The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-07-02 00:00:00

' THE ONE CATHOLIC & APOSTOLIC CHURCH

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
DEAR Sin,—Mr. M'Crea having called upon me to make
good my assertion that the Church of England is the only
branch of the Catholic Church existing in England, I felt
that I could not decline to do so. Instead of replying to
my arguments, he has occupied nearly a column and a half
of the Albion newspaper with personal abuse and railing.
This is a department of controversy oversy in which, I thank God,
I am unprepared to meet him, and therefore beg you will
permit me, through you, to make some observations on his
letter. . . _

Mr. M'Crea charges me with misquoting Scripture, assert-
ing that there is not one word about apostleship in the text
to which I referred. The reference was inadvertently made
to I Thess. ii. 7, instead of to v. G. It seems that it is con-
sistent with Mr. M'Crea's ideas of integrity to avoid an ar-
gument by making a serious charge of misquotation in wri-
ting v. 7 for v. G. The force of the argument will be best
seen by quoting the passages at length :-
1 Th. i. 1. 4' Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus unto the
Church of the Thessalonians.
* * * * * *
u. 6.
...... We might have been burdensome as
the_apostles of Christ."

- .
From this passage I had shewn that Silvanus and Timotheus
were apostles, and therefore that apostleship was not con-
fined to the twelve.

A second charge is mistranslation, and he adduces as a
proof a passage in which I gave no translation! My words
were— _

7rA Scriptural ministry must be threefold :
" Apostle or Angel 1... { Bishop.
" Bishop or Presbyter Illatilifig; Priest.
" Deacon _ Deacon."

A third was the misapplication of Scripture, because I
have given the view of Epaphroditus's title " apostle,"
which has the sanction of eminently learned and pious men.
Even Dr. Gill (a Baptist) is constrained to acknowledge, in
commenting upon the passage, that " ordinary ministers of
the word were sometimes called apostles."
Because the first apostles needed credentials in testimony
of their commisssion to promulgate a new dispensation,
therefore, argues Mr. M'Crea, there is no apostleship now !
" The signs of an apostle" were, having seen the Lord, and
the working of miracles ; therefore the sign having ceased,
the office has ceased!

How strangely this would tell upon the very existence of
the Christian religion !
" These signs shall follow them that believe if they
drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them ; they shall
lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." Mark xvi.
17, 18.

Those signs have ceased.: are there, then, no true believers
now ?

Towards the close of a long letter, Mr. M'Crea asserts
that the Church of England " is not and cannot be an apos-
tolic church." Two years ago he was willing enough to
seek for episcopal ordination, and talked over the matter
with a respectable clergyman of this town. He agreed to
our doctrines and our discipline, and only gave up the idea
when he learned that the. Bishop would not ordain him
without two years' education at St. Bees ! I state this
upon the authority of that clergyman.
I have now, sir, done with Mr. M'Crea, and in conclusion
beg to restate the evidence that the various sects with which
this land is disgraced are not Christian churches, although
many true Christians are to be found amongst them.
There is neither precept nor example in Scripture to war-
rant the rending of the visible unity of the church.
We have no example of any other ordination in the New
Testament than episcopal.
The modern episcopacy is the New Testament apostolate
in its ordinary functions : that apostolate is declared to be a
permanent office in Mat. xxviii. 19, 20; Eph. iv. 11-13.
We have no body of persons designated a Church of
Christ, in Scripture, who are nut ruled over by a threefold
ministry.
Until these statements can be disproved, my position re-
mains unanswered, that " the Church of England is the only
branch of the Catholic Church existing in England."
I have no desire to embroil myself with dissenters, many
of whom I respect and love as " brethren in Christ " ; and
therefore gladly take leave of this controversy, with the ear-
nest application of our Redeemer's prayer, " That they all
may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee."
I remain, dear sir, yours faithfully, .
JOSEPH BAYLEE.