Having thus vindicated the title of this work in reference to the use which the Church of Rome makes of the term catholic, a very few words will be enough to do the same with respect to the churches of the Reformation. In short, the term catholic is everywhere used by them to signify universal. Thus, in the Westminster Confession, which is to this day the standard of the Established Church of Scotland, and which of all that have ever been composed by any reformed church, is the most intensely opposed to the Church of Rome, we nevertheless find a perfect agreement with the Council of Trent as to the import of the term catholic. In the Westminster Confession, however, we have to admire the frankness and fulness with which the principle of catholicism is laid down; for there the ambiguous term church is omitted when the principle is stated. Catholicism is declared to extend unto all who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus. The xxvth chapter, which relates to the Church, consists of six paragraphs, four of which explain the catholicism of the church, and are as follows: I. The catholic or universal church, which is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the head thereof, and is the spouse, the body, the fulness of Him. that filleth all in all. II. The visible church, which is also catholic or universal under the Gospel (not confined to one nation as under the law), consists of all those throughout the world that profess the true religion, and of their children, and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation. III. Unto this catholic visible church Christ hath given the ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God, for the ga Ꭰ thering and perfecting of the saints in this life to the end of the world, and doth by his own presence and spirit, according to his promise, make them effectual thereto. IV. This catholic church hath been sometimes more, sometimes less visible, and particular churches which are members thereof, are more or less pure, according as the doctrine of the Gospel is taught and embraced, ordinances administered, and public worship performed more or less purely in them. Add to these the two following paragraphs in the next chapter, on the Communion of the Saints. I. All saints that are united to Jesus Christ, their head, by his spirit and by faith have fellowship with him in his graces, sufferings, death, resurrection, and glory, and being united to one another in love, they have communion in each other's gifts and graces, and are obliged to the performance of such duties, public and private, as do conduce to their mutual good both in the inward and outward man. II. Saints by profession are bound to maintain a holy fellowship and communion in the worship of God, and in performing such other spiritual services as tend to their mutual edification, as also in relieving each other in outward things according to their several abilities and necessities. Which communion, as God offereth opportunity, is to be extended unto all those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus. Having thus found that the Church of Rome and the Church of Scotland, which are extremes, do yet agree in attaching the same meaning to the term catholic, and that meaning the same which that term signifies in the title of this work; having thus vindicated that title in reference to both, it will not be expected that the Church of England, which lies between, will present any other view, or require many words. Accordingly, we find all that is given in the Articles of that church, as a definition of the church in these words, "The visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure word of God is preached, and the sacraments be duly administered according to Christ's ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same."* And Bishop Burnet, who, perhaps, more than any other, may be regarded as the Church's expounder of her articles, thus sums up his observations upon this 66 one, If we believe that any society retains the fundamentals of Christianity, we do from that conclude it to be a true church, to have a true baptism, and the members of it to be capable of salvation." The term catholic does not indeed occur here, nor do his texts require the author to make frequent use of it, since it does not even once occur in all the thirty-nine Articles. And, indeed, it must be confessed that the Church of England, generally, is shy in the use of it, which is the more to be wondered at since it is an emphatic word in both the creeds which form part of her ritual, and the more to be regretted since her influence is justly the greatest of all in fixing the use of words in the English language. Still, however, Bishop Burnet does occasionally use it, and when he does, he means by the catholic church, as we should expect, the aggregate of all those which he has defined above as true churches. Besides the use of the term catholic, we also find the principles of catholicism duly stated by him. Thus under the thirty-fourth article, where he shews that in matters of rule and ritual, there was great variety in the unity of the church until Charlemagne began to force a uniformity over all, he says in one place, " It is therefore suitable to the nature of things, to the authority of the magistrate, and to the obligations of the pastoral care, that every church should act within herself as * Art. xix. an entire and independent body ;" and in another, “ It is certain that all the parts of the Catholic Church ought to hold a communion one with another, and mutual commerce and correspondence together." Add to this the observations on catholicism already quoted, from Pearson on the Creed, another of the many lights of the Church of England, and let these remarks suffice on the subject as to the National Churches. And now, I presume, we may pass on. For as to the more considerable of the dissenting churches, their actual voice (whatever the personal feelings of not a few dissenters) is in general as much in favour of catholicism, in the sense in which the term is used in this work, as the standards of the national establishments have been shewn to be. Thus, one of their greatest ornaments concludes one of his works in these terms, with which let us also conclude this paragraph. "Reasoning (says Robert Hall) supplies an effectual antidote to mere speculative error, but opposes a feeble barrier to inveterate prejudice, and to that contraction of feeling which is the fruitful parent of innumerable mistakes and misconceptions in religion. There is no room, however, for despondency, for as the dictates of Christian charity are always found to coincide with the purest principles of reason, the first effect of inquiry will be to enlighten the mind, the second to expand and enlarge the heart; and when the Spirit is poured down from on high, He will effectually teach us that God is love, and that we never please him more than when we embrace with open arms, without distinction of sect or party, all who bear his image."* * See a Reply to the Rev. M. Kinghorn, by Robert Hall, Conclusion. |