Christ, and the fountain of all succession, was a presbyteian church. Antioch, the mother of all the Gentile churches, and constructed by the united agency of the apostles, Peter and Paul, was, we have seen, also presbyterian. The whole multitude of churches, founded by apostolic men; all the churches in the post-apostolic age; all the churches in the primitive era of Christianity; the churches of Alexandria, of Gaul, of Scythia, of the Goths, of the Illyrians, of the Britons, of the Irish, and of the Scots; the churches of the Aerians, the Paulicians, the Waldenses, the Bohemians, the Moravians, the Biscayans, the Syrians; ALL-all are found to have held fast to that presbyterian faith once delivered to the saints. Our ark of hope! though wild the waves To turn thee from thy destined goal;— Borne on the fleeting stream of Time, Upon thy glorious form appears; It floats amid the wreck of years. Nations now see thy cheering light, And own its kindling power divine, Have knelt at some unholy shrine; And find in thee a peaceful home. Secure within thy hallowed walls, O'er life's tempestuous sea we glide, And spread his guardian care o'er thee. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OLDER THAN THE REFORMED. 455 III. THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH THE OLDEST OF ALL THE WESTERN REFORMED CHURCHES, INCLUDING THE ROMISH; WITH AN ANSWER TO THE OBJECTION, WHERE WAS THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH BEFORE LUTHER?' As a church, in an organised form, holding to the doctrines, discipline, and government of Christ, the presbyterian church has existed, therefore, to say the least, as long as any other extant denomination of Christians. Do we go back to the earliest period of the Reformation, we find the leaders of that glorious epoch in the history of the church, with almost entire unanimity, concurring in the adoption and establishment of presbyterian principles, a fact inexplicable on any other ground than that of the clear and undeniable development of them in God's holy word. The reformed churches in France, Germany, Holland, Hungary, Geneva, and Scotland, were all based upon a presbyterian platform. The English church alone, of all protestant Christendom, was fashioned after the prelatic model, not by her ministers, but by her civil and supreme head. The presbyterian form of church government was found in actual operation in Switzerland, as even the episcopal historian, Milner, testifies, as early as the year 1528. The confession used in the English church in Geneva was received and approved by the church of Scotland at the very beginning of the Reformation.1 What is usually denominated the Scottish Confession of Faith and Doctrine, was authorised, as a doctrine grounded upon the infallible word of God, August, 1560. The First Book of Discipline was drawn up by John Knox, and subscribed and approved in January, 1561. This work the church travailed to perfect and complete, between the years 1564 and 1581; and it speaks forth, in its most excogitated form, the sentiments of the early reformers in Scotland, as with a unanimous voice. The first presbytery in England was organised at Wandsworth, in 1572. It was composed of Mr. Field, lecturer of Wandsworth, Mr. Smith, of Mitcham, Mr. Crane, of Roehampton, Messrs. Wilcox, Standen, Jackson, Bonham, Saintloe, and Edmonds, to whom were afterwards joined Messrs. Travers, Chake, Barber, Gardiner, Crook, Egerton, and a number of distinguished laymen. On the twentieth of November, eleven elders were chosen, and their offices described, in a register entitled the orders of Wandsworth,' (Neal, i, 198.) This,' says Neal, was the first presbyterian church in England.' The probability is, that a presbytery was organised, and also a church constituted, at the same time. There certainly were Dutch churches which 6 1 See in Irving's Conf. p. 125. adopted the presbyterian government long before this. Fuller mentions fifteen ministers who belonged to this first presbytery, as Neal has done in the passage quoted above. It is very improbable, that fifteen ministers and eleven elders belonged to one church, which was compelled to hold its meetings secretly; the only correct conclusion is, that it was a presbytery, and not a single church. This conclusion is warranted by the fact, that, on the eighth of May, 1582, there was a synod of threescore ministers. The ecclesiastical discipline observed and practised in the churches of Jersey and Guernsey, after the reformation of the same, by the ministers, elders, and deacons of the isles of Guernsey, Jersey, Sark, and Aldernay, was confirmed by the authority and in the presence of the governors of said isles, in a synod, held in Guernsey, in 1576; and was afterwards received by the said ministers and elders, and confirmed by the said governors, in a synod held in Jersey, October, 1577. (Heylin, fol. edit. Lond. p. 239.) These churches were composed chiefly of Huguenots, who fled from France on account of the massacre on St. Bartholomew's day, August 24th, 1572. In the year 1647, the Westminster Confession,-which is so termed because drawn up by the assembly of divines called by the long parliament in the reign of Charles I, and which continued its deliberations for five years,—was adopted by the church of Scotland, as a platform of communion with the church in England. This standard, embracing the catechisms, form of government, and directory for worship, continues to be held as the confession of the faith and practice of our churches, until this day; although, as received by the presbyterian church in America, it has been modified so as to be fully adapted to the genius of our free and republican institutions. Now when we turn to the church of England, as a reformed church, we find that the thirty-nine articles, which contain her doctrinal confession, were first passed in the convocation, and confirmed by royal authority in 1562. They were afterwards ratified anew in 1571, and again in the reign of Charles I. The liturgy was first composed in 1547, and was finally amended in 1661. If, again, we consider the claims of the Romish church, · in its reformed, or rather, as we think, in its deformed character, we find that it can date no further back than the period of the Tridentine council, which was closed in the year 1563, under the pontificate of Pius IV. The professed object of this famous council was, to reform ecclesiastical abuses, and definitively settle the faith of that sect. The bull of confirmation of this council was signed on January 26, 1564. On the 9th of December, 1563, pope Pius IV drew up and recorded in the apostolic chancery his bull, which contains and sets forth the present, true, real, and ONLY DISTINCTIVE PUBLIC AND AUTHORISED CREED of the holy catholic and apostolic church, the mother and mistress of churches.' This creed is based upon the canons and decrees of the council of Trent. By this creed, which every Roman catholic bishop, priest, and convert is obliged to profess, there is an express acknowledgment made of the oecumenical character of the synod of Trent, and a profession of obedience to its decrees.1 The Romish missal, the Romish prayer-book, was drawn up by certain fathers, chosen for that purpose, towards the close of the council of Trent, in 1562. It was not sanctioned and promulgated until 1570, by a bull of pope Pius V, bearing date the 12th of January in that year.2 This, then, is the present and only authorised and distinctive creed, by which the Romish church is distinguished from all others, as an ecclesiastical organisation. Besides this, that church, as ROMAN, never had any other authorised and established creed. Although, for centuries previous, she had held forth practically many of her present false and dangerous tenets, yet it was only as opinions, and not as defined and determinate articles of the faith, of which a distinct acknowledgment was required, as necessary to salvation. Previously to the reformation,' says Mr. Palmer, 'we do not observe any clear and undoubted decisions of the western synods, which compelled the Latin churches to receive doctrines at variance with those taught by our catholic and apostolic churches.' The synod of Trent defined and made necessary these several articles of faith, and pope Pius IV, embodied the whole in his creed, which is now the constitutional confession of the Romish church. It will be of no avail to reply, that the Romish church ever held and maintained the several creeds known as the Apostles', the Nicene, the Athanasian, or the creeds adopted by the councils of Nice, Chalcedon, Constantinople, 3 1 And all other things, likewise, do I undoubtedly receive and confess, which are delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred canons and general councils, and especially the holy council of Trent; and withal, I condemn, reject, and accurse, all things that are contrary hereunto, and all heresies whatsoever condemned, rejected, and accursed by the church; and I will be careful, that this true catholic faith, (out of which no man can be saved, which at this time I willingly profess and truly hold,) be constantly (with God's help) retained and confessed, whole and inviolate, to the last gasp; and by those that are under me, or such as I shall have charge over in my calling, holden, taught, and preached to the uttermost of my power; I, the said N, promise, vow, and swear, so God help me, and his holy gospels. It shall not be lawful, therefore, for any man to infringe this our will and commandment, or by audacious boldness to contradict the same. Which, if any man shall presume to attempt, let him know that he shall incur the indignation of Almighty God, and of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, his blessed apostles.' 2 Odenheimer's Orig. of the Prayer Book, p. 91. 3 Palmer on the Ch. vol. ii, p. 237. See also a very able arguanent on this subject, by Dr. R. J. Breckinridge, in his Magazine for Nov. 1839. U and Ephesus; for these she held not as Roman, but as Christian; not as peculiar to her, but in common with all other orthodox churches; and because to these, doctrinally considered, the other reformed churches, as well as the Romish, also hold, and only differ from her in protesting, as did many in every age of the church, against doctrines and practices contrary to these, and subversive of the true faith and order of the gospel. Now, so long as these things were not defined as articles of faith, and not enforced, as of necessity to be believed, they, by whom they were rejected, were satisfied with rejecting or protesting against them; but when, by this new established creed, they were enforced and made necessary, all who could not in conscience submit, were obliged utterly to separate from any responsible connection with an apostate church. The papal bull was Rome's bill of divorce, addressed to the pure church of Jesus Christ, and the church accepted it, that she might thenceforth hold only from her head, who is in heaven.1 The church of Rome, therefore, is younger than most of the churches of the Reformation. Her creed is more novel than that of the Lutherans, which was presented at the diet of Augsburgh, in 1530; of Geneva, which was even earlier; of the four cities, dated 1530; of Basle, published in 1532; of the Bohemian confession, compiled from the ancient confessions of the Waldenses, and exhibited in 1532; of the Helvetic, drawn up in 1536; of the Saxon, prepared in the year 1551; of the French confession, drawn up by Calvin, and adopted in the synod of Paris in the year 1559; of the Belgic, prepared and published in 1561; of the Scottish, exhibited and authorised in 1560; of the English, which was completed in 1562, under Elizabeth, by the publication by the convocation of the thirty-nine articles, Jewell's Apology, and Nowell's Catechism. Thus baseless are the pretensions to antiquity, and thus vain the arrogant assumption of supremacy, which are most absurdly asserted by the Romish church; the latest most novel, and most corrupted of all the churches of the reformation, a church whose creed is irreconcilably opposed to the creeds of the early church, whether Roman, Anglican, or oriental, and contrary to those now embraced by all christendom beside. "By their fruits ye shall know them.' On the tree of popery we find growing, in all that fertility which is peculiar to error, seven sacraments, seven orders of ministers, metropolitans, patriarchs, and a pope. But where, in all the New Testament, is there any colourable pretext for fathering upon it such an offspring as this? If,' says Jew 1 D'Aubigné, vol. ii, p. 124. |