The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1851-01-02
RILEY, Brown COUNTY, Ono,

RILEY, Brown COUNTY, Ono,
December Is, 1850
= ps BAILEY Brother Fl s. Fullerton, in his Sec
ond number on Secession, has made the following
statement respecting my argument, to prove that
Christ did not religously fellowship Pharisees
ani SAX Stt;.,,s
"If understand Brother Rankin, he main
tanned that our Lord did not commune with the
Jewish Church because he ate the Passover with
his disciples alonep
Please publish my argument under his state
ment that the public may judge of the fairness of
his representation Of my argument. Yours
JOHN RANKIN.
" LIST. IL is said, that to leave Church because
corrupt, is against the example Of Christ, who
remained in the Jewish Church, while it was
more corrupt than any of our Protestant Church
es. That the Jewish Church was thus corrupt is
admitted; and more that it equalled, in corrup-
ton, even the Catholic Church. The Sadducees
were profane in6dels and the Pharisees devoured
widows houses, and, for pretence, made long
prayers In moral pollution they resembled the
inside of a sepulchre And they crowned all by
numbering the Lord of Glory They so acted as
involved them in the guilt of all the blood Of the
righteous shed from the foundation Of the world
That Christ remained in the Church is admitted
But that he acknowledged the Sadducees and
or associated with them as religious persons, is
not true 1t is true that he worshipped and
taught in the same temple in which they per-
formed their ceremonies but that he received any
religious ordinances at their hands, or that he so
acted with them to imply an acknowledgment
of them as religious persons, is not true. He de-
cared that they had made the house of God a
den of thieves The Temple was the place where
all the people of God were obliged toperform GER
F. A. -
worshipped and taught in the Temple ia no more
evidence that he communed with Sadducees and
Pharisees, than the fact that we baptize and ad-
minister the Lords Supper in churches and So
cinans and Universalsts perform similar cere-
monies in churches, proves that we commune with
| them
while it is true that sll had the general name
of Jews, as we have that of Christians, they, as
well as we, were divided into different sects, that
did not Fellowship each other. If Christ fellow
shipped religiously Sadducees and Pharisees, both
of which were sons of Belisl, with what propriety
could Paul ask, What concord hath Christ with
Beialp Christ declared that publicans and har-
lots should enter into the kingdom Of God before
the Scrbes and Pharisees. And he said to his
disciples Except your righteousness shall ex-
coed the righteousness Of the Scribes and Phari-
sees ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
heaven Did Christ fellowship religiously those
to whom he said I'VE serpents, ye generation Of
vipers how can ye escape the damnation of hell y
That Christ did not leave the Church is true, but
he no more fellowshpped Sadducees and Phari-
sees, than we do Socinians, Universalsts or
Catholics. These have their Chr stan ceremonies
in the temple of God as well as We but we do not
fellowship with them, neither did Christ fellow
ship the wicked Jews in their religious ceremo-
mics. When we cease to fellowship slavehold-
ing body, we do not withdraw from the Church.
To withdraw from the Church is to reject her
Divine charter, and abandon her ordinances
a." IL it be said that Christ communed with
Judas, who was thief admit it but then Judas
was secretly, and not openly, thief and the Saw
Jour treated him according to his external char
acter and profession and not according to what
Omniscence saw in him. Christ did not COM
mune with him as a thief but as one who appear
ed to be, and professed TO be, true disciple The
last Passover the Saviour observed not with Sad.
ducees and Pharisees but with his own disciples
While then it is admitted that the Saviour did
remain in the Church up to the hour of his death,
and that he did worship in the Temple. as the
Divine law required there is no evidence that be
ever did religiously fellowship Sadducees and
Pharisees as brethren 1t was impossible that
there could be such fellowship between him and
them when he called them hypocrites, serpents
and generation Of vipers. Such communion
would blend together perfect holiness and the
most consummate wickedness To urge the exam
pie Of the Saviour as holding such communion, Is tc
sanction communion with the worst classes Of men
on earth and to abolish all distinction between the
church and the world. 1t would more than jus.
tify communion with Socinians and Unversalists
They do not devour widows houses, and for q
pretence make long prayers. II would condemn
separation from the Church OF Rome, and drive
US back TO all the denominations Of Popery. 1t !:
paipahiy againat the sss.-ca injaresicn, Com'
out Of her, my people, that ye be not psrtaker
of her sins Such an argument, therefore, can
not be truen