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EXHIBITED, BY THE REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
He established a Testimony in Jacob, and appointed a Law in Israel, which he commanded our Fathers that they should make them known to their Children:—Who should arise and declare them to their Children: that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God; but keep his commandments.
NEW-YORK: PRINTED BY HOPKINS AND SEYMOUR,
1807. |
TrueCovenanter.com Editor's Introduction The church may not recede from a more clear and particular testimony to a more general and evasive one; but the witnesses must proceed in finishing their testimony, rendering it more pointed and complete, until God shall, according to his promise, overthrow the empire of darkness, and introduce the millennial state, in which the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.—R.P.E.O Reader,—have you ever heard of the times of old, when to be a Presbyterian Covenanter meant to believe such doctrines, walk in such a path, and uphold such a Testimony, as necessitated a man to abstain from betraying Jesus Christ by associating with his enemies, and conforming to their wicked practices? Where are such times gone? What ever happened to John Knox, James Guthrie, Richard Cameron, John McMillan, and those like them? Are they all gone and lost in the pages of history, re-written by men who hate their doctrines and deeds more than they are willing to admit, for fear of betraying their incompetency (due to prejudice) to the task of historians? In looking round about at the Church in our days, one would think so. But fear not, O daughter of Zion, neither rejoice, O enemy, for the Testimony of Jesus shall not be forgotten, neither shall He ever lack a Church on earth, to worship Him according to His will. The many divisions, schisms, heresies, and factions of churches, and the voluntary associations casting off all true ecclesiastical authority, to accomplish their own ends, by their own unholy means,—these are not what shall stand in the day of trial, neither in the day of judgment. But the Word of God shall abide forever, and His Church shall stand fast when her enemies are swept away.Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.—Revelation 2.5.
Yet we look now, and what do we see? The Ark of God is taken away, and men have forgotten that it ever was. Some few sit by the wayside, looking for its return, and see but few signs that it shall be come again before they have fallen over backward from off their seats with old Eli, and died. Hearts have long since ceased trembling for it, for our own "brethren" astonish us, by telling us that it is not returning, and that our children shall be the last to expect it.
Is not the glory of God gone up from the cherub to the threshold, and over the threshold to the east gate, and from the midst of the city unto the mountain without the city, as in the days of Ezekiel? And now, rather than returning to the House of God, it seems as though His glory is so departed, that it shall not be found where it is. Our defections and our sins have come between us and our God, and so many as our defections are, so much the more is between us, and He is so much the further gone away. And now, it seems as though there is no hope for their removal, for the most part do count their defections as good works, their infirmities their virtues, and their plagues their blessings; and how shall we then be persuaded to cast off these defections, and seek a remedy for our backslidings? We must come to consider our sins, and the beginning of our defections.
Reader, you have below a document once highly thought of amongst Reformed Presbyterians in this land. It is here set forth as a three-fold declaration of sins and defections which must be mourned over and repented of: (1.) It contains a historical account of ancient steps of faithfulness, and ancient steps of backsliding, that we may know which way we ought to walk, and discern in what ways we have strayed. (2.) It constitutes evidence against present sins, testifying against a great many ecclesiastical and personal crimes committed by many generations of professing Covenanters, who for years have strayed from the old paths, and refused to go forth by the footsteps of the flock. And, (3.) It declares the steps of backsliding of the Reformed Presbyterian Synod in North America (RPCNA) insofar as it is, in itself, the first step of organic defection amongst those who pretended to be the Witnessing Remnant.
More than anything else, the History contained herein is that which motivates the present publication: a History of Events and a History of Doctrine: what was once done by Covenanters, and what was once believed by Covenanters; and how these things came over time to be despised by their children. Thus, while there are many excellent things to be found within Reformation Principles Exhibited, we must be honest with the reader and inform him, that the document before you is not a History of Faithful Children, but rather a History of the Children of the Faithful. Had they walked in the ways of their father's, all had been well; but sadly, no generation among them has walked in the ways of their fathers, but each has successively adventured new steps of defection, and incurred greater and greater guilt as backsliders. What makes us bring forth the present document to light, is a sincere longing for an RPCNA more like that represented by Reformation Principles Exhibited: for it would be so much more pleasing to us, than that which exists today. If Pastors and Elders, Scholars and Directors-of-Associations, would cease from their papers and positions, their speeches and plots, from their special works and pretended ministries, and take some time to consider the counsel and example of their fathers, perhaps there would be hope for the RPCNA. Faithful pastors and presbyteries, conforming to the standard set in purer days, before Reformation Principles Exhibited, might be expected soon to follow; and with them, healing of divisions, joining in fellowship, and the blessing of God upon a flourishing Church, seeking His glory, and going forth to conquer His enemies with a mighty victory, by the power of his Word. Thus, we ask that you would read, and that you would consider, and that you would approach the God of our fathers in prayer, seeking his guidance, and sincerely submitting yourselves unto the direction & authority of his Word. On the other hand, if Pastors will not shepherd, if elders will neither rule nor be ruled, if scholars will not learn, and if Directors-of-Associations will not cease from usurping to themselves what has not been committed to them by Jesus Christ, then the RPCNA cannot but come to the same end as every other communion of backsliders and obstinate covenant-breakers: either her candle will go out by her own neglect, or it will be taken away.
Throughout the text below there are scattered footnotes, (most of which have been added by the present editors,) some pointing out various flaws, either more serious, or less. We must say that, while it is otherwise very interesting, to read this "Testimony" after having read the Act, Declaration, & Testimony of 1761, is disappointing in many ways; and no true Covenanter can consider Reformation Principles Exhibited as in any way a lawful replacement (it makes no pretension to being a revision) for the original Covenanter Testimony, it being so very inadequate, and imposed upon the church in such a disorderly and dangerous manner. Besides the footnotes concerning certain matters in the text, (some errors, others truths most necessary to be noted,) the reader is above all referred to the writings of David Steele, especially his Analysis of the Preface to Reformation Principles Exhibited and correspondence with James M. Willson, and to the various other articles of the Reformed Presbytery concerning the true nature of judicial testimony and the insufficiency of Reformation Principles Exhibited as an ecclesiastical testimony. Likewise, we hope that some, or rather all, will read and examine the original Act, Declaration, & Testimony of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and the works written in defense thereof, and of the original Terms of Communion.
A final caveat must likewise be observed, and it is this: that, while (1) the History related herein forms so much of the ground for presenting the document below, and while (2) as Covenanters we defend the use of Historical Testimony as a Term of Communion, and find the Historical Testimony of the Act, Declaration, & Testimony competent to this end, yet—We do not pretend that the History contained in Reformation Principles Exhibited, either the first edition, or any later edition, is approvable for this purpose. Besides matters related which are not to be approved, the fact is, that the historical part of this work contains a number of inaccuracies and uncertain speculations that make it many ways inferior in nature to the Act, Declaration, and Testimony. In the original testimony from Scotland, no attempt is made to account for the entire history of the Church of Jesus Christ, nor even to present full details concerning the history of the Church of Scotland. Instead, the authors set in order necessary and important historical facts that were well attested, and creditably related, and testified as to their morality or immorality. Reformation Principles Exhibited, on the other hand, presents a Narrative of History, more and less certain, useful for the reader's instruction in ecclesiastical history, but not competent to form a Historical Testimony.
As for the text and the editorial conventions used herein, please note the following: The original text of Reformation Principles Exhibited has been fully typeset, according to the edition of 1806/1807 and is presented in its entirety, obvious typographical errors being corrected. Page numbers according to the original pagination are inserted in braces {} at the beginning of each page of the text, which may aid the reader in finding references to pages of Reformation Principles Exhibited mentioned in other works. The edition of 1849 has been used in order to supply the continuation of the history after the date of the original publication, as well as the chapter of the doctrinal part on Adoption, which was adopted in 1823. Likewise, the 1949 edition of The Constitution of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America was used in order to supply those additions inserted in later editions of the doctrinal "testimony." In order to distinguish the additions of various dates, multiple-brackets [[]] have been inserted surrounding these additions. The number of brackets used is incrementally greater for additions of successive publications. Where single brackets [] are used, these include either editorial insertions to complete and make plain the sense of a phrase, or, more often, short footnotes from the original publication, which we thought good to insert into the body of the text for the convenience of the reader.
Thus reader, having said so much, we wish to conclude, by inserting some comments by one of the Witnesses of Jesus Christ, more competent to explain things than the present editors, and more intimately acquainted with these matters than any now living. The following is an excerpt from Robert Lusk's Characteristics of the Witnessing Church, which sets forth the historical perspective of the Faithful Witnesses of Jesus Christ, in observing what was done by some of their brethren, in turning out of the old paths, by setting aside the original testimony of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and putting Reformation Principles Exhibited in its place. We hope that the reader will not be offended by our saying so much against the present publication in its introduction, and we give our assurance, that if these matters be narrowly examined, it will be found most fair and necessary, as duty both to God and to our brethren, that the faults with this document be carefully pointed out, so that in days to come, those who have left their first love, may return to the cause now forgotten, and join us in lifting up again the banner for Christ's Crown & Covenant. But we will say no more ourselves, being but private individuals. Let those whose duty it is, take heed to the commission of their Master.
Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.—Isaiah 58.1.—JTK.Here is the promised excerpt from Robert Lusk:
The testimony emitted by the reformed presbyterian church, in Scotland, A.D. 1761, as appears, was a term of communion in the R.P. Church, in Britain, Ireland, and America, till in 1806, it was superceded by another, in America [viz. Reformation Principles Exhibited]. It then became a document of merely inferential reference. The mere fact of remodeling a document of the kind, in whole or in part, is not necessarily unwarrantable. It has however, generally, been injurious to the peace, health, and prosperity of the Church. The work, as it respects such documents, or organizations, is to say the least, hazardous. That, of the ecclesiastical polity, in Scotland, by Paladius,—of the army, in England, by Cromwell,—and, of the army and parliament of Scotland, by Charles [the] second, are well known in their consequences.—And those of later times, as to the Church, have been equally unpropitious. In these changes, supposing the latter equal, or preferable, to the former, uneasiness, if not parties, in fact, or in sentiment, will obtain. How much more, when the latter falls short of the former, as may appear at first sight, or by necessary inference.For such consequences, reasons can be assigned. 1. The remodelers may have covert design, as those named above. 2. They may have pure hearts and cherish honest intention, yet from the power {160} of words, individually and in combination, they may deceive themselves, and the adversary, in due time, will avail himself of the deception. But on the other hand: The aged disciples, who give firmness to the community, and to whose ears, the words of their former, and their fathers' faith were as music; and their combinations familiar; must now sit down to study the force of words and ascertain their import in their new combinations.—An irksome undertaking for an aged veteran. Hence the youth will affect to teach their fathers, being generally, fond of novelty, right or wrong, yea, upbraid, if they be not docile: thus it has happened, that generations have arisen, who knew not the God of their fathers, nor regarded the mighty works, which he had wrought for them.
Admitting the general principle; yet from the voice of history, being so very distinct on the subject, the call in providence should be very clear, to justify the undertaking. The compilers should feel, from obligation, the undertaking to be duty; and be conscious of cherishing no covert design, nor be influenced by any improper motive. Also, that the people, be in some measure, aware of the necessity of the work, and, that known integrity, approved fidelity, constant affection and zeal for the cause of God, characterize those on whom the work devolves. They moreover, must be in circumstances, so as to judge intelligently and conscientiously of the work, as to its parts, and their provisions respectively, that they may not decline from their plighted faith, and become chargeable with apostacy and perfidy. Thus far, as to general principles.
The substitute of 1806 for that of 1761, to whose provisions the members were all most solemnly pledged, both individually and as a body, came forth in circumstances which occasioned considerable animadversion, and gave rise to two manner of people. They were far scattered, and had not opportunity of consultation and a mutual interchange of views. And few could have recourse to the documents, which were necessary to form a correct judgment in the case, so as to go forth by the footsteps of the flock, (such as the [original] testimony, Informatory vindication, [the] Auchinsaugh renovation of the Covenants, &c.) Hence habit of thought, circumstances in life and the prospects of the Church, would severally influence, in forming a judgment. Those, who had maintained their integrity through the conflicting dogmas, which the revolution [of 1776] occasioned, were familiar with the doctrine of civil government. Those, who had been steadfast, when their guides had left them, and betook themselves to the camp of the enemy, in the great 1260 years contest, were well versed in the nature of compromise, in articles of faith, and after-adjudications on principles already established. Others, having loose notions of the martyrs, affected with the magic of the name, reformed presbyterian, {161} influenced less or more by circumstances and prospects, too readily gave their adherence. Add to these an influx from Scotland and Ireland, who brought their principles with them and filled the vacancies, occasioned by the death of the old veterans, who had finished their course. These different classes, by some management, would naturally merge into two. Thus still two manner of people. This two manner of people existing from the first, and known to exist, became avowedly so, in 1833, though still, principle properly speaking, did not distinguish the parties, nor exclusively urge to the avowal, at the time.
That the new testimony occasioned much dissatisfaction and pointed opposition, yea, to abandoning of the communion, is a fact, which cannot be denied, nor needs be dissembled. To such, taking leave of the old, was as journeying from the paternal mansion for a foreign country,—the eye lingers on the father's mansion, the paternal fields, the native country, till each in its turn, is lost in the distance, and the heart heaves with unutterable emotions. But all this may have arisen from mere habits of thought, old acquaintance or blind attachment. Very true; but each is entitled to regard;—and to patience in order to its removal, if erroneous or improper.—But they had facts to urge, both general and particular, as reasons for their dissatisfaction and opposition.
The former document had been their own and their fathers’ Testimony from the time of its publication A.D. 1761. It is composed of two parts—Historical and Doctrinal, each of which is testimentary in its kind, and both are embraced by the term Testimony. But the substitute, although as to parts it is the same, yet it includes the historical part, as no article of faith. "It is partly founded upon human records, and therefore not an article of faith."—The argumentative part shares the same fate. "Authentic history and sound argument are always to be highly valued, and have always been beneficial to the church; but they should not be incorporated with the confession of the church’s faith." These statements [from Reformation Principles Exhibited] are at variance with our former Testimony. The historical view is represented as being in part founded upon human testimony, and that thereby, that part founded upon the Divine testimony, is vitiated. This borders on blasphemy.—Particular duties are to be regarded.—To follow the footsteps of the flock, Song 1.8.—To confess sins, not only as it respects individuals, as such; but corporate bodies—the church, Psalm 106.6, Ezra 9.7, Lev. 26.40-42. In the great contest between Michael and his angels and the dragon and his angels, it is important to know where the battle has been fought and still carrying on, in order to be sure of the side and the cause, lest we should be found in the camp of the enemy of truth and righteousness.
The historical view [of Reformation Principles Exhibited] appears however, as a place of deposit for some ancient facts and distinctive practical traits of the church, transferred from the doctrinal part, that there they should become obsolete—no term of communion.
New-York, May 12, 1806.THE Reformed Presbytery, impressed with the duty of exhibiting a Historical View of the Christian Church, as a Testimony of their thankfulness to God for his goodness to his covenant people, and of their approbation of the faithful contendings of the saints; and also to serve as a mean of instruction to those who are desirous to understand the Presbytery's FIXED TESTIMONY, Do hereby ratify and approve of the Preface and the Brief Historical View of the Church, with the proposed Amendments and Additions; and they hereby also appoint Mess'rs. William Gibson and Alexander M'Leod a committee to insert those amendments and additions in their proper places, and to publish the work with all convenient speed.May 15, 1806.
THE Presbytery referred, for publication, the Declaration and Testimony to the Committee to whom was referred the Historical View.
Extracted from the Minutes, JOHN BLACK, CLERK. {iv}
THE Committee to whom were referred for publication, by the Presbytery, the Testimony, the Historical View, and the Preface, certify this to be a true copy.
WILLIAM GIBSON,
ALEXR. M'LEOD.
[[THE Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, at its Sessions in 1834, Resolved in substance as follows:
1st. That another edition of Reformation Principles be published from the edition of 1807:—the Historical View to be continued till the present time, and the Chapter on Adoption, with appropriate Scripture proofs annexed, to be inserted in its proper place.
2d. That M. Roney, J. Chrystie, and J. Houston, be a committee to superintend the publication.
Attest,
M. RONEY, Clerk.May 28th. "The Moderator announced the Committee on the publication of the Testimony, ordered yesterday,—Jas. M. Willson, S. O. Wylie, Wm. Brown."
Attest,
JAMES M. WILLSON,
Clerk of Synod.
We do certify, that this edition of the Testimony is published in pursuance of the above resolution.
JAMES M. WILLSON,
S. O. WYLIE,
WILLIAM BROWN,Committee.]]
PREFACE. THE Gospel of Christ is a system of peace and benevolence. An exhibition of divine mercy to miserable man cannot justly be charged with a tendency to excite evil passions: it is calculated to sooth the heart, and to cherish meekness and love. They who live under the influence of true religion, exhibit a living proof that it does not impair the strength of the understanding, or spoil the temper of man. Christianity, as a subjective principle, is uniformly sober and lovely. Grace originating in Heaven, dispensed by the Blessed Spirit, and constituting a bond of perfectness by which men are united to one another and to God in an indissolvable union, is the grand characteristic of religion. In this there is nothing which deserves hostility from any part of the human family.
Those persons, nevertheless, who are separated from the world by the dispensation of God's gracious covenant, are beheld by others with an evil eye. The very existence of the Church is, alas! displeasing to those who are determined not to enter into its communion.
The separation of professors from others, is deemed a reflection upon the sincerity, and the safety of their neighbours, and is, of course, considered as meriting {vi} the opposition of those who do not choose to submit to the Christian system. This state of things imposes upon the disciples of the Redeemer a very important duty. They must render to the world, with becoming meekness, a reason of their own hope, and the opposition of adversaries must be repelled with suitable arguments. The sacred scriptures are a fund of celestial wisdom, from which believers are enriched, and from these they derive the resources necessary for their spiritual warfare.
The design of contending earnestly for the faith delivered unto the saints is not only to edify Christians, but also to convince and gain other persons, persuading them also to embrace the faith. The testimony of the saints should, therefore, be calculated to preserve the distinction between the world and the Church, to enlighten those who sit in darkness, and to establish those who have already embraced the faith.
The Reformed Presbytery in the United States of North-America feel themselves under the most solemn obligations to exhibit to the world the Testimony which they maintain. They claim as a right, the liberty of expressing their sentiments with becoming modesty and firmness. Diffident of their own talents and strength, they have no desire to provoke controversy; {vii} but sensible of the truth of the system which they have embraced, they invite candid discussion. It is not their interest to be in an error. It is not the true interest of any man to embrace a false religion.
The plan upon which the Reformed Presbytery propose to exhibit their principles to the world, embraces three parts.
The first is Historical; the second Declaratory; and the third, Argumentative. The Historical part exhibits the Church as a visible society in covenant with God, in the different periods of time; and points out, precisely, the situation which they themselves occupy as a distinct part of the Catholic Church. The Declaratory part exhibits the truths which they embrace as a Church, and the errors which they reject. The Argumentative part consists in a full investigation of the various ecclesiastical systems which are known in the United States.
The Declaratory part is, the Church's Standing Testimony. It contains principles capable of universal application.1 To these principles, founded upon the scriptures, simply stated, and invariably the same in every part of the world, every adult church member is to give his unequivocal assent.
The Historical part is a help to understanding the principles of the Testimony. It is partly founded upon human records, and therefore not an article of faith;2 but it {viii} should be carefully perused as an illustration of divine truth, and instructive to the Church. It is a helper of the faith.
The Argumentative part is the particular application of the principles of the Testimony. It specifies the people who maintain errors; and it exposes the errors which they maintain. The confidence which persons may place in this part of the system will partly rest upon human testimony, unless every one who reads it shall have also read and known every work to which it refers. It is not, therefore recommended as an article of faith; but as a mean of instruction in opposing error, and gaining over others to the knowledge of the truth.
Every human help which can be obtained is to be used in subserviency to the interest of religion. But Divine Truth is alone the foundation of our hope. Authentic history and sound argument are always to be highly valued, and have always been beneficial to the Church; but they should not be incorporated with the confession of the Church's faith. The argumentative part is a work of much care, and labour, and time. The Presbytery have not proposed to complete it at present.
It shall hereafter be published in distinct and separate dissertations, under such forms and in such order as circumstances may appear to demand.
CONTENTS.
BOOK THE FIRST.
Importance of Ecclesiastical History; Creation and Fall of Man; Revelation of the Covenant of Grace; the Church constituted by the dispensation of the Covenant of Grace, necessarily a visible covenant Society; Cain; Enos; Noah; Abrahamic Covenant; no written Revelation; no stated public ministry. A period of 2513 years.
The State of the World; necessary change of the form of the visible Church; Sinai Covenant; God frames a Constitution of civil Government; subservient to the Church; Hebrew Church and State distinct; the Temple worship; Prozeucha; Synagogue; Ministry of John; Ministry of Jesus Christ; Christ's Death. A period of 1524 years.
Types and Shadows at an end; the Abrahamic Covenant re-exhibited; the Church altered in its visible order; the Apostles; forming Churches; Baptism; Church at Jerusalem; condition of Church fellowship; Presbyterian order; spread of the Gospel; Evangelists; organization of the Gentile Churches; the wealth of Christians employed for the Church's good; primitive purity declines; carnal men profess Christianity; ambition possesses its most conspicuous ministers; the external form of the Church becomes assimilated to that of the Roman Empire; Prelacy; Popery. A period of 573 years.
The Church from the beginning taught to expect a general apostacy; character of Antichrist; date; at its height in the eleventh century; Waldenses; never in the Roman communion; character of them at Rome; doctrine and order of the Waldensian Church; Covenanters; Soltard; Wickliffe; John Huss; Jerome; Hussites dissent from Rome and unite in covenant and communion with the Waldenses; prepare for a reformation; Reformers; their opinion about the question, Is the Roman Church a Christian Church?—Lutherans covenant; Waldenses join the Reformation Churches; England's reformation; Henry VIII. head and lawgiver of the Church of England; reformation in Scotland; imperfection of the Reformation Churches in general; causes of violating {x} the unity of the visible Church; Church at Geneva; English Puritans; covenants with the Scottish Reformers; opinion of the Foreign Churches concerning the Solemn League; decline of the Reformation Churches; American Churches. A period of 1200 years.
BOOK THE SECOND.
Advantages for reformation peculiar to Scotland; improved by the Reformers; the Church a distinct Empire; the civil constitution made to support the Church as a distinct kingdom; Westminster Assembly; power and moderation of the Presbyterians; Charles I. beheaded by the Independents; Charles II. proclaimed king by the Scots; impropriety of this; coronation and covenants; state of parties in Church and State; the King defeated by Cromwel; disputes about the legitimacy of Cromwel's authority; Protestors; Monk; Charles II. restored; Marquis of Argyle; Sharp; persecution of Presbyterian Covenanters; disputes about the legitimacy of the King's power; Cargill; Hamilton; Renwick; Cocceius; concessions of the Dutch Divines; state of the Covenanters. A period of 45 years.
Prince of Orange; James II.; the doctrine of passive obedience; contradictory and the practice impossible; University of Oxford; state of the Church at the Revolution; apostacy of the three Ministers; the state of the Witnesses of the Reformation; M'Millan; the Reformed Presbytery; Testimony; state of the Church; Presbyteries in Ireland and America. A period of 86 years.
Presbyterian Covenanters fly from persecution to America; Cuthbertson; Reformed Presbytery; state of Religion in America; American Revolution; union of the Reformed and Associate Presbyteries; some members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church still maintain their ground; assistance from Europe; Reid; M'Garragh; King; M'Kinney; Gibson; Constitution of the Reformed Presbytery; License for young men to preach the Gospel; arrangement of Committees; Testimony. A period of 32 years.
REFORMATION PRINCIPLES
EXHIBITED.
PART I.
A
BRIEF HISTORICAL VIEW
OF
THE CHURCH,
AS A
Visible Society in Covenant with God.
IN TWO BOOKS.THE FIRST EXHIBITING THE
CHURCH UNIVERSAL;AND THE SECOND THE
REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
BOOK I.
A Historical View of the Catholic Church.
CHAPTER I.The State of the Church from the Fall of Man until the Law
was given by Moses at Mount Sinai.
IN proportion as objects exceed in grandeur, they demand the admiration of the human mind. And there is not among the ranks of created being one object worthy of comparison, in respect of sublimity, with the Christian Church. A moral empire, {2} consisting of members animated by the Eternal Spirit, the mediatory person, God manifest in the flesh as its Head, the vast machinery of creation moving in regular subordination to its interest, and exhibiting the ineffable glory of the Divinity, is an object to be contemplated with admiration and awe. "Out of Zion the perfection of beauty God hath shined."
The Church is the centre, around which the Creator causes all terrestrial things to revolve. Our views, therefore, of the present world, must be indistinct, unless we perceive its relation to the kingdom of Christ. The history of nations must be imperfect and erroneous, unless they refer to the secret spring by which every motion is directed— the purpose of God to glorify himself in the salvation of his Church. This is the meridian line which the former of all things strikes out through the vast and crowded map of time, and to which every figure, however apparently indistinct and unconnected, is directed by an unerring hand.
The heavens and the earth were created by Jehovah, and each place is adapted by infinite wisdom to the end which it is designed to answer. The first man Adam was appointed to take possession of the earth, for himself, and the whole human race, represented by him, and to descend from him. The tenement was wisely fitted for the occupant. The earth was clothed with verdure; every vegetable in full maturity, and every tree laden {3} with his fruit. The atmosphere was in its best state; and the various kinds of animals, in the perfection of their respective natures, came at the direction of the Creator to testify their submission to man.
A body formed of the earth, and organized upon principles of astonishing wisdom; capable of dissolution, but endowed with a natural immortality; being animated by an immaterial soul, constituted upon principles of necessary immortality, distinguished the common father of our family.
This man God took into covenant. Adam was naturally and necessarily bound to obey all the commandments of God; but as a moral agent he also had power to consent to the terms proposed by his Creator, and to promise obedience. A covenant between God and man consists in a proposal made by God, and a corresponding engagement on the part of man.
In the first covenant, perfect obedience was required of man. The law of nature, reduced into a covenant form, had a positive precept annexed. "Thou shalt not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die."
Adam, under the united temptation of Satan and of Eve, who had herself been first in the crime, transgressed the covenant of life, and incurred the penalty of death. As the representative of the human race he fell, and all mankind fell in him. {4} This fatal event proved the mean of a further manifestation of the boundless perfection of God. The plans of Heaven were not frustrated. It had from eternity been the purpose of the God-head to exhibit mercy as soon as man should have become miserable.
The event of the fall was foreknown, and the remedy was predestinated. It was predestinated, too, upon the footing of a solemn covenant: and this gracious covenant is eternal.
There never was a time in which the divine mind was undetermined. He is of one mind; and his purpose is unalterable. Each divine perfection, and the harmony of all the divine attributes, are to be exhibited in one system, which shall, at the same time, confer unbounded happiness upon that part of the intelligent family of God which are immediately included in it, and offer to the universe an object of contemplation, which is in reality the perfection of beauty.
There is a covenant of grace between God the Father and his eternal Son, for the redemption of human criminals. The magnitude and condescension of this plan is an unparalleled instance of the grandeur of the conception of the divine mind. The immense distance between the creature and the Creator is filled up by the mediatorial person Jesus Christ, who, as the second Adam, undertakes to assume the human nature, complete in soul and body, into a union with his divine nature; and by {5} suffering as a substitute, secure the salvation of those whom it was purposed he should represent. God made a covenant with his chosen, promising, upon condition that he should make his soul an offering for sin, to confer eternal life upon all his spiritual seed.
No sooner was our family involved in sin and misery, than this covenant was revealed. When the first pair felt the operation of the curse, the Redeemer himself, the personal voice or word of God, appeared upon the earth, now preserved by his power as the theatre upon which he is about to exhibit the most astonishing instances of majesty and condescension. He conversed with them, and in the same sentence pronounces the punishment, and proclaims the pardon. The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head.
The covenant of grace was now for the first time revealed, and a suitable dispensation is made of it to fallen man. To this dispensation Adam professedly submits, and in evidence of his faith, calls his wife by the name of EVE, the mother of all living. Both submitted again to the government of GOD, upon the footing of the revelation of his grace, when they became clothed in those skins which were at once present earthly benefit, and a type of that justifying righteousness, by which all believers are effectually preserved from condemnation. Immediately did the Redeemer thus dispense, as a new covenant benefit, bodily raiment, {6} and a significant religious rite. Sacrifices typical of the sufferings of Christ, were then first instituted. The original pair, our common father and our common mother, were the first Church, and the blessed Redeemer himself the first preacher and the first priest, who directed the worship of God upon the footing of the revelation of his grace. Mercy flows through a covenant system, and it is externally exhibited under a covenant form. The visible Church, as a Society, is in covenant with God. The covenant between God and his Church consists, in God's proposing a certain form of religion as the external dispensation of his grace, and the Church professing to receive, and engaging to perform, in the strength of promised grace, every part of religious worship, agreeably to that very form which God has appointed.
Not only are the saints interested in the covenant of grace, but the Church, as a visible Society, is a Covenant Society.
The visible Church, thus erected as a Covenant Society, waits for the accomplishment of the promise of God, in the use of the instituted means of grace. The children are included with the parents in the ecclesiastical covenant; the Sabbath is observed, and sacrifices are offered. On the seventh day of the week, in scripture language, the end of days, Cain and Abel presented their offerings to the Lord. God was present in his Church, and familiarly conversed with men, and by this extraordinary {7} condescension supplied the want of other means of increasing in religious knowledge. Immediate revelation and domestic instruction supplied the Church, during this early period, with adequate information.
The whole of the human family was at first in the Church, but this did not continue a long time to be the case. Abel by faith offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than his elder brother. Cain was wroth, and the Lord reproved him. Instead of reformation, however, the reproof administered by the Head of the Church himself, had a bad effect upon this unworthy member. He determined upon revenge, and he murdered his brother.
God called the murderer to an account, spared his life, but secluded him from all further connexion with his Covenant Society. This excommunicated vagabond, despising ecclesiastical censures, although pronounced by God himself, and solicitous only about the effect as it respected the concerns of his body, went out from the presence of the Lord, and, together with his offspring, lived in the total neglect of all religious ordinances.
The Church progresses, however, through the medium of the other children of Adam, but especially in the line of Seth. In the days of Enos, who was born in the 235th year of Adam's life, men began to be called by the name of the {8} Lord.3 Church members are God's children in a special sense, and the disciples, as they are now called Christians, were then called the sons of God, to distinguish them from the accursed offspring of Cain. The information and the wisdom which Adam obtained by his frequent conversation with God, and his own long experience, were calculated to render him highly useful in the Church. The age of the Patriarchs, before the Flood, being generally nine centuries, rendered them living libraries of sacred knowledge. Two eminent prophets, Noah and Enoch, were also inspired to make further revelations. And in this manner did the Church proceed, until, by the impiety of its members, forming intimacies with the wicked offspring of Cain, the power of religion became almost unknown. God was provoked to overwhelm ungodly {9} professors, and open despisers of his mercy, in one common deluge.
Determined to punish such general corruption, and yet preserve his Church, the Lord renewed his covenant, establishing it with Noah and his family. Several pious persons were then living upon the earth, but they were not admitted into this covenant. They were all to be admitted into Heaven before Noah should enter the Ark. Methuselah died immediately before the flood.
The saints were preserved. Noah and his family were under divine protection. There was not any one of the election of grace found among the rest of the human family. No child of the new covenant was ever afterwards to descend from their families. They are all destroyed by the judgments of God. The covenant of works procures their death; but the dispensation of the covenant of grace preserves Noah and his family. He by faith prepared an Ark for the saving of his house.
The Church is again reduced to a small compass. Eight souls only are saved in the Ark. God renews again his covenant with Noah and his sons, and in this dispensation of this everlasting covenant of free grace, engages to preserve the world from any similar destruction, and to continue both seed-time and harvest in their seasons.
The Church in a short time increased in numbers, and degenerated in practice. As nations {10} were multiplied, men began to be guilty of idolatry. God, nevertheless, provides for his covenant people his protection. The truly devout found him an exceeding great reward. And they continue to inculcate upon their children the maxims of virtue, to observe the external forms of religion, prayer, conversation, offering sacrifices, and the observation of the sabbath. Eminent men were raised up as types of the Saviour, and the Church was instructed by the transactions of God with these eminent characters. After Noah, Melchisedeck, Abram, Isaac, and Jacob, were types of Christ.
God's covenant with Abraham commences a distinct era in the history of the Church. The seed which was sown in the constitution of the Church, is now expanded. The visible Church, as a Covenant Society, is already bound to submission to all the institutions of the Lord. These institutions are adapted by infinite wisdom to the state of his Church. As the term of human life diminishes, domestic instruction becomes more precarious, and less effectual. As nations become more distinct, and have separate interests, there is the greater need of a more regular organization for the Church, that its unity may be preserved. And it is always proper that such ordinances as are conducive to edification, and the preservation of an evident distinction from the world, be observed by the disciples of the Lord. The covenant with Abraham was to himself personally interesting. {11} It was a dispensation of the covenant of grace, in which he had already trusted. And, as a type sealed by a bloody rite, it pointed out the covenant of grace to others also.
It is, moreover, a renovation of the ecclesiastical covenant, with some appropriate variations. It is promised to Abraham, that from him the Messiah is to proceed, and that in his family the Church shall hereafter continue.
His first name, Abram, signified an eminent Patriarch, and being changed by God into Abraham, the Father of many people, it became still more significant. This distinguished character travels through the nations, and is universally known. Social worship continues to be conducted in the Church as it formerly had been, by the observation of the sabbath, sacrifice, domestic education, prayer, and conference. But God's gracious dispensation to Abram established a more compact ecclesiastical organization than any which preceded it. The Abrahamic covenant has the seal of circumcision affixed to it, and the promised seed is limited to the line of Isaac and Jacob. By this means intimation is given to all men, that in these families the Church is in future to be preserved, and in due time to be erected into a more regular visible organization. Although all the children of Abraham, and even his adopted offspring, his servants, are constituted members, and receive the seal of circumcision; yet it is well known that both these, {12} and the other pious families which then lived, are, after the elect are carried to heaven from among them, to dwindle away from the visible Church, and become extinct as to covenant connexion with God. Shem himself, who lived fifty years after the covenant was established with Abraham, Melchisedeck, and his pious connexions Job and Jethro, and all other good men who believed in God and worshipped him accordingly, are continued in the visible Church, according to its ancient patriarchal form; but are excluded from the more compact order, the foundation of which was laid in the covenant of Abraham, and which was at the appointed time to be completely established. Under every form of administration, the immediate children are included with the parents in the visible Covenant Society, and every dispensation is introduced so gradually, as that they who lived under the former dispensation shall not lose any of their privileges; and thus the unity of the visible Church, although it experiences the necessary alterations in external form, may be constantly preserved. Four centuries did the arrangements made with Abram, as the Representative of the Church, remain for the consideration of the saints, before they were fully put in practice. Circumcision was indeed practiced in his family; but the visible Church was not yet so organized as that all others were without its pale, and their forms of worship rejected of God. Prophets and priests {13} were occasionally commissioned immediately by God to instruct, and conduct the devotion of certain parts of his Church. During this period there was no written Revelation, nor were the forms of worship such as required regular stated ministry. This patriarchal dispensation, adapted wisely by the Redeemer to the state of the world, continued in operation until the Law was given by Moses at Mount Sinai. During this period the Church looked forth as the morning. {14}
CHAPTER II.The State of the Church from the giving of the Law until the
Death of Christ.
LIFE and growth distinguish the works of God. These are characters which the utmost efforts of created power cannot bestow upon its own works. The analogy of nature teaches us to expect a progression from infancy to maturity, in the mystical body of Christ. The history of the Church exhibits the operation of this principle. The Covenant Society proceeds toward perfection.
The moral aspect of the world had greatly changed during the 400 years which preceded the divine legation of Moses. Patriarchal simplicity was almost forgotten, and toward the close of this period the most abominable idolatries almost universally prevailed. These idolatries became incorporated with political institutions, and were supported by the progress of the arts and sciences. The godly men were gradually received into heaven, and their degenerate families became the votaries of the prevailing superstitions. The covenant with Abraham anticipated this even, and preserved the Church from destruction. Such an organization of the ecclesiastical body as may serve the {15} purposes of piety, typify the Redeemer, and preserve the Church distinct from the nations, is now become more necessary than ever. Upon the pillar of truth such inscriptions must appear as are fit to produce these effects in the present state of human society. Such a constitution is provided for the Church by the Divine Head; and the descendants of Jacob are miraculously delivered from Egyptian bondage, under the conduct of Moses, and, assembled at Sinai, they have this constitution delivered to them in a covenant form. The Sinai covenant is an external dispensation of the covenant of grace, a fulfillment in part of the first promise to fallen man, and a farther development of the Abrahamic covenant, divinely adapted to the state of the times. This ecclesiastical organization provided rites which prefigured the coming of Christ, and the consequent change of dispensation. It established laws which directly condemned the idolatrous services of the heathen, and which were abundantly calculated to preserve the temporal interest of the society, and advance the eternal salvation of God's own people. A constant series of miracles during the course of 40 years, confirmed the divine origin of this new dispensation, and settled according to promise the Covenant Society in the land of Canaan. This people are now the only visible Church. The covenant between them and their God consists in his proposing to them the whole system of ecclesiastical policy now established, {16} and requiring their submission to it, together with their express engagement to observe it in every particular. This dispensation is more specific than any which preceded it. It requires the observation of the sabbath, and the offering of sacrifices, as was the case from the first erection of the Church on earth. It requires punctual attention to family religion, and pious conference, as it also was from the beginning. It establishes a regular ministry to be continued in uninterrupted succession, and institutes elders and judges to preserve order, and punish the rebellious. Divine Revelation is committed to writing, and this book of the covenant is deposited in the hands of the Hebrews, as the rule of their faith and manners. Circumcision, the sign of the Abrahamic Covenant, is continued, to show that this is an enlarged edition of that covenant; and the passover, instituted as the token of their separate preservation in Egypt, is also continued as a commemoration of their deliverance, a badge of their separation from the heathen, and a type of the great sacrifice which the Redeemer is once to offer for their redemption.
These two sacraments, circumcision and the passover, seal the ecclesiastical covenant to every member of the visible Church, seal eternal salvation to every believer, and serve as public declarations to the world of their distinguishing religious profession. The same people who were thus reduced into a Church state, were formed also by the same {17} divine authority into a civil commonwealth. God commands that every part of human conduct should subserve the interest of his Church; and he by a divine act exhibited to the nations an ever memorable instance of the civil polity being so formed as effectually to answer this grand design. The policy of the heathen nations was to render religion a political engine for the support of daring ambition. Among the Hebrews, civil legislation was intended for the safety of the Church.
The Hebrew Church was nevertheless really distinct from the state. The proselytes of the covenant were admitted as full members of the Church, and thus engrafted on the stock of Abraham; but were not admitted to the same civil privileges as the native Israelites. The proselytes of the gate were admitted to some civil privileges, but not to any participation in the benefits of the ecclesiastical covenant. The courts were also different. The Sanhedrim and the Synagogue, to judge of religious concerns, were perfectly distinct from the civil Sanhedrim, and the courts of the gates which judged in civil matters. The Church had the power of settling controversies which respected the religious character, by the ceremonial law; and to the state belonged the decision of controversies respecting injuries and property, by the judicial law. The priests and Levites were the ministers of religion, acting with the assistance of the prophets occasionally sent by the Lord. The civil officers, {18} judges, and kings, were magistrates, but not as such authorized to officiate religious services. And although the civil constitution underwent many alterations during the existence of the Hebrew nation, the ecclesiastical form continued unaltered. The priesthood, the sacrifice, and the ceremonies, are regulated by one uniform law. Divine revelations, however, continue from time to time, and inspired men are commissioned to write for the cannon of Scripture. This had some influence upon the mode of social worship.
The state of religion among the Hebrews was much affected by their connexion with other nations, and the Church suffered or prospered as the Lord withdrew or afforded his extraordinary superintendence. Eminent prophets and priests, and virtuous judges and kings, were reared up from time to time, as the instruments of reformation, and the sword of the heathen enemy was often providentially used to correct and punish the crimes of God's covenant Israel. The period of suffering was usually an admonition to the duty of repentance and fasting; and the dawn of reformation, called the nation and the Church to a solemn renovation of their covenants with God. After the revolt of the ten tribes from the house of David, Jeroboam, their political leader, made Israel to sin against the Lord, by a violation of the covenant of Sinai. Many pious people tacitly countenanced the apostacy, and for several ages after the majority {19} established idolatry, there was a minority in this declining Church who really desired to serve the Lord.
Prophets were sent to warn this degenerate Church, and to gather the elect of God into their glorious rest. The ten tribes, however, soon became mingled with the heathen; they forsook their covenant God, and the Lord left them to a gradual declension, until their ecclesiastical visibility became entirely extinct. The Jews, upon the contrary, still held their covenant charter, often renewed their obligations, and although they sinned much, and suffered much, the Lord preserved them as his Church, a visible Covenant Society, until the long looked for event, the appearance of the Son of God in the flesh, had been accomplished. The state of the Jewish Church, at the period of Christ's nativity, although they had still the external dispensation of grace made at Mount Sinai, and established by ecclesiastical covenant, was different in many important subordinate instances from what it had been upon their first settlement in the promised land. The state of society in general was much altered from what it had been fifteen centuries before that time. The more general diffusion of literature, and of the accompanying arts of civilized life, had produced a correspondent change upon the internal situation of the Church, as well as upon the face of the world. The solemn work of offering sacrifice, which, during the patriarchal {20} dispensation, was competent to every pious man, or head of a family, was, by the Mosaic dispensation, committed exclusively into the hands of the authorized priesthood. And after the temple of the Lord had been erected in Jerusalem, in that place alone were these solemnities of religion to be performed.
The principal part of social and practical religion was still to be performed in domestic society. Convenient places of worship were, however, established in every part of Judea. The Proseucha was the place of common resort for prayer and conference; and one of these, surrounded by a wall and a grove, without any roof or covering, was to be found in the different parts of the land of Israel.
Instruction, before the people learned to read, was conducted entirely by the conversation of the prophets, the priests, the Levites, and the heads of families. The progress of the Jews in literature was very slow. Eight hundred years after the writing of the law by Moses, it was rare to find a copy of the book in which it was contained. During the reign of the pious Josiah, there was some difficulty in procuring a copy of it for the king's use. About 150 years thereafter, however, the zeal and faithfulness of Ezra was rendered the instrument in the hand of Providence, in turning the attention of the Church to the word of God, now much enlarged by the inspired writings of the prophets. {21}
The Proseucha is then exchanged for the Synagogue, and the public reading and exposition of the law, become a part of the ordinary worship of every Sabbath, in every part of Judea. These Synagogues were the parish Churches of the Jews. They were provided with a regular class of ecclesiastical officers, whose duty it was to explain the law, read the Scriptures, direct the public devotion, censure the scandalous, and take care of the poor. Wheresoever the Jews emigrated after the time of Ezra, they carried with them their Scriptures and their ministers; and they formed Synagogues in the different cities of the nations in which they resided. They never, after this regular organization, fell into gross idolatry. Unacquaintance with the doctrines of the divine revelation, is essential to the worship of idols. Such was the visible state of the Church, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, a city of David. There indeed prevailed a general expectation at the time of his birth, that he should come; but very few appeared at that time to understand the real character of the promised Messiah, or the end of his mission. In the fullness of time our Lord was manifest in the flesh, made of a woman, made under the law, in order to fulfill the condition of that eternal covenant, which had already, under various dispensations, brought salvation to his seed, and preserved his visible Church as his covenant people upon earth, for the space of four thousand years. He came to fulfill all the types, to abolish {22} in his death, whatsoever referred to his incarnation and suffering, and to introduce a new dispensation of the covenant of grace, which should last unaltered, until the end of time. During his public ministry he pointed out the abuses which prevailed in the Jewish Church, explained the law, and predicted both the dissolution of the visible dispensation which the Church now enjoyed, and the establishment of another and a better covenant. He gave the suitable instruction, and introduced rites and ordinances which were after his resurrection to become especial parts of the order of his Church. The covenant with Abraham did not alter the patriarchal dispensation of grace, but by admitting to particular privilege a certain part of the existing Church, that federal transaction prepared the way for the new order established in the covenant of Sinai. The ministry of Jesus did not immediately dissolve the ecclesiastical covenant established by the mediation of Moses, and often renewed by the Jews; but by the erection of a certain part of the existing Church into a special society, holding particular communion with himself, he prepared the way for the new dispensation of his grace, which, by destroying what was typical, would extend the benefits of the Abrahamic covenant to the Gentile world.
It had been long a custom in the Church to use certain baptisms or washings, as a religious rite. It was practiced by Jacob and by Moses; and in the {23} latter period of the Jewish Church, they were in the habit of washing all their proselytes immediately after their circumcision, and before they were admitted to further ecclesiastical privileges. It was also common, at the feast of the passover, not only to eat unleavened bread along with the flesh of the paschal lamb, but also to drink after supper a cup of wine. Divine Providence had rendered familiar to the visible Church, those simple, but significant rites, which were afterwards, by a positive ordinance, to be rendered the visible seals of the covenant.4
John Baptist was commissioned in the spirit and power of Elias, to prepare the way of the Lord, preach the gospel of repentance, and administer baptism as a positive ordinance of God. This was necessary even under the Mosaic dispensation, which was not as yet dissolved, in order to prepare the way for the other, and for effectually preserving the unity of the Church, when the forms of religion would be altered. The Redeemer himself instructed his immediate disciples to expect the total abolition of the Aaronic priesthood, of the temple, and the whole temple services. He habituated them to the forms of the Synagogue, and in these Churches he himself repeatedly ministered. He thus showed the perpetuity of such services in his Church; but he never undertook, as a priest of the temple, to offer sacrifices, except that one sacrifice of himself, whereby he perfected for ever them {24} that are sanctified, and in which he at once fulfilled the design of the priesthood, the temple, and the sacrifice. Immediately before his sufferings, after having participated of the last passover, which should ever be observed with divine acceptance, he instituted the substitute seal, the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, as a positive ordinance to be observed by his Church, for ever. The head of the Church thus providing for its external order, did, at the awful and appointed hour, fulfill the condition of the covenant of grace, and purchased our eternal redemption by his suffering unto the death; bearing our sins upon his own body on the accursed tree. Thus was the Sinai covenant dissolved, and a new covenant established.5 {25}
CHAPTER III.The State of the Church from the Death of Christ until the
Rise of Antichrist.
IN the death of Christ, all the types and ceremonies of the Old Testament have had their full accomplishment. The peculiar policy of the Jews is now no more. The vail of the Temple is rent in twain, and the Holy of Holies has lost its prerogative. The wall of partition which separated the seed of Jacob from the Gentiles, is taken down, and into one Church the inhabitants of other nations are admitted with the children of Abraham, without distinction of privileges. After Christ's resurrection from the dead, he instructed his disciples more particularly in the doctrine and order of the New Testament Church; and, giving unto his eleven apostles a commission as ecclesiastical officers, he ascended to heaven as an exalted Mediator, to administer the government of the whole empire of created existence, in subserviency to the interest of his peculiar kingdom the Church. On the day of Pentecost he poured out his Holy Spirit in miraculous profusion upon his disciples, in order to qualify them for the extraordinary services to which he called them. The apostles commence {26} their ministerial work, and the first fruits which these labourers reaped, afforded a glorious hope of the plentitude of the approaching harvest. The promise to Abraham, which was divinely restricted to his offspring according to the flesh, until the seed Christ came, was now delivered from that temporary restriction by the same divine authority, and offered with all its increased advantages to men, without distinction of nations or of ranks. All the families of the earth are now invited to covenant with God. The Covenant Society, ONE in every age, is now exhibited under a form of government adapted by divine wisdom to this last and most perfect dispensation of grace, which the Redeemer makes on earth. Every member is directed to submit to it, and to support its whole order for ever. The apostles, having equal power, are the only ministers and rulers of the Church; and they are authorized to establish in Jerusalem the model upon which all Churches are to be formed in future, throughout the nations of the earth. In their own behaviour towards one another, they set the example of ministerial parity; and, as extraordinary messengers endowed with supernatural gifts, they exercised authority over all the Churches. This measure was necessary to place the kingdom of Messiah in an orderly state, that the constitution divinely provided for it might be put in full operation, and its future administration committed into the hands of the ordinary and permanent officers. {27}
The apostles preached the gospel, explaining the whole economy of grace, and reduced into a Church state all who embraced the faith, together with their children. Their visible membership in God's Covenant Society was immediately sealed by baptism. As the rainbow, already in the heavens, became by divine appointment the seal of the covenant to Noah, and circumcision practised, among all the nations descended from Abraham, became the seal of the covenant of Sinai made with the seed of Jacob, so did baptism now for the first time become the seal of the new covenant, although for a long time before it had been a common rite of the Jews, and since the time of John the Baptist a positive institution of heaven. Baptism is a symbolical washing. It represents and seals the union of believers with Christ Jesus in the one body of the invisible Church. It also signifies the solemn engagements of Christians to the faith and obedience of Christ their Lord, as members in covenant with him and with one another, to maintain in the strength of his grace the unity of the spirit, in the bonds of peace. It is administered by an authorized officer of the organized ecclesiastical society. The element is water; and as the washing is not designed to cleanse literally the body, such a quantity of water is to be applied as may be sufficient to answer the purposes of a symbol. This is all that is necessary. The application of water to the face of a recognized Church-member {28} by an ordained minister of the word, in the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost, one God, is the true mode of administering this initiating sacrament. No less than three thousand persons were, on the first day in which the apostles publicly preached in Jerusalem, formed into an organized Church, and baptized by the apostles.
Jerusalem was a large and populous city. It contained upwards of a million of inhabitants. The synagogues, the parish Churches of the Jews, in which, under the Mosaic dispensation, they met for their ordinary worship, amounted in this city to nearly five hundred. The apostles embraced every opportunity which offered of preaching in the Jewish synagogues, and they appeared daily at the temple, the most public place of resort, especially to the devout Jews. But although these places afforded an opportunity of making converts to Christianity, they did not offer an equal opportunity for the peculiar acts of Christian worship. The disciples could not sanctify the first day of the week in a regular manner, in these promiscuous assemblies, which met in Solomon's porch, or in the Jewish synagogues. They therefore met in private houses, in such numbers as could conveniently associate for the sanctification of the Lord's day; and in these select assemblies or Churches was the sacrament of the Lord's supper administered. This solemn institution, which is the New Testament passover, commemorates the death of Christ, {29} is a mean of grace, a symbol of our union with the Church, a seal of our visible membership, a badge of our separation from the world, and a public social renovation of the baptismal oath to serve the Lord, and abide by his Church, according to all the ordinances of that ecclesiastical covenant into which God admits us under the New Testament.
Steadfastness in the apostles' doctrine, with a consistent course of obedience to the whole dispensation of the covenant of grace, in opposition to every contrary system, was then the only requisite for admission to Christian communion.
A profession of believing the bible never did constitute the condition of Christian fellowship. In the first erection of the Church at Jerusalem, no part of the New Testament was committed to writing; and although the Jews believed the Old Testament, they were not universally admitted into the Church.
The rule of admission into the Church is invariable. He who knowingly professes a belief and approbation of the covenant of grace, who engages to submit to the dispensation of that covenant in every part, and whose conduct is consistent with these declarations, is entitled to admission among the disciples of our Lord. Such were the members of the apostolic Churches. Whensoever the contrary appeared, whether by heresies, schisms, or immoralities, they became liable to censure. The first object of the {30} apostolic ministry was to teach and persuade men to embrace Jesus Christ, and repent of all their sins. The next point to be gained was the organization of the converts into a regular Church state, and to settle the ministry and ordinances among them. The commission of the apostles instructed them to disciple the nations. When a Church was formed in Jerusalem, the apostles placed in every congregation presbyters of their own choice. Of these presbyters, or elders, one was a teacher authorized to administer the word and sacraments, and the others were his counsel and aid in government and discipline. To the consistory or session of elders the whole ecclesiastical power of the Church was committed. But these Churches were all connected in one body by representation; and although Jerusalem contained, in less than 20 years after the first Church was organized in it, no less than 20 congregations, they are all one Church. By the representative system the unity of the empire is supported, however numerous its provinces. By presbytery, several distinct congregations are united in one Church.
Christianity was not long confined to Jerusalem. The efforts of persecutors were the means of extending the Church. Many of the ministers were obliged to fly from Jerusalem, and they went to different places, preaching the gospel and forming Churches, with great success. Wherever there were disciples, they associated according to the ancient practice {31} of the pious Jews, for religious conference and prayer. Several societies of Christians, meeting for private social worship in convenient private houses, existed throughout Judea and the surrounding nations. As soon as convenient, however, these societies were organized into congregations, with a stated ministry and public ordinances. And as the congregations were formed, they were regularly presbyterated.
The rapidity with which the gospel spread during the apostolic age, and the prospect of spreading it still farther, exposed all the apostles to great and unceasing danger and toil. They had the care of all the Churches; but they could not be present everywhere. The first converts were, in general, simple and pious; and the first ministers were faithful and zealous. The means of information were, however, few. The canon of scripture was not yet complete. Copies of the Scripture were scarce. Pious books were not to be obtained. Few persons were able to read. The Jewish rites and the Heathen superstition were not easily banished from the esteem even of those who embraced Christianity. The Church required the regular and constant administration of ordinances, and the stated ministry stood in need of the superintendence of those who were supernaturally endowed with the gifts of miracles. The apostles found it expedient to employ EVANGELISTS, in visiting the different places in which the gospel had been planted, in the {32} organization of new congregations, and in directing the ministry, where it was regularly established. These extraordinary ambassadors are, nevertheless, careful to exhibit to the Christian world the true model upon which all Churches are to be constituted. This is apparent from their uniform practice. None are recognized as disciples, who do not profess the true religion, and submit to all its ordinances, without exception. There is not upon the records of the Church during the first century, an instance of any one being admitted to Church fellowship, who denied any doctrinal truth, or rejected any practical institution. If it happened that any disciple did, after his admission, embrace heresy, refuse submission to order, or practice any immorality, he was brought under suitable discipline. According to the nature and circumstances of his scandal, he was admonished, rebuked, or excommunicated. Among the disciples there was no distinction of rights or spiritual privileges, until organized into an ecclesiastic body. The several members had then their places appointed by divine authority. In every organized congregation there was a distinct class of rulers, and all others are ruled and bound to submission in the Lord. To the rulers was committed exclusively the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven—the right publicly to teach and to disciple. Church officers alone can exercise any part of discipline. They alone can admit into Church {33} fellowship, can govern those who are admitted, and can exclude from the privileges of the Church, those who are unruly. In no case during the first century, did a congregation examine and admit a member, judicially try and censure the disorderly, or excommunicate the rebellious.
In every congregation there were ordained several elders. In no instance is an organized congregation under the care of one officer. These presbyters were ordained to office by other presbyters. There is not one case in the apostolic age, of a presbyter being ordained to office by any single individual, whether an ordinary or extraordinary minister. As the ordinations were uniformly conducted by a plurality of ordained officers, and never by one; so the imposition of hands is the significant rite by which the ministerial authority was communicated. No one offered to preach or administer the sacraments without regular ordination, except the first extraordinary Prophets and Ambassadors, who were endowed with miraculous gifts to attest their divine mission. Those Christians who met in private fellowship for mutual edification, never employed a preacher, or attempted to ordain an officer for themselves. They waited until the rulers of the Church visited them to administer ordinances, and ordain officers. A self-organized society, would be a building of man; but in no sense the house of God—"the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." {34}
The primitive saints had a common cause, and they felt a common interest in the maintenance of the gospel. Their worldly income was cheerfully devoted to that end. Like the members of one family, they all, according to their several abilities, contributed of their property to pious purposes. Not one design ever failed of its accomplishment from want of pecuniary resources in that age, while any Christian was in possession of property adequate to the purpose. The income of their estates, and the earnings of their labours, were deemed a common right, and employed for the common good. The rulers of the congregations disposed of its collections; and when paupers were so numerous as to require particular attention, distinct officers were appointed to inspect their state, and to distribute, with the advice of the Presbyters, the adequate relief from the general fund. The officers who served the tables of the poor were called dæcons, a word which signifies servants. They had no authority in ecclesiastical proceedings, any further than as they respected temporalities.
When the extraordinary officers had under divine direction settled the church, the ordinary ministry conducted its concerns agreeably to its Presbyterian constitution. Each Christian congregation had a pastor of their own choice, regularly ordained as their bishop by a judicatory of presbyters, by the laying on of hands. With this pastor or angel of the Church, were associated, for the purposes {35} of government, lay-elders [ruling-elders—1849 edition],6 chosen by their brethren, and ordained to office by a session or presbytery. The minister and elders, the authorized representation of the congregation, constituted the session. The sessions of several congregations formed one presbytery, and all the presbyteries were under the government of one common judicatory, formed upon the principle of representation, in its most pure and regular form.
This system, admirably calculated to preserve the purity of the Church, was fully exemplified before the death of the apostles, and universally prevailed in the first century. The kingdom of Christ, thus regularly governed, and subsisting in the midst of hostile nations as an independent empire under the protection of the Prince of the Kings of the earth, exhibited to the world the power of God, and the wisdom of God in the salvation of man. It did not, however, enjoy peace for a great length of time. No system, however perfect, can be perfectly administered by frail man. God was, nevertheless, glorified in his son; the Church had her doctrine and constitution completed; the elect were savingly united to their Lord; and the world was left without excuse. These ends having been obtained, the Church soon began to decline. Heresies and schisms soon distracted her congregations, and called forth the faithfulness and talents of her sons, to defend her order and her doctrine. The Jewish converts endeavoured to make the Church {36} more similar to the temple; and the Pagan endeavoured to bring it to bear some resemblance to the house of his idols. The philosopher endeavoured to corrupt its doctrine, and the politician to model its form according to that of the Roman empire. As the godly were carried home to glory, and the number of the elect on earth diminishing, while the number of professors increased, the Church becomes more corrupt. The most conspicuous characters and places usually set the example of conformity to the world, while obscure corners shine with the light of the gospel truth in its original purity. Before the latter end of the second century, the appearance of the Christian Church, especially in the principal cities, had altered for the worse.
It is generally the case, that the history of the Church is considered subordinate to that of worldly empires. A historian of American affairs, even in the present day, would be very apt to overlook the most pious and orderly followers of Jesus; and if he wrote of the Church at all, he would bestow attention not in proportion to the purity and faithfulness of ecclesiastical bodies, but in proportion to their wealth, their numbers, and their worldly influence. The few books which have escaped the destruction of literature in the dark ages, cannot, therefore, be considered as exhibiting to view the most pure branches of the Church. They direct our attention to those most conspicuous in the world, though probably the least worthy of our notice. The {37} view, notwithstanding, which they afford us, is that of a declining empire. Christianity, indeed, was extensively diffusing itself in name; but the purity of the Church had lost its lustre. Heresy and strife divided the professed followers of Jesus into factions. Human inventions encumbered divine worship; carnal views influenced discipline; and ambition changed the form of government in those Churches which occupied the most distinguished situations in the Roman empire. A faithful voice was raised against these deviations from apostolic purity. This voice is feeble, as it reaches our ears; but it must have been at first bold and energetic, seeing it has reached us at all, through so vast a wilderness, and over the innumerable interposing obstacles introduced by the Roman Antichrist. Before the end of the second century, some ambitious ministers began to abuse their influence, their leisure, their wealth, and their literature, as the means of usurping power over their brethren. The pious disciples who formed the Churches at the death of the apostles, were now admitted into the Church triumphant. They transmitted the name Christian to their successors; but man is naturally corrupt, and grace is not hereditary. Iniquity abounded, the love of many waxed cold, the means of information were scanty, books were accessible to very few, and thus the state of the Church offered an easy prey to the rapacity of the ambitious. To support themselves in their {38} usurpation, these time-serving pastors left no art untried. Like the Scribes and Pharisees, they pretended superior zeal and sanctity, and they endeavoured to make void the law by their traditions. They represented the Jewish as the model of the Christian ministry, and taught their disciples that Aaron typified not the Redeemer, the high priest of our profession, but a prelate of the Church. The deacon, who at first ministered by order of session to the wants of the poor, began to employ servants under him, and in process of time, the office was entirely changed and rendered a spiritual ministry. The presbyter, however, long retained his rank, and contended for his rights. But after Christianity become the religion of the Roman empire, it was mingled with paganism; and the external form of the Church was also modified according to the civil government. The bishop claimed a superior power over the presbyter, and, armed with the authority of the Roman emperor, he obtained his object. Patriarchs and metropolitans, are higher branches of the hierarchy; and these dignitaries of the Church, forcing themselves upon our attention, hide from our view the more pious, faithful, and orderly congregations, which still retained the apostolic doctrine, and worship, and discipline. The word Bishop, began in the second century to be applied, in some places, to moderators of the presbyterial courts, and afterwards to those who pretended higher ministerial authority than ordinary {39} ministers; but this application was by no means universal. The zeal of the apostles and their cotemporary ministers of the gospel, carried them through the different nations, and the subsequent persecutions drove many able ministers into every part of the known world.
Churches were settled in the different nations, and at a distance from the seat of the Roman empire, these Churches enjoyed their primitive order and truth.
According to prophecy, however, the spirit of the world gradually prevailed over the exertions of piety, in the most conspicuous nations. The ecclesiastical courts were unable to check the growing apostacy. The Church increased, and regular representative assemblies were not permitted to meet by the persecutors. And even when the magistracy of the empire of Rome professed Christianity, the ecclesiastical councils were influenced in a high degree by the civil power, and the corruption had already become too general to be now effectually prevented. Synods, composed partly of apostates, and the sword hanging over their heads, are not competent to produce reformation. These causes, together with the civil wars, and final dismemberment of the empire of Rome, nourished prelatic ambition, and at last placed in the chair of Papal supremacy, Boniface the third. This even took place in opposition to the will of the struggling Churches, in {40} the year 606. It was effected by the agency of Phocas, that infamous tyrant, who waded to the imperial throne through blood. The Roman supremacy was not yet, however, generally recognized. Princes and Emperors, Churches, and even whole nations, testified against that deed, as a disgrace to the annals of history. The most pure and faithful parts of the Christian Church, beheld with anguish the grand apostacy, but they still, though in a great measure unnoticed and unknown, retained the apostolic order. Their bishops were parish ministers. Their elders were representatives of the congregations, and their deacons were the trustees of the poor. The prelacy had, indeed, gradually paved the way for the Pope’s usurpation. The nations of Europe in general, and some of the Asian and African governments, were now called Christian. God’s visible Covenant Society become extremely corrupt, and like the house of Israel, had broken their covenant. Still, however, the Lord preserved his saints; and the saints struggled against the prevailing iniquity. In every nation there were numbers who did not acquiesce in the apostacy. It was a very small proportion of the Church which fully submitted to the supremacy of Antichrist. {41}
CHAPTER IV.The State of the Christian Church from the rise of Antichrist,
until the present day.
THE Redeemer instructed his inspired apostles to predict the rise of a peculiar adversary to his gospel. The universal prevalence of corrupt principles and regular ecclesiastic order, he taught them to behold at a distance. By the splendid triumphs of the truth in the first ages, the power of religion was exemplified, the divinity of the Messiah demonstrated, and the vast number of God’s elect children who were at that period on the earth, prepared for their everlasting inheritance. As soon as these purposes were accomplished, the faithful disciples began to realize the truth of the prophecy, that an awful apostacy should affect the world, and the true witnesses become reduced to sackcloth and poverty. One hundred and fifty years after Boniface assumed the title of universal bishop, and claimed spiritual power over all the earth, his successor Pope Stephen, was created a temporal prince, by the efforts of Pepin, the usurper of the French throne. This accession of power was highly acceptable to the pretended successor of Peter, and vicegerent of Jesus Christ. It enabled him to enforce his spiritual supremacy. It is not, however, {42} the jurisdiction of the exarchate of Revenna, or his possessing the government of some of the Italian states, that constitutes the Roman Antichrist. He who is the visible head of that system of superstition, which, under the Christian name, is the greatest enemy of the Christian religion which ever existed, is on that account alone the man of sin, and son of perdition, [2 Thess. 2.] By virtue of his spiritual supremacy he ruled the nations of Europe; but they never submitted to his authority as a civil Emperor. The Kings of the earth swore allegiance to him, not because he ruled the petty states of Italy, but because he was the Pope. His own civil power, like the magistracy of the nations under his spiritual domination, is one of those horns with which the monster of blasphemy shed the blood of the saints. The Papacy does not cease to be Antichrist, even when stripped of civil authority. The rise of Antichrist is to be dated in the 6th year of the seventh century.
The visible Church then beheld a usurper upon a spiritual throne, claiming the whole government of the kingdom of Christ upon earth. The Church of Rome acquiesced in the claim; but the great body of Christians opposed his pretensions. The Christian ministry, among all the nations, were independent of the see of Rome, during the 7th century, except those of Italy; and a great number, even of them, refused submission to him. During the eighth century, when his power was {43} greatly increased, the second council of Nice favoured his superstition; but seven years thereafter, Charlemagne held a council at Frankfort, consisting of three hundred clergymen from various countries, which condemned the council of Nice, and reversed its idolatrous acts. When the governments of those nations which had formerly been subject to Rome acknowledged the Pope’s supremacy, their national Churches were constrained into the same measure. Even then, all the Churches in the Popish nations did not recognize the Pontifical authority. It was not until the eleventh century, that the Churches of Europe could be called ONE with the Church of Rome. Those persons, of course, who in the different parts of the world renounced the papal authority, were persecuted as heretics. The number and frequency of these persecutions, are sufficient to show that vast numbers of congregations and ministers were, during the darkest ages, opposed to the Antichristian system. The Roman persecutors, thirsting for blood, discovered, in the twelfth century, a Christian people, entirely distinct from the Papal Church, enjoying the ordinances of the gospel in their primitive simplicity. the Waldenses, dwelling in the south of France, and the valleys of Piedmont, were a people not numbered among the nations, [Numbers 23.9.] Providence had separated them as a Covenant Society, from the declining Churches of the nations, that they might exhibit to the world the primitive order, when Antichristian {44} power should have arrived at its height. Reinerius, the Inquisitor general, describes these newly discovered heretics about the middle of the twelfth century.
The Waldenses were in no connexion with the Church of Rome, or its clergy. They maintained a system of distinct ecclesiastical policy from the apostolic age.7 They had their friends scattered in many nations, diligently, but without attracting much notice, diffusing their peculiar sentiments. This grand enemy, the inquisitor, in order to rouse the indignation of the papacy against these heretics, as he calls them, bestows upon them three characters, which now secure the admiration of Christians to these genuine disciples of our Lord. Their enemies being judges, they are the purest Church: (1.) "This sect is the oldest. It endures, say some, from the time of the apostles.8 (2.) It is the most general. There is scarce any country where it is not. (3.) It hath a show of piety. They live justly before men, and believe all things rightly concerning God; only they blaspheme the Church of Rome and the clergy." The following character of this Church is drawn by the Centuricators of Magdeburgh, from an old manuscript. "The Vallenses defined the church of Christ. That society which heareth the sincere word of Christ, and useth the sacraments instituted by him, in whatever place it exist. They consider the scripture as the supreme standard of doctrine. {45} The reading of the Holy Scriptures they represent as necessary unto all men. The decrees of councils are to be approved as they agree with the word of God. They own two sacraments only, baptism and the Lord’s supper. They declare the Church of Rome to be the whore of Babylon, and will not own the pope or bishops. They call the dedication of Churches, the observance of holydays, and all human inventions in religious worship, diabolical inventions." Archbishop Usher has extracted from the history of Æneas Sylvius the following additional characteristics: "They deny the hierarchy, maintaining, that there is no difference among the priests on account of dignity of office; but only of usefulness and purity of life. Ministers should be content with the contributions of the people. Every person should have access to the free preaching of the gospel. No sin ought to be tolerated. There is no day holy but the Lord’s day. The Lord’s supper is to be consecrated in the Church only, and by a minister; neither does its efficacy depend more on a good than a bad man, if he be a lawful minister. Both men and women, and little children, are to be baptized in the Church by the priest."
These eminently pious Churches, which so long maintained the primitive order, while the whole world was wondering after the beast [Rev. 13.3], were intermingled with persons of a very opposite description. The purest Churches have had tares growing {46} up with the wheat; and wicked men have resided in the same place with the most virtuous. The popish writers attempted to confound all the inhabitants of the land with the Church; and to charge upon the visible Covenant Society the errors, which heretics, apostates, and nominal professors, may have propagated in that period. The Creed of the Church of the Waldenses, however, was truly evangelical; and the order of the Church, in their terms of communion, form of government, exercises of worship, and administration of discipline, was strictly Presbyterian. To the preservation of their ecclesiastical order they were bound by oath; nor was any considered as belonging to this Church who did not take the covenant. God in his Providence did, in these Churches, not only preserve a seed to serve him, and prepare his children for glory; but he also provided a seminary for the instruction of ministers and saints, who should afterwards be instrumental in overturning the empire of the papacy. The persecutions of these witnesses were frequent and bloody. They were scattered among the nations, and carried with them their knowledge, their piety, and their forms of religious worship. In the 13th century they spread and prevailed so far, that the pope thought it necessary to exert his utmost efforts to suppress them. They were found in Germany, Bohemia, Poland, France, and Britain. It is computed, that in France alone one million of them suffered martyrdom. {47} They were, however, remarkably preserved in some of these countries to which they had been banished; and, like the scattered Jews, before the coming of Christ in the flesh, were preparing the way of the Lord in the different parts of the world.
In the beginning of the 14th century, there were about eighty-thousand of these Covenanters in Austria and the neighbouring territories. They everywhere adhered to their covenant engagements, and pertinaciously opposed popery, and defended their own principles even unto death. They were considered as poor; and being aliens, in these different countries into which they were banished, they were despised; and the contempt was, by the Providence of God, a shield of protection to them. Many eminent men, in the various nations, however, were enlightened by their doctrines and examples; and these again, by their writings, diffused their sentiments, in some degree, throughout the various colleges and seminaries of literature. The progress of knowledge was slow, but it was certain. The celebrated Walter Lollard, who suffered martyrdom in the year 1322, spread through Germany the doctrines of the Waldenses, and the famous John Wickliff, filled almost all Europe with the same principles. The scattered Waldenses, still despised, and still holding fast their integrity, preserved among themselves the true order of the Christian Church; and contributed to instruct those in the establishment Churches of the nations, who {48} had courage to think for themselves. In the fifteenth century, all Europe became sensible of the need of a reformation of the Church of Rome. A council assembled at Constance, which declared the necessity of a reformation, but manifested also that it was not to be expected from the interested antichristian priesthood.
John Huss, a man of distinguished talents and erudition, professor of divinity at the celebrated university of Prague, had, together with his intimate friend Jerome, embraced many of the doctrines of the Waldenses. Although in the communion of the Roman Church, they recommended the works of Wickliff, and vainly supposed that their exertions might serve to reform the Church, and recall her from Babylon. They were, however, successful in exciting an uncommon interest for a reformation, and directing the Germans to a more favourable opinion of those old dissenters, the Waldenses, who lived among them. After the death of Huss, a number who had been influenced by his doctrines, actually joined the Church of the Waldenses, who were settled in Bohemia. They adopted one confession of faith. They also agreed upon one covenant, suited to the present state of the Church, which, according to the established usage of the Waldenses, was subscribed by all the members of the society. Vœtius, who had a good opportunity of knowing, assures us, that both the Waldenses of Tholouse and the Hussites of Bohemia, {49} ratified their federal transactions with solemn oath. Thus, while the papal power was at its height, and the horns of the beast, the kingdoms of Europe who agreed to support popery, directed against the witnesses of Christ, Providence was preparing the nations for that remarkable event which took place in the beginning of the 16th century. The period of the protestant reformation will be forever eminent in Church history. The antichristian empire was shook to its centre, and never can recover its former ghastly dominion over the minds of men. The exertions of the Waldenses became successful. They had prepared, in a great measure, the public mind for a breach from the Church of Rome. God poured out his blessed Spirit. Select and suitable instruments for the reformation were found and employed. The state of the political world was made subservient to the kingdom of Christ. Knowledge, zeal, and unfeigned piety, were promoted, and vast multitudes converted unto God. Zuinglius, Luther, and Calvin, and many other eminent men, were employed in opposing the superstition, and they had the happiness of seeing the pleasure of the Lord prospering in their hands. Imbibing the doctrines, and animated by the example of the Vallenses, these eminent men contended for the faith.
The reformers were ministers at first in the popish Church, and sought its reformation. They considered the papacy as distinct from {50} the Catholic Church. This is a judicious distinction. The Catholic Church long existed without a pope. By the ambitious dexterity of the Roman pontiffs, the papacy was by degrees incorporated with the Church; but it was really as foreign to its genuine constitution as a new citadel erected by a successful usurper, would be to an ancient city. The few virtuous ministers which had remained in the Church, acted upon this distinction. They opposed the citadel, but still continued in the city. The city had been a long time unsafe, but it had not been absolutely deprived of its ancient liberties, until the council of Trent had completely established every part of Antichristianism by ecclesiastical law. From that period Romanists are to be considered as excommunicated9 from the privileges of God’s visible Covenant Society. They are preserved in this excommunicated state as barren branches, which are to be visibly burned.
The reformation met with opposition. It progressed, nevertheless, under the smiles of an approving Providence, and in different nations they who sought the Lord publicly covenanted. in the year 1530 the Lutherans performed this important duty. They framed the famous League of Smalkalde, which was solemnly renewed four years thereafter. On the 20th day of July, 1537, the capital articles of the Christian religion and discipline were sworn publicly {51} by the senate and people of Geneva. As soon as the reformation put on a regular appearance, and the reformers had erected a separate communion from the Roman Church, the Waldenses strengthened their hands, and joined in their Churches. On the eleventh of November, 1571, in a general assembly, they entered into a solemn bond of union. They all bind themselves, under the sanction of an oath, to maintain inviolably the ancient union between all the faithful of the evangelic religion of the Waldenses down to their own time. They promise to submit to the good external regulations and ecclesiastic discipline already established, and to this period maintained among them. The Churches in Switzerland, in France, and in Holland, of all the Churches of the continent of Europe, attained to the highest purity; and the Church of Scotland, between the years 1638 and 1649, appeared at the very zenith of reformation. The Lutherans still retained the monstrous absurdity of Christ’s bodily presence in the sacrament, and in framing the external order of their Churches, adhered too closely to the popish model. The Church of England, especially, preserved her resemblance to the Church of Rome. The scanty reformation which took place in that kingdom, although overruled by Divine Providence for good to the Christian cause in general, was very far from being under the immediate direction of Christian principle. It was not conducted by an {52} inquiring people and enlightened ministry. The Church really had little hand in it. It was a creature of state policy. The Eighth Henry, a truly irreligious man, produced the reformation of England, in order to gratify his lust, his avarice, and his ambition. He was a king of haughty passions, and of principles the most despotic. To be revenged of the pope, Henry was willing that the Church of England should be altogether disconnected with the Roman; and in order to effect this, he consented that some deviations might be made from the doctrine and order of the papacy. the alterations were, however, very few. None were tolerated by the king, except such as were necessary to establish independency of Rome. He claimed to himself the authority of which he stripped his Holiness. The nation and the priesthood acquiesce in the claim, and the impious Henry the Eighth is proclaimed the head of the Church of England. The principal advantage which the nation obtained by the change, was, that now they had their Pope not at Rome, but in London. In Scotland the state of the nation was rendered, by Divine Providence, favourable to the propagation of religion. The reformation commenced with the most learned and eminent ministers. It was gradually advanced, not as an engine of state power, but as an interest totally distinct from the policies of the present world. The crown was opposed to the Protestant interest, and could not, therefore, {53} under the mask of friendship, introduce Antichristian corruption into the reformation Church; and it was too weak to destroy the protestant cause. The nobility overawed the monarchy, and shielded the commonalty from danger, while the faithful services of John Knox, and other able ministers, propagated the reformation among the people, until the mass of the nation being under its influence, they agreed to alter the civil government, and give it a direction contrary to popery. In Scotland the monarchy had not power to subdue religion into an engine of state policy; but Christianity influenced the national society to render its civil constitution subordinate to the kingdom of Christ. The Church is recognized as a regular and independent empire, of which Christ Jesus is alone the King and Head—as an empire possessing officers and courts, which have the exclusive right of regulating its concerns by the divine law. Civil government is considered as an ordinance of God, for the preservation of peace and order among men, and for regulating every worldly interest among Christians, in subordination to godliness and honesty. The doctrines of religion are briefly stated. The corruptions of popery are summed up and condemned. The worship is reduced to its primitive simplicity. The ministry relinquishes all imitations of the Roman hierarchy; and ecclesiastical discipline is exercised by the authorized officers of Christ’s peculiar kingdom. {54}
The Scottish reformers, after the example of the saints in other places, and in former times, repeatedly enter into covenant with God. They engage themselves in the strength of promised grace, and with the solemnity of an oath, to maintain and promote, in their several places and stations, the interests of the true religion, according to the law of God. Christianity thus regulating the individual and collective concerns of these excellent and godly men, appears as a system worthy of its divine author, and wisely adapted to promote the temporal happiness of nations, and the everlasting felicity of men.
The time had not yet, however, arrived, which God had set for the destruction of Antichrist, and which he revealed by the prophets to the Church, as the wished-for period when the kingdoms of this world should become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ. By the reformation, several very important ends were accomplished. (1.) The human mind was roused from its lethargy, and all its natural energies excited to that variety of action, which is calculated to strengthen and improve the understanding, and contribute to the production of that high degree of civilization which is to prevail when the Church shall appear in her millennial splendour. (2.) The elements of sacred truth were discovered, collected, and explained. The holy scriptures were delivered from the bondage of the Antichristian Church, translated into a variety of {55} languages, and transmitted to every corner of the world, in order to utter a voice more distinct, loud, and lasting, than that of the Baptist, in the wilderness of Judea—"Prepare ye the way of the Lord." (3.) Judgment was poured out upon the seat of the beast which shook his throne, and smote the arm by which he extended his scepter, with a debility from the effects of which, it can never completely recover. And (4.) lastly, The reformation proved the means of eternal life to a vast number of God’s elect children then upon the earth, and left an example which animates the hope of the witnesses of truth, and is a sure pledge of the perfect fulfillment of the prophecies which exhibit the future grandeur of the visible church.
The Protestant reformation, although an ever-memorable and glorious event, was far from exhibiting to the nations in which it prevailed a complete view of the christian Church in all her beauty. One great and essential principle of Christ’s kingdom, the UNITY of it, escaped the observation of a number of the reformers, and was almost universally violated. The Christian system, by its unalterable simplicity, is divinely adapted for universal prevalence. The scripture model of the Church, if adopted, would render the Church one, not only in the subjective principles of religion, but also in its visible form among all the nations of the earth. The immediate danger of the first reformers, the difficulty of mutual consultation upon subjects of common concern, {56} the selfish views of the civil rulers who joined them, and screened them in some measure from papal persecution, and the influence of those who co-operated with them from bad motives in opposition to the papacy, prevented attention to this principle in the organization of the Churches of the reformation. Very few at first thought of extending uniformity any further than their own particular district. While the ministry of the Church was too inattentive to the unity of the Church, and its absolute independency of the civil governments of the nations, the civil rulers were endeavouring, in each of the protestant countries, to render the Church in its external form, a creature of the civil authority.
Another cause also, contributed powerfully to the violation of this principle. Great revolutions give an unusual impulse to the human mind, and tend to encourage enthusiasm. Extravagance and disorder follow, of course, and Satan favours the delusion, and encourages every impiety. No sooner was the Antichristian authority rejected in any nation, than sectaries of every description arose, ran to the most dreadful excesses, and thus distracted the attention of the faithful from the point of general and more remote investigations about Church unity, constraining them to consult present expediency, and hasten the adoption of some order which might compose the spirits of men. It became absolutely necessary for the civil authority to exert its power {57} in suppressing these disorderly combinations, which, under pretence of religion, violated all righteousness; and the transition was natural and easy although very unjust, from giving law to enthusiastic sectaries who disturbed civil society, to legislating for the Church itself. Thus did the circumstances of the times prove the occasion of establishing evil by civil and ecclesiastical law. The great and good protestant reformers thus sowed the seeds of lasting schisms and feuds in the reformation Church, by framing ecclesiastical constitutions, differing as widely from one another as did those constitutions of civil government, under which they resided. These diversities, arising at first from principles of expediency, or from the necessities of the times, did not hinder a friendly intercourse between the pious people of that age. Soon, however, too soon, did party prejudice and pride, introduce bigotry into the protestant Churches. Instead of prosecuting at their leisure a further reformation, and procuring a general uniformity, each adhered with zealous pertinacity to the forms already established, and thus were handed down to the present day, all these dissentions and schisms, with the example still more mischievous, of rending the body of Christ at pleasure. The visible Church has consequently little unity in practice. Every city has its several congregations, not as the distinct members of one common family, but like the hostile tribes which watch the opportunity of injuring {58} one another, and which of course excite uneasy and constant jealousies and rivalries.
One great man among the first reformers anticipated these evils, and endeavoured to prevent them.
John Calvin equaled his contemporaries in piety, accuracy, knowledge, and faithfulness. He surpassed them all in the grandeur of his conceptions. His capacious mind embraced the present and future interest of the Church; and his discernment pointed out the means of establishing the peace of Jerusalem. He proposed a plan which should embrace into one Church, all the friends of the reformation in every country; and which should direct the united strength of the protestant nations, for its protection against the man of sin and all the kings which were devoted to the idolatries of Rome.
The Church of England frustrated this grand attempt. She could not act without her head, the monarchy—a head, on which is written the name of blasphemy.
England, practicing upon her favourite maxim, no bishop, no king, and holding on the 16th century, as she has done until the 19th, the balance of power, refused to part with the idol prelacy, and thus rendered abortive the plan of comprehension.
The venerable reformer, although he lamented the disappointment, did not sink into despondency. With the assistance of his friends, and under the direction of his God, he had succeeded in establishing in Geneva, an ecclesiastical policy, which {59} should be an example to the surrounding nations. The great doctrines of the Gospel are reduced into the form of a confession of faith. The Presbyterian order is delineated in a book of discipline. A Church is formed, and its members enter into solemn covenant, in conformity to the primitive pattern, and in agreeableness to the Holy Scriptures, and their own subordinate standards. The civil authority is persuaded to act as nursing fathers and nursing mothers; and the senate of Geneva, on the 20th of July, 1537, enter into covenant ratified by an oath, to support this newly organized Church. Ecclesiastical covenanting rests upon an immoveable basis. The Church is a Covenant Society. A national covenant is a very different thing. The covenanters of Geneva understood the difference, and they practiced accordingly. They had no intention to intermingle Church and State. But they were fully persuaded that the civil polity should protect the Church against Antichrist. Nations are bound to honour Messiah; and upon this principle they covenant with God. A seminary of literature was also established under the direction of the Church, which proved of eminent service. The youth flocked to it from every nation, and returned to their respective homes ably qualified to serve in the Gospel, their divine Lord and master, in their native countries. By God’s blessing, their ministry was successful; and in no place more so than in Scotland. {60}
While the reformation was progressing towards its perfection in that kingdom, the English monarchy, although the greatest barrier to the reformation of England itself, proved a shield to protect, from Papal persecution, those who promoted its interest in the northern part of the island.
The ways of Providence are wonderful. He can raise up a protection to his saints from among their enemies. If nominal members of the Church, and the various sects of heretics are a grievance to the pious disciple, they serve also to screen him from persecution. Unregenerate professors and the sects of heresy, are providentially interposed between the real Church, and the openly wicked world. Were it not for this hedge, it would require a constant miracle to prevent the wicked from murdering the saints. But the Lord had also much people in England. While the Church of Scotland was improving the Geneva model, by rendering the confession of faith more full and explicit, and the whole order of the Church more correct and definite, the same principles were rapidly progressing in England. Under the name of Puritans, the friends of primitive Christianity were known in that realm. Civil liberty accompanied religion in its progress, and it would have been a happiness to the world had she never forsaken or out-run her heavenly guide and companion. To the Puritans alone, the English owe the whole freedom of their constitution. They stemmed the torrent of despotic power, which {61} threatened to overwhelm the nation. The spirit of the nation was at length roused, and produced an invitation to reform the Church. An ordinance of Parliament called upon the most pious and learned men of the nation, to meet at Westminster, on the 1st of July, 1643, to consult together, and advise the Parliament touching the concerns of religion. This assembly was composed of the most eminent divines and laymen of the age. It was not designed for a national synod, or a representative body of the clergy, but only as a council to the Parliament. The civil authority demanded their advice in advancing the cause of truth and righteousness, and consequently called them, not as an ecclesiastical court, having jurisdiction over the Churches, but as a committee of arrangement to promote the interest of religion, and the further reformation of the Church. This assembly, with the assistance of commissioners from the Church of Scotland, drew up and exhibited to the world, in a confession of faith and catechisms, directory for worship, and a plan of Church government, the most definite, scriptural, and complete system which had ever been exhibited by any council or assembly. It was intended as a system of uniformity, which should unite in one Church, the friends of religion in England, Ireland, and Scotland. Such a system became necessary, as these nations had entered into a solemn league and covenant for themselves and their posterity {62} that all things might be done in God’s house according to his own revealed will.
This covenant was drawn up by a committee of the general assembly of the Church of Scotland, and commissioners from England. It passed both the assembly and the convention of estates at Edinburgh in one day, and being sent to England, it was ratified by the assembly and the parliament. Monday, the 25th of September, 1643, in the Church of St. Margaret’s, Westminster, Mr. Nye read this covenant from the pulpit, article by article, each person standing uncovered, with his right hand lifted up bare to heaven, worshipping the great name of God, and swearing to the performance of it. It was afterwards subscribed by the house of commons and by the assembly. It was sworn by the house of lords, on the 15th day of October.—This covenant binds these nations to the preservation of the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of the Church of Scotland; it also binds to constant exertions to establish uniformity in religion over the three kingdoms, and to perpetual perseverance in the same cause against all opposition. Copies of these transactions were sent, by the assembly of divines, accompanied with appropriate letters, to the Churches of Holland, France, and Switzerland.
All these Churches returned respectful answers, and the Netherland divines expressed not only an approbation of the covenant, but desired to join therein. {63}
The Presbyterian system was never completely established in England, although it was for some time the most prevalent. And after several years of civil tumult and religious anarchy, the nation again crouched under the burdens of both the monarchy and the prelacy. The restoration of the British monarchy was accompanied with national perjury. The prelacy and the throne were established in blood. The reformation was overturned, the covenant was broken, and upwards of twenty thousand Presbyterians died as martyrs to the covenanted reformation.
The protestant Churches have, since the middle of the 17th century, been declining in purity.
A skeptical philosophy has corrupted the principles of a considerable proportion of the literary part of the community. Commerce has nurtured in its lap, sensuality and avarice. Mistaken ideas of civil and religious liberty, have rendered men impatient of the restraints of christian discipline. And the politicians of the present world have prevailed too far to render the Protestant systems minister to their ambition. The visible Church, divided into factions, and encumbered with a mass of irreligious professors, presents in every place an appearance which fills the serious mind with pain.
America, colonized and settled by Europeans, has offered an asylum for Christians of every denomination, from the effect of the penal statutes standing {64} against them in different countries of the old world. In the United States particularly, the simple form of civil government affording equal protection to all ranks of men, we often find the various forms of religion practiced in one city.
God has in his Providence, presented the human family in this country with a new experiment. The Church, unheeded by the civil powers, is suffered to rise or fall by her own exertions.10 The truth is great, however, and by the blessing of God, and the faithfulness of the saints, it will yet triumph. Toward the beginning of the eighteenth century, the pious people in Europe direct an eye of unusual anxiety toward America. Twelve centuries have now elapsed since the rise of Antichrist. His fall is fast approaching. Dreadful judgments await all the parts of the Roman empire. The heavens and the earth of that system must be shaken and removed, and the witnesses be killed by the last efforts of the beast. Many exercise a