3d. The church is declared to be " the pillar and ground of the truth," and it is affirmed that " the gates of hell shall never prevail against her."
4th. To the churclr is granted power to bind and loose, and he that will not hear the church is to be treated as a heathen. — Matt, xvi., 19 ; xviii., 15-18.
5th. The church is commanded to discriminate between truth and error, and must consequently be qualified and authorized to do so.— 2 Thes. iii., 6 : Eom. xvi., 17 ; 2 John 10.
6th. From the necessity of the case, men need and crave an ever-living, visible and cotemporaneous infallible Interpreter and Judge.
7th. From universal analogy every community among men has the living judge as well as the written law, and the one would be of no value without the other.
ROMISH DOCTRINE REFUTED, 85
8th. This power is necessary to secure unity and universality, which all acknowledge to be essential attributes of the true church.
18. By what arguments may this claim of the Romish church be shown to be utterly baseless ?
1st. A claim vesting in mortal men a power so momentous can be established only by the most clear and certain evidence, and the failure to produce such converts the claim into a treason at once against God and the human race.
2d. Her evidence fails, because the promises of Christ to preserve his church from extinction and from error do none of them go the length of pledging infallibility. The utmost prom- ised is, that the true people of God shall never perish entirely from the earth, or be left to apostatize from the essentials of the faittt!
3d. Her evidence fails, because these promises of Christ were addressed not to the officers of the church as such, but to the body of true believers. Compare John xx., 23 with Luke xxiv., 33, 47, 48, 49, and 1 John ii., 20, 27.
4th. Her evidence fails, because the church to which the pre- cious promises of the Scriptures are pledged is not an external, visible society, the authority of which is vested in the hands of a perpetual line of apostles. For (1.) the word church. {zKKXr\oia^) is a collective term, embracing the effectually called (jiXr]roL7) or regenerated. — Kom. i., 7 ; viii., 28 ; 1 Cor., i., 2 ; Jude i. ; Rev. xvii., 14 ; also Rom. ix., 24 ; 1 Cor. vii., 18-24 ; Gal. i., 15 ; 2 Tim. i., 9 ; Heb. ix., 15 ; 1 Pet. ii., 9 ; v., 10 ; Eph. i., 18 ; 2 Pet. i., 10. (2.) The attributes ascribed to the church prove it to consist alone of the true, spiritual people of God as such. — Eph. v., 27 ; 1 Pet, ii, 5 ; John x., 27 ; Col. i., 18, 24. (3.) The epistles are addressed to the church, and in their salutations explain that phrase as equivalent to " the called/' " the saints/' "all true worshipers of God '" witness the salutations of 1st and 2d Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians, 1st and 2d Peter and Jude. The same attributes are ascribed to the members of the true church as such throughout the body of the Epistles. — 1 Cor. i., 30 ; iii., 16 ; vi., 11, 19 ; Eph. ii., 3-8, and 19-22 ; 1 Thes. v., 4, 5 ; 2 Thes. ii.; 13 ; Col. i, 21 ; ii., 10 ; • 1 Pet. ii., 9.
86 JUDGE OF CONTROVERSIES.
5th. The inspired apostles have had no successors. (1.) There is no evidence that they had such in the New Testament. (2.) While provision was made for the regular perpetuation of the offices of presbyter and deacon, (1 Tim. iii., 1-13,) there are no directions given for the perpetuation of the apostolate. (3.) There is per- fect silence concerning the continued existence of any apostles in the church in the writings of the early centuries. Both the name and the thing ceased. (4.) None ever claiming to be one of their successors have possessed the " signs of an apostle." — 2 Cor. xii., 12 ; 1 Cor. ix., 1 ; Gal. L, 1, 12 ; Acts i.; 21, 22.
6 th. This claim, as it rests upon the authority of the Pope, is utterly unscriptural, because the Pope is not known to Scrip- ture. As it rests upon the authority of the whole body of the bishops, expressed in their general consent, it is unscriptural for the reasons above shown, and it is, moreover, impracticable, since their universal judgment never has been and never can be impar- tially collected and pronounced.
7th. There can be no infallibility where there is not self-con- sistency. But as a matter of fact the Papal church has not been self-consistent in her teaching. (1.) She has taught different doc- trines in different sections and ages. (2.) She affirms the infalli- bility of the holy Scriptures, and at the same time teaches a sys- tem plainly and radically inconsistent with their manifest sense ; witness the doctrines of the priesthood, the Mass, penance, of works, and of Mary worship. Therefore the Church of Eome hides the Scriptures from the people.