The True Test of an Apostolical Ministry [pp. 292-306]

1851.] Serious Errors in the Primitive Chureh.
departure they were led by certain teachers who succeeded him
to exchange the doctrine of gratuitous salvation for a slavish
reliance upon legal ceremonies. This was the occasion of the
Epistle to the Galatians, in which the Apostle expresses his surprise, his grief, his indignation, at the change which had befallen
them, and eloquently pleads with them, in warm and cogent
argument, to come back to the elevated ground where he had
left them. From this interesting case, and the Epistle growing
out of it, we may gather some instructive facts respecting the
condition of the early Church, under the government of the
Apostles.
It shows us, in the first place, that there were doctrinal differences, even in the primitive Church; that such differences do
not result merely from the lapse of time, or grow out of a departure from the primitive organization of the Church. On the
contrary, they seem to have been included in the course of
discipline, through which it pleased God that the Church should
pass; a discipline involving doubt, perplexity, temptation, conflict; the necessity of using means for the attainment even of
what God had promised; and especially of ascertaining truth by
diligent investigation, careful comparison, and deliberate judgment. The Church was indeed to be secure from all her enemies, and to pass triumphantly through all her trials; but
through them she must pass, that the trial of her faith, being
much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be
tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and
glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ. (1 Pet. i. 7.) She
was to surmount all difficulties, but she must first grapple with
them. She was to conquer all her enemies, but she must first
encounter them. That this was God's providential purpose with
respect to the Church, is evident from the whole tenor of his dispensations towards it; and a part of this disciplinary system was
the permission of doctrinal diversities, even in her infancy.
Let it be observed, too, that the doctrinal differences of which
we speak, were not mere trifles, but related to the most momentous doctrines of religion. In the case before us, the point of
difference was no less than the method of salvation, whether by
faith or by the works of the law, and the divergence of the parties
so extreme that the Apostle calls the doctrine which he con
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