Established church

“ This has happened for the reason that the Catholic Church is not founded exclusively on the Bible, as Protestantism is. Catholics take the Bible as an authentic history. This authentic history establishes the divine mission of our Lord, and the institution of the church by His divine authority. This church, "the pillar and ground of truth," attests the divine authority of Holy Scripture. There is no circulus vitiosus in our argument. With us the individual must bow to the collective wisdom of the church, divinely established. ”

“ Profiting by the situation, it has wished to reduce the clergy into bondage after a precise fashion by the intrusion of all of the doctrines of the ultramontane church, and, to obtain its end, has employed all the powers of polemics, of spiritual administration, and of the regular clergy.
The clergy conquered, it has marched on to possess itself of all classes of society through the medium of educational institutions, of confraternities and congregations of every kind, and has established an organization as vast as it is formidable. ”

“ He established the only church on the face of the earth according to the ancient order of the Church of Jesus Christ, with apostles, prophets, teachers, gifts, helps, governments, baptism for the remission of sins, the laying of hands for the reception of the Holy Ghost—an organization which has not existed on the earth from the day the ancient apostles were put to death, and the holy priesthood taken from the earth, until the present. ”

“ The writers of these Nineteen Articles fail to see anywhere in the world a divinely established and spiritually endowed Church of Jesus Christ. They are determined to live in purity and love, to avoid dissension and strife, to guard their membership in the invisible Church, and to wait in faith for the outpouring of the Spirit and the bestowal of miraculous gifts for the restoration of the Church in its pristine apostolic purity and power. ”

“ No one practice of the church has done so much to lower the tone of its life and to debase its standards. The first New England churches were established by godly and regenerated men. They received into their churches, through infant baptism, children presumptively, but alas not actually, regenerated. ”

“ And it shall be a centre of unity to them; a church shall be set up in the world, to which the Lord will be daily adding such as shall be saved.
II. That this church shall be firmly founded and well-built: It shall be established in the top of the mountains; Christ himself will build it upon a rock; it shall be an impregnable fort upon an immovable foundation, so that the gates of hell shall neither overthrow the one nor undermine the other (Matt. xvi. 18) ; its foundations are still in the holy mountains (Ps. lxxxvii. 1) , the everlasting mountains, which cannot, which shall not, be removed. ”

“ Thirty or forty years ago, the popular estimate of what was called the Established Religion was as low as can well be conceived. The laity, for the most part, regarded Churchmanship as a mere empty tradition, or at best as a political symbol, and an excuse for lusty choruses in praise of “a jolly full bottle.” The Clergy, unless they were grievously maligned, had but two objects in life—the acquirement of “fat livings,” and the enjoyment of amusements not now considered clerical. Of course, there never was a time when there were not hundreds of exemplary persons in holy orders ”

“ When the novel worship that replaced the Holy Sacrifice built new tabernacles for its meagre and unmeaning rites, it invented the singing-gallery and the modern choir, all-sufficing, we acknowledge, for the Anglican "common prayer," and "worship" after the Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, and other such modes, but wholly out of place in a Catholic church, and totally inadequate for the holy offices of our religion.
Surely there is no one who will not heartily agree with us that we need a thorough reform, in this respect, in our church architecture. We build chapels, but not churches. ”

“ And among the great problems now before us for the edification and extension of our modern churches, are not all thoughtful men anxious to see how in every case they may be made more elastic, more perfectly adapted in their organization, as well as in their plans of benevolence, to the demands of the present day; and specially how they may be so widened as to draw into the church in largest degree the piety, the experience, the zeal of the lay members of which our churches are chiefly composed? ”

“ Churches are unnecessary and should be destroyed, for holy places are not wanted for Christian prayer, since God listens to those who deserve it, whether invoked in church or tavern, in temple or market-place, before the altar or before the stable; and the Church of God does not consist of a multitude of stones piled together, but in the united congregation of the faithful. ”

“ Instead of antagonistic sects, warring against, fretting, and weakening each other, we should have, out of many and diverse communions, one harmonious and united Church; not one in doctrine, discipline, and form of external worship, but one in spirit,—one in the real and practical acknowledgment of the Lord and his Word,—a Church all the more beautiful and perfect because of the endless diversity among its component parts. ”

“ Of all the congregations of Christian believers that the lad had now visited, the Catholic impressed him as being the most solemn, reverent, and best mannered. In his own church the place did not seem to become the house of God till services began; and one morning in particular, two old farmers in the pew behind him talked in smothered tones of stock and crops, till it fairly made him homesick. The sermon of the priest, too, filled him with amazement. It weighed the claims of various Protestant sects to be reckoned as parts of the one true historic church of God. ”

“ With temple, tabernacle or altars; without priests or Levites, and almost without ceremonies, it made known at once its character and purpose as spiritual and not carnal, as, in fact, a kingdom of God “not of this world.” Its only authority was
THE WORD OF GOD
We have already seen that the only creed of the primitive Church was the central truth of God’s revelation to man—“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The whole New Testament is but an expansion of this thought. ”

“ Is their faith according to the teachings of the New Testament?” Many things which are old are not true. Creeds and sects may boast a venerable antiquity, while the Word of God utterly condemns them. Any organization that cannot reasonably claim Christ for its founder has small right to the name of a Christian church, no matter how old it may be.
Baptists claim to be built on the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief Corner-Stone. ”

“ New churches were built, new congregations were formed, new dioceses were organized. On some mountain-side or in deep wooded vale a cloister, a convent, a college, a seminary arose, one hardly knew how, and yet another and another, until these retreats of learning and virtue dotted the land. The elements of discord and disturbance within the church grew less and less active, the relations between priest and people became more intimate and cordial, the tone of Catholic feeling improved, ecclesiastical discipline was strengthened, and the self-respect of the Catholic body increased. ”

“ Now, if the churches could hold each 2,000, it would yet be very short of the necessary supply. The churches, therefore, must be large; but still, in our reformed religion it should seem vain to make a parish church larger than that all who are present can both hear and see. ”

“ So we say, Mankind feel and always did feel the necessity of an infallible church, of a distinct, positive, dogmatic faith. Therefore they exist, and always did exist. Only in the Catholic Church are these wants realized; therefore the Catholic Church is the true Church of God. ”

“ If religion was at this time in a most flourishing state amongst us, abounding with such congregations as made up the primitive church, it would be great injustice to suppose that the clergy had not, under God, been the chief instruments of building it up to such a state of perfection. ”

“ A Protestant church is designed, no matter what the sect may be to which it belongs, not for poetical or aesthetic purposes, not for the admiration of architectural expenditures, not even for music, but for earnest people to hear from the preacher the words of life and death, that they may be aroused by his enthusiasm, or instructed by his wisdom ”

“ But what is this white conventicle-looking edifice which crowns its heights? Surely it is the refuge of some Mormon congregation—the temple, perchance, of some pagan fanaticism? Nay verily, good sirs,—assuage your indignation, for this is a Church of your own communion, a sort of Chapel of Ease to the parish of St. John. The architect was “abroad” when this building was designed; for one less becoming the outward character of a Church it is impossible to conceive. It is dedicated to St. Paul, and was opened for divine worship in 1830. ”

“ Their chief aim is to please their patrons, and carry out whatever is proposed to them. Few of our Protestant architects know any more about the proper interior disposition of a Catholic church than they do of a Moslem mosque.
See, again, how much we suffer from the wretched altar furniture and sacerdotal vestments imported for our use, and which our clergy are obliged to take and make a display in their sanctuaries of things belonging in style to every age of the church. ”

“ This they well knew and believed to be quite right. “If you know this, you ought to know that where the bishop is, united to the faithful in Christ, there too is the church. He who is used by his ministry to dedicate the material stones of the church to the Lord; who also has the work of sanctifying the living stones, the real stuff of the church, by each of the Sacraments, to rear from them the Lord’s temple, he by right must enjoy the privileges of ecclesiastical dignity, wherever he be, and succour all who are in danger, according to his legal order.” ”

“ Five new churches—especially if each prove a metropolitan or mother church—is a gain for which to give thanks and from which to take courage. Sixty-five churches in all, though most of them are connected with our educational institutions, or near them, is certainly not a bad showing for thirteen years of labor. ”

“ A church, therefore, is not a system of congregations confederated under a general government, but a single local congregation of Christian disciples associated in covenant and meeting together for worship. In this sense the word is commonly, almost uniformly, used in the New Testament.
Churches are Divinely instituted to be “the light of the world” and “the salt of the earth.” They are ordained for the glory of God, as “the ground and pillar of the truth,” in the proclamation of His Gospel and the establishment of His kingdom [p. 12] in the world. ”

“ A substantial Church is built, which may afterwards form one wing of a noble Gothic Cathedral. Schools and teachers are provided for the children, professors are appointed for the college, libraries are commenced, and halls are erected. Allotments of land are set aside for the perpetual maintenance of religion and Christian education. The clergy, if sufficiently numerous, elect, with the approbation of the laity, some learned and active man as their bishop, who is afterwards duly consecrated by the authorities of the American Church. ”

“ The Apostle that told us to "prove all things, and hold fast that which is good," gave us a definition of the exhortation of the Evangelist or the Baptist—"Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand." A repenting and a proving people are necessary to make a Church of Christ. Repentance and enquiry are the pillars and foundations of that Church; without repentance and enquiry there can be no Church of Christ ”

“ The apostles, or their immediate disciples, had founded congregations in most of the great cities of the Empire; and every society thus instituted, now distinguished by the designation of the principal [564:2] or apostolic Church, became a centre of ecclesiastical unity. Its presiding minister sent the Eucharist to the teachers of the little flocks in his vicinity, to signify that he acknowledged them as brethren; [564:3] and every pastor who thus enjoyed communion with the principal Church was recognized as a Catholic bishop. ”

“ It is a work for the glory and honor of the Good and Supreme Ruler of all things, and it cannot fail to bring down blessings on ourselves and all who come after us. The erection of a church is a noble and substantial act of faith; not expressed in words but built up in enduring brick and stone, and thus stronger and more complete than mere words. It shows that you honor God and love your religion; that you are anxious for the glory of the House of God, and wish its rites to be fitly celebrated. ”

“ Wherefore, as in the days when Christ walked on the earth and companied with the clergy, the high priests, priests and Pharisees—the different grades of the priesthood—observing the traditions of their own making, and asserting that they had God for their Father and that they were of Abraham's seed, and at no time served any man and enjoying a reputation among the people, did not do all these things, so that the clergy might by antonomasia and truly be called the holy church, inasmuch as Christ himself said of them, Matt. ”

“ It becomes us, therefore, to encourage our Catholic architects who understand the meaning and use of a church. We cannot look for Protestants to care much for the requirements of the ritual in their designs, or to appreciate the necessity of insisting upon what the church insists. ”