The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-03-22

iic'7SS AOl 4Illil III lue udIhtSl anu w VI :
of times. Consequently the Who'll
church never falls into error job
Milwood, Catholic, begins the discus
sion this week-Editor Intermountaii
Catholicl
But your Confession declares tn
visible Catholic church to be 4 king
dom. Jesus Christ, il says, hath erect
ed IN this world a Kingdom, which i
his church. Now. to a kingdom it il
sssntial that there be a supreme au
thoffty. There may be provincial anC
! communal governments with local au
| thorlty, customs and usageS, but they
must all be subOrdinated to one SUI
| preme central authority. or else yol
have not one kingdom. but as many
| separate Kingdoms as you have sep
! arate local governments. The kingdom
| erected by our Lord is one not many
! and therefore must have somewhere
somehow constituted, Il supreme cen
| trail authority, from which all the sub
| ordinate authorities derive their au-
| thority, and to which they are respon-
| sible- This supreme central authority
! is. in the case of the church, the church
! teaching and governing. and is what is
| specially meant by the church, wher
| speaking of it's fallibility or infallibil-
ty. Now, my question is, whether the
church herself, that is, the supreme
central authority from whom all the
particular and local authorities are de-
rived, is subject to error. or by grace
rendered infallible?"
Il know no such authority as you
speak of but that of Jesus Christ him
sell. who is the head and husband of
the faithful, and he of course cannot
err
You admit that the church is a
kingdom"
Yes"
And a kingdom erected in this
world?"
Il do"
'And that where there is no supreme
central authority there is no king
dom?"
There much be such authority, but
it may be in Jesus Christ, who is the
invisible head of the church.
1T is the authority that constitutes
the kingdom not the kingdom the au-
thority, for prior to the authority, the
kingdom is not. The authority and
kingdom must be in the same order.
II. then. the kingdom is in the visible
order the authority which makes 1t
visible kingdom must be in the visi-
BILE order and therefore itself be visi-
BILE. You could not call Great Britain
or France a visible kingdom, if one
or the other had no visible supreme
authority The most you could say
would be, that there is an invisible
kingdom. So of the church II 1t Is
a visible kingdom. it must have su-
I
not a visible, but an invisible kingdom.
The individuals might be visible as in
dividuals, but not as members OF the
church. or subjects of the invisible au-
thority. In such case, the distinction
your Confession makes, and which you
contend for. between the visible church
and the invisible would be a distinction
without a. difference When, therefore,
YOU tell me, as you do in your Confes-
sion, that the visible church is king
dom in this world. you necessarily tell
me that it has in this world supreme
visible central authority AND IN point
of fact, Presbyterians themselves 90
recognize such authority; for they re-
gard their church as polity, and II
has its constitution, its officers, its su-
preme legislature and supreme judi
catory. If not, what means the general
assembly, which represents IN one
body all the particular churches OF the
denomination, and 10
which belongs the power of deciding
i'm all controversies respecting doctrine
and discipline; of reproving, warning
of bearing testimony against error IN
doctrine, or immortality in practice, IN
any church. presbytery or synod; OF
erecting new synods when it shah be
Judged necessary, of experimenting the
concerns of the whole church;
of suppressing schismatical contentious
and disputations,' etc, and to WnlcI
every candidate for ordination must
promise obedience and suo1ectloh
."There is a supreme visible govern
mont of the church, under God, 1 adj
nit
'TTnder God; and whoever dreamed
If a supreme government of the church
over God?'
1.-The Papists.
Nonsense! Do you not know that
Catholics hold Jesus Christ to be the
supreme invisible head of the church,
and that they call the pope his vicar
n the nope is the vicar of Jesus CHRIST,
,o,v can he be above him? God is su-
reme the sovereign of sovereigns, ana
Ibora is no power not from him ana
subject to him. So no more of TINS
1onsense. But you hold the church TO
be a kingdom or polity. do you not
And as such it has it's government,
is supreme authority; for, IL not II 10
10 kingdom or polity.
Now, what ask is. does this su-
,reme authority, such as it is IN the
church, claim to be infal-
ible in all that concerns faith ana |
Then your plea of an adverse title
mounts to nothing; the title you al
eye is not the negative of that claimed !
" the church. The title she claims is |
hat of an infallible teacher of Gods /
word. the title you set up is that of
fallible teacher, which you may well
,e. without prejudice to her claim; for
-ou can claim to teach fallibly with
nut denying her claim to teach infal-
IDLY"
But were I to grant this. it would
ot follow that the claim ofRome must
lie conceded
Not from this fact alone; but as you
AVE conceded that the title was is
ued. and must vest somewhere, in
Cme one, it follows necessarily that it
ests in the Roman Catholic church, If
vests in no one else. And, as she is
n possession, you must concede it to
er, unless you can produce and estab-
ssh an adverse title
THE Greek church has as good title
) the Romish."
THAT is not to the purpose. The
;reek church has either a valid title.
+ none at all 1t is not enough to
ay that she has as good a title as the
.oman church; you must say that she
as perfect title, or say nothing.
Il say, then, she has perfect title
Then she IS the church of God.
Vhy then. are YOU not in her COM