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spiritual Head in Heaven, of the spiritual Churchuniversal; and consequently of all particular Churches, equally, in all parts of the world.

of points

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

There is not indeed any systematic enumeration of the several points that are excluded as inconsistent with the character of the religion; answering to the prohibition of Idolatry in the Decalogue, the enumeration of forbidden meats, and other such enactments of the Levitical Law. But the same may be said no less of the affirmative directions also that are to be found in the New Testament. The fundamental doctrines and the great moral principles of the Gospel, are there taught,— for wise reasons no doubt, and which I think we may in part perceive,m not in Creeds or other regular formularies, but incidentally, irregularly, and often by oblique allusions; less striking indeed at first sight than distinct enunciations

m See Appendix, Note (G.)

Certainty with which things enjoined, for

discretion

guished.

and enactments, but often even the more decisive and satisfactory from that very circumstance; because the Apostles frequently allude to some truth as not only essential, but indisputably admitted, and familiarly known to be essential by those they were addressing."

On the whole then, I cannot but think an attentive and candid inquirer, who brings to the bidden and study of Scripture no extraordinary learning or ary, may be acuteness, but an unprejudiced and docile mind, distin- may ascertain with reasonable certainty, that there are points-and what those points arewhich are insisted on by our sacred writers as essential; and again, which are excluded as inconsistent with the religion they taught; and again, that there are many other points,—some of them such that the Apostles cannot but have practically decided them in one way or another on particular occasions, (such as the mode of administering the Eucharist, and many others) respecting which they have not recorded their decisions, or made any general enactment to be observed in all Ages and Countries.

And the inference seems to be inevitable, that they purposely left these points to be decided in each Age and Country according to the discretion of the several Churches, by a careful

" See Rhetoric, 6th Edition, Part I. ch. 2, § 4.

§ 17.] Contrary Errors opposed to the above Principles. 109

application of the principles laid down by Christ and his Apostles.

errors at

with the

ciples.

§ 17. At variance with what 'has been now Opposite said, and also at variance with each other, are variance some opinions which are to be found among above prindifferent classes of Christians, in these, as well as in former times. The opposite errors (as they appear to me to be) of those opinions, may in many instances be traced, I conceive, in great measure, to the same cause; to the neglect, namely, of the distinction-obvious as it is to any tolerably attentive reader-which has been just noticed, between those things, on the one hand, which are either plainly declared and strictly enjoined, or distinctly excluded, by the Sacred Writers, and, on the other hand, those on which they give no distinct decision, injunction, or prohibition; and which, I have thence concluded they meant to place under the jurisdiction of each Church. To the neglect of this distinction, and again, to a want of due consideration of the character, offices, and rights of a Christian Community, may be attributed, in a great degree, the prevalence of errors the most opposite to each other.

those who

There are persons, it is well known, who from Error of not finding in Scripture precise directions, and regard no strict commands, as to the constitution

Church

and ordinances,

ing.

&c. as bind- regulation of a Christian Church,-the several Orders of Christian Ministers,—the distinct functions of each,—and other such details, have adopted the conclusion,—or at least seem to lean, more or less, towards the conclusion-that it is a matter entirely left to each individual's fancy or convenience to join one Christian Society, or another, or none at all;-to take upon himself, or confer on another, the Ministerial office, or to repudiate altogether any Christian Ministry whatever; to join, or withdraw from, any, or every religious Assembly for joint Christian Worship, according to the suggestion of his individual taste :-in short, (for this is what it really amounts to when plainly stated) to proceed as if the sanction manifestly given by our Lord and his Apostles to the establishment of Christian Communities, and, consequently, to all the privileges and powers implied in the very nature of a Community, and also the inculcation in Scripture of the principles on which Christian Churches are to be conducted, were all to go for nothing, unless the application of these principles to each particular point of the details of Churchgovernment, can also be found no less plainly laid down in Scripture.

Mistake of

expecting

Now though I would not be understood as precise di- insinuating any thing against the actual morality of life of those who take such views, I cannot

rections

point of

but remark, that their mode of reasoning does on each seem to me perfectly analogous to that of men detail. who should set at nought all the moral principles of the Gospel, and account nothing a sin that is not expressly particularized as forbidden,nothing a duty, that is not, in so many words, enjoined. Persons who entertain such lax notions as I have been alluding to, respecting Church-enactments, should be exhorted to reflect carefully on the obvious and self-evident, but often-forgotten truth-the oftener forgotten, perhaps, in practice, from its being self-evidentthat right and duty are reciprocal; and, consequently, that since a Church has a right (derived, as has been shown, both from the very nature of a Community, and from Christ's sanction) to make regulations, &c. not at variance with Scripture-principles, it follows that compliance with such regulations must be a duty to the individual members of that Church.

those who

Scripture

tion for a

On the other hand, there are some, who, in Error of their abhorrence and dread of principles and seek in practices subversive of all good order, and tend- or Tradiing to anarchy and to every kind of extravagance, sanction to have thought, or at least professed to think,that we are bound to seek for a distinct authori- enactment. tative sanction, in the Scriptures, or in some other ancient writings,-some Tradition in short

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"By "ancient" some persons understand what belongs to the first three centuries of the Christian era; some, the first

each

Church

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