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II. The Roman Pontiff, even when conducting himself with the greatest propriety, must not be acknowledged by any human or positive right as the head of the church, or the Universal Bishop; and such acknowledgment of him has hitherto contributed, and does in its very nature contribute, not so much to preserve unity in the church, and to restrain the licence of thinking, speaking and teaching differently on the chief articles of religion, as to take away necessary liberty and that which is agreeable to the word of God, and to introduce a real tyranny.

DISPUTATION XXII.

THE CASE OF ALL THE PROTESTANT OR REFORMED CHURCHES, WITH RESPECT TO THEIR ALLEGED SECESSION.

Respondent, JAMES CUSINE.

WE ASSERT, that the Reformed Churches have not seceded from the Church of Rome; and that they have acted properly in refusing to hold and profess a communion of faith and of divine worship with her.

I. I FEEL disposed to prove in few words, for the glory of God, for the tranquillity of weak consciences, and for the direction of erring minds, that those congregations who take upon themselves the title of " REFORMED or PROTESTANT CHURCHES," have not made a secession from the Church of Rome; and that they have acted aright, that is, wisely, piously, justly, and moderately, in refusing to hold and profess communion of faith and worship with the Romish Church.

II. By the term, "the Church of Rome," we understand, not that congregation of men who, confined within the walls of the city of Rome, profess the Christian faith, (although this is the only proper interpretation of that term ;)-not the Court of Rome, which consists of the Pope and of the Cardinals united with him ; -not the representative church, assembled together in Council, and having the Roman Pontiff as President;-nor the Pope of Rome himself, who, under the cover of that title, extols and makes merchandise of his power.-But by "the Church of Rome" we understand a congregation of Christians which was formerly dispersed through nearly the whole of Europe, but, which is now become more contracted, and in which the Roman Pontiff sits,either as the head of the church under Christ, but placed above a General Council, or as [primus] the principal Bishop inferior to a General Council, the inspector and guardian of the whole

church. This congregation professes, according to the Canons contained in the Council of Trent, that it believes in God and Christ, and performs acts of worship to them; and it approves of those Canons, either because they were composed by the Council of Trent, which could not err,-or because it thinks, that they are agreeable to the Holy Scriptures and to the doctrine of the Ancient Fathers, without any regard to that Council.

III. We call "Reformed Churches" those congregations professing the Christian Faith which disavow every species of Presidency whatever assumed by the Roman Pontiff, and profess to believe in and to perform acts of worship to God and Christ, according to the Canons which each of them has comprised in its own Confession or Catechism; and they approve of such Canons, therefore, only because they consider them to be agreeable to the Holy Scriptures, though they yield to the Primitive Church and the Ancient Fathers severally their proper places, but always in subordination to the Scriptures.

IV. It cannot be said, that every church makes a secession, which separates from another; neither does the church that is in any manner whatever severed from another, to which it had been united; but a church is said to make a secession from another church to which it was formerly united, when it first and willingly makes a separation in that matter about which they were previously at unity. On this account it is necessary, that these four conditions concur together in the church which can justly be said to have made a secession: One of them is a pre-requisite, as if necessarily precedent; the other three are requisites, as if natural to the secession and grounded upon it.-The FIRST is, that it was formerly in union with the other; to which must be added, an explanation of the matter in which this union consists.-The SECOND is, that a separation has been effected, and indeed in that thing about which it was formerly at unity with the other. The THIRD is, that it was the first to make the secession.-And the FOURTH is, that it voluntarily seceded. The whole of these conditions will come under our diligent consideration in the disputation on the present controversy about the dissension between the Church of Rome and the Reformed Churches.

V. But the explanation of another matter must be given, prior to the discussion of this question according to the circumstances now premised; and this is, " In what, generally, do the union and the separation of churches consist ?" So far as they are the churches of God and of Christ, their UNION consists in the following particulars: They have one God and Father, one Lord Jesus

Christ, one faith, (or one doctrine of faith,) one hope of their calling, (that is, an inheritance which has been promised and for which they hope,) one baptism, (Eph. iv, 3—6,) one bread and wine, (1 Cor. x, 16, 17,) and have been joined together in one Spirit with God and Christ, by the bond of faith and charity. (Eph. iv, 15; Phil. ii, 2.) That is, that by agreement of faith according to truth, and by concord of the will according to charity, they may be one among themselves. This is in no other manner, than as many members of the same body are one among themselves, because all of them have been united with their head, from which, by the bond of the Spirit, life, sensation and motion are derived to each; (Rom. xii, 4; 1 Cor. xii, 12, 13; Eph. i, 22 ;) and as many children in the same family are one among themselves, because all of them are connected with their parents by the bond of consanguinity and love. (1 Cor. xiv, 33; Rev. ii, 23.) For all particular churches, whether in amplitude they be greater or less, are large or small members of that great body which is called "the Catholic Church;" and in this great family, which is called "the house of God," they are all sisters, according to that passage in Solomon's Song, "We have a little sister." (viii, 8.) No church on earth is the mother of any other church, (Gal. iv, 26,) not even that church from which proceeded the teachers who founded other churches. (Acts viii, 1, 4; xiii, 1, 2.) For no church on earth is the whole body, that is united to Christ the Head. (Heb. xii, 22, 23.)

VI. From this description of union among churches, and by an explanation made through similar things according to the Scriptures, it is evident, that, for the purpose of binding churches together, the intervention of two means is necessary. The FIRST is, the bond itself by which they are united. The SECOND is, God and Christ, with whom being immediately united, they are mediately further united with each other. For the first and immediate relation is between each particular church and Christ: The second and mediate is between a particular church and another of its own kindred. (1 Cor. xii, 12, 13; Eph. iv, 3; Rom. xii, 5; John xvii, 21; Eph. ii, 11-13; iv, 16.) From these a two-fold order may be here laid down, according to which this conjunction may be considered. (1.) ONE is,-if it take its commencement from Christ, and if that bond intervene which, issuing from Him, proceeds to every church and [adunat, makes it one,] unites it with Him:-Where (i.) Christ must be constituted the Head and the very Centre of union. (i.) The Spirit, which, issuing from Christ, proceeds hither and thither. (Eph. ii, 18; v. 23; Rom.

viii, 9.)—(iii.) The church at Corinth, at Rome, at Philippi, &c. each of which is united to Christ, by the Spirit that goes forth from Him and proceeds towards the churches, and that abides in them. (1 John iii, 24; iv, 13.)-(2.) The OTHER order is,—if it take its commencement from the churches, and if that bond intervene which, issuing from them, proceeds to Christ, and binds them to Him:-Where (i.) must be placed the churches of Corinth, of Rome, of Philippi, &c. (ii.) Then may be laid down the faith proceeding from each of them. (iii.) Christ, to whom the faith of all these churches tends and connects each of them with Him. (1 John ii, 24; Eph. iii, 17.) Because the bond of charity is mutual, it proceeds from Christ to each church, and from every church to Christ: (Eph. v, 25:) It does not, however, remain there, but goes on to each kindred church; yet so that every church loves her sister church in Christ and for his sake,-otherwise it is a confederacy without Christ, or rather against Christ. (1 Cor. xvi, 1, 2, 19.)

VII. From the relation of this Union, must be estimated the SEPARATION which is opposed to it, and which cannot be made or explained except by an analysis and resolution of their uniting together. Every particular church therefore must be separated from God and Christ before it can be separated from the church which is allied to it and of the same body; (Eph. ii, 10, 19—22;) and the bond of faith and charity must be broken, before any church can be separated from God and Christ, and thus from any other church. (Rom. xi, 17-24.) But since the Spirit of Christ, the faith by which we believe, and charity, are invisible things which belong to the very inward union and communion of Christ and the churches, it is impossible for men to form any estimate or judgment, from them, respecting the union or separation of churches. On this account it is necessary, that certain external things, [incurrentia in sensus] which are objects of the senses, and which by a certain analogy answer to those inward things, should be placed before men, that we may be able to form a judgment concerning the union of the churches with Christ and among each other, and about their opposite separation: Those external things are the word, and the visible signs annexed to the word, by which Christ has communication with his church; the profession of faith and of worship, and the exercise of charity by outward works, by which each church testifies its individual union and communion with Christ and with any other church. (Isaiah xxx, 21; Romans x, 15, 17, 10, 13; John xiii, 35.) To this is opposed its separation, consisting in this, that Christ "removes

its candlestick out of his place," and the churches vary among themselves in the profession of the faith, omit the requisite duties of charity, and evince and practise hatred towards each other. (Rev. ii, 5; 2 Chron. xiii, 8, 2, 10.)

VIII. But the churches of God and Christ, even those which were instituted by Prophets and Apostles, may decline by degrees, and sometimes do decline, from the truth of the faith, from the integrity of divine worship, and from their first love, (2 Cor. xi, 3; Gal. i, 6; Rev. ii, 4,)—either by adding to the doctrines of faith, to that which is the object of worship, and to the mode and rites with which it is worshipped ;-or by taking away or by perverting the right [sensum] meaning of faith, by not considering in a lawful manner that which is worshipped, and by changing the legitimate mode of worship into another form: And yet they are still acknowledged, by God and Christ, as God's churches and people,-even at the very time when they worship Jehovah in calves, when they pay divine honours both to Jehovah and to Baal, when they offer to Moloch through the fire the children whom they had borne and reared for Jehovah, (Jer. ii, 11-13; 2 Kings xvi, 3; 1 Kings xviii, 21; Ezek. xvi, 20,) and when they suffer legal ceremonies to be appended to the faith of Christ, and the resurrection to be called in question: (Gal. iii, 1-3; vi, 9; 1 Cor. xv:) Even under these circumstances they are acknowledged as the churches and the people of God, according to external communion by the word and the sacramental signs or tokens, because God does not yet remove the candlestick out of its place, or send them a bill of divorcement. (Rev. ii, 5; Isai. 1, 1.) Hence it arises that the UNION between such churches, as have something still left of God and Christ and something of the spirit of lies and idolatry, is two-fold: THE ONE, in regard to those things which they have yet remaining from the first institution which was made by the prophets and apostles: THE OTHER, with respect to those things which have been afterwards introduced by false teachers and false prophets, and especially by that notorious false prophet," the man of sin, the son of perdition." For though "their word eats as doth a canker," (2 Tim. ii, 17,) yet the goodness and grace of God have prevented them from consuming [integram] the whole pure doctrine of the Christian faith. On the other side, its corresponding SEPARATION is as fully opposed to this last-mentioned union, as the former union is opposed to its separation. When therefore the discourse turns on the separation of churches, we ought diligently to consider what thing it is about which the separation has been made.

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