promise of Christ concerning the perpetuity of His church might still be verified '.” f " I shall conclude with the words of the profound Bishop Butler. "Miraculous powers were given to the first preachers of Christianity, in order to their introducing it into the world: a visible Church was established in order to continue it, and carry it on successively throughout all ages. Had Moses and the Prophets, Christ and his Apostles, only taught, and by miracles proved, religion to their contemporaries, the benefit of their instructions would have reached but to a small part of mankind. Christianity must have been in a great degree sunk and forgot in a very few ages. To prevent this, appears to have been one reason why a visible Church was instituted; to be like a city upon a hill, a standing memorial to the world of the duty which we owe our Maker; to call men continually, both by precept and instruction, to attend to it, and by the form of religion ever before their eyes, remind them of the reality; to be the repository of the oracles of God; to hold up the light of revelation in aid of that of nature, and propagate it throughout all generations to the end of the world "." OBJECTIONS. I. The true Church of Christ consists only of the elect, but the elect are not known and visible to the world; therefore the Church of Christ is invisible. Answer. I deny the first proposition, if it be understood of election to eternal life. The Church or kingdom of God comprises many who shall not inherit f Field, Of the Church, book i. c. 10. 8 Butler's Analogy, part ii. c. 1. eternal life. This is evident from the parable of the tares and the draw-net, in which it appears that the evil will only be separated from the good at the day of judgment. It is true indeed that the sanctified and elect are principally and essentially the church of Christ; but besides them are many sinners and hypocrites who belong to the Church, though only externally, temporarily, and imperfectly. The second proposition requires a distinction. I grant that the elect are not visible as elect, but I deny that they are not visible as professing Christians. There is not a single instance of any saint in the New Testament who did not externally and visibly confess Christ with all other Christians: nor is there an instance of a church whose existence was unknown and secret. On the contrary, a visible profession of Christianity is essential, for, "With the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. x.10.); and again: "Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of Man confess before the angels of God." As St. Augustine saith: "Faith requires from us the office both of the heart and the tongue;....we cannot be saved unless we labour for the salvation of our neighbours, by professing with our mouth the faith which we bear in our heart "." While therefore we admit that those who are essentially members of the church are not discernible as such from hypocritical professors or false brethren, and are therefore in one h "Quoniam scriptum est. 'quia justus ex fide vivit,' eaque fides officium a nobis exigit et cordis et linguæ ; ait enim Apostolus,Corde creditur ad justitiam, ore autem confessio fit ad salutem:' oportet nos esse et justitiæ memores et salutis. Quando quidem in sempiterna justitia regnaturi, a præsenti seculo maligno salvi fieri non possumus, nisi et nos ad salutem proximorum nitentes, etiam ore profiteamur fidem, quam corde gestamus." August. de Fide et Symbolo, tom. vi. p. 151. ed. Bened. sense invisible; we maintain that they always openly profess Christ, and are therefore always and essentially visible. II. The worship of the faithful is entirely spiritual, therefore the Church is not visible. The former proposition is proved by Scripture. "After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts" (Jer. xxxi. 33.). "The hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth" (John iv. 23.). "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices" (1 Pet. ii. 5.). Answer. (1.) This proves too much, namely, that no external worship, sacraments, or ordinances were instituted by Christ; which would be contrary to scripture and the general consent of all nations and ages. (2.) These expressions signify that the Christian religion was not to be chiefly typical, ceremonial, and external, like the Jewish, or rather like what it had been made by the Scribes and Pharisees; but chiefly internal, though not without external rites, and the form of a visible church. III. "The kingdom of God is within you" (Luke xvii. 21.). Answer. This is only intended to correct the errors of the Jews, who thought it would come with external pomp and power, or "with observation" (verse 20.). In these words Christ meant that His dominion was chiefly in the mind and heart; but this does not prove that it was not also to be manifested by external signs of obedience and profession. IV. "When the Son of Man cometh shall He find faith on the earth" (Luke xviii. 8.)? it seems, from this, that the visible church, if it then exist, shall not be the church of Christ. Answer. Christ only speaks of "faith which worketh by love" (Gal. v. 6.); of which there will be little in the church of Christ in the latter days, "Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold" (Matt. xxiv. 12.); yet still there shall be some faithful in the visible church of Christ: for "Lo I am with you always, even to the end of the world ;" and again, “We which are alive and remain, shall be caught up.... and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess. iv. 17.). V. "That day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" (2 Thess. ii. 3, 4.). Answer. (1.) It does not follow that because there is an apostasy, there is not also a true church. (2.) The man of sin sits in God's temple, which still remains God's temple; he usurps the attributes of God, but it does not follow that he is worshipped by all, or even by the majority of those who form the temple; consequently there may be always a true visible church. iThis explanation is given by St. Jerome (Dialog. adv. Lucifer.), Augustine, lib. de Unitate, and Sermon 36, de Verbis Dom. Cyprian applies the words to his own time, and explains their meaning as above. "Filius ho minis cum venerit, putas inveniet fidem in terra? Videmus fieri quod ille prædixit. In Dei timore, in lege justitiæ, in dilectione, in opere, fides nulla est. Nemo futurorum metum cogitat, diem Domini, et iram Dei.... Quod metueret conscientia nostra, si crederet; quia non credit omnino, nec metuit; si autem crederet et caveret; si caveret evaderet."-De Unit. 260. VI. The church of God, under the former dispensation, sometimes became invisible, or failed. Thus Elijah says: "The children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left" (1 Kings xix. 10. 14.). Answer. (1.) Moses had prophesied or intimated the falling away of the children of Israel (Deut. xxviii. xxix. 25, 26. xxx. 17.). (2.) The kingdom of Judah retained the true worship of God, at the time Elijah spoke. VII. The church of Christ was invisible during the time of Arianism. Answer. Besides the great Athanasius, there were numerous confessors of the truth in all parts of the world; and the church generally held the orthodox faith simply, though Arian bishops were forcibly intruded on her, and some other bishops were apostate, and many were deceived, for a time, by artfully contrived and ambiguous confessions of faith, which they rejected as soon as they discovered their deceit; but orthodoxy was always maintained in the Church. "The church," says Augustine, " is some times obscured, and as it were clouded, by the multitude of scandals, when sinners bend their bows, that they may privily shoot at them that are true of heart; but even then it is conspicuous in its firmest members;.... Perhaps it was not said in vain, 'as the stars of heaven, and as the sand on the sea-shore;' that by the stars of heaven might be understood the fewer, firmer, more renowned; and by the sand on the sea-shore, that great multitude of the carnal and weak, which sometimes, in peaceable times, appears free and quiet, but sometimes is covered and |