LECTURE XI.

CONGREGATIONALISM AND FOREIGN MISSIONS.

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ARISTOTLE, and the schoolmen in their following of this great master, distinguished all causes as either efficient, material, formal, or final; and among these Aristotle gave the pre-eminence to the final cause. The most important question, then, which can be asked concerning any material or spiritual structure, is the question as to tò ou Evexa, - the question not simply how or why, but what for? The pre-eminence of this question is thought to be especially manifest in the case of such more complex and highly organized social and spiritual structures as is the Christian Church. The question after the final cause of the particular visible church ought, therefore, to excite the distinctive interest of Congregationalists; for the doctrine of the particular visible church is a specialty with Congregationalists. Having learned by whom, and out of what material, and by the action of what subordinate forces, a Christian church should be instituted and governed, we are ready the more eagerly to ask, For what great end, or purpose, is it thus instituted and governed? The answer to this question is not, for the diligent inquirer, either far to seek or difficult to find. We may readily recognize and emphasize a certain principle as organific in the formation and control of each particular visible Congregational

church. Every such church is organized for some end: it is the idea of that end which rightly organizes it as a church. It is the final purpose which gives the laws of adjustment and proportion to all the different members and organs of a church body politic, and which distributes and energizes the functions of those organs.

What is, then, the organific purpose, the final cause, of every true Christian Church? It is the spread of the kingdom of God upon the earth. In order that it may the better serve as means to this end, it is organized as a church. To this end it exists, and is a true church of Jesus Christ. This one final cause is, however, twofold: it includes the two elements of edification and evangelism. Every particular visible church exists in order that it may build its own members up into Christ: a part of its final purpose is to make itself a wiser, more righteous, holy, and blessed church. But every particular visible church also exists in order that it may make other men Christians: a part of its final purpose is to do its part in winning the world to Christ. There is thus given both an element intensive and an element extensive in the complete final purpose of the church; and every particular congregation of believers holds. its right to existence, its ratio essendi, in the twofold intent to edify its own members and to evangelize the world.

These two elements of the one great final cause necessarily co-exist, and wax or wane in cogency together. But we may truthfully claim that the element of evangelism is, both in the order of time and in that of logic, prior to the element of church edification. The gospel must be preached, and men converted, before those same men can enter into mutual covenant to help each other in the conversation and life of the gospel.

The missionary will, in some sort, take precedence of the pastor, until the whole world is gathered unto Christ. Our Lord himself in person commanded his disciples to go and disciple all the nations, and gave them instruction as to the spirit and equipment for their missionary journey: he did this in person before he in the Spirit organized and equipped with officers the local church. And we read concerning the distribution of those charisms which are all of them, even including those of the inspired authors of Scripture and founders of New-Testament churches, given for the sake of the entire community of believers, "First apostles, second prophets, third teachers," or, "Some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers." But apostles and evangelists are missionaries rather than pastors; and prophets are needed quite as much for the work of evangelizing the world as for the edifying of the church.

In view of the pre-eminence given by the true church polity to the exclusive rulership of Jesus Christ, and to the responsibility for self-movement and self-control of the particular churches, it seems indeed strange that the missionary element of the final cause of every church has been in our definitions and discussions so little recognized. A nobler setting-forth of the nature of a particular visible church than that given by Rev. John Davenport (already alluded to) it would be difficult to find. The Aristotelian division of causes seems to have shaped the division of Davenport's treatise.1 The efficient cause of a particular visible church is Christ himself: the material cause is those persons who believe on and confess Christ: the formal cause is the

1 The Power of Congregational Churches Asserted and Vindicated, chaps. i.-iii.

mutual covenanting of these believers. But why does not Davenport go on with equal clearness to declare what is the final cause of the particular church? The power and compass, the institution and officers, of the church, are all by this author faithfully described. But the question, To what end or final cause has Christ (the efficient cause) so bound the members (the material cause) together by their mutual covenanting (the formal cause)? is not even plainly proposed. The question is, indeed, to some extent, indirectly answered; the members of the church are spoken of as the instruments of Christ's work; the work of the Church is alluded to, and its ends partially stated. But this great thought the very constitution of each church exists. in order that it may as a church act in converting all the world into the church-is nowhere distinctly brought forth. The power of the keys is vindicated for the Congregational church; but it is not clearly made manifest that this power of the keys can fitly belong to, and duly be exercised by, only a missionary church.

The same lack of completeness in their conception of a church is almost universal with our writers. They do not give clear recognition to the pre-eminence of that twofold final cause which constitutes an organific principle in the existence of every particular church. Even that eminently thorough and thoughtful writer, Rev. John Owen, not unfrequently disappoints us in this same regard. We seem at times, while reading his heavy pages, to be in the nearest proximity to a full recognition of the missionary power and missionary obligation of a particular visible church. One of his writings contains a very tender and scriptural discus

1 Eshcol: a Cluster of the Fruit of Canaan. Works, vol. xili.

sion of all the mutual duties of Christians in churchfellowship; another discusses "the means to be used by the people of God (distinct from the church officers) for the increasing of divine knowledge in themselves and others." But the stirring of one another to missionary zeal is not treated among these mutual duties: the use of lay-evangelization does not appear among the means for increasing divine knowledge which are permitted to the laity. In his argument that Congregational churches are indeed suited to the ends of Christ, we might certainly expect to see some mention of the relation which exists between a particular church Congregationally organized, and that great end of the Saviour of mankind, which is the redemption of the world. Indeed, at one point in this argument we seem to come squarely upon a recognition of this truth. "Another end" of the institution of the church-state is declared to be, that the church might be "the principal outward means to support, preserve, publish, declare, and propagate the doctrine or truth of the gospel." But in the consideration of this end the author simply shows how the Congregational system of church order is best adapted to preserve itself from heresies, and to conform itself to every form of righteous earthly government.

Those noteworthy definitions of a church in which the writers on Congregationalism abound, quite uniformly emphasize the use of the church to the end of its own edifying; but rarely do they mention its relation to the end of converting the world. "To worship the Lord, and to edifie one another in all his holy

1 The Duty of Pastors and People Distinguished. Ibid., vol. xiii. 2 Inquiry concerning Evangelical Churches. Ibid., vol. xv.

8 Works, xv. p. 306.