Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
Again, my friends, we would beseech you all to cultivate a catholic spirit. Think not that merely because you are Presbyterians you are therefore better than others. There are many members of the Independent and Episcopal churches whom the Son of God has delighted to honour, and who shall doubtless shine throughout all eternity, as pearls in his royal diadem. Our forms of government and discipline are but perishable barriers by which the various sections of the church are now separated, but at death these partitions fall asunder, and the faithful in the world above are all one in Christ Jesus for ever.
The Saviour will certainly honour his own ordinances, and, other things being equal, we may expect to find the purest piety where the Redeemer is worshipped according to the purest forms; but still we are not to trust to our privileges — we are not to worship the temple, instead of the God of the temple. Love is the essence of Christianity, and a Presbyterian church, where the life of piety is wanting, is a temple from which the glory has departed. Again, whilst Presbyterians act towards others in a spirit of expansive charity, and whilst they acknowledge that their ecclesiastical arrangements are not of such importance as the more enduring treasures of the new covenant, let them not imagine that they may therefore disregard the peculiarities of their religious system. Everything is precious which the Redeemer has ordained. ...
For more, see W. D. Killen on Catholic Presbyterianism.
The Saviour will certainly honour his own ordinances, and, other things being equal, we may expect to find the purest piety where the Redeemer is worshipped according to the purest forms; but still we are not to trust to our privileges — we are not to worship the temple, instead of the God of the temple. Love is the essence of Christianity, and a Presbyterian church, where the life of piety is wanting, is a temple from which the glory has departed. Again, whilst Presbyterians act towards others in a spirit of expansive charity, and whilst they acknowledge that their ecclesiastical arrangements are not of such importance as the more enduring treasures of the new covenant, let them not imagine that they may therefore disregard the peculiarities of their religious system. Everything is precious which the Redeemer has ordained. ...
For more, see W. D. Killen on Catholic Presbyterianism.
