Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Ecclesiology: A Treatise on the Church and Kingdom of God on Earth
II. Relation TO other divisions OF christian doctrine. It is important at the outset, that this division of sacred doctrine should be set.in proper relations to the other main departments of Christian theology. Clear and sound Views of Revelation, for ex ample, alone can furnish adequate protection against the error of re garding the Church, with its organization and' ordinances, as a human institution merely; or against the equally mischievous error of going beyond what the Bible teaches, and claiming divine warrant for what are merely the churchly contrivances or appointments of men. In like manner, an erroneous Anthropology, especially on the point of human sinfulness and guilt and peril, will lead on at once to pernicious theories respecting the real need or the proper field and functions of this divine organism. Nor can any sound conception of the Church, especially in its great providential mission in the world, be gained by one who cherishes serious error respecting the divine Paternity, - the being and providence and moral administration and gracious purpose Of God the Father, as related to human life and human destiny. Still more obvious is it, that just and deep Views of the person and work of Christ and of the Holy Spirit (soteriology and Pneumatology) and especially of salvation itself contemplated as a personal experience and possession, must furnish an essential basis for sound teaching as to that peculiar instrumentality through which salvation is primarily to be diffused and perpetuated among men. And finally, no small part of the error into which many fall, respecting the future of humanity on earth, the coming and reign of Christ among men, the ultimate su premacy of true religion, the article of death, the intermediate estate, and even the resurrection and judgment and the life to come, has its origin in the failure to appreciate the essential elements, the true sig nificance, of a thoroughly biblical Ecclesiology.
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