Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
As another, though a merely supplementary argument, it may be stated, that, just as all the texts of scripture which bear upon the spiritual independence of the Church have a direct application to this subject also, so all the texts that have been cited in support of Non-intrusion may be adduced with equal propriety as irreconcilable with Patronage, even in its most restricted form. Had it been intended in the Church that such a high and responsible power as is implied in the nomination of a minister should be lodged in a peculiar class of the members of the Church, we should certainly have expected to find some directions specially addressed to them, to guide them in the exercise of it. And the fact that we find no such directions, affords at least a presumption that it was not designed they should possess the power. The presumption becomes stronger, and amounts almost to certainty, when we actually find in the Bible such directions addressed, not indeed to a select few, but to the whole body of the disciples. ...
For more, see William Wilson on the duty of church members to test the minister’s doctrine.
For more, see William Wilson on the duty of church members to test the minister’s doctrine.
