The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1869-12-04

Jerusalem 70 which the text refers
5Yon Will notice, however, that The tWt
bodies differ most essentially, The or.
RanizatlonB do not correspond, Their,
was no representation present al Jeru
Aalem except fromthe churches Of Ia
tuBaletn and Antioch. The RomhnlstS.o
course, claim thai the apostles repfe-
hented the church ct large, and thal
their bishops are the successors OF The
apostles. The former OF these asser.
lions we admit In one sense, but the
latter we utterly deny. The apostolic
ONCE was temporary, and disappeared
with The mon who were originally call.
led toit There ID notal bishop n Rome
To-day nor will Ihere be one Tie 9th oI
December who is any more o Buc6essof
o. the apostles than l am. But even
II we conceded, this claim, glIil
the two organizations do not cor.
respond, for the, synod. At Jerusa.
salem embraced many others besides
the apostles. We read that the apOa.
tics and etderS came together for "a
consider thlBamatter.' Again, 1T pleas.
ed the apostles and elders iUiLI tho tOholo
ee"fch 10 send chosen men, Again,
AND they wrote letters by them after
this manner; The apostles and elders
and 0retilfeR send. greeting should
IKE TO know who correspond to the
elders and brethren In the council OF
Rome. The word which Ia translated
elder here Il that which as the Roman.
ISIS commonly say, designales q priest.
But notnere priest can nit II that body,
IL ls composed Of higher tiJgnltarles,
And AZ for the brethren, let a private
member otter totake part In the DELHI.
eratious and he would soon discover
that he had no voice theres0figug
Again, you will observe thai Peter,
ofwhom the Pope Is supposed 10 be
the successor, did nothing like what
Plus IN 10 performing. We are not
told that Peter called the meeting, that
he presided overlt, or that he WIS ask.
ed TO raLiiy Its decision. He spoke, 10
be sure, but 80 also did many others,
for there was much dlsputIng. In fact
James seems 70 have had the largest
influence, for with something OF an air
OF authority he declared that his sen.
tenoe was Of such and such charac-
ter, and It vas adopted.
But without entering further upon
the consideration Of the differences be,
tween these two bodies, we NAV con.
tidently say that about the only
point In which they agree Is The for
mula by which the DEGREES are rrelaced.
The synod at Jerusalem declared that
N hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost
and 70 u.s. RomiBh councils claiming
for themselves the lniallibls guidance
OF the spirit have adopted these words,
In reality the synod OF Jerusalem was
an extraordinary assembly consisting
of men, portion Of whom have no
successors In Office and who enjoyed
the special presence Of the Holy Ghost.
Indeed the earlier writer's who refer
TO the councils, held, not that they
were strictly modelled after this synod,
but that they We're merely convenient
arrangements OF human origin, adopt.
ed for the purpose of common deliberA.
ton on matters Of extraordinary i'm.
portance. L5ee letter OF FirmlllIan 10
Cyprlan. Also Tertullian. Thus you
perceive that the body which Is to meet
Ut Rome has no warrant In the Scrip
lures. -'f 4H-'ss
NOT A REPRESENTATION OF TnR UNI
I'NA vRRsAL CHURCH.
In the second place, according to the
Views OF ROmRnlsts, In order that this
council may be ,eOpmenIoAllt must re.
present the UNIVERSAL cllurch,-the
whole Christian world. None OF the
assemblies which, after the synod at
Jerusalem, the Romish- church recog-
nizes rs general cou nolls had this char
acter. After the fourth. century the
lower clergy and the laity commonly
were excluded, and only the bishops
and others OF similar rank were admit.
ted. This Ii an arbitrary limitation OF
the membership which at once de-
stroys the claim OF these bodies
to be fairly representative OF the
whole church. but not to in.
slst upon this, the bishops who have
attended the largest gOf these as
Bemblles have Constituted buta small
portion OF the episc0pate OF the world.
The Province Of North Africa itself
numbered many more bishops than
were present at either the second, the
third, or. the fifth general council, CSee
Schatf, vol. II. p. 3S3-Also note. | Even
at the council of Chalcedon which had
i've or six-hundred' mem befS, all were
from the East except three representa-
tives Of the bishop OF Rome and two
bishops from Africa Until thu separa.
ton Of the Greek and Roman Churches
these bodies were almost exclusively
from the East. After that event they
are ,from the West. The Eastern, or
Greek Church, therefore, totally denies
the tAhthorltYof the last eleven Of them.
These again were not even a fair fepre-
sentatlon OF that section of chrislen-
dom. For Instance the council OF Trent
opened with fouri archbishops, twenty
two bishops, five generals OF orders and
the imperial commissioners. It's de.
crees were finally approved and sub.
scrlbed by only two hundred and fifty
Two persons. 4 lHDE alt .'' 3 +
THE sEcrlogALlsM OF THIS COUNCIL.
In common with-lts predecessors the
present council Is not representation
OF the universal Church. None OF the
lower clergy orT0f the lAity are admit-
ted to lBeals. III, repeats the arbitrary
exclusion OF all save the big heR dlgnita-
Tles OF the Church. 10 the
very scrlpEural model which II profess
ses to initiate.
6 However,, this Is; notths main reason,
why the present council Is not ecnnien.
tcal. We bring this charge against Ii
because AVERY n large portion Of the
Christian world refuses TO have any
thing 10, do with It. The seventy.tive
millions o The Greek Church will have
no representatives there. The following
Ia q description OF the way In which the
Eastern dignataries received the points
fetal letter Oi Invitation.
The Greek Patriarch would not look
atthe letter though II was handsomely
bound Id red morocco and 'enlblazon.
ed with gold letters bearing his own
name. He had read all about IL In the
and did-not- See how tie
Council could do aught but lend To
further strlie. The peace once aimed
OF by the two Churches had long fallen
10 the ground. His mind was PERFECTLY
easy on the subject. And 80 the gor-
geous volume was, taken from the
divAn, aud handed back TO the legate,
who ,waa bowed out, aud departed In
peace. The Metropolitan or Ghaicedon
returned the EncYolloal With the sim
pie but graphic EpiRtrephete, which
might be freely rendered tAvaunt., The
Bishop Of WGrnS did not 6es how lie
could accept W hal hts master had Tefus.
ed, and 30 he semi back the EnoYc
The Bishop Of SslonlCa had noless than
live reasons. for his declIning,c to-
viii: I'll. What would hla patriarch
Bay2 ,3Sa BWhyo bat,5 Rome, why
not in the EaBti2i s. Because the Pope
: L All Ia q a