History of Christian Theology in the Apostolic Age (Volume 1)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1872 Excerpt: ...a religious association of Christians having a special end and appropriate means, was present t: the mind of Jesus Himself. He not only foresaw it as a natural consequence of His principles, He willed it as a condition of their Mark iv. 26, and foil. success; He laid down its laws and limitations, and Himself chose and appointed its symbols. We shall dwell for a moment on these details. It is easy to see, in the first place, that Mosaism, as an institution external and positive in its forms and ceremonies, was virtually abolished by the process of spiritualization to which it was now subjected. Its ritual worship, circumcision, sacrifices, fasts, all whicb had up to this time sustained its existence, lost their value in the new order of things, and unless these old forms were to be replaced by new the disciples of Jesus, accustomed by use and education to associate the religious idea inseparably with its outward manifestation, would have found it exceedingly difficult to grasp that idea, and to maintain it, though in its very nature there was much self-sustaining power. Jesus certainly did not break abruptly with the synagogue, and for this simple reason, that He did not intend to set His Church in opposition to the synagogue, but, on the contrary, to retain while He transformed that institution, to infuse into its enfeebled frame the pure and vital marrow of His Gospel, and thus to raise it to a new life of youth and health. If we now proceed to seek in the discourses of Jesus for the idea of a Church to be founded by and for believers, we notice first a passage f iu which the name itself is used, and where a community is spoken of, in presence of which, in certain cases, a brother who has failed in his duties is to be reproved. We do not hesitate to decla...