ture. Who that has witnessed the prompt and overwhelming blessing of God on the efforts of the little band of Christians in Europe and America during the last thirty years; who that has seen a nation new-created almost in a day in the isles of the Pacific, and witnessed the standard of the cross erected in Africa, in Greece, in Turkey, in Hindoostan, in Ceylon, in China and many other places; and the glorious gospel of the Son of God translated into about one hundred and fifty languages; who that reflects on the millions of Bibles and the tens of millions of tracts which the united bands of liberal minded Christians have sent forth, can doubt that if the christian church had not become secularized by the unhappy union with the civil government under Constantine in the fourth century, the world had long ago been evangelized. Or if the Protestant church had not been split into so many parties by adopting the new, and we must believe unauthorized and pernicious doctrine, that they had a RIGHT to adopt for themselves and require of others as terms of communion, not only the fundamental doctrines which were required in the earlier centuries and were supposed sufficient for hundreds of years after the apostolic age, but also as many additional and disputed points as they pleased, thus dividing the body of Christ and creating internal dissensions; who that is acquainted with her history can doubt that greater, far greater, inroads would have been made into the dominions of the papal beast, and the glorious gospel of the Son of God, in the three centuries since the Reformation, have been carried to the ends of the earth. Such then being the mournful consequences of that disunion against which the Saviour and his apostles so urgently admonished their followers, we feel with double force, that the church has been guilty of suicidal error, and that it is the solemn duty of every friend of Jesus, sincerely to inquire, Lord what wouldst thou have me do to heal the wounds of thy dismembered body! Deeply impressed with the conviction, that the blessed Saviour and his apostles have explicitly inhibited the division of the body of Christ into sectarian parties or factions, and fully persuaded that these divisions which exist among Protestants generally, at least with their present concomitants, are highly prejudicial to the prosperity of Zion; let us approach the inquiry, what is the more immediate and specific nature of that VOL. XI. No. 29. 14 union, which characterized the primitive church, and which it is obligatory on us to promote. As Protestants, who are ready to exclaim with Chillingworth, " the Bible, the Bible" is the only infallible source of our religion, we must naturally turn our eyes to its sacred pages; nor can we with safety rely on the practice of the church in any subsequent age, except in so far as it accords with apostolical example, or at least is a manifest development of principles clearly inculcated in the gospel. It is indeed worthy of remark, that we know next to nothing of the history of the christian church during more than a hundred years after its first establishment, except what is contained in the New Testament. This has often been regretted by men; but God has doubtless designedly enveloped that early period of her uninspired history in darkness, to compel us to rest entirely on his own infallible word, and to draw a clear and broad line of distinction between the authority of his inspired servants and that of the fathers of the church in after ages. The history and practice of the earlier ages when known, may afford an occasional illustration of our subject; yet, as protestants, we can acknowledge nothing as essential to the character of the church, or the duties of her members, which is not distinctly contained in the sacred volume. It is certain, that this union did not consist in any compact ecclesiastical organization of the entire church in a nation or empire under one supreme judicatory. Excepting an occasional interposition of apostolical authority, we are informed, that each church attended to its own affairs of government and discipline. Addressing the Corinthians,* Paul says "Do not ye judge (xoiveze) them that are within? Therefore put ye away (doare) from among yourselves that wicked person;" manifestly attributing to the Corinthians the right to discipline and exclude an unworthy member from their body. The same right of supervision and discipline over her members, is attributed to each individual church by the Saviour himself:† "If thy brother trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone"— and eventually, if other means should fail," tell it to the church." Nor do we find in either of these cases any ultimate reference to a judicatory consisting of representatives from several, much less from all other chris† Matt. 18: 15-17. See also 2 Cor. 2: 7. 1 Cor. 5: 12. tian churches. The phraseology* of the New Testament evidently implies, that each church was a distinct and complete church and a member of the body of Christ. It is however equally certain, that the New Testament presents in addition to several minor consultations, one example of a council or synod,† whose members were "the apostles, elders (that is, preachers), and brethren (that is, lay members)," and who assembled at Jerusalem for the purpose of settling a dispute touching the obligation of christian converts to observe "the law of Moses, etc." This synod was convened for a special purpose, was a pro re nata convention, and although it fully sanctions the call of such meetings as often as necessary, and justifies a provision for stated meetings if experience establishes their necessity and utility; yet it cannot with any plausibility be alleged, that the churches were then regularly united into such synods, or that such meetings were held regularly, at fixed times. Had they been of annual recurrence, who can doubt that some trace of the fact, or allusion to it, would be found in the Acts of the apostles or the epistles of Paul, which cover a period of about thirty years, and narrate or allude to the prominent events in the history of the church during that period? These facts urge upon our attention several important positions, the value of which will be more evident in the sequel. They are these: a) That the divine Head of the church has intrusted the great mass of the duties and privileges of his kingdom to the individual churches in their primary capacity. Hence, though the churches ought to take counsel with each other, and for this purpose may have stated meetings, and constitute regular synods, they should not suffer any encroachments on their rights, nor permit too much of their business to be transacted by these delegated associations or presbyteries or synods. The neglect of this caution gradually robbed the churches of their rights and liberties in past ages, and fostered that incubus of Christianity, the papal hierarchy at Rome. b) The duty of fraternal consultation and union of counsel ought not to be neglected by the church in the discharge of her duties. This principle evidently affords sanction to the various associations among the churches such as presbyteries, sy Gal. 1: 2. 1 Cor. 16: 1. 2 Cor. 8: 1. 1 Thess. 2: 14. Acts. 9: 31. 15: 41. + Acts xv. nods, etc., for the purposes of mutual counsel, encouragement and coöperation in the performance of such duties as can best be accomplished by conjunction of means and efforts. Yet the history of past ages distinctly admonishes us to beware of the natural tendency to consolidation in church as well as State. There is doubtless danger of the concentration of power in the hands of ecclesiastical judicatories, which has in former ages, alas! been but too frequently abused to purposes of oppression and bloodshed, to the destruction of liberty of conscience, and the obstruction of the Redeemer's spiritual kingdom. It appears inexpedient for the churches to devolve on their delegated judicatories, such duties as they can perform as well in their primary capacity for another reason; because, when duties of various kinds are accumulated on any individual bodies, they must necessarily be less able to discharge them all with efficiency. It is evident then, that in the apostolic age, the unity of the church did not consist in a compact conjunction of all her parts in an ecclesiastical judicatory. On the contrary, we have no accounts of any synods or councils after that age, until the latter part of the second century. Eusebius, the earliest author by whom the transactions of these councils are recorded, uses the following language, from which it is highly probable that such councils were nothing new, and that similar ones had been occasionally held during the previous seventy-five years which had intervened since the death of the last apostle :* "About this time appeared Novatus, a presbyter of the church of Rome, and a man elated with haughtiness against those (that had fall * Euseb. Book 6. chapter 43. Επειδη περ τῇ κατὰ τούτων ἀρθείς ὑπερηθανία Νοουάτος τῆς ̔Ρωμαίων ἐκκλησίας πρεσβύτερος, ὡς μηκέτ' οὔσης αὐτοῖς σωτηρίας ἐλπίδος, μηδ ̓ εἰ πάντα τὰ εἰς ἐπιστροφὴν γνησίαν καὶ καθαρὰν ἐξομολόγησιν ἐπιτελοῖεν, ἰδίας αἱρέσεως τῶν κατὰ λογισμοῦ φυσίωσιν Καθαρούς ἑαυτοὺς ἀποφῃνάντων, ἀρχηγὸς καθίσταται. εφ' ᾧ συνόδου μεγίστης ἐπὶ ̔Ρώμης συγκρωτηθείσης, ἑξήκοντα μὲν τὸν ἀριθ μόν ἐπισκόπων, πλειόνων δε ἔτι μᾶλλον πρεσβυτέρων τε καὶ διακόνων, ἰδέως τε κατὰ τὰς λοιπὰς ἐπαρχίας τῶν κατὰ χώραν ποιμένων περὶ τοῦ πρακτέου διασκεψαμένων, δόγμα παρίσταται τοῖς πᾶσι· Τὸν μὲν Νοουά τον ἅμα τοῖς αὐτῷ συνεπαρθεῖσι, τούς τε συνευδοκεῖν τῇ μισαδέλφω καὶ ἀπανθρωποτάτῃ γνώμη τ' ανδρος προαιρομυένους, ἐν ἀλλοτρίοις τῆς ἐκκλη σίας ἡγεῖσθαι· τοὺς δὲ τῇ συμφορᾷ περιπεπτωκότας τῶν ἀδελφῶν, ἰᾶσθαι καὶ θεραπεύειν τοῖς τῆς μτανοίας φαρμάκοις. Εdit. Zimmermann, Vol. I. p. 464, 465. en), as if there were no room for them to hope for salvation, not even if they performed all things which belong to a genuine conversion, and a pure confession. He thus became the leader of the peculiar sect of those, who inflated by vain imaginations, called themselves Cathari. A very large council being held at Rome on this account, at which sixty bishops and a still greater number of presbyters and deacons were present, and the pastors of the remaining provinces, having according to their location deliberated separately what should be done; this decree was passed by all: That Novatus and those who so arrogantly united with him, and those that had chosen to adopt the uncharitable and most inhuman opinion of the man, should be ranked among such as are aliens from the church (excluded); but that such of the brethren, as had fallen during the calamity (persecution), should be treated and healed with the remedies of repentance." This is the earliest account extant of any regular synod after the apostolic age. The absence of even the least intimation, that this assembly was any thing novel, confers a high degree of probability on the supposition that other similar meetings had occasionally occurred before. But it was not until the close of the second, or beginning of the third century, that these associations began to hold regular and stated meetings. This practice was first introduced in Greece, where the popular mind had been familiarized to such stated representative conventions, by the Amphictionic Council, and would naturally be inclined to transfer to the church, what had proved so acceptable in State.* Still the introduction of regular stated meetings had to encounter some opposition, for Tertullian, in the commencement of the third century, found it necessary to undertake their defence.† By the middle of the third century, however, these stated annual meetings had become very general. Lay representatives See Neander's Kirchengeschichte, Vol. I. p. 322. Tertullian's words are," Aguntur per Graecias illa certis in locis concilia, ex universis ecclesiis, per quae et altiora quaeque in commune tractantur et ipsa representatio totius nominis Christiani magna veneratione celebratur." De Jejuniis, c. 13. "Ista solennia, quibus tunc praesens patrocinatus est Sermo."Tertullian. Cyprian. Ep. 40. and Firmilianus, (apud Cyprian. Ep. 75.) of Cappadocia : Necessario apud nos fit, ut per singulos annos seniores et praepositi in unum conveniamus, ad disponenda ea quae curae nostrae commissa sunt. Neander sup. cit. p. 322. |