5114 THE TRULY PRIMITIVE AND APOSTOLICAL CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. By SAMUEL MILLER, D. D. PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND CHURCH GOVERNMENT IN THE PHILADELPHIA : PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. ADVERTISEMENT. THIS Manual has been prepared at the particular request of the Tract Society of the Synod of Philadelphia. A polemical spirit in the Church of God is by no means Commendable. And even when different denominations of professing Christians are compelled, either in public teaching, or in social intercourse, to recur to the points in regard to which they differ, it ought ever to be done with as much mildness and inoffensiveness as can be reconciled with fidelity. It is doing no more than justice to Presbyterians to say, that they have ever been remarkable for their freedom from a prose.yting spirit. Assuredly, there is no denomination of Christians in the United States, from whose pulpits go little is heard of the nature of vaunting their own claims, or impugning the peculiarities of others, as in those of the Presbyterian Church. Seldom is a sentence uttered in their public assemblies adapted to invade the tenets of any evangelical Christian; almost never, indeed, unless in defending themselves against the attacks of other denominations. In the meanwhile, several other numerous and respectable denominations habitually act on a different policy. Their preaching, their ecclesiastical journals, and their popular Tracts, are characteristically and strongly sectarian. Of this no complaint is made. We live in a free country, where all denominations, in the eye of the civil government, stand upon a level. May it ever continue to be so! But there is a point, beyond which silence in respect to our peculiarities, may be censurable. We are bound to defend ourselves against unscriptural attacks, not merely for our own sakes, but for the sake of others. It is incumbent on us to show to those within our pale, or who may be inclined to unite with us, that we have not followed cunningly devised fables."" This, and this only, is the design of the following Manual. It is not intended to invade the precincts, or assail the members of other religious communities; but solely for the instruction of Presbyterians; and to satisfy them that the system by which they are distinguished, is, throughout, truly primitive and apostolic. Inqui ries are frequently made by young people and others of our denomination, why we differ, as to a variety of particulars, from some other churches. Is it wrong; can it be deemed inconsistent with the most scrupulous Christian charity, and even deli cacy, to provide a manual adapted to answer these inquiries? Surely, this is a debt which we owe to our children. And as Presbyterian ministers are seldom heard to preach on the peculiarities by which our beloved and truly scriptural Church is distinguished, there seems to be the more propriety in putting into the hands of our youthful and less instructed members, a summary of the arguments by which they may be enabled to meet the attacks, and repel the insinuations, of those unwearied worshippers of sect, who cease not to insist that they alone are entitled to the character of true Churches. Entered according to the Act of Congress in the year 1835, by Dr. A. W. Mitene, in the office of the Clerk of the District Court. of the Eastern District of ennsylvania. Gift Tappan Pred, Ass. 3-7-1932 PRESBYTERIANISM. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. THE Church of God, in the days of the Apostles, as is well known, was not divided into different denominations. Even then, indeed, there were parties in the Church. The restless and selfish spirit of depraved human nature soon began, in different places to display its unhallowed influence, either in the form of judaizing claims, philosophical speculations, or turbulent opposition to regular ecclesiastical authority. In the Church of Corinth, though planted and nurtured by "the chiefest of the Apostles," there were factious and troublesome members, who contended among themselves, and said, one to another, "I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ." Still the Church was The names, "Presbyterian," "Episcopalian," "Congregationalist," &c. &c., were unknown. All professing Christians, "though many, were considered as one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.' The only popular distinction then recognised, as far as the professed followers of Christ were concerned, was between the Church and the heretics. one. Not long after the Apostolic age, when heresies had become numerous, when each of them claimed to belong to the Church, and when convenience demanded the adoption of some term which might distinguish between the true or orthodox Church, and the various sects of errorists-the title of Catholic (or general, as the term Catholic signifies,) was applied to the former; while the latter were distinguished by various names, derived either from the nature of their distinguishing opinions. |