properly the pillar of the truth." This proves that they esteemed the church a visible society; and the confession of Augsburg denies that "all ceremonies, all old institutions were abolished in their churches"," evidently understanding visible societies. The Saxon confession says, that "the church may be seen and heard, according to that text: 'their sound went into all the world,'" and that there is a visible church in which God operates. The Bohemian confession approved by Luther'; the confession of the Reformed of Strasburgh "; the Helvetic confession"; that of Basil in 1536°; the Gallican P; all speak repeatedly of the church as essentially visible. This was also the doctrine of Calvin, who declares that out of the visible church there is no salvation 9. .... xii. i" Docet impios illos quamvis per ministerium evangelii est efhabeant societatem externorum ficax, et multos ad vitam æternam signorum, tamen non esse verum regenerat."-Conf. Saxon., art. regnum Christi . . . . neque vero somniamus nos Platonicam civitatem, ut quidam impie cavillantur, sed dicimus existere hanc Ecclesiam... Et addimus notas : puram doctrinam evangelii et sacramenta."-Apol. Conf. iv. de Ecclesia. J"Falsa enim calumnia est, quod omnes ceremoniæ, omnia vetera instituta in Ecclesiis nostris aboleantur."-Conf. August., pars i. xxii. "Non igitur de Ecclesia, tanquam de idea Platonica loquimur; sed Ecclesiam monstramus, quæ conspici et exaudiri potest; juxta illud: In omnem terram exivit sonus eorum . . . Dicimus igitur, Ecclesiam visibilem in hac vita cœtum esse amplectentium evangelium Christi, et recte utentium sacramentis, in quo Deus Confess. Bohemica, cap. viii. m Confessio Tetrapolit., cap. xvi. 16. " Conf. Helvetica, c. xvii. "Militans in terris Ecclesia semper plurimas habet particulares Ecclesias, quæ tamen omnes ad unitatem Catholicæ Ecclesiæ referuntur.' It is evident that the Church is all through regarded as a visible society. • Art. xiv. xv. P Conf. Gallicana, cap. xxvii. "In symbolo, ubi profitemur nos credere Ecclesiam, id non solum ad visibilem, de qua nunc agimus, refertur, sed ad omnes quoque electos Dei."-Inst., iv. 1. s. 2. "Quia nunc de visibili Ecclesia disserere propositum est, discamus vel uno matris elogio quam utilis sit nobis ejus cog In fact, the Reformed seem generally to have taught the doctrine of the visibility of the church, until some of them deemed it necessary, in consequence of their controversy with the Romanists, who asked them where their church existed before Luther, to maintain that the church might sometimes be invisible. This mistaken view appears in the Belgic confession, and was adopted by some of the Protestants; but it arose entirely from their error in forsaking the defensive ground which their predecessors had taken at first; and placing themselves in the false position of claiming the exclusive title of the Church of Christ, according to the ordinary signification of the term. Jurieu, a minister of the French Protestants, has shown this', and has endeavoured to prove that the Church of Christ is essentially visible, and that it never remained obscured, without ministry or sacraments, even in the persecutions, or in the time of Arianism. The same truth has been acknowledged by several denominations of dissenters in Britain. Thus the Presbyterian divines of Westminster (1647) declared, that the visible church, which is also Catholic or universal under the Gospel, . . . is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation"." Dr. Owen, the chief of the Independents in the seventeenth century, admits the existence of " a visible catholic church';" .... and says, that the "union of the catholic church in all particular churches (which are visible according to him), is always the same, inviolable, unchangeable, comprehending all the churches in the world at all times, nor to be prevailed against by the gates of hell "." In fact, all the dissenting societies claim to be "Churches of Christ," therefore they must admit that the church of Christ was to be visible, which, unless they believed that Christ had promised this visibility, they could not be certain of. Even the Quakers admit the visibility of the church. Barclay speaks of the "Christians, as they are stated, in a joint fellowship and communion, and come under a visible and outward society; which society is called the Church of God, and in Scripture compared to a body, and therefore named the body of Christ "." Finally, I proceed to show that the visibility of the church is recognised by the British churches and our theologians. The articles of the Synod of London (1562) uniformly regard the church as a visible society; as in the following passages: "The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure word of God is preached, and the Sacraments 66 "Owen's True nature of a Gospel Church, p. 403.-The modern dissenters in their "Ecclesiastical Library" (on religious Creeds, p. 126.), say: The Redeemer promised to be with His Church always, even to the end of the world. ... as defending and perpetuating the prosperity of His whole body, and maintaining its purity and vitality to the consummation of all earthly things. And if so, His Church will, to the end, continue to prefer truth to falsehood, and will preserve that be duly administered," &c. . . . . "As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch have erred; so also the Church of Rome hath erred ".".... "The Church hath power to decree rites and ceremonies, and authority in controversies of faith." . . . . "It is repugnant to the word of God, and the custom of the Primitive Church, to have public prayer in the Church, or to minister the Sacraments in a tongue not understood of the people.” . . . “Although in the visible Church ... sometimes the evil have chief authority in the administration of the Word and Sacraments; yet forasmuch as they ... do minister by his commission and authority, we may use their ministry "." "That person which by open denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the unity of the Church, and excommunicated, ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful as an heathen and a publican, until he be openly reconciled by penance, and received into the Church "." "Whosoever through his private judgment, willingly and purposely doth openly break the traditions and ceremonies of the Church." . . . . Every particular or national church hath authority to ordain, change, and abolish ceremonies or rites "," &c. the church is uniformly regarded which the Gospel is preached, the Sacraments administered, a ministry presides, rites and ceremonies are decreed, controversies of faith determined, and offenders censured by authority. A visible association; visible sacraments; a visible priesthood, are all supposed to be instituted by Christ, and therefore essential to the church; 66 In all these passages as a visible society, in Art. xxvi. and there is no trace of the notion that Christianity should ever lie concealed, a few scattered believers, surrounded and overpowered by a triumphant and universal apostasy. d The catechism of Dr. Nowell, approved by several bishops, confesses, that the church of God is visible, and that those who disturb this church, or dissent from it, are without hope of salvation. Bishop Jewell says, that "we believe there is one church of God," and "that there are various orders of ministers in it; that some are deacons, some priests, some bishops "," &c. This plainly refers only to a visible church. Bishop Pearson professes as "a necessary and infallible truth, that Christ by the preaching of the Apostles did gather unto Himself a Church consisting of thousands of believers and numerous congregations, to which He added daily such as should be saved, and will successively and daily add to the same unto the end of the world." This church he had before described as possessing unity of government and sacraments; therefore it was visible. Dr. Field denies that the writers of the Reformation generally maintain the church to be invisible. Bellarmine, he says, labours in vain, "in proving that there is, and always hath been a visible church; and that not consisting of some few scattered Christians without order of ministry or use of sacraments; for all this we do most willingly yield unto; howsoever, perhaps, some few have been of opinion that though all others failing from the faith, the truth of God should remain only in some few of the laity, yet the Noelli Catechismus, p. 106. 108. Oxford ed. 1836. Ed. London. 1606. * On the Creed, art. ix. vol. ii. d Juelli Apologia, p. 27, 28. p. 256. |