But, however that may be, we put it forward, and in the boldest relief that we can give it. The great misnomer against which we so strongly protest, was long in establishing itself. But it struck its roots deeply, and spread them widely, and has grown into grand proportions. And it may be that a similar lapse of time will be requisite to dis- establish and uproot it. Yet not necessarily so. The giant oak of a thousand years, is often prostrated, in a moment, by the blast of heaven, and may be felled, in a few hours, by the well-directed strokes of human hands. And so may it be with this I92 THE GREAT MISNOMER, deep-struck, wide-spread tree of error. Still, however sanguine, we can hardly hope it. It is a very tower of strength. It has been built up, and buttressed, and entrenched, and forti- fied, for more than half a score of centuries, by millions of cunning hands; and that will be a strong as well as cunning hand, that shall overthrow it. Thine, O God! alone can do it. But, to speak humanly, and with less bold- ness of figure, this great misnomer is too completely ingrained, too deeply imbedded in our religious literature, too widely engrafted upon every species of writing, as well as of common speech, too completely naturalized, so to speak, in the general sentiment and sympathies of men, to be readily discarded and expelled. Writers of every name, and of every shade of doctrine, ancients and moderns, Papists and Protestants, Baptists and Pedobaptists, Calvinists and Arminians, have accepted and accredited it. The greater part of that learned and able work, written some years since, by the late Dr, Curtis, in the interest of the general THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 1 93 Baptist view of the Lord's Supper, (and from which we have quoted two or three brief but valuable paragraphs), owes its origin to this egregious error; and, but for it, would not have learnedly and eloquently encum- bered a perfectly plain and simple subject. And this remark will apply to a number of -similar treatises. Indeed, almost all the formal works of the Baptists, (as well as of others), upon this subject; their discussions in the periodical press, and their oral discus- sions, take shape and color from the same erroneous view. It will be hard for them, though the great misnomer has constantly stood in their way, and obstructed their prog- ress, to yield their old ideas, and to alter their *old methods, in respect to it; hard, in any degree, to discredit their own literary and the- ological offspring. Iconoclastic as they might be, under other circumstances, it were hardly wonderful if they hesitated to cast down and break the images themselves have raised. But a much nobler principle than that of per- sonal pride and self-appreciation, (carried too L 194 THE GREAT MISNOMER, far, and wrongly applied), may make them still, indirectly at least, countenance and strengthen the great error. Though our brethren have been so often spoken of as radical \ they are eminently conservative. They are not "tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine/' 1 They are no light-minded, news-mongering Athenians, "spending their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing/' 2 They have no affinity for new-fangled theo- ries. They are no followers of "new men, studious of new things." ]No! They "stand in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein." 3 They are in love with the ancient gospel. They never weary of the "old. old story." Whilst "all the world wondered" and wandered "after the Beast"*' they never did it. Theirs it was, and is, and will ever be, as a people, a church — beloved and loving Spouse of Christ — to raise, amidst the loud and foul idolatrous conclamation, unceasing x Eph. iv. 14. 2 Actsxvii. 21. 3 Jer. vi. 16. 4 Kev. xiii. 3. THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 195 r counter-cry, and to shout to the wondering and the wandering — "Behold The Lamb of God!" O, Bride of the Lamb! radiant and beautiful-] O, Woman of the Wilderness ! thou comest up •sublimely from thy long exile, "leaning upon thy Beloved/' 1 with this triumphant self-abne- gating acclaim of thy double-love — love of thy Lord and love of thy children — heaving from thy swelling heart. This very firmness and stability, this strong indisposition to change what once they have accepted, may make our brethren still patron- ize the great misnomer. They never recog- nized the main errors involved in that false name. Still, they have allowed, almost un- challenged, the word itself. They have not always borne in mind the wise and weighty adage which we have quoted, that "words are things " Conservators of truth, let them not become conservators of error, even in a name-. Let them be quick to disown and renounce it. Pride of seeming consistency; unwillingness, while so strenuously contending for the right, to ap. faar, in anything, to have been in the wrong, ^ev. xii. Cant. viii. 5. I96 THE GREAT MISNOMER, may influence them. But they who have done so many higher, ay, and harder things, surely can rise superior to this lower and less difficult one. The misusage in question, from custom and fixed habit, has become so natural, and so convenient; is connected with so many de- lightful associations, so many sweet and cher- ished memories, and is therefore so dear, that it will, perhaps, seem to some not only un- wise, but even a cruel violence, to disturb it. Other ecclesiastical terms, however, employed in an unscriptural sense, pervade our litera- ture, and are strongly entrenched in it. Yet Baptists, and some others, too, constantly pro- test against and assail the unscriptural usage in respect to them. For consistency's sake; for something dearer still — for truth's sake; for the sake of their dear Lord and his glo- rious kingdom among men, let them do the same thing in respect to the false usage of the term so unfortunately applied to the Lord's Supper. Though it be dear as a right eye, or a right hand, since it offends, let it be sacrificed. THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 1 97 If it be too firmly fixed in our theological and other literature, too strongly entrenched in the general mind, and common speech, to be dislodged from its strongholds, all possible and feasible means should be employed to counteract and neutralize the evils which it propagates and fosters. And we make no doubt that that, at least, may be accomplished with respect to it, which has been achieved in respect to certain errors connected with the baptismal controversy. In defiance of genius and learning, wit and rhet- oric, specious and subtle sophistry, worldly rank, and power, and wealth, and influence, the protest made against those errors has not been made in vain — as the state and tone of the popular mind as well as of general re- ligious literature amply attest xxir, CONCLUDING REMARKS. )N concluding our dissertation, we take oc- casion to say, what, perhaps, we should have said before beginning it. It did not occur to us to write a preface to our little- book. And perhaps it was well. In these- rapid, rushing, busy times, if men read at all, they do not like to be detained a moment by explanations, on the threshold of a subject, and often "skip" them, and plunge in medias res. So our salutatory might have been of no avail. And, indeed, we are not without mis- givings about the fate of our inverted preface, or valedictory. Whilst that may have been skipped, this may not be reached at all. Still, with an humble hope that the kind and courteous reader and ourselves may have got- ten up enough momentum to take us through, we venture to make our statement. It is* this : THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 1 99 We have always felt that the scriptural strictness observed by our brethren in the ad- ministration of the Lord's Supper, was right \ and that opposition to it was a mere preju- dice, resting upon no proper principle at all. And if right, we felt that it might be made so to appear to all fair-minded persons. The chief difficulty in the way of this, seemed to us not to lie so much in different views of the proper priority of baptism to the Supper, or of the proper action and real substance of the precedent ordinance, as in a misapprehen- sion which pertinaciously connected itself with the great essential purpose of the Supper, and in prejudices thereby engendered. All evangelical Christians concede in theory that to commemorate Christ in His sufferings and death for his people is that grand essen- tial purpose. But, with that, many have con- nected, as essential, another object — that of the mutual communion of believers — (which is only, at most, incidental, and infinitely inferior to the main design); and have practically superseded the former idea by the latter. If all this, with kindred truths, could be 200 THE GREAT MISNOMER, properly shown, it was felt that the outcry against so-called "close-communion," would appear to be absurd, and should, therefore, be put to shame, and forever hushed. Hence this dissertation. We trust that our work may be, in some- humble degree, at least, useful to the right- eous cause so zealously espoused and so* bravely defended by those noble Christian people to whom we have, in previous sections,, specially referred J and with whose principles and practice respecting the Lord's Supper we- ar e in full accord and hearty sympathy. Their distinction and honor it has been, if not to make for Christ a conquest of the world, at least to hold for Him, through all the Christian ages, and against fearful odds, the citadels of truth. To hold them, is still their high and glorious mission/ That they appreciate this mission is manifest from the words of one of the ablest and most revered of their writers. He says — "One of the earliest corruptions of Christianity con- sisted in magnifying the importance of its ceremonies, and ascribing to them a saving THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 201 efficacy. With this superstitious reverence of outward forms, a tendency was introduced to corrupt these forms, and substitute ceremonies of human invention for the ordinances of God. To restoi r e these ordinances to their origijial purity, and, at the same time, to understand and teach that outward rites have no saving efficacy, appears to be a service to which God has specially called the Baptists. We are often charged with attaching too much importance to immersion; but the notion that baptism possesses a sacramental efficacy finds no ad- vocates in our ranks. It introduced infant baptism, and prevailed with it, and it still lingers among those by whom infant baptism is practiced. Our principles, by restricting bap- tism to those who are already regenerate, sub- vert the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, and exhibit the ceremony in its proper relation to experimental religion. To give due prominence to spirituality, above all outward ceremony, is an important service to which God has called our denomination . ' n T)agg's Manual of Theology, Part IT., p. 301. 202 THE GREAT MISNOMER, May He whose prerogative it is to fire the heart with valor, and to nerve the arm with strength, make them equal to the ar- duous yet inspiring and sublime duty assigned them. We also trust that what we have written, so far as it may be read, will be received with Christian charity and candor by such of our common Christian brotherhood as may not be agreed with us in the views which we have disclosed, and prove not altogether unacceptable and unprofitable to them. In what we have written —while widely differing from others — we have had towards them no spirit of hostility or of disparagement. We regard them as our brethren, the children of our common Father, the servants of our common Lord. We claim an interest in Luther and Melancthon, in Calvin and Knox, in Leighton and Hooker, in Whitfield and Wesley, in Edwards and Doddridge, in Heber and Chalmers; as well as in Menno and Tauber, Helwysse and Williams, Bunyan and Gill, Booth and Fuller, Hall and Foster, Car- son and Haldane. Thev all alike held the great THEOLOGICAL AND- ECCLESIASTICAL. 203 saving truths of the gospel They all alike did valiant service for those truths. We reverence them. We cherish their memory. The writings of many of them we hold among the richest treasures of our library. And we rejoice in believing that in no slight degree through their manifold labors and holy lives, there is a constant approximation towards a truer union and communion among all believers, and the realization in its fullness of the prayer of Jesus that his people, all r might be one as He and His Father are one — one in the truth, and in love of the truth ; one in essential principle and spirit ; one in aim and effort for the glory of God and the salvation of the world. Nothing within the range of our experience and observation more saddens our heart than exhibitions of a lack of such true unity, and the absence of that genuine Christian sympathy and brotherly love by which it is inspired and sustained. In our day, as in all times, hostility to the gospel is wide-spread and intense. Many of the finest and most cultivated intellects of 204 THE GREAT MISNOMER, the world are leading the cohorts of error, of infidelity, of atheism, with a vigor and audacity truly appalling. They are diffusing a double-distilled poison of skepticism through- out the most advanced nations of the world. They are misleading and corrupting the thought and the morals of the very flower of our youth. They are doing much to sap the foundations of all faith, and to inaugurate a universal reign of doubt — doubt, dark, dreary, and despairing; and so, hopelessly depraving and destructive. They have brought upon the very masses of the people, upon our cities and towns and rural districts, upon our families, upon our very churches, upon the ministers of the churches even, a very epidemic of unbelief and misbelief, and plunged, through blank and black despair, many bright intellects and naturally noble spirits into the awful gulf of "Pessimism" (teaching that all things are not ultimately for the best but for the worst) only less horrible than that of hell itself. Oh! then, surely all the lovers of the truth, and of those who are dying for lack of it, should THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 205 1 'come up to the help of the Lord against the Mighty;" against that "God of this World" who "hath blinded the eyes of them which believe not, lest the light of the glo- rious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. 5 ' 1 Oh! surely all the sons of God, led by His Spirit, the Spirit of truth, should rally to that "stand- ard" which — now that the great "Enemy," the Father of Lies, has "come in like a flood" — the blessed "Spirit," flying to the rescue, is "uplifting against him,' 2 and help to stay the tide of death and desolation. Ah! these divisions and sub-divisions of God's people! — this breaking and disintegrat- ing of "the pillar and ground of the truth" — this exhaustion of strength in mutual con- flicts over issues that involve no principle, but only prejudice blind and unreasoning — these are the things that stay the final and complete triumph of the Redeemer's kingdom. Never will that triumph be accomplished, while these conflicts and divisions last. It l 2 Cor. iv. -1. 2 Is. lix. 19 2o6 THE GREAT MISNOMER, is only when they have ceased, that the glorious Spouse of Christ, as Solomon sings of her, shall ' ; look forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners;" 1 and that to her, as Queen of earth, and Queen of heaven, all shall make obeisance. That unity of his people for which Jesus prayed, is necessary to the conversion of the world. Without it, the world will not believe. With it, the faith of the world shall be compelled. This is implied in the words of Jesus, when, in his intercessory supplica- tion for his people just before he suffered, he thus besought his Father — ''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 the world may believe that thou hast sent me." 2 The exhibition of such unity, which no human legislation or philosophy, no earthly power at all, has been able to effect, will be a demonstration to the world of the l 8ong of Sol., vi. 10. 2 Jno. xvii. 21, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL. 20J divinity of the Power that can and does effect it ; a demonstration that will convince the judgment of men, that will carry the intellect of the world. Carrying the intellect, that unity will, too, by its beauty and amiability, carry the heart of the world; for every one, how- ever cold, and selfish, and unloving, responds to the words of the Psalmist — "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity ! m Further still — this unity will develop in the church a power invincible, irresistible, that shall go forth "conquering and to conquer;" that shall "triumph in every place" over all op- position; till, to Him who wields it, through his people, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess." 2 Then, and not till then, shall the vision of the seer of the Apocalypse be realized. There will be heard great voices in heaven saying — "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever." 3 And x Ps. cxxxiii. 1 2 Kom. xiv. 11. 3 Is. xlv. 23; Eph. ii. 10. -2o8 THE GREAT MISNOMER, all the voices of earth like the s^und of many waters gladly and triumphantly re- sponding shall say — Amen] Oh, let us, then, be one! Let us sweetly and broadly "commune" with each other, (al- ways, however, in accordance with the law of Christ,) "in every good word and work/' and not cramp our fellowship by a test, that is no test; and which our divine Lord has never im- posed upon his people or his churches. Ours be the motto so honorable to the heart that in- spired it — "In things essential, unity; in things indifferent, liberty; in all things, charity/' Finally — and above all-— let us say that we would venture humbly to hope that our work may be acceptable to our divine Lord; and that, by his blessing upon it, it may be promo- tive of a better understanding and a worthier observance of his holy Ordinance of Com* MEMORATION.