none have so fully cleared the point, as the late honor of our schools, the learned Bishop Davenant, in that last golden Tractate which he wrote, now breathing towards the gates of his heaven, his pious and pithy exhortation of the evangelical churches to a happy peace; wherein the fundamentals of our faith are so evidently laid open, that it is not hard to judge by that unfailing rule, whom we may and must admit to the communion of Christ's church, and whom we ought to exclude from that holy society." "Doubtless there is the same consideration of a christian, and of a church; for, what is a church, but an assembly of many true believing christians? and what is a christian, but an abridgment of the church, or a church contracted into one bosom? The number makes no difference in the essence." "What person soever, then, after his due matriculation into God's church, professeth to be built upon Christ, the true cornerstone, to receive and embrace the whole truth of God delivered in the sacred monuments of the prophets and apostles, to believe all the articles of the christian faith, to yield himself to the guidance of that Royal Law, to call upon the only true God in and through Christ, to communicate in the same holy sacraments, instituted by the Lord of life, cannot but be ackuowledged a true christian, and worthy of our free and entire communion." "And if more do so, to the making up of a whole assembly, orderly congregated under lawful pastors, what can debar them of the title and privilege of a true christian church?" These quotations might be multiplied to any extent; but this is unnecessary, as it is not our present purpose fully to investigate this matter, but merely to ascertain what, according to approved authorities, is regarded as essential to the being of a church. These characteristics we have therefore found to be, first, sound doctrine; secondly, a legitimate ministry; thirdly, the proper use of the sacraments.2 1) Wks. vol. viii. pp. 48, 53. 2) See Acts ii. 42, xiv. 23, and xx. 7; Math. xxviii. 19. See also Harmony of Confessions of the Ref. Churches, § x. pp. 204, 232, ed. 1643. It may be well to give some authorities in substantiation of these conclusions: Stillingfleet, in his Unreasonableness of Separation, according to Dr. Owen, in his Answer, "gives the notes of a true church to be the pure preaching of the word, and the administration of the sacraments, according to Christ's institution." Owen's Wks. vol. xx. p. 280. Whitgift, in his Defence of the Answer, &c. says, "The substance and matter of government (Pref.) must indeede be taken out of the worde of God, and consisteth in these pointes, that the worde be trulie taught, the sacraments rightlie administered, virtue furthered, vice repressed, and the church kept in quietness and order." Well enumerated by Dr. Claggett, (Notes of the Ch. p. 192,) "But some of them are necessary to the being of the church; and they are the acknowledgment of the one Lord, the profession of one faith, 2. This leads us to inquire, secondly, what is essential to the being of the church, as it regards its ministers? Who are to be understood by legitimate ministers? Now they are to be esteemed as true ministers of Christ who have been called to the work according to divine appointment; who discharge the duties of their office as laid down in the word of God; preaching the truth in its purity; administering the sacraments in the true spirit of their institution; and governing the church according to the rules laid down by Christ. That a lawful ministry is not limited to prelates, has been already fully shown. That it refers specially to presbyterbishops, that is, ministers who preach, govern, ordain, and administer the sacraments, we will attempt to prove in the continuation of our course. And, therefore, we conclude that this ministry embraces prelates only because they are presbyters, and only when they are otherwise duly qualified. They are lawful ministers in whom the forementioned qualities are combined; by whatever name, order, or degree they may be technically designated.1 and admission into the state of christian duties and privileges by one baptism." "Nor is there any incongruity in maintaining, that while an outward framework has been by divine providence supported for preserving due order in the visible church, the special object of the divine protection through every age should be that aggregate of pious christians who, in various circumstances, and in distant places, are yet united together in one christian community by their common engraftment into the vine of the gospel." Dr. George Miller's Letter to Dr. Pusey, P. 24. Calvin gives the notes of a church to be the pure preaching of the word, (Owen Wks. vol. xx. p. 280,) and the administration of the sacraments according unto Christ's institution. Where these are, he allows a true church to be, not only without diocesan episcopacy, but in a form and under a rule opposite unto it, and inconsistent with it. Calvin's words are, (ibid,) “I would not give countenance unto errors, no, not to the least, so as to cherish them by flattery or connivance. But though I say, that the church is not to be forsaken for trifling differences, wherein the doctrine (of the gospel) is retained safe and sound, wherein the integrity of godliness doth abide, and the use of the sacraments appointed of the Lord is preserved... Say the Puritan authors of the Admonition to Parliament, in 1572, (Pref. in Price's Hist Prot. Nonconf. i. p. 228.) "For to speak of that wherein the best consent, and whereupon all good writers accord. The outward marks whereby a true christian church is known, are, preaching of the word purely, ministering of the sacraments sincerely, and ecclesiastical discipline, which consisteth in admonition and correcting of faults severely." See a chapter on what is necessary to the constitution, administration and communion of single churches, in Baxter's True and Only Way of Concord. Lond. 1681, p. 228, &c. See full on, in Voetius Desperata Causa Papatus, Amst. 1635, lib. iii. See particularly § i. cap. vii. p. 446. See also Leslie's Short Method with the Romanists. 1835, Edinb. pp. 50 and 182. See further Bishop Bull's Vind. of Ch. of Eng. pp. 155, 156, 158; Bishop Sherlock in Notes of the Chr. Exam. and Ref. pp. 1, 3. 9; Div. Right of the Min. pp. 30, 34, 35, 38, 40, 42, 44. 1) Our form of government thus describes the ministers of the sanctuary: "The pastoral office is the first in the church, both for dignity and They are described in the nineteenth of the Thirty-nine Articles, as those "who preach the pure word of God, and duly minister the sacraments." In the twenty-third article it is declared, "It is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of public preaching, or ministering the sacraments in the congregation, before he be lawfully called, and sent to execute the same. And those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent, which be chosen and called to this work by men who have public authority given unto them in the congregation, to call and send ministers into the Lord's vineyard." The ministers of other reformed churches are here not only recognized as true, but it is made OBLIGATORY upon every one who adopts these articles, to acknowledge and receive them "as lawfully called and sent." "Those" ministers "we OUGHT to judge lawfully called and sent which are," &c. That this article was designed to extend to the ministers of all the reformed churches, we have the most unexceptionable evidence, as has been already shown, in the testimony of Bishop Burnet.1 The article was framed on the principle of comprehension, and with a designed indefiniteness, leaving the manner in which such ministers have "public authority" given to them undetermined. This interpretation is rendered certain by the course pursued in that church for at least fifty years after the article was framed ; by the testimony of its best and greatest divines; and by the existing laws in which these principles are expressly avowed." Archbishop Usher asks the question-"whom hath Christ appointed to be governors and guides unto the rest?" which he answers thus: "Church officers and ministers appointed to teach and govern the flock of Christ, and to feed it with the wholesome food of the word and sacraments. (1 Cor. xii. 18: 1 Tim. v. 17: John xxi. 15: 1 Peter v. 2.)3 usefulness. The person who fills As to be reconciled to God through Christ, he is termed ambassador. And, as he dispenses the manifold grace of God, and the ordinances instituted by Christ, he is termed steward of the mysteries of God." Ch. iv. pp. 408, 409. 1) See on the Art. pp. 336, 338, and Records, in Lond. Chr. Obs. Feb. 1838, p. 86. This is admitted by Dr. Pusey in his Letter to the Bishop of Oxford, p. 98, and in Oxford Tr. No. 81, p. 27, Note. 2) See Div. Right of the Min. pt. ii. pp. 18, 19, 21, 23, 59; and Powell on Ap. Suc. ch.; Dr. Miller on the Min. &c. &c. &c. 3) See ut Supra, p. 377. The reformed churches harmonized in the belief that ministers constitute an essential part of the church, considered as visible and regularly organized-that they must be lawfully called to their work by the public authority of the church; and that they are bound faithfully to preach God's word and duly to dispense his ordinances.1 Sure we are, if the most impartial authorities are to be relied upon, that no where in the earliest fathers of the christian church, can there be found any authority whatever, for making a lineal succession of prelates essential to the being of a true church. In whatever variety of meanings they may use the term church, (ecclesia,) yet do they not employ it in such a sense as this. And although, in some instances, the term is used to designate the believing people in contradistinction to the clergy3-yet never is it employed where the clergy alone, to the exclusion of other representatives of the church, are understood. The word is commonly applied by them to a particular society of christians, meeting together in one place under their proper pastors, for the performance of religious worship, and the exercise of christian discipline.* Launoy, a learned Romish writer, "proves unanswerably, and by numerous testimonies of every age," says Dr. Claggett, "that from the apostles' times till the council of Trent, the constant universal doctrine concerning the church was this, that it is 'the society of the faithful,' without ever inserting into the definition of it any thing relating to its being united to the pope, or any other bishop, as to a visible head. Nay, secondly, that all the most learned lovers of antiquity, and godly opposers of novelty, in the Roman communion, both in the time of the council of Trent, and ever since, have retained that notion of the church, and stuck to the ancient definition." "What is the church?" asks the present bishop of London. "There is hardly a mistake more injurious to the interests of christian charity, or one which has more effectually impeded the progress of the gospel, and prevented that gospel from having 1) See Harmony of Conf. at Supra, § xi. pp. 233, 269. 2) See King on the Primitive Church, chap. i. 3) Euseb. lib. vii. cap. xxx. Macarius Hom. xii. applies it to one soul και επι μιας ψυχης. Chrysostom in Ps. See others in Suiceri Thes. tom. i. p. 105. 4) The sentiments of the Greek fathers may be seen fully collected in Succeri Thesaurus, tom. i. p. 1049, &c., and the fathers generally in Marechal's Concordantia Sanct. Patr. Gr. et Lat. tom. i. and ii. as per index, in nomine Ecclesia. August. Vindel, 1769. "I call the church the congregation of the elect,” αθροισμα των EKNEKTOV. Clem. Alex. str. p. 514, in Dr. Barrow, vol. i. p. 762. 5) In his Ep. par. viii. p. 353, to Nec. Gatinaus, in Notes of the Ch. pp. 186, 188. free course, and being glorified, as it will be glorified when it has free course, than that erroneous opinion which certainly has prevailed, I would almost say universally-but very generally, and I fear, still too widely prevails,—that the church is the clergy." "The church! Am I asked again, what is the church? The ploughman at his daily toil; the workman who plies his shuttle; the merchant in his counting-house; the scholar in his study; the lawyer in the courts of justice; the senator in the hall of the legislature; the monarch on his throne; these, as well as the clergyman, in the works of the material building, which is consecrated to the honor of God,-these constitute the church. The church, as defined by our articles, 'is a congregation of faithful men, in which the pure word of God is preached, and the sacraments duly administered.' " No one will presume to affirm that any passage can be produced from the New Testament in which the order of prelates, in consociation with two inferior orders subject to them, is declared to be of the essence of a true church of Jesus Christ. 1) Sir Michael Foster, Knt. in his Exam. of Bishop Gibson's Codex Juris Eccl. Angl. p. 98, repudiates this meaning of the term which confines it to the clergy, as "the sense in which the corruption, ignorance and superstition of succeeding ages have used that word," and not as the Church of England understands it, "the body or congregation of the faithful." Well he might, as will appear from what follows: "The church does not teach any thing contrary to scripture, and we also MAY NOT interpret scripture contrary to her." Tract No. 159 of the Prot. Episcop. Tr. Soc. p. 13. Herbert Croft, Bishop of Hereford, in his Naked Truth, says, (Scott's Col. of Tr. vol. vii. p. 282 :) "The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. I grant, what's this to a general council? Not the thousandth part of the clergy, not the thousandth part of the church, which in scripture is always put for the whole body of the faithful, though of late it be translated into quite another notion, and taken for the clergy only." "The church," says the ever memorable John Hales, (Tracts, Lond. 1721, pp. 198 and 202,) "as it imports a visible company on earth, is nothing else but the company of professors of christianity, whereso ever dispersed in the earth. To define it thus by monarchy, under one visible head, is of novelty crept up, since men began to change the spiritual kingdom of Christ to secular pride and tyranny; and a thing never heard of, either in the scriptures, or in the writings of the ancients. Government, whether by one or many, or howsoever, if it be one of the church's contingent attributes, it is all; certainly it is no necessary property, much less comes it into the definition and essence of it." "To speak the truth at once; all these questions concerning the notes, the visibility, the government of the church, if we look upon the substance and nature of the church, they are merely idle and impertinent; if upon the end why learned men do handle them, it is nothing else but faction." How beautifully does this stand out from the dark ground of the following picture: "Christians universally, for fifteen centuries, considered the priesthood, in the orders of bishops, priests and deacons, as one of the essential characteristics of the church; and considered the reception of the ordinances administered by this priesthood as the DIVINELY APPOINTED MODE OF ENTERING INTO COVENANT WITH GOD." Bishop Hobart in Coll. of Essays on Episco. N. Y. 1806, Prf. p. 7. |