"The Church of Christ is the most free society; and every particular church founded upon the same principles, and acting upon them, is free; and it is by adhering to these principles that a church maintains its freedom. For what is a Church? A body of men voluntarily agreeing that, as they are joined together in one mind and one judgment, they shall unite in acts of worship and in the profession of their common faith, and that they shall take counsel together for their mutual improvement, shall claim no lordship over each other's faith, and that if any one of their number shall change his opinion and shall cease to be in unison with his brethren on those matters on which they had united, he shall be at full liberty to withdraw from his brethren; and, on the other hand, those who shall retain their opinions shall have liberty to dissolve the relation and declare it dissolved. It is free thought in the most honest sense of the word; leaving to every one to profess what he thinks, and allowing others to do the same: those who wish change, to change; those who prefer remaining as they are, so to remain, till they see sufficient cause to change their mind. Their right to do so is a right heaven-bestowed, which a church cannot, -without unfaithfulness, surrender. Thus church-freedom has brought church confessions. We exercise freedom in forming our religious opinions, and we exercise freedom in confessing them- others who do not hold them having the same right and liberty not to confess them. We are thus in a condition to forbear with one another, and love and live as brethren. What, then, is the meaning of all the outcry some people raise about confessions, our own, among others, more especially? When a body of men agree as to what they believe, they no more exercise tyranny over one another than does an individual tyrannize over himself when he makes up his mind upon a religious question. What invasion is there of the rights of private judgment when it is in the exercise of these very rights that a church adopts a belief, and asserts her right to profess it? If that is a yoke upon conscience, it cannot be galling to the man who, by his own free will, puts it on, and who any day he likes may put it off. It is not the church that binds it upon the individual; it is the individual who binds it upon himself."
This is part of a report of a lecture delivered by a Principal at the opening of the Theological Hall of one of the Presbyterian Churches at Edinburgh, November 6, 1877. It is a deep grief to any one who feels for the honor of Christ, and who has received Scriptural thoughts as to the church, to see such a total misapprehension and misstatement of what the church of God is; for the lecturer's mind appears to be an entire blank as to what is taught by the Holy Ghost in the New Testament on this important subject.
Professors are supposed to know the whole breadth of the literature of their respective subjects; and it is not likely to produce a fitting respect in 'their students when they find their teachers making an exhibition of the grossest ignorance on a great subject like the church, of which some of them are not altogether uninformed or untaught from other sources. One such, when he heard of the lecturer's liberality in giving full liberty for the dissatisfied person to withdraw from the church, said, " He cannot leave the church if it be Christ's, as he has said it is; and if it be not, the sooner we all leave it the better." Young men, who have some knowledge of what is taught in Scripture regarding the church, will prove rather awkward elements in a professor's class, who makes the church " a voluntary society," which you can join and withdraw from at your own will, as you may see cause! For Scripture light is spreading on all the great subjects of divine revelation, which will effectually sap the foundations of traditional theology and ecclesiastical institutions which have no warrant in the word of God.
I do not intend at present to enter upon a discussion on what the church is, nor to seriously controvert the sad views of this report at any length, but briefly to point out wherein they are opposed to Scripture, and then to avail myself of the letters of another to give the doctrine on the church which exactly meets the case, and shows the falsity of such views as those before us.
" The church of Christ is the most free society, and every church founded upon the same principles and acting upon them is free, and it is by adhering to these principles that a church maintains its freedom." Although this is strangely worded, yet we might have little difficulty in accepting it, did we not know from what follows that he does not mean the " church of Christ" at all, but a voluntary society got up on the ground of so much recognized truth on which they can all agree; and when a man changes his opinion, he has full liberty to leave the society, and " those who retain their opinions shall have liberty to dissolve the relation between him and them, and declare it dissolved "!
His is thus the church of mere " opinions." A thought of its being God's church, the unforfeitable home of every saved man and woman, and, in another aspect, the body of Christ, to whom every member is united by the Holy Ghost come down from heaven for that express purpose, and that all are thus not only members of Christ but members one of another never seems to have entered his mind. The church of the Scriptures is built on the rock Christ of living stones, and all being Christ's building, who shall dare to " dissolve the relation?" All are built on the Son of the living God after He has died for their sins and risen again for their justification, and are in living connection with the last Adam, "a life-giving Spirit;" and all united to this glorified Head in heaven, "the church which is His body," by the Holy Ghost, and also indwelt as God's house by the Spirit of God; having "the truth" (and not merely united on certain mutually acknowledged doctrines), " the unity of the Spirit "-a unity made by Him and which all are to " keep," and to make nothing but to walk, worship, and be in practical fellowship "with all saints," not merely those of the same doctrinal pattern, but those also who, as Scripture enjoins, are "otherwise minded," for "there is one body and one Spirit." All truth and all saints are in " the church of God," " according to the Scriptures," and none has a right to make churches, nor to exclude any from the manifested fellowship of God's church, who hold the Head and walk in holiness.
"For what is a church? (` founded on the same principles as the Church of Christ')." Only think of the sad answer! "A body of men voluntarily agreeing that as they are joined together in one mind and one judgment they shall unite in acts of worship, and in the profession of their common faith," etc. Is the church of the Scriptures founded on "voluntary agreement," making it a thing of man's will, or is it by divine agreement and operation and "by the will of God?" God, uniting all believers by the Holy Ghost to the glorious Man at His right hand, has made the church "one body and one spirit," without consulting with men; and it is the merest ignorance of this divine fact that allows men to make their voluntary societies and call them churches. If they had any knowledge and sense of the greatness of the person and work of Christ, or the divine operation of the Holy Ghost in forming and continuing the church on earth; and that the Holy Ghost has come down to abide in and with the saints of God forever; and that He has made of all saints on earth one living organism, as real, perfect, and interdependent in its members as are the members of the human body (1 Cor. 12); and that He is present to guide all in worship and for mutual edification (1 Cor. 14) as in apostolic times; and this being so, that men are as little permitted to potter at church-making as they were while the apostles lived; they would not hold such language nor have such unscriptural thoughts as those on which we now animadvert. "Free thought" is as entirely excluded from church-making by the Holy Ghost speaking in the Holy Scriptures, as is " free will " from our being made God's children (John 1:12,1312But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12‑13)). The words of the Christ are, Upon this Rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (Matt. 16:1818And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18)). " For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is the Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:12,1312For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. 13For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:12‑13)). This declares three things-(1), Christ builds His Church, and all He builds infallibly stands; (2), He does it through the Holy Ghost's baptism, not by regeneration or being born again; (3), That this church thus formed, though composed of many members, are " baptized by one Spirit into one body," and are as indissolubly one as all the many members of the one human body " being many are one body." " So also is the Christ," that is, the Head, and all the members form one body. And this is the only principle on -which we are gathered to the name of Christ, so as to be on the divine ground of God's church on earth.
But the lecturer speaks as if he did not believe in, the divine principles of the church of God; and consequently, having a humanly-constructed church and a humanly-framed confession of faith on which it is based, he thinks he has found a short and easy method with all malcontents who raise an outcry against confessions; they may cease confessing and give tangible proof of this cessation by withdrawing from the society! This is all just and right and in accordance with common sense and public conscience if man has made it. But if the church be divine, if its formation be an act of God's sovereign grace and not "a body of men voluntarily agreeing," if the Holy Ghost baptizes all who can say " Abba Father " into one body, the body of Christ, and if it is founded on the Father given confession of Christ as the Son of the living God, then all that he has said about the matter is in direct opposition to the testimony of God, the work of Christ, the agency of the Holy Ghost, and the entire Scripture teaching regarding God's church; which is a serious matter for one occupying the responsible position of principal of a theological hall and a teacher of the future ministers of his church. His address goes no higher than to make the church he is connected with a "body of men voluntarily agreeing," a mere sect possessed of as much freedom as their confession of so much doctrine which they believe to be conformable to Scripture entitles to; but the whole thing is an affair of man's will to the setting aside of God's will for His church, as well as the Scripture principles on which the church of God is founded, whether looked at as the body of Christ or the house of God.
Two things, then, are obvious in this address-(1.) That he claims nothing higher for his Church than that it is a mere sect into which men may come if they like it, or go elsewhere and join some other sect if they like it better; and (2.) That the churches of men, known as the various ecclesiastical denominations, are not the church of God at all, nor are they meant to be framed on the principle of there being "one body and one Spirit." As this lecturer has plainly admitted the human origin of his church, it can be nothing other but a sect; and What is a Sect? We give for answer the light-giving answer of another, hoping that the Lord may use it as an eye-salve that some may see:-
The word sect is employed in the English translation to express The Greek word " hairesis."
It is used (except in the Acts of the Apostles, where it is found six times) only once in the Epistle to the Corinthians, once in the Epistle to the Galatians (v. 20), and once in that of Peter (2 Peter 2) In the First Epistle to the. Corinthians it is translated by the word heresy (1 Cor. 11:1919For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. (1 Corinthians 11:19)).
It signifies a doctrine, or a system, whether of philosophy or religion, which has its adherents united as adopting this doctrine. Its meaning is a little modified now, because the professing church (at least the greater part of it) has taken the name of Catholic, that is to say, universal. Then every religious body, every Christian gathering, which does not belong to this community (so-called Catholic), is by it called a sect; from this the word has become a word of censure. All the Christian bodies are sometimes called sects, in the sense of divisions, when they separate themselves from the whole complement of Christians, or from those who bear this name However, the word sect implies in itself always more or less of censure, from the idea that those who compose it are re-united by a doctrine or a particular denomination. We cannot say that this way of looking at it is entirely false; the application may be false, but not the idea itself.
But what is important is to discover that which, in fact, is an assembly of Christians justly deserving this name; or, since it is applied to assemblies or Christian corporations, it is necessary to understand the true principle on which we ought to assemble: that which is not based on this principle is really a sect.
Although the Catholics (so-called) have made a bad use of this truth, it is not less true that the unity of the church is a truth of the greatest importance for Christians, whether the unity of all individually manifested in the world (John 17), or that of the body of Christ, formed by the Holy Ghost, come down here (Acts 2; 1 Cor. 12:1313For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13)); so in the seventeenth chapter of John's Gospel the Lord asks the Father, with regard to those who shall believe through the word of the apostles " that they all may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me " (John 17:2121That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. (John 17:21)). We see there the practical unity of Christians in the communion of the Father and the Son. The apostles should be one in thought, word, and deed, by the operation of one Spirit, as the Father and the Son in the unity of the divine nature (ver. 11); then those who should believe by their word ought to be one in the communion of the Father and the Son (ver. 21). We shall be perfect in the unity of the glory (ver. 22); but we ought to be one now, in order that the world may believe (ver. 21).
Further, the Holy Ghost came down from heaven on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2), baptized all believers of that time into one body, united to Christ as a body to the head, and manifested here below on the earth in this unity (1 Cor. 12:1313For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13)). We see clearly that it is on the earth, where it says, in the twelfth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, " If one member suffer, all the members suffer; and if one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it." We do not suffer in heaven. But then it is added, " Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular."
The whole chapter shows the same truth; but these verses suffice to demonstrate that it treats of the church on the earth. See here, then, the true unity formed by the Holy Ghost; first, the unity of brethren between themselves, and second, the unity of the body.
The spirit of a sect exists when we see disciples unite outside this unity, and when it is around an opinion that those who profess it are gathered, in order that they be united by means of this opinion. This unity is not founded on the principle of the unity of the body, or of the union of brethren. When such persons are united in a corporation, and mutually recognize each other as members of this corporation, then they constitute formally a sect, because the principle of the gathering is not the unity of the body; and the members are united, not as members of the body of Christ (when they are even such), but as members of a particular corporation. All Christians are members of the body of Christ-an eye, a hand, a foot, etc. (1 Cor. 12:13-2513For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. 14For the body is not one member, but many. 15If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? 16And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? 17If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? 18But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. 19And if they were all one member, where were the body? 20But now are they many members, yet but one body. 21And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. 22Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: 23And those members of the body, which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. 24For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked: 25That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. (1 Corinthians 12:13‑25)). The idea of being a member of a church is not found in the Word. The Holy Ghost compares the church on the earth to a body of which Christ is the Head (Eph. 1:22,2322And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, 23Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. (Ephesians 1:22‑23); Col. 1:1818And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. (Colossians 1:18)); then each Christian is a member of this body, so of Christ. But to be a member of a particular corporation is quite another idea. Now, the supper of the Lord being the expression of this union of the members (as it says, 1 Cor. 10:1717For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread. (1 Corinthians 10:17)), when a corporation of Christians recognize its right to receive its members to it, there is a unity formally opposed to the unity of the body of Christ. It is possible that this may be ignorance, or that these Christians have never apprehended what is the unity of the body, and that it is the will of God that this unity be manifested on the earth; but, in fact, they form a sect, a denial of the unity of the body of Christ. Several of those who are members of the body of Christ are not members of this corporation; and the supper, although the members partake piously of it, is not the expression of the unity of the body of Christ.
But now a difficulty is presented: the children of God are dispersed; many pious brethren are attached to this opinion, to that corporation, and mixed up for advantage' sake, even in religious things, with the world. There are, alas! many who have no idea of the unity of the body of Christ, or who deny the duty of manifesting this unity on earth. But all that does not annihilate the truth of God. Those who unite themselves, as I have already said, are but a sect in principle. If I recognize all Christians as members of the body of Christ-if I love them and receive them, from an enlarged heart, even to the supper, supposing that they are walking in holiness and truth, calling upon the name of the Lord out of a pure heart
(2 Tim. 2: 19-22; Rev. 3:77And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; (Revelation 3:7)), then I am not walking in the spirit of a sect, even although I cannot gather together all the children of God, because I walk according to the principle of this unity of the body of Christ, and seek the practical union among the brethren. If I join with other brethren to take the Lord's supper only as member of the body of Christ, not as a member of a church, whichever it may be, but verily in the unity of the body, ready to receive all Christians who are walking in holiness and truth, I am not a member of a sect; I am member of nothing else but of the body of Christ. But to gather together upon another principle, in whatever manner it may be, to make a religious corporation, is to make a sect. The principle is very simple. The practical difficulties are sometimes great by reason of the state of the church of God; but Christ is sufficient for all; and if we are content to be little in the eyes of men, the thing is not so difficult.
A sect is, then, a religious corporation, united upon another principle than that of the body of Christ. It is formally such when those who compose this particular corporation are regarded as being the members of it. It is to walk in the spirit of a sect when those alone are recognized in a practical manner, without properly saying so, who are members of a corporation. In principle, then, the lecturer's church is nothing better than a sect, and, indeed, so are all modern " churches." But now to come to the second point, I will allow the same writer to give the Scriptural thought about Churches and the Church:-
You ask me, Were there not churches in Scripture? I answer, there were; but what are churches? The effect of the question is to bring out the state of the mind. Most Christians would immediately think of what are called churches in the religious world, perhaps in Christendom at large. They would think of the Presbyterian Church, or Congregational and Baptist Churches, or else of the Church of Rome, or the like. The person who lived habitually in the mind of Scripture would think of Corinth or others which we meet with in Scripture.
Are then the facts which exist in Christendom, or the thoughts there current, different from the facts found in Scripture, or the thoughts formed by it? Let us inquire into this, not with a haughty heart, but if we find all gone far away from the Scriptural state in principle and practice-if we find all ruined, instead of power in the Holy Ghost and unity-" a fair show in the flesh," let us mourn in heart, and cry to the Lord. He will meet us in our need.
What, then, were churches in Scriptural times? Church means simply an assembly, or, from local use in Greek, an assembly of privileged persons, of citizens. The whole multitude of believers gathered into one by the Holy Ghost formed the Assembly, or Church. Only here, of course, it was God's assembly; of course those in Rome or Corinth could not meet in Jerusalem. Hence there were assemblies in different places, forming each locally God's assembly in the place. It may be well very briefly to examine how the assembly is viewed in Scripture as a whole, before we speak of local assemblies. It is viewed as the habitation of God; and also as the body of Christ; and first of the former.
In one sense the church is not yet formed, not yet complete. All that shall be united to Christ in glory form part of it. " I will build My church," says Jesus, " and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." This will be infallibly accomplished; so Peter, evidently alluding to this, " unto whom coming as unto a living stone, ye also; as living stones, are built up a spiritual house; " so Eph. 2, " in whom the whole building fitly framed together groweth into an holy temple in the Lord." This is yet unfinished, and still goes on; and though at first a public and evident body, the Lord adding daily to the church such as should be saved, it is now become what is called "the invisible church." It is "invisible": though if it was to be the light of the world, it is hard to tell the value of an "invisible" light. If it is acknowledged to have fallen for ages into corruption and iniquity, a very Babylon in character, this has not been "the light of the world." The persecuted saints-for God has surely had a people-gave their -testimony, but the public body in the world was darkness, not light in it.
But there is another way in which God's assembly is spoken of, and still first as the house of God, that is, as established by the instrumentality of man, and under the responsibility of man. "As a wise master-builder," says Paul, "I have laid the foundation, but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon." There is human instrumentality and human responsibility. It was a large body formed on earth which was God's house or temple, the Holy Ghost dwelling in it down here as descended on the day of Pentecost (1. Cor. 3.), not the body; there can be no wood and hay and stubble, which is to be burned, in "the body of Christ."
Again, "Ye are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit " (Eph. 2:2222In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:22)). This is a very interesting and precious truth, I mean God's dwelling down here in His house prepared for Him according to His will. God never dwelt with Adam innocent, though He visited him, nor with Abraham though He visited and singularly blessed him; but the moment Israel was redeemed out of Egypt, God came and dwelt among them. The dwelling of God with men is the fruit of redemption (see Ex. 29:4646And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them: I am the Lord their God. (Exodus 29:46)). The true "redemption" has been accomplished, and God has formed "a habitation" for Himself, where He dwells by the Spirit. It is so indeed as to the individual (1 Cor. 6), but I now speak of the assembly, " the house of the living God." This is now on the earth, " the habitation of God by the Spirit." He dwells and walks among us. We "are God's building." Man may have built in wood and hay and stubble, but God has not yet executed judgment to remove the house out of His sight, though judgment will begin there.
The assembly is also "the body of Christ" (Eph. 1:2323Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all. (Ephesians 1:23)). It is by one Spirit we are baptized into one body. This, though the final completeness of it will be in heaven, yet is established on earth, for the baptism of the Holy Ghost was His coming down on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1:55For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. (Acts 1:5); 1 Cor. 12:1313For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13)). That this is on earth is further clear, for in the same chapter we find He has set in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, where we have "miracles, gifts of healing," clearly on earth. Where, remark also, that they are set in the whole church, members of such or such a kind in the one whole body. Such is the church or assembly as depicted in Scripture.
But what were churches or assemblies? These were local. The apostle could say, " To the church of God which is at Corinth." It represented the whole unity of the body in that place. "Ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." Two bodies of Christ being in one place, representatively, there could not be. In Galatia, which was a large province, we read " the churches of Galatia." So in Thessalonica, a city of Macedonia, we have "the assembly of the Thessalonians." So in the seven churches; so John writes to the assembly. So everywhere there was God's assembly in any given place which could be distinctly addressed as such. In Acts 20 he calls for "the elders of the assembly." There were several appointed by the Holy Ghost to be overseers of God's flock. Hence Titus was left in Crete to ordain them in every city. We have (Acts 11:2222Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem: and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch. (Acts 11:22)) "the assembly which was in Jerusalem," though it was exceedingly numerous. In Acts 13 the assembly that was at Antioch. So Paul (Acts 14:21-2321And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, 22Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. 23And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed. (Acts 14:21‑23)) returns to Lystra, Derbe, and Iconium, and chooses for them elders in every assembly. All Scripture clearly shows there was one assembly in a place, which was God's assembly. Churches as buildings they had none: the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; and hence they met in houses where they could; but all formed one assembly, God's assembly, in that place, the elders being elders in the whole as one body. The local assembly represented the whole assembly of God, as 1 Cor. shows us plainly. The position which Christians who composed it held was that of members of Christ, of the whole body of Christ. The only membership known in Scripture is membership of Christ's body; as an eye, a hand, etc.; ministry was directly connected with this last thought. When Christ ascended up on high, He gave gifts to men, apostles, prophets-they were the foundation (Eph.;-at their head, and people are members of this so-formed church or assembly, and vote in it as such; they may be members of Christ or not, that which gives them their title is that they are members of that particular assembly. In most churches a majority, if the vote does not create a division, carry out their will. The Holy Ghost is not in question. All action from beginning to end is man's.
The Presbyterians may have various church courts, and have an aristocratic element in their organization. Congregationalists have all their decisions come to by each separate body and the vote of the members of the assemblies, but the whole is a human arrangement formed and carried on by man. A man is a member of a body which man has organized, and acts as such,.
The actual state of things is a church or assembly of which a certain number of persons are members, with a person educated for the ministry at its head. It is Mr. so and so's flock or church; he is paid so much a year-he may or may not be converted, but he is ordained; he may be an evangelist and put into a pastor's place; he may be a pastor, but must preach to the world! although if he does not succeed in this he may be dismissed; generally directly, sometimes indirectly. The whole constitution of the church of God-God's constitution, is ignored and man's substituted for it. And the order and the power of the Holy Ghost are ignored, or not believed in at all.
In Scripture there is no membership of a church, no pastor of a flock peculiar to him, no such voluntary assembly formed on its own particular principles. Not a trace of such an order is in the word, if it be not in the incipient divisions called "carnal," in the epistle to the Corinthians. There was God's church or assembly, not man's churches.
If Paul were to address an epistle to "the assembly of God" at -, no one could get it; there is no such body in existence. Man's churches have set aside "the church of God." The operation of the Spirit of God is set aside-that is, evangelists, servants of Christ for the world; pastors and teachers, not of a flock who
have chosen them, or their flock, but exercising their gift where God may bring them; teaching at Ephesus in God's assembly if they were there, at Corinth if they were there, acting according to the gift given them from on high wherever God sent them, trading with their talent because their Master has charged them with it, as every man has received the gift, ministering the same as good stewards of the manifold grace of God; if they exhort waiting on their exhortation, if teachers on their teaching, and that in God's assembly as a whole.
Man has organized; but he has wholly set aside, as far as his arrangements go, God's order and arrangements as to the assembly. Thus the church, God's assembly, is set aside to have man's churches; the Spirit who gives gifts to various members is set aside to have a minister of their own choosing; and so also is the word in which God's order is revealed. The church, and Spirit, and word are all set aside by what is called "order," that is, man's arrangement and organization. We are told it must be so. That is, there is not faith to trust the Lord to rule and bless in His own house according to the ordering He gave to it, yet true blessing can only come from His operation by the Holy Spirit He has sent down.
And what is the effect? It would be ungracious of me (nor am I the least inclined to do it) to expose the miserable consequences which often ensue. They are well known; the world knows them. My object is to show that the system is anti- scriptural, and denies the Holy Ghost and the true church of God; but it is evident that a person chosen and paid by an assembly, of which very commonly half or more is unconverted, where the object is to increase numbers and influence, and have rich people, must please those whom he serves. And, says the apostle, " If I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Jesus Christ." They must adapt themselves to their audience.
For the practical result I appeal to every godly conscientious person conversant with the state of things. I hear their groans on every side. But it is the natural and necessary effect of the
evangelists, pastors, teachers, these were set in the whole church or assembly (1 Cor. 12)
If a man was a teacher at Ephesus, he was such at Corinth. Even as to miraculous gifts, a man spoke with tongues where he was; the gift belonged to no particular assembly, but was that member or gift in the whole body on earth, wrought by the Holy Ghost (1 Cor, 12.), and by which a man was a servant of Christ. In 1 Cor. 12 we have the Holy Ghost on earth distributing them as they then were. In Eph. 4 they are given from Christ on high, and only such referred to as ministered to the perfecting of the saints and edifying of the body till we all grow to the stature of Christ. They were the talents with which a man was bound to trade, if he knew the Master, in virtue of having them, " as every man has received the gift so minister the same as good stewards of the manifold grace of God" (1 Peter 4:1010As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. (1 Peter 4:10)). They were to wait on their prophesying or exhorting. Rules are given for their exercise in Scripture. Women were to keep silence in the assemblies.
But my main object now is to show that it was as gifts in the whole assembly of God everywhere that they who possessed them acted. Elders were local and were not a gift, though aptness to teach was a desirable qualification. Still all had it not (1 Tim. 5:1717Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine. (1 Timothy 5:17)). Elders were elders, in a given city, of God's assembly there. Gifts were exercised as set in the whole body, wherever the gifted member was, according to Scriptural rules. The result of the examination of Scripture is, that there was one assembly of God in each town where there were Christians; that these were members of the body of Christ—the only membership known in Scripture; and gifts were exercised in the whole church, or one assembly of God in the whole world, as members and servants of Christ, by the operation of the Spirit, according to rules given in Scripture. Eldership was a local office to which persons were chosen and appointed by the apostle or his deputy, and they were elders in the one assembly of God in the place, over which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers (Acts 14:2323And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed. (Acts 14:23);. Titus; Acts 20:17,2817And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church. (Acts 20:17)
28Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. (Acts 20:28)). It was not a gift, though one gift was desirable to make the office more effective, but the chief requisites were qualities which made them fit to be overseers.
No trace of this subsists at present in the common order of what man calls "churches." Thank God, men cannot hinder the Lord in His work, or His raising up such as may minister to His own, in a sovereign way; but man has organized "churches" each according to his fancy, and the "church of God" and "the word of God" are forgotten save the owning by some of an "invisible church" which the Lord is faithful to carry on. But that they leave to His care, and arrange the visible church each as he sees good. The church as a public body in the world had sunk into Popery (or Greek corruption, with which we have less to do in the West). All was in ruin, as the apostle had predicted; and at the Reformation civil Governments set up national churches. The church of God no one thought of, and for some time nothing else was allowed. Religious liberty then became more common, but no one thought of "the church of God," but of mere organized churches united by a system of man's devising, or independent one of another, but man arranged and organized them. The unity of the body; that membership was membership of Christ alone; that the Holy Ghost was on earth; that gifts were given by Christ and brought responsibility for their exercise with them; all this was wholy forgotten and left aside-that is, the whole original Scriptural truth on the subject of the church and the presence of the Holy Ghost. The Episcopal body was so far different that they pretended to have the original title by succession, and made people members of Christ by the baptism of water, a dream of which there is no trace in Scripture. It is by one Spirit that we are baptized into one body. Baptism with water is to the death of Christ.
But leaving aside the Episcopal pretensions and errors, the existing system is that of assemblies formed by men on some principle they have adopted with a man chosen by themselves
system. Ministry with them is not the exercise of gift given of the Lord, but a person educated for a profession and ordained, so that a great many are not really converted. The true church of God established on earth (1 Cor. 12) is ignored, as are true churches, God's assemblies in each place, and churches are made by men according to their view of what is right, and men are members of their churches, not viewed as members of the body of Christ. An unconverted member of a church has all the rights and power of a converted member of Christ.
The influence of wealth, not of the Spirit of God, is paramount, and a majority decides cases, not the guiding of the Spirit. If a majority had decided at Corinth, what would have been the effect? In the whole system, man, and man's will, and man's organization, have taken the place of the Spirit and word of God, and of what God organized Himself as declared in the word.
People say, Were there not churches then? I answer, Surely, and that it is that shows the anti-scriptural character of what exists. Let any one show me in Scripture such a thing as a separate distinct body such as is called a church now, and membership of it; or, as I have said, if Paul wrote " To all the church of God at—-," who could get it? All is anti- scriptural, and sets aside what is in Scripture to form something else.
I do not touch on many collateral subjects-the ruined state of the church as a whole, the coming of the Lord-wishing to confine myself to the question; is the existing order of things scriptural or anti-scriptural? That men having drunk old wine straightway desire new, I understand, is not likely; but happy is he who follows the word, and owns the Spirit, if he be alone in doing so. The word of the Lord abides forever, as does he who does His will. The 2. and 3. chapters of 2d Timothy clearly point out the condition of the church in the last days, and the path of the believer in them, as the first Epistle gives the external details of the church when first arranged by apostolic care.