The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-06-04 00:00:00

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whom she supplies for the ehristianisation of the world,
They will esteem her as a means, and cherish her not
the less because she would decline being converted

Never does she appear so gracious and
attractive as when she is preaching, not herself, but
the pure and simple doctrines of the cross—never
more repulsive than when she is, trectarianly, thinking
only of herself, and boasting of the privileges she pos-
sesses, and can bestow out of her vast treasury.
Church idolatry, in whatever form or guise it may pre-
sent itself, we do certainly condemn ; but if there -be
anything which would make us intensely love what we
would not idolise, it would be such a voice from the
temple—so bland, so attractive, so every way fascinat-
ing, as that of Doctor Sumner.

into an END

It would give us pleasure to repeat, in this place,
several passages from the charge which have a peculiar
interest just at this time; but we are obliged to for-
bear, and must be content with the following passage
only :

" The church is that body which assembled in the upper
chamber at Jerusalem, and there received the visit of their
risen Lord ; the church is that party which abode together,
had ' all things in common,' and continued in apostolic fel-
lowship ; the church is that company of faithful men in all
ages and countries who maintained their fealty to the doc-
trines and institutions of the gospel. The ministers of this
church are those called to serve the united world, to perform
the prescribed rites, to teach, to rebuke, to exhort, to warn,
to comfort, and to commit perpetually to their fellow men
the things which they have themselves received. Such is a
simple analysis of the church—the Holy Catholic Church—
of which Christ is the head, and with which He has engaged
to be present by his spirit to the end of the world. We
must beware of applying to the members of the body, which
members compose it, the power which really belongs to the
Head alone. If we speak of the ark of Christ's church, we
must bear in mind that we are still speaking metaphorically.
The ark is not limited to any !-pecial locality on earth, like
the ark of Noah ; it extends as far as the knowledge of
Christ extends, for He is the true ark that saves all that
commit themselves to him. The ministrations of the church
are those through which the community on earth enter,
but Christ is the only door through which heaven is entered;
still many will be admitted into the visible ark who may
remain for ever excluded from% the heavenly one. The
members of the church are branches of the vine ; the
church is not the vine—that name belongs to Christ alone ;
the church is the pillar and ground of truth, but the church
is not the truth, neither has it life in itself: Christ alone is
' the way, the truth, and the life,' through which every in-
dividual member of the church must seek access to God.
Yet all this, undeniable in itself, is practically contradicted
whenever the services, and the ordinances, and the ministe-
rial offices are magnified beyond their due proportions or
placed before the people with a prominency, and we know
the importance of prominency, to which they have no claim.
Church principles in their proper sense we must approve.
All must approve of that cordial agreement with the articles,
that sincere preference of the services, that willing confor-
mity to the discipline of the church which shows that our
profession is honest and consistent; but, upon the contrary,
I must think that to set up, as it were, church principles in
opposition to the principles of the gospel, and to place them
in an invidious contrast is unreasonable and unscriptural.

There are other congregations of Christians which profess
the same truth. We honour those also, and gladly say,
`Peace be with all men that love the Lord Jesus Christ with
sincerity ;' but we attach especial importance to the church
of the English nation, and we rejoice that it has pleased
God to distinguish her as a witness to himself. We are
thankful that the reformed church, of which most is known
in foreign countries is the church which has most strictly
adhered to primitive doctrine and discipline, and which most
nearly approximates both in her articles and creed, as well as
in the order of her ministry to Scripture itself, and to what
may be proved from Scripture. Let us, therefore, be con-
tent with these advantages, and let boasting be excluded. It
is no sign of greatness to vaunt of authority. In the sight
of man as well as God, he that humbleth himself is more
likely to be exalted than be who assumes an air of authority,
which could never be entrusted to man in after ages as it
was to the apostles, unless men, like the apostles, were en-
abled to read the heart. But though none
,can forgive sins
but God alone, and though regeneration is not of the will
nor of the work of man, but of God, yet God, whose spirit
goeth where it listeth, has given much to us which we may
justly prize as a talent, and esteem as an office of infinite
importance sufficient to give us cause to tremble at the posi-
tion we hold."