Lord, one Faith, one Baptism," for all of them, yet they were each a distinct, independent community on Earth, united by the common principles on which they were founded, and by their mutual agreement, affection, and respect; but not having any one recognised Head on Earth, or acknowledging any sovereignty of one of these Societies over others."

Councils

rized by

And as for-so-called-General Councils, we General find not even any mention of them, or allu- not authosion to any such expedient. The pretended Scripture. first Council, at Jerusalem, does seem to me1 a most extraordinary chimera, without any warrant whatever from Sacred History. We find in the narrative, that certain persons, coming from Jerusalem to Antioch, endeavoured to impose on the Gentile converts the yoke of the Mosaic Law; pretending -as appears plainly from the context-to have the sanction of the Apostles for this. Nothing could be more natural than the step which was thereupon taken,to send a deputation to Jerusalem, to inquire whether these pretensions were well founded.

g

* Generally speaking, the Apostles appear to have established a distinct Church in each considerable city; so that there were several even in a single Province; as for instance, in Macedonia, those of Philippi, Thessalonica, Beræa, Amphipolis, &c. : and the like in the Province of Achaia, and elsewhere. h See Burnet on Article 21.

j Acts xv. 24.

The Apostles, in the midst of an Assembly of the Elders (or Clergy, as they would now be called) of Jerusalem, decided that no such burden ought to be imposed, and that their pretended sanction had not been given. The Church at Jerusalem, even independently of the Apostles, had of course, power to decide this last point; i.e. to declare the fact whether they had or had not given the pretended sanction and the Apostles, confessedly, had plenary power to declare the will of the Lord Jesus. And the deputaPretended tion, accordingly, retired satisfied. There is no first general Council, hint, throughout, of any summons to the several character. Churches in Judea and Galilee, in Samaria, Cyprus, Cyrene, &c. to send deputations, as to a general Council; nor any assumption of a right in the Church of Jerusalem, as such, to govern the rest, or to decide on points of faith.

not of that

Ordination

of Saul and

It is worth remarking also, that, as if on purBarnabas, pose to guard against the assumption, which might, not unnaturally, have taken place, of some supremacy-such as no Church was designed to enjoy,—on the part of Jerusalem, the fountain-head of the religion, it was by the special appointment of the Holy Spirit that Saul and Barnabas were ordained to the very highest office, the Apostleship, not by the hands of the other Apostles, or of any persons at Jerusalem, but by the Elders of Antioch. This would have been

the less remarkable had no human ordination at
all taken place, but merely a special immediate
appointment of them by divine revelation. But
the command given was, "separate me.... let
them go.
"Some reason for such a procedure
there must have been; and it does seem proba-
ble that it was designed for the very purpose
(among others) of impressing on men's minds
the independence and equality of the several
Churches on Earth.

lity of Paul's

omitted to

preme uni

bunal, had

any.

On the whole, then, considering in addition Impossibito all these circumstances, the number and the having variety of the Epistles of Paul, (to say nothing notice a suof those of the other Apostles) and the deep versal trianxiety he manifests for the continuance of his there been converts in the right faith, and his earnest warnings of them against the dangers to their faith, which he foresaw; and considering also the incalculable importance of such an institution (supposing it to exist) as a permanent living Oracle and supreme Ruler of the Church, on Earth; and the necessity of pointing it out so clearly that no one could possibly, except through wilful blindness and obstinacy, be in any doubt as to the place and persons whom the Lord should have thus "chosen to cause his name to dwell" therein-especially, as a plain

Commencement of Christian

reference to this infallible judge, guide, and governor, would have been so obvious, easy, short, and decisive a mode of guarding against the doubts, errors, and dissensions which he so anxiously apprehended;-considering, I say, all this, it does seem to me a perfect moral impossibility, that Paul and the other sacred writers should have written, as they have done, without any mention or allusion to any thing of the kind, if it had been a part (and it must have been a most essential part, if it were any) of the Christian System. They do not merely omit all reference to any supreme and infallible Head and Oracle of the Universal Church,-to any Man or Body, as the representative and Vicegerent of Christ, but they omit it in such a manner, and under such circumstances, as plainly to amount to an exclusion.

It may be added that the circumstance of our Lord's having deferred the Commencement of Church; his Church till after his own departure in bodily

deferred till

Christ's

departure. person, from the Earth, seems to have been designed as a further safeguard against the notion I have been alluding to. Had He publicly presided in bodily person subsequently to the completion of the Redemption by his death, over a Church in Jerusalem or elsewhere, there would have been more plausibility in the claim to supremacy which might have been set up and

admitted, on behalf of that Church, and of his own successors in the Government of it. His previously withdrawing, made it the more easily to be understood that He was to remain the spiritual Head in Heaven, of the spiritual Churchuniversal; and consequently of all particular Churches, equally, in all parts of the world.

of points

§ 16. This therefore, and the other points just Importance mentioned, must be regarded as negatively excluded. characteristic of the Christian religion, no less than it is positively characterised by those truths and those enactments which the inspired Writers lay down as essential. Their prohibitions in the one case, are as plain as their injunctions in the other.

There is not indeed any systematic enumeration of the several points that are excluded as inconsistent with the character of the religion; answering to the prohibition of Idolatry in the Decalogue, the enumeration of forbidden meats, and other such enactments of the Levitical Law. But the same may be said no less of the affirmative directions also that are to be found in the New Testament. The fundamental doctrines and the great moral principles of the Gospel, are there taught,for wise reasons no doubt, and which I think we may in part perceive," not in Creeds or other

m See Appendix, Note (G.)