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An Inquiry Into the Organization and Government of the Apostolic Church; Particularly With Reference to the Claims of Episcopacy
An Inquiry Into the Organization and Government of the Apostolic Church Particularly With Reference to the Claims of Episcopacy Author:Albert Barnes General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1855 Original Publisher: Presbyterian Publication Committee Subjects: Church polity Episcopacy Religion / Christianity / Anglican Religion / Christianity / History Religion / Leadership Religion / Christian Church / General Notes: This is a black and white OCR rep... more »rint 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: INQUIRY, ETC. CHAPTER I. REASONS WHY THE ARGUMENT ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH SHOULD BE CONFINED TO THE SCRIPTURES. In the discussion pursued in this volume, the argument will be confined wholly to the Scriptures, for the following reasons : 1. The whole subject of the organization and government of the church is one of mere revelation. It is connected with a revealed religion, and there can, therefore, be no authority in the case, except that which is derived from the declared will of God. It is claimed for the church, by all the parties in the controversy, that it is a diyine institution ; and the advocates of Episcopacy, with one voice, maintain that their ministry is of divine appointment. It never occurs to them to affirm that the arrangement of the clergy into "three orders" is a mere matter of expediency, or is adopted because experience has shown that this is the best arrangement, or because other methods have failed in promoting the spirituality of the church, or even because it has unbroken tradition in its favour. It is urged that the arrangement is of divine authority, and it is adopted primarily because it is believed to be founded on the Bible. So uniform are the claims on this point, that, if this were abandoned, the whole fabric would fall, and the claim of being the only arrangement which God has made for the government of the church, which is now set u...« less