ARTICLE III.

THESES ON THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH.

By Professor HENRY TAPPAN, D. D., New-York.

I. Christianity is not a system of Philosophy, but a collection of facts, historical and biographical; a system of truths assumed as already revealed in the Conscience and Reason, such as the Divine existence, and the distinction between Right and Wrong; and truths revealed upon the Divine authority, such as the Divinity, Incarnation, and Atonement of Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit: a code of cardinal moral laws, as given at Sinai and expounded by Christ, and moral precepts, reaching to the whole inner and outer life of man, familiarly conveyed and illustrated, and receiving their perfect exemplification in the life and death of the Son of God and a gift of exceedingly precious promises, covering all the events and trials of the present life, so as to transmute them into a spiritual and heavenly discipline, and comprehending all the glories of the world to come. Christianity is not speculative but practical.

II. Christianity, as a system of facts, truths, duties, and promises, is connected with the whole character and destiny of nations and individuals; it must, therefore, be connected with the whole philosophy of human nature.

III. The facts, truths, duties, and promises of Christianity, may be received in all their simplicity as a body of belief, or system of faith, and their full saving benefits experienced, independently of all systems of philosophy whatever, taught in the schools. Jesus Christ said, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight."

IV. Christianity, as a revealed and practical system, identifies in mind and spirit, in life and hope, all who receive it

in its integrity, however diverse may be the denominational names under which they are embodied, however conflicting the sects to which they may belong. All such compose the Church, or the Assembly of the true Disciples on Earth, and will compose the Assembly of the Saints in Heaven.

V. As a true disciple is one who heartily receives and habitually practices this system, so also a true minister of the Gospel is one who heartily receives and practices this system; and who, in addition to this, together with gifts and qualifications which fit him to be a clear and effectual expounder of the Gospel, has the inward call of the Holy Spirit to this great and solemn work.

VI. No body of men, calling themselves a church, and professing to be a part of the catholic or universal church, have a right to exclude from their communion any true disciple, or to reject the ministrations of any true servant of Christ, preaching and exemplifying the Gospel of his master.

VII. All the ministers of Christ are of equal authority and dignity. And he that would excel in gifts and graces, must serve best with an humble and loving spirit; for the Master hath said, "he that is least among you all, the same shall be great." And this ministerial parity refers not merely to rank and authority in managing the affairs of the church, but also to the liberty of thought and of speech, so that no one minister of Christ, be he Chrysostom, Cyprian, Augustin, Calvin, Luther, Arminius, Laud, Cranmer, or Edwards, hath any higher prerogative in teaching and promulgating his opinions than the humblest; much less has he any right of imposing his dogmas upon others. Only as he speaks in accordance with the plain word of God, does he speak with authority; and into this plain word he may not foist any subtleties of his own, so as to make them appear to be a part of the

same.

VIII. The word of God is the supreme and infallible rule of faith and practice; and "those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in somne place of Scripture

or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them." (Con. of Faith of the Pres. Church, ch. 1, § vii.)

IX. Inasmuch as the great end which the gospel contemplates, in respect to man, is salvation, "those things. which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed for salvation," must be the greatest and the best things, and he must be the best Christian, and he the best Christian minister, who is best versed in and most obedient to them.

X. "Those things which are necessary to be known, believed and observed for salvation," are not only well and experimentally understood by all the faithful disciples of our Lord, but they are also embodied in the formularies of the Reformed Churches generally, as well as in the writings of the most apostolical Fathers; but are nowhere so clearly, simply and satisfactorily set forth, as in the Scriptures themselves for the writings of the Fathers, as well as the formularies of the churches, are the compositions of uninspired and fallible men, and contain many things irrelevant, unnecesary, and purely of a philosophical character.

XI. "The infallible rule of interpretation of scripture is the Scripture itself; and, therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any scripture, (which is not manifold, but one,) it may be searched and known by the places which speak more clearly." (Ibid, § ix.)

XII. "The Supreme Judge, by whom all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men, and private spirits are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture."

XIII. Creeds and confessions, when fitly formed, are convenient summaries of scriptural doctrines; and are binding only so far as they express these doctrines, and have no other authority than that which lies in these doctrines. The decrees of councils and synods can afford no higher sanctions to

that which is from God, and cannot bind the conscience with that which is not from God.

XIV. Neither may synods and councils decide authoritatively what shall be the interpretation of any scripture, although they may give their collective opinion and judgment; for the interpretation of scripture can legitimately be made out only in the free and unimpeded exercise of the reason in comparing scripture with scripture, and in employing all those helps of learning, which go to make the sense of the original more plain as expressed in one's vernacular tongue.

XV. It hath not pleased God to reveal to man the truths of philosophy and science; but He formed him with an intellect capable of achieving them, and afforded him in the wide world. the occasions, the phenomena, and the means. Many centuries have worn away, while man has been slowly gaining these truths. It was ordained that he should develope his being in the struggle, and become great only as he became wise. God has revealed to him only those truths for which he could not wait through the long toil of centuries, and which even the toil of centuries would have failed to find. Man makes himself the philosopher, the artist, the poet, the mechanician, the statesman; God's grace gives him the light, and makes him the child of heaven.

But if God revealed that which philosophy had not found and could not find, and yet philosophy itself be not revealed, but left as a legitimate object of human research, to be wrought out by the unaided human faculties, then how preposterous to set the dogmas of philosophy above, or to commingle them with, the pure word of God! On the one hand, the revelation is degraded from its throne of pure light, to be illumined by the murky gas-light of human wit; and philosophy, as yet unachieved and only in a progressive state, is elevated to expound the great truths which lie beyond her province. the other hand, the progress of philosophy is interdicted, since the authoritative dogma consecrates the philosophy, however crude, which gave it birth, and prohibits as heresy those researches which, reaching forward to a more perfect philosophy, tend to modify, if not to overthrow, the dogma.

On

XVI. The Divine grace met man in the midst of his philosophy, as well as in the midst of his ignorance and his wretchedness. The ignorant and the wretched embraced the Gospel as a relief. The publicans and the harlots passed into the kingdom of heaven; but the philosophers, even when they embraced it, went on speculating, and aimed to settle the great questions awakened by the contact of Christianity with human nature. Hence arose all the forms of philosophical Theology, of Christianity Gnosticized, Manichæized, Platonized, Peripateticized, and so on.

XVII. Contemporaneously with philosophico-theological dogmas, was the rise of the Hierarchy; and the creed which the philosopher had formed, the mitred Bishop proclaimed with an assumed apostolical authority; and by a terrific mimicry of Heaven's thunderbolts, and a real display of earthly power, awed the timid, confounded the ignorant, and struck down the rebellious.

XVIII. Saint Augustine, we have good reason to believe, was a sincere and devout disciple, and was eminent for setting forth in his writings the great central doctrine of Justification by Faith; but he was also imbued with the philosophies of his time, and particularly with Manichæism, which wrought in him, even after he had professedly renounced it, and impressed itself upon his theological system. His doctrine of the total inability of man, was the source of his peculiar views of original sin, imputation, the efficiency and necessity of baptism, prevenient grace, and absolute election.

XIX. During the middle ages, the doctrines of Scripture were inwrought with the ancient philosophies, until their true original form no longer appeared. The great doctors, who drew after them thousands of disciples, and whose subtle and angry disputes are but partially preserved in the ponderous tomes which now lumber old libraries in the old world, or take voyages to the new, to astonish, if not to pollute our fresh and free thoughts; these great doctors were but men, philosophizing under ancient authorities, and theologizing without Scripture.