A CHURCH WITHOUT A PRELATE. THE APOSTOLICAL AND PRIMITIVE CHURCH, POPULAR IN ITS GOVERNMENT, AND SIMPLE IN ITS WORSHIP. BY LYMAN COLEMAN, AUTHOR OF "ANTIQUITIES OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH." WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY, BY DR. AUGUSTUS NEANDER, PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN. LONDON: THOMAS WARD AND CO., PATERNOSTER ROW, 1844. PREFACE. If the reader object, that the authorities cited are beyond his reach, or are recorded in a language to him unknown, the writer can only say, that he has endeavoured to collect the best authorities, wherever they might be found. When embodied in the pages of the work, they are given in a translation; and, if of special importance, the original is inserted in the margin, for the examination of the scholar. MAN is said to be a creature of circumstances. | to go to the original sources, and first and chiefly The same may be said of a book. The present, to draw from them. On the constitution and at least, is the result of a circumstance sufficiently government of the church none have written trivial. In the year 1841, the author published, with greater ability, or with more extensive and with no sectarian designs, a work on the Anti-searching erudition, than Mosheim, Planck, quities of the Christian Church, as a compilation Neander and Rothe. These have been his prinfrom various German authors, having Augusti's cipal reliance: and after these, a great variety of Compend for its basis. This unpretending authors. volume, however, aroused the suspicion of a certain presbyter in Philadelphia, bearing the initials H. W. D., whose practised eye and professional skill detected, as he seemed to think, a dangerous infection covertly propagated by the circulation of the book. The alarm was raised; and the public warned of their danger by a review, remarkable for the spirit and decency with which it was written, and, most of all, for its random assertions, contradicting, with an assurance seldom equalled, the plainest facts of ecclesiastical history. Finding this review every where circulated, with the admirable spirit in which it was written, the author of the work in question ventured upon a brief reply. This gave a direction to his studies which he had never contemplated; and which, with increasing diligence and interest, he has continued to pursue until the present time. The result of these inquiries is, the following work. The work has been prepared with an anxious endeavour to sustain the positions advanced, by references sufficiently copious, pertinent and authoritative; and yet to guard against an ostentatious affectation in the accumulation of authorities. Several hundred have indeed been entered in these pages; but many more, that have fallen under the eye of the writer, have been rejected. Much labor, of which the reader probably will make small account, has been expended in an endeavor to authenticate those that are retained, and to give him an explicit direction to them. The work has been written with studied brevity, and an uniform endeavor to make it at once concise, yet complete, and suggestive of principles. For this new direction thus given to his studies, and for all the interesting incidents of his foreign travel, connected with them, the author has to offer all due acknowledgments to his old friend, the presbyter. What thanks the In the prosecution of these labors, the author public may owe him, is yet to be seen in the has received much encouragement and many judgment which they shall accord to the book important suggestions, from friends, whose serhere submitted to their examination. It is, how-vices he holds in grateful remembrance. For ever, in no sense presented in answer to that such favors he is particularly indebted to Proreview. Far from it. The traveller receives his fessor Park, of the Theological Seminary in this direction from any way-faring man, and goes on place. his journey regardless of his informant; so the author, taking his departure from an incident so trifling, has pursued his course of study, with an aim infinitely higher than that of replying to his reviewer. The object of the author, in the following work, is to commend to the consideration of the reader the admirable simplicity of the government and worship of the primitive church, in opposition to the polity and ceremonials of the higher forms of prelacy. In the prosecution of this object, he has sought, under the direction of the best guides, | Above all, it is the author's grateful duty publicly to express his acknowledgments to Dr. Neander, not only for his Introductory Essay, but for the uniform kindness of his counsels in the preparation of the several parts of this work. The writer can say nothing to add to the reputation of this eminent scholar, distinguished alike for his private virtues, his public services, and his vast and varied erudition. He can only express his obligations for the advantages derived from the contribution and the counsels of this great historian, for which the reader, in common with the writer of the following pages, will owe 1 his grateful acknowledgments. For the sentiments here expressed, however, the writer is alone responsible. The translation of the Introduction was made in Berlin; and, after a careful comparison with the original by Dr. Neander, received his unqualified approbation. It is, therefore, to be received as an authentic expression of his sentiments on the several topics to which it relates. In the preparation of this work, the author has studiously sought to write neither as a Congregationalist, nor as a Presbyterian, exclusively: but as the advocate of a free and popular government in the church and of simplicity in worship, in harmony with the free spirit of the Christian religion. It is enough for the author, if the church is set free from the bondage of a prelatical hierarchy and trained, by simple and expressive rites, to worship God in spirit and in truth. We heartily wish indeed for all true churchmen a closer conformity to the primitive pattern in government and in worship: but we have no controversy with them on these points, provided we may still be united with them in the higher principles of Christian fellowship and love. The writer has the happiness to number among the members of that communion some of his most cherished friends, to whose sentiments he would be sorry to do violence by any thing that may appear in these pages. Indeed, the great controversy of the day is not with Protestant Episcopacy, as such; it is rather with FORMALISM. Formalism, wherever seen, by whatever name it is known,-this is the great antagonist principle of spiritual Christianity, Here the church is brought to a crisis, great and fearful in prospect, and momentous, for good or for evil, in its final results. The struggle at issue is between a spiritual and a formal religion:-a religion which substitutes the outward form for the inward spirit;-a religion that exalts sacraments, ordinances and rites, into the place of Christ himself; and disguises, under the covering of imposing ceremonials, the great doctrines of the cross of Christ. The church is at issue with this religion under the forms of high church Prelacy, Puseyism,' and Popery. The present struggle began in England; but when, or where, or how it will end, who can tell? Dr. Pusey himself declares that on the issue of it," hangs the destiny of the church of England." The Tractarians all avow, -"that two schemes of doctrine, the Genevan and the Catholic, are probably for the last time struggling within that church." But the conflict is not confined to England. The signs of the times, every where darkly portentous, presage a similar conflict to the church of Christ universally. In this eventful crisis we are urgently pressed to a renewed examination of the apostolical and primitive polity of the church, in government and in worship; for under cover of these the warfare of Formalism is now waged. These are the prominent points, both of attack and of defence, to which the eye of the minister, the theological student, and the intelligent Christian of every name, should be strongly turned. Let them fall back on that spiritual Christianity which Christ and his apostles taught. Let them, in doctrine, in discipline, and in worship, entrench themselves within the strongholds of this religion; and here, in calm reliance upon the great Captain of our salvation, let them await the issue of the contest. Hitherto the great body of the people have been left to gather up information upon this branch of religious knowledge as they could and the most have been content with a blind acquiescence in the customs of their own church. A due degree of knowledge on this subject is apparently the lot of very few of our leading men, and by no means the property generally of clergymen and theological students. To what purpose is it now, just to follow the history of the church, century by century, through the recital of her sufferings? The times are changed, and a corresponding change is required in the study of ecclesiastical history. This is chiefly important, for existing exigencies, to illustrate the usages, the rites, the government of the church, and the perversion of these to promote the ends of bigotry, intolerance, and superstition. Besides, we have seen, for some years past, an influence stealing silently upon the public mind, and alluring many young clergymen from the fold of their fathers;-an influence to be counteracted by a better understanding of our own government and worship. Bishop Griswold stated in 1841, that of "two hundred and eighty persons ordained by him, two hundred and seven came from other denominations." ." And another bishop says, "From the most accurate investigation that can be made, I am led to believe, that about three hundred clergymen and licentiates of other denominations, have, within the last thirty years, sought the ministerial commission from the hands of bishops of that church; and, that at least two-thirds were not originally, by education, Episcopalians, but have come from other folds." These facts afford matter for serious inquiry. These three hundred were not originally Episcopalians. Were they," by education,' any thing else? Would they have strayed away in such numbers from their own fold, had they been duly instructed in the principles of that order to which they originally belonged? The author is deeply sensible of the magnitude and difficulty of the work which he has undertaken; and with no affected modesty, avows the unfeigned diffidence with which he commends it to the public. Would it were worthier, and better fitted for the great end proposed by it. But he has done what he could, and finds his reward in the consciousness of having labored honestly in a righteous cause, and in the hope of doing something for the promotion of that religious system which shall enable the true worshippers to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Such a religious system, he believes most firmly must ever find its truest expression in rites of worship few and simple, and in a government administered in every part and every particular by the people;-in a ritual without a prayer-book; and a church without a bishop. ANDOVER, FEBRUARY, 1844. INTRODUCTION, BY DR. AUGUSTUS NEANDER, PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN, CONSISTORIAL COUNSELLOR, &c. IN compliance with the request of my worthy | friend, the Rev. Mr. Coleman, I am happy to accompany his proposed work on the Constitution and Worship of the Apostolical and Primitive Church, with some preliminary remarks. I regard it as one of the remarkable signs of the times, that Christians, separated from each other by land and by sea, by language and government, are becoming more closely united in the consciousness that they are only different members of one universal church, grounded and built on the rock Christ Jesus. And it is with the hope of promoting this catholic union, that I gladly improve this opportunity to address my Christian brethren beyond the waters on some important subjects of common interest to the church of Christ. This is not the proper place to express in detail, and to defend my own views upon the controverted topics which, as I have reason to expect from the respected author, will be the subject of an extended, thorough, and impartial examination in his proposed work. My own sentiments have already been expressed, in a work which, I am happy to learn, is offered to the English reader in a translation by my friend, the Rev. Mr. Ryland, of Northampton, in England.* I have only time and space, in this place, briefly to express the results of former inquiries, which, with the reasons for them, have on other occasions already been given to the public. It is of the utmost importance to keep ever in view the difference between the economy of the Old Testament and that of the New. The neglect of this has given rise to the grossest errors, and to divisions, by which those who ought to be united together in the bonds of Christian love, have been sundered from each other. In the Old Testament, everything relating to the kingdom of God was estimated by outward forms, and promoted by specific external rites. In the New, everything is made to depend upon what is internal and spiritual. Other foundation, as the apostle Paul has said, can no man *History of the Planting and Training of the Christian Church, by the Apostles, by Dr. A. NEANDER, Ordinary Professor of Theology, in the University of Berlin, Consistorial Counsellor; translated from the third edition, by J. E. Ryland. lay than that is laid. Upon this the Christian church at first was grounded, and upon this alone, in all time to come, must it be reared anew and compacted together. Faith in Jesus of Nazareth, the Saviour of the world, and union with him, a participation in that salvation which cometh through him, this is that inward principle, that unchangeable foundation, on which the Christian church essentially rests. But whenever, instead of making the existence of the church to depend on this inward principle alone, the necessity of some outward form is asserted as an indispensable means of grace, we readily perceive that the purity of its character is impaired. The spirit of the Old Testament is commingled with that of the New. Neither Christ nor the apostles have given any unchangeable law on the subject. Where two or three are gathered together in my name, says Christ, there am I in the midst of them. This coming together in his name, he assures us, alone renders the assembly well pleasing in his sight, whatever be the different forms of government under which his people meet. The apostle Paul says, indeed, Eph. iv. 11, that Christ gave to the church certain offices, through which he operated with his Spirit, and its attendant gifts. But assuredly Paul did not mean to say that Christ, during his abode on earth, appointed these offices in the church, or authorized the form of government that was necessarily connected with them. All the offices here mentioned, with the single exception of that of the apostles, were instituted by the apostles themselves, after our Lord's ascension. In making these appointments, they acted, as they did in everything else, only as the organs of Christ. Paul, therefore, very justly ascribes to Christ himself what was done by the apostles in this instance as his agents. But the apostles themselves have given no law, requiring that any such form of government as is indicated in this passage should be perpetual. Under the guidance of the Spirit of God, they gave the church this particular organization, which, while it was best adapted to the circumstances and relations of the church at that time, was also best suited to the extension of the churches in their peculiar condition, and for the development of the inward principles of their commu |