The Church for Americans; Revised and Enlarged (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1899. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... pretensions. Their very boldness and magnitude are well calculated to awe and fascinate the minds of the unsophisticated. "As," says Mr. Gladstone, "advertising houses find custom in proportion, not so much to the solidity of their resources, as to the magniloquence of their promises and assurances, so theological boldness in the extension of such claims is sure to pay, by widening certain circles of devoted adherents, however it may repel the mass of mankind." There are, however, unanswerable objections to the Roman claims, a full consideration of which will require a separate lecture.t For the present it must suffice simply to observe that they were unknown in the earliest and purest ages of the Church. The peculiar position of Rome as the chief city of the world early tended to the undue exaltation of her Bishops or Popes, but they are on record as repudiating any exclusive right or claim to lordship over other Bishops and Churches. Even so late and great a Pope as Gregory I., Bishop of Rome from A.d. 590 to A.d. 604, rebuked John IV., Patriarch of Constantinople, who, it is interesting to note, was the first to style himself the "Ecumenical Patriarch" or "Universal Pope." "This title," wrote Gregory, "is profane, superstitious, haughty, and invented by the first apostate. St. Peter is not called universal Apostle. No one of my predecessors ever consented to use so profane a title. Far from Christian hearts be that blasphemous name. I confidently affirm that he who calls himself, or wishes to be called, universal Priest, is in his pride a forerunner of Antichrist." 2. A satisfactory discussion of the Denominational conception of the Church also will require a lecture devoted exclusively to its consideration. What we say at this time must necessarily be pref...