The Principles of Church Polity Author:George Trumbull Ladd Subtitle: Illustrated by an Analysis of Modern Congregationalism and Applied to Certain Important Practical Questions in the Government of Christian Churches. Southworth Lectures Delivered at Andover Theological Seminary in the Years 1879-1881 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1882 Original Publisher: Scribner S... more »ubjects: Congregational churches Church polity Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: LECTURE VI. THE PRINCIPLE OF A REGENERATE MEMBERSHIP. Among the secondary or derived principles of the true church polity there is no other one so nearly preeminent, both in itself, and in its relation to the remaining principles of the same rank, as that of a regenerate membership. This third one in the order of enumeration is first in the order of logic. The visible church of Christ should be composed only of such persons as give credible evidence of having in a godly way repented of their sins, believed unto salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ as their divine Saviour, and begun a life of allegiance to him as their King. The conviction that upon this principle alone can the constitution of the Church be duly and safely placed was distinctive, in their time, with the founders of our church order. Nothing else more pressed upon the consciences, weighed in the judgments, and bore down upon the hearts, of these men, than the fact that they were compelled by the constitution of the Church of England to commune, in a church way, with men who were manifestly unbelieving in heart, and even flagrantly unholy in life. To tolerate those who differed from them in the theory and practice of church government, they found by no means impossible. To receive to their communion the godly members of th...« less