REMARKS ON CERTAIN QUESTIONS,

PROPOSED TO THE SERIOUS CONSIDERATION

OF

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST,

CONNECTED WITH

THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES IN SCOTLAND :

WITH

FRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON ACTS IX. 31.

[First Published 1810.]

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE following pages have had their origin in a visit which I lately paid to Scotland. During six weeks spent in that country, I had many opportunities of observing with grief, how the disciples of Christ have been scattered one from another, and turned aside from the scriptural course in which the first Christians walked together : as well as of observing, how much unscriptural forbearance tends to strengthen and perpetuate this evil.

I had much intercourse with various professors; received much— very much kindness; but was unable to hold Christian fellowship with any. This, considering the number and variety of Churches existing in the city of GLASGOW alone, may to some appear strange and unaccountable. And I wish it to be observed, that-on one side or the other-on my side or on theirs-the circumstance establishes the existence of a great and very serious evil. When a Christian of old came on a visit from CORINTH, for instance, to ROME, he of course joined the fellowship of the Christians at ROME: and it was incumbent on him to do so. But before it be taken for granted that my conduct, in not having held fellowship in Christian ordinances with any in GLASGOw, was unscriptural and indefensible, let it be stated-which of the various Churches in that city I was bound to join. The grounds of my conduct will be found in some of the following Remarks; the whole of which contain little more, than I had frequent occasion to urge in conversation during my stay

in Scotland. May they engage the serious attention of Christians in that and other countries!

I have prefaced them with Observations on a subject, of such fundamental and paramount importance, that it ought ever to take the lead of every other scriptural discussion. With any, whose minds are not scripturally regulated upon that subject, it is worse than waste of time to argue about the nature and course of Christian Churches.

During the same visit, I met-for the first time-a REVIEW of my late publication on the BAPTIST principles, in two numbers of the Scripture Magazine for August and September 1809. I would gladly reply to that production without delay, if my engagements admitted it and if life be spared, and no other answer should appear to my publication, I fully intend some time or other to notice it ;-chiefly indeed for the purpose of keeping alive the discussion of a subject, so closely connected with the GREAT TRUTH. Upon that REVIEW I shall now only say, that from the same pen I never read any thing so weak and so unfair. I speak of an unfairness, evidently arising from the writer's not having taken time to understand the piece, which he undertook to review. The pamphlet which he attacks affords abundant materials for exposing his fallacies and mistakes. Could he be engaged to give it another more attentive and more unprejudiced perusal, I should not be surprised if he anticipated me, by giving to the public a refutation of himself.

73, Lower Dorset-Street,

Nov. 6, 1810.

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS, &c.

It is a short but striking account which we read in the Acts of the Apostles, chap. ix. 31. "Then had the Churches rest, throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied." It is in the first place important to observe, what these CHURCHES were, and how they were formed: nor can the account given of their walk be understood by any, except those who know the answer to this inquiry.

:

It is obvious that the word CHURCHES is used here, and throughout the writings of the New Testament, in a sense altogether differ, ent from that, in which it has obtained a currency in modern days. One of the common meanings, in which the word has been long employed, is that of buildings, which men erect with wood and stone, devoted to purposes of religion :— a meaning in which the word never occurs in Scripture. And however innocent such an application of the word may appear to some, Christians have to remember that it has been one of Satan's grand devices, to annex unscriptural meanings to every phrase of Scripture the most important, in order to make the very Word of God subservient to the propagation and support of his most ungodly lies.-Others understand by the word CHURCH, a certain system of political religion, established throughout a nation by human authority, and varying in different nations according to the varying interests or fancies of men :-as when they talk of the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, &c.—And others, again, employ the phrase with an undefined mysticism of application, to sanctify and screen from examination the code of religious imposture, which a succession of men under the name of Clergy have put forward, usurping dominion over the consciences of their fellow-sinners.

But when the Apostles speak of a CHURCH of Christ in any place, they always mean THE COLLECTION, or BODY, OF CHRISTIANS ASSEMBLING TOGETHER in that place. This is the one uniform and simple meaning, in which the phrase occurs in Scripture: and, in this meaning, a CHURCH is there spoken of-as a building indeed, but as God's building and not man's,- a spiritual house, composed of living stones, not of such perishable and earthly materials as human architects employ. 1 Cor. iii. 9. Eph. ii. 20-22. 1 Peter ii. 5.

Of old, wherever there was a Church of Christ, there was an exhibition of the Kingdom of God; there was a display of his mighty work; there was a congregation of persons saved by Him, called out from the world that lieth in the wicked one, and gathered together in one, as the sons and daughters of the living God, to be blessed

and governed by Him. Such were the CHURCHES, throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria, mentioned in the passage under con sideration.

But while it is declared that these Churches were formed and created by the same Almighty power, which made the world, we have to observe that God works by instrumental means: and the means employed in this case was simply the word of God,—that word which Jesus Christ commissioned his Apostles to preach throughout all the earth, beginning their testimony at Jerusalem. If we examine the origin assigned in Scripture to the Churches there spoken of, we shall find it commonly to have been this: where there was yet no Church of Christ, but the people were sunk in ignorance and unbelief and wickedness, the Apostles came in the exercise of their commission, declaring the simple testimony which they bore concerning Jesus of Nazareth, concerning him who had been crucified at Jerusalem between two robbers, but whose witnesses they were that God had raised him from the dead. By this word-reputed by the world the foolishness of preaching-it pleased God to save them that believed it. 1 Cor. i. 21. For while it was generally despised and rejected, some believed the things that were spoken, (Acts xxviii. 24.)—even those who were ordained to eternal life (Acts xiii. 48.)-(See note I. at the end.) to whom the Gospel came not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, in that full persuasion of its divine truth which the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, produces, and thus fulfils his work of glorifying Jesus. 1 Thess. i. 5. John xvi. 13, 14. The persons thus convinced of what they heard from the Apostles were thereupon Christians, born of God, children of the light and of the day, sanctified by the truth, and heirs of eternal life.

God has glorified his Son Jesus, crowning Him with glory and honour. Acts iii. 13. Ps. viii. 5. Hebr. ii. 9. And this is part of the glory put upon him, that he has assured eternal life to every one who believes the testimony concerning him; every one, without difference or exception. Rom. x. 11, 12. The Apostles teach us also that the design of this constitution of God, assuring the blessedness of the promise to him that believeth, is in order that sinners may inherit it in such a way of absolute mercy, as excludes all boasting. Rom. iii. 27, 28. THEREFORE it is of FAITH, that it might be by GRACE. Rom. iv. 16.-(see Note II.)

The gospel which the apostles preached was the gospel of the GRACE of God (Acts xx. 24.)—or, in other words, the glad tidings of his mercy; of that mercy which is revealed as reigning, through righteousness, unto eternal life by Jesus Christ, where sin had reigned unto death. Rom. v. 21. This is the essential character of the Gospel of Christ. It is good news from heaven to sinners, as such;-to those that are ungodly and without strength. To such it proclaims peace and the forgiveness of sins, by JESUS CHRIST. It sends them not to search for any thing within them or without them, in order to be furnished with hope towards God; but reveals to them a sure hope, by the testimony which it bears of him who came into the world to save sinners: It directs them not how they may do something which God will

accept; but it exhibits the propitiation for sin which he has accepted, the work of righteousness for the sake of which he is well pleased,that work already accomplished by his well beloved Son in his obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. It attests his resurrection from the dead, as the grand evidence of the perfection of his work and the divine acceptance of his offering. It addresses all the world as guilty before God; and holds forth no other hope to the most admired and esteemed of human characters, than to the most infamous and profligate. It proclaims to all alike-"The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart :-if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved;" (Rom. x. 8, 9.) and to all alike presents the good hope that is through grace, or mercy : (2 Thess. ii. 16.) while it repels every aspiring thought, which would suggest the possibility of establishing any other ground of hope, with the declaration-it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

Accordingly we find that Paul, who had lived after the strictest sect of his religion, a Pharisee, as soon as he was brought to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, counted all things but loss for the excellency of it; gloried in that Saviour, who had displayed his character in pardoning a robber expiring by his side upon the cross; and reckoned it his highest privilege to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, to proclaim to the vilest of heathen idolaters the glad tidings of the common salvation. Acts xxvi. 5, 18. Phil. iii. 7, 8.

Eph. iii. 8.

The Gospel, which the Apostles preached, and by which the first Churches were gathered, must ever bear an aspect of folly and ungodliness in the view of natural men, that is, of all who believe it not; for it stands in direct opposition to all that they reckon wise and good. But none who believe it can wish, on that account, to conceal or modify its genuine character. The wise and religious of the world (ever since so large a part of the world has taken the name of Christian) dream of another Gospel, designed to advance the moral improvement of the world; exciting creatures half-good to good conduct, by holding out eternal life on certain terms and conditions which the sinner has to fulfil; and requiring various favourable qualifications and dispositions in those, to whom it speaks comfortably. But the one design of the Apostolic Gospel is, to display the glory of the only living and true God in the salvation of the lost; revealing the divine glory in the person of Him who is despised and rejected of men, but who has put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and has received power over all flesh, that he may give eternal life unto all that the Father hath given him. John xvii. 2. Isa. liii. 3. Hebr. ix. 26. vii. 27. Eph. ii. 7. i. 6.

Some indeed go very far in their preaching in asserting something like the Gospel of Christ, for they find it necessary to keep up their characters as evangelical preachers: but having said enough for that object in one part of their discourse, they proceed more seriously then to clear themselves from the imputation of having really meant what they had seemed to say. They are in a hurry to bring forward