Presbyterianism

Another subject upon which there is a difference of opinion in the Presbyterian churches is the question of Church Establish ments. The view, originally held by all Presbyterian churches in Great Britain and on the Continent, that union with and support by the civil government are not only lawful but also desirable, is now held only by a minority, and is pre :tically exemplified among English-speaking Presbyterians only in the Church of Scotland (see SCOTLAND, CHURCH or). The lawfulness of Church Estab lishments with due qualifications is perhaps generally recognized in theory, but there is a growing tendency to regard connection with the state as inexpedient, if not actually contrary to sound Presby terian principle.

Those who favour state connection and those who oppose it agree in claiming spiritual independence as a fundamental prin ciple of Presbyterianism. All Presbyterians admit the supremacy of the state in things secular, and they claim supremacy for the Church in things spiritual. Those who favour a Church Estab lishment hold that Church and state should each be supreme in its own sphere, and that on these terms a union between them is not only lawful but is the highest exemplification of Christian statesmanship. So long as these two spheres are at all points clearly distinct, and so long as there is a desire on the part of each to recognize the supremacy of the other, there is little danger of friction or collision. But when spiritual and secular interests come into unfriendly contact and entanglement ; when controversy in regard to them becomes inevitable; from which sphere, the spiritual or the civil, is the final decision to come? Before the Reformation the Church would have had the last word; since that event the right and the duty of the civil power have been generally recognized.

Origin.

The origin of Presbyterianism is a question of his torical interest. By most students of the subject it is regarded as of later Jewish origin, and as having come into existence in its present form simultaneously with the formation of the Christian Church. The last is Bishop Lightfoot's view. He connects the Christian ministry, not with the worship of the Temple, in which were priests and sacrificial ritual, but with that of the synagogue, which was a local institution providing spiritual edification by the reading and exposition of Scripture. The first Christians were re

garded, even by themselves, as a Jewish sect. They were spoken of as "the way." They took with them, into the new communities which they formed, the Jewish polity or rule and oversight by elders. The appointment of these would be regarded as a matter of course, and would not seem to call for any special notice in such a narrative as the Acts of the Apostles.

But Presbyterianism was associated in the and century with a kind of episcopacy. This episcopacy was at first rather congre gational than diocesan ; but the tendency of its growth was un doubtedly towards the latter. Hence for proof that their church polity is apostolic Presbyterians are accustomed to appeal to the New Testament and to the time when the apostles were still living; and for proof of the apostolicity of prelacy Episcopalians appeal rather to the early Church fathers and to a time when the last of the Apostles had just passed away. (See Lightfoot's essay in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Philippians.) It is generally admitted that distinct traces of Presbyterian polity are to be found in unexpected quarters (e.g., Ireland, Iona, the Culdees, etc.) from the early centuries of church history and throughout the mediaeval ages down to the Reformation of the 16th century. Only in a very modified sense, therefore, can it be correctly said to date from the Reformation.

At the Reformation the Bible was for the great mass of both priests and people a new discovery. The study of it shed floods of light upon all church questions. The leaders of the Reforma tion searched the New Testament not only for doctrinal truth but also to ascertain the polity of the primitive Church. This was specially true of the Reformers in Switzerland, France, Scot land, Holland and in some parts of Germany. Luther gave little attention to New Testament polity, though he believed in and clung passionately to the universal priesthood of all true Chris tians, and rejected the idea of a sacerdotal caste. He had no dream or vision of the Church's spiritual independence and pre rogative. He was content that ecclesiastical supremacy should be with the civil power, and he believed that the work of the Ref or mation would in that way be best preserved and furthered. In no sense can his "consistorial" system of church government be regarded as Presbyterian.