THE MINISTRY

AND

SACRAMENTS OF THE CHURCH.

GOD'S

LECTURE I.

THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH.

OD'S thoughts are so far above our thoughts that they cannot be at once and completely expressed in man's words. The diffuseness and variety of the Scriptures, and the progressive development of its doctrines, are necessary conditions of a verbal revelation. Divine inspiration redeems human words from their common use, breathes into them a new life, and sanctifies them to higher ends, from which we may not drag them down by insisting upon their radical as their true meaning. The English word "church" may be derived from Kúpiov oikos; but it does not follow that what we understand by the "House of God" comprehends all the Divine idea of the Church.

Nor do we get much light from the etymology of the words in the original Scriptures translated "church" in our English version. The kahal of the Old Testament and the ecclesia of the New literally signify an "assembly." Hence there are some who insist that we ought to disabuse our minds of all later accretions to their meaning,

and regard the Church simply as an assembly of Christians. But why should this dismantling process stop at a Christian assembly? Why not strip the words bare to their original meaning? The kahal of the Old Testament is applied to the army of Pharaoh and to the company of Korah,1 as well as to the congregation of Israel. And so also in the New Testament the Greek word ecclesia is applied to a meeting of citizens called by civil authority, and even to a mob like that which was gathered in the theatre at Ephesus.2 The logical conclusion of the etymological argument is that any and every assembly of people is a church.

Neither is the Divine idea of the Church completely defined when you add to a Christian assembly the element of a Divine call. It is true that the etymology of ecclesia, and of its Hebrew equivalent, suggests, and the connection in which they are used generally conveys, the notion of an assembly constituted by authority and selection. It is also true that the λnToí, those who are effectually called of God, will be the sole constituents of the Church in its ultimate glory, and that God knows infallibly who they will be.

But it does not follow from this that the Church consists only of those who love God and are the called according to His purpose. It is frequently spoken of in Scripture as a mixed assembly, including not only real, but also nominal, Christians. And this mixed society is the true Church; because its existence is a reality, its organization is a fact, its duty and destiny are the fulfilment of a Divine purpose.3

1 Numbers xvi. 16; Ezek. xvii. 17.

2 The assembly (ʼn èkkλŋoia) was confused. — Acts xix. 32. 8 God hath ever had and ever shall have some church visible

upon earth; not only because He had thousands which never bowed

The Church is never spoken of in Scripture as an ideal thing. It is always a concrete reality, a living organism. It is composed of individuals; but their composition into the Church limits their individuality and knits them together in one body.1

The truth is, that no one definition ever has been or ever can be constructed to cover all the facts and revelations recorded in Scripture concerning the Church. The best analysis of the complex idea that ever has been made is presented in the twenty-fifth chapter of the Westminster Confession. First, the Church consists of all those who have been or ever will be saved through Christ, out of whom there is no salvation. All these are knit together in God's apprehension, by the purpose of His grace in regard to them, by their personal relationship to Christ, and by their common destiny. This is the Holy Catholic Church invisible.

Secondly, the Church consists of all those throughout the world who at any particular period profess the true religion, together with their children. This is the visible Church, which is also Catholic under the Gospel, not

the knee to Baal, but even they whose knees were bowed to Baal were also of the visible church of God. — HOOKER: Ecc. Pol., book iii. chap. i. 8.

1 There are precepts in the New Testament addressed, not to believers separately, but to believers associated and joined together in a corporate capacity. There are duties enjoined upon the whole society, and not upon the separate members composing it. There are powers bestowed upon the community which cannot be exercised by its separate members, and promises which cannot be fulfilled in their individual experience. There is a system of offices and ordinances described in Scripture as belonging to the Church, which can be appropriated only by a body whose many members are subordinated and compacted together in a living organism. - BANNERMAN: Church of Christ, i. 2.

being confined to one nation, as it was before under the law.

Thirdly, the Church consists of "particular churches;" that is to say, of local communities of Christians associated and organized for worship, instruction, and holy living. That such local associations are recognized in Scripture as "churches," is too obvious to require proof; and we expect to make it equally plain that the recog‐ nition of these "particular churches" is entirely consistent with the doctrine that there is only one Church. This threefold division may easily be reduced to two, because all local or particular churches are only parts of the one Catholic visible Church, and, so far as their members are true Christians, parts also of the one Catholic Church invisible. This idea is often expressed by calling them "branches" of the Church, -a mode of speech which has been sarcastically termed "the vegetable theory." But the sarcasm is more witty than wise; for Christ Himself likened the kingdom of heaven, which is His Church, to a small seed growing into a great tree, in whose branches the birds of the air lodge. The comparison of the Church to a tree is, of course, figurative; but how profound and true to fact is the figure! It expresses not only the idea that the visible Church is a living organism, growing upon a common root, sustained and expanded by common influences, but that every part of it is a representative and miniature of the whole. The branch is not only connected with the tree, but is a small tree in itself, for the typical form of the tree is traceable in every limb and in every leaf; so that this "vegetable theory" is not only conformable to Scripture, but exquisitely beautiful in its conformity to nature. This point will come up again for consideration. It is referred to now only to