tolic Protestant Confession, requiring a subscription to it from all their principal executive officers, their beneficiaries and their missionaries both foreign and domestic. These societies are even now amply secured on this point by their regulations, which require, that every beneficiary shall be member of some christian church, and that every missionary sent either into the domestic or foreign field, shall be in regular connection and good standing in the ministry of some orthodox denomination. Still as the proposed creed is a catholic one, there would be a congruity in its distinctive acknowledgement by catholic societies, and it would tend to give still greater prominence to the common faith. SIXTH FEATURE. The Bible should as much as possible be made the text-book in all religious and theological instruction. It is incontrovertible that in consequence of the great abundance even of good uninspired works, the book of God in its naked form just as its author made it, receives less attention than it merits. We would not, of course, object to elementary books for the instruction of children and youth; yet it seems desirable, that they contain only the common ground of christian doctrine. Many of the books, employed in training the rising generation, are tinctured by sectarian peculiarities, whilst others are professedly sectarian, and cannot fail to leave impressions unfriendly to the cause of union. Every denomination must indeed have full liberty to use such works for purposes of instruction without being upbraided: yet it cannot fail to be perceived, that the unity of Christ's body will be best subserved by occupying the attention of children mainly with the ground and common truths of our holy religion, by preferring elementary books of an unsectarian character, and by the early use of the Bible as the chief book of study and instruction. It is moreover due to that blessed volume, that it should not only be called the best of books, but also treated as such; and be made use of on all suitable occasions, not so much with the view of establishing, by detached quotations, positions already made out, as for the analytic study of the book itself. For this cause Bible classes are deserving of high commendation, even admitting that disputed points are sometimes discussed. The scholar is still employed in the direct study of the word of God, and will learn to judge for himself. Those books of instruction, such as the Bible questions of the American Sunday School Union, which require the scholar unavoidably and constantly to refer to the Bible for answers, are peculiarly appropriate. In theological seminaries also the Bible should as much as possible be made the subject of direct study on all the different branches of theology; and on every topic the student should be required to search the Scriptures for himself, and present the results of his examination. This course is in a greater or or less degree already pursued in many of our principal schools of the prophets. Yet it is probable, that it might be carried to greater extent. In Biblical History, in Doctrinal, Practical and Polemical Theology this plan can be employed with the utmost facility, and its undoubted tendency is to obliterate sectarian prejudices and distinctions, and to promote alike christian union and Bible truth. The more we can fix the attention of the student to the word of God, the better shall we be able to raise up a generation of ministers disengaged from the shackles of sectarianism, and firmly planted on the broad platform of the Bible; men possessing the most enlarged views of the Redeemer's kingdom, and ready to devise and execute millennial schemes for its advancement. THE SEVENTH AND LAST FEATURE, of union is that missionaries, going into foreign lands, ought to use and profess no other than this common creed, the Apostolic Protestant Confession, and connect with it whatever form of church-government and mode of worship they prefer. For the sake of our bleeding Saviour, our sectarian divisions ought not to be carried to heathen lands. The Protestant churches amount to but sixty millions out of seven hundred millions, the probable population of our entire globe, and ought not to spread the Corinthian contagion of sectarianism over the gentile world. In view of all the divisions and contentions, which sectarianism has entailed on the heritage of God, how much better would it be, that the disciples of the Lord, instructed by the experience of three hundred years of discord in the household of faith, should settle down on some better plan for preserving the unity of the church, as her triumphs are extending into heathen countries! The signs of the times imperiously call us to this duty; and a more convenient season cannot be expected in the providence of God. Deeply impressed with the conviction that something can, and therefore something ought to be done, the writer, whose attention has for many years been directed to this subject, felt constrained to address. this fraternal appeal to the American churches. Whether that Divine Saviour, who has promised to be with his disciples unto the end of the world, will incline the hearts of his children to heed this appeal, the future must develope. But whether or not, the writer feels, that he will have discharged a solemn duty, and he cannot resist the conviction that some good will accrue to the kingdom of the blessed Saviour. It is certainly supremely desirable that the unity of the church should be restored in christian lands, and that the sacramental host who bear the standard of the cross into the heathen world, should present an undivided front. Better that the heathen should never hear of Luther, and Calvin, and Arminius, and Wesley, and base their religion purely on the Bible, than that the sectarian divisions connected with these names should be carried among them, still to vex, and agitate and paralize the church. Whilst the entire pagan world is before them no two sects ought to send missionaries into the same district of country. Thus the immediate collision of sects would be prevented for a season. Yet if they take with them their extended sectarian creeds, it will not be long before dissenters from it, will grow up among their own disciples, and thus the old evil soon return. But if a creed covering only the common, undisputed ground of Christianity be taken, there will be no need of disciplining any but such as ought to be excluded from all christian churches, and therefore could not form any christian sect. And as the Scriptures present us with no entire detailed system of churchgovernment, our predilections on that subject are produced chiefly by the influence and example of parents and teachers, and there is little, very little probability of secession from any of the churches in heathen lands, on this ground. In addition to these fundamental features of the projected union, Christians should endeavor gradually to restore unity or mutual acknowledgement in name, as well as in the thing. Geographical names should be adopted for all catholic or voluntary associations, which may be erected. In this respect the American Education, Tract, Bible, Missionary and other societies have set a noble example. Each denomination should speak of itself not as the church, but as a branch of the church. How delightful would it be, to hear Christians habitually employing phraseology indicative of their unity, and to hear them speak of The Lutheran Branch of the church, The Episcopal Branch of the church, The Methodist Branch of the church, etc. etc. Thus would we literally verify the declaration of the Lord's prophet," And the Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day there will be one Lord and his name one." Zech. 14:9. As to one Supreme Representative Body, having even limited jurisdiction over all the confederated bodies, for which some may have been looking as a feature of this plan of union-there was none such in the apostolic age, and we need none. The tendency of such bodies is naturally to an increase of powerthey are the foster-mothers of papacy, and dangerous to true liberty of conscience. Should any circumstances in the Providence of God, hereafter render it necessary, and the great body of the confederated denominations unite in the call, a mere advisory council might be convened, consisting of a small senatorial delegation, in equal numbers from each denomination, without legislative or judicial power, its advice to be confined to the general interests of the Redeemer's kingdom. Yet even such a council ought not to meet statedly nor often, and forms no part of the proposed union. THE APOSTOLIC, PROTESTANT CONFESSION, for which the reader is now prepared, is nothing more than a selection of such articles or parts of articles, on the topics determined by the several confessions, as are believed by all the so-called orthodox churches. Not a single word is altered or added. The authority of this confession is based on the fact, that every sentence, every idea of it, has been sanctioned by one or other of the Protestant conventions that adopted the creeds from which the articles are selected, and by the denominations receiving those creeds. The whole creed has therefore already received the ecclesiastical sanction of acknowledged churches. Its sanction in its present form and for the proposed purpose, it can only receive by the successive action of such ecclesiastical bodies, and churches and individuals as in the Providence of God may receive it, and publish their assent to it, not as renouncing any of their former opinions, but as regarding this as the test for discipline and communion. THE APOSTOLIC, PROTESTANT CONFESSION. PART I. The Apostles' Creed. "I believe in God the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried. The third day he rose from the dead, he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty, from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. "I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic or universal church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting." PART II. The United Protestant Confession. ART. I. Of the Scriptures. The Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. Under the name of the Holy Scriptures, or the word of God written, are now contained all the books of the Old and New Testament, which are these: Articles of the Episcopal church, Art. VI. and of the Discipline of the Methodist church, Art. V. VOL. XI. No. 30 52 |