a. Voluntary Societies and Ecclesiastical Organizations
We are disposed to think there must be, on an average, at least one misrepresentation for every page in this work. As it requires more words to correct a misstatement than to make it, we should be obliged to write a book instead of a review, if we thought it necessary to correct all these errors. We believe they may be safely allowed to work their own cure. It is our object to leave personal matters, as far as possible, on one side, and to attend to those only which are of general and permanent interest. The first topic of this nature presented in the work before us is:—
The relative claims of Voluntary Associations and Ecclesiastical Organization.
In the discussion of this point, a great deal of confusion often arises from not accurately defining the terms employed. Thus, our author says, (p. 17) “It is the revealed will of God to evangelize the world by the instrumentality of his Church.” Here are two expressions, the meaning of which must be definitely fixed, to secure anything like accuracy of deduction, or correctness of result. The above statement is one in which high Church-men and low Church-men, papists and independents, would agree. Before we can argue from it, we must know first what is meant by the Church, and, secondly, what is intended by the expression “to evangelize the world.” Our author informs us that “the Church is composed of all the sanctified in Christ Jesus,—all converted men—associated by public profession and covenants, under whatever form, for the maintenance of the worship of God and for the advancement of his cause.” According to this definition believers are not the Church in virtue of their spiritual relation to each other and their divine head, nor in virtue of a profession of the true religion, but in virtue of their association for the maintenance of the worship of God and the advancement of his cause. The Church, then, is an associated, organized body, and it is to this organization the revealed will of God assigns the duty of evangelizing the world. This would be a good introduction to an argument in favour of the doctrine our author ascribes to the Pittsburg convention, but seems an extraordinary statement of preliminary principles in favour of voluntary societies. If the Church is a body of men organized for the purpose above specified, and if the revealed will of God has assigned to this organization the duty of evangelizing the world, then, beyond all controversy, the Church as such, as an organization, must do all that is necessary for the accomplishment of this object. If a number of men are organized as a school committee, or board of regents, to superintend the education of a whole community, then they are bound not merely as individuals but as an organization to attend to this object. It is their official duty, and any voluntary combination for the purpose of taking it out of their hands, would be a usurpation. Is then the Home Missionary Society a Church? Is it a body of believers associated by public profession and covenants? Or, has any such association ever appointed or constituted that society? If not, is it not, according to the doctrine of his book, interfering with the appropriate duty of a divine organization, and undertaking to do what God has assigned to other hands?
The truth is, the idea of association which the author has introduced into his definition of the Church, does not belong to it, in the sense in which he meant to use the term, as designating the catholic visible Church. And the introduction of this idea vitiates all his arguments, and leads him to conclusions directly opposite to those which he meant to establish. The Church, according to our Confession, “consists of all those who profess the true religion together with their children.” The wandering savage who has heard the truth, who believes and declares it, is a member of this Church, as truly as any minister or elder. We concede that it is to the Church in this wide sense, the work of evangelizing the world is assigned. But here again, to avoid confusion, it is absolutely necessary to explain the terms employed. The expression to “evangelize the world” is very vague and comprehensive. It includes every thing which is designed and adapted to secure the extension and influence of the gospel. Education in all its departments, from the Sunday-school to the Theological Seminary; the circulation of the Scriptures and tracts; the preaching of the gospel, the ordination and installation of pastors, the mission of evangelists, &c., all are included. The Church then, or the people of God, are bound to put into operation all these and other agencies for the attainment of this great object. For this end they are bound, by the command of God, to organize themselves as a society. In what form this organization shall be made has always been a matter of doubt; and whether any one form is prescribed in the Scriptures is also a subject of debate. But it is on all hands conceded that the people of God are bound to organize themselves, under some form, in order to accomplish the great purpose for which the Church was constituted. It is as an organized society she is to judge of the qualification of new members, and exercise discipline on unworthy ones; that she is to select, ordain, and install pastors, and send out evangelists. There are then some of the most important of all the means for evangelizing the world, which can be employed by the Church in her organized capacity only. There are others as to which the people of God are at liberty to act either as an organized ecclesiastical society, or in voluntary combinations for some specific object. There can be no doubt that for some purposes, such as the distribution of the Scriptures for example, the latter is the preferable method. With regard to others there can, we think, be as little doubt that the ecclesiastical method is to be preferred.